Israel army kills Hamas commander in Hebron: BBC
The Palestinian Hamas group says Israeli forces have shot dead a leader of its military wing, Abdul Majid Dudeen, near Hebron in the West Bank. Israeli reports said the militant had been wanted for many years, and was suspected of involvement in at least two bomb attacks against Israeli buses. They said Dudeen had been jailed by Palestinian police but was later freed. Hamas holds control Gaza Strip but the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority holds sway in the West Bank. It condemned the killing as a terrorist attack and said the Palestinian Authority should concentrate on protecting people in the West Bank rather than co-operating with the Israeli occupation.
Obama ‘confident’ on two-state solution: BBC
US President Barack Obama says he is confident that Israel will recognise that a two-state solution is in the best interests of its security. Speaking after White House talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Mr Obama again urged Israel to freeze settlement expansion. Israel has insisted it will allow existing settlements to expand, despite pressure from Washington.
President Obama also said Palestinians must rein in anti-Israeli violence. For his part, Mr Abbas said he was committed to all obligations under the Mid-East peace plan “roadmap”. However, without a halt to Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinians have said there can be no progress towards peace.
‘Israel’s interests’
Mr Obama said he was a “strong believer in a two-state solution” and believed Israel would recognise that it was in the best interests of its long-term security. He said it was important for all countries, but particularly Arab states, to be supportive of the two-state solution. “I am confident that we can move this forward if all parties are ready to meet their obligations,” he said. Mr Abbas said the need for progress in the stalled process was urgent. He added that “time is of the essence” – a phrase also used by Mr Obama.
Mr. Abbas goes to Washington: The Electronic Intifada
Ali Abunimah, 29 May 2009
If the Oval Office guest list is an indicator, US President Barack Obama is making good on his commitment to try to revive the long-dead Arab-Israeli peace process. On 18 May President Obama received Israel’s new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu; on 28 May he met with Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. As this process gets under way, the United States — Israel’s main arms supplier, financier and international apologist — faces huge hurdles. It is deeply mistrusted by Palestinians and Arabs generally, and the new administration has not done much to rebuild trust. Obama has, like former US President George W. Bush, expressed support for Palestinian statehood, but he has made no criticisms of Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip — which killed more than 1,400 people last winter, mostly civilians — despite evidence from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and UN investigators of egregious Israeli war crimes. Nor has he pressured Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza, where 1.5 million Palestinians, the vast majority of whom are refugees, are effectively imprisoned and deprived of basic necessities. Obama has told Netanyahu firmly that Israel must stop building settlements on expropriated Palestinian land in the West Bank, but such words have been uttered by the president’s predecessors. Unless these statements are followed by decisive action — perhaps to limit American subsidies to Israel — there’s no reason to believe the lip service that failed in the past will suddenly be more effective.
On the Palestinian side, Obama is talking to the wrong man: more than half of residents in the Occupied Palestinian Territories do not consider Abbas the “legitimate” president of the Palestinians, according to a March survey by Fafo, a Norwegian research organization. Eighty-seven percent want the Fatah faction, which Abbas heads, to have new leaders. Hamas, by contrast, emerged from Israel’s attack on Gaza with enhanced legitimacy and popularity. That attack was only the latest of numerous efforts to topple the movement following its decisive victory in the 2006 legislative elections. In addition to the Israeli siege, these efforts have included a failed insurgency by Contra-style anti-Hamas militias nominally loyal to Abbas and funded and trained by the United States under the supervision of Lieut. Gen. Keith Dayton. If Obama were serious about making real progress, one of the first things he would do is ditch the Bush-era policy of backing Palestinian puppets and lift the American veto on reconciliation efforts aimed at creating a unified, representative and credible Palestinian leadership.
None of these problems is entirely new, though the challenges, having festered for years, may be tougher to deal with now. Netanyahu did add one obstacle, however, when he came to Washington. In accord with his anticipated strategy of delay, he insisted that Palestinians recognize Israel’s right to exist as a “Jewish state” as a condition of any peace agreement. Obama seemingly endorsed this demand when he said, “It is in US national security interests to assure that Israel’s security as an independent Jewish state is maintained.”