WarSclerotic

The spectacle of Miri Regev singing “HaTikva,” which describes the Jewish yearning for a homeland in Zion, was just one in a series of taboo-busting public appearances by Israeli officials in Gulf Arab states that have thrust the once-secret back channels of outreach into public view.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for years boasted about warming ties with key Arab states that have no diplomatic relations with Israel. But those ties—still largely unpopular among the Arab public—were rarely visible.

That changed on Friday, when Netanyahu made an unannounced visit to Oman, where he met longtime ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said. It marked the first visit by an Israeli leader in more than 20 years to the tiny Gulf state, a US ally that has in the past facilitated negotiations between the United States and Iran.

“These were important talks, both for the state of Israel and very important talks for Israel’s security,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday. “There will be more.”

As he spoke, Regev was in the United Arab Emirates with an Israeli delegation at a judo tournament—the scene of her happy tears after Israeli judoka Sagi Muki won the gold medal—and Netanyahu’s communications minister was headed to the UAE for a security conference.

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, is scheduled to head to Oman next week for a transportation conference, where he plans on presenting his plan for a rail link between Gulf Arab countries and Israel.The driving force in these visits seems to be a shared concern over Iran. Israel and many of the Gulf Arab states consider Iran a destabilizing force, meddling in conflicts and supporting rivals across the region. Oman, which borders Saudi Arabia and lies at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, has often played the role of regional mediator.

It also provides an opportunity for these Arab countries to curry favor in Washington. President Donald Trump has promised to present a plan for the “Deal of the Century” for Mideast peace, and Saudi Arabia’s dependability as an influential conduit has been thrown into question amid the fallout from the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.Regev’s emotional appearance Sunday at the gold medal ceremony in Abu Dhabi was unprecedented and especially remarkable, given her political leanings. At home, she is an outspoken nationalist popular with hard-liners.

In Abu Dhabi, Regev also toured the grand Sheikh Zayed Mosque. Wearing a loosely wrapped headscarf and the traditional floor-length gown known as an abaya, she was warmly welcomed by local officials.

While the visits by Netanyahu and his Likud Party ministers are a huge public relations boost for him domestically, they do not immediately signal an Arab embrace of Israel.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict remains an emotional issue with the Arab public, and relations will likely remain limited without a peace agreement.

Israeli forces have killed over 160 Palestinians during months of Hamas-led protests in the Gaza Strip against an Israeli blockade and a deepening humanitarian crisis. The peace process has been frozen for years, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cut ties with Washington after the White House recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last year and moved its embassy to the city.

The Palestinians fear that Trump is trying to rally support from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states in order to pressure the Palestinians into accepting a peace plan that falls far short of their demands.In Muscat, Netanyahu’s meeting appeared aimed at dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and his close ties with the Trump administration. With Netanyahu’s urging, the US this year pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, which Oman had supported.

After the visit, Oman’s Foreign Minister Yousef bin Alawi suggested the meeting was merely a strategic attempt at dealing with some of the Middle East’s most pressing issues. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, he said Netanyahu had initiated the meeting to present his views on Mideast issues to Sultan Qaboos.

“What Sultan Qaboos is doing now is nothing short of an intervention,” said Sigurd Neubauer, a Washington-based expert on Oman. “Oman is interjecting itself into the Israeli-Palestinian peace process for one obvious reason, and that is (because) the Arab states are so divided.”

Oman is also the only Arab country in the Gulf that could have hosted Netanyahu without fear of destabilizing backlash, Neubauer said.

That’s because Sultan Qaboos, in power since 1970, has direct lines of communication with a range of players in the region, thanks to his longstanding policy of non-interference. Oman has brokered the release of Western hostages in Yemen and provided a back door for communications between Washington and Tehran under the Obama administration. It is a member of the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council, but it did not join the kingdom in its boycott of Qatar or the war in Yemen.

Even statements by the Palestinian Fatah Party and Iran fell short of directly condemning Oman after Netanyahu’s visit, instead criticizing Israel’s attempts to normalize relations with Arab states before a peace deal is reached.

For Oman, hosting Netanyahu sent a message to the Trump administration that Muscat is a valuable regional player.

“The currency is American currency,” Yoel Guzansky, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said. “Oman can show that it’s a go-between, a conduit not just between Israel and the Palestinians, but more ambitiously between Iran and Israel.”

The official said that due to increased efforts to foil attacks on Jewish and Israeli institutions, the Israeli spy agency collects a lot of information, including intelligence about plots that don’t necessarily target Israel or Jews.It is believed the Israeli-provided information allowed the Danes to stop the assassins, who had explosives in their possession, early on.

According to Danish intelligence chief Finn Borch Andersen, the attack was meant to target the leader of the Danish branch of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA)—an opposition organization that Tehran blames for a September 22 shooting attack on a military parade in Khuzestan in which 25 Iranians were killed, many of them Revolutionary Guards troops.

After the attack in Khuzestan, Iran summoned the envoys of the Netherlands, Denmark and Britain and accused the three countries of harboring Iranian opposition groups.

On September 28, Danish police shut two major bridges to traffic and halted ferry services from Denmark to Sweden and Germany in a nationwide police operation to prevent a possible attack.

A few days earlier, the Norwegian suspect had been observed photographing and watching the Danish home of the ASMLA leader, police said.

On October 21, a Norwegian citizen of Iranian background was arrested in Sweden in connection with the plot and extradited to neighboring Denmark, Swedish security police said.

The suspect has denied wrongdoing and is being held in pre-trial custody until November 8. The Iranian government also denied any connection with the alleged plot.

On Wednesday, Iran expressed a “strong protest” to Danish ambassador to Tehran Danny Annan over what it described as the Danish officials’ “hasty, political” and “uncalculated actions” in the case.

This is the second time in the past few months that Iran has been accused of trying to harm exiled Iranian opposition activists on European soil. In June, France foiled an attempted Iranian attack on an Iranian opposition conference in Paris. That attempt was also thwarted with the help of the Israeli Mossad.

“The Mossad’s efforts have led to thwarting Iranian terrorism in France, Belgium, Austria, Germany and now Sweden and Denmark,” an Israeli official said.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump paid homage Tuesday to each of the 11 people slain in the worst instance of anti-Semitic violence in American history. As the Trumps placed their tributes outside the Tree of Life synagogue, protesters nearby shouted that the president was not welcome.
The emotional, dissonant scene reflected the increasingly divided nation that Trump leads, one gripped by a week of political violence and hate and hurtling toward contentious midterm elections that could alter the path of a presidency.

On their arrival in Pittsburgh, the Trumps entered the vestibule of the synagogue, where they lit candles for each victim before stepping outside. Shouts of “Words matter!” and “Trump, go home!” could be heard from demonstrators gathered not far from where a gunman had opened fire on Saturday.

Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who had been conducting services when the shots rang out, gestured at the white Star of David posted for each victim. At each, the president placed a stone, a Jewish burial tradition, while the first lady added a flower. They were trailed by first daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, who are Jewish.

Near the synagogue, flowers, candles and chalk drawings filled the corner, including a small rock painted with the number “6,000,011,” adding the victims this week to the estimated number of Jews killed in the Holocaust.The Trumps later spent more than an hour at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where some of the victims are recovering. The couple’s motorcade passed several hundred protesters on the street and a sign that said “It’s your fault.” Inside, Trump visited with wounded police officers and spent an hour with the widow of victim Dr. Richard Gottfried, according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.Trump stepped into the role of national consoler, a title he wears uncomfortably, with his visit to the Squirrel Hill neighborhood. More at home waging partisan warfare than assuaging America’s grief, Trump has shied away from public displays of unity in the wake of other tragedies.

Sanders said Trump did not speak publicly Tuesday to denounce anti-Semitism because he has spoken about it before.

“He wanted today to be about showing respect for the families and the friends of the victims as well as for Jewish Americans,” Sanders said.

Questions have long swirled about the president’s credibility as a unifier. Since his 2016 Republican campaign for the White House, Trump has at times been slow to denounce white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other hate-filled individuals and groups that found common cause with his nationalistic political rhetoric.

Trump traveled to the historic hub of the city’s Jewish community as the first funerals were held for the victims, who range in age from 54 to 97. The dead include a set of brothers, a husband and wife, professors, dentists and a physician.

Hundreds of protesters assembled to show their displeasure with Trump’s presence, some carrying signs that said “Hate has No Home in Squirrel Hill” and “Trump Loves Nazis.”

Squirrel Hill resident Paul Carberry said Trump should not have visited until the dead were buried.

“He didn’t pull the trigger, but his verbiage and actions don’t help,” Carberry said.

But Shayna Marcus, a nurse who rushed to the synagogue on Saturday to help with the wounded, said she felt that the president was taking an unfair portion of the blame.

“I don’t think focusing on Trump is the answer—or on politics,” said Marcus, whose four yarmulke-wearing boys carried signs in support of the president.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, back in Washington, told reporters: “If people are there to protest, that’s their right. For the president, it was not a moment for politics.”

When Air Force One touched down at the airport outside Pittsburgh, the Trumps were not greeted by the usual phalanx of local officials that typically welcomes a visiting president, a reflection of controversy surrounding the visit.

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, a Democrat, told reporters before the visit was announced that the White House ought to consult with the families of the victims about their preferences and asked that the president not come during a funeral. Neither he nor Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf appeared with Trump.

Beth Melena, campaign spokeswoman for Wolf, said the governor based his decision to stay away on input from the victims’ families, who told him they did not want the president to be there on the day their loved ones were being buried.

As Trump’s motorcade wound through downtown Pittsburgh, some onlookers saluted the president with upraised middle fingers and others with downturned thumbs.

The White House had invited the top four congressional leaders to join Trump in Pennsylvania, but none accompanied him.

A spokesman for Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he already had events in his home state of Kentucky, pushing back on the suggestion that he declined. Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office said he could not attend on short notice. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also opted not to participate.