Palestinians form new faction in Lebanon: Jerusalem Post
By RACHELLE KLIGER
The National Body for the Protection of Permanent Rights opposes negotiations but will not take up arms.
A group of ten Palestinian figures announced the formation of a new Palestinian faction in Beirut on Wednesday.
The organization, The National Body for the Protection of Permanent Rights, aims to preserve the rights of the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and the diaspora, including those living in refugee camps.
“The living condition of the Palestinian people has reached boiling point because of Israeli political obstinacy, and the American support of this,” Bilal Al-Hassan, a Palestinian journalist, writer and co-founder of the organization said at the launching ceremony. “This situation will now be translated into action and advancement.”
The exact nature of the movement’s policies remains unclear but leaders of the organization plan to meet in May to “decide on its actions democratically.”
The movement, which is declaredly independent, opposes negotiations and supports resistance against the Israeli occupation but insists armed combat is “not its objective”.
“There are martyrdom factions for this purpose that engage in resistance and we give them our blessing,” Al-Hassan told the London-based A-Sharq Al-Awsat.
“By establishing a Zionist entity on Palestinian land, [the Zionists] are targeting Arabs,” the movement’s manifesto says. “Resisting the occupation in all its forms is an obligation, not just a right. Any talks about a just and permanent peace which is based on recovering parts of the land that were occupied in 1967 or even all of it would effectively accomplish the Israeli aim of this war which is to garner acceptance of Israel’s existence and legitimacy, without solving the Palestinian issue and without granting them their rights.”
“Achieving peace between the Arab and non-Arab nations and individuals can be done regardless of their sectarian roots and religious inclinations but peace is not obtainable with the occupation,” it continues. “The Oslo approach is a second nakba [catastrophe], but the difference is that this nakba was furnished by the Palestine Liberation Organization.”
So far, 70 Palestinian figures have signed the movement’s manifesto.
Ali Hweidi, director of the Palestinian Organization for the Right of Return (Thabit) an organization which assists Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, said his organization supported the new initiative.
“Thabit supports this body because it is preserving Palestinian rights,” he told The Media Line. “This body is a reflection of many years of the Palestinian situation, especially after the Oslo [Accords] in 1993.”
“They’re calling for preserving Palestinian rights, the right of return and for no more settlements in the Palestinian territories,” he said. “At the same time they want a reconstruction of the PLO. This is the voice of the Palestinians on the ground inside the camps,” he said referring to over 400,000 Palestinian refugees currently living in camps in Lebanon.
Some have questioned whether the initiatives will indeed serve the Palestinian people.
“We have more than 40 secular parties within the Palestinian political spectrum,” Mohammed Dajani, a Palestinian university professor who established Wasatia, a Palestinian movement advocating moderation to achieve coexistence and development, told The Media Line.
“So the question is whether you want one more, or whether you want to bring together most of those small parties under one umbrella to unify efforts,” he said. “What we don’t need is more fragmentation within Palestinian society. If there will be a coalition that will call for unity and will bring hundreds of divided groups, then it will be helpful to promote the Palestinian cause. Otherwise it will cause division.”
Dajani said the Oslo process had its flaws, but warned against dismissing it completely and going back to the drawing board.
“We need to learn from the past,” he said. “I don’t think that establishing a party in Lebanon calling for no negotiations reflects the reality on the ground. If you don’t want to negotiate, how can you accomplish your goals?”
There is a party here that is occupying our land and you have two options,” Dajani explained. “Either you use the military approach, which has failed and will not work, or you take the diplomatic approach. If you take the diplomatic approach how can you achieve goals without negotiating with the other side?”
The new movement was formed on the backdrop of halted talks between Israelis and Palestinians. Negotiations broke off when the term of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ended and Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas added the condition of a total freeze on Israeli building in post-1967 communities. Despite a 10-month building freeze offered by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas maintained that the condition requires an unlimited and absolute freeze that includes East Jerusalem.
Analysts suggest that the stalemate in negotiations is fueling sentiments of frustration among Palestinians with regards to any future solution. The internal Palestinian dispute between Fatah and Hamas is also impeding any movement on the ground.
The founders of the organization include Bayyan Al-Hout, Muhammad Abu Meizar, Munir Shafiq, Salah Al-Dabagh, Bilal Al-Hassan and former Arab Israeli lawmaker Azmi Bishara.
Bishara is a Palestinian Christian who headed the Arab Balad party in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. His resignation in 2007 came against the backdrop of alleged criminal charges including espionage and treason.
Dubai police: We have 100% DNA proof of one assassin: Haaretz
Dubai police said on Friday they have DNA proof of the identity of at least one of the killers of senior Hamas strongman Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in the emirate country last month.
“We have DNA evidence … from the crime scene. The DNA of the criminals is there,” Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim said on the Arab satellite television Al-Arabiya.
He said police had “categorical DNA proof on one of the assassins” and fingerprint evidence from several other suspects, providing “100 percent” proof of their identities.
Dubai said it was seeking at least 26 people it suspectd of involvement in the assassination in January.
Last week Interpol added 11 suspected assassins to their most wanted list, all of whom were apparently using forged passports.
The individuals who were charged by Dubai police as responsible for the killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh were tagged with “Red Notices,” according to the Interpol’s official website.
The website also specifies that Interpol chose to publish the photos of the suspected assassins since the identities the perpetrators allegedly used were fake, using fraudulent passports to aid them in accomplishing their aim.
Also, the Dubai police chief ahi Khalfan Tamim said Interpol should issue a warrant to help locate and arrest the head of Israel’s spy agency Mossad if the organization was responsible for the killing of a Hamas militant in Dubai.
Meanwhile, a Haaretz probe discovered that the passport photographs of the agents who assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai were doctored so the agents would not be identified.
The discovery casts doubt on claims that the espionage agency that carried out last month’s hit on the senior Hamas operative committed grave errors.
Various features of the people in the photographs, such as eye color or the line of a lip, were changed – slightly enough so as not arouse suspicion at passport control, but still enough that the real agent could not be recognized.
Clinton presses Israel to ease blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza: Haaretz
The United States pressed Israel on Friday to ease its blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, an issue Arab officials have urged Washington to address at it tries to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters she had an extended discussion with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak about the Mediterranean coastal strip, which was severely damaged in an Israeli offensive launched in December 2008.
More than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the three-week war in Gaza, which Israel launched following months of rocket fire from the territory into Israel.
Israel has said its blockade of Gaza aims to prevent Hamas, which is hostile to Israel and which seized control of Gaza in 2007, from acquiring weapons or materials that could be used for military purposes.
Some analysts believe the blockade has strengthen Hamas’ hand because of its control over smuggling through tunnels from Egypt. It is also a major irritant to Arab states whose support is vital to resuming Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
“We discussed it at length and Sen. Mitchell and I made clear some of the concerns that we had and some of the ideas about what more could and should be done,” Clinton told reporters after she and U.S. special envoy George Mitchell met Barak. “We hope to see progress there.”
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks stalled after the Gaza offensive. Despite calling the Arab-Israeli conflict a priority from the start of his administration, U.S. President Barack Obama’s efforts have failed to revive them.
The United States has long urged Israel to ease restrictions on Gaza, where building materials, among other things, remain in chronic short supply and have slowed reconstruction for the territory’s 1.5 million residents.
Speaking before his meeting with Clinton, Barak said the issue was complicated by the continued captivity of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was seized in 2006 by militants who tunneled into Israel from Gaza.
Barak told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank Hamas continues to be deterred from launching major attacks on Israel because of the late 2008, early 2009 Israeli offensive but it also continues to rearm.
“They are well-deterred. But still they are accumulating more, longer-range rockets through the smuggling system that goes all the way from Iran through Africa to the Gaza Strip,” he said.
“And the situation is not fully stable,” he added. “We still have the abducted soldier (Shalit) and that complicates some aspects of the normalization of the situation.”
Daniel Levy, an analyst with the New America Foundation think tank, noted Clinton was pressed by senior Arab officials as well as ordinary citizens about the situation in Gaza when she visited the Gulf last week.
“The threat to the peace talks is renewed violence in Gaza… but equally problematic for the United States is what the secretary heard in Qatar and Saudi Arabia … ‘what are you doing for Gaza?'” Levy said. “It undermines the credibility of the United States.”
The administration also lost credibility in the Arab world last year when it appeared to soften its demand for a total freeze on Israeli construction in Jewish settlements on the West Bank and in Jerusalem, a step widely seen as undercutting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
U.S. officials hope Abbas can be persuaded to give up his desire for an absolute halt to settlement construction before resuming talks, particularly if he gets backing from Arab states. They hope this might be forthcoming at an Arab League summit in Tripoli in March
Hebron clashes over Israel’s West Bank heritage list: BBC
Palestinians and Israeli security forces have clashed in the West Bank city of Hebron.
The protests follow an Israeli move to to designate two West Bank shrines as heritage sites.
The move, announced on Sunday, has drawn criticism abroad and in some of the Israeli media.
Palestinian Authority PM Salam Fayyad attended Friday prayers at the Cave of Patriarchs – one of the sites – to show his government’s opposition.
Palestinian organisations had declared Friday a day of popular protest across the Palestinian territories.
Protests continued sporadically all week and on Thursday the Palestinian Authority in Bethlehem began a three-day strike.
Jon Donnison, the BBC’s West Bank and Gaza correspondent, said Israeli troops fired rounds of tear gas at around 100 Palestinian protestors who threw stones and set fire to tyres in the central streets of Hebron on Friday.
Hebron is home to about 160,000 Muslims, but some 500 Israelis and Jews live in a small settlement in the centre of the city, with a heavy Israeli security detail.
Restoration plan
On Sunday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron would be included in an Israeli-funded $107m (£69m) restoration plan. Both sites are sacred to Muslims and Jews.
Rachel, the biblical matriarch holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, is believed to be buried in a tomb near the entrance to Bethlehem.
Some Muslims say the tomb is also a mosque.
The shrine is on the Israeli side of the West Bank barrier. The Israelis say the barrier was built for security reasons, but Palestinians say it constitutes a land grab, and the International Court of Justice has ruled that the barrier is illegal and should be removed where it does not follow the Green Line, the internationally recognised boundary between the West Bank and Israel.
The Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron is where the Bible says Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were buried with three of their wives. It is known to Muslims as the al-Ibrahimi mosque.
Palestinians said they feared their access to the sites – important to Muslims and Jews – would be limited by restoration work. This was denied by Israeli officials.
‘Not political’
In a bid to calm tensions, Mr Netanyahu told Israeli television on Thursday that there had been a “misunderstanding”.
“This is not a political decision It doesn’t change anything in that sense. It is concerned with preserving heritage,” he said.
But the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Unesco – the United Nations’ culture and education body – and some European countries have expressed reservations at the plan. On Wednesday, US state department official Mark Toner described the move as “provocative”.
Mr Netanyahu has also come under fire in the national press. Left-leaning Haaretz newspaper called the prime minister a “master pyromaniac”.
The right-wing Maariv newspaper was also critical, accusing the premier of “having learnt nothing from the past”.
Report: 5 Israeli spy suspects detained in Lebanon: Ynet
Hezbollah TV says two former cops among Lebanese citizens suspected of spying for Israel
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV reported that five Lebanese citizens have been detained on suspicion of spying for Israel, raising the number of suspects captured this week to six.
Lebanese security and military officials contacted by The Associated Press refused to confirm or deny the Lebanese guerrilla group’s report.
Al-Manar said Saturday that two former policemen were among those detained. It did not say when the arrests took place.
Lebanon considers itself to be in a state of war with Israel and bans any contact with Israeli citizens.
Lebanese authorities have arrested more than 50 people suspected of collaborating with Israel, under a crackdown that began last year.
All have been accused of providing Israel with intelligence on Hezbollah, which fought a fierce war with Israel in 2006.
UN urges further Gaza war inquiry from Israel, Palestinians: Haaretz
The United Nations General Assembly adopted on Friday a new resolution calling on both Israel and the Palestinian Authority to investigate the Gaza Strip war in the winter of 2009, even though Israel has submitted its report and the PA has launched its independent inquiry.
The 192-nation assembly voted 98-7, with 31 abstentions, to pass an Arab-backed resolution that called on Israel and the PA to conduct separate investigations that are “independent, credible and in conformity with international standards,” into charges raised in a U.N. report last September by a panel headed by South African jurist Richard Goldstone.
The Foreign Ministry Bureau issued a statement in response to the UN vote saying that since the end of the Gaza offensive in December 2008, Israel has issued two comprehensive reports on its actions during the war.
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A Foreign ministry official said that Israel will continue to cooperate with its allies and the UN regarding the on going investigation, Israel Radio reported.
The United States and Israel were among those who voted against the resolution.
More than 50 UN members were absent in the vote.
Israeli UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said the PA “cannot genuinely address the conflict between the State of Israel and the Hamas terrorist entity.”
“Who exactly is the ‘Palestinian side’ that is responsible to undertake investigations that are independent, credible, and conform to international standards?” Shalev said.
“Can the Palestinian Authority conduct an investigation in Gaza from which it was violently ousted in a bloody coup?” she added.
“Or, in contrast, do we really believe that the terrorist Hamas organization will investigate its use of human shields, its appalling methods of targeting civilians, and its cynical use of schools, hospitals, and mosques as weapons of terror?” she said.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Alejandro Wolff, told the assembly that he voted against the resolution because it reflected similar problems in previous resolutions by failing to point out Hamas’ responsibility in the Gaza conflict. Hamas is the sole authority in Gaza after it ousted the PA from the territory.
Wolff noted that Israel had already submitted its investigation of the Gaza conflict.
“Our goal in this regard is to have a domestic authority to investigate and to carry out a thorough, independent and credible investigation of allegations” of violations of human rights in Gaza, Wolff said, referring to failure to ask Hamas to do its own investigation.
The assembly last November called for Israel and the PA to investigate and Friday’s resolution repeated that call. Israel submitted its investigative report in January and the PA said it had launched its own investigation.
The resolution asked for each side to investigate “the serious violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law” and to ensure accountability and justice as a result of the conflict.
The call by the General Assembly for the individual reports had its seeds in the Goldstone Report which was carried out under the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. In that report, former South African Judge Richard Goldstone led a four-member panel which found that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The report detailed how the December 2008 – January 2009 conflict killed 1,400 Palestinians and nine Israelis. It detailed also the extensive destruction in Gaza.
Israel and the United States strongly rejected the Goldstone report, calling it unacceptable and biased. The two countries repeated their objections on Friday.
Earlier in February, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged the Israeli report as one based on an investigative system comparable to any used by democratic nations like the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada.
In his report, Ban said the Israeli investigators had followed on every allegation “regardless of whether the source was neutral,hostile or friendly.”
The investigators had probed 150 separate incidents, including 36 criminal investigations.
Ban at the time said however that some of the Israeli investigations were still underway.
Mossad inquiry turns Dubai police chief into hero: BBC
After investigation into killing of Hamas official emirate’s police chief emerges as a star across the Arab world
Until a month or so ago, few people outside Dubai had even heard of the emirate’s police chief, Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim. But after his investigation into the assassination of a senior Hamas official by an alleged Mossad hit squad, Tamim has emerged as a local hero and a star across the Arab world, praised for his relentless pursuit of what he says “with 99% certainty” is an Israeli crime.
“Greetings of love and appreciation for General Dahi Khalfan, God protect you from all evil,” an anonymous Iraqi wrote on al-Arabiyya.net website. “Congratulations to the Dubai police for this speedy and professional job, and hoping other Arab states can learn from your example,” gushed another blogger. “Inshallah [God willing] Dubai’s heroes will bring an end to Israel,” went yet another delighted post.
Pundits from Kuwait to Cairo watched in amazement as the little Gulf emirate produced CCTV images of everything but the actual murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on 19 January. Tamim coolly described the suspects wearing false beards, wigs and tennis gear as they shadowed the Hamas man at the airport and the five-star al-Bustan Rotana hotel – and then threatened to issue an arrest warrant for Israel’s leader, Binyamin Netanyahu.
“Dubai’s government and security apparatus have proved that crimes and murders are not allowed to pass unnoticed,” Lebanese commentator Elias Harfoush wrote in al-Hayat. Ahmed Tibi, an Israeli Arab MP, called Tamim “the real hero in this story” – responding to a Jewish colleague’s boast that the head of the Mossad deserved that accolade. Hamas and its Fatah rival, blaming each other for betraying Mabhouh, both expressed appreciation for Dubai’s sleuths.
Israel has refused to confirm or deny its involvement but has described Mabhouh as playing a key role supplying Iranian rockets and money to Hamas.
In the west Dubai may be a byword for vulgarity, greed and financial meltdown but it also represents modernity and efficiency. These qualities are rare in the Arab world, where secret policemen routinely beat suspects and rely heavily on informers. “Dubai employs modern technology to uncover crimes,” said an Egyptian columnist.
Tamim, 59, known as Abu Faris, trained in Jordan shortly after the UAE was created in 1971. He has a reputation for hard work and piety, visiting his mother before work every morning and reporting in person to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the ruler of Dubai, before he goes home.
Last year he won plaudits for solving the murder of Suzanne Tamim, a Lebanese singer killed on an Egyptian tycoon’s orders in her Dubai Marina flat. He also cracked the assassination of a Chechen warlord and the robbery of jewellery worth $3.8m. The tackling of Israeli impunity is a big reason for Tamim’s current popularity, but he has also urged Hamas to investigate its own security breaches and refused to hand over two Palestinian suspects to the group.
Yet Dubai’s celebrity police chief may not welcome all the attention: one new Facebook fan is using the name and photograph of a “Peter Elvinger”, a French passport holder who was named as one of Mabhouh’s assassins and is thought to have commanded the team. “You are doing a very impressive work!” commented (the presumably spoof) Elvinger in a recent message. “I’ll be more careful next time.”
EDITOR: The new Israeli fashion!
Israelis have proven time and again that they are immune to international opinion, and are capable of adopting positions guaranteed to inflame people abroad. Last time, during the Gaza muederous campaign started in December 2008, most Israelis, more than 90%, gave unqualified support to the IDF brutalities and war crimes. Now, as the widespread revulsion with the murder in Dubai, and with the MOssad methods is growing, so does the queue of Israelis to join the Mossad…
Israelis rush to join Mossad after Mahmoud al-Mabhouh killing: Times online
Would you be prepared to cross-dress? And kill a guest in an adjacent hotel room? If the answer to these questions is a resounding “yes”, and you can also act, enjoy luxury international travel with a twist and can carry off a convincing Irish or Australian accent, then the job could be yours.
The Israeli spy agency Mossad may be the target of international reproach since it allegedly killed the Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel this month, but at home emerging details of the operation have generated Mossad mania.
It has never been more popular in Israel, with stores selling out of Mossad memorabilia and its official website reporting a soaring number of visitors interested in applying to become agents. “Mossad has been restored to its glory days,” said Ilan Mizrahi, a former deputy director of the agency, which is located in the affluent beach town of Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in Mr al-Mabhouh’s death — despite increasingly confident announcements by Dubai police that they have linked Mossad to the killing. Of the 28 suspects named, 11 share identities with Israelis who hold dual citizenship.
Governments across the world are lambasting Israel for what it considers a sloppy job done by agents who were caught on CCTV and may have left behind DNA. In Israel, the operation is being touted as a job well done. Israelis are discussing the killing with a wink, a nod, and pride in the agency, offically known as the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations.
Opticians have reported a rise in sales of the horn-rimmed glasses in the style worn by 14 of the 26 suspects, T-shirts with Mossad logos are selling out at stores and the agency has experienced a flood of applicants.
Although no new jobs have been posted for half a year, a new statement on the Mossad website reads: “You have an opportunity to create a new reality where you can play the leading role. If you possess intelligence and sophistication, you can make a difference and fulfil a national mission. If you can engage, charm and influence people — you may have the qualities we are looking for.”
Elad, 21, had been dreaming of joining Mossad for years, but filed an application this week, the news site Ynet reported. “I ran to a computer and applied for a job,” Elad told Ynet. “I’ve always had a dream to work for the Mossad. It’s obvious why – it’s exciting, dangerous and special. Nobody really knows what people do there, and now I suddenly understand how it works. It’s cool. I hope they accept me. I think I have all the required skills.”
The Mossad website says that candidates must hold an academic degree and good command of at least two languages. Preference is given to people with experience abroad and an ability to begin work immediately.
If the reports by Dubai police are correct, the assassination and surveillance team of nearly 30 agents so far exposed would represent a sizeable number of Mossad agents who would no longer be able to engage in covert espionage.
Photographs of the alleged assassins have been published across the world and studied by a number of governments.
An inquiry by Haaretz newspaper announced this week that the photographs were doctored so that the agents could not be identified. Details such as eye colour or contours of the nose and lips were altered slightly to make it difficult for facial recognition software to identify the individuals, Haaretz said.
EDITOR: The options for Palestine
In Yaron London’s short piece, the ‘debate’ now raging in Israel is concisely presented. What is fascinating is the degree of blindness which this reflects. Barak sees a choice between “between the Jewish state’s demise and the imposition of an apartheid regime”. As if the Jewish State we now see is not an apartheid regime… there are no other choices under discussion, such as a secular democratice state of its citizens – this is for non-Jews only. As we know, Jews must live ina Jewish state…
What is also instructive is that the debate is presented as one between different estimates of the numbers of Palestinians, rather than between modes of democratic existence!
Is partition still possible? Ynet
Yaron London looks at demographic predictions, their implication for Israel’s future
Yaron London
For several years now, a war of demographers has been going on in our midst. The rivals are quarreling over the number of Palestinians living between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea and about their population growth projections. The argument that the balance is tilting against the Jews serves disengagement fans. The argument that the opposite is true boosts those in favor of annexation.
Ehud Barak is part of the former group. In his speech at the Herzliya Conference, he said that 12 million people reside between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea. Holding on to this entire territory and controlling the Arab population living there will present us with a choice between the Jewish state’s demise and the imposition of an apartheid regime, he said.
The figure quoted by the minister is puzzling. Israel’s population at this time is 7.5 million, including 1.5 million Arabs. Hence, the Arab population in Judea, Samaria and Gaza must be 4.5 million, according to Barak. If we add the number of Israeli Arabs to this figure we’ll discover that the Jewish and Arab populations are equal at this time already. Something is wrong with the math.
Israel’s citizens are counted by the Central Bureau of Statistics. Its findings are credible. The CBS does not count the number of Arabs in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. The figures about them are mostly taken from Palestinian sources; however, even the Palestinians, who are interested in boosting the demographic genie, do not claim a population of 4.5 million. According to the Palestinian central bureau of statistics, the accurate number is 3.8 million.
This figure is accepted by Professor Arnon Sofer, the most outspoken of the “generous demographers.” On the other hand, the “stingy demographers,” and mostly a group whose most prominent spokesman is former diplomat Yoram Ettinger, claim that the real figure is 2.5 million. The gap between both estimates is about 1.3 million people. It is clear that at least one of the sides uses its expertise to promote its political views.
Questions for both sides
Yet this is just the basis for the disagreement, which focuses on the future rather than the present. In order to make good predictions, one needs to know not only the current situation but also the trends. Estimates of future birthrates, life expectancy, and expected migration are premised on precedents, but also on fears and wishes.
Arnon Sofer, who believes that the Arabs already hold a small majority, warns that a long time will pass before Arab birthrates decline; hence, he says, the Jews will constitute only 40% of the population in the disputed land within a few years.
Yes his rivals reach wholly different conclusions: Arab birthrates are declining rapidly and will eventually equal Jewish birthrates. At the same time, the emigration rates of Palestinians from the Land of Israel will grow. The Jews will increase their weight in the population pie, as they have done since the Zionist movement’s establishment.
I will not decide who is right, as demographic calculations are beyond my abilities, and also as I still recall Thomas Malthus’ famous warning. The 19th Century priest declared that humanity’s population growth is faster than its ability to provide food for itself. His false prediction affected the social thinking of several generations.
Even demographic explanations provided in retrospect are not rock solid. For example, we are still unable to explain the leap in the number of Jews from the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the previous century.
There are other reasons why demographic predictions help neither partition fans nor their opponents. The following are questions for the opponents: Let’s assume that the Jewish majority in the Land of Israel will be maintained in the future, will this demographic reality spare us the need to partition the land? Will a Jewish democratic state be maintained when 40% of its parliament members are Palestinian? Is it possible to avoid the establishment of a Palestinian state even if only a large majority of the population between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea is Palestinian?
Meanwhile, the question to partition fans is very short: Is it still possible to partition the land?
Keep ‘racist’ Israel out of OECD, Arab rights group urges: Haaretz
An Israeli Arab rights committee sent a petition to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Saturday opposing the addition of Israel to the organization.
After two years of official talks, the OECD will vote in May on whether to admit Israel.
Mohammed Zeidan, head of the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee, told Haaretz that a country like Israel should not be allowed to join the prestigious international organization of developed countries because of racist and discriminatory policies towards Israeli Arabs, about 20 percent of Israel’s population, as well as the fact that Israel is an occupying power.
The letter calls on the OECD to lay out clear conditions for Israel to improve the economic and social position of Israeli Arabs.
About 50 percent of Israeli Arab children live below the poverty line and unemployment and crime continue to rise in the Arab sector, according to data presented by rights organizations.
Hamas: Mabhouh was long-time target: Al Jazeera TV
By Ahmed Janabi
Al-Mabhouh was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on January 19 [EPA]
The assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas official, in Dubai on January 19, has been making headlines in international media.
Dubai police blame the killing on Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.
Al-Mabhouh was a military commander in Hamas’ military wing of Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. He founded Unit 101, which was dedicated to abducting Israeli combatants.
In 1988, he was personally responsible for abducting and killing two Israeli soldiers.
Al-Mabhouh has been an Israeli target ever since,
Al Jazeera interviewed Osama Hamdan, Hamas’ representative in Lebanon, and asked him about the al-Mabhouh’s assassination and other issues.
Al Jazeera: What was al-Mabhouh doing in Dubai?
Hamdan: All that I can say is that he was doing his job.
Is there an ongoing internal investigation by your movement to identify what went wrong?
It is our policy to open intensive investigations into assassination operations against the movement’s members. We believe that such investigations help in revealing facts, and at the same time help us diagnose what went wrong.
Do you have solid evidence regarding Israeli involvement in the killing of al-Mabhouh?
We said from the beginning that the Mossad [Israeli Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations] is involved. That was not a reaction, it was a statement based on information we possessed. Also, we have Dubai police confirmation.
Hamdan claims that the US has interest in keeping Palestinians divided [EPA]
More importantly, look at the reaction of the countries whose passports were used by the assassination squad.
Why do all of them blame Israel for using their citizens’ passports? Why did they blame no one but Israel? Isn’t that a confirmation that Mossad’s role was clear enough in the operation?
But Israel has denied its involvement in the assassination.
It is normal that Israel says it has nothing to do with the assassination. The thing is, we have some Israeli citizens saying that their names and identities were used by the assassins.
If Israel is not involved, why hasn’t there been an Israeli investigation about the citizens’ claims? Why is it keeping silent?
Do you think the security measures taken to protect al-Mabhouh’s identity, like removing his family name from the passport, were enough to protect him?
Security measures are a series of procedures, and removing the family name from the martyr’s passport was one of the security measures taken to protect him.
Do you know how the Israelis broke in?
I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation. Also, we tend to avoid rapid and emotional statements.
Israel has announced it will add two sites in the occupied West Bank to its list of national heritage sites. The sites are the Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron, and Bilal bin Rabah Mosque (Rachel’s Tomb) in Bethlehem.
Do you see the Israeli move as an escalation by the right-wing government, or is it just a step in a long process of Israeli confiscation of Arab and Islamic heritage?
It is both. Israel has been stealing Palestinian and Arab culture in all forms and aspects. They even stole our traditional dishes like Humus and Falafel and claimed them for themselves.
When it comes to religion, Israel has a plan in changing the nature of Islamic sites and turn them into Jewish sites in a way that serves what they call the Judaisation of the state (of Israel).
The process of swallowing the Ibrahimi Mosque started with a request to put a candle holder inside it. After the massacre that took place in the mosque in 1994 by the Jewish terrorist Baruch Goldstein, they divided the mosque between them and the Palestinians. Today, they are confiscating the whole mosque. So we can see there is a pattern.
The confiscation is also an escalation. Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, felt strong enough to do it for two reasons; First, he won his battle against the US over a settlement freeze.
Second, he knows he can get away with it because Arab states and the Palestinians are helpless.
What is happening in Hebron is sort of a test balloon, for what the Israelis are doing in Jerusalem in terms of wiping out Arabs and Muslims and seizing the whole city.
How long do you think the Palestinian people have to wait before seeing Palestinian reconciliation?
The main obstacle that remains now is US pressure, which led to the changes in the Egyptian paper that we rejected.
What is the US pressuring for?
The US wants the Palestinians to stay divided. Apparently, the US government does not want the Palestinians to be united and consequently reach an agreement with the Israelis, because if that happens Israel would be obliged to do its part of the deal and that would require US pressure.
Who chose Egypt as negotiator?
There is no doubt that Egypt has been closely involved in the Palestinian issue. The late Abu Ammar [Yasser Arafat] himself asked for Egyptian mediation several times. Egypt always responded to calls for a role to bring Hamas and Fatah closer, and there were other Arab countries helping in that regard.
After the big fall out between Hamas and Fatah in 2006, there was an Arab decision in the last Arab summit (Doha, March 2009) that Egypt would be the mediator between Hamas and Fatah.
I think, after all this time and several sessions of negotiations, we should ask ourselves how can we help the mediator to achieve his mission.
Do you think it would be more beneficial if some other mediator steps in and helps Egypt in its efforts to bring Hamas and Fatah to reconciliation?
Definitely. The thing is, the more Arab countries are involved the stronger they get in resisting pressure. The other thing is, those countries as a league can be more effective in supervising and overseeing the implementation of the reconciliation agreement’s terms when it takes place.
At the end of the day, if a mediator cannot achieve a mission for almost a year, then some aid should be seriously considered.
The discord between Hamas and Fatah has been going on for years and that affected every aspect of the Palestinian cause. Do not you think that the problem might be in your movement? Has Hamas, at some point, reviewed its performance and applied some self-criticism?
“The big disappointment is that Obama’s administration has started to follow George Bush’s approach.”
We do have a revision policy. We reviewed our performance just one year after we won the elections. We analysed everything. We do that constantly, but it is true we do not make that public, I can give you that.
However, I think any observer can sense the change in Hamas’ techniques and performance if he/she does an objective evaluation of our performance.
How do you see Hamas’ relations with Arab states?
It varies from acceptable to strong. I can say that after the shock of the 2006 elections, Hamas’ relations with the Arab world have been growing stronger.
But do you not think that your strong ties with Iran are blocking stronger bonds between you and many Arab states?
I think the Palestinian cause needs support, from Arabs, Muslims and maybe the whole world. The Iranian support should be a motive for Arabs to provide even greater support.
The Iranian role in Iraq was not very pleasant, many Arabs have become cynical about Iran; How can Iran be supportive to some Arabs like Palestinians and aggressive against others like Iraqis?
It is at the core of our principles that we reject any threat to the national security of any Arab country. Supporting Palestinians should not justify wrongdoing to any other Arab country.
It has been more than a year since Barack Obama took over as US president. Has there been any change in the US approach toward the Palestinian cause?
Obama’s approach was positive in the beginning. Many were under the impression that he would bring some sort of change. Speaking now, Obama has failed to bring any sort of change and that led to a state of depression among Palestinians and parties involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The big disappointment is that Obama’s administration has started to follow George Bush’s approach.
Canada’s neoconservative turn: The Electronic Intifada
Yves Engler, 26 February 2010
“An attack on Israel would be considered an attack on Canada.”
– Peter Kent, Junior Foreign minister, 12 February 2010
In my new book Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid I argue that the trajectory of this country’s foreign policy has been clear. The culmination of six decades of one-sided support, and four years into the government of Conservative Party Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Canada is (at least diplomatically) the most pro-Israel country in the world.
Since the book went to print a couple of months ago the Conservatives have launched a more extreme phase of Israel advocacy. Groups in any way associated with the Palestinian cause have been openly attacked and Ottawa has taken a more belligerent tone towards Iran.
In the beginning of February, Ottawa delighted Israeli hawks by canceling $15 million in funding for the UN agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). The money has been reallocated to Palestinian Authority judicial and security reforms in the West Bank. At the same time, Canada doubled the number of troops involved in US Lt. General Keith Dayton’s mission to train a Palestinian force to strengthen Fatah against Hamas and to serve as an arm of Israel’s occupation.
Only a few weeks earlier, Israel apologists sang Harper’s praise when his government chopped $7 million from Kairos, a Christian aid organization that had received government money for 35 years. During a visit to Israel, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Canada had “defunded organizations, most recently like Kairos, who are taking a leadership role” in campaigns to boycott Israel. Palestinian advocacy was also the reason Ottawa failed to renew its funding for Montreal-based Alternatives, an international solidarity organization, which received most of its budget from the federal government.
The Conservatives chose a different tactic with the arm’s-length government agency Rights and Democracy. Instead of cutting its budget, they stacked the board with hard-line supporters of Israel. Last week, Maclean magazine reported that “The Rights and Democracy board is now predominantly composed of people who have devoted much of their life to an unequivocal position: that no legal challenge to Israel’s human rights record is permissible, because any such challenge is part of a global harassment campaign against Israel’s right to exist.”
The new “Israel no matter what” board members hounded the organization’s president, Remy Beauregard, until he died of a heart attack after a “vitriolic” meeting a month ago. Once in charge, the new board voted to “repudiate” three $10,000 grants given to Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups (B’Tselem, Al-Haq and Al Mezan). On Wednesday, the Toronto Star reported that the “Conservative-appointed [Rights and Democracy] board secretly decided to close the agency’s Geneva office, distancing itself from a United Nations body it viewed as anti-Israeli.”
Internationally, Harper has used his pulpit as host of this year’s G8 to pave the way for a possible US-Israeli attack on Iran. “Canada will use its G8 presidency to continue to focus international attention and action on the Iranian regime,” explained the prime minister on 9 February.
While Ottawa considers Iran’s nuclear energy program a major threat, Israel’s atomic bombs have not provoked similar condemnation. The Harper government has repeatedly abstained on votes asking Israel to place its nuclear weapons program under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) controls.
A week ago Ottawa criticized China, a key trading partner of Iran, for refusing to follow Western dictates regarding the Islamic Republic. “I think China should step up to the plate and do something here,” Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said.
While they are silent on the appalling record of the pro-West monarchy in Saudi Arabia and the dictatorship in Egypt, Canadian officials regularly berate Iran. “This regime continues to blatantly ignore its international obligations, and this threatens global security,” Cannon said last week.
At times Canadian words have been even more menacing. A 17 February Toronto Star article was headlined: “Military action against Iran still on the table, Kent says.” Peter Kent, the junior foreign minister, explained that “It may soon be time to intensify the sanctions and to broaden those sanctions into other areas.” He added: “I think the realization [is] that it’s a dangerous situation that has been there for some time. It’s a matter of timing and it’s a matter of how long we can wait without taking more serious preemptive action.”
“Preemptive action” is likely a euphemism for a bombing campaign. Canadian naval vessels are already running provocative maneuvers off Iran’s coast and by stating that “an attack on Israel would be considered an attack on Canada,” Kent is trying to create the impression that Iran may attack Israel. But isn’t it Israel that possesses nuclear weapons and threatens to bomb Iran, not the other way around? Of course that would be a reality-based analysis, not something George W. Bush’s Canadian clones favor.
Yves Engler (http://yvesengler.wordpress.com/) is the author of the recently-released Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid and The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy.
No light ahead: Al Ahram Weekly
Israel’s rightwing government is not pursuing peace but rather sabotaging it, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank
This Palestinian child throws a stone at Israeli soldiers in Hebron in what might become the third Intifada after Israel revealed plans to destroy two mosques on alleged Jewish heritage sites
While the Palestinian Authority (PA) seems prone to agree to “indirect talks” with Israel without the latter undertaking any meaningful freeze of Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank, the Israeli government is making only provocations, rendering the resumption — let alone success — of peace talks more unlikely, especially in the near future.
Israel lately undertook several measures that Palestinian officials insist reveal Israel’s determination to perpetuate its military occupation of Palestinian land and eliminate the possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian state. One of these measures is a decision by Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu last week to add two ancient mosques, the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and the Bilal Ibn Rabah Mosque in Bethlehem, to Israel’s so-called heritage list.
The two sites are located in the Palestinian heartland, which implies that Israel intends to annex the two shrines, a prospect vehemently rejected by Palestinians.
Prior to the Israeli decision, Western officials involved in efforts to revive the peace process indicated that the resumption of talks between Israel and the PA would occur in a few weeks. Tony Blair, the Quartet’s envoy to the Middle East peace process, was quoted as saying that “substantial progress” had been made in US efforts to get the two sides to restart stalled talks.
PA leader Mahmoud Abbas who has been on an extensive tour in three continents to explain Palestinian grievances to his hosts, has spoken of the consolidation of a Palestinian culture of peace, telling the European Parliament that peace could only be achieved through negotiations, not violence. He seems to have toned down his earlier insistence that the resumption of peace talks with Israel take place only after Israel agrees to freeze settlement expansion.
The latest Israeli provocations, however, with regards to the seizure of the two mosques, seem to have poisoned whatever atmosphere of optimism or modicum of goodwill US Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell may have succeeded in fostering during his latest visit to the region. One Palestinian official intimated that Palestinian consent to resume stalled peace talks with Israel would be purely for show. “If we agreed to resume the talks under the present circumstances, we would be doing so solely to please and appease the Americans who apparently want to make an achievement of some sort, however shallow it may be.”
Another official, Ghassan Khatib, who heads the Palestinian Government Press Office, voiced a similar view, saying that the resumption of talks with Israel would in no way mean that peace or justice were at hand. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly from his office in Ramallah, Khatib said peace talks would be “pointless” if the two sides didn’t agree on three central points: a time ceiling to end the talks; the features and borders of the would-be Palestinian state; and the terms of reference — namely UN resolutions pertaining to the Palestinian issue, including the right of return guaranteed for Palestinian refugees uprooted when Israel was created more than 60 years ago.
Asked if he thought that indirect talks would be sufficient to resolve these defining issues, Khatib said that no amount of talks — direct or indirect — would be sufficient. “The problem lies not in holding more talks; the real problem has to do with Israel’s refusal to end the occupation.”
Khatib said the coming weeks and months would either witness more paralysis, which might precipitate violence, or a resumption of peace talks whose predictable failure would bring about the same. “My impression is that there can be no serious peace talks, let alone a peace agreement, with this rightwing [Israeli] government which, instead of facilitating the peace process, is actually poisoning the overall atmosphere by stealing more Palestinian land, seizing mosques and building more settlements.”
This pessimism is shared by most — if not all — PA and Fatah officials. Ahmed Qurei, a former Palestinian prime minister and parliament speaker, told reporters recently that, “the prospects for a peace agreement with Israel are very dim,” and that the “next five years will be very, very difficult.” He said Israel was “still unwilling to bring itself to recognise the Palestinian people’s right to freedom, independence and human dignity.”
While some Palestinian leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh, the Gaza-based prime minister, are already calling for a new uprising against Israel as means of exiting the untenable present stalemate, some PA officials are entertaining a French proposal, which still needs to be refined, that would recognise an undefined Palestinian state within 18 months.
“We welcome these European declarations, especially those of France, which we consider to have adopted a new attitude amidst the current political stalemate,” Nabil Shaath, a prominent PA spokesman, was quoted by the Maan News Agency as saying.
However, such a state without defined borders would, many Palestinians and their supporters contend, be a prescription for the liquidation of the Palestinian cause since it would enable Israel — perhaps under a rubric of land swapping — to consolidate its control of East Jerusalem and additional large chunks of the West Bank.
The PA has repeatedly said that it would never accept a state with temporary borders. (see pp.8-9)
“The ground is shifting”: An interview with comedian Ivor Dembina: The Electronic Intifada
Sarah Irving, 26 February 2010
Ivor Dembina’s one-man show This is Not a Subject for Comedy has been running, growing and developing for more than five years. First performed in 2004, and reviewed by The Electronic Intifada in April 2005, the show’s subject matter includes Dembina’s upbringing in a 1960s “mainstream Jewish household” broadly supporting the Zionist cause. Despite his discovery of socialism, Dembina avoided his comrades’ occasional criticisms of Israel.
By 2004, Dembina had traveled to the occupied West Bank with a group of other non-Zionist Jews, visiting the Palestinian city of Jenin and witnessing the bloody repression inflicted on the city first-hand. The title of the show is taken from his comment to an Israeli soldier who joked to Dembina that the house the Israeli military had just demolished — a collective punishment inflicted on the family of a suicide bomber — “wasn’t their home anymore.”
As the show describes, it took a slow build-up of incidents to transform Dembina from an increasingly uneasy but silent leftist to an outspoken anti-Zionist. This included comments by his hero Vanessa Redgrave on behalf of the Palestinians, horror at the 1982 massacres in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon, and a gift of Joe Sacco’s 2001 graphic journalistic work Palestine. Dembina describes his discovery that he wasn’t the only person in the Jewish community thinking this way as “such a relief … like finding out you’re not the only gay in the village.” A signatory to Jews for Justice for Palestinians’ statement of support for Palestinian rights and a just peace, his “main activism” is now carried out through the Jewish Socialists, a group which explicitly harks back to the Bund, a Jewish organization founded in the 19th century which rejected Zionism as “escapist” and celebrated and defended Jewish life and culture in the countries where it already existed.
After his experiences in Jenin, Dembina felt compelled to record this journey. He does concede, however, that in its original form, the show bowed to the pressure to “play for laughs,” at the expense of a coherent narrative.
“I’ve revisited the show,” says Dembina, “made the story stronger, and I think as a result I’ve made it more accessible to people who haven’t already got it. It tended to appeal in the early days to people who already knew about the conflict anyway and were perhaps involved. So now the story is clearer while keeping the comedy. I think it’s a better show now … I can look people in the eye and say, this is worth seeing.”
And someone obviously agrees: Dembina has just become the first ever comic to be asked to perform at the British House of Commons, in front of an audience of Members of Parliament, peers and policy makers.
New additions to the show include excerpts from the “Zionist abuse” Dembina has received. The monologue is now punctuated by “hate mails, anonymous hate mails I’m receiving from other Jews, accusations of treachery and so on, and how I’ve dealt with those things.”
“That might not even have been hinted at when I first wrote it,” he muses.
The new version of the show now has a regular run in central London, as well as performances around the UK. Having taken an early version of the performance to the occupied West Bank and to both Jewish and Palestinian audiences in Israel, Dembina is again contemplating where else This is Not a Subject for Comedy could be applied. “Putting aside the issue of the boycott, and just thinking in theory,” he says, “If I ever performed it in Israel again, I would want to do it to a mainstream audience, but one with a bit of an open mind. There’s no point in setting up a hostile situation, but except to boost morale for the peace movement, which is a good thing as far as it goes. There’s not a lot of point in just preaching to the converted, either. One thing I will say for Zionists here, they do engage when they come to the show. They go away and think about it, and then write to me about what they disagree with.”
Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism
The hate letters and emails Dembina has incorporated into his act aren’t the only manifestations of the hostility some sections of the Jewish community feel towards him. He has “had quite a few unpleasant moments” over the years. He’s been verbally attacked in public, and “censored by Jewish organizations that won’t put my show on — I’ve been told to my face ‘We don’t want you here.’ And my name appears on an Internet hate list.”
His allegations of victimization by Zionists in the Jewish community contrast with Dembina’s assertion that “I personally, in 58 years in [Britain], have never experienced a single incident of direct anti-Semitism.” He acknowledges that vicious anti-Semitism exists, describing some of its adherents as “psychopathic.” However, he rejects accusations from Zionist commentators of rising anti-Semitism as a result of Palestine solidarity campaigning, saying that “by and large most of society’s racism is channeled in the direction of Asians, blacks and Muslims. Jews are very low down the list, and if it was bad, the Jews here wouldn’t make the mistake they made in Europe in the 1930s, they’d be off to America or Israel. I think the specter of anti-Semitism is raised by Zionists to re-ignite understandable fears of persecution based on what’s happened to us in the past, and as a way of promoting Israel as a safe haven should anti-Semitism break out again. It’s a manipulation of a tragedy to Zionism’s own advantage, and if you’re going to ask me are there any anti-Semites in the anti-Zionist movement, then, yes, quite possibly. I haven’t come across any, but the way to deal with them is the way you deal with any fascist, and that is in a way that only fascists understand. You can’t hang about, you gotta sort them out.”
But despite past clashes with supporters of Zionism, Dembina also feels that, in Britain at least, the Zionist cause is showing unmistakable signs of weakness. “I think that direct abuse and hatred is a tactic that by and large the Zionists are starting to leave alone,” he observes. “I think they’ve learned to their cost that it just makes people more determined to speak out publicly and that hate campaigns can be counter-productive. I think they’re starting to try and engage in discussion and going for the whole positive PR angle, like this email campaign about sending medical aid to Haiti. Or they’re going to use Iran as an excuse. They keep coming up with these reasons that the Jewish community has to support Israel and one by one they get exposed as nonsense.”
Dembina is also convinced that opinions really are shifting in the British Jewish community, and that the combined force of protests, cultural contributions and public debate are genuinely affecting public feeling on Palestine. What he calls the “ruse” of accusing any critic of the State of Israel of being anti-Semitic has been “burnt out.”
“I don’t know how much,” he says, “but the ground is shifting. I wouldn’t say that the Zionists are on the back foot now, but they’re certainly not on the front foot. I don’t want to exaggerate, but it would have been unthinkable ten years ago for a Jewish comedian to put this show on in central London. My sense is most Jewish people will still not yet openly criticize the State of Israel, but their willingness to nail their colors to the overtly Zionist mast seems to be decreasing. The Zionists are having to try much, much harder to hang on to the compliance of the Jewish community. I perform to large numbers of Jewish people all the time, and they are becoming increasingly embarrassed by the antics of the Zionist secret police who claim to speak for them, and they are beginning to drift away.”
But, Dembina warns, this can also make the Zionist lobby all the more dangerous. “You’re left with a rump of very angry people who are used to getting their own way. Things have to be handled very carefully in the months and years ahead,” he says, noting the State of Israel’s skill at playing a “long game,” thinking in cycles of “30, 50, 100 years,” quietly carving out one piece of land after another.
Despite that potentially gloomy assessment, Dembina is optimistic, citing the decades over which a global consensus developed that “something was wrong and it had to change” in South Africa. “In the anti-Zionist camp, we are winning,” he insists, “Just slowly.”
Sarah Irving (http://www.sarahirving.net) is a freelance writer from Manchester, UK. She worked with the International Solidarity Movement in the occupied West Bank in 2001-02 and with Olive Co-op, promoting fair trade Palestinian products and solidarity visits, in 2004-06. She now writes full-time on a range of issues, including Palestine. Here first book, Gaza: Beneath the Bombs co-authored with Sharyn Lock, was published in January 2010.
The boomerang effect: Al Ahram Weekly
The assassination on foreign soil of one of Hamas’s top leaders is proof that the resistance movement’s warnings on Israel are true, writes Saleh Al-Naami
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (r) in a meeting with European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek to discuss the assassination of Al-Mabhouh
Referring to suspicions of Israel’s role in the assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, senior Maariv commentator Ben Kasbit praised the Israeli Mossad and its agents for their successful execution of “a clean, untraceable operation”. “It has augmented Israel’s deterrence in confronting Palestinians and Arabs, and proved Israel’s strength and reach,” wrote Kasbit.
In the same breath, Kasbit described Al-Mabhouh’s assassination as “one of the biggest failures in the history of Mossad and the Israeli intelligence apparatus”. He strongly criticised decision-makers in Tel Aviv who ordered the assassination because the murder appears to have sabotaged Israeli-European relations when it was revealed that the perpetrators used forged European passports to enter Dubai. It was also embarrassing for the Israeli government when several Israeli citizens made it public that the Mossad assassins used their personal information in the fake passports.
Retired generals and Israeli commentators competed in condemning Mossad and questioned the reasoning of Mossad Chief General Meir Dagan in running the organisation. Until very recently, admiration for Dagan and his skills was unanimous in Israeli political and media circles. Today, a former Mossad official describes Al-Mabhouh’s assassination as “a colossal failure”, and called for Dagan’s resignation. The official, who wished to remain anonymous, told Israel Radio of a complicated diplomatic crisis between Israel and other countries as a result of detailed revelations uncovered by the Dubai police about the assassination.
“It is difficult to believe that a professional, experienced organisation such as the Mossad committed such terrible mistakes by using Israeli passports at a location filled with surveillance cameras, as is the case in Dubai,” he said. The source predicted that in the end all accusatory fingers would point to Israel, and “which will put us at the centre of an international diplomatic crisis”. He added: “This operation is an absolute failure, especially after all its details were revealed.”
Amir Oren, military commentator at Haaretz newspaper, primarily blamed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for not listening to strong advice against renewing Dagan’s tenure at the helm of Mossad for an eighth year. Oren described Netanyahu’s decision as “hasty and rash”. “Anyone who planned this operation and gave the order to go ahead, and considered this a very successful endeavour will, within days or weeks, find himself facing many unanswered questions,” according to Oren. “I have no doubt that this operation will cause political complications for which the head of government will be held responsible.”
Oren listed several Mossad failures during Netanyahu’s tenures, including the 1997 attempt to kill Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas’s politburo, in Amman and the arrest of Mossad spies in Europe during Netanyahu’s first tenure.
Nehemia Shtrasler, a prominent Israeli commentator, noted that Mossad has been involved in a series of crimes such as forgery, invasion of privacy, and restricting freedom of movement. Shtrasler criticised the lack of effective judicial and parliamentary supervision of Mossad, which has led this organisation to dare to violate even the rights of Israelis. “How will the people whose identity was stolen by the Mossad be able to travel outside Israel?” he asked. “Does the Mossad view every Israeli citizen as a pawn? Did the prime minister, who is in charge of the Mossad, weigh the pros and cons before approving this operation?”
Shtrasler believes that the disadvantages of assassinating Al-Mabhouh far outweigh the advantages. He asserted that if the Hamas leader’s actions threatened Israel’s security, experience has shown that his successor will be more efficient than Al-Mabhouh.
Former Minister of Education Yossi Sarid strongly condemned Netanyahu for approving an assassination to be carried out on the soil of a moderate Arab state such as the UAE. “Netanyahu did not learn anything,” Sarid railed. “He is the one who ordered the attempt on Meshaal’s life in the Jordanian capital, despite knowing that by doing so he is jeopardising a promising future of strategic cooperation between Jordan and Israel.” Sarid argued that Netanyahu should have “properly” questioned the chief of Mossad before the mission was carried out.
Many in Israel believe that Al-Mabhouh’s murder may negatively affect how the alleged Iranian nuclear threat is handled. Ari Shavit, a prominent political commentator, noted that the Israeli government has delegated Dagan to coordinate attempts to smash the Iranian nuclear project. In an article published in Haaretz, Shavit said that judging by Al-Mabhouh’s assassination, “it is clear that Dagan’s failure to successfully carry out the operation makes us believe that taking on the Iranian nuclear programme is well beyond his abilities and the capabilities of the organisation he heads.”
On the other hand, some in Israel are downplaying the protests of European governments. Gerald Steinberg, political science professor at Hebrew University, argued that Israeli ambassadors were called in for a “talking to” by European governments for the sake of formality. Steinberg explained that European capitals understand the motives behind Israel’s decision to carry out the assassination. He added that in time it would become apparent that Israel would not suffer any real consequences as a result of this operation.
Israeli cabinet ministers declared that Netanyahu bears sole responsibility for the decision to kill Al-Mabhouh. Israeli Minister for Industry Binyamin Ben Eliezer pointed out that the prime minister is the only one with the authority to approve Mossad operations. Speaking to Israel Radio, Ben Eliezer explained that the prime minister is not obliged to disclose information about Mossad operations to the government. Responding to the negative international reaction to using forged European passports, the minister declared: “I am not worried about the international reaction; nobody expected the world to react calmly to this incident. We need to move forward.” Ben Eliezer predicted that within six months no one will be talking about this issue anymore, “and everything will be fine”.
The Ezzeddin Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, has vowed to avenge Al-Mabhouh’s murder. The group’s spokesman, Abu Obeida, declared that the decision to take retribution has been taken, and that when it comes it “will be proportionate and of the same nature as the crime.” “We have promised revenge and the occupation must live in fear and terror because we will decide how we will exact it,” he vowed. “We will not say when or where; the occupiers must brace themselves for our fury and precision.”
Meshaal announced that the time for threats is over. He expressed faith in the abilities of Al-Qassam Brigades to resourcefully fulfil their promise. “Today is the time for action,” he declared. “I call on all my brothers to no longer talk of retribution; today we will act and I am confident of the Brigades’ abilities and innovation.” Meshaal further asserted that pursuing the killers will not only benefit Hamas, but also all Arab states. He underlined that the incident proves that Israel, and not Hamas or other resistance movements, is the real threat to Arab national security.
In short, Al-Mabhouh’s murder has ended up like a boomerang coming back to haunt Israel, confirming its isolation among its neighbours and harming its international standing. At the same time, it embarrassed the moderate camp in the Arab world at a time when there is enthusiasm in official Arab corridors about the resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. (see p.15)