EU foreign ministers to meet Israeli, Palestinian counterparts

EU foreign ministers will hold separate talks later today with their Israeli and Palestinian counterparts on the prospects for lasting peace after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected calls for a future Palestinian state.

The 27 EU ministers will first meet with Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz, before sitting down separately with the Palestinian Authority’s top diplomat Riyad al-Maliki.

Katz and Maliki are not expected to meet each other.

Katz and Maliki will also separately address the European Union Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels today, which will also be attended by his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and the Arab League Secretary-General.

The meeting is largely devoted to the Middle East but also taking stock of the war in Ukraine.

In addition, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will present a ten-point plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The EU has struggled for a united stance on the conflict in Gaza as staunch backers of Israel such as Germany have rejected demands for an immediate ceasefire made from the likes of Spain and Ireland.

EU officials have sketched out broad conditions for “the day after” the current war ends in Gaza, calling for a cessation to hostilities, the return of the Israeli hostages, an end to Hamas’s rule and a role for the Palestinian Authority in running Gaza.

At the heart of the plan is a call for a “preparatory peace conference” to be organized by the EU, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the League of Arab States, with the United States and United Nations also invited to be conveners of the gathering.

The conference would go ahead even if Israelis or Palestinians declined to take part. But both parties would be consulted at every step of the talks as delegates seek to draw up a peace plan, the document suggests.

The internal document, seen by multiple news organizations including Reuters, makes clear one key goal of a peace plan should be the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, “living side by side with Israel in peace and security”.

In a letter to member states, Borrell wrote that his roadmap will “elaborate, with practical proposals, on the agreed principle that only a political, sustainable, long-term solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will bring peace to the two peoples and stability to the region.”

According to Euronews, Borrell’s plan calls for full normalization between Israel and Arab states and would create an “initial framework” for Israeli-Palestinian peace within one year. There would be “robust security assurances” for both states, and the agreement would be “conditional upon full mutual diplomatic recognition and integration of both Israel and Palestinian in the region.”

Given the division, the 27 EU member states are unlikely to support Borrell’s roadmap.

A high-ranking EU official said there were no expectations of any breakthroughs from the “complex ballet” of diplomacy on Monday.

“The idea is to have a full discussion with all the participants, the Israelis, Palestinians, the Arabs, to exchange points of view and to try to understand better where everybody is,” the official said.

IDF says 3 missiles fired from Lebanon land in open areas in northern Israel

The Israel Defense Forces say three missiles fired from south Lebanon tonight landed in open, uninhabited areas near the moshav of Shomera, a community of a few hundreds people near in the Galilee region in northern Israel.

The missile launches had triggered the community’s sirens but authorities initially believed it was a false alarm.

Residents reported hearing explosions and sounds of impact near the community and authorities determined that three missiles landed in the area.

There are no reports of injury or damage.

2 US Navy SEALs reported missing after boarding Iranian vessel declared ‘deceased’

Two US Navy SEALs who went missing in the Gulf of Aden earlier this month have not been located and their status has been changed to deceased, military officials say.

The SEALs were reported missing after boarding an Iranian vessel in a Jan. 11 operation near the coast of Somali, the US Central Command says on X.

“We mourn the loss of our two Naval Special Warfare warriors, and we will forever honor their sacrifice and example. Our prayers are with the SEALs’ families, friends, the US Navy, and the entire Special Operations community during this time,” CENTCOM Commander General Michael Erik Kurilla said in a statement.

The US has carried out a string of strikes against Houthi targets in response to Iran-backed Houthi attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea that have disrupted global trade and raised fears of supply bottlenecks.

US Central Command forces on Saturday struck a Houthi anti-ship missile that was aimed into the Gulf of Aden and prepared to launch, the US military said.

Israel blasts Russia over Holocaust distortion, criticism of Germany for defense of Israel at ICJ

Israel hits back at Russia over its foreign minister’s comments earlier today appearing to downplay the Holocaust’s impact on the Jewish people, characterizing it as a mass extermination of “various ethnic and social groups,” and slamming Germany for intervening on behalf of Israel as a third party in the International Court of Justice’s “genocide” case.

“Israel thanks Germany for its unequivocal support and its stand against South Africa’s baseless claim,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry says in a statement cited by Hebrew media.

The ministry says the Russian minister’s comments were “distortion of the Holocaust” and “harmful to victims and survivors.”

At a media conference earlier, the Kremlin’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized what she labeled as Berlin’s “unfettered support” for the Jewish state, and accused it of systematically ignoring the plight of non-Jewish European minorities, particularly Slavic peoples in the then-Soviet Union, who were massacred during the Holocaust.

“It seems that Germany has once again forgotten that under UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/60/7 and several other international instruments, the Holocaust is defined as the persecution and mass extermination of people representing various ethnic and social groups by the Nazis. There is also the OSCE’s Berlin Declaration setting forth the need to promote the importance of respecting all ethnic and religious groups without any distinction,” she said.

The UN resolution, passed in 2005 to establish International Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27, stressed the impact of the Jews during the genocide, noting that it “resulted in the murder of one-third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities.”

“Berlin persists in its refusal to recognize Nazi crimes against our people as genocide,” Zakharova said, citing Berlin’s refusal to pay reparations to non-Jewish victims of the nearly two-and-a-half-year Siege of Leningrad during World War II.

“Russian investigative bodies and courts have compiled a wide body of evidence exposing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide by the Third Reich troops across various regions of our country,” she said.

“Germany has surpassed other countries in the European Union in zealously defending the [Kyiv] regime which has made the glorification of Nazi accomplices a key domestic and foreign policy tenet,” she stated, referencing Berlin’s support of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion since 2022.

Russian leaders have repeatedly tried to justify their invasion of Ukraine as a struggle against neo-Nazism, though it has not presented evidence to back this up and despite the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, being Jewish.

“All this leads to the conclusion that in the context of the ongoing proceedings at the International Court of Justice, Berlin decided to single out the Holocaust issue by setting it apart from all other aspects of its guilty historical acts against humanity. Moreover, it refuses to view it in a holistic manner. Instead, Berlin adjusts its perspective as it deems fit to suit its momentary considerations,” Zakharova claimed.