Israel Reacts to U.S. Decision on Paris Climate Accord

On the same day as his decision to delay by at least six months the moving of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he is pulling the US out of an agreement reached in Paris at the 2015 Conference on Climate Change prompted an eruption of criticism from Israeli environmentalist groups. Israeli government officials offered milder but still firm criticism of the decision.

Israelis mourned Arnold J. Goldman this week following his death on Monday at the age of 74. Goldman founded the Luz International Corporation in 1979, blazing a trail for other companies and efforts at making solar power affordable and attractive for investors, consumers, universities, technicians and governments. “Arnold is the solar visionary upon whose shoulders every solar developer in Israel and around the world stands,” said Yosef Abramowitz, CEO of Israeli solar company Energiya Global.

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz issued an order this week preventing Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, coordinator of government activities in the territories (COGAT), from moving forward with a decision to reduce the amount of electrical power Israel provides to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The decision was made following a letter Mordechai received from the Palestinian Authority declaring that it was reducing the amount of money it would pay COGAT for electricity, but Steinitz said other considerations were overriding.

The U.S.- Saudi reset reflected a mutual desire to undo the the Obama Administration’s efforts to promote “geopolitical equilibrium” between Iran and the Sunni Arab States in the region. From the Saudi perspective, “Iran took the United States hostage” during Obama’s drive for a nuclear agreement in his second term, which allowed Iran a free hand to sow chaos in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen and created the worst tragedy “in the region’s history.”

As Middle Easterners mark the fiftieth anniversary of the June 1967 war — each in their own way — President Trump has launched intensive regional diplomacy that combines affirming support for America’s traditional allies with another U.S.-led peacemaking effort to resolve issues that were, in part, a result of that conflict.