A senior US official on Monday harshly criticized a letter written by a group of senior rabbis from Israel’s religious-Zionist camp to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that US President Donald Trump’s peace plan carries the risk of “creating a terror state.”
The official said the rabbis “are squandering the moment, and don’t understand the immense advantages this plan entails in terms of their worldview. The [Israeli] right will not get anything better than this,” according to Israel Hayom.
The official also addressed claims by some on the Israeli right that the Trump plan will lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

As the region absorbs the details of the Trump administration’s peace plan proposal to tackle the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Israel Defense Forces took the preemptive step of moving an infantry battalion to the Jordan Valley on Tuesday, giving the military an added layer of flexibility to deal with a range of possible scenarios.
While few in Israel expect a major escalation to follow Trump’s announcement, the Israel Defense Forces is conducting ongoing situation assessments to keep its finger on the pulse. The Israeli defense establishment is preparing to study the details of the proposal closely to see what conclusions can be drawn in terms of potential security ramifications.

A Dutch court has dropped a war crimes case against Blue and White chief Benny Gantz on Wednesday, saying that it lay outside its jurisdiction.
The lawsuit was filed by Ismail Ziada, a Dutch Palestinian, who lost six family members in the 2014 standoff between Israel and Hamas.
Benny Gantz was Israel’s Chief of Staff during Operation Protective Edge and Ziada demanded compensation for the deaths of his close ones and a seventh person in an Israeli air strike.
However, Judge Larisa Alwin chose to dismiss the lawsuit, saying: “A Dutch judge is not competent to rule on the case of the claimant.”
Read more at i24NEWS.

Iran on Tuesday denounced President Trump’s peace plan, known as the “Deal of the Century”, saying it amounted to the “treason of the century”.
“The shameful peace plan imposed by America on the Palestinians is the treason of the century and doomed to fail,” the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement quoted by AFP.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif added on Twitter that the “so-called ‘Vision for Peace’ is simply the dream project of a bankruptcy-ridden real estate developer”, in reference to Trump.
“But it is a nightmare for the region and the world and, hopefully, a wake-up call for all the Muslims who have been barking up the wrong tree,” he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Wednesday to pardon Naama Issachar, who was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for possession and smuggling of drugs, the Kremlin published a statement.
“The release was a gesture by President Putin to the prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu],” a senior Israeli source said on Wednesday, hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to fly to Moscow, “There was no deal with Russia.”
The freed American-Israeli will likely return home with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who stopped in Russia to meet with Putin to discuss the newly released peace plan.
{Matzav.com}

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As the total number of people in mainland China infected by the new coronavirus surpasses those stricken by the 2002-3 SARS epidemic, Beijing has shut down schools indefinitely.
Nearly 6,000 cases have been confirmed in China (with thousands more suspected), while only 5,327 were stricken by SARS – though there were thousands more affected outside the country.
Beijing’s municipal government indefinitely postponed the reopening of universities, schools and kindergartens as a precaution against the deadly coronavirus.
The school holiday was already extended for two weeks until Feb. 17, but the start of the spring semester has now been put off indefinitely, the government said.

Senator Ted Cruz weighs in on impeachment trial arguments on ‘Hannity.’
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