Nasrallah: Israel should be wary of war against Lebanon: Haaretz
Israel would be taking a big risk if it decided to open war on Lebanon or on any of the other countries in the Middle East, Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday, advising Israeli politicians and generals to stay cautious regarding such a possibility.
Speaking to a Kuwait-based news channel, Nasrallah, referring to recent tensions between Israel and its neighbors to the north, said that “any war started by Israel against Lebanon or anywhere in the region would be taking a very dangerous risk on its part.”
“That kind of war would change every parameter in the Middle East,” the Hezbollah chief said, adding that his organization was not “frightened by the threat or by Israel’s psychological warfare.”
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The Hezbollah added that he knew that “Israeli politicians and generals, past and present, are very worried and very cautious and we would like them to stay that way,” saying that “the blood of Imad Mughniyeh would haunt them everywhere.”
The militant organization has vowed vengeance against Israel ever since Mughniyeh’s 2008 assassination, which it blames on Israel.
“I cannot say that it is close. Myself and brothers in Hezbollah see that all this intimidation does not hide behind it a war. On the contrary, if there was silence and quietness, then everyone must be vigilant,” Nasrallah said.
“But when you see all this American and Israeli noise, this means they want to use this noise to achieve political, psychological and certain security advantages without resorting to the step of war,” Nasrallah added.
Referring to an alleged long-range surface-to-surface- missile deal, reported by Israel to have taken place between Syria and Hezbollah, Nasrallah said that the “Israeli allegations on the transfer of Scud missiles from Syria to Hezbollah, in spite of Syrian denials and the quiet from the organization only strengthens Lebanon’s confidence in itself and in the ability of the resistance to defend Lebanon.”
“My comments from a month ago speaking of how we will reach anywhere in Israel are supported in the eyes of the Lebanese and Arab peoples when Israel and the United States discuss the transfer of Scud missiles from Syria to Hezbollah,” Nasrallah said.
On whether such a deal took place, the Hezbollah leader said: “Today it’s Scuds, yesterday other kinds of rockets … the aim is one, and that is to intimidate Lebanon, to intimidate Syria and to put pressure on Lebanon, Syria, the resistance movement and the Lebanese and Syrian people,” Nasrallah said.
“Regardless of whether Syria gave Hezbollah this type of rockets … of course Syria denied, and Hezbollah as usual does not comment.
Four Palestinians die in Gaza-Egypt ‘tunnel collapse’: BBC
The tunnels provide a lifeline for those living in the impoverished Gaza Strip
Four Palestinians have died in a smuggling tunnel under Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical officials say.
The men died because of an explosion near the Egyptian side, the head of emergency services in Gaza said.
Some Gazans accuse Egypt of using dynamite and pumping gas into the tunnels to end Palestinian attempts to beat the Israeli-Egyptian blockade.
However, flammable items such as petrol are frequently transported underground.
Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza, accused Egypt of “spraying poison gas” into the tunnel.
Egyptian security officials have denied the allegation they used poison gas.
An unnamed security source told the Associated Press that Egypt routinely blows up the mouths to the tunnels to seal them off, and that the blast and an ensuing fire could quickly use up all the oxygen in the confined space causing people caught inside to suffocate.
French news agency AFP quoted unnamed officials as saying Egyptian security forces had destroyed four tunnels but were unaware of any casualties.
Egypt is building a huge underground barrier along the Gaza border to stop smuggling.
The structure – made of bomb-proof steel – will be 10-11km (6-7 miles) long and extend 18m (59ft) below the surface.
Under the blockade, Israel allows only limited humanitarian goods into the strip, saying it wants to pressure Hamas and stop it smuggling in weapons, including the some of the rockets that Gaza militants fire into southern Israel.
The tunnels are used to smuggle in arms, fuel and goods from Egypt, but cave-ins are frequent.
Egypt keeps its pedestrian border crossing with the Gaza Strip closed most of the time.
In a separate incident, a Palestinian man died after being shot during a protest near Gaza’s border with Israel.
Palestinian medics said Ahmed Salim, 20, died after being shot by Israeli forces in the thigh.
The Israeli military said live rounds were fired as “warning shots” in response to a “riot”, where about 50 Palestinians were throwing stones and starting fires.
It said the incident had taken place 50m from the border fence with Israel, but that it considers the area 300m from the fence to be a “combat zone”.
Adie Mormech, an activist with the International Solidarity Movement group, said that although stones were being thrown, none reached the fence, and there was no warning fire before the shot that hit Mr Salim.
Palestinian and international demonstrators have increased protest activity in the buffer zone in recent months. Israel maintains a policy of firing at anyone present in the area.
Israel says the zone is necessary for security, as militants frequently approach the fence to try to plant explosives and attack Israeli forces.
But Palestinians complain that the buffer zone renders swathes of agricultural land unusable.
Lieberman: Proximity talks to resume in 2 weeks: Haaretz Service
Proximity talks, geared at renewing negotiations toward a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, are expected to launch within two weeks, Army Radio quoted Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman as saying on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters, Lieberman added, however, that he was skeptical of the Palestinians’ willingness to engage in peace talks, saying it was “unreasonable” to talk peace while perpetuating terror through naming squares after blood-thirsty terrorists.
Earlier Thursday, Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom also voiced his belief that Israel and the Palestinians were nearing renewed negotiations, saying he felt “it was time to stop letting the United States doing the Palestinians’ work for them.”
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“It’s time that [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] decides to sit with Israel and conduct real negotiations,” Shalom said, adding that “Jerusalem is out of any talks and is Israel’s eternal capital.”
Referring to the possibly of a flare up between Israel and Lebanon, Lieberman told reporters Thursday that Israel would not attack its neighbor to the north despite recent reports alleging that Hezbollah had received long-range Scud surface-to-surface missiles from Syria.
“Israel has no intention to create a provocation or engage in irrational acts,” Lieberman said
One Laptop Per Child reaches Gaza Strip: BBC
The laptops are designed for use by children in the developing world
The UN in the Gaza Strip has begun distributing thousands of laptop computers to children in its schools.
The rugged laptops are made by the non-profit organisation One Laptop Per Child, which aims to give a computer to every child in the developing world.
One Laptop Per Child say computers are a good way of improving the education of children living in poverty.
Humanitarian conditions have deteriorated in the Gaza Strip in the last three years, the UN says.
Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade on Gaza, which was tightened in 2007 after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, and all but humanitarian supplies are prevented from entering.
Unrwa, the UN agency for refugees, began distributing 2,100 laptops on Thursday in Rafah, a town in the south of the strip.
This is part of a wider ambitions to distribute 500,000 laptops to children in Gaza by 2012.
Connected
One Laptop Per Child has built the energy efficient XO laptop especially for children in developing countries.
“The XO laptop has a special place in children’s education in regions that are disrupted by ongoing violence,” said Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the organisation.
“With the XO the children can continue to stay connected and gain the skills and knowledge required to participate fully and thrive in the 21st century – even when getting to school is impossible.”
The UN agency which looks after Palestinian refugees, UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) provides housing, health services, education and emergency food supplies to more than four million refugees in five countries.
The computers are to be loaded with textbooks and teaching aids that cover the primary school curriculum, a statement from UNWRA said.
EDITOR: New Recruit for the One-State Solution
A rather unexpected recruit to the camp of the One-State argument… but an interesting admission that the Two-state solution requires to relinquish the Occupied Territories of Palestine!
Israel official: Accepting Palestinians into Israel better than two states: Haaretz
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Thursday that he would rather accept Palestinians as Israeli citizens than divide Israel and the West Bank in a future two-state peace solution.
Speaking during a meeting with Greece’s ambassador to Israel Kyriakos Loukakis, Rivlin said that he did not see any point of Israel signing a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority as he did not believe PA President Mahmoud Abbas “could deliver the goods.”
Referring to the possibility that such an agreement could be reached, Rivlin said: “I would rather Palestinians as citizens of this country over dividing the land up.”
Late last year, Rivlin said in a Jerusalem address that Israel’s Arab population was “an inseparable part of this country. It is a group with a highly defined shared national identity, and which will forever be, as a collective, an important and integral part of Israeli society.”
In a speech given in the president’s residence, the Knesset speaker called for a fundamental change in relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel, urging the foundation of a “true partnership” between the two sectors, based on mutual respect, absolute equality and the addressing of “the special needs and unique character of each of the sides.”
Rivlin also said that “the establishment of Israel was accompanied by much pain and suffering and a real trauma for the Palestinians,” adding that “many of Israel’s Arabs, which see themselves as part of the Palestinian population, feel the pain of their brothers across the green line – a pain they feel the state of Israel is responsible for.”
“Many of them,” Rivlin says, “encounter racism and arrogance from Israel’s Jews; the inequality in the allocation of state funds also does not contribute to any extra love.”
EDITOR: The New Antisemitism
In the age-old antisemitic tradition, the settlers are out on a pogrom against Palestinians every time they feel tetchy. No one seems to be able or willing to stop them, of course, and no one is ever prosecuted for the hundreds of local pogroms against Palestinian villages and towns. The only Jewish Democracy is only democratic for Jews, of course.
Israeli border police unit to tackle settler violence: BBC
Cars have been burned and a mosque vandalised in the north West Bank
Israel’s border police are to post a special task force in the northern West Bank to stop settler violence against Palestinians, the military says.
It said the decision followed what the military dubbed a “riot” by settlers in the area last week.
The force was to prevent “retributional violence” by settlers against Palestinians and to prevent damage to property, the military said.
Palestinians mosques, cars and trees were recently attacked in the area.
The decision to deploy the new task force “was made due to violent confrontations during Independence Day,” the Israeli military said.
Last Tuesday, the military called “intolerable” an incident in which it said about 100 settlers threw rocks and attacked soldiers as they tried to stop the settlers entering a Palestinian village.
One soldier was injured in the face by a thrown bottle.
Residents of the nearby settlement of Yitzhar were quoted by Israeli media as saying the soldiers harassed them as they tried to visit the area.
The previous week a mosque was vandalised with Jewish grafitti, cars were burned and olive trees uprooted in the village of Hawarra, also near Yitzhar settlement.
Some hard-line settlers advocate a “price tag” policy under which they attack Palestinians in retaliation for any Israeli government measure they see as threatening Jewish settlements.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to limit building in the settlements for 10-months to help restart peace talks with the Palestinians has angered many in the settler movement.
Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967, settling close to 500,000 Jews in more than 100 settlements.
There are about 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.
Israel’s military has dubbed as “intolerable” what it described as a “riot” by settlers in the West Bank.
The military said about 100 settlers threw rocks and attacked soldiers as they tried to stop the settlers entering a Palestinian village.
One soldier was injured in the face by a thrown bottle.
Residents of the settlement of Yitzhar were quoted by Israeli media as saying the soldiers harrassed them as they tried to visit the area.
Israeli citizens from the area of Yitzhar tried to enter the nearby village of Madma in the northern West Bank on Tuesday evening, the military said in a statement.
Soldiers tried to set up a military zone, but more settlers arrived and pelted them with rocks, it said.
“Violence and raising hands up against IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] soldiers is crossing the line in an intolerable manner,” the statement said.
The incident occurred on Israel’s independence day, which the military said made it “all the more serious”.
Settlers quoted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz said the military had been trying to prevent them from hiking in the area all day, and that a soldier had fired in the air during the confrontation – a charge the military denied.
‘Spate of attacks’
Last week a mosque was vandalised with Jewish grafitti, cars were burned and olive trees uprooted in the village of Hawarra, also near Yitzhar settlement.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned what he described as a recent spate of attacks on Palestinian property by settlers.
He said Israeli state policy had given rise to “a culture of violence, hatred and extremism in which Israeli settlers, often accompanied by Israeli soldiers, run riot across the West Bank”.
Israeli rights groups say the military often does not do enough to prevent attacks on Palestinians and their property.
Some hard-line settlers advocate a “price tag” policy under which they attack Palestinians in retaliation for any Israeli government measure they see as threatening Jewish settlements.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to limit building in the settlements for 10-months to help restart peace talks with the Palestinians has angered many in the settler movement.
Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967, settling close to 500,000 Jews in more than 100 settlements.
There are about 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.
Israeli diplomat flees British anti-Israel demonstrators: Haaretz
Talya Lador-Fresher, Israel’s deputy chief of mission at the Israeli embassy in London, had to be shuffled out a side door and into a “get-away” car by Manchester police on Wednesday, following a lecture she gave at the University of Manchester that was crashed by pro-Palestinian student protestors.
The lecture, on the situation in the Middle East, which was originally supposed to take place months ago, was delayed because of early security concerns at the university – but went ahead Wednesday after university officials promised Ambassador Ron Prosor that his deputy’s security would be guaranteed.
And indeed, Lador-Fresher managed to give her talk, although she was interrupted several times by students who hoisted Palestinian flags and called out anti-Israel slogans. But when she had finished speaking and was trying to head out of the auditorium, it became clear to her security that the way out was blocked by more demonstrators who had been waiting there throughout the hour-long event. The demonstrators had identified the Israeli embassy car and were surrounding it.
As such, it was decided by embassy security, together with the Manchester police, to evacuate her through a side door and drive her off campus in a police car. As she was leaving the area, demonstrators attacked the car, in an attempt, she says, to try and break the windshield. Lador-Fresher stressed that it was indeed an “unpleasant” experience which goes to highlight the decreasing lack of civility on campuses in Britain when it comes to Israel.
Ambassador Prosor, in turn, commended his deputy on “her fighting spirit” and said he expected a condemnation of such behavior from the university
Mideast nearing ‘explosion,’ Jordan’s Abdullah says: Haaretz
Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned Thursday that the situation in the Middle East could “explode” due to Israel’s building of settlements in East Jerusalem.
“I am afraid the tension could develop into an explosion with all parties paying the price,” the monarch said in a speech to the annual conference of Jordanian ambassadors.
His comments came ahead of a meeting this weekend of the Arab League in Cairo, which may herald the resumption of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Abdullah accused Israel of “playing with fire” by carrying out unilateral actions in East Jerusalem which the Jewish state captured from Jordan in the 1967 war.
“Israel should choose between living in an isolated fortress in the region or reaching peace with all Arab and Islamic states in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative,” he said.
The Arab peace plan, which was launched at the Arab summit conference in Beirut in 2002, offers Israel recognition by all Arab states if it pulled out from all the Arab territories it occupied in the 1967 war, including East Jerusalem.
Two weeks ago, Abdullah told the Chicago Tribune that a war could break out in the Middle East this summer if no progress is made in restarting Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.
“If we hit the summer and there’s no active [peace] process, there’s a very good chance for conflict, and nobody wins when it comes to that,” Abdullah said
Hamas slams Egypt for tunnel deaths: Al Jazeera online
Medics said up to 10 people were injured in the tunnel between Egypt and Gaza [AFP]
The Hamas movement has criticised Egyptian security forces after four Palestinians were killed when a smuggling tunnel from the country’s Sinai desert region into the Gaza Strip was destroyed.
Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin said Egyptian authorities had warned the Palestinians that the tunnel would be destroyed, before using gas canisters and dynamite to blow it up on Wednesday.
“Every few weeks, every few months, there are these incidents where the Egyptian authorities drop gas canisters followed by dynamite or explosives into the tunnels in trying to collapse them,” he said.
“The Egyptians often warn the Palestinians [before the attacks]. Whether or not that warning is heeded though is really dependent on who is there at the specific time.
He said that the tunnels are poorly constructed.
“Many of them collapse. In fact, more than 45 Palestinians have died in cave-ins. More than 40 has died as a result of direct attacks by the Egyptians in these attempts to stop [smuggling].
Vital supplies
The 1.5 million population of Gaza has relied on the vast network of tunnels from Egypt for vital supplies since Israel put the territory under siege after Hamas came to power there in June 2007.
The interior ministry of the Hamas government said the tunnel workers had been killed by toxic gas pumped into the tunnel.
“This is a terrible crime committed by Egyptian security against simple Palestinian workers who were trying to earn their daily bread”
Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesman
“The interior ministry confirms that the citizens’ cause of death was the Egyptian security forces spraying poison gasses into one of the tunnels,” it said in a statement.
A Palestinian police official said three people died of smoke inhalation and a fourth from flying debris caused by explosives being detonated in the tunnel.
Another three tunnel workers were admitted with injuries to a hospital in the Egyptian town of Rafah, he said.
Medics said as many as 10 people had been injured when the tunnel collapsed.
A Hamas official demanded an explanation for the incident.
“This is a terrible crime committed by Egyptian security against simple Palestinian workers who were trying to earn their daily bread,” Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, told The Associated Press.
“We demand that Egypt explain its position about what is happening and investigate the circumstances of this terrible crime and show the truth to the entire world and hold those responsible accountable,” he said.
‘Too many tunnels’
Egyptian security officials admitted that they had destroyed four tunnels north of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Wednesday.
Al Jazeera’s Amr El-Kahky, reporting from Cairo, said the Egyptians said they had done what they should be doing by notifying the Palestinians that the tunnel were the casualties occurred was going to be demolished.
“The Egyptians say that there are too many tunnels on the 15km long border. There are about 1,300 to 1,500 tunnels in that area,” he said.
Israel says the tunnels are used to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip [GALLO/GETTY]
“Most of these tunnels are dug with the approval by Hamas on the other side. They are not all operated by people who are pro-Hamas … They are also operated by outlaws on both sides of the border and that’s why it is very difficult to keep controlling what goes in and what goes out.
“Egypt thinks a lot of things come from Gaza, including people that could destabilise the security situation in Sinai.”
The United States and Israel have been pushing Egypt to do more to close the tunnels, which which they say are used to arm Palestinian fighters.
Israeli aircraft have bombed the tunnels in the past, particularly during the country’s three-week assault on Gaza, which ended in January last year.
Palestinian officials in Rafah say Egypt has stepped up a crackdown on smuggling in recent months, blowing up numerous tunnel entrances on its side of the border, setting up checkpoints in the area and confiscating contraband.
Since December, Egypt has also been building an underground steel wall to block the tunnels.
Settlers attack Palestinian village to protest police crackdown: Haaretz
Far-rightists from the West Bank settlement of Yizthar on Thursday marched through a neighboring Palestinian village and attacked local homes, to avenge a series of arrests by Israel Police earlier in the day.
The group stormed through Hawara to show their anger at the “police crusade against the settlers” after 11 residents of their community were detained, settler spokesman Avraham Binyamin.
They surrounded a Palestinian home in and hurled rocks through windows, according to the residents. People inside called for help through a loudspeaker, and the settlers fled as Palestinians converged on the area.
Israel Police raided Yitzhar early Thursday morning, arresting seven residents suspected of involvement in “price-tag” attacks on Palestinians. Four more residents were arrested soon after.
Most of the detainess, who included senior settlement officials, were released shortly after their arrests.
Extreme right-wing activist Baruch Marzel issued a statement in response to the arrests, saying that the Israel Defense Forces were “out to get” the settlers.
Extremist settlers declared the “price tag” campaign following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration of a temporary freeze in West Bank construction late last year.
Yitzhar has been at the forefront of the settler movement’s campaign, which calls for violent retaliation for government restrictions on Jewish building in the West Bank. Residents have launched numerous attacks on Palestinians, including an arson attack on a mosque in December 2009.
The IDF vowed last week to take serious steps to curb settle violence at Yitzhar, with assistance from local police and the Shin Bet security service’s Jewish unit, set up to thwart violence by extremist settlers.
The move came after rioters clashed with soldiers in the settlement.
According to Yitzhar residents, IDF troops began harassing groups of visitors who wanted to tour the area, and prevented the visitors from entering the springs near the settlement.
The residents said that at a certain point, the soldiers tried to hold back one of the residents, which created upheaval among the settlers.
Rights groups attack Israeli bill to shut down military critics: The Guardian
Proposed law could allow closure of any organisation that investigates and legally challenges abuses by Israeli military
Israeli human rights groups say they are deeply concerned about a newly proposed bill that could shut down any organisation that investigates and mounts legal challenges to abuses by the military.
The bill was introduced in the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, yesterday with the support of at least 17 MPs from different parties. If it became law it would prevent any organisation from being registered, or would close down existing groups if they were found to be passing information “to foreign entities” or were “involved in legal proceedings abroad against senior Israeli government officials or IDF officers for war crimes”.
Rights groups said the bill, an amendment to the law of associations, was the latest in a series of efforts to curb their activity in the wake of Israel’s war in Gaza. Several groups produced evidence suggesting the Israeli Defence Forces had committed serious violations of international law during the three-week war and gave evidence to the UN inquiry led by the South African judge Richard Goldstone.
Goldstone’s report said both Israel and Hamas were suspected of war crimes and should hold their own independent investigations. The report met with intense criticism from Israeli officials, and the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has listed the “Goldstone effect” as one of the three most serious security challenges facing Israel today.
In a joint statement today, 10 Israeli human rights groups said the bill would “trample” democratic values. “Instead of defending democracy, the sponsors of this bill prefer to reduce it to ashes,” they said. “This bill is the direct result of irresponsible leadership that is doing all it can to undermine democratic values and the institutions that are the backbone of a democracy: the supreme court, a free press and human rights organisations.”
The groups included B’Tselem, Gisha, Adalah, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel and Rabbis for Human Rights. Adalah, which works on Arab minority rights within Israel, said the bill was “a dangerous step” against human rights groups. The bill “seeks to restrict the freedom of expression and freedom of association of these organisations”, it said.
However, the bill already has significant cross-party support. “The bill will put an end to the rampage by NPOs [non-profit organisations] who are trying to subvert the state under the guise of human rights,” Ronit Tirosh, an MP from the centrist opposition Kadima party, told the Ma’ariv newspaper.
It also appears to have support among the Israeli public. An opinion poll for the Ha’aretz newspaper this week found 58% of Jewish Israelis believed human rights groups that exposed immoral conduct by Israel should not be allowed to operate freely.
Slightly more than half said there was “too much freedom of expression” in Israel, according to the survey by the Tami Steinmetz Centre for Peace Research, at Tel Aviv University. Most said they supported punishing Israelis who backed sanctions or boycotts against Israel, and supported punishing journalists who reported news critical of the Israeli defence establishment.
Report: Obama to call world summit if Mideast peace talks fail: Haaretz
U.S. President Barack Obama has told several European leaders that if Israeli-Palestinian talks remain stalemated into September or October, he will convene an international summit on achieving Mideast peace, senior Israeli officials told Haaretz on Thursday.
The officials said the conference would be run by the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers – the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia – in a bid to forge a united global front for creating a Palestinian state. The summit, they said, would address such core issues as borders, security arrangements, Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.
Obama is determined to exert his influence to establish a Palestinian state, the officials said, and several European leaders have vowed that the EU would support any peace plan proposed by Washington. Therefore, though so-called proximity talks are set to start in the coming weeks, Obama is already readying for the possibility that the indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks might reach a dead end.
The U.S. proposal would likely be presented by the end of this year, the officials said.
On Saturday night, Arab League foreign ministers will convene to reiterate their support for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to begin the U.S.-mediated talks. The Arab bloc is expected to demand that the negotiations show progress within four months. September and October will thus be critical months in determining whether the talks have borne fruit.
The UN General Assembly will reconvene in late September, and that month will also mark one year since Obama hosted a largely unproductive trilateral summit with Abbas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In addition, September 26 marks the end of the 10-month period Israel allocated for a freeze on West Bank settlement construction, and Netanyahu will have to decide whether to allow such building to be resumed.
Israeli officials said they believe Obama could postpone the international summit, or the unveiling of his own peace plan, until after the midterm Congressional elections in November, in which his Democratic Party is widely expected to suffer heavy losses.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu has a full diplomatic schedule next week. On Monday, he will travel to Sharm al-Sheikh for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on restarting the peace process. Mubarak will likely ask Netanyahu to make goodwill gestures toward the Palestinians to demonstrate the seriousness of his intentions to advance negotiations.
U.S. special envoy George Mitchell will return to the region later in the week to meet with Netanyahu and Abbas for discussions that may serve as the first round of proximity talks.
In advance of these talks, Interior Minister Eli Yishai instructed the Jerusalem Planning and Building Committee to inform him of any plan to authorize construction that the U.S. administration might deem diplomatically sensitive.
Abbas, for his part, will visit China on Friday, and in advance of this visit, he told the state-run news agency Xinhua that the Obama administration had promised him it would work to prevent any provocative Israeli moves during the negotiations.
“We want our state to be declared under an international agreement,” Abbas told the agency while visiting the Jordanian capital of Amman Thursday. “If this could not happen, the Arabs will go to the UN Security Council to get recognition of Palestinian statehood.”
Caterpillar equipment used in extrajudicial killing near Hebron: The Electronic Intifada
Press release, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 29 April 2010
The following press release was issued by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights on 26 April 2010:
On Monday 26 April 2010, Israeli occupation forces killed a Palestinian man, Ali Ismael Ali Swaiti, 45, in Beit Awwa in the West Bank district of Hebron, after demolishing a house while he was inside. Israeli occupation forces claim that Ali Swaiti had been wanted for several years. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns this crime — which constitutes an extrajudicial execution — and calls upon the international community to work towards bringing to trial those Israeli politicians and commanders suspected of committing war crimes.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR and eyewitness testimony, Israeli occupation forces entered Beit Awwa town in the far south of Hebron at approximately 3:00am on Monday 26 April 2010, supported by military armored vehicles, a bulldozer and a Caterpillar digging vehicle. Israeli forces surrounded the house in which Ali Swaiti was located, using sound bombs. The home belongs to Mahmoud Abdul Aziz Swaiti and is located in Khellet al-Foulah, in the north of the town. During the operation, Israeli soldiers broke into numerous other houses in the area and turned them into observation points and firing posts.
After some minutes, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) evacuated at gunpoint the family living in the targeted one-story house as well as a family living in another two-story house, which belongs to the family of Ahmed Abdul Aziz Swaiti. The two families were detained outdoors for some time before they were taken to an adjacent house belonging to Abdul Jalil Swaiti. They were detained there with other families, all of whom were interrogated regarding the whereabouts of the targeted person.
At approximately 5:40am, an Israeli bulldozer began to destroy the fences surrounding the targeted house. It progressed towards the house and started to demolish it, but it retreated as it was fired at from inside the house. Israeli forces stationed in the neighboring houses opened fire at the house for 15 minutes from all sides before an explosion took place inside the house. Residents of the area reported that the explosion resulted from the shelling of the house.
At approximately 6:00am, the Caterpillar vehicle began to drive into and destroy the fences of the targeted house. After that, a digging vehicle continued demolishing the house, and then retreated to allow the renewed advance of the bulldozer and the search for the body of Swaiti.
At approximately 7:00am, the bulldozer lifted the body of Swaiti out of the rubble and dropped it onto a road close to the demolished house before moving it another 10 meters away. At approximately 7:30am, an Israeli soldier fired at least two shots at the body of Swaiti from a distance of three meters. At approximately 8:00am, Israeli occupation forces left the homes in which they had taken position.
In the meantime, Palestinian civilians had left their homes and many of them hurried towards the area of the attack. They carried Swaiti’s body to take it indoors. However, some people clashed with Israeli forces as they withdrew. Israeli occupation forces fired at those people using rubber-coated metal bullets, wounding five Palestinians including a boy and a young woman. The wounded are as follows:
1. Mohammed Mahmoud Masalmah, 23, wounded by a bullet to the head;
2. Baha Mohammed Akimi al-Amareen, 20, wounded by two bullets to the legs;
3. Hussein Yusuf Swaiti, 18, wounded by a bullet to the leg;
4. Hammam Ismael Masalmah, 17, wounded by two bullets to the legs; and
5. Asma Murshed Swaiti, 19, wounded by a bullet to the right shoulder.
The IOF spokesperson said that Swaiti had been wanted by the Israeli Security Service for eight years, as he was held responsible for carrying out a number of shooting attacks against Israeli targets near Hebron, including opening fire near the Ethna-Tarqumiya intersection on 26 April 2004, i.e. exactly six years prior to yesterday’s killing of Swaiti. The said attack resulted in the death of an Israeli soldier and the injury of two others.
PCHR reiterates its condemnation of such acts and:
1. Confirms that this act constitutes part of a pattern of Israeli war crimes perpetrated in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), which reflect Israeli occupation forces disregard for the lives of Palestinians and for the requirements of international law.
2. Reiterates its condemnation of the illegal policy of extrajudicial executions carried out by IOF against Palestinian activists. It also confirms that this policy raises tension in the area and increases the likelihood of civilian victims among the Palestinian population.
3. Calls upon the international community to immediately intervene to stop these crimes which constitute violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.
4. Calls upon the international community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to fulfill their obligations under Article 1 of the Convention to ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances, and their obligation under Article 146 to search for and prosecute those responsible for committing grave breaches of the Convention. PCHR also calls on the High Contracting Parties to uphold their responsibilities as signatories to the protocol Additional to the Convention, such as breaches, which constitute war crimes according to Article 147 of the convention.
Israel’s choice: Make peace or disappear: Haaretz
By Tzvia Greenfield
The student senate at Berkeley University in California recently passed a resolution calling for divestment from Israel. Prof. Judith Butler, the feminist theoretician, expounded to the enthusiastic audience on her new “Jewish” vision, which calls for renouncing the State of Israel. In this way, the intellectual elites once again expressed their strong belief in the theological principle whose basis is opposition to Western culture.
For these intellectuals, the Palestinians’ struggle against Israel symbolizes the heroic uprising of the rejected and oppressed against the conquerors who have deprived them of their humanity and delegitimized their local narratives. And in this mythological and theological arena, there is no chance whatsoever of holding a sane debate based on facts and common sense.
Treating Israel as the worst representative of Western colonialism is particularly ironic given the Jewish people’s minuscule size and Europe’s virulent anti-Jewish history. Neither Russia’s control of the Chechens, Irish grievances against the British or Basque grievances against the Spanish evoke the harsh criticism that Israel does. Perhaps because it does not pay to confront the Russians, while Britain and Spain really do offer their minorities democratic equality and full civil rights.
Israel, on the other hand, continues to control the Palestinians and the territories by force. And in order to maintain its Jewish identity, it also has no intention whatsoever of granting them equal civil rights. One does not have to be a critical intellectual to understand that this internal contradiction, in a state that considers itself advanced, Western and democratic, is untenable.
There is thus no way to avoid a solution that chooses one of two options – either withdrawing from all of the West Bank and establishing an independent state for the Palestinians, or granting full rights to everyone who lives under Israeli control, Palestinians as well as Jews. In that case, of course, Israel would lose its Zionist identity as the state of the Jewish people – and if it is even possible for Palestinians and Jews to live together after 100 years of hatred, the Jewish residents of Palestine would immediately turn into an insignificant minority that is at the mercy of the millions of Muslim Arabs round about.
A development of this kind, which would destroy the Zionist project, would cause most Jewish residents of the former Israel to abandon their country and try to find new solutions for themselves on an individual basis – assuming, of course, that what happened before the Holocaust would not repeat itself, and that the millions of new Jewish refugees would be able to find safe havens for themselves in the democratic countries of the West. A horrific scenario like this would take the entire Jewish people back to its historic situation of weakness and victimization, and it is hard to imagine it could take place without a tremendous upheaval.
Yet another terrifying possibility, of course, is that Israel would consciously renounce its own self-definition as a Western democracy. It would then gradually turn into a dictatorship that defines itself as Jewish. It would use armed force to continue to control all the territory west of the Jordan River, and would continue to deny the Palestinians’ right to either freedom or equality. A choice of that kind would destroy Israel as a modern state, and accordingly also its ability to defend itself and to develop as a secure, flourishing, 21st-century society.
In this case as well, it is clear that most of the country’s intelligentsia, and indeed anyone with initiative, would leave Israel. Israel would remain with its religious population and its rightists – some of whom are capable of defending it, but most of whom are devoid of high-level development and management skills. The Israeli-Jewish dictatorship would thus suffer from a substantive weakness that would eventually lead to its defeat at the hands of its Muslim enemies.
It is sad to think that this process has apparently already started: The collapse of education and higher learning, together with the political corruption and the tremendous growth of those sectors that are not prepared to share the social, economic and military burden, is encouraging the more talented and diligent Israelis to leave the sinking Jewish ship.
Even if treating Israel as the country that embodies the ultimate evil in fact expresses a new and ugly incarnation of traditional anti-Semitism, which always viewed the Jews as the representative of all the world’s ills, the truth is still simple, but difficult to face: An Israel that does not allow the Palestinian situation to be resolved has effectively announced its own inexorable death, via the gradual destruction of the resources of knowledge and talent that have enabled it to develop and defend itself until now. In order to save Israel, we must immediately separate from the territories and their inhabitants.
Egypt: Lebanon in ‘panic’ over fear of Israeli attack: Haaretz
“Complete panic” is reigning in Lebanon because of fears of an Israeli attack and another war, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a closed meeting earlier this week, sources say.
The panic was spurred by the recent reports that Syria has delivered Scud missiles to Hezbollah. But senior diplomats have told Haaretz that Western intelligence agencies, including those of the United States, have been unable to independently confirm that such missiles have been sent to the Shi’ite group.
In recent months, Israel has used diplomatic channels via the United States and European Union to relay warnings that Syria was transferring advanced weapons systems to Hezbollah.
Military censorship has prevented the publication of many details, but reporters and analysts in the foreign media have mentioned various types of arms that Israel says Syria has made available to Hezbollah. These include anti-aircraft missiles, Scuds, and in some reports, chemical weapons.
According to the Western media, Israel’s claims that Syria has transferred Scud missiles to Hezbollah have made the issue a public one. Israel has lowered some of the censorship restrictions on local media, but also heightened tensions between Israel, Syria and Lebanon.
However, a number of Western intelligence agencies, including those of the United States, have expressed great doubts about the reliability of Israeli intelligence, or at least the analysis of the available data.
In some reports in the international media, sources in the U.S. administration admit that it is still unclear whether Syria has sent Scuds to Hezbollah.
Senior Western diplomats noted that investigations by a number of Western intelligence agencies have not made clear whether missiles of that type have been delivered. The diplomats noted that the United States was the only side that presented independent intelligence on the matter. But it only showed that Hezbollah guerrillas were training to operate Scuds in Syria. There were no clear indications that missiles had reached Lebanon.
The reports and the public discussion have fed the panic in Lebanon. Haaretz has learned that Aboul Gheit explained in his closed meeting that because of the tensions in Beirut, he sent letters to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and some of his counterparts in leading EU countries.
In the letters, Aboul Gheit asked Western countries to intervene with Israel to prevent a conflagration on its northern border.
Aboul Gheit added that in Lebanon, and in many additional Arab countries, the view is that no Scud missiles have been delivered from Syria to Lebanon. “It makes no sense,” he said. “These are large missiles that are difficult to hide.”
The Egyptian foreign minister said that the reports on the transfer of the missiles are creating the impression that Israel is looking for an excuse for another war in Lebanon.
Senior officials in European countries recently received emotional messages from Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who asked that they intervene to contain Israel so it will not attack Lebanon.
Earlier this month, for example, Hariri met with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi; sources familiar with the meeting say Berlusconi was amazed at the great tension the Lebanese leader expressed about the possibility of an Israeli attack.
The Italian prime minister sought to calm his Lebanese counterpart and told him that he had spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and would do so again. He did not think that Israel planned to attack.
Netanyahu is scheduled to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak next week at Sharm el-Sheikh. Mubarak, too, spoke with Hariri about his concerns that Israel might attack, and is expected to raise the issue with Netanyahu.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak met yesterday with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. He stressed that “the UN has a great role to play in blocking the transfer of weapons from Syria to Hezbollah.”
In recent days, Barak also discussed the issue of arms transfers from Syria to Hezbollah during meetings with senior Obama administration officials. During Barak’s meeting with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates yesterday, the American official said Syria and Iran provide Hezbollah with missiles. Gates said Hezbollah has more missiles and rockets than most states.
Clinton warns Iran, Syria on threats to Israel: The Washington Post
By MATTHEW LEE, Thursday, April 29, 2010; 11:38 PM
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration Thursday warned Iran and Syria that America’s commitment to Israel’s security is unshakable and that they should understand the consequences of threats to the Jewish state.
In a speech, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Syrian transfers of increasingly sophisticated weaponry including rockets to militants in southern Lebanon and Gaza could spark new conflict in the Middle East. And she said a nuclear-armed Iran would profoundly destabilize the region.
“These threats to Israel’s security are real, they are growing and they must be addressed,” she said in the speech to the American Jewish Committee. The speech was the administration’s latest effort to reassure Israel that its ties to the United States remain strong despite tensions that flared last month.
Clinton told the group that Israel is “confronting some of the toughest challenges in her history,” particularly from Iran, Syria and groups they support like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and reaffirmed U.S. determination to get them to change course.
“Transferring weapons to these terrorists – especially longer-range missiles – would pose a serious threat to the security of Israel,” she said.
Israel has accused Syria of providing Hezbollah with Scud missiles, weapons that would dramatically increase the group’s ability to strike targets in Israel. Syria has denied the charges.
U.S. officials have not confirmed Hezbollah’s possession of Scuds, but say they are concerned about its growing arsenal of rockets and missiles.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, addressing the same group later, made the same points as Clinton and said Israel was watching closely the situation with Hezbollah and Iran. He said Israel would hold the Lebanese and Syrian governments responsible for the introduction of any “balance-breaking weapons” to Hezbollah.
Getting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stop supplying these weapons, Clinton said, is one of the administration’s prime goals in returning an ambassador to Damascus. The U.S. has been without an ambassador in Syria for five years. The nominee, career diplomat Robert Ford, is still awaiting Senate confirmation.
Some lawmakers have questioned the wisdom of sending an envoy to Syria now, saying it would reward the country for bad behavior.
But Clinton argued it would not be “a reward or concession,” but rather “a tool that can give us added leverage and insight and a greater ability to convey strong and unmistakably clear messages aimed at changing Syria’s behavior.”
“President Assad is making decisions that could mean war or peace for the region,” she said. “We know he’s hearing from Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. It is crucial that he also hear directly from us, so that the potential consequences of his actions are clear.”
Arab MKs’ Libya trip a path to Mideast peace: Haaretz
By Haaretz Editorial
Hysteria gripped the right wing in the Knesset after an Arab delegation of MKs and dignitaries visited Libya. The chairman of the Knesset House Committee, Yariv Levin (Likud), hastened to adopt MK Michael Ben Ari’s (National Union) request to consider denying the MKs parliamentary immunity. MK Zevulun Orlev (Habayit Hayehudi) suggested that the law be enacted preventing people who have visited an enemy state over the past seven years from becoming candidates. In other words, he wants to prevent these MKs from running for the next Knesset.
The tongues of Habayit Hayehudi and National Union, two parties that could unite under the name “the Racist Union,” were abruptly unleashed as though they were dealing with an unparalleled act of treason. “This is a historic opportunity to deny once and for all the immunity and rights of the MKs who hate Israel and degrade the state,” raved Ben Ari. Orlev’s proposed amendment stipulates that anyone who visits an enemy state “unlawfully” will be seen as a supporter of an armed struggle against Israel. No less.
Libya is not on the list of enemy states and the MKs did not need the interior minister’s permission for the trip. Libya signed the Arab League’s peace initiative, holds the League’s rotating presidency, and its ruler Muammar Gadhafi maintains excellent relations with the U.S. administration.
So it’s hard to guess what members of the Knesset’s racist bloc were more horrified at – the fear that the Arab MKs will launch an armed struggle against Israel with Gadhafi’s help, or that they might serve as a bridge to acquaintance and perhaps Libyan recognition of Israel.
Israel does not enjoy abundant diplomatic ties, either with Arab states like Egypt and Jordan, which signed peace agreements with it, or Libya, which still sees it as an enemy. So every chance to invite Israeli Arab representatives, especially those in official Israeli institutions, must be seen as the opening of another window, or at least as curiosity to hear about the way things are in Israel.
Such an invitation from an Arab leader would certainly have been received with great excitement had it been addressed to Jewish officials. After all, this is what Israel’s government, which is demanding gestures of normalization from the Arab states, is longing for.
The Arab MKs did not go to Libya as Israeli public relations agents or ambassadors charged with vindicating Israel’s policy in the territories. That’s a mission even many Jewish MKs find difficult to carry out. Their trip to Libya – or to any other Arab state – is an inseparable part of their cultural and ethnic background and their desire to explain their views and position about the Israeli reality, even if these views weren’t forged in the right wing’s school.
Instead of tarring and feathering the Arab MKs, Israel would do well to make them partners in molding its policy and encourage them to build more bridges between Israel and Arab states. This would at least show a readiness to make peace with the Arab population.
Uri Blau to return leaked documents to Shin Bet: Haaretz
Lawyers for Haaretz reporter Uri Blau are to return to Israel on Wednesday after meeting with him in London and receiving information from him on the location of confidential documents he was given by Anat Kamm. The attorneys, Mibi Moser and Tal Lieblich, made it clear that Blau has not been holding the documents in London, and that the lawyers would provide the information to the Shin Bet security service in the hope that turning over the documents will help put an end to the case.
Kamm is on trial in Tel Aviv District Court on serious charges of espionage after transferring secret documents she obtained during her army service as a clerk in the GOC Central Command. Before a gag order on the case was lifted, the Shin Bet demanded that Blau turn over any source material that came into his possession at any time during his work as a journalist and also sought to detain him for questioning, and that he be put on trial for possession of secret documents.
Blau refused to transfer all the documents he had collected as that might disclose his sources, and as a result he has not yet returned to Israel. He agreed to turn over Kamm’s documents to the Shin Bet after she signed a written declaration waiving any journalistic privilege as his source and asking that Blau turn over the documents she had given him to the Shin Bet. Blau’s lawyers are expected to be in touch with the Shin Bet regarding the security service’s additional demands. Moser and Lieblich said on Tuesday: “We received the necessary information with regard to the location of Anat Kamm’s documents in Israel, and we will provide the information to security authorities on our return.”
Iran, Egypt ready for battle at nuclear meet: The Washington Post
Thursday, April 29, 2010; 12:05 PM
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Iran and Egypt are gearing up for battle against the United States and its allies over Israel and developing countries’ rights to atomic technology at a major meeting on the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to attend the conference, which opens on Monday and runs until May 28. He will be facing off with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who heads the U.S. delegation at the meeting at U.N. headquarters. Western envoys expect Ahmadinejad to take a defiant stand against the United States and its Western allies, accusing them of trying to deprive developing states of nuclear technology while turning a blind eye toward Israel’s nuclear capability.
An Iranian diplomat in New York told Reuters that “this participation at the highest level is a demonstration of Iran’s firm commitment to the NPT and to the success of the review conference.” He declined to be identified by name. The 189 signatories of the landmark 1970 arms control treaty — which is intended to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and calls on those with atomic warheads to abandon them — gather every five years to assess compliance with the pact and progress made toward achieving its goals. The last NPT review conference in 2005 was widely considered a disaster.
After weeks of procedural bickering led by the former U.S. administration, Egypt and Iran, the meeting ended with no agreement on a final declaration. NPT review conferences make decisions on the basis of consensus. Analysts and U.N. diplomats hope things will be different this time and that the conference can breathe new life into a treaty that has failed to prevent North Korea from building a nuclear bomb or force Iran to stop uranium enrichment. A Pakistani-led illicit nuclear supply network and slow progress on disarmament have also highlighted the NPT’s weaknesses. Israel is presumed to have a nuclear arsenal but does not confirm or deny it. Like India and Pakistan, it has not signed the NPT and will not participate in the conference.
Ahmadinejad is the highest-ranking official attending the conference. He will travel to New York [ID:nN28144835] as diplomats from the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany are meeting nearly every day in Manhattan to hammer out a draft resolution imposing a fourth round of sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program. Diplomats say the six are far from agreement as Russia and China push to dilute a U.S-drafted sanctions proposal.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SUCCESS
The powerful 118-nation bloc of non-aligned developing nations, which Egypt chairs and Iran is a member of, issued a “plan of action” to eliminate nuclear weapons. The move appeared to bolster Egypt’s and Iran’s positions on Israel and against the nuclear weapons states. Without mentioning the Jewish state by name, it called for the scrapping of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, further disarmament moves by the NPT’s five nuclear powers — the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia — and the negotiation of a treaty banning the use of atomic weapons and other steps.
“A successful conference would add legitimacy to the treaty at a time when its effectiveness is in doubt because of Iran’s and North Korea’s nuclear programs,” David Albright, of the Institute for Science and International Security, told the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs. North Korea withdrew from the treaty in 2003 and tested nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009. Western powers have called for stiffer penalties for nations that withdraw from the pact, making tougher U.N. inspections mandatory, and other steps that would make it difficult for states to develop atomic weapons.
Western envoys say a successful meeting would yield a declaration that hits all three NPT pillars — disarmament, non-proliferation, and peaceful use of nuclear energy. They said U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, unlike that of his predecessor George W. Bush, who in 2005 opposed reaffirmation of previous disarmament pledges, was trying to promote a unanimous agreement at the conference. This time, diplomats said, it was France that was actively opposing a proposed reaffirmation of disarmament pledges made at an NPT conference in 2000 — despite public statements from Paris that it is committed to disarming.
A spokesman for France’s U.N. mission called the envoys’ remarks “inaccurate.” A new strategy reduces atomic arms’ role in U.S. defense policy. U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said a new U.S.-Russian arms reduction deal and other steps showed “how committed the United States is to the non-proliferation regime and to disarmament.” Speaking to reporters this week, Egypt’s U.N. Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz said it was important not to focus exclusively on the nuclear threat posed by Iran.
“Success in dealing with Iran will depend to a large extent on how successfully we deal with the establishment of a nuclear-free zone” in the Middle East, Abdelaziz said. Egypt has demanded an international meeting with Israel’s participation that would begin work on a treaty to establish a nuclear-arms-freeze zone in the Middle East. Diplomats told Reuters that the United States, Russia and the other three permanent U.N. Security Council members were open to the idea and hope to strike a compromise with Cairo.
Clinton seeks concrete action on peace from Arabs: The Washington Post
Thursday, April 29, 2010; 9:31 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Arab states should offer more moral and financial support to Palestinians, reach out to Israelis and stop arming militants to foster Middle East peace, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday.
In her third speech on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in two months, Clinton stressed U.S. support for Israel after a period of acute U.S.-Israeli tension while laying out actions she expects of Israel, the Palestinians and Arab countries. President Barack Obama’s efforts to revive peace talks have been stymied by a disagreement over Jewish settlement construction that has strained ties between Washington and its close ally Israel and by divisions among the Palestinians. Obama has taken a much tougher line toward Israel than his recent predecessors.
Two weeks ago, he described solving the conflict as “a vital national security interest,” suggesting he may be willing to push both sides hard for a solution. Clinton’s speech appeared designed to quell any lingering anxiety in the American Jewish community about Obama’s support for Israel and to make the case for why peace is necessary for the two parties and the broader region. “Arab states … have an interest in a stable and secure region and they should take specific steps that show Israelis, Palestinians and their own people that peace is possible and that there will be tangible benefits if it is achieved,” Clinton said in a speech to the American Jewish Committee.
‘BUILD TRUST’
“We would hope to see such concrete steps like the opening or reopening of commercial trade offices and interest sections, overflight rights, postal routes, and more people-to-people exchanges that build trust at the grassroots level,” she said. Clinton also urged Arab states to give Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas greater moral support to negotiate with Israel and more financial backing to help Prime Minister Salam Fayyad build functioning Palestinian institutions.
The U.S. effort to rekindle indirect talks fell apart in March when an Israeli settlement-building announcement angered U.S. officials, who said it was insulting that the decision was unveiled while Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Israel. Clinton repeated U.S. accusations that Syria has transferred arms to Hezbollah, the political and militant group that controls parts of southern Lebanon, and said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was “making decisions that could mean war or peace for the region.”
In what appeared to be a reference to Iran, Clinton also said that no state should arm Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip. Speaking after Clinton, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel sees “heavy clouds looming over the horizon: Hamas in the south, Hezbollah in the north and, of course, Iran.”
The United States and some of its allies, including Israel, accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies this, saying its nuclear program is to generate power. Clinton said the United States is trying to give Iran a choice of reining in its nuclear program and benefiting from normal relations or “increased isolation and painful consequences.” “At every turn, Iran has met our outstretched hand with a clenched fist,” she said, but added that the U.S. effort to engage Iran had made it easier to persuade other countries to consider a fourth U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution on Tehran.
Israeli law proposal: Outlaw organisations reporting on violations: JNews
Foreboding in the Israeli human rights community as a new proposed law targets organizations reporting on breaches of international law
Thursday, 29 April, 2010 – 13:44
Source: Knesset minutes, nrg, Maariv, Israeli human rights groups
A new law tabled on Wednesday in the Israeli Knesset, seeks to forbid registration of Israeli organizations (NGOs) that are suspected of provision of information or involvement in law suits against Israeli officials or commanders for breaches of International Humanitarian Law, or war crimes.
It would also require the Registrar of Association to close down existing organizations engaged in such activities.
The proposed Associations Law (Amendment – Exceptions to the Registration and Activity of an Association), 2010, comes in the wake of an incitement campaign against the human-rights community in Israel and is the second law to be proposed against their activities this year.
Among the signatories to the proposed bill are two former members of Israel’s secret police, the Shin Bet or shabac: former director Avi Dichter and former deputy director Gideon Ezra.
The law proposal does not cite names of specific organizations, but the initiators of the bill, 19 Knesset members (MKs) from various parties of both the coalition and the opposition, cited Israeli groups Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Coalition of Women for Peace as examples, in the course of a debate held on the bill Wednesday.
Israeli daily Maariv focused specifically on Adalah, a human-rights organization led by Palestinian citizens of Israel. Its news item on the law proposal was headed “MKs propose: Outlaw Adalah.”
In a heated discussion in the Knesset yesterday, MK Nitsan Horovitz of the left-leaning Meretz party described the law proposal as a witchhunt.
“So long as activities are legal under Israeli law, they are [allowed] under freedom of expression, and the conflict is a political one,” said Horovitz. “Is anything illegal being done by an organization? – then go to the police,” he said.
He added that the Knesset should address the allegations made by the organizations under attack, instead of silencing them.
A group of ten Israeli human rights organizations has published a response to the bill, saying that it “violates international treaties and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which was signed in the wake of the horrors of World War II,” and that it “seeks to conceal information or suspicions of a crime.”
The group added that “The Israeli government’s refusal to allow the domestic legal system to investigate allegations of war crimes is the very reason that war crimes may be investigated and prosecuted abroad,” and that “instead of defending democracy, the sponsors of this bill prefer to reduce it to ashes.”
Adalah’s Director Hassan Jabareen, added that “if the legislation is enacted, it would constitute an official admission by the State of Israel that it is committing war crimes, and is ordering human-rights organizations in Israel to keep silent about them, to refrain from passing on information about them, and to cease assisting both the victims and the international community in working to prevent their continuation. Only a state that commits prohibited acts would be interested in such legislation.”