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Turkey Suspends Trade, Defense Ties with Israel Warns Navy Will Defend New Gaza FlotillaTurkey says it is “totally suspending” all trade and military ties with Israel as relations between the two countries continue to worsen. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the freeze, a day after Turkey ordered all senior Israeli diplomats to leave the country. Erdogan also said he may visit the Gaza Strip, but would finalize plans after speaking to Egyptian officials.click Israel Matters! 51 to read the complete issue.

Netanyahu Lobbies World Envoys Against Palestinian Statehood BidIsrael is prepared to make concessions, but the Palestinians have shown no indication of a willingness on their own for compromise, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said recently to a group of 18 ambassadors to Washington from Asian, European, African and Latin American countries who don’t usually vote for Israel at the UN.click Israel Matters! 50 to read the complete issue.

Obama: Israel’s 1967 Borders as Starting Point for Peace DealPresident Obama has begun a new effort to break the stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by setting out a new starting point for negotiations. A day before the arrival in Washington of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Mr. Obama declared that the prevailing borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war — adjusted to some degree to account for Israeli settlements in the West Bank — should be the basis of a deal.click Israel Matters! 49 to read the complete issue.

Netanyahu: Palestinian Alliance is Mortal Blow to Peace and Prize for TerrorismRival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have signed a landmark reconciliation pact ending a four-year rift that had divided the territory envisioned for a future Palestinian state. The deal plunged Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking deeper into uncertainty as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “mortal blow to peace.”Click Israel Matters! 48 to read the complete issue.

Netanyahu: Throw Goldstone Report into Dustbin of HistoryIsraeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on the United Nations Saturday night to disavow the Goldstone Report alleging war crimes by the IDF in Gaza two years ago after its author said he had erroneously accused Israel of intentionally targeting civilians.This online issue has more content than the version published in the May Bulletin.click Israel Matters! 47 to read the complete issue.

PM on Egypt: Israel Must ‘Prepare for Worst’Israel shares the world’s hopes that Egypt will succeed in its quest for genuine reform, but unlike other democracies it cannot just hope for the best, but must prepare for the worst, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said recently. Speaking to the annual Jerusalem meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Netanyahu said that part of preparing for the worst was “to alert leaders and policy-makers around the world of possible dangers that may lie ahead, not because I want them to materialize – I don’t – but because I have a responsibility to do whatever I can to increase the chances that they don’t materialize.”click Israel Matters! 46 to read the complete issue.

What Israel Fears in EgyptBy Sallai Meridor, Israeli Ambassador to the United States, 2005 to 2009 [Washington Post, Feb. 9] One might expect that Israelis, who live in the only democracy in the Middle East, would turn out in the squares of Jerusalem and the gardens of Tel Aviv to show solidarity with the demonstrators in Egypt. The protesters, after all, are seeking to overthrow an authoritarian regime. Israelis, however, have stayed at home, warily following events on TV and the Internet. click Israel Matters! 45 to read the complete issue.

Israel Strikes Gold: Confirms Major Gas FindExploratory drilling off Israel’s northern coast has confirmed the existence of a major natural gas field — one of the world’s largest offshore gas finds of the past decade — leading the country’s infrastructure minister to call it “the most important energy news since the founding of the state.”click Israel Matters! 44 to read the complete issue.

WikiLeaks: Israel, Gulf States Conducted Secret DiplomacyA classified 2009 diplomatic cable disclosed through the website WikiLeaks recently provided a rare glimpse into the secret and often high-level diplomacy between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, all countries that officially do not recognize the Jewish state. Contrary to the condemnatory rhetoric opposing Israel in public, behind the scenes Arab diplomats have asked Israel to carry messages to the U.S. government and urged tougher action on Iran.click Israel Matters! 43 to read the complete issue.

Biden: “No Daylight Between Israel and the US”US Vice President Joe Biden delivered an impassioned speech in support of Israel at the recent Jewish Federations of North American’s General Assembly in New Orleans.click Israel Matters! 42 to read the complete issue.