Hamas official: Turkey already mediating prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas
The Israeli-Turkish agreement approved by the security cabinet on Wednesday creates the “cornerstone for regional stability in the future,” Foreign Ministry director-general Dore Gold told The Jerusalem Post shortly after the deal was ratified.
The deal, he said, “is built on certain norms, such as being firmly against international terrorism.”
Those norms, he added, “have been very much up in the air in the Middle East for the last couple of decades, which partly explains the deterioration in the situation.”
The need for Israel and Turkey to cooperate in the fight against terrorism, a need highlighted by Tuesday’s deadly attack in Istanbul, is believed to have been one reason the accord passed the security cabinet with relative ease, with seven voting in favor, and three against.
The three ministers opposed were both Bayit Yehudi ministers – Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked – and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman of Yisrael Beytenu.
All four Likud ministers fell in line behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as did the Kulanu ministers: Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Construction Minister Yoav Gallant.
“Right now we are in chaos in the Middle East, and what we have to do is begin to put together a concept of how to stabilize this region,” Gold said.
Asked how Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s open support for Hamas dovetails with a mutual interest in fighting terrorism, Gold replied, “We come from different worldviews.”
Noting that the current Turkish leadership has a special relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood going back to 2006, Gold said, “I think the attitudes toward various Islamist movements are evolving and changing, and in the meantime they are being targeted repeatedly by Islamic State.”
It is clear to most, Gold said, that “Israel’s agreement with Turkey is not a honeymoon. We do not have some kind of ideological compatibility. They still have their worldview, and we still have our worldview. But what we have is a convergence of strategic interests.”
Gold signed the agreement that his Turkish counterpart, Feridun Sinirlioglu, signed the day before in Ankara, and Sinirlioglu did the same in Turkey with the document signed by Gold. The deal must now be ratified by the Turkish parliament, which is considered a foregone conclusion even though it was attacked on Wednesday in parliament by the heads of three opposition parties.
The security cabinet ministers met on the deal for some 4.5 hours. Among those who joined the meeting were Mossad director Yossi Cohen and the prime minister’s envoy Joseph Ciechanover, who were both involved in the negotiations, and Attorney- General Avichai Mandelblit.
Reflecting discomfort with the fact that the agreement was signed even though Israel did not win the release of the two Israelis missing in the Gaza Strip, nor of the two soldiers whose bodies are being held by Hamas, it was decided that another security cabinet discussion will be held soon to discuss the conditions of Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails.
The cabinet also decided that a smaller ministerial committee will be established to deal with the issue of Israeli captives and MIAs, looking for ways to create leverage on Hamas. The cabinet decided to hold a discussion soon on the recommendations of Shamgar Commission on policy regarding events involving captives and MIAs.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) pushed for these discussions. Following the meeting Erdan, who beforehand was considered one of the ministers sitting on the fence, said, “My heart goes out to the families.”
“After a lot of thought, I decided to vote in favor of reconciliation with Turkey,” Erdan said. He said that he had become convinced that there was not a scenario in which Turkey would be able to influence Hamas to return the bodies of Lt. Hadar Goldin and St.-Sgt. Oron Shaul, who were killed in the Gaza Strip during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge.
The minister said that the agreement had important security and economic benefits. It also takes into account the importance of the blockade of Gaza and includes a Turkish obligation to send supplies to the Strip only through transports that are under Israeli control.
“When it will not be quiet, there will not be anything delivered to Gaza,” he said.
While acknowledging that paying money to the families of terrorists who had attacked IDF soldiers was infuriating, he said no reconciliation deal would be perfect. “Nothing justifies paying terrorists that attack our soldiers, but the agreement will give Israel economic benefits,” Erdan said.
Gallant issued a statement saying that the deal was “vital” to Israel’s security and regional stability.
“There are compromises in every agreement,” he said. “But our responsibility in the security cabinet is to identify what is strategically important for the long term.”
Turkey, he said, is one of the four central Muslim states in the region, and it is “important to keep it as close to us as is possible. The true enemies of Israel are Iran and the terrorist organizations, and we should concentrate our struggle against them while at the same time forming alliances and developing ties with all the other elements.”
Kulanu MK Michael Oren, who took part in negotiations with the Turks in 2013, praised the security cabinet for approving the deal.
“The two stumbling blocks when we negotiated were the Turkish refusal to drop charges against anyone involved in the raid, and the Turkish insistence on keeping the Gaza blockade, and the Turks received neither,” Oren said. “The Turks have also been blocking Israeli cooperation with NATO, and we will have a lot of gain from that resuming. It is also nice every once in a while for Israel to say yes.”
| Dore Gold דורי גולד | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 11th Israel Ambassador to the United Nations | |
| In office 1997–1999 | |
| Preceded by | Gad Yaacobi |
| Succeeded by | Yehuda Lancry |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1953 (age 62–63) Hartford, Connecticut, U.S. |
Dore Gold (Hebrew: דורי גולד, born 1953) is an Israeli diplomat who has served in various positions under several Israeli governments. He is the current President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He was also an advisor to the former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and to Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu during his first term in office. In May 2015, Netanyahu named him Director-General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Early life
Dore Gold was born in 1953 in Hartford, Connecticut, in the United States, and was raised in a Conservative Jewish home. His primary education was spent at the Orthodox Yeshiva of Hartford. In the 1970s, Gold attended Northfield Mount Hermon School (Class of 1971) and then enrolled in Columbia University. There Gold earned BA and MA in Political Science, and then a PhD in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies.
He studied literary Arabic and specialized in International Law, and his doctoral dissertation was about Saudi Arabia. This research later formed the foundation for his 2003 New York Times bestseller, Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism. In the book, Gold argues that Saudi Arabia actively funds terrorism by supporting the enemies of the U.S. and attacking its allies. Today, Gold lives in Jerusalem with his wife, Ofra, and his two children, Yael and Ariel.
Career
Dore Gold's political career began in 1985 when Gold served as senior research associate at Tel Aviv University's Moshe Dayan Centre for Near East Studies. Later, he was appointed Director of the U.S. Foreign and Defense Policy Project at the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University and held this position from 1985 to 1996.[4]
Peace Negotiations[edit]
In 1991 Gold was an advisor to the Israeli delegation at the Madrid Peace Conference. From June 1996 to June 1997 he served as Foreign Policy Adviser to former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[5] During the period in which Benjamin Netanyahu served as the head of the Israeli opposition, Gold was instrumental in forging the relationship between the Likud Party leadership and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in response to the strategic ties that were growing between Israel's Labor government and the PLO under Yasser Arafat. Gold accompanied Netanyahu to meetings with the Jordanian leadership in 1994 and 1995 in London, Amman and in Aqaba. As the Foreign Policy Adviser under Netanyahu after the 1996 elections, Gold worked with the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Jordan and others in the Arab world. He was also involved in negotiations leading up to the Hebron Agreement and the Note for the Record.
East Jerusalem and the Oslo Accords[edit]
Gold himself has not written about the period in which he served as an envoy to the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world; nonetheless, a number of revelations have been disclosed by other authors. According to Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin, Gold and Netanyahu advisorYitzhak Molcho were the first envoys of the newly elected Likud government to meet with Yasser Arafat in the Gaza Strip on June 27, 1996.[6]Dennis Ross relates to the "Abu-Mazen-Dore Gold" talks that ensued afterwards as a result of which the Palestinians closed down offices in East Jerusalem that Israel had argued were a violation of the Oslo Accords.[7] This was the price that Arafat had to pay for his first meeting with Netanyahu. It was a hard concession for the Palestinians, according to Ross, for it was viewed by them as a "symbolic retreat on East Jerusalem."
Syria and the Golan Heights[edit]
On the Syrian negotiating track, former Israeli ambassador to the US, Itamar Rabinovich, describes how he concluded with Gold an understanding over the Monitoring Group for Southern Lebanon, which was followed by a direct discussion between Gold and the Syrian ambassador to the US, Walid Muallam.[8] According to the French journalist, Charles Enderline, Gold secured a commitment from Secretary of State Warren Christopher that the Rabin "deposit" on the future of the Golan Heights did not bind the State of Israel. This effort also included obtaining a new US commitment from the Clinton administration to the September 1975 Ford letter, in which it was stated that the US would give great weight to Israel remaining on the Golan Heights.[9] According to the Israeli Hebrew daily, Maariv, Christopher wrote this renewed commitment in a formal letter of assurances to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on September 19, 1996.[10]
Ambassador to the United Nations[edit]
From 1997 to 1999 Gold was the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. In 1998 Gold served as a member of the Israeli delegation at the Wye River negotiations between Israel, the PLO, and then U.S. President Bill Clinton at the Wye River Plantation in Maryland.
Later life[edit]
Since 2000 Gold has served as president of the non-profit institute, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. From 2001 to 2003, Gold served as an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, most notably at the Aqaba Summit with President George W. Bush. During this period, Gold regularly appeared on US network television programs on behalf of the Sharon government, including Meet the Press, The Today Show, CNN's Late Edition, as well as on Fox and Friends. In July 2003, Gold testified as an expert before the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs onSaudi Arabia's alleged role in providing ideological and financial support for international terrorism.
Measures against Ahmadinejad[edit]
Since 2006 Gold led an international effort by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs to advocate that UN member states take legal measures against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran on grounds that he violated the anti-incitement clauses of the 1948 Genocide Convention, with his repeated statements about "wiping Israel off the map." Gold led a delegation to a conference held jointly with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations at the New York County Bar Association on December 14, 2006. Speakers included former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, Prof. Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School, and the US ambassador to the UN John Bolton. Senator Hillary Clintonsent a letter of support to the conference.
Gold led an Israeli delegation to a second conference at the British House of Commons on January 25, 2007 which was chaired by Lord David Trimble and supported by members of the British Labour Party and the Conservative Party. Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined the Israeli team. As a result of this effort, over 60 members of the House of Commons called for the indictment of Ahmadinejad. A third event organized by Gold and the International Association of Genocide Scholars was held on September 23, 2008 in Washington D.C. Speaking at the third conference was Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, former US ambassador to the UN, as well as Salih Mahmoud Osman, a member of the Sudanese Parliament and advocate for human rights in Darfur.[11]
The Doha Debates[edit]
In April 2009 Gold participated in the Doha Debates at Georgetown University in Washington DC, where he debated against the motion "this house believes that it is time for the USA to get tough on Israel" with fellow speaker Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. Speakers for the motion were Avraham Burg, former Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and former Speaker of the Knesset and Michael Scheuer, former Chief of the CIA Bin Laden Issue Station. Gold and Dershowitz lost the debate, with 63% of the audience voting for the motion.[12]
Debate with Justice Richard Goldstone[edit]
Brandeis University invited Gold to debate Justice Richard Goldstone on November 5, 2009. The subject was the U.N. Gaza Report. Jeff Jacoby wrote in an opinion piece in the Boston Globe on November 7: "Dore Gold, Israel's former ambassador to the U.N. brought facts and figures, maps and photographs, audio and video in English, Arabic, and Hebrew. Last night's encounter marked the first time Goldstone publicly debated the report's merits with a leading Israeli figure. It would not surprise me that he is in no hurry for a second."[13]
Appearing at the International Criminal Court in the Hague[edit]
Ambassador Gold was invited to attend a roundtable meeting at the office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, held on October 20, 2010. A total of eight specialists appeared and submitted papers. They discussed the Palestinian Authority's declaration on January 22, 2009 recognizing the jurisdiction of the ICC, in accordance with an article in the Rome Statute, normally reserved for states. The PA was seeking the implicit recognition of the ICC Prosecutor that it already was a state.
Re-joining Netanyahu[edit]
It was announced in December 2013 that Gold would once again advise Benjamin Netanyahu. His purview will not include negotiations with the Palestinians, but will cover Israel's relations with the U.S. and United Nations, as well as Iran policy.[14]
Director-General of the Foreign Ministry[edit]
On May 25, 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was also serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced Gold's appointment as Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, subject to the cabinet's approval.
Positions held[edit]
- 1985–1996 – Senior research associate, Dayan Centre for Near East Studies. Director, US Foreign and Defense Policy Project at the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University.
- 1991 – Advisor, Madrid Peace Conference.
- 1996–1997 – Foreign policy advisor, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
- 1997–1999 – Israeli ambassador, United Nations
- 1998 – Israeli delegation, Wye River negotiations
- 2000–Present – President, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
- 2002–2004 – Advisor, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
Publications[edit]
Books[edit]
- The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West (Regnery, 2009). ISBN 1-59698-571-2
- The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City (ISBN 0786147849 / Publisher: Regnery, Blackstone Audiobooks / Date: Jan 2007)
- Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos (Crown Forum, November, 2004). ISBN 1-4000-5475-3
- Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism (Regnery, 2003). ISBN 0-89526-135-9
- American Military Strategy in the Middle East: The Implications of the US Regional Command Structure (CENTCOM) For Israel (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense Publications), 1993.
- Israel as an American Non-NATO Ally: Parameters of Defense and Industrial Cooperation (Boulder: Westview Press), 1992.
Selected articles[edit]
- The Political Battle Over the 'Occupation'. The Weekly Standard. July 20, 2012.
- 'Land Swaps' and the 1967 Lines. The Weekly Standard. June 20, 2011.
- Israel's 1967 Borders Aren't Defensible. The Wall Street Journal. May 21, 2011.
- Countdown to September. Jerusalem Viewpoints. May, 2011.
- Foreign Policy. April, 2011.
- Statement before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives . April 5, 2011.
- The International Context of the U.S. Veto at the UN Security Council . Makor Rishon. February 25, 2011.
- Israel’s Naval Blockade of Gaza Is Legal, Necessary . Bloomberg. June 10, 2010.
- Iran's Nuclear Aspirations Threaten the World. LA Times. August 6, 2009.
- Israel's Forgotten Rights in Jerusalem. Haaretz. May, 2009.
- Did Israel use "Disproportionate Force" in Gaza?. JCPA. December 28, 2008.
- The Dangers of 'Peace' Making: America's Latest Efforts Merely Entrenched al Qaeda in the Gaza Strip. Wall Street Journal. August 12, 2007.
- Saudi Arabia's Dubious Denials of Involvement in International Terrorism. Jerusalem Viewpoints. Oct 1, 2003.
- Saudi Support for International Terrorism. U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. July 31, 2003.
- The Kingdom of Incitement. Wall Street Journal. April 14, 2003.
- Baseless Comparisons: UN Security Council Resolutions on Iraq and Israel (Jerusalem Issue Brief, 24 September 2002).
- Only Buffer Zones Can Protect Israel. The New York Times. Feb 27, 2002.
References[edit]
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