https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/04\/03\/world\/middleeast\/netanyahu-africa-migrants-rwanda.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fmiddleeast&action=click&contentCollection=middleeast®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront<\/p>\n
JERUSALEM \u2014 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed down under
\npressure before, but rarely in such a spectacular fashion as he did on Tuesday when
\nhe reneged on a deal with the United Nations to resettle thousands of African asylum
\nseekers in Western countries.
\nMr. Netanyahu announced the deal to great fanfare on Monday, only to suspend
\nit a few hours later. On Tuesday, he canceled it completely and defended his abrupt
\nreversal, saying he was responding to an outcry from members of his conservative
\nLikud party as well as partners in his governing coalition who routinely refer to the
\nmigrants as \u201cinfiltrators\u201d and want all of them expelled.
\nBut the capitulation dented Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s image as a master political player.
\n\u201cThis sort of zigzagging is not at all unusual,\u201d said Gadi Wolfsfeld, a professor of
\npolitical communications at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya near Tel Aviv. \u201cBut
\nfor someone considered such a political genius to make such a miscalculation, that\u2019s
\nthe surprising part of the story.\u201d
\nThe episode was a reminder of how beholden Mr. Netanyahu is to hard-liners in
\nhis party and his government, constraining him domestically and diplomatically,
\nwhether in making concessions to the Palestinians or in fulfilling an agreement to
\ncreate an egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo sign an agreement and the next day to renege on it, that\u2019s awful,\u201d Mr.
\nWolfsfeld said. \u201cI guess that means you can\u2019t sign anything with Israel.\u201d
\nThe deal with the United Nations refugee agency might have given Israel a bit of
\nrelief from international criticism of the latest violence along the border with Gaza,
\nwhere Israeli forces killed at least 16 Palestinians on Friday during a mass protest
\nagainst Israel\u2019s longstanding blockade of the territory and in support of Palestinian
\nclaims to return to homes in what is now Israel.
\nInstead, it proved to be an international embarrassment.
\nMr. Netanyahu\u2019s latest troubles come at a time when he is already embroiled in
\nmultiple corruption scandals that could end up bringing down him and his
\ngovernment. But he still consistently ranks in polls as the most suitable candidate, by
\nfar, for the country\u2019s top job and is already Israel\u2019s second-longest-serving prime
\nminister, after the state\u2019s founder, David Ben-Gurion.
\nMr. Netanyahu\u2019s Likud party and his coalition partners have so far stuck by him
\ndespite the growing list of corruption allegations against him. But the migrant deal
\n\u2014 which took most of his partners in the government by surprise \u2014 riled some of his
\nclosest allies.
\nAs has often happened in the past, Mr. Netanyahu changed direction in the
\nwake of harsh criticism from Naftali Bennett, the education minister and leader the
\nJewish Home party. While the far-right Jewish Home is in Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s
\ncoalition, it also competes with his Likud party for votes.
\nBezalel Smotrich, a Jewish Home legislator, said in a radio interview on Tuesday
\nthat he would be willing to topple the government over the migrant issue.
\n\u201cWe want the state of Israel to remain a Jewish state,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd this means
\nsticking to the right migration policy.\u201d
\nTal Schneider, the political correspondent for Globes, an Israeli financial
\nnewspaper, said of Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s reversal: \u201cIt shows weakness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Netanyahu said he had made the deal with the United Nations high
\ncommissioner for refugees because it seemed the only way to reduce the population
\nof African migrants in Israel, who number at least 35,000. The migrants, mostly
\nEritreans and Sudanese who surreptitiously crossed the border from Egypt before it
\nwas sealed in 2012, cannot be returned to their own countries under international
\nconventions for fear of persecution.
\nThe deal with the United Nations refugee agency was meant to replace a
\ncontentious Israeli plan to forcibly deport the migrants to Rwanda. That plan fell
\nthrough because of legal obstacles and after Rwanda said it would accept only
\nasylum seekers who left Israel voluntarily. Given the lack of options, Mr. Netanyahu
\napparently thought he would be able to sell the new plan to his supporters.
\nMr. Netanyahu first trumpeted the deal on Monday in a live television
\nbroadcast, saying it was an extraordinary plan to resettle nearly half of Israel\u2019s
\nAfrican asylum seekers in Western countries. A n equal number would have been
\ngranted legal status to stay in Israel. Several hours later, he suspended the deal,
\ncrumpling under the pressure from its opponents. By midday Tuesday, he had
\ncanceled it.
\n\u201cEach year, I make thousands of decisions for the benefit of the state of Israel
\nand its citizens. From time to time, a decision is taken that must be reconsidered,\u201d
\nMr. Netanyahu said on Tuesday.
\n\u201cDespite the growing legal obstacles and international difficulties, we will
\ncontinue to act with determination to exhaust all the possibilities available to us to
\nremove the infiltrators,\u201d Mr. Netanyahu said, quickly falling back on the rhetoric of
\nhis base.
\nThe United Nations refugee agency said it regretted Israel\u2019s decision.
\n\u201cU.N.H.C.R. continues to believe that a win-win agreement that would both
\nbenefit Israel and people needing asylum is in everyone\u2019s best interests. And we
\nencourage the government of Israel to consider the matter further,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n
William Spindler, a spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency in
\nGeneva, said it found out about Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s retreat only through a late-night
\npost on his Facebook page.
\nMr. Netanyahu appears to have burned bridges with Rwanda. Until this week,
\nthe Israeli government had not named Rwanda as the main African destination for
\nmigrants deported from Israel, only referring obliquely to a secret agreement with a
\n\u201cthird country.\u201d
\nBut in his Facebook post on Monday night, Mr. Netanyahu identified the
\ncountry as Rwanda, saying it had agreed to take in migrants who had been deported
\nfrom Israel without their consent, but then capitulated under outside pressure. In
\nresponse, Rwanda\u2019s minister of state for foreign affairs, Olivier Nduhungirehe, told
\nIsrael\u2019s public broadcaster, Kan Radio, on Tuesday that Rwanda had never agreed to
\ntake in the asylum seekers, either in writing or orally, adding that Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s
\nFacebook post \u201cchanges the way we should respond.\u201d
\nTo many in Israel, opposition to the United Nations plan makes little sense
\nbecause all the migrants will remain in Israel, and in limbo, for the foreseeable
\nfuture.
\nDaniel B. Shapiro, a former United States ambassador to Israel, commended
\nMr. Netanyahu on Twitter for the migrant deal soon after it was announced. But he
\nthen wrote in a subsequent post: \u201cI guess I have to eat my words. Advocates for
\nIsrael like me will have a hard time explaining reneging on a signed international
\nagreement. And the crisis facing Israel and its asylum seekers remains unaddressed,
\nhelping no one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/04\/03\/world\/middleeast\/netanyahu-africa-migrants-rwanda.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fmiddleeast&action=click&contentCollection=middleeast®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront JERUSALEM \u2014 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed down under pressure before, but rarely in such a spectacular fashion as he did on Tuesday when he reneged on a deal with the United Nations to resettle thousands of African asylum seekers in Western countries. Mr. Netanyahu announced the deal to great fanfare on Monday, only to suspend it a… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1557,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1556\/revisions\/1557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}