EDITOR: Gaddafi’s problems are over!
This is really good news for all of us! Gaddafi is uncovered as asecret Jew, and invited to make Aliya to Israel, so that his Lybian people can get on and rebuild their country. Can one think of a better solution? The Economist cannot, as you can see below.
This could also be an excellent solution to Israel’s crisis – at last it will also have a candidate for leadership with international credentials, loadsofmoney, and a lot of experience…
Trial over murder of pro-Palestinian activist begins in Gaza: Haaretz
Four surviving defendants charged with kidnapping and murder of Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni; court proceedings postponed until September 22.
The trial of the four surviving defendants allegedly involved in the kidnapping and murder of Italian journalist and International Solidarity Movement activist Vittorio Arrigoni began on Thursday in a Gaza military court, the ISM website reported.
Arrigoni was abducted earlier this year by members of the Monotheism and Holy War group in Gaza. The group initially claimed in a video that they would free the activist if Hamas would release one of their leaders whom they had arrested.
Italian activist Vittorio Utmpio Arrigoni holds his passport during a protest against the Israeli siege on Gaza, in Gaza City, in this August 29, 2008 file photo.
Photo by: AP
However, Arrigoni’s body was found hanging in the home of a Palestinian militant in the Gaza strip, mere hours after he was reportedly kidnapped.
The hearing began on Thursday morning and was open to the public. The four defendants, Abu Ghoul, age 25, Khader Jram, age 26, Mohammed Salfi, age 23, and Hasanah Tarek, age 25, appeared to be in good health at the hearing, the report said.
Attorneys from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which holds power of attorney for Vittorio’s family in Bulciago, Italy, requested that they be allowed to take part in the trial, the report said.
The presiding military judge Abu Omar Atallah denied the request, saying that Palestinian military law does not allow third-party-participation in criminal trials. However, he said that the case and its files would remain open to PCHR and the public, the website said.
The prosecution reportedly then introduced evidence that the defense counsel claimed had not been previously available to them, and requested that they be given time to revise their legal strategy, the report said.
Prosecutors asked Atallah to postpone the testimony from their witnesses, the report said, requesting further time to prepare, The defense objected to this request, saying that the testimony had been scheduled to begin on Thursday.
The judge took both the prosecution and the defense’s requests into account, scheduling the next hearing for September 22, the report said.
The PA doesn’t represent me; why should I trust its statehood bid?: The Electronic Intifada
Sameeha Elwan, Gaza Strip 8 September 2011
Here comes September. The long-awaited month has finally arrived and brought with it controversy over the ramifications of the Palestinian Authority’s proposal for statehood at the United Nations.
The following is just a simple attempt from an average Palestinian to reason the justifications behind the PA’s unreasonable step.
To claim that an average Palestinian would take the time to think through the political and legal implications of such a move would be misleading. An average Palestinian might in fact be the least interested in whether a state would be declared in September. Yet he or she will be the one will be the one whose life will be most profoundly impacted by any hasty act of folly by the PA. This has been demonstrated by a long history of disappointing actions by the PA.
This is not to dismiss Palestinian public political awareness. Palestinians are the ones who live with the consequences of any step or measure suggested or implemented by the PA. Therefore, they would definitely have more pressing priorities than to think of the consequences. They would instead be preoccupied with the struggle to survive the consequences of yet another foolish action by their wise government.
I will not claim to be objective. I oppose the PA’s statehood initiative. But despite the debate over the UN bid and despite the PA’s embarrassing record, it dawned on me that maybe this time I was being unjust to the PA, and maybe there’s a shadow of a chance that the PA would do something in the interest of the Palestinians. After all, how unjust and foolish could they be?
I am a refugee. Who will represent me?
Among the debates among the public about whether this bid would endanger the Palestinians was the discussion over representation. Who would represent the Palestinians? And who exactly would this state represent?
Less than half the Palestinian population live in the occupied Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the territories to be declared as the Palestinian state. What will happen to the other millions who live outside this terrotiory?
If the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of Palestinians both in historic Palestine and in the diaspora, would be replaced with the Palestinian state contained within the borders of 1967, then what is the destiny of millions of Palestinian refugees living outside those borders? Would they be also part of the State of Palestine? Would this declaration affect their inalienable right of return?
The PLO has been representing the Palestinian people, internationally and within the United Nations since 1965, acting in the name of all Palestinians, whether in Palestine or displaced. The PLO is already recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people at the UN. Why is there a need to replace the PLO with another authority which is not representative of more than half the Palestinian population?
Half of Palestinians “disenfranchised”
According to a recent analysis by Guy Goodwin-Gill, professor of law at Oxford University, the Palestinian refugees “constitute more than half of the people of Palestine and if they are ‘disenfranchised’ and lose their representation in the UN, it will not only prejudice their entitlement to equal representation, contrary to the will of the General Assembly, but also their ability to vocalize their views, to participate in matters of national governance, including the formation and political identity of the state, and to exercise the right of return.”
Let’s assume that the statehood bid would not lead to such a deadlock as Francis Boyle, a former legal advisor to the PLO, predicted in his response to Goodwin’s memorandum.
What would be the destiny of the refugees of 1948 living within the borders of the coming Palestinian state, particularly in the more than twenty refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank?
Going back home would not be a legitimate option considering that what lies beyond the 1967 boundary line would be recognized as a sovereign Jewish state upon which they have no claims of land or ownership. A return to their homes within the Jewish state would be impossible. Their right of return would consequently be dropped.
For those refugees, would the September state offer any compensation? Would it grant them full citizenship? The result of the quest for a new state could be that their “temporary” camps turn into neighborhoods of a new state. They would also have to endure worsening poverty after the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) reduces or even cuts off the aid upon which thousands of refugee families survive.
Who will represent me? I did not vote for the PA
For almost two decades, the PA has been assuming that it represents the Palestinian people based on the Oslo accords.
The PA, however, falls short on the questions of genuine democratic representation.
The last democratic elections for the PA took place more than five years ago. The refusal by the US and Europe to respect the results of that election has led to the severe fragmentation of both Gaza and the West Bank, leaving Palestinians with two governments, neither of which is representative of the total interests and will of the Palestinian people. It is no wonder that young Palestinians, unable to practice their fundamental democratic right to vote, and all too aware of the follies of the PA, are shouting very fiercely against the PA or even calling for its dissolution.
This of course delegitimizes any further step the PA takes on behalf of the Palestinian people, for it is not the real representative of the Palestinian people living in Gaza and the West Bank, let alone the already disenfranchised population of Palestinians outside those territories.
The prospective consequences of the statehood bid are not promising but instead rather risky. Palestinians, of course, are not to blame for distrusting their fragmented leadership after a series of shocking revelations about how the Palestinian cause is being dealt with in negotiation rooms and how much this leadership is ready to offer or concede.
The fact that the new state is offering no reform of the Palestinian leadership tells how unpromising such a move is. One cannot but imagine the forthcoming state as offering nothing more to the Palestinians than further fragmentation. A state that offers no relief from the current situation on the ground, that is led by the same leadership, that fails to uphold the rights of the Palestinians, sounds like the very definition of insanity.
Sameeha Elwan is a 23-year-old Palestinian blogger and an English literature graduate from the Islamic University of Gaza. She will be pursuing my MA in Cultural and Post-colonial studies at Durham University in October and blogs at www.sameeha88.wordpress.com and tweets from Sameeha88.
Come and be an Israeli!: The Economist
The colonel has sympathisers in an unexpected place
Sep 10th 2011
IF HE needs a refuge, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi might consider the Israeli town of Netanya. An Israeli family of Libyan origin has recently surfaced saying they are the colonel’s relatives and that he should think of making aliyah (the Jewish voyage of return) and claim Israeli citizenship as any Jew may do under Israeli law. Gita Boaron told Israeli television she shares a great-grandmother with the colonel. “She fled her Jewish husband for a Muslim sheikh,” she says. “Her daughter was the colonel’s mother, making him Jewish under rabbinic law.”
Some jokers suggest that Mrs Boaron’s family want a share of the gold the colonel is said to be carrying. But others say there may be a more solid claim. “Jews from Tripoli remember he attended a Jewish wedding in the 1960s, long before he became leader,” says Pedazur Benattia, founder of Or Shalom, a centre that promotes Libyan-Jewish culture in Israel.
In Netanya, a resort north of Tel Aviv, where many of the 100,000-odd Israeli Jews of Libyan origin have settled, a square has been called Qaddafi Plaza in anticipation of his arrival. “Whatever he’s done, Israel’s his home,” says Rachel, a widow sipping her macchiato, Libya’s beverage of choice, and nibbling abambara, a Libyan-Jewish pastry in one of the square’s Libyan-owned cafés. “After all, he’s a Jew.” With his curls, she says, he would fit into many a Libyan synagogue.
The colonel’s popularity is odd since he chased non-Muslims, Italian Catholics and Jews alike out of Libya and took their property. But Israel’s Libyan Jews say he has sought to atone for his youthful Arab radicalism. In the New York Times in 2009 the Great Leader noted that “Jews and Muslims are cousins descended from Abraham. The Jewish people,” he added understandingly, “want and deserve their homeland.”
Other family members are said to have kept up the tradition. Israeli tabloids make much of reports that Saif al-Islam, the colonel’s son and oft-presumed heir, used to date Orly Weinermann, a sometime scantily clad Israeli soap-opera actress. Quite a few of the colonel’s Libyan foes believe such gossip. Graffiti with Stars of David superimposed on swastikas have spattered the walls of Benghazi, the rebels’ eastern base. “Qaddafi Mossad agent,” reads one of the banners.
Turkey ‘to escort Gaza aid ships’ amid row with Israel: BBC
Nine Turkish activists were killed in the raid on the Mavi Marmara
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his country will in future escort aid ships travelling to the Gaza Strip.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mr Erdogan also said Turkey had taken steps to prevent Israel unilaterally exploiting natural resources in the eastern Mediterranean.
He spoke amid a growing row over Israel’s refusal to apologise for a deadly raid on an aid ship last year.
Turkey has already cut military ties and expelled Israel’s ambassador.
It has also said it will challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Relations between Turkey and Israel have worsened since Israeli forces boarded the Mavi Marmara aid ship in May last year as it was heading for Gaza. Nine Turkish activists were killed during the raid.
Israel has refused to apologise and said its troops acted in self-defence.
In his comments to Al-Jazeera, Mr Erdogan said Turkish warships were “authorised to protect our ships that carry humanitarian aid to Gaza”.
Turkey’s diplomatic offensive against Israel has scarcely let up since the release a week ago of the UN report on last year’s Gaza flotilla incident.
The Turkish government feels it was the loser in the UN report. It stated many times that Israel acted illegally in boarding the flotilla in international waters.
The UN report found otherwise. And while it criticised as excessive the use of force by Israeli troops, it did not give the ringing condemnation of the killing of nine Turkish activists that the government had hoped for. Turkey’s responses since then have in part been driven by wounded national pride.
It is worth remembering that three months ago, far from escorting this year’s Gaza flotilla, the Turkish government successfully pressured Turkish non-governmental organisations not to take part. That was when a deal with Israel seemed possible. Policy could change again.
“From now on, we will not let these ships to be attacked by Israel, as what happened with the Freedom Flotilla,” he said, referring to the Mavi Marmara incident.
The BBC’s Jonathan Head in Istanbul says Turkey’s decision to increase its naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean – and not just to deter Israeli operations against Gaza activists – is a serious one.
Turkey is protesting against the exploration of gas reserves by the government of Cyprus, because it does not recognise the area as Cypriot territorial waters.
Israel has recognised them, and hopes to source future natural gas supplies there.
This could spark a conflict that mixes the current Turkish-Israeli friction with the 50-year-old dispute over Cyprus, our correspondent says.
“You know that Israel has begun to declare that it has the right to act in exclusive economic areas in the Mediterranean,” said Mr Erdogan.
“You will see that it will not be the owner of this right, because Turkey, as a guarantor of the Turkish republic of north Cyprus, has taken steps in the area, and it will be decisive and holding fast to the right to monitor international waters in the east Mediterranean.”
In response to Mr Erdogan’s comments, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying: “This is a statement well-worth not commenting on.”
EDITOR: What will Gaddafi do in Israel?
No problem. Read below to find out that there is much oil under the sea, so he could use his great experience making Israel an oil exporting giant as well, on top of the arms it already exports to all and sundry. A little hitch – most of the oil and gas are in Palestinian waters… Well that has never stopped Israel before!
World Petroleum Resources Project: USGS
Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the Levant Basin Province, Eastern Mediterranean
Introduction
Levant Margin Reservoirs Assessment Unit
As part of a program aimed at estimating the recov- erable oil and gas resources of priority basins around the world, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated the undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Levant Basin Province. The Levant Basin Province encompasses approximately 83,000 square kilometers (km2) of the eastern 34°N Mediterranean area (fig. 1). The area is bounded to the east by the Levant Transform Zone, to the north by the Tartus Fault (Roberts and Peace, 2007), to 33°N the northwest by the Eratosthe- nes Seamount, to the west and southwest by the Nile Delta Cone Province boundary, and to the south by the limit of compressional structures in the Sinai. This assessment was based on published geologic information and on com- mercial data from oil and gas wells, fields, and field produc- tion. The USGS approach is to define petroleum systems and geologic assessment units and to assess the potential for undiscovered oil and gas resources in each of the three assessment units defined for this study—Plio-Pleistocene Reservoirs, Levant Sub-Salt Reservoirs, and Levant Margin Reservoirs.