Dan Schueftan, director of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa and visiting professor of government at Georgetown University, spoke at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy about the security challenges facing a new government in Israel.

The centrist Yesh Atid party finished second in parliamentary elections earlier this year, prompting right-leaning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to establish a new governing coalition.

Schueftan said the success of the centrist party affirmed a growing belief among Israelis that the prospects for peace with the Palestinians have only worsened since the Arab revolutions began in 2011.

”The Israelis see that there is no new Middle East that is pluralistic and democratic and willing to accept us an independent nation,” he said.

This new centrist majority has developed a “national resilience” in light of the fact that deterrence against terrorist groups such as Hezbollah has not worked, he said.

“Now we aware of the fact that despite showing the Arab states the military, political, and economic strengths of Israel, the conflict is not fading away but only mutating,” he said.

But Shai Feldman, director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, countered Schueftan’s assertion that the deterrence policy had failed.

“It’s not an accident that since the summer of 2006, we have not seen a Shia missile launched at Israel,” referencing the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, he said.

Israel’s growing prosperity and security relationship with the United States may give Netanyahu room to negotiate a deal with the Palestinians, Feldman said.

”It’s very difficult for Netanyahu to build a comprehensive case that he’s bounded.” Feldman said. “He clearly has room.”

However, Schueftan stressed that Israeli public opinion has shifted against resuming peace talks and that the nation should disengage from negotiations with the Palestinians.

He said he supports a bilateral agreement between the United States and Israel that would discontinue some planned Israeli settlements in the disputed West Bank territory but consolidate existing ones to preserve Israeli security.

The United States could shelter Israel from U.N. and European criticism in exchange, he said.

”I’m expecting the U.N. to charge Israel with killing the Dead Sea any day now,” Schueftan said.

Schueftan was skeptical of reports that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is planning to return to the Middle East next week in an effort to restart peace talks.

“He will bring negotiations at best, and then we will negotiate and nothing will come of it,” Schueftan said. “The chances are zero.”

A senior Hezbollah leader has also announced in recent reports that the terrorist group would support Syrian attacks on Israel’s northern border.

The “2013 Gaza Solidarity 5K” on June 8 at Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., will benefit the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). American Friends of UNRWA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that raises money, holds events, and promotes online petitions for the agency, has contributed $66,000 to the event from corporate sponsors.

Money raised by the event will finance a counseling program for youth suffering from PTSD after fighting between Israel and Hamas terrorists in Gaza last year, according to a flyer for the event. UNRWA describes itself as an advocacy group for Palestinian refugees and claims it does not take sides in the conflict with Israel.

However, recent events have raised concerns about the agency’s neutrality. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported earlier this month that Ann Dismorr, director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon, posed with a map of “Palestine” that excluded the state of Israel.

The map labeled the territories controlled by both the Palestinian Authority and Israel as “Arab Palestine” and included the Palestinian flag, according to PMW. Neighboring countries such as Syria and Lebanon were designated, but not Israel.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness denied that the map intentionally excluded Israel in a statement posted on the agency’s website.

“UNRWA categorically rejects accusations in the media that the Agency is ‘erasing Israel from the map’ because its officials and stakeholders stood next to a map which does not show Israel,” Gunness said in his statement. “The map in question is an embroidery depicting a pre-1948 map and therefore ante-dates the creation of the state of Israel.”

PMW pushed back against this response, noting that the map would have contained a British flag, and not a Palestinian one, if it predated Israel’s creation.

American Friends of UNRWA could not be reached for comment.

Editor’s Note, June 3: The headline has been updated.

Abu al-Einein, a former Abbas adviser who currently heads the Palestinian Council for NGO Affairs, was caught on film praising the Palestinian who stabbed an Israeli father of five to death while he was waiting for a ride home.

“We salute the heroic fighter … [who] went against the settler and killed him. Blessings to the breast that nursed [murderer Salam al-Zaghal],” al-Einein was recorded as saying at an official Palestinian government celebration on April 30.

Al-Einein’s comments led a coalition of five top House lawmakers to demand that he resign his post for inciting and promoting intolerance against Israelis.

“Allowing this type of incitement and hatemongering to take place within your ranks is intolerable if you are truly dedicated to non-violence,” the lawmakers wrote to Abbas in a letter dated May 15 and published on Monday by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), the Israeli organization that documented al-Einein’s remarks.

The letter was signed by House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Ed Royce (R., Calif.) and its ranking member Eliot Engel (D., N.Y.), House Middle East Subcommittee member Ted Deutch (D., Fla.), Rep. Nita Lowey (D., N.Y.), and Rep. Brad Sherman (D., Calif.).

“We ask that you publically and officially denounce and condemn Mr. al-Einein’s remarks at once and remove him from his position in your government,” wrote the lawmakers.

The signatories criticized Abbas for rejecting violence during meetings with American officials and promoting terrorism during various Palestinian events.

Abbas has neither responded to the letter nor taken any action against al-Einein in the weeks since the lawmakers sent their letter, according to PMW.

“There has been no announcement in the PA media of any steps taken by Abbas to ‘denounce and condemn’ Abu al-Einein’s statements, nor that Abbas has removed him ‘from his position,’” PMW reported on Monday.

The members of Congress “also request that [Abbas’s political party] Fatah immediately remove its Facebook page glorifying this murder.”

Fatah’s Facebook page praised terrorist al-Zaghal as a “hero” Just hours after he killed Israeli Evyatar Borovsky.

While Fatah has since deleted the praise without further comment, the terrorist’s picture remains, as do other posts celebrating terrorists, according to PMW.

“Fatah has removed from its Facebook page the two pictures of the murderer and deleted its praise of the terrorist as ‘hero’ from the Israeli victim’s photo,” PMW reported.

“The text now only reads: ‘A picture of the settler who was killed today at the Al-Za’atara military checkpoint, in south Nablus,’” according to PMW. “Despite these cosmetic changes, Fatah’s Facebook page still features many expressions of terror glorification and praise of murderers.”

Fatah had praised the activities of other Palestinian terrorists as recently as last month.

Fatah’s Facebook page honored two terrorists as “heroes” and “martyrs” on the anniversary of a suicide bombing that killed seven, according to PMW.

Abbas’s political party additionally referred to a female suicide bomber as a “bride of Palestine” early in April.

“We are committed to your promise. We are committed to the promise of freedom, oh Bride of Palestine,” the Facebook page declared, according to PMW.

Multiple other examples of this type of behavior abound, according to PMW and other sources.

Abbas declared on Sunday that the Palestinian Authority and other official institutions do not preach hate or incitement.

“We don’t teach and we don’t educate our children to hate or even discriminate against any religion, be it Judaism or any other,” Abbas said at the World Economic Forum in Jordan. “We strive to spread the culture of peace among our people.”

However, PA television routinely indoctrinates children to hate Jews and Israelis and praises terrorism.

One children’s television show that aired on a Fatah station on March 22 declared: “From between the whistles of the bullets I sing: ’Long live the nation of Fatah and Yasser Arafat.’”

J Street, a far left advocacy group that bills itself as “pro-Israel” and was founded by Jewish Democrats, is scheduled to hold a dinner discussion tonight with members of Congress at the Hunan Dynasty Chinese restaurant in Washington, D.C., according to a copy of the invitation obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The event is taking place during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which began Tuesday evening and commemorates the biblical day in which God is believed to have given the Jewish prophet Moses the Torah.

Observant Jews are required to obey the religious laws of the holiday, which include abstaining from work and other matters after sundown.

Observant Jewish Democrats told the Free Beacon that it is disrespectful and offensive for a supposedly pro-Israel organization to host an event during a major Jewish holiday.

“It’s in bad taste for an organization like this,” said one Jewish Democrat, who dubbed the dinner offensive. “I don’t expect everyone to be observant, but there are very few organizations” that has explicitly Jewish ties.

“These kinds of organizations shouldn’t be doing events like this on Jewish holidays,” the Democrat said. “There aren’t that many of them” and they should know better, the Democrat added.

The Chinese food dinner is scheduled to run from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. at Capitol Hill’s Hunan Dynasty restaurant Wednesday. The holiday ends Thursday at sunset.

One former official of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) said J Street is breaking a cardinal rule of pro-Israel advocacy.

“There’s a hard and fast rule about not doing events on holidays,” particularly major ones, said the source, who recommended that J Street officials visit a website listing the days that Jewish holidays take place before scheduling events.

“As Jews in America and Israel and across the world celebrate the holiday of Shavuout, I’m glad to see J Street is engaging in a time-honored tradition of eating Chinese food,” added the source.

Lawmakers attending the event are invited to talk about a recent trip to Israel they attended with J Street.

“The objective of the dinner is to share and discuss the insights of Members who participated in the mission [to Israel]—from thoughts on recent developments in the region to perspectives on advancing U.S. diplomatic leadership toward a two-state solution,” reads the invitation, which is signed by J Street founder Jeremy Ben-Ami.

“This discussion will also provide an opportunity for Members to learn more and ask questions about [J Street Educational Fund's] 2014 Congressional mission,” the invite reads.

“Nearly twenty Members of Congress (please see attached list) have participated in JSEF-sponsored delegations to the region and found them to be nuanced and valuable,” it says. “JSEF’s missions are designed to provide balanced insights into the roots and possible resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that are not generally available on other trips to the area.”

Members attending the event will be able to discuss the Jewish state as they eat steamed meat dumplings, Imperial Shrimp, or Yaki Soba, a sautéed Japanese noodle dish, according to the restaurant’s menu. Adventurous eaters can enjoy squid or octopus.

J Street’s nonprofit arm will foot the bill, according to the invite.

“Dinner for each Member of Congress and one staff member will be paid for by the J Street Education Fund in compliance with the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct ethics rules,” the invitation says.

J Street spokeswoman Jessica Rosenblum declined to comment on Hill staffers’ concerns about the event being held during the Jewish holiday.

J Street routinely attracts condemnation from conservative and pro-Israel critics for its efforts to force Israel to concede land to the Palestinians.

J Street’s education fund is a nonprofit organization that works in tandem with its political advocacy and lobbying operation.

The J Street dinner is also being held on a day Palestinians and Arabs refer to as the Nakba Day, or the day Israel was created. Palestinians typically engage in violent acts against Israel to mark the day.

Ann Dismorr, director of the United National Relief Works Agency’s (UNRWA) Lebanon bureau, posed on May 3 on Arabic television holding a map that clearly erases the Jewish state of Israel and replaces it with “Palestine,” according to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), which posted several photos of Dismorr.

“Above the map is the Palestinian flag and the inscription ‘Arab Palestine,’” PMW reported on its website, translating the original Arabic text. “The text at the bottom of the map also says ‘Palestine.’

“The neighboring countries Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon are all named on the map as is the Mediterranean Sea,” PMW reports. “Israel is not mentioned or designated anywhere.”

The map was presented during a ceremony to launch a series of German-funded UNRWA projects in southern Lebanon.

UNRWA disputes the charge, claiming that just ”because its officials and stakeholders stood next to a map which does not show Israel,” does not mean it endorses the behavior.

“UNRWA categorically rejects accusations in the media that the Agency is ‘erasing Israel from the map’ because its officials and stakeholders stood next to a map which does not show Israel,” UNRWA spokesperson Christopher Gunness told the Free Beacon.

“The map in question is an embroidery depicting a pre-1948 map and therefore ante-dates the creation of the state of Israel,” Gunness said, accusing PMW of publishing misleading information. “The allegations are therefore completely false.”

The map additionally turns cities in Israel into cities in “Palestine.”

“Several places and cities, both in Israel and from the Palestinian Authority, are included on the map of ‘Palestine,’” according to PMW. These include, “The Negev desert, Be’er Sheva, Rafah (Gaza), Hebron, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Tiberias, and the Dead Sea.”

UNRWA, which cares for some 5 million Palestinian refugees throughout Israel and the surrounding region, has come under fire in the past for having what critics allege is an anti-Israel bias.

The map was offered to UNRWA as a present from the “Palestinian Women’s Union.” It was presented during the ceremony, which was organized to launch a series of water improvement projects funded in part by the German government.

UNRWA reported on its website that “a number of high ranking Lebanese and Palestinian officials” were present.

“Germany has contributed a total of US$ 53.9 million to UNRWA’s General Fund between 2007 and 2012 and US$ 12.9 million for UNRWA in Lebanon during the same period,” UNRWA noted.

PMW founder and director Itamar Marcus said UNRWA is “giving into basically the most fundamental impediments to peace” by justifying Palestinian attempts to delegitimize Israel.

“Even if it’s only passive and people handed [the map] to her, she held it aloft and posed for the picture,” Marcus said. “She knew what she was doing.”

“The U.N. is going along and has gone along with this message … of denying Israel,” Marcus said.

Meanwhile, the International Red Cross was recently criticized for engaging in similar behavior.

The well-regarded humanitarian organization teamed up with the Palestinian Red Crescent to plant 150 trees that were named after “veteran prisoners,” otherwise known as terrorists and other criminals imprisoned by Israel, according to PMW.

One tree was named after a terrorist who shot innocent college students in Jerusalem while another was named for a terrorist who received four life sentences for killing an Israeli.

The ceremony titled “My Honor is My Freedom” was held in the Palestinian territory of Jenin and marked the Red Cross’s 150th anniversary, according to PMW.

“The Palestinian Authority uses the term ‘veteran prisoners’ to refer to those who have been in jail the longest and in most cases are serving life sentences for murder or multiple murders,” PMW stated in its report.

PMW identified more than 15 individuals tied to terror who had a tree named after them.

Red Cross official Giorgio Ferrario, a representative of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, attended the event.

“It is significant that the International Red Cross funds not only the general budget of the Palestinian Red Crescent but also ‘events,’” according to PMW, which noted that it remains unclear if the Red Cross funded the event or just participated.

Multiple Red Cross spokespeople did not respond to a Free Beacon request for comment about the event.

PMW’s Marcus noted that while the Red Cross has not traditionally taken a biased stand against Israel, its presence at the event might mark a disturbing shift.

“It is so surprising and upsetting,” Marcus said. “It seems more and more organizations are getting into things that the world was once horrified by.”

Hamas’s military arm, known as Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, is reported to have “bulldozed a part of the ancient Anthedon Harbor in northern Gaza along the Mediterranean Sea” in order to expand a military training camp, according to al-Monitor.

The destruction of important ancient archeological sites has sparked criticism from regional organizations and led the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to demand an explanation.

UNESCO petitioned the PA late last month “to clarify what is being done on the site,” UNESCO spokesman Roni Amelan said in an interview. The letter was sent to the Permanent Delegation of Palestine to UNESCO, one of the few U.N. bodies to accept Palestine as a member.

The PA has not yet responded to UNESCO’s letter, the full text of which is not publicly available, Amelan noted.

Ambassador Elias Wadih Sanbar, the PA’s representative to UNESCO, did not respond to a Washington Free Beacon request for further comment about the matter.

The Anthedon Harbor is believed to be “the first known seaport of Gaza,” evidencing some of the earliest links between Europe and early Middle Eastern cultures, according to UNESCO. The U.N. body has sought to designate the area an international heritage site.

“The present site consists of a variety of elements which spread in the area from the seashore, including the underwater archaeology, to the inland: The ruins of a Roman temple and a section of a wall have been uncovered, as well as Roman artisan and living quarters, including a series of villas, testifying of the city of Anthedon,” according to UNESCO. “Mosaic floors, warehouses, and fortified structures are found in the area.”

Remains and artifacts dating back to the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods can be found at the site, according to UNESCO.

Hamas officials admitted the archeological site would be disturbed in order to expand a military training facility, which critics dub a terrorist training ground.

“We can’t stand as an obstacle in the way of Palestinian resistance; we are all a part of a resistance project, yet we promise that the location will be limitedly used without harming it at all,” Muhammad Khela, Gaza’s deputy minister of tourism, was quoted as saying by al-Monitor.

The destruction of Gaza’s archeological sites has led watchdog groups and other human rights advocates to express great concern.

U.N. Watch exerted pressure on UNESCO Monday to resolve the issue and provide the public with answers.

“U.N. Watch is alarmed by the reported destruction by Hamas of parts of the ancient Anthedon Harbor in Gaza for use as a terrorist training camp,” the group wrote in an open letter to UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova. “We urge you to bring the matter immediately before the UNESCO executive board.”

UNESCO’s executive committee is holding meetings this week in Paris. The body is not currently scheduled to discuss this matter.

“That the UNESCO executive has so far failed to place the Hamas destruction and cynical abuse of this site on its agenda underscores the tragic politicization and diversion of the agency’s mission to protect world culture and heritage,” wrote Hillel Neuer, U.N. Watch’s executive director.

The controversy comes amid great upheaval in the PA.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad resigned over the weekend, sparking great concern among Western governments that considered the reformer one of their prime allies.

He reportedly had a strained relationship with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been cited by critics as one of the Palestinian government’s most corrupt politicians.

Abbas had been contemplating firing Fayyad for months, according to reports.

In the letter, delivered earlier this week to Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem, the Israeli leader is urged “to work closely with Secretary of State John Kerry to devise pragmatic initiatives, consistent with Israel’s security needs, which would represent Israel’s readiness to make painful territorial sacrifices for the sake of peace.”

The letter, which arrived ahead of Secretary Kerry’s planned visit to Israel and Turkey this weekend, was organized and sent by the left-of-center Israel Policy Forum.

The letter’s signatories comprise a who’s who of President Barack Obama’s wealthy donors, Jewish Democratic operatives, and liberal rabbis, as well as one former adviser to failed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

“Be assured that they don’t speak for us or for a majority of Americans,” the pro-Israel Emergency Committee for Israel wrote on Thursday in a follow up letter to Netanyahu.

“We not only question the wisdom of their advice, we question their standing to issue such an admonition to a democratically-elected prime minister whose job is not to assuage the political longings of 100 American Jews, but to represent—and ensure the security of—the Israeli people,” stated the ECI response.

The Israel Policy Forum letter writers praised Obama’s recent Middle East trip and urged Netanyahu to restart the peace process with the Palestinians.

“We were heartened by President Obama’s recent historic visit,” the letter stated.

“We believe that this is a compelling moment for you and your new government to respond to steps designed to demonstrate Israel’s commitment to a ‘two-states for two peoples’ solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the missive continued.

Netanyahu should offer these “painful territorial sacrifices” before the Palestinian Authority even comes to the bargaining table, according to the letter. “Your leadership would challenge Palestinian leaders to take similarly constructive steps, including, most importantly, a prompt return to the negotiating table.”

The signatories include former Democratic Rep. Mel Levine (Calif.), National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) officials Marc Stanley and Michael Adler.

The NJDC declined comment.

Another signer is Susie Gelman, a Democratic donor and past president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, which has come under fire for funding a controversial D.C. theater that has been accused of hosting anti-Israel plays.

“Susie Gelman signed this as an individual and not as a representative of the Jewish Federation,” spokeswoman Stacye Zeisler told the Washington Free Beacon. “Her signature should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the federation.”

Several left-leaning rabbis also signed on, including the former head of Reform Judaism’s organizational umbrella Rabbi Eric Yoffie and Rabbi David Saperstein, a longtime Democratic activist and Israel critic who is known as “Obama’s rabbi.”

Former congressman Levine maintained that the letter is not aimed at pressuring Israel alone.

“The letter is intended to demonstrate American Jewish leadership support for the message President Obama delivered during his visit to Israel and our desire to see Israel and the US work closely together in pursuit of peace and security,” he told the Free Beacon in an email.

Obama “is asking both sides to do what is necessary to accomplish the goal of peace with security which is designed to insure Israel’s ultimate security,” Levine wrote. “It is quite clear that the Palestinians do not believe he put the onus on Israel.”

Longtime Hamas leader Khaled Meshal was reportedly reelected Monday for a fifth term to lead the terror group’s external political body following a chaotic and muddled process that saw Meshal initially promising to step down.

Meshal and other Hamas officials were forced to flee the group’s headquarters in civil war-ravaged Syria. He has since stationed himself in Qatar, which has emerged as Hamas’ newest benefactor.

Qatar has pledged to give Hamas $400 million. The figure constitutes a critical new funding stream that will supplement major subsidies from Iran, which has lessened its financial support for Hamas as Western sanctions cripple its economy.

Meshal’s selection is a sign the group has no plans to renounce terrorism or violence against Israel, Western experts say.

The Hamas elections took place in Egypt, which has had a conflicted relationship with Hamas since the Muslim Brotherhood assumed control.

“Meshal’s selection demonstrates the increased importance of Qatar, which has emerged as one of Hamas’ primary funders since Iran’s funding dried up due to U.S.-led sanctions, among other factors,” Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote in a post-election analysis.

“Qatar is, in blunt terms, Hamas’ new ATM,” Schanzer wrote.

The rest of Hamas’s senior leadership has scattered “throughout the Muslim world,” including in Egypt, according to Schanzer.

Meshal’s deputy Ismail Haniyeh also serves as the prime minister of the Gaza Strip. He also was reelected, according to early reports.

The reelection of these two powerful political brokers suggests Hamas is strengthening its grip on the Gaza Strip, which remains cut off from the West as well as from the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank.

“If Haniyeh is confirmed as the number two, the move would signify the rising importance of the Gaza-based leadership, which fights on the “front lines” against Israel, Schanzer wrote.

The election also shows that Hamas is reinforcing its worst tendencies rather than embracing reform, Schanzer wrote.

“The Hamas leadership selection reflects absolutely no changes in the group’s approach to terrorism or rejectionism” of Israel, Schanzer wrote. “Meshal, during a visit to Gaza in December, vowed that Hamas would continue its strategy of violence against Israel. With a new four-year term, it’s reasonable to expect more of the same.”

Hamas also introduced a law Monday that would no longer allow boys and girls to attend the same schools. Children over the age of nine will be segregated by gender, according to reports.

Egypt’s prominent role in the Hamas political process is also being viewed as significant to the regional balance.

“Despite recent tensions (Egypt flooded Hamas smuggling tunnels and accused Hamas members of hatching plots against the state), both Cairo and Hamas understand that Egypt is Hamas’ key to the outside world,” according to Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Treasury Department. “If Hamas is ever to integrate politically or economically with the rest of the Arab world, Egypt is the portal.”

Hamas officials were in Cairo over the weekend to meet with “Egyptian intelligence chief Rafat Shehata to discuss a number of issues,” according to the Ma’an News Agency.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to visit the Gaza Strip sometime this month, a move that has been condemned by the rival PA, which is angling to maintain its role as the preeminent Palestinian political movement.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas continues to take political potshots at Hamas.

Abbas has said he will attend an Arab League meeting in Cairo, provided he is the sole representative of the Palestinian people.

“Once again I say that if we are invited to an Arab summit, we will go because we represent the Palestinian people, and nobody else should be invited to represent them,” Abbas was quoted as saying by the Ma’an News Agency.

Meanwhile, the reform-minded Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was hospitalized Monday for stomach problems, according to Foreign Policy.

Abbas has reportedly considered firing Fayyad.

An international coalition of pro-Palestinian agitators launched the Gaza’s Ark project to breach what they claim is Israel’s “illegal and inhumane Israeli blockade of Gaza.”

The group, which has ties to Hamas, intends to stock a ship full of Palestinian products and sail out of the Gaza Strip to “export” the goods.

Activists intend to purchase “a run-down boat from a local [Palestinian] fishing family,” according to Michael Coleman, a member of Free Gaza Australia who spoke to the Commentator about the new revamped flotilla initiative.

“The refurbishing will be done by Palestinians in the port of Gaza, and the sailing will be with a mixed crew of Palestinians and internationals,” David Heap, another Gaza’s Ark spokesman, told the Commentator.

Middle East experts criticized the Gaza’s Ark campaign as an intentionally provocative stunt aimed at sparking yet another confrontation with Israeli authorities.

Many of the same organizations that sponsored the 2010 flotilla effort are also backing Gaza’s Ark.

“It’s about publicity,” said Jonathan Schanzer, a Middle East expert and vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “The first [flotilla] ended in violence and the other ended in legal entanglements. The common theme in each failed attempt was the attempt to generate global awareness”

Israel maintains a blockade of Gaza to prevent Hamas terrorists from importing rockets, bombs, and other weapons that could be used to kill Israeli civilians.

Palestinian activists attempted to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza in May 2010, when six ships dubbed the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” sparked a deadly international incident.

Israeli authorities had ordered the fleet to halt its approach of Gaza multiple times. However, the activists ignored the warning, leading Israeli soldiers to board the vessels, where an armed riot eventually broke out.

Armed activists on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara attacked Israeli soldiers as they boarded the vessel. Ten Israelis were wounded during the attack, as well as eight Turkish citizens.

The incident led Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to demand an official apology from Israel. Relations between the two countries disintegrated in the ensuing years.

Tensions between the two countries have eased in recent days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Erdogan following President Barack Obama’s trip to the region.

Erdogan accepted Netanyahu’s apology and demanded, among other things, that Israel ease its blockade of Gaza.

Israel has proposed to pay $100,000 in compensation for each Turkish victim who died on the flotilla, though Erdogan has reportedly demanded $1 million for each family.

The upcoming Gaza flotilla brigade will aim to deliver “Palestinian products to fulfill trade deals with international buyers,” according to Gaza Ark’s mission statement.

“Gaza’s Ark is providing training to Gaza’s sailors in the use of up-to-date electronic sailing equipment and techniques, which they have been denied for years as a result of the blockade,” the group states on its website.

Israel is the Palestinian territories’ largest importer, purchasing 86 percent of their goods in 2011, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Exports from the Gaza Strip and average salaries for workers grew in 2012, according to the Israeli Defense Forces. Unemployment rates decreased.

Schanzer said the Gaza’s Ark effort is more about delegitimizing Israel than anything else.

“The ultimate goal here is to draw attention to the blockade while drawing international condemnation of the Israelis,” he said. ”If the organizers wanted to help end the Hamas government’s isolation, they would need to turn to Egypt. Cairo holds the key to Gaza’s economy”

The organization is comprised of anti-Israel activists from across the globe, including the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

They include aging radical Noam Chomsky, anti-Semitic cartoonist Carlos Latuff, and noted critic of the Jews Desmond Tutu, among many others.

An Israeli legal group is attempting to counter Gaza’s Ark.

Shurat HaDin, also known as the Israel Law Center, maintains that the group’s efforts constitute “an illegal provocation and an act of criminal violence against the state of Israel and its armed force,” according to Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the center’s director.

“As the [United Nation's] Palmer Commission has found, Israel’s coastal blockade of Gaza is in complete conformity with international law and any individual or group that attempts to run the blockade from any direction is engaged in an illegal provocation and an act of criminal violence against the state of Israel and its armed forces,” Darshan-Leitner told the Washington Free Beacon.

“It is illegal for U.S. citizens to either raise funds to outfit or participate in a naval expedition against an American ally such as Israel.  It is a clear violation of the Neutrality Act and other federal penal laws.”

Darshan-Leitner said her group intends to pressure United States and European law enforcement agencies “to take preemptive action this time to thwart those outfitting the boat and sending volunteers to participate in this naval expedition in violation of the Neutrality Act and international law.”

Darshan-Leitner expressed frustration with United States and European leaders for failing to adequately stop illegal actions against Israel.

“It is very easy for President Obama and European leaders to plead and pressure Prime Minister Netanyahu to apologize to an extremist regime like Turkey but when it comes to ordering the Justice Department to uphold the law and take preemptive measures to stop this future flotilla, to investigate its U.S. funding and move to prosecute Israeli haters like Noam Chomsky, the U.S. suddenly finds that it has no obligations and negligently refuses to act,” she said.

Elliott Abrams, a former Bush administration national security adviser, said the activists lack credibility.

“This shows how the flotilla movement has declined,” Abrams said. “Once a popular cause on the Left and among some influential critics of Israel, it is now becoming the property of nut cases. This means the Israelis have won.”

Gaza Ark’s U.S. spokeswoman, Pam Bailey, did not respond to a request for comment.