Month: April 2010

Nasrallah: Israel should be wary of war against Lebanon: Haaretz

Israel would be taking a big risk if it decided to open war on Lebanon or on any of the other countries in the Middle East, Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday, advising Israeli politicians and generals to stay cautious regarding such a possibility.
Speaking to a Kuwait-based news channel, Nasrallah, referring to recent tensions between Israel and its neighbors to the north, said that “any war started by Israel against Lebanon or anywhere in the region would be taking a very dangerous risk on its part.”
“That kind of war would change every parameter in the Middle East,” the Hezbollah chief said, adding that his organization was not “frightened by the threat or by Israel’s psychological warfare.”
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The Hezbollah added that he knew that “Israeli politicians and generals, past and present, are very worried and very cautious and we would like them to stay that way,” saying that “the blood of Imad Mughniyeh would haunt them everywhere.”
The militant organization has vowed vengeance against Israel ever since Mughniyeh’s 2008 assassination, which it blames on Israel.
“I cannot say that it is close. Myself and brothers in Hezbollah see that all this intimidation does not hide behind it a war. On the contrary, if there was silence and quietness, then everyone must be vigilant,” Nasrallah said.

“But when you see all this American and Israeli noise, this means they want to use this noise to achieve political, psychological and certain security advantages without resorting to the step of war,” Nasrallah added.
Referring to an alleged long-range surface-to-surface- missile deal, reported by Israel to have taken place between Syria and Hezbollah, Nasrallah said that the “Israeli allegations on the transfer of Scud missiles from Syria to Hezbollah, in spite of Syrian denials and the quiet from the organization only strengthens Lebanon’s confidence in itself and in the ability of the resistance to defend Lebanon.”

“My comments from a month ago speaking of how we will reach anywhere in Israel are supported in the eyes of the Lebanese and Arab peoples when Israel and the United States discuss the transfer of Scud missiles from Syria to Hezbollah,” Nasrallah said.
On whether such a deal took place, the Hezbollah leader said: “Today it’s Scuds, yesterday other kinds of rockets … the aim is one, and that is to intimidate Lebanon, to intimidate Syria and to put pressure on Lebanon, Syria, the resistance movement and the Lebanese and Syrian people,” Nasrallah said.
“Regardless of whether Syria gave Hezbollah this type of rockets … of course Syria denied, and Hezbollah as usual does not comment.

Four Palestinians die in Gaza-Egypt ‘tunnel collapse’: BBC

The tunnels provide a lifeline for those living in the impoverished Gaza Strip
Four Palestinians have died in a smuggling tunnel under Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical officials say.
The men died because of an explosion near the Egyptian side, the head of emergency services in Gaza said.
Some Gazans accuse Egypt of using dynamite and pumping gas into the tunnels to end Palestinian attempts to beat the Israeli-Egyptian blockade.
However, flammable items such as petrol are frequently transported underground.
Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza, accused Egypt of “spraying poison gas” into the tunnel.
Egyptian security officials have denied the allegation they used poison gas.
An unnamed security source told the Associated Press that Egypt routinely blows up the mouths to the tunnels to seal them off, and that the blast and an ensuing fire could quickly use up all the oxygen in the confined space causing people caught inside to suffocate.
French news agency AFP quoted unnamed officials as saying Egyptian security forces had destroyed four tunnels but were unaware of any casualties.
Egypt is building a huge underground barrier along the Gaza border to stop smuggling.
The structure – made of bomb-proof steel – will be 10-11km (6-7 miles) long and extend 18m (59ft) below the surface.
Under the blockade, Israel allows only limited humanitarian goods into the strip, saying it wants to pressure Hamas and stop it smuggling in weapons, including the some of the rockets that Gaza militants fire into southern Israel.
The tunnels are used to smuggle in arms, fuel and goods from Egypt, but cave-ins are frequent.
Egypt keeps its pedestrian border crossing with the Gaza Strip closed most of the time.
In a separate incident, a Palestinian man died after being shot during a protest near Gaza’s border with Israel.
Palestinian medics said Ahmed Salim, 20, died after being shot by Israeli forces in the thigh.
The Israeli military said live rounds were fired as “warning shots” in response to a “riot”, where about 50 Palestinians were throwing stones and starting fires.
It said the incident had taken place 50m from the border fence with Israel, but that it considers the area 300m from the fence to be a “combat zone”.
Adie Mormech, an activist with the International Solidarity Movement group, said that although stones were being thrown, none reached the fence, and there was no warning fire before the shot that hit Mr Salim.
Palestinian and international demonstrators have increased protest activity in the buffer zone in recent months. Israel maintains a policy of firing at anyone present in the area.
Israel says the zone is necessary for security, as militants frequently approach the fence to try to plant explosives and attack Israeli forces.
But Palestinians complain that the buffer zone renders swathes of agricultural land unusable.

Lieberman: Proximity talks to resume in 2 weeks: Haaretz Service

Proximity talks, geared at renewing negotiations toward a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, are expected to launch within two weeks, Army Radio quoted Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman as saying on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters, Lieberman added, however, that he was skeptical of the Palestinians’ willingness to engage in peace talks, saying it was “unreasonable” to talk peace while perpetuating terror through naming squares after blood-thirsty terrorists.
Earlier Thursday, Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom also voiced his belief that Israel and the Palestinians were nearing renewed negotiations, saying he felt “it was time to stop letting the United States doing the Palestinians’ work for them.”
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“It’s time that [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] decides to sit with Israel and conduct real negotiations,” Shalom said, adding that “Jerusalem is out of any talks and is Israel’s eternal capital.”
Referring to the possibly of a flare up between Israel and Lebanon, Lieberman told reporters Thursday that Israel would not attack its neighbor to the north despite recent reports alleging that Hezbollah had received long-range Scud surface-to-surface missiles from Syria.
“Israel has no intention to create a provocation or engage in irrational acts,” Lieberman said

One Laptop Per Child reaches Gaza Strip: BBC

The laptops are designed for use by children in the developing world
The UN in the Gaza Strip has begun distributing thousands of laptop computers to children in its schools.
The rugged laptops are made by the non-profit organisation One Laptop Per Child, which aims to give a computer to every child in the developing world.
One Laptop Per Child say computers are a good way of improving the education of children living in poverty.
Humanitarian conditions have deteriorated in the Gaza Strip in the last three years, the UN says.
Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade on Gaza, which was tightened in 2007 after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, and all but humanitarian supplies are prevented from entering.
Unrwa, the UN agency for refugees, began distributing 2,100 laptops on Thursday in Rafah, a town in the south of the strip.
This is part of a wider ambitions to distribute 500,000 laptops to children in Gaza by 2012.
Connected
One Laptop Per Child has built the energy efficient XO laptop especially for children in developing countries.
“The XO laptop has a special place in children’s education in regions that are disrupted by ongoing violence,” said Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the organisation.
“With the XO the children can continue to stay connected and gain the skills and knowledge required to participate fully and thrive in the 21st century – even when getting to school is impossible.”
The UN agency which looks after Palestinian refugees, UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) provides housing, health services, education and emergency food supplies to more than four million refugees in five countries.
The computers are to be loaded with textbooks and teaching aids that cover the primary school curriculum, a statement from UNWRA said.

EDITOR: New Recruit for the One-State Solution

A rather unexpected recruit to the camp of the One-State argument… but an interesting admission that the Two-state solution requires to relinquish the Occupied Territories of Palestine!

Israel official: Accepting Palestinians into Israel better than two states: Haaretz

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Thursday that he would rather accept Palestinians as Israeli citizens than divide Israel and the West Bank in a future two-state peace solution.

Speaking during a meeting with Greece’s ambassador to Israel Kyriakos Loukakis, Rivlin said that he did not see any point of Israel signing a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority as he did not believe PA President Mahmoud Abbas “could deliver the goods.”
Referring to the possibility that such an agreement could be reached, Rivlin said: “I would rather Palestinians as citizens of this country over dividing the land up.”
Late last year, Rivlin said in a Jerusalem address that Israel’s Arab population was “an inseparable part of this country. It is a group with a highly defined shared national identity, and which will forever be, as a collective, an important and integral part of Israeli society.”

In a speech given in the president’s residence, the Knesset speaker called for a fundamental change in relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel, urging the foundation of a “true partnership” between the two sectors, based on mutual respect, absolute equality and the addressing of “the special needs and unique character of each of the sides.”

Rivlin also said that “the establishment of Israel was accompanied by much pain and suffering and a real trauma for the Palestinians,” adding that “many of Israel’s Arabs, which see themselves as part of the Palestinian population, feel the pain of their brothers across the green line – a pain they feel the state of Israel is responsible for.”
“Many of them,” Rivlin says, “encounter racism and arrogance from Israel’s Jews; the inequality in the allocation of state funds also does not contribute to any extra love.”

EDITOR: The New Antisemitism

In the age-old  antisemitic tradition, the settlers are out on a pogrom against Palestinians every time they feel tetchy. No one seems to be able or willing to stop them, of course, and no one is ever prosecuted for the hundreds of local pogroms against Palestinian villages and towns. The only Jewish Democracy is only democratic for Jews, of course.

Israeli border police unit to tackle settler violence: BBC

Cars have been burned and a mosque vandalised in the north West Bank
Israel’s border police are to post a special task force in the northern West Bank to stop settler violence against Palestinians, the military says.
It said the decision followed what the military dubbed a “riot” by settlers in the area last week.
The force was to prevent “retributional violence” by settlers against Palestinians and to prevent damage to property, the military said.
Palestinians mosques, cars and trees were recently attacked in the area.
The decision to deploy the new task force “was made due to violent confrontations during Independence Day,” the Israeli military said.
Last Tuesday, the military called “intolerable” an incident in which it said about 100 settlers threw rocks and attacked soldiers as they tried to stop the settlers entering a Palestinian village.
One soldier was injured in the face by a thrown bottle.

Residents of the nearby settlement of Yitzhar were quoted by Israeli media as saying the soldiers harassed them as they tried to visit the area.
The previous week a mosque was vandalised with Jewish grafitti, cars were burned and olive trees uprooted in the village of Hawarra, also near Yitzhar settlement.
Some hard-line settlers advocate a “price tag” policy under which they attack Palestinians in retaliation for any Israeli government measure they see as threatening Jewish settlements.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to limit building in the settlements for 10-months to help restart peace talks with the Palestinians has angered many in the settler movement.
Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967, settling close to 500,000 Jews in more than 100 settlements.
There are about 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.
Israel’s military has dubbed as “intolerable” what it described as a “riot” by settlers in the West Bank.
The military said about 100 settlers threw rocks and attacked soldiers as they tried to stop the settlers entering a Palestinian village.
One soldier was injured in the face by a thrown bottle.
Residents of the settlement of Yitzhar were quoted by Israeli media as saying the soldiers harrassed them as they tried to visit the area.
Israeli citizens from the area of Yitzhar tried to enter the nearby village of Madma in the northern West Bank on Tuesday evening, the military said in a statement.
Soldiers tried to set up a military zone, but more settlers arrived and pelted them with rocks, it said.
“Violence and raising hands up against IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] soldiers is crossing the line in an intolerable manner,” the statement said.
The incident occurred on Israel’s independence day, which the military said made it “all the more serious”.
Settlers quoted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz said the military had been trying to prevent them from hiking in the area all day, and that a soldier had fired in the air during the confrontation – a charge the military denied.
‘Spate of attacks’
Last week a mosque was vandalised with Jewish grafitti, cars were burned and olive trees uprooted in the village of Hawarra, also near Yitzhar settlement.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned what he described as a recent spate of attacks on Palestinian property by settlers.
He said Israeli state policy had given rise to “a culture of violence, hatred and extremism in which Israeli settlers, often accompanied by Israeli soldiers, run riot across the West Bank”.
Israeli rights groups say the military often does not do enough to prevent attacks on Palestinians and their property.
Some hard-line settlers advocate a “price tag” policy under which they attack Palestinians in retaliation for any Israeli government measure they see as threatening Jewish settlements.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to limit building in the settlements for 10-months to help restart peace talks with the Palestinians has angered many in the settler movement.
Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967, settling close to 500,000 Jews in more than 100 settlements.
There are about 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.

Continue reading April 30, 2010

EDITOR: What they think in the Israeli Defence Ministry

Just read the following comment in Haaretz from a former Defence Ministry Adviser – see at bottom of this piece what his area of responsibility was…

Gaza is the fuel for Muslim world’s anti-Israel struggle: Haaretz

By Haggai Alon
The events of the past few days have created two illusions. One is that Israel and the United States are equal; the other is that the problem is Jerusalem. These illusions are dangerous for Israel, in that they create a dangerous diplomatic perception and self-image.

The United States is a superpower; it is doubtful whether Israel is even a regional power. And the problem is not Jerusalem, or even the holy places, but Gaza. Finally, it is in Israel’s best interest that the Quartet’s decision to promote the establishment of a Palestinian state within two years not be implemented unilaterally.

Gaza is Israel’s big problem. Because of the political, security and civic failure of the disengagement, the road to a solution of the problem of Gaza runs through Ramallah and Jerusalem. In Ramallah, it is in the hands of one man – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. But Benjamin Netanyahu’s government refuses to accept that fact. So Abbas is preparing a surprise for it in the form of a “no-partner” declaration.

American bayonets will not bring Abbas back to Gaza, and the Israel Defense Forces certainly will not. He will resume ruling in Gaza – just as he proved, to the chagrin of many in the defense establishment, that he could in the West Bank – on the shoulders of the Arab world, and perhaps also of a joint NATO-Arab force. Such a force would first establish itself in the West Bank, after the IDF evacuates that territory, and at the border crossings with Jordan in the Jordan Valley.

In this way, without negotiation and without the need to explain why there are no negotiations, Abbas could dispel the charges that he is a “pet Palestinian” and get around his domestic problem with his prime minister, Salam Fayyad.

Gaza is the fuel for the anti-Israel struggle. It is the symbol of that struggle throughout the Arab and Muslim world, even among those who live in Western countries. And it is up to us to uproot the anti-Israel cells the flourish there. Gaza’s hunger is the fuel of the struggle. We must dry up this fuel. It is not a tool for getting Gilad Shalit back, or for toppling Hamas.

Perhaps we acted like a responsible power in Haiti, and we deserve praise for that. But in the Middle East, it would be best for us to simply behave as a responsible country. For its own security, and to protect its own interests, Israel must seek negotiations that will deal with the issues of borders and security as a single unit, with the involvement of a multilateral Arab military force and with major involvement by NATO.

Not so long ago, such a formula would have drawn disparagement from the security establishment and even accusations of “internationalizing” the conflict – that is, forfeiting Israel’s security. When senior reserve officers raised the idea of such a force as part of a solution to the problem of Gaza’s northern border, both during the serious clashes that preceded the disengagement and thereafter, they received chilly telephone calls from “the establishment.” Meanwhile, the American force in Sinai was ignored, as was the high quality of the UN force on the Syrian border, and the fact that while the IDF is not satisfied with UNIFIL’s performance in Lebanon in the wake of UN Resolution 1701, no one has come up with a better solution.

The defense establishment is beginning to understand that it is better to redeploy. We need the world, including the Arab world. Several think tanks are thoroughly studying the insertion of a force of this type.

The road to the Arab world will require Israel to treat itself like a country that is not a world power and not one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, but rather a regional or a local power. It was that road that led to Israel’s previous victories. We must not give it up. We are getting closer to a situation in which if we do not act, Abbas will invoke his no-partner thesis.

The writer was a political adviser in the Defense Ministry, responsible for the Palestinians’ “fabric of life”

Gilad Shalit video from Hamas pushes for release deal: Haaretz

Israel condemns animated clip depicting father of captured soldier waiting in vain for his release
Hamas has produced an unusually sophisticated animated film apparently pressing for a deal that would bring about the release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured near Gaza nearly four years ago.

The Israeli government reacted angrily to the film, describing it as “deplorable” and blamed Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement, for the failure to agree a deal for the release of Shalit, who was captured in June 2006. He is alive and believed to be held somewhere in Gaza.

The three-minute film depicts Shalit’s father, Noam, walking empty streets clutching a photograph of his captured son. He passes advertising hoardings that show several Israeli leaders promising to arrange Shalit’s release and then finds a newspaper discarded in a rubbish bin showing on its front page a $50m reward for information on his son’s case.

As time passes without his son’s release Shalit’s father grows old, with a beard and a cane. Eventually the soldier is returned, delivered in a coffin draped in the Israeli flag at the Erez checkpoint at the entrance to Gaza. Shalit’s father then wakes up from his dream to find himself sitting at a bus stop. The words “There is still hope” appear in Hebrew and English.

It is the latest product of an increasingly sophisticated Hamas media operation, including a movie studio of sorts on the site of a former Jewish settlement in Gaza.

The animation was broadcast on Israeli television to an audience that is by now familiar with Noam Shalit, the dignified father who has long campaigned for his son’s release and has urged both Israel and Hamas to make a deal.

In a statement, Noam Shalit dismissed the film as “psychological warfare”.

“Hamas leaders would do better if instead of producing films and performances, they would worry about the real interests of the Palestinian prisoners and the ordinary citizens of Gaza who have been held hostage by their leaders for a long time,” he said.

A deal between Israel and Hamas, negotiated by German intelligence officials, appeared close at the end of last year but fell through at the last minute. Each side blamed the other. Hamas was to release Shalit and in return Israel would free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. About 6,600 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails, more than 200 of them without charge.

Shalit was last seen in a video released by his captors in October. He appeared tired but unhurt.

Last week the Israeli authorities allowed the daughter of a Hamas interior minister, Fathi Hamad, to leave Gaza through Israel to reach a hospital in Jordan for urgent medical treatment. She was allowed out reportedly after the intervention of the Jordanian monarch, King Abdullah.

In a separate incident on Sunday night Israeli troops killed a Hamas militant in Hebron on the occupied West Bank. Ali Swaiti was suspected of shooting dead an Israeli border policeman in 2004. The Israeli military said Swaiti was killed when he refused to surrender.

Why does the IDF allow officers to live in illegal outposts?: Haaretz

By Akiva Eldar
The death of Maj. Eliraz Peretz, who was killed in an action in an operation in the Gaza Strip, brought the Givat Hayovel saga back into the spotlight.

As in the story of the heroism of his neighbor in the illegal outpost in the settlement of Eli, Roi Klein, who was killed in the Second Lebanon War while saving his troops, his settler friends and his patrons on the right have enlisted the Peretz family’s tragedy in the fight to save his widow’s home from demolition.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak was required to inform the High Court of Justice by May 1 of last year about when he intends to demolish the houses in the outpost (which Palestinians claim is built on private land). He has now announced he will ask the court to postpone the execution of the order.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, the officers’ supreme commander, has also promised to lend a hand. Even the left-wing Peace Now movement has evinced the appropriate sensitivity and has agreed to cooperate.

Strangely, in all this no one has wondered how it is possible that the IDF, the body charged with imposing the law on the West Bank, never lifted a finger against its officers who settled in an illegal outpost in the first place.

Moreover, how can an officer in the career army who breaks the law and ignores a court order serve as a model for his soldiers? How should a private deal with an order to evacuate an illegal outpost from a colonel who has made his home in a similar community? And what can anyone expect of an officer who is squatting on property when his commander, who is himself a squatter, orders him to evacuate his own home?

After it emerged that dozens of career army officers are living in outposts, I sent these questions to the military spokesman. I wanted to know what the army’s policy is with regard to officers who are living in outposts.

After a thorough clarification, according to the spokesman, with the Military Advocate General’s Office, he sent the following response:

“In the unapproved outposts, for many years now thousands of citizens have been living, among them state employees including army people. As of today, to the best of our knowledge, there exists no general policy concerning state employees, including military people, living in the outposts.”

Obviously the absence of a policy means a policy of tacit agreement. When they are in uniform, the officers are charged with enforcing the law. When they take off their uniforms, they are breaking the law.

The military prosecutor’s acceptance of this phenomenon shows something about the special relations that have developed in recent years between the cat and the cream.

Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer, a specialist on military and constitutional law, was also surprised to hear the IDF’s response. The absence of a policy with respect to officers living in illegal outposts, he said, is blatantly unreasonable and also encourages the phenomenon.

“The IDF is the sovereign and charged with enforcing the law in the territories,” explained Kremnitzer, who in the past was a military judge. “Therefore, the army must have an unambiguous policy against breaking the law in those territories.”

According to him, it is impossible to be a member of an organization responsible for the rule of law and to break the law without that having a negative effect on the organization’s status. Kremnitzer says the IDF has a clear policy concerning members’ conduct even when they are not in uniform.

The Civil Administration has responded that none of their people live in an outpost and they do not accept lawbreakers into their ranks.

Four years ago the police investigations department summoned a police officer who had built a house in the Mitzpeh Yair outpost in the southern Hebron Hills. After it was made clear to him that he had to decide on which side of the law he chose to stand, the officer called a moving company.

A police spokesman said that in the wake of this, a policy was established to the effect that a lawman cannot live in an illegal outpost.

The Shin Bet, which is also charged with enforcing the law and security in the territories, told Haaretz that it is not their intention to answer the question of their policy with regard to their people settling in outposts.

How much do they really love Zion?

Before Independence Day, the Emek Yezreel College commissioned a survey of the attitude of young Jewish Israelis (Hebrew-speakers aged 20 to 30) toward the national anthem, “Hatikvah.”

A large majority (82 percent) reported they know how to recite the anthem in full. Another 17 percent said they know just part of it and about only 1 percent admitted they don’t know the words to the national anthem at all.

A larger majority (85 percent) said the anthem represents them to large or very large extent.

Prominent among those who said the anthem does not represent them were people with low incomes (8 percent) and religious respondents (11 percent), as compared to 2 to 3 percent among people with average and high incomes and 1 percent among people who define themselves as traditional.

The vast majority of the respondents are interested in keeping the national anthem as it is; only 14 percent would prefer to replace it or modify it.

The initiator of the survey, Dr. Ruth Amir, head of the interdisciplinary studies department at the college, asked the Teleseker company to examine the percentage of Israelis who would be prepared to leave the country and move to the United States to live if they were able to obtain a residence visa quickly and easily.

The finding revealed a considerable gap between the “yearning Jewish soul” in the anthem and the desire for a green card. No less than 60 percent at all income levels responded in that they would take off if given the chance.

The title Amir chose for her study: “I love you, homeland, but I want to leave.”

Obama to Barak: I am committed to Israel’s security: Haaretz

U.S. President Barack Obama held an impromptu meeting with Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday, during which Obama affirmed his country’s “unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.”

According to a White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, Obama “dropped by” a Monday morning meeting between Barak and U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones.

Obama also reasserted his administration’s determination to achieve regional peace, “including a two-state solution with a secure Jewish state of Israel living side by side in peace and security with a viable and independent Palestinian state.”
Barak and the American leaders discussed challenges to regional security,
how to deal with threats faced by both the U.S. and Israel and how
to move forward toward a comprehensive peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Municipal officials in Jerusalem said Monday that the government had effectively frozen construction of settlements in disputed East Jerusalem despite its public posture that building would continue. U.S. officials had no immediate comment.

Settlement building has been a large sticking point since Israel infuriated Washington last month by announcing a major new housing development in East Jerusalem during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley would not discuss what Israel was telling the United States about construction.
“We have asked both sides to take steps to rebuild trust and to create momentum so that we can see advances in the peace process,” Crowley told reporters.
“We’re not going to go into details about what we’ve asked them to do, but obviously this is an important issue in the atmosphere to see the advancement of peace.
U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, on Sunday said he held “positive and productive talks” with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an effort “to improve the atmosphere for peace and for proceeding with proximity talks.

Mitchell is expected back in the region next week.
Obama last June also unexpectedly dropped by a meeting between Barak and Jones, despite it not having been on his official schedule.
Last year’s unplanned encounter came after senior American officials harshly criticized Netanyahu and his policies, causing tension between the Obama administration and Israel’s government.

Palestinians ban settlement goods: Al Jazeera online

The move is part of a campaign to discourage trade with companies in the West Bank settlements [AFP]
Palestinian officials have passed a new law outlawing the sale of goods made in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The law, under which offenders could face up to five years in jail or a fine of up to $14,000, was signed by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, on Monday.

The move is part of a campaign launched earlier this year to clear Palestinian markets of settlement goods and encourage other countries to ban trade with companies in the settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.
“There’s an international consensus that the settlements are illegal and therefore it is unacceptable to support them,” Hassan al-Awri, Abbas’s legal adviser, told the Reuters news agency.
The campaign does not include products from Israel proper, which Palestinians rely on.
Palestinian government officials estimate the annual sale of goods from Israeli-run companies in the settlements totals up to $500 million per year.

Palestinian boycott
Monday’s ban came nearly six months after the Palestinian Authority called on the public to boycott several large supermarket chains in the West Bank for carrying Israeli products.
The decision targeted upscale markets in the West Bank city of Ramallah, in an attempt to pressure the stores to discontinue the sale of fruits and vegetables grown and processed in Israeli settlements.

Palestinians consider these settlements the most serious threat to their aspirations for statehood.
In December of last year, Britain called on UK supermarkets selling goods from the West Bank to state explicitly on labels whether the content had come from Israeli settlements or Palestinian-owned farms.
The recommendation, issued by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), is not a legal requirement.
But Israeli officials and settler leaders reacted angrily to the decision, saying it would lead to a boycott of their goods.

Until now, food has been labelled “Produce of the West Bank”, but Defra’s voluntary guidance said labels should give more precise information, like “Palestinian produce” or “Israeli settlement produce”.
Products from the Israeli settlements include cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, fruit and textiles.
European Union law already requires a distinction to be made between goods originating in Israel and those from the occupied territories, though pro-Palestinian campaigners say this is not always observed.

Abbas: I don’t want to declare unilateral statehood: Haaretz

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday said he opposes the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, in an exclusive interview on Channel 2 news.
Abbas’ remarks contradict comments made by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who told Haaretz earlier this month that Palestinians would have an independent state by August 2011.

“We stand by agreements,” Abbas said regarding the unilateral declaration of statehood.
In the Channel 2 interview, the Palestinian leader also extended his hand in peace to the Israeli people, asserting that he is prepared to work with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is committed to returning to the negotiating table next month. Abbas said he hopes to get Arab League approval for indirect talks on May 1.
Abbas said it his duty to work with Netanyahu who was “chosen by the Israeli people and elected by the Knesset.”

Netanyahu responded by saying he “commends any willingness to resume peace talks.”
U.S. special envoy to the Mideast, George Mitchell, was in the region over the weekend in a push to restart indirect talks between the two sides, which are scheduled to resume by mid-May.
Abbas also addressed Israeli construction in East Jerusalem, saying that a building freeze has always been a precondition for talks with Israel.
He insisted in the interview that Palestinians would not be able to force the right of return for Palestinian refugees on Israelis within the context of a peace agreement, but that he seeks a “just solution.”

The two sides should abide by what has been outlined in the road map for peace regarding the refugee issue, Abbas said.
Abbas also spoke about captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, saying he opposes the imprisonment of the Israeli soldier just as he opposes the imprisonment of 8,000 Palestinian prisoners.
He added that he has offered for Hamas to transfer Shalit to the Palestinian Authority in order to broker a deal that would be acceptable to both sides.

EDITOR: Israel continues its extrajudicial murders

The Israeli murder squads never stop; one day they are in Dubai, another in Gaza, then in the West Bank. The killing goes on, illegal, immoral and also illogical, as this produces more militants and more militancy. But maybe that is what they want?

Israel troops kill Hamas militant: BBC

Mr Suweiti was accused of attacking Israeli forces in the West Bank
Israeli troops have killed a senior Hamas militant in a raid on a house in the West Bank.
Ali Suweiti, 42, was killed during a gun battle in the village of Beit Awa, the Israeli military said.
Troops from the Israel Defense Forces, Border Guard and security service Shin Bet surrounded the house and militants opened fire on them, a spokesman said.
Mr Suweiti was wanted for his alleged role in a 2004 gun attack on a border patrol in which a soldier was killed.
“A force surrounded the building in which Suweiti was hiding and called on him to surrender,” a statement from the Israeli Defence Force said.
“Suweiti refused and opened fire at the forces, who then used engineering tools in addition to firing at the building’s exterior wall, in order to cause him to surrender. The terrorist continued to fire at the force, and was ultimately killed.”
The building he was in was demolished by the Israeli forces.

Israeli soldiers raid the house in which Ali Suweiti was said to be hiding

Mr Suweiti’s uncle, Mahmoud, told the Associated Press news agency that Israeli soldiers surrounded the house before dawn on Monday.
He said his nephew ignored calls by the troops to surrender and soldiers opened fire on the building.
Mr Suweiti was involved in five attacks on Israeli border guards between 1999 and 2004, the Israeli military said.
In 2004 he took part in an ambush on a border patrol jeep, killing 20-year-old policeman Yaniv Mashiah, the IDF said.
The IDF said they had tried to arrest him in 2007 but he escaped.

Netanyahu: Israel not planning military action against Syria: Haaretz

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said that Israel is not planning military action against Syria, despite rumors to the contrary.
“There is no truth to the suggestion that Israel is planning a military move against Syria,” Netanyahu said at the Likud party meeting, adding that the rumors were likely spread by Iran and Hezbollah as an attempt to distract the international community from the bid to impose sanctions on Iran.
“Iran is continuing its race to attain nuclear weapons,” the prime minister said. “The international community is formulating an agreement to impose sanctions against Iran, but I don’t see it happening in the coming month.”
Earlier this month, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Israel was preparing a military strike against Syria by accusing Damascus of supplying Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon with long-range Scud missiles.

“Israel aims from this to raise tension further in the region and to create an atmosphere for probable Israeli aggression,” the statement said, adding that “the Syrian Arab Republic denies these fabrications.”
Netanyahu added that he hoped sanctions against oil exports would be implemented, as they would “create a real problem for the Iranian regime and force it to rethink whether it wants to continue developing its nuclear program.”

Netanyahu also said he believes the United Nations Security Council will not approve sanctions in their current formula, but said, “the U.S. is capable of doing it [passing sanctions] in an effective manner outside of the UN, and I am convinced that major other countries will join them.”
Meanwhile, a top Syrian official said earlier Monday accused Israel of trying to undermine Syria’s ties with the United States by claiming that Damascus is supplying Hezbollah with Scud missiles.
Presidential adviser Buthaina Shaaban said “the missiles are too big to be moved undetected in a tiny country like Lebanon where Israeli reconnaissance planes fly overhead on daily basis.”

In an article published Monday in the daily Tishrin, Shaaban described the allegations as “ridiculous.”
Syria has denied the charges, as has Lebanon’s Western-backed prime minister.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said the Obama administration is still committed to improving ties with Syria despite its deeply troubling moves to aid Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrilla group.

Continue reading April 26, 2010

Netanyahu: Israel and U.S. want peace process to begin immediately: Haaretz

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, briefing the cabinet on his meetings with U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell, said Sunday that it would soon become clear whether Middle East peace talks, suspended since December 2008, would resume.

Addressing the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said Israel and the United States want to “begin a peace process immediately”, and that he hoped the Palestinians shared the same goal.
“We will know in the coming days whether the process will get under way. I hope that it will indeed get under way,” he said in public remarks at the cabinet session.
In a statement summing up his visit, Mitchell said he held “positive and productive talks” with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an effort “to improve the atmosphere for peace and for proceeding with proximity talks”, a reference to indirect, U.S.-mediated negotiations.

Mitchell is expected back in the region next week.
Netanyahu has given no ground publicly over U.S. and Palestinian calls to halt the construction of settlements in East Jerusalem, an issue that has driven a wedge between Israel and the United States.
The Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, have demanded a settlement freeze as a condition for peace talks.

Mitchell said in the statement that his deputy, David Hale, would remain behind to work with the parties this week to prepare for his return to the region next week.
On Saturday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged U.S. President Barack Obama to impose a solution to the Middle East conflict that would give the Palestinians an independent state.
Abbas’ appeal to Obama came amid widespread media reports that the U.S. president was considering floating a proposal that would set the contours of a final peace deal.

Any such move would likely be opposed by Israel, which says only negotiations can secure a final settlement to the conflict.
Aides to Abbas raised the possibility that he would meet Obama in Washington next month but said no invitation had been issued yet.
On Saturday, officials involved in efforts to renew peace talks said that proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians will start no later than mid-May.
European officials who have met in recent days with senior officials at the White House and State Department got the impression that the Obama administration did not expect that the proximity talks would produce any agreement.

The efforts to push the peace process forward are meant to allow the United States to claim some success in its Mideast policy as the region marks one year since Obama’s historic address in Cairo.
Officials in Washington say that the talks with the Palestinians will force Netanyahu to reveal his positions beyond those outlined in his speech at Bar-Ilan University last June.
The Americans say that if Netanyahu takes an uncompromising stance in the negotiations, like the one he displays in public, the Labor Party might quit the coalition and pave the way for a new government.

New Videos from SleeplessinGaza

See the latest films from this innovative project:
55 b sleepless Gaza Jerusalem.divx
April 24, 2010 — Day 55 b: Diana goes to meet Amer Zahr; a Palestinian American stand-up comedian in his first show in Ramallah. See her backstage with the comedian taking about his first experience presenting in Palestine! And then hear the voices of the audience laughing out loud on Amers jokes about Arabs and Palestinians living in the United States. Finally, an old Arabic song was sung by Amer BUT in his own English version!

55 a Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem.divx
April 24, 2010 — Day 55 a: Join Ashira and Cultureshoc; Palestine’s first Rock Rap Band, at Qalandia Checkpoint not for a concert but on a mission to bring some joy to the kids who work on the checkpoint to get a living. Meet the faces that you brush off on the checkpoint! Hear their stories! And what they dream to become one day! See the joy on their faces when they go to a park for the first time in their lives. Can you imagine that these days there are children that have never seen a hamburger before? Listen to Cultureshocs song dedicated to these children. Today Eman celebrates with her family the birthday of her brother Ahmad. Know more about Eman’s parents, brothers and sisters watch the yummy-looking dishes on the table, and the pastry baked by Eman’s mother right next to the chocolate cake she bought for her brother. Also enjoy a recipe of a delicious dessert made by Rana, Eman’s sister. If you suffer from a toothache, get the best advice about that from Eman’s father who is a dentist. Finally, see what Eman bought Ahmad on his birthday.

54 Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem .divx
April 23, 2010 — Day 54: Join Eman and Nagham in their tour to a number of the most famous archaeological sites in the Gaza Strip. Accompanied by a tour guide, they visited Tal Zo’rob in Rafah where excavations are carried out, it is a hill located in the highest area in the Gaza Strip…See what they found there! Saint Hilarion Monastery is another important site they toured in which has a great Christian significance, it dates back to 232 A.D. Chris. Saint Hilarion was the one who spread Christianity in Egypt. Check out the ruins left in the site in addition to the stories told about Saint Hilarion’s life and the Monastery’s function in history.

53 Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem.divx
April 22, 2010 — Day 53: You saw it on 49a the forensic doctor told Ashira that it wasnt a suicide like the Israeli authorities claimed, nor was it a natural death! We called the film Murder in an Israeli Prison! The exclusive footage of the film was used by Al Arabiya, CNN and Reuters just transmitted it to 600 television stations worldwide. Since then the Sleepless in Gaza and Jerusalem girls have been wondering what is taking officialdom so long to declare the reason of death. Ashira goes today to the Press conference that makes it official. Raed was killed with a blow to his spine causing damage to his spinal cord and internal bleeding. Asma wrote a book about Gazan woman in war and Nagham wanted to bring life to one of the stories, so Asma takes her to see Nawal and her family; victims of Israels attacks on the civilians of Gaza in January 2009. Israel called it Operation Cast Lead; most of the world called it a Heinous Crime. How did Nawal have her baby in the middle of the attacks?

New Trailer Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem .divx

52 Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem.divx
April 21, 2010 — Day 52: Diana is in Belin for the 5th Annual Popular Resistance Conference where locals and Internationals gather to coordinate and plan non-violent action against the occupation! Listen to what some participants have to say. Nagham in Gaza reads the writing on the wall, any wall, everywhere and about everything! Check out the Gazan communications machine! You can use it to make a political stance, express yourself, or place an advert.

51 Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem.divx
April 20, 2010 — April 20, 2010: Day 51: Ashira joins her friend Bakrieyh on a tour to the Palestinian villages that were displaced in order to drive the Palestinians out of their homes and make way for Jewish immigrants in 1948. Today marks Israels Independent Day which is known to Palestinians as the Catastrophe; when the Palestine lost their country and Israel came to being. Why did Fidaa leave Spain and come back home? Why doesnt she believe in dialogue anymore? Listen to Sari on how neighbor turned on neighbor. What is the story of Abed who was born in Miska. Listen to what Sheikh Raed Salah has to say on the right of return. What happed at the village of Miska? Where are its people now?
In Gaza, Eman pays a visit to her friend Umm Walid who lives in Beit Lahia. Meet the Palestinian farmers women who harvest the land along with their husbands. The farms cant afford to hire workers so man and woman put hand in hand to make ends meet. Join Eman to help Hend pick her Zucchinis and listen to the farmers tell you about their experience being so close to the borders with Israel.

50 Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem.divx
April 19, 2010 — Day 50: Join Yara in Aroura as she reports for Ajyal Radio station on the largest Musakhan dish (Palestine’s National Dish) trying to break the Guinness Book of World Records! Watch the peasants making the bread and cooking the chicken! Check out PM Salam Fayad dressed like a Chef! While talking to Ribhi on how Israel claims Palestinian dishes as their own, Yara discovers that he is the brother of Mashour Arouri who was killed 34 years ago and his body is still not delivered to his parents! At her request, he takes her to his parent’s home to meet them. Mashours parents only wish to bury their son in his village. Who is Mashour Arouri? Mashours mom shows us her sons clothes that she has kept in place since his death.
In Gaza, Eman goes to the Corner Market (Souk Al Zawiya); a historical landmark, to buy groceries. People from all around the Gaza strip come to the Phoenix square. What does it symbolize? Check out the rich souk! Listen to Abu Ahmad, a cart merchant, singing about his goods and customers! Is he angry with them?!! Take a look at one of the oldest mosques in Gaza boasting several domes: Al Omari Mosque. This mosque is located between the corner market and the Gold market. Do you need some jewelry?

49 a Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem Correct Version
April 19, 2010 — April 18, 2010: Day 49 a – Special Edition: Diana and Ashira are adamant to find out the truth about Raed Abu Hamad’s death while in solitary confinement at Beersheba Prison. Diana heads to Raed’s home and Ashira heads to the Israeli Forensic center where the autopsy is performed. Why did the parents and the PA’s Ministry of Prisoners send a Palestinian doctor and lawyer to monitor the autopsy? So was it a suicide like the Israeli Prison Authorities claimed? What did the lawyer have to say? The Israeli ambulance takes the body of Raed close to his hometown where he is moved to a Palestinian ambulance. Why is the forensic doctor checking Raed’s body again? After five years away, arriving in an Israeli black bag is not the way to return back home, so his brothers wrap him in a Palestinian flag. Join Ashira in the ambulance till they reach home where Diana and the family await. How is Raed received at home? The girls stay with him through the farewells at home, a procession of thousands that takes him to the cemetery, last prayers and until he is buried.

Who Rules Israel?: NY Times

By YOSSI ALPHER, Published: April 22, 2010
TEL AVIV — The Obama administration’s problems with Israel go beyond the construction of another few hundred housing units in East Jerusalem. More ominously, the ruling coalition in Israel reflects a reshaping of Israeli society that has fortified right-wing designs on the West Bank and strengthened resistance to a peace agreement.
To be sure, this is not the first time Israel is dealing with a right-religious-settler-Russian coalition pushing a reactionary agenda. The difference is that this political alignment could be dominant in Israel for some time to come.

The political left has virtually disappeared, discredited by failed peace gambits. At the same time, the conservative, ultra-orthodox sector is growing rapidly in numbers. So is the Israeli Arab population, which, in the shadow of a failed peace process, is becoming increasingly hostile to the idea of being a minority in a Jewish state — thereby stiffening the reaction of the Jewish majority.

Moreover, the stakes are higher than in the past. The Israeli right perceives an international onslaught against its bastions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. It has resolved never to permit a repeat of the withdrawal from Gaza. Hence it is attacking its critics and beefing up its grip on the instruments of power. And this reaction further amplifies Israel’s international isolation, creating a vicious circle.

The most blatant aspect of this right-wing campaign is its focus on the Israeli civil-society groups that monitor government actions and decisions. A bill that has already passed a preliminary vote in the Parliament would require all Israeli NGOs that receive support from foreign governments to publicly declare themselves “foreign agents” if they seek to “influence public opinion or … any governmental authority regarding … domestic or foreign policy.”
That means everyone from critics of the occupation to women’s rights advocates could be deemed “foreign agents” if they accept American or European financial support. This could seriously deter domestic criticism of Israeli settlement and occupation policies.

The rightward shift of Israeli society is changing the shape of fundamental state institutions. The combat ranks of the Israel Defense Forces are now so heavily manned by religious settlers and their supporters — close to a third of infantry officers, by some reckoning — that it is possible the IDF can no longer be counted on to forcibly evict masses of settlers. The army chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, has asked that the government avoid turning to the army for such tasks.

On the legal front, the government has failed to enforce High Court orders to dismantle some sections of the West Bank security fence deemed illegal or to remove unauthorized settlement outposts and structures in Arab East Jerusalem and provide equal schooling opportunities for Jerusalem Arab children. High Court Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch recently felt compelled to remind the government that court rulings are “not recommendations.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition almost seems programmed to provoke. The Internal Security and Foreign Affairs portfolios are in the hands of Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Is Our Home), the Russian immigrant-based party whose leader, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, is known for his Arab bashing and is himself under investigation for corruption. Housing is in the hands of Shas, a party based in the low-income Sephardic Orthodox community — hence the housing construction in places like Ramat Shlomo in East Jerusalem, where land is cheap.

Of course Israel does have real enemies. Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah present growing existential threats to the Israeli public. But the right wing’s hard-line stance leads the government to ignore genuine opportunities for progress toward peace, such as the successful state-building enterprise of the Palestinian Authority’s prime minister, Salam Fayyad, in the West Bank, or Syria’s repeated offers to renew a peace process that could, if successful, strike a blow against Iran and its proxies.
In this context, Israel’s occasional security successes, as in Gaza last year, perversely strengthen the growing international campaign to delegitimize it.
The Netanyahu government complains loudly about Palestinian incitement against Jews (which is, in fact, decreasing) while its policies encourage or ignore growing anti-Arab incitement in Israel.

If 80 percent of the students in Israeli religious high schools want to disenfranchise the Arab citizens of Israel (one-fifth of the population), as a recent survey found, their schools must be teaching them something very wrong. If the spiritual head of the Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, can tell his huge flock, as he did late last year, that the Muslims’ religion “is as ugly as them,” and provoke little but embarrassed smiles, it is because Shas is a member of the governing coalition. Yet if an NGO I belong to objects to such statements, I might soon be legally labeled a foreign agent.
One redeeming truth remains: Israelis know they need not only American support for their security, but also American endorsement of the Jewish and democratic society they aspire to. A vital U.S. and international interest in regional stability is involved here.

Yossi Alpher, former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, is co-editor of bitterlemons.org.

Continue reading April 25, 2010

Israeli Unassailable Might and Unyielding Angst: NY Times

By ROGER COHEN, Published: April 22, 2010
JERUSALEM — For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his people are not traumatized by some wild delusion. No, there are facts: the rise of Iran, the fierce projection of Iran’s proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, and the rockets that have been fired by them.
Netanyahu is firm in his core self-image as the guarantor of threatened Israeli security. Israeli withdrawals from southern Lebanon and Gaza, led only, in his view, to the insecurity of life beneath a rocket threat.

The question he poses himself, contemplating the West Bank, is how to stop this happening a third time.
To enter Israel is to pass through a hall of mirrors. A nation exerting complete military dominance in the West Bank becomes one that, under an almost unimaginable peace accord, might be menaced from there.
A nation whose army and arsenal are without rival in the Middle East becomes one facing daily existential threat. A nation whose power has grown steadily over decades relative to its scattered enemies becomes one whose future is somehow less secure than ever.

It’s not easy to parse fact from fiction, justifiable anxiety from self-serving angst, in this pervasive Israeli narrative. I arrived on Independence Day, the nation’s 62nd birthday. Blue and white flags fluttered from cars on the superhighways. A million festive picnickers were out. “If a war takes place, we will win,” the chief of the Israel Defense Forces assured them. Did annihilation anguish really spice the barbecue?

I guess so. The threat has morphed since 1948 — from Arab armies to Palestinian militants to Islamic jihadists — but not the Israeli condition. The nation “wallows in a sense of existential threat that has only grown with time,” the daily Haaretz commented. Netanyahu, in a 20-minute interview, told me of “the physical and psychological reality” of a nation whose experience is that “concessions lead to insecurity.”

Part of the insecurity right now stems from the troubles with Israel’s ultimate guarantor, the United States. President Obama, for all his assurances about unbending American commitment, has left Israelis with a feeling of alienation, a sense he does not understand or care enough. Has he not visited two nearby Muslim states — Turkey and Egypt — while snubbing Israel?

I think what is really bothering Israelis, the root of the troubles, is that Obama is not buying the discourse, the narrative.
Instead of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with little Israel against the jihadists, he’s talking of how a festering Middle East conflict ends up “costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure.” Instead of Iran, Iran, Iran — the refrain here — he’s saying Iran, yes, but not at the expense of Palestine. Instead of Israeli security alone, he’s talking of “the vital national security interests of the United States” and their link to Israeli actions.
This amounts to a sea change. I don’t know if it will box Israel into a defensive corner or open new avenues, but I do know an uncritical U.S. embrace of Israel has led nowhere. For now, Israeli irritation is clear.

Before meeting Netanyahu, I spoke with Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. “We are the ones suffering most in terms of blood and treasure,” he told me, reprising the Obama line. “This is the difference, we are the ones that have to live through an agreement and survive afterward. Of course we want peace but not at the price of our existence.”
He dismissed as “totally false” the notion that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict feeds an environment inimical to U.S. interests. On the contrary, he said, “We pay the price for defending U.S. values in this area.”

For Ayalon, the proximity talks with the Palestinians that the Obama administration is struggling to revive are a “waste of time” and should be replaced by direct talks without preconditions. As for Obama’s demands, believed to include a complete Israeli building freeze in Jerusalem, Ayalon said, “Any demand without a quid pro quo is a mistake. Why should the Palestinians negotiate if others negotiate for them?”

So here we are, 62 years on, negotiating about negotiations whose prospects of leading anywhere seem fantastically remote. I think Ayalon’s right about getting to the table, but peace involves embracing risk over fear, no getting around that, and with the Iranian nuclear program rumbling, Israelis look more risk-averse than I’ve ever seen them. Life’s not bad in affluent, barrier-bordered Israel even if threats loom.
The prime minister insists that he is ready to move forward, that he will not use the Iran threat as a delaying tactic, and that he and Obama respect each other’s intelligence.

What is imperative for him right now is that the United States and Israel talk to each other.
But about what exactly? The trauma of 9/11 bound the Israeli and American narratives. They have now begun to diverge with putative Palestine hanging in limbo between them.

Netanyahu amenable to Palestinian state within temporary borders: Haaretz

By Aluf Benn
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is amenable to an interim agreement in the West Bank that would include the establishment of a Palestinian state within temporary borders.

Netanyahu considers such an interim step a possible way to unfreeze the stalled political process that was created because of the Palestinian leadership’s refusal to resume talks on a final settlement. However, the prime minister insists on delaying discussion on the final status of Jerusalem to the end of the process, and refuses to agree to a freeze on Jewish construction in East Jerusalem.

Netanyahu and his aides have held intensive contacts in recent days with representatives of the U.S. administration in an effort to contain the crisis in the relations between the two countries.
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The prime minister will meet Friday with U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who is visiting Jerusalem, and will continue talks that senior Israeli officials held with White House official Dan Shapiro. Mitchell met with Defense Minister Ehud Barak earlier Friday, and was to head to Ramallah later in the day for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

There have been signals from the White House in recent days of a willingness to see an improvement in relations with Netanyahu. The signals included appeasing messages highlighting U.S. commitment to Israel’s security, and peaked with President Barack Obama’s Independence Day greeting. Senior aides to the president, including his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and National Security Adviser, General James Jones, also publicly expressed their support of the strong ties between the two countries.

Both public and private pronouncements of senior figures in the U.S. and Israel suggest that the formula for bringing an end to the crisis comprises a number of elements: advancing an interim stage and a Palestinian state within temporary borders; delaying the discussion on Jerusalem, with an Israeli commitment to avoid provocations; identifying the areas in which Netanyahu and Obama differ, with construction in East Jerusalem topping the list; and a certain American toughening of its attitude toward Iran and Syria.

General Jones said on Wednesday in a speech at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a well known pro-Israeli forum, that the differences between Israel and the U.S. will be resolved as allies do. Jones called on both sides, Israel and the Palestinians, to avoid provocations such as Israeli activity in East Jerusalem and Palestinian incitement.

The formula of a Palestinian state within temporary borders was included in the second stage of the road map of 2003, but the Palestinians, and Mahmoud Abbas at their head, opposed it then and oppose it now, considering it a recipe for keeping Israeli occupation of the territories in place.

Three Israeli politicians – Defense Minister Ehud Barak, President Shimon Peres and MK Shaul Mofaz of Kadima – tried to advance the idea of a Palestinian state within temporary borders during the past year, as a reasonable recipe for breaking out of the current political stalemate that was created since elections in Israel. Netanyahu is now leading toward their view, after losing hope of moving toward a permanent settlement with Abbas.

If this initiative progresses, it is expected to result in objections from the parties on the right, who oppose any concession to the Palestinians. Establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, or even a partial framework with temporary borders, will require Israel to withdraw from more territory and perhaps even evacuate settlements. But if the Palestinians reject the idea – as is expected – Netanyahu will be able to claim that they are once more missing an opportunity for a settlement by being stubborn and rejectionist.

In an interview to Udi Segal and Yonit Levy on Channel 2 Thursday, Netanyahu said “there will be no freeze in Jerusalem.” He said that “the peace process depends on one thing: removing preconditions to negotiations.”

Netanyahu warned that if Israel withdraws from Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem, “Iran will be able to enter there,” as it did in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, “but this will be as part of a final settlement. Meanwhile they tell me that I cannot build and plan on French Hill.”

Netanyahu said that in his talks with Obama, “I tell him I can go with you on this – willing and able – but there are things I am not willing and do not do.”

He called on the U.S. not to wait for the UN Security Council and impose severe sanctions against Iran on its own. “We prefer that the U.S. lead the confrontation with Iran,” Netanyahu said, “but Israel always reserves the right to self-defense.”

Continue reading April 24, 2010

EDITOR: Will He or Won’t He?

So now Netanyahu calls Obama’s bluff – he says quite openly that he does not intend to follow the great leader in Washington, that the Jerusalem settlements are not up for discussion, and basically admits that he has not the slightest intention to follow the Washington plan for defusing the Palestine conflict. I say defusing, as it is definitely not directed at resolving it, but at lowering the tension in the Arab and Islamic world, so the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and anywhere else can continue at the pace and in the manner the US prefers.  Now Netanyahu threatens this startegic objective of the US, believeing he is protected from Obama by AIPAC, the influential Jewish community in the US, and the many Senators and Congressmen who are aided and financed by AIPAC. He may well be right, and Obama may well lose this one!

Netanyahu raises stakes with US over settlements in East Jerusalem: The Independent

By Catrina Stewart in Jerusalem
Friday, 23 April 2010
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected US demands to freeze Jewish construction in East Jerusalem, creating a key stumbling block to renewed peace talks just as Washington’s Middle East envoy arrived in town.
“I am saying one thing. There will be no freeze in Jerusalem,” Mr Netanyahu said in comments broadcast on Israel’s Channel 2 last night. “There should be no preconditions to talks.”
The Israeli leader had formally responded to the Obama administration’s freeze request at the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported.

His public comments, made just after George Mitchell’s arrival for his first visit in six weeks, seemed timed to undermine the US envoy’s bid to revive negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.
The Palestinians have called for a full construction freeze in the West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967, before they will agree to return to peace talks, which have been stalled now for more than a year. “It’s a disaster,” said Moshe Ma’oz, professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies at Jerusalem’s Hebrew university. Jewish settlements are “the crux of the matter for the Palestinians. I don’t see what is holy to Jews about [Palestinian neighbourhoods] Abu Dis and Sheikh Jarrah”.
The timing of Mr Netanyahu’s decision sends a strong message to US President Barack Obama, who has invested significant political capital in securing a peace deal in the Middle East.

Mr Obama reportedly presented Mr Netanyahu with a list of measures, among them a construction freeze, during a fraught meeting at the White House in late March aimed at bringing Palestinians back to the negotiating table. Washington put its shuttle diplomacy efforts on hold while it awaited Israel’s response.
Jewish construction in East Jerusalem, internationally recognised as occupied territory, is a deeply contentious issue. Some 180,000 Jews live there, and 250,000 Palestinians. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the future capital of an independent Palestinian state, and fear Israel is seeking to predetermine its fate and make them a minority there. Mr Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will retain control over an undivided Jerusalem.

Mark Regev, Mr Netanyahu’s spokesman, insisted yesterday that Israel was committed to peace talks with the Palestinians. “We are working with the US to restart the talks, and we want that to happen,” he said.
In a bid to show willing, Israel has agreed to several other concessions, such as easing the flow of goods into the Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli blockade since 2007, the release of Palestinian prisoners and the removal of some roadblocks in the West Bank, The WSJ reported.
But Israel’s lack of movement on settlements will likely complicate Mr Mitchell’s mission as he seeks to coax the Palestinians back to the table. Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said yesterday that he hoped Mr Mitchell would convince Israelis to “give peace a chance” by halting settlements.

Travel ban imposed on Palestinian leader in Israel: The Electronic intifada

Press release, Popular Committee for the Defense of Political Freedoms and Ittijah, 23 April 2010

Ameer Makhoul (Adri Nieuwhof) On 22 April 2010 the Popular Committee for the Defense of Political Freedoms and Ittijah – Union of Arab Community-Based Associations issued the following statement:

This morning, the Israeli Border Police prevented Mr. Ameer Makhoul, the Director of Ittijah – Union of Arab Community-Based Associations inside Israel, from leaving the country. Makhoul, who also serves as the head of the Popular Committee for the Defense of Political Freedoms, received a prohibition order from leaving the country upon his arrival to the Jordan River Crossing. The order, which was issued by the Israeli Minister of the Interior, Eli Yishai, prohibits Makhoul from leaving the country for a period of two months.

In the prohibition order itself, the Israeli Minister of the Interior, Eli Yishai, states that “I have reached the conviction that the exit of Ameer Makhoul from the country poses a serious threat to the security of the state, and therefore I issue this order to prevent him from leaving the country until the 21st of June, 2010” according to article 6 of the 1948 emergency regulations. Even though the order grants Makhoul the right to appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court, Makhoul already stated his unwillingness to do so. Usually in such cases, Makhoul stated, the Supreme Court acts as an extension of the Israeli General Security Services (GSS), the Shabak [Shin Bet].

We consider this administrative order as one that aims at the creation of a culture of fear among Palestinian civil society and a direct attack on our popular and political bodies. We confirm our insistence to continue consolidating our relations with the Arab world and the world in general, and our call to boycott the State of Israel and its policies. Our relations with the Arab world are dependent upon neither the Israeli minister nor the GSS, but on our natural right based on international law and peoples’ rights. We also consider the order to be a direct attack on the Popular Committees for the Defense of Political Freedoms and its activities on local and international levels that manifest our people’s deep roots in our land.

Furthermore, this order constitutes the culmination of the Israeli intelligence persecution of Ittijah – Union of Arab Community-Based Associations during the last few years, due to its wide relations with the Arab world and its role in representing Palestinian civil society inside Israel on local and international levels.

Following the issuance of this prohibition order, representatives of Ittijah, the Popular Committee and the High Monitoring Committee of Arabs in Israel decided to convene today in order to discuss the methods to confront the order.

Lebanon Rejects Israel Accusations About Scuds: NY Times

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanon’s prime minister has dismissed Israeli accusations that Syria had been providing Scud missiles to the Hezbollah militia in his country, comparing them to claims that Iraq had unconventional weapons before the American-led invasion in 2003.
The prime minister, Saad Hariri, made his comments late Monday during a state visit to Italy. They were Lebanon’s first official comments about the accusations, made last week by Israel’s president, Shimon Peres. Mr. Hariri’s comments, though aimed to quell anxiety, hinted at Lebanon’s unease over its possible role as a battleground if rumors of a regional war should be realized.

“At the start of the summer season, they make such threats,” Mr. Hariri told a group of Lebanese citizens living in Rome, in comments published Tuesday by Al Mustaqbal, the newspaper of his political movement. “All this is similar to what was said previously about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that were never found.”
Syria has denied Mr. Peres’s accusations about the Scuds, which can carry warheads of up to a ton, have a range of hundreds of miles and presumably could make all of Israel vulnerable to an attack launched from Lebanese soil.

American officials have said they did not have any confirmation that Scuds were actually delivered to Hezbollah. But on Monday, the Obama administration summoned Syria’s ranking diplomat in Washington to express its concern nonetheless.
Syria and Iran are widely believed to have significantly rearmed Hezbollah since the group’s July 2006 war with Israel, which devastated Lebanon’s infrastructure and left more than a thousand Lebanese and several dozen Israelis dead.
On Monday, Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, sought to allay fears of a war, saying on Army Radio that Israel had no intention of starting one.

Mr. Hariri has often issued warnings about Hezbollah’s weapons and Syria’s role in supplying them, especially in the years after Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2005. But after Hezbollah asserted itself militarily in the streets of Beirut in May 2008, political realities began to shift, in recognition that the United States — for all its rhetorical support for Lebanon — was not willing to intervene by force. Some of Mr. Hariri’s allies, notably the Druse leader, Walid Jumblatt, began to curtail their criticisms of Syria and Hezbollah.
Mr. Hariri himself visited Damascus, Syria, last year after becoming prime minister, in what was seen as part of Syria’s renewed influence in Lebanon.

US envoy Mitchell meets Netanyahu in push to end rift: BBC

Mr Mitchell (left) and Mr Netanyahu both said they were pushing for peace
US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the hope of ending a row over Israeli building in East Jerusalem.
Mr Mitchell met Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, on his first visit since the disagreement scuppered planned indirect peace talks.
Reports suggested Israel may be willing to make several gestures to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiations.
But Israel’s PM has stressed he will not stop building in East Jerusalem.
Ahead of his meeting with Mr Mitchell, Mr Netanyahu said Israel was “serious” about trying to advance peace, and hoped the Palestinians would “respond”.
Mr Mitchell stressed the “unbreakable bond” between the US and Israel.
Officials said the two would meet again on Sunday, after Mr Mitchell has met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas later on Friday.
US demands
The Palestinians pulled out of the scheduled “proximity talks” last month after Israel approved a plan for 1,600 homes in East Jerusalem, where the Palestinians want the capital of their future state.

We should give proximity talks the chance they deserve, but it is evident… that this Israeli government is determined to continue the course of settlements, dictation and confrontation
Saeb Erekat, Palestinian chief negotiator
That announcement, as US Vice-President Joe Biden was visiting to launch the negotiations, triggered a crisis in relations between Israel and its greatest ally, Washington.
A planned visit by Mr Mitchell in March was cancelled.
The US has requested that Israel make a series of moves, which have not been officially made public, to reassure the Palestinians.
As Mr Mitchell arrived, Mr Netanyahu stressed in a television interview that he would not yield to US pressure to completely halt building in the occupied East of Jerusalem.
“I am saying one thing: there will be no freeze in Jerusalem,” he said.
But on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal quoted unnamed US officials as saying that Mr Netanyahu had offered measures including easing the blockade on Gaza, releasing prisoners, freezing the controversial building project in Ramat Shlomo for two years, and agreeing to discuss borders and the status of Jerusalem.
‘Fruitful’
In Washington, a US state department spokesman said there had been “good give and take” with the Israelis.
The decision that Mr Mitchell would visit was only made on Wednesday, with reports from lower level US-Israeli meetings suggesting it would be “fruitful for him to travel”, the spokesman, PJ Crowley said. But he added that the Israelis still had not done everything the US wanted.
“The status quo is not sustainable,” he warned.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians “should give the proximity talks the chance they deserve”.
But he added: “It is evident after Mr Netanyahu’s statements that this Israeli government is determined to continue the course of settlements, dictation and confrontation and not peace and reconciliation.”
The Palestinians’ position on exactly what Israel must do before they would join indirect talks remains unclear.
Since the row broke out, Mr Abbas has said Israel must halt all settlement activity, including in East Jerusalem, though he initially agreed to the negotiations without a total freeze.
But a senior Palestinian official has told the BBC the Ramat Shlomo project must be put on ice for at least three years, and the Israelis must not “continue to take actions which destroy our credibility”.
‘No preconditions’
Mr Netanyahu has said that no other Israeli prime minister in the past 46 years has been asked to stop building in Jerusalem, which would be unacceptable to his right-wing coalition partners.
He says he is willing to talk without preconditions, but has laid out a tougher stance on final status issues such as borders and Jerusalem than his predecessor, Ehud Olmert.
Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since 1967. It annexed the area in 1981 and sees it as its exclusive domain.
Under international law the area is occupied territory and the international community does not recognise Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem.

EDITOR: Israeli ‘Independence’ goes sour

In a number of European capitals the celebrations of 62 years to the Nakba by the Zionist Federation and the state of Israel, have gone awry. The London event was a total flop, and what awaited the few who made it, was indeed the flags of Palestine, as you can see in the report below.

Protest against Nakba Day ‘Independence’ Events!: ISM London

Pro-Palestinian activists gathered outside the institute of Education by Russell Square, London protest the Zionist Federation’s “Israeli Independence” celebrations yesterday.

Approximately 40 protesters gathered to chant slogans and raise their voices in opposition to an event which effectively marks the violent expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in 1948, known to Palestinians as al-Nakba — the Catastrophe in Arabic.

Activists who had managed to enter the building previously, dropped a massive Palestinian flag bearing the words “Free Palestine” from the front of the building. This act was met with raucous cheers and drew attention from the many tourists who were staying at the two large hotels opposite.

One cheeky Zionist attempted to grab the flag down, but activists shouted him down preventing possible criminal damage.
Police and the Institute of Education staff eventually got hold of those who had dropped the lag and ejected them from the building.

Nonetheless, more ISMers snuck back into the building with the flag and this time dropped it from the tower of the building. Police once again were not amused, and neither were the event organisers. However, there were no charges and no one was arrested.

Back at the protest, activists were keen to chant slogans at arriving Zionists, but found their opportunities few and far between. At a venue which has a capacity for over 990 people, the Zionist Federation must have had barely 100 people in attendance.

The celebratory event had been marred first by the Palestinian-Israeli singer, Mira Awad withdrawing from the event having found out what it was for. This was followed by the British X-Factor finalist Stacey Solomon, pulling out after her management were notified of the political nature of the event.

Not wishing their potential star to be associated with ethnic cleansing and racism, it was clear they felt it inappropriate for her to perform.
The Zionist Federation will continue their celebration of apartheid and ethnic cleansing this evening with a party at the proud Galleries in Camden, London. Pro-Palestine groups once again, will be mobilising to oppose this — join us!

Netanyahu: There will be no building freeze in Jerusalem: Haaretz

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday that Israel does not intend to comply with the American demand that it halt settlement construction in East Jerusalem.
“I am saying one thing. There will be no freeze in Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Channel 2 television. “There should be no preconditions to talks,” he added, referring to the Palestinian demand that Israel end all settlement construction before they would be willing to resume peace negotiations.

Netanyahu’s comments were broadcast on Channel 2 TV shortly after special American envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell arrived in Israel for his first visit in six weeks. Mitchell’s efforts had been on hold due to disagreements over East Jerusalem, the section of the holy city claimed by Israel and the Palestinians.

Although Netanyahu was repeating his long-standing position, the timing of the statement threatened to undermine Mitchell’s latest efforts to restart peace talks. Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, denied earlier reports that Israel had officially rejected an American demand for a settlement freeze in Jerusalem.

There was no immediate U.S. reaction.
Earlier Thursday, The Prime Minister’s Bureau responded to a Wall Street Journal report that Netanyahu’s government had delivered over the weekend its most substantive response yet to the U.S. request.
Obama reportedly made the demand for an East Jerusalem construction freeze, along with other requests, in a tense White House meeting with Netanyahu on March 23.
Obama’s administration had seen been awaiting Netanyahu’s reply, while the latter had deliberated with his top ministers on possible confidence-building measures that would allow a revival of peace talks with the Palestinians.

According to the report in the Wall Street Journal, Netanyahu rejected the demand on East Jerusalem, but did agree to other confidence-building measures, such as allowing the opening of PA institutions in the eastern part of the city, transferring additional West Bank territory to Palestinian security control and agreeing to discuss all the core issues of the conflict during proximity talks with the PA, instead of insisting that these issues only be discussed in direct talks.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called the Netanyahu position very
unfortunate and said he hoped the U.S. would be able to convince the Israeli government to give peace a chance by halting settlement construction in East Jerusalem and elsewhere.

MK Oron: Netanyahu is worsening U.S.-Israel rift
Right-wing lawmakers on Thursday praised Netanyahu for refusing the Obama administration’s demands to freeze construction in East Jerusalem, as their leftist rivals expressed fears that the move would worsen tensions between Israel and the United States.
“Netanyahu has said no to the peace process, aggravating the rift with the American administration,” declared Meretz Chairman Haim Oron.
National Religious Party Chairman Daniel Herskovitz, however, lauded Netanyahu for his “appropriate Zionist response” to the ultimatum posed by President Barack Obama at the two leaders’ meeting in Washington last month. “The future of Jerusalem cannot be subjected to an edict,” Herskovitz declared.

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, said that even the Americans know that “the true reason the peace process has frozen is due to the weakness and inability of the Palestinian leadership.”

MK Ophir Ekonis declared that Netanyahu’s response to Obama offered “further proof that the Likud is committed to the future of Jerusalem, and expresses a wide national agreement that the Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people.”

Israel, U.S. secretly working to bridge gaps in peace process

Israel and the United States have been conducting behind-the-scenes negotiations in recent days in an effort to find a formula that would bridge their differences over peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and America’s demand that Israel halt construction in East Jerusalem for at least four months.

According to a senior Obama administration official, the top Middle East policy specialist at the White House, Dan Shapiro, arrived in Israel Wednesday on a secret visit. Shapiro’s delegation also included David Hale, who serves as deputy to U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell and is permanently based in Israel.
Neither the White House nor the Prime Minister’s Office have officially announced the talks or even Shapiro’s arrival in Israel. Officially, total silence is being maintained, and the Prime Minister’s Office therefore refused to comment Wednesday.
But a senior Israeli official said talks with American officials have been conducted throughout the past week – by phone, via the Israeli embassy in Washington and with the White House officials who arrived in Israel on Wednesday.

The dialogue between Israel and the Obama administration is to continue next week, when Defense Minister Ehud Barak visits Washington. Barak, who will leave for the U.S. on Sunday, is slated to deliver a speech at a conference sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, at which U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will also speak.
He will also hold meetings with U.S. National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones, Clinton and other senior officials. The talks will deal with the peace process and the effort to bridge the disagreements between the U.S. and Israel, as well as the Iranian nuclear issue and weapons smuggling from Syria to Lebanon.

Im Tirtzu: delegitimising the ‘delegitimisers’: The Guardian CiF

A campaign to suppress all criticism now extends to smearing Israeli human rights activists as hostile to Jewish statehood
The word “delegitimisation” has become the most significant weapon in the rhetorical arsenal of those defending Israel against external and internal enemies. In Israel, rightwing policymakers, thinkers and Zionist groups are deploying the word to describe the underlying motives of the country’s critics. Outside Israel, pro-Israel groups and Jewish defence organisations use it to attack those who protest when Israeli officials speak in public, promote boycott campaigns and accuse Israel of apartheid policies.
The Israeli Reut Institute promotes the term assiduously. It produced a highly influential report, Building a Political Firewall Against Israel’s Delegitimisation, that defines delegitimisation as criticism that “exhibits blatant double standards, singles out Israel, denies its right to exist as the embodiment of the self-determination right of the Jewish people, or demonises the state”.

The term is doubly useful. It’s negative when exposed as the motive of Israel’s critics. But it’s positive when used as a means of undermining Israel’s human rights organisations. The delegitimisation of rights groups began soon after the Netanyahu government came to power. It took an insidious turn in January when Im Tirtzu: the Second Zionist Revolution, a student-based organisation that aims to “strengthen the values of Zionism in Israel”, attacked the New Israel Fund for supporting the Israeli human rights groups, which, Im Tirtzu claimed, provided more than 90% of the data for the war crimes accusations against Israel in the Goldstone Report. A second phase of Im Tirtzu’s attack began on the day Israel remembered its fallen soldiers. In a report issued on 19 April, the group directly accused rights organisations of betraying the country and engineering the indictment of Israel’s leaders when they travel abroad.

Im Tirtzu is clearly a radical rightwing movement whose latest effort comprised a national billboard campaign, a specially commissioned highly emotional pop song, which conveys the betrayal message and the accusation that rights groups are prepared to knife Israel’s soldiers in the back while they protect the country, and the distribution to synagogues of 15,000 copies of a version of the memorial prayer for dead soldiers including a passage inciting against human rights groups. Such extensive activity requires substantial funding. The Christian evangelical John Hagee Ministries and the New York Central Fund, both of which fund settler groups, are among Im Tirtzu’s funders.

The claim that critics of Israel are delegitimising the state’s existence is not new. The argument was made in the 1980s when the USSR orchestrated an anti-Zionist campaign largely through the UN. But the response then was to see the problem in terms of Israel’s poor public relations. It was felt that more sophisticated presentation of “good news” stories, the government’s “genuine desire for peace” and an overall positive image of Israel would turn the tide of international opinion in Israel’s favour.

Israel hasn’t entirely abandoned this strategy, but since it has failed to stem the growing pressure on Israel to submit to international accountability, end the occupation and respond positively to the Obama administration’s tougher line, a more apocalyptic assessment of the country’s plight now dominates thinking. This is clear from the Reut Institute’s latest “delegitimacy” update. It speaks of:

“a systematic and systemic assault on Israel’s political and economic model, which aims to bring about its implosion. These dynamics have evolved into a strategic concern of potentially existential implications that require transitioning from ‘local and situational re-action’ to ‘global and systemic pro-action.'”

Two things seemed to have reinforced the conclusion that criticism represents an existential threat. First, a realisation that playing the antisemitism card has also failed to moderate criticism. Second, a perception that US policy now endangers, rather than guarantees, Israel’s existence.
In this frame of mind, it’s perfectly logical to redefine what was once seen as tolerable, but albeit bitterly contested, dissent – the reports and critiques of Israel’s human rights organisations – as a form of intolerable and existentially threatening delegitimisation. And as Yair Wallach argues, since the Israeli government is offering no realistic, negotiated path to the two-state solution it professes to support, it’s forced to do more to defend the status quo:

“The occupation appears as a de facto permanent feature of the Israeli system of government rather than as a set of temporary policies and security measures.”
Despite the call for “global and systemic pro-action” (which sounds like meaningless jargon), it’s hard to believe that the delegitimisation argument will lead to anything but more violence and further repression of dissent. The failure of this apocalyptic thinking to even consider the idea that Israel is delegitimising itself is perverse. Not because it’s the argument made by the human rights groups, but because some of Israel’s own leaders have made it. Defence minister and Labour leader Ehud Barak said recently: “If millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.” In November 2007, former prime minister Ehud Olmert said Israel risked being compared to apartheid-era South Africa if it failed to agree to an independent state for the Palestinians.

The continued denial of the Palestinians’ human and political rights is the most effective way of delegitimising Israel.

Continue reading April 22, 2010