Month: March 2010

EDITOR: Judge, Jury, Executioner and Public Relations firm

That the US will decide and punish those responsible for the breakup/nonexistence of those talks, useless even before the handshakes begun, is not just bizarre, but also malicious. This is done to force the PNA into another round of totally meaningless ‘negotiations’ just at the time that Netanyahu is acting with ever more impunity to make a solution even less than impossible.

Exclusive: U.S. vows to assign blame if Israel-PA talks fail: Haaretz

The United States government has committed to playing a role in indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and promised that if the talks were to fail, the U.S. will assign blame and take action, according to a document sent by the U.S. to the Palestinian Authority, which Haaretz obtained on Friday.
The U.S. government sent the document to the Palestinians responding to their inquires regarding the U.S. initiative to launch indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

“We expect both parties to act seriously and in good faith. If one side, in our judgment, is not living up to our expectations, we will make our concerns clear and we will act accordingly to overcome that obstacle,” it was written.
This commitment by the U.S. was a determining factor in the Palestinians’ and the Arab League’s decision to agree to the U.S. proposal on indirect talks.

The document also reveals that U.S. involvement will include “sharing messages between the parties and offering our own ideas and bridging proposals.”
The U.S. also emphasized that their main concern is establishing a Palestinian state.

“Our core remains a viable, independent and sovereign Palestinian State with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967,” the document read.
Regarding the settlements, the U.S. noted its continued commitment to the road map, which dictates that Israel must freeze all construction in the settlements, and dismantle all outposts erected since March 2001.

“Palestinian leaders gave the U.S. response a warm welcome”
A prominent Palestinian official told Haaretz that the Palestinian leadership welcomed the U.S. response, and the only reason PA President Mahmoud Abbas delayed responding to the U.S. initially was so he could receive support from the Arab League.
The Palestinians are especially satisfied from the U.S. commitment to put the blame on the side responsible if the talks fail.

Israeli apartheid week: Al Jazeera

A controversial campaign in the Western world links Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the treatment of blacks in apartheid South Africa.
It is called Israeli apartheid week.
University campuses in more than 40 cities around the world are marking the week with lectures, films, multimedia events, cultural performances and demonstrations.
Since it was first launched in 2005, the week has become one of the most important global events in the Palestine solidarity calendar, according to its organisers.
The organisation says its goals are ending the Israeli occupation of Arab lands, and the recognition of Palestinians’ right to return to their homes in Israel.

They also want Arab citizens of Israel to be treated equally and the separation wall to be torn down.

Several Israeli officials have criticised it and condemned the participation of senior Israeli academics and artists.
Is criticism of specific Israeli policies raising doubts about Israel’s right to exist? And is Israel now on the PR offensive to fight back?
Inside Story presenter Imran Garda is joined by Gidi Grinstein, the president and founder of the Reut Institute, Hazem Jamjoum, one of the organisers of the Israel Apartheid Week, and Eyal Sivan, a filmmaker and research professor in media production at the University of East London (UEL).

This episode of Inside Story aired from Wednesday, March 3, 2010.

Israel’s Supreme Court slams police over Sheikh Jarrah protests: IOA

Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem demonstration (Activestills.org)
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz – 4 March 2010
Supreme Court justices harshly criticized Jerusalem police on Thursday over their handling of the protests in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
This criticism was issued by the justices during a court hearing on a petition filed by residents of Sheikh Jarrah, who demanded to be allowed to protest on this coming Saturday night, a demonstration the police hasn’t authorized.
The justices sided with the residents and stressed that the police should not seize the residents’ right to protest.
“The police’s behavior regarding these protests takes us 30 years backwards,” the justices said.
Protesters demand the right to demonstrate in Sheikh Jarrah near the contested houses inhabited by settlers which once belonged to Palestinians.
Last December, police arrested 25 left-wing activists during a protest which turned into a violent confrontation with security forces. Some 300 activists took part in the demonstration.

UN official to Haaretz: Israel ‘nourishing despair’ in Gaza: Haaretz

By Akiva Eldar
The combination of diplomatic caution and British understatement threatened to turn my interview with John Holmes, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, into a trap of boredom. However, perhaps due to his approaching retirement, Holmes came out with several incisive, even scathing remarks.
This summer, after three and a half years in office, Holmes will return to Britain to head an important research institute. He no longer has to fear the sharp tongue of Israeli officials, who see any criticism of Israel as a synonym for anti-Semitism.
This morning, after visiting the Gaza Strip and West Bank and meeting officials on both sides, including Hamas “technocrats”, Holmes is going home dejected. As the official in charge of the UN’s rescue mission in disaster areas such as Haiti, he knows what depression is.

In a previous interview with you more than a year ago, you suggested that Israel shake off the delusion that pressure on the Gaza Strip would lead to Hamas’ downfall. In your visit to Gaza this week, did you have the impression that the blockade was weakening Hamas?
I don’t think my voice alone would have changed Israeli policy. It is hard to be sure what exactly the objective of this policy is. Of the blockade, the siege, the collective punishment. It is hard to see that it has been achieved, because Hamas is still there, firmly in control. Meanwhile, the condition of the people there [in Gaza] remains grim.

How grim?

It depends on how you look at it. People are not starving in Gaza. There are plenty of goods available, some coming in through legitimate crossing points but mainly through the tunnels. While it relieves the pressure in a sense, it isn’t good at all, because all it really does is encourage a smuggler-gangster economy, which incidentally benefits Hamas financially.

The smuggler-gangster economy is undermining some of the best legitimate forces in Gaza’s civil society, which do exist, whatever people might think. It is therefore not in anyone’s interest, certainly not in Israel’s. So I think this policy continues to be ineffective and indeed counterproductive.
What the policy of the blockade is doing is not encouraging the forces you want to encourage. Gaza is not a nest of terrorists. For the most part there are people who just want to live ordinary lives, and they are being undermined by what’s happening. So you are in danger of creating a generation of people who are nourished on despair.

Do you agree with Israel’s claim that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza?

Even though there are plenty of goods available in Gaza, and that people should be able to get them, the problem is of course that most people have no money. Eighty percent of the people in Gaza are essentially dependent on outside food aid, either from UNWRA or the World Food Program. Not because there isn’t food in the shops – there is – but they can’t afford it, or they can’t afford enough of it because any livelihoods that there were, any jobs that there were outside the government have effectively disappeared. Most private businesses have been destroyed, essentially by the blockade – bulldozed – and the rest finished off by Cast Lead.

Other than the people that work for Hamas, or are paid by the PA, there is no income, so people are forced to live on handouts.
What do you think will happen after Egypt completes its wall and closes the tunnels? How do you see Gaza’s future?
If Egypt did complete the wall and effectively block all the tunnels, the amount of goods going in across the crossing points – if it remained at the current level – would be completely unsustainable.

The trouble is that most of the avenues that could lead to change are blocked.
If Gilad Shalit was released, although the link between his fate and the fate of 1.5 million people is not a reasonable one, that might at least lead to some improvement. It is unclear how great that improvement would be, but let’s hope so. But that negotiation seems to have run into a dead end, and negotiations between Hamas and Fatah seem to be stuck, so it is hard to see how it can get any better.

I assume you’ve warned the Israeli authorities of the political implications. What response do you get from them?
The answer is A., Gilad Shalit, and B., we don’t want to do anything that would benefit Hamas, or from which they would get credit, and C., we’re not aiming to hurt ordinary Gazans. But they are being hurt.
Israel has certain responsibilities as to the siege in Gaza. Israel, as we see it, continues to be the occupying power. And it is not fulfilling those responsibilities as we believe it should.

The basic medical position [in Gaza] is not unreasonable, but there is a wider point which is not just about Gaza, but about the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where barriers, checkpoints and restricted movement means that access for many people to basic medical services is getting more and more difficult. The staff of hospitals in East Jerusalem can’t get to work, and the patients can’t get there either.

This is only one illustration of a much bigger problem of how restrictions of movement and difficulties of access to basic services is being cut off, and people can’t do the things they used to be able to do.

Your division is responsible for many distressed areas worldwide. Why do you devote so much energy to this small place?

It is a small geographical area but also a very focused problem with very significant humanitarian problems – people facing eviction after living in one place for 60 years, because of settler pressure; the Bedouins in Area C increasingly being squeezed from all directions and finding it very difficult to survive.

But there are many more long-running problems, and every time I come back I don’t find that things have improved. By and large the facts on the ground continue to go against the kind of settlement that everyone wants to see, which is the two-state solution.

What’s your advice?

I feel depressed when I listen to and see what is going on, because I don’t think it’s going in the right direction. There is a need on the part of everybody to fully recognize that, but also to look to the long term. Where is this really going to finish off in the longer term, rather than thinking how I can manage the situation for the next six months.

Continue reading March 5, 2010

EDITOR: To understand what is in store for Palestinians, read below. This monster is the creature created by ALL Israeli governments, without exception.

Sheikh Jarrah Jews praise Baruch Goldstein on Purim: Ynet

(Video) Residents of east Jerusalem neighborhood celebrate holiday with songs of praise for Cave of Patriarchs massacre. Left-wing activists plan protest. To see the video use link above.

VIDEO – A video obtained by Ynet depicts Jewish residents of east Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood during their Purim celebrations singing songs of praise for Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish terrorist who murdered 29 Palestinians 16 years ago at the Cave of the Patriarchs.

Tensions in east Jerusalem have peaked recently over the building plans in Silwan.

The recent documented Purim festivities were reminiscent of scenes from Hebron. The residents adopted well-known childhood songs in order to praise the massacre at the Cave of the Patriarchs carried out by Goldstein.
The video was filmed this past Monday, and shows residents singing and dancing next to their Arab neighbors: “Dr. Goldstein, there is none other like you in the world. Dr. Goldstein, we all love you… he aimed at terrorists’ heads, squeezed the trigger hard, and shot bullets, and shot, and shot.”
One of the leaders of the leftist campaign in the neighborhood, Assaf Sharon, described to Ynet: “The settlers are allowed to hold political activities and aggravating and offensive as could possibly be, and the neighborhood’s original residents, who are still a majority there, are not allowed to do a thing. We saw them enter a house, have a party, and play very loud music.”

Ynet asked the Jewish residents themselves for a response to the songs of praise for Goldstein, but they preferred not to respond.
Left-wing activists plan on holding a demonstration this upcoming Saturday night in protest of the events. “Such an event, which takes place under the watchful eye of the police, needs to make every citizen of Israel lose sleep. Such displays of violence on the part of the settlers are becoming more abundant.
“Therefore, it is important that people come and demand from the government and the Jerusalem municipality to stop the settlement enterprise in the east of the city, which is destroying the delicate fabric of life and is thwarting all possibility for a future peace accord,” said Sharon.

EDITOR: It takes one to know one…

While it is difficult to argue with the statement about Israel, for a Saudi politician to say this carries its humourous weight!

Saudi FM: Israel a religiously oriented culture: Ynet

Prince Saud al-Faisal tells New York Times about enlightened ‘liberal’ trends in his country, compared to ‘extreme’ conservative religious movement in Jewish state

WASHINGTON – Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, whose country is considered one of the most conservative Muslim states, believes his Saudi Arabia is “moving in the direction of a liberal society, while Israel is moving into a more religiously oriented culture.”

Faisal told the New York Times that while Saudi Arabia was moving forward, “what is happening in Israel is the opposite.”
Nationwide crackdown launched on stores selling items that are red or in any other way allude to banned celebrations of Western holiday
The interview was conducted by columnist Muareen Dowd, who arrived in Saudi Arabia for a 10-day visit to examine the improvement in the woman’s status.

Dowd noted in her column that Saudi Arabia was an absolute Muslim monarchy ruling over one of the most religiously and socially intolerant places on earth, and that the country Faisail deemed too “religiously determined” and regressive was the democracy of Israel.
“We are breaking away from the shackles of the past,” the prince said. “We are moving in the direction of a liberal society. What is happening in Israel is the opposite; you are moving into a more religiously oriented culture and into a more religiously determined politics and to a very extreme sense of nationhood,” which was coming “to a boiling point.”

Faisal linked the alleged religious radicalization in Israel with the difficulty to strike a peace agreement with the Palestinians and Arab countries, saying that “the religious institutions in Israel are stymieing every effort at peace.”
Asked about the situation of women in his country and extreme statements made by Muslim clerics, the prince said, “I think the trend for reform is set, and there is no looking back. Clerics who every now and then come with statements in the opposite direction are releasing frustration rather than believing that they can stop the trend and turn back the clock.”

EDITOR: The Show must go on!

For the 359th time (I didn’t really count…) the ‘peace negotiations’ are to start. This is good news for the media, politicians, and T Shirt manufacturers. For the rest of us, especially for the Palestinians, this is really bad news; Israel always used ‘peace talk’ to further its settlements at high speed. Not a single US President could resist the Photo Call round, but there again, Obama already has his Nobel Peace Prize, so what does he care?

Mideast peace talks could begin as early as Sunday: Haaretz

Indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority may begin as early as Sunday, Haaretz had learned. U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell will land in Israel on Saturday night, and the American administration is hoping the sides will declare the beginning of indirect talks the following morning, ahead of the arrival of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Monday.
The foreign ministers of the Arab League announced in Cairo Wednesday they were supporting the American initiative for indirect negotiations, qualifying their support with a four-month deadline. They said no progress will be possible without a complete settlement freeze.

The announcement came after heavy American, Egyptian, Jordanian and Saudi pressure was put on the Palestinians and on other members of the League. The pressure also resulted in the Palestinians’ withdrawing a much tougher and reserved statement about the negotiations than the one eventually released. The Arab League decision was not unanimous and was strongly contested by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, who went as far as to interrupt when Amr Moussa, the secretary general of the Arab League, was reading out the statement, to say the decision on entering negotiations rested ultimately with the PA.

The foreign ministers set a four-month deadline for the first phase of indirect negotiations after which the Arab League will assess the progress of the talks and decide whether to offer further support.
The foreign ministers said their decision was a last effort to promote peace through negotiations and was meant to allow the American administration an opportunity to facilitate the process. “Despite the lack of conviction in the seriousness of the Israeli side, the committee sees that it would give the indirect talks the chance as a last attempt and to facilitate the U.S. role,” the statement read.

Moussa stressed that even indirect negotiations are doomed to failure if Israeli measures such as settlement construction continue. He warned that if indirect talks fail to yield results, the Arabs will call for an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting to address the Arab-Israeli conflict and would ask Washington not to use its veto.
The Americans proposed the indirect talks as a way to allow the process to move forward without PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ losing face by being seen as giving up on his demand for a complete settlement freeze. Abbas had also sought the Arab League’s support to preempt Palestinian criticism of the move.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday in Gaza that he calls on the Arab League to review its decision.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented Wednesday in a Knesset speech that “it seems the conditions for proximity talks are ripening.” He said: “All said and done, the world understands that this government is striving for negotiations. It has made some difficult steps to further these negotiations. It said things and did things,” he said.

The prime minister also slammed the Palestinians for refusing “without justification and no reason whatsoever to reenter negotiations.”
Netanyahu said: “I’ve said before that although you normally need two to tango, in this case you might need three. These negotiations may require some going back and forth, but Israel is not and never was an obstacle to negotiations.”
American Vice President Joe Biden is expected to arrive here on Monday, and the American administration is keen to have the announcement of indirect negotiations before he lands, so he can congratulate the sides and present the talks as an American achievement.

Special envoy Mitchell will mediate the talks, which will be the first formal negotiations after a 15-month hiatus, since before Netanyahu took office. These will also be the first Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to take place under the Obama administration.
Negotiations have been at a standstill as Abbas refused to enter talks so long as any construction takes place in any settlement, including East Jerusalem.
At this stage, negotiations will focus on border issues, with the hope that if these can be resolved, the issue of settlement construction will be next on the agenda, followed by the core issues of the status of Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugees.

Continue reading March 4, 2010

EDITOR: Netanyahu is target of criticism

It is clear from the following items that PM Netanyahu is facing some problems, both at home and abroad. What is interesting, however, is the source of this critique in Israel. While LIvni is quite accurate about Netanyahu’s standing abroad, she conveniently forgets, or prefers to deny the facts about her own government headed by Olmert – the government responsible for mass murder of civilians both in Lebanon (2006) and in Gaza (2008/9). Now if she is to be considered  a liberal, then we surely have lost all yardsticks! A case of avoiding criminal responsibility by pointing at other criminals.

Livni to Netanyahu: With you in power, Israel is a pariah state: Haaretz

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday in a speech made during a Knesset session marking the one-year anniversary of Netanyahu’s ascension to power.

“You worked hard to get to that seat, you waited, you sat in the opposition, you made crafty plans,” Livni said, addressing the premier. “Surely you had an idea of where you wanted to lead the country. But nothing.”
Livni, the head of the Kadima party, also lamented the lack of negotiations with the Palestinians as well as Netanyahu’s economic policies and the biannual budget.
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“Since you took control, Israel has become a pariah country in the world,” she said.

Livni’s speech was part of a Knesset session entitled “Israel under the leadership of Netanyahu. To where?”

Livni called on Netanyahu to support Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen in the face of criticism leveled by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who is under investigation by police for corruption.
“I asked myself, who is supposed to defend law enforcement officials in Israel? I am giving all the needed support but Mr. Prime Minister you need to do this also, because this is happening in your yard and you have responsibility for all that is happening.

“You are responsible for this disrespect, the crime in the streets and the inability to cope with it. You are the Prime Minister, it is time to act as a Prime Minister, do what is right and give support to who needs it.”
Livni, who earlier in the day met with Supreme Court president Dorit Beinish, also attacked Netanyahu for inaction on the issue of incitement against judges.
“I have differences with the Supreme Court but I will do everything to protect the institution. It is not enough just to talk when shoes are thrown at the Supreme Court president. One needs to act.”

Dubai seeks Netanyahu’s arrest over killing of Hamas man: Haaretz

Dubai’s police chief plans to seek the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of the Mossad over the killing of a Hamas leader in the emirate, Al Jazeera television reported on Wednesday.
Dahi Khalfan Tamim “said he would ask the Dubai prosecutor to issue arrest warrants for … Netanyahu and the head of Mossad,” the television said. It did not give details.

Tamim has said he is “almost certain” Israeli agents were involved in the killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh at a Dubai hotel in January, calling for Mossad’s boss, Meir Dagan, to be arrested if it is proved responsible. Tamim said on Monday Mossad had “insulted” Dubai and Western countries whose fraudulent passports were used by suspects in the assassination.
Dubai has asked the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into prepaid cards issued by the Meta Financial Group’s MetaBank which the suspects used, a United Arab Emirates newspaper said.
Citing an FBI source, The National newspaper said the investigation would look into any Israeli involvement in the killing.
“Thirteen of the 27 suspects used prepaid MasterCards issued by MetaBank, a regional American bank, to purchase plane tickets and book hotel rooms,” the newspaper said, quoting Dubai police.

MetaBank said it followed proper procedures when it issued the cards.
Authorities told the bank that the suspects appeared to have used stolen passports to get employment with U.S. companies, MetaBank said in a statement on Tuesday. The companies paid the employees with prepaid cards issued by MetaBank and other banks.
MetaBank said it had launched its own review of the matter, and had so far found that it followed all bank and regulatory requirements.
The suspects authorities had identified were not on any list that would indicate their identities were fraudulent, it said.

The UAE, a U.S.-allied Arab state that backs the Palestinian drive for an independent state and an end to Israeli occupation, has no diplomatic relations with Israel.
But it has established low-level political and trade links in recent years, with some Israeli officials attending events in the Gulf Arab state. Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer competed in the Dubai Championships last month.
Members of the hit squad used fraudulent passports from Britain, Ireland, Germany, France and Australia. Residents of Israel with the same names as the suspects, holding dual nationalities, have said their identities appear to have been stolen.
The passport abuse has drawn criticism from the European Union, and some of the governments involved have summoned the Israeli ambassadors to their countries to protest.

EDITOR: Another repeat broadcast of the well-loved soap opera “Peace in the Middle East”

So here they come again… Abbas receives new instructions from the boss in Washington! How many times have we read those infuriating lines, and yet, journalists and editors continue to spew type as if, despite all they have seen, heard and know, this is the ‘real time’! Every new ‘time’ is the first time for them, as well as for the purveyors of the lie in Washington and Tel Aviv.

Mahmoud Abbas given four months to try indirect peace talks with Israel: The Guardian

Arab governments back talks between Palestinian president and Israel, brokered by the US
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has been granted four months to try indirect peace talks with Israel through US diplomats. Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has been given four months by Arab governments to try indirect peace negotiations with Israel, brokered by the US.

Arab League ambassadors meeting in Cairo today gave their backing to so-called “proximity talks” in which American diplomats will shuttle between the two sides to find common ground and bridge gaps. Israel swiftly welcomed the decision.
Abbas’s Fatah movement is expected to endorse the idea this weekend, paving the way for the first negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis after an impasse of more than a year.
New talks will also be a second chance for Barack Obama, who has so far disappointed Arabs and others by failing to make good on his commitment to give a high priority to the Middle East peace process and by declining to press Israel to make prior concessions.

But there is widespread scepticism about the prospects for success. Israel has the most rightwing government in its history, while Palestinians are divided between Fatah, based in the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, which is under siege and controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas, which opposes negotiations with Israel.
Arab officials were not “convinced by Israeli intentions,” said the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, but “they decided to give an opportunity of four months to the American proposal”.

Diplomats say Abbas had been in two minds over whether to resume talks but wanted to avoid being painted as the side refusing to negotiate – despite having failed to secure his demand for a full settlement freeze from Israel’s Likud prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.
“Israel does not want to return to the negotiating table. But it wishes to blame the Palestinian side, saying that the Palestinians do not want to enter into negotiations,” said Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina. “So we must put a stop to this pretext and reveal Israel’s true position before the international community and the American administration.”

Abbas broke off negotiations with Israel in protest at its Cast Lead offensive in the Gaza Strip launched in December 2008.
The effort will be overseen by George Mitchell, Obama’s Middle East envoy, who will need to establish the starting point for talks. Palestinians will want to go back to proposals submitted to Abbas by Ehud Olmert, the previous Israeli prime minister. Those included land swaps that would involve leaving most Israeli settlements in the West Bank, arrangements on Jerusalem and the symbolic return of some refugees. The Netanyahu government has refused to accept what had been agreed as a basis for further negotiation.

The Palestinian president has been under intense US pressure to open peace negotiations with Netanyahu but until now had refused to do so unless Israel freezes all settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, originally demanded by Obama. Israel has only accepted a partial halt on construction for 10 months and has excluded East Jerusalem. The Arab position is that the Palestinians should try proximity talks for four months and then go back to the UN.
In a further sign of the quickening pace of peace process activity, the UN announced that the quartet of Middle East negotiators – the US, UN, EU and Russia – is to convene at ministerial level in Moscow later this month.

Continue reading March 3, 2010

EDITOR: The Backlash against Israel

During the long year since the murderous attack on Gaza, many cracks have shown in the broad support for Israel, all around the globe. What was considered quite normal, like twinning with Israeli towns and cities, has come under much liberal examination, with millions of people now being careful to no longer offer Israel such unthinking and uncritical support. The sea change is about, and likely to spread and grow.

Irish town criticised for snubbing Israeli ambassador: BBC

The council said Zion Evrony’s visit was organised without their approval
Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin has criticised an Irish town council’s decision to remove a page signed by the Israeli ambassador from its guestbook.
Carrickmacross representatives voted to remove Zion Evrony’s signature in protest at Israel’s diplomatic record.
Mr Martin said diplomatic representatives should always be treated with respect.
But a local councillor defended the town’s decision, saying he hoped it would send a serious message to Israel.
“I think if a government is responsible for a wholesale disregard for international law then local authorities, as well as our own government, have a responsibility to tell them we expect a higher standard,” Matt Carthy said.
He added that although Carrickmacross is a welcoming town, “it was important that we took a stand”.
Civility
The council’s move follows reports that Irish passports were used by those allegedly behind the Dubai killing of Palestinian militant Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January.
Dubai’s police chief says he is convinced of the involvement of Israeli agents in al-Mabhouh’s death, but Israel says there is no proof.
Mr Martin said that while he understands and shares the “deep concerns” of many in Ireland about Israel’s policies on a number of issues, the action violated a basic tenet of relations between states.
“It is a basic principle of relations between states that we treat each other’s diplomatic representatives with civility and respect, regardless of any policy differences,” he said.
Mr Martin said he has raised concerns about the passport controversy during a meeting with Israel’s foreign minister last week.
He added: “Ambassadors represent not just their governments, but their peoples”.
“The way that foreign ambassadors are welcomed and received in Ireland says something about us as a people.”

EDITOR: Jews are sought! Prizes for finders!

With the founts of immigration in the west drying up, and with North American Jews showing no signs of moving en masse to the promised land, Israel is looking for Jews of any kind just about anywhere this side of the Milky Way. Afghanistan, Mexico, Africa – all have been scoured for groups which can be declared Jewish. In the numbers demographic war which Israel is fighting with Palestinians, it is crucial to remain a majority in Palestine, so any Jews are good Jews for settlements, proper gun fodder for the escalating conflict. This is a BBC ‘good news’ story, of saving Jews from India, and liberating them in Hebron, the very heart of the settlement movement.

Jerusalem Diary: Found tribe: BBC

THE TRIBE NO LONGER LOST
There are some East Asian faces to be seen around Israel. Up in the fields of the far north, by the Lebanese border, or the groves of the far south, en route to Eilat, Thai farm workers rattle past on tractors.
In the big cities, Filipina women offer care to elderly Israelis.
But until I had been to Kiryat Arba, deep inside the occupied West Bank, I had not seen East Asians the other side of the Green Line – the internationally recognised boundary between Israel and the West Bank.
Kiryat Arba is a slightly down-at-heel place these days. It lies next to Hebron, the tense and divided city that exerts a strong historical pull for Muslims and Jews.
The story that we tend to report is the hotly-contested dispute as to whether Jews should be allowed to settle here at all – on what all governments outside Israel regard as occupied territory.
But there is another remarkable and little-told story at play here: the story of Indians from a remote part of that vast country, who have come to this place, believing that they are one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel.
On the side of a plain, pre-fabricated building in Kiryat Arba is a plaque, proclaiming that this is a community centre for “our Bnei Menashe brethren”. The brown-skinned, almond-eyed children playing inside have travelled thousands of kilometres from north-east India.

Rabbi Yehuda Gin stabs his forefinger at a map of the region, sandwiched between Burma and Bangladesh. The story of the “children of Menashe” is that they were exiled from Israel, 2700 years ago, by the Assyrians. Their wandering took them, in the end, to north-east India.
“In the external appearance,” Rabbi Gin says, “it is very hard to prove that we are part of the Israel nation, or part of the tribes.” But he insists that the kipot (skullcaps) which most of the Bnei Menashe men wear symbolise their commitment. “We – having been lost – still adhere to our love for the land of Israel: this is a very, very strong part of the identity of the Bnei Menashe.”

The community centre is named Beit Miriam, after the grandmother of Michael Freund. He set up an organisation, called Shavei Yisrael (Israel Returns), to gather in the communities which he believes are the lost tribes.
“I myself was sceptical,” he concedes. “But once I travelled to the north-east of India and I met with the members of the community and I learned more about their history and their tradition and their customs, I became convinced that they are in fact descendants of a lost tribe – that they do have a deep connection to the people of Israel.”
In a quiet room away from the hectic games of the Bnei Menashe children, Tsvi Khaute takes a prayer-book down from a shelf. He opens to a page from the Shabbat morning service, and the traditional Ayn Keiloheinu prayer, which is sung by Jewish communities around the world. The Hebrew words are the same, but the tune he sings has a distinctly pentatonic, East Asian flavour.

Kiryat Arba is at the edge of Hebron, a regular flashpoint between Palestinians and Jewish settlers

The faith, then, appears to have deep religious roots. But that still leaves the possibility that the Bnei Menashe may have wanted to come to Israel for economic reasons – to improve their standard of living.
Tsvi Khaute insists not. His family, he says, includes a state minister and the head of the secret police.
“We are a well-to-do family. So it is not an economic consideration. If you live outside Israel,” he says, his voice becoming impassioned, “it’s as if you don’t have God.”

Tzvi Khaute is equally certain about his right to live here, on what governments outside Israel regard as an illegal settlement on occupied territory. “Those who claim that Hebron is not Jewish, they don’t know their identity. This is a very, very important place where the Jews belong.”
There is another, more prosaic reason that the Bnei Menashe ended up in Kiryat Arba. Fifteen years ago, it was one of the only Israeli-run councils willing to accept these unusual-looking immigrants.
The international consensus is that Jews should not be settling in Kiryat Arba at all – that it should be part of a new Palestinian state. And if that were ever to happen then the Bnei Menashe’s remarkable story of wandering may well take another turn.

Continue reading March 2, 2010