Israel to Join Economic Corridor Linking India with Middle East, Europe

Author: Published: September 10, 2023
By

Hana Levi Julian

 –

An international project to link India with Europe is slated to include the Israel and other nations in the Middle East, according to an announcement Saturday night.

“This link will also realize a multi-year vision that will change the face of the Middle East, and Israel, and will affect the entire world,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “This vision starts in India, passes through the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel before reaching Europe.”

The initial announcement was made earlier in the day by the United States, together with India, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the European Union, including France, Italy and Germany.

“I am pleased to inform you, citizens of Israel, that our country, the State of Israel, will be a central junction in this economic corridor,” Netanyahu said.

“Our railways and ports will open a new gateway from India, through the Middle East, to Europe, and back – from Europe to India via Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.”

Netanyahu thanked US President Joe Biden and his administration for “the major effort that has led us to today’s historic announcement,” saying the US had contacted the Israeli government “several months ago” about the project and continued to shepherd the initiative through the diplomatic process.

“Its vision reshapes the face of our region and allows a dream to become reality,” Netanyahu said.

“The initiative includes the construction of railways, the laying of a hydrogen pipeline, the energy of the future, the laying of fiber optic communications cables, the laying of electricity cables and more infrastructure.

“The State of Israel will contribute its capabilities, all of its experience, momentum and commitment, to realize the largest cooperation project in our history. All government ministries will be instructed to join in realizing this dream,” Netanyahu said.

The prime minister added that he has directed the National Security Council, in the Prime Minister’s Office, to coordinate the staff work and also the close cooperation with the US and other countries in order for the vision to become reality “as soon as possible.”

Netanyahu hailed the breakthrough as “news that will lead us to a new, unique and unprecedented era of global and regional cooperation and involvement. Together we will succeed.”

Paris revokes Mahmoud Abbas’ honorary medal, cites Holocaust denial

Author: Published: September 8, 2023

Antisemitic comments made by the Palestinian Authority means he can longer claim to hold Paris’ highest distinction, Mayor Anne Hidalgo wrote.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Published: SEPTEMBER 8, 2023 10:36
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas before a meeting at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, France July 20, 2022 (photo credit: LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL VIA REUTERS)
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas before a meeting at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, France July 20, 2022
(photo credit: LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL VIA REUTERS)

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo on Thursday revoked the prestigious Medal of the City of Paris awarded to Mahmoud Abbas in 2015, according to an open letter she wrote to the Palestinian Authority president on Thursday evening.

In the letter, obtained by Israeli and French media, Hidalgo wrote that she is revoking Abbas’ medal, known in French as La médaille Grand Vermeil de Paris, due to his recent comments in which he expressed a “clear desire to deny the genocide to which the Jewish populations of Europe were victims at the hands of the Nazi regime.”

 

 

Abbas claimed that Ashkenazi Jews stem from Europe, not the Middle East, and were murdered during the Holocaust due to hatred against them for their historic role as money lenders.

Paris mayor: Abbas’ antisemitic comments contrary to our values

According to Hidalgo, Abbas’ comments “are contrary to our universal values ​​and the historical truth of the Holocaust, so you can no longer claim…the highest distinction of Paris.”

“I condemn your comments in the strongest possible terms; no cause can justify revisionism and negationism. As you know, the Holocaust is part of the history of Paris,” she wrote to Abbas.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas speaks during a meeting with journalists in the West Bank cityof Ramallah on July 03, 2019. (credit: FLASH90)Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas speaks during a meeting with journalists in the West Bank cityof Ramallah on July 03, 2019. (credit: FLASH90)

“In our city, during World War II, tens of thousands of children, women and men of the Jewish faith were rounded up, deported and then exterminated in death camps.”

Hidalgo did stress however that Paris remains a “partner” of Bethlehem, Jericho, and Jenin, and that cooperation between the French capital and Palestinian cities which “contributes to the peace process in the Middle East” will continue.

Abbas received the medal, which also made him an honorary citizen of the city, almost exactly eight years ago on September 21, 2015, in “recognition of his actions towards finding peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis,” Paris said at the time.

Top Biden aide: There’s still work to do on Israel-Saudi Arabia normalization deal

Author: Published: September 8, 2023

Biden aide: There’s still work to do on Israel-Saudi Arabia normalization deal

Blake Sullivan says sides have come to road understanding of many of the key elements’ of an agreement, but that there’s no framework in place or terms ready to be signed

By Jacob Magid Today, 7:06 am 0 Edit

 

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel’s US bureau chief

 

Saudi Arabia's Deputy Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman (L) and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan meet at the White House on May 18, 2022. (Khalid bin Salman/Twitter)
Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman (L) and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan meet at the White House on May 18, 2022. (Khalid bin Salman/Twitter)

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Thursday that the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia have a general idea of the major elements of a potential normalization agreement between Jerusalem and Riyadh, but there is still much more work to do before a deal can be signed.

“Many of the elements of a pathway to normalization are now on the table. We don’t have a framework, we don’t have the terms ready to be signed. There is still work to do,” Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One, as US President Joe Biden made his way to India in order to attend the Group of 20 Summit in New Delhi this weekend.

Several times in recent months, the top Biden aide has sought to temper expectations of an imminent deal, but Thursday appeared to be one of the first times in which he indicated that the sides have at least reached a “broad understanding of many of the key elements.”

 

In exchange for normalizing ties with Israel, Saudi Arabia is asking for a major defense pact with the US in addition to US cooperation in establishing its own civilian nuclear program. Washington, in turn, is looking for Riyadh to pair down its economic and military dealings with China and Russia.

In order to shore up support for the deal among congressional Democrats and the pro-Palestinian public in Saudi Arabia and the broader Muslim world, Israel will likely be asked to offer significant concessions to the Palestinians that would advance a two-state solution — a pill that will be difficult for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government to swallow.

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held phone calls with Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas within hours of one another this week, discussing the potential normalization deal in both conversations.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Tuesday, January 31, 2023. (Ronaldo Schemidt/Pool via AP)

Sullivan said afterward that while Blinken’s calls with Netanyahu and Abbas were more than just routine, they do not “portend any imminent breakthrough or action with respect to the question of normalization.”

Washington and Ramallah sent delegations of senior officials to Saudi Arabia this week for talks regarding a potential agreement.

Rather than boycotting the process as it did with previous normalization negotiations, Ramallah is engaging with the parties involved, aiming to leverage a potential deal in order to advance its statehood effort.

Three officials told The Times of Israel last week that the PA is seeking “irreversible” steps that will advance its bid for statehood in the context of the normalization negotiations.

Brett McGurk, US White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, speaks during the 17th IISS Manama Dialogue in the Bahraini capital Manama on November 21, 2021 (Mazen Mahdi / AFP)

The steps proposed have included US backing for recognition of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations, the US reopening its consulate in Jerusalem that historically served Palestinians, the scrapping of congressional legislation characterizing the PA as a terror organization, the transfer of West Bank territory from Israeli to Palestinian control and the demolition of illegal outposts in the West Bank.

Biden officials have pushed back on the Palestinian proposals relating to the US, pointing to congressional legislation that would require the US to end all of its funding to the UN if the Palestinians were granted full-member status.

The US has encouraged the PA to moderate its requests and aim them at Israel instead. It has highlighted the idea of transferring Area C territory of the West Bank, which is under Israeli control, to Area B or Area A where the PA has more authority, as something that would be much more attainable, a Palestinian official said.

“They’re willing to discuss significant gestures for Saudi Arabia, but all they say to our proposals is, ‘That’s not possible,’” the official said.

Leaf is slated to land in Tel Aviv over the weekend to brief Israeli figures on the talks, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel.

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