• In Shift, Egypt Warms to Iran and Hamas, Israel's Foes - David D. Kirkpatrick
  Egypt is charting a new course in its foreign policy, planning to open the blockaded border with Gaza and normalizing relations with two of Israel and the West's Islamist foes, Hamas and Iran. Egyptian officials say that they are moving toward policies that more accurately reflect public opinion. Egypt's shifts are likely to alter the balance of power in the region, allowing Iran new access to a previously implacable foe and creating distance between itself and Israel, which has been watching the changes with some alarm.
      "We are troubled by some of the recent actions coming out of Egypt," said one senior Israeli official, citing a "rapprochement between Iran and Egypt" as well as "an upgrading of the relationship between Egypt and Hamas." "These developments could have strategic implications on Israel's security," the official said. Egyptian Ambassador Menha Bakhoum, spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, emphasized that Egypt is keeping all its commitments, including the peace treaty with Israel. But she said that the blockade of the border with Gaza and Egypt's previous enforcement of it were both "shameful," and that Egypt intended soon to open up the border "completely."
      Many Egyptian analysts, including some former officials and diplomats who served under Mubarak, say they are thrilled with the shift. "This is the new feeling in Egypt, that Egypt needs to be respected as a regional power," said Emad Gad, a foreign policy expert at the official Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. (New York Times)
      See also Egypt Shows Signs of New Assertiveness Abroad - Michael Birnbaum
  Outside its borders, Egypt is determined to resume its place as an independent power broker, with consequences that the U.S. might not always like. (Washington Post)
• Palestinian Factions Give Differing Views of Unity Pact - Ethan Bronner
  A day after the two main Palestinian factions announced surprise plans for a unity government, each side presented a different picture of what the accord means. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, said Thursday that because he was also chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization he remained in charge of peace efforts with Israel. The future unity government, he said, will have only two functions, to rebuild Gaza and set up elections within a year.
      Aides to Abbas said one central reason the two sides were reconciling after four years of enmity was that Hamas had suddenly found itself in a position of weakness. Hamas is based in Syria, which is in turmoil, and it may not be able to stay there over the long term. Moreover, the aides said, Egypt may be friendlier to Hamas than it was under Mubarak, but it is not heading down an Islamist path, as Hamas had hoped.
      Taher al-Nounou, a Hamas spokesman, said Hamas expected the PLO to be reconfigured after elections in a year. Ahmed Youssef, a former deputy foreign minister of Hamas, said that Palestinians were "really disappointed in the Obama administration" and that the warmth of the new leadership in Egypt allowed it to place its confidence in its good offices. (New York Times)
      See also Hamas Leaders Respond to Agreement with Fatah - Deputy Head of Political Bureau Moussa Abu Marzouq: "The Quartet Has Become Obsolete"
  Reactions by Hamas leaders to the Hamas-Fatah agreement, Al-Jazeera TV, April 27, 2011:
      Deputy Head of Hamas Political Bureau Moussa Abu Marzouq: We know that one of the main issues that was in dispute was the fact that every government must have a political platform, and that if it has no political platform, the platform of the president becomes that of the Palestinian government. The Palestinian political platform was in dispute, due to the terms set by the Quartet. Now the Quartet has become obsolete, along with its terms, and it is not taken too much into consideration. The Quartet and its terms were not mentioned in these understandings even once.
      Foreign Minister Mahmoud Al-Zahhar: "Our perspective is entirely different from that of Fatah. Fatah believes in negotiations, while we believe that negotiations with the Israeli enemy are in vain. We believe in armed struggle, in addition to responsible governing, as well as making the government's resources available to the resistance. We believe that obeying the terms of the Quartet would have entailed the loss of the Palestinian rights....The terms of the Quartet meant, in short, recognition of the Israeli enemy, in exchange for bread, gas, and oil. Our steadfastness...has taught a lesson to the Quartet."  (MEMRI)
      See also Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad Must Go, Hamas Insists - Conal Urquhart (Guardian-UK)
• Analysts: Finalizing Fatah-Hamas Accord Seen Difficult - Joel Greenberg
  Analysts said significant obstacles remained in the way of finalizing the Fatah-Hamas accord, and nailing down the details could prove difficult, particularly when it comes to arranging the elections and jointly supervising rival security forces who fought pitched battles when Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007. "Four years of incitement and war between Hamas and Fatah are not going to be just scrapped in one day," said Mkhaimer Abusada, a political scientist at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. "It's going to be a very long and tenuous process." Khalil Shikaki, a political analyst and pollster in Ramallah, said that while the two factions may have agreed to reconcile, they had postponed the difficult problems dividing them and "may not be able to do it."  (Washington Post)
• State Department Won't Rule Out Aid to a Fatah-Hamas Government - Jennifer Rubin
  There are strong grounds under existing law for banning aid to a Fatah-Hamas government. In 2006, aid was cut once Hamas won the elections. It was reinstated only when the Palestinian Authority separated from Hamas.
      A State Department official said, "We have seen the press reports and are seeking more information. As we have said before, the United States supports Palestinian reconciliation on terms which promote the cause of peace. To play a constructive role, any Palestinian government must accept the Quartet principles by renouncing violence, accepting past agreements, and recognizing Israel's right to exist."
      "I note that the current Palestinian government remains in place and our assistance programs continue." As for the future, there was no line-drawing. "If a new Palestinian government is formed, we will assess it based on its policies at that time and will determine the implications for our assistance based on U.S. law."  (Washington Post)

• Israel: No Talks with Fatah-Hamas Government - Attila Somfalvi
  The forum of seven senior ministers decided Thursday Israel would not hold peace talks with any government of which Hamas is a part. (Ynet News)
      See also Peres: Palestinian Unity Deal Could Be Barrier to Statehood
  President Shimon Peres said Thursday he felt the Palestinian reconciliation agreement was a mistake. He said the world could not support the foundation of a country when part of the regime is a "bona fide terrorist organization." "The move, as it stands, is a fatal mistake." A future Palestinian election could lead to a "terror organization ruling both Gaza and Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] and the triumph of Hamas' policies."
      "Walking hand in hand with a terror organization...would lead to a regression and prevent the formation of a Palestinian state." Peres added that the shift would mean "continued rocket fire, the continued killing of innocent people, and the continuation of Iran's intervention, which supports and funds regional terror." "We would have liked to see the Palestinian people unite, but for peace."  (Ha'aretz)
• Former Egyptian Envoy Backs Peace with Israel - Roee Nahmias
  Mohamed Basiouni, who served as Egyptian ambassador to Israel for over a decade, told the Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat Thursday that he was against canceling the peace treaty with Israel and that those opposing the treaty probably hadn't read it. He said the existing situation is much better than the situation before June 1967.
      "I believe that the peace treaty has achieved significant and important gains: The liberation of Egyptian soil, removal of all settlements from Sinai...return of the oil fields, control of sailing rights in the Suez Canal, reduction of the defense budget and increase in foreign investment in Egypt," he said. "We all gained something from this treaty."  (Ynet News)

Palestinians


• Why Palestinian Unity Won't Lead to Peace - Dore Gold
  The last time Abbas co-governed with Hamas was after the Palestinian legislative elections in early 2006, which Hamas won. By June 2007, their power-sharing arrangements broke down and Hamas overthrew Abbas' forces in Gaza. Israel is concerned that, in the aftermath of their new agreement, Hamas will try to exploit Abbas' weakness and take over the West Bank as well. If, under the agreement, the Palestinian Authority releases Hamas operatives from its prisons in the West Bank and at the same time calls off security sweeps against Hamas, the terrorist group's power in the field will undoubtedly rise. And what will happen to the Palestinian security forces that were trained by the United States and Jordan and have been acclaimed in the West in recent years? (Foreign Policy)
• The Fatah-Hamas Agreement: Analysis and Initial Consequences - Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi
  The new Egyptian regime is making use of the Palestinian card in order to strengthen its public standing as the party leading the campaign on behalf of Palestinian rights and against Israel. In addition, the undermining of the Syrian regime - the patron of Hamas - compels Hamas to reinforce its ties with Cairo and to be more prepared to assent to Egyptian demands that it display tactical diplomatic flexibility, intended to promote national Palestinian objectives and intensify the diplomatic pressure on Israel.
      Abbas is incapable of presenting a democratic alternative to Hamas and other Palestinian terror organizations and prefers to live with them under one roof. This strategy previously cost the Palestinian Authority the loss of its rule in Gaza, and now it may facilitate a Hamas takeover of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and over the PLO institutions as well. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
• Handing Victory to Hamas - Khaled Abu Toameh
  The Palestinian reconciliation deal is a victory for Hamas, handed to it by the two parties that until recently made tremendous efforts to delegitimize and undermine it: Fatah and Egypt. The deal came amid signs that Hamas was beginning to lose its grip. Last month, thousands of Palestinian demonstrators clashed with Hamas security forces for the first time since it seized control over Gaza in 2007.
      The unity deal does not require Hamas to relinquish control over Gaza and permits it to keep its security forces. Nor does the deal require Hamas to accept the Middle East peace process or accept the two-state solution. Hamas will be brought into the unity government as an equal partner, and has been recognized as a legitimate partner and player not only by Fatah, but also by the most populous Arab country, Egypt. (Jerusalem Post)


Arab World


• The Arab Spring and U.S. Policy: The View from Jerusalem - Ted Koppel
  The canary in the coal mine on the degree to which America's allies can trust U.S. foreign policy is Israel. None of America's allies is more sensitive to even the most subtle changes in the international environment, or more conscious of the slightest hint of diminished support from Washington. On a recent visit to Jerusalem, I met with a number of very senior current and former government officials. The Israeli government is so concerned that America's adversaries may miscalculate U.S. intentions that it is privately urging Washington to make it clear that the U.S. would intervene in Saudi Arabia should the survival of that government be threatened. Absent such a public recommitment, they worry that Iran will be encouraged to even greater mischief.
      The outlook from Jerusalem these days is not encouraging. Iranian influence is growing throughout the Persian Gulf and beyond. Egypt's commitment to its peace treaty with Israel is uncertain. Syria could explode into total chaos at any moment. And Jordan's stability is in question. (Wall Street Journal)
• Embattled Arab Leaders Decide It's Better to Fight than Quit - Michael Slackman and Mona El-Naggar
  Arab leaders facing public revolt have increasingly concluded that it is better to shoot to kill, or at least to arrest and imprison, than to abdicate and flee. Those who have left, namely Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, face the humiliation of a criminal investigation, a trial and possible imprisonment. Those who have opted to stick with the use of force, as in Libya, Yemen and now Syria, have retained power, regional analysts said. "I don't think we're going to see rulers run away, like Mubarak," said Mustafa Alani, an analyst with the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. "We passed this stage. They will not run or abdicate. They will take their chances."  (New York Times)
• The Arab Spring and the Palestine Distraction - Josef Joffe
  "The plight of the Palestinians has been a root cause of unrest and conflict in the region," insisted Turkish President Abdullah Gul in the New York Times last week. Writing in the Financial Times, former U.S. National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft intoned: "The nature of the new Middle East cannot be known until the festering sore of the occupied territories is removed." Shoddy political theories - ideologies, really - never die because they are immune to the facts.
      The Palestine-first strategy reverses cause and effect. It is not the core conflict that feeds the despotism; it is the despots who fan the conflict. Divert attention and energy from oppression and misery at home by rousing the masses against the enemy abroad. Freedom does not need the enemy at the gate. Despots do, which is why they happily let the Palestinian sore fester for generations. The writer is senior fellow at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies and a fellow at the Hoover Institution, both at Stanford. (Wall Street Journal)


Iran


• No. 1 U.S. Priority in Middle East: Regime Change in Iran - Chuck Freilich
  Iran has all the same elements that have brought about the uprisings in the Arab world - even more so. Iran's burgeoning young population is as large as anywhere in the region and actually far more educated and involved in worldwide social and political trends. As with the young populations of other parts of the region, Iran's youth suffer from the same dire unemployment, lack of opportunity, and suffocating oppression. Regime change in Iran should be the No. 1 priority in the Middle East today and is an issue on which virtually all U.S. allies, in the region and beyond, can agree.
      Instead of continuing to harbor futile hopes of engagement with Tehran, which the Obama administration itself acknowledges will probably not work, what is needed is a U.S.-led effort, both public and behind the scenes, to make the regime crack. The writer is an International Security Program senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. (Christian Science Monitor)
• The Education of an Iranian Revolutionary - David Feith
  Shirin Ebadi, 63 and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, says that in 1978, as a judge on the Tehran city court, "I really believed that an Islamic Republic would bring us independence and liberty." So strong was her revolutionary fervor that she helped storm the justice ministry. The future, it turned out, was full of 7th-century religious fanaticism and brutal political repression. The Khomeinists kicked her off the bench for being a woman in 1980, mandating that she work as a secretary in the court over which she once presided. In 2000, while reviewing intelligence ministry files, she found her own name on a list of intellectuals to be targeted for extrajudicial killing.
      She says, "People are very happy about the uprising of the people of Syria....If there is democracy in Syria it's like the arms of Iran are cut off," she says. "The people of Iran would be very happy if Bashar Assad is toppled because that's the beginning of the toppling of the Iranian government."  (Wall Street Journal)


Other Issues


• Obama and '"The Jewish Lobby of One" - Aaron David Miller
  The notion that domestic politics and the pro-Israel community hold the president's Middle East policy hostage is dead wrong and dangerous. The pro-Israel community in America has a powerful voice, to be sure, but it doesn't have a veto. If Obama saw a chance to do something truly significant on the peace issue, he'd go for it. It's not his fear of the Jews that drives him; it's his fear of failure. If there's any lobby he should worry about, it's the Jewish lobby of one - an Israeli prime minister whose cooperation he needs for any agreement but whose views on negotiations and Palestinian statehood are far different from the president's.
      Having already wrestled with Netanyahu on settlements (and lost), Obama is no sentimentalist about Israel. Unlike Bill Clinton or George W. Bush, Obama isn't in love with the idea of Israel; he falls somewhere between Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush on the Israel sensitivity scale. If Obama fears anything, it's the reality that an ill-timed, wrong-footed approach to peacemaking will fail and represent another foreign policy stumble at a time when he can least afford it. The U.S. doesn't need a fight with the Israelis if it can't produce a real breakthrough. The writer, a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, served as a Middle East negotiator. (Los Angeles Times)
• The Middle East Needs More Israels - Robert Satloff
  The seismic events the world has witnessed since the Tunisian revolution have done much to silence those attached passionately to the idea that nothing so enrages Arabs as America's friendship with Israel. In fact, as we now know, it is the corruption, venality, torture, and inequality of Arab governments, not Israel or U.S.-Israel relations, that enrages Arabs so much that they are willing to fight and die to change their reality.
      Last July, I argued in a debate that "what we really need in the Middle East are more 'Israels' - not more Jewish states, of course, but more strong, reliable, democratic, pro-American allies." I hope that the Arab Spring produces a few more Middle Eastern states that are "strong, reliable, democratic, pro-American allies." In the meantime, as Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren persuasively argues, Washington should be wise to do everything it can to strengthen and protect the only one it has. The writer is executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. (Foreign Policy)
• The Jewish Conspiracy: A Strategic Weapon to Demonize Jews and Delegitimize Israel - Judge Hadassa Ben Itto
  The Protocols of the Elders of Zion - a proven lie and forgery - is being published around the world, with new editions in Arabic almost every year, and in Persian and Turkish. The Protocols was fabricated in France in the last decade of the 19th century, with most of the text actually plagiarized from a French book published in 1865 by an opponent of Napoleon the Third. Chapters were added later to make it the Jewish plan to dominate the world.
      The Protocols is not just a libel; it is a political document describing a Jewish criminal conspiracy. It was first used by the Russian czars and then by the communists. Later, it became a central theme in Nazi propaganda, and then it was handed to the Muslim world.
      There is no Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world but there is an anti-Jewish conspiracy. It starts with the Jews but it does not end with the Jews. The first airplane that was hijacked was an Israeli airplane, and now we line up in every airport for security checks. The danger of contaminating the public discourse with lies is a danger to the whole world. The writer, author of The Lie That Wouldn't Die, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (2005), served for 31 years as a judge in all levels of the Israeli courts. (Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day 2011 (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

• Beginning Sunday evening, May 1, Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah in Hebrew) is a national day of commemoration in Israel, on which the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust are memorialized. Places of entertainment are closed and memorial ceremonies are held throughout the country.
• At the memorial ceremony at Yad Vashem, six torches are lit, representing the six million murdered Jews, among them 1.5 million children. On Monday morning, a siren sounds for two minutes throughout the entire country. For the duration of the siren, work is halted, people walking in the streets stop, cars pull off to the side of the road and everybody stands at silent attention in reverence to the victims of the Holocaust.

1. Simcha Applebaum was born in 1927 in what is today Belarus. In 1943, Simcha and his family were sent to Birkenau where his relatives were all murdered. After liberation, Simcha came to Eretz Israel in 1946 and fought in the War of Independence. In 1948, together with other survivors, he helped establish Kibbutz Netzer Sereni. Simcha fought in all of Israel's wars up to the Yom Kippur War, reaching the rank of colonel.
2. Avraham Aviel was born in 1929 in what is today Belarus. On 10 May 1942, Avraham, his mother, and his brothers were taken to a death pit near the cemetery in Radun where most of them were shot to death. Avraham managed to escape. He joined the Jewish partisans in the Nacza Grodno Forest and fought alongside them until the area was liberated in July 1944. Avraham fought in the War of Independence, in the battles along the road to Jerusalem. He later settled in Tel Aviv, where he established the Beit Alim publishing house.
3. Dina Buchler-Chen was born in 1940 in Zagreb, Yugoslavia (today Croatia). Her father was murdered in the Jasenovac concentration camp, along with her grandfather and aunts. Dina, her mother and grandmother ended up at the Loborgrad camp adjacent to Zagreb. By the end of 1941 Dina was very sick and malnourished, and one of the camp guards helped smuggle her out of the camp. Her mother attached a note to the baby's neck with her name, date of birth, and the names of two relatives to whom she should be given. The guard left the "package" at the Jewish Community Center in Zagreb. She survived in the care of a Christian family, was retrieved after the war by her mother's cousin, and in 1948 they emigrated to Israel. In 1994, the family that cared for her was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.
4. Andrei Calarasu, formerly Bernard Grupper, was born in 1922 in Romania. On 29 June 1941, with the German invasion of Russia, Bernard, his father and his brother were marched to the train station where German and Romanian soldiers pulled gold teeth from their mouths, and cut off fingers bearing gold rings. The men were placed into a closed railroad car with 120 others for an eight-day journey to Calarasu. In 1965, Andrei immigrated to Israel where he was a member of the founding team of Israel Television.
5. Yona (Janek) Fuchs was born in Lwow (today Ukraine) in 1925. Because of his "Aryan" features, his parents encouraged Yona to escape from the ghetto. His father obtained a forged birth certificate for him and sent him to stay with a non-Jewish friend in a nearby village. While Yona was living there, all of its Jewish residents were shot to death. He was taken to the Lwow-Janowska concentration camp, but dug underneath the fence and escaped. He eventually reached Romania and in 1944 emigrated to Israel, where he fought in Israel's wars.
6. Chava Pressburger was born in 1930 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. She was deported to the ghetto in Terezin in May 1944. In September 1944, her older brother, Petr, was deported to Auschwitz and murdered. In May 1945, the Red Army liberated the ghetto. In 1949, Chava immigrated to Israel where she created and taught art: in 1993, she received the prestigious Sussman Prize for her Holocaust-related artwork. Her journal of life in the ghetto was later published in Salvaged Pages (Yale University Press, 2002).