AIPAC speakers said
Israel and Gulf countries share a common enemy in Iran
[Handout via Reuters]
Correction 6/3/2018: A previous version of this article
stated that Greenberg travelled to both Saudi Arabia and
the UAE. This is incorrect. Greenberg travelled to the
UAE and Jordan. The article also said that Greenberg
urged support for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman. The crown prince was never mentioned by name and
all references to Mohammed bin Salman have been removed.
Washington, DC -The chairman of the Conference
of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in theUnited
Stateshas praised theUnited
Arab Emiratesfor its "tolerance" and
"fight against terrorism", and urged the pro-Israel lobbying
group, AIPAC, to encourage and supportSaudi
Arabiaand other Gulf states "pursuing a
similar path".
Stephen Greenberg told the annual conference, under way
in Washington, DC, on Monday that he visited the UAE andJordan.
"In the UAE, I found a country that is tolerant,
pluralistic, promoting women in government and the private
sector, while committing to fight terrorism and extremism in
every form," Greenberg said.
He added that the visit gave him "hope for positive
change in the region".
He also urged the gathering to "encourage and support the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states pursuing a
similar path", adding that "real change must be encouraged
constantly".
In his trademark strident tones, Naftali Bennett,
Israel's minister for education and diaspora affairs, said:
"Israel is strong and stronger than all of its enemies
combined."
DescribingIranas
the head of the octopus that needs to be attacked, Bennett,
an extreme right-wing member of Israel's security cabinet,
said: "We also must not allow other countries from going
nuclear. We should prevent Saudi Arabia from having nuclear
power."
Ayalon says Israel
has a lot in common with Saudi Arabia, UAE
and Bahrain [Ali Younes/Al Jazeera]
Danny Ayalon, former Israeli deputy foreign minister who
also spoke at the conference, told Al Jazeera that he has
"good relations with Saudi leaders" and thatIsraelhas
a lot in common with the Arab Gulf states of Saudi Arabia,
UAE andBahrain,
especially in countering Iran's rising power in the region.
"Iran is our common enemy," he said.
'Demilitarised state'
Using his main address, Avi Gabbay, the leader of
Israel's Labour Party, declared that Israel must separate
itself from the Palestinians by establishing a demilitarised
Palestinian state on parts of the occupied Palestinians
territories in theWest
BankandGaza.
Gabbay, who is running for election to be the next prime
minister of Israel, said Palestinians must first meet
several conditions before Israel should consider agreeing to
their demands of having their independent state.
Echoing one of AIPAC's signature lobbying efforts this
year, Gabbay said the Palestinian National Authority must
first stop its economic support of families of Palestinians
imprisoned and detained by Israel for their activism against
the Israeli occupation.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of
Statistics, there are more than 6,000 Palestinian prisoners
in Israeli jails.
Gabbay, who said his family emigrated to Israel from
their ancestral home in Morocco in 1964, described all the
Palestinians imprisoned by Israel as "terrorists".
Emphasising separation from the Palestinians as key to
Israeli maintenance of its Jewish majority, Gabbay said his
parents "left a Muslim-majority country to be part of a
Jewish-majority country".
Avoiding acknowledgement that Palestinians have a right
to be free in their independent country, Gabbay kept the
focus on Palestinians confined to improving their economic
situation, something he said would ultimately help Israel.
"We must have economic cooperation to improve the
Palestinian economy to have a secure peace with Israel," he
said.
"We not only are part of the Middle East but we want to
lead the Middle East."
On the issue of the illegal settlements that Israel is
building in the occupied territories, Gabbay's views did not
vary from the standard line of the current Likud-led
government of Prime MinisterBenjamin
Netanyahu.
Sole objection
Gabbay's only objection on the Israeli settlement project
inside the occupied territories was over "hill-top posts"
that were built by enterprising Jewish settlers without
government sanction.
"We must stop building on hill tops because they don't
provide any security value to Israel," he said.
According to the Israeli human rights organisation
B'Tselem, about 600,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in the
occupied West Bank, which Israel seized from Jordan during
the 1967 war.
He also carefully avoided any mention of the Israeli
occupation of Palestinian territories on which Palestinians
hope to establish their independent state.
For his part, Ayalon, the former deputy foreign minister,
echoed Gabbay's sentiments and said the Palestinian
leadership was to blame for not reaching a peace agreement
with Israel.
He also refused to acknowledge that Israel is occupying
Palestinian territories but said Israel would be willing to
negotiate if Palestinian leaders recognise Israel as a
"Jewish state" and end all of their claims inside Israel,
including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to
their homes in what is now Israel.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),
which signed the Oslo peace agreements with Israel in 1994,
has recognised Israel's existence along pre-1967 war lines.
Palestinians are demanding the establishment of an
independent state encompassing the West Bank and Gaza with
Arab East Jerusalem at its capital.
The PLO has renounced claims to the parts of historical
Palestine that now make up Israel but insists on a solution
to the issue of Palestinian refugees.
![AIPAC speakers said Israel and Gulf countries share a common enemy in Iran [Handout via Reuters]](aipac/aipac.jpg "UAE leadership praised at AIPAC")
