Israel and Palestinians seek quick understandings By Allyn Fisher-Ilan AUG 31,08
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday, hoping to cap his scandal-plagued leadership of Israel with a document of peace understandings within the next two weeks, officials said. Olmert's Kadima party votes on September 17 on his successor. Suspected of corruption, Olmert has promised to resign after the ballot, although he could stay on as caretaker prime minister for weeks or months until a new government is formed.Israeli officials said Olmert aimed to persuade Abbas to agree to a document of understandings, serving as a framework for a peace agreement, that they could take to Washington ahead of the Kadima poll.Abbas has been cool to the idea of any partial agreement despite U.S. hopes of reaching at least an outline of a peace deal before President George W. Bush leaves office in January.Neither Olmert nor Abbas made any statement at the start of their talks in Jerusalem.But Yasser Abed Rabbo, an aide to Abbas, told Reuters it was premature to speak about a document. He said "the differences on the core issues are still very wide.Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister and front-runner in the Kadima race, has cautioned against papering over differences with Abbas in U.S.-brokered talks and rushing towards an accord.
Her comments were echoed by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a Middle East visit last week.Olmert spokesman Mark Regev, while acknowledging that Israel would press on with efforts to reach a historic agreement, said he was not aware of any time limit.Cabinet minister Eli Yishai of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party said Olmert, who was questioned again by police on Friday and has denied any wrongdoing in a series of corruption probes, doesn't have legal legitimacy to negotiate, and certainly not to reach any agreement.
NEW PROPOSALS
A senior Abbas aide said Rice had proposed several bridging proposals during her 25-hour visit last week and they would be discussed at the Olmert-Abbas meeting in Jerusalem.They included working out a territorial swap and basing the borders of a future Palestinian state on lines that existed before Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 war, while taking into account several major Jewish settlement blocs.The issue of Jerusalem would be resolved as part of the borders debate but religious sites and the walled Old City where they are located would be discussed at a later stage, the aide said.On the fate of Palestinian refugees, the aide said the United States would work internationally to provide them with compensation and discussions would begin on deciding how many could return to what is now Israel.There was no immediate Israeli or U.S. comment on the aide's remarks.Israel's Haaretz newspaper said Olmert may propose international oversight for talks aimed at resolving the dispute over Jerusalem. Israel considers all of Jerusalem its capital, a claim that has not won international recognition. Palestinians want Arab East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.(Additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Ramallah; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Olmert, Abbas meet as Olmert's departure looms By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer AUG 31,08
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who plans to resign under the taint of corruption probes, wants Palestinian peace negotiators to sign a document outlining any agreements reached with Israel before he leaves office, Olmert aides said Sunday. Palestinians, while acknowledging some progress in delineating the final borders of their future state, rejected the notion of a partial accord.The Israeli prime minister sat down Sunday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the latest of the meetings they have held every few weeks since U.S.-sponsored negotiations resumed in November after a seven-year breakdown.Olmert has said he would step down after his Kadima Party elects a new leader in September, and the meeting Sunday could be one of the last between the two leaders. His impending resignation could throw the already faltering peace negotiations further into uncertainty.Olmert would like the sides to sign a document outlining agreement on some of the key issues before he leaves office, a so-called shelf agreement that would not be immediately implemented, officials from Olmert's office said Sunday.
A vague agreement of this kind would show what progress has been made and indicate where the negotiations would be picked up by the next Israeli leader. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the goal had not been officially made public.
Palestinians have rejected that approach. Yasser Abed Rabbo, an aide to Abbas, said before the meeting Sunday that the Palestinians will not accept any partial deal like a framework or shelf agreement.He said the talks between Olmert and Abbas would center on Israel's ongoing settlement construction, which he called the most critical issue that threatens the whole peace process now.Peace negotiators on both sides privately report progress in their efforts to outline future borders of Israel and a Palestinian state. But no agreements have been announced or signed, and the talks have not been accompanied by serious goodwill gestures that could help them succeed.With little progress visible on the ground and with the hardline Islamic Hamas still firmly in control of the Gaza Strip, the agreed-upon deadline for a final peace deal — January 2009, when President Bush leaves office — is now regarded as all but out of reach.Associated Press Writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank contributed to this report.
Tensions rise as Gaza doctors strike against Hamas sackings Sun Aug 31, 5:52 AM ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) - Tensions rose in the Gaza Strip as doctors struck for a second day Sunday to protest what they said was the Hamas-run government's firing of health workers loyal to the rival Fatah movement. Participation in the strike climbed to around 90 percent, a senior medical official at Gaza City's main Al-Shifa hospital said, as patients lined up in hospital waiting rooms across the impoverished territory.Emergency health workers and doctors loyal to Hamas are still working.The medical official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Hamas-run security forces had started rounding up doctors and health workers and taking them to hospitals by force.The doctors went on strike Saturday to protest the sacking of some 50 doctors and other health workers by the Hamas-run health ministry, saying the decision was politically motivated.Hamas has downplayed the doctors strike and blamed both it and a teachers strike launched last week on Palestinian president and Fatah party leader Mahmud Abbas's government in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Palestinians have been deeply divided along factional lines since Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007 after routing security forces loyal to Abbas.Abbas's government, which still pays the salaries of civil servants in Gaza, including the health workers, has denied any involvement in the strike.A similar strike was held this time last year when the Hamas-run government fired veteran surgeon Jumaa al-Saqaa, a die-hard Fatah supporter, from his post as the spokesman for Al-Shifa hospital.
Gaza-Egypt crossing opens for second day Sun Aug 31, 4:44 AM ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) - The Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip was open for a second day Sunday to allow hundreds of people to pass into and out of the besieged territory, officials said. Seventeen buses carrying over 800 people, including medical patients requiring treatment abroad, students, and foreign visa holders, were lined up on the Gaza side, Mohammed Odwan, a spokesman for the crossing, told AFP.On Saturday some 1,900 people crossed into Egypt and nearly 900 crossed from Egypt into Gaza, Odwan said, adding that the crossing would close Sunday night.Israel has sealed Gaza off from all but limited humanitarian aid since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June 2007 after driving out forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.The sanctions have remained despite a two-month-old truce between Israel and Palestinian militants that has mostly halted the firing of rockets on southern Israel and brought calm to the impoverished territory of 1.5 million people.Israel has said Rafah -- the only crossing it does not control -- should not be opened until progress is made on releasing Gilad Shalit, a 22-year-old corporal captured by Gaza militants in a deadly cross-border raid in 2006.An Israeli security official speaking on condition of anonymity said the decision to open the crossing on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan was taken by Egypt to ease tensions with Hamas.The opening of the Rafah crossing was a chance to let out steam between Hamas and Egypt, which continues its regular contacts with Hamas in Gaza and abroad (in Syria) on the issue of Gilad Shalit, the official said.Egypt has long served as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, which is blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States, and the European Union.
ISRAELS INHERITED LAND IN THE FUTURE
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.
ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.
WELL ISRAEL WILL GIVE THE RUSSIA-MUSLIM HORDES THE FIRES OF HELL INSTEAD OF THE MUSLIMS-ARABS CLAIMING THEY WILL DO IT TO ISRAEL.
Islamic Jihad threatens Israel with the fires of hell Sat Aug 30, 3:41 PM ET
KHAN YUNES, Gaza Strip (AFP) - The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad on Saturday threatened to unleash the fires of hell on Israel, as it staged a military parade in the south of the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip. We will unleash the fires of hell if the Zionist enemy continues its crimes, said the group's military chief Abu Hamzeh after the parade by around 800 Islamic Jihad members, an AFP journalist reported.We're getting ready for the next round, he added, saying the Zionist enemy will have neither peace nor security while it occupies our land.Abu Hamzeh said his group had hundreds of rockets ready to launch at southern Israel.Khader Habib, a political leader in the group, said Islamic Jihad will not rest until we have liberated all of Palestine, referring to the movement's aim to create a Palestinian state in Israel's place.Earlier the militants staged exercises using assault rifles rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.The parade took place on the site of the former Jewish settlement of Gush Katif, which was evacuated when Israel withdrew settlers and forces from the Gaza Strip in August 2005.Since June 19, Islamic Jihad has generally respected an Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas. The truce applies to Gaza only, and Islamic Jihad said it reserves the right to respond to Israeli attacks in the West Bank.
THIS ARMY WILL FAIL, THE BIBLE SAYS THE EU (EUROPEAN UNION) ARMY WILL BE THE ONLY ONE THAT SUCCEEDS IN GUARENTEEING ISRAELS SECURITY.
Egypt FM moots Arab force for Gaza Sat Aug 30, 3:36 PM ET
CAIRO (AFP) - Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said an Arab force for the Gaza Strip could help end violence in the impoverished territory, the official news agency MENA reported on Saturday. However the minister, in a magazine interview to appear on Sunday, stopped short of making a direct appeal for the deployment of such a force in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.The presence of an Arab force in the territory could help stop violence and end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said in the interview, excerpts of which were published by MENA.Abul Gheit said the idea warrants careful study and deserves to be taken seriously.Egypt is sponsoring unity talks between the Islamist Hamas and Fatah, the rival movement of secular Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.Hamas violently seized power in Gaza after routing forces loyal to Abbas in June last year and tension between the rivals bursts periodically into bouts of bloodletting.In response, Israel sealed off the tiny coastal territory to all but very limited humanitarian supplies.Israel says the sanctions aim to put pressure on Palestinian militants who fired rockets and mortar rounds at southern Israel almost daily before a truce took effect on June 19.Abul Gheit stressed that his suggestion cannot take form until Palestinian unity is restored and after an appropriate study is carried out.He stressed that Egypt and the Arab League could play a role in this matter.Hamas and Egypt temporarily opened the Rafah crossing to Gaza on Saturday for the first time in weeks, allowing some 2,000 Gazans to cross into Egypt or to return to the Gaza Strip.Rafah in southern Gaza is the territory's only border crossing that is not under Israeli control.
Israel tightens grip on West Bank's Jordan Valley By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer Sat Aug 30, 2:38 PM ET
MASKIYOT, West Bank - They live just a couple of miles from each other along a country road winding through parched fields, but they are worlds apart. Avinadav Vitkon, an Israeli freelance writer, is putting down roots in this strip of West Bank land known as the Jordan Valley, helping to establish a new Jewish settlement with his government's backing. Palestinian farmer Jasser Daraghmeh is barely hanging on to the 10 acres he says have been in his family for years.Vitkon, 29, lives in a trailer, but will eventually move with his wife and four young children into one of 20 homes to be built on an adjacent hill. Daraghmeh, a 34-year-old father of six, expects the Israeli military to demolish his family's wooden shack because it was built without a permit.Their differing fortunes are the product of a struggle for control of this valley alongside the Jordan River — biblical terrain which Israelis and Palestinians both say they need for national survival.Human rights groups say Israel has systematically fostered Jewish communities at the expense of Palestinian growth in several areas of the West Bank it wants to keep, and the Jordan Valley is among the hardest hit. Israelis move freely through the valley, while Palestinians are hampered by building restrictions and roadblocks, one of which even keeps them from nearby Dead Sea beaches.The West Bank was captured by Israel from the kingdom of Jordan in the 1967 war. The Jordan Valley is ill-defined geographically, but by some measures is roughly one-fourth of the West Bank. Palestinians regard it as the breadbasket of the state they hope to achieve, and the only place big enough to absorb large numbers of refugees.Israel says it needs the Jordan Valley as a buffer against Arab attack.
Today, the valley has a distinctly Israeli feel, with Jewish settlements, Hebrew billboards, war memorials and a Jewish seminary lining a sleek highway packed with Israeli motorists.Some 6,000 Israeli settlers live in 25 communities sprinkled across the area, whose West Bank sector stretches about 60 miles north to south, ending at the Dead Sea.Dubi Tal, a settler leader, says Israelis in the region are confident enough in the future to be investing in date palms, which take years to bear fruit.Still, the fate of the settlements is on the table again in peace talks. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says Israel appears willing to cede the settlements while keeping troops in the area, possibly to be replaced by international border monitors.They don't want to keep the Jordan Valley, but they want certain arrangements, Erekat said of his Israeli counterparts, who would not speak publicly about plans for the region.After the 1967 war, Israel adopted the view that the valley was vital to deter Arab attack from the east. But today Israeli strategists are divided.Proponents of compromise note that Israel and neighboring Jordan have been at peace for 14 years and that Iraq is not the formidable foe it was under Saddam Hussein. Besides, they say, the bigger threat comes from ballistic missiles, not the conventional ground forces that fought in 1967.Also, any peace deal would entail a land swap, and given how small Israel and the West Bank are to begin with, the valley may be too large to trade.However, some warn that giving up the strategic area and with it direct control over the West Bank's border crossings would allow weapons and militants to reach the Palestinian territories, as happened after Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005.In all likelihood, were Israel to abandon the strategic barrier of the Jordan Valley, shoulder-fired missiles capable of taking down a 747 jumbo jet would soon appear on high ground in the West Bank that dominates (Israel's international) Ben Gurion Airport, said Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.
All the same, peace is preferable, counters Shaul Arieli, an Israeli former negotiator. Strategic depth is very important for Israel, but Israel can have better security with a peace agreement than by keeping the West Bank, he said. Israel hasn't built a settlement in the valley since the 1980s, according to the Israeli settlement watchdog group Peace Now. So why build Maskiyot? Some think it has less to do with security than with internal maneuverings between the Israeli government and the powerful settler movement now that peace talks with the Palestinians have resumed. At the moment, talk of peace sounds wishful because leadership is lacking on both sides. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is largely paralyzed by his rivalry with the Islamic militant Hamas, while Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, plagued by corruption scandals, says he will step down next month. Vitkon and his family headed to Maskiyot, 25 miles south of the Sea Of Galilee, after being evacuated from Gaza, along with some 8,500 other settlers, in 2005. In February, the Vitkons and eight other settler families, all but two from Gaza, moved into trailers at Maskiyot. Construction of permanent homes is to begin in the fall, said Tal, the settler leader. The government will pave an access road, and hook up the homes to water and electricity. Just two miles away, Farsiyeh has dwindled from about 100 families before 1967 to about 20 living in far-flung shacks, according to Daraghmeh, the farmer. Some 53,000 Palestinians live in the Jordan Valley, about half in the ancient city of Jericho where Palestinians run their own administration. The rest live under full Israeli control, squeezed between settlements, military zones and off-limits nature reserves. Daraghmeh says it's getting harder to water his crops. He points to a pile of black plastic pipes, remnants of his irrigation system. The Israeli military says it destroyed the pipeline running from a nearby spring to his fields because it was illegal. His legal aid lawyer, Abdallah Hamad, said farmers in the area have traditionally used the spring and are allowed by Israel to draw water but can't use pumps and pipes. Daraghmeh said he is determined to stay because, with his siblings gone in search of better jobs, he's the last of his family to farm the land. He said he is switching to crops he can grow with brackish water from nearby hot springs. The farmer unfolded a piece of paper — an order in Hebrew to demolish the shack he built two years ago. People know that even if they apply for a permit, they won't be able to obtain it, said Hamad, his lawyer. That's why they keep building ... without applying for permits.Associated Press Writer Dalia Nammari in the Jordan Valley contributed to this report.
Bush's Mideast peace timeline looking unattainable By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer Sat Aug 30, 3:15 AM ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - From the Gaza neighborhoods where Hamas radicals now collect money for utilities and mete out justice, President Bush's goal of forging an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal within five months is looking increasingly unattainable. Every effort to drive the Islamic militia from power has failed, and the group now appears more entrenched than ever in Gaza, one of two territories Palestinians claim for their would-be state.Peace negotiators representing Israel and the West Bank's moderate Palestinian leadership privately report progress in their efforts to outline future borders. But the talks are taking place in a vacuum, and haven't been accompanied by serious goodwill gestures that could help them succeed.And Israel's corruption-tainted prime minister, who launched the talks together with the Palestinian president, has said he would step down after his party elects a new leader next month.Visiting the region earlier this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she believes success is still possible, God willing. But these days it's hard to find anyone else optimistic about the deal's January 2009 target date, announced with great fanfare at a U.S.-hosted Mideast peace conference nine months ago.In a sign of diminished hope, Rice's latest visit received little media attention in Israel, easily eclipsed by the story of a missing French girl. Ordinary Palestinians and Israelis are increasingly fatigued over their long conflict and the fruitless attempts to solve it.Of all the obstacles to peace, perhaps none is more formidable than Hamas' violent takeover of the Gaza Strip 14 months ago. The moderate Palestinians holding talks with Israel control only the West Bank, but say their future state must include both the West Bank and Gaza, two separate land masses located on opposite sides of Israel.Israeli officials say even if the peace talks bear fruit, the result will be a mere shelf agreement — to be taken off the shelf only after Hamas' rivals in the secular Fatah movement, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, retake Gaza.Regional players have begun to rethink their strategies because Hamas doesn't appear to be going anywhere any time soon.
Egypt has brokered a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. Abbas has proposed setting up a government of technocrats in Gaza and stationing peacekeepers from Arab countries there. As part of a prisoner exchange deal with the militants, Israel is expected to yield to Hamas' demands to release Palestinian prisoners who killed Israelis. Jordan has begun rebuilding its relationship with Hamas after years of discord.Gaza, home to 1.5 million mostly impoverished Palestinians who are not free to come and go, is posing sharp dilemmas to Israel and the West.As part of its two-month-old truce agreement with Hamas, Israel has begun to ease the blockade of Gaza it imposed after the militants took over, each day allowing in some 90 supply trucks carrying food, medicine, school supplies, cement, gravel and, most recently, candy and other sweets for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, said Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner.Israel is loosening the squeeze at a snail's pace, however, because it doesn't want to forfeit its leverage over Hamas as it attempts to secure the release of an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas-linked militants in 2006. Israel also feels that easing the blockade could further entrench the militants in power and reduce their incentive to allow Abbas' forces back into Gaza.On the other hand, maintaining or intensifying the blockade would increase the desperation of Gaza's people and likely lead to more deadly fighting with Israel — a scenario that in the past has undermined the peace efforts of Palestinian moderates.Fourteen months of punishing sanctions have accomplished little else than to amplify misery. The private sector has been decimated, with almost all factories shut down. Reduced fuel supplies and lack of spare parts have badly damaged waste collection, sewage treatment and the operation of hospitals. Some 80 percent of Gaza's people now rely on U.N. food handouts just to survive.At the same time, Hamas' grip on life in Gaza has deepened, with many blaming Israel and the West, not the Islamic radicals, for their plight.If you don't pay your gas or electricity bills in Gaza these days, Hamas cuts it off. Crime is down, but human rights violations are up. Motorists have to pay to register their vehicles, and Hamas-run courts appear to be better run than their predecessors under Fatah.A 44-year-old man named Shawki recently stood outside a court building in Gaza and said he has been trying unsuccessfully for years to obtain a just ruling on a land dispute. Today I will get my rights, he said. They (Hamas) have real courts and real police.As both Hamas' rule and its split with Fatah intensify, Egypt has begun meeting with various Palestinian factions in an effort to end the internal Palestinian divide that is seen as a major impediment to statehood. Still, the Fatah-dominated Palestine Liberation Organization has come up with a contingency plan if Fatah and Hamas fail to reconcile. According to PLO officials, the organization is considering declaring Gaza a rebel territory under the control of illegal militias — a designation that would set the stage for the West Bank government to stop facilitating the arrival of food, electricity, water, medical supplies, currency and other materials into Gaza. Hamas rule in Gaza isn't the only major obstacle to Mideast peace. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision to resign amid a series of corruption probes raises a very big and unanswered question of whether his replacement will also pursue peace.
There's a growing sense among Israelis that their 41-year occupation of Arab lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war is not sustainable in the long run. Olmert has been seeking to unload those territories through peace talks with Abbas — including a meeting between the two leaders scheduled for this Sunday. But he has failed to halt settlement activity and ease onerous travel restrictions, measures that could show Palestinians that they have more to gain through diplomacy than violence. Abbas also has a long way to go before fulfilling his end of the bargain. Israel believes he has not yet reined in the extremists who, if left unchecked, could overrun the West Bank as they did Gaza after Israel withdrew its settlers and troops from that territory in 2005. Steven Gutkin is the AP's bureau chief for Israel and the Palestinian territories. AP correspondent Ibrahim Barzak contributed to this report from Gaza City, Gaza Strip.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
ISRAEL REOPENS GAZA CROSSING
Javier Solana to step in as mediator/trustee for Israeli-Palestinian peace accord?
Some diplomatic movement has returned to the Middle East. Under American supervision, Israelis and Palestinians have been negotiating again since the end of 2007. Syria and Israel have begun an indirect negotiation process with Turkey as a mediator. In Lebanon, a new government including all relevant political factions has finally been formed.This would not have been possible without a green light from Syria. And this green light would not have come had Damascus not been convinced that its own negotiations with Israel could, in the medium term at least, lead to a bilateral agreement and also bring about an improvement of Syrian-American relations. Individual European Union states have already honored this constructive about-turn of Syrian policies.For all those engaged in Middle East diplomacy - this goes for the Arab-Israeli fold as well as for the Iranian nuclear file - the U.S. political calendar is always present: No one expects the current U.S. administration to settle any of the conflicts in the region or to bring any of the ongoing diplomatic processes there to a conclusion during the rest of its term.This is explicitly so for the Syrian-Israeli negotiations: Syria has already declared that it would not move from indirect to direct talks before the inauguration of a new American administration ready to actively engage with such a process.Implicitly, however, the same applies to the Annapolis process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. President Bush has repeatedly said that he wants the two sides to reach an agreement while he is still in office.Israel's outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who lead the talks, are both aware of the contours of a possible, mutually acceptable agreement, and they seem to have come closer with regard to some of the particularly difficult so-called final-status issues.
Nonetheless, even under the most positive scenario, the best one could expect is a further narrowing of the gaps. A comprehensive agreement that would sort out such complex issues as the future of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, future borders between Israel and Palestine, or infrastructural links between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, will not be reached within only a couple of months.And neither Israel's prime minister nor the Palestinian president would today have the authority and the necessary majorities to ratify, let alone to implement a peace agreement.All this does not speak against the process, only against exaggerated expectations. The process is extremely fragile, and it could easily break down - particularly in the absence of sustained external care, of guidance and support from a third party both able and prepared to drive the process forward and encourage the negotiating parties to continue their efforts even in the face of domestic opposition.The current U.S. administration will cease to play its role after the November elections; many of its representatives will by then be looking for new jobs. The new U.S. president will first have to get his senior officials confirmed by Congress, and a foreign policy review, before he begins any major policy initiative. As a result, we should expect a time-out for any active American involvement in the Middle East peace process between the end of this year and at least March or April 2009.Herein lays Europe's challenge. As an active partner in the so-called Middle East Quartet with the United States, Russia and the United Nations, the EU has helped to bring about the current talks between Israelis and Palestinians.The EU and several of its member states are contributing to the process through the support of state- and institution-building in the Palestinian territories, particularly in the security and justice sectors.
But beyond that, the EU must now prepare itself to keep the process alive from the end of this year through to next spring. Considering such a task we also have to be aware of the particular structures of the Union.President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, has already announced a more active support for the Middle East peace process. But the French presidency ends in December 2008, and the Czech government, which takes over in January 2009, is unlikely to summon the same energy and resources for the Middle East.The EU's special representative for the Middle East, the Belgian diplomat Marc Otte, does not have enough political weight to assume a role that so far has been played by the U.S. secretary of state. Individual EU states like France, Germany or Spain would have the resources and diplomatic skills and could even be interested in temporarily guiding the process until a new American administration resumes this function.
In practice, however, jealousy among EU states would make it impossible for any one of them to act for Europe in this or any other important foreign-policy field, unless this country happens to hold the EU presidency. EU states that want to promote a consensual and common European approach would therefore not even try to assume this role; others that might want to take it on would not be able to fill it.
This does not make the EU incapable of acting. The Union, through its Council of Foreign Ministers, should as soon as possible give a mandate to Javier Solana, the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU, to make himself available, with the approval of Israel, the Palestinians, and the current U.S. administration, as a temporary mediator for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from the end of the year.Solana would not take such an initiative on his own, but he can do so with a mandate from the Council. His staff is familiar with the subject matter and his diplomatic skills are beyond doubt.Any coalition of willing EU states could support him by delegating some of their own experienced diplomats to his office for the task. Solana and the EU would not be expected to make peace or to bring the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to a conclusion and to dispel any opposition to an agreement. This cannot be done by the EU, simply because, compared to the United States, it has less influence over Israel and cannot give security guarantees to either Israel or the Palestinians.The EU, however, can act as a temporary trustee for the process, thereby preventing it from breaking down and, given its knowledge of the regional situation, help the parties to find practical solutions for some of the most complicated final-status questions - for example, the political division of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states - only to hand back the process and the role of external guidance to Washington once the new administration there is ready for it.As an active trustee in this sense, the EU could not only show that it lives up to its own claim of contributing to crisis management through preventive diplomacy, it would also demonstrate to the new U.S. administration how high a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ranges on the European list of priorities, and how useful it can be for the United States to cooperate on this with its trans-Atlantic partners.
Egypt against any anti-Iran military action Beirut, Aug 28, IRNA
Iran-Egypt-Nuclear
Egyptian Foreign Minister Wednesday evening stressed that his country would reject any probable military action against Iran. Addressing a press conference in Lebanon, Ahmed Ali Aboul Gheith called for peaceful settlement of Iran's nuclear dispute.
Urging the West not to take any military action against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Aboul Gheith called for resolve of Iran's nuclear case through dialogue.
Visiting Lebanon as of Wednesday, the Egyptian foreign minister said that Iran and Egypt enjoy active diplomatic ties.
Russia faces fresh condemnation AUG 28,08
Russia has said it hopes to avoid confrontation with the West
Seven of the world's leading industrialised nations have jointly condemned Russia's decision to recognise Georgia's breakaway regions. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and UK said Moscow's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia violated Georgia's integrity and sovereignty. Earlier, the UK's foreign secretary said Western countries should re-examine their relations with Russia. David Miliband also warned Russia not to start a new Cold War. Speaking during a visit to Ukraine, Mr Miliband said Moscow had not reconciled itself with the new map of the region and that the West should look at ways to reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas.
Russia was, is and will continue to be the last country in the world that would want a repeat of the Cold War Dmitry Peskov Russian government spokesman.
Meeting Russia's Number One Testing for a new Cold War Jubilation and dismay in Georgia.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy meanwhile described Russia's move to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia as an unacceptable attempt to change borders. Russia said it was the last country that wanted a new Cold War. Fighting between Russia and Georgia began on 7 August after the Georgian military tried to retake its Russian-backed breakaway province of South Ossetia by force. Russian forces subsequently launched a counter-attack and the conflict ended with the ejection of Georgian troops from both South Ossetia and Abkhazia and an EU-brokered ceasefire.
Excessive force
In a statement, the Group of Seven said they condemned the action of our fellow G8 member and reasserted their support for the Georgian government. Russia's recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia violates the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia and is contrary to UN Security Council Resolutions supported by Russia, the statement said. The group also said it deplored Russia's excessive use of military force in Georgia and its continued occupation of parts of Georgia. We call unanimously on the Russian government to implement in full the six-point peace plan brokered by President Sarkozy on behalf of the EU, in particular to withdraw its forces behind the pre-conflict lines, the statement added. We reassert our strong and continued support for Georgia's sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders and underline our respect and support for the democratic and legitimate government of Georgia as we pursue a peaceful, durable solution to this conflict.The Russian government responded to earlier criticism from Western leaders by saying Moscow saw no threat of a new Cold War. A spokesman for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia had been taking measures of precaution against Nato warships in the Black Sea, but hoped to avoid confrontation. I wouldn't agree that we really have a threat of a new Cold War. Russia was, is and will continue to be the last country in the world that would want a repeat of the Cold War, Dmitry Peskov said. On Tuesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he had been obliged to recognise the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia following the genocide started by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in South Ossetia in August. He also blamed Georgia for failing to negotiate a peaceful settlement.
Hard-headed engagement
The Group of Seven's statement came only hours after Mr Miliband said the conflict between Russia and Georgia had provided a rude awakening. David Miliband said Russia must not start a new Cold War.In a speech to a group of students in Ukraine's capital, Kiev, Mr Miliband said Moscow's unilateral attempt to redraw the map marks a moment of real significance. Russian President, he said, had a big responsibility not to start a new Cold War. Mr Miliband said the response of the EU and Nato to such aggression should be one of hard-headed engagement. That means bolstering our allies, rebalancing the energy relationship with Russia, defending the rules of international institutions, and renewing efforts to tackle unresolved conflicts, he explained. Mr Miliband again rejected calls for Russia to be expelled from the G8, but did suggest the EU and Nato needed to review relations with it. He also reiterated the British government's support for Ukraine's application for full Nato membership. Ukraine's President, Victor Yushchenko, said it was a hostage in a war waged by Russia against states in the old Soviet bloc. Mr Yushchenko also called for Ukraine's defences to be strengthened and said his country would consider increasing the amount of money Russia pays for the lease of the port of Sevastopol, where it stations its Black Sea Fleet.
* * * * FLASH TRAFFIC: WASHINGTON UPDATE * * * * WHO IS JOE BIDEN?
Plus: transcript from Glenn Beck's radio interview with me By Joel C. Rosenberg
AUG 28,08
(Washington, D.C., August 27, 2008) -- Tonight, Delaware Senator Joe Biden will accept the vice presidential nomination in Denver. But most Americans have no idea who he really is or what he believes. Here, then, are a few facts worth noting.
First, by all accounts, Biden is a wonderful family man who has endured a terrible personal tragedy. In 1972, just before Christmas and just weeks after being elected to his first term in the United States Senate, Biden's wife and only daughter were killed in a horrific car crash caused by a drunk driver.
Five years after this [trauma], no one man deserves one great love, let alone two, Biden later recalled in an interview with David Brody of CBN. I met and married my wife of 30 years who actually put my life back together again and put my family back together again. But you know, when something like that happens to you. It's like there's a big black hole in your chest, and you feel like you're being sucked in to that black hole. You feel like there isn't anything that will ever get better again in your life. But my mom has an expression, she said God sends no cross that you cannot bear, and she said, I remember literally the week of the accident her saying Joey, out of everything horrible something good will come if you look hard enough. And I thought that was the cruelest thing in the world someone could say, but it's true. Obviously I wished it never, ever, ever happened, but my sons and I, it's like a steel belt that runs through our chest connecting us. My family is so strong, and I really believe and my wife Jill of 30 years believes that Neilia my wife, is looking down on us. You just never, it never leaves, but there comes a time and it happens earlier than you think, there comes a time when the memory brings a smile to your lips rather than a tear to your eyes. And so many people have gone through tough stuff, but I had family. When I went through it I had people helping me. It has taught me that I have such intense admiration for people who are alone and these things happen to and they fight. There are so many people right outside this library, this morning got up, put one foot in front of the other, dealing with crisis that were similar to mine and they do. And they do it for their kids and they do it for their family and they do it without the kind of help I had. I was really lucky. I just had an awful lot of people to help me and they were my family. I'm not very good talking about it as you can see, but I know there is a continuum. I know that God is -- there's a giant piece of my deceased daughter, a giant piece of my deceased wife that is in me and in my children and in my wife.Despite such immense pain, Biden emerged as a kind, funny, friendly and personally engaging leader, who has built strong personal and professional relationships with Republicans such as John McCain, among others. To his credit, he has been a good friend of Israel over the years. He has been good on expanding democracies around the world. He was also right on the Georgia crisis, having long encouraged the expansion of NATO to include fledgling democracies.
I like Joe Biden. I like his love of family and country. I like that I can disagree with him but would still enjoy a good policy discussion over dinner. But I do disagree with him profoundly on most important issues. He is, after all, the third most liberal man in the Senate, according to National Journal. And when it comes to most epicenter issues, he is just plain wrong. He reminds me in many ways of President Jimmy Carter in the mid- to late-1970s -- kind, friendly, warm, engaging, but someone who often misunderstands the nature and threat of evil, particularly in the Middle East.
Consider a few of Biden's positions:
* Voted against the Gulf war in 1991 to liberate Kuwait
* Voted against the surge in Iraq in 2007 to defeat the Jihadists [Told the Boston Globe in the summer of 2007: The surge isn't going to work either tactically or strategically.]
* Opposes regime change in Iran. [Instead of regime change, we need to focus on conduct change. -- speech on Iran at the Iowa City Public Library on December 3, 2007]
* Believes in direct negotiations with Ahmadinejad
* Voted against a bill to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization
* Strongly opposes taking preemptive military action to neutralize Iran's nuclear weapons threat and has threatened to impeach President Bush if he bombs Iran
* Does not see Ahmadinejad's End Times theology as a serious problem. [My concern is not that a nuclear Iran some day would be moved by messianic fervor to use a nuclear weapon as an Armageddon device and commit national suicide in order to hasten the return of the Hidden Imam. My worry is that the fear of a nuclear Iran could spark an arms race in the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, and others joining in.-- speech on Iran at the Iowa City Public Library on December 3, 2007]
* In 1979, he shared Carter's starry-eyed belief that the fall of the shah in Iran and the advent of the ayatollahs represented progress for human rights, writes Amir Taheri, the former editor of one of the largest newspapers in Tehran and a respected analyst of the current regime. Throughout the hostage crisis, as US diplomats were daily paraded blindfolded in front of television cameras and threatened with execution, he opposed strong action against the terrorist mullahs and preached dialogue….For more than a decade, Biden has adopted an ambivalent attitude towards the Islamic Republic in Tehran, now emerging as the chief challenger to US interests in the Middle East. Biden's links with pro-Tehran lobbies in the US and his support for unconditional dialogue with the mullahs echo Obama's own wrong-headed promise to circumvent the current multilateral efforts by seeking direct US-Iran talks, excluding the Europeans as well as Russia and China.
Mideast running on different clocks at Ramadan By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer AUG 28,08
CAIRO, Egypt - The start of the holy month of Ramadan next week is causing clock confusion in the Middle East. Egypt and the Palestinians are falling back an hour far earlier than usual, trying to reduce daylight hours for Muslims fasting until sunset in sweltering summer temperatures. Politics is also adding a twist. The Palestinian militant group Hamas is ending daylight-saving time at midnight Thursday in the Gaza Strip, which it controls — while the West Bank, run by the rival Fatah faction, is waiting until midnight Sunday.The Palestinians have traditionally changed their clocks at different times from Israel in a gesture of independence. Now for the first time, they're directing the gesture at each other, reflecting the rival claims for power in the more than year-old split between the Palestinian territories.Hamas just wants to show they're different from the Palestinian government, to pretend that they are the real government here, said Jamal Zakout, a spokesman for the prime minister of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. He said the PA chose midnight Sunday because Ramadan is expected to begin Monday.Egypt will also move its clocks back one hour at midnight Thursday, a full month earlier than usual. The switch will put Egypt two hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time and at least an hour later than its Mideast neighbors.The creeping-up of the clock change reflects the complications of the lunar Islamic calendar.
Ramadan comes around 11 days earlier each year. Currently, that brings it more into the long, hot days of summer, making it particularly tough for Muslims, who abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset during the holy month. Even in September, temperatures in Egypt are in the upper 90s.Egypt's decision will enable its people to have their iftar evening meal, breaking the fast, an hour earlier.Israel goes off daylight-saving time on Oct. 5, before the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur. It won't reduce the length of the 25-hour fast, which goes from sunset to sunset, but makes it a bit easier by reducing the number of daytime hours observant Jews must go without food or water.Jordan and Lebanon will switch the clocks back as usual by the end of October. Syria falls back in late September, while Saudi Arabia and Iraq don't change clocks.Ramadan, which commemorates the revelation of the first verses of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad, begins and ends with the sighting of the new moon. During the month, families and friends gather for sometimes lavish iftar meals, ending with the Eid al-Fitr, a three-day holiday of the breaking of the fast.
Associated Press Writers Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City and Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah contributed to this report.
Palestinians should not linger in Lebanon: Abbas Thu Aug 28, 8:56 AM ET
BEIRUT (AFP) - Palestinian refugees in Lebanon should not be permanently resettled in the country, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Thursday after talks in Beirut with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman. The Palestinians have the right of return and this is an issue we are discussing with the Israelis, Abbas told a media conference after the meeting.We are against the resettlement of Palestinians in Lebanon, he added.An estimated 400,000 Palestinian refugees live in 12 camps in Lebanon. According to the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), there are around 4.6 million Palestinian refugees worldwide.Most of Palestinian refugees came to Lebanon when the state of Israel was created in 1948. There are fears among the Lebanese that their settlement will be permanent, shifting the country's delicate sectarian balance.Abbas said that any solution with Israel should be wide-ranging and address all issues.I told the president if we want to reach a solution with Israel, it should be a comprehensive one, Abbas told reporters.
It may not be easy, but we want to reach a political solution to our cause. It's important to us to end the occupation of the Golan and the Shebaa Farms, he added.
The Shebaa Farms, a mountainous sliver of land rich in water resources measuring 25 square kilometres (10 square miles), are located at the junction of southeast Lebanon, southwest Syria and northern Israel.Israel seized the Farms from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war when it captured the neighbouring Golan Heights which it later annexed.Israel and the Palestinians formally relaunched the peace process after a seven-year hiatus at a US-hosted conference last November, with the goal of signing a full peace deal by the time President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.But they have made little tangible progress on resolving the core issues of the conflict, including final borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of the millions of UN-registered Palestinian refugees.Abbas said he endorsed the Lebanese government's decision in 2006 that armed pro-Syrian Palestinian groups outside of the camps should be disarmed.We are with the decision of the Lebanese government in terms of Palestinian weapons... In Lebanon, we are under the law and not above it, Abbas said.The Palestinian camps in Lebanon are considered to be be unstable, with security incidents taking place frequently and extremist groups often taking advantage of the poor state of the camps.Last year the army fought a deadly 15-week battle against Fatah al-Islam, which adopted an ideology inspired by Al-Qaeda, in the northern refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared.More than 400 people, including 168 soldiers, were killed in the fighting which left the camp almost entirely destroyed.
Abbas, whose last visit to Beirut in 2004 was the first for a Palestinian official in 22 years, was during his two-day visit to meet Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and parliament speaker Nabih Berri as well as Palestinian officials.
Livni widens lead in race to replace Olmert Thu Aug 28, 6:33 AM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will easily win leadership elections in the ruling Kadima party to replace embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, poll results showed on Thursday. The survey in the daily Maariv showed Livni winning 49 percent of the votes among Kadima members, widening her lead over her closest party rival, Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz. The poll showed Mofaz receiving 28 percent.Support for two other candidates was in single figures. Previous polls showed Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, with a lead of 8-18 percentage points over former military chief Mofaz.The scandal-hit Olmert threw Israel into political turmoil that could hamstring Middle East peacemaking by announcing last month he would stand down as prime minister after a September 17 leadership contest.Olmert would remain caretaker prime minister until his successor builds a new coalition, and officials have questioned whether Livni would be able to put together a new government.Should the new Kadima leader be unable to form a coalition and snap elections were called, recent polls show Livni would be neck and neck in the vote with opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister from the rightist Likud party.Thursday's survey was taken among 400 Kadima voters with a margin of error of 4.9 percent.(Writing by Ari Rabinovitch; editing by Andrew Roche)
Israel reopens Gaza crossings after two-day closure Thu Aug 28, 4:58 AM ET
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel on Thursday reopened its border crossings with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, two days after they were shut in response to rocket attacks.
Palestinian officials said three of the main commercial crossings were opened but a fourth remained closed.Israel tightened its borders with the Gaza Strip after Hamas Islamists seized the enclave more than a year ago.A June ceasefire has largely ended border violence, but Gaza militants occasionally fire rockets into Israel. Israel usually responds by shutting the crossings the following day.(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Israeli peace pioneer Abie Nathan dies at 81 Wed Aug 27, 5:37 PM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Abie Nathan, an Israeli peace activist who blazed trails to Egypt and the Palestinians that his country would eventually follow, died on Wednesday. He was 81. Nathan famously piloted a private plane, dubbed Shalom (Peace) 1, to then enemy Egypt in 1966 and was twice imprisoned by Israel for meeting Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat in the late 1980s and early 1990s when such contacts were illegal.He was a great fighter against war, poverty and discrimination, Israeli President Shimon Peres said in a statement after Nathan's death in a Tel Aviv hospital.A former pilot for Israel's El Al airline and once the owner of a Tel Aviv restaurant that attracted the city's glitterati in the 1960s, the Iranian-born Nathan worked for decades to secure humanitarian aid for disaster areas worldwide.From 1973 to 1993 his Voice of Peace radio station, on a ship anchored off the Israeli coast, broadcast pop music and messages of peace in English, Hebrew and Arabic.Short of funds to continue to operate the station, he scuttled the vessel in 1993, the same year Israel and Arafat's PLO signed their first interim peace deal.Nathan suffered a severe stroke in 1997 and had been in ill health since.
Jordan reaches out to militant Hamas By JAMAL HALABY, Associated Press Writer Wed Aug 27, 3:41 PM ET
AMMAN, Jordan - In an about-face, Jordan is reaching out to the Hamas militant group amid fears that a collapse of Mideast peacemaking would bring an influx of refugees. But the U.S. ally must walk a delicate line to avoid angering its American and Israeli friends. Hamas is outlawed in Jordan, which has accused the group in the past of trying to destabilize the country. But Jordanian intelligence chief Mohammed al-Dahabi held two covert meetings with top Hamas leaders this month, ending a nearly decade-long banishment of the group.The talks don't mean Jordan, which signed a 1994 peace deal with Israel, is embracing the militant group or is turning its back on Arab-Israeli negotiations. But the kingdom has clearly decided it's better to rebuild a relationship with Hamas than keep shunning it as an enemy amid doubts over the peace process' future.We're at a crossroads and Jordan must protect itself and its national interests, former Jordanian parliament speaker Abdul-Latif Arabiyat said.Jordan fears that the possible failure of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks backed by the Bush administration, which leaves office early next year, could embolden Hamas in the neighboring West Bank, as well as Muslim extremists in Jordan and across the Mideast. Quiet contacts with Hamas could mollify any fallout for Jordan if that happens.Also, Jordan is worried a failure of talks will revive Israeli hardliner calls for ejecting West Bank Palestinians to Jordan, or for parts of the West Bank to form a confederation with the kingdom as an alternative to an independent state.
Jordan, which ruled the West Bank from 1950 to 1967, strongly opposes such a move, as do Hamas and other Palestinians. Jordan's worries are demographic: Roughly half of its 5.8 million population are of Palestinian descent, from families that were displaced to the kingdom in two wars with Israel since 1948. Jordan is ruled by an elite drawn from its native, Bedouin-rooted clans.Another flood of Palestinians could overwhelm Jordan and even spark civil unrest. In 1970, the Palestine Liberation Organization tried to overthrow Jordan's Hashemite monarchy by setting up a Palestinian government. But Jordan fought a bloody war, known as "Black September, as it evicted the PLO from its territory.Jordan's contacts with Hamas have already irked Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority controls the West Bank and has been battling to end Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip last year.Abbas sent his interior minister, Abdel Razak Yehiye, to Jordan last week to find out what the Jordanians are up to and if their contacts with Hamas meant dropping support for the Palestinian Authority, said an Amman-based Palestinian official, insisting on anonymity citing diplomatic sensitivities.Israeli Embassy spokesman Itai Bardov in Amman called Jordan's contacts with Hamas unhelpful to the peace process.We're against any negotiations with Hamas because we regard it as a terrorist movement, he said. We should find ways to strengthen the Palestinian Authority instead of legitimizing Hamas, which made an illegal military coup in Gaza.
The U.S. also considers Hamas a terror organization and has refused contact with it. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after meeting with Palestinian and Israeli leaders that there was hope for a Mideast peace deal, but she offered no reason for optimism beyond the fact that both sides are speaking.Mindful of its allies' worries, Jordan only reluctantly confirmed its meetings with Hamas, days after they occurred.State Minister for Information Nasser Judeh said Jordan wanted the meetings to continue, and that the discussions so far had focused only on pending security issues.Deputy Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk said the talks, headed by Hamas official Mohammed Nazzal, tackled a wide range of issues, including the plight of Palestinians under Israeli occupation, Jewish settlements in the West Bank and ways to confront a substitute homeland for the Palestinians in Jordan.With the meetings, Jordan may be hoping to help mend the Hamas-Abbas rift and boost the peace process, averting any talk of a Jordanian solution to the Palestinian question. It may also be trying to help in mediating a release of Israeli Sgt. Gilad Schalit, captured by Gaza militants more than two years ago. Abu Marzouk said the Jordanian intelligence chief inquired in the meetings about Schalit.The split between Jordan and Hamas dates back to 1999, when Jordan came under tremendous pressure from the U.S. and Israel because Hamas leaders on its soil were making statements disparaging peace and ties with Israel and America. Jordan ejected Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal and other top leaders for unspecified illegal activities,shut down Hamas offices and clamped down on lower-ranking members.
Hamas breaks Gaza school strike led by rival Fatah By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer Wed Aug 27, 2:40 PM ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The ruling Hamas movement replaced hundreds of striking teachers with its own supporters Wednesday, purging Gaza's schools of political rivals and deepening its control of this coastal territory. Labor strife this week disrupted the public school system at the start of the academic year and added to the misery in Gaza, which has suffered from international isolation and Israeli economic sanctions since the Islamic militants of Hamas violently seized power last year.The local teachers union, one of the last remaining strongholds of the Fatah movement in Gaza, called the strike to protest the transfer of dozens of educators to new schools. It said Hamas forced the transfers to give its supporters key posts in the education system.Hamas denied this, but then installed hundreds of new teachers almost immediately after the walkout began. Education Minister Mohammed Askoul estimated 2,000 of the 9,000 public school teachers had been replaced.Anybody who left their job will not be allowed to return, Askoul said. They have become irrelevant and cannot be trusted anymore as educators.The move ensures Gaza's education system will now be stacked with Hamas loyalists. While the group has said it will not impose its strict Islamic views on society, its control of classrooms is likely to change the tone of instruction and create more sympathy for the group's ideology among the territory's 250,000 public school students.The dispute caused widespread confusion this week. Many parents kept their children home. Some students appeared torn, going to school but skipping class.What's happening is a joke. We came to school and the teachers told us to go home, said Hussam Abdullah, 16, standing outside his school in Gaza City. But the new (Hamas) principal says if we don't go to school for a week, we'll be expelled.The Hamas regime in Gaza and the Fatah-dominated administration of President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank have been sharing the same educational curriculum and exams — one of the few areas the rivals had in common. But that could soon change.Abbas' government, which pays teachers' salaries, seized on the strike as a loyalty test.
Bassam Zakarneh, a union leader, said Abbas' government would fire teachers who accepted school promotions — because it indicated loyalty to Hamas.The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, an independent rights group, said the threat was effectively against any teacher who did not participate in the strike. Teachers in Gaza also saw the threat that way.This is a disaster, said Aly, a 47-year-old math teacher who declined to give his full name for fear of offending Hamas or Fatah. The big losers are me and my students.Wael, a 38-year-old physics teacher and Fatah loyalist, said he felt bullied into striking.My salary and future are tied to the side that pays me, he said. At the same time, I am afraid there'll be (Hamas) procedures taken against me. He declined to give his family name because he did not support the Fatah-led walkout and feared his pay would be cut.Associated Press writer Diaa Hadid in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
Russia Flexes Its Muscles in Mideast By ANDREW LEE BUTTERS / BEIRUT
Wed Aug 27, 11:50 AM ET
With Russian soldiers occupying swaths of the Republic of Georgia, one might have thought that Russian President Dmitri Medvedev would have more pressing matters than scooting off to the Black Sea summer resort town of Sochi. But last week Medvedev did just that for a pleasant - and possibly ominous - bit of business: entertaining Syria's President Bashar al Assad, one of the few world leaders who have flown to Russia's side during the Georgian crisis. The trip paid off for Assad when Russia agreed to strengthen military ties with Syria. According to the Russian press, Assad also offered to host advanced Russian missile systems on Syrian soil. The Syrian state media later denied that Damascus was offering to set up Russian rocket bases. But even rumors of such a deal look suspiciously like a Russian response to U.S. plans to set up a missile defense system in Poland, an agreement signed earlier this month at the height of the Georgian conflict and denounced by Russia. Moreover, the rejuvenated Russian-Syrian connection is just one example of how the so-called new Cold War between the U.S. and Russian is spreading to the Middle East, mapping itself onto the region's pre-existing conflicts, and complicating efforts to bring stability to a region that is on the verge of a new hot war. Since the Iraq war began in 2003, the Middle East has been split by its own not-so-cold war for regional domination between Iran and its allies (Syria, Hizballah and Hamas) and the U.S. and its allies (Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt). Though Russia has been a mostly peripheral player, it has often wound up on the opposite side of Washington. In 2005, Moscow agreed to help Iran develop a civilian nuclear reactor, infuriating the Bush administration, which claims that Iran's nuclear energy program is merely a cover for developing weapons. Russian also supplied Syria with weapons that wound up in the hands of Hizballah, the Lebanese anti-Israeli militant group. Israeli military sources say that these Russian weapons - especially advanced anti-tank rockets - were vital in enabling Hizballah to face down the Israeli army during its disastrous incursion into Lebanon in the summer of 2006.
These tensions are now likely to grow as Russia flexes its muscles in a region where the U.S. is vulnerable. For one thing, Russia sees fewer and fewer reasons to tread lightly around Israel. During the 2006 Lebanon war, Russia condemned Hizballah actions as terrorism, and afterwards claimed it had made efforts to prevent weapons sales to Syria from helping Hizballah. But the war in Georgia highlighted that Israel is itself in a kind of arms race with Russia. Israel was supplying the Georgian army with weapons and Israeli security companies were training Georgian soldiers. And recent Israeli press reports claim that Hizballah has set up Russian-made radar-guided air defense systems since the 2006 war in the eastern Bekaa Valley in order to shoot down Israeli jets. What's more, ever since the U.S. circulated a draft Security Council Resolution condemning Russia's Georgian invasion, Washington can expect scant Russian help at the United Nations to prevent Iran from developing nuclear technology. This could have dramatic consequences. Israeli officials have been implying that if the U.S. and the U.N. fail to halt the Iranian nuclear program, they will take matters into their own hands and launch air strikes against Iran. Of course, the new Cold War in the Middle East may end up amounting to no more than a passing chill. Assad's flirtation with Russia could be intended to strengthen Syria's hand in ongoing indirect peace talks with Israel through Turkish mediation. On the other hand, Syrian hardliners opposed to peace could see Russia's backing as one more strong argument for holding out against American and international pressure to recognize Israel. A disturbing sense of dÉjÀ vu adheres to all these alliances, arms races and nuclear programs. The Middle East was a major theater in the original Cold War. Before the Camp David Accords of 1978, Syria, Iraq and Egypt were all Soviet client states; indeed, Syria still has the aging Soviet-era fighter jets and tanks to prove it. And while all stayed quiet on the European front of the Cold War, it got pretty hot in the Middle East. In at least three major wars between Arabs and Israelis (in 1967, 1973 and 1982), the U.S. and the Soviet Union got to see how their weapons stacked up against those of their foe. As the chill spreads today, it's worth remembering that the Middle East is a region where conflicts too often don't stay on ice. View this article on Time.com
Egypt seeks to ease Lebanon-Israel tension Wed Aug 27, 4:27 AM ET
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Egyptian officials are trying to ease tension between Lebanon and Israel that has risen over an exchange of threats. Israel's prime minister warned last week that his country would hit back harder than in the 2006 war if Hezbollah guerillas attacked again. Hezbollah's leader answered back on Sunday, saying the response from his fighters would also be more fierce than in the monthlong war two years ago.Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, says he discussed Israel's threats with Lebanon's president during a visit to Beirut Wednesday.Aboul Gheit says Egyptian officials also urged Israel to avoid making such threats during meetings with visiting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday in Egypt.
Syria, Iran warm to Russia as US tensions grow By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer Tue Aug 26, 1:27 PM ET
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Syria's President Bashar Assad has publicly stepped up his outreach to old ally Russia in recent days, seeking aid to build up Syrian military forces and offering Moscow help in return — in an apparent effort to exploit a new Russian-American rift. U.S. officials have noticed: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Mideast leaders this week that they should worry about Syria's efforts to gain more sophisticated weapons.Syria's long-term aim, however, remains unclear, in part because Assad also continues to pursue peace efforts with Israel — a key U.S. and European goal — even as he makes overtures to Russia that are sure to antagonize the West. Syria has a long history of apparently contradictory diplomatic moves as it maneuvers to find options and balance its interests.Yet the latest Syrian moves feed directly into larger Western fears that the Russian-American standoff — prompted by Russia's invasion of Georgia — could lead Russia to provide more military and diplomatic aid to a host of countries and militant groups the United States sees as troublesome.The Russian move into Georgia has begun a tectonic shift in the (Mideast) region, said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert in the United States. It has emboldened Syria, Hezbollah and Iran to push harder against Israel and the U.S.Some military officials in Iran have, like the Syrians, openly supported Russian actions in Georgia, although Iran's Foreign Ministry called the clashes merely a result of miscalculations by powers and called for dialogue.
Some Iranian media have gone further, asserting Russia is now less likely to back U.S.-led efforts to pressure Iran to curb its nuclear program.The Russian ambassador to Iran, Alexander Sadovnikov, told the official IRNA news agency this weekend that Moscow won't support a new round of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran. But that position did not appear to be a direct result of the new Russia-U.S. tensions, because Russia often calls publicly for dialogue.Russia is never after a new (sanctions) resolution. We hope constant contacts between Iran and the IAEA (the U.N. nuclear agency) will lead to a realistic solution, guaranteeing that Iran is not after nuclear weapons technology, IRNA quoted the ambassador as saying.Lebanon's Hezbollah is another worry for the West and for Israel.The Iranian- and Syrian-backed militants have long hoped for weapons systems and greater diplomatic backing from Russia, Landis said, although there is no evidence Russia has shown more warmth toward Hezbollah lately.Hezbollah does not disclose its weapons sources, except to say they are bought on the international market. But it receives money and much hardware from Iran through Syria. Israel complained to Russia that Hezbollah used Russian anti-tank missiles in its war with Israel in 2006. Russia says its sales comply with international rules.For now, Syria is the most public example of Mideast fallout from the Georgian fight.Syria's bad negotiating position (with Israel) is leading it to look for more weapons and to try to grow more teeth before returning to the table with Israel, Landis said.
Both Iran and Syria have long-standing ties with Russia, leading some to play down the recent moves as having little significance. Russia has sold Syria weapons systems in the past, including the advanced surface-to-air Strelets system, and its warships already had been calling on Syria's northern port of Tartous. Many of Iran's weapons systems also have long come from Russian suppliers.Yet Assad clearly aimed for deeper ties during last week's Moscow visit.He asked Russia for weapons, and Moscow's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said his government was prepared to sell Syria arms with defensive character that would not upset the Mideast's strategic balance — a reference to Israel, which holds military superiority over its Arab neighbors.Syria reportedly is interested in air defense missile systems and aircraft. Notably, Assad also told the Russian business daily Kommersant that Syria was ready to cooperate with Russia in any way that can strengthen its security, including discussing deploying Iskander missile defense systems on Syrian territory to strengthen Russia's security. Assad also said Syria was ready in principle to help Moscow respond to the planned U.S. missile defense shield in Europe, although the Russians have not asked for such help, the newspaper said. As that news grabbed headlines in the Mideast, Syria's government swiftly denied that Assad had made such an offer to host Russian missiles on Syrian land, or even discussed it with Russia.
The swift denial apparently came because Syria does not want to overly antagonize the United States. Assad has long wanted to regain the strategic Golan Heights from Israel, and his only chance of that is through a peace deal with Israel. He has long sought more robust U.S. involvement in the negotiations with Israel, maintaining progress is unlikely without it. Syria is holding indirect low-level peace negotiations with Israel through Turkey, a U.S. ally.
Some diplomatic movement has returned to the Middle East. Under American supervision, Israelis and Palestinians have been negotiating again since the end of 2007. Syria and Israel have begun an indirect negotiation process with Turkey as a mediator. In Lebanon, a new government including all relevant political factions has finally been formed.This would not have been possible without a green light from Syria. And this green light would not have come had Damascus not been convinced that its own negotiations with Israel could, in the medium term at least, lead to a bilateral agreement and also bring about an improvement of Syrian-American relations. Individual European Union states have already honored this constructive about-turn of Syrian policies.For all those engaged in Middle East diplomacy - this goes for the Arab-Israeli fold as well as for the Iranian nuclear file - the U.S. political calendar is always present: No one expects the current U.S. administration to settle any of the conflicts in the region or to bring any of the ongoing diplomatic processes there to a conclusion during the rest of its term.This is explicitly so for the Syrian-Israeli negotiations: Syria has already declared that it would not move from indirect to direct talks before the inauguration of a new American administration ready to actively engage with such a process.Implicitly, however, the same applies to the Annapolis process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. President Bush has repeatedly said that he wants the two sides to reach an agreement while he is still in office.Israel's outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who lead the talks, are both aware of the contours of a possible, mutually acceptable agreement, and they seem to have come closer with regard to some of the particularly difficult so-called final-status issues.
Nonetheless, even under the most positive scenario, the best one could expect is a further narrowing of the gaps. A comprehensive agreement that would sort out such complex issues as the future of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, future borders between Israel and Palestine, or infrastructural links between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, will not be reached within only a couple of months.And neither Israel's prime minister nor the Palestinian president would today have the authority and the necessary majorities to ratify, let alone to implement a peace agreement.All this does not speak against the process, only against exaggerated expectations. The process is extremely fragile, and it could easily break down - particularly in the absence of sustained external care, of guidance and support from a third party both able and prepared to drive the process forward and encourage the negotiating parties to continue their efforts even in the face of domestic opposition.The current U.S. administration will cease to play its role after the November elections; many of its representatives will by then be looking for new jobs. The new U.S. president will first have to get his senior officials confirmed by Congress, and a foreign policy review, before he begins any major policy initiative. As a result, we should expect a time-out for any active American involvement in the Middle East peace process between the end of this year and at least March or April 2009.Herein lays Europe's challenge. As an active partner in the so-called Middle East Quartet with the United States, Russia and the United Nations, the EU has helped to bring about the current talks between Israelis and Palestinians.The EU and several of its member states are contributing to the process through the support of state- and institution-building in the Palestinian territories, particularly in the security and justice sectors.
But beyond that, the EU must now prepare itself to keep the process alive from the end of this year through to next spring. Considering such a task we also have to be aware of the particular structures of the Union.President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, has already announced a more active support for the Middle East peace process. But the French presidency ends in December 2008, and the Czech government, which takes over in January 2009, is unlikely to summon the same energy and resources for the Middle East.The EU's special representative for the Middle East, the Belgian diplomat Marc Otte, does not have enough political weight to assume a role that so far has been played by the U.S. secretary of state. Individual EU states like France, Germany or Spain would have the resources and diplomatic skills and could even be interested in temporarily guiding the process until a new American administration resumes this function.
In practice, however, jealousy among EU states would make it impossible for any one of them to act for Europe in this or any other important foreign-policy field, unless this country happens to hold the EU presidency. EU states that want to promote a consensual and common European approach would therefore not even try to assume this role; others that might want to take it on would not be able to fill it.
This does not make the EU incapable of acting. The Union, through its Council of Foreign Ministers, should as soon as possible give a mandate to Javier Solana, the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU, to make himself available, with the approval of Israel, the Palestinians, and the current U.S. administration, as a temporary mediator for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from the end of the year.Solana would not take such an initiative on his own, but he can do so with a mandate from the Council. His staff is familiar with the subject matter and his diplomatic skills are beyond doubt.Any coalition of willing EU states could support him by delegating some of their own experienced diplomats to his office for the task. Solana and the EU would not be expected to make peace or to bring the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to a conclusion and to dispel any opposition to an agreement. This cannot be done by the EU, simply because, compared to the United States, it has less influence over Israel and cannot give security guarantees to either Israel or the Palestinians.The EU, however, can act as a temporary trustee for the process, thereby preventing it from breaking down and, given its knowledge of the regional situation, help the parties to find practical solutions for some of the most complicated final-status questions - for example, the political division of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states - only to hand back the process and the role of external guidance to Washington once the new administration there is ready for it.As an active trustee in this sense, the EU could not only show that it lives up to its own claim of contributing to crisis management through preventive diplomacy, it would also demonstrate to the new U.S. administration how high a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ranges on the European list of priorities, and how useful it can be for the United States to cooperate on this with its trans-Atlantic partners.
Egypt against any anti-Iran military action Beirut, Aug 28, IRNA
Iran-Egypt-Nuclear
Egyptian Foreign Minister Wednesday evening stressed that his country would reject any probable military action against Iran. Addressing a press conference in Lebanon, Ahmed Ali Aboul Gheith called for peaceful settlement of Iran's nuclear dispute.
Urging the West not to take any military action against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Aboul Gheith called for resolve of Iran's nuclear case through dialogue.
Visiting Lebanon as of Wednesday, the Egyptian foreign minister said that Iran and Egypt enjoy active diplomatic ties.
Russia faces fresh condemnation AUG 28,08
Russia has said it hopes to avoid confrontation with the West
Seven of the world's leading industrialised nations have jointly condemned Russia's decision to recognise Georgia's breakaway regions. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and UK said Moscow's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia violated Georgia's integrity and sovereignty. Earlier, the UK's foreign secretary said Western countries should re-examine their relations with Russia. David Miliband also warned Russia not to start a new Cold War. Speaking during a visit to Ukraine, Mr Miliband said Moscow had not reconciled itself with the new map of the region and that the West should look at ways to reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas.
Russia was, is and will continue to be the last country in the world that would want a repeat of the Cold War Dmitry Peskov Russian government spokesman.
Meeting Russia's Number One Testing for a new Cold War Jubilation and dismay in Georgia.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy meanwhile described Russia's move to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia as an unacceptable attempt to change borders. Russia said it was the last country that wanted a new Cold War. Fighting between Russia and Georgia began on 7 August after the Georgian military tried to retake its Russian-backed breakaway province of South Ossetia by force. Russian forces subsequently launched a counter-attack and the conflict ended with the ejection of Georgian troops from both South Ossetia and Abkhazia and an EU-brokered ceasefire.
Excessive force
In a statement, the Group of Seven said they condemned the action of our fellow G8 member and reasserted their support for the Georgian government. Russia's recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia violates the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia and is contrary to UN Security Council Resolutions supported by Russia, the statement said. The group also said it deplored Russia's excessive use of military force in Georgia and its continued occupation of parts of Georgia. We call unanimously on the Russian government to implement in full the six-point peace plan brokered by President Sarkozy on behalf of the EU, in particular to withdraw its forces behind the pre-conflict lines, the statement added. We reassert our strong and continued support for Georgia's sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders and underline our respect and support for the democratic and legitimate government of Georgia as we pursue a peaceful, durable solution to this conflict.The Russian government responded to earlier criticism from Western leaders by saying Moscow saw no threat of a new Cold War. A spokesman for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia had been taking measures of precaution against Nato warships in the Black Sea, but hoped to avoid confrontation. I wouldn't agree that we really have a threat of a new Cold War. Russia was, is and will continue to be the last country in the world that would want a repeat of the Cold War, Dmitry Peskov said. On Tuesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he had been obliged to recognise the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia following the genocide started by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in South Ossetia in August. He also blamed Georgia for failing to negotiate a peaceful settlement.
Hard-headed engagement
The Group of Seven's statement came only hours after Mr Miliband said the conflict between Russia and Georgia had provided a rude awakening. David Miliband said Russia must not start a new Cold War.In a speech to a group of students in Ukraine's capital, Kiev, Mr Miliband said Moscow's unilateral attempt to redraw the map marks a moment of real significance. Russian President, he said, had a big responsibility not to start a new Cold War. Mr Miliband said the response of the EU and Nato to such aggression should be one of hard-headed engagement. That means bolstering our allies, rebalancing the energy relationship with Russia, defending the rules of international institutions, and renewing efforts to tackle unresolved conflicts, he explained. Mr Miliband again rejected calls for Russia to be expelled from the G8, but did suggest the EU and Nato needed to review relations with it. He also reiterated the British government's support for Ukraine's application for full Nato membership. Ukraine's President, Victor Yushchenko, said it was a hostage in a war waged by Russia against states in the old Soviet bloc. Mr Yushchenko also called for Ukraine's defences to be strengthened and said his country would consider increasing the amount of money Russia pays for the lease of the port of Sevastopol, where it stations its Black Sea Fleet.
* * * * FLASH TRAFFIC: WASHINGTON UPDATE * * * * WHO IS JOE BIDEN?
Plus: transcript from Glenn Beck's radio interview with me By Joel C. Rosenberg
AUG 28,08
(Washington, D.C., August 27, 2008) -- Tonight, Delaware Senator Joe Biden will accept the vice presidential nomination in Denver. But most Americans have no idea who he really is or what he believes. Here, then, are a few facts worth noting.
First, by all accounts, Biden is a wonderful family man who has endured a terrible personal tragedy. In 1972, just before Christmas and just weeks after being elected to his first term in the United States Senate, Biden's wife and only daughter were killed in a horrific car crash caused by a drunk driver.
Five years after this [trauma], no one man deserves one great love, let alone two, Biden later recalled in an interview with David Brody of CBN. I met and married my wife of 30 years who actually put my life back together again and put my family back together again. But you know, when something like that happens to you. It's like there's a big black hole in your chest, and you feel like you're being sucked in to that black hole. You feel like there isn't anything that will ever get better again in your life. But my mom has an expression, she said God sends no cross that you cannot bear, and she said, I remember literally the week of the accident her saying Joey, out of everything horrible something good will come if you look hard enough. And I thought that was the cruelest thing in the world someone could say, but it's true. Obviously I wished it never, ever, ever happened, but my sons and I, it's like a steel belt that runs through our chest connecting us. My family is so strong, and I really believe and my wife Jill of 30 years believes that Neilia my wife, is looking down on us. You just never, it never leaves, but there comes a time and it happens earlier than you think, there comes a time when the memory brings a smile to your lips rather than a tear to your eyes. And so many people have gone through tough stuff, but I had family. When I went through it I had people helping me. It has taught me that I have such intense admiration for people who are alone and these things happen to and they fight. There are so many people right outside this library, this morning got up, put one foot in front of the other, dealing with crisis that were similar to mine and they do. And they do it for their kids and they do it for their family and they do it without the kind of help I had. I was really lucky. I just had an awful lot of people to help me and they were my family. I'm not very good talking about it as you can see, but I know there is a continuum. I know that God is -- there's a giant piece of my deceased daughter, a giant piece of my deceased wife that is in me and in my children and in my wife.Despite such immense pain, Biden emerged as a kind, funny, friendly and personally engaging leader, who has built strong personal and professional relationships with Republicans such as John McCain, among others. To his credit, he has been a good friend of Israel over the years. He has been good on expanding democracies around the world. He was also right on the Georgia crisis, having long encouraged the expansion of NATO to include fledgling democracies.
I like Joe Biden. I like his love of family and country. I like that I can disagree with him but would still enjoy a good policy discussion over dinner. But I do disagree with him profoundly on most important issues. He is, after all, the third most liberal man in the Senate, according to National Journal. And when it comes to most epicenter issues, he is just plain wrong. He reminds me in many ways of President Jimmy Carter in the mid- to late-1970s -- kind, friendly, warm, engaging, but someone who often misunderstands the nature and threat of evil, particularly in the Middle East.
Consider a few of Biden's positions:
* Voted against the Gulf war in 1991 to liberate Kuwait
* Voted against the surge in Iraq in 2007 to defeat the Jihadists [Told the Boston Globe in the summer of 2007: The surge isn't going to work either tactically or strategically.]
* Opposes regime change in Iran. [Instead of regime change, we need to focus on conduct change. -- speech on Iran at the Iowa City Public Library on December 3, 2007]
* Believes in direct negotiations with Ahmadinejad
* Voted against a bill to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization
* Strongly opposes taking preemptive military action to neutralize Iran's nuclear weapons threat and has threatened to impeach President Bush if he bombs Iran
* Does not see Ahmadinejad's End Times theology as a serious problem. [My concern is not that a nuclear Iran some day would be moved by messianic fervor to use a nuclear weapon as an Armageddon device and commit national suicide in order to hasten the return of the Hidden Imam. My worry is that the fear of a nuclear Iran could spark an arms race in the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, and others joining in.-- speech on Iran at the Iowa City Public Library on December 3, 2007]
* In 1979, he shared Carter's starry-eyed belief that the fall of the shah in Iran and the advent of the ayatollahs represented progress for human rights, writes Amir Taheri, the former editor of one of the largest newspapers in Tehran and a respected analyst of the current regime. Throughout the hostage crisis, as US diplomats were daily paraded blindfolded in front of television cameras and threatened with execution, he opposed strong action against the terrorist mullahs and preached dialogue….For more than a decade, Biden has adopted an ambivalent attitude towards the Islamic Republic in Tehran, now emerging as the chief challenger to US interests in the Middle East. Biden's links with pro-Tehran lobbies in the US and his support for unconditional dialogue with the mullahs echo Obama's own wrong-headed promise to circumvent the current multilateral efforts by seeking direct US-Iran talks, excluding the Europeans as well as Russia and China.
Mideast running on different clocks at Ramadan By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer AUG 28,08
CAIRO, Egypt - The start of the holy month of Ramadan next week is causing clock confusion in the Middle East. Egypt and the Palestinians are falling back an hour far earlier than usual, trying to reduce daylight hours for Muslims fasting until sunset in sweltering summer temperatures. Politics is also adding a twist. The Palestinian militant group Hamas is ending daylight-saving time at midnight Thursday in the Gaza Strip, which it controls — while the West Bank, run by the rival Fatah faction, is waiting until midnight Sunday.The Palestinians have traditionally changed their clocks at different times from Israel in a gesture of independence. Now for the first time, they're directing the gesture at each other, reflecting the rival claims for power in the more than year-old split between the Palestinian territories.Hamas just wants to show they're different from the Palestinian government, to pretend that they are the real government here, said Jamal Zakout, a spokesman for the prime minister of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. He said the PA chose midnight Sunday because Ramadan is expected to begin Monday.Egypt will also move its clocks back one hour at midnight Thursday, a full month earlier than usual. The switch will put Egypt two hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time and at least an hour later than its Mideast neighbors.The creeping-up of the clock change reflects the complications of the lunar Islamic calendar.
Ramadan comes around 11 days earlier each year. Currently, that brings it more into the long, hot days of summer, making it particularly tough for Muslims, who abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset during the holy month. Even in September, temperatures in Egypt are in the upper 90s.Egypt's decision will enable its people to have their iftar evening meal, breaking the fast, an hour earlier.Israel goes off daylight-saving time on Oct. 5, before the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur. It won't reduce the length of the 25-hour fast, which goes from sunset to sunset, but makes it a bit easier by reducing the number of daytime hours observant Jews must go without food or water.Jordan and Lebanon will switch the clocks back as usual by the end of October. Syria falls back in late September, while Saudi Arabia and Iraq don't change clocks.Ramadan, which commemorates the revelation of the first verses of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad, begins and ends with the sighting of the new moon. During the month, families and friends gather for sometimes lavish iftar meals, ending with the Eid al-Fitr, a three-day holiday of the breaking of the fast.
Associated Press Writers Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City and Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah contributed to this report.
Palestinians should not linger in Lebanon: Abbas Thu Aug 28, 8:56 AM ET
BEIRUT (AFP) - Palestinian refugees in Lebanon should not be permanently resettled in the country, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Thursday after talks in Beirut with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman. The Palestinians have the right of return and this is an issue we are discussing with the Israelis, Abbas told a media conference after the meeting.We are against the resettlement of Palestinians in Lebanon, he added.An estimated 400,000 Palestinian refugees live in 12 camps in Lebanon. According to the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), there are around 4.6 million Palestinian refugees worldwide.Most of Palestinian refugees came to Lebanon when the state of Israel was created in 1948. There are fears among the Lebanese that their settlement will be permanent, shifting the country's delicate sectarian balance.Abbas said that any solution with Israel should be wide-ranging and address all issues.I told the president if we want to reach a solution with Israel, it should be a comprehensive one, Abbas told reporters.
It may not be easy, but we want to reach a political solution to our cause. It's important to us to end the occupation of the Golan and the Shebaa Farms, he added.
The Shebaa Farms, a mountainous sliver of land rich in water resources measuring 25 square kilometres (10 square miles), are located at the junction of southeast Lebanon, southwest Syria and northern Israel.Israel seized the Farms from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war when it captured the neighbouring Golan Heights which it later annexed.Israel and the Palestinians formally relaunched the peace process after a seven-year hiatus at a US-hosted conference last November, with the goal of signing a full peace deal by the time President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.But they have made little tangible progress on resolving the core issues of the conflict, including final borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of the millions of UN-registered Palestinian refugees.Abbas said he endorsed the Lebanese government's decision in 2006 that armed pro-Syrian Palestinian groups outside of the camps should be disarmed.We are with the decision of the Lebanese government in terms of Palestinian weapons... In Lebanon, we are under the law and not above it, Abbas said.The Palestinian camps in Lebanon are considered to be be unstable, with security incidents taking place frequently and extremist groups often taking advantage of the poor state of the camps.Last year the army fought a deadly 15-week battle against Fatah al-Islam, which adopted an ideology inspired by Al-Qaeda, in the northern refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared.More than 400 people, including 168 soldiers, were killed in the fighting which left the camp almost entirely destroyed.
Abbas, whose last visit to Beirut in 2004 was the first for a Palestinian official in 22 years, was during his two-day visit to meet Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and parliament speaker Nabih Berri as well as Palestinian officials.
Livni widens lead in race to replace Olmert Thu Aug 28, 6:33 AM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will easily win leadership elections in the ruling Kadima party to replace embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, poll results showed on Thursday. The survey in the daily Maariv showed Livni winning 49 percent of the votes among Kadima members, widening her lead over her closest party rival, Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz. The poll showed Mofaz receiving 28 percent.Support for two other candidates was in single figures. Previous polls showed Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, with a lead of 8-18 percentage points over former military chief Mofaz.The scandal-hit Olmert threw Israel into political turmoil that could hamstring Middle East peacemaking by announcing last month he would stand down as prime minister after a September 17 leadership contest.Olmert would remain caretaker prime minister until his successor builds a new coalition, and officials have questioned whether Livni would be able to put together a new government.Should the new Kadima leader be unable to form a coalition and snap elections were called, recent polls show Livni would be neck and neck in the vote with opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister from the rightist Likud party.Thursday's survey was taken among 400 Kadima voters with a margin of error of 4.9 percent.(Writing by Ari Rabinovitch; editing by Andrew Roche)
Israel reopens Gaza crossings after two-day closure Thu Aug 28, 4:58 AM ET
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel on Thursday reopened its border crossings with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, two days after they were shut in response to rocket attacks.
Palestinian officials said three of the main commercial crossings were opened but a fourth remained closed.Israel tightened its borders with the Gaza Strip after Hamas Islamists seized the enclave more than a year ago.A June ceasefire has largely ended border violence, but Gaza militants occasionally fire rockets into Israel. Israel usually responds by shutting the crossings the following day.(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Israeli peace pioneer Abie Nathan dies at 81 Wed Aug 27, 5:37 PM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Abie Nathan, an Israeli peace activist who blazed trails to Egypt and the Palestinians that his country would eventually follow, died on Wednesday. He was 81. Nathan famously piloted a private plane, dubbed Shalom (Peace) 1, to then enemy Egypt in 1966 and was twice imprisoned by Israel for meeting Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat in the late 1980s and early 1990s when such contacts were illegal.He was a great fighter against war, poverty and discrimination, Israeli President Shimon Peres said in a statement after Nathan's death in a Tel Aviv hospital.A former pilot for Israel's El Al airline and once the owner of a Tel Aviv restaurant that attracted the city's glitterati in the 1960s, the Iranian-born Nathan worked for decades to secure humanitarian aid for disaster areas worldwide.From 1973 to 1993 his Voice of Peace radio station, on a ship anchored off the Israeli coast, broadcast pop music and messages of peace in English, Hebrew and Arabic.Short of funds to continue to operate the station, he scuttled the vessel in 1993, the same year Israel and Arafat's PLO signed their first interim peace deal.Nathan suffered a severe stroke in 1997 and had been in ill health since.
Jordan reaches out to militant Hamas By JAMAL HALABY, Associated Press Writer Wed Aug 27, 3:41 PM ET
AMMAN, Jordan - In an about-face, Jordan is reaching out to the Hamas militant group amid fears that a collapse of Mideast peacemaking would bring an influx of refugees. But the U.S. ally must walk a delicate line to avoid angering its American and Israeli friends. Hamas is outlawed in Jordan, which has accused the group in the past of trying to destabilize the country. But Jordanian intelligence chief Mohammed al-Dahabi held two covert meetings with top Hamas leaders this month, ending a nearly decade-long banishment of the group.The talks don't mean Jordan, which signed a 1994 peace deal with Israel, is embracing the militant group or is turning its back on Arab-Israeli negotiations. But the kingdom has clearly decided it's better to rebuild a relationship with Hamas than keep shunning it as an enemy amid doubts over the peace process' future.We're at a crossroads and Jordan must protect itself and its national interests, former Jordanian parliament speaker Abdul-Latif Arabiyat said.Jordan fears that the possible failure of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks backed by the Bush administration, which leaves office early next year, could embolden Hamas in the neighboring West Bank, as well as Muslim extremists in Jordan and across the Mideast. Quiet contacts with Hamas could mollify any fallout for Jordan if that happens.Also, Jordan is worried a failure of talks will revive Israeli hardliner calls for ejecting West Bank Palestinians to Jordan, or for parts of the West Bank to form a confederation with the kingdom as an alternative to an independent state.
Jordan, which ruled the West Bank from 1950 to 1967, strongly opposes such a move, as do Hamas and other Palestinians. Jordan's worries are demographic: Roughly half of its 5.8 million population are of Palestinian descent, from families that were displaced to the kingdom in two wars with Israel since 1948. Jordan is ruled by an elite drawn from its native, Bedouin-rooted clans.Another flood of Palestinians could overwhelm Jordan and even spark civil unrest. In 1970, the Palestine Liberation Organization tried to overthrow Jordan's Hashemite monarchy by setting up a Palestinian government. But Jordan fought a bloody war, known as "Black September, as it evicted the PLO from its territory.Jordan's contacts with Hamas have already irked Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority controls the West Bank and has been battling to end Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip last year.Abbas sent his interior minister, Abdel Razak Yehiye, to Jordan last week to find out what the Jordanians are up to and if their contacts with Hamas meant dropping support for the Palestinian Authority, said an Amman-based Palestinian official, insisting on anonymity citing diplomatic sensitivities.Israeli Embassy spokesman Itai Bardov in Amman called Jordan's contacts with Hamas unhelpful to the peace process.We're against any negotiations with Hamas because we regard it as a terrorist movement, he said. We should find ways to strengthen the Palestinian Authority instead of legitimizing Hamas, which made an illegal military coup in Gaza.
The U.S. also considers Hamas a terror organization and has refused contact with it. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after meeting with Palestinian and Israeli leaders that there was hope for a Mideast peace deal, but she offered no reason for optimism beyond the fact that both sides are speaking.Mindful of its allies' worries, Jordan only reluctantly confirmed its meetings with Hamas, days after they occurred.State Minister for Information Nasser Judeh said Jordan wanted the meetings to continue, and that the discussions so far had focused only on pending security issues.Deputy Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk said the talks, headed by Hamas official Mohammed Nazzal, tackled a wide range of issues, including the plight of Palestinians under Israeli occupation, Jewish settlements in the West Bank and ways to confront a substitute homeland for the Palestinians in Jordan.With the meetings, Jordan may be hoping to help mend the Hamas-Abbas rift and boost the peace process, averting any talk of a Jordanian solution to the Palestinian question. It may also be trying to help in mediating a release of Israeli Sgt. Gilad Schalit, captured by Gaza militants more than two years ago. Abu Marzouk said the Jordanian intelligence chief inquired in the meetings about Schalit.The split between Jordan and Hamas dates back to 1999, when Jordan came under tremendous pressure from the U.S. and Israel because Hamas leaders on its soil were making statements disparaging peace and ties with Israel and America. Jordan ejected Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal and other top leaders for unspecified illegal activities,shut down Hamas offices and clamped down on lower-ranking members.
Hamas breaks Gaza school strike led by rival Fatah By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer Wed Aug 27, 2:40 PM ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The ruling Hamas movement replaced hundreds of striking teachers with its own supporters Wednesday, purging Gaza's schools of political rivals and deepening its control of this coastal territory. Labor strife this week disrupted the public school system at the start of the academic year and added to the misery in Gaza, which has suffered from international isolation and Israeli economic sanctions since the Islamic militants of Hamas violently seized power last year.The local teachers union, one of the last remaining strongholds of the Fatah movement in Gaza, called the strike to protest the transfer of dozens of educators to new schools. It said Hamas forced the transfers to give its supporters key posts in the education system.Hamas denied this, but then installed hundreds of new teachers almost immediately after the walkout began. Education Minister Mohammed Askoul estimated 2,000 of the 9,000 public school teachers had been replaced.Anybody who left their job will not be allowed to return, Askoul said. They have become irrelevant and cannot be trusted anymore as educators.The move ensures Gaza's education system will now be stacked with Hamas loyalists. While the group has said it will not impose its strict Islamic views on society, its control of classrooms is likely to change the tone of instruction and create more sympathy for the group's ideology among the territory's 250,000 public school students.The dispute caused widespread confusion this week. Many parents kept their children home. Some students appeared torn, going to school but skipping class.What's happening is a joke. We came to school and the teachers told us to go home, said Hussam Abdullah, 16, standing outside his school in Gaza City. But the new (Hamas) principal says if we don't go to school for a week, we'll be expelled.The Hamas regime in Gaza and the Fatah-dominated administration of President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank have been sharing the same educational curriculum and exams — one of the few areas the rivals had in common. But that could soon change.Abbas' government, which pays teachers' salaries, seized on the strike as a loyalty test.
Bassam Zakarneh, a union leader, said Abbas' government would fire teachers who accepted school promotions — because it indicated loyalty to Hamas.The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, an independent rights group, said the threat was effectively against any teacher who did not participate in the strike. Teachers in Gaza also saw the threat that way.This is a disaster, said Aly, a 47-year-old math teacher who declined to give his full name for fear of offending Hamas or Fatah. The big losers are me and my students.Wael, a 38-year-old physics teacher and Fatah loyalist, said he felt bullied into striking.My salary and future are tied to the side that pays me, he said. At the same time, I am afraid there'll be (Hamas) procedures taken against me. He declined to give his family name because he did not support the Fatah-led walkout and feared his pay would be cut.Associated Press writer Diaa Hadid in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
Russia Flexes Its Muscles in Mideast By ANDREW LEE BUTTERS / BEIRUT
Wed Aug 27, 11:50 AM ET
With Russian soldiers occupying swaths of the Republic of Georgia, one might have thought that Russian President Dmitri Medvedev would have more pressing matters than scooting off to the Black Sea summer resort town of Sochi. But last week Medvedev did just that for a pleasant - and possibly ominous - bit of business: entertaining Syria's President Bashar al Assad, one of the few world leaders who have flown to Russia's side during the Georgian crisis. The trip paid off for Assad when Russia agreed to strengthen military ties with Syria. According to the Russian press, Assad also offered to host advanced Russian missile systems on Syrian soil. The Syrian state media later denied that Damascus was offering to set up Russian rocket bases. But even rumors of such a deal look suspiciously like a Russian response to U.S. plans to set up a missile defense system in Poland, an agreement signed earlier this month at the height of the Georgian conflict and denounced by Russia. Moreover, the rejuvenated Russian-Syrian connection is just one example of how the so-called new Cold War between the U.S. and Russian is spreading to the Middle East, mapping itself onto the region's pre-existing conflicts, and complicating efforts to bring stability to a region that is on the verge of a new hot war. Since the Iraq war began in 2003, the Middle East has been split by its own not-so-cold war for regional domination between Iran and its allies (Syria, Hizballah and Hamas) and the U.S. and its allies (Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt). Though Russia has been a mostly peripheral player, it has often wound up on the opposite side of Washington. In 2005, Moscow agreed to help Iran develop a civilian nuclear reactor, infuriating the Bush administration, which claims that Iran's nuclear energy program is merely a cover for developing weapons. Russian also supplied Syria with weapons that wound up in the hands of Hizballah, the Lebanese anti-Israeli militant group. Israeli military sources say that these Russian weapons - especially advanced anti-tank rockets - were vital in enabling Hizballah to face down the Israeli army during its disastrous incursion into Lebanon in the summer of 2006.
These tensions are now likely to grow as Russia flexes its muscles in a region where the U.S. is vulnerable. For one thing, Russia sees fewer and fewer reasons to tread lightly around Israel. During the 2006 Lebanon war, Russia condemned Hizballah actions as terrorism, and afterwards claimed it had made efforts to prevent weapons sales to Syria from helping Hizballah. But the war in Georgia highlighted that Israel is itself in a kind of arms race with Russia. Israel was supplying the Georgian army with weapons and Israeli security companies were training Georgian soldiers. And recent Israeli press reports claim that Hizballah has set up Russian-made radar-guided air defense systems since the 2006 war in the eastern Bekaa Valley in order to shoot down Israeli jets. What's more, ever since the U.S. circulated a draft Security Council Resolution condemning Russia's Georgian invasion, Washington can expect scant Russian help at the United Nations to prevent Iran from developing nuclear technology. This could have dramatic consequences. Israeli officials have been implying that if the U.S. and the U.N. fail to halt the Iranian nuclear program, they will take matters into their own hands and launch air strikes against Iran. Of course, the new Cold War in the Middle East may end up amounting to no more than a passing chill. Assad's flirtation with Russia could be intended to strengthen Syria's hand in ongoing indirect peace talks with Israel through Turkish mediation. On the other hand, Syrian hardliners opposed to peace could see Russia's backing as one more strong argument for holding out against American and international pressure to recognize Israel. A disturbing sense of dÉjÀ vu adheres to all these alliances, arms races and nuclear programs. The Middle East was a major theater in the original Cold War. Before the Camp David Accords of 1978, Syria, Iraq and Egypt were all Soviet client states; indeed, Syria still has the aging Soviet-era fighter jets and tanks to prove it. And while all stayed quiet on the European front of the Cold War, it got pretty hot in the Middle East. In at least three major wars between Arabs and Israelis (in 1967, 1973 and 1982), the U.S. and the Soviet Union got to see how their weapons stacked up against those of their foe. As the chill spreads today, it's worth remembering that the Middle East is a region where conflicts too often don't stay on ice. View this article on Time.com
Egypt seeks to ease Lebanon-Israel tension Wed Aug 27, 4:27 AM ET
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Egyptian officials are trying to ease tension between Lebanon and Israel that has risen over an exchange of threats. Israel's prime minister warned last week that his country would hit back harder than in the 2006 war if Hezbollah guerillas attacked again. Hezbollah's leader answered back on Sunday, saying the response from his fighters would also be more fierce than in the monthlong war two years ago.Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, says he discussed Israel's threats with Lebanon's president during a visit to Beirut Wednesday.Aboul Gheit says Egyptian officials also urged Israel to avoid making such threats during meetings with visiting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday in Egypt.
Syria, Iran warm to Russia as US tensions grow By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer Tue Aug 26, 1:27 PM ET
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Syria's President Bashar Assad has publicly stepped up his outreach to old ally Russia in recent days, seeking aid to build up Syrian military forces and offering Moscow help in return — in an apparent effort to exploit a new Russian-American rift. U.S. officials have noticed: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Mideast leaders this week that they should worry about Syria's efforts to gain more sophisticated weapons.Syria's long-term aim, however, remains unclear, in part because Assad also continues to pursue peace efforts with Israel — a key U.S. and European goal — even as he makes overtures to Russia that are sure to antagonize the West. Syria has a long history of apparently contradictory diplomatic moves as it maneuvers to find options and balance its interests.Yet the latest Syrian moves feed directly into larger Western fears that the Russian-American standoff — prompted by Russia's invasion of Georgia — could lead Russia to provide more military and diplomatic aid to a host of countries and militant groups the United States sees as troublesome.The Russian move into Georgia has begun a tectonic shift in the (Mideast) region, said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert in the United States. It has emboldened Syria, Hezbollah and Iran to push harder against Israel and the U.S.Some military officials in Iran have, like the Syrians, openly supported Russian actions in Georgia, although Iran's Foreign Ministry called the clashes merely a result of miscalculations by powers and called for dialogue.
Some Iranian media have gone further, asserting Russia is now less likely to back U.S.-led efforts to pressure Iran to curb its nuclear program.The Russian ambassador to Iran, Alexander Sadovnikov, told the official IRNA news agency this weekend that Moscow won't support a new round of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran. But that position did not appear to be a direct result of the new Russia-U.S. tensions, because Russia often calls publicly for dialogue.Russia is never after a new (sanctions) resolution. We hope constant contacts between Iran and the IAEA (the U.N. nuclear agency) will lead to a realistic solution, guaranteeing that Iran is not after nuclear weapons technology, IRNA quoted the ambassador as saying.Lebanon's Hezbollah is another worry for the West and for Israel.The Iranian- and Syrian-backed militants have long hoped for weapons systems and greater diplomatic backing from Russia, Landis said, although there is no evidence Russia has shown more warmth toward Hezbollah lately.Hezbollah does not disclose its weapons sources, except to say they are bought on the international market. But it receives money and much hardware from Iran through Syria. Israel complained to Russia that Hezbollah used Russian anti-tank missiles in its war with Israel in 2006. Russia says its sales comply with international rules.For now, Syria is the most public example of Mideast fallout from the Georgian fight.Syria's bad negotiating position (with Israel) is leading it to look for more weapons and to try to grow more teeth before returning to the table with Israel, Landis said.
Both Iran and Syria have long-standing ties with Russia, leading some to play down the recent moves as having little significance. Russia has sold Syria weapons systems in the past, including the advanced surface-to-air Strelets system, and its warships already had been calling on Syria's northern port of Tartous. Many of Iran's weapons systems also have long come from Russian suppliers.Yet Assad clearly aimed for deeper ties during last week's Moscow visit.He asked Russia for weapons, and Moscow's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said his government was prepared to sell Syria arms with defensive character that would not upset the Mideast's strategic balance — a reference to Israel, which holds military superiority over its Arab neighbors.Syria reportedly is interested in air defense missile systems and aircraft. Notably, Assad also told the Russian business daily Kommersant that Syria was ready to cooperate with Russia in any way that can strengthen its security, including discussing deploying Iskander missile defense systems on Syrian territory to strengthen Russia's security. Assad also said Syria was ready in principle to help Moscow respond to the planned U.S. missile defense shield in Europe, although the Russians have not asked for such help, the newspaper said. As that news grabbed headlines in the Mideast, Syria's government swiftly denied that Assad had made such an offer to host Russian missiles on Syrian land, or even discussed it with Russia.
The swift denial apparently came because Syria does not want to overly antagonize the United States. Assad has long wanted to regain the strategic Golan Heights from Israel, and his only chance of that is through a peace deal with Israel. He has long sought more robust U.S. involvement in the negotiations with Israel, maintaining progress is unlikely without it. Syria is holding indirect low-level peace negotiations with Israel through Turkey, a U.S. ally.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
RICE STILL PRESSURES ISRAEL
Abbas to meet Bush in September: Palestinians AUG 26,08
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert next week and US President George W. Bush in September, a top official said onTuesday. President Abbas will hold talks with Prime Minister Olmert next week and he will meet President Bush in New York in September, senior Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei told AFP after talks between Abbas and visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.Qorei did not provide exact dates but the meeting between Abbas and Bush was expected to take place on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly meeting.Israel and the Palestinians have been holding regular negotiations aimed at resolving their decades-old conflict since peace talks were formally relaunched in November at an international conference hosted by Bush.
The talks have made little visible progress however, with the two sides remaining deeply divided on the core issues of the conflict, including final borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
Rice sees peace progress despite settlement growth by Lachlan Carmichael
AUG 26,08
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that Israeli settlements were not helpful to the peace process but joined Israeli and Palestinian leaders in saying talks are making progress. On her latest trip to the region aimed at encouraging the US-backed peace talks, Rice met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and the heads of the negotiating teams in a brief two-day visit.I think it's no secret, and I've said it to my Israeli counterparts, that I don't think the settlement activity is helpful to the process, Rice said after meeting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem.What we need now are steps that enhance confidence between the parties, and anything that undermines confidence between the parties ought to be avoided.
But she insisted that despite the difficulties, progress was being made in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.I believe that the parties have succeeded in moving their understandings of what needs to be achieved and indeed their positions somewhat closer together over this period of time, she said.So, we will continue to press ahead to get agreement, so that we know what is in Israel and what is in Palestine. That is ultimately the goal.Hours after Rice's arrival an Israeli watchdog group released a report saying that the construction of housing for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank had nearly doubled since last year.In the report published on Tuesday, the Peace Now group said the Israeli housing ministry initiated 433 new housing units during the period of January to May 2008, compared to just 240 units during the period January to May 2007.The number of tenders for construction in the settlements has meanwhile increased by 550 percent, from 417 housing units in the period surveyed compared to 65 units in the same period last year.In Arab east Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six Day War, the number of tenders has increased by a factor of 38, the group said, from just 46 units in 2007 to 1,761 in 2008.Israel considers the entire Holy City its eternal, undivided capital, a claim not recognised by the international community or the Palestinians, who have demanded east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
The international community considers all settlement projects in the Israeli-occupied territories to be illegal.Abbas said after his meeting with Rice in the West Bank city of Ramallah that he had again raised the issue of settlements, which still continue and which without a doubt are the main obstacle in the political process.He nevertheless insisted that the two sides were making progress, saying just because we have not yet succeeded does not mean we have failed.Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev stressed that the Israeli premier will continue efforts to reach a historic agreement by the end of the Bush administration.Livni for her part played down the impact of the settlement activity.I would like to suggest to my partners not to use it as an excuse and I know they are not using it as an excuse but I understand their frustration sometimes, she said at the joint news conference with Rice. There were some small activities but they will not influence the ability (to negotiate), nor the future borders of the Palestinian state, Livni said. Rice's 24-hour visit which concluded on Tuesday afternoon was her first since Olmert said on July 30 that he will resign to battle corruption charges after his Kadima party chooses a new leader in September. Livni, who leads Israel's negotiating team with the Palestinians, is a front-runner to replace him, as is Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, a hawkish former general. A senior Palestinian official, meanwhile announced that Abbas will meet Olmert next week before meeting US President George W. Bush in September.
Rice: peace deal still possible before Bush leaves By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer AUG 26,08
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that God willing there could still be a Mideast peace agreement before the end of President Bush's term in office. God willing and with the good will of the parties and the tireless work of the parties, we have a good chance of succeeding, Rice said at a joint news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.Rice was wrapping up a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories in hopes of furthering the announced goal of brokering a Mideast peace deal by year's end, but she has offered few specific signs of progress.I've had a series of very good discussions here, Rice said.She repeated the U.S. position that Israel should stop expanding settlements on disputed territory. Settlement activity is not conducive to creating an environment for negotiations, yet negotiations go on, she said.Abbas said the settlements are undoubtedly a main obstacle in the road of the peace process.We reject all the settlement activities in principle because they contradict with the agreements and the roadmap plan and the objectives of the U.S.-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Md. last November, Abbas said.He added, We have discussed the importance of reaching complete and comprehensive solutions, not partial solutions, Abbas said.
On Monday, Rice said she was heartened that talks were serious and intensive. The sides had hoped to reach a final peace deal before Bush leaves office in January, but have acknowledged that target is unlikely to be met.But Rice held out hope Tuesday that such an agreement was possible.We still have a number of months before us to work toward the Annapolis goal and we're going to do precisely that, Rice said.
Rice is on her seventh trip to the region since talks were relaunched. While Israel and the Palestinians say all key issues have been under discussion, there has been no word on agreements or breakthroughs.The talks have been complicated by the impending departure of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has said he will step down to battle a corruption investigation, and the Hamas militant group's control of the Gaza Strip.Israel says it cannot carry out any deal until Abbas regains control of Gaza from Hamas, which violently seized power in the coastal area in June 2007. It also says the moderate government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which rules from the West Bank, is not doing enough against militants operating in areas under his control.The Palestinians, meanwhile, have complained about continued Israeli construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — areas the Palestinians claim for a future independent state. Israel captured both areas in the 1967 Mideast war.Under the road map, the international peace plan that serves as the basis of the peace talks, Israel promised to halt all settlement construction. But it has continued to build thousands of homes in areas it hopes to retain under a final peace deal.The dovish Israeli group Peace Now released a report Tuesday saying that while talking peace with the Palestinians, Israel's government has dramatically ratcheted up its construction in the West Bank.Some 2,600 new homes for Israelis are currently under construction in the West Bank — an increase of 80 percent over last year, Peace Now said. In east Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of their future state, the number of new government bids for construction has increased from 46 in 2007 to 1,761 so far this year, the report said. Palestinians say the construction undermines the talks and prejudices a final peace deal. But Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel's chief negotiator, said the construction would not affect the peace talks. In the end of the day, the role of the leaders is to try to find a way to live in peace in the future, and not to let any kind of noises that relate to the situation on the ground these days to enter the negotiation room, she said. Earlier, Rice met alone with Olmert for an hour, discussing the peace process and other regional issues, said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev. Israel's government will continue our efforts to reach a historic agreement before the end of the Bush administration, Regev said.
Israeli settlement growth nearly doubles since 2007 Tue Aug 26, 5:32 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - The construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, seen as a major barrier to US-backed peace talks, has nearly doubled since 2007, an Israeli watchdog said Tuesday. In a report published during the visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the settlement watchdog Peace Now said settlement building in the first half of 2008 was double that in the same period last year.Construction in the settlements has increased by a factor of 1.8 by comparison to the same period last year, the group said, citing government statistics.The housing ministry initiated 433 new housing units during the period of January to May 2008, compared to just 240 units during the period January to May 2007, it said.Another 125 structures, including 30 permanent houses, have been built in the so-called outposts -- wildcat settlements considered illegal under Israel law which Israel is committed to removing as part of the peace process.The report said around 1,000 new buildings are currently being constructed in settlements in the occupied West Bank which will include around 2,600 housing units.The number of tenders for construction in the settlements has meanwhile increased by 550 percent, from 417 housing units in the period surveyed compared to 65 units in the same period last year.
In mostly Arab east Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six Day War, the number of tenders has increased by a factor of 38, the group said, from just 46 units in 2007 to 1,761 in 2008.Israel considers the entire Holy City its eternal, undivided capital, a claim not recognised by the international community or the Palestinians, who have demanded east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.The international community considers all Israeli settlements in the occupied territories to be illegal, and the Palestinians view the settlements as the main obstacle to reaching a full peace agreement.There is a deliberate policy aimed at making a separation with the Palestinians impossible and this will risk forcing us to live in a single bi-national state, Yariv Oppenheimer, the head of Peace Now, told AFP.The findings were released as Rice was holding meetings with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials in a bid to encourage peace talks formally relaunched in November at a conference hosted by US President George W. Bush.They have vowed to try to reach a full agreement by the time Bush leaves office in January 2009 but the talks have made little visible progress and have been marred by violence in the Gaza Strip and Israeli settlement expansions.
Israel shuts Gaza crossings because of rocket fire Tue Aug 26, 2:18 AM ET
JERUSALEM - Israel has ordered the Gaza Strip's border crossings closed after militants violated a cease-fire by launching two rockets. Israel has increased the trickle of humanitarian aid going into Gaza since a cease-fire took hold with Gaza's Hamas rulers in June.But Tuesday's order by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak follows a policy of closing the crossings briefly in response to each truce violation by militants.The Israeli military says Gaza gunmen launched two rockets Monday evening, causing no damage or casualties. The military says Monday's fire brought to 46 the number of rockets launched by militants since the truce began.
No militant group claimed responsibility for the rockets. Hamas itself has been holding its fire in line with the truce.
Israel releases 198 Palestinian prisoners as Rice visits By Mohammed Assadi
Mon Aug 25, 2:15 PM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israel freed nearly 200 Palestinian prisoners to a hero's welcome in the West Bank on Monday, seeking to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began a new peace mission. Making her seventh visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories this year in the long-shot U.S. effort to secure a peace agreement by December, Rice welcomed the release as something that matters a lot to the Palestinians.She said she still aimed for a peace deal before President George W. Bush leaves office in January but played down chances of any partial accord in time for the September U.N. General Assembly.It's extremely important just to keep making forward progress rather than trying prematurely to come to some set of conclusions, Rice told reporters as she flew to Tel Aviv.We continue to have the same goal which is to reach agreement by the end of the year, Rice said. She added later Washington was not pressuring the sides to bridge the gaps, and acknowledged it would be hard to strike a deal this year.
Earlier, several thousand Palestinians, many of them waving flags of Abbas's Fatah faction, turned out at the Palestinian Authority compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah to welcome the 198 prisoners, including four women, released by Israel.
There is no doubt that we seek peace and we are trying to seek our goals -- and there won't be peace without the release of all prisoners, Abbas said at the celebration.Some 11,000 Palestinians are in Israeli prisons and securing their release is a highly emotive issue in Palestinian society, which regards them as symbols of resistance to occupation.The longest-serving Palestinian prisoner in Israeli custody, Said al-Atabeh, 57, was among those freed. This is a great joy for our mothers and our people but it remains a small step because we left behind us thousands of prisoners, Atabeh said.Atabeh was arrested in 1977 and sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of involvement in bombings that killed an Israeli woman and wounded dozens of people.It's not easy to release prisoners, especially prisoners that were involved directly in terrorist acts against innocent civilians, said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
BUILDING CONFIDENCE
About half of the prisoners on a release list published by Israel were to have completed their sentences next year, but 43 had at least five more years to serve. Offences listed next to prisoners' names ranged from stone-throwing to shooting attacks.Regev said Israel was making a confidence-building gesture to Abbas that could boost Fatah after it lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas Islamists last year. The release, Regev said, could serve to strengthen the peace process.Few analysts believe Rice, who on Tuesday will see Olmert in Jerusalem, Abbas in Ramallah and hold a three-way meeting with their chief peace negotiators, can secure a major breakthrough.Progress towards a peace deal has been hampered by violence, Israeli settlement expansion and political uncertainty in Israel stemming from a corruption scandal involving Olmert.In remarks on Friday, Israel's chief negotiator, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, cautioned against any outside pressure to paper over differences or try to achieve a deal that would fall short of the comprehensive agreement that we want to reach.Livni is seen as the frontrunner in a Kadima party race to replace Olmert, undermined by the corruption scandal. He has said he would resign after his successor is chosen. Olmert could stay on for months as caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed, although many doubt that as a lame duck leader he would be able to put a peace deal in motion. Speaking after Rice met separately with Livni and Ahmed Qurie, the chief Palestinian negotiator, a U.S. official said the Bush administration would work methodically toward a peace deal rather than making a dramatic, last-minute push. We would not want to do that at the expense of losing the progress that is being made, the official, who asked not to be named, told reporters. (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Tel Aviv, Writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Editing by Diana Abdallah)
Syria-Israel talks focused on border: Moualem By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
Mon Aug 25, 2:01 PM ET
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel are focused on the thorny issue of how much Syrian territory is under Israeli occupation, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Monday. In the first official comment on the content of the talks, which began in May under Turkish mediation, Moualem said the two sides were seeking agreement on land Syria controlled before Israel occupied the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war.We feel that the two sides are serious about solving the lingering issues that are being discussed. Foremost is determination of the June 4, 1967 line, Moualem told reporters after meeting his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner.Nearly a decade of U.S.-supervised negotiations between Syria and Israel collapsed in 2000 over the extent of a proposed Israeli withdrawal from the Golan, a water-rich plateau.Syria argued then that it was in control before the 1967 war of parts of the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, on the edge of the Golan, and that these parts should be returned to Syria.Israel captured the whole eastern shore along with the surrounding plateau in the war. The shoreline has since receded.Moualem would not be drawn on the exact territorial lines Syria considers its borders. Control of the shoreline has been a major point of contention between the two sides, especially as Israel uses the lake as its main reservoir.The late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, father of the current president, seeking to prove the land belonged to Syria, told former U.S. President Bill Clinton he used to swim in the Sea of Galilee before 1967. He refused to sign a deal he considered fell short of liberating the whole of the Golan.
NEXT ROUND
President Bashar al-Assad, shaped by his father's struggle with the Jewish state, has said Israel must withdraw from every inch of the Golan.Israel, in turn, wants Syria to cut ties with its main adversaries -- the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.Assad said during a visit to Moscow last week that the next round of indirect talks with Israel, expected to begin on Wednesday, could prove crucial.Moualem said the talks, four rounds of which have been held in Turkey since May, would remain indirect for the time being.Unfortunately there has not been enough progress for the talks to become direct, he added.Syrian foreign policy has focused on the Golan since its forced withdrawal of troops from Lebanon in 2005 after 29 years. The talks with Israel have helped Syria start to re-engage with the West after years of isolation over its role in Lebanon.France's Kouchner said on Monday he was content that Syria would exchange ambassadors with Lebanon before the end of the year after Assad and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman made a joint announcement on opening diplomatic ties this month.France has led European efforts to persuade Damascus to establish normal sovereign relations with its smaller neighbor, including the first formal diplomatic ties since the two states were carved out of the old Ottoman Empire in 1920.(Editing by Catherine Evans)
U.N. troops calm Lebanon, but tensions remain By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent Mon Aug 25, 9:46 AM ET
SHAQRA, Lebanon (Reuters) - French soldiers take off their body armor but keep their FAMAS rifles slung over their backs before moving off on a leisurely foot patrol through this pro-Hezbollah Shi'ite Muslim village in south Lebanon. The troops, wearing the blue berets of U.N. peacekeepers, chat with shopkeepers in Shaqra, trying to win local friends without abandoning military muscle to deter would-be assailants.What I hope to do here is instill confidence, Lieutenant Colonel Marc Ollier, commander of the French contingent in the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), told Reuters.Without firing a shot in anger, U.N. troops have imparted a degree of stability that has enabled rebuilding and revival in a region wrecked by Israel's war with Hezbollah two years ago.The 13,000-strong force, whose mandate is up for renewal by the Security Council on Wednesday, says it has kept the area south of the Litani river free of any visible armed Hezbollah activity and helped the Lebanese army establish itself there.But the calm in UNIFIL's 2,500 square km (965 square mile) zone also owes much to decisions by Israel and its Shi'ite guerrilla foes not to renew hostilities which ceased on August 14, 2006 after a 34-day war seen by most Israelis as a failure.Tensions still simmer in a region festooned with yellow Hezbollah flags and posters of Imad Moughniyah, an undercover leader of the group assassinated in Syria in February -- Hezbollah has blamed Israel and promised earthshaking revenge.Many Lebanese reproach UNIFIL for failing to secure an Israeli pullout from the Lebanese side of the divided village of Ghajar or a halt to daily Israeli military overflights.
ARMS SMUGGLING
Israel chides the peacekeepers for not stopping weapons it says are flowing to Hezbollah guerrillas who might again shower northern Israel with rockets as they did during the 2006 war.I don't believe Hezbollah's weapons figure in Resolution 1701," said Ollier, citing the Security Council measure that expanded UNIFIL in 2006 and gave it tougher rules of engagement.The resolution speaks of keeping armed men and illicit weapons out of the UNIFIL zone. So we monitor that, but disarming an armed militia is not in 1701, Ollier added.UNIFIL has no mandate to interfere north of the Litani or control the border with Syria, the main transit route for Hezbollah weaponry. It does, however, patrol Lebanese waters.The French, with 13 Leclerc battle tanks and 1,400 troops, operate alongside Spanish and Italian units that have injected a strong European element into UNIFIL, while Germany has played a significant role in a U.N. naval force of about a dozen ships.Their political value outweighs their military prowess, according to former UNIFIL spokesman Timor Goksel.
The participation of some main European countries in UNIFIL gave this robust atmosphere, he said. It gives UNIFIL today much more political clout than the United Nations itself.They (Israel and Hezbollah) can all challenge the UN, but they are not going to challenge the French, the Germans, the Italians, the Spanish -- this is the strength of UNIFIL.Conversely, Goksel argued, if serious trouble did erupt, UNIFIL's diverse contingents would be unable to act together and could do nothing without Lebanon's consent under 1701. So far, no major crisis has tested UNIFIL's mettle. We've been able to restore peace and stability, said its deputy spokesman, Andrea Tenenti. We've been a huge deterrent for the restarting of any kind of hostilities. We haven't witnessed any rearming of armed elements here in the south.
TARGET FOR BOMBERS
Nevertheless, at least three bomb attacks have targeted UNIFIL since 2006, including one that killed six soldiers in the Spanish contingent last year -- the main suspects are Sunni Islamist militants inspired by al Qaeda, not Hezbollah. Such dangers complicate the task of Ollier and other UNIFIL commanders who must balance the safety of their troops against the importance of cultivating good relations with local people. I have to protect my soldiers and fulfill my mission, Ollier said. That is the big difficulty for e here.Excessive security measures can doom any peacekeeping mission, especially one in such a sensitive, suspicious region.
"When you go behind your walls, your barbed wire and just move in aggressive mechanized convoys, you lose contact with the people, Goksel said. In the long run that's very dangerous because in south Lebanon, that contact is your best security.
UNIFIL troops stage more than 400 patrols a day, sometimes jointly with the Lebanese army -- which deployed up to 12,000 troops in the south after the war, but then shrank the number to 6,500 to tackle violence elsewhere, a security source said. To bolster local support, the peacekeepers also carry out humanitarian work ranging from cluster bomb clearance and small reconstruction projects to medical, dental and veterinary care. In the Shi'ite village of Qabrikha, Staff Sergeant Herve Fleury, head of a French civil-military affairs team, delivered a final check to the mayor for repair of a water cistern, now marked out with a volleyball court for the dry summer months. This reservoir will benefit 150 families who grow olives and tobacco, responded the mayor, a surgeon named Hassan Hijazi. It means a lot for Qabrikha, the economy and sport.Hijazi said UNIFIL had achieved 80 percent success with local people and there was no enmity, noting that French troops will play volleyball against Qabrikha youngsters this week. Then, reflecting Hezbollah's line, he reiterated complaints about UNIFIL's efficacy. People don't understand why they can't stop the Israeli violations by land, sea and air, he said. The Lebanese government, which has requested renewal of the peacekeepers' mandate, shares this frustration, but Tenenti, the deputy spokesman, said UNIFIL could only use diplomatic means. The U.N. troops have at least created a buffer in south Lebanon that all sides have found useful since the 2006 war. UNIFIL is managing the conflict, preventing violence from continuing, Goksel said. That's important, but the solution is not going to come from UNIFIL. Someone has to work on a solution because all the causes of the conflict are still there.(Editing by Sami Aboudi)
Hezbollah chief threatens to destroy Israel Sun Aug 24, 2:24 PM ET
BEIRUT (AFP) - Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Sunday to destroy Israel if it carries out threats to hit Lebanon should the government give greater legitimacy to the Shiite militant group. If (a war) were to happen as they are threatening, our victory this time will be decisive, unquestionable and final, Nasrallah said in a televised address marking the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Hezbollah-sponsored Al-Mahdi Scouts.A number of Israeli leaders have issued warnings to Lebanon in recent days after the formation of a national unity government in which the Hezbollah-led opposition has 11 ministries and the power of veto over cabinet decisions.The moment the Lebanese government confers legitimacy on Hezbollah, it must understand that the entire Lebanese state will be a target in the same way that all of Israel is a target for Hezbollah, Environment Minister Gideon Ezra said on Wednesday.Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made similar remarks the previous day, warning that Israel would fight a far more devastating campaign than in the 2006 war if Hezbollah led the government.Nasrallah branded these statements as scare tactics and psychological warfare on the Lebanese, saying they were an internal necessity in Israel.There are currently elections within Kadima (Israel's ruling political party) and each candidate is trying to portray himself as the leader and the saviour of Israel, he said.Nasrallah said Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak had threatened to wage a land operation with five Israeli military units.The five units will be destroyed in our mountains and valleys and homes and villages, Nasrallah said.And with it will be destroyed your country that is violating our sacred land.Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating 34-day war in the summer of 2006 which left over 1,200Lebanese dead, mostly civilians and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers killed.
The Israeli bombardment of Lebanon at the time centered mostly on Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon and the southern suburb of Beirut, but the military did hit civilian infrastructure, including the main international airport, roads, bridges and a power station.Israel has always said that such instances were exceptions to an attack that was solely focused on Hezbollah and was initially aimed only at recovering two Israeli soldiers seized in a deadly cross-border raid on July 12, 2006 which sparked the conflict.
Israel denies Olmert to visit Egypt next week Sat Aug 23, 11:31 AM ET
CAIRO (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to meet President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt on Tuesday, an Egyptian official said on Saturday, but a spokesman for the premier later denied the report. An Egyptian presidency source said that Olmert will arrive Tuesday in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria for talks with the president to discuss regional issues and bilateral relations.But Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said that the premier did not plan to visit Egypt next week.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak was nevertheless scheduled to travel to Alexandria on Tuesday to meet Mubarak and Egyptian security chief Omar Suleiman.
The talks are expected to focus on the fragile two-month old ceasefire in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and Egyptian-mediated efforts to secure a deal to release an Israeli servicemen held by Hamas for more than two years in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians jailed in Israel.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert next week and US President George W. Bush in September, a top official said onTuesday. President Abbas will hold talks with Prime Minister Olmert next week and he will meet President Bush in New York in September, senior Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei told AFP after talks between Abbas and visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.Qorei did not provide exact dates but the meeting between Abbas and Bush was expected to take place on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly meeting.Israel and the Palestinians have been holding regular negotiations aimed at resolving their decades-old conflict since peace talks were formally relaunched in November at an international conference hosted by Bush.
The talks have made little visible progress however, with the two sides remaining deeply divided on the core issues of the conflict, including final borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
Rice sees peace progress despite settlement growth by Lachlan Carmichael
AUG 26,08
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that Israeli settlements were not helpful to the peace process but joined Israeli and Palestinian leaders in saying talks are making progress. On her latest trip to the region aimed at encouraging the US-backed peace talks, Rice met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and the heads of the negotiating teams in a brief two-day visit.I think it's no secret, and I've said it to my Israeli counterparts, that I don't think the settlement activity is helpful to the process, Rice said after meeting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem.What we need now are steps that enhance confidence between the parties, and anything that undermines confidence between the parties ought to be avoided.
But she insisted that despite the difficulties, progress was being made in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.I believe that the parties have succeeded in moving their understandings of what needs to be achieved and indeed their positions somewhat closer together over this period of time, she said.So, we will continue to press ahead to get agreement, so that we know what is in Israel and what is in Palestine. That is ultimately the goal.Hours after Rice's arrival an Israeli watchdog group released a report saying that the construction of housing for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank had nearly doubled since last year.In the report published on Tuesday, the Peace Now group said the Israeli housing ministry initiated 433 new housing units during the period of January to May 2008, compared to just 240 units during the period January to May 2007.The number of tenders for construction in the settlements has meanwhile increased by 550 percent, from 417 housing units in the period surveyed compared to 65 units in the same period last year.In Arab east Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six Day War, the number of tenders has increased by a factor of 38, the group said, from just 46 units in 2007 to 1,761 in 2008.Israel considers the entire Holy City its eternal, undivided capital, a claim not recognised by the international community or the Palestinians, who have demanded east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
The international community considers all settlement projects in the Israeli-occupied territories to be illegal.Abbas said after his meeting with Rice in the West Bank city of Ramallah that he had again raised the issue of settlements, which still continue and which without a doubt are the main obstacle in the political process.He nevertheless insisted that the two sides were making progress, saying just because we have not yet succeeded does not mean we have failed.Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev stressed that the Israeli premier will continue efforts to reach a historic agreement by the end of the Bush administration.Livni for her part played down the impact of the settlement activity.I would like to suggest to my partners not to use it as an excuse and I know they are not using it as an excuse but I understand their frustration sometimes, she said at the joint news conference with Rice. There were some small activities but they will not influence the ability (to negotiate), nor the future borders of the Palestinian state, Livni said. Rice's 24-hour visit which concluded on Tuesday afternoon was her first since Olmert said on July 30 that he will resign to battle corruption charges after his Kadima party chooses a new leader in September. Livni, who leads Israel's negotiating team with the Palestinians, is a front-runner to replace him, as is Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, a hawkish former general. A senior Palestinian official, meanwhile announced that Abbas will meet Olmert next week before meeting US President George W. Bush in September.
Rice: peace deal still possible before Bush leaves By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer AUG 26,08
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that God willing there could still be a Mideast peace agreement before the end of President Bush's term in office. God willing and with the good will of the parties and the tireless work of the parties, we have a good chance of succeeding, Rice said at a joint news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.Rice was wrapping up a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories in hopes of furthering the announced goal of brokering a Mideast peace deal by year's end, but she has offered few specific signs of progress.I've had a series of very good discussions here, Rice said.She repeated the U.S. position that Israel should stop expanding settlements on disputed territory. Settlement activity is not conducive to creating an environment for negotiations, yet negotiations go on, she said.Abbas said the settlements are undoubtedly a main obstacle in the road of the peace process.We reject all the settlement activities in principle because they contradict with the agreements and the roadmap plan and the objectives of the U.S.-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Md. last November, Abbas said.He added, We have discussed the importance of reaching complete and comprehensive solutions, not partial solutions, Abbas said.
On Monday, Rice said she was heartened that talks were serious and intensive. The sides had hoped to reach a final peace deal before Bush leaves office in January, but have acknowledged that target is unlikely to be met.But Rice held out hope Tuesday that such an agreement was possible.We still have a number of months before us to work toward the Annapolis goal and we're going to do precisely that, Rice said.
Rice is on her seventh trip to the region since talks were relaunched. While Israel and the Palestinians say all key issues have been under discussion, there has been no word on agreements or breakthroughs.The talks have been complicated by the impending departure of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has said he will step down to battle a corruption investigation, and the Hamas militant group's control of the Gaza Strip.Israel says it cannot carry out any deal until Abbas regains control of Gaza from Hamas, which violently seized power in the coastal area in June 2007. It also says the moderate government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which rules from the West Bank, is not doing enough against militants operating in areas under his control.The Palestinians, meanwhile, have complained about continued Israeli construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — areas the Palestinians claim for a future independent state. Israel captured both areas in the 1967 Mideast war.Under the road map, the international peace plan that serves as the basis of the peace talks, Israel promised to halt all settlement construction. But it has continued to build thousands of homes in areas it hopes to retain under a final peace deal.The dovish Israeli group Peace Now released a report Tuesday saying that while talking peace with the Palestinians, Israel's government has dramatically ratcheted up its construction in the West Bank.Some 2,600 new homes for Israelis are currently under construction in the West Bank — an increase of 80 percent over last year, Peace Now said. In east Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of their future state, the number of new government bids for construction has increased from 46 in 2007 to 1,761 so far this year, the report said. Palestinians say the construction undermines the talks and prejudices a final peace deal. But Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel's chief negotiator, said the construction would not affect the peace talks. In the end of the day, the role of the leaders is to try to find a way to live in peace in the future, and not to let any kind of noises that relate to the situation on the ground these days to enter the negotiation room, she said. Earlier, Rice met alone with Olmert for an hour, discussing the peace process and other regional issues, said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev. Israel's government will continue our efforts to reach a historic agreement before the end of the Bush administration, Regev said.
Israeli settlement growth nearly doubles since 2007 Tue Aug 26, 5:32 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - The construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, seen as a major barrier to US-backed peace talks, has nearly doubled since 2007, an Israeli watchdog said Tuesday. In a report published during the visit of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the settlement watchdog Peace Now said settlement building in the first half of 2008 was double that in the same period last year.Construction in the settlements has increased by a factor of 1.8 by comparison to the same period last year, the group said, citing government statistics.The housing ministry initiated 433 new housing units during the period of January to May 2008, compared to just 240 units during the period January to May 2007, it said.Another 125 structures, including 30 permanent houses, have been built in the so-called outposts -- wildcat settlements considered illegal under Israel law which Israel is committed to removing as part of the peace process.The report said around 1,000 new buildings are currently being constructed in settlements in the occupied West Bank which will include around 2,600 housing units.The number of tenders for construction in the settlements has meanwhile increased by 550 percent, from 417 housing units in the period surveyed compared to 65 units in the same period last year.
In mostly Arab east Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six Day War, the number of tenders has increased by a factor of 38, the group said, from just 46 units in 2007 to 1,761 in 2008.Israel considers the entire Holy City its eternal, undivided capital, a claim not recognised by the international community or the Palestinians, who have demanded east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.The international community considers all Israeli settlements in the occupied territories to be illegal, and the Palestinians view the settlements as the main obstacle to reaching a full peace agreement.There is a deliberate policy aimed at making a separation with the Palestinians impossible and this will risk forcing us to live in a single bi-national state, Yariv Oppenheimer, the head of Peace Now, told AFP.The findings were released as Rice was holding meetings with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials in a bid to encourage peace talks formally relaunched in November at a conference hosted by US President George W. Bush.They have vowed to try to reach a full agreement by the time Bush leaves office in January 2009 but the talks have made little visible progress and have been marred by violence in the Gaza Strip and Israeli settlement expansions.
Israel shuts Gaza crossings because of rocket fire Tue Aug 26, 2:18 AM ET
JERUSALEM - Israel has ordered the Gaza Strip's border crossings closed after militants violated a cease-fire by launching two rockets. Israel has increased the trickle of humanitarian aid going into Gaza since a cease-fire took hold with Gaza's Hamas rulers in June.But Tuesday's order by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak follows a policy of closing the crossings briefly in response to each truce violation by militants.The Israeli military says Gaza gunmen launched two rockets Monday evening, causing no damage or casualties. The military says Monday's fire brought to 46 the number of rockets launched by militants since the truce began.
No militant group claimed responsibility for the rockets. Hamas itself has been holding its fire in line with the truce.
Israel releases 198 Palestinian prisoners as Rice visits By Mohammed Assadi
Mon Aug 25, 2:15 PM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israel freed nearly 200 Palestinian prisoners to a hero's welcome in the West Bank on Monday, seeking to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began a new peace mission. Making her seventh visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories this year in the long-shot U.S. effort to secure a peace agreement by December, Rice welcomed the release as something that matters a lot to the Palestinians.She said she still aimed for a peace deal before President George W. Bush leaves office in January but played down chances of any partial accord in time for the September U.N. General Assembly.It's extremely important just to keep making forward progress rather than trying prematurely to come to some set of conclusions, Rice told reporters as she flew to Tel Aviv.We continue to have the same goal which is to reach agreement by the end of the year, Rice said. She added later Washington was not pressuring the sides to bridge the gaps, and acknowledged it would be hard to strike a deal this year.
Earlier, several thousand Palestinians, many of them waving flags of Abbas's Fatah faction, turned out at the Palestinian Authority compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah to welcome the 198 prisoners, including four women, released by Israel.
There is no doubt that we seek peace and we are trying to seek our goals -- and there won't be peace without the release of all prisoners, Abbas said at the celebration.Some 11,000 Palestinians are in Israeli prisons and securing their release is a highly emotive issue in Palestinian society, which regards them as symbols of resistance to occupation.The longest-serving Palestinian prisoner in Israeli custody, Said al-Atabeh, 57, was among those freed. This is a great joy for our mothers and our people but it remains a small step because we left behind us thousands of prisoners, Atabeh said.Atabeh was arrested in 1977 and sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of involvement in bombings that killed an Israeli woman and wounded dozens of people.It's not easy to release prisoners, especially prisoners that were involved directly in terrorist acts against innocent civilians, said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
BUILDING CONFIDENCE
About half of the prisoners on a release list published by Israel were to have completed their sentences next year, but 43 had at least five more years to serve. Offences listed next to prisoners' names ranged from stone-throwing to shooting attacks.Regev said Israel was making a confidence-building gesture to Abbas that could boost Fatah after it lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas Islamists last year. The release, Regev said, could serve to strengthen the peace process.Few analysts believe Rice, who on Tuesday will see Olmert in Jerusalem, Abbas in Ramallah and hold a three-way meeting with their chief peace negotiators, can secure a major breakthrough.Progress towards a peace deal has been hampered by violence, Israeli settlement expansion and political uncertainty in Israel stemming from a corruption scandal involving Olmert.In remarks on Friday, Israel's chief negotiator, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, cautioned against any outside pressure to paper over differences or try to achieve a deal that would fall short of the comprehensive agreement that we want to reach.Livni is seen as the frontrunner in a Kadima party race to replace Olmert, undermined by the corruption scandal. He has said he would resign after his successor is chosen. Olmert could stay on for months as caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed, although many doubt that as a lame duck leader he would be able to put a peace deal in motion. Speaking after Rice met separately with Livni and Ahmed Qurie, the chief Palestinian negotiator, a U.S. official said the Bush administration would work methodically toward a peace deal rather than making a dramatic, last-minute push. We would not want to do that at the expense of losing the progress that is being made, the official, who asked not to be named, told reporters. (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Tel Aviv, Writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Editing by Diana Abdallah)
Syria-Israel talks focused on border: Moualem By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
Mon Aug 25, 2:01 PM ET
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel are focused on the thorny issue of how much Syrian territory is under Israeli occupation, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Monday. In the first official comment on the content of the talks, which began in May under Turkish mediation, Moualem said the two sides were seeking agreement on land Syria controlled before Israel occupied the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war.We feel that the two sides are serious about solving the lingering issues that are being discussed. Foremost is determination of the June 4, 1967 line, Moualem told reporters after meeting his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner.Nearly a decade of U.S.-supervised negotiations between Syria and Israel collapsed in 2000 over the extent of a proposed Israeli withdrawal from the Golan, a water-rich plateau.Syria argued then that it was in control before the 1967 war of parts of the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, on the edge of the Golan, and that these parts should be returned to Syria.Israel captured the whole eastern shore along with the surrounding plateau in the war. The shoreline has since receded.Moualem would not be drawn on the exact territorial lines Syria considers its borders. Control of the shoreline has been a major point of contention between the two sides, especially as Israel uses the lake as its main reservoir.The late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, father of the current president, seeking to prove the land belonged to Syria, told former U.S. President Bill Clinton he used to swim in the Sea of Galilee before 1967. He refused to sign a deal he considered fell short of liberating the whole of the Golan.
NEXT ROUND
President Bashar al-Assad, shaped by his father's struggle with the Jewish state, has said Israel must withdraw from every inch of the Golan.Israel, in turn, wants Syria to cut ties with its main adversaries -- the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.Assad said during a visit to Moscow last week that the next round of indirect talks with Israel, expected to begin on Wednesday, could prove crucial.Moualem said the talks, four rounds of which have been held in Turkey since May, would remain indirect for the time being.Unfortunately there has not been enough progress for the talks to become direct, he added.Syrian foreign policy has focused on the Golan since its forced withdrawal of troops from Lebanon in 2005 after 29 years. The talks with Israel have helped Syria start to re-engage with the West after years of isolation over its role in Lebanon.France's Kouchner said on Monday he was content that Syria would exchange ambassadors with Lebanon before the end of the year after Assad and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman made a joint announcement on opening diplomatic ties this month.France has led European efforts to persuade Damascus to establish normal sovereign relations with its smaller neighbor, including the first formal diplomatic ties since the two states were carved out of the old Ottoman Empire in 1920.(Editing by Catherine Evans)
U.N. troops calm Lebanon, but tensions remain By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent Mon Aug 25, 9:46 AM ET
SHAQRA, Lebanon (Reuters) - French soldiers take off their body armor but keep their FAMAS rifles slung over their backs before moving off on a leisurely foot patrol through this pro-Hezbollah Shi'ite Muslim village in south Lebanon. The troops, wearing the blue berets of U.N. peacekeepers, chat with shopkeepers in Shaqra, trying to win local friends without abandoning military muscle to deter would-be assailants.What I hope to do here is instill confidence, Lieutenant Colonel Marc Ollier, commander of the French contingent in the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), told Reuters.Without firing a shot in anger, U.N. troops have imparted a degree of stability that has enabled rebuilding and revival in a region wrecked by Israel's war with Hezbollah two years ago.The 13,000-strong force, whose mandate is up for renewal by the Security Council on Wednesday, says it has kept the area south of the Litani river free of any visible armed Hezbollah activity and helped the Lebanese army establish itself there.But the calm in UNIFIL's 2,500 square km (965 square mile) zone also owes much to decisions by Israel and its Shi'ite guerrilla foes not to renew hostilities which ceased on August 14, 2006 after a 34-day war seen by most Israelis as a failure.Tensions still simmer in a region festooned with yellow Hezbollah flags and posters of Imad Moughniyah, an undercover leader of the group assassinated in Syria in February -- Hezbollah has blamed Israel and promised earthshaking revenge.Many Lebanese reproach UNIFIL for failing to secure an Israeli pullout from the Lebanese side of the divided village of Ghajar or a halt to daily Israeli military overflights.
ARMS SMUGGLING
Israel chides the peacekeepers for not stopping weapons it says are flowing to Hezbollah guerrillas who might again shower northern Israel with rockets as they did during the 2006 war.I don't believe Hezbollah's weapons figure in Resolution 1701," said Ollier, citing the Security Council measure that expanded UNIFIL in 2006 and gave it tougher rules of engagement.The resolution speaks of keeping armed men and illicit weapons out of the UNIFIL zone. So we monitor that, but disarming an armed militia is not in 1701, Ollier added.UNIFIL has no mandate to interfere north of the Litani or control the border with Syria, the main transit route for Hezbollah weaponry. It does, however, patrol Lebanese waters.The French, with 13 Leclerc battle tanks and 1,400 troops, operate alongside Spanish and Italian units that have injected a strong European element into UNIFIL, while Germany has played a significant role in a U.N. naval force of about a dozen ships.Their political value outweighs their military prowess, according to former UNIFIL spokesman Timor Goksel.
The participation of some main European countries in UNIFIL gave this robust atmosphere, he said. It gives UNIFIL today much more political clout than the United Nations itself.They (Israel and Hezbollah) can all challenge the UN, but they are not going to challenge the French, the Germans, the Italians, the Spanish -- this is the strength of UNIFIL.Conversely, Goksel argued, if serious trouble did erupt, UNIFIL's diverse contingents would be unable to act together and could do nothing without Lebanon's consent under 1701. So far, no major crisis has tested UNIFIL's mettle. We've been able to restore peace and stability, said its deputy spokesman, Andrea Tenenti. We've been a huge deterrent for the restarting of any kind of hostilities. We haven't witnessed any rearming of armed elements here in the south.
TARGET FOR BOMBERS
Nevertheless, at least three bomb attacks have targeted UNIFIL since 2006, including one that killed six soldiers in the Spanish contingent last year -- the main suspects are Sunni Islamist militants inspired by al Qaeda, not Hezbollah. Such dangers complicate the task of Ollier and other UNIFIL commanders who must balance the safety of their troops against the importance of cultivating good relations with local people. I have to protect my soldiers and fulfill my mission, Ollier said. That is the big difficulty for e here.Excessive security measures can doom any peacekeeping mission, especially one in such a sensitive, suspicious region.
"When you go behind your walls, your barbed wire and just move in aggressive mechanized convoys, you lose contact with the people, Goksel said. In the long run that's very dangerous because in south Lebanon, that contact is your best security.
UNIFIL troops stage more than 400 patrols a day, sometimes jointly with the Lebanese army -- which deployed up to 12,000 troops in the south after the war, but then shrank the number to 6,500 to tackle violence elsewhere, a security source said. To bolster local support, the peacekeepers also carry out humanitarian work ranging from cluster bomb clearance and small reconstruction projects to medical, dental and veterinary care. In the Shi'ite village of Qabrikha, Staff Sergeant Herve Fleury, head of a French civil-military affairs team, delivered a final check to the mayor for repair of a water cistern, now marked out with a volleyball court for the dry summer months. This reservoir will benefit 150 families who grow olives and tobacco, responded the mayor, a surgeon named Hassan Hijazi. It means a lot for Qabrikha, the economy and sport.Hijazi said UNIFIL had achieved 80 percent success with local people and there was no enmity, noting that French troops will play volleyball against Qabrikha youngsters this week. Then, reflecting Hezbollah's line, he reiterated complaints about UNIFIL's efficacy. People don't understand why they can't stop the Israeli violations by land, sea and air, he said. The Lebanese government, which has requested renewal of the peacekeepers' mandate, shares this frustration, but Tenenti, the deputy spokesman, said UNIFIL could only use diplomatic means. The U.N. troops have at least created a buffer in south Lebanon that all sides have found useful since the 2006 war. UNIFIL is managing the conflict, preventing violence from continuing, Goksel said. That's important, but the solution is not going to come from UNIFIL. Someone has to work on a solution because all the causes of the conflict are still there.(Editing by Sami Aboudi)
Hezbollah chief threatens to destroy Israel Sun Aug 24, 2:24 PM ET
BEIRUT (AFP) - Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Sunday to destroy Israel if it carries out threats to hit Lebanon should the government give greater legitimacy to the Shiite militant group. If (a war) were to happen as they are threatening, our victory this time will be decisive, unquestionable and final, Nasrallah said in a televised address marking the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Hezbollah-sponsored Al-Mahdi Scouts.A number of Israeli leaders have issued warnings to Lebanon in recent days after the formation of a national unity government in which the Hezbollah-led opposition has 11 ministries and the power of veto over cabinet decisions.The moment the Lebanese government confers legitimacy on Hezbollah, it must understand that the entire Lebanese state will be a target in the same way that all of Israel is a target for Hezbollah, Environment Minister Gideon Ezra said on Wednesday.Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made similar remarks the previous day, warning that Israel would fight a far more devastating campaign than in the 2006 war if Hezbollah led the government.Nasrallah branded these statements as scare tactics and psychological warfare on the Lebanese, saying they were an internal necessity in Israel.There are currently elections within Kadima (Israel's ruling political party) and each candidate is trying to portray himself as the leader and the saviour of Israel, he said.Nasrallah said Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak had threatened to wage a land operation with five Israeli military units.The five units will be destroyed in our mountains and valleys and homes and villages, Nasrallah said.And with it will be destroyed your country that is violating our sacred land.Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating 34-day war in the summer of 2006 which left over 1,200Lebanese dead, mostly civilians and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers killed.
The Israeli bombardment of Lebanon at the time centered mostly on Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon and the southern suburb of Beirut, but the military did hit civilian infrastructure, including the main international airport, roads, bridges and a power station.Israel has always said that such instances were exceptions to an attack that was solely focused on Hezbollah and was initially aimed only at recovering two Israeli soldiers seized in a deadly cross-border raid on July 12, 2006 which sparked the conflict.
Israel denies Olmert to visit Egypt next week Sat Aug 23, 11:31 AM ET
CAIRO (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to meet President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt on Tuesday, an Egyptian official said on Saturday, but a spokesman for the premier later denied the report. An Egyptian presidency source said that Olmert will arrive Tuesday in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria for talks with the president to discuss regional issues and bilateral relations.But Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said that the premier did not plan to visit Egypt next week.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak was nevertheless scheduled to travel to Alexandria on Tuesday to meet Mubarak and Egyptian security chief Omar Suleiman.
The talks are expected to focus on the fragile two-month old ceasefire in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and Egyptian-mediated efforts to secure a deal to release an Israeli servicemen held by Hamas for more than two years in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians jailed in Israel.
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