Republican Senator delay Nides’ confirmation as ambassador to Israel

OMRI NAHMIAS

It is still unclear when the Senate will hold a debate and a floor vote on Nides and other State Department nominees.

.

US Senator Josh Hawley speaks during the third day of the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett / (photo credit: REUTERS)

WASHINGTON – US Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) voted on Tuesday to block eight of President Biden’s ambassador nominees, including Thomas Nides, who is designated to serve as Ambassador to Israel. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked the Senate to confirm several nominees by unanimous consent.

Hawley said that he objects on behalf of him and several of his Republican colleagues. “Multiple of my colleagues have objections to all of the nominees, so I will be here to object on their behalf and also on my own behalf with regard to a few of them,” he said.

Prior to the vote, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer criticized the Republicans for their objection, calling it “obstructionism.”

“The president relies on an army of dedicated public servants who play a critical role in our government,” said Schumer. “But for months, some Senate Republicans have gone to great lengths to place pointless holds on over a hundred of these nominees. The consequence – scores of empty desks in the state department and our embassies and department of treasury and other agencies.”

“These nominees are not controversial,” Schumer continued. “They’re routinely confirmed by consent in this chamber until a few people decide that they wanted to make a big show of this, for whatever reason. No one ever did this before. By this point in the Trump administration, for instance, both sides work together to confirm 32 ambassadors by voice vote. Most of us didn’t like the Trump administration or the people he’s appointing, but we had enough integrity not to let politics enter into what had been routine decisions. Right now, Republican obstructionism has meant only four nominees have been agreed to.”

US Senator Bob Menendez. (credit: REUTERS/EDUARDO MUNOZ)

Hawley, in his remarks, rejected Schumer’s criticism. “I agree that many of these nominees are important, and that is, in fact, one of the reasons we should have a vote on them,” he said. “The Senate Majority leader’s comments as if he has no control over the calendar – he’s the majority leader of the United States Senate – he decides when we vote, he decides what we vote on.”

“He’s gaveling us out of session so that members across the aisle can go on a field trip to Glasgow, Scotland,” Hawley said.

Senator Menendez replied to Hawley and said that during the Trump administration, many nominees were approved by a voice vote. “We will have no ambassador in Israel as we deal with the challenges of Iran and others in the region,” Menendez added. “It is mind-boggling; all of those who get up here and talk about our ally, the state of Israel, the importance of the state of Israel, but we won’t have an ambassador there to help us meet the challenges that Israel has.”

The Israel Policy Forum said in a statement on Tuesday: “A strong US-Israel relationship requires strong diplomatic representation, allowing both sides to work in close partnership and resolve disagreements amicably. We are dismayed that Tom Nides, who is unquestionably qualified to serve as ambassador to Israel, continues to be blocked from a swift confirmation on the Senate floor. We call on the Senate to act so that Mr. Nides can begin the critical task of representing the US and its interests in Jerusalem.”

News From Israel- November 01, 2021

ILTV Israel News

What it might take for Saudis to join normalization process – opinion

NIMROD GOREN

In a Geneva Initiative poll, Israelis ranked Saudi Arabia and the Palestinians way ahead of other Arab countries on the question of the most valued target for Israel’s next peace agreement.

SAUDI CROWN Prince Mohammed Bin Salman received Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan upon his arrival to Riyadh, in July. / (photo credit: SAUDI PRESS AGENCY/REUTERS)

In the year since Israel’s signing of normalization agreements with the UAE and Bahrain, and subsequently with Morocco, Israelis have debated repeatedly whether Saudi Arabia would be next in line.

Despite the emerging tourism and business opportunities for Israelis in the Emirates, and the unique Israeli cultural affiliation with Morocco, most Israelis still consider Saudi Arabia the most desirable prize of the normalization process.

Public opinion polls emphasized this in the months after the Abraham Accords. The Israeli Foreign Policy Index of the Mitvim Institute showed that, for Israelis, Saudi Arabia is by far the most important Arab country with which to develop cooperation. And in a Geneva Initiative poll, Israelis ranked Saudi Arabia and the Palestinians way ahead of other Arab countries on the question of the most valued target for Israel’s next peace agreement.

Prior to the 2020 US presidential elections, before Donald Trump departed the White House in January 2021, and before Israel’s latest elections in March 2021, Israel entertained hopes that the Saudis would make a dramatic leap onto the normalization bandwagon.

Reports in November 2020 of a trilateral meeting between prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and US secretary of state Mike Pompeo significantly boosted these hopes and created a sense that an announcement from Riyadh was just a matter of time.

But the hopes failed to materialize, and such a Saudi move has become more distant in recent months. Disagreements regarding Israel among the Saudi royal family received more international attention following the meeting with Netanyahu, the Biden administration is keeping bin Salman at arm’s length over his involvement in the Khashoggi affair, and the Saudis have opened dialogue channels with Iran, reflecting an approach different from Israel’s.

Does this signal an end to the momentum for establishing Israeli-Saudi relations? Not necessarily, but the repeated Saudi declarations linking rapprochement with Israel to progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process point to the key for a breakthrough.

The Saudi commitment to the Palestinian issue is not mere lip service. It was reflected in peace initiatives promoted by the Saudis over several decades – King Fahd’s plan 40 years ago (1981), and the Arab Peace Initiative almost 20 years ago (2002).

Netanyahu had hoped that the Saudis would shift direction and display willingness to advance ties with Israel without linking it to the Palestinian issue, but despite some indications suggesting the feasibility of such a move, in the final analysis the Saudis refrained from doing so.
Nonetheless, they did make conciliatory moves toward Israel over the past decade. A series of gradual steps created a new reality in Israeli-Saudi relations, in a manner reminiscent of the gradual forging of Israel-UAE relations over the same time period.

The Saudi measures included security coordination with Israel on Iran; interviews with Saudi and Israeli figures in each other’s media outlets, and positive messages delivered in blogs and on social media; participation of former senior Saudi officials in strategic dialogues and conferences with Israeli counterparts; unofficial delegation visits to Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque; confidence-building measures by religious leaders (including visits to a synagogue abroad and Auschwitz); acknowledgment of the right of Jews to a state and public mentions of the economic potential in relations with Israel; permission for flights to and from Israel to pass through Saudi airspace (initially for Air India and following the Abraham Accords for other carriers); and most recently, the first interstate sports competition (judo) at the Tokyo Olympics.

These steps were measured in scope and extent over the years in accordance with regional developments and domestic Saudi considerations.

While absent public Israeli participation in international events taking place in Saudi Arabia, a feature that was a key element in the UAE’s opening toward Israel, the accumulation of goodwill measures had a routinizing effect on the leadership, public and international community, highlighting the prospects of future Israeli-Saudi links and somewhat lifting the taboo on such relations.

SAUDI ARABIA’S Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh in December 2019. (credit: BANDAR ALGALOUD/REUTERS)

THE BREAKTHROUGH in Israel’s relations with the UAE was made possible by an Israeli concession on the Palestinian issue (abandoning the plan to annex territories in the West Bank). A positive Israeli move toward conflict resolution with the Palestinians will also be necessary to enable and legitimize a Saudi decision to join the normalization process and to establish diplomatic ties with Israel.

The upcoming 20th anniversary of the Arab Peace Initiative provides a favorable opportunity for such a development. Preparations to achieve that goal should already begin now.

Many observers perceive the Arab Peace Initiative and other key documents related to the two-state solution presented at the start of the millennium (including US president Bill Clinton’s parameters and the Quartet road map) as outdated and irrelevant. This is due to the far-reaching regional developments that took place over the last two decades, and which are not reflected in these documents – for example, the Arab Spring and its implications, the normalization by Arab states with Israel, and the division between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Arab Peace Initiative was updated one time only, and then only partially, when the Arab world accepted in 2013 the principle of land swaps between Israel and a future Palestinian state. Suggestions have been made to the Arab League since then on revising and updating the initiative, but have not been acted upon thus far.

As leader of the original initiative, Saudi Arabia would be well placed to lead its revision. A renewed Arab Peace Initiative can turn out to be an effective incentive for peace, especially if presented as part of a broader international package of incentives for Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

This time, given the fabric of public ties between Israel and a growing number of Arab states, which was nonexistent when the Arab Peace Initiative was first proposed at the height of the al-Aqsa Intifada, its renewed version could be formulated in quiet dialogue with the Israeli government. This should ensure a positive Israeli response once the
revised version is published.

The Israeli government need not accept the initiative to the letter, and it would likely not do so, but it could at least welcome the publication of a revised version and express willingness to open a dialogue process regarding it with Arab states.

Saudi Arabia has mostly avoided previous attempts to present the Arab Peace Initiative to Israel, leaving the job to Egypt and Jordan.

However, publication of a revised version of the initiative and the need to explain it to the Israeli public and leadership would provide the Saudis with an opportunity for legitimate discourse with Israel, given its direct affinity to the Palestinian issue.

It would also allow convening a regional summit to discuss the updated initiative, with participation by Israel, the Palestinians and Saudi Arabia.

Success of such a summit and ensuing Israeli willingness to renew a diplomatic process with the Palestinian Authority, aided by skilled diplomatic conduct, may ripen conditions for the establishment of
Israeli-Saudi relations.

Saudi Arabia, which marks its national day this month, is engaged in implementing a new vision for the country toward 2030.

A Saudi move injecting renewed momentum into the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and enabling Israel and Saudi Arabia to start fulfilling the potential of bilateral cooperation would add another dimension to this vision, significant not only for Saudi Arabia, but also for Israel, the Palestinians and the region as a whole.

The writer is the president and founder of Mitvim – The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies. He teaches Middle Eastern studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is a faculty affiliate at Syracuse University’s Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration.

Ancient 1,700-year-old coins found on Israeli beach

JERUSALEM POST STAFF

Israel Antiquities Authority marine archeology department head Yaakov Sharvit noted the coins might have belonged to an ancient ship sailing the Mediterranean Sea.

The ancient bundle of coins found on Habonim beach in Israel.
(photo credit: OFIR HAYAT)

Ancient coins dating to 1,700 years ago were discovered by a family during a camping trip on an Israeli beach near Atlit on Tuesday.
Yotam Dahan, a tour guide from Klil in northern Israel, found a bundle of antique coins during a family camping trip in Habonim beach.

The bundle of coins, weighing a total of 6 kg., agglutinated after years of lying underwater. They were determined to have been used in the fourth century CE, following an inspection by expert Dr. Donald Tzvi-Ariel.

After posting photos of the coins to Facebook, Dahan was contacted by Israel Antiquities Authority’s (IAA) Haifa District director Karem Said to identify the exact location of the discovery on the beach.

IAA marine archeology department head Yaakov Sharvit noted the coins might have belonged to an ancient ship sailing the Mediterranean Sea.

“Archaeological sites are prevalent all along the Habonim beach strip,” Sharvit said. “Archaeological records show vessels were often washed ashore along with all their cargo,” he added.

“The bundle of coins found shows they were packed together and agglutinated due to oxidation of the metals,” Sharvit noted.

Dahan generously handed the coins to IAA’s Treasures of the State Department and was subsequently given a certificate of appreciation by the IAA.

PROTESTERS FIGHT AGAINST US PA CONSULATE PLAN: “IT VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL LAW”

Leah Rosenberg

The US PA Consulate plan is absolutely insane. There are good reasons – VERY good reasons – that protesters are standing up against this.
.

Can this current US administration possibly do anymore damage than they already have done? What are they trying to do with this US PA Consulate plan? They are most definitely not going to bring peace. The US is breaking international law. They are going against G-d – He gave Jerusalem to the Jewish people, and the US thinks they know better than G-d. Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of the Jewish people. It is where King David established the capital of the Jews THOUSANDS of years ago – way before Islam ever existed. This US administration needs to pick up a history book and learn about the past.

Many organizations came to demonstrate against this US plan and called on the Israeli government to stand strong against pressure from the US.

There should be no discussion or pressure from the current US administration to divide Jerusalem.