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Israel said working to forge ties with Bahrain amid unprecedented Gulf opening
News of effort to normalize relations with Manama comes after reports that Israel is eyeing ties with Sudan, as Chadian leader makes historic visit to Israel
Israel is working to normalize ties with Bahrain, as Jerusalem ramps up its drive to forge more open relations with the Arab world amid shifting alliances in the Middle East driven by shared concerns over Iran, Hebrew-language news sites reported late Sunday.
The reports, sourced to an unnamed senior official, did not detail Israel’s efforts to get closer to Manama, but came hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted he would soon travel to unspecified Arab states, during a press conference with visiting Chadian leader Idriss Déby Sunday.
Deby’s historic visit was part of a campaign to lay the groundwork for normalizing ties with Muslim-majority countries Sudan, Mali and Niger, according to a report in Israel’s Channel 10 news Sunday.
The revelation that Israel is actively working to forge closer ties with Bahrain comes as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman is visiting the island kingdom. The prince, who is attempting to rehab his image in the West after the killing of writer Jamal Khashoggi, is seen as a key part of a US-backed drive for Gulf states to open their doors to Israel amid shared concern over Iran’s expansion in the region.
In May, Bahrain Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa wrote on Twitter that Israel has the right to defend itself against Iran.
Oman, which has often played the role of regional mediator, welcomed Netanyahu in a surprise visit last month, an apparent sign of Israeli progress in improving ties with Gulf countries.
At a security conference in Bahrain following the visit, Omani foreign minister also offered rare words of support for the Jewish state.
“Israel is a state present in the region, and we all understand this. The world is also aware of this fact and maybe it is time for Israel to be treated the same and also bear the same obligations,” Yussef bin Alawi bin Abdullah said, according to Reuters.
During a press conference with Déby, Netanyahu remarked that “there will be more such visits in Arab countries very soon,” without providing details.
The Israeli premier has for years spoken about the warming ties between Israel and the Arab world, citing not only Iran as a common enemy but also many countries’ interest in cooperating with Israel on security and defense matters, as well as Israel’s growing high-tech industry.
The effort to forge ties with Sudan comes as Khartoum has looked to move closer to Sunni Gulf states after years as an ally of Iran.
In early 2017, Khartoum joined Sunni Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in severing its ties with the Islamic Republic.
At the time, the country also appeared to make overtures toward Israel. Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour said in a 2016 interview that Sudan was open to the idea of normalizing ties with Israel in exchange for lifting US sanctions on Khartoum. According Hebrew-language media reports at the time, Israeli diplomats tried to drum up support for Sudan in the international community after it severed its ties to Tehran.
In the past, Sudan has allegedly served as a way-station for the transfer of Iranian weapons to the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza. Israel has reportedly intercepted and destroyed transfers of weapons from Sudan bound for Gaza.
In 2009, the International Criminal Court also issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, relating to the bloody conflict in the western Darfur region.
However, since it broke ties with Iran, Sudan is no longer perceived by Israel as a threat, but rather as a potential ally.
New era
Earlier on Sunday, Déby became the first president of Chad to visit Israel and pledged a new era of relations when meeting Netanyahu, 46 years after ties were severed.
In remarks to journalists after a closed-door meeting, Déby spoke of the two countries committing to a new era of cooperation with “the prospect of reestablishing diplomatic relations.”
Déby said he was “proud” that he had accepted Israel’s official invite. “It can be called breaking the ice,” he said. “We came here indeed with the desire to renew diplomatic relations. Your country is an important country. Your country, like Chad, fights against terrorism.”
Chad, a Muslim-majority, Arabic-speaking country in central Africa, broke off relations with Israel in 1972.
Despite the lack of formal ties, both Deby and Netanyahu on Sunday stressed the centrality of security cooperation between the two countries.
Chad is also one of several African states engaged in Western-backed operations against Boko Haram and Islamic State jihadists in West Africa. Earlier this month, the US donated military vehicles and boats worth $1.3 million to Chad as part of the campaign against Islamist militancy in the country.
Under Deby, Chad’s government has been accused of widespread human rights abuses and rigged elections. He took over the arid, impoverished nation in 1990 and won a disputed fifth term in April 2016.
On Sunday, Chadian security sources were quoted by Reuters saying that Israel had sent Chad arms and money earlier this year to help the country in its fight against Islamist groups. Netanyahu in his remarks to journalists thanked Déby for his visit and hailed “flourishing” ties between Israel and African nations. He declined questions about whether the two leaders discussed potential Israeli arms sales to Chad.
Netanyahu portrayed the unprecedented visit as the result of his hard-won diplomatic efforts, referring to his three visits to Africa over the last couple years and his surprise trip to Oman in October.
According to Israel’s Channel 10, Israel’s diplomatic push in Africa is driven in part by a desire to ease air travel to Latin America. Flying in the airspace of traditionally hostile African countries — namely Chad and Sudan — would allow airlines to offer faster, more direct flights between Israel and the continent.
Channel 10 estimated that flying directly from Israel to Brazil over Sudan would shave some four hours off the average journey, which currently takes at least 17 hours, and requires a stopover in either Europe or North America.
Separately, Hadashot television news reported on Sunday that Netanyahu has secured reassurances from Oman that airlines flying to and from Israel — including national carrier El Al — would be permitted to fly over the kingdom’s airspace. The prime minister received this message during his surprise visit to Muscat last month — the first by an Israeli leader in over 20 years, the television report said.
Agencies contributed to this report.
Ter wrote:Iran's belligerent attitude against the Sunni Arab states is responsible for the new excellent relations between those Sunni Arab states and Israel.
skinster wrote:Since nothing you state about Iran is correct, my guess is that you hate Iran because you're jealous it has a history, unlike Israel. The chip shop near me is older than Israel.
Ter wrote:You did not address anything from my post, you just spewed some more propaganda and refused to see that your beloved country Iran is a belligerent, threatening, hateful state in the Region.
By the way I do not hate Iran, I just want it to become a peaceful country that looks after its own citizens instead of sponsoring terrorist organisations and engaging in military adventures outside of its own borders.
Palestinians said scrambling for support as Arab, Muslim world warms to Israel
PA seeks emergency sessions of Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation as Chad’s president visits Jerusalem amid thawing of relations with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia
Israel’s ongoing thawing of relations with various Arab and Muslim countries in the Middle East and Africa is said to be sending Palestinian Authority officials scrambling, concerned that support for their cause is waning among allies.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s senior adviser Nabil Shaath told the Haaretz daily Monday that Ramallah is seeking to convene emergency sessions of the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation as it worries that countries such as Chad, Sudan, Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia are moving closer toward normalization with Jerusalem — relations that would counter resolutions passed by the two umbrella bodies.
“There are a number of Arab and Islamic resolutions and declarations stating explicitly that there will be no process of normalization with Israel without a resolution of the Palestinian issue based on the Arab Peace Initiative and decisions of the international community,” Sha’ath told Haaretz.
t the most recent summit of the Arab League in April, member countries signed off on a statement vowing not to make reconciliation agreements without an agreed-upon solution to the Palestinian issue.
“What we have been seeing in recent weeks — beginning with Netanyahu’s visit to Oman and the visit to Israel by the president of Chad, and now there is talk of Bahrain and Sudan and ties of one kind or another with Saudi Arabia — raises question marks, and there is therefore a need to clarify the Arab and Islamic position,” Shaath said.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Chadian President Idriss Déby for a historic visit to the Jewish state, laying the groundwork for normalizing ties with the Muslim-majority countries of Sudan, Mali and Niger, according to a report on Israel’s Channel 10 News Sunday.
Déby told Israeli leaders in Jerusalem that he wishes to restore diplomatic relations.
Other reports said Israel is also working to normalize relations with Bahrain, as Jerusalem ramps up its drive to forge more open relations with the Arab world amid shifting alliances in the Middle East driven by shared concerns over Iran.
Netanyahu has for years spoken about the warming of ties between Israel and the Arab world, citing not only Iran as a common enemy, but also many countries’ interest in cooperating with Israel on security and defense matters, as well as Israel’s growing high-tech industry.
Oman last month welcomed the Israeli premier in a surprise visit, which marked an apparent sign of Israeli progress in improving ties with the Gulf states.
During a press conference with Déby on Sunday, Netanyahu remarked that “there will be more such visits in Arab countries very soon,” without providing details.
Netanyahu said Monday that recent signs of a diplomatic flourishing for Israel were occurring without Jerusalem having to make any concessions on West Bank settlements.
“We are opening up the world,” he told his Likud faction in public remarks Monday. “Israel is enjoying unprecedented diplomatic flourishing, including in the Arab world… and the Muslim world.”
Netanyahu stressed that previous leaders had attempted to strengthen Israel’s international standing with “dangerous concessions, including uprooting communities,” referring to the 2005 disengagement plan by former prime minister Ariel Sharon, in which all settlements in the Gaza Strip were dismantled.
“That hasn’t happened — and won’t happen — with me,” Netanyahu continued. “The exact opposite is happening. We are getting the world’s support, including by many in the Arab world, through our strong and steadfast standing.
“We believe in peace out of strength, we believe in alliances born out of Israel’s value as a technological, financial, defense and intelligence powerhouse,” he added. “That’s what we will continue doing, and that’s also how we’ll achieve peace.”
While Shaath noted that the thawing of Israel’s relations with Ramallah’s traditional backers has yet to reach the level of full diplomatic relations, he referred to “the beginning of a worrisome process that needs to be stopped.”
Shaath argued that these regional developments come against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s ongoing rift with the PA, which the PA claims Washington seeks to further isolate by encouraging various Arab and Muslim countries to improve their ties with Israel. The PA has been boycotting the Trump Administration since it recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last year and moved its embassy to the city in May.
The PA official said he hopes to convene emergency conferences on these issues, but admitted that most of the efforts of regional powers are being used to deal with the issue of reconciliation between Abbas’s Fatah and the Hamas terror group in Gaza, which have long been at odds.
Ter wrote:Very positive developments.
Once the Arab boycott crumbles, everything crumbles for the Arabs who wish Israel ill.
Ter wrote:You did not address anything from my post, you just spewed some more propaganda and refused to see that your beloved country Iran is a belligerent, threatening, hateful state in the Region.
That is why several Arab Sunni countries have already established warm relations with Israel and many more will be doing that soon.
They will also benefit from Israeli technology and even use the experience of the Israeli military to fight terrorism in their own borders.
By the way I do not hate Iran, I just want it to become a peaceful country that looks after its own citizens instead of sponsoring terrorist organisations and engaging in military adventures outside of its own borders.
colliric wrote:Edit Edit:
https://canarymission.org
That website is hilarious... An unintentional anti-Zionist Hall of fame?
colliric wrote:I enjoy your updates Skinster.
Obviously though I have a different opinion as to what causes Zionist Racism and Zionism(The racist prejudiced Talmud is disgusting).
I believe Israel is becoming a dangerous Theocratic Apartheid State looking to cause extreme religious and political trouble.
U.S. Police Departments Nix Participation in Joint Program With Israel After BDS Pressure
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premiu ... -1.6701898
Dutch ministry calls on Jews around world to criticize Israeli occupation
https://www.timesofisrael.com/dutch-min ... PkjidkGiMo
Record 2018 Israel tourism set to exceed 4m
3.8 million tourists visited Israel in January-November 2018, 14% more than in the corresponding period last year.
Israel's Ministry of Tourism is projecting a total of more than four million tourists in Israel in 2018, after 389,000 tourists visited in November, 9% more than in November 2017 and 35% more than in November 2016. The Ministry of Tourism estimated proceeds from tourism in November at NIS 2.1 billion. 486,000 tourists visited Israel in October.
3.8 million tourists visited Israel in January-November 2018, 14% more than in the corresponding period last year. Most of the tourists arrived by air; 30,500 arrived by sea.
Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin said, "November continued the record-breaking streak in incoming tourism to Israel, with unprecedented achievements in store in numbers of tourists visiting. We are meeting the targets we set, and I believe that we will finish the year with four million tourists, an all-time record. We also learned this week that Jerusalem is the world's fastest growing city in tourism, with an increase of almost 40% in the number of tourists visiting. We are proving that with hard work and a strong marketing effort, Israel can become an attractive tourist destination, thereby giving the economy a huge forward push."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 5, 2018
Ter wrote:https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-record-2018-israel-tourism-set-to-exceed-4m-1001263570
The tourism industry is going from strength to strength.
Good news !
Ter wrote:The tourism industry is going from strength to strength.
Good news !
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