Netanyahu: Israel and U.S. want peace process to begin immediately: Haaretz
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, briefing the cabinet on his meetings with U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell, said Sunday that it would soon become clear whether Middle East peace talks, suspended since December 2008, would resume.
Addressing the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said Israel and the United States want to “begin a peace process immediately”, and that he hoped the Palestinians shared the same goal.
“We will know in the coming days whether the process will get under way. I hope that it will indeed get under way,” he said in public remarks at the cabinet session.
In a statement summing up his visit, Mitchell said he held “positive and productive talks” with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an effort “to improve the atmosphere for peace and for proceeding with proximity talks”, a reference to indirect, U.S.-mediated negotiations.
Mitchell is expected back in the region next week.
Netanyahu has given no ground publicly over U.S. and Palestinian calls to halt the construction of settlements in East Jerusalem, an issue that has driven a wedge between Israel and the United States.
The Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, have demanded a settlement freeze as a condition for peace talks.
Mitchell said in the statement that his deputy, David Hale, would remain behind to work with the parties this week to prepare for his return to the region next week.
On Saturday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged U.S. President Barack Obama to impose a solution to the Middle East conflict that would give the Palestinians an independent state.
Abbas’ appeal to Obama came amid widespread media reports that the U.S. president was considering floating a proposal that would set the contours of a final peace deal.
Any such move would likely be opposed by Israel, which says only negotiations can secure a final settlement to the conflict.
Aides to Abbas raised the possibility that he would meet Obama in Washington next month but said no invitation had been issued yet.
On Saturday, officials involved in efforts to renew peace talks said that proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians will start no later than mid-May.
European officials who have met in recent days with senior officials at the White House and State Department got the impression that the Obama administration did not expect that the proximity talks would produce any agreement.
The efforts to push the peace process forward are meant to allow the United States to claim some success in its Mideast policy as the region marks one year since Obama’s historic address in Cairo.
Officials in Washington say that the talks with the Palestinians will force Netanyahu to reveal his positions beyond those outlined in his speech at Bar-Ilan University last June.
The Americans say that if Netanyahu takes an uncompromising stance in the negotiations, like the one he displays in public, the Labor Party might quit the coalition and pave the way for a new government.
New Videos from SleeplessinGaza
See the latest films from this innovative project:
55 b sleepless Gaza Jerusalem.divx
April 24, 2010 — Day 55 b: Diana goes to meet Amer Zahr; a Palestinian American stand-up comedian in his first show in Ramallah. See her backstage with the comedian taking about his first experience presenting in Palestine! And then hear the voices of the audience laughing out loud on Amers jokes about Arabs and Palestinians living in the United States. Finally, an old Arabic song was sung by Amer BUT in his own English version!
55 a Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem.divx
April 24, 2010 — Day 55 a: Join Ashira and Cultureshoc; Palestine’s first Rock Rap Band, at Qalandia Checkpoint not for a concert but on a mission to bring some joy to the kids who work on the checkpoint to get a living. Meet the faces that you brush off on the checkpoint! Hear their stories! And what they dream to become one day! See the joy on their faces when they go to a park for the first time in their lives. Can you imagine that these days there are children that have never seen a hamburger before? Listen to Cultureshocs song dedicated to these children. Today Eman celebrates with her family the birthday of her brother Ahmad. Know more about Eman’s parents, brothers and sisters watch the yummy-looking dishes on the table, and the pastry baked by Eman’s mother right next to the chocolate cake she bought for her brother. Also enjoy a recipe of a delicious dessert made by Rana, Eman’s sister. If you suffer from a toothache, get the best advice about that from Eman’s father who is a dentist. Finally, see what Eman bought Ahmad on his birthday.
54 Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem .divx
April 23, 2010 — Day 54: Join Eman and Nagham in their tour to a number of the most famous archaeological sites in the Gaza Strip. Accompanied by a tour guide, they visited Tal Zo’rob in Rafah where excavations are carried out, it is a hill located in the highest area in the Gaza Strip…See what they found there! Saint Hilarion Monastery is another important site they toured in which has a great Christian significance, it dates back to 232 A.D. Chris. Saint Hilarion was the one who spread Christianity in Egypt. Check out the ruins left in the site in addition to the stories told about Saint Hilarion’s life and the Monastery’s function in history.
53 Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem.divx
April 22, 2010 — Day 53: You saw it on 49a the forensic doctor told Ashira that it wasnt a suicide like the Israeli authorities claimed, nor was it a natural death! We called the film Murder in an Israeli Prison! The exclusive footage of the film was used by Al Arabiya, CNN and Reuters just transmitted it to 600 television stations worldwide. Since then the Sleepless in Gaza and Jerusalem girls have been wondering what is taking officialdom so long to declare the reason of death. Ashira goes today to the Press conference that makes it official. Raed was killed with a blow to his spine causing damage to his spinal cord and internal bleeding. Asma wrote a book about Gazan woman in war and Nagham wanted to bring life to one of the stories, so Asma takes her to see Nawal and her family; victims of Israels attacks on the civilians of Gaza in January 2009. Israel called it Operation Cast Lead; most of the world called it a Heinous Crime. How did Nawal have her baby in the middle of the attacks?
New Trailer Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem .divx
52 Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem.divx
April 21, 2010 — Day 52: Diana is in Belin for the 5th Annual Popular Resistance Conference where locals and Internationals gather to coordinate and plan non-violent action against the occupation! Listen to what some participants have to say. Nagham in Gaza reads the writing on the wall, any wall, everywhere and about everything! Check out the Gazan communications machine! You can use it to make a political stance, express yourself, or place an advert.
51 Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem.divx
April 20, 2010 — April 20, 2010: Day 51: Ashira joins her friend Bakrieyh on a tour to the Palestinian villages that were displaced in order to drive the Palestinians out of their homes and make way for Jewish immigrants in 1948. Today marks Israels Independent Day which is known to Palestinians as the Catastrophe; when the Palestine lost their country and Israel came to being. Why did Fidaa leave Spain and come back home? Why doesnt she believe in dialogue anymore? Listen to Sari on how neighbor turned on neighbor. What is the story of Abed who was born in Miska. Listen to what Sheikh Raed Salah has to say on the right of return. What happed at the village of Miska? Where are its people now?
In Gaza, Eman pays a visit to her friend Umm Walid who lives in Beit Lahia. Meet the Palestinian farmers women who harvest the land along with their husbands. The farms cant afford to hire workers so man and woman put hand in hand to make ends meet. Join Eman to help Hend pick her Zucchinis and listen to the farmers tell you about their experience being so close to the borders with Israel.
50 Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem.divx
April 19, 2010 — Day 50: Join Yara in Aroura as she reports for Ajyal Radio station on the largest Musakhan dish (Palestine’s National Dish) trying to break the Guinness Book of World Records! Watch the peasants making the bread and cooking the chicken! Check out PM Salam Fayad dressed like a Chef! While talking to Ribhi on how Israel claims Palestinian dishes as their own, Yara discovers that he is the brother of Mashour Arouri who was killed 34 years ago and his body is still not delivered to his parents! At her request, he takes her to his parent’s home to meet them. Mashours parents only wish to bury their son in his village. Who is Mashour Arouri? Mashours mom shows us her sons clothes that she has kept in place since his death.
In Gaza, Eman goes to the Corner Market (Souk Al Zawiya); a historical landmark, to buy groceries. People from all around the Gaza strip come to the Phoenix square. What does it symbolize? Check out the rich souk! Listen to Abu Ahmad, a cart merchant, singing about his goods and customers! Is he angry with them?!! Take a look at one of the oldest mosques in Gaza boasting several domes: Al Omari Mosque. This mosque is located between the corner market and the Gold market. Do you need some jewelry?
49 a Sleepless Gaza Jerusalem Correct Version
April 19, 2010 — April 18, 2010: Day 49 a – Special Edition: Diana and Ashira are adamant to find out the truth about Raed Abu Hamad’s death while in solitary confinement at Beersheba Prison. Diana heads to Raed’s home and Ashira heads to the Israeli Forensic center where the autopsy is performed. Why did the parents and the PA’s Ministry of Prisoners send a Palestinian doctor and lawyer to monitor the autopsy? So was it a suicide like the Israeli Prison Authorities claimed? What did the lawyer have to say? The Israeli ambulance takes the body of Raed close to his hometown where he is moved to a Palestinian ambulance. Why is the forensic doctor checking Raed’s body again? After five years away, arriving in an Israeli black bag is not the way to return back home, so his brothers wrap him in a Palestinian flag. Join Ashira in the ambulance till they reach home where Diana and the family await. How is Raed received at home? The girls stay with him through the farewells at home, a procession of thousands that takes him to the cemetery, last prayers and until he is buried.
Who Rules Israel?: NY Times
By YOSSI ALPHER, Published: April 22, 2010
TEL AVIV — The Obama administration’s problems with Israel go beyond the construction of another few hundred housing units in East Jerusalem. More ominously, the ruling coalition in Israel reflects a reshaping of Israeli society that has fortified right-wing designs on the West Bank and strengthened resistance to a peace agreement.
To be sure, this is not the first time Israel is dealing with a right-religious-settler-Russian coalition pushing a reactionary agenda. The difference is that this political alignment could be dominant in Israel for some time to come.
The political left has virtually disappeared, discredited by failed peace gambits. At the same time, the conservative, ultra-orthodox sector is growing rapidly in numbers. So is the Israeli Arab population, which, in the shadow of a failed peace process, is becoming increasingly hostile to the idea of being a minority in a Jewish state — thereby stiffening the reaction of the Jewish majority.
Moreover, the stakes are higher than in the past. The Israeli right perceives an international onslaught against its bastions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. It has resolved never to permit a repeat of the withdrawal from Gaza. Hence it is attacking its critics and beefing up its grip on the instruments of power. And this reaction further amplifies Israel’s international isolation, creating a vicious circle.
The most blatant aspect of this right-wing campaign is its focus on the Israeli civil-society groups that monitor government actions and decisions. A bill that has already passed a preliminary vote in the Parliament would require all Israeli NGOs that receive support from foreign governments to publicly declare themselves “foreign agents” if they seek to “influence public opinion or … any governmental authority regarding … domestic or foreign policy.”
That means everyone from critics of the occupation to women’s rights advocates could be deemed “foreign agents” if they accept American or European financial support. This could seriously deter domestic criticism of Israeli settlement and occupation policies.
The rightward shift of Israeli society is changing the shape of fundamental state institutions. The combat ranks of the Israel Defense Forces are now so heavily manned by religious settlers and their supporters — close to a third of infantry officers, by some reckoning — that it is possible the IDF can no longer be counted on to forcibly evict masses of settlers. The army chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, has asked that the government avoid turning to the army for such tasks.
On the legal front, the government has failed to enforce High Court orders to dismantle some sections of the West Bank security fence deemed illegal or to remove unauthorized settlement outposts and structures in Arab East Jerusalem and provide equal schooling opportunities for Jerusalem Arab children. High Court Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch recently felt compelled to remind the government that court rulings are “not recommendations.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition almost seems programmed to provoke. The Internal Security and Foreign Affairs portfolios are in the hands of Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Is Our Home), the Russian immigrant-based party whose leader, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, is known for his Arab bashing and is himself under investigation for corruption. Housing is in the hands of Shas, a party based in the low-income Sephardic Orthodox community — hence the housing construction in places like Ramat Shlomo in East Jerusalem, where land is cheap.
Of course Israel does have real enemies. Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah present growing existential threats to the Israeli public. But the right wing’s hard-line stance leads the government to ignore genuine opportunities for progress toward peace, such as the successful state-building enterprise of the Palestinian Authority’s prime minister, Salam Fayyad, in the West Bank, or Syria’s repeated offers to renew a peace process that could, if successful, strike a blow against Iran and its proxies.
In this context, Israel’s occasional security successes, as in Gaza last year, perversely strengthen the growing international campaign to delegitimize it.
The Netanyahu government complains loudly about Palestinian incitement against Jews (which is, in fact, decreasing) while its policies encourage or ignore growing anti-Arab incitement in Israel.
If 80 percent of the students in Israeli religious high schools want to disenfranchise the Arab citizens of Israel (one-fifth of the population), as a recent survey found, their schools must be teaching them something very wrong. If the spiritual head of the Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, can tell his huge flock, as he did late last year, that the Muslims’ religion “is as ugly as them,” and provoke little but embarrassed smiles, it is because Shas is a member of the governing coalition. Yet if an NGO I belong to objects to such statements, I might soon be legally labeled a foreign agent.
One redeeming truth remains: Israelis know they need not only American support for their security, but also American endorsement of the Jewish and democratic society they aspire to. A vital U.S. and international interest in regional stability is involved here.
Yossi Alpher, former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, is co-editor of bitterlemons.org.
U.S. isn’t a neutral mediator between Israelis and Palestinians: Haaretz
By Zvi Bar’el
“We can’t desire peace more than the parties involved,” “we can’t force the parties to peace,” – these and many similar slogans were the ABCs that generations of American leaders instilled in their Israeli counterparts. If even the United States “can’t want peace more than the parties,” what’s there to fuss about?
But who are the parties involved? Isn’t the U.S. administration also a party, with a strategic interest in peace between Israel and the Arabs? When is an American interest at stake and when an interest of the parties? When is the United States a partner and when is it a mediator, willing even to pay for the right to mediate?
The United States is not a neutral mediator that supplies the parties with its good services, a table to negotiate on, some snacks and muzak. The United States is an interested party, a superpower whose position in the Middle East and around the globe is based on its economic and military strength. It’s also based on the Americans’ ability to leverage those advantages for political action, to set the world’s agenda and win legitimacy for waging wars and making peace.
The United States drafts the map of world threats, from Iran and Afghanistan to Russia’s stockpile of nuclear missiles and Al-Qaida in Yemen. The United States also recruits other countries and international opinion to combat these threats. It decided to include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in its threat list, and contrary to its own slogan, America is actively forcing a solution on the parties – and fortunately so.
We may argue about Washington’s vision and style, and wonder whether it was wise to pick construction in East Jerusalem of all battles or to treat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu like an unwelcome door-to-door salesman. But we can’t fail to appreciate U.S. President Barack Obama’s diplomatic determination and the political risk he has taken by marking Israel as a peace-refusenik.
The United States is not doing that “for the parties.” On the face of it, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a strategic threat. More Israelis or Palestinians dying, or more Qasams in the south or Katyushas in the north won’t bring down any state – most certainly not the United States. Solving the conflict won’t stop the Iranian nuclear race and won’t persuade India or Pakistan to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Syria won’t cut ties with Tehran even if Israel recognizes Hamas.
But the conflict becomes a strategic threat when it endangers America’s stature on the global stage. When this is the threat, the United States can no longer afford merely to let the sides “desire” peace and gloomily watch from the sidelines as they continue to eat into each other’s flesh. It’s not Obama’s personal pride that’s at stake, and it’s not the enormous U.S. aid to Israel. The Americans now see that when put to the test, this aid is not enough to help them implement their policy.
Israel is challenging the United States’ strategic status. This provocation goes beyond the question of Israeli sovereignty versus American might. Idiotically, Israel is competing against itself because U.S. status is a fundamental part of Israel’s strength. And when Israel is ready to demolish this foundation for the benefit of the bullies in East Jerusalem and the West Bank outposts, Israel puts its own citizens at risk.
Faced with Israeli foolishness, Washington can no longer afford to merely shrug. Too many American interests are at stake. So how will Obama deal with the Israeli naysayer? Will he renounce his demand to freeze construction? Will he present Israel with an obligatory work plan for reaching peace with the Palestinians? And to cut to the chase, will we see a rerun of the famous scene from the tenure of secretary of state James Baker, who left Israel a phone number it could call when it got serious about peace?
Washington has since taught the world that when it draws its map of interests, it is willing to use its military to obtain them. If Israeli-Palestinian peace is not that much of an interest, Washington should make this clear to both parties, lest they put too much hope on American maneuvering or, heaven forbid, labor under the impression that American pressure is mere pretense.
EDITOR: On the Fallablility of Confessional States in the Middle East
Much of the Zionist propaganda energy since Netanyahu came to power is expended on arguing for the irreversibility of Israel as a “Jewish State’. Lebanon and Israel are similar – they both are based on religious/confessional lines, but Lebanon is more democratic – both of the large confessional groups are protected by the constitution. Israel is declaring itself a Jewish State in denial of its non-Jewish citizens – just over 25% of the population, as the figures just released by the Israeli government show. Even thus, it is interesting to see that at least in Lebanon, the population is at last fed up with a system based on religion inscribed at birth, and are calling fora secular state. Of course, the PLO called for a secular, democratic state decedes ago, before it was coopted by Israel and the US into the pahntasm of the two-state solution. Maybe at last some change is afoot in the Middle East?
Lebanese to stage march for secularism: BBC
Sectarian tension has triggered civil wars in the past
Civil society activists in Lebanon are hoping that thousands will turn up for an unprecedented rally in Beirut.
The march for secularism will call on all Lebanese to unite and work towards the abolition of the country’s deeply divisive sectarian system.
The organisers say it is time to redefine what it means to be Lebanese.
They say this is because at the moment it comes second to being a Muslim or a Christian, Shia or Sunni, Catholic or Orthodox.
Eighteen groups make up Lebanon’s multi-denominational system, and the civic rights of the members of these groups are determined by their religious leaders rather than the government.
Only religious authorities can register marriages, births or death or rule on matters of inheritance – so all Lebanese end up having different rights.
Muslims, for example, cannot adopt children; Maronite Christians cannot get divorced, and it is impossible for members of different sects to marry each other, while civil marriage is not an option here.
The government, too, is divided. Since independence in 1943, Lebanon’s president has always been a Maronite Christian, its prime minister a Sunni Muslim and speaker of parliament a Shia.
Supporters of this unique system say it gives all the religious communities a voice.
But more and more young people, many of whom will take part in this march, point to its failures – chronic instability, weak central government and sectarian tension which has resulted in civil wars in the past.
VIDEO / Hamas issues new animated clip on captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit: Haaretz
Hamas released an animated cartoon on Sunday showing abducted Israel Defense Forces Gilad Shalit, who has been captive in Gaza for nearly four years, returning to Israel in a coffin.
The three-minute 3D animation, shown on the website of Hamas’ armed wing, warns that Gilad Shalit would face the same fate as Israeli airman Ron Arad, whose whereabouts are unknown since he was captured in South Lebanon in 1986.
Shalit was captured on June 25, 2006, during a cross-border raid launched from the Gaza Strip by militants. Hamas is demanding that Israel free 1,000 prisoners in exchange for him, but negotiations, held via a German mediator, have so far brought no result.
The animation displayed Sunday, directed at Israelis, blamed the Israeli government for the failure of the prisoner-swap negotiations.
“If the Israelis want Shalit to get released safe and sound, their government should pay the price by releasing Palestinian prisoners,” it declared.
“If the Israeli government rejects the Palestinian resistance demands, Israel will be obliged to release the Palestinian prisoners sooner or later with heavier prices…the prisoners will be released anyway,” Hamas said.
In the cartoon, Shalit’s father, Noam, is seen walking aimlessly, before picking up a newspaper with a front-page advertisement offering a reward of $50 million for information on his son.
The advertisement is a direct reference to Israel’s offer of a $10 million reward for information about Arad.
The cartoon displayed Sunday also warned that Hamas would kidnap more Israeli soldiers in order to bargain for the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Right of return not negotiable: The Electronic Intifada
Ahmed Moor, 22 April 2010
“To the extent that Israel must exist exclusively for the Jewish people, the enfranchising of the roughly four million Palestinians living under Israeli occupation today does pose a threat to its existence.” (Yotam Ronen/ActiveStills)
Washington insiders are now touting a misguided Obama-dictated plan to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Most recently, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Stephen Solarz took to the pages of The Washington Post to float the idea of an imposed peace, which largely undermines non-negotiable historic Palestinian rights. The authors call for the annulment of the Palestinian right of return, and the creation of a “demilitarized Palestinian state.”
The trial balloon avoids any talk of Israeli parliamentary dynamics and the incapacity of the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cede anything without sowing the seeds of its own dissolution, something Netanyahu probably realized while negotiating the composition of his coalition government. But its most glaring failure is the presumption that Palestinians will meekly accept American dictates regarding the right of return. As a Palestinian, I believe that any plan that seeks to sacrifice our inalienable human rights to ensure race-based majorities in Israel will fail.
Brzezinski and Solarz begin their piece by paraphrasing a statement made by Israel’s current defense minister, Ehud Barak. They write that the “absence of the two-state solution is the greatest threat to Israel’s future.” Presumably, Barak is indirectly referring to the one-state solution, or the growing call by Palestinians and anti-Zionist Jews to create a democratic state in all of historic Palestine. It is telling that the Israeli defense minister — and Brzezinski and Solarz — appears to view a growing movement in the Holy Land for equal rights and enfranchisement as “the greatest threat to Israel’s future.”
In a sense they’re right. To the extent that Israel must exist exclusively for the Jewish people, the enfranchising of the roughly four million Palestinians living under Israeli occupation today does pose a threat to its existence. But so do the approximately 20 percent of Israelis who are non-Jews (mostly Palestinian citizens of Israel) who are growing more rapidly as a population than Jewish Israelis. It is this anachronistic obsession with the racial makeup of the state that created the Palestinian refugee problem in the first place. Mandate Palestine was ethnically cleansed by Zionist armed forces in 1948 to create room for a Jewish majority state, as documented by the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Incidentally, it is this original sin that Brzezinski and Solarz seek to reward by obliterating the Palestinian right of return which is enshrined in international law. One wonders what prescriptions Barak, Brzezinski and Solarz will offer in the event of a Palestinian baby boom within Israel in the coming decades.
Putting aside the racial justification that underpins the existence of the Jewish state for a moment, it’s worth examining the reasons any two-state solution cannot work today. First, as previously noted, Palestinians will not relinquish the right of return. Mahmoud Abbas, who cannot claim any electoral or moral legitimacy, is hardly in a position to negotiate the right away. Second, there are approximately 500,000 Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and no one is capable of removing them from their homes. One can talk about land swaps, but the reality is that the Israeli state has done a thorough job of colonizing large swaths of land around Jerusalem and deep into the West Bank, effectively cutting it in two. Territorial contiguity is enormously important when engineering a state and it doesn’t appear likely here. Third, the Holy Land is relatively arid. Much of the water Israelis consume comes from the coastal and mountain aquifers, both of which lie under Palestinian land. Notwithstanding international law and the prevailing sentiment of much of the world, Israel simply will not relinquish control of such strategic freshwater reserves.
Finally, there are Israeli security considerations. As Brzezinski and Solarz generously admit, Israel will never agree to a Palestinian state with a conventional military. A state without a military option isn’t really a state at all, especially since Israel will likely continue to conduct raids into Palestinian territory.
Because the two-state solution is unworkable, both for practical and moral reasons, there is only one outcome that satisfies basic American liberal values of freedom of speech, race-blindness, equality under the law, etc. That’s the one-state solution. When I lived in New York, I lived alongside people who hailed from places around the world, many of whom were American Jews and Israelis. However, I do not have the same right in my country of birth. Reasonable people can ask why Jews can live alongside Palestinians in America, but cannot fathom living alongside Palestinians in Israel.
The road to the one-state outcome is fraught with much difficulty. The struggle is likely to be as protracted as South Africa’s struggle, and contentious issues like national rights, official languages and a suitable flag will need to be hammered out. But many Palestinian and Jewish activists have already embarked upon this road. Many of these individuals have come to support the one-state solution after accepting that the two-state solution is never going to materialize; Bantustans are all the international community can realistically offer the Palestinians, something few Palestinians will agree to.
My advice to the American president is to accept reality for what it is. We Palestinians will struggle for equal rights in our country in the same way blacks in America fought for their rights. We will persist in overwhelmingly demanding the implementation of our right of return. Our right of return is our right to sit anywhere on the bus, or attend any school. It would be a tragic irony if America’s first black president leaves office with a legacy of supporting the world’s last apartheid state.
Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American freelance journalist living in Beirut. He was born in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post and is republished with permission.
Clashes erupt as extreme rightists march through East Jerusalem: Haaretz
Hundreds of police officers deployed in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on Sunday as extreme Israeli rightists set out to march in an attempt to demonstrate Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem.
The march began just as U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell met Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem for a second round of talks since Mitchell’s arrival in the region.
Since Thursday, Mitchell has also held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as part of an attempt to launch indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
In anticipation of violence in East Jerusalem, police dispatched a helicopter, a zeppelin and an observation balloon as precautionary measures in the volatile region.
Silwan residents flooded the streets in efforts to prevent the march from going ahead. Palestinian flags were hung in the windows and dozens of shoes were scattered in the streets as a symbol of protest.
Dozens of masked men rioted in the streets, lighting tires on fire and hurling stones at police officers in the area. As the march began, the masked men hurled two firebombs at right wing activists.
Some 50 activists, headed by extreme rightists Itamar Ben Gvir and Baruch Marzel, marched from the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City to the center of Silwan, protesting what they termed “illegal construction” in the area. The construction they referred to is the building of Palestinian homes without city permits.
“We’ve proven to Netanyahu, Obama and Mitchell that we’re the bosses in Jerusalem,” said Ben Gvir during the march.
Prior to the event, the right wing activist said in a radio interview that “There is no doubt that the fact that Mitchell is in the area only pushes us to try harder.”
“It seems to me that the man sitting in the prime minister’s chair is a little confused,” he continued. “Netanyahu is acting like he is an employee working for Obama or Mitchell. It began with the settlement construction freeze that he caved on, and today he says that it is a provocation for us to carry Israeli flags several hundred meters from the Western Wall. What will he say tomorrow? That Obama and Mitchell asked to remove the flag or change the national anthem and he’ll do that too?”
“I don’t work for Mitchell, and Israel is not a U.S.-sponsored state, and the time has come that we understand that,” he went on to say.
The clashes continued even once the march had ended, with local residents setting fires and calling out anti-Israel slogans. Two police officers were lightly hurt as stones were hurled at them. One female officer sustained injuries to her shoulder and was evacuated to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
A request Saturday night by Netanyahu to postpone the march was rejected by Israel’s attorney general, who said there were no legal grounds to prevent the march from going ahead.
Jawad Siyam, the director of the Silwan Information Centre, said the march did not only serve the goals of the settlers, but also of the Israeli government.
“The goal is to expel the Palestinian population of Silwan,” he claimed, noting that 300 Israeli settlers lived in the neighborhood surrounded by 55,000 Palestinians.
Chagit Ofran, of the Israeli Peace Now group, said the march was “a provocation by the extreme right wing” and showed that the Israeli government has “lost control over Jerusalem.”
On Friday, right-wing activist Ben Gvir refused a police request to cancel the march through the Arab neighborhood.
Ben Gvir was in the news earlier this year for penning a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, threatening to protest his upcoming visit to Israel.
Polce have said they want Ben Gvir to cancel the march because it would stretch the police force thin when they are busy securing Mitchell during his visit.
Ben Gvir said in response to the police request: “We will not cancel the march. Mitchell is not the prime minister. There is no legal reasoning to this request; it is our right to march, even if Mitchell doesn’t like it.”
Veolia tries to spin its involvement in the occupation: The Electronic Intifada
Adri Nieuwhof, 22 April 2010
Nesher cement found at a construction site in occupied East Jerusalem, June 2009. (Clean Hands Project) By participating in the touring Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition, the French transnational company Veolia Environnement is attempting to spin its image that has been tarnished by the exposure of its involvement in the Israeli occupation.
The UK Palestine Solidarity Campaign used the occasion of the exhibition, featured at London’s Natural History Museum and in BBC Wildlife Magazine, to remind the public of Veolia’s participation in a segregated transportation project and the building of infrastructure to service Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank. The exhibition at the Natural History Museum was met with a “Dump Veolia” demonstration on 10 April and further protests are anticipated as the exhibition will travel to other UK cities and Ireland, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the US.
Veolia Transport, a subsidiary of Veolia Environnement, is involved in the construction and operation of a light rail system undertaken by the City Pass Consortium that links West Jerusalem to the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. The company also operates regular bus services to the illegal settlements, including Beit Horon and Givat Zeev, along road 443, on which Palestinians are banned from traveling. Through its involvement in these projects, Veolia is directly implicated in maintaining illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and plays a role in Israel’s attempt to make its annexation of Palestinian East Jerusalem irreversible.
Veolia claims that the contract to operate the light rail does not set any access restrictions on any population or passengers, and has expressed its commitment to operate the Jerusalem light rail on “a clear, non-discriminatory policy based on free access for all parts of the population.” However, statements by City Pass Consortium spokesperson Ammon Elian show that the project will entrench the status quo situation of segregation. He told a Belgian researcher without a trace of irony: “If Palestinians would want to make use of the light rail, both groups will not meet on the train, because of their different life patterns.” Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the territory annexed by Israel after its occupation in 1967, receive starkly inferior municipal services and are subjected to the revocation of residency rights and home demolitions.
Meanwhile, Veolia Transport continues to operate the segregated bus service 322 from Tel Aviv to Ashdod. At the terminal for bus 322 in Tel Aviv, small posters promise eternal damnation for those who do not observe the rules of halacha, or Jewish religious law. On 8 April chairman of the municipal council in Tel Aviv Yael Dayan told the Swiss newspaper Le Temps that bus service 322 is a “kosher” bus route, meaning that gender segregation is practiced with the agreement of the authorities. Women enter through the rear of the vehicle and the men from the front. They cannot touch each other or sit next to one another. In some buses, a thick blanket is hung in the middle of the bus between the two sexes. “It’s the return of the Middle Ages,” Dayan told Le Temps. Veolia Transport confirmed in a phone call with Who Profits from the Occupation? that bus 322 is segregated.
In addition to providing transport services to the settlements, Veolia is also involved in waste collection and dumping in the occupied West Bank. TMM Integrated Recycling Services, a subsidiary of Veolia, owns the Tovlan landfill near Jericho in the Jordan Valley. Veolia has leased the Palestinian-owned land from the Israeli civil military administration, according to British electronic magazine Corporate Watch. The magazine interviewed a worker who monitored the cars entering the landfill from 2002 until 2009 and who stated that until two years ago, Tovlan received some waste collections from Nablus. According to the worker, the waste dumped at Tovlan landfill comes primarily from the numerous illegal settlements in the Jordan Valley (“Veolia’s dirty business: The Tovlan landfill,” 29 January 2010).
Meanwhile, in 2009 Corporate Watch photographed Veolia garbage trucks picking up waste in Massua settlement, and in March 2010 a picture was taken of a Veolia vehicle picking up rubbish from Tomer settlement.
Veolia’s involvement in the occupation does not end there. The company has won a contract with Nesher cement factory to build and operate a large facility for sorting and transforming waste into a source of energy in Hiriya near Tel Aviv. The website of Who Profits from the Occupation? — an Israeli group that monitors corporations’ involvement in Israel’s occupation — states that 85 percent of all cement in Israel is sold by Nesher Cement and the use of Nesher products has been documented in construction sites in West Bank settlements and in the construction of the light rail project in Jerusalem.
Despite the photo exhibition designed to promote Veolia’s image, the corporation’s involvement in the occupation is not lost on solidarity activists. Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign spokesperson Freda Hughes announced at a 30 March demonstration that the group will this year highlight the role of Veolia in entrenching Israeli apartheid. The city council of Dublin is under pressure not to enter or renew contracts with Veolia, and activists protested in front of the city hall on 12 April.
Meanwhile, in the UK, the Green Party in Croydon is calling the city council to ditch Veolia because of its involvement in the breaching of Palestinians’ human rights. Veolia is responsible for waste and recycling collections in Croydon.
Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate based in Switzerland.
Malta protests to Israel over shooting of national in Gaza: Haaretz
Malta filed an official protest with Israel on Sunday after a Maltese woman was shot and injured by Israel Defense Forces soldiers during a protest in Gaza on Saturday.
In a statement, the Maltese Foreign Ministry said it “deplored and condemned in the strongest possible terms” the shooting of Bianca Zammit in Gaza on Saturday. The protest note was sent to the Israeli government via the Maltese Embassy in Israel.
Malta said the Israeli soldiers’ attack was “totally unwarranted” and called for a thorough investigation into the incident which took place near a refugee camp.
A foreign ministry spokesman said Malta expects a thorough investigation of the incident, which could have led to far more serious consequences. Two others were injured in the incident.
Foreign Minister Tonio Borg is expected to raise the issue on Monday during a meeting of European Union foreign ministers.
Zammit, 28, a pro-Palestinian activist, is being treated at the Al-Aqsa hospital after she was shot in the leg during the protest near the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza. A bullet went through a muscle in one of her legs but missed the bone.
Speaking from hospital, Zammit told The Sunday Times of Malta: “We were not doing anything illegal. I don’t expect to be shot for holding a Palestinian flag or holding a camera, especially since we were chanting peaceful songs.”
The protestors were pushing into a 300-metre-deep area declared as a no-go zone by Israel on the Gaza side of the frontier last January.
Clashes as settlers march in Israel: Al Jazeera online
Netanyahu failed to get the police to stop the march by rightwing Jews through Silwan on Sunday [AFP]
Palestinian protesters and Israeli police have clashed after Jewish settlers marched in the Arab neighbourhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem.
The rightwing settlers, who staged the march on Sunday, want Palestinians removed from the area and their homes pulled down.
Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland, in Silwan, said the demonstration was “extremely small” and that it was “difficult to measure the size of the impact”.
“The fact that this march took place has been seen as extremely provocative; a highly aggressive gesture on the part of the settlers – people really hell-bent on driving Palestinians from their land,” she said.
The settlers were hoping to walk for several hundred metres but police “seems to have circumscribed their march fairly tightly”.
“They were only able to walk 200 metres down the hill.”
The march, organised and led by Baruch Marzel and Itamar-Gvir, comes as Israel prepares to declare the beginning of US-mediated indirect talks with the Palestinians.
Announcement due
Israel officials involved in efforts to renew the peace process have been quoted by the Haaretz daily as saying that so-called proximity talks between Israel and Palestinians will start no later than mid-May.
The Israel newspaper did not mention a cabinet meeting scheduled for Sunday, at which the announcement is expected to be made.
However, it said Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, had received an invitation to the talks from his US counterpart.
Holy Land Grab
But Barack Obama acknowledged he was unable to extract a commitment from Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to freeze construction of housing units in East Jerusalem, Haaretz said.
George Mitchell, the US envoy to the Middle East, told Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Friday that Washington was committed to Israel’s security and wanted a peace settlement that would give the Palestinians a state.
“That has been American policy. That is American policy. That will be American policy,” Mitchell said.
He is due to meet Netanyahu again on Sunday.
The Palestinians have demanded a halt to housing projects on land they want for their state if the talks, suspended in December 2008, are to resume.
Last March, Israel announced it would construct 1,600 housing units in the Ramat Shlomo neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, sparking outrage and embarrassing Joe Biden, the US vice-president, who was on a visit to try to kickstart indirect talks.
Abbas said on Saturday that Obama should impose a peace deal but rejected the idea of establishing a state within temporary borders.
“Since you, Mr President and you, the members of the American administration, believe in this, it is your duty to call for the steps in order to reach the solution and impose the solution – impose it,” Abbas said.
“But don’t tell me it’s a vital national strategic American interest … and then not do anything.”
East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied and annexed in 1967 in a move not recognised by the UN, has been at the heart of the peace-process deadlock.
Israel views the entire city as its “eternal, indivisible” capital, while the Palestinians have demanded East Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state and have refused to relaunch negotiations unless Israel freezes settlement activity there.
Israel allows Hamas chief’s daughter to leave Gaza: Haaretz
Israel has allowed the daughter of Hamas’ top security official in the Gaza Strip to exit the blockaded territory for urgent medical treatment in Jordan.
Israeli military spokesman Guy Inbar said Sunday the daughter of Hamas’ interior minister, Fathi Hamad, was taken to an Israeli hospital Friday before being airlifted to Jordan, where she later arrived.
Jordanian officials say King Abdullah II personally appealed to Israel to allow the woman, who is in her 20s, to leave Gaza.
Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza following Hamas’ 2007 takeover.
Gazans are seldom permitted to leave the enclave and must coordinate travel with Israel or Egypt.
Inbar says there were no direct contacts with Hamas over the woman’s case.
J Street chief: Obama needs to connect with the Israeli people: Haaretz
Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street executive director, is bringing to Israel on Sunday a large J Street delegation, to meet with President Peres and members of Knesset, among others.
So the big rift between you and the Israeli government is over?
“I think we’ve seen a real gradual improvement in our relationship over the last six months. And it continues to improve. I hope it will only continue to be the case.
During your recent meeting with the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, did you reach some gentlemen’s agreement?
“There was a sharing of our views, but there was no specific requests made and no changes in anybody’s attitudes. J Street disagrees with some of the policies of the Israeli government and it will continue to have these disagreements and express them. But all in the context of a very deep love and support for the State of Israel. Among the list of supporters listed on J Street’s Web site are people like the Pulitzer-winning author Michael Chabon, Nobel laureates, former congressmen and senators, professors, rabbis, businessmen and leaders of the left-wing organizations.”
The delegation, says Ben-Ami, includes Israeli-American businessman Davidi Gilo, Alan Wurtzel of J Street’s finance committee and Alexandra Stanton from New York (former Chief of Staff, Empire State Development Corporation).
“There are people from both coasts and the middle of the country. We have a couple of non-Jewish supporters coming – a very good mix of people in the group.”
Your critics love to portray you as a “Soros and Arab money” organization. Do you see it as a problem? Do you have a problem with non-Jewish donations?
“We have no problem with that. I don’t think other pro-Israeli organizations have a problem with non-Jewish supporters either. I think our goal is to build a base for support for Israel. So we are very happy to be working with those who aren’t Jewish and have some of them involved in our leadership, so that’s a very good thing. We have actually no Arab Americans coming with us on this particular trip, but we’ll love for them in the future to join us. We would welcome them. It’s our goal in fact to show that there are Arab Americans who support the security and existence of the State of Israel, and we support the creation of the State of Palestine. That’s part of our goal to show that there is a moderate middle in both communities.”
What are your plans for this visit?
“This is our very first trip with people who are in our leadership. There are some members on our board of directors, some people on our finance committee and other who are thinking about becoming more active, so it’s about 30 people who are very significantly supportive and interested – and for them, it’s a chance to see on the ground what is happening and to better understand a situation and get a full range of opinions. We are going to meet with everybody from settler organizations to human rights organizations. We are meeting with Israelis as well as Palestinians, we are meeting with President Peres, with Prime Minister Fayyad, with King Abdullah. In the Knesset we’ll be meeting with many different parties – I believe that we have a meeting that includes Yisrael Beiteinu, Likud, Kadima and Labor – all in one panel discussion. The idea is to have these different views to help inform our leadership as we set a course for J Street here in the States. One of the issues for J Street in this country is that people don’t understand how wide a range the views are in Israel, and a wide range of disagreements. And we are trying to expose our leadership to how comfortable they should be expressing their opinions.”
You celebrated two years last week. How would you summarize the success up to date? When you started this initiative, was it what you expected?
“It was just as controversial and difficult as I would have thought at the beginning. But I think that our success and impact was greater than I imagined. I think that we are very clearly both on the map here in Washington, and having an impact. And to be able to do it in only two years – it’s beyond our expectations. I think there are a very few members of the Congress, very few people involved in Israel policy work, that don’t know who we are and don’t know what we are doing, and who don’t acknowledge that we’ve increased political space on this issue in just two years.”
Any examples?
“The most concrete evidence is really in Congress, where dozens of members of Congress are finding a way to express themselves when it comes to the Middle east that is very comfortable for them, that is pro-Israel and also calling for U.S. leadership in resolving this conflict. I think many members of Congress felt they couldn’t talk about it before. And I think we’ve created a lot of room for them and they are sensing a breath of fresh air in sense of what the Jewish community is telling them constitutes of being pro-Israel.”
But still there was a congressman who asked to return the money, and some are heading toward tough elections in November. Are they still wary to take money from J street?
“We have a long way to go. The mountain we are climbing is tall and steep. And we’ve taken some good steps in the beginning of the journey, but we are not near the top. Absolutely we have a lot of work to do, there are a lot of members of Congress who still don’t feel the freedom to speak and who don’t think it’s safe yet. And we will be continuing to work and hopefully make this space a little bit wider and give them a little more freedom to talk and express their opinions.”
Nuanced consistency
There were some claims that on some positions you were flip-flopping, some left-wingers said you weren’t persistently left on some cases. As if you were checking the boundaries trying to generate some consistent agenda.
“Well, our consistency is that we are nuanced, that we are finding a middle ground between those who run on the extreme on the left and right, and we do get criticized from both sides. Those who thought we are far-reaching left-wing are perhaps now disappointed, and those who are taking us as too conservative are figuring out what we really are. We represent what I call ‘passionate moderates.’ People who have a very mainstream, rational view. We do support Israel – we don’t want a one-state solution, we don’t want Israel to lose its Jewish character, and we also want it to compromise and survive and give the territory necessary to create a Palestinian state. These are nuanced positions and some people like some simple reflective answers that go to one side or another, but we’ve never provided those.”
So technically, how do you generate your positions?
“Ultimately we have a board of directors. They are very involved. The broad policy of the organization is set by the board of directors. We do get a lot of input from what we call ‘J Street locals’ all over the country. We do have an advisory group that represents this grassroots, we have a student board from the J Street youth program, our staff is very involved, we have a national advisory council of well-known experts, and all these pieces of the puzzle have an input, but the final decision-making rests with the board. And that’s where policy is set.”
Apparently you are more open toward AIPAC than vice versa. Did you have any open conversations with them?
“I can’t speak for them. We express deep respect for AIPAC and what they’ve accomplished. It’s hard not to be impressed over what they have done over many decades to establish such a deep US-Israel relationship. But we do have our disagreements when it comes to some aspects of policy. I would love this discussion to be open and civil – and public. I’d love to appear with them and discuss our different approaches, that would be our choice – to have this vibrant and open conversation for the Jewish community in this country to hear and to participate in.”
In these two years, did you make any mistakes?
“Nobody doesn’t make mistakes. I would say that any time we’ve appeared to engage in politics in Israel, that’s been a mistake. Any time we’ve said that we would savor one party over another, we were closer to this person or that person in Israeli politics, that’s a mistake and we shouldn’t be involved at all in Israeli politics. It’s none of our business. We are about America and what American Jews do politically. We may have crossed that line. And probably being involved in a couple of public discussions or disputes with other organizations that maybe didn’t need to be held in that way. So there were definitely moments of mistakes, but the overall direction and the message that we’ve put out of who we are and what we represent – I am very proud of.”
This week there has been a lot of action: Senator Mitchell is back in the region, Netanyahu refused to freeze settlements building, but it seems that the U.S. is ready to go ahead in order to start something.
“Our view is that the most important thing that must happen is that the president, together with our other international allies, have to provide the map for the parties to get themselves out of the current stalemate. It involves some bridging proposals, some active ideas. There needs to be some sense of the timeline, there needs to be some sense of accountability – for instance, when the Palestinians are not coming to the table, they should be publicly held accountable, and if the Israelis are taking actions that are not helpful they should be held accountable. And that’s more of an assertive role than has been played so far, and we are going to continue to urge the administration to do this because time is of the essence.”
So should President Obama go to Jerusalem?
“The president should definitely go to Israel at the right moment. I don’t know if this is the right moment, but he needs to connect with the Israeli people, he needs to assure them of his deep support for their security and their future, and he needs to make the case for why the compromises that must be made are so vital for everybody in the region, whether it’s the American interests, the Israeli interests or the interests of the Palestinians or the people in the region.”
Reasons to be cheerful(ish): the boycott as seen from the occupied Jordan Valley: Corporate Occupation
April 24, 2010 in Corporate Watch Research Blogs | Tags: Agrexco, Agriculture, Anti Corporate Resistance, Arava, Jordan Valley
Despite the fact that there is -as demonstrated by this web-site- clearly a lot of more work to be done for people campaigning for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel, a recent visit to the Jordan Valley confirmed that there are plenty of reasons for the BDS movement to take stock of its successes.
The fertile Jordan Valley is the largest agricultural area of the West Bank and the origin of most agricultural settlement produce (see, for example, http://corporateoccupation.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/occupation-as-profit-the-settler-economy/). Hence companies based in the Valley, such as the vegetable, fruit and flower exporter Carmel Agrexco, have been prime targets for the boycott movement and they are now visibly suffering a reduction in exports as a result. After spending a week interviewing Palestinians working in the settlements, it seems obvious to me both that our strategies are working and that they are supported by the exploited settlement workers themselves.
One Palestinian “middleman” (who has the responsibility to find the amount of workers that the settlers want each day from the surrounding Palestinian communities) for Mehola, one of the biggest settlements exporting to Europe through Agrexco and Arava, told me that the boycott has become a major issue at his workplace: “I used to be responsible for 22 workers”, he reveals “but now I only bring 15. After the Gaza war last year exports shrunk a lot and they have not gone up again since then, so the settlement does not need as many men to work”. Another worker from Mehola provide similar information, saying that fruits, and especially dates, are now frequently left in the packinghouse refrigeration houses without being sent away for exports and that the areas they are farming are shrinking. According to him, less and less fruit, such as oranges and grapes, are being exported to the UK, with the main exports now being herbs. On the face of it, this man could be considered one of the losers of the boycott movement: normally he would spend the spring picking grapes for the foreign markets for 80 Shekels a day -around half the legal minimum wage-, but this year the work is simply not available. However, his response to this development is positive. “Yes, I support the boycott”, he says. “Now when I don’t have to work in the settlement I have had time to try to farm my own land and then maybe I can sell my own produce.” No-one is suggesting that this is an easy option. Palestinian trade, even within the West Bank, is heavily compromised by Israeli checkpoints and restrictions of movement, but it is an option that gives the Palestinians a way of controlling their own lives without being directly exploited by the occupier and it is the only one which might one day give them the means to create an independent economy. The support for the boycott expressed by this man is echoed everywhere I go in the Valley, by settlement workers from Bardala to Al Jiftlik, Tamoun to Taysir.
At the recently held 5th Bil’in conference of non-violent resistance, the boycott movement was hailed as one of the main avenues for international contributions to the Palestinian popular struggle and the UK was mentioned as one of most active countries contributing to its growing success. The workers I talked to would rather lose their jobs than continue to be exploited by the occupation, but they need strong outside support. Let’s not disappoint them.
Ghadafi to Arab MKs: I’m against Zionism, not Jews: Haaretz
Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi hosted a delegation of Israeli Arabs, including lawmakers, for a dinner meeting on Sunday evening.
During the meeting, Gadhafi stressed the importance with which he viewed the delegation’s visit, and said: “We are not against Jews, but against Zionism.”
This was the first time Israeli Arab MKs have visited this state in official capacity. Members of the delegation are not traveling on Israeli passports, but using special entry permits issued by Libyan authorities.
During their visit, the Israeli Arab delegation asked the Libyan leader to voice an initiative among Arab states to invite Israeli Arabs to visit, and to accept them as students in their various universities.
Ghadafi responded to the request as saying that Libya would be happy to enroll Israeli Arab students in its schools.
In a text message to Haaretz, MK Taleb Al-Sana described the meeting, which took place in a tent in the city of Surt, as “wonderful.”
In his talks with Gadhafi, Al-Sana also compared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land to that of Italian colonialism in Libya, and said he hoped the prior would soon end as the latter did.
The Israeli Arab MK voiced criticism of Israel’s settlement policy in the West Bank as “emptying the two-state solution of all meaning.”
The 40-member delegation to Libya included Knesset members Ahmed Tibi, Mohammed Barakeh, Chairman of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee Mohammed Zidan, as well as journalists and religious leaders.
The visit raised a storm of criticism in Israel. MK David Rotem, who chairs the Knesset Constitution Committee, said the MKs must “decide where their loyalty lies.”
Palestinian Authority approves July elections in West Bank: Haaretz
The Western-backed government of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad gave the go-ahead on Sunday for local elections in the West Bank in July,
despite opposition from rival Hamas Islamists who run the Gaza Strip.
“The cabinet decided to continue with all necessary preparations for carrying out the polls for local councils in the West Bank on July 17,” it said in a statement after a meeting in the city of Ramallah.
Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party in 2007. The two parties have been in a state of open hostility since.
Legislative and presidential elections called in January by Abbas were canceled due to a ban by Hamas on participation in the Gaza Strip.
An Egyptian plan aimed at ending the Palestinian division set legislative and presidential elections for June. Fatah leader Abbas, who is supported by Cairo, signed the document, but Hamas has refused to.
The Palestinians last held local elections in 2005, shortly before a legislative election in which Hamas defeated Fatah.
EDITOR: The Colonial MInd
To come to understand Israeli thinking on the Middle East at its most typical, one has to read the army men; they are given space even on such publications as Haaretz, and their voice is most dominant in Israeli society. Because the pieces I normally choose to quote on this website are mainly on the liberal and radical left, it is very important not give the impression that this is what is typical in the Israel media. Well, the next piece is indeed more typical… It has to be read to be believed. This is the genuine voice of the great majority of Jewish Israelis.
Israel must topple Assad in next conflict with Syria proxies: Haaretz
By Oded Tira
Syria, according to recent reports, is supplying Hezbollah with Scuds and other missiles that possess a range covering all of Israel – prompting the question as to the implications of such military hardware during wartime. The missiles have the capacity to carry a ton of explosives or another warhead, and they don’t require great sophistication to operate. The use of solid fuel might also make it possible to launch these missiles more quickly than the smaller missiles that were directed at Israel during the Second Lebanon War. Though the larger weapons are launched from mobile launch pads, they are more easily identified and destroyed than the smaller missiles.
The accuracy of the current Scuds is a matter of hundreds of meters, a higher level of precision than that of the missiles which landed in Israel during the Second Lebanon War. At the same time, a missile that strikes an urban area does not require great accuracy. If Hezbollah arms itself with several hundred Scuds, over the course of a two-week war it could fire several dozen large missiles a day, causing physical damage or injury as well as affecting morale. And a strike at the commercial heart of the country could deter foreigners from doing business with Israel.
The fact that Syria is arming Hezbollah with Scuds reinforces the assessment that the Syrians are not interested in direct confrontation with Israel, preferring instead to use a proxy to exert military pressure without exposing itself to an Israeli response which, it is thought, could topple Bashar Assad and the Alawites from power. The Syrians’ fear of such a prospect should be the primary leverage used against them, and in response to their arming Hezbollah with Scuds.
Israel should be conscious of several factors in the face of the threat from the north. First, on the margins, one should bear in mind Justice Richard Goldstone’s ruling in his report to the United Nations on Operation Cast Lead – that hitting a country’s infrastructure is a war crime as it constitutes collective punishment, which is banned under international law. I am not saying that Goldstone must be obeyed, but his ruling must be taken into consideration.
On a tactical level, Israel must develop the intelligence capability necessary to destroy the maximum number of Scuds possible and especially the missile launchers, either at the beginning of a war or even beforehand. Israel should also try to shorten the duration of any fighting as much as possible by hitting Lebanese infrastructure, but only in response to Israel’s being hit first.
In the event of war, Israel’s strategic goal should be the overthrow of the Alawite regime in Syria, and with that aim should continue developing its mobile ground forces along with massive aerial firepower. Within the Israel Defense Forces’ mobile units, the infantry forces and the special forces – particularly those that have the capacity to reach any location in the theater of battle – must be strengthened.
Israel must prepare the international diplomatic community for a war of this kind and will have to make it clear from the beginning that we have no alternative. Israel will be tasked with explaining that, because the enemy is protecting terrorists during a time of war, we have no choice but to hit the enemy’s home front and infrastructure. The very fact of an international debate on this issue is liable to deter the Syrians on the one hand, though it might also put Israel under international diplomatic pressure to restrain itself on the other – but that is a risk worth taking.
Above all, Israel must make it clear right now that, in the event of a missile attack from the north, it will act on the goal of immediately deposing the Alawite regime in Syria even before turning its attention to the missile threat. Such a statement could deter the Syrians from arming Hezbollah with Scuds, out of concern that the Muslim organization might fire the missiles without first coordinating with Syria.
The writer is a reserve brigadier general and former head of the IDF artillery corps.