What will Israel lose if Europe boots it from Horizon program?

“We unveiled a peace vision a few months ago, and we’re continuing to work down that path,” he said. “The decisions about Israel extending sovereignty towards these places are decisions for the Israelis to make. We are talking to all of the countries in the region about how it is we can manage this process.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is for the Trump plan, Pompeo said, and some Gulf states want it to go forward as well, even though the United Arab Emirates has made its opposition to Israel following the plan clear in recent weeks, with its foreign minister and ambassador to the US speaking out.

“I regret only that the Palestinian Authority has refused to participate,” he said. “They simply have rejected this out of hand. We simply ask that they come to the negotiating table based on what’s outlined in that vision for peace, and they have chosen not to.”

“What we’ve asked for is... for Israel and the Palestinian people to come to the table to negotiate a path forward and to find a resolution to this decades-long challenge,” he added. “I remain hopeful that in the coming weeks, we can begin to make real progress towards achieving that.”

Pompeo referred to the Palestinians’ suspension of security and other coordination with Israel, saying they have “chosen to threaten, to bluster, to assert that they’re going to deny the ability to do security properly. That’s not good for the Palestinian people.”

Craft defended her country’s peace plan in a UN Security Council meeting on the topic, noting that past attempts to resolve the conflict within the parameters of the pre-1967 lines had failed, and failure to enact change was harming both Israelis and Palestinians.

“The US cares deeply about the people in the region, and we believe that the status quo hurts both the Israelis and the Palestinians, and that no one benefits from the existing situation – a perpetual limbo of suffering, lost opportunities, reliance on foreign assistance and repeated cycles of violence, war and destruction,” she said.

Trump’s plan provides Palestinians with a viable path to statehood and a peace agreement with Israel, Craft said.

“We ask that you also hold the Palestinian leadership accountable for acts they are responsible for,” she said, urging UNSC members to move away from old talking points.

Craft appealed to the Palestinians to work with the US on the peace plan, noting that its terms could be adjusted.

“As we’ve said before, our plan is not a ‘take it or leave it.’ It is not set in stone,” she said. “It is an opening offer. It is the beginning of a conversation – not the end of one.”

Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon pushed back against the argument that moves by Israel would put an end to peace negotiations, saying in his address to the UNSC that the Palestinians have rejected talks repeatedly.

“The reality is that Israel wants peace and security,” he said. “The Palestinians, unfortunately, time and again, choose rejectionism over any realistic solution.”

“We expect the international community to make it clear to the Palestinians that their refusal to engage will not advance Palestinian interests,” he added.

Danon accused the international community of supporting a “false narrative” touted by the Palestinians, attempting to erase the Jewish people’s historic connection to the Land of Israel and claiming Jews are European colonists.

What stands in the way of peace is not the discussion over where to extend Israeli law, he said.

“What stands in the way of peace is Palestinian rejectionism and the encouragement that they get from some in the international community,” Danon said. “It is time that international community chooses realism over rejectionism.”

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman was in the US this week to meet with Pompeo, special advisers Jared Kushner and Avi Berkowitz to discuss what kind of sovereignty moves from Israel the US should support.

They will also discuss whether to give Netanyahu a green light to move forward even if Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz does not agree, because the prime minister has enough votes without Gantz, who supports a smaller sovereignty push. Trump is expected to make a decision on the matter.

Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi’s office strongly denied a report that he said Israel would not be applying sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, an area that his Blue and White Party repeatedly promised in the recent three-election cycle

would always remain part of Israel. However, he emphasized the need to coordinate any moves with Israel’s neighbors, and Jordan has strongly and publicly opposed them.

Seven Republican senators – Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Kevin Cramer, Thom Tillis, Cindy Hyde-Smith, John Barrasso and Joni Ernst – wrote a letter that encouraged Trump to support Israel moving forward with his administration’s plan.

American recognition of Israel applying sovereignty is “critical to locking in the progress your administration has made reversing the Obama-Biden legacy, restoring the US-Israel relationship and establishing a realistic basis for peace,” the letter reads.

They commended the Trump administration for recognizing “the reality and – as a matter of America’s national security interests, often the desirability – of Israel’s control over some territories occupied since 1967.”

On Wednesday, Cruz retweeted a tweet by conservative commentator and Fox News host Mark Levin that said: “Why the hell do I, or does anyone else, have to convince the administration to implement its own peace deal?” Cruz added: “A fair point.”

Members of the US Congress from the Democratic Party were expected to release a letter with 190 signatories on Wednesday night, warning against sovereignty steps.

Among those initiating the letter were Reps. Ted Deutch and Brad Schneider, who have close ties to AIPAC.

Their letter states that “unilateral annexation would likely jeopardize Israel’s significant progress on normalization with Arab states... risks insecurity in Jordan... [and] would create serious problems for Israel with its European friends and other partners in the world. We do not see how any of these acute risks serve the long-term interest of a strong, secure Israel.” •

appearance at Wednesday’s monthly UNSC meeting on the Middle East. That meeting focused almost exclusively on pending Israeli annexation plans within the contours of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which ignored the commonly accepted pre-1967 lines when defining the territorial contours of a two-state solution.

Annexation would lead to a one-state reality for Israelis and Palestinians, Aboul Gheit said.

“A new dark reality will set in vis-à-vis this conflict and the region at large,” he said.

Annexation has “the potential of igniting a religious war in and beyond our region,” Aboul Gheit said.

Guterres said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at a “watershed moment.” Annexation would be “a most serious violation of international law” that would grievously harm the prospect of a two-state solution and undercut the possibilities of a renewal of negotiations,” he said.

“I call on the Israeli government to abandon its annexation plans,” Guterres said. He pledged his full commitment and that of the UN to help Israelis and Palestinians resolve the conflict based on the pre-1967 lines.

“I call on fellow members of the Middle East Quartet to take up our mandated mediation role and find a mutually agreeable framework for the parties to reengage, without preconditions, with us and other key states,” Guterres said.

The Quartet is composed of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the UN. To date, the US has refused to agree to a Quartet-led process.

The UN has rejected Trump’s plan, in part because it is not based on the pre-1967 lines and in part because it allows for Israel to annex up to 30% of the West Bank in the initial stages of the plan.

Annexation could be met with “anger, radicalization and violence” and would send a dangerous message with regard to the futility of negotiations in the pursuit of peace, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov said.

“It will send one message and one message alone: Bilateral negotiations cannot achieve a just peace. We cannot allow this to happen,” he said.

“Diplomacy must be given a chance,” Mladenov said.

During the debate, 14 of the 15-member UNSC affirmed the need for a two-state solution at the pre-1967 lines,

with some members warning that the integrity and viability of the UNSC was at stake if annexation went unchallenged.

US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft was the only UNSC member to speak in support of her country’s peace plan. Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon also spoke in its support, even though Israel is not a UNSC member.

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Maliki told the UNSC it stood at a crossroads, and its choice with respect to halting Israeli actions would determine the course of history and the fate of nations.

“Israel is drunk on power, impelled by infinite impunity,” he said.

Maliki, like Danon, was a special guest at the meeting.

Israel has combined colonialism and apartheid without believing that it will suffer the same fate as other regimes that followed these same principles, Maliki said.

“Israel judges but cannot be judged,” he said. “The only true bias toward Israel is the one shielding it from accountability.”

“Israel is testing the resolve of the international community, thinking its colonial appetite will prevail over the international collective will to advance regional peace and security and to preserve the rule-based multilateral order,” Maliki said. “We must prove it wrong.”

The council must let Israel know that annexation will have immediate consequences by imposing sanctions, he said.

Annexation is the “ultimate breach of the UN Charter and cannot go unchallenged,” Maliki said. •

this is of most significance to the thousands of young Jews from all around the world who are ready to come and explore their identity and strengthen their connection to Israel.”

Demand for Masa programs actually was increasing due to tighter job markets and because universities abroad have remained closed, he said, adding that it is unclear if and how they will reopen for the new academic year.

“With over 7,000 preregistrations, together with our funders, we had to make difficult choices that advanced our strategic priorities while maximizing our funds,” Gutman said. “Adjustments were made in multiple areas to ensure that we can provide as many people as possible meaningful, long-term experiences in Israel.”

Masa gives grants to many Jewish youths from the Diaspora as well as needs-based scholarships that can total several thousand dollars.

The cessation of funding to yeshivas and seminaries could have a significant financial impact on those institutions.

The cut of funding to religious institutions but not universities reflected “a decision to value secular studies over Jewish studies,” an administrator of the overseas program of one yeshiva said, adding that “from a Zionist perspective, [this] is painful.” •

Gartner Institute that advises the Health Ministry revealed how Israelis are catching coronavirus: 31% were infected in gatherings and it is still unclear who infected them; 61% came in contact with a known sick person; 2% caught it at a senior living facility; 1% on a flight from abroad and 5% are still under investigation.

At the same time, the Education Ministry reported that there are 839 students and teachers with coronavirus and 20,392 in isolation. Some 209 schools are closed.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz signed an order Wednesday extending the emergency recruitment of up to 250 reservists, most of them from the Home Front Command. The orders, he said, are valid through the end of July.

The order was already in place but set to expire on June 30. Recruitment will be carried out only as needed and in line with developments in the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, Gantz instructed his ministry to prepare to open additional coronavirus hotels for those who contract the virus and cannot quarantine at home. One additional hotel was opened at the Sde Hermon School near in Kibbutz Snir in northern Israel. The command is already operating six others across the country.

Finally, the coronavirus cabinet drafted updated procedures for dealing with the virus in the public sector. Civil service agencies are being asked to authorize some employees to work from home, to limit public reception and rather to help the public through digital means when possible, as well as to move back to a “capsule” system that would require staff to work in limited numbers at a time. •

Rotstein said that when a community is shut down, the Health Ministry should ensure that all of its residents are tested, and then it should create red and green zones within the community itself.

Finally, he said that shutting down a community because of the number of people infected and not the number of people over a certain age “is mistaken and misleading the people.” Older people are at much higher risk for complications or even death from COVID-19.

An IDF Intelligence Corp. report published on Wednesday showed that 96% of Elad’s most recently diagnosed patients were under the age of 50.

Marom said that the country needs to look toward the future and “understand that we need to learn how to live alongside the virus for a long period of time.”

She said the first factor is self-discipline, which means the public following the Health Ministry’s regulations: wearing masks, social distancing and maintaining good hygiene. She said keeping these regulations can reduce the rate of infection by as much as 85%.

Then, she called on the government to immediately launch concurrent information and enforcement campaigns.

“Remember we started to use seat belts while driving our cars?” she asked. “It was not easy to implement and people did not understand that they needed to use them.” She said that the government ran a robust advertising campaign targeted toward the country’s different sectors and police would pull over cars and fine drivers who were not buckled up.

“Now we get inside our car and put on our seat belt,” she said. “It has to happen with masks, too.”

Coronavirus is “not a black and white situation – black: we have the virus and we lock down everything, or white: we don’t have the virus and we can open up and go back to routine.”

But Barash said he does not believe that the government will take the right steps to stop the coronavirus. He accused the government of lack of leadership and acting out of weakness.

“The government is trying to appease a public that is tired of listening to stories about coronavirus,” he said. “The steps the government is taking will not stop the spread.” •