Lazar Berman is the times of Israel’s diplomatic journalist
Amid a series of protests and condemnations in the Arab world as Israel and Hamas continue to fight, and anti-Israel demonstrations in some Western cities as well, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi on Friday thanked their U. S. and European counterparts. your support.
“I would like to say a few words of thanks to our friend President [Joe] Biden and friends,” Netanyahu said in a video message Friday afternoon, quoting “the president of France, the British prime minister, the chancellor of Austria, the chancellor of Germany and s.
“They protected our natural and apparent right to protect ourselves, to act in self-defense as opposed to terrorists who attack civilians and hide civilians,” he added.
For his part, Ashkenazi tweeted Friday: “In recent days, we have gained dozens of messages of solidarity and widespread for Israel from many leaders of the foreign community. “
He congratulated German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas for openly accusing Hamas of violence and “disasters as a humanitarian consequence. “
“Israel is protecting itself, it must,” Maas said.
Ashkenazi also singled out French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian for the fact that “France condemns in the most powerful terms the rocket and missile attacks that have intensified from the Gaza Strip, targeting Jerusalem and several inhabited areas of Israeli territory, tel Aviv adding, and this may simply prompt some other circular clashes. These attacks, carried out in violation of foreign law and for which Hamas has claimed responsibility, are unacceptable. “
Foreign Ministry resources said Thursday that their diplomatic efforts were paying off, in Europe and the United States.
Diplomatic officials said they were largely following public statements made across other countries, and said the general trend of statements moving from unbiased messages calling on both sides to deviate to statements blaming Hamas for violence and affirming Israel’s right to self-defense.
“In places where foreign public opinion is maintained, among the members of the UN Security Council Array . . . in the United States, the American political realm, in members of Congress, in management and in Europe, we are witnessing a definite move towards a much larger one that echoes Israel’s messages,” said a senior foreign ministry official.
In a virtual assembly on Thursday with Israel’s ambassadors to Europe, the United States, Arab states and the UN to Israel’s diplomatic message, Ashkenazi expressed his satisfaction with the statements from foreign capitals.
He explained the ministry’s overall project as “protecting our foreign legitimacy, our freedom of action, and our right to protect Israeli citizens. “He pressed that diplomats will have to preserve Israel’s right to preserve itself “in an assertive and shameless manner. “
In the Askenazi formulation, there is a direct dating between the paintings of the Israeli envoys and the IDF’s freedom of action in reaction to Hamas attacks. “The fact that most of the paintings on foreign networks support Israel’s position that it itself can is a product of its diplomatic policy. efforts,” he said.
In a sign of Israel’s diplomatic success, a Czech honor guard hoisted the Israeli flag at Prague Castle as a sign of Czech President Milos Zeman’s order.
– Jiří Ovčáček (@PREZIDENTmluvci) 14 May 2021
Protests continued across the region, especially as worshippers left mosques at the end of Eid al-Fitr prayers on Thursday.
Hundreds of others gathered at the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad and smaller demonstrations broke out in Tunisia.
In Jordan, protesters piled up in Palestinian refugee camps, while for the fourth day in a row in Amman, protesters called for the expulsion of Israel’s ambassador to Jordan. More than 90 parliamentarians signed a petition with a petition. border with Israel after crossing a police checkpoint, local Jordanian media reported.
Also on Friday, dozens of Lebanese protesters rebelled on the border with Israel, set fire to the fence and entered Israeli territory. Israeli tanks fired warning shots at several rioters who crossed the fence between the countries, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Although public opinion in the Arab media and on the streets is firmly on the Palestinian side, the demonstrations are not as huge as demonstrations beyond the conflicts between Israel and Hamas. the state’s permanent ties with Israel.
In a skilful article in Ammannet. net, former Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Mamdouh Al-Abadi explained that “Jordan, in its foreign policy, is part of a Western alliance, and it is difficult to get out of this alliance and this field. Therefore, relations between Jordan and Israel after the peace agreement were in a state of ebb and flow, which means that the breakdown of relations is impossible, but it requires caution and a wonderful justification.
The secretary general of the centrist National Constitutional Party of Jordan, Ahmad Al-Shunnak, in the same article that Jordan acts on the basis of planned strategies, not on the basis of street protests.
“Jordan doesn’t think with the mindset of a faction,” Al-Shunnak said. “He thinks of a centuries-old challenge and a belligerent state, and becomes aware of the scale of the conflict. “
Jordan’s treaty with Israel gives it an influential role in protecting Islamic and Christian sites, he argued.
Jordanian officials have expressed condemnation of Israel’s movements in Jerusalem, however, with regard to Hamas, the importance of a two-state solution has been emphasized.
“What the Israeli police and special forces are doing, from violations opposing the mosque to attacks on worshippers, is barbaric (behavior) that is rejected and condemned,” Amman said on a Sunday, summoning Israel’s chargé d’affaires to Jordan. denounces “Israel’s attacks on the faithful. “
Subsequent statements through senior Jordanian leaders were less forceful about the confrontation with Hamas. Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi tweeted that the recent escalation “shows the pressing need for effective efforts to repair the political horizons to end the occupation, in achieving peace on the basis of two -State solution. Occupation is the root cause of the conflict. ” King Abdullah tweeted a request asking God to settle for the fasting and prayers of Muslims at the end of Ramadan, and with Palestinians and Jerusalem.
The violence in Jerusalem has put Jordan in an awkward position, said Moshe Albo, a Middle East historian and researcher at the Dado Center for Interdisciplinary Military Studies. Israeli police movements on the Temple Mount constituted an attack on Jordan in Amman. eyes, he said, which attaches wonderful importance to his role as protector of the Islamic and Christian holy places in Jerusalem.
Jordan cannot sit back as the Muslim world watches photographs of Israeli police clashing with worshippers on the Temple Mount, the holiest days in the Muslim calendar. “If the crisis is concentrated on the Temple Mount, Jordanians will have to be there very strongly. ” said Joshua Krasna, a Middle East expert at Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center,” otherwise, they could lose it to someone else.
Actors like Turkey and Hamas have been running to remove Jordan from its dominant role in the sanctuary.
Egypt has also issued condemnations of Israeli actions, but its efforts as the main mediator between Israel and Hamas were its main focus during the week.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that Egypt, Tunisia and countries in the region can play a key role in de-escalation efforts, according to Egyptian media outlet Al-Masry Al-Youm, Britain’s minister of state for the Middle East and North. Africa, James Cleverly, met with Egypt’s ambassador to London, Tarek Adel, to welcome Cairo’s mediation efforts.
Egypt sees the clash as an opportunity to emphasize to the world, namely the Biden administration, which is an actor to maintain stability in the region, Albo said. With the signing of new peace agreements through Israel with Arab countries, Egypt’s loss of its role as key to peace in the region has been communicated. The existing wave of violence is an opportunity for Cairo to prove that it is irreplaceable.
Egypt has reached out to Israel to defuse the ongoing violence, but has yet to get a response, its foreign minister told an emergency Arab League assembly on Tuesday.
“In recent days, Egypt has widely contacted Israel and other countries involved to urge them to make every effort to prevent the deterioration of the scenario in Jerusalem,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said.
Egyptian mediators were in Israel and Gaza on Thursday, reportedly.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs of France highlighted Egypt’s continued mediation efforts.
Despite the government’s efforts to scale back, Egyptian institutional and street leaders have condemned Israel and the Jews in the harshest terms.
During Friday prayers at Cairo’s Al-Azhar mosque, the Preacher of the Sionists an “abomination of nature” and promised that “what has been taken by force will be removed by force. “
Gulf of Israel partners, be they the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which have officially signed agreements and those who are quietly cooperating, have condemned Israel’s actions, focusing on Jerusalem.
On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said the Kingdom “categorically rejects Israel’s plans and measures to expel Palestinians from its territory and impose sovereignty over their land. “
The Kingdom supports the other Palestinian people and supports all efforts aimed at achieving a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian question, allowing the other Palestinians to identify their independent Palestinian State on the basis of the 1967 border agreement, with East Jerusalem as its capital in accordance with foreign resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative. “
At the request of the Saudis, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation is due to hold an emergency assembly on Sunday to discuss escalating violence. The Saudis also joined Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Morocco and Qatar in a committee to urge members. of the UN Security Council to take steps to prevent Israeli policies in Jerusalem.
Sunni countries allied with the West, even those with official ties to Israel, “owe everything they are not perceived as insufficiently involved in the ‘attack on Islam,'” Krasna said.
This is confusing for the UAE and Morocco, he said, as they face questions about their decisions to normalize relations with Israel. The audience asks, “What are you saying now? What does standardization mean now?” said Krasna.
“The UAE has sold a lot of its appointments with Israel as a way to limit Israel. There’s a subtext that we can get more by committing ourselves than by not committing ourselves. “
“The UAE is in the aspect of the Palestinian right, the end of the Israeli occupation, the two-state solution and an indefinite Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and this is a historical and principled position that is moving,” he tweeted. Anwar Gargash, who resigned as UAE foreign minister in February.
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