Obama nudges Israel on Palestinian statehood By Matt Spetalnick – Tue Apr 21, 4:07 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama nudged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday to accept the goal of a Palestinian state, as he pressed Israel and the Palestinians to step back from the abyss.Deepening his direct role in reviving stalled peace efforts, Obama met Jordan's King Abdullah and invited Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for separate talks by early June.He seized the chance to reassure Abdullah of his commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict despite reluctance by Netanyahu's new right-leaning government to support eventual Palestinian statehood.Obama reasserted his pledge to deeply engage in Arab-Israeli peace diplomacy -- in contrast to a more hands-off approach by his predecessor George W. Bush -- and predicted good-faith gestures from both sides in coming months.What we have to do is step back from the abyss,Obama told reporters after meeting Abdullah, a key Arab ally, at the White House.But Obama's Middle East strategy has been complicated by the emergence of a coalition led by Netanyahu, who since coming to power last month has avoided recognizing the Palestinians' right to an independent state, as his predecessor Ehud Olmert did.
Obama took care not to confront Netanyahu head-on but made clear his administration hoped to coax him into accepting the principle of a two-state solution, which has been the basis of U.S. policy for years.They are going to have to formulate and, I think, solidify their position,Obama said of Israel's new government.While offering no new ideas for solving the decades-old conflict, he insisted a sense of urgency was needed to resuscitate the peace process.I agree that we can't talk forever, that at some point steps have to be taken so that people can see progress on the ground. And that will be something that we will expect to take place in the coming months, Obama said.Adding to pressure on Netanyahu, Obama added, I am a strong supporter of a two-state solution. I have articulated that publicly, and I will articulate that privately. And I think that there are a lot of Israelis who also believe in a two-state solution.
CONTRAST TO BUSH
Obama reaffirmed his pledge to make Middle East peace a priority. Bush's critics had accused him of largely neglecting the conflict, and most Arabs considered him biased in favor of Israel.Washington's reengagement in the elusive quest for Israeli-Palestinian peace is seen as a key thrust of Obama's bid to repair the United States' image in the world damaged by the Iraq war and other Bush policies.Obama made clear his support for a 2002 Arab initiative seeking a comprehensive peace between Israel and all Arab nations, including a Palestinian state, to be an integral part of renewed peace efforts.Successive Israeli governments have been wary of the initiative in part because it is vague about how to resolve the status of Palestinian refugees.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said after having lunch with Abdullah that more must be done to revive peace talks. We have to enlist the neighbors in the region in support of those efforts, she said.It remained unclear, however, how hard Obama might be willing to push Netanyahu to make compromises. On the Palestinian side, Abbas's political weakness -- he governs only the West Bank while Islamist Hamas controls the Gaza Strip -- raises serious questions about his ability to deliver on any deal.
Visiting Israel and the occupied West Bank last week, Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, said he would vigorously pursue the creation of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu has pledged to hold talks with the Palestinians on economic, security and diplomatic issues but has made no public promise to negotiate statehood. Palestinian leaders have rejected any notion of an economic peace and have said U.S.-backed talks with Israel could not resume until Netanyahu committed to statehood. (Additional reporting by Ross Colvin, Caren Bohan and Sue Pleming, editing by Philip Barbara)
Turkey, Lebanon discuss Obama policies, Mideast Tue Apr 21, 1:28 pm ET
ANKARA (AFP) – The leaders of Turkey and Lebanon discussed on Tuesday US President Barack Obama's Middle East policies and efforts to reconcile Israel and the Palestinians.We reviewed the new (US) policies towards the region in light of President Obama's recent visit to Turkey, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman said at a joint press conference with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul.Two weeks ago, in an address to Turkey's parliament, Obama said the United States strongly supports the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.
Obama also reached out to the Muslim world, saying that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam.Sleiman underscored support for an Arab peace plan, on the table since 2002, which offers Israel full normalisation of ties in return for its withdrawal from occupied Arab land.Pointing to the Arab peace plan and the 2007 Annapolis documents, Gul also urged the new Israeli government to endorse all that work... and continue from there, without rejecting the point that has been reached.
Turkish and Lebanese officials signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in military training among several other deals.
U.N.'s Ban says Ahmadinejad misused racism meeting Tue Apr 21, 9:17 am ET
VALLETTA (Reuters) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday of misusing a UN conference on racism at which he attacked Israel's policy toward the Palestinians as racist.It is very regretful that the conference was misused by the Iranian president for political purposes, Ban said during an official visit to Malta.Ahmadinejad used his speech at the conference on racism in Geneva Monday to describe Israel as the most cruel and repressive racist regime because of its treatment of the Palestinians.His comments prompted a walk-out by some 20 Western delegations and drew criticism from rights groups and Western governments.Ban also expressed regret that some countries had stayed away from the conference. The United States and Israel led about a dozen nations in boycotting the meeting because of concern that it might become a forum for attacks on the Jewish state.Before the speech I had a long bilateral meeting with President Ahmadinejad and urged him to give a balanced and constructive contribution to the conference because he was the only head of state present,Ban said.Ahmadinejad was invited to speak first because he was the only head of state at the conference, though invitations had been issued to all heads of state, Ban added.He said he had no new appointment to meet Ahmadinejad butwould approach Iran and other countries which had issues with the conference to discuss the situation.(Reporting by Chris Scicluna, editing by Tim Pearce)(Malta +35699915171)
Israel wants to buy US rocket intercept system Tue Apr 21, 2:50 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel wants to buy a rocket intercept system from the United States to protect against militant fire from the Gaza Strip, Defence Minister Ehud Barak said in an interview published on Tuesday.The Vulcan-Phalanx canons and radar will be part of a multi-layer defence to intercept rockets, Barak told the Haaretz newspaper.Such defence, as far as I am concerned, is a strategic goal, he said.The system consists of the Phalanx radar for targeting rockets and the 20-millimetre Vulcan Gatling gun to shoot them down, with each component costing 25 million dollars (19 million euros), Haaretz said.The gun component is already being used by American and Israeli navy ships, it said.Previous requests by Israel to buy the Vulcan-Phalanx have been waved aside by the US defence establishment, which has used the system with success in Iraq and Afghanistan and has reserved for its own military all units to be produced in the near future, it said.During his planned June visit to the United States, Barak will ask US Defence Secretary Robert Gates to put Israel at the top of the list for the system, with the hope of securing at least one by the winter, Haaretz said.Militants in the Gaza Strip, run by the Islamist Hamas movement since June 2007, regularly fire rockets and mortars into Israel. Most of the projectiles are notoriously inaccurate home-made devices dubbed Qassam with a range of up to 12 kilometres (more than seven miles).
Ahmadinejad prompts walkout from U.N. racism summit By Laura MacInnis – Mon Apr 20, 2:50 pm ET
GENEVA (Reuters) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prompted a rare walk-out at the United Nations on Monday when he called Israel a cruel and repressive racist regime in his remarks to a conference on race.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deplored the address which prompted dozens of delegates to leave their seats, further undermining the summit which some Western powers including the United States are boycotting.It was a very troubling experience for me as secretary-general, he told a news conference at the day's end. I have not seen, experienced, this kind of disruptive proceedings of the assembly, the conference, by any one member state. It was a totally unacceptable situation.Washington announced on Saturday it would sit out the Geneva forum on fears it would be dominated by unfair criticism against Israel. Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands then followed suit.Their boycott left Ahmadinejad, who has in the past cast doubt on the Nazi Holocaust, in the spotlight as the only head of state at the conference.
His speech produced exactly the kind of language that they feared, which had also caused Canada and Israel to announce months ago they would stay away.Following World War Two they resorted to military aggressions to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering, Ahmadinejad told the conference, on the day that Jewish communities commemorate the Holocaust.And they sent migrants from Europe, the United States and other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in the occupied Palestine,he said, according to the official translation.
And in fact, in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive racist regime in Palestine.
U.S. CALLS SPEECH VILE
Washington decried Ahmadinejad's speech as vile and hateful, while the Vatican called it extremist and unacceptable. Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, called the address both unsavory and obnoxious.I was shocked and deeply saddened by everything he said, she told journalists.I don't think, though, that his behavior provided any justification for any other member state to walk out from this conference.Dozens of diplomats in the audience promptly got up and left the hall for the duration of the speech. While most returned when Ahmadinejad finished speaking, the Czech Republic said its delegation would no longer take part in the conference.
Such outrageous anti-Semitic remarks should have no place in a U.N. anti-racism forum,said British ambassador Peter Gooderham, whose country chose not to send a minister to Geneva.Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store told the plenary after Ahmadinejad's speech that Iran had isolated itself. Norway will not accept that the odd man out hijacks the collective efforts of the many,he said.However, a number of the delegations that remained behind applauded Ahmadinejad.Ban, who had held a meeting with Ahmadinejad before the address, said it was deeply regrettable that the Iranian leader had ignored his plea to avoid causing upset.I deplore the use of this platform by the Iranian President to accuse, divide and even incite,he said. We must all turn away from such a message in both form and substance.Earlier on Monday, Israel recalled its ambassador to Switzerland in protest about the conference and Israeli officials also voiced anger at a meeting that Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz held on Sunday with Ahmadinejad. Arab and Muslim attempts to single out the Jewish state for criticism had prompted the United States to walk out of the first U.N. summit on racism, in South Africa in 2001. Although a declaration prepared for the follow-up conference does not refer explicitly to Israel or the Middle East, its first paragraph reaffirms a text adopted at the 2001 meeting which includes six paragraphs on those sensitive issues. (Additional reporting by Robert Evans, Jonathan Lynn and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, James Mackenzie in Paris, Philip Pullella in Rome, and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Report: Hamas killed, maimed dozens of opponents By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer – Mon Apr 20, 9:58 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank – Hamas directed gunmen to eliminate political opponents and suspected collaborators under the cover of Israel's military offensive in Gaza, killing 32 people and wounding dozens in such attacks since December, an international human rights group said Monday.The New York-based Human Rights Watch urged Gaza's Hamas rulers to halt what it described as a pattern of arbitrary arrests, torture and summary executions by the Islamic militant group.Human Rights Watch portrayed the attacks as the worst outbreak of internal violence since Hamas violently seized control of Gaza in June 2007 and expelled rivals in the more moderate Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who now controls only the West Bank.Such practices are aimed, in part, at quashing dissent in Gaza and make a mockery of Hamas' claim it upholds the law, the group said.During the war, Hamas authorities ... took extraordinary steps to control, intimidate, punish and at times eliminate their internal political rivals as well as persons suspected of collaborating with Israel, the report said.Eighteen Palestinians were killed by Hamas-linked gunmen during the three-week war, which ended Jan. 18, and 14 others were killed afterward, the report said. In addition, 49 Gazans were shot in the legs by masked gunmen between Dec. 28 and Jan. 31, and 73 had their arms or legs broken, the report said, citing a rights group linked to Abbas.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum dismissed the Human Rights Watch report as unbalanced. He said Hamas was willing to investigate any complaints, and denied the group is going after political opponents.He said suspected collaborators with Israel who fled Gaza's central prison after it was destroyed in Israeli bombing raids in December were killed by relatives of people they had harmed, not by security forces.Other international and Palestinian human rights organizations have provided similar accounts of shootings and beatings. Fatah has also said 14 of its members in Gaza were killed by Hamas during the Israeli offensive and that more than 160 were shot in the arms or legs or beaten.Human Rights Watch said repressive measures are also on the rise in the Abbas-controlled West Bank.Abbas' security forces have been cracking down on Hamas in the West Bank since the militants seized Gaza. Hamas detainees in West Bank prisons have complained of mistreatment, including beatings and being tied up in painful positions. In January and February, one detainee died in custody, and 31complained of mistreatment, Human Rights Watch said.The report about the Gaza abuses is based on interviews with witnesses and victims, as well as reports by Palestinian human rights groups, Human Rights Watch said.It reviewed killings and shootings since Dec. 27, when Israel launched its Gaza offensive, meant to weaken Hamas and halt rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel.Many of the assailants were members of Hamas' security forces, while others were masked men with suspected ties to Hamas or other militant groups, said Fred Abrahams, a researcher for Human Rights Watch.Hamas is the undisputed political and security leader of Gaza, so even if there were gunmen from other groups (involved in attacks), they are operating with the approval of Hamas, he said.Hamas has begun investigations into four deaths, dismissing and detaining members of the security forces involved in two killings, said Bill Van Esveld, another Human Rights Watch researcher.What we have not seen is accountability for (the killing of) collaborators and Fatah guys getting shot in the legs, he said.In a recent case under investigation, gunmen wearing headbands of Hamas' military wing, Izzedine al-Qassam, reportedly opened fire Thursday on three cousins loyal to Abbas' Fatah movement in the Gaza town of Jebaliya. The three men were each hit by several bullets in the legs and remain hospitalized, the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights said.Associated Press writer Ibrahim Barzak contributed to this report from Gaza City.
Netanyahu says hasn't set precondition for talks By Jeffrey Heller – Mon Apr 20, 4:29 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he had not made Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state a precondition for opening peace negotiations.Comments last week on the issue by a senior official in the Prime Minister's Office led many media outlets in Israel to report that Netanyahu had set those terms for holding talks with Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.Palestinians said at the time that Netanyahu, on a collision course with Washington over his reluctance to commit to Palestinian statehood, raised a new demand to try to avoid entering a serious negotiating process.In a new statement, Netanyahu's office said he believed it would be impossible to achieve a peace agreement without recognition of Israel as a Jewish state -- a position voiced by Israeli officials last week and rejected by the Palestinians.But it said that contrary to media reports, the prime minister never made that a precondition for the opening of negotiations and dialogue with the Palestinians.Palestinians fear recognition of Israel as a Jewish state could help Israeli leaders resist any return of Palestinian refugees who fled or were forced to leave their homes in a 1948 war.
Those concerns were heightened five years ago after then-U.S. President George W. Bush described Israel as a Jewish state in a letter to its prime minister at the time, Ariel Sharon, and suggested Palestinian refugees be settled in a future Palestine rather than in Israel.The Prime Minister's Office issued the statement before an expected announcement later this week of a date for a Netanyahu visit next month to the White House, his first since taking office on March 31 at the head of a right-leaning government.Visiting Israel and the occupied West Bank last week, U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, said he would vigorously pursue the creation of a Palestinian state, setting the stage for possible conflict with Netanyahu.Netanyahu has pledged to hold talks with the Palestinians on economic, security and diplomatic issues but has made no public promise to negotiate statehood.
Palestinian leaders have rejected any notion of an economic peace and have said U.S.-backed talks with Israel could not resume until Netanyahu committed to statehood.His far-right foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has said talks on a Palestinian state launched at a 2007 conference in Annapolis, Maryland had reached a dead end.(Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Palestinians face dire water shortage: World Bank Sun Apr 19, 10:09 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Palestinians face dire water shortages because of both bad Palestinian management and Israeli restrictions, the World Bank said in a report on Monday.The report, the first of its kind, noted the complete dependence of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip on scarce water resources shared and largely controlled by Israel.It also underlined that the joint governance rules and water allocations established under the 1995 Oslo interim agreement, still in effect today, fall short of the needs of the Palestinian people.The report, entitled Assessment of Restrictions on Palestinian Water Sector Development,said that limited access to natural resources impedes Palestinian economic development.Because of asymmetries in power, capacity and information between parties, interim governance rules and practices have resulted in systematic and severe constraints on Palestinian development of water resources, water uses, and wastewater management, it said.
Furthermore, since 2000, the movement and access restrictions, consisting of physical impediments... have further impaired Palestinian access to water resources, infrastructure development and utility operations.The report blamed both the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel.Even though the PA and many donors have invested in establishing a sustainable and equitable water sector, access to water resources, water infrastructure and institutions remain inadequate.The sector continues to operate in a very inefficient emergency mode, with far reaching economic, social and environmental consequences, it said.As a result, the World Bank said,water-related humanitarian crises are in fact chronic in Gaza and in parts of the West Bank.The World Bank also noted the highly disparate availability of water resources between Israel and the Palestinian territories.Fresh water per capita in Israel (is) approximately four times that of the West Bank and Gaza,it said.Israel, according to the World Bank, has established efficient water infrastructure and management while the PA is struggling to attain the basic level of infrastructure and service of a low-income country.The World Bank recommended adopting an agenda to address shortcomings in water resource development and management, a low and declining investment rate, and weak management of water services.The study was carried out by international and local experts at the request of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas between September 2008 and February 2009.Abbas accused Israel of forcing Palestinians to live in a state of chronic water scarcity in a statement read in March at the Istanbul World Water Forum, and said that a rightful share of water should not be tied to a peace deal.
Orthodox Christians mark Easter in Jerusalem Sun Apr 19, 7:47 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Hundreds of Orthodox Christian pilgrims gathered to mark Easter Sunday in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site where most Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried.Pilgrims from the eastern Orthodox faiths including Greeks, Copts, Russians and Assyrians chanted and prayed during the hours-long mass to mark the holiest day on their religious calendar.Priests in black and golden robes performed the rites before the site of Jesus's tomb inside the church. Their heads covered with scarves, women kneeled to kiss the stone on which Christ's body was laid after his crucifixion.On Saturday, thousands of Orthodox Christians converged on the church for the "Holy Fire" ceremony on the eve of Orthodox Easter.
Israeli police said about 10,000 worshippers were crammed inside the Holy Sepulchre and another 30,000 outside the church, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, entombed and resurrected.The church is shared uneasily by six denominations of Jesus Christ's followers -- Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Egyptian Copts, Syrian Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox.Last year, during Orthodox Palm Sunday, Israeli police rushed into the church to break up fist fights between dozens of Greek and Armenian worshippers, to be promptly pummelled with palm fronds by feuding worshippers.Orthodox Christians mark Easter a week after Catholics and Protestants.
US pledges great energy to two-state Mideast deal Sat Apr 18, 1:35 pm ET
CAIRO (AFP) – US special envoy George Mitchell said on Saturday that the new administration of President Barack Obama would exert great energy in pursuit of a two-state Middle East peace settlement.It has been the policy of the United States for many years that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in a two-state solution, he told reporters after meeting Eghyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.
This is the policy of President Obama and one that we will pursue with great energy, he said, adding that an end to the conflict was also in the national interest of the United States.Mitchell, who has been touring the Middle East, met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas earlier in the week.His message of a two-state solution -- Israel living in security alongside a Palestinian state -- was been met with scepticism by some in Netenyahu's hawkish cabinet.In the present circumstances, one has to work not for two states for two people, but for two economies for two people, Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai said on Thursday.Washington has sent a string of envoys to Israel and the West Bank since the 1993 Oslo autonomy accords which gave the Palestinians limited self-rule but which broke down after an intifada started in 2000.We recognise the complexity and difficulties ... We are aware of a lot of history of expectations being raised and then not being met, the former US senator said.We will proceed as rationally as possible with a full commitment to our objective: to a comprehensive peace in the Middle East.According to the US embassy in Riyadh, Mitchell is due in Riyadh early Sunday to meet with Saudi King Abdullah and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal for talks on the peace efforts.Obama's special envoy to the Middle East is on a regional visit, which includes talks with officials in North Africa and the Arab states in the Gulf.
Palestinian driver injures two Israeli policemen by Charly Wegman – Sat Apr 18, 7:39 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Two Israeli police officers were injured on Saturday when a Palestinian ran them down near a Jewish settlement outside Jerusalem in the latest incident of cars being used as weapons, police said.Two police officers were injured, one lightly in the legs but the other more seriously in the head, when a Palestinian man drove at them deliberately in his vehicle,police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.He said the incident occurred at the Hezmeh checkpoint near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank north of Jerusalem.The 37-year-old Palestinian was arrested and said when questioned that his plan had been to kill the police officers,Rosenfeld added.
He said the injured officers were taken to a Jerusalem hospital where their condition was reported as satisfactory.Army radio reported that the man behind the attack was from Azarya in the West Bank, and that he had run down the two police in a Mercedes car.It said that after admitting he had intended to kill the pair he later said under interrogation that he had acted on the spur of the moment.On April 7, Israeli police killed a Palestinian they said tried to drive into a checkpoint near an occupied east Jerusalem village after authorities razed the home of the man behind a bulldozer attack last year.The incident took place shortly after police demolished the house of Hossam Dwayyat, who went on a rampage in west Jerusalem last June, killing three Israelis.On Friday a Palestinian armed with a knife was shot dead in the West Bank settlement of Beit Hagai near Hebron by guards who said he was planning to carry out an attack.A military spokesman said that before being killed, the man slightly wounded a settler who chased him.On April 2, a Palestinian man with an axe rampaged through the Bat Ayin settlement near Bethlehem, killing a 13-year-old Israeli boy and wounding a seven-year-old before fleeing.Rosenfeld also told AFP on Saturday that a group of tourists had been attacked in Jerusalem by a knife-wielding man.On Friday, in the old city of Jerusalem, a Palestinian lightly wounded four tourists with a knife, he said. He then tried to hide in a nearby restaurant where he was arrested by border guards.
Investigators are continuing to question him to find out if it was a purely criminal act or one with nationalistic motives.Thousands of tourists are thronging the old city for the annual holy fire ceremony over the Orthodox Easter weekend.The news website Ynet reported that the attack was in the Via Dolorosa and that investigators are not ruling out the possibility that it was an act of terror.
