October 5, 2011

EDITOR: US Congress vies with racist settlers to harm Palestinians

While the Israeli fascists are burning mosques, the US Congress is climbing allover itself with measures to harm Palestine. Cutting funding for essential services – that will help a lot; cutting funds for the UN for dealing with the Palestinian vote – that will really be useful. They are thinking up new schemes daily.

This must be the signs of the American decline and fall – financial, political, cultural and moral, all mixed up. For those of us who tried to persuade the Palestinians to avoid building on US positions, this is sad reminder of the folly of the Fatah positions, and their hopes based on US pressure. It was never real, and now m ore than ever such futile hopes are a travesty and and offence against the people of Palestine. The US has always been a devoted partner of Zionism, and to wait for it to become an ‘honest broker’ is to wait for a messiah which is not coming. The Palestinian leadership, such as it is, should learn to confront the US, rather than to whimper before it. Nothing good will come out of this servility.

Vandals attack mosque in northern Israeli village: Guardian

Arson attack on mosque in Arab village of Tuba-Zangaria believed to have been ‘price tag’ strike by Israeli settlers

A woman inspects the damage after the mosque arson attack. Photograph: Ancho Gosh/AFP/Getty Images

Vandals have set fire to a mosque in an Arab village in northern Israel, provoking protests and clashes with police. Graffiti spraypainted on the walls of the building suggested Jewish radicals were involved.

About 200 residents of the village of Tuba-Zangaria, Arab citizens of Israel, marched to a major junction nearby with the intention of blocking roads in protest, Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said.

Some of the demonstrators set tyres on fire and threw stones at police officers, who dispersed the crowd using teargas, Rosenfeld said. No one was injured.

Police were mobilised to prevent further disturbances and were meeting village leaders in an attempt to defuse tensions, he added.

Rosenfeld said a carpet in the mosque was set on fire, damaging interior walls. Copies of the Qu’ran were burned, Israeli media reported.

Rosenfeld said the words “price tag” had been spraypainted on the building – a reference to a settler practice of attacking Palestinians and their property in retaliation for Palestinian attacks and government operations against settlements.

Several weeks ago, the government destroyed structures in an unauthorised Jewish settlement in the West Bank. The operation was immediately followed by an arson attack on a mosque.

Army Radio reported that the family name of a settler and his infant son who were killed in a car crash near the West Bank town of Hebron last week was also scrawled on a wall.

Israeli police said rocks were thrown at the man by Palestinians, hitting him around the head and causing him to lose control of the car.

Rosenfeld said security was heightened across northern Israel following the attack. Large numbers of Israeli Arabs live in northern Israel.

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, denounced the mosque attack and ordered the Shin Bet internal security agency to act quickly to locate the attackers. A message from his office said he was “fuming” when he saw the pictures, and said the attack “ran counter to the values of the state of Israel”.

US Congress blocks £128m in aid for Palestinians: Guardian

Palestinian Authority accuses Congress of holding back funds to punish Mahmoud Abbas’ bid for UN statehood
The Palestinian Authority has accused the US of “collective punishment”, after the US Congress blocked $200m (£128m) in aid in response to President Mahmoud Abbas’ bid for UN statehood.

The decision to freeze the payments was reportedly made by three congressional committees on 18 August, before Abbas’ planned bid for statehood recognition at the UN the following month.

The funds, intended for food aid, health care, and infrastructure projects, were supposed to have been transferred within the US financial year, which ends today. The Obama administration is reportedly negotiating with congressional leaders to unlock the aid.

“It is another kind of collective punishment which is going to harm the needs of the public without making any positive contribution,” Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib told the Independent.

“It is ironic to be punished for going to the United Nations.”

USAid has already started scaling back its aid operations in the West Bank and Gaza, and there are fears it may be forced to end all humanitarian work and distribution of financial support to the Palestinian Authority by January.

There are also fears the move could lead to a security crisis in the Palestinian territories.

“Security co-operation with the Palestinians is excellent at the moment and we do not want to jeopardise that,” a senior Israeli military official official told the Independent.

Democrat Gary Ackerman, member of the House sub-committee on the Middle East and South Asia, told a meeting of representatives and leaders of Jewish organisations outside the UN headquarters on Monday that “there may need to be a total cut-off of all aid to the Palestinians for pursuing this course of action which is very dangerous and ill advised.”

Former president Bill Clinton recently warned Congress to leave the issue of aid to the Obama administration. He said: “Everybody knows the US Congress is the most pro-Israel parliamentary body in the world. They don’t have to demonstrate that.”

A UN security council panel on admitting new members to the UN met to discuss the Palestinian bid for the first time on Friday. After the meeting, Lebanese UN ambassador Nawaf Salam said the committee unanimously agreed to hold further meetings next week.

Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike continues – now is the time for international solidarity!: IOA

5 OCTOBER 2011
As Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike enters its second week, international solidarity is needed now, more than ever. Prisoners are being sent to isolation in increasing numbers, family visits are being denied, families threatened and identity cards conficated, lawyer visits denied, and belongings and clothing confiscated.

International solidarity to support Palestinian hunger strikers is also growing:

éirígí, an Irish republican socialist political party, has called for a vigil at the Israeli embassy in Dublin on October 5 to support hunger strikers; the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat encourages all to attend!
The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network has issued a strong call for solidarity with the Palestinian hunger strikers, and the striking prisoners in California, including a highlight of the case of Ahmad Sa’adat. We encourage all to sign on.
A number of international organizations, including the Platform in Solidarity with Palestine, the Irish Republican Socialist Committees, and others, have issued statements and calls in solidarity with the prisoners.
The website mobilizing solidarity with the California prison hunger strike – where prisoners have also been denied legal visits, lawyers threatened, and retaliation used against prisoners – has also provided information in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners. We urge people to follow the California strike and provide support and solidarity!
There is a new Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat flyer for download and distribution – download the flyer here and distribute it in your community, at a protest at the Israeli embassy and at local events.
In Canada, Voice of Palestine Radio will feature an interview with a prisoner support activist live from Ramallah. The show will air at 8-9 PM Pacific Standard Time and can be heard on  Vancouver Cooperative Radio (CFRO) 102.7 FM live at that time for people in Vancouver, Canada. People outside of Vancouver can listen to the show live on the Internet http://www.coopradio.org/content/listen.
Palestinian prisoners in several prisons, including Nafha prison, have reported in the past few days that they were threatened that family visits would be denied in retaliation for their participation in the hunger strike. Israeli prison officials told the prisoners that for each day they spent on hunger strike, they would be banned from family visitation for 1 month.

In addition, women prisoners participating in the hunger strike, Sumoud Kharajeh, Linan Abu Ghoulmeh, Duaa Jayyousi and Wuroud Kassem, were moved into isolation and solitary confinement, Linan Abu Ghoulmeh while under arbitrary administrative detention.

The Israeli occupation prison service also transfered prisoners from Departments 13 and 14 in the Nafha prison to other prisons; their location remains unknown. Two prisoners in Nafha, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who were abducted from Jericho prison with Ahmad Sa’adat have also been placed in isolation, Hamdi Qur’an and Basil al-Asmar.

During a family visit, Israeli occupation prison authorities confiscated the identity cards of the families of Palestinian prisoners Mahmoud Abu Wahdan and Raed Sayel. The families were told that because their imprisoned relatives refused to break their hunger strike, they were not allowed to visit them.

In the Ofer prison, Israeli authorities placed 9 detainees – members of the PFLP – in solitary confinement and confiscated all their personal effects, clothing and other belongings.

In Asqelan Prison, the Israeli prison administration prevented lawyers from visiting detainees. A lawyer who came to Asqelan to visit prisoners Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Allam Al-Kaabi, and Shadi Sharafa was banned from visiting the prisoners and informed that these three and all prisoners from the PFLP who are on hunger strike are prohibited from receiving lawyer visits.

The hunger strike has been growing as well. Earlier in the day 20 prisoners from the Fateh party joined the open hunger strike, including the oldest Palestinian prisoner, Fakhri Barghouti, who entered his 34th year in Israeli prisons, and Akram Mansour, who has been imprisoned for 33 years and is quite ill with cancer. Additional prisoners also plan to announce their joining the hunger strike in the next few days. In the Negev prison, Anas Al-Shanti was placed in solitary confinement. In Ramon prison, prisoner Basem Al-Khandaqjy, a member of Central Committee of the People’s Party, joined the hunger strike.

TAKE ACTION TO SUPPORT AHMAD SA’ADAT AND ALL PALESTINIAN PRISONERS!

1. Picket, protest or call the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location and demand the immediate freedom of Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian political prisoners. Make it clear that you support the demands of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike! Send us reports of your protests at Israeli embassies and consulates.

2. Distribute the free downloadable Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat flyer in your community at local events.

3. Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that the Israelis ensure that Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners are freed from punitive isolation. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at jerusalem.jer@icrc.org, and inform them about the urgent situation of Ahmad Sa’adat.

4. Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat at info@freeahmadsaadat.org with announcements, reports and information about your local events, activities and flyer distributions.

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat

Free Ahmad Sa’adat Campaign


info@freeahmadsaadat.org
Twitter:http://twitter.com/freeahmadsaadat

On the world stage, Obama the idealist has taken fright: Guardian

Bin Laden’s killing aside, his foreign policy has all been waffle, dither and drift – with a trail of acts of dismaying expediency
Simon Tisdall
Candidates run on hope. Incumbents run on their record. But Barack Obama, lining up for a second term at the White House next year, has little to offer on either score. The heady optimism of 2008 has dissipated. At home, Obama is primarily associated with hard times: only 34% of voters approve of his handling of the economy, according to a recent poll. Abroad, his presidency has come to stand for impotence and incompetence. He promised new beginnings; what he has delivered, for the most part, is waffle, dither and drift.

If this verdict seems harsh, take a quick tour round the globe. Everywhere the pillars of American superpower are crumbling. The old habit of hegemony, formed in the postwar decades and confirmed in 1989 as Soviet power imploded, is fading as fast as a Honolulu sunset.

Part of the explanation is faltering industrial and financial clout, reflecting the rapid rise of rivals like China and India. But that is compounded by another central element: Obama’s persistent failure to stand up, in practical, substantive ways, for the values, beliefs and interests he so eloquently espouses.

Obama’s early, anguished indecision over keeping his promise to close Guantánamo Bay now looks like a grim portent. So, too, does his administration’s failure to support the Iranian students whose “green revolution” was so cruelly suppressed in Tehran in 2009. When the Arab spring took hold this year, the man who in Cairo had preached the pre-eminence of the democratic ideal took fright. Tunisia did not matter much. But when he faced accusations of becoming the president who “lost” Egypt, Obama’s dither default setting was triggered anew.

In the event he achieved the worst of all worlds. Hosni Mubarak, that staunch, unlovely friend of the west, was deposed with Washington’s belated blessing – to the lasting mortification of another key American ally, Saudi Arabia. Now the army-led, supposedly caretaker regime that replaced him appears equally unappealing. Egypt may soon require a second revolution, and next time the Islamists may not act so coy. For its part, Riyadh absorbed the lesson of US unreliability and took matters into its own hands by crushing dissent in Bahrain.

In Libya, as elsewhere, Obama talked the good fight from the sidelines. Speaking about Syria in August, he condemned President Bashar al-Assad’s “imprisoning, torturing and slaughtering” of pro-democracy demonstrators and demanded he step aside immediately. The call came after months of White House debate about the consequences of supporting change in Damascus. Assad, meanwhile, contemptuously ignores US mouthings, and a fracturing Syria accelerates towards the abyss.

Obama’s handling of his legacy wars – Afghanistan and Iraq – provides little to crow about on the stump. The Afghan troop surge has not brought about the looked-for breakthrough. Instead, casualties are up, while the Taliban, in contrast, have increasingly resorted to targeted terror tactics – such as last month’s assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president and head of the high peace council.

Any examination of whether Obama and his diplomats and commanders want a negotiated Afghan peace settlement finds President Dither at his most infuriating. Speaking at the end of Ramadan, Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader, clearly signalled interest in pursuing talks to create a new political order acceptable to all Afghans. But Washington seems more intent on threatening Pakistan than ensuring a peaceful transition in Afghanistan after 2014. Much the same may be said of Iraq, where US concerns focus less on the stability of a country it so massively destabilised than on how Iran may exploit the US withdrawal.

Obama’s foreign policy under-achievement leaves a global trail. He spoke out forcefully in Prague about the necessary inevitability of a nuclear bomb-free world. But his carrots and sticks have had little impact on North Korea’s or Iran’s ambitions, while the Libyan war delivered a clear message: if Muammar Gaddafi had not abandoned his nuclear weapons programme in 2003 he might still be in power now.

As a candidate Obama condemned Russia’s 2008 invasion of Georgian territory. But as president he offered Vladimir Putin’s regime a “reset” of relations amounting to a reward for bad behaviour. Along the Pacific rim, meanwhile, widely shared perceptions of a lack of political resolve in the face of China’s military expansionism are fuelling an arms race from Taiwan and Malaysia to Vietnam and Australia.

Amid multiple disappointments, one dismaying act of expediency stands out: Obama’s open-ended threat to veto UN recognition of a Palestinian state. After the three-year runaround handed out by Israel’s last-ditcher, “no surrender” prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, Obama had the chance to deliver a symbolic blow for peace, something surely right up his street. But with a wary eye on the 2012 campaign, he just couldn’t do it. Under Obama, the empire does not strike back. It strikes out.

If Obama is re-elected it won’t be due to his international achievements – unless you think killing Osama bin Laden is worth another four years.

West Bank settlers' shooting practice - Sept 2011

Israel must restart talks with its neighbours or face isolation, says US: Guardian

Defence secretary Leon Panetta says Israel needs to focus on diplomacy as well as security as he travels to Middle East

US defence secretary Leon Panetta says Israel needs to focus on diplomacy as well as security as he travels to Middle East Link to this video
The US has warned that Israel is becoming increasingly isolated in the Middle East, and said the country’s leaders must restart negotiations with the Palestinians and work to restore relations with Egypt and Turkey.

In a blunt assessment made by Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, as he was travelling to Israel, he said the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East made it critical for the Israelis to find ways to communicate with other nations in the region in order to have stability.

“There’s not much question in my mind that they maintain that [military] edge,” Panetta told reporters travelling with him. “But the question you have to ask: is it enough to maintain a military edge if you’re isolating yourself in the diplomatic arena? Real security can only be achieved by both a strong diplomatic effort as well as a strong effort to project your military strength.”

Panetta is scheduled to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week, and then travel to a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels. His visit comes as negotiators push for a peace deal by the end of next year, increasing pressure for the resumption of long-stalled talks.

The Pentagon chief said Israel risks eroding its own security if it does not reach out to its neighbours. “It’s pretty clear that at this dramatic time in the Middle East, when there have been so many changes, that it is not a good situation for Israel to become increasingly isolated. And that’s what’s happening,” he said.

Panetta said the most important thing was for Israel and its neighbours “to try to develop better relationships so in the very least they can communicate with each other rather than taking these issues to the streets”.

His visit comes at a particularly critical and fragile time. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has asked the UN to recognise an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, areas captured by Israel in the 1967 six-day war. The US opposed the UN bid, saying there is no substitute for direct peace negotiations. But with Israel continuing to build settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Abbas says there is no point in talking.

About 500,000 Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

The US, Britain, France and other UN security council members are likely to try to hold up consideration of the application while they press for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, diplomats said.

Negotiators for the Quartet (UN, US, EU and Russia), are asking the Israelis and the Palestinians to produce comprehensive proposals on territory and security within three months. Israeli officials have welcomed parts of the proposal, but have also expressed concerns about the timetable for some discussions. They also have refused to endorse the 1967 prewar borders as a basis for the future Palestinian state – something President Barack Obama has endorsed.

The Palestinians, meanwhile, have said they will not return to talks unless Israel freezes settlement building and accepts the pre-1967 war frontier as a baseline for talks. The Quartet is urging both sides to avoid “provocative actions”. Last week, Israel approved the construction of 1,100 new housing units in an area of Jerusalem built on land captured in 1967, a move that drew widespread international condemnation.

Panetta said he wanted to stress to both sides that instead of setting conditions or pursuing other approaches, “the most important thing they can do is go to the negotiating table. That would be a tremendous signal to the world that both the Israelis and the Palestinians want to try to find a solution to these problems. I don’t think they really lose anything by getting into negotiations.”

Panetta is scheduled to meet the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, and the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, as well as Abbas and the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad.

His visit to Israel comes six months after his predecessor, Robert Gates, travelled to the region to meet Israeli leaders and make a journey to the West Bank to talk to Fayyad.

The US has said it would veto the Palestinians’ UN request, despite the high political cost in the Arab world. However, Washington would not need to use its veto if the Palestinians fail to get the support of at least nine of 15 council members. Palestinian officials have said they believe they have eight yes votes, and are lobbying for more support.

Israel: Palestinian UNESCO bid is rejection of negotiations: Haaretz

Membership request in UN cultural agency seen as test case for support for Palestinian statehood; U.S. warns will cut funding to agency if bid successful.

Palestinians cleared their first hurdle Wednesday to full membership in the UN cultural agency, an official said, as they expand and accelerate their push for international recognition, despite opposition from the United States and Israel.

In response to the news, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that the Palestinian request for membership to UNESCO is a “rejection of the path of negotiations, as well as of the Quartet plan to continue with the political process.”

What do you think of the Palestinian application for UNESCO membership? Visit Haaretz.com on Facebook and share your views.

“This move negates the efforts of the international community to advance the political process. A decision like this will not advance the Palestinians in their aspirations to statehood,” the ministry said.

Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, Nimrod Barkan, told Haaretz the U.S. has clearly indicated that if the motion passes and the Palestinians become full members, it will stop paying its dues to the organization. This, in turn, will cripple UNESCO, as the U.S. pays 22 percent of the entire budget.

“The tragedy is that this hampers UNESCO from doing its real job,” he added to the Associated Press, noting that the agency’s board has taken up five Israel-related issues in recent days and none regarding Syria or Libya.” “A relatively small minority is hijacking the organization for other purposes,” he said.

With peace talks stalled and landmark efforts to get Palestine recognized at the United Nations inching along a labyrinthine path, Palestinian diplomats are pursuing other, potentially faster avenues toward getting the world to consider their territories a nation.

One is in Paris-based UNESCO, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, where the executive board agreed Wednesday to send the Palestinians’ request to a vote of the body’s members.

The Palestinians are also seeking a foothold in the World Trade Organization and won partnership status this week in the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights body.

None of this will solve the conflicts with Israel over security, violence and borders that for decades have prevented a Palestinian state from coming into existence. But it may up the pressure at UN headquarters and weigh on fresh efforts to resuscitate peace talks.

The UNESCO request is being seen as a test case indicating the breadth of support for the Palestinian push.

The Palestinian delegation, which has had observer status at UNESCO since 1974, presented a draft resolution to the agency’s executive board on Wednesday, according to diplomats there.

A UNESCO official later confirmed that the board voted overwhelmingly to send it to a vote of the body’s 193 members, two-thirds of whom must approve any request for full membership.

The vote has not been scheduled, but will take place at UNESCO’s General Conference, which runs from Oct. 25 to Nov. 10. The diplomats and the official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The question is highly divisive, and may rekindle tensions between Arab and Western governments just as democratic uprisings in the Arab world have brought them closer together.

The Palestinians have sought UNESCO membership before, to no avail. This year, UNESCO diplomats said, they are using a different method for the request, via a draft resolution. They may have more momentum now, after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took his people’s quest for independence to UN headquarters in a landmark move last month.

Israeli diplomats are trying to persuade leading governments “not to politicize UNESCO and leave this subject to New York,” Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, Nimrod Barkan, told The Associated Press.

“The tragedy is that this hampers UNESCO from doing its real job,” he said, noting that the agency’s board has taken up five Israel-related issues in recent days and none regarding Syria or Libya. “A relatively small minority is hijacking the organization for other purposes,” he said.

Ismail Tilawi, the representative of UNESCO in the Palestinian territories, says that since the formation of the Palestinian Authority in the mid-1990s, a request for Palestinian membership has been on the agenda of every UNESCO General Conference, which convenes every two years.

The chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, called for a cutoff of U.S. funds to UNESCO if the Palestinian effort succeeds this time.

“Feeling that their efforts at the UN Security Council will fail, the Palestinian leadership is shopping around the UN system for recognition,” Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, said in a statement. “It is deeply disappointing to see UNESCO, which has reformed itself in
recent years, poised to support this dangerous Palestinian scheme. The U.S. must strongly oppose this move.”

In fact, a U.S. law prohibits Washington from funding a UN organization that grants full membership to any group “that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood.”

Since the U.S. makes significant contributions to UNESCO, the membership bid, if successful, could result in a major drop-off in funding for the agency.

The U.S.¬ withdrew from UNESCO in 1984 to protest a resolution adopted years earlier that had equated Zionism with racism and did not rejoin for nearly 20 years.

France is worried the Palestinian bid at UNESCO will derail efforts to resuscitate peace talks.

UNESCO is “not the appropriate place” and its meeting later this month “is not the right moment” to seek recognition, a French diplomat said. The diplomat was not authorized to be named speaking about closed-door UNESCO discussions.

The UNESCO meeting in Paris comes amid a new effort by the so-called Quartet of Mideast negotiators to revive peace talks. The Obama administration’s special Mideast peace envoy, David Hale, is coming to Paris this week ahead of a meeting in Brussels of the Quartet – the U.S., European Union, Russia and UN.

In addition to advancing the Palestinians’ push for recognition, UNESCO membership could offer the Palestinians a key bargaining chip by allowing them to seek protected U.N. status for disputed cultural heritage sites.

At UN headquarters in New York, the Security Council committee that reviews membership applications is considering the Palestinians’ request. The committee is seeking to determine if the request meets the criteria of the UN.

In response to the news, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that the Palestinian request for membership to UNESCO is a “rejection of the path of negotiations, as well as of the Quartet plan to continue with the political process.”

“This move negates the efforts of the international community to advance the political process. A decision like this will not advance the Palestinians in their aspirations to statehood,” the ministry said.

A Palestinian political prisoner’s take on Israel’s protest movement: The Electronic Intifada

Ameer Makhoul  Gilboa Prison 5 October 2011
The recent wave of protests in Israel, which pretend to call for social justice, is one of the most powerful and massive mobilization to ever happen in the country. An unprecedented character of this movement, one should add, is its pretension to create an open space for groups, as well as individuals.

The people demand social justice! But for all? (Oren Ziv / ActiveStills )

The dynamics that guard these protests are that of a social movement. However, the content of the demonstrators’ demands should be subjected to a serious discussion and critique. One of the major contradictory aspects of this movement is the exclusive understanding of the value of social justice. Social justice is a universal value, but for the protesters in Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard, it is limited only to the internal dynamics of Israeli society.

On Rothschild Blvd., the root cause of the social injustices Israelis face are a taboo — that is, the occupation, colonial racism, militarization of all life’s aspects and the prevailing, aggressive neoliberal thought and system. These issues are deeply related to the Israeli state-building process.

The Israeli social protests should be seen in light of two major border-crossing developments: the Arab peoples’ uprisings, an example of how when the people move, nothing is impossible; and second, the growth of the international and globalized social movement. The latter, day by day, is gaining a popular character that is challenging the world’s neoliberal elites in what we know as the “wealthy” nations and their current crisis, impacting the entire world.

The recent protests are indicative of the growing strength of the Israeli social movement.

Furthermore, it partially challenges the current system of power division, attempting to redefine it on new principles in order to meet the agenda of the Israeli middle class, out of which the movement was initiated and is now led by. But Israel’s poorest classes are excluded by the leadership of this movement and its discourse.

Israel’s middle class losing power
Israel’s strong middle class, on the other hand, mobilized by the sense of losing its power — an outcome of the neoliberal hegemony in Israel that is represented not only by Prime Minister Netanyahu, but also the new elites in the country and their reproduction of the state’s new ideology. Neoliberalism became the joint ideology of those in power of the executive authorities and capital of the state.

During the recent years, Israeli society became more aware of the growing socioeconomic gaps. In the meantime, the Israeli state has witnessed the recreation of the tycoons. Very limited in number and running a small number of economic enterprises and businesses according to explicit and implicit cartel agreements, the new Israeli tycoons become the true rulers of the economy and the allocation of public funds.

On the level of government, on the other hand, the tycoons’ neoliberal thought shapes the decision-making process through the implementation of privatization policies that also include natural resources, such as Dead Sea minerals and the recently discovered gas and oil reserves on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. These natural resources were granted to the tycoons by Netanyahu’s government, arguing that the former is the true engine of economic growth. The Israeli middle class, however, argues the opposite: the middle class is the base for economic flourish; the resources are to serve, in addition to the state’s income, the community as a whole.

Additionally, the acceptance of Israel to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in May 2010 had a contradictory result of contributing to the social protests. Israelis became more aware of the existing gaps of income in the state.

Israel’s “miracle” economy in question
As often happens, the neoliberal policy legalizes corruption in a structural manner within the state. The transfer of natural and public resources to the tycoons is smoothly carried out by new regulations and new laws, and the judicial branch is complicit with the interests of the tycoons. Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s government is proud to tell the world about the “miracle” of the Israeli economy, which overcame the worldwide financial crises.

On the ground, and as a direct consequence of the magic Netanyahu speaks of, the number of people in Israel who live in poverty is growing. While according to Netanyahu’s magical statistics unemployment is being reduced, but the number of people who work with lack of dignity is growing. The current social protests, therefore, came to raise the question of who is paying the price for Israel’s apparent economic flourish. Hence it is the middle class, not Israel’s poorer classes, that is the core of this movement. Furthermore, the middle class’ voice is easily raised high by the media, for it is where most of the Israeli elite come from.

The question is, can such a movement provide equal opportunity for everyone to enter its space and to take part in it? The answer is simply no, because freedom of expression does not simply mean the equal opportunity to impact and exert influence.

Even though this movement is forming a new social force by challenging the sacred cows of the Israeli ruling establishment, such as “Israeli security,” it is also questioning the traditional opposition and the aged trade union, the Histadrut. Such a questioning of the entire ruling elites can only happen when the people are sharing a feeling that they can make change.

An apolitical protest?
However, the contradictory nature of “social justice,” as this universal value is understood on Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Blvd., silences all issues of injustice related to the Palestinian people. I am not just speaking of Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and in exile, but also those who are Israeli citizens, who suffer daily from land confiscation, racist legislation, the non-recognition of their villages by the state and the Judaization of the Naqab (Negev) and the Galilee.

According to this movement’s discourse, these issues are “political,” not “social,” and are therefore not included in the movement’s understanding of social justice. By considering themselves apolitical, the protesters ignore the occupation, the blockade on Gaza and state’s racist system against Palestinian citizens. (Or the protesters consider racism only in cases of Jewish Ethiopians and East Asian foreign workers, but even then solely on an individual basis.)

According to Israeli terminology, being apolitical allows the inclusiveness of groups from colonial settlements in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Golan, which are being invited to take part of in the protests. This creates an ethical contradiction, and of course a political one. The values of the Israeli social movement, in other words, are only limited to Israelis.

Palestinians, on the other hand, are excluded from any justice. According to the Israeli social movement, the 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners do not deserve social justice. Furthermore, neither do Palestinian refugees and the internally displaced. Israel’s wall in the West Bank and the Gaza blockade are also not worthy issues to be dealt with by a movement that pretends to provide an open space.

Colonizing settlers are welcome, not the Palestinian families that are victims of the wall erected by the Israeli law; not the solidarity movements for a just peace; not the peoples around the words who are victims of the bloody regimes with close military and intelligence cooperation with the State of Israel.

Envisioning a more kind system of injustice
The Israeli social movements, abiding to the Israeli national consensus, ignore the rights of the “other” for social justice. By not dealing with the root causes of the unjust system in Israel, the Israeli social movement wishes to make things less unjust rather than to change the system and the regime.

By not dealing with the colonial, racist Zionist ideology and the nature of the Israeli state, some are choosing to consider the Israeli social movement as “post-Zionist.” However, as we know very well, post-Zionism means neither anti-Zionism nor the de-Zionization of Israel. But I still believe that this movement can lead to changes in the direction of re-establishing the welfare capitalist state that existed in Israel. Such a state can meet the interests of a wider majority of Israeli citizens, including those of Palestinian citizens of Israel. However, the Israeli social movement cannot bring historical justice to the Palestinians in Israel. While some Palestinian organizations are participating in the social mobilization, they are fully aware that its demands do not wholly cover the Palestinians’ social and political agenda.

Of the Palestinians groups that are participating in the social protests are the Palestinian Bedouins of al-Araqib, a village in the Naqab that is unrecognized by the Israeli state and has been demolished 28 times by government bulldozers. However, despite their participation, the injustices caused by the state to the Bedouins were not included in the social protests’ leadership’s list of demands.

While the social movement’s discourse is not racist, it does not raise issues of racism. Justice does not only concern those who speak for it, but also others. A social movement is not a structural body; on the contrary, it is made of values, norms and the belief in equality for all. On this question, the Israeli social movement does not pass the exam.

By way of conclusion, I ask you to be aware that I am still behind the bars of Israeli prison. I can only learn about the recent developments through television, radio or the newspapers allowed in. However, I speak from the position as an activist, though it is difficult to get a feel of what goes on on the ground. I am one of 7,000 political prisoners who believe that injustice will fail, while liberation, freedom and human dignity will be fulfilled.

Ameer Makhoul is a Palestinian civil society leader and political prisoner at Gilboa Prison.

While the diplomats haggle, deadly tensions are mounting in the nascent Palestine: Guardian

25 SEPTEMBER 2011
By Harriet Sherwood
The quest for Palestinian statehood at the UN has worsened a climate of fear on the ground in the West Bank

The settlers come down the hill from the outpost, mostly on foot, but occasionally on horseback or in tractors or 4x4s. They carry Israeli flags, and sometimes bring guns, shovels and dogs. There may be as few as three or as many as 40. They taunt the local villagers and sometimes attack them. Often the Israeli army arrives and trains its weapons on the villagers.

In Qusra, deep among the terraced hills of the West Bank, fear is on the rise. “The settlers are provoking us continuously,” said Hani Abu Reidi, head of the village council. “They uproot olive trees, kill our sheep, burn our mosques and curse our prophet. They want to drag us into the sphere of violence. We do not want to go there.”

As the Palestinian quest for statehood looks set to be mired in diplomatic back rooms for weeks or months, tension on the ground is mounting. Both Palestinian villagers and Jewish settlers say each other is responsible for a spike in attacks over the past fortnight; mostly small-scale incidents such as throwing stones, molotov cocktails and insults. Both sides claim the other is preparing to invade their communities and attack their people. It has created an edgy climate of fear and menace, and is a forewarning of potential battles to come if the struggle for the land moves up a gear with impending Palestinian statehood.

The request by the Palestinians to be admitted to the United Nations as a full member state, formally submitted on Friday, will now be considered by the security council for an undefined period, during which efforts to get both sides back to the negotiating table will intensify.

If no progress is made, the Palestinians will press for a vote at the security council, a move the US has pledged to veto. The Palestinians would then have the option of asking the 193-member general assembly for enhanced status, albeit short of full statehood. As this process inches forward, anger on the ground is rising.

On Friday, violence between settlers from the outpost of Esh Kodesh and around 300 Qusra villagers ended in a haze of teargas and bullets fired at the villagers by Israeli troops, two of which struck Issam Odeh, 33, killing the father-of-eight.

Qusra set up a defence committee earlier this month after one of the village’s four mosques was vandalised in a settler attack condemned by the US and the European Union. Up to 20 unarmed men patrol the mosques from 8pm to 6am every night, and Abu Reidi claims they have already foiled at least one attack. Other Palestinian villages have followed suit.

On the hilltops, preparations for clashes have also been under way for weeks. Security around settlements and outposts has been reinforced with extra barbed wire, CCTV cameras, security guards and dogs. And the settlers themselves are armed and primed in anticipation of what they believe will be incursions by Palestinians intent on making their hoped-for state a reality on the ground.

This week, photographs were published on a pro-settler news website, Arutz Sheva, showing women from Pnei Kedem, an outpost south of Bethlehem, learning to shoot. In Shimon Hatzadik, a Jewish enclave in the midst of the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in east Jerusalem, settlers are preparing to invoke a law allowing self-defence against intruders. “We are talking about shooting at their legs and if that doesn’t work, and our lives are in danger, we won’t be afraid to shoot straight at them. Most of the residents here are armed,” spokesman Yehonatan Yosef told parliamentarians two weeks ago.

Activists in the settlement of Qiryat Arba, on the edge of Hebron, have distributed clubs, helmets and teargas to nearby outposts. “They’ve been given all of the tools we could provide for them in order to protect themselves,” Bentzi Gopstein, a member of Qiryat Arba’s council, told the Ynet news website. “But we must remember that the best defence is offence. We can’t stay close to our fences. If the Arabs can come to us, they must learn we can come to them.”

The settlers believe Israeli soldiers will be hampered by restraints imposed by commanders fearful of negative publicity. “They are not receiving the right orders,” said radical activist Itamar Ben-Gvir from Qiryat Arba. “There’s no state in the world that would allow the enemy to cross its lines and enter its communities. If the IDF will not act properly, we will have to defend ourselves.”

Women and children would take part in defensive action, he said. “We want to present an equation: women against women; children against children. The Arabs are intending to use their children and we will not sit still.”

Shaul Goldstein, mayor of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Bethlehem, expects the focus in the coming weeks to “move from hypothetical issues in New York to practical terror here in Judaea and Samaria [the biblical term for the West Bank]“. Gush Etzion had a comparatively good relationship with its Palestinian neighbours, he said. “We are trying to talk to them to reduce friction and tension. But if the Palestinians march towards the settlements, there is a red line. If they try to cross, to penetrate our communities, it will be a big problem.”

As well as fighting on the ground, many settlers believe they must also wage a political battle against the Israeli government. “Netanyahu is a weak leader, not standing for the values he was elected for,” said Goldstein. “The [settlement] construction freeze was the first in history – and this from a rightwinger. So we have to push him, to press him, to keep him to hold the line.”

The settlers are not just fighting to hold on to the land they already occupy; they intend to expand and grow – as they see it, reclaiming the land that has been willed to them by God.

“Our purpose is to build new towns and communities, new outposts in Judaea and Samaria,” said veteran activist Daniella Weiss. “It’s our role as Jews to build the land of the Jews.”

In Qusra, Abu Reidi agreed the land is at the heart of confrontations between Jewish settlers and Palestinian villagers. “Their ultimate goal is to drive us from our land,” he said. “Defending the land is a holy task. If we let them succeed, they will take more and more.”

Turkey PM: Israel a nuclear threat to Middle East: Haaretz

Erdogan’s comment, another sign of deteriorating Israel-Turkey ties, comes during trip to South Africa.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Israel is a threat to the Middle East region for having a nuclear weapon.

Erdogan spoke during a trip to South Africa. His comments were carried by Turkey’s Anatolia news agency.

Israel refuses to confirm whether it has a nuclear weapon, following a policy it terms “nuclear ambiguity,” but it is widely considered to be the Middle East’s only nuclear power.

Israeli-Turkish ties have deteriorated over Israel’s refusal to apologize for the deaths of nine Turkish activists in a raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship last year, prompting Turkey to downgrade relations.

Israel says its troops acted in self-defense.

Erdogan recently told TIME magazine that sanctions imposed by the United Nations on Israel would have resolved the issue of Mideast peace long ago, adding that he felt the Quartet on the Middle East was not genuinely seeking to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

September 27, 2011

EDITOR: It all goes back to normal, or does it?

So after the fracas at the UN, the thousands of words, photo-opportunities and ‘brave stands’, it seems that Israel under Netanyahu goes back to the coal face – to enlarging the settlements as fast as they can. This they can do due to their bigger partner, the US under Obama, the most obscenely pro-Zionist president, or as the Israeli and Jewish pundits have it – ‘the first Jewish President of the US’. There is simply nothing which the US President will refuse to Israel, especially a year before re=election is due. If there is a red line for US policies in the Middle East, some frontier they may not cross in assisting Israel against the Palestinians, then we definitely do not know about, or cannot even surmise what it may be. Israel knows it will get away with (mass) murder, and that is why it does it.

The EU are not any better, either because they are servile before the US, or because of their own twisted sense of debt to the Jewish people after the Holocaust. The bottom line is the same – Israel can do anything it wishes and get away with it, and the Palestinians cannot do anything, and they will also get it in the neck. The EU is financing the occupation, so as to remove this cost from Israel’s responsibility.

What is Abbas going to do now, after the ‘victory’ at the UN? Wait. Like he waited before. This policy is writing off the Palestinian people – there is nothing which they should or could do – Abbas will do it all, or as the case has been until now, will do nothing on their behalf, on top of also being the unelected president of the PNA,  the police force protecting Israel from the Palestinians. The Security Council holds no hope for Abbas or his ineffectual and corrupt friends. What then? An appeal to the Galactic Council?

The question is – will the Palestinians be the only Arab people not to try and unseat their non-elected ‘leaders’?

Israel must annex West Bank settlements, right-wing MKs tell Netanyahu: Haaretz

In letter to premier, leaders of several Knesset factions say Israel must retaliate against the Palestinians’ ‘unilateral’ statehood bid at the UN, or risk losing its deterrence.
Israel should legally annex West Bank settlements in response to the Palestinians’ recent bid for recognition in the United Nations, the leaders of several right-wing Knesset factions said in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.

The letter was signed by Likud chairman Ze’ev Elkin, Shas chairman Avraham Michaeli, Habayit Hayehudi chairman Uri Orbach, and the leader of the National Union faction Yaakov Katz.

In the missive, the right-wing MKs urged the prime minister to sanction the Palestinian Authority for what they called a “unilateral” move in the UN, saying that Israel had to make it clear that it would not agree serve as the Palestinians’ “punching bag.”

Among the steps mentioned in the letter to Netanyahu, the right-wing leaders mentioned the gradual annexation of all West Bank settlements; cutting Palestinian aid money; accelerated settlement building; cancellation of PA officials’ VIP ID cards; and prohibiting any Palestinian construction in areas controlled by Israeli security forces.

Citing the reasons behind such steps, the missive indicated that a Palestinian avoidance of unilateral moves was the only return Israel received for all of its concessions as part of the Oslo Peace Accords.

“The PA’s UN bid on unilateral recognition is a blunt breach of those agreements, which have, in the last 18 years, taken their severe toll on us,” the letter said, condemning states involved in those accords that are now deliberating whether or n or to support their undoing.

“We call upon you to make it clear to those nations that their conduct during this crisis rules them out was mediator in future negotiations,” the letter said, warning of the “serious damage that could befall Israel if it chooses to avoid reponse.”

In such an event, the letter indicated, Israel would “completely lose its deterrence, thus stimulating the Palestinians to continue their actions against it in the international arena.”

“In fact, the international damage that Israel could suffer in the wake of the UN vote is significantly smaller than that it would suffer if it doesn’t follow up on the principle you set a decade ago – ‘If they give, they’ll get; if they don’t give, they get nothing.'”

Jonathan Cook: UN bid heralds death of Palestine’s old guard: IOA

26 SEPTEMBER 2011
New leaders will spurn two states
Jonathan Cook
Amid the enthusiastic applause in New York and the celebrations in Ramallah, it was easy to believe — if only a for minute — that, after decades of obstruction by Israel and the United States, a Palestinian state might finally be pulled out of the United Nations hat. Will the world’s conscience be midwife to a new era ending Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians?

It seems not.

The Palestinian application, handed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon last week, has now disappeared from view — for weeks, it seems — while the United States and Israel devise a face-saving formula to kill it in the Security Council. Behind the scenes, the pair are strong-arming the Council’s members to block Palestinian statehood without the need for the US to cast its threatened veto.

Whether or not President Barack Obama wields the knife with his own hand, no one is under any illusion that Washington and Israel are responsible for the formal demise of the peace process. In revealing to the world its hypocrisy on the Middle East, the US has ensured both that the Arab publics are infuriated and that the Palestinians will jump ship on the two-state solution.

But there was one significant victory at the UN for Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, even if it was not the one he sought. He will not achieve statehood for his people at the world body, but he has fatally discredited the US as the arbiter of a Middle East peace.

In telling the Palestinians there was “no shortcut” to statehood — after they have already waited more than six decades for justice — the US President revealed his country as incapable of offering moral leadership on the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If Obama is this craven to Israel, what better reception can the Palestinians hope to receive from a future US leader?

One guest at the UN had the nerve to politely point this out in his speech. Nicholas Sarkozy, the French president who himself appears to be wavering from his original support for a Palestinian state, warned that US control of the peace process needed to end.

“We must stop believing that a single country, even the largest, or a small group of countries can resolve so complex a problem,” he told the General Assembly. His suggestion was for a more active role for Europe and the Arab states at peace with Israel.

Sarkozy appeared to have overlooked the fact that responsibility for solving the conflict was widened in much this way in 2002 with the creation of the Quartet, comprising the US, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

The Quartet’s formation was necessary because the US and Israel realised that the Palestinian leadership would not continue playing the peace process game if oversight remained exclusively with Washington, following the Palestinians’ betrayal by President Bill Clinton at Camp David in 2000. The Quartet’s job was to restore Palestinian faith in — and buy a few more years for — the Oslo process.

However, the Quartet quickly discredited itself too, not least because its officials never strayed far from the Israeli-Washington consensus. Last week senior Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath spoke for most Palestinians when he accused the Quartet’s envoy, Tony Blair, of sounding like an “Israeli diplomat” as he sought to dissuade Abbas from applying for statehood.

And true to form, the Quartet responded to the Palestinians’ UN application by limply offering Abbas instead more of the same tired talks that have gone nowhere for two decades.

The Palestinian leadership’s move to the UN, effectively bypassing the Quartet, widens the circle of responsibility for Middle East peace yet further. It also neatly brings the Palestinians’ 63-year plight back to the world body.

But Abbas’ application also exposes the UN’s powerlessness to intervene in an effective way. Statehood depends on a successful referral to the Security Council, which is dominated by the US. The General Assembly may be more sympathetic but it can confer no more than a symbolic upgrading of Palestine’s status, putting it on a par with the Vatican

So the Palestinian leadership is stuck. Abbas has run out of institutional addresses for helping him to establish a state alongside Israel. And that means there is a third casualty of the statehood bid – the Palestinian Authority. The PA was the fruit of the Oslo process, and will wither without its sustenance.

Instead we are entering a new phase of the conflict in which the US, Europe, and the UN will have only a marginal part to play. The Palestinian old guard are about to be challenged by a new generation that is tired of the formal structures of diplomacy that pander to Israel’s interests only.

The young new Palestinian leaders are familiar with social media, are better equipped to organise a popular mass movement, and refuse to be bound by the borders that encaged their parents and grandparents. Their assessment is that the PA – and even the Palestinians’ unrepresentative supra-body, the PLO – are part of the problem, not the solution.

Till now they have remained largely deferential to their elders, but that trust is fast waning. Educated and alienated, they are looking for new answers to an old problem.

They will not be seeking them from the countries and institutions that have repeatedly confirmed their complicity in sustaining the Palestinian people’s misery. The new leaders will appeal over the heads of the gatekeepers, turning to the court of global public opinion. Polls show that in Europe and the US, ordinary people are far more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than their governments.

The first shoots of this revolution in Palestinian politics were evident in the youth movement that earlier this year frightened Abbas’ Fatah party and Hamas into creating a semblance of unity. These youngsters, now shorn of the distracting illusion of Palestinian statehood, will redirect their energies into an anti-apartheid struggle, using the tools of non-violent resistance and civil disobedience. Their rallying cry will be one person-one vote in the single state Israel rules over.

Global support will be translated into a rapid intensification of the boycott and sanctions movement. Israel’s legitimacy and the credibility of its dubious claim to being a democracy are likely to take yet more of a hammering.

Events at the UN are creating a new clarity for Palestinians, reminding them that there can be no self-determination until they liberate themselves from the legacy of colonialism and the self-serving illusions of the ageing notables who now lead them. The old men in suits have had their day.

Jonathan Cook won this year’s Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net.

Palestinians in Norway, 2011, by Carlos Latuff

Netanyahu’s speech of lies: Haaretz

Benjamin Netanyahu promised he would feed us the truth, not another campaign speech, but a test of this promise seems apposite.
By Akiva Eldar
Bertolt Brecht wrote, in his poem “The Necessity of Propaganda,” “Even the hungry must admit that the Minister of Nutrition gives a good speech.” (Translation from the German, Jon Swan. ) It must be admitted that Benjamin Netanyahu gave a good speech at the UN General Assembly. His English was polished, his hand gestures precise and his body language perfect. His propaganda was sweet as honey dripping from his lips. It improves from speech to speech. But the prime minister promised that this time he would feed us the truth, not another campaign speech. A test of this promise seems apposite.

The real main message that Netanyahu brought to New York was that peace is achieved through direct negotiations between the parties, not unilateral measures like appealing to the United Nations. (By his truth, expanding the settlements in territory whose future is supposed to be determined through negotiation is presumably a bilateral measure. ) As a goodwill gesture to the Arab neighbors, Netanyahu quoted “an old Arab saying that you cannot applaud with one hand.” The truth is that the “saying” is actually a distortion of a well-known Zen koan. An innocent mistake, happens to everyone. The lie is in the “moral” of the saying, according to which the problem is the Palestinians’ refusal to clap their hands for peace and talk about security.

As a sage providing support for his own truth, Netanyahu claimed that in 2000 Israel “made a sweeping peace offer that met virtually all of the Palestinian demands.” It would be interesting to hear the opinion of then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak on this “truth,” for example on the Palestinian demands regarding the Temple Mount and the Palestinian refugee issue. Netanyahu also invoked his immediate predecessor, Ehud Olmert, to help substantiate his claims that there is no one to talk to. According to Netanyahu,”Olmert afterwards made an even more sweeping offer, in 2008. President Abbas didn’t even respond to it.” This is one of those cases where a half truth is even worse than a lie.

Netanyahu certainly read Olmert’s op-ed in The New York Times last week, asserting that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas never rejected his offer: “The parameters of a peace deal are well known and they have already been put on the table. I put them there in September 2008 when I presented a far-reaching offer to Mr. Abbas,” Olmert wrote.

Netanyahu, who is so concerned about our security that he is even demanding the creation of military bases in the West Bank, claimed the Palestinians are refusing to talk about security arrangements. Really? Let him try to deny that the Palestinians submitted a detailed security proposal, via U.S. envoy George Mitchell. How many times must Abbas repeat, in speeches and interviews, that he is willing to demilitarize the territories and even to permit an international force like the Multinational Force and Observers in Sinai, or even U.S. troops, to deploy in the Palestinian state.

We must also reveal the truth about “the refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border,” as Netanyahu said to the General Assembly on Friday. His statement was made soon after Abbas submitted to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon an official request to recognize the Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, a state that will live in peace with the State of Israel.

Apparently Netanyahu did not manage to see the application and did not know that it was based on UN Resolution 181, providing for the creation of an Arab state alongside Israel, as well as on the 1988 Palestinian declaration of independence, which recognized UN Security Council Resolution 242 and referred to Israel as a Jewish state.

In his speech, Netanyahu exaggerated the danger of the threat posed by Muslim extremists, which he illustrated with the precedent of Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip – giving “the keys of Gaza to President Abbas” and receiving Qassam rockets in return. How does one correlate a unilateral withdrawal with handing the keys over to the enemy? Netanyahu easily skipped over the Arab League Peace Initiative, yellowing on the shelf for nearly a decade. In it, all Arab League members, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, offered Israel not only peace and security within the 1967 borders and an agreed solution to the refugee problem, but also normalization of relations.

The Quartet proposal, issued after Netanyahu’s speech, refers directly to the Arab League offer and the Middle East road map – which demands an end to building in the settlements and the dismantling of the illegal outposts – as sources of authority for the negotiations. The Quartet expects the two parties to set aside the propaganda and begin showing their hands. If the Palestinians don’t pull his chestnuts out of the fire, maybe Netanyahu’s truth will finally be revealed.

Continue reading September 27, 2011

September 25, 2011

Netanyahu proved Israel doesn’t want peace: Haaretz

Netanyahu shows to the world that Israel wants neither an agreement nor a Palestinian state, and for that matter not peace, either.
By Gideon Levy
On Friday night Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again proved himself to be an excellent elucidator, this time in the service of the Palestinians: He demonstrated to the world, better than even Mahmoud Abbas, why they had no recourse but to appeal to the United Nations. If there is one clear take-home message from his Hezekiah and Isaiah speech, it is this: The Palestinians (and the world ) can no longer expect anything from Israel. Nothing.

Netanyahu was particularly persuasive when he explained that a Palestinian state would endanger Israel – narrow waist, just hundreds of meters from Israeli cities, thousands of rockets – one giant blah-blah that willfully ignores the possibility of peace. A Palestinian state, perhaps, but absolutely not in our time, and not in our school of thought.

Our school of thought seemed especially deluded Friday night. Every decent Israeli must be ashamed of their prime minister, who stands before the world and tries to sell it the same old shopworn, even rotten goods that are long past their expiration date, expounding on ancient, irrelevant chapters of history and attempting to market cheap sentimentality like a beggar who exposes his wounds, both real and imaginary, to passersby. And the beggar is in fact a regional power.

Netanyahu, peddler of emotions, did not shrink from or forget anything, save reality. Abraham the patriarch, Hezekiah, Isaiah, pogroms, the Holocaust, 9/11, the children, the grandchildren and, of course, Gilad Shalit – all fodder for the tear wringer that assuredly didn’t bring forth a single tear anywhere on the planet, with the possible exception of a few Jewish nursing homes in Boca Raton, Florida. There, perhaps, people were still moved by this kitschy death speech.

Netanyahu needed thousands of years of history to obscure reality, but Abbas’ sense of history proved to be much more developed: He had no need to call up distant memories to elicit sympathy; all he needed was to soberly depict current events in order to attempt to shape a new history. The world and the auditorium cheered for Abbas because he spoke like a 21st-century statesman, not like a co-opted archaeologist of centuries past. Abraham or Ibrahim, Hezekiah or Netanyahu, Benjamin or Jacob-Israel, Jew or Judea – our prime minister’s Bible and Holocaust stories should have made Israelis sitting down to their Friday night dinner feel awkward and uncomfortable. Is that all we have to sell to the world? Is that all we have to say? Is that what is being said on our behalf? Is that what we look like?

The faces said it all. Sitting around the table of Netanyahu’s cheerleading squad (all of them Ashkenazi men, of course ) were two kippa-wearers, two generals, two former Russians, three current beard-wearers – a depressing and threatening group portrait of Israel’s extreme right, class of 2011. The table of the Israeli delegation, even more than Netanyahu himself, revealed the true face of the most denounced country in the world today, with the exception of Iran and North Korea. They clapped, politely and obediently, not including Avigdor Lieberman and his loyal servant, Daniel Ayalon.

Israel’s real face was also seen in Israel; Lieberman wasn’t the only one to call Abbas’ judicious, impressive address an “incitement speech.” Joining the chorus, as usual, was Tzipi Livni – the Israeli alternative – who “didn’t like the speech.”

What was there not to like about Abbas’ speech, apart from his silly mistake in failing to mention the Jews, together with the Christians and Muslims, to whom this precious land belongs? What in his speech was anything but true and very painful? “Enough” of the occupation? Ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley? Obstructing checkpoints on the way to the hospital, and settlements that are a barrier to peace? What was incorrect, damn it? “A difficult speech,” the chorus of Israeli commentators sang immediately afterward; indeed, a difficult speech describing an even more difficult reality – but what do they know about reality? And not a soul asked: Why isn’t Israel reciting the travelers’ prayer for the Palestinians, for their journey to statehood.

On Friday night the final curtain fell on Netanyahu’s masked ball of a two-state solution. Hiding behind the curtain are darkness and gloom. And in that lies an event of historical performance: It proved to the world that Israel wants neither an agreement nor a Palestinian state, and for that matter not peace, either. See you at the next war.

While the diplomats haggle, deadly tensions are mounting in the nascent Palestine: Guardian

The quest for Palestinian statehood at the UN has worsened a climate of fear on the ground in the West Bank
Harriet Sherwood in Qusra
Women at the Jewish settlement of Pnei Kedem practise firing pistols and high-powered rifles. Photograph: Nati Shohat/Flash90
The settlers come down the hill from the outpost, mostly on foot, but occasionally on horseback or in tractors or 4x4s. They carry Israeli flags, and sometimes bring guns, shovels and dogs. There may be as few as three or as many as 40. They taunt the local villagers and sometimes attack them. Often the Israeli army arrives and trains its weapons on the villagers.

Women at the Jewish settlement of Pnei Kedem practise firing pistols and high-powered rifles. Photograph: Nati Shohat/Flash90

In Qusra, deep among the terraced hills of the West Bank, fear is on the rise. “The settlers are provoking us continuously,” said Hani Abu Reidi, head of the village council. “They uproot olive trees, kill our sheep, burn our mosques and curse our prophet. They want to drag us into the sphere of violence. We do not want to go there.”

As the Palestinian quest for statehood looks set to be mired in diplomatic back rooms for weeks or months, tension on the ground is mounting. Both Palestinian villagers and Jewish settlers say each other is responsible for a spike in attacks over the past fortnight; mostly small-scale incidents such as throwing stones, molotov cocktails and insults. Both sides claim the other is preparing to invade their communities and attack their people. It has created an edgy climate of fear and menace, and is a forewarning of potential battles to come if the struggle for the land moves up a gear with impending Palestinian statehood.

The request by the Palestinians to be admitted to the United Nations as a full member state, formally submitted on Friday, will now be considered by the security council for an undefined period, during which efforts to get both sides back to the negotiating table will intensify.

If no progress is made, the Palestinians will press for a vote at the security council, a move the US has pledged to veto. The Palestinians would then have the option of asking the 193-member general assembly for enhanced status, albeit short of full statehood. As this process inches forward, anger on the ground is rising.

On Friday, violence between settlers from the outpost of Esh Kodesh and around 300 Qusra villagers ended in a haze of teargas and bullets fired at the villagers by Israeli troops, two of which struck Issam Odeh, 33, killing the father-of-eight.

Qusra set up a defence committee earlier this month after one of the village’s four mosques was vandalised in a settler attack condemned by the US and the European Union. Up to 20 unarmed men patrol the mosques from 8pm to 6am every night, and Abu Reidi claims they have already foiled at least one attack. Other Palestinian villages have followed suit.

On the hilltops, preparations for clashes have also been under way for weeks. Security around settlements and outposts has been reinforced with extra barbed wire, CCTV cameras, security guards and dogs. And the settlers themselves are armed and primed in anticipation of what they believe will be incursions by Palestinians intent on making their hoped-for state a reality on the ground.

This week, photographs were published on a pro-settler news website, Arutz Sheva, showing women from Pnei Kedem, an outpost south of Bethlehem, learning to shoot. In Shimon Hatzadik, a Jewish enclave in the midst of the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in east Jerusalem, settlers are preparing to invoke a law allowing self-defence against intruders. “We are talking about shooting at their legs and if that doesn’t work, and our lives are in danger, we won’t be afraid to shoot straight at them. Most of the residents here are armed,” spokesman Yehonatan Yosef told parliamentarians two weeks ago.

Activists in the settlement of Qiryat Arba, on the edge of Hebron, have distributed clubs, helmets and teargas to nearby outposts. “They’ve been given all of the tools we could provide for them in order to protect themselves,” Bentzi Gopstein, a member of Qiryat Arba’s council, told the Ynet news website. “But we must remember that the best defence is offence. We can’t stay close to our fences. If the Arabs can come to us, they must learn we can come to them.”

The settlers believe Israeli soldiers will be hampered by restraints imposed by commanders fearful of negative publicity. “They are not receiving the right orders,” said radical activist Itamar Ben-Gvir from Qiryat Arba. “There’s no state in the world that would allow the enemy to cross its lines and enter its communities. If the IDF will not act properly, we will have to defend ourselves.”

Women and children would take part in defensive action, he said. “We want to present an equation: women against women; children against children. The Arabs are intending to use their children and we will not sit still.”

Shaul Goldstein, mayor of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Bethlehem, expects the focus in the coming weeks to “move from hypothetical issues in New York to practical terror here in Judaea and Samaria [the biblical term for the West Bank]”. Gush Etzion had a comparatively good relationship with its Palestinian neighbours, he said. “We are trying to talk to them to reduce friction and tension. But if the Palestinians march towards the settlements, there is a red line. If they try to cross, to penetrate our communities, it will be a big problem.”

As well as fighting on the ground, many settlers believe they must also wage a political battle against the Israeli government. “Netanyahu is a weak leader, not standing for the values he was elected for,” said Goldstein. “The [settlement] construction freeze was the first in history – and this from a rightwinger. So we have to push him, to press him, to keep him to hold the line.”

The settlers are not just fighting to hold on to the land they already occupy; they intend to expand and grow – as they see it, reclaiming the land that has been willed to them by God.

“Our purpose is to build new towns and communities, new outposts in Judaea and Samaria,” said veteran activist Daniella Weiss. “It’s our role as Jews to build the land of the Jews.”

In Qusra, Abu Reidi agreed the land is at the heart of confrontations between Jewish settlers and Palestinian villagers. “Their ultimate goal is to drive us from our land,” he said. “Defending the land is a holy task. If we let them succeed, they will take more and more.”

Who will stop Netanyahu and Barak?: Haaretz

During a moment of frustration caused by his inability to recruit support in the IDF for an attack on Iran, Barak scolded officers in the General Staff, saying that with ‘such a caliber of officers, Israel would never have won the Six Day War.’
By Alon Ben David
With the coming of autumn, doubts return. In another month, after the holidays, clouds will blanket the sky, and make it difficult for spy satellites and planes to see what is afoot down below. Whoever entertains the thought that an attack on Iran would deflect attention away from the Palestinian issue will have to wait until the skies clear again in April.

At first glance, the scenario seems deluded: Why would Israel, which is enveloped in the most severe strategic isolation it has faced since 1967, decide to engage in a war that would be liable to set the whole Middle East aflame? Yet the anticipated diplomatic stalemate, compounded by the sense of a thickening siege, could potentially prod the prime minister and the defense minister into seeking their own political resurrection in Iran. Anyone who has heard the description given by former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, regarding the intense responses stirred by the Iranian issue in recent years, can imagine that this scenario is not so far-fetched.

This would be the rationale: During the coming winter, centrifuges in Iran will produce close to a ton of enriched uranium, and Iran will relay this uranium product to its underground vault at Qom. There, beneath layers of stone, it would be very hard for an airstrike to derail the production process.

Until recently, Netanyahu and Barak’s rashness has been blocked by a wall of stiff opposition put up by the security apparatus. An “iron triangle” of Dagan, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin stood steadfast, and opposed schemes to attack Iran. This opposition was joined by others in the inner cabinet – Dan Merido, Moshe Ya’alon, Benny Begin and even Avigdor Lieberman. During a moment of frustration caused by his inability to recruit support in the IDF for such an attack, Barak scolded officers in the General Staff, saying that with “such a caliber of officers, Israel would never have won the Six Day War.”

The State Comptroller Office’s report on the Ashkenazi replacement affair is likely to shed light on calculations that led to the unconsummated selection of Major General Yoav Galant. Benny Gantz hinted about these motivations before he was summoned to become Chief of Staff: “I refused to relinquish my principles in order to gain the post,” he said, hinting that Galant’s selection was influenced by his strategic positions.

Subsequently, the entire security corps has undergone a shuffle, and there are new heads of the IDF, Mossad and Shin Bet. These security chiefs are not just newly-appointed – none of them were first choices for their posts. At first glance, this fact would seem to free them from obligations to the politicians who selected them. The problem is that they appear not to have accumulated the self confidence necessary to confront and disagree with their political superiors.

Waiting on the horizon is another appointment fraught with strategic implications. In April Major General Ido Nehostan will end his term as head of the Israel Air Force. Major General Amir Eshel, head of the IDF planning division, is considered the front-runner for the appointment, but recent pressure has been leveled by the Prime Minister’s Office in favor of appointing Netanyahu’s military secretary, Yochanan Locker, to the post.

Both men would be worthy appointees, but some are concerned that support for Locker stems from the desire to appoint a figure whose strategic outlook is akin to that of Israel’s leading political officials. In contrast, Eshel has acquired a reputation as a figure who is not afraid to clash with his superiors.

Gantz favors Eshel for the job. Should anyone else get the appointment, it would indicate that the IDF Chief of Staff is not the person who makes decisions on top IDF appointments. Such a move would also demonstrate that the political leadership wants to reduce IDF opposition to its plans.

On the day he left his post, Dagan stated that “Israel should wage war only when a knife is at its neck, and is already cutting flesh.” Without belittling the severity of Iran’s nuclear threat, it still bears noting that the knife is not there yet.

The writer is Channel 10’s military affairs correspondent.

Continue reading September 25, 2011

September 23, 2011

EDITOR: The fateful day at the UN is here at last!

A letter asking the UN to recognise Palestine as a state will be handed in today, Friday September the 23rd, 2011, by Mahmud Abbas to the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki Moon. This letter will not bring about the recognition of a Palestinian state, as we all know, because the US, with its first “Jewish  President”, Barack Hussein Obama, will stop this in its tracks.

But, as we were told by Lacan, ‘the letter always finds its address’. This letter has found its address in millions of people around the globe, all supporting the Palestinians in their struggle, like they have supported South African blacks some decades ago, in their struggle to end apartheid. The letter shall be delivered, and the message shall be heard, and understood.

Even for people like myself, who support a more egalitarian solution in Palestine – that of the single, secular democratic state for all Jews and Arabs living there, as well as the refugees of the many wars and expulsions since 1948 – this day is symbolically unique; here starts the slide-down of the racist state of Israel, with its tanks, jet fighters, walls, and even its nuclear weapons – nothing will protect it from the wave of history, the tsunami of political change.

It may yet take a long time, indeed, but the countdown has now started on the Zionist project, and nothing will stop it. Let them turn and twist, it will come to haunt them. They may well kill many more Palestinians and other Arabs before it is all done and dusted – I wish we could somehow stop them from doing that, but the US and the west will allow them to continue with their brutalities. But even the US cannot save Israel from history.

In one of her poems, the American Palestinian poet and activist Suheir Hammad says: “Do not fear what has blown up…. if you must, fear the unexploded”. Israel and the west should heed these words.

BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS!

Clashes break out between Palestinians and Israel security forces in East Jerusalem: Haaretz

Masked youths throw rocks at Israeli police and border guards, but massive protests have still not materialized ahead of Palestinian statehood bid at United Nations.

Violence broke out in and around the East Jerusalem area on Friday when Palestinian youths hurled rocks at security forces in the neighborhood of Ras Al-Amud.

Although the IDF has no indication that massive violence will erupt, it worries that events in New York – where PA President Mahmoud Abbas will address the UN General Assembly today and formally apply for UN recognition as a state – could inflame tempers. So far, fears that massive violence would break out in the lead-up to the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations have not materialized.

Security forces arrest a Palestinian in Ras Al-Amud during clashes on Friday, September 23, 2011. Photo by: Michal Fattal

A group of Palestinians wearing masks threw rocks at Israeli police officers and border guards Friday in East Jerusalem. Police officers gave chase as the rock-throwers fled the scene, apprehending one of them and taking him in for questioning.

Residents of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras Al-Amud reported that two people were wounded in the leg, but police reported that those wounds were caused when at least one of the wounded jumped over a fence and apparently broke his leg from the fall. He was taken away for medical treatment.

Residents of Beit Hanina scuffled with border guards on the scene. Three Arab youths were arrested on suspicion of burning tires and throwing rocks at the security forces. No wounded were reported. Two young Palestinians were arrested soon after on suspicion of forcefully trying to enter the Temple Mount.

Conflict broke out as early as Thursday night in East Jerusalem, when a Molotov cocktail was thrown at Beit Yehonatan in Silwan and rioting broke out in another of locations in the area. IDF soldiers held a 15-year-old resident of the area for questioning over the incidents.

Thousands of Muslims arrived for Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, though the police limited their participation in order to prevent public disturbances. The prayers ended and participants dispersed peacefully.

Police Chief Yohanan Danino and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch visited the Western Wall police station, in light of the heightened state of security. “The coming hours are the most tense and the police officers are ready for every possible scenario,” Aharonovitch.

“The police has not received any special warnings of plans to disturb the peace,” added Aharonovitch. Danino and Aharonovitch then surveyed the Jerusalem area in order to evaluate the readiness of the forces stationed there and to meet officers in the field.

An attack by settlers on Palestinians could also spark wider disturbances, and this possibility is currently one of the IDF’s chief concerns.

The Islamist Hamas organization has declared today a “day of rage,” but the IDF believes Hamas lacks the infrastructure to foment widespread disturbances in the West Bank.

Palestinian statehood goes to UN in key moment for peace process: Guardian

Mahmoud Abbas will postpone security council vote but has broken US hegemony over peace talks, diplomats say
Chris McGreal in New York and Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
Palestinians fly a kite of their flag in Gaza to celebrate Mahmoud Abbas taking Palestinian statehood to the UN security council. Photograph: Majdi Fathi/Corbis
Mahmoud Abbas submits his bid for recognition of Palestine as a state to the UN on Friday. The submission comes at the end of a week that has seen a dramatic diplomatic shift in the Palestinians’ favour, even though the request, to the security council, is likely to fail.

The Palestinian leader is expected to hand over a letter asking for Palestine to join the UN as a state shortly before he addresses the general assembly to plead the case for admission.

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, is scheduled to speak shortly afterwards. He is likely to denounce the Palestinian move as destabilising and a threat to the peace process – even though that is largely dormant.

A heavier than usual Israeli security presence will be deployed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem at the end of Friday prayers and around the time of Abbas’s speech.

Thousands of Palestinians are expected to gather before open-air screens in West Bank cities to watch their president’s address, and the Israeli military is concerned that hardline settlers may try to provoke confrontations.

“We have heightened the security alert to one level below the highest,” Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

“Twenty-two thousand police officers have been mobilised, with emphasis on Judaea and Samaria [the West Bank] and East Jerusalem. We hope that any demonstrations will be peaceful.”

Expectation among Palestinians has risen over the past week as Abbas has stood firm in the face of strong US opposition to his bid for statehood. It is matched by fury in the West Bank at a speech by Barack Obama to the UN on Wednesday, which was seen by both Palestinians and Israelis as overtly sympathetic to the Jewish state.

Abbas’s determination to press ahead has prompted the most serious attempt to revive the peace process in years as Washington, London and Paris seek to avoid a showdown in the security council that could severely damage their standing in a rapidly changing Middle East.

The US said it would veto statehood, while Britain and France were likely to abstain.

The days of diplomatic wrangling – much behind the scenes but some on the open stage of the UN general assembly – have resulted in a compromise. Abbas will submit his application, but any vote will be put on hold to allow for fresh attempts to revive peace talks.

While Abbas has climbed down from an immediate confrontation, some senior Palestinian officials and European diplomats believe he may have won a significant victory because the US grip on the oversight of the peace process – which has been decidedly in Israel’s favour – has been weakened, and other countries now want to force the pace of peace negotiations.

Washington’s claim to dominate mediation has not only been damaged by its unwavering threat to veto a Palestinian state in the security council, setting up a confrontation that alarmed Britain and France, but also by Obama’s speech, which offered no new initiatives.

That has opened the way for Europe to press for a greater role. In a speech to the UN, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, questioned the US leadership, describing it as “years of failure”.

Diana Buttu, a former Palestinian negotiator who has since been critical of Abbas’s leadership, said his insistence on going to the security council had delivered a diplomatic victory of sorts. “Is this a coup for Abbas? Yes, absolutely,” she said. “This is the first time since 1974 that Palestine has been able to capture international attention at the United Nations in this way.

“He’s managed to get people discussing whether Palestine should be recognised as a state, whether it should get its independence immediately, how we get there. It’s been a brilliant move.”

A European diplomat said Abbas had changed the diplomatic equation, adding: “The ground has shifted. There’s been no peace process to speak of for years. Obama has tried and failed to push Netanyahu in to taking negotiations seriously. There’s a feeling that this crisis has created a moment to try a different way.

“It’s still negotiations. It’s still up to the Israelis and Palestinians, who have to do the deal. But we are all aware that the Arab Spring is changing everything and, while the Americans are always going to play a major role, we may be moving towards a place where they are not the only ones in the game.”

Nevertheless, Abbas has been reminded of the blunt force of US power – power no other country is likely to be able to wield.

The Palestinian leader privately retreated from his pledge to seek an immediate security council vote in part because he is no longer sure of winning the necessary majority, which would have given the Palestinians a moral victory even if, as threatened, the US used its veto.

Palestinian sources say they believe Washington has bullied several security council members, including Portugal, into withdrawing their support for the Palestinian move by threatening to withhold support in financial institutions for its stricken economy, and Bosnia, over its opposition to Kosovo being admitted to the UN.

Palestinian officials believe Nigeria is no longer certain to vote in their favour, while there are also questions about the position of Gabon and Colombia.

One senior Palestinian official said the US was “playing a really nasty game”.

Abbas was also under pressure from European leaders keen to avoid abstaining in a security council vote on the issue. Abstention would be widely interpreted in the Arab world as implicit support for Israel, although the leaders recognise the need for Abbas to submit the statehood request in order to retain his political credibility at home.

Britain urged the Palestinian leader to back away from a showdown, while Sarkozy met Abbas and pleaded with him to accept a delay in the vote in return for a promise that the French would work to revive peace talks.

Sarkozy, in his UN speech, said the US leadership on the peace process had failed and pressed for greater involvement of European and Arab states in negotiations. “Let us stop believing that a single country or small group of countries can resolve so complex a problem,” he said.

“Too many crucial players have been sidelined. After so many failures, who still believes that the peace process can succeed without Europe? Who still believes that it can succeed without the involvement of the Arab states that have already chosen peace?”

Sarkozy proposed negotiations that would adhere to a strict timetable intended to strike an agreement ending occupation and creating an independent Palestine within a year.

The French president’s position is in line with proposals put forward by Tony Blair as envoy of the Middle East quartet of the UN, EU, US and Russia to allow Abbas to fulfil his pledge to go to the security council but defer a vote.

Abbas could then claim a victory for the Palestinians by saying he has achieved his principal goal at the UN of breaking the stalemate around the peace process.

Buttu said the challenge for Abbas now was to ensure that the momentum created this week continued in the Palestinians’ favour.

“I think the old negotiations process has completely run its tired course. You’ve got countries around the world recognising that you can’t just have this process of endless negotiations with the so-called honest broker who’s not so honest at all. This has put the final nail in the coffin of the United States being the honest broker,” she said.

“Now it’s being seen for what it actually is, which is Israel’s lawyer. The next step depends on what Abbas does.

“Is he going to continue to pander to the Americans? Or is he really going to try to build up an international coalition that will deal with this in a very different way to how it’s been dealt with in the past?”

Image from Calandia protest today, picture by Al Jazeera's Sangwon Yoon

Bill Clinton: Netanyahu isn’t interested in Mideast peace deal: Haaretz

Former U.S. President says a cynical perspective of Prime Minister’s calls for negotiations ‘means that he’s just not going to give up the West Bank’.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is responsible for the inability to reach a peace deal that would end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Thursday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York, the former U.S. president was quoted by Foreign Policy magazine as claiming that Netanyahu lost interest in the peace process as soon as two basic Israelis demands seemed to come into reach: a viable Palestinian leadership and the possibility of normalizing ties with the Arab world.

“The Israelis always wanted two things that once it turned out they had, it didn’t seem so appealing to Mr. Netanyahu,” Clinton said, adding that Israel wanted “to believe they had a partner for peace in a Palestinian government, and there’s no question — and the Netanyahu government has said — that this is the finest Palestinian government they’ve ever had in the West Bank.”

Furthermore, the former U.S. president is quoted by Foreign Policy as saying that Israel was also on the verge of being recognized by Arab nations adding that the “king of Saudi Arabia started lining up all the Arab countries to say to the Israelis, ‘if you work it out with the Palestinians … we will give you immediately not only recognition but a political, economic, and security partnership.”

“This is huge…. It’s a heck of a deal,” Clinton said, adding: “That’s what happened. Every American needs to know this. That’s how we got to where we are.”

“The real cynics believe that the Netanyahu’s government’s continued call for negotiations over borders and such means that he’s just not going to give up the West Bank,” he added.

Clinton also said he felt the Palestinians would accept the deal rejected by former PA President Yasser Arafat in 2000 negotiations with then Prime Minister Ehud Barak, saying that Palestinian leaders “have explicitly said on more than one occasion that if [Netanyahu] put up the deal that was offered to them before — my deal — that they would take it.”

“For reasons that even after all these years I still don’t know for sure, Arafat turned down the deal I put together that Barak accepted,” he was quoted by Foreign Policy as saying. “But they also had an Israeli government that was willing to give them East Jerusalem as the capital of the new state of Palestine.”

Clinton also added, as to the chances of Mideast peace being achievable in the foreseeable future, in light of past failures, saying that the “two great tragedies in modern Middle Eastern politics, which make you wonder if God wants Middle East peace or not, were [Yitzhak] Rabin’s assassination and [Ariel] Sharon’s stroke.”

Clinton’s comments come as a Palestinian delegation headed by Abbas is planned to officially submit its statehood bid to the United Nations later Friday, with both Palestinian President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu scheduled to address the General Assembly.

Despite heavy pressure from the West, Abbas remained determined to formally apply for UN recognition of a Palestinian state Friday.

U.S. President Barack Obama met with Abbas Thursday night in an effort to convince him not to seek Security Council recognition, warning that the U.S. would use its veto power to block it. Lower-level American officials also met with Abbas several times, but to no avail.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, reiterated on Thursdays that Abbas’ statehood bid will not contribute to the peace process and will merely delay the start of negotiations – which, she added, are the only way the Palestinians can actually achieve independence.

American officials also continued their effort to mobilize enough Security Council votes to defeat the statehood bid without a U.S. veto. Germany has already announced it won’t vote yes, and Rice said she is convinced other countries will do the same. America, she said, is not the only country to realize that the UN gambit is unproductive.

Continue reading September 23, 2011

September 22, 2011

EDITOR: New Chair of AIPAC speaks at the UN!

So the the AIPAC new chair, and ex-president of the US, a certain Barrack, Hussein Obama, has said what’s on his mind. Or, put differently, the second shot in the game of “fuck the Palestinians” has been now played. Wait for the next moves by the Republicans…

Palestinians blast Obama’s UN speech at West Bank rally

Palestinians holding placards during a rally against U.S. President Barack Obama's address at the UN in the West Bank city of Ramallah September 22, 2011. Photo by: Reuters

Protesters amass near Abbas’ Ramallah office, accuse U.S. President of siding ‘with killers against victims’; activists call for protests in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.

By The Associated Press,     DPA     and Haaretz
Tags: Middle East peace Palestinian state Barack Obama UN Mahmoud Abbas

Dozens of Palestinians gathered outside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ office in Ramallah on Thursday, protesting U.S. President Barack Obama’s opposition to their bid to gain recognition of a Palestinian state in the United Nations.

The protesters held up anti-Obama signs, including one reading “Obama the hypocrite” and another claiming the American president is siding “with killers against victims.”

Also Thursday, the Egypt’s semi-official Al Ahram newspaper reported online that activists in several Arab countries have called mass demonstrations in support of the Palestinian bid for statehood.
The demonstrations are being organized for Friday in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, countries where uprisings have this year led to the toppling of long-standing rulers.

The activists planned to protest Obama’s address on Wednesday at UN General Assembly, which they termed disappointing and biased, Al Ahram said.

Palestinians holding placards during a rally against U.S. President Barack Obama's address at the UN in the West Bank city of Ramallah September 22, 2011. Photo by: Reuters

Obama reiterated his objection of what he considered to be a unilateral Palestinain move for UN recognition in a speech given in front of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, saying that the only path for peace was bilateral negotiations.

In a meeting with Abbas following his UN address on Wednesday, Obama told the Palestinian president that UN action would not achieve a Palestinian state and the United States would veto any Security Council move to recognize Palestinian statehood.

“We would have to oppose any action at the UN Security Council including, if necessary, vetoing,” Ben Rhodes, the White House national security council spokesman, told reporters after Obama met Abbas in New York.

PLO diplomatic envoy to the U.S. Maen Rashid Erekat told Haaretz that the U.S. President “reiterated the commitment of the U.S. to the establishment of the Palestinian state, as part of the two-state solution, and stressed the position of the US that the UN is not the right venue to reach this goal.”

“President Abbas explained the Palestinian position – basically it’s what we’ve done in the past few months, each side explained his position,” he added.

Obama plays it (electorally) safe on Israel-Palestine: Guardian

The US president’s speech to the United Nations offers little hope to the Palestinians

Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, was in New York during Barack Obama’s speech, but did not actually turn up at the General Assembly to hear it. Given that the Israel-Palestine conflict was at the heart of the presidential address, that is a fairly extraordinary snub. If Obama had said anything that was difficult for Israel to stomach, the absence might have been rude but understandable. But the speech contained not an ounce of pressure on the Israelis. Netanyahu’s no-show simply reflected the current power relationship between the two men – the Israeli leader takes Obama for granted.

The reasons are political. Fourteen months from the elections, the US president is already fighting for his political life, and cannot afford (he clearly feels) to be outflanked by his future Republican opponent on the defence of Israel. That explains why the passage on how “America’s commitment to Israel’s security is unshakeable” carried far more conviction that the bromides about the peace process.

A good measure of the emotional slant of any speech on the Israel-Palestine question is the relative weight given to Jewish and Arab suffering. By that measure, the needle on Obama’s speech was far over to one side. The president went into detail on the impact of suicide bombs and rockets, anti-Semitism in Arab schoolbooks and centuries of persecution on Jews. There was nothing on the pain of Palestinians under occupation, no mention of settlements, other than an acknowledgement of Arab frustration.

No wonder Mahmoud Abbas had his head in his hands and his fellow delegates were shaking their heads. The message that only Israelis and Palestinians can only sort this problem themselves, “when each side learns to stand in each other’s shoes”, was the Bush administration approach. Obama is offering revived talks but apparently without US pressure for them to bring results.

New talks is what is being offered to Abbas to accept a deal by which the Palestinian application for statehood is kicked into the long grass this week, in the form of indefinite study by Security Council committee. For him to accept, the private assurances that the negotiations will not be time-wasting while new settlements are build on the West Bank will really have to be cast iron, because the public signals in Obama’s speech were pointing in the other direction.

U.S. Jews give Obama mixed reviews for ‘pro-Israel’ UN speech: Haaretz

AIPAC lauds U.S. President for seeing Israelis deserve ‘normal relations with their neighbors’; Americans for Peace Now: U.S. position as defender of rights cannot stand as Israeli-Palestinians conflict ‘left to fester’.
It was quite clear that U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech, which Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he “would sign with both hands,” would draw mixed reactions. Its failure to go into details about the Israeli-Palestinian issue was assumed to be due to a combination of re-election concerns and those of slipping Jewish support.

But the U.S. Jewish organizations provided varying – in some cases even polar – responses to the speech.

The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC), which recently launched a new website explaining Obama’s support for Israel, took the speech as an opportunity to claim that all the “political chatter” doubting the president’s support for Israel should be “put to bed once and for all.”

“As he has proven throughout his presidency, President Obama supports Israel and its people instinctively. Israel truly has no better friend in the world today,” NJDC leaders Marc Stanley and David Harris said in a joint statement Wednesday.

“On behalf of the National Jewish Democratic Council’s Board of Directors and leadership, we wish to express our thanks to President Barack Obama for passionately and eloquently standing up for Israel and the Jewish State’s security needs at the United Nations today,” they said.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) welcomed the speech. “AIPAC appreciates the President’s “unshakeable” commitment to Israel’s security and his clear statements outlining the daily dangers and strategic threats facing Israel. President Obama demonstrated his understanding of Israel’s legitimate requirements when he stated that the Jewish people – in their historic homeland – deserve recognition and normal relations with their neighbors,” the Jewish lobby said.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) Executive Director David Harris said “President Obama’s message was crystal clear that the only path to sustainable peace is direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, not what goes on in the corridors of the UN.”

The Conference of Presidents Chairman Richard Stone and Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein welcomed Obama’s comments at the opening session of the UN General Assembly in support of direct negotiations, and his rejection of solutions imposed by outside parties, unilateral moves, or one sided declarations at the United Nations.

“The President correctly and clearly identified Israel’s security needs and challenges,” said the Conference of Presidents heads.

“The President said that “the Jewish people have forged a successful state in their historic homeland” and that “Israel deserves recognition.” We specially note this formulation not only because it reaffirmed a historic truth but also because many in the hall he was addressing have sought to deny Israel’s ancient and constant connection to the land and others have refuse to recognize it as the Jewish State,” their statement continued.

“We hope that other leaders will listen to President Obama’s words and heed his warnings,” they said, adding, “Most of all, we hope that the automatic majority against Israel at the UN will come to consider the danger to that institution and to the cause of peace that results from a blanket acceptance of anti-Israel measures no matter how unjustified they may be.”

Jewish Council for Public Affairs President Rabbi Steve Gutow praised Obama for saying the United States is dedicated to achieving peace through bilateral negotiations.

“He (Obama) understands that peace is a cooperative venture. It needs leaders, partners, supporters, witnesses, and principled advocates. No sustainable peace can be achieved alone,” said the Rabbi. “The path to peace is paved with compromise and cooperation, not unilateralism.”

But on the left side of the map, the disappointment was palpable.

Americans for Peace Now President and CEO Debra DeLee said Obama’s speech, while saying the Americans support peace, offered little hope to Israelis and Palestinians.

“Israelis want and deserve peace and security as much as anyone in the region. Palestinians want and deserve freedom and self-determination as much as Egyptians, Tunisians, or Libyans. The United States cannot maintain credibility as the standard-bearer of rights and freedoms while the Israeli-Palestinians conflict is left to fester,” said DeLee.

DeLee called upon the U.S. President to use his time at the United Nations this week as an opportunity to bring the Israelis and Palestinians back to negotiations. “Only this can re-establish and re-assert U.S. credibility and re-inject hope for an end to this conflict,” she said.

J Street rejected the Palestinian UN bid, but its President Jeremy Ben-Ami said in a statement that Obama was right to say there is “no shortcut” to ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that Obama must turn this “crisis” into “an opportunity to jumpstart meaningful diplomacy that yields results.”

Humanitarian aid for Palestinians should be unnecessary: Guardian

The huge amount of money spent on aid wouldn’t be needed if the international community pressed Israel to lift the blockade and respect international law, and pushed for a political solution

A Palestinian boy stands beside bags of food aid at a UN distribution centre in the Gaza Strip. Photograph: Ali Ali/EPA
As Friday’s expected Palestinian bid for UN membership draws closer, an overlooked issue is the untenable situation of the Palestinian population, who are subjected to collective poverty, misery and desperation, and the role that international humanitarian assistance plays in this.

Several years of experience in the Middle East and of closely following the humanitarian crisis in Palestine have convinced me that humanitarian aid would be unnecessary if a political solution were put in place, and it may even be perpetuating this manufactured crisis.

Many humanitarian workers we have interviewed in the context of the Humanitarian Response Index in recent years have voiced concerns that international humanitarian assistance is simply serving as a sticking plaster to avert the absolute collapse of living conditions in Palestine as the political crisis deepens. The more than $7.2bn (Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2011) injected between 2000 and 2009 seems to have provided an excuse for the international community to avoid fully committing to establishing a just political resolution.

A political resolution is the only option that can solve this artificial crisis of protection, human rights and human dignity violations. But year after year we have seen how political decisions, or the lack thereof, undo humanitarian efforts. It is tragic that the main players, which include the Quartet (the UN, the US, the EU and Russia), are the most generous humanitarian donors while at the same time failing to achieve the political progress that would make their generosity needless.

Meanwhile, things are made worse by restrictions applied by Israel, both for Palestinians and the humanitarian agencies operating there.

Palestine is one of the most complex aid environments for humanitarian agencies, which need to overcome the obstacles and limitations imposed by the Israeli authorities. These include the restrictions on the movement of goods and people between zones and the bureaucratic procedures they entail, as well as the no-contact policy with Hamas stipulated by key donors. As a result, Palestine is a challenging and expensive environment to operate in. As one interviewee said, the no-contact policy “undermines the whole humanitarian response: creating parallel networks, wasting money, in addition to not using available services and resources”.

Another example of the multiple restrictions are the procedures demanded by the Israelis for the delivery of food supplies to Gaza, which cost the World Food Programme and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) $4m per year.

In this context, humanitarian actors say donors are simply not doing enough. Many of the humanitarian organisations we met complained of donor passiveness in advocating for access and of their acceptance of additional operational costs – when at the same time they agreed that the Israeli blockade and occupation were the main obstacles to restoring a minimal level of livelihood and human dignity to the Palestinians.

If the situation seems bad for aid agencies, consider the plight of the Palestinians, who have to endure the Israeli barrier and numerous closures; the arbitrary opening and closing of checkpoints, as well as the random acceptance of the differentiated passes and permits; settlement expansion; forced evictions; and demolitions across the occupied territories. The humanitarian crisis this causes, along with the constant fear of violence, has led to failing hopes and desperation.

At a time when many donor governments are looking to maximise the results and value of their funding, the situation in Palestine shows just how far the response is from achieving efficiency, much less impact. The commitment of one donor to keep constructing what the Israeli authorities keep demolishing on account of a lack of valid building permits illustrates this game of doing, undoing and redoing.

The huge amount of money spent on humanitarian assistance would be unnecessary if the international community pressured Israeli authorities to lift the blockade, respect international humanitarian law, and allow full access to humanitarian aid and recovery.

As the political manoeuvring proceeds, there are ways to ameliorate the suffering of Palestinians. Donors can start by not placing political conditions on their assistance and challenging every party, both Israeli and Palestinian, that delays, controls or misuses aid. They should also avoid short-term funding cycles and grant humanitarian organisations the flexibility they need to implement long-term programmes to meet long-standing needs.

But even if NGOs, the UN and donor agencies provided an exemplary response – and they should deploy all efforts to this end – the solution to the humanitarian crisis in the occupied territories remains political. The most efficient humanitarian response will always fall short if it continues to depend on the interests of Israel and the convenience of donor capitals.

The international community, particularly the main humanitarian donor governments, must understand that their approach of providing large sums of money without calling for the end of the blockade and occupation is not the best way to help the Palestinians – in reality, it allows the protraction of the humanitarian crisis.

The current period is critical. Donors need to back the agencies they fund with a real commitment to building a Palestinian state, something they all agree to. The absence of a solution will lead to more violence, a deeper humanitarian crisis and further instability, none of which will benefit the Palestinians or the Israelis.

• Ross Mountain is director general of Dara

Noam Chayut: Israeli occupation is neither moral nor legitimate: Independent

Thursday, 22 September 2011
In 1979, the year I was born, the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank was 12 years old. I was 10 during the first Palestinian uprising, when my father and his comrades in a reserve unit forced innocent Palestinians out of their homes and shops and, as a form of collective punishment, sent them to clean the streets of graffiti opposing Israeli occupation.

When I joined the army, the 30th anniversary of occupation was being “celebrated”, and three years later, as a young officer, I was sent with my soldiers to confront the second intifada. In one month of riots we killed a hundred Palestinians and many more were wounded by live ammunition.

We were told that our goal was “to sear into the consciousness of Palestinian civil society that terrorism doesn’t pay.” To achieve this, we were to “demonstrate our presence”. This meant entering Palestinian residential areas at any time, day or night, throwing stun grenades, shooting in the air or at water tanks, throwing tear gas grenades, creating noise and fear. For the very same reason, we committed revenge attacks such as demolishing the homes of terrorists’ families, or killing random Palestinian policemen (armed or unarmed): an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. If militants attacked a road, we would close it to Palestinian traffic; if stones were thrown at cars on a road, we would place an indefinite curfew on the closest village.

The Israeli military regime over the Palestinian population is now in its 45th year, and while Palestinian violence has dramatically declined, Israeli soldiers still testify about being assigned to “disrupt the day-to-day routine” in Palestinian areas to create in the local community the feeling of “being constantly pursued”.

It is still unclear what the Palestinian leadership will propose to the UN tomorrow, beyond recognition of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. We don’t know if, or how, the outcome of any vote will be felt on the ground. However, testimonies from more than 750 former Israeli soldiers and officers who have served in the Occupied Territories over the past decade, make one thing clear: from the point of view of the Israeli army, the occupation is not a temporary means of controlling the population. There is no end to it in sight.

Those who oppose the recognition of a Palestinian state cling to a false belief that Israel’s occupation is temporary, its aim to create political space for democratic rule in a future Palestine. This belief is what makes the occupation morally tolerable. Because if an occupation is a permanent one, it can only be illegitimate, not just because the ruler is foreign, but because controlling people via coercion and military orders is immoral.

Even if we accept that a 44-year-long occupation is still temporary in a 63-year-old state; if we ignore the reality of hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews settled in Palestinian territories, or the existence of two separate and unequal legal regimes imposed on the two ethnic groups in the same small piece of land, it is hard to remain optimistic about Israel’s intentions to evacuate, when we hear its soldiers’ reports to Breaking The Silence, an NGO which collects their testimonies.

We should accept the fact that the army does not intend to withdraw from the Occupied Territories, and that the status quo is the Israeli government’s plan for the future. We should take the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs – who lives in a settlement on Palestinian land – at face value when he declares there won’t be peace even in 50 years.

When security and prosperity continue to flourish for “us”, while liberty and freedom are continually withheld from “them”, it is difficult to think of any other non-violent action the Palestinian leadership can take besides seeking international support for ending the Israeli occupation.

The writer is a former Israeli army officer and member of ‘Breaking The Silence’, an NGO which gathers and publishes testimony from soldiers and works in partnership with Christian Aid to expose the realities of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories

The Palestinians are the new Jews: Haaretz

The Palestinians are the new Jews and their leaders are amazingly similar to the former Zionist leaders.
By Gideon Levy
Look at the Palestinians and look at us. Look at their leaders and recall ours. Not, of course, those we have today, but those we once had, the ones who established the state for us. The Palestinians are the new Jews and their leaders are amazingly similar to the former Zionist leaders.

Their David Ben-Gurion is no longer with them – Yasser Arafat died under mysterious circumstances – but look at Mahmoud Abbas: Isn’t he Levi Eshkol? Saeb Erekat – isn’t he Abba Eban? Salam Fayyad – isn’t he Pinhas Sapir or Eliezer Kaplan? The same moderation, the same nondescript personality, the same pragmatism, the same political wisdom and even, to some degree, the same sense of humor. To take what is attainable, to give up the big dreams – in the partition plan as in the two-state solution.

Then it was the pragmatic Zionist leaders who conceded and compromised, now it is the pragmatic leaders of the Palestinian Authority. At the time they insisted on getting it all, now it’s our turn. Both were ambushed by an internal opposition that was extremist, ultranationalist and uncompromising.

The Palestinian group that is now going to the United Nations should remind Israelis of the Zionist group that turned to the same organization 64 years earlier. Yes, there are differences. And yet the similarity is captivating: Now they are the weak versus the strong, David versus Goliath, their Qassam can’t help but remind us of our Davidka.

They are now the ones whose cause is just in the eyes of the world. The same world that understood in November 1947 that the Jews (and the Palestinians ) deserve a state, understands in September 2011 that the Palestinians finally deserve a state. Then it was after the trauma of the Holocaust, now it is after the trauma of the occupation, without making comparisons.

In the coming days people will once against be glued to their radios counting votes: Russia – yes; the United States – no; Argentina – abstains. Doesn’t it remind us of forgotten times? The United Nations has grown since then, but the proportion will be similar: an absolute majority in favor. The difference: The great powers supported partition at the time, the great power is now opposed to a state. But the moral validity remains the same, there is no longer anyone in the world who can seriously claim that they don’t deserve what we deserved, without being a racist, a chauvinist or a cynical opportunist.

It is amazing how Israelis are unwilling to see the similarities, it is amazing how they are falling plundered and blind in the face of the brainwashing campaign and the scare tactics through which recognition of Palestinian rights is being presented as a threat and an existential danger, and nothing more.

Why is it that there aren’t enough Israelis who see the opportunity and hope for Israel represented by this diplomatic step? Yes, for Israel too. And why is it that there aren’t enough Israelis who properly see the clear fact that the heart of almost the entire world is with the Palestinians, and that it isn’t ringing a belated and deafening wake-up call for them?

Israel at its birth was considered a model society, far more than Palestine at its birth. It bequeathed the world socialist and feminist values, the kibbutz and the moshav, absorption of immigrants and equality of women – a lighthouse of equality and social justice. The Palestinians are now in an inferior position: Their society is more corrupt and less egalitarian than ours, nor did they establish a state-in-the-making for themselves, with impressive institutions such as the ones we had.

But here the situation has become reversed beyond recognition. Israel of 2011 is no longer considered a model society in any area. With quite a number of corrupt Israeli politicians in prison or on the way there, with capitalism that is quite swinish and an occupation that is quite brutal, the story of the great national and social success of the 20th century is now considered a story of missed opportunity of the 21st century. The path to repairing this fateful missed opportunity must now be by way of a new partition plan.

The Palestinians bled for 63 years and paid the price for the fateful mistake of their leaders’ opposition to the 1947 partition plan; the Israelis must not now have regrets for another 63 years and pay a high price for their stubborn and surprising opposition to the 2011 partition plan. Look at them and look at us. They are what we once were.

Continue reading September 22, 2011

September 21, 2011

Thousands rally in Ramallah to back Palestinian statehood bid: Haaretz

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to present formal request to UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday.

By Avi Issacharoff, Anshel Pfeffer,

Thousands of Palestinians flocked to Yasser Arafat Square in central Ramallah on Wednesday for a rally in support of the Palestinian bid for full United Nations membership.

The square was dominated by a huge sign with the words “UN 194” on it, in reference to the Palestinian attempt to become the 194th member state of the international body. The sign was flanked by portraits of former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and his successor Mahmoud Abbas, who will on Friday formally submit the Palestinian request to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

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Many of the crowd waved large Palestinian flags or carried banners either in support of UN membership, or condemning a likely U.S. veto should the issue come before the Security Council for a vote.

A handful of youth burned an American flag, but were sharply told off by other spectators.

A child waves Palestinian flags during a rally in Ramallah to support Mahmoud Abbas’ bid for Palestinian statehood at the UN, September 21, 2011.Reuters
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Abbas’ Fatah party had called on all its members to attend the rally, and the Palestinian Authority had attempted to boost attendance by closing schools for the day and allowing civil servants to attend during office hours.

Q&A: Haaretz Editor in Chief Aluf Benn on the Palestinian statehood bid. Click here to submit your question.

At the Qalandiya checkpoint north of Jerusalem, dozens of young Palestinians threw stones at IDF forces. The IDF dispersed the stone throwers with the “Scream” device, which releases sound waves.

In Hebron, there were reports of friction between demonstrators and the IDF after Palestinian police lost control of the situation.

In accordance with prior agreements reached between Israel and the PA, demonstrators are not being permitted to approach areas under Israeli control.

The U.S.and Israel oppose the Palestinian bid, arguing that Palestinian statehood should be the result of negotiations. Ordinary Palestinians have expressed concerns about the repercussions of the move; some say they worry about retaliation, such as a tightening of travel restrictions by Israel or a cut in U.S.aid.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also departed for New York on Tuesday, and is set to deliver a speech to the General Assembly on Friday.

The U.S. has pressed Israel not to sanction the Palestinians for their efforts to achieve statehood. On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman denied that he had threatened to break up Netanyahu’s coalition if the prime minister did not punish the Palestinians for their statehood aspirations.

Erdogan plays Palestinian saviour, but what about the Kurds?: Guardian

Turkey’s prime minister is championing Abbas’s UN appeal – yet still has to resolve the Kurdish issue back home
Simon Tisdall
A Kurdish demonstration in Istanbul this month, calling for the release of the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. Photograph: Tolga Bozoglu/EPA
Turkey’s noisy championing of Palestinian rights, a source of growing friction with the US and Israel, jars uncomfortably with Ankara’s treatment of its own disadvantaged and stateless minority – the Kurds. Bomb attacks this week in Ankara, blamed on Kurdish PKK militants, highlight the deteriorating internal security situation and stoke fears that Turkey’s troubles could spill over into Syria and Iraq, further aggravating Arab spring instability.

Apparently oblivious to possible double standards, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, has been in voluble form of late. His tour last week of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia played upon a common theme – Turkey’s support for the justified aspirations of oppressed peoples everywhere. Erdogan’s long-running feud with Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians reached new heights when he warned the Turkish navy might escort future relief flotillas to Gaza.

Alarmed at the implications for US interests, Barack Obama took time at the UN in New York on Tuesday to talk Erdogan down, stressing their shared interest in peaceful, negotiated outcomes in Palestine, Syria and elsewhere. Turkey is a leading backer of President Mahmoud Abbas’s bid for UN recognition of Palestinian statehood. Obama, flanked by Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu, desperately hopes to shove this uncomfortable issue back in the freezer.

The US also wants to head off renewed ground incursions targeting PKK bases in Iraq, as threatened last week by a senior Turkish minister, given obvious security concerns surrounding the US troop withdrawal. Rising tensions over disputed gas fields off Cyprus are adding to Washington’s worries at a time when, to put it mildly, the Greek government and its Greek Cypriot allies are not in the best shape.

Unfortunately for the majority of Turkey’s Kurds who want a peaceful settlement, one consequence of resulting American appeasement of Ankara is likely to be ever closer US co-operation with Turkey’s escalating military operations against the PKK. Like the EU, the US lists the PKK as a terrorist organisation, a categorisation passionately disputed by the main Kurdish national party, the BDP, which describes it as a “resistance” group. Washington already provides military satellite intelligence to Ankara. Now there is renewed talk of a Turkish base for US Predator drones, which the Turks want to target the PKK inside Iraq.

Erdogan has made important efforts to resolve the Kurdish issue, notably via the so-called “democratic opening” that included talks with the jailed PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan. For their part, the PKK and Kurdish political parties have renounced their former separatist agenda. But gains have been limited, hardliners on both sides have obstructed the process, and Erdogan’s attention has shifted to the wider stage of Arab emancipation and the “re-Ottomanisation”, as some call it, of the Middle East. For him, it seems, the role of grand regional rainmaker is more alluring than that of down-home, hard-slog peacemaker.

The Kurdish parties are still trying to get his attention. The BDP’s woefully under-reported congress in Ankara earlier this month produced an eight-point protocol or “road map” for what it called a democratic resolution; and it proposed resumed talks as a matter of urgency. “All identities, cultures, languages and religions must be protected by the constitution. As a basic principle there must be a constitutional nationality that is not founded on ethnicity,” it said.

“The right to speak in the mother tongue – including in public – must be universally protected by the constitution. Education in the mother tongue language must be recognised as a fundamental right … There must be a transition to a decentralised administration. With regards to autonomy, local, provincial and regional councils must have more powers,” a BDP summary of the protocol said.

This is hardly an earth-shaking or revolutionary agenda. It is a far cry from the forfeited dream of an independent state spanning south-east Turkey, north-western Iran and parts of Syria and Iraq. And as the International Crisis Group notes in a report published this week, the acceptance of universal rights should not be regarded as a concession by the Turkish government.

The ICG report argues persuasively that the basis for a negotiated, peaceful settlement remains in place despite an upsurge in violence since June’s elections that has claimed more than 100 lives. “The PKK must immediately end its new wave of terrorist and insurgent attacks, and the Turkish authorities must control the escalation with the aim to halt all violence. A hot war and militaristic tactics did not solve the Kurdish problem in the 1990s and will not now,” the ICG says.

It continues: “The Turkish Kurd nationalist movement must firmly commit to a legal, non-violent struggle within Turkey, and its elected representatives must take up their seats in parliament, the only place to shape the country-wide reforms that can give Turkish Kurds long-denied universal rights. The Turkish authorities must implement radical judicial, social and political measures that persuade all Turkish Kurds they are fully respected citizens.”

Surely this is not so hard to do? It’s time Erdogan stopped playing Palestinian saviour and put Turkey’s problems first.

What would Palestinian statehood mean?: Guardian

Mahmoud Abbas’s appeal to the UN to recognise Palestine has dominated the agenda. What are its implications?
Harriet Sherwood

World leaders gathering in New York for the United Nations general assembly are convulsed by the call to effectively recognise an independent state of Palestine.

Why are the Palestinians doing this?

Frustrated after years of negotiations, which have gone nowhere, and alarmed by Israel’s ever-expanding settlements on land that is expected to be part of their future state, the Palestinian leadership has decided to appeal to the international community as a way of breaking the deadlock. They say being accorded state status by the world body will strengthen their hand in negotiations, expose Israel as an occupying power in another sovereign state, and allow them recourse to world bodies such as the international criminal court.

Are the Israelis cool about it?

Anything but. They say the Palestinian decision to go the UN proves they are not interested in negotiating a end to the conflict with Israel. They describe it as a unilateral act, which goes against previous agreements such as the 1993 Oslo accords and makes a return to peace talks impossible. Rising expectations of statehood among Palestinians, which cannot be fulfilled, are likely to lead to violence and instability. And they are alarmed at the prospect of being dragged before the ICC, which will also harm the prospects for peace.

How does the world line up?

Despite President Obama saying at last September’s general assembly that he hoped to see a Palestinian state within a year, the US is deeply opposed to the move and indeed has promised to veto it in the security council. They say only negotiations can bring a lasting peace and stability. Others say Obama is worried about the Jewish vote in next year’s US elections.

Europe is divided, and is at the centre of frenetic efforts to avoid this coming to a vote by persuading the parties back to talks.

The Palestinians claim to have the backing of around 130 of the UN’s 193 countries – enough for a resolution to pass in the general assembly. But Israel hopes to be able to claim a “moral minority” of powerful and influential nations. The battle for every vote is continuing.

What do the citizens of this new state say?

Most Palestinians back President Mahmoud Abbas’s move but understand that the realities of life under Israeli occupation won’t change. They are deeply sceptical about the “peace process” and resentful of the Jewish settlements expanding on their land. In Gaza, Hamas is opposed to a move that implicitly accepts an Israeli state alongside a Palestinian state, and many ordinary people simply feel forgotten and excluded.

What about their neighbours, the Israelis?

Many Israelis are anxious about the consequences of the UN recognising a Palestinian state and fear a return to violence. But most want to see two states living side by side eventually, although many are unwilling to make painful compromises to achieve that.

The West Bank settlers, though, are deeply opposed to the very idea of a Palestinian state on land they believe was given to them by God. Hardline elements want to drive the Palestinians out by force and many on both sides fear that settler attacks could trigger confrontations in the coming weeks.

So will there be a Palestinian state by the end of the week?

Unlikely. The frantic efforts to find a way out of the diplomatic car crash seem to be making progress but it’s hard to know whether the Palestinians will be given enough assurances on the framework of new talks to persuade them either to withhold their request or formally submit it but agree to a delay, or have one forced on them. The situation is tense and fluid, both in New York and on the ground in Israel-Palestine, and no one really knows what the outcome of this week will be.

Palestinian statehood: plan emerges to avoid UN showdown: Guardian

Compromise would see Mahmoud Abbas submit letter to security council, which would then defer vote until further talks
Chris McGreal in New York
International efforts to forestall a showdown in the UN security council over the declaration of a Palestinian state are solidifying around a plan for the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, to submit a request for recognition but for a vote on the issue to be put on hold while a new round of peace talks is launched.

The deal is being pushed by the Middle East “Quartet” of the UN, EU, US and Russia, which is attempting to persuade Abbas to back away from a diplomatic confrontation with Washington, which says it will veto the Palestinian bid.

The US president Barack Obama is expected to meet the Palestinian leader at the UN on Wednesday as Abbas comes under intense pressure from the US and Europe to compromise.

Diplomats said the proposed compromise would see Abbas submit his letter to the security council, which would then defer action. In parallel, the Quartet would issue the framework for renewed negotiations that would include a timeline for the birth of a Palestinian state.

The deal is intended to permit Abbas to follow through on his commitment to Palestinians to seek recognition for an independent state at the security council, a pledge he could not abandon entirely without considerable damage to his already battered leadership.

If the proposals under discussion come to fruition, Abbas could claim a victory for the Palestinians by saying he has achieved his principal goal in going to the UN of breaking the deadlock that has seen no serious movement towards a Palestinian state in years.

However, diplomats warned that a number of issues remain unresolved, including a Palestinian demand that the statement include a requirement that Israel halt construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

Israel’s position is unclear. Its prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, arrives in New York on Wednesday and has appealed for immediate talks with Abbas but without preconditions.

Diplomats said negotiations were likely to come down to the wire as Abbas plans to submit the request on Friday.

“The Palestinians are open to a way out of this,” said a diplomat with knowledge of the negotiations. “But they can’t abandon the security council vote without something to show. The question is how to turn this to their advantage. If the result is that there is a serious push to make peace talks work, then that’s a win for the Palestinians. I think everyone involved in this – the Americans, the Europeans – would like to see that happen.”

Husam Zomlot, a Palestinian spokesman, said Abbas remains committed to submitting the Palestinian request to the security council but he noted that the intention behind the move was to break the deadlock in the peace process, which may now be happening.

“There is absolutely no contradiction whatsoever between our quest for United Nations full membership and any possible negotiations. In fact, we see them as very very complementary. We are seeking this to provide any future bilateral process with sufficient multilateral cover where we don’t waste another 20 years,” he said.

The proposals under discussion would have the Quartet statement say, at the Palestinians’ behest, that the goal is a Palestinian state based on the borders at the time of the 1967 war that led to the occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. It will also meet an Israeli demand by saying that talks will result in two countries with Israel as a Jewish state.

A Palestinian official acknowledged the plan was a focus of discussion with the Quartet although he cautioned that the leadership is concerned to ensure there is real momentum and that Israel is not permitted to drag out negotiations.

Abbas has come under intense pressure from the US and European nations to avoid forcing Washington to wield its veto. The British foreign secretary, William Hague, and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, met the Palestinian leader on Tuesday to press him to reopen talks.

Nabil Shaath, a senior member of Abbas’s delegation to the UN, said the US has attempted to dissuade the Palestinians from going to the security council with the threat of punitive measures. He did not say what they might be although there are demands in Congress for the $500m in US aid to the Palestinian Authority to be cut.

The Palestinians are also under pressure because it is far from certain they will win the necessary nine votes in the security council to win recognition. The US has been using its influence to get some security council members to abstain in the hope the Palestinians will lose the vote and that the US veto will not be required.

Nonetheless, Abbas can claim a diplomatic success in forcing the most serious effort to kickstart peace negotiations in years. The US insistence that it will veto the Palestinian bid for membership in the security council has strengthened the hand of European governments, which have generally be sidelined by Washington in the Middle East peace process.

Britain and France in particular, as permanent members of the security council, have attempted to use their votes as a bargaining chip in dealings with Abbas by suggesting that they could support a move to give the Palestinians greater recognition in the UN general assembly if a vote is not forced in the security council.

However, diplomats cautioned that the plan is far from complete and that obstacles remain.

Continue reading September 21, 2011

September 20, 2011

EDITOR: The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party is now in full swing!

Now that the US elections race is on and seriously so, the normal ritual of ‘who is supporting more of Israel;s aggression?’  is now played by the main candidates. To win this game, a very difficult task indeed, one must prove that he is more supportive of Israel than the other guy. This is difficult, as the goal post is moving all the time…

The US, a country with 8.9% unemployment, is very generously supporting Israel, a country with 6.1% unemployment. It makes sense, doesn’t it. So now starts the race to give Israel more money and quicker. But this is not all; the race is also to prove who can hurt the Palestinians more – close their office in Washington, remove financial support from the PA, and the latest – removing US contributions from any UN body which supports Palestine, or passes resolutions supporting it. Neat one, Romney!

By the end of this race, the Israelis would be collecting in big way, the Palestinians will be further broken and humiliated, and all will be well. One cannot think of a better way to run the most powerful nation on earth, can one?

But, really, the most powerful nation on earth must be the one so strongly supported by the most powerful nation on earth, surely? You could get confused here, easily.

Anyway, seems that they should not worry so much, as the US and UK and other friends of Jewish Democracy for Jews Only are going to make sure there is no Security Council vote until 2020, so what is the noise about? The imperial cavalry has saved its devoted servant, yet again.

By the way, please don’t blame me for the fact none of this information can be found on the BBC. Being always objective, such items will obviously be out of place there… instead, it is leading today with: ‘Israel Offers Palestinians Talks’. Surely that is far more important, isn’t it? So you can write and complain to the BBC for being an organ of the Israeli propaganda, which while true, will not make any difference. I stopped trying.

The first real move towards freedom and democracy, must be the demand for removal of the power of veto of the four nations now holding it. Only then can issues be discussed openly and democratically at the UN! Down with the Veto Powers, Down with the past!

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Perry blasts Obama’s Mideast policy: Haaretz

Rick Perry, Republican presidential front-runner, says U.S. president’s demands ftrom Israel emboldened Palestinians to appeal for UN recognition.

Republican presidential front-runner Rick Perry waded into a tense foreign policy dispute on Tuesday by criticizing the Palestinian Authority’s effort to seek a formal recognition of statehood by the UN General Assembly and assailing the Obama administration’s broader policies in the Middle East.

In a speech in New York, Perry pledged strong support for Israel and criticized President Barack Obama for demanding concessions from the Jewish state the Texas governor says emboldened the Palestinians to appeal for UN recognition.

“We would not be here today at this very precipice of such a dangerous move if the Obama policy in the Middle East wasn’t naive and arrogant, misguided and dangerous,” Perry said in a speech in New York. “The Obama policy of moral equivalency which gives equal standing to the grievances of Israelis and Palestinians, including the orchestrators of terrorism, is a very dangerous insult.”

In a statement before Perry spoke, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney also waded into the tense foreign policy dispute over Mideast policy. He called the jockeying at the United Nations this week “an unmitigated disaster.” He accused Obama’s administration of “repeated efforts over three years to throw Israel under the bus and undermine its negotiating position.”

Perry also criticized Obama’s stated goal that any negotiations should be based on the borders Israel had before a 1967 war that expanded the Jewish state. While the 1967 borders have been the basis for diplomatic negotiations, they have never been embraced before by a U.S.¬ president. Perry called that stance “insulting and naïve.”

Perry’s remarks came as the Obama administration has redoubled its efforts to block the Palestinian bid. The U.S.¬ has promised a veto in the Security Council, but the Palestinians can press for a more limited recognition of statehood before the full … and much more supportive … General Assembly.

Perry also expressed support for allowing Jewish settlements to be constructed on the West Bank, a practice Obama has asked the Israeli government to cease. And Perry said that the entire city of Jerusalem should be part of Israel, a move that would make key religious and historical sites part of the Jewish state. Israel captured East Jerusalem from the Palestinians in 1967.

Perry even suggested he would move American diplomatic personnel out of Tel Aviv and instead recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. “As the president of the United States, if you want to work for the State Department, you will be working in Jerusalem,” he said.

Romney said the policy of limiting Israel’s negotiating flexibility “must stop now.” He called on Obama to unequivocally reaffirm the U.S.¬ commitment to Israel’s security and a promise to cut foreign assistance to the Palestinians if they succeed in getting U.N. recognition.

Both Perry and Romney said the U.S.¬ should reconsider funding for the UN itself if the global body votes to recognize the Palestinian Authority.
The Republican presidential hopefuls are intent on standing strongly behind Israel, an effort to appeal to Jewish voters and donors who play a pivotal role in presidential elections. It’s also an effort to reach evangelical Christians, who play a key role in the Republican primary process and who support Israel for theological reasons.

Perry on Tuesday said that his own Christian faith is part of his support for Israel. “I also as a Christian have a clear directive to support Israel, so from my perspective it’s pretty easy,” Perry said when a reporter asked if Perry’s faith was driving his views. “Both as an American and as a Christian, I am going to stand with Israel.”

Complaints about Obama’s Israel policy helped a Republican, Bob Turner, win a special election in a heavily Jewish and Democratic New York congressional district last week. Turner appeared with Perry at the speech.

“It’s vitally important for America to preserve alliances with leaders who seek to preserve peace and stability in the region,” Perry said. “But today, neither adversaries nor allies know where America stands. Our muddle of a foreign policy has created great uncertainty in the midst of the Arab Spring.”

The National Jewish Democratic Council CEO, David A. Harris, said in a statement that “Rick Perry’s comments today demonstrate that he clearly has little command of the U.S.-Israel relationship and even less interest in preserving the historic bipartisan support for Israel.”

According to the statement, “it is long past time for Perry and other Republicans to heed the advice of those genuinely working towards bipartisan support for Israel, and to quit playing political games with support for Israel.”

Obama is also in New York on Tuesday for meetings on the sidelines of the General Assembly. He planned to meet later in the week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Rick Perry accuses Barack Obama of betraying Israel over Palestinian bid: Guardian

Texas governor turns Palestinian statehood bid into election issue, accusing Obama of siding with ‘orchestrators of terrorism’
Chris McGreal in New York and Harriet Sherwood in Beit El
Rick Perry accused Barack Obama of abandoning Israel in favour of the ‘Arab street’. Photograph: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images
The confrontation over the Palestinian bid to win recognition as a state at the United Nations shifted to the US presidential race when Rick Perry, the leading Republican contender, accused Barack Obama of appeasing terrorists and betraying Israel.

Perry, at a campaign rally in New York, launched a stinging attack on Obama’s handing of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, accusing him of abandoning America’s ally in favour of the “Arab street” in the Egyptian revolution, as diplomatic wrangling continued to try to head off a showdown in the UN security council over the Palestinian request for statehood.

The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, was to meet the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the British foreign secretary, William Hague, on Tuesday as Europe spearheaded efforts to dissuade him from pursuing the UN move with promises to revive peace negotiations.

Obama has said the US will veto the Palestinian request – expected to be made on Friday – for the security council to recognise a state based on the land occupied since the 1967 war, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The US president is also expected to speak out strongly against the move in his speech to the UN general assembly on Wednesday.

But Perry said that was not good enough, and blamed the president for bringing on the crisis by siding with the Palestinians over the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, and by saying the US would act as a neutral broker in talks.

Perry said: “The Obama policy of moral equivalence, which gives equal standing to the grievances of Israelis and the Palestinians, including the orchestrators of terrorism, is a very dangerous insult. There is no middle ground between our allies and those who seek their destruction.

“We see the American administration having a willingness to isolate a close ally, and to do so in a manner that is both insulting and naive.”

Perry attacked Obama for his recent statement, which angered Israel, that any final peace agreement should be based on the borders that existed before the 1967 war, even though it is widely accepted that will be the basis of a deal.

“It was wrong for this administration to suggest the 1967 borders should be the starting point for Israel-Palestinian negotiations,” Perry said. “The Obama administration put Israel in a position of weakness, taking away their flexibility to offer concessions as part of the negotiations process.

“Indeed, bolstered by the Obama administration’s policies and the apologists at the UN, the Palestinians are exploiting instability in the Middle East, hoping to achieve their objective without concessions and direct negotiations with Israel.”

Perry also criticised Obama’s handling of the revolutions in the Middle East, particularly in abandoning support for the former Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, who was a close ally of Israel.

The Texas governor spoke of the “risk posed by the new regime in Egypt”, which is not as sympathetic to Israel.

“The Obama administration has appeased the Arab street at the expense of our national security,” he said.

Perry’s attack is part of a growing Republican assault on Obama’s Israel policy as evidence he is weak, despite the administration’s success in finding Osama bin Laden.

Israel can be a sensitive political issue in the US, in part because of considerable support for the Jewish state among Christian evangelical voters.

Jewish voters tend to overwhelmingly support Democratic presidential candidates, but unhappiness over US policy on Israel can have an impact in swing states, most notably Florida, and on congressional elections.

Last week, Democrats suffered an upset, losing a New York congressional election to the Republicans in a heavily Jewish constituency. Although several factors were at play, particularly high unemployment and economic stagnation, polls showed that among some Jewish voters there was significant disquiet about Obama’s Israel policies.

More importantly, the issue is used by Obama’s opponents to accuse him of being soft on America’s enemies and incompetent.

Republicans in Congress are blaming the president for the Palestinian request to the security council because of a speech Obama made to the UN a year ago, in which he said he hoped to welcome a sovereign state of Palestine as a UN member by October 2010.

The Palestinians are portraying that statement as “Obama’s promise”. Republicans say it is further evidence that Obama is hostile to Israel.

Another leading presidential contender, Mitt Romney, last week said the Palestinian approach to the UN “is another testament of the president’s failure of leadership”.

Perry said that if the UN grants additional recognition to the Palestinians, the US should close the Palestinian Liberation Organisation office in Washington. Other Republicans want to go further, and cut of the more than $500m in aid the Palestinian Authority receives from the US each year.

The House of Representatives foreign affairs committee last week held a hearing on the issue in which the chairperson, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, called for aid to be cut.

Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, said at the UN on Tuesday that the Palestinians should be punished for taking the statehood bid to the security council.

“There should be consequences for irresponsible behaviour. There should be consequences for the Palestinians shutting the door on negotiations,” he said.

In the West Bank, which the Palestinians want the UN to declare part of their state, a call to Jewish settlers to rally against the move flopped when only a few dozen attended a series of marches against the Palestinians’ bid for statehood. Soldiers in riot gear watched as the protesters burned the Palestinian flag near Beit El, a settlement close to the Palestinian city of Ramallah.

“If the Palestinians want a state, they can go to Europe or the US – it’s very nice there,” said Michael Ben Ari, a member of the Israeli parliament. “This is the land of Israel and we are here forever.”

Hardline settlers have stepped up attacks on Palestinians and their property in the runup to the UN meeting, according to the Palestinian media, amid fears on both sides that they are trying to provoke confrontations. The Israeli security forces have stockpiled tear gas, rubber bullets and foul-smelling water cannon in preparation for possible violent demonstrations.

Report: UN vote on Palestinian statehood might be delayed for weeks: Haaretz

Sources say a ‘silent agreement’ exists among Western powers to act to postpone the Security Council vote.

The upcoming United Nations votes on a Palestinian state are expected to be postponed to an unspecified date, sources in New York said Tuesday.

Postponements are expected for both the UN General Assembly vote on the declaration of an independent Palestinian state, as well as the UN Security Council vote on full Palestinian membership, the sources said.

While media sources are preoccupied with whether the United States will succeed in its attempts to secure a majority of opposing votes to decline the Palestinians’ bid for statehood, sources say a “silent agreement” exists between Western powers to act to postpone the vote at the Security Council.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe hinted at the apparent vote postponement. In an interview with ‘Europe 1′ radio on Tuesday, Juppe said that “diplomats are still hoping to prevent a crisis. It doesn’t appear that a vote (on a declaration of Palestinian independence) will happen this Friday and that is in order to allow time for diplomacy to renew peace talks.”

Juppe added that “there’s a procedure for dealing with such requests and it can take a few days or weeks more.”

Juppe’s comments are in accordance with estimates among sources involved with the U.S.-led and western-supported attempts over the past few days to delay the Security Council vote.

If the Palestinian request does go ahead on Friday, the United States can refer the request to a debate inside the framework of informal consultations that Security Council members hold behind closed doors – a procedure that could last weeks or months. The sources reminded that more than a month ago, France distributed a draft resolution that included sanctions against Syria. The draft has not yet reached a discussion because Russia, with the support of China, has been delaying discussions of the draft at the Security Council.

Lebanon holds a senior position as rotating president of the Security Council and the Lebanese ambassador can try to speed up the process of debating the Palestinians’ request, but a rotating president cannot decide on the priorities of Security Council discussions.

Sources in New York claim that Abbas is interested in postponing the Security Council vote, for this would give him time for diplomatic bargaining with the United States.

Palestine Q&A: towards an independent state: Guardian

Palestine will become the 194th member of the UN if its application for statehood goes ahead and succeeds. But what will this mean?
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
Palestinian football fans cheer their national men’s team at half-time during an Olympic games qualifying match with Thailand. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters
What will be the territory of Palestine?

Palestine is likely to consist of territory in the West Bank and Gaza, totalling around 6,200 sq km (2,393 sq miles). At the moment the two areas are physically separate, although they could be linked by a sealed road in future.

The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their new state. Israel, which annexed the east of the city after the 1967 war, rejects any division.

The borders have not been decided and will be a matter for negotiation with Israel, which wants to retain its big settlement blocs in the West Bank. Land swaps in compensation are expected to be agreed.

The Palestinian population is around 2.6 million in the West Bank, 1.6 million in Gaza and 270,000 in East Jerusalem. Palestinians are overwhelmingly Muslim although there is a small Christian population.

There are also around 300,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank and a further 200,000 in East Jerusalem. Israel evacuated settlers from Gaza in 2005.

Arabic is the language of Palestine.

What are the symbols of the new state?

Flag: black, white and green stripes overlaid with a red triangle, adopted as the flag of the Palestinian people in 1964. It was banned by the Israeli government until 1993.

Passport: Palestinian Authority passports have been available to people born within its jurisdiction since 1995. However, many Palestinians hold Jordanian passports.

Currency: the Israeli shekel, but there is talk of reviving the Palestinian pound.

Sport: Palestine has both a men’s and a women’s national football team.

Military: Palestine has no army, airforce or navy.

How is Palestine governed?

There are two separate de facto governments in the West Bank and Gaza, under a president elected by all the Palestinian people. There is also an elected legislative council.

In the West Bank, the authority, dominated by the Fatah political faction, is the official administrative body. Established in 1994 under the Oslo accords, its jurisdiction runs only in the main cities of the West Bank.

Hamas is in charge of the Gaza Strip after fighting a bloody battle for control against Fatah in 2007, after winning elections 18 months before.

The Palestinian president is Mahmoud Abbas, and the prime minister in the West Bank is Salam Fayyad. In Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh is the de facto prime minister.

Earlier this year, following a reconciliation agreement with Hamas, which has since faltered, Abbas promised elections next year.

Does Palestine already have most of the institutions of state?

There is a legislative council and local authorities, and ministries of finance, health, education, transport, agriculture, interior, justice, labour, culture, social affairs etc.

The West Bank and Gaza have separate security forces and judicial systems.

There is a Palestinian stock exchange in Nablus.

Where does its money come from?

Most of the authority’s income comes from international donors, although it also raises money from taxes and customs. Under the Oslo accords, Israel collects around £69m each month in customs duties which it then forwards to the authority.

Employees pay taxes, although much employment is on a cash basis.

Most of the West Bank’s trade is with Israel, although some goods are exported to Europe. Exports from the West Bank were estimated to be worth around $850m (£541m) last year. Exports from Gaza have ceased, with rare exceptions, since Israel imposed a blockade more than four years ago.

The EU contributes around $700m a year, and the US $600m.

In April, the International Monetary Fund said the authority was “now able to conduct the sound economic policies expected of a future well-functioning Palestinian state, given its solid track record in reforms and institution-building in the public finance and financial areas.”

Gaza’s funding is opaque. According to Israeli and western intelligence, money is channelled from Iran and Islamist supporters in the Arab world.

Will state recognition change the situation on the ground?

No, is the short answer. Almost everything will be the same. The lives of Palestinians will continue to be dominated by the Israeli occupation and control over their territory. But it may strengthen their position in future talks.

What about Gaza?

Gaza is hardly mentioned in all the current debate about a Palestinian state. Mahmoud Abbas is the elected president of all Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza, but the current geographic and political separation make a unified state difficult. Hamas disapproves of the authority’s approach to the UN, saying it reflects a “path of compromise” instead of resistance. Haniyeh has said: “We support establishing a Palestinian state on any part of Palestinian land without giving up an inch of Palestine or recognising Israel.”

I want to visit the new state of Palestine. How do I get there?

The West Bank’s only entry and exit points are overland via Israel and Jordan. It has no airport and is landlocked. It is practically impossible for ordinary visitors to get into Gaza. It has two strictly-controlled exit and entry points by land to Israel and Egypt. Israel maintains a naval blockade off Gaza’s coast preventing the movement of sea traffic. The runway of Gaza’s airport was bombed by the Israelis in 2002.

Continue reading September 20, 2011

September 19, 2011

EDITOR: The show to end all shows

Not so far from Broadway, preparations are in full gear for the great show at the UN, where Abbas will do what was to be done some four decades ago, and Netanyahu will ‘tell the truth’. That will certainly be a first! He certainly has never done this before, so tickets are selling out for this bizarre boxing match, which like so many boxing matches, is pre-sold and predetermined. Akiva Eldar’s piece in Haaretz manages to get to grips with Netanyahu’s mad bluster, and deflate this balloon.

Netanyahu’s ‘speech of truth’ at the UN: Haaretz

No Palestinian leader can allow himself to give up at the outset on the right of return and alienate himself from Israel’s Palestinian citizens.
By Akiva Eldar
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised that in his speech at the United Nations on Friday, he will “tell the truth.” This is no trivial matter when it involves a politician who invented an encounter with British soldiers that happened before he was born. Nor is it obvious for a person who retroactively brought Rehavam Ze’evi into his government after the latter had already passed away.

One of the rare times Netanyahu told the truth was when he admitted that he had (also ) misled his third wife. Then, too, he did so out of fear of the release of a tape supposedly revealing an extra-marital affair. After the fact, Bibi learned that he did not have to tell the truth, since the tape was nothing but a rumor.

The following lines are an attempt to formulate Netanyahu’s truth ahead of one more speech of a lifetime.

“I came to this chamber, in which 64 years ago the nations of the world declared the establishment of a Jewish state, although the Arabs have an automatic majority here. Yes, I know that that does not matter much, since we have the automatic veto of the United States in the Security Council. More importantly, we have an automatic majority in the U.S. Congress and our lobby, AIPAC, has a grip on President Obama in a sensitive place. But how can we even compare the automatic majority against Israel to the automatic majority for it?

“Having already made Sara come all the way to New York, I will present to you my truth with regard to the Palestinian request that you recognize, ostensibly, a state of their own in the 1967 borders whose capital is East Jerusalem.

“I do not understand why they are making do with one country. I am ready to offer them at least four: one in Gaza, the second an enclave in the Nablus area – with perhaps a tunnel to Tul Karm, the third in the Ramallah district, and the fourth in the Hebron Hills, without, of course, Baruch Marzel and the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

“You can learn about my truth with regard to the Jordan Valley from the tape of the meeting with settlers in Ofra 10 years ago. I told them that during my first term as prime minister, the Americans promised me that I would be the one to sketch the borders of ‘defined military sites’ in the territories that according to the Oslo Accords would remain in Israel’s hands. I told the settlers that the way I see it, the entire Jordan Valley is a military zone and I boasted that ‘from that moment I stopped the Oslo Accords.’

“I said in my speech at Bar-Ilan University that I support a two-state solution. That was shortly after President Barack Hussein Obama’s Cairo speech, when I was afraid he would call my bluff and go all the way with his Muslim friends.

“I understand that if I keep wasting my time distributing macho pictures to the media, even Glenn Beck, if he is elected president of the United States, will not be able to ensure that the State of Israel does not become a pariah state like apartheid South Africa. And so I have to toss the ball into the Palestinian court.

“Despite the political price I will pay for this, and the rebuke I’ll get from my father, I will reveal to you today for the first time things that were unknown until now: I told Obama I was willing to withdraw from 95 percent of the West Bank and to conduct negotiations over exchanges of territory. But don’t get too excited, since I conditioned this revolutionary proposal on two things: First, the Palestinians’ express agreement that the negotiations will result in a peace treaty between the state of the Palestinian people and the nation state of the Jewish people; and second, a pre-understanding that the agreement on the establishment of a Palestinian state will constitute the end of the conflict without hearing any more about the return of refugees. From my perspective, these are iron-clad conditions.

“I know that from the point of view of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, accepting these conditions is like suicide. No Palestinian leader can allow himself to give up at the outset on the right of return and alienate himself from Israel’s Palestinian citizens, particularly at a time when we are settling Jews in all parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The truth is that this is the reason I invented these conditions. It is clear to me that among the Arabs, just like with us, politicians are prepared to kill and be killed on the altar of their country. See you at Masada.”

Livni: Israel’s diplomatic stupidity is pushing the U.S. into a corner: Haaretz

During a special Knesset debate ahead of the Palestinian statehood bid at the UN, opposition leader says she hopes Netanyahu will find courage to rise above ‘this terrible coalition’.
By Jonathan Lis
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni said Monday that the diplomatic stupidity of the current Israeli government is pushing the United States into a corner.

“The diplomatic stupidity that characterizes this government is causing it to put the United States into a corner,” said Livni, speaking during a special Knesset debate on Monday ahead of the Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations. “The United States is making sure it won’t be singled out but how are we helping ourselves? We now need to initiate the political process. (Prime Minster Benjamin) Netanyahu tried to prevent this and now the Palestinians are at the United Nations.”

Livni addressed Netanyahu, telling him that it is not too late to stop the Palestinians’ bid for recognition of statehood at the United Nations.

“It is not yet too late to stop the process. It demands understanding of what happens when there is no process, and it also demands bravery to make a decision,” said Livni. “I am skeptic, but perhaps this week you will succeed in rising above this terrible coalition.”

Livni, who called the situation Israel is currently facing, “the eve of Yom Kippur” (Day of Attonement), added that “in the coming days the government of Israel will need to make dramatic decisions. Without reflecting on our past, we can’t make decisions for the future.”

The opposition leader continued criticizing the government for “the story it is selling regarding the current reality. The first part says everything is alright. The second part says that everyone is against us: (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) Abu Mazen joined forces with Hamas, (Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan is an Islamist and in Egypt it is impossible to know what will happen, everyone is anti-Semitic and all that’s left [for Israel] to do is to wait and see what will happen.” She then added, “Israel is indeed correct, but the government is mistaken.”

Livni emphasized that even though Israel has many enemies it has a friend in the United States. “Next to all these enemies Israel has friends, and at the top of that list is United States, who is willing to guarantee Israel’s security. They don’t understand Israel’s policy, they don’t understand why the stubbornness over settlements, they don’t believe the prime minister of Israel when he says ‘two states’ but doesn’t do anything about it. And this saddens me because I am a citizen of the state,” said Livni.