August 29

👉🏽 US said to be furious with Likud’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen for the diplomatic fiasco in publicizing a meeting with his Libyan counterpart, resulting in the Libyan Foreign Minister’s suspension and her flight from the country. Such conversations with ‘hostile’ countries are never publicized. Reports today are saying the debacle may have quashed Arab interest in participating with the Netanyahu government in the Negev Forum, which meets to discuss multilateral projects in education, food and water security, healthcare, energy, regional security and tourism and includes delegates from Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and other countries, including possibly Jordan.

👉🏽 Doubling down on his quote to Channel 12, saying, “My right and that of my wife and my children, to travel on the roads in Judea and Samaria, is more important than the freedom of movement for Arabs,” Jewish Power Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir ironically attacked the left for “giving fuel to BDS” (the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement).

👉🏽 Religious Zionist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, speaking about possible West Bank territorial concessions as part of the putative U.S.-brokered deal with Saudi Arabia, said on army radio, “We won’t concede territory, Saudi Arabia will make a deal anyway.”

👉🏽 Channel 13 reporting that over 200 Israeli teens have announced their refusal to enlist in mandatory army service, in protest of judicial overhaul.

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