EDITOR: Netanyahu is target of criticism
It is clear from the following items that PM Netanyahu is facing some problems, both at home and abroad. What is interesting, however, is the source of this critique in Israel. While LIvni is quite accurate about Netanyahu’s standing abroad, she conveniently forgets, or prefers to deny the facts about her own government headed by Olmert – the government responsible for mass murder of civilians both in Lebanon (2006) and in Gaza (2008/9). Now if she is to be considered a liberal, then we surely have lost all yardsticks! A case of avoiding criminal responsibility by pointing at other criminals.
Livni to Netanyahu: With you in power, Israel is a pariah state: Haaretz
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday in a speech made during a Knesset session marking the one-year anniversary of Netanyahu’s ascension to power.
“You worked hard to get to that seat, you waited, you sat in the opposition, you made crafty plans,” Livni said, addressing the premier. “Surely you had an idea of where you wanted to lead the country. But nothing.”
Livni, the head of the Kadima party, also lamented the lack of negotiations with the Palestinians as well as Netanyahu’s economic policies and the biannual budget.
Advertisement
“Since you took control, Israel has become a pariah country in the world,” she said.
Livni’s speech was part of a Knesset session entitled “Israel under the leadership of Netanyahu. To where?”
Livni called on Netanyahu to support Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen in the face of criticism leveled by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who is under investigation by police for corruption.
“I asked myself, who is supposed to defend law enforcement officials in Israel? I am giving all the needed support but Mr. Prime Minister you need to do this also, because this is happening in your yard and you have responsibility for all that is happening.
“You are responsible for this disrespect, the crime in the streets and the inability to cope with it. You are the Prime Minister, it is time to act as a Prime Minister, do what is right and give support to who needs it.”
Livni, who earlier in the day met with Supreme Court president Dorit Beinish, also attacked Netanyahu for inaction on the issue of incitement against judges.
“I have differences with the Supreme Court but I will do everything to protect the institution. It is not enough just to talk when shoes are thrown at the Supreme Court president. One needs to act.”
Dubai seeks Netanyahu’s arrest over killing of Hamas man: Haaretz
Dubai’s police chief plans to seek the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of the Mossad over the killing of a Hamas leader in the emirate, Al Jazeera television reported on Wednesday.
Dahi Khalfan Tamim “said he would ask the Dubai prosecutor to issue arrest warrants for … Netanyahu and the head of Mossad,” the television said. It did not give details.
Tamim has said he is “almost certain” Israeli agents were involved in the killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh at a Dubai hotel in January, calling for Mossad’s boss, Meir Dagan, to be arrested if it is proved responsible. Tamim said on Monday Mossad had “insulted” Dubai and Western countries whose fraudulent passports were used by suspects in the assassination.
Dubai has asked the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into prepaid cards issued by the Meta Financial Group’s MetaBank which the suspects used, a United Arab Emirates newspaper said.
Citing an FBI source, The National newspaper said the investigation would look into any Israeli involvement in the killing.
“Thirteen of the 27 suspects used prepaid MasterCards issued by MetaBank, a regional American bank, to purchase plane tickets and book hotel rooms,” the newspaper said, quoting Dubai police.
MetaBank said it followed proper procedures when it issued the cards.
Authorities told the bank that the suspects appeared to have used stolen passports to get employment with U.S. companies, MetaBank said in a statement on Tuesday. The companies paid the employees with prepaid cards issued by MetaBank and other banks.
MetaBank said it had launched its own review of the matter, and had so far found that it followed all bank and regulatory requirements.
The suspects authorities had identified were not on any list that would indicate their identities were fraudulent, it said.
The UAE, a U.S.-allied Arab state that backs the Palestinian drive for an independent state and an end to Israeli occupation, has no diplomatic relations with Israel.
But it has established low-level political and trade links in recent years, with some Israeli officials attending events in the Gulf Arab state. Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer competed in the Dubai Championships last month.
Members of the hit squad used fraudulent passports from Britain, Ireland, Germany, France and Australia. Residents of Israel with the same names as the suspects, holding dual nationalities, have said their identities appear to have been stolen.
The passport abuse has drawn criticism from the European Union, and some of the governments involved have summoned the Israeli ambassadors to their countries to protest.
EDITOR: Another repeat broadcast of the well-loved soap opera “Peace in the Middle East”
So here they come again… Abbas receives new instructions from the boss in Washington! How many times have we read those infuriating lines, and yet, journalists and editors continue to spew type as if, despite all they have seen, heard and know, this is the ‘real time’! Every new ‘time’ is the first time for them, as well as for the purveyors of the lie in Washington and Tel Aviv.
Mahmoud Abbas given four months to try indirect peace talks with Israel: The Guardian
Arab governments back talks between Palestinian president and Israel, brokered by the US
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has been granted four months to try indirect peace talks with Israel through US diplomats. Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has been given four months by Arab governments to try indirect peace negotiations with Israel, brokered by the US.
Arab League ambassadors meeting in Cairo today gave their backing to so-called “proximity talks” in which American diplomats will shuttle between the two sides to find common ground and bridge gaps. Israel swiftly welcomed the decision.
Abbas’s Fatah movement is expected to endorse the idea this weekend, paving the way for the first negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis after an impasse of more than a year.
New talks will also be a second chance for Barack Obama, who has so far disappointed Arabs and others by failing to make good on his commitment to give a high priority to the Middle East peace process and by declining to press Israel to make prior concessions.
But there is widespread scepticism about the prospects for success. Israel has the most rightwing government in its history, while Palestinians are divided between Fatah, based in the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, which is under siege and controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas, which opposes negotiations with Israel.
Arab officials were not “convinced by Israeli intentions,” said the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, but “they decided to give an opportunity of four months to the American proposal”.
Diplomats say Abbas had been in two minds over whether to resume talks but wanted to avoid being painted as the side refusing to negotiate – despite having failed to secure his demand for a full settlement freeze from Israel’s Likud prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.
“Israel does not want to return to the negotiating table. But it wishes to blame the Palestinian side, saying that the Palestinians do not want to enter into negotiations,” said Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina. “So we must put a stop to this pretext and reveal Israel’s true position before the international community and the American administration.”
Abbas broke off negotiations with Israel in protest at its Cast Lead offensive in the Gaza Strip launched in December 2008.
The effort will be overseen by George Mitchell, Obama’s Middle East envoy, who will need to establish the starting point for talks. Palestinians will want to go back to proposals submitted to Abbas by Ehud Olmert, the previous Israeli prime minister. Those included land swaps that would involve leaving most Israeli settlements in the West Bank, arrangements on Jerusalem and the symbolic return of some refugees. The Netanyahu government has refused to accept what had been agreed as a basis for further negotiation.
The Palestinian president has been under intense US pressure to open peace negotiations with Netanyahu but until now had refused to do so unless Israel freezes all settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, originally demanded by Obama. Israel has only accepted a partial halt on construction for 10 months and has excluded East Jerusalem. The Arab position is that the Palestinians should try proximity talks for four months and then go back to the UN.
In a further sign of the quickening pace of peace process activity, the UN announced that the quartet of Middle East negotiators – the US, UN, EU and Russia – is to convene at ministerial level in Moscow later this month.