Israeli PM to visit US next week By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press - 11:45AM OCT 31,10
JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister said Sunday he will head to the U.S. next week to discuss Mideast peace talks with Vice President Joe Biden, in a possible sign of movement for the troubled diplomatic process.Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in late September over renewed Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank, and U.S. and Israeli officials have been working feverishly since then in hopes of finding a formula to revive the negotiations.
Announcing the trip to his Cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu gave no indication on whether the sides were any closer to a breakthrough.I will discuss with them a series of issues, including — of course — the resumption of the diplomatic process in order to reach a peace agreement with security for the future of the state of Israel, he said.President Barack Obama will be in Asia when Netanyahu visits, so the Israeli leader will meet with Biden instead. The meeting is to take place in New Orleans, where both men are scheduled to address a conference of Jewish American leaders.Obama has made Middle East peace a focus of his foreign policy agenda, and he personally launched the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks, the first in nearly two years, on Sept. 2.
But the negotiations quickly stalled after the expiration of an Israeli slowdown on construction in West Bank settlements, throwing into question Obama's ambitious target of brokering a peace deal by September 2011.Netanyahu says the 10-month slowdown, which expired on Sept. 26, was a one-time gesture meant to draw the Palestinians to the negotiating table. He has refused to renew the moratorium, and construction has already begun on some 600 homes throughout the West Bank.Population growth among Jewish settlers in the West Bank was more than double the rest of the Israeli population in the first half of 2010, according to statistics released by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics.From January to June, the Jewish settler population rose 7,200 to 303,900. This year's growth is projected at 4.8 percent, compared to 1.8 percent growth expected for the general Israeli population.Previous statistical reports have shown that most settler growth is attributable to births, not to people moving to the settlements. The current report gave no breakdown.The Palestinians say there is no point in negotiating if Israel continues to build on the territories Palestinians claim for their future state. Netanyahu said last week that settlement construction would not affect the eventual peace map.The U.S. has been trying to persuade Israel to renew the settlement curbs by offering a package of security or diplomatic guarantees. But so far, an acceptable formula hasn't been reached.The 22-member Arab League is set to meet in mid-November to determine with the Palestinians whether the talks should continue.Netanyahu heads to the U.S. next Sunday in the wake of what authorities say was a failed attempt by al-Qaida operatives in Yemen to send a pair of bombs to Chicago-area synagogues.We are facing a wave of extremist Islamic terror that is increasing, both in the breadth of its attacks and in the brazenness of directing it to the nations of the world — and also of course in the growing number of weapons provided by global terror leaders, he said.Netanyahu told his Cabinet that one of the central themes of his address in New Orleans would be "the steps that the cultured world, the free world, need to take to stop this wave that is threatening all of us.
Israeli Jews at odds with liberal brethren in US By ARON HELLER, Associated Press – Sun Oct 31, 7:45 am ET
JERUSALEM – When Hillary Rubin immigrated from the U.S. to Israel, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and descendant of a famed Zionist visionary felt that she had finally arrived in her true home.But now that religious authorities are questioning the 29-year-old Michigan native's Jewish pedigree and refusing to recognize her marriage, she's having second thoughts.Rubin is at the center of a deepening rift between the world's two biggest Jewish communities — the American and Israeli. Religious life in Israel is dominated by the strict ultra-Orthodox establishment, which has growing political power and has become increasingly resistant to any inroads by the more liberal movements that predominate among American Jews.Many Americans — whose faith is seen by the ultra-Orthodox as blurred by intermarriage and fading adherence to tradition — are feeling rejected and unwelcome.I feel like I am caught in the middle of these two worlds, said Rubin, who was raised in a liberal Jewish home in a Detroit suburb. On the one hand I'm far too traditional for American society. On the flip side, I am not religious enough for the rabbinate in Israel.It's a far cry from the days when American Jews looked to Israel as a source of pride and inspiration and Israel could rely on America's Jews as a source of unconditional moral support and fundraising. With ultra-Orthodox Jews the fastest growing sector in Israel, often holding the balance of power in coalition governments, open strains between the communities are now far more common.Over the summer, a proposed law that would have consecrated the Orthodox monopoly over conversion in Israel caused an uproar among Diaspora Jews. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to shelve the bill in hopes of finding a compromise.Last week, American and Israeli Jewish leaders held a conference in Jerusalem aiming at ironing out their differences. But the closed-door sessions were tense and all sides stuck to their positions, said one participant, American Rabbi Jerome Epstein, of the Conservative movement.He warned that the conflict could tear the people apart if no compromise is found.There are a lot of Americans who normally would not get involved in Israeli politics but who are saying, What you are doing is delegitimizing me. It is not enough to want my support and want my money, you have to be willing to recognize me as a human being and as a Jew,and they feel that is not happening, he said.
The two communities are at odds over everything from religious rituals to gender roles. But the issues of marriage and conversion most concretely raise concern among American Jews that they are judged as not Jewish enough for Israel.The more liberal Reform and Conservative movements, which dominate American Jewish life, are more inclusive toward converts and inter-faith marriages. More than half of American Jews marry outside the faith.Chelsea Clinton's marriage last summer to Marc Mezvinsky, who is Jewish, showed just how well assimilated U.S. Jews have become. Many American Jews were quietly proud of their homegrown son, who, in a skullcap and prayer shawl, wed the former First Daughter in a ceremony performed by a Reform Rabbi and a Protestant minister.But to many in Israel, Mezvinsky seemed to break more than a glass at the wedding. The inter-faith ceremony — held on the Sabbath in violation of Jewish law, to boot — encapsulated fears that assimilation is emptying the religion of content and devastating its numbers.In Israel, despite its secular majority, ultra-Orthodox rabbis strictly govern Jewish practices such as weddings, burials or conversions and only allow them for those who meet Orthodox definitions of a Jew. Israel grants citizenship to any Jew — Reform, Conservative or Orthodox — but once in Israel, many who consider themselves Jewish cannot get married or have a Jewish burial.Rubin's story shows just how deep the gulf has become.When she went to the Orthodox rabbinate to register for a marriage certificate, the authorities wouldn't accept the documents she produced or the assurances of her American rabbi that she was indeed Jewish, despite her famous lineage.The government only recognizes Orthodox marriage and Israel has no civil marriage. So after holding an informal ceremony with a Conservative rabbi, Rubin and her fiance — who is also Jewish — were forced to officially tie the knot in nearby Cyprus to be recognized as married in Israel. It terrifies me that this is the direction we are going. This is not a democratic Jewish state. It is becoming a tyrannical Jewish state, said Rubin, whose great-uncle was Nahum Sokolow, one of the pioneers of early 20th century Zionism. Seth Farber, an Orthodox rabbi and director of a group that helps Israelis navigate the rabbinical bureaucracy, said the threshold for proving one's Judaism has risen alongside the rise in ultra-Orthodox power.The biggest danger is that the Israeli body politic will allow the Jewish people to be disenfranchised by giving the ultra-Orthodox all the keys to Jewish identity,he said. The majority of Israelis appear at odds with their religious authorities.According to a recent survey conducted for Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, 63 percent of Israelis believe those converted by non-Orthodox rabbis should be regarded as Jews. The Shiluv pollster questioned a random selection of 507 Israelis and gave a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.
But Moshe Gafni, an ultra-Orthodox lawmaker whose party is a key coalition member in Netanyahu's government, vows that Israel will not allow what he calls Chelsea Clinton-like weddings and make-it-up-as-you-go Judaism.We are not saying that someone who is Reform or Conservative is not Jewish. But they can't change the order of things here in Israel,he said. The average Israeli wants the country to abide by the Jewish tradition ... You can't take the things most sacred to us and tear them to shreds.
First luxury hotel to open in Ramallah
by Joseph Krauss – Sun Oct 31, 4:30 am ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The opening of Ramallah's first five-star hotel on Monday will mark another small step in the West Bank town's steady march towards something resembling normal life.But its sixth-floor executive lounge looks out on a panorama of unresolved issues that cloud the economic outlook -- a built-up Israeli settlement on a nearby hilltop, a Palestinian refugee camp down below and the hazy skyline of distant Jerusalem beyond a grim separation wall.The Movenpick Hotel Ramallah, a locally owned franchise of the Swiss-based chain, is aimed primarily at corporate clients and has been billed as yet another indication that the occupied West Bank is open for business.The past is the past. We believe in the future of the country and the future of this hotel. It's a beautiful investment and an opportunity for Ramallah, says general manager Daniel Roche.The 40-million-dollar hotel includes 171 rooms and suites, an outdoor pool, fitness centre and seven conference rooms. The main restaurant has an Italian chef and a downstairs cigar bar that will serve up 20-year aged whiskeys.It will cater to the entrepreneurs, aid workers and diplomats who have flocked to Ramallah in recent years as security has improved following the 2000-2005 Palestinian uprising.A string of chic new bars and restaurants have already turned the town into an easy-going Palestinian approximation of Tel Aviv, the transformation underpinned by technocratic reforms and a massive influx of foreign aid.It has all happened at a time of pervasive pessimism over the peace process, which sputtered back to life in early September only to stall three weeks later with the expiry of a partial Israeli settlement moratorium.
That has Palestinian officials and investors -- many of whom have vivid memories of past periods of calm collapsing into renewed chaos -- casting a wary eye on the latest signs of prosperity.Many point out the Movenpick was first conceived during the halcyon early years of the peace process in the 1990s but frozen by the unrest that followed.Without political progress, security and economic progress is not sustainable, Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib says.This is what we have learned from the 43-year history of the occupation.The International Monetary Fund has also urged caution, warning recent double-digit economic growth has been mainly driven by the four billion dollars in foreign aid the Palestinian Authority has received since 2007.In September it warned the West Bank's growth was shaped more by Israeli restrictions than comparative economic advantage and was bound to decline if Israel did not take further steps to improve movement and access.Let's keep it in perspective, says Maher Hamdan, CEO of the Palestine Trade Centre, or Paltrade, which represents more than 320 local businesses.The potential for economic growth and attracting investment would be an order of magnitude of what it is today if you really had a peace process.Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American businessman who launched a shopping mall and supermarket chain in 2004 and now runs a consulting firm specialising in start-ups, says the appearance of normal economic life can be deceiving.These are investors who have taken a leap of faith with the conviction the occupation will end, he says. So they are willing to wait out their investment hoping that they will be well-positioned, once the occupation ends, to be the first movers on the market... They are investing in the future, and that's a high risk."
Although Israel has lifted several of the hundreds of checkpoints and roadblocks it maintains across the territory, trade remains difficult, and economic activity is heavily restricted in the more than 60 percent of the West Bank that is fully governed by the Israeli military.Another few cafes, another few hotels, is not going to build an economic foundation for statehood,Bahour says.What will is borders, water, land, and the ability of Palestinians to trade directly with the outside world.Even high-profile projects like the Movenpick routinely encounter difficulties and delays in importing goods into the territory. Every single piece that had to be imported for the hotel was subject to Israeli procedures at the crossings, and these delayed work,says Talal Nasreddin, one of the owners of the Movenpick Hotel Ramallah.That has meant, among other things, that the Movenpick will not immediately be able to offer the chain's trademark ice cream.We are working on that, and we will definitely one day have ice cream, Roche, the general manager, says. It's a long process.
Islamic Jihad slams peace talks at mass Gaza rally
By Adel Zaanoun – Fri Oct 29, 3:32 pm ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement called on Friday for an end to peace talks with Israel and celebrated armed struggle at a rally in Gaza City attended by tens of thousands of supporters.Today we sound the alarm and warn that there will be a third Nakba (Catastrophe) because of the determination to pursue the path of negotiations with the enemy, the group's exiled leader Ramadan Shalah told the crowd.He was referring to the 1948 war that attended Israel's creation, in which some 750,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from the new Jewish state, and the 1967 Six Day War in which Israel captured the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.The situation demands the complete withdrawal from the negotiations with the enemy, ending the Palestinian divide and uniting behind jihad and resistance, Shalah said by telephone from his base in Damascus.Supporters waving Palestinian flags and the black banners of the hardline group packed Gaza City's Kuteiba Square as senior officials gave speeches beneath massive portraits of slain Palestinian leaders from different groups.Senior officials from Haamas and other factions walked across a large Israeli flag on the way to their seats at the rally, in which supporters chanted: Death, death to America! Death, death to Israel! Islamic Jihad claimed more than 100,000 people attended the event but the number could not be independently verified.
The rally came just days after the 15th anniversary of the assassination of Islamic Jihad's founder Fathi Shiqaqi, who was killed in Malta in an attack blamed on Israel's Mossad spy agency.The armed group, which is smaller and more radical than the Islamist Hamas movement ruling the territory, carried out several suicide bombings inside Israel during the 2000-2005 Palestinian uprising.In more recent years it was behind many of the near-daily rocket attacks fired from Gaza that prompted Israel to launch a devastating offensive against the territory in December 2008.It has pointedly refused to take part in a Hamas-declared period of calm since the end of the offensive in January 2009.The 22-day Israeli operation killed some 1,400 Palestinians and flattened entire neighbourhoods of Gaza. Thirteen Israelis were killed in the fighting.Both Islamic Jihad and Hamas are sworn to the destruction of Israel, but they sometimes differ on tactics.Since the Gaza war ended, Islamic Jihad has accused Hamas on a number of occasions of arresting its members and of trying to prevent them from firing rockets.
Israel: UNESCO West Bank decision absurd By Ian Deitch, Associated Press – Fri Oct 29, 12:10 pm ET
JERUSALEM – A decision by the U.N. body in charge of preserving historical sites to define West Bank shrines sacred to both Jews and Muslims as Palestinian is absurd, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday.One of the sites, in the city of Hebron, has been a flashpoint for decades. Jews call it the Cave of the Patriarchs, where the Bible says the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were buried along with three of their wives.Muslims call it the al-Ibrahimi mosque, reflecting the fact that Abraham is considered the father of both Judaism and Islam.Netanyahu issued a statement condemning the UNESCO decision which was made last week.The attempt to detach the people of Israel from its heritage is absurd, the statement said. If the places where the fathers and mothers of the Jewish nation are buried, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Leah and Rachel some 4,000 years ago are not part of the Jewish heritage then what is? Hebron is a West Bank flashpoint because it is the only place where Jews live among Palestinians. About 500 Israeli settlers, some of them extremists, live in enclaves near the disputed holy site, guarded by Israeli soldiers who control part of the city of about 170,000 Palestinians.
Earlier this year Israel registered the Hebron shrine as well as a tomb near Jerusalem, believed to be the burial site of the Matriarch Rachel, as national heritage sites.Both shrines are located in the West Bank, territory the Palestinians want as part of their future state. Palestinians view the additions of the shrines to Israel's heritage list as a land grab.It is regrettable that the organization established to promote historical heritage sites worldwide is trying for political reasons to detach the ties between the Jewish people and their heritage, Netanyahu's statement said.The state of Israel in contrast to its neighbors will continue to preserve freedom of religion at these sites and preserve them for future generations,he said.
Syria flouts Lebanon sovereignty, arms militants: U.S.
By Louis Charbonneau and Patrick Worsnip – Thu Oct 28, 4:56 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States launched a diplomatic assault on Syria at the United Nations on Thursday, accusing it of joining forces with Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas to destabilize and undermine Lebanon.The harsh comments from U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, who accused Syria of arming Hezbollah and flouting Lebanese sovereignty and independence, were immediately dismissed by her Syrian counterpart, who said Rice had her facts wrong.Rice's remarks at the world body, where more subtle and indirect criticism is the norm, come amid growing fears Lebanon is headed for a political crisis over pending indictments by a U.N. tribunal expected to implicate Hezbollah in the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.Syria especially has displayed flagrant disregard for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and political independence of Lebanon, Rice told reporters as the U.N. Security Council held closed-door discussions on Lebanon.Syria continues to provide increasingly sophisticated weapons to Lebanese militias, including Hezbollah, despite (Security Council) resolution 1680, which calls on Syria to undertake measures against the movement of arms into Lebanese territory, she said.Hezbollah remained the most significant and most heavily armed Lebanese militia, Rice said, adding it could not have achieved this without Syrian aid in acquiring Syrian and Iranian weapons.Like its Middle East ally Israel, which fought an indecisive war against Hezbollah in 2006, Washington has become increasingly worried about Lebanon in recent months.Washington's frustration comes despite U.S. efforts to push relations with Damascus onto a better track, partly to win greater Syrian buy-in to what it hopes will eventually be moves toward a comprehensive Middle East peace deal.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moualem in New York in September and Washington still hopes to place an ambassador in Damascus, but improvement will depend on Syria's future actions, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.There's a choice here for Syria, he said.
HYPER-DANGEROUS SITUATION
Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari dismissed Rice's allegations about Syria facilitating arms smuggling into Lebanon. He also criticized U.N. Secretary-Ban Ki-moon's latest report on Lebanon for saying U.N. peacekeepers there cannot verify that no new arms are flowing into southern Lebanon.What Ambassador Rice said is ... in full contradiction with a lot of facts related to the positive developments within Lebanon as well as within the whole area, he said. Ambassador Rice gave credibility to wrong facts.A U.N. special envoy on Lebanon, Norwegian diplomat Terje Roed-Larsen, told reporters that if the Lebanese situation is destabilized I am afraid that it will have rippling effects across the region.This is the most critical issue of international peace and security today, he said, adding that all parties in the region should stop all irresponsible and reckless rhetoric.Lebanon is more conflicted every day, Roed-Larsen said, adding that the combination of armed militias and inflammatory rhetoric created a hyper-dangerous situation.He declined to say who was supplying Hezbollah's weapons but said they were not coming from the moon.Rice also accused Iran of working to undermine Lebanon's independence and endanger its stability.
Damascus' decision to issue arrest warrants for 33 senior Lebanese officials and foreign nationals was another example of Syrian violation of Lebanese sovereignty and breach of Syrian pledges to respect its neighbor's independence, Rice added. The warrants were for alleged false testimony to investigators in the Hariri probe. Lebanon has come close to fresh turmoil since reports surfaced the U.N. court will indict members of the Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah -- something diplomats say could happen early next year.Hezbollah, part of Lebanon's national unity government, has denounced the court as a tool of U.S. and Israeli policy. Its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, urged all Lebanese on Thursday to boycott the probe and accused investigators of sending information to Israel.The tribunal issued a statement on Wednesday condemning what it described as an attack on its staff in Beirut and said it would not be deterred in its inquiry.(Editing by Jerry Norton)
Egypt backs Palestinian demands as peace impasse persists
by Nasser Abu Bakr – Thu Oct 28, 4:18 pm ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit Thursday said there had been no breakthrough in efforts to revive Middle East peace talks on a rare visit to the West Bank.Abul Gheit, who was accompanied by Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, reiterated Arab support for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's demand that Israeli settlement building be frozen ahead of fresh talks.The goal is to achieve the Palestinian demand, which has Arab support, for a complete halt to settlements in order to clear the way for a return to negotiations, Abul Gheit told reporters after meeting with Abbas in Ramallah.We are still working with the Americans and the Israelis, but until now there has not been the desired breakthrough.Abbas told the same news conference he was still mulling alternative paths to statehood, including an appeal to the United Nations, but said his first choice would be to return to the negotiations launched in September.We have discussed our options and we have said that these are consecutive options, but our first option is to return to direct negotiations if Israel halts all settlement activity, Abbas said.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later reiterated his opposition to the Palestinians going to the United Nations.We expect the Palestinians to fulfil their obligations and negotiate directly, seriously, in good faith and without preconditions, his office quoted him as saying.
Any attempt to circumvent the process and go to international organisations will not lead to progress in a true peace process, Netanyahu said, adding he hoped to return to talks soon.The two senior Egyptian officials had flown by helicopter from Amman, where they met with Jordan's King Abdullah II, who also called for a settlement freeze.Unilateral and provocative actions, particularly settlement building, should stop in order to create the right environment for the talks, the king said, according to a palace statement.More international and regional efforts are needed to achieve progress in efforts seeking to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Failure will create more tension and violence in the Middle East, he warned.Later, Netanyahu, meeting with visiting US Senator Joe Lieberman, played down the importance of ongoing settlement construction.We have to get past the current obstacle placed by the Palestinians, which is not fundamental to any agreement because the building in Judea and Samaria will not affect the final peace map, Netanyahu said, referring to the West Bank by its biblical names.After more than a year of US-led shuttle diplomacy, the latest round of direct talks was launched in Washington early last month in the presence of US President Barack Obama, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah.But the negotiations ground to a halt three weeks later when a 10-month partial moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank expired.Arab foreign ministers have given Washington until early November to resolve the impasse before they meet to discuss alternatives to the negotiations, but there has been little sign of progress in recent weeks.The Palestinians view the presence of 500,000 Israelis in more than 120 settlements scattered across the occupied West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, as a major obstacle to the establishment of their promised state. Israel has so far refused to renew the moratorium and insisted the thorny issue of Jewish settlements be resolved as part of a final peace deal.
Israel: Nigeria weapons heading for Gaza Strip By JON GAMBRELL and IAN DEITCH, Associated Press – Thu Oct 28, 1:02 pm ET
LAGOS, Nigeria – Israeli officials said Thursday that the military-grade armaments seized at a shipping terminal in Nigeria came from Iran and were bound for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.The military officials would not provide evidence to support their claims, citing security concerns. However, the information initially appeared to conflict with claims by Nigerian customs officials that the weaponry, which included 107 mm artillery rockets, were to be brought into the oil-rich West African nation.The Israeli officials spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity as they were not allowed to speak with journalists.Iran remains a bitter enemy of Israel and supports Islamic militant groups in Lebanon and Gaza that are in a state of war with the Jewish state. In the winter of 2008, Israel launched a military campaign against Iran-backed militants in Gaza in an attempt to stop years of almost daily rocket attacks on southern Israel.Ismail Radwan, a Hamas leader in Gaza, denied the weapons were headed to Gaza.Agents with Nigeria's secretive State Security Service discovered the weapons Tuesday hidden inside of 13 shipping containers dropped off at Lagos' busy Apapa Port. Journalists allowed to see the weapons Wednesday saw 107 mm rockets, rifle rounds and other items labeled in English. Authorities said the shipment also contained grenades, explosives and possibly rocket launchers, but journalists did not see them.
Wale Adeniyi, a spokesman for Nigeria's Customs Service, said Thursday that the MV CMA-CGM Everest dropped the weapons off in July. Adeniyi said the ship last stopped at Mumbai's Jawaharlal Nehru Port before coming to Nigeria.The spokesman said security officials became suspicious of the containers as the shipment did not have proper documentation. However, it initially appeared that the cargo was to have remained in Nigeria, he said.The containers have been on ground since July. There have been some attempts to clear them for importation into Nigeria, Adeniyi said. We understand later that there was an application to re-export them.The Everest, a cargo ship registered in the Marshall Islands, is chartered by CMA-CGM, a shipping company based in France. In a statement released Thursday, CMA-CGM said the containers holding the weapons were owned by the firm that shipped them. The shipping company said the manifest for the weapons described the shipment as packages of glasswool and pallets of stone.The containers were supplied, loaded and sealed by the shipper, delivered to the port of loading for transportation and remained sealed during the whole transportation process, CMA-CGM's statement read. The seals were fully intact upon discharge in Nigeria.The company declined to comment further, other than to say it has cooperated with Nigerian security services.
In the hands of highly trained troops, the 107 mm artillery rockets can accurately hit targets as far as eight and a half kilometers away, killing everything within about 40 feet. Fighters in Afghanistan and Iraq have used similar rockets against U.S. troops.China, the United States, and Russia manufacture versions of the rocket, as does Iran — which calls the weapon a Katyusha rocket. In 2006, the Islamic militant group Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 Katyusha rockets across Israel's northern border, some of which fell as far as 55 miles (90 kilometers) inside Israel.
The weapons seizure comes as Nigeria, an OPEC-member nation that is one of the top crude oil suppliers to the U.S., approaches what could be a highly contested presidential election next year. Security remains a concern in Nigeria as it continues to see targeted killings allegedly committed by a radical Islamic sect in the north and the threat of new violence in its oil-rich southern delta.Associated Press Writer Ian Deitch reported from Jerusalem.
Israel traded 52 prisoners for missing soldier's gun: report
– Thu Oct 28, 12:37 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel traded 52 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners to the Hezbollah militia in exchange for the gun of an Israeli airman who went missing in southern Lebanon in 1986, a newspaper said on Thursday.Details of the December 2000 deal were revealed by the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper, which said it was a secret part of negotiations to release three soldiers and a businessman captured in separate incidents that year.The ArmaLite AR-7 rifle, a light firearm designed to be used as a survival weapon, was carried by Ron Arad when his plane went down over southern Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war.With our hands shaking, we opened the package, compared the serial number, and when it turned out the numbers corresponded, we called (Arad's wife) Tami, one of the officials involved in the operation told the paper.Eight years of indirect talks mediated by a German intelligence official failed to secure Arad's release and his whereabouts remains unknown.After his plane went down, Arad was captured by Amal, another Shiite movement headed by Nabih Berri, who is now speaker of the Lebanese parliament.Two years ago, Hezbollah turned over previously-unseen photographs and excerpts from a diary Arad kept until 1987 as part of another prisoner exchange deal.It also provided a report saying Arad was dead, which Israel dismissed, vowing to continue the search for him.
Arad has been a cause celebre for decades in Israel, where bringing home lost or captured soldiers is considered a sacred duty.Israel has in the past agreed to several deals that have involved trading hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners for captured soldiers and the remains of troops killed in battle.Yediot Aharonot said the 52 prisoners were included in the 2004 prisoner exchange for the four captured Israelis, which saw Israel release a total of 400 Palestinian prisoners and dozens more from Lebanon and other Arab states.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
TURKEY SLAMS ISRAEL
Turkish group slams Israeli praise of Gaza boat raid
– Wed Oct 27, 1:18 pm ET
ANKARA (AFP) – A Turkish rights group denounced Wednesday the praises showered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the naval commandos whose raid on a Gaza-bound aid boat killed nine Turks.Netanyahu's insolence has no limits, Bulent Yildirim, head of the Islamic charity IHH (Foundation of Humanitarian Relief), which owned the boat in question.Killing innocent and defenceless people is not heroic, he added.On Tuesday, Netanyahu lauded the commandos' action as vital, necessary, legal and of the utmost importance, during a visit to their base near the Israeli city of Haifa.The deadly May 31 raid that killed the Turkish activists and left scores injured sparked international outrage and chilled relations between Ankara and the Jewish state.Israel says its troops were attacked with clubs and knives when they landed aboard the Mavi Marmara ferry and only opened fire in self-defence.But activists on board claimed the Israeli commandos opened fire as soon as they hit the upper deck of the ship.On Wednesday, Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal told reporters that Ankara was still waiting for apologies and compensation from Israel for the incident.
Police, protesters clash in Arab Israeli town By DALIA NAMMARI, Associated Press – Wed Oct 27, 5:06 pm ET
UMM EL-FAHM, Israel – Dozens of Jewish extremists hoisting Israeli flags defiantly marched through this Arab-Israeli town Wednesday, chanting death to terrorists and touching off clashes between rock-hurling residents and police who quelled them with tear gas.As the unrest unfolded, an Israeli court convicted a prominent Arab-Israeli activist of spying for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in a plea bargain that will send him to prison for up to 10 years. The activist, Amir Makhoul, greeted supporters in court with a smile and a victory sign.The court case and the violence in Umm el-Fahm added to mounting tensions between Israel's Jewish majority and its Arab minority.Israel Arabs — one-fifth of the country's citizens — have grown jittery as nationalist elements in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government have questioned their loyalty to the state.They are ethnically Palestinian, but enjoy equal rights under Israeli law, unlike their brethren in the West Bank and Gaza. Still, they often suffer discrimination and are statistically poorer and less educated than Israeli Jews. Tensions between the two communities run deep.The Jewish extremists converged on Umm el-Fahm, one of Israel's largest Arab towns, because it is a stronghold of the country's radical Islamic Movement. Jewish ultranationalists held a similar march in the town last year.Town Mayor Khaled Hamdan faulted police for protecting the protesters and their leader, calling them a madman and a bunch of racists.The purpose of this (march) clearly is to provoke and to cause chaos, he said.
The scenes of Israeli Arabs — their faces masked by checkered headscarves, burning tires, hurling rocks at riot police and scrambling to dodge tear gas and police fire — recalled violence between Israeli forces and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Police said 10 people were arrested, but reported no serious injuries.
Israel's Supreme Court authorized the march, and hundreds of police deployed in town. The march was on its outskirts.Some 350 Arab residents gathered to await the rally, and youths threw rocks at police, who dispersed the crowd with tear gas and stun grenades.Police kept journalists away from the march's 50-meter (yard) path. But nearby resident Amneh Jabari, 38, said marchers chanted death to the Arabs and Umm el-Fahm will be Jewish while waving white-and-blue Israeli flags and reciting prayers.The Jewish militants are admirers of Meir Kahane, a U.S.-born rabbi who preached that Palestinians should be expelled from Israel and the West Bank. An Arab gunman assassinated Kahane at a New York hotel 20 years ago.March organizer Baruch Marzel said the activists wanted Israel to outlaw the Islamic Movement, just as it did Kahane's Kach Party.The movement's leader, Raed Salah, has called for a new Palestinian uprising against Israeli policies and led violent protests against building projects in Jerusalem's Old City.If the Kach Party was outlawed, then the Islamic Movement deserves to be outlawed 1,000 times over, Marzel said.Many Israeli Jews doubt the loyalty of Israel's Arabs, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party has made much of the idea, spearheading what is seen as anti-Arab legislation in parliament. On Wednesday, a parliamentary committee gave preliminary approval to legislation that would allow small towns to determine who moves into their communities and reject those deemed unfit. Arab lawmakers say the measure targets Arabs. Further adding to tensions was Wednesday's conviction of Makhoul, the Arab activist who admitted to spying for Hezbollah as part of a plea bargain.
Makhoul claimed he had fended off more serious charges.Many of the more severe allegations against me evaporated and are not listed on the indictment, he said. That is what I managed to get in a plea bargain deal.Makhoul's lawyer, Hussein Abu Hussein, said his client admitted to passing information about the location of a military weapons factory to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah during Israel's war against the group in 2006. Makhoul also disclosed where he believed captive Lebanese fighters were held. Abu Hussein said Makhoul sent the information through a coded e-mail program to a community activist in Jordan who Israeli intelligence believes belongs to Hezbollah. He said the information is common knowledge and available on the Internet, but that Makhoul agreed to a plea bargain because of the difficulty of proving his innocence. The court is expected to sentence Makhoul in November. Without a deal, he could have faced life in prison.At the time of his arrest last spring, Israeli authorities claimed Makhoul met with a Hezbollah agent overseas and agreed to collect information for the group.Makhoul is a vocal critic of Israel, and the government barred the media from reporting his arrest for weeks.His case is similar to that of another prominent Arab-Israeli leader, Azmi Bishara, a lawmaker who fled the country in 2007 to avoid facing espionage allegations.Associated Press writers Diaa Hadid and Daniel Estrin contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
Netanyahu salutes commandos who raided Gaza ship
By Dan Williams – Tue Oct 26, 11:54 am ET
ATLIT NAVAL BASE, Israel (Reuters) – Saying I salute you, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the headquarters on Tuesday of Israeli naval commandos who killed nine pro-Palestinian Turks aboard a Gaza-bound aid ship in May.Netanyahu's tour of the top-security Flotilla 13 base on the coast near Haifa was a show of defiance against international censure of the raid on the converted cruise liner Mavi Marmara.
It followed testimony on Sunday from Israel's military chief, who told a state-appointed inquest into the operation that the commandos had come under pistol, knife and cudgel attacks while boarding and fired 308 live bullets in response.Activists from the Mavi Marmara have confirmed they resisted the Israeli boarding party but denied provoking lethal violence.Netanyahu said the May 31 raid on the Turkish-flagged vessel, one of six ships trying to run Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, had been crucial, essential, important and legal.Gaza has turned into an Iranian terror base, he said, referring to the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas Islamists, in a speech to around 200 members of the unit.He heaped praise on the commandos, saying they had acted courageously, morally and with restraint.The night-time interception on Mediterranean high seas and the ensuing bloodshed strained Israel's once-close ties with Turkey, which has demanded an apology and compensation.A United Nations probe last month condemned the attack as unlawful and said it resulted in violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. U.N. jurists also said the Gaza blockade had caused a humanitarian crisis and was unlawful.
I SALUTE YOU
Flotilla 13 commandos had been equipped with riot-dispersal gear but quickly switched to live fire during deck brawls with dozens of activists. The ship had ignored Israeli calls to stop.Two commandos were shot and wounded and another five suffered other injuries, the navy said. In addition to the nine Turkish dead, 24 activists were hurt, many of them by gunfire.You acted against those who came to kill you and tried to kill you, said Netanyahu. There is no one better than you. I salute you.He then met some of the commandos who took part in the raid, shaking their hands on a prow-shaped veranda overlooking the craggy bay at their Atlit base. They were shadowed by bodyguards and, out to sea, a squad of commandos in a speed boat.Bristling at Turkish and other foreign fury over the Mavi Marmara raid yet wary of international war crimes suits, Israel set up its own inquiry to help prepare its submission for a separate probe under U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon.Interim findings from that inquest, under retired Supreme Court justice Jacob Turkel, are due out in mid-November and the final report by early 2011, a spokesman said. Another internal investigation by an Israeli ex-general is already complete.Turkey withdrew its ambassador from Israel and canceled joint military exercises in protest at the Mavi Marmara raid and has dismissed the Israeli inquiries as insufficient.
(Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Dan Williams, Editing by Paul Taylor)
Palestinians thank Saudi for 100 million dollars in aid
– Mon Oct 25, 12:39 pm ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Western-backed Palestinian Authority on Monday thanked Saudi Arabia for providing more than 100 million dollars (72 million euros) in aid.The Palestinian cabinet praised the generous support provided by Saudi Arabia, which transferred yesterday (Sunday) 100 million dollars, it said in a statement following a weekly cabinet meeting.It added that Riyadh had transferred another 15.5 million dollars last week.The fresh aid followed a meeting between Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh on Friday.It also came after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week called on Arab states to increase their financial support for the Palestinians as part of US-led peace efforts.The Palestinians have received 525 million dollars in budget support in the first half of this year, in addition to 1.4 billion dollars in 2009 and 1.8 billion dollars in 2008, according to the World Bank.The influx of aid, most of which comes from the United States and the European Union, has been the main driver of the 10 percent economic growth seen in the West Bank this year, it said in a report to donors in September.
Israel critical over Mideast synod conclusions By ALESSANDRA RIZZO and IAN DEITCH, Associated Press Writer – Sun Oct 24, 1:38 pm ET
VATICAN CITY – Israel said Sunday that a meeting of Middle East bishops was hijacked by enemies of the Jewish state, after the gathering at the Vatican largely blamed Israel for conflict in the region.In a communique at the end of their two-week meeting, the bishops demanded that Israel accept U.N. resolutions calling for an end to its occupation of Arab lands, and told Israel it shouldn't use the Bible to justify injustices against the Palestinians.We express our disappointment that this important synod has become a forum for political attacks on Israel in the best history of Arab propaganda, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon of Israel said in a statement Sunday.The synod was hijacked by an anti-Israel majority,he said.The meeting was convened by Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the future of embattled Christians in the largely Muslim region. It formally ended with a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday during which the pontiff called for greater religious freedom and peace in the Middle East.But the bishops attending the gathering issued their conclusions on Saturday.
They said they had reflected on the suffering and insecurity in which Israelis live and on the status of Jerusalem, a city holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims. While the bishops condemned terrorism and anti-Semitism, they laid much of the blame for the conflict squarely on Israel.They listed the occupation of Palestinian lands, Israel's separation barrier with the West Bank, its military checkpoints, political prisoners, demolition of homes and disturbance of Palestinians' socio-economic lives as factors that have made life increasingly difficult for Palestinians.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said it was absurd that the Jewish state had been condemned since Israel is the only country in the region where Christians are actually thriving.According to statistics he provided, there were some 151,700 Christians in Israel last year, compared with 132,000 in 1999 and 107,000 two decades ago.Palmor also criticized the bishops' statement that Israel shouldn't use the Bible to justify injustices against the Palestinians.This has never been a policy of any government in Israel, so this position sounds particularly hollow, he said. Let he who has never sinned cast the first stone.In recent years, relations between Jews and the pope have sometimes been tense.Many Jews criticized Benedict's decision to move his predecessor Pius XII toward sainthood, saying the wartime pontiff didn't do enough to protect Jews from the Holocaust. The Vatican has maintained that Pius used behind-the-scenes diplomacy in a bid to save Jewish lives.
Another sore point recently was Benedict's decision to revoke the excommunication of a renegade bishop who had denied that millions of Jews died in the Holocaust. The Vatican said it wasn't aware of the bishop's views when the excommunication was lifted.Some Jews also have been angered by Benedict's reaching out to Catholic traditionalists, including his revival of a prayer for the conversion of Jews.Benedict visited the Holy Land last year in a pilgrimage meant largely to boost interfaith relations. In January, he visited a Rome synagogue.The Mideast meeting at the Vatican involved about 185 participants, including nine patriarchs of the Mideast's ancient Christian churches and representatives from 13 other Christian communities. A rabbi and two Muslim clerics were invited to the meeting as well. The exodus of the faithful from the birthplace of Christianity was a major theme of the gathering. The Catholic church has long been a minority in the Middle East, but its presence is shrinking further as a result of conflict, discrimination and economic problems.Peace is possible. Peace is urgent," Benedict said in his homily. Peace is also the best remedy to avoid the emigration from the Middle East.The pope also called freedom of religion one of the fundamental human rights, which each state should always respect and said the issue should be the subject of dialogue with Muslims.The pontiff said that while freedom of worship exists in many Mideast countries, the space given to the actual freedom to practice is many times very limited. Expanding this space, he said, is necessary to guarantee true freedom to live and profess one's faith.According to Vatican statistics, Catholics represent just 1.6 percent of the region's population. Christians as a whole represent 5.62 percent.Palmor, the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, urged Christians not to flee the region. Israel views their presence in the Middle East as a blessing and regrets their decline in Arab countries, he said. The Palestinians welcomed the synod's conclusions in a statement released by Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to the Palestinian leadership.The international community must uphold its moral and legal responsibility to put a speedy end to the illegal Israel occupation, Erekat said.
Also Sunday, Benedict announced that the 2012 synod would be dedicated to the theme of evangelization. The pontiff has recently created a new Vatican office — the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization — to revive Christianity in Europe, part of his efforts to counter secular trends in traditionally Christian countries.
Deitch reported from Jerusalem.
Mideast sides eye US midterms and impact on talks
By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer – Fri Oct 22, 2:43 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israelis and Palestinians are closely watching next month's U.S. midterm race amid a sense — rarely discussed openly but very much on people's minds — that the result could affect the U.S.-led peace effort, and President Obama's ability to coax concessions from Israel.Animating the discussion is the startling fact that the United States has failed, despite emphatic public appeals by Obama and weeks of increasingly frustrating diplomacy, to persuade Israel to extend the settlement-building slowdown that expired on Sept. 26.That caused Palestinians to in effect suspend the U.S.-brokered peace talks just weeks after they began.The Palestinians are now hoping that Obama has reacted mildly to Israel's rejection because of political considerations ahead of the Nov. 2 vote — and might be freer to apply pressure after the elections.We think that if President Obama emerges strong from this election, then this will enable him to work more on foreign policy, Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath told The Associated Press. If he and his party lose in the elections, then this will limit his ability to pressure and actively engage in foreign policy. This is the problem.Although Israeli officials avoid discussing the topic publicly for fear of alienating the Jewish state's most important ally, there is a foreboding sense in Israel that punishment is on the way — especially if Obama emerges unscathed.Nahum Barnea, a respected and widely-read columnist, put it this way in Friday's Yediot Ahronot: The problem is the disgust and rage that the Israeli refusal sparked in the administration — a rage that is being suppressed at the moment, but which will erupt in full force on November 3, after the elections to Congress. The Americans are seeking the logic behind the refusal ... and are finding nothing.But if recent polls are borne out and Republicans take one or both houses of Congress, a chastened president might be too busy or weakened to pressure Jerusalem much, the thinking goes.If Congress tilts Republican it could have a positive impact on Israeli concerns, one Netanyahu adviser told The AP — an allusion to avoiding pressure for concessions. With the Democrats weakened, Israel's friends in Congress — both Democrat and Republican — would be able to have a stronger voice if the administration should embark on a policy that is less favorable to Israel,he added.
U.S. foreign policy is set by the White House, not Congress. But Congress can influence it in the course of the day-to-day political horse trading that goes on between the executive and legislative branches.For example, when Republicans controlled the House of Representatives during Netanyahu's first term in the late 1990s, the Israeli leader was able to marshal the support of the party's conservative wing in a faceoff with President Bill Clinton over stepped-up settlement construction and Israeli troop pullbacks in the West Bank.Traditionally, both branches have been bastions of support for Israel no matter which party is in charge. But conservative Republican legislators tend to be less critical of Israel's contentious settlement policy and more hawkish — and therefore supportive — on the security issues that are uppermost in Israel's mind.The Israeli government has had, at best, uneasy relations with Obama himself.Obama took office in early 2009 promising bold changes in American policy in the Middle East and in one of his first official acts appointed a Mideast peace envoy.He soon traveled to Egypt, the heart of the Arab world, in a high-profile gesture to Muslims. The speech included a condemnation of Israeli settlements, winning over Palestinians while alarming the Israeli government.Tensions peaked in March over Israel's approval of a major settlement construction plan in east Jerusalem during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden. The move infuriated Biden, and Obama later publicly snubbed Netanyahu during a White House meeting. Although relations have mended, Mideast peace talks launched by Obama in early September are at an impasse over renewed settlement construction.
In the United States, foreign policy has barely registered on the radar screen in the run-up to the election. Blamed by many for the still-struggling economy and unemployment hovering around 10 percent, the Democrats find their majority at risk, especially in the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats are on the ballot.
Republicans could also make significant gains against the Democrat majority in the Senate, where 37 of 100 seats are up for grabs. David Makovsky, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said a hypothetical Republican majority could be a profound constraint on Obama's ability to push Israel to make concessions for a peace deal. But he also said such thinking could backfire: It's possible that the net effect of his losing the ability to pass domestic legislation might make him a 100 percent foreign policy president, said Makovsky, whose think tank has good relations with the Jewish state. Some in Israel have expressed concerns that Obama might put forward his own ideas for peace and try to impose a settlement if negotiations bog down.Obama has set the ambitious goal of brokering a final Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by next September — hoping to do what a string of presidents have failed to do in nearly two decades of stop-and-start peace efforts.Obama will not allow himself to be constrained by domestic politics if an opportunity avails itself, said Aaron David Miller, a senior former State Department official involved in negotiations. He's not suicidal — but if there were an opportunity, he'd go for it.Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh contributed to this report from Ramallah, West Bank.
Palestinians urge water strategy
– Fri Oct 22, 2:00 pm ET
VOULIAGMENI, Greece (AFP) – Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayaad on Friday called on the international community to help find a solution to the difficult access to water in the occupied territories.More should be done for the Palestinians to have access to the available resources respecting international rules on the sharing of water resources, Fayaad said after Mediterranean countries signed a declaration on the fight against climate change in the region.Obviously, this is a challenge, an effort that must be made within the framework of the political process to settle the problem but a solution must be found to make water more available for the Palestinians, he said.Fayaad said that less than 10 percent of the (Palestinian) population has access to drinking water in Gaza.Israël takes 90 percent of the water and leaves us with only 10 percent, he added.Our situation is particularly difficult, our problems are real, water consumption is below the average recommended by the World Health Organization.The regional conference on climate change in the Mediterranean which is also attended by Israel was called at the invitation of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou ahead of a UN summit in Cancun November 29 to December 10.
– Wed Oct 27, 1:18 pm ET
ANKARA (AFP) – A Turkish rights group denounced Wednesday the praises showered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the naval commandos whose raid on a Gaza-bound aid boat killed nine Turks.Netanyahu's insolence has no limits, Bulent Yildirim, head of the Islamic charity IHH (Foundation of Humanitarian Relief), which owned the boat in question.Killing innocent and defenceless people is not heroic, he added.On Tuesday, Netanyahu lauded the commandos' action as vital, necessary, legal and of the utmost importance, during a visit to their base near the Israeli city of Haifa.The deadly May 31 raid that killed the Turkish activists and left scores injured sparked international outrage and chilled relations between Ankara and the Jewish state.Israel says its troops were attacked with clubs and knives when they landed aboard the Mavi Marmara ferry and only opened fire in self-defence.But activists on board claimed the Israeli commandos opened fire as soon as they hit the upper deck of the ship.On Wednesday, Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal told reporters that Ankara was still waiting for apologies and compensation from Israel for the incident.
Police, protesters clash in Arab Israeli town By DALIA NAMMARI, Associated Press – Wed Oct 27, 5:06 pm ET
UMM EL-FAHM, Israel – Dozens of Jewish extremists hoisting Israeli flags defiantly marched through this Arab-Israeli town Wednesday, chanting death to terrorists and touching off clashes between rock-hurling residents and police who quelled them with tear gas.As the unrest unfolded, an Israeli court convicted a prominent Arab-Israeli activist of spying for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in a plea bargain that will send him to prison for up to 10 years. The activist, Amir Makhoul, greeted supporters in court with a smile and a victory sign.The court case and the violence in Umm el-Fahm added to mounting tensions between Israel's Jewish majority and its Arab minority.Israel Arabs — one-fifth of the country's citizens — have grown jittery as nationalist elements in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government have questioned their loyalty to the state.They are ethnically Palestinian, but enjoy equal rights under Israeli law, unlike their brethren in the West Bank and Gaza. Still, they often suffer discrimination and are statistically poorer and less educated than Israeli Jews. Tensions between the two communities run deep.The Jewish extremists converged on Umm el-Fahm, one of Israel's largest Arab towns, because it is a stronghold of the country's radical Islamic Movement. Jewish ultranationalists held a similar march in the town last year.Town Mayor Khaled Hamdan faulted police for protecting the protesters and their leader, calling them a madman and a bunch of racists.The purpose of this (march) clearly is to provoke and to cause chaos, he said.
The scenes of Israeli Arabs — their faces masked by checkered headscarves, burning tires, hurling rocks at riot police and scrambling to dodge tear gas and police fire — recalled violence between Israeli forces and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Police said 10 people were arrested, but reported no serious injuries.
Israel's Supreme Court authorized the march, and hundreds of police deployed in town. The march was on its outskirts.Some 350 Arab residents gathered to await the rally, and youths threw rocks at police, who dispersed the crowd with tear gas and stun grenades.Police kept journalists away from the march's 50-meter (yard) path. But nearby resident Amneh Jabari, 38, said marchers chanted death to the Arabs and Umm el-Fahm will be Jewish while waving white-and-blue Israeli flags and reciting prayers.The Jewish militants are admirers of Meir Kahane, a U.S.-born rabbi who preached that Palestinians should be expelled from Israel and the West Bank. An Arab gunman assassinated Kahane at a New York hotel 20 years ago.March organizer Baruch Marzel said the activists wanted Israel to outlaw the Islamic Movement, just as it did Kahane's Kach Party.The movement's leader, Raed Salah, has called for a new Palestinian uprising against Israeli policies and led violent protests against building projects in Jerusalem's Old City.If the Kach Party was outlawed, then the Islamic Movement deserves to be outlawed 1,000 times over, Marzel said.Many Israeli Jews doubt the loyalty of Israel's Arabs, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party has made much of the idea, spearheading what is seen as anti-Arab legislation in parliament. On Wednesday, a parliamentary committee gave preliminary approval to legislation that would allow small towns to determine who moves into their communities and reject those deemed unfit. Arab lawmakers say the measure targets Arabs. Further adding to tensions was Wednesday's conviction of Makhoul, the Arab activist who admitted to spying for Hezbollah as part of a plea bargain.
Makhoul claimed he had fended off more serious charges.Many of the more severe allegations against me evaporated and are not listed on the indictment, he said. That is what I managed to get in a plea bargain deal.Makhoul's lawyer, Hussein Abu Hussein, said his client admitted to passing information about the location of a military weapons factory to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah during Israel's war against the group in 2006. Makhoul also disclosed where he believed captive Lebanese fighters were held. Abu Hussein said Makhoul sent the information through a coded e-mail program to a community activist in Jordan who Israeli intelligence believes belongs to Hezbollah. He said the information is common knowledge and available on the Internet, but that Makhoul agreed to a plea bargain because of the difficulty of proving his innocence. The court is expected to sentence Makhoul in November. Without a deal, he could have faced life in prison.At the time of his arrest last spring, Israeli authorities claimed Makhoul met with a Hezbollah agent overseas and agreed to collect information for the group.Makhoul is a vocal critic of Israel, and the government barred the media from reporting his arrest for weeks.His case is similar to that of another prominent Arab-Israeli leader, Azmi Bishara, a lawmaker who fled the country in 2007 to avoid facing espionage allegations.Associated Press writers Diaa Hadid and Daniel Estrin contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
Netanyahu salutes commandos who raided Gaza ship
By Dan Williams – Tue Oct 26, 11:54 am ET
ATLIT NAVAL BASE, Israel (Reuters) – Saying I salute you, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the headquarters on Tuesday of Israeli naval commandos who killed nine pro-Palestinian Turks aboard a Gaza-bound aid ship in May.Netanyahu's tour of the top-security Flotilla 13 base on the coast near Haifa was a show of defiance against international censure of the raid on the converted cruise liner Mavi Marmara.
It followed testimony on Sunday from Israel's military chief, who told a state-appointed inquest into the operation that the commandos had come under pistol, knife and cudgel attacks while boarding and fired 308 live bullets in response.Activists from the Mavi Marmara have confirmed they resisted the Israeli boarding party but denied provoking lethal violence.Netanyahu said the May 31 raid on the Turkish-flagged vessel, one of six ships trying to run Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, had been crucial, essential, important and legal.Gaza has turned into an Iranian terror base, he said, referring to the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas Islamists, in a speech to around 200 members of the unit.He heaped praise on the commandos, saying they had acted courageously, morally and with restraint.The night-time interception on Mediterranean high seas and the ensuing bloodshed strained Israel's once-close ties with Turkey, which has demanded an apology and compensation.A United Nations probe last month condemned the attack as unlawful and said it resulted in violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. U.N. jurists also said the Gaza blockade had caused a humanitarian crisis and was unlawful.
I SALUTE YOU
Flotilla 13 commandos had been equipped with riot-dispersal gear but quickly switched to live fire during deck brawls with dozens of activists. The ship had ignored Israeli calls to stop.Two commandos were shot and wounded and another five suffered other injuries, the navy said. In addition to the nine Turkish dead, 24 activists were hurt, many of them by gunfire.You acted against those who came to kill you and tried to kill you, said Netanyahu. There is no one better than you. I salute you.He then met some of the commandos who took part in the raid, shaking their hands on a prow-shaped veranda overlooking the craggy bay at their Atlit base. They were shadowed by bodyguards and, out to sea, a squad of commandos in a speed boat.Bristling at Turkish and other foreign fury over the Mavi Marmara raid yet wary of international war crimes suits, Israel set up its own inquiry to help prepare its submission for a separate probe under U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon.Interim findings from that inquest, under retired Supreme Court justice Jacob Turkel, are due out in mid-November and the final report by early 2011, a spokesman said. Another internal investigation by an Israeli ex-general is already complete.Turkey withdrew its ambassador from Israel and canceled joint military exercises in protest at the Mavi Marmara raid and has dismissed the Israeli inquiries as insufficient.
(Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Dan Williams, Editing by Paul Taylor)
Palestinians thank Saudi for 100 million dollars in aid
– Mon Oct 25, 12:39 pm ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Western-backed Palestinian Authority on Monday thanked Saudi Arabia for providing more than 100 million dollars (72 million euros) in aid.The Palestinian cabinet praised the generous support provided by Saudi Arabia, which transferred yesterday (Sunday) 100 million dollars, it said in a statement following a weekly cabinet meeting.It added that Riyadh had transferred another 15.5 million dollars last week.The fresh aid followed a meeting between Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh on Friday.It also came after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week called on Arab states to increase their financial support for the Palestinians as part of US-led peace efforts.The Palestinians have received 525 million dollars in budget support in the first half of this year, in addition to 1.4 billion dollars in 2009 and 1.8 billion dollars in 2008, according to the World Bank.The influx of aid, most of which comes from the United States and the European Union, has been the main driver of the 10 percent economic growth seen in the West Bank this year, it said in a report to donors in September.
Israel critical over Mideast synod conclusions By ALESSANDRA RIZZO and IAN DEITCH, Associated Press Writer – Sun Oct 24, 1:38 pm ET
VATICAN CITY – Israel said Sunday that a meeting of Middle East bishops was hijacked by enemies of the Jewish state, after the gathering at the Vatican largely blamed Israel for conflict in the region.In a communique at the end of their two-week meeting, the bishops demanded that Israel accept U.N. resolutions calling for an end to its occupation of Arab lands, and told Israel it shouldn't use the Bible to justify injustices against the Palestinians.We express our disappointment that this important synod has become a forum for political attacks on Israel in the best history of Arab propaganda, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon of Israel said in a statement Sunday.The synod was hijacked by an anti-Israel majority,he said.The meeting was convened by Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the future of embattled Christians in the largely Muslim region. It formally ended with a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday during which the pontiff called for greater religious freedom and peace in the Middle East.But the bishops attending the gathering issued their conclusions on Saturday.
They said they had reflected on the suffering and insecurity in which Israelis live and on the status of Jerusalem, a city holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims. While the bishops condemned terrorism and anti-Semitism, they laid much of the blame for the conflict squarely on Israel.They listed the occupation of Palestinian lands, Israel's separation barrier with the West Bank, its military checkpoints, political prisoners, demolition of homes and disturbance of Palestinians' socio-economic lives as factors that have made life increasingly difficult for Palestinians.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said it was absurd that the Jewish state had been condemned since Israel is the only country in the region where Christians are actually thriving.According to statistics he provided, there were some 151,700 Christians in Israel last year, compared with 132,000 in 1999 and 107,000 two decades ago.Palmor also criticized the bishops' statement that Israel shouldn't use the Bible to justify injustices against the Palestinians.This has never been a policy of any government in Israel, so this position sounds particularly hollow, he said. Let he who has never sinned cast the first stone.In recent years, relations between Jews and the pope have sometimes been tense.Many Jews criticized Benedict's decision to move his predecessor Pius XII toward sainthood, saying the wartime pontiff didn't do enough to protect Jews from the Holocaust. The Vatican has maintained that Pius used behind-the-scenes diplomacy in a bid to save Jewish lives.
Another sore point recently was Benedict's decision to revoke the excommunication of a renegade bishop who had denied that millions of Jews died in the Holocaust. The Vatican said it wasn't aware of the bishop's views when the excommunication was lifted.Some Jews also have been angered by Benedict's reaching out to Catholic traditionalists, including his revival of a prayer for the conversion of Jews.Benedict visited the Holy Land last year in a pilgrimage meant largely to boost interfaith relations. In January, he visited a Rome synagogue.The Mideast meeting at the Vatican involved about 185 participants, including nine patriarchs of the Mideast's ancient Christian churches and representatives from 13 other Christian communities. A rabbi and two Muslim clerics were invited to the meeting as well. The exodus of the faithful from the birthplace of Christianity was a major theme of the gathering. The Catholic church has long been a minority in the Middle East, but its presence is shrinking further as a result of conflict, discrimination and economic problems.Peace is possible. Peace is urgent," Benedict said in his homily. Peace is also the best remedy to avoid the emigration from the Middle East.The pope also called freedom of religion one of the fundamental human rights, which each state should always respect and said the issue should be the subject of dialogue with Muslims.The pontiff said that while freedom of worship exists in many Mideast countries, the space given to the actual freedom to practice is many times very limited. Expanding this space, he said, is necessary to guarantee true freedom to live and profess one's faith.According to Vatican statistics, Catholics represent just 1.6 percent of the region's population. Christians as a whole represent 5.62 percent.Palmor, the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, urged Christians not to flee the region. Israel views their presence in the Middle East as a blessing and regrets their decline in Arab countries, he said. The Palestinians welcomed the synod's conclusions in a statement released by Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to the Palestinian leadership.The international community must uphold its moral and legal responsibility to put a speedy end to the illegal Israel occupation, Erekat said.
Also Sunday, Benedict announced that the 2012 synod would be dedicated to the theme of evangelization. The pontiff has recently created a new Vatican office — the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization — to revive Christianity in Europe, part of his efforts to counter secular trends in traditionally Christian countries.
Deitch reported from Jerusalem.
Mideast sides eye US midterms and impact on talks
By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer – Fri Oct 22, 2:43 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israelis and Palestinians are closely watching next month's U.S. midterm race amid a sense — rarely discussed openly but very much on people's minds — that the result could affect the U.S.-led peace effort, and President Obama's ability to coax concessions from Israel.Animating the discussion is the startling fact that the United States has failed, despite emphatic public appeals by Obama and weeks of increasingly frustrating diplomacy, to persuade Israel to extend the settlement-building slowdown that expired on Sept. 26.That caused Palestinians to in effect suspend the U.S.-brokered peace talks just weeks after they began.The Palestinians are now hoping that Obama has reacted mildly to Israel's rejection because of political considerations ahead of the Nov. 2 vote — and might be freer to apply pressure after the elections.We think that if President Obama emerges strong from this election, then this will enable him to work more on foreign policy, Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath told The Associated Press. If he and his party lose in the elections, then this will limit his ability to pressure and actively engage in foreign policy. This is the problem.Although Israeli officials avoid discussing the topic publicly for fear of alienating the Jewish state's most important ally, there is a foreboding sense in Israel that punishment is on the way — especially if Obama emerges unscathed.Nahum Barnea, a respected and widely-read columnist, put it this way in Friday's Yediot Ahronot: The problem is the disgust and rage that the Israeli refusal sparked in the administration — a rage that is being suppressed at the moment, but which will erupt in full force on November 3, after the elections to Congress. The Americans are seeking the logic behind the refusal ... and are finding nothing.But if recent polls are borne out and Republicans take one or both houses of Congress, a chastened president might be too busy or weakened to pressure Jerusalem much, the thinking goes.If Congress tilts Republican it could have a positive impact on Israeli concerns, one Netanyahu adviser told The AP — an allusion to avoiding pressure for concessions. With the Democrats weakened, Israel's friends in Congress — both Democrat and Republican — would be able to have a stronger voice if the administration should embark on a policy that is less favorable to Israel,he added.
U.S. foreign policy is set by the White House, not Congress. But Congress can influence it in the course of the day-to-day political horse trading that goes on between the executive and legislative branches.For example, when Republicans controlled the House of Representatives during Netanyahu's first term in the late 1990s, the Israeli leader was able to marshal the support of the party's conservative wing in a faceoff with President Bill Clinton over stepped-up settlement construction and Israeli troop pullbacks in the West Bank.Traditionally, both branches have been bastions of support for Israel no matter which party is in charge. But conservative Republican legislators tend to be less critical of Israel's contentious settlement policy and more hawkish — and therefore supportive — on the security issues that are uppermost in Israel's mind.The Israeli government has had, at best, uneasy relations with Obama himself.Obama took office in early 2009 promising bold changes in American policy in the Middle East and in one of his first official acts appointed a Mideast peace envoy.He soon traveled to Egypt, the heart of the Arab world, in a high-profile gesture to Muslims. The speech included a condemnation of Israeli settlements, winning over Palestinians while alarming the Israeli government.Tensions peaked in March over Israel's approval of a major settlement construction plan in east Jerusalem during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden. The move infuriated Biden, and Obama later publicly snubbed Netanyahu during a White House meeting. Although relations have mended, Mideast peace talks launched by Obama in early September are at an impasse over renewed settlement construction.
In the United States, foreign policy has barely registered on the radar screen in the run-up to the election. Blamed by many for the still-struggling economy and unemployment hovering around 10 percent, the Democrats find their majority at risk, especially in the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats are on the ballot.
Republicans could also make significant gains against the Democrat majority in the Senate, where 37 of 100 seats are up for grabs. David Makovsky, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said a hypothetical Republican majority could be a profound constraint on Obama's ability to push Israel to make concessions for a peace deal. But he also said such thinking could backfire: It's possible that the net effect of his losing the ability to pass domestic legislation might make him a 100 percent foreign policy president, said Makovsky, whose think tank has good relations with the Jewish state. Some in Israel have expressed concerns that Obama might put forward his own ideas for peace and try to impose a settlement if negotiations bog down.Obama has set the ambitious goal of brokering a final Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by next September — hoping to do what a string of presidents have failed to do in nearly two decades of stop-and-start peace efforts.Obama will not allow himself to be constrained by domestic politics if an opportunity avails itself, said Aaron David Miller, a senior former State Department official involved in negotiations. He's not suicidal — but if there were an opportunity, he'd go for it.Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh contributed to this report from Ramallah, West Bank.
Palestinians urge water strategy
– Fri Oct 22, 2:00 pm ET
VOULIAGMENI, Greece (AFP) – Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayaad on Friday called on the international community to help find a solution to the difficult access to water in the occupied territories.More should be done for the Palestinians to have access to the available resources respecting international rules on the sharing of water resources, Fayaad said after Mediterranean countries signed a declaration on the fight against climate change in the region.Obviously, this is a challenge, an effort that must be made within the framework of the political process to settle the problem but a solution must be found to make water more available for the Palestinians, he said.Fayaad said that less than 10 percent of the (Palestinian) population has access to drinking water in Gaza.Israël takes 90 percent of the water and leaves us with only 10 percent, he added.Our situation is particularly difficult, our problems are real, water consumption is below the average recommended by the World Health Organization.The regional conference on climate change in the Mediterranean which is also attended by Israel was called at the invitation of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou ahead of a UN summit in Cancun November 29 to December 10.
Friday, October 22, 2010
UN-ISRAEL SETTLEMENT BLOCKS PALESTINIAN STATE
Israel settlements block Palestinian state: UN envoy
1:00PM OCT 22,10
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Israel's settlement construction in the occupied territories has become an almost insurmountable obstacle to creating an independent Palestinian state, a UN envoy said Friday.A Palestinian state seems increasingly problematic as a solution because it would require a substantial reversal of the settlement process, said Richard Falk, a UN representative on human rights in the Palestinian territories.He told a press conference at the UN headquarters that the settlers would probably put up strong opposition to any such move.Falk added in a report to the UN General Assembly that the extension of the Jewish presence in East Jerusalem by way of unlawful settlements, house demolitions, revocations of Palestinian residence rights, makes it increasingly difficult to envisage a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.You have to disconnect between an inter-governmental peace process and an illusion that at the end of this process is an independent sovereign Palestinian state, the envoy, a professor of international law at Princeton University in the United States, told reporters.Falk said he had always been skeptical about the chance of an exchange of territory to create a Palestinian state.
The envoy said the occupation since 1967 exacts an enormous human cost in terms of the daily existence of every Palestinian trapped in this reality.Israel ended a 10 month freeze on settlement building in September and Palestinians have refused to take part in direct talks since then. The United States and other international powers have criticized the Israeli settlement construction.
Abbas and Saudi king discuss stalled peace talks
OCT 22,10
RIYADH (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas held talks on Friday with King Abdullah that focused on the stalled peace process with Israel, the official Saudi news agency SPA reported.They discussed developments in the Palestinian issue and efforts exerted to put the peace process back on the right path, it said.The two leaders also discussed the need for the international community to assume responsibility to achieve a just and comprehensive peace that would guarantee the Palestinian people's right to establish its independent state on its national soil, with Jerusalem as a capital, it added.Abbas left Riyadh on Friday afternoon, the agency added.A Palestinian diplomat in Riyadh told AFP Thursday that Abbas's visit comes at a critical stage in the negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis.The diplomat pointed to Israel's refusal to extend a moratorium on Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem that expired on September 26.On October 9, foreign ministers of the Arab League, in which Saudi Arabia plays a leading role, said they would wait one more month to see if the direct peace talks can be restarted.Since the settlement moratorium ended, Jewish settlers have begun building at least 600 homes, a pace four times faster than before the freeze began last year, the Israeli activist group Peace Now said on Thursday.
Peace with Palestinians would help U.S. on Iran: Peres
– Fri Oct 22, 3:40 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel needs good ties with the United States to survive and must be more understanding of U.S. demands over securing peace with the Palestinians, Israeli President Shimon Peres said in remarks aired on Friday.Peres, Israel's elder statesman, said an end to the Palestinian conflict would improve the United States' own security position in the Middle East and help isolate Iran.His comments came as a diplomatic deadlock deepened over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to bow to demands from Washington to extend a freeze on West Bank settlement building so peace negotiations with the Palestinians can resume.We fought alone, but we cannot exist alone. For our existence we need the friendship of the United States of America. It doesn't sound easy, but this is the truth, Peres said in a speech to Jewish leaders broadcast by Israel Radio.As the United States is trying to understand the security needs of Israel, we Israelis ourselves must understand the security needs of the United States, he said, speaking in English in an address made on Thursday evening.In our own small way we can be of help, and of help means (to) enable an anti-Iranian coalition in the Middle East. And the contribution will not be by a declaration, but if we will stop the secondary conflict between us and the Palestinians.Washington, which often sides with the Israelis in key diplomatic forums and underwrites their military, has been trying to rein in the nuclear aspirations of Israel's arch-foe, Iran, through tougher international sanctions.
Yet some Arab powers have publicly chafed at that campaign, pointing to the Palestinians' stalled drive to achieve independence on land Israel occupied in a 1967Middle East war.U.S. leaders in recent months have connected the need for peace with the Palestinians to U.S. security interests, blaming the continued tensions for fuelling Islamist militancy.As head of state, ex-premier Peres lacks executive powers but is often a bellwether of opinion among left-leaning Israelis who oppose the rightist Netanyahu government's policymaking.(Writing by Dan Williams, editing by Tim Pearce)
Mideast sides mulling alternatives to peace talks By DAN PERRY and KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writers – Thu Oct 21, 4:32 pm ET
JERUSALEM – With peace talks stalled, Israelis and Palestinians are quietly — and separately — looking for alternatives.The scenarios range from the Palestinians going around Israel to seek world recognition for an independent state to Israel pushing for a scaled-down agreement that sidesteps the toughest issues, like sharing Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.The thinking is that few people believe a full peace deal within a year is achievable. And the impasse that has emerged over settlement construction has brought a difficult question to the surface: If the United States cannot compel Israel to extend a settlement freeze for a few months, how can the U.S. persuade Israel to make wrenching decisions over control of Jerusalem? Both sides claim their first choice is still a full agreement, and the Obama administration is clinging to the hope that the peace talks will succeed.But Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged in a speech to Palestinian Americans on Wednesday that it's a struggle.I cannot stand here tonight and tell you there is some magic formula that I have discovered that will break through the current impasse, she said.Palestinians say the current situation cannot drag on indefinitely: they have a measure of self-rule in the main cities of the West Bank, but Israel controls the land in between and remains ultimately in charge, controlling the Palestinians through a complex permit system. The Gaza Strip, meanwhile, has essentially broken off — an isolated statelet run by the Islamic militant group Hamas, which rejects the peace talks.
Palestinian officials said they don't expect Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to take drastic action before the year set aside for negotiations is up in September 2011. However, Abbas is starting to prepare for other options, and on Wednesday, more than a dozen senior Palestinian officials met for the first time — at the president's request — to discuss ideas.The main alternative, according to officials, is to seek U.N. Security Council recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.The U.N. is a possible option because this political battle ... needs to be transferred to the broader courtyard, said Yasser Abed-Rabbo, a top official of the Palestine Liberation Organization.While such validation would not immediately change the situation on the ground, it could boost Palestinian leverage vis-a-vis Israel. International recognition of Palestine's borders could also further isolate Israel and limit the Jewish state's diplomatic and military options.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians would first seek recognition from the United States.The Palestinians know that may be difficult to obtain but hope that by next fall, they will have won sufficient international support to make the idea palatable, should the need arise. At that time, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will have completed his ambitious two-year plan to build the institutions of a Palestinian state.Achievements on the ground will contribute to convincing the international community to take a more active role in allowing for the independent Palestinian state by then,government spokesman Ghassan Khatib said.
Israel would surely oppose such a unilateral Palestinian move.But among many Israelis as well, skepticism about peace talks is accompanied by a gnawing sense that something must change: the occupation is ruining the country's reputation and there's concern that without a decisive break from the West Bank, Israel will become, in effect, a binational state with a dwindling Jewish majority.Many Israelis also a fear another Palestinian uprising if peace efforts run aground. Violence erupts every time peace talks fail and that is what will happen again,said Gil Zaken, 35, a computer graphics designer. It will be a big mess.Concerns about Israel's future have driven even right-wing parties once opposed to territorial concessions toward more moderate positions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself endorsed — albeit grudgingly — the idea of a Palestinian state in 2009, and agreed to the peace effort launched by President Barack Obama last month. But the talks stalled within weeks, when Israel refused to extend a 10-month freeze on new settlement construction. And Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon recently said that not one member of the key group of seven Cabinet ministers — which includes Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and himself — believes a full peace treaty is achievable within a year.
Now a debate simmers over alternatives.
Talk of scaling back expectations is coming from opposite corners of the political map. Both Yossi Beilin, a prominent dove, and Education Minister Gideon Saar, a hard-liner from Netanyahu's Likud, have suggested that this might be the only way to move forward.Under this idea, Israel would no longer seek an end of conflict declaration from the Palestinians — which would presumably lower the price of a deal. The Palestinians would get a state in most of the West Bank, with international safeguards about a future deal, but decisions on Jerusalem and refugees would be put off.The Palestinians adamantly reject such a scenario, fearing that they would lose any further leverage and end up with a mini-state.But Beilin believes that they can be persuaded that it is simply the only way to achieve statehood.It is better to have something than to have nothing, Beilin told The Associated Press. Other surprising ideas have emerged on the Israeli right, where one would expect nationalists trying to strengthen the Jewish nature of the state. Now former Defense Minister Moshe Arens and Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin are calling for the West Bank to be annexed and its Palestinians eventually offered full citizenship — moves that would take Israel a long way toward being a binational state.Some Israelis also speak of the idea of unilateral pullouts from some parts of the West Bank they don't want, outside the framework of an agreement with the Palestinians, reminiscent of Israel's 2005 unilateral pullout from Gaza.Another possibility that has been discussed: Might the Palestinian president dissolve his self-rule government and kick back to Israel the costly burden of full rule over the Palestinians? All of this is at odds with the widespread notion that the basic contours of a comprehensive deal are somehow clear and inevitable.Under the generally assumed parameters of such a deal, Israel would retain only a tiny fraction of the West Bank, but these would be areas close to the pre-1967 border where many of the 300,000 settlers live. The rest of the settlers would be removed. The sides would find a formula to share Jerusalem. And the Palestinian demand that millions of refugees have a right of return to Israel will be finessed.But these ideas have been around for over a decade, with no one able to bridge the gaps. And Israelis still find it close to inconceivable that Palestinians might control the Old City with its holy sites, border guards perhaps gazing from its ancient walls upon the King David hotel and the main shopping street in Jerusalem.The whole strategy (of reaching a comprehensive deal) hasn't worked, said Aaron David Miller, a senior former State Department official involved in negotiations.I don't think you can produce this with these leaders.Associated Press writers Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Venezuela's Chavez backs return of Golan to Syria
– Thu Oct 21, 1:47 pm ET
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressed his support on Thursday for Syria's efforts to recover the Golan Heights, captured by Israel during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.I hope that President (Bashar al-) Assad will invite me to the Golan after its liberation. One day we will visit the Golan together, Chavez said at a news conference with the Syrian leader.Chavez, who arrived in Damascus from Iran late on Wednesday, said his country maintains an alliance with Syria based on sentiments of friendship between the two peoples.We need to accelerate the birth of a new multi-party and balanced world, the Venezuelan president said.Thanks to the efforts of millions of people and of leaders like President Assad, we will achieve this world in the next few years.For his part, Assad denounced the new world order based on force and hegemony instead of justice and principles.Assad also criticised Israel over peace moves in the region.Israel does not wish for and is not ready to make peace,he said. It is following a tactical course aimed at persuading the world that it is passionate about peace and that it is the Arabs who reject it.Israel murders the Palestinians, and the process of judaising Jerusalem is a racist act, he added.Chavez's visit to Syria is his latest stop on an international tour aimed at strengthening Venezuela's commercial ties with eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Hamas very eager to discuss Shalit with Israel: Carter
– Thu Oct 21, 12:57 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Gaza's Hamas rulers are very eager to resume talks with Israel over a prisoner exchange which could see captured soldier Gilad Shalit being freed, former US president Jimmy Carter said on Thursday.They let us know... they are very eager to proceed, Carter told reporters in Jerusalem several days after a delegation of former world statesmen, known as The Elders, met Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip.They are very glad that the German negotiator has been back on the scene lately and that Israeli Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu has made some positive statements about a prisoner exchange.Carter, who joined the Elders on the Syrian leg of their regional tour where he met Hamas' exiled leadership, said he had urged the group to do everything they could to expedite the exchange of prisoners so Shalit could return home.They maintained that they are very eager to have a swap but they are demanding the release of some prisoners that are not acceptable to the Israeli negotiators, he said.Netanyahu on Sunday said that talks aimed at releasing Shalit had resumed after a hiatus of nearly a year.The radical Islamist group and other Palestinian militants captured Shalit, now 24, in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006 and have demanded hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including top militants, in exchange for his release.There was also an ongoing disagreement over where they would be allowed to live, Carter said.They strongly oppose the proposal that Israel has made, particularly the deportation of some of the prisoners who would be released.They cannot stay in Gaza, they can't stay in the West Bank, they can't stay in east Jerusalem if they are released from Israeli prisons -- that is a handicap, he said.
Jewish settlers building 600 new homes
by Hazel Ward – Thu Oct 21, 12:01 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has started building at least 600 homes since the end of a construction freeze, watchdog Peace Now said on Thursday, in a move which the Palestinians slammed as a flagrant act of defiance.In our estimation, building has started on between 600 and 700 new housing units in less than one month, which is four times the pace of construction since before the freeze,Peace Now's Hagit Ofran told AFP, referring to the moratorium that began at the end of November 2009.Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians are facing imminent collapse in a bitter row over settlement building on occupied West Bank land that resumed after the end of the 10-month ban.Israel has refused to reimpose the moratorium, while the Palestinians say they will not hold talk while settlers are building on Palestinian land, prompting a flurry of US diplomatic efforts to resolve the deadlock.And Thursday's revelation, details of which are to be fleshed out in a Peace Now report to be published next week, looked set to put a knife in the back of diplomatic efforts to salvage the talks.This flagrant act of defiance towards the Palestinians, the Arabs and the US administration demands an Arab and an international response -- particularly from the Americans, said Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for president Mahmud Abbas.Faced with Israel's insistence on continued settlement building, the Palestinians are going to demand Washington recognise a Palestinian state, said Nimr Hammad, another adviser of the Palestinian president.
In the face of Israel's stubborn continuation of settlement construction and given that the US administration has called many times for the end of the occupation ... as well as the establishment ... of a Palestinian state, we are going to officially ask that Washington recognise the Palestinian state, he told AFP, without saying when.Peace Now said the surge in construction was to meet immediate demand for some 2,000 housing units, as part of a longer-term plan to build about 13,000 new homes, all of which had already been approved.After the moratorium expired just over three weeks ago, Jewish settlers across the West Bank began building in earnest, although they were advised by the Israeli leadership to keep a low profile so as not to inflame international condemnation.As bulldozers lumbered into action, the Palestinian leadership held back on a threat to abandon talks, with Abbas and Arab foreign ministers giving Washington a few weeks grace period to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.Although the freeze did not cover building in mostly Arab east Jerusalem, Ofran said there had been a certain slowdown in construction there since a visit in March by US Vice President Joe Biden.In an announcement which was seen as a slap in the face for the visiting Biden, Israel said it would build 1,600 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem, prompting a major crisis with Washington.Since then, Israel has not signed off on any new building in the east, until last week, when it approved plans for another 240 homes in the settlement neighbourhoods of Pisgat Zeev and Ramot.The move was sharply condemned by the Palestinians, who accused Israel of being intent on killing every opportunity to revive peace talks between the two sides.Netanyahu has so far refused to reimpose the freeze, largely because he lacks support for such a move within his right-wing coalition.Jewish settlement on occupied Palestinian land is one of the most bitter aspects of the conflict.About 500,000 Israelis live in more than 120 settlements across the West Bank, including east Jerusalem -- territories which the Palestinians want for their promised state.The Palestinians see the settlements as a major threat to the establishment of a viable state and view the freezing of settlement activity as a crucial test of Israel's intentions.
Clinton urges Arabs to give more money to Palestinians
– Wed Oct 20, 8:36 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday urged Arab countries to offer greater financial support to the Palestinian Authority.It takes more than plans and commitments to support making the state of Palestine a reality, Clinton told the annual dinner of the American Task Force on Palestine, a pro-Palestinian group which calls for a Palestinian state.The chief US diplomat paid tribute to the Palestinian Authority's efforts, saying it needs a larger, steadier, and more predictable source of financial support.The United States and the European Union are the authority's main donors.But the broader international community, including many Arab states, can and should provide more financial support,Clinton said.The secretary also urged Arab countries to consider how to begin implementing the Arab peace initiative in concrete terms.The 2002 Saudi-inspired initiative calls for Arab states to normalize ties with Israel in return for Israel's withdrawal from Arab territories occupied in the 1967 war, the creation of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital and a fair settlement of the Palestinian refugee issue.
Clinton also promised that, whatever the difficulties, the Obama administration will not give up seeking a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.The peace negotiations that were relaunched in Washington on September 2 following a 20-month hiatus are threatened by Israel's refusal to renew a 10-month moratorium on Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.On October 9, the Arab League gave the United States an additional month to try to save the peace talks.
Israel marks 15 years since Rabin assassination By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer – Wed Oct 20, 5:59 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israel on Wednesday marked 15 years since Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli extremist who opposed his concessions for peace with the Palestinians.At ceremonies around the country, speakers assessed Rabin's legacy, and many warned that the incitement to violence that preceded his assassination has not disappeared.In 1995, Israel was in the midst of a peace process that aimed to create a Palestinian state in much of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. The process, which began with secret negotiations in Oslo, Norway in 1993, broke down in violence in 2000, and many Israelis now believe it was a mistake.Rabin was shot dead on Nov. 4, 1995. Israel marks the event according to the Hebrew calendar date, which fell on Wednesday.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and other dignitaries joined Rabin's family at a ceremony at his grave in Jerusalem.
Instead of just eulogizing Rabin, Netanyahu addressed the slain prime minister as if he were alive, recounting what happened in his absence.We haven't yet reached the desired peace, and it is not clear if this would have completely surprised you, Netanyahu said at the ceremony in the Jerusalem military cemetery on Mount Herzl.
Today's peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which started in early September in Washington, have stalled over Netanyahu's refusal to extend a building slowdown in Jewish settlements in the West Bank — a territory that Palestinians seek for their future state.Weeks before the assassination, Netanyahu — at the time a bitter political enemy of Rabin — vilified his planned concessions in a vitriolic rally in downtown Jerusalem. After taking office for a second term last year, Netanyahu for the first time accepted the concept of a Palestinian state.At Wednesday's memorial, Netanyahu said many Israelis understand that we cannot exist long term without a (peace) agreement and without compromises.At a separate memorial in the central Israeli city of Rehovot, longtime Rabin aide Eitan Haber complained that extremist rabbis who backed violence were not arrested.Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir, would not have carried out his murderous act if he had not felt backing from his religious leaders, said Haber, warning that extremism and incitement are still common.Israeli newspapers featured pictures of Rabin and memorial ceremonies on their front pages. The Haaretz daily carried a picture of youth forging a six-sided Star of David from traditional memorial candles at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, named for the fallen leader after the assassination.Echoing the findings of a public opinion poll, columnist Ben Caspit wrote in the Maariv daily: Yigal Amir must never be released from prison.(This version CORRECTS that Netanyahu took office last year, not this.)
S.Africa draws on past to boost Palestinian reconciliation
– Wed Oct 20, 1:38 pm ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – South Africa has launched a new initiative aimed at encouraging Palestinian reconciliation by sharing its experience in overcoming Apartheid, officials said on Wednesday.Pretoria's representative to the Palestinian Authority Ted Pekane announced the initiative, which will be carried out by Alex Boraine, the former deputy head of the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.That commission, which in the 1990s probed human rights violations committed during Apartheid, was widely credited with easing tensions and helping the country come to terms with its legacy of racial discrimination.I received an invitation from the South African embassy to come here to see the Palestinian factions and try to reach reconciliation with them, Boraine told reporters in the West Bank political capital Ramallah.The two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, have been fiercely divided since Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007 in a week of bloody street battles, confining the Western-backed Palestinian Authority to the occupied West Bank.I have met with many people from Fatah during the last week and with a few Hamas leaders and some independents... All of them expressed that they want to see the South African experience, he said.The secular Fatah and its Islamist rivals had planned to hold a second round of talks in Syria on Wednesday but the meeting was scrapped when Fatah requested a change of venue.Egypt tried to mediate between the two rival factions for months but those efforts ground to a halt a year ago when Hamas refused to sign a unity deal endorsed by Cairo and Fatah.
Boraine said he had no intention of interfering with Cairo's mediation.He said he had been denied Israeli permission to travel to Gaza for meetings with senior Hamas leaders there, adding that he hoped to meet with the Islamist movement's exiled leadership in Syria.Since 2007, each side has accused the other of persecuting its members, and Palestinian and international human rights groups have been critical of both.
Jordan warns of steep price if Mideast peace fails
– Wed Oct 20, 11:30 am ET
AMMAN (AFP) – Jordan's King Abdullah II warned that the world will pay a heavy price if the Israeli-Palestinian peace process collapses, in talks on Wednesday with The Elders group of retired global figures.The region and the world will pay the price in case of the failure of the peace efforts which require action from all parties to reach a two-state solution, he said in a statement released by the royal palace. consequences.Only a settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will clear the way for security and stability in the region, he told former US president Jimmy Carter and the three other Elders.The palace said the king and the visiting delegates discussed the obstacles which are blocking progress in the US-brokered direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians.Former Irish president and UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson, Indian women's rights campaigner Ela Bhatt and former Algerian foreign minister and UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi also took part in the meeting.The delegation, as part of a group which seeks to work for world peace, left Amman after the talks and were to travel on to Israel and the Palestinian political capital of Ramallah in the West Bank.The respected statesmen have also visited Damascus and Cairo after kicking off the tour in Gaza, apart from Carter who joined them on the second leg in the Egyptian capital.Direct peace talks, which resumed in Washington at the start of September, have run into the ground over Israel's refusal to renew restrictions on Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.Jordan's King Abdullah II on Monday told the visting foreign ministers of France and Spain that Europe has a key role in Middle East, after the pair were snubbed by their Israeli counterpart.
Controversial OECD tourism conference opens in Jerusalem
– Wed Oct 20, 7:33 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – An Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development tourism conference opened in Jerusalem on Wednesday with 28 out of 33 members attending over Palestinian protests, Israel's tourism ministry said.Critics had said Israel would use the forum held by the club of developed economies, to which it was admitted earlier this year, to lend international legitimacy to the Jewish state's claim to the entire Holy City as its capital.The Palestinians, who have demanded annexed Arab east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state, had called on the international community to boycott the gathering, as did the Arab League.Britain and Spain had earlier said they would not send delegations to the conference, the former citing financial reasons and the latter a scheduling conflict. Both denied they were boycotting the event.An official in Turkey's tourism ministry said it too would not be participating, without giving further details. Israel's tourism ministry did not disclose the two other absentees.Relations between Israel and its once-close military ally Turkey have been severely frayed since a May 31 raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship, in which Israeli naval commandos shot dead nine Turkish activists.Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov sparked a row with the OECD earlier this month when he suggested that the conference constituted international recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
The minister, from the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, later backed away from the remarks, saying the gathering should be apolitical and strictly professional.In remarks at the opening of the three-day summit, which will focus on green tourism, Misezhnikov highlighted the growing cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the area of tourism.Based upon stability and common interest, cities like Jerusalem and Bethlehem are cooperating for the well-being of thousands of visitors, daily crossing from Israel to the Palestinian Authority and vice-versa, he said.I am confident that this tourism dynamism will spread and we can anticipate the combination with other localities like Jericho joining in that form of cooperation.The fate of Jerusalem, with major holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, has been one of the most intractable issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Wednesday's opening session was closed to the public.
Hezbollah slams UN interference in Lebanese affairs
– Wed Oct 20, 3:36 am ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement Wednesday accused the United Nations of interfering in Lebanese affairs, days after the world body warned tension in the country could affect the entire region.The UN on Monday released a report on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for the disbanding and disarmament of all militias on Lebanese soil and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon.In the report, released after a controversial visit to Lebanon by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week, UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned that Lebanon had been hit by a new climate of uncertainty that could cause instability across the Middle East.The report released by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Resolution 1559 ... marks interference in internal Lebanese affairs as well as political interference in the affairs of the international tribunal, Hezbollah said in a statement.Tension has been rising in Lebanon over the UN-backed tribunal, which is probing the 2005 assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, amid unconfirmed reports the court will indict members of Hezbollah.The Iranian-backed group has warned such an eventuality will have repercussions in Lebanon and called for a local investigation into the murder instead.It would seem that Ban Ki-moon... failed to notice that Hezbollah, and for quite some time, has been at the heart of Lebanese politics through its representation in parliament and cabinet,Hezbollah's statement said.It would also seem that he did not find the time to read Lebanon's government statement.Saad Hariri's hard-won government in November adopted a policy statement that acknowledged Hezbollah's right to use its weapons against Israel, despite disagreement by mainly Christian members of the ruling majority.
Hezbollah, which fought a bloody 2006 war with Israel, is the only group that refused to turn in its arms after the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war.It argues its arsenal is necessary to protect the country against the Jewish state, which withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year occupation.
1:00PM OCT 22,10
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Israel's settlement construction in the occupied territories has become an almost insurmountable obstacle to creating an independent Palestinian state, a UN envoy said Friday.A Palestinian state seems increasingly problematic as a solution because it would require a substantial reversal of the settlement process, said Richard Falk, a UN representative on human rights in the Palestinian territories.He told a press conference at the UN headquarters that the settlers would probably put up strong opposition to any such move.Falk added in a report to the UN General Assembly that the extension of the Jewish presence in East Jerusalem by way of unlawful settlements, house demolitions, revocations of Palestinian residence rights, makes it increasingly difficult to envisage a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.You have to disconnect between an inter-governmental peace process and an illusion that at the end of this process is an independent sovereign Palestinian state, the envoy, a professor of international law at Princeton University in the United States, told reporters.Falk said he had always been skeptical about the chance of an exchange of territory to create a Palestinian state.
The envoy said the occupation since 1967 exacts an enormous human cost in terms of the daily existence of every Palestinian trapped in this reality.Israel ended a 10 month freeze on settlement building in September and Palestinians have refused to take part in direct talks since then. The United States and other international powers have criticized the Israeli settlement construction.
Abbas and Saudi king discuss stalled peace talks
OCT 22,10
RIYADH (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas held talks on Friday with King Abdullah that focused on the stalled peace process with Israel, the official Saudi news agency SPA reported.They discussed developments in the Palestinian issue and efforts exerted to put the peace process back on the right path, it said.The two leaders also discussed the need for the international community to assume responsibility to achieve a just and comprehensive peace that would guarantee the Palestinian people's right to establish its independent state on its national soil, with Jerusalem as a capital, it added.Abbas left Riyadh on Friday afternoon, the agency added.A Palestinian diplomat in Riyadh told AFP Thursday that Abbas's visit comes at a critical stage in the negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis.The diplomat pointed to Israel's refusal to extend a moratorium on Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem that expired on September 26.On October 9, foreign ministers of the Arab League, in which Saudi Arabia plays a leading role, said they would wait one more month to see if the direct peace talks can be restarted.Since the settlement moratorium ended, Jewish settlers have begun building at least 600 homes, a pace four times faster than before the freeze began last year, the Israeli activist group Peace Now said on Thursday.
Peace with Palestinians would help U.S. on Iran: Peres
– Fri Oct 22, 3:40 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel needs good ties with the United States to survive and must be more understanding of U.S. demands over securing peace with the Palestinians, Israeli President Shimon Peres said in remarks aired on Friday.Peres, Israel's elder statesman, said an end to the Palestinian conflict would improve the United States' own security position in the Middle East and help isolate Iran.His comments came as a diplomatic deadlock deepened over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to bow to demands from Washington to extend a freeze on West Bank settlement building so peace negotiations with the Palestinians can resume.We fought alone, but we cannot exist alone. For our existence we need the friendship of the United States of America. It doesn't sound easy, but this is the truth, Peres said in a speech to Jewish leaders broadcast by Israel Radio.As the United States is trying to understand the security needs of Israel, we Israelis ourselves must understand the security needs of the United States, he said, speaking in English in an address made on Thursday evening.In our own small way we can be of help, and of help means (to) enable an anti-Iranian coalition in the Middle East. And the contribution will not be by a declaration, but if we will stop the secondary conflict between us and the Palestinians.Washington, which often sides with the Israelis in key diplomatic forums and underwrites their military, has been trying to rein in the nuclear aspirations of Israel's arch-foe, Iran, through tougher international sanctions.
Yet some Arab powers have publicly chafed at that campaign, pointing to the Palestinians' stalled drive to achieve independence on land Israel occupied in a 1967Middle East war.U.S. leaders in recent months have connected the need for peace with the Palestinians to U.S. security interests, blaming the continued tensions for fuelling Islamist militancy.As head of state, ex-premier Peres lacks executive powers but is often a bellwether of opinion among left-leaning Israelis who oppose the rightist Netanyahu government's policymaking.(Writing by Dan Williams, editing by Tim Pearce)
Mideast sides mulling alternatives to peace talks By DAN PERRY and KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writers – Thu Oct 21, 4:32 pm ET
JERUSALEM – With peace talks stalled, Israelis and Palestinians are quietly — and separately — looking for alternatives.The scenarios range from the Palestinians going around Israel to seek world recognition for an independent state to Israel pushing for a scaled-down agreement that sidesteps the toughest issues, like sharing Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.The thinking is that few people believe a full peace deal within a year is achievable. And the impasse that has emerged over settlement construction has brought a difficult question to the surface: If the United States cannot compel Israel to extend a settlement freeze for a few months, how can the U.S. persuade Israel to make wrenching decisions over control of Jerusalem? Both sides claim their first choice is still a full agreement, and the Obama administration is clinging to the hope that the peace talks will succeed.But Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged in a speech to Palestinian Americans on Wednesday that it's a struggle.I cannot stand here tonight and tell you there is some magic formula that I have discovered that will break through the current impasse, she said.Palestinians say the current situation cannot drag on indefinitely: they have a measure of self-rule in the main cities of the West Bank, but Israel controls the land in between and remains ultimately in charge, controlling the Palestinians through a complex permit system. The Gaza Strip, meanwhile, has essentially broken off — an isolated statelet run by the Islamic militant group Hamas, which rejects the peace talks.
Palestinian officials said they don't expect Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to take drastic action before the year set aside for negotiations is up in September 2011. However, Abbas is starting to prepare for other options, and on Wednesday, more than a dozen senior Palestinian officials met for the first time — at the president's request — to discuss ideas.The main alternative, according to officials, is to seek U.N. Security Council recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.The U.N. is a possible option because this political battle ... needs to be transferred to the broader courtyard, said Yasser Abed-Rabbo, a top official of the Palestine Liberation Organization.While such validation would not immediately change the situation on the ground, it could boost Palestinian leverage vis-a-vis Israel. International recognition of Palestine's borders could also further isolate Israel and limit the Jewish state's diplomatic and military options.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians would first seek recognition from the United States.The Palestinians know that may be difficult to obtain but hope that by next fall, they will have won sufficient international support to make the idea palatable, should the need arise. At that time, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will have completed his ambitious two-year plan to build the institutions of a Palestinian state.Achievements on the ground will contribute to convincing the international community to take a more active role in allowing for the independent Palestinian state by then,government spokesman Ghassan Khatib said.
Israel would surely oppose such a unilateral Palestinian move.But among many Israelis as well, skepticism about peace talks is accompanied by a gnawing sense that something must change: the occupation is ruining the country's reputation and there's concern that without a decisive break from the West Bank, Israel will become, in effect, a binational state with a dwindling Jewish majority.Many Israelis also a fear another Palestinian uprising if peace efforts run aground. Violence erupts every time peace talks fail and that is what will happen again,said Gil Zaken, 35, a computer graphics designer. It will be a big mess.Concerns about Israel's future have driven even right-wing parties once opposed to territorial concessions toward more moderate positions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself endorsed — albeit grudgingly — the idea of a Palestinian state in 2009, and agreed to the peace effort launched by President Barack Obama last month. But the talks stalled within weeks, when Israel refused to extend a 10-month freeze on new settlement construction. And Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon recently said that not one member of the key group of seven Cabinet ministers — which includes Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and himself — believes a full peace treaty is achievable within a year.
Now a debate simmers over alternatives.
Talk of scaling back expectations is coming from opposite corners of the political map. Both Yossi Beilin, a prominent dove, and Education Minister Gideon Saar, a hard-liner from Netanyahu's Likud, have suggested that this might be the only way to move forward.Under this idea, Israel would no longer seek an end of conflict declaration from the Palestinians — which would presumably lower the price of a deal. The Palestinians would get a state in most of the West Bank, with international safeguards about a future deal, but decisions on Jerusalem and refugees would be put off.The Palestinians adamantly reject such a scenario, fearing that they would lose any further leverage and end up with a mini-state.But Beilin believes that they can be persuaded that it is simply the only way to achieve statehood.It is better to have something than to have nothing, Beilin told The Associated Press. Other surprising ideas have emerged on the Israeli right, where one would expect nationalists trying to strengthen the Jewish nature of the state. Now former Defense Minister Moshe Arens and Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin are calling for the West Bank to be annexed and its Palestinians eventually offered full citizenship — moves that would take Israel a long way toward being a binational state.Some Israelis also speak of the idea of unilateral pullouts from some parts of the West Bank they don't want, outside the framework of an agreement with the Palestinians, reminiscent of Israel's 2005 unilateral pullout from Gaza.Another possibility that has been discussed: Might the Palestinian president dissolve his self-rule government and kick back to Israel the costly burden of full rule over the Palestinians? All of this is at odds with the widespread notion that the basic contours of a comprehensive deal are somehow clear and inevitable.Under the generally assumed parameters of such a deal, Israel would retain only a tiny fraction of the West Bank, but these would be areas close to the pre-1967 border where many of the 300,000 settlers live. The rest of the settlers would be removed. The sides would find a formula to share Jerusalem. And the Palestinian demand that millions of refugees have a right of return to Israel will be finessed.But these ideas have been around for over a decade, with no one able to bridge the gaps. And Israelis still find it close to inconceivable that Palestinians might control the Old City with its holy sites, border guards perhaps gazing from its ancient walls upon the King David hotel and the main shopping street in Jerusalem.The whole strategy (of reaching a comprehensive deal) hasn't worked, said Aaron David Miller, a senior former State Department official involved in negotiations.I don't think you can produce this with these leaders.Associated Press writers Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Venezuela's Chavez backs return of Golan to Syria
– Thu Oct 21, 1:47 pm ET
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressed his support on Thursday for Syria's efforts to recover the Golan Heights, captured by Israel during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.I hope that President (Bashar al-) Assad will invite me to the Golan after its liberation. One day we will visit the Golan together, Chavez said at a news conference with the Syrian leader.Chavez, who arrived in Damascus from Iran late on Wednesday, said his country maintains an alliance with Syria based on sentiments of friendship between the two peoples.We need to accelerate the birth of a new multi-party and balanced world, the Venezuelan president said.Thanks to the efforts of millions of people and of leaders like President Assad, we will achieve this world in the next few years.For his part, Assad denounced the new world order based on force and hegemony instead of justice and principles.Assad also criticised Israel over peace moves in the region.Israel does not wish for and is not ready to make peace,he said. It is following a tactical course aimed at persuading the world that it is passionate about peace and that it is the Arabs who reject it.Israel murders the Palestinians, and the process of judaising Jerusalem is a racist act, he added.Chavez's visit to Syria is his latest stop on an international tour aimed at strengthening Venezuela's commercial ties with eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Hamas very eager to discuss Shalit with Israel: Carter
– Thu Oct 21, 12:57 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Gaza's Hamas rulers are very eager to resume talks with Israel over a prisoner exchange which could see captured soldier Gilad Shalit being freed, former US president Jimmy Carter said on Thursday.They let us know... they are very eager to proceed, Carter told reporters in Jerusalem several days after a delegation of former world statesmen, known as The Elders, met Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip.They are very glad that the German negotiator has been back on the scene lately and that Israeli Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu has made some positive statements about a prisoner exchange.Carter, who joined the Elders on the Syrian leg of their regional tour where he met Hamas' exiled leadership, said he had urged the group to do everything they could to expedite the exchange of prisoners so Shalit could return home.They maintained that they are very eager to have a swap but they are demanding the release of some prisoners that are not acceptable to the Israeli negotiators, he said.Netanyahu on Sunday said that talks aimed at releasing Shalit had resumed after a hiatus of nearly a year.The radical Islamist group and other Palestinian militants captured Shalit, now 24, in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006 and have demanded hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including top militants, in exchange for his release.There was also an ongoing disagreement over where they would be allowed to live, Carter said.They strongly oppose the proposal that Israel has made, particularly the deportation of some of the prisoners who would be released.They cannot stay in Gaza, they can't stay in the West Bank, they can't stay in east Jerusalem if they are released from Israeli prisons -- that is a handicap, he said.
Jewish settlers building 600 new homes
by Hazel Ward – Thu Oct 21, 12:01 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has started building at least 600 homes since the end of a construction freeze, watchdog Peace Now said on Thursday, in a move which the Palestinians slammed as a flagrant act of defiance.In our estimation, building has started on between 600 and 700 new housing units in less than one month, which is four times the pace of construction since before the freeze,Peace Now's Hagit Ofran told AFP, referring to the moratorium that began at the end of November 2009.Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians are facing imminent collapse in a bitter row over settlement building on occupied West Bank land that resumed after the end of the 10-month ban.Israel has refused to reimpose the moratorium, while the Palestinians say they will not hold talk while settlers are building on Palestinian land, prompting a flurry of US diplomatic efforts to resolve the deadlock.And Thursday's revelation, details of which are to be fleshed out in a Peace Now report to be published next week, looked set to put a knife in the back of diplomatic efforts to salvage the talks.This flagrant act of defiance towards the Palestinians, the Arabs and the US administration demands an Arab and an international response -- particularly from the Americans, said Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for president Mahmud Abbas.Faced with Israel's insistence on continued settlement building, the Palestinians are going to demand Washington recognise a Palestinian state, said Nimr Hammad, another adviser of the Palestinian president.
In the face of Israel's stubborn continuation of settlement construction and given that the US administration has called many times for the end of the occupation ... as well as the establishment ... of a Palestinian state, we are going to officially ask that Washington recognise the Palestinian state, he told AFP, without saying when.Peace Now said the surge in construction was to meet immediate demand for some 2,000 housing units, as part of a longer-term plan to build about 13,000 new homes, all of which had already been approved.After the moratorium expired just over three weeks ago, Jewish settlers across the West Bank began building in earnest, although they were advised by the Israeli leadership to keep a low profile so as not to inflame international condemnation.As bulldozers lumbered into action, the Palestinian leadership held back on a threat to abandon talks, with Abbas and Arab foreign ministers giving Washington a few weeks grace period to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.Although the freeze did not cover building in mostly Arab east Jerusalem, Ofran said there had been a certain slowdown in construction there since a visit in March by US Vice President Joe Biden.In an announcement which was seen as a slap in the face for the visiting Biden, Israel said it would build 1,600 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem, prompting a major crisis with Washington.Since then, Israel has not signed off on any new building in the east, until last week, when it approved plans for another 240 homes in the settlement neighbourhoods of Pisgat Zeev and Ramot.The move was sharply condemned by the Palestinians, who accused Israel of being intent on killing every opportunity to revive peace talks between the two sides.Netanyahu has so far refused to reimpose the freeze, largely because he lacks support for such a move within his right-wing coalition.Jewish settlement on occupied Palestinian land is one of the most bitter aspects of the conflict.About 500,000 Israelis live in more than 120 settlements across the West Bank, including east Jerusalem -- territories which the Palestinians want for their promised state.The Palestinians see the settlements as a major threat to the establishment of a viable state and view the freezing of settlement activity as a crucial test of Israel's intentions.
Clinton urges Arabs to give more money to Palestinians
– Wed Oct 20, 8:36 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday urged Arab countries to offer greater financial support to the Palestinian Authority.It takes more than plans and commitments to support making the state of Palestine a reality, Clinton told the annual dinner of the American Task Force on Palestine, a pro-Palestinian group which calls for a Palestinian state.The chief US diplomat paid tribute to the Palestinian Authority's efforts, saying it needs a larger, steadier, and more predictable source of financial support.The United States and the European Union are the authority's main donors.But the broader international community, including many Arab states, can and should provide more financial support,Clinton said.The secretary also urged Arab countries to consider how to begin implementing the Arab peace initiative in concrete terms.The 2002 Saudi-inspired initiative calls for Arab states to normalize ties with Israel in return for Israel's withdrawal from Arab territories occupied in the 1967 war, the creation of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital and a fair settlement of the Palestinian refugee issue.
Clinton also promised that, whatever the difficulties, the Obama administration will not give up seeking a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.The peace negotiations that were relaunched in Washington on September 2 following a 20-month hiatus are threatened by Israel's refusal to renew a 10-month moratorium on Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.On October 9, the Arab League gave the United States an additional month to try to save the peace talks.
Israel marks 15 years since Rabin assassination By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer – Wed Oct 20, 5:59 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israel on Wednesday marked 15 years since Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli extremist who opposed his concessions for peace with the Palestinians.At ceremonies around the country, speakers assessed Rabin's legacy, and many warned that the incitement to violence that preceded his assassination has not disappeared.In 1995, Israel was in the midst of a peace process that aimed to create a Palestinian state in much of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. The process, which began with secret negotiations in Oslo, Norway in 1993, broke down in violence in 2000, and many Israelis now believe it was a mistake.Rabin was shot dead on Nov. 4, 1995. Israel marks the event according to the Hebrew calendar date, which fell on Wednesday.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and other dignitaries joined Rabin's family at a ceremony at his grave in Jerusalem.
Instead of just eulogizing Rabin, Netanyahu addressed the slain prime minister as if he were alive, recounting what happened in his absence.We haven't yet reached the desired peace, and it is not clear if this would have completely surprised you, Netanyahu said at the ceremony in the Jerusalem military cemetery on Mount Herzl.
Today's peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which started in early September in Washington, have stalled over Netanyahu's refusal to extend a building slowdown in Jewish settlements in the West Bank — a territory that Palestinians seek for their future state.Weeks before the assassination, Netanyahu — at the time a bitter political enemy of Rabin — vilified his planned concessions in a vitriolic rally in downtown Jerusalem. After taking office for a second term last year, Netanyahu for the first time accepted the concept of a Palestinian state.At Wednesday's memorial, Netanyahu said many Israelis understand that we cannot exist long term without a (peace) agreement and without compromises.At a separate memorial in the central Israeli city of Rehovot, longtime Rabin aide Eitan Haber complained that extremist rabbis who backed violence were not arrested.Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir, would not have carried out his murderous act if he had not felt backing from his religious leaders, said Haber, warning that extremism and incitement are still common.Israeli newspapers featured pictures of Rabin and memorial ceremonies on their front pages. The Haaretz daily carried a picture of youth forging a six-sided Star of David from traditional memorial candles at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, named for the fallen leader after the assassination.Echoing the findings of a public opinion poll, columnist Ben Caspit wrote in the Maariv daily: Yigal Amir must never be released from prison.(This version CORRECTS that Netanyahu took office last year, not this.)
S.Africa draws on past to boost Palestinian reconciliation
– Wed Oct 20, 1:38 pm ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – South Africa has launched a new initiative aimed at encouraging Palestinian reconciliation by sharing its experience in overcoming Apartheid, officials said on Wednesday.Pretoria's representative to the Palestinian Authority Ted Pekane announced the initiative, which will be carried out by Alex Boraine, the former deputy head of the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.That commission, which in the 1990s probed human rights violations committed during Apartheid, was widely credited with easing tensions and helping the country come to terms with its legacy of racial discrimination.I received an invitation from the South African embassy to come here to see the Palestinian factions and try to reach reconciliation with them, Boraine told reporters in the West Bank political capital Ramallah.The two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, have been fiercely divided since Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007 in a week of bloody street battles, confining the Western-backed Palestinian Authority to the occupied West Bank.I have met with many people from Fatah during the last week and with a few Hamas leaders and some independents... All of them expressed that they want to see the South African experience, he said.The secular Fatah and its Islamist rivals had planned to hold a second round of talks in Syria on Wednesday but the meeting was scrapped when Fatah requested a change of venue.Egypt tried to mediate between the two rival factions for months but those efforts ground to a halt a year ago when Hamas refused to sign a unity deal endorsed by Cairo and Fatah.
Boraine said he had no intention of interfering with Cairo's mediation.He said he had been denied Israeli permission to travel to Gaza for meetings with senior Hamas leaders there, adding that he hoped to meet with the Islamist movement's exiled leadership in Syria.Since 2007, each side has accused the other of persecuting its members, and Palestinian and international human rights groups have been critical of both.
Jordan warns of steep price if Mideast peace fails
– Wed Oct 20, 11:30 am ET
AMMAN (AFP) – Jordan's King Abdullah II warned that the world will pay a heavy price if the Israeli-Palestinian peace process collapses, in talks on Wednesday with The Elders group of retired global figures.The region and the world will pay the price in case of the failure of the peace efforts which require action from all parties to reach a two-state solution, he said in a statement released by the royal palace. consequences.Only a settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will clear the way for security and stability in the region, he told former US president Jimmy Carter and the three other Elders.The palace said the king and the visiting delegates discussed the obstacles which are blocking progress in the US-brokered direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians.Former Irish president and UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson, Indian women's rights campaigner Ela Bhatt and former Algerian foreign minister and UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi also took part in the meeting.The delegation, as part of a group which seeks to work for world peace, left Amman after the talks and were to travel on to Israel and the Palestinian political capital of Ramallah in the West Bank.The respected statesmen have also visited Damascus and Cairo after kicking off the tour in Gaza, apart from Carter who joined them on the second leg in the Egyptian capital.Direct peace talks, which resumed in Washington at the start of September, have run into the ground over Israel's refusal to renew restrictions on Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.Jordan's King Abdullah II on Monday told the visting foreign ministers of France and Spain that Europe has a key role in Middle East, after the pair were snubbed by their Israeli counterpart.
Controversial OECD tourism conference opens in Jerusalem
– Wed Oct 20, 7:33 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – An Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development tourism conference opened in Jerusalem on Wednesday with 28 out of 33 members attending over Palestinian protests, Israel's tourism ministry said.Critics had said Israel would use the forum held by the club of developed economies, to which it was admitted earlier this year, to lend international legitimacy to the Jewish state's claim to the entire Holy City as its capital.The Palestinians, who have demanded annexed Arab east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state, had called on the international community to boycott the gathering, as did the Arab League.Britain and Spain had earlier said they would not send delegations to the conference, the former citing financial reasons and the latter a scheduling conflict. Both denied they were boycotting the event.An official in Turkey's tourism ministry said it too would not be participating, without giving further details. Israel's tourism ministry did not disclose the two other absentees.Relations between Israel and its once-close military ally Turkey have been severely frayed since a May 31 raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship, in which Israeli naval commandos shot dead nine Turkish activists.Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov sparked a row with the OECD earlier this month when he suggested that the conference constituted international recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
The minister, from the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, later backed away from the remarks, saying the gathering should be apolitical and strictly professional.In remarks at the opening of the three-day summit, which will focus on green tourism, Misezhnikov highlighted the growing cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the area of tourism.Based upon stability and common interest, cities like Jerusalem and Bethlehem are cooperating for the well-being of thousands of visitors, daily crossing from Israel to the Palestinian Authority and vice-versa, he said.I am confident that this tourism dynamism will spread and we can anticipate the combination with other localities like Jericho joining in that form of cooperation.The fate of Jerusalem, with major holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, has been one of the most intractable issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Wednesday's opening session was closed to the public.
Hezbollah slams UN interference in Lebanese affairs
– Wed Oct 20, 3:36 am ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement Wednesday accused the United Nations of interfering in Lebanese affairs, days after the world body warned tension in the country could affect the entire region.The UN on Monday released a report on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for the disbanding and disarmament of all militias on Lebanese soil and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon.In the report, released after a controversial visit to Lebanon by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week, UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned that Lebanon had been hit by a new climate of uncertainty that could cause instability across the Middle East.The report released by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Resolution 1559 ... marks interference in internal Lebanese affairs as well as political interference in the affairs of the international tribunal, Hezbollah said in a statement.Tension has been rising in Lebanon over the UN-backed tribunal, which is probing the 2005 assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, amid unconfirmed reports the court will indict members of Hezbollah.The Iranian-backed group has warned such an eventuality will have repercussions in Lebanon and called for a local investigation into the murder instead.It would seem that Ban Ki-moon... failed to notice that Hezbollah, and for quite some time, has been at the heart of Lebanese politics through its representation in parliament and cabinet,Hezbollah's statement said.It would also seem that he did not find the time to read Lebanon's government statement.Saad Hariri's hard-won government in November adopted a policy statement that acknowledged Hezbollah's right to use its weapons against Israel, despite disagreement by mainly Christian members of the ruling majority.
Hezbollah, which fought a bloody 2006 war with Israel, is the only group that refused to turn in its arms after the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war.It argues its arsenal is necessary to protect the country against the Jewish state, which withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year occupation.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
SHARON SCULPTURE CAUSES EMOTION
Sculpture of comatose leader stirs Israeli emotion
– Tue Oct 19, 6:27 pm ET
JERUSALEM – A lifelike sculpture of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is stirring high emotions among Israelis.Sharon, the tough army general turned politician who led Israel during the trying years of the second Palestinian uprising and uprooted Israeli settlers from Gaza in 2005, suffered a devastating stroke on Jan. 4, 2006, that has left him comatose for nearly five years.An art exhibit opening this week in Tel Aviv, which features a wax figure-like sculpture of Sharon in his hospital bed, has enraged his political supporters.There's no art here, only sickening voyeurism, said Yoel Hasson, a parliament member from Sharon's Kadima party.This is not the way I would like to remember Sharon, said Raanan Gissin, Sharon's former adviser and confidant, after visiting the Tel Aviv art gallery where the sculpture is exhibited. I think Sharon would say,I would rather not be remembered, than be remembered that way.Gissin, who serves as a family spokesman, said Sharon's two sons had no comment.
Gissin said he frequently visits the Tel Aviv hospital ward where Sharon is treated, but cannot bring himself to look at the former premier in his current state.He's neither alive nor dead. It's very tragic, Gissin said.Sharon's family plans to move the former prime minister to his private ranch in southern Israel, where he will continue to be closely supervised by medical staff, Gissin said.Israeli artist Noam Braslavsky said he created the sculpture because Sharon has been absent from the public eye for so long.There is a national consensus that no one touches his image, said Braslavsky. I'm touching an open nerve.Braslavsky said the comatose statue, whose chest moves up and down to depict Sharon's dependence on a breathing machine, represents Israel's inertia on improving the country's political situation.It's an allegory about the state of Israel's state of existence, hanging between the heavens and the earth, Braslavsky said.The artwork portrays Sharon's eyes open, but they don't see. It's reminiscent of the state of our government,Braslavsky said.
Braslavsky said he has received a wide range of reactions. He said he understood the angry responses, but said some visitors have thanked him for depicting a legendary figure whom they miss.
New Gaza peace flotilla to have up to 20 boats: organisers
– Tue Oct 19, 1:40 pm ET
MADRID (AFP) – Aid groups planning a second peace flotilla to Gaza hope to send at least twice the number of boats as took part in the first ill-fated attempt in May, they announced Tuesday.The second flotilla will have between 12 and 20 boats carrying humanitarian aid compared to just six for the first, Manuel Tapial, a Spanish member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, told a news conference.Tapiel was part of the peace flotilla that ended on May 31 Israeli forces intercepted the ships. The raid went badly wrong and nine Turkish activists -- including one with US citizenship -- were killed, prompting a wave of international condemnation.The flotilla was carrying aid but was also aimed at pressing Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip.Sixteen organisation from 16 countries -- Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Greece, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States -- are joining the new trip, which is to start between March and May from several European countries, he said.Groups taking part announced the bid last week following a meeting in Geneva.Our objective is both humanitarian and political, said the Spanish representative for the flotilla, Dimitris Plionis.He noted that a report by the UN Human Rights Council found there was clear evidence to back prosecutions against Israel for killing and torture when its troops stormed the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship in the May flotilla.This report gives us the legal basis to undertake our actions, Plionis said.
Palestinians urge boycott of Israel's OECD debut
By Allyn Fisher-Ilan – Mon Oct 18, 12:53 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Middle East conflict cast a shadow Monday over Israel's first conference as a member of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, with Palestinians urging members to boycott the Jerusalem meeting.Israel joined the club of free market democracies on May 10, in what its central bank governor, Stanley Fischer, called an important milestone for the integration of Israel into the global economy.But chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Monday OECD members should cancel their participation in the October 20-22 annual conference to protest against Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem. The meeting's theme is tourism.According to Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Mizeshnikov, 28 of the 33 OECD members have agreed to participate.Media reports say Spain, Britain and Turkey would not take part. A Palestinian official said Canada has also said it was not participating.It's a real honor for Israel, as a new member of the OECD, to host this summit, Mizeshnikov told reporters.I don't know of any countries that have boycotted Israel.Israel's candidacy was accepted despite protests from human rights campaigners and pro-Palestinian groups.Erekat accused Mizeshnikov in a statement of boasting in Israeli media at the weekend that playing host to the OECD in Jerusalem constituted a seal of approval for Israel's disputed claim to the city as its undivided capital.
OECD COMPLAINT
Mizeshnikov denied this. However, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria had complained to Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz in Washington earlier that the conference was being politicized by Mizeshnikov, an Israeli official said.In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reported in Israeli media, Gurria said that in order to move forward ... the tourism minister should correct the misperceptions created and put the meeting in its proper perspective.Most of the international community has never recognized Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem after its capture it in the 1967 war.The future status of the holy city, and Palestinian claims to East Jerusalem as their capital, are key issues in the currently deadlocked Middle East peace talks.The capital of Israel is Jerusalem, Mizeshnikov said. That's a fact, not an arguable fact. But it doesn't in any way connect this issue to the OECD conference.The decision to hold the annual meeting in Jerusalem was a very good example of how members of the OECD evaluate Israel as a very strong state, economically, he added.The OECD, rooted in Europe's reconstruction after World War Two, deals strictly with economic issues.Despite a world financial crisis, Israel expects to see a record 3.2 million tourists in 2010, up from an earlier record of three million in 2008, Mizeshnikov said.(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Steven Scheer in Jerusalem) (Editing by Douglas Hamilton and Paul Taylor)
Gaza tunnellers turn former lifeline into export channel
by Mai Yaghi – Mon Oct 18, 3:00 am ET
RAFAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The workers herd cows through the dusty tunnels beneath the Gaza border, but this time they are leading them out of the isolated Palestinian enclave and into Egypt.The lifting of restrictions in recent months has seen consumer goods pour into the Hamas-run territory through Israeli crossings, transforming the tunnels that once served as a lifeline for Gaza into its sole export channel.The tunnels are still used for smuggling in construction materials that Israel only allows to enter via authorised crossings for projects carried out under international supervision.But the canvas sacks full of food, beauty products and second-hand clothes that used to be dragged through hundreds of tunnels beneath the border now flow the other way in a lucrative trade conducted by an entrepreneurial few.We reversed our trade since the easing of the Israeli blockade and now we export, said a tunnel operator who goes by Abu Jamil.The Egyptian traders demand Israeli livestock to breed with their own to improve its quality, the 45-year-old smuggler said, calling his partners on the other side of the heavily-guarded border to tell them the cows are coming through, each with an Israel tag on its neck extolling its breeding potential.
The Egyptians also order Israeli coffee, blue jeans, mobile phones, and what Abu Jamil refers to as raw materials -- scrap copper, aluminium and used car batteries that can be recycled in Egypt.Abu Ahmad, 30, another tunnel operator, watched as his workers use a makeshift pulley to lower several cases of Israeli-made soap and hair gel into a tunnel lit by a row of electric lights.Over the last two weeks he has exported chickens, pigeons, beauty products and clothes imported from Turkey and China.He even exports fresh fruit, including figs, lychees and mangos, saying it only takes around 10 minutes to pass the goods to the other side.A lot of the fruit we import through the Israeli crossings are not available in Egypt, or if they are the prices are high, he said.The same tunnel owners and operators that have made fortunes importing desperately needed goods are still profiting from Israel's closure regime, which prevents legitimate exports from the territory.Abu Ahmad makes around 50 dollars (36 euros) for every cage of chickens he exports and 150 to 300 dollars (110-220 euros) for every tonne of goods.The profits generated by the trade have always benefited a small circle of tunnel owners and smugglers, with low-paid labourers, many of them teenagers, doing much of the dangerous subterranean work.
More than 130 Gazans have been killed in accidental cave-ins or the Israeli bombing of the tunnels in the last three years, according to local medics.And while the larger economy has shown some signs of recovery since the easing of the closures, unemployment remains above 30 percent and four out of five Gazans relay on international aid.Israel and Egypt first imposed the closures after Gaza militants kidnapped a soldier in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006 and tightened them when Hamas -- which is pledged to Israel's destruction -- seized power a year later.
Israel began easing the restrictions earlier this year and started allowing in nearly all purely civilian goods in June following the international backlash after the deadly May 31 seizure of a Gaza-bound aid fleet.Gaza's above-ground businessmen insist that the tunnels have done little to help local industry or contribute to long-term growth and have demanded Israel open its crossings for exports. Exporting through the tunnels does nothing for us,said Amr Hamad, head of the Palestinian Federation of Industries in Gaza.We want to export in an official way and not through smuggling so that our local industries can breathe.Israel has said exports are out of the question as long as there are no security forces on the Gaza side of the border that can search shipments for bombs, weapons and fighters. As a result, more and more Gazans are resorting to the tunnels, which are regulated and taxed by Hamas.Abu Mohammed Zomaili, the owner of a furniture shop and a clothing store in Gaza City, says he has doubled his profits since the easing of the blockade by exporting bedsheets and clothes made in Turkey and brought in through Israel.He says he is able to compete because Egypt imposes high customs duties and taxes on imported goods in order to promote its own local industries.But even if Egyptian security forces were to seize some of his goods he would continue exporting because he sells his products in Egypt for twice what he pays for them.I don't risk anything and the profit margin is double,he says.
Israeli air strike kills 2 militants in Gaza Strip
– Sun Oct 17, 6:37 pm ET
GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli air strike Sunday killed two Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip who had attempted to launch rockets at Israel, the Israeli military and Palestinian medics said.Men were targeted in an air strike after they were spotted preparing to fire a rocket or a mortar shell at Israel and we identified a hit, an Israeli military spokeswoman said.Israel often carries out strikes against militant targets in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the Islamist group Hamas. The strikes generally target tunnels that militants use to smuggle in weapons from neighboring Egypt.It was the first killing in an Israeli attack on militants in the Gaza Strip since Sept 27. The Israeli military says militants have fired more than 165 rockets so far this year.(Reporting by Abed Shanaa, Writing by Ori Lewis)
Netanyahu says Lebanon becoming Iran satellite
– Sun Oct 17, 12:04 pm ET
DEGANIA ALEF, Israel (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Lebanon is quickly becoming a satellite of Tehran after it hosted a controversial visit by Iran's president.Netanyahu's remarks came after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad again predicted Israel's destruction, speaking at a packed rally in southern Lebanon just a few kilometres (miles) from the border with Israel.In the last few days we have heard slurs and insults directed at Israel, the Israeli premier told a weekly cabinet meeting held in the north of the country in honour of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the first kibbutz, or communal farm, at Degania Alef.Lebanon is rapidly becoming a new satellite of Iran. It's a tragedy for Lebanon, he said, in remarks carried by army radio.On Thursday Ahmadinejad toured the southern Lebanon border region, the heartland of the Shiite Hezbollah movement, and addressed a crowd of some 15,000 supporters waving Iranian and Hezbollah flags.The whole world knows that the Zionists are going to disappear, he said to thunderous applause in the village of Bint Jbeil, which was devastated during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.The occupying Zionists today have no choice but to accept reality and go back to their countries of origin,he added.
His visit to the south brought Ahmadinejad the closest he has ever been to Israel and was seen as a joint show of defiance with Hezbollah.Some 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed in the 34-day war in 2006.The border area remains tense, with both Israel and Hezbollah having vowed a massive reprisal to any attack.Israel has long viewed Iran as its biggest threat because of Ahmadinejad's hardline rhetoric, his country's controversial nuclear enrichment programme and its support for Hezbollah and the militant Hamas movement ruling Gaza.
Israel says Paris Mideast summit postponed
– Sat Oct 16, 4:32 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – A planned October 21 summit in Paris between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been postponed, the premier's office said on Saturday.
Following consultations, the parties concerned have agreed to decide on another date,a statement from Netanyahu's office said.On Friday the French presidency had raised the possibility of the meeting previously announced by President Nicolas Sarkozy not going ahead next Thursday as planned, following the suspension of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat on Saturday implicitly confirmed the postponement of the Paris gathering.The continuation by Israel of settlement activity ruins all peace efforts, be they those of (US) President Barack Obama or those of President Nicolas Sarkozy, he told AFP.
He added that in any case the Palestinian Authority has not received an official invitation, giving a date, for such a meeting.Earlier on Saturday, the French foreign ministry said it was deeply disappointed with Israel's plans to resume building homes for settlers in east Jerusalem, and urged Netanyahu's government to reconsider.This decision is inopportune. France is deeply disappointed, ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in a statement.France calls on the Israeli authorities to reconsider this decision.On Friday, Israel announced plans to build 238 new homes in east Jerusalem, provoking anger from the Palestinian Authority and criticism from its key ally the United States.US-brokered direct peace talks launched in early September ground to a halt within weeks after the expiry of a 10-month moratorium on the construction of new settler homes in the occupied West Bank.Abbas has refused to hold further negotiations while settlement construction in the West Bank continues, and a week ago Arab League foreign ministers gave US negotiators a month to try to resolve the impasse.
US disappointed at Israel's settlement move
– Fri Oct 15, 3:11 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Friday it was disappointed with Israel's plans for 238 new settler homes in east Jerusalem, saying it undermined US efforts to revive Middle East peace talks.We were disappointed by the announcement of new tenders in east Jerusalem yesterday. It is contrary to our efforts to resume direct negotiations between the parties, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.He said US officials had expressed their disappointment to Israeli counterparts when they were informed of the settlement plans.When asked if US Middle East envoy George Mitchell was planning to return to the region, Crowley said: We're still evaluating... what the appropriate next steps are. I've got nothing to announce.The plans for new housing in the settlement neighborhoods of Pisgat Zeev and Ramot were approved on Thursday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Ynet news website said.Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said it proved Israel was intent on killing every opportunity to revive peace talks between the two sides. Netanyahu has made his choice: settlements over peace, he said.Middle East peace talks launched in early September by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ground to a halt within weeks after the expiry of a 10-month moratorium on the construction of new Jewish settler homes.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has refused to hold further negotiations while settlement construction in the West Bank continues and last week Arab League foreign ministers gave US negotiators a month to resolve the impasse.
– Tue Oct 19, 6:27 pm ET
JERUSALEM – A lifelike sculpture of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is stirring high emotions among Israelis.Sharon, the tough army general turned politician who led Israel during the trying years of the second Palestinian uprising and uprooted Israeli settlers from Gaza in 2005, suffered a devastating stroke on Jan. 4, 2006, that has left him comatose for nearly five years.An art exhibit opening this week in Tel Aviv, which features a wax figure-like sculpture of Sharon in his hospital bed, has enraged his political supporters.There's no art here, only sickening voyeurism, said Yoel Hasson, a parliament member from Sharon's Kadima party.This is not the way I would like to remember Sharon, said Raanan Gissin, Sharon's former adviser and confidant, after visiting the Tel Aviv art gallery where the sculpture is exhibited. I think Sharon would say,I would rather not be remembered, than be remembered that way.Gissin, who serves as a family spokesman, said Sharon's two sons had no comment.
Gissin said he frequently visits the Tel Aviv hospital ward where Sharon is treated, but cannot bring himself to look at the former premier in his current state.He's neither alive nor dead. It's very tragic, Gissin said.Sharon's family plans to move the former prime minister to his private ranch in southern Israel, where he will continue to be closely supervised by medical staff, Gissin said.Israeli artist Noam Braslavsky said he created the sculpture because Sharon has been absent from the public eye for so long.There is a national consensus that no one touches his image, said Braslavsky. I'm touching an open nerve.Braslavsky said the comatose statue, whose chest moves up and down to depict Sharon's dependence on a breathing machine, represents Israel's inertia on improving the country's political situation.It's an allegory about the state of Israel's state of existence, hanging between the heavens and the earth, Braslavsky said.The artwork portrays Sharon's eyes open, but they don't see. It's reminiscent of the state of our government,Braslavsky said.
Braslavsky said he has received a wide range of reactions. He said he understood the angry responses, but said some visitors have thanked him for depicting a legendary figure whom they miss.
New Gaza peace flotilla to have up to 20 boats: organisers
– Tue Oct 19, 1:40 pm ET
MADRID (AFP) – Aid groups planning a second peace flotilla to Gaza hope to send at least twice the number of boats as took part in the first ill-fated attempt in May, they announced Tuesday.The second flotilla will have between 12 and 20 boats carrying humanitarian aid compared to just six for the first, Manuel Tapial, a Spanish member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, told a news conference.Tapiel was part of the peace flotilla that ended on May 31 Israeli forces intercepted the ships. The raid went badly wrong and nine Turkish activists -- including one with US citizenship -- were killed, prompting a wave of international condemnation.The flotilla was carrying aid but was also aimed at pressing Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip.Sixteen organisation from 16 countries -- Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Greece, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States -- are joining the new trip, which is to start between March and May from several European countries, he said.Groups taking part announced the bid last week following a meeting in Geneva.Our objective is both humanitarian and political, said the Spanish representative for the flotilla, Dimitris Plionis.He noted that a report by the UN Human Rights Council found there was clear evidence to back prosecutions against Israel for killing and torture when its troops stormed the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship in the May flotilla.This report gives us the legal basis to undertake our actions, Plionis said.
Palestinians urge boycott of Israel's OECD debut
By Allyn Fisher-Ilan – Mon Oct 18, 12:53 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Middle East conflict cast a shadow Monday over Israel's first conference as a member of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, with Palestinians urging members to boycott the Jerusalem meeting.Israel joined the club of free market democracies on May 10, in what its central bank governor, Stanley Fischer, called an important milestone for the integration of Israel into the global economy.But chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Monday OECD members should cancel their participation in the October 20-22 annual conference to protest against Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem. The meeting's theme is tourism.According to Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Mizeshnikov, 28 of the 33 OECD members have agreed to participate.Media reports say Spain, Britain and Turkey would not take part. A Palestinian official said Canada has also said it was not participating.It's a real honor for Israel, as a new member of the OECD, to host this summit, Mizeshnikov told reporters.I don't know of any countries that have boycotted Israel.Israel's candidacy was accepted despite protests from human rights campaigners and pro-Palestinian groups.Erekat accused Mizeshnikov in a statement of boasting in Israeli media at the weekend that playing host to the OECD in Jerusalem constituted a seal of approval for Israel's disputed claim to the city as its undivided capital.
OECD COMPLAINT
Mizeshnikov denied this. However, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria had complained to Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz in Washington earlier that the conference was being politicized by Mizeshnikov, an Israeli official said.In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reported in Israeli media, Gurria said that in order to move forward ... the tourism minister should correct the misperceptions created and put the meeting in its proper perspective.Most of the international community has never recognized Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem after its capture it in the 1967 war.The future status of the holy city, and Palestinian claims to East Jerusalem as their capital, are key issues in the currently deadlocked Middle East peace talks.The capital of Israel is Jerusalem, Mizeshnikov said. That's a fact, not an arguable fact. But it doesn't in any way connect this issue to the OECD conference.The decision to hold the annual meeting in Jerusalem was a very good example of how members of the OECD evaluate Israel as a very strong state, economically, he added.The OECD, rooted in Europe's reconstruction after World War Two, deals strictly with economic issues.Despite a world financial crisis, Israel expects to see a record 3.2 million tourists in 2010, up from an earlier record of three million in 2008, Mizeshnikov said.(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Steven Scheer in Jerusalem) (Editing by Douglas Hamilton and Paul Taylor)
Gaza tunnellers turn former lifeline into export channel
by Mai Yaghi – Mon Oct 18, 3:00 am ET
RAFAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The workers herd cows through the dusty tunnels beneath the Gaza border, but this time they are leading them out of the isolated Palestinian enclave and into Egypt.The lifting of restrictions in recent months has seen consumer goods pour into the Hamas-run territory through Israeli crossings, transforming the tunnels that once served as a lifeline for Gaza into its sole export channel.The tunnels are still used for smuggling in construction materials that Israel only allows to enter via authorised crossings for projects carried out under international supervision.But the canvas sacks full of food, beauty products and second-hand clothes that used to be dragged through hundreds of tunnels beneath the border now flow the other way in a lucrative trade conducted by an entrepreneurial few.We reversed our trade since the easing of the Israeli blockade and now we export, said a tunnel operator who goes by Abu Jamil.The Egyptian traders demand Israeli livestock to breed with their own to improve its quality, the 45-year-old smuggler said, calling his partners on the other side of the heavily-guarded border to tell them the cows are coming through, each with an Israel tag on its neck extolling its breeding potential.
The Egyptians also order Israeli coffee, blue jeans, mobile phones, and what Abu Jamil refers to as raw materials -- scrap copper, aluminium and used car batteries that can be recycled in Egypt.Abu Ahmad, 30, another tunnel operator, watched as his workers use a makeshift pulley to lower several cases of Israeli-made soap and hair gel into a tunnel lit by a row of electric lights.Over the last two weeks he has exported chickens, pigeons, beauty products and clothes imported from Turkey and China.He even exports fresh fruit, including figs, lychees and mangos, saying it only takes around 10 minutes to pass the goods to the other side.A lot of the fruit we import through the Israeli crossings are not available in Egypt, or if they are the prices are high, he said.The same tunnel owners and operators that have made fortunes importing desperately needed goods are still profiting from Israel's closure regime, which prevents legitimate exports from the territory.Abu Ahmad makes around 50 dollars (36 euros) for every cage of chickens he exports and 150 to 300 dollars (110-220 euros) for every tonne of goods.The profits generated by the trade have always benefited a small circle of tunnel owners and smugglers, with low-paid labourers, many of them teenagers, doing much of the dangerous subterranean work.
More than 130 Gazans have been killed in accidental cave-ins or the Israeli bombing of the tunnels in the last three years, according to local medics.And while the larger economy has shown some signs of recovery since the easing of the closures, unemployment remains above 30 percent and four out of five Gazans relay on international aid.Israel and Egypt first imposed the closures after Gaza militants kidnapped a soldier in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006 and tightened them when Hamas -- which is pledged to Israel's destruction -- seized power a year later.
Israel began easing the restrictions earlier this year and started allowing in nearly all purely civilian goods in June following the international backlash after the deadly May 31 seizure of a Gaza-bound aid fleet.Gaza's above-ground businessmen insist that the tunnels have done little to help local industry or contribute to long-term growth and have demanded Israel open its crossings for exports. Exporting through the tunnels does nothing for us,said Amr Hamad, head of the Palestinian Federation of Industries in Gaza.We want to export in an official way and not through smuggling so that our local industries can breathe.Israel has said exports are out of the question as long as there are no security forces on the Gaza side of the border that can search shipments for bombs, weapons and fighters. As a result, more and more Gazans are resorting to the tunnels, which are regulated and taxed by Hamas.Abu Mohammed Zomaili, the owner of a furniture shop and a clothing store in Gaza City, says he has doubled his profits since the easing of the blockade by exporting bedsheets and clothes made in Turkey and brought in through Israel.He says he is able to compete because Egypt imposes high customs duties and taxes on imported goods in order to promote its own local industries.But even if Egyptian security forces were to seize some of his goods he would continue exporting because he sells his products in Egypt for twice what he pays for them.I don't risk anything and the profit margin is double,he says.
Israeli air strike kills 2 militants in Gaza Strip
– Sun Oct 17, 6:37 pm ET
GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli air strike Sunday killed two Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip who had attempted to launch rockets at Israel, the Israeli military and Palestinian medics said.Men were targeted in an air strike after they were spotted preparing to fire a rocket or a mortar shell at Israel and we identified a hit, an Israeli military spokeswoman said.Israel often carries out strikes against militant targets in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the Islamist group Hamas. The strikes generally target tunnels that militants use to smuggle in weapons from neighboring Egypt.It was the first killing in an Israeli attack on militants in the Gaza Strip since Sept 27. The Israeli military says militants have fired more than 165 rockets so far this year.(Reporting by Abed Shanaa, Writing by Ori Lewis)
Netanyahu says Lebanon becoming Iran satellite
– Sun Oct 17, 12:04 pm ET
DEGANIA ALEF, Israel (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Lebanon is quickly becoming a satellite of Tehran after it hosted a controversial visit by Iran's president.Netanyahu's remarks came after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad again predicted Israel's destruction, speaking at a packed rally in southern Lebanon just a few kilometres (miles) from the border with Israel.In the last few days we have heard slurs and insults directed at Israel, the Israeli premier told a weekly cabinet meeting held in the north of the country in honour of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the first kibbutz, or communal farm, at Degania Alef.Lebanon is rapidly becoming a new satellite of Iran. It's a tragedy for Lebanon, he said, in remarks carried by army radio.On Thursday Ahmadinejad toured the southern Lebanon border region, the heartland of the Shiite Hezbollah movement, and addressed a crowd of some 15,000 supporters waving Iranian and Hezbollah flags.The whole world knows that the Zionists are going to disappear, he said to thunderous applause in the village of Bint Jbeil, which was devastated during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.The occupying Zionists today have no choice but to accept reality and go back to their countries of origin,he added.
His visit to the south brought Ahmadinejad the closest he has ever been to Israel and was seen as a joint show of defiance with Hezbollah.Some 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed in the 34-day war in 2006.The border area remains tense, with both Israel and Hezbollah having vowed a massive reprisal to any attack.Israel has long viewed Iran as its biggest threat because of Ahmadinejad's hardline rhetoric, his country's controversial nuclear enrichment programme and its support for Hezbollah and the militant Hamas movement ruling Gaza.
Israel says Paris Mideast summit postponed
– Sat Oct 16, 4:32 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – A planned October 21 summit in Paris between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been postponed, the premier's office said on Saturday.
Following consultations, the parties concerned have agreed to decide on another date,a statement from Netanyahu's office said.On Friday the French presidency had raised the possibility of the meeting previously announced by President Nicolas Sarkozy not going ahead next Thursday as planned, following the suspension of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat on Saturday implicitly confirmed the postponement of the Paris gathering.The continuation by Israel of settlement activity ruins all peace efforts, be they those of (US) President Barack Obama or those of President Nicolas Sarkozy, he told AFP.
He added that in any case the Palestinian Authority has not received an official invitation, giving a date, for such a meeting.Earlier on Saturday, the French foreign ministry said it was deeply disappointed with Israel's plans to resume building homes for settlers in east Jerusalem, and urged Netanyahu's government to reconsider.This decision is inopportune. France is deeply disappointed, ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in a statement.France calls on the Israeli authorities to reconsider this decision.On Friday, Israel announced plans to build 238 new homes in east Jerusalem, provoking anger from the Palestinian Authority and criticism from its key ally the United States.US-brokered direct peace talks launched in early September ground to a halt within weeks after the expiry of a 10-month moratorium on the construction of new settler homes in the occupied West Bank.Abbas has refused to hold further negotiations while settlement construction in the West Bank continues, and a week ago Arab League foreign ministers gave US negotiators a month to try to resolve the impasse.
US disappointed at Israel's settlement move
– Fri Oct 15, 3:11 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Friday it was disappointed with Israel's plans for 238 new settler homes in east Jerusalem, saying it undermined US efforts to revive Middle East peace talks.We were disappointed by the announcement of new tenders in east Jerusalem yesterday. It is contrary to our efforts to resume direct negotiations between the parties, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.He said US officials had expressed their disappointment to Israeli counterparts when they were informed of the settlement plans.When asked if US Middle East envoy George Mitchell was planning to return to the region, Crowley said: We're still evaluating... what the appropriate next steps are. I've got nothing to announce.The plans for new housing in the settlement neighborhoods of Pisgat Zeev and Ramot were approved on Thursday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Ynet news website said.Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said it proved Israel was intent on killing every opportunity to revive peace talks between the two sides. Netanyahu has made his choice: settlements over peace, he said.Middle East peace talks launched in early September by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ground to a halt within weeks after the expiry of a 10-month moratorium on the construction of new Jewish settler homes.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has refused to hold further negotiations while settlement construction in the West Bank continues and last week Arab League foreign ministers gave US negotiators a month to resolve the impasse.
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