The Latest from Israel-Palestine (16 October): Netanyahu's Threats That Will Dominate the Elections

Photo: Marc Israel Sellem

1945 GMT: The State Attirney's Office announced that it is appealing the acquittals of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the Jerusalem District Court corruption case to the Supreme Court. At a time when Olmert was mulling a political comeback, he could go to jail if the appeal is rejected. 

1900 GMT: Israel Defense Forces have confirmed that a Strela (SA-7) anti-aircraft missile was fired at an Israeli helicopter over the Gaza Strip for the first time last week.

1825 GMT: A rocket fired from Gaza hits Hof Ashkelon Regional Council in southern Israel. No injuries reported.

1730 GMT: The Palestinian Authority's public workers union has called for full strike Wednesday, Thursday and again next week in protest of the government's failure to pay salaries. 

1650 GMT: The leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, says the elected government of Gaza in 2006 was "the first model which led to the breakout of a sweeping Arab revolution in the Islamic region."

1635 GMT: In a letter sent on Monday to the UN Security Council, Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Abdou Salam Diallo, says: 

Our Committee feels that an upgrade of the United Nations status of Palestine can open up new opportunities to revitalize the political process, rescuing the two-State solution, before it is too late.  At the same time, we reiterate our principled position that settlements are illegal and an obstacle to peace.

1625 GMT: Nimer Hammad, political advisor to Abbas, says that the statehood bid at the UNGA is not aimed at isolating Israel; yet it will achieve international recognition of a Palestinian state which will pave the way for the resumptions of negotiations. 

1530 GMT: In a letter sent to US President Barack Obama, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas says asking the UN General Assembly to vote in favor of upgrading the status of Palestinians to a non-member state was not a unilateral move.

1420 GMT: Israel's Centre Bureau of Statistics declared the First Annual Flash Estimates of the National Accounts for 2012; according to which, GDP will grow by 3.5% in 2012, after 4.6% growth in 2011 and 5% growth in 2010. However, it is also added that GDP per capital is NIS 117,600 (roughly $31,000) in 2012, 1.7% more than in 2011, in constant prices.

1310 GMT: During a meeting with Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota and US general consul Michael Ratney, Palestinian Authority's chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said that those countries seeking to achieve a two-state solution should vote in favor of the Palestinian bid to upgrade their status from an observer mission to a non-member state at the UN General Assembly in mid-November.

On Monday, speaking at the Security Council Open Debate on the Middle East, US Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Susan Rice, maintained the current position of Washington by rejecting both "the legitimacy of Israeli settlement activity" and any unilateral action taken by Palestinians that would "jeopardize the peace process". Rice called both parties to negotiate directly with no preconditions.

1235 GMT: Addressing the EU ambassadors in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conditioned the prospective success of the EU's new sanction list against Tehran on the nuclear program. Netanyahu said:

I commend the EU on the new sanctions against Iran that are hitting the Iranian economy hard. We will know if the sanctions are achieving their goal if the centrifuges will stop spinning and the program is rolled back.

1200 GMT: Clashes have been reported between Palestinian residents and Israeli soldiers in Az-Zababda village, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin. 

1150 GMT: Ahead of elections, the Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs is set to launch a campaign, which will cost NIS 1 million (roughly $261,000) and aim to boost the West Bank settlements' global image.

1030 GMT: Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon praised the European Union's recent sanctions against Tehran. On his Facebook page, Ayalon said:

I welcome the decision of the Foreign Ministers of the European Union yesterday to add further sanctions against Iran. This decision sends a clear diplomatic message to Iran that it has to abide by the demands of the international community regarding its nuclear program. I believe that despite the fanaticism and extremism of the Ayatollah regime, it is also rational when it came to its political survival. Thus increasing the pressure is an important step although further sanctions are needed.

0630 GMT: On Monday, at the opening of the 18th Knesset, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared that he was a leader who had "brought security back to Israel's citizens". His security package had six points:

* Iran, the "existential threat" must be the top concern --- "Anyone who underestimates the threat that a nuclear Iran poses to Israel is not worthy to be Prime Minister even one day."

* The previous Government --- which included Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni, challengers to Netanyahu in the upcoming elections ---displayed "negligence" toward Israel's security. In contrast, Netanyahu said, those "thousands of missiles fired on the South" were not landing in Israel today.

* He had stoppedthe flow of migrants from Africa, entering Israel through Egypt.

* He had raised growth and decreased unemployment, despite the international financial crisis.

* He had saved the captured Gilat Shalit from Hamas.

* He had not been in "unnnecessary wars"

In contrast to Netanyahu's argument that he had provided Israeli security from these threats, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor told the Security Council that "Hezbollah’s continued provocation and military buildup could have devastating consequences for the region with its 50,000 missiles".

And Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, far from being satisfied with more European Union sanctions against Tehran, compared the EU's Iranian policy to the appeasement of Germany in the 1930s: "It is critical, essential, and necessary that the EU pass the right message, which is that the West has enough will and determination to stop the Iranian efforts to destabilize the world."