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2019-01-20 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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UAE, Israeli officials take private jet from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv — report
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| The times, they are a-changing. |
[IsraelTimes] Emirati paper says bigwigs were aboard plane on direct flight that flew over Saudi airspace lare last week.
The plane was transporting Israeli officials back to Tel Aviv after a secret visit to Abu Dhabi to prepare for a supposed "surprise visit" by UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan to Israel, the report said, citing high-level Emirati sources. The trip is set to reportedly precede a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the UAE.
According to the report, the Emirati foreign minister and the head of UAE intelligence Tahnoun bin Zayed were aboard the flight to Tel Aviv.
The report further noted that Riyadh gave Abu Dhabi the "green light" for the flight, which journeyed directly from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv over Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
, without stopping in Amman, Jordan as is usually the case. Jordan and Israel have a peace treaty and run direct flights between Amman and Tel Aviv.
In October 2018, a more direct sign of warming relations emerged after Netanyahu paid an official state visit to Oman to meet with Sultan Qaboos bin Said. It was the first visit by an Israeli leader in over two decades. The previous trip by an Israeli leader to Oman took place in 1996, when Shimon Peres visited.
That same month, Israel’s Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev paid a state visit to the UAE to watch the Israeli delegation compete at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, which it did for the first time ever in an Arabian Gulf state under its national flag, after the UAE succumbed to pressure from international sports officials.
Her trip marked the first time a minister from Israel attended a sports event in the Gulf.
As part of the trip, Regev visited Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque accompanied by officials from the UAE, touring the Moslem world’s third largest house of worship, after mosques in Mecca and Medina.
The UAE and Israel do not have official diplomatic ties.
Malaysia has ’right’ to ban Israelis, says PM, rejecting anti-Semitism charge
| But there are still plenty clinging to the traditions of the past two generations |
[IsraelTimes] Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said that it was the country’s "right" to deny entry to Israeli nationals and that it was "unfair to label him as anti-Semitic" for previous anti-Semitic remarks while criticizing the Israeli government.
Speaking on Friday evening before Oxford University’s prestigious debating chamber, the Oxford Union, Mohamad said that "a country has the right to keep its borders closed to certain people, that’s why borders are there."
His speech was met with applause from the audience.
Malaysia has banned Israeli athletes from an upcoming Paralympic swimming tournament, a move harshly criticized by Israel "shameful." Israel further called for the International Paralympic Committee to help reverse the decision or change the venue of the Kuching tournament, scheduled for July and August on the island of Borneo, a qualifying event for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.
"Prime Minister Mohamad is an open and unrepentant anti-Semite, accusing Jews of ’Nazi cruelty’ and seeking to wipe out all Moslems, has said ’Anti-Semitic’ is ’an invented term to prevent criticizing Jews for doing wrong’, as well as indulging in Holocaust denial. Given an opportunity to reframe his comments on a recent edition of BBC’s ’Hardtalk’, he instead chose to refer to Jews as ’hook-nosed,'" read a statement by Oxford Jewish Society President Nicole Jacobus, to Facebook.
Other Jewish groups also expressed concern over Mohamad’s invitation.
ISRAELI ATHLETES IN THE ARAB WORLD
Israeli athletes are regularly banned from competing at international sporting events in Arab and Moslem countries, or forced to compete without displaying their national symbols. A number of incidents have led to reprimands from international governing bodies and promises to reform.
Malaysia has stopped Israeli athletes from competing in a sporting event before. Two Israeli windsurfers had to pull out of a competition on the island of Langkawi after they were refused visas in 2015.
Malaysia also refused to host a conference for world soccer’s governing body FIFA in 2017 as an Israeli delegation was due to attend.
Mahathir, now 93 and in his second stint as prime minister, has in the past attracted criticism for his verbal attacks on Jews, including calling them "hook-nosed."
The previous government allowed a high-level Israeli delegation to attend a UN conference in Kuala Lumpur in 2018, sparking public anger. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2019-01-20 00:00||
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