EDITOR: Even the right can see this is disastrous…
Yoel Marcus is by no measure one can imagine on Israel’s political left – on the contrary, he has been on the liberal right for some decades; but even he can see that Israel is heading for another bloody war. Where I may differ from him, amongst other things, is his belief that there is a political solution now possible for Netanyahu to sign to. There is no such solution Netanyahu will sign to, no more than Olmert, Sharon and Barak before him would. No Israeli PM has been ready to deal with leaving the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories) and to agree a just peace with the PLO. Netanyahu is the least likely to do so.
A donkey and peace: Haaretz
Obama will be the one to decide if an extension of the building freeze is essential to direct talks under American sponsorship.
By Yoel Marcus
It’s been a long time since negotiations elicited as many smiles and as positive an atmosphere as the Washington-Sharm-Jerusalem round of talks. The leaders, including two presidents and one king, enter closed sessions and emerge smiling, as though the meetings have turned into joke-telling competitions. Those setting the tone are U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington and his envoy here, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Her figure somewhat fuller now than when she sweat out the contest against Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, she has hardly been photographed without a Sara Netanyahu-type grin from ear to ear.
Quite unusually, at least up until this point, there haven’t been any leaks from the long talks either – only assessments given by veteran political commentators. The optimism is dictated from above, i.e. by Obama, who has decided to take our subject in hand, demonstrating a blatant change in his almost hostile attitude toward Israel.
In light of his eroding status around the world, the impression is that it is very important to the American president, both personally and strategically, to succeed here. And when the secretary of state emerges from a meeting with President Shimon Peres and declares that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are serious in their intentions to renew the peace process, for the time being this represents more a wish of Obama’s than a realistic impression of the round of talks thus far.
Netanyahu demonstrated leadership when he agreed to freeze construction in the territories for 10 months. Nobody believed he would dare to stick to that decision until the end. The fact is, he not only passed the decision in the cabinet, but not one of his ministers – including those from Yisrael Beiteinu – resigned.
Still, we must recall that the prime minister not only made a commitment to the Palestinians and the Americans; he also made a promise to the Israeli public that he meant 10 months, “and not one day more.” While he can be praised for doing something nobody did before him, there will almost certainly be those in his camp who won’t forgive him if he breaks his promise to the Israelis.
In addition, the Palestinians refused to enter direct talks and wasted nine months. Had they conducted negotiations during the freeze, we might now be standing in another place entirely. The talks in Washington also made clear the profundity of the gaps between the two sides. Now that the sides have begun to speak directly under Obama’s sponsorship, the entire issue of the freeze as a condition to talks is passe. It’s possible to talk face to face and not to build at one and the same time in territories that we will evacuate in any case.
Now, when rockets are being launched from Gaza on an almost daily basis and the commander of the Hamas military wing, Ahmed Jabri, is threatening us with war, the question confronting us is whether the time has not come to do everything in our power to reach an agreement with the Palestinian Authority, instead of heading downhill toward a “war for the peace of the settlements Yitzhar and Tapuah.” An extension of the building freeze is not essential to renew the direct talks under American sponsorship, based on an understanding with Obama that it will be “light” construction if any, to avoid creating chaos in the territories before we reach an overall agreement with the Palestinians. In the agreement with Egypt, we also signed first and later removed the Rafah Salient settlements.
The U.S. administration is maintaining a fog of war, but it is clear that Obama will be the one to decide whether white smoke will emerge from the White House chimney. The fact that Israel is starting to distribute gas masks at an accelerated pace implies that both we and the U.S. administration are worriedly keeping track of those same threats with which we will have to deal sooner or later.
Whether the Palestinians want to and can achieve a peace agreement is still up in the air. The same doubts exist regarding Netanyahu as well – does he have the stuff to make major decisions? Most of Likud is standing behind him, despite Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom’s threats. And if Netanyahu managed to pass the freeze, he can pass anything in his cabinet – certainly with massive support from most of the public, which aspires to peace.
On Yom Kippur 37 years ago, we buried 2,700 fallen soldiers too many, in order to reach the conclusion foreign minister Moshe Dayan reached when he signed the peace treaty with Egypt: only a donkey never changes his mind.
EDITOR: The mystery solved at last
For those of us who were wondering and worrying about the disappearance of Al Ahram Weekly from the web-waves, the mystery is at last solved; Read below about their crime and punishment…
Some years ago, a certain American female journalist of the Herald Tribune has made the mistake of telling her readers that the Egyptian Leader, Mr. Hosni Mubarak, is known popularly as La Vache qui rit (Laughing Cow, a French brand of melted cheese, known for the smiling portrait ofa laughing cow, which, incredibly, shares the features of Mubarak’s broad face…). In less than 24 hours, she was escorted to the airport and flown off, never to be allowed in again. He laughs who laughs last…
Al-Ahram newspaper defends doctored photo of Hosni Mubarak: The Guardian
Altered image in state-run paper shows Egyptian president in lead role at Middle East peace talks
Egypt’s oldest newspaper today defended its decision to publish a doctored photograph that appeared to put president Hosni Mubarak at the forefront of key figures at the Middle East peace talks in Washington.
The original photo showed US president Barack Obama walking in the lead on a red carpet, with Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II slightly behind.
But the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper altered the image in its Tuesday edition to show Mubarak in the lead, with Obama slightly behind him to his right, then placed it over a broadsheet article titled “the Road to Sharm El Sheikh”, referring to the Egyptian Red Sea resort that hosted the second round of negotiations.
Egyptian bloggers and activists said the picture was an example of the regime’s deception of its own people. Critics also said the photo was an attempt to distract attention from Egypt’s waning role in the Middle East peace process.
But the newspaper’s editor-in chief, Osama Saraya defended the decision in an editorial today, saying the original photo had been published on the day talks began and the new version was only meant to illustrate Egypt’s leading role in the peace process.
“The expressionist photo is … a brief, live and true expression of the prominent stance of President Mubarak in the Palestinian issue, his unique role in leading it before Washington or any other,” Saraya wrote. The photo is still posted on the newspaper’s website.
Opponents of Mubarak’s near three-decade rule seized on the controversy to criticize the government, which is accused of widespread abuses aimed at suppressing dissent. Wael Khalil, the Egyptian blogger who first called attention to the altered photo, said it was a “snapshot” of what he called daily deception about a number of issues, including democratic change and social justice.
“They lie to us all the time,” he said. “Instead of addressing the real issues, they just Photoshop it.”
Saraya accused critics of launching a smear campaign against Al-Ahram, which was first published in 1876. The newspaper has enjoyed the widest circulation in Egypt but has faced a growing challenge in recent years from a new breed of private publications and the internet.
It is not unusual for Egyptian newspapers to retouch pictures of senior officials to improve their appearance or light.
EDITOR: Creative fiction…
Of course, Israel will refuse to speak to anyone, let alone the EU, about settlements. After all, God in person seems to have sanctioned their torture of Palestine. But what is really novel is the excuse – read below and enjoy:
Israel refuses to meet European ministers for settlement talks: NYT
Jerusalem says EU demand for discussions on eve of Yom Kippur is highly insensitive
Monday, 13 September 2010
Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure to extend a freeze on building Jewish settlements ahead of peace talks with Hillary Clinton and Mahmoud Abbas
Israel has said it will not meet a delegation of European foreign ministers, including William Hague, this week as diplomatic pressure mounts on its government to extend a 10-month settlement freeze that ends next week.
The Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, yesterday told Tony Blair, the Middle East envoy, that current restrictions on building West Bank Jewish settlements will not remain, but there would be some limits on construction. “We will not freeze the lives of the residents,” he said.
Israel has bridled at what it calls an “insensitive” European demand to hold meetings on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. The ministers from Britain, France, Italy, Spain and Germany had apparently proposed to hold meetings on Friday morning, hours before the start of the Yom Kippur fast.
“They showed very high insensitivity to this special date. It’s just not done,” said Yigal Palmor, a foreign ministry spokesman. “Everyone is away, no meetings are planned, all agendas are empty. We suggested alternative dates, which were refused.”
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported the meetings had been cancelled because the European ministers intended to pressure Israel over the settlements. A British embassy spokeswoman said Mr Hague’s trip was postponed because of scheduling difficulties.
The spat comes amid Israel’s growing irritation that EU countries, excluded from the US-sponsored bilateral peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, are bidding for an eleventh-hour seat at the negotiating table.
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, Mr Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority President, are to meet for a second round of discussions in Egypt on Tuesday, two weeks after talks were launched amid much fanfare in Washington.
President Barack Obama has made achieving peace in the Middle East a key tenet of his foreign policy, and ahead of mid-term elections has staked his political reputation on bringing the reluctant partners to direct talks.
“They [the Europeans] can’t just barge into the negotiating room when they were not involved in the process that led to these talks,” said an Israeli government official. “Where were they when the process was being laboriously pushed forward?”
Europe’s sense of exclusion was underscored when the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, criticised Baroness Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, after she opted to fly to China rather than join the opening of direct peace talks at the White House two weeks ago.
Baroness Ashton responded on Friday saying she had no wish to be a second-tier participant in Washington when she could bring more influence to bear in discussions in China.
Her view was supported yesterday by at least one European diplomat in Jerusalem, who said that it was not clear what role the Europeans could play at this stage. “It’s not obvious that the EU being in the room for the direct bilateral talks makes much sense when the US has to hold the ring,” the diplomat said.
A beleaguered Mr Netanyahu is likely to come under pressure on the issue of settlements during the second round of talks, an obstacle that has loomed large over the process.
Mr Obama upped the stakes on Friday when he urged Israel to extend the settlement freeze, which expires at the end of September.
“What I’ve said to PM Netanyahu is that given, so far, the talks are moving forward in a constructive way, it makes sense to extend that moratorium,” he said in remarks that he has previously resisted making publicly.
Pushed to respond, Mr Netanyahu appeared to hang back from an extension in an apparent sop to his pro-settler coalition partners, who have threatened to leave the coalition if he calls for a new freeze. But he also said that not all of the “tens of thousands of housing units” in the pipeline would go ahead, remarks aimed at the Palestinians, who have threatened to quit the talks if settlement construction is not stopped.
The Palestinians remained adamant yesterday that they would accept nothing less than a freeze.
“Our position is very clear,” said Husam Zomlo, a Palestinian spokesman. “Should the settlement construction and expansion continue, we are out.” Palestinians, who want a state based on the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, have agreed in principle to limited land swaps, but have insisted that Israel refrain from putting “facts on the ground” before an agreement is reached.