EDITOR: The Boat Comes in Again…
And this time, there is a whole flotilla, with hundreds of people on board. The Israelis plan to sink the boats like they did so many times before – an act of piracy on the high seas, for which no doubt the great western powers will support by closing their eyes to this inhuman and illegal act being prepared. This time, they may kill many people. Nothing is said by the high and mighty O’Bummer, so interested in human rights when Israel is not involved.
LET THE AID BOATS GET TO GAZA!: Gush Shalom
The State of Israel has no interest in flooding television screens all over the world with footage of its navy violently assaulting against peace activists at sea. It is time to remove the suffocating siege and allow residents of Gaza to have free contact with the outside world, freely operate sea and air ports of their own like any country in the world.
The Gush Shalom movement calls upon the government to allow the eight-boat aid flotilla from all over the world to reach the shores of Gaza, where they are scheduled to arrive next week, and unload the humanitarian cargo which is urgently needed by the residents of Gaza. In a letter to Defense Minister Barak, Gush Shalom calls upon him to cancel immediately the instructions given to Israeli Navy ships off the Gaza shore to intercept the aid flotilla.
“The whole world is looking. The State of Israel has no interest in flooding the international television screens with images of Israeli sailors and naval commandos violently assaulting hundreds of peace activists and humanitarian aid workers, many of them well-known in their countries. Whose interest will it serve when hours long dramatic live reports arrive from the Mediteranean, with the world’s sympathy given to hundreds of non-violent activists, on board eight boats, assaulted by the strongest military power in the Middle East?” were the words of a letter to the Defense Minister.
No harm whatsoever will be caused to Israel from the aid flotilla reaching Gaza Port and unloading a cargo of medical supplies and medicines, school supplies and construction materials to rebuild the houses destroyed by the Israeli Air Force a year and half ago and not yet been restored. On the contrary, it would be in Israel’s best interest to declare without delay that as a humanitarian gesture, the boats’ way will not be blocked. And in general, it is time to end once and for all the suffocating siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and causing terrible suffering to its million and a half inhabitants.
The siege on Gaza utterly failed in all the goals set for it by the government of Israel. The siege was supposed to result in toppling the Hamas government – and on the contrary strengthened this government, which relied on the support of a significant part of the Palestinian People. The siege was supposed to help in gaining the release of captured soldier Gilad Shalit – but on the contrary, the siege just delays that release, which could have been achieved long ago had the government of Israel agreed to the prisoner exchange deal, on which most of the details have been decided long ago. It’s time to end this cruel and pointless siege.
The residents of the Gaza Strip, like the citizens of Israel and of any other country in the world, have the right to maintain direct contacts with the outside world – to leave their country and return to it, to develop their economy, to import the products they need and export their own produce to anyone who wants to buy it, without asking or needing for permission from Israel, Egypt or any other country. Just as Israel needs no permit from any other country to operate daily the sea ports of Ashdod and Haifa and Eilat and the Ben Gurion International Airport, so are the Palestinians and their state to be entitled to run their own sea port and airport in the Gaza Strip. Let the flotilla of humanitarian aid from all over the world be given the honour of inaugurating the sovereign Palestinian Port of Gaza!.
IDF launches homefront drill amid rising tensions on Lebanon border: Haaretz
Hezbollah’s deputy head says the Shi’ite organization has stepped up its alert status ahead of the ‘war game’ being conducted on Sunday in Israel.
Israel’s annual national home front exercise began Sunday, as Hezbollah played up fears in Lebanon that the drill means a conflict might loom with its southern neighbor.
The exercise, “Turning Point 4,” was due to last five days and be carried out in all parts of the country. During the first three days the drill was to involve the Israel Defense Forces’ various command centers, the police, emergency services, ministries and other government offices.
The exercise, which is held annually in May, was to be broadened on Wednesday to include civilians, with a siren sounded at 11 A.M. throughout the country. Civilians were instructed to to seek cover in shelters or other secure areas.
Hezbollah’s deputy head, Nabil Qaouk, said Friday that the Shi’ite organization had stepped up its alert status ahead of the “war game” being conducted on Sunday in Israel.
Qaouk said thousands of Hezbollah fighters will not take part in one of the stages of Lebanon’s municipal elections today because they are preparing for the possible attack by Israel.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah called on voters to pick the candidates put forth by the coalition between Hezbollah and Amal, another Shi’ite group.
Joining Hezbollah in its worries, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said the Israeli exercise contradicts efforts to reach comprehensive peace in the region.
Hariri met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo Saturday, ahead of his visit to Washington.
Israel has relayed messages to Arab states about the drill, stressing that it has no plans to launch an attack.
The exercise will focus this year on the ability of municipalities to respond to the launching of thousands of missiles and rockets on Israel. Most municipal authorities, where around 70 percent of the country’s people live, will hold drills as part of the national effort, conducted by Home Front Command, the National Emergency Authority and the Defense Ministry.
Hundreds of police officers are scheduled to take part in the exercise; they will practice their three main tasks in the event of missile attacks: routine security, guiding traffic and maintaining order.
The police will be tested on how they respond to local emergencies while the force is spread out all over the country.
The main scenario for the police will be a strike on Be’er Sheva by missiles fitted with chemical warheads.
Another aspect of the drill will be surprise strikes at home front targets.
Many different elements of defense and rescue will be practiced. For the first time, for example, Israel will test its response to a blow to its computer and electronic-communications infrastructure after a cyber attack.
The authorities will also examine their ability to evacuate hundreds of thousands of civilians from areas hit by missile barrages or strikes by unconventional weapons.
The distribution of gas masks, something already underway over the past three months, will be expedited during the drill to include other parts of the country. Home Front Command will be tested on its ability to shift to emergency distribution on a national level.
Extensive participation by volunteers, nongovernment organizations and youth movements is expected to be part of the drill, especially in helping local authorities reach people and communities in distress or needing special assistance.
EDITOR: Game Playing
As usual, Israelis like speaking to itself, negotiating with itself, even playing games with itself. In this war game, almost all sides are played by Israelis with responsibility for mass-murder and destruction. What fun it must be playing with yourself!!
Israelis debate how to deal with a nuclear Iran: BBC
Middle East experts debated what to do if Iran developed a nuclear weapon
By Tim Franks
BBC News, Jerusalem
There is no more pressing question for foreign diplomats and spies working inside Israel. How likely is it that Israel may take pre-emptive military action against Iran, to try to thwart its nuclear ambitions?
Iran vigorously denies that it is attempting to build a nuclear weapon. Israel, and much of the world, does not believe that.
Mr Netanyahu has said a nuclear Iran meant an iminent “second Holocast”
But what if, despite international opposition and its own protestations, Iran were to produce an atomic bomb?
On Sunday, a high-level panel from the Israeli political and military establishment considered just that question, at the Inter-Disciplinary Centre in Herziliya.
And some of the panel’s conclusions were surprising.
No senior military officer or politician in Israel thinks that Iran and its nuclear programme is anything other than a hugely serious threat to Israel and to the region.
But there is a telling difference in rhetoric.
‘Domino effect’
Speaking to the BBC after the end of the panel’s discussions, Tzipi Livni – the leader of the main opposition party, and Israel’s previous long-serving foreign minister – insisted that a nuclear Iran did not pose an existential threat to Israel.
Ms Livni directed particular criticism at the current Israeli Prime Minister’s Benjamin Netanyahu repeated warnings about a second Holocaust.
Tzipi Livni criticised the way the Israeli government is handling Iran
“The role of leadership is to give an answer to this kind of threat,” she said, rather than to stoke worry.
“Israel in 2010 is not the Jews in Europe in 1939.”
What is more, she said, Israel – and the world – should not fixate on the damage that could be caused by Iran, if and when it became nuclear-armed.
The very possibility was changing the region now.
There was, she said, a “domino effect” among states “too weak to confront (Iran) or to have their own nuclear weapon”.
As long as the world fails to “stop the bully”, these states are “going to join him, and this is going to change completely the allies and alliances in the region, and this is something that the free world cannot afford.”
Ms Livni said that you could already see some countries “come off the fence” and tilt towards Iran. She cited Qatar and Turkey.
All of which still raises the question of what course of action Israel may take, whether it is likely to try to hit Iran militarily.
No-one who is really in the know about Israel’s specific intentions and plans will talk about them.
But Daniel Kurtzer, a former US ambassador to Israel, is a veteran – not just of diplomacy, but of this type of war-game simulations.
He said that, time and again, a marked difference of emphasis would emerge from the role-playing, with the Israelis favouring military action as a “first course of response”, and the US tending to look at alternatives.
Peace deal
In that context, there was a particularly striking contribution from Dan Halutz, the previous chief of staff of the Israeli armed forces, and another participant in the day of war-gaming.
He argued strongly not just for talk of military pre-emption, but diplomatic pre-emption.
He said that the Iranians should be isolated from the rest of the Muslim world, which, he claimed, was “by and large more concerned than Israel is about a nuclear Iran.”
The way to do that, he said, was clear: a comprehensive regional peace settlement. “The price is known, all the files are ready.”
It was not, said the former chief of staff, an easy or simple decision. But it was a decision that had to be taken.
“A decision to say no [to a peace settlement] is not short-term. It is a strategic choice: we need to know that from here to eternity, we’re prepared to do whatever is necessary to fight for the decision to say no. But if we think differently, we have to say yes.”
Brigadier-General Halutz went further, disparaging talk about Israel’s “red lines” in negotiations.
The phrase should, he said, be removed from the diplomatic lexicon, because whenever it came to the crunch, those absolute boundaries disappeared.
All this needs to be set against the briefings on Iran from from the very top of Israel’s current security establishment: that there should be no doubt that Israel is intent on doing all that it thinks needs to be done to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
But there are also others, voices of powerful experience, who say that Israel needs to think as widely and as imaginatively as possible to prevent Iran shaping the region in its own image.
Jerry Haber: Where We Orthodox Jews Have Gone Wrong – And How We Can Make Amends: IOA
The main source of Jewish hatred and bigotry against Arabs today comes from the orthodox, and especially the modern orthodox… The Israeli religious Zionism that has produced the settler movement is unaffected by universal moral values.
IOA Editor: Despite the sentimentalist views on historical Orthodox Judaism, important criticism of the US Orthodox Jewish community, pointing to it as the source of Arab hate. Surprisingly, the writer doesn’t mention that this is not an ‘argument’ (as the Wall Street Journal blog described it) but an outright attack on a Palestinian woman whose Sheikh-Jarrah house has been occupied by Jewish settlers.
Zionism, and US Tax Dollars, at Work: Orthodox American Jews, celebrating Jerusalem Day by taunting a Palestinian woman whose Sheikh-Jarrah house has been occupied by Jewish settlers (Photo: Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse)
By Jerry Haber, The Magnes Zionist – 21 May 2010
Memo
To: The President of Yeshiva University, the Executive Vice President Emeritus of the Orthodox Union, and the Director of Public Publicity, Orthodox Union
From: Jerry Haber
RE: Recognizing the Sin of Bigotry, and Eradicating It
Gentlemen, I address this to you because I know you personally and admire you greatly. I have been members of the same synagogue as you, and one of you has been my rabbi.
Perhaps you saw this picture in the Wall Street Journal blog online The caption that the world read was, “A Palestinian woman whose house has been occupied by Jewish settlers argued with Israelis who came to celebrate Jerusalem Day in the mainly Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, Wednesday.”
But you knew that the caption was wrong. You looked at those faces. You knew that the laughing faces were not of Israelis, but of modern orthodox Jewish youngsters from the US, probably in yeshiva for their gap year. You may have even recognized some of them. You may know some of their parents.
So my question to you is very simple. It is the same question that Rav Aharon Lichtenstein posed a quarter of a century ago, when some of the best and brightest of Israeli religious Zionists were arrested as members of the violent Jewish underground. It was a title of an op-ed that Rav Aharon wrote for Haaretz:
“Where have we gone wrong?”
I remember how impressed I was by the question — then. For I thought that, finally, an acknowledged leader of modern orthodoxy/religious Zionism recognized that deep hatred and racist attitudes towards the Arab had been allowed to fester in religious Zionist educational institutions. (Of course, racism and bigotry are not the exclusive properties of modern orthodoxy. But the “in-your-face confidence” of the group of hooligans in this picture has religious Zionism written all over it.)
At first I was exhilarated by Rav Aharon’s hakarat ha-het, his recognition of the sin and its vicious consequences, and of the need to correct it. But time passed, and nothing was done. Rav Aharon went back to his yeshiva, and every time some modern orthodox Jew stunned the world with his indefensible actions — Baruch Goldstein, Yigal Amir — we were witness to the same hand-wringing among the moderates, as well as the old defense mechanisms:”Who are you to criticize?” “We condemn their actions, but not their intentions.” “Look at the hatred and bigotry of Islamic Fundamentalists.”
So let me tell you why your children — not all, but enough of them to get you worried — will continue to be in pictures like the one above, or in movies like Max Blumenthal and Joseph Dana’s “Feeling the Hate in Jerusalem.” Let me tell you why the bigotry will range from the not-so-genteel Islam-bashers that you find in every shul nowadays (when you were growing up, who knew from Islam?) to the “glatt kosher, mehadrin” bigots and hate-filled thugs in the picture.
The main source of Jewish hatred and bigotry against Arabs today comes from the orthodox, and especially the modern orthodox. This wasn’t always the case. The orthodoxy that sprung from European soil absorbed the best of West civilization, culture, and morality. The earlier generations of religious Zionists, Rav Reines, Rav Kook, Rav Soloveitchik, were European to the core. And the early generation of religious Zionists in America, though fed the prejudiced Zionist line about the Arabs, nevertheless was deeply influenced by liberal American values, and the American rejection of bigotry. Such moderates even convinced themselves that this was the message of the Torah.
No more. The Israeli religious Zionism that has produced the settler movement is unaffected by universal moral values. I don’t need to go into details here. You are familiar with their rabbis, you have read the articles and parsha sheets; you have recoiled at the message. Israeli religious Zionism today is insular, parochial, fundamentalist, and deeply, deeply bigoted. I know many American orthodox Jews who have come on aliyah, Jews with moderate principles, proud of American and universal moral values. They are terribly uncomfortable when their children return from the religious Zionist yeshivot and ulpanot as racist bigots who view the Arabs as animals and underlings, “hewers of wood and drawers of water.”
Modern orthodox educators in America should have worried less about the color of their children’s hats, and more about the color of their hearts. When they agonized over whether they would stay frum, they should have agonized over whether they would stay mentshen, humane individuals.
For modern orthodoxy to reduce the likelihood of more pictures like the one above, it should take the following steps:
1. Day schools should develop programs against prejudice, and I don’t mean just prejudice against Blacks and Hispanics, although that is important, too. I mean programs to counter bigotry against Arabs and Muslims. Appropriate sources can be found in Torah sources to give this a Jewish cast, and the illiberal sources can be explained away, as they were explained away by the 19th and 20th century European rabbis. One can start with Rav Abraham Kook’s view that the land of Israel can be sold to Muslims because they are not idolaters.
2. Schools should invite Palestinian refugees to speak to the students about their experiences. That would be a kiddush ha-Shem/sanctification of God’s name in its own right, and the educational value would be enormous. I am not saying that equal time must be given to Palestinian spokesmen on the conflict. This is not about politics. It is about humanity and decency. Oscar Hammerstein wrote, “You’ve got to be taught to hate,” but in a particularistic, religious atmosphere, and in the middle of a conflict, you have to be taught to respect. I realize that taking any time away from the curriculum for “tikun olam” is controversial, and trying to humanize Arabs will be even more so. After all, it is not as if when you look over your right shoulders, you see any less bigotry and racism. But choose not to, and you will have more pictures like the ones above. And what decent human frum Jew would want that?
3. American Muslims should come to the high schools and talk about their religion — or if that is too much for you, then find Jews, frum Jews, who will try to provide a positive portrait of Islam. It is easy to cherry-pick sources to portray another religion in an unflattering light. But that is where bigotry begins, and when it is “supported by the evidence” it gets harder to eradicate. Do to the Muslim sources what we do to the Jewish sources in day schools — accentuate the positive while explaining away the negative.
4. Modern orthodoxy sees the Rambam/Maimonides as one of its great models. Make it known to your students that Maimonides was Islamic civilization’s gift to the Jews. Without the Islamic environment, there could have never been a Rambam. The influence of the golden age of Islamic civilization is written on every page of his works, and I mean his legal works as well as his philosophical ones. And, as you know, it is not just Rambam.
5. Don’t romanticize the history of Jewish-Arab relations, but don’t demonize it, either. Yes there was Muslim discrimination against Jews, but it has been the bon ton of late to exaggerate it and to fail to understand the problems of any traditional religion dealing with other religions when it has political power. I wouldn’t want to be a Christian living in the Land of Israel under a Jewish king, according to Maimonides’ law that condemned them to death.
6. Always draw parallels from other people’s bigotry to our own. Bigotry and xenophobia are universal phenomena. The same Jews who are revolted by what others have done to them should feel the same revulsion when they do it against others. Show zero tolerance for such bigotry.
7. Most important, give the proper preparation and training for students going to Israel in their gap year, a year with little supervision and with exposure to deeply racist and bigoted attitudes – all in the name of Torah. If they come back from Israel not wanting to talk to girls, you get nervous that they have fallen off the deep end. But what of their attitudes towards gentiles, especially Arabs? Aren’t you worried about that?
It is not enough to ask, where have we gone wrong. We have to take steps to stamp this out. Liberals, conservatives, democrats, republicans – all of us should work to eradicate the central illness with frum Judaism today – hate-filled bigotry.
‘Shame on you, democracy,’ Vanunu yells as he returns to prison: Haaretz
After having served 18 years for leaking Israeli nuclear secrets, Mordechai Vanunu begins serving additional 3 months for violating terms of his parole.
Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, released in 2004 after 18 years in prison for leaking Israeli nuclear secrets, began serving an additional 3-month sentence on Sunday for refusing to carry out court-mandated community service.
“I survived 18 years – I could survive another six,” Vanunu called out outside the Jerusalem District Court. “Are you trying to discipline me? You cannot take my freedom of expression away”
“Freedom is freedom. You won’t get from me in three months what you didn’t get in 18 years,” he added.
He warned that the Shin Bet security service “controls the prisons” and that they will try to torture him psychologically, the same way they did the last time he was incarcerated.
“Shame on you Israel,” he continued. “The stupid Shin Bet and Mossad spies are putting me back in prison after 24 years of speaking nothing but the truth. Shame on you democracy, the Knesset, synagogues and the world media. Shame on you all the Arabs that are allowing me to be put back in prison. Shame on you Senate, congress, and the chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency for not protecting my freedom. Shame on you all the world’s religions, the stupid spies, the Jews, Christians and Muslims.
“Everyone knows that Israel has nuclear weapons,” he went on to say, “but no one is talking about it… The world doesn’t want nuclear weapons – not in Israel, not in the Middle East and not anywhere in the world.”
A panel of High Court Judges returned the 56-year-old Moroccan-born Israeli to jail after he failed to fulfill a community service order, punishment for breaching his parole terms by contacting foreigners without authorization.
The former nuclear technician had asked to be assigned community duties in Arab-majority East Jerusalem after claiming he risked attack by angry Israelis, many of whom see him as a traitor, in the city’s Jewish-populated west.
PA: Women working in settlements to seek alternative work: Ma’an News
Ramallah – Ma’an – All Palestinian women currently working in Israeli settlements should consult the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Social Affairs in their districts to fill applications for alternative employment with Palestinian institutions, the minister said Saturday.
Majida Al-Masri told the Ma’an radio network that an application form was designed and distributed to all the ministry’s branches and women can commence the process of finding new work on Sunday.
“Boycotting Israeli settlements, including work and products, in compliance with President [Mahmoud] Abbas’ decree is very crucial at this stage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to counter Israeli plans to judaise Jerusalem, expand settlements and enforce the separation wall as political border,” Al-Masri said.
The minister said in order to achieve the goal of an independent Palestinian state, the government, civic institutions, and the private sector must work in cooperation to create work opportunities for Palestinians currently working in illegal West Bank settlements.
“This will eventually have a positive impact on the Palestinian economy in particular, and achieve independence in general,” she said.
Approximately 6,000 Palestinian women work in Israeli settlements compared with 25,000 men, Al-Masri said, adding that “this phenomenon must come to an end as soon as possible.”
The PA Ministry of Social Affairs will coordinate with national foundations in order to facilitate work capacity for women soon to leave their employment in settlements, she added.
A second option, the minister said, is for the women to placed in relief programs as most of them are eligible, supporting families below the poverty line.
The PA announced that work in Israeli settlements would become outlawed in line with its boycott on the purchase of settlement produce, and aims to have the settlement labor industry cleared of Palestinian workers by 2011.
However, several officials have said the decision to ban settlement work by the given date was hasty, and called for better provisions to be made by the Ramallah-based government to ensure that workers would be compensated and have access to alternative employment.
Israelis’ ideal state: A country without criticism: Haaretz
Let us imagine the dream-country of most Israelis – without criticism, neither from within nor from without. It speaks in one voice and is eternally united, with devotion and cohesion; all-Jewish, that goes without saying.
By Gideon Levy
Let us imagine the dream-country of most Israelis – without criticism, neither from within nor from without. It speaks in one voice and is eternally united, with devotion and cohesion; all-Jewish, that goes without saying. It stands unanimously behind its government, every government, and also, of course, behind its army, the Shin Bet security service and the Mossad espionage agency – Israel’s heroes.
There is not even a single “snitch,” no human rights organizations or peace movements, no nonprofit associations and no critical reports that are published here, or, heaven forbid, abroad. Its press never criticizes, never exposes, never investigates, publishing nothing but praise and admiration for the government and the state. It recites official statements and quotes from government and security briefings.
Every war that this dream-country wages is met immediately by nothing but cheers of approval. Any atrocity it commits in the occupied territories automatically earns across-the-board support – the most moral, the most just, the most security-oriented, in harmony. All residents must swear their allegiance, all those who wish to visit, too. Those who are faithful to Israel are welcome. All the rest must take the first plane (or truck ) out. In short, the country of one’s dreams.
But now let’s answer truthfully. Is that really the country we wound want to live in? Moreover, would the world that is always-against-us appreciate and like Israel better if that was how we looked and spoke, uniform and devoid of all self-criticism?
The growing campaign of incitement in Israeli society against anyone who dares to voice criticism within on the grounds that will cause damage without is a campaign of mudslinging and lies. The shreds of Israel’s image of decency abroad is based solely on the fact that there is still a degree of freedom and criticism here. The apathy and public silence in response to this slander campaign reinforce the apprehension that this is truly how the state of dreams appears to most Israelis.
Not just the extreme right, for whom this is a matter of doctrine, but the mainstream. Kadima Knesset members introduce fascist, anti-democratic bills, university faculty members are silent when their colleagues are thrown out, most of the media outlets are busy instilling fear and stirring up base instincts, or with trivial nonsense. The Supreme Court has been weakened and is silent, like the president, who in any event takes care not to comment on such situations in order to avoid annoying anyone.
Until now, the world admired Israel first and foremost because it was different from this land of dreams. From the day the state was founded the world applauded “the only democracy in the Middle East” as such. The kibbutz became an object of worldwide admiration, perhaps Israel’s greatest ever, simply by dint of its egalitarian, democratic nature. Israel’s technological, scientific, economic, cultural, agricultural and military achievements would be insignificant were they those of a dictatorship. Were Israel not a democracy, 100 brilliant military victories and 1,000 global technological inventions would not be considered great achievements.
Now the false patriots, who speak of nationalism and believe in loyalty, seek to destroy their state’s greatest, most important achievements. They are fed up with democracy. The damage they are causing the country and its image is incomparably greater than the supposed damage caused by all those critics who still remain. One day of phosphorus bombs on Gaza caused more damage to Israel’s image than all the reports by Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem and the Goldstone committee together, and the current campaign to undermine democracy is the most pernicious of all.
To our great misfortune, almost no one remains who will stop them. They seek to create the dream-country of the majority, and have gone a considerable distance toward advancing it. Pay attention to recent events – Not a day goes by without some dangerous draft law, threatening declaration, deportation from Ben-Gurion National Airport, political arrest, police violence, persecution of foreigners, judicial discrimination or incitement against any would-be critics.
To expel, destroy, punish, arrest, silence and make illegal: One half of the country undermines the fragile fabric of the government, while the other half remains silent. And who is considered the enemy of the people? Those who dare to criticize this state of affairs.
Gaza – A manufactured catastrophe: J News
Israel’s blockade will have far-reaching repercussions on the future sustainability of Gaza and on the Palestinian-Israeli political process
By Said Almadhoun
Monday, 26 April, 2010 – 18:27
Trade and travel in Europe may be returning to normal after Iceland’s volcanic eruptions, but the Gaza Strip remains paralysed not by a natural but by a man-made disaster –a systematic policy aimed at destroying its cultural, social and national infrastructure.
Since June 2007 Israel has tightened its blockade of Gaza and sealed all Gaza’s commercial and travel crossings. Travel in and out of Gaza through Israeli-controlled crossings is banned except for rare humanitarian cases, and Rafah crossing into Egypt has been closed to regular passage. Gaza’s airport was shut down nine years ago although no ash clouds halted its operations.
Israel has blocked entry of all but about 70 items including basic foodstuffs, medicines and grocery items. It argues that it is blocking items allegedly used by Hamas in manufacturing rockets or for military operations. These include stationery, toys, crayons, pencils …
The blockade has disrupted the normal lives of 1.5 million people and wreaked havoc on Gaza’s economy. The ban on the entry of raw materials, construction materials and on exports has made most industry impossible to sustain.
Gaza traders have sustained significant losses because of the breach of supply contracts and the paralysis of Gaza’s industry; an estimated 1500 containers have been stuck at the Israeli seaport since June 2007.
More than a thousand days of blockade, closure of terminals, denial of permits to traders and deletion of Gaza’s custom code have suffocated Gaza’s businesses, thousands of which have shut down and laid off their workers. As a result, one third of Gaza’s industries have migrated to neighbouring Arab countries.
What remains of Gaza’s economy has become completely dependent on the tunnels economy, which exposes the vulnerable and the poor to skyrocketing prices, due to the monopoly of black-market tunnel operators.
Israel has deliberately transformed 80% of Gaza’s residents into beggars, living on humanitarian handouts.
The 2008-2009 Israeli war on Gaza put even more pressure on Gaza’s economy. A systematic destruction deprived Gazans of many of their remaining assets. Damage to Gaza’s economic and civil infrastructure is estimated by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics at about $1.9 bn. Between 600 and 700 factories, workshops and businesses were destroyed or damaged. Between 35 and 60 per cent of the agricultural sector was ruined hitting the livelihoods of almost 13,000 families who depend directly on farming, herding and fishing.
Israel argues that its blockade of Gaza aims to undermine Hamas rule, to stop rocket firing and to release the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured in a cross-border attack in June 2006. But in practice, it has failed to achieve any of these declared objectives.
Are these really Israel’s objectives? The continuity of the collective punishment of Gazans suggests, instead, a systematic long-term plan to further the fragmentation of the political, economic and cultural structure of the Palestinian people and consolidate the separation of the West Bank from the Gaza Strip.
Israeli policies seek to convey a simple message to Gaza’s residents: “You are governed by Hamas, a ‘terrorist organization’ which ‘vows to destroy Israel’. This brings you poverty, unemployment and isolation, while the West Bank, governed by a friendly Palestinian Authority that talks to Israel and fights ‘terrorism,’ enjoys ‘economic peace’. So you need to choose who rules you.”
Many Palestinians resent this reasoning, but it receives tacit support from the international community. Seldom does Gaza appear in US officials’ statements – as if Gaza does not exist or is of no significance. European officials do mention Gaza, but only in the context of an appeal for a relaxation of the closure. The larger political issue of the deliberate marginalisation of Gaza is ignored.
Living in destitution and denied basic dignity, Palestinians are subject to a dirty game that aims to change the political discourse to that of a so-called ‘economic peace,’ played according to Israel’s terms.
Instead of focusing on the core issues including ending the Israeli occupation and its corollary, the settlement project in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinians are cornered into bargaining for the opening of a terminal, a relaxation of a restriction, a removal of a checkpoint or a change to the route of the wall.
The people of Gaza do not need your handouts; many others across the world deserve them more. What the international community needs to understand is that we seek freedom and ownership of our economy. We want to produce and manufacture, sow and reap our harvests, and raise and educate our children.
Said Almadhoun is a Palestinian Human Rights activist from the Gaza Strip. He was one of the few students allowed to leave Gaza for his studies in July 2008, following a campaign by civil society. He recently received his LLM from the American University in Washington, DC.
Further reading:
IMF: Macroeconomic and Fiscal Framework for the West Bank and Gaza: Fifth Review of Progress, April 2010: http://www.imf.org/external/country/WBG/RR/2010/041310…
Netanyahu denies reports of ‘surprising’ Palestinian concessions: Haaretz
Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Palestinian negotiators offered to match, and even double the amount of West Bank land Abbas was willing to relinquish during talks with Olmert’s administration in 2008.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday denied recent reports of Palestinian willingness to swap large amounts of land with Israel under a future peace deal. “The reports are false,” Netanyahu said at the start of the Likud ministers’ meeting Sunday morning.
According to the prime minister, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, has not yet begun mediating between Israel and the Palestinians.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that The Palestinian Authority had offered surprising concessions to Israel regarding borders for a future state.
According to the report, Palestinian negotiators have reportedly offered to match and even double the amount of West Bank land that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offered to former prime minister Ehud Olmert during their one-on-one talks in 2008.
On Wednesday, Abbas asked Mitchell during their meeting in Ramallah to clarify with Netanyahu his stance on several issues. Among them Olmert’s proposal on the borders and security arrangements for a future Palestinian state, as well as Netanyahu’s views on the Palestinian response to that offer.
A source privy to the details of the conversation between Mitchell and Abbas told Haaretz that the Palestinian leader stressed that the Palestinians are still committed to the positions they presented in response to Olmert’s offer, during negotiations held between August and December 2008.
“The points agreed upon with Olmert are agreements with the government of Israel,” Abbas and his aides told Mitchell. “We are serious in our intentions and this finds expression in our obligation to honor our agreements.”
The U.S. administration has full knowledge of the details of the Olmert proposal, as well as the Palestinian response. An 11-page document detailing these points was relayed by former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to the Obama administration officials.
Olmert had proposed to Abbas that Israel would annex 6.5 percent of the West Bank, in return for 5.8 percent on the Israeli side of the Green Line as well as a corridor linking the West Bank with the Gaza Strip.
In expressing his views on the borders of a future Palestinian state, Abbas told the U.S. envoy that the territory must be identical to that of the 1967 borders – 6,200 square kilometers. Abbas also noted that the Palestinians were willing to accept border adjustments in which Israel would annex no more than 1.9 percent of the West Bank territory, in exchange for similar territory inside Israel.
During their meeting Wednesday, Abbas told Mitchell that the Palestinian position on the borders had already been presented to Olmert. He asked the U.S. envoy to examine what the position of the current Israel government was.
The PA president requested similar clarifications on issues of security, saying he had agreed to a Palestinian state “with limited arms” and the deployment of an international force in the West Bank for a limited period of time. He clarified that he had not, however, agreed to the presence of Israeli troops on the territory of the future Palestinian state.
Defying Western pressure, Syria refuses to ‘police’ Hezbollah for Israel: Haaretz
Syrian FM: Why are arms forbidden to Arabs and allowed to Israel? Assad to visiting French FM: West must stop Israeli aggression in the Mideast.
Syria defied Western pressure on Sunday over its support for the militant group Hezbollah and said it would not act as a policeman for Israel to prevent weapons from reaching the Lebanese Shi’ite movement.
“Did Israel ever stop arming itself, did it stop instigating violence or making military maneuvers,” Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said after meeting his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle. “Why are arms forbidden to Arabs and allowed to Israel?”
Citing Israeli occupation of Arab land and the technical state of war between Syria and Israel, Moualem said the Damascus government “will not be a policeman for Israel”.
“Israel is beating the drum of war. In the absence of real peace every thing is possible,” he added.
Syria, a country Washington says is critical for Middle East peace, has shown no signs of withdrawing backing for Hezbollah, which is also supported by Iran, although the issue has clouded rapprochement between Damascus and Washington.
The row intensified when President Shimon Peres last month accused Syria, which borders Lebanon, of sending long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah.
Syria said it only gives Hezbollah political backing and that Israel may be using the accusation as a pretext for a military strike.
“A Scud missile is as big as this room. How could it be hidden and smuggled with Israeli planes and satellites all over the region?” Moallem asked, adding that cumbersome Scuds were not suited to Hezbollah’s guerrilla tactics.
Syrian President Bashar Assad met with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in Damascus earlier Sunday and urged the West to “break its silence” in the face of Israeli “aggression” in the Middle East.
During their talks, Assad denounced “the ongoing Israeli threats to ignite wars and undermine the stability in the region.”
“The region has changed and the West’s policy in the area is no longer acceptable, keeping silent over Israeli violations is no longer acceptable,” Assad told Kouchner, according to Syria’s official news agency SANA.
“If the West wants security and stability to be established in the Middle East, [it] must start to play an effective role to contain Israel and put an end to its extremist policies,” Assad said.
The Syrian president also told Kouchner that the Western countries pushing for harsh United Nations sanctions against Iran should understand that Tehran’s contentious nuclear program was aimed at civilian and not military pursuits, according to SANA.
“The countries involved need to change their attitude to Iran’s civil nuclear program, because this agreement is an important opportunity to reach a diplomatic solution and prevent a tragic dispute in the region and the world at large,” said Assad.
For his part, Kouchner said that Syria and Lebanon must ease their tensions with Israel, telling journalists after his meeting with Assad: “We cannot be resigned to a constant state of tension, even if it is decreasing.”
Kouchner also told Assad that France was concerned about reports of Hezbollah rearmament. Assad responded by saying that Syria, Iran and Hezbollah were not interested in beginning a new war with Israel, a French diplomatic source told AFP.
The official told AFP that Kouchner urged Assad to ensure that no weapons be transferred from Syria to Hezbollah.
AFP reported on Friday that Hezbollah has mobilized thousands of its militants in southern Lebanon ahead of the Israel Defense Forces drill which began this week.
“The Hezbollah fighters have [been instructed] to be completely ready to confront Israeli maneuvers on Sunday,” Hezbollah official Nabil Qaouk told the French agency. “Thousands of our fighters will not go to the polls [for municipal elections Sunday] and will be prepared from today.”
Qaouk declared that Hezbollah would not hesitate to respond should Israel launch a military offensive on Lebanon. “In the event of any new attack on Lebanon, the Israelis will not find anywhere in Palestine to hide,” he told AFP.
Israel believes that Hezbollah has since built its cache to more than 40,000 rockets since the Second Lebanon War, and that the militant group has developed the capability to reach the center of the country with its weapons.
France had led Western moves to rehabilitate Syria, but Kouchner said on May 2 that Hezbollah’s array of weapons made the situation “dangerous” and that France wants Syria to “guarantee the security” of the Syrian-Lebanese border.
Hezbollah used hundreds of shorter-range rockets against Israel during the Second Lebanon in 2006.
Israel said then Hezbollah’s supplies were coming through Syria, but it chose not to widen the war. The United States has avoided giving a view on whether the Scud transfer happened.
But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said senior U.S. officials have raised the issue of the suspected transfer of more sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah with Assad who “was making decisions that could mean war or peace for the region.”
A U.S. official said President Barack Obama is likely to raise U.S. concerns about Syria arming Hezbollah when he meets Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday.
Iran’s safety belt: Haaretz
The agreement signed last week between Iran, Turkey and Brazil to exchange Tehran’s enriched uranium for nuclear fuel does not alter the reality or dull the threat posed by Iran. It does, however, represent a fascinating lesson in managing foreign affairs.
By Zvi Bar’el
In October 2009, when it was proposed that Iran replace its enriched uranium stockpile with nuclear fuel rods, no one publicly demanded that the exchange be conditioned on Iran ceasing to enrich uranium independently. The plan was described as a confidence-building measure and called for Iran to transfer 75 percent of its uranium enriched at 3.5 percent to Russia and France. In exchange they would deliver to Iran, within a year, 120 kilograms of nuclear fuel for Iran’s research reactors.
The quantities were based on estimates that Iran had 1,200 kilograms of uranium, and that removing 700 to 800 kilograms of it from its territory would prevent Tehran from building a nuclear warhead (which requires much higher levels of enrichment ). The Western proposal aimed to test just how serious Iran had been in declaring that it had no intention to develop nuclear arms. It also sought to buy time to conduct negotiations regarding Iran’s complete cessation of nuclear enrichment.
Iran rejected the proposal and continued enriching uranium. The current assessment is that it holds close to 2,300 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, meaning that even if 1,200 kilograms of uranium is removed from its territory, it still has enough to enrich to weapons-grade levels that can be used to build a nuclear warhead. This explains Iran’s willingness to transfer to Turkey the amount of uranium that has been demanded by Western powers. However, the West now says the deal with Turkey will not put an end to Iran’s uranium enrichment – which had been the flaw in its proposal in the first place. What made these countries, led by the United States, oppose this deal and present a draft of new sanctions, as if it were punishment for the flawed deal with Turkey?
We can assume that had Iran accepted the Western proposal, thereby signing on to the same things agreed on in the deal with Turkey, the world would have been thrilled, praising Barack Obama’s diplomatic skills and describing Iran’s surrender to Western pressure as a miracle.
Except the Iranian regime decided to grant the “diplomatic gift” to Turkey and Brazil, not the United States – that’s why there has been an outrage. The Islamic Republic avoided “surrendering” to Washington, determined the terms of the agreement itself and bolstered the standing of its friends. The Iranian regime also placed a dilemma before the United States and its partners, who rushed to fall straight into the trap.
Instead of accepting the deal between Iran and Turkey – whereby a quantity of uranium that Washington had sought but failed to remove from Iran’s stockpile would be pulled out – and continuing to threaten sanctions unless Iran ceased to enrich uranium, a new proposal is being formulated whose goals will not likely be achieved and which may torpedo the agreement with Turkey. This new proposal will not prevent the huge Chinese and Russian investments in Iran, or include the Central Bank of Iran on the list of boycotted financial institutions. In the best-case scenario, the U.S. initiative grants Europe the leverage to impose its own sanctions that are tougher than those enacted by the United Nations.
These sanctions are too weak to make Iran reverse its decision to develop nuclear technology, but they do constitute, from Tehran’s perspective, yet another protective layer against a military strike against it, as the new measures must be given time to work. How long until Iran has a nuclear weapon? Until it has sufficient uranium to build a nuclear weapon? This is the problem with sanctions – defining their goals can be confusing.
The more problematic result of these events is that after the blow Obama struck at the exchange deal, it is doubtful whether there is room for any sort of dialogue between him and the Iranian regime. Israel is of course pleased with the turn of events, but this is the first time Iran withdrew from the red lines it had set a few months ago. It is willing to transfer its uranium to another state, it is not insisting that the transfer be done in stages, and it wants full dialogue – on all issues – with the international community. Lacking any other worthy alternative, there is no reason not to try out the Turkish option.
Syria says won’t be Israel’s ‘policeman’: YNet
Minister denies Syria gave Hezbollah Scuds, asks ‘why are arms allowed to Israel, forbidden to Arabs?’
Syria defied Western pressure on Sunday over its support for Hezbollah and said it will not act as a policeman for Israel to prevent weapons from reaching the Lebanese Shi’ite movement.
“Did Israel ever stop arming itself, did it stop instigating violence or making military manoeuvers, why are arms forbidden to Arabs and allowed to Israel?” Foreign Minister Walid Moualem said after meeting his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle.
Citing Israeli occupation of Arab land and the technical state of war between Syria and Israel, Moualem added, “Israel is beating the drum of war. In the absence of real peace every thing is possible.”
Regarding Israeli and US accusations that Syria was sending long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah, he said Damascus only gives the group political backing and that Israel may be using the accusation as a pretext for a military strike.
“A Scud missile is as big as this room. How could it be hidden and smuggled with Israeli planes and satellites all over the region?” Moualem asked, adding that cumbersome Scuds were not suited to Hezbollah’s guerrilla tactics.
Hezbollah’s weapons have been a focus of Western diplomacy toward Syria in the last several months. US Senator John Kerry, who had raised the issue with President Bashar al-Assad last month, met Assad again in the Syrian capital on Saturday.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also met Assad earlier.
France had led Western moves to rehabilitate Syria, but Kouchner said on May 2 that Hezbollah’s array of weapons made the situation “dangerous” and that France wants Syria to “guarantee the security” of the Syrian-Lebanese border.
The United States has avoided giving a view on whether the Scud transfer happened, but a US official said President Barack Obama is likely to raise concerns about Syria arming Hezbollah when he meets Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri on Monday.
PA minister promises employment for settlement workers: Haaretz
Palestinian social affairs minister invites female workers in settlements to PA offices to find help in obtaining employment inside
Al-Masri invited the workers to fill out forms in branches of the Social Affairs Ministry in order to find new jobs inside Palestinian Authority territory.
In an interview with the Ma’an news agency the minister said that “the national Palestinian trend is to continue boycotting settlement products and jobs. This is an extremely important issue in the delicate stage our people are at.”
Al-Masri promised that the boycott would not hurt the Palestinians and would even improve their condition.
“The government and public, private and civilian sectors are making efforts to create a substantial national alternative for those who work in settlements. It will be reflected in an improvement of the national Palestinian economy and will help us move forward towards independence.”
She further noted that despite the fact that there are not many Palestinian female workers employed in settlements, “This phenomenon must come to an end as soon as possible.”
Last week PA authorities distributed a booklet containing a detailed list and photos of 500 products the residents are instructed to boycott. The campaign has also found its way into legislation with a new law.
“Anyone trading in settlement products, assisting in their trade or importing them will be jailed for two-five years in prison and will pay a fine of 10,000 Jordanian dinar (NIS 55,000),” the law stipulates.
Those who will be found guilty of transporting settlement goods face a 3-6 month prison sentence and a 2000 Jordanian dinar (NIS 11,000) fine.
‘Part of national struggle’
The Palestinians view the boycott as part of a non-violent popular struggle. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has joined the campaign and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has even burned several Israeli products some months ago.
Fayyad stressed that the popular struggle is a central part of an effort for the establishment of a state.
Meanwhile, the boycott continues to provoke angry responses in Israel. The Land of Israel Lobby has called on Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz to close air and sea ports to Palestinian goods.
“We are convinced that such a step, which is legal and legitimate, would cause Palestinian Authority leaders to think twice about the terrorist economic policy they have adopted,” a statement issued by the lobby and Knesset members Zeev Elkin and Arieh Eldad noted.