The U.S. government will seek to collaborate with Israel and other countries to develop new ways to thwart computer hacks and other cyber-attacks, U.S. President Donald Trump’s homeland security adviser said on Monday.

Thomas Bossert, assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, said a U.S.-Israeli working group will meet this week on cybersecurity issues such as protecting critical infrastructure.

The U.S. team will include representatives of the State Department, Homeland Security and FBI and work with their Israeli counterparts.

“These high level meetings represent the first step in strengthening bilateral ties on cyber issues following President Trump’s visit to Israel” last month, Bossert told a cybersecurity conference in Tel Aviv. “The agility Israel has in developing solutions will innovate cyber defenses that we can test here and bring back to America. Perfect security may not be achievable but we have within our reach a safer and more secure internet.”

He said the group will work on developing “a different operational conscript” that will be focused on finding and stopping attacks before they reach networks and critical infrastructure, while identifying ways to punish attackers.

With several large companies and over 400 startups, Israel is a global leader in the cyber fight.

Citing U.S.-funded Iron Dome, Arrow and David’s Sling anti-missile systems, Bossert said the United States would continue to support Israel on all security issues to ensure there will be no power vacuum for Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas or IS.

“President Trump understands that the United States cannot lessen our engagement in this region or its support for Israel,” Bossert said.

The Trump administration will seek out partnerships with industry and academia and forge more bilateral agreements with other countries, he added.

“The next step must be gaining international cooperation to impose consequences on those who act contrary to the growing consensus,” Bossert said. “The United States will move forward internationally in meaningful bilateral efforts such as the one we enjoy with Great Britain and now with Israel while continuing to build like-minded coalition partners that can act together.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the conference that Israel faces dozens of cyber attacks monthly on the national level.

Israel, which last year received some 20 percent of private global cyber investment, is prepared to work with other governments to combat cyber-attacks, he said.
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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expected to take Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, and Iraq off a list of countries that use or recruit child soldiers, in an announcement set for Tuesday, according to media reports.

The Reuters news agency reported last week that by delisting those countries, Tillerson is overruling recommendations from State Department experts and senior diplomats. Reuters also cited officials as saying the announcement is expected to be made as part of the department’s annual Trafficking in Persons report.

The list, created through the Child Soldier Prevention Act, prohibits offending nations from receiving certain kinds of U.S. military aid. 

In response, Human Rights Watch on Monday called on Tillerson to keep Myanmar and Iraq on the list.

Taking Burma and Iraq off the list “when they continue to use child soldiers, is both contrary to U.S. law and harms children still in the ranks,” said Jo Becker, HRW’s children’s rights advocacy director. Becker also said that unless Tillerson reverses his decision, he will “gravely damage U.S. credibility in ending the use of children in warfare.”

Myanmar has been on the list since its inception. Despite recent efforts to reduce recruitment, the country has yet to pass a law to criminalize the use of child soldiers and has refused to give U.N. observers access to ethnic armed groups.

“This isn’t the time to let Burma [Myanmar] off the hook for its use of child soldiers,” said Becker. “U.S. and U.N. pressure has led to important progress, but as long as children are still being recruited and found in its army’s ranks, Burma should stay on the list.”

Iraq was added in 2016. That year, HRW reported that government-backed tribal militias were recruiting children from displaced persons camps in Iraq in the fight against Islamic State. Despite Iraq being on the list, then-U.S. President Barack Obama issued a waiver to allow $3 billion in military aid to flow into that country last year.

“The Child Soldiers Prevention Act gives the president some discretion in applying sanctions against countries using child soldiers, but it doesn’t give the State Department discretion to take off countries that belong on the list,” Becker said. “Tillerson should do what the law requires and return Burma and Iraq to the list.”
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The promotion of Saudi Arabia’s top economic reformer to crown prince has cheered business leaders who believe it will open up new opportunities. But they worry about officials’ ability to implement reforms and about geopolitical tensions in the region.

The Saudi stock market jumped 7 percent in the two days after Mohammed bin Salman, previously deputy crown prince, was appointed last week to be first in line for the throne.

Part of the market’s rise was due to a decision by index compiler MSCI to consider upgrading Riyadh to emerging market status. But much of the euphoria was political; shares in companies closely linked to Prince Mohammed’s reforms were the top performers.

National Commercial Bank, the biggest lender, which is expected to play a big role handling financial transactions related to the reforms, surged 15 percent.

Miner Ma’aden soared 20 percent; Prince Mohammed has labelled mining a key sector in his drive to cut Saudi Arabia’s reliance on oil exports. Emaar the Economic City, builder of an industrial zone which the prince hopes

to develop as an export industry base, gained 16 percent.

Solid political move

Business leaders said the promotion of Prince Mohammed, 31, removed political uncertainty by confirming a smooth shift of power from an older generation of Saudi leaders to a young generation represented by the prince.

“The political transition was very smooth — we expect the reforms to continue,” Muhammad Alagil, chairman of Jarir Marketing, a top retailing chain, told Reuters.

He said Jarir, which has 47 stores, some 39 of which are in Saudi, would open at least six this year and a similar number next year, mostly inside Saudi Arabia.

Fresh opportunity

To some in business, Prince Mohammed represents fresh opportunity in the form of a $200 billion privatization program and state investment to help kick start new industries such as shipbuilding, auto parts making and tourism.

Some executives predicted the progress of these plans, which are still largely on the drawing board a year after Prince Mohammed announced them, would accelerate after his promotion.

“I didn’t see a risk of the reforms stalling or being reversed before, given the political backing behind them. But now the reforms can go ahead with more strength,” said Hesham Abo Jamee, chief executive at Alistithmar Capital.

He added that social initiatives in the reforms would help the economy by stimulating consumer spending.

For example, developing an entertainment sector, in a conservative society which has so far shunned many forms of public entertainment, would create jobs. The government plans an entertainment zone south of Riyadh with sports, cultural and recreational facilities.

Increasing the role of women in the workforce would boost family incomes and could accelerate creation of small businesses such as restaurants, Abo Jamee said.

Repatriation

Prince Mohammed is also architect of a tough austerity policy, including spending cuts and tax rises, that aims to abolish by 2020 a budget gap which totaled $79 billion in 2016.

The austerity has slowed private sector growth almost to zero.

But many in business see austerity as inevitable in an era of low oil prices and are pleased by the prince’s willingness to moderate it to avoid a worse slowdown. To mark his promotion, Riyadh retroactively restored civil servants’ allowances at a cost it estimated at around $1.5 billion.

Privately, many executives expect Prince Mohammed to persuade or pressure wealthy Saudis to repatriate some of the billions of dollars which they are believed to have transferred overseas for safe-keeping.

Other issues

It is not clear what tools he would use — moral suasion, legal action or financial incentives — but his promotion may have given him the political capital for such a sensitive step. Businesses remain worried by two other issues, however.

One is the competence of the bureaucracy to carry out the complex reforms. The government talks of partnerships between the public and private sectors to finance projects, for example, but has not released legal frameworks for such deals.

“Many of the reforms are in name only — nothing has happened. They’re struggling with the details,” said a foreign economist who advises the Saudi government.

Military intervention

The other big worry is rising tensions around Saudi Arabia — tensions in which Prince Mohammed has been closely involved in his role as defense minister for two years.

In addition to its military intervention in Yemen, Saudi Arabia is locked in a diplomatic confrontation with Iran, its allies are struggling in Syria’s civil war, and early this month it cut diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar.

For some in business, these tensions are at best a distraction for the government at a time when it needs to focus on the economy, and at worst risk a more serious regional crisis that could deter foreign investment and endanger the reforms.

 
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Donald Trump may be uniquely suited to push for Middle East peace: the Israelis as well as key Arab players, each for their own reasons, are all looking like admirers who seek to please. But out-of-the-box thinking will be needed nonetheless.

Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner was in the region last week to hear ideas about a final-status deal. According to a Palestinian official who participated in the meetings, he asked both sides for proposals to take to the U.S. president.

This resurfaces the formula pursued in vain by presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, which presupposes a near-total pullout from the lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war and sharing of Jerusalem.

Palestinians say they’re giving up three-quarters of pre-state Palestine. Israelis see their small country made smaller still in a hostile region teeming with jihadis and struggle with how to divide Jerusalem between countries that will need a border.

Complicating matters are 600,000 Israelis now living in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. Various plans envisioned land swaps to incorporate some settlements on the Israeli side — but many people would still need to be removed from their homes, raising real prospects of violence. Resultant maps, with borders snaking around neighboring villages and towns, are all ungainly to various degrees.

Then there’s the Palestinian demand for refugees, including millions of descendants, to have at least theoretical rights to return to Israel — a non-starter for most Israelis. In what seems tit for tat, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants the Palestinians to dutifully recognize Israel as a “Jewish state,” even though a fifth of its citizens are Arabs who in many cases identify primarily as Palestinians.

Partial deal

Past more moderate Israeli governments have made offers they considered very far-reaching, but none quite satisfied the Palestinians. With few expecting Netanyahu to even approach the past offers, the focus could soon fall on a partial deal that sidesteps excessive ambition.

In one scenario, a Palestinian state arises on lands Israel can comfortably evacuate under present realities — the existing Palestinian autonomous zones set up in the 1990s, plus other parts of the West Bank, plus Gaza, if the coastal strip can be retaken from the Hamas militants who seized it in 2007. Final borders, Jerusalem and the refugee issue would wait, as would declarations of eternal peace.

“We must not nullify any option for a final settlement. We must only seek to make the interim period as manageable as possible; to enable the parties to get used to the mutual benefits of peace and quiet,” wrote Tsvi Bisk in Israel’s Haaretz, recommending “‘a little land for a little peace.’”

Despite rising nationalism, the Israeli electorate does want movement and there is an expectation Netanyahu and his right wing would be amenable to a partial pullout — even if they may still need to be pushed on details. Indeed, it might cement further their rule.

The Palestinians have objected to such notions in the past, fearing that Israel will be happy to unload most of the Palestinian population in this way but then never return to the table, rendering the intended interim phase permanent in effect.

Sunni role

That’s where the Sunni Arab world being rather assiduously courted by Trump might play a role, offering both sides carrots.

Israel would joyously welcome any normalization — an embassy in Riyadh, trade relations with the Emirates, security cooperation in the Gulf. But the Palestinians, impoverished still and traumatized, may have even more to gain from an Arab embrace: aid and investment for their nascent state, and improvements in the lot of Palestinians who across the region are oppressed in various ways.

Trump may have the leverage to nudge this along. His apparently good relations with key corners of the Arab world may seem odd given his anti-Muslim campaign rhetoric, but they rest on some solid pillars.

First, he has firmly taken the Saudi side in that country’s tussle for regional hegemony versus Iran. That contrasts with Barack Obama, who sought to neutralize Iran’s nuclear program through diplomacy, and despite reaching a multilateral deal to achieve this is widely seen in the region as an appeaser.

Second, unlike Obama, Trump does not torment authoritarians over human rights. Many of the region’s rulers conflate political Islam with Islamic terrorism, justifying crackdowns on dissent — and the new administration seems to not quibble with this. And Egypt’s government, which came to power after the military overthrow of an elected Islamist president, feels rehabilitated and welcome in Washington again.

Across the Sunni Arab world there is interest in resolving the century-old Israeli-Palestinian issue and focusing instead on pacifying the smoldering region and containing Iran.

In an unusual meeting of the minds, Israel’s nationalist leadership agrees. Gone is American public moralizing over the Palestinians. Instead come exhortations to “deal” — something many Israelis feel the Palestinians never genuinely did in decades of sticking like glue to their core demands.

Indeed, many Israelis had general difficulty warming to Obama. With striking disregard of his repeated acts of support, they seemed receptive to the nationalist message that he was naive at best. And even liberal Israelis are grateful to see a U.S. leadership that calls out the United Nations for what they view as an irksome obsession with the Palestinians at the expense of other oppressed groups around the globe.

It will be extremely difficult for the Netanyahu camp in Israel — which is often joked of as a branch of the U.S. Republican Party — to rebrand Trump as anything but a friend, even if pressure should arrive.

And from Jerusalem to Ramallah and Riyadh, all the players project a view of Trump as mercurial and impulsive enough that he must be handled with caution and a wary smile. It’s a landscape that may make the Middle East, for all its vexations, uniquely fertile ground for U.S. diplomacy at the moment.
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Israel’s government formally suspended plans on Sunday for a mixed-gender prayer space at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, bowing to opposition from Orthodox Jewish politicians to reforms at one of Judaism’s holiest sites.

The decision will put Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at odds with the Conservative and Reform movements of Judaism that have large followings outside Israel but will smooth his relations with ultra-Orthodox parties in his ruling coalition.

The wall is revered as a vestige of Judaism’s two ancient temples and access to it is segregated by gender. Most religious rites take place in the men’s section in accordance with centuries-old Orthodox standards that hold sway in Israel.

The government has faced calls by more progressive Jewish movements in Israel and abroad to add an egalitarian section along the wall and in 2016 voted 15-5 to do so, over the objections of ultra-Orthodox cabinet members.

But in the face of opposition from the two ultra-Orthodox parties in Netanyahu’s coalition, the plan never got off the ground. Last week, the two parties proposed rescinding the 2016 decision.

At its weekly meeting on Sunday, the cabinet voted to formally freeze its implementation, the officials said, and Netanyahu instructed a minister from his Likud party to formulate a new proposal.

“Today’s decision signifies a retreat from that agreement and will make our work to bring Israel and the Jewish world together increasingly more difficult,” Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, a main outreach group to Jewish communities abroad.

The mixed-gender section was to have been located at a separate expanse of the wall that, when seen from the plaza looking toward the wall, stands to the right of the current Orthodox-administered compound where men and women will still worship separately.

More liberal streams of Judaism, which outside of Israel have larger followings than Orthodoxy, chafe at the restriction. The wall is officially administered by an ultra-Orthodox rabbi.
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