Israeli PM, Obama have different views of conflict Amy Teibel, Associated Press Writer – MAY 17,09
WASHINGTON – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads into his first visit with President Barack Obama worried by U.S. overtures to Iran and Syria and under pressure to support a Palestinian state.The two leaders, set to meet Monday at the White House, bring diverging policies on how to approach the Mideast conflict.The Obama administration is trying to promote dialogue with Iran and Syria, Israel's arch foes. Israel fears such efforts could lead to greater tolerance for Iran's nuclear ambitions.But Israel and the U.S. dismiss Iran's claims that its nuclear program is designed to produce energy rather than weapons. Netanyahu regards as the greatest threat to Israel — a fear magnified by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated references to Israel's annihilation.In the run-up to the Feb. 10 election, Netanyahu derided the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which stalled late last year, as a waste of time. He has made clear in the past that he does not think the Palestinians are ready to rule themselves.But that position has put him at odds with U.S. policy that supports Palestinian statehood as the cornerstone of broader Mideast peace efforts. Now, he's feeling the pressure from Washington to endorse Palestinian statehood, and there were some hints that he might be shifting his position.On the eve of Netanyahu's meeting with Obama, there were conflicting signals on the Israeli leader's position.
Israel's president, Shimon Peres, said Sunday in Jordan that Netanyahu would abide by agreements signed by his predecessors, including the U.S.-backed Mideast peace plan calling for a two-state solution to the conflict with Palestinians. Peres said progress depended on an end to attacks by Hamas militants and greater Palestinian efforts to ensure Israel's security.Just before Netanyahu set off for Washington, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he thought peace with the Palestinians could be achieved within three years.I think and believe that Netanyahu will tell Obama this government is prepared to go for a political process that will result in two peoples living side by side in peace and mutual respect,Barak told Channel 2 TV on Saturday.However, on Sunday, Israel's national security adviser, Uzi Arad, left a different impression, saying there might be even some differences in approach with Obama.There are many hurdles on the road to living side by side in peace with the Palestinians, Arad said, citing the takeover of the Gaza Strip by Islamic Hamas militants in June 2007.That is the presence of a huge terrorist infrastructure that was put in place, established precisely at the time when Israel evacuated Gaza and allowed the Palestinians to rule themselves.Senior White House officials said Obama's meeting with Netanyahu is part of his commitment to pursue a comprehensive peace that includes a two-state solution.Netanyahu has tried to persuade the Americans that Iran, with its nuclear ambitions and anti-Israel proxies in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, must be reined in before peacemaking with the Palestinians can progress. But the Americans have not been persuaded and want to see serious progress on peacemaking so moderate Arab states won't have a reason to shun an international alliance meant to curb Iran.There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity surrounding Syria in recent weeks.An Obama envoy was in Syria to try to repair strained relations and assured the government the U.S. is committed to pursuing a comprehensive Mideast peace. His Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, plans a trip to Syria.
Peres on Sunday urged Syria to open direct peace talks and said some had suggested Syrian President Bashar Assad and Netanyahu meet.The Syrians should be ready to talk. If President Assad wants peace, why is he shy? Peres said after participating in an international economic meeting.Netanyahu, who arrived in Washington on Sunday, also scheduled meetings with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and congressional leaders.
Israel urges Syria to join direct peace talks By JAMAL HALABY, Associated Press Writer MAY 17,09
SOUTHERN SHUNEH, Jordan – Israel's president urged Syria Sunday to open direct peace talks, saying any gesture by the Damascus government would help clear the air between the two arch enemies.President Shimon Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize winner whose office is largely ceremonial, also told reporters in Jordan that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would abide by a past Israeli government's commitment to a U.S.-backed Mideast peace plan calling for a two-state solution to the conflict with Palestinians.Peres said some had suggested Syrian President Bashar Assad and Netanyahu meet and start talking directly.The Syrians should be ready to talk. If President Assad wants peace, why is he shy? he said after participating in an international economic meeting sponsored by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum. We suggested many times direct talks, Peres added.He thinks direct talks are a prize to Israel. It's not a prize. It's normal.Israel and Syria conducted indirect peace negotiations through Turkish mediators last year. But Syria suspended them over Israel's Gaza war in December and January. Peres said the Syrians have been trying to get the United States involved as an intermediary in the indirect talks but he did not believe the contact through Turkey had resumed.Right now, I don't think there's anything happening,he said, pointing to Israel's preoccupation with elections that brought right-wing Likud leader Netanyahu to office in March.Syria is demanding that Israel agree to return the entire Golan Heights, territory captured in the 1967 Mideast war, in any peace deal. Assad said last week he did not think the new hard-line Israeli government was a good partner for the peace talks.And just a few days ago, Netanyahu said he would not return the Golan.Peres said a gesture by Syria would be more important than all the negotiations.Change the air,he said.There stands the president and he said he doesn't want to meet. Why? You want us to give back something, but he doesn't suggest to give us back anything,Peres said.
Earlier, the Israeli president met with Jordan's King Abdullah II behind closed doors at the conference. A royal palace statement said Abdullah urged Peres to assist in efforts to have Netanyahu's government quickly launch negotiations to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on a two-state solution.Peres said his talks with Abdullah were very constructive, friendly and warm and that he sees eye-to-eye with the king, especially on his call for a swift settlement to the lingering Arab-Israeli conflict.We want peace, we don't consider the Palestinians as our enemy, but our friends and neighbors,Peres said.We don't consider Islam our enemy.Ahead of Netanyahu's meeting the President Barack Obama on Monday, Peres declined to say whether Netanyahu would endorse outright the two-state solution. Netanyahu has not done so since his election six months ago.I don't want to speak on behalf of the prime minister,he said. But he noted that Netanyahu has said he would abide by a former Israeli government's commitment to the U.S.-backed roadmap peace plan that calls for a Palestinian state.Peres insisted that progress depended on an end to terror attacks by Hamas militants and greater Palestinian efforts to ensure Israel's security.Abdullah has previously said the only way to achieve a Mideast settlement is through a 2002 Arab peace initiative that offers Israel relations with the 23 Arab League members in exchange for its withdrawal from land it occupied in the 1967 war, a just solution for Palestinian refugees and the establishment of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.Abdullah conveyed the message to Netanyahu when they met in Amman on Thursday. But the Israeli prime minister argues that the threat from Iran and its regional proxies — Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip — must be confronted before any progress can be on peace. Netanyahu has been trying to forge cooperation with moderate Arab nations to pursue that agenda, but he has pointedly refused to endorse Palestinian statehood or the Arab peace initiative.
Egypt pushes for Palestinian unity deal MAY 17,09
CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt on Sunday stepped up the pressure on feuding Palestinian factions meeting in Cairo for unity talks to come up with an agreement in the coming weeks, the official MENA news agency reported.A fifth round of talks between president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party and the Islamist Hamas movement began in Cairo on Saturday under the supervision of Egyptian intelligence supremo Omar Suleiman.He has proposed during talks with both parties late on Saturday that the next round of talks be devoted to an announcement of the end of divisions,MENA said.A senior Egyptian official told the agency the talks were now in their final phase.We expect an announcement on the signature of an agreement in Cairo at a date that will be fixed in the coming weeks,the official said.Azzam al-Ahmed, heading the Fatah group, confirmed to MENA that this session was the penultimate one.He said the talks centred on a new electoral law, reforming the security services and a coordination committee proposed by Egypt to liaise between Ramallah and Gaza City, mainly on reconstruction in the Gaza Strip.Reconciliation between the rival groups is vital for the reconstruction of Gaza after Israel's devastating offensive at the turn of the year, since aid pledges from international donors are conditional on the money passing through Abbas's Palestinian Authority.On Sunday the delegations discussed the legal scope, composition and remit of the Cairo-proposed committee.This issue still has to be discussed in detail,MENA quoted Ahmed as saying.
Officials from both Fatah and Hamas have indicated that the two groups have accepted an Egyptian proposal to abandon the idea of a unity government to get round the problem of what such a cabinet's politicies would be.The so-called Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- has long demanded that Hamas renounce violence and recognise Israel and past peace agreements as a precondition for dealing with any Palestinian government in which the Islamist movement is represented.Fatah and Hamas have been bitterly divided since the Islamist movement seized control of Gaza in bloody factional fighting in June 2007.
Obama to press Netanyahu on two states, settlements Matt Spetalnick – Sat May 16, 5:15pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Days before a White House summit, the Obama administration signaled on Saturday that the U.S. president would press Israel's new government to endorse Palestinian statehood and halt settlement expansion.But senior U.S. officials downplayed prospects of a confrontation between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday as they grapple with rare differences between Washington and its close ally.The president does not believe it's going in a bad direction,one Obama aide told reporters when asked about the refusal so far by Netanyahu's right-leaning government to embrace a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.Administration officials said Obama would push that principle, the cornerstone of U.S. Middle East policy for years, in his talks with Netanyahu, which are aimed at reviving the stalled peace process.Two states living side by side in peace and security -- my guess is they'll discuss that, and it's an issue they'll continue to work through,an official said.Obama, who has promised to make Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking a high priority since taking office in January, will also stress U.S. opposition to continued construction of Jewish settlements on occupied land in the West Bank.The Israelis have obligations related to settlements and outposts,an official said.It will certainly be a topic for them to discuss.Netanyahu has resisted calls to freeze settlement expansion on land Israel captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The international community considers the settlements illegal, a position disputed by Israel.
COMMON GROUND ON IRAN?
Obama, who meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on May 28, will also urge the Palestinians to fulfill obligations related to security and terrorism,a senior official said.The 2003 road map,sponsored by the Bush administration but widely ignored by both sides, called on Israel to halt settlement building and dismantle smaller unauthorized settler outposts, and required the Palestinians to rein in militants.Obama and Netanyahu are likely to find more common ground on Iran, which both countries accuse of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran insists its nuclear program is for civilian electricity generation.But Israel, believed to be the only nuclear-armed country in the Middle East, is somewhat wary of Obama's efforts to engage Iran diplomatically, and Israeli officials have not ruled out military strikes if diplomacy fails.U.S. officials brushed aside such concerns, but an Obama aide said the president was aware of the urgency of the matter of curbing Iran's nuclear defiance.Obama and Netanyahu will also talk about restarting Israeli-Syrian peace talks under Turkish auspices, officials said. Netanyahu has been cool to the idea given Syria's demand for a return of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.An administration source acknowledged Obama had discussed with Jordanian King Abdullah last month the possibility of broadening an Arab peace initiative with Israel. Abdullah told the Times of London this week that Obama wanted to promote a peace plan involving all Muslim countries.But the U.S. official said the Obama administration wants to first complete this round of one-on-one talks, including with Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak next week, before determining the best way to move forward.(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Paul Simao)
US has new Mideast peace plan: Jordan king by Randa Habib – Sat May 16, 2:05 pm ET
AMMAN (AFP) – The United States is expected to announce soon a new plan to kick-start the deadlocked Middle East peace talks, Jordan's King Abdullah II told AFP in an interview on Saturday.We expect an announcement from the US administration... of its plan to restart negotiations to achieve a comprehensive solution, in the Middle East, the king said.A resolution to the conflict is an American strategic interest, he said.
And we hope that it (Washington) will announce this plan as soon as possible, because lost time undermines the chances for peace. There is a tremendous need to move quickly, seriously and effectively.The king, a key US ally, gave no details on the expected plan, but he warned that in the absence of any resolution the possibilities of a new round of violence, a new war, will increase and the region and the world will pay the price.We believe that progress towards a solution requires a leading American role and European, Arab and international support.US officials in Washington also declined to elaborate on any new peace bid. At this point were not going to describe if there is a specific plan on the table authored by us or anybody else,one of them said.King Abdullah urged US President Barack Obama last month in Washington to back Palestinian statehood in words as well as deeds,and pressed Israel to choose between integration or isolation in the Middle East.He said Obama understands the urgency of the situation today, and understands that procrastination threatens the security of the region and the world.President Obama has announced his commitment to the two-state solution within a comprehensive approach to achieve comprehensive peace,he added.Obama is expected to lay out the framework of the plan when he visits Cairo for a major speech to the Muslim world next month.Expectations in the Arab world are that the speech will present the outlines of a peace plan, including the recognition of Israel by 57 states.Fifty seven states do not recognise Israel, that's a third of UN member-states. The reason is the continuation of the occupation and the absence of a peace settlement,the king said.
He said Israel has to make choices.
Does it (Israel) want to be a fortress, isolated from the region, or does it want to co-exist with its neighbours and with all the countries that do not recognise it and achieve acceptance and real security? King Abdullah said.Jordan and Egypt are the only Arab states that have made peace with Israel.Obama, who has vowed to push ahead with peacemaking, holds talks Monday with hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hosts later this month Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.The king met with Netanyahu on Thursday in Amman and pressed him to accept the two-state deal, which the Israeli premier has so far refused to publicly endorse. Israeli MP Ophir Akunis, who is close to Netanyahu, said on Saturday that the premier will refuse on his trip to Washington to back the formation of a Palestinian state.Netanyahu will not make a commitment to Washington on the creation of a Palestinian state which would undoubtedly become a Hamastan,Akunis said according to public radio, referring to the Islamist Hamas rulers of Gaza. The king also described a 2002 Saudi-inspired Arab peace initiative as a historic opportunity to achieve peace across the Middle East in line with Israel's withdrawal from all occupied Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese lands.Firebrand Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has branded the Arab peace bid as dangerous because it would require the Jewish state to allow Palestinian refugees to return within its borders.
There is no change to the Arab Peace Initiative, and there is no need to amend it. Any talk about amending it, is baseless,the king said.
Pope ends Holy Land pilgrimage with call for peace By STEVEN GUTKIN and ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writers – Fri May 15, 3:31 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Pope Benedict XVI ended his pilgrimage to the Holy Land Friday with a stirring call for peace at the site of Jesus' crucifixion and then made an emotional appeal to Israel and the Palestinians: No more bloodshed. No more fighting. No more terrorism. No more war.After a weeklong struggle to get his message across through a din of Israeli criticism and Palestinian protest against Israel, Benedict delivered his strongest words yet on the Jewish state's right to exist and the Palestinians' right to a country of their own.Let it be universally recognized that the state of Israel has the right to exist, and to enjoy peace and security within internationally agreed borders,Benedict said on the airport tarmac before boarding a plane to Rome.
Let it be likewise acknowledged that the Palestinian people have a right to a sovereign independent homeland,he said.Dogged at every turn by controversy and politics, Benedict's message on the last day of his trip — delivered in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional site of Jesus' crucifixion, burial and resurrection — was that peace is possible.The Gospel reassures us that God can make all things new, that history need not be repeated, that memories can be healed, that the bitter fruits of recrimination and hostility can be overcome,the pope said after kneeling in prayer beside the tomb of Jesus.Among other goals, Benedict's trip was meant to further the Roman Catholic Church's outreach to Jews and Muslims and support the beleaguered Christian communities of the Holy Land. The pope appeared to make headway on those fronts, though his visit lacked the historic resonance of his predecessor Pope John Paul II's pilgrimage nine years earlier.Benedict pleased Palestinians with his repeated calls for an independent Palestinian state, his visit to a refugee camp and his comments lamenting Israel's West Bank separation barrier.
Israelis gave the German-born pontiff mixed reviews, criticizing his failure to express remorse for Christian anti-Semitism in his speech at Yad Vashem, the country's national Holocaust memorial, as John Paul had done.During his eight-day visit, Benedict placed a handwritten prayer in the Western Wall, part of Judaism's holiest site. He took off his shoes to enter the Dome of the Rock, where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven, and quietly prayed at the site of Jesus' birth.But there were reminders of Mideast strife at every step, and in the end Benedict's trip was as much political as it was spiritual.Benedict sat through a tirade by an angry Muslim cleric who commandeered a microphone at an interfaith meeting. He was subjected to a barrage of criticism in Israeli newspapers for his Yad Vashem speech. To get to Bethlehem, the city of Jesus' birth, he passed through an opening in the massive concrete wall Israel has erected in the West Bank.In his farewell speech at the airport, the pope called the wall one of the saddest sights he had seen during his visit.As I passed alongside it, I prayed for a future in which the peoples of the Holy Land can live together in peace and harmony without the need for such instruments of security and separation,said Benedict, who called for an end to bloodshed and terrorism.Israel began building the barrier during a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings to keep assailants out. Palestinians see it as a land grab because its route is largely inside the West Bank, territory that they want, together with the Gaza Strip, as part of a future Palestinian state.Benedict made strong appeals for such a state upon landing in Israel and upon departing — both times just yards from Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's hard-line prime minister who resists the notion.The timing was crucial, coming ahead of a planned trip by Netanyahu to Washington next week and days after the Israeli leader traveled to Egypt and Jordan and heard similar appeals that he accept a two-state solution.Benedict's remarks on the Holocaust, not Mideast peacemaking, were what captured the most attention in Israel.
As a German who was forced to join the Hitler Youth, Benedict would have had a hard time winning over Israelis no matter what he said about the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews.Earlier this year, the pontiff outraged Jews when he lifted the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop, adding to a long-festering dispute between the Vatican and Jewish leaders over whether the World War II-era pope, Pius XII, did enough to save Jews. So when Benedict stood at Yad Vashem's podium Monday and did not apologize or say the words murder or Nazi,he was widely criticized.
Benedict's final speech at Tel Aviv's airport seemed aimed at addressing some of that criticism. Jews, he said, were brutally exterminated under a godless regime.Rabbi Ron Kronish, a leader of interfaith relations in Israel, said the pope was being unfairly disparaged.The gesture is what counts here, not this word or that word, he said.The critical thing is that he went to Yad Vashem, he stood in the Hall of Remembrance and he went to the Western Wall.During the farewell ceremony, Israeli President Shimon Peres was also generous in his praise of Benedict, calling the pontiff's trip a profound demonstration of the enduring dialogue between the Jewish people and the hundreds of millions of Christian believers throughout the world.Earlier Friday, Benedict entered the Church of the Holy Sepulcher escorted by black-robed clergy rhythmically banging staffs on the ground to announce his approach. He knelt and kissed the rectangular stone on which Jesus' body is said to have been placed after the crucifixion. Then he entered the structure that marks the site of Jesus' tomb and knelt inside alone, hands clasped, as priests chanted nearby. Associated Press Writer Victor L. Simpson contributed to this report.
Pope ends Holy Land trip with call for two-state solution by Catherine Jouault – Fri May 15, 1:24 pm ET
BEN GURION AIRPORT, Israel (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI on Friday called for a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict and slammed the Holocaust as brutal extermination as he wound up a Holy Land tour.Let the two-state solution become a reality, he said at a ceremony at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport before he headed home to Rome.No more bloodshed. No more fighting. No more terrorism. No more war, the pontiff said as he ended an eight-day pilgrimage to Jordan, Israel and the occupied West Bank.Let it be universally recognised that the state of Israel has the right to exist and to enjoy peace and security within internationally agreed borders,he said.
Let it be likewise acknowledged that the Palestinian people have a right to a sovereign independent homeland, to live with dignity and to travel freely.With US backing Israel and the Palestinians relaunched peace negotiations in November 2007 seeking to reach agreement on two separate states.But the new Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to commit itself to a Palestinian state.
The pope's tour embraced meetings with Christians, Jews and Muslims, Arabs and Israelis but he said that, despite the animosities that have riven the region, he felt heartened by his experiences.There are great difficulties, we know, we have seen, we have heard, but I also saw that there is a deep desire for peace on the part of everyone,the 82-year-old pontiff told reporters on his flight home.You see difficulties, and we cannot hide them, but the desire for peace is even more visible.
The German-born pope spoke out forcefully against the Holocaust during his tour, saying the world should never forget that so many Jews ... were brutally exterminated under a godless regime that propagated an ideology of anti-Semitism and hatred. Following his visit to Israel's Yad Vashem Memorial on Monday, the German pope had faced criticism that he failed to apologise for the murder of six million Jews, did not use the word German or Nazi and showed little emotion.But Israeli President Shimon Peres told the pope that his statements on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism touched our hearts and minds.Earlier on Friday, the pope knelt in silent prayer in a tiny cavelike room revered as the tomb of Jesus and again at the spot where most Christians believe their Prince of Peace was crucified, both in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre.In the church, Christianity's holiest site, the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics repeated his call for peace in the land revered by the world's three monotheistic faiths but wracked by decades of violence.His visit to the 11th century church in the Old City of Jerusalem came on the same day that Palestinians marked the 61st anniversary of what they call the Naqba, the catastrophe of Israel's creation in 1948.During his pilgrimage, the pope prayed at some of Christianity's most sacred sites, visited Muslim and Jewish holy places at the heart of the Middle East conflict, stood in silence at Israel's Holocaust memorial and saw the conditions in which Palestinians refugees live.The 82-year-old pope took his message of peace and reconciliation to religious leaders of various denominations, to the Israeli premier and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
In Bethlehem, the cradle of Christianity, the pope visited Palestinian refugees living in the shadow of the eight-metre (25-foot) wall that forms part of the West Bank separation barrier Israel says is crucial to its security but which to Palestinians symbolises the Jewish state's apartheid regime. He expressed his solidarity with refugees and said his heart went out to relatives of detainees and families divided by Israeli restrictions on freedom of movement for Palestinians. The pope called for the lifting of the crippling blockade Israel has imposed on Gaza since the Islamic Hamas movement seized power there in June 2007. Benedict prayed at Jerusalem's Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, and visited the compound overlooking it, which is sacred to both Jews and Muslims and has been a major flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Tony Blair holds out hope for two-state solution By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer – Thu May 14, 8:51 pm ET
WASHINGTON – A self-described optimist, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Congress on Thursday there is no workable alternative to a two-state solution to the long and bloody conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and both sides are in favor of it.But in practice, they doubt it can happen,Blair told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.The opportunity is there,said Blair, who is the international negotiator for the Mideast on behalf of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia. But it won't remain if not seized. As President Obama has recognized, this is the right time to seize it.The best way to go, he said, is to try to make it clear to the Palestinians that negotiations will result in genuine statehood and to the Israelis that there can be an agreed program for reform of the Palestinian security sector.On the Israeli side, he said, Israel will not agree to a Palestinian state unless it knows its neighbor will be secure, stable and well governed.Next week, President Barack Obama will immerse himself in trying to point Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toward negotiations with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.Netanyahu is reluctant, on the grounds Israel cannot be sure of an end to violence. Abbas is reluctant to negotiate for an agreement with the Israeli leader until he agrees to freeze construction of Jewish homes on territory occupied by Palestinians.But, differences aside, Blair said the time for peacemaking is opportune, with the Arab countries agreeing to recognize Israel, provided it agrees to a Palestinian state that includes all the land captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.
Blair urged Obama to push quickly for negotiations, provided it clearly points to genuine Palestinian statehood.Members of the Senate panel appeared to agree there was no alternative to negotiations.We all understand, said the committee chairman, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.,that peace will not come to the Middle East quickly or easily.But, Kerry said, I share Mr. Blair's optimism that this moment presents an opportunity we cannot afford to miss.
US judge OKs $116M ruling in deadly terror attack By RAY HENRY, Associated Press Writer - Thu May 14, 8:04 pm ET
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Palestine Liberation Organization and its governmental entity cannot overturn a court judgment forcing them to pay more than $116 million for a Hamas terror attack that killed a U.S. citizen and his wife who were driving home from a wedding, a federal judge has ruled.The case is among a handful in the country filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1991, which seeks to hold terrorist organizations responsible for the killings of American citizens.In a ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Lagueux rejected a request from the Palestinian defendants asking they not be held responsible for the 1996 shooting deaths of Yaron Ungar and his Israeli wife, Efrat, near the West Bank.The judge, who first ordered the Palestinian defendants to pay in 2004, blamed their loss on a legal strategy set by their late leader Yasser Arafat, who refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the U.S. court.These choices were the intentional, deliberate and binding decisions made by the PA's dictatorial leader,the judge wrote.Defendants must now accept the consequences of these decisions.Legal proceedings are under way in the United States, Israel and other countries to take money from the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, said David Strachman, an attorney for the estate of the Ungars, who had two children. Only a modest sum has been collected so far, he said, declining to be more specific.Judge Lagueux confirmed once again their culpability and their obligation to pay to the Ungar orphans and their family,he said.It was unclear Thursday if the PLO and Palestinian Authority would appeal, said Deming Sherman, an attorney representing them. He declined to comment further on the case.The lawsuit seeks compensation for a fatal attack on June 9, 1996, near the Israeli village of Beit Shemesh.Ungar and his wife were driving home when another vehicle driven by three Hamas gunmen pulled alongside them and opened fire. The couple were killed, but their 9-month-old son survived; another son wasn't in the car.
Relying on the 1991 anti-terrorism law, representatives for the couple's estate filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Providence. The lawsuit said the Palestinian Authority and the PLO offered a safe haven to members of Hamas.The judge ordered a default judgment against the PLO in 2004 after it refused to make witnesses — including Arafat — available for depositions and wouldn't share information with lawyers for the Ungars, which is required under court rules.Lawyers for the PLO promptly tried to overturn the judgment, saying it should have been allowed more time to mount a defense that it was a sovereign government that couldn't be sued. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston rejected that argument.In December 2007, the PLO and Palestinian Authority asked again to overturn the judgment, this time saying they weren't responsible for the attack and didn't understand U.S. court rules.The defendants accused Hamas, a Palestinian militant group considered by the European Union and the United States to be a terrorist organization, of staging the attack to disrupt peace negotiations the Palestinian Authority was carrying out with the Israeli and U.S. governments.The judge previously ordered that Hamas must pay more than $116 million for its role in the attack. Hamas has never hired a lawyer or contested the case.(This version CORRECTS judge's quote to decisions sted decision, date of attack to June 9 sted June 6)
Netanyahu urges pope to condemn Iranian threats By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer – Thu May 14, 5:54 pm ET
NAZARETH, Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed to Pope Benedict XVI to make his voice heard loud against Iran's call for the destruction of the Jewish state. But his focus on Iran did not mask a key difference with the pontiff over whether Palestinians deserve a state of their own.The two men met a day after the pope made a powerful call for Palestinian statehood, a concept that Netanyahu has refused to endorse. They held 15 minutes of face-to-face talks, which the Vatican said centered on how the peace process can be advanced.But in televised remarks following the talks, Netanyahu did not mention the Palestinian issue, focusing instead on Iran.I asked him, as a moral figure, to make his voice heard loud and continuously against the declarations coming from Iran of their intention to destroy Israel,Netanyahu said of his talks with the pope.I told him it cannot be that at the beginning of the 21st century, there is a state which says it is going to destroy the Jewish state, and there is no aggressive voice being heard condemning this,the Israeli leader told Israel TV.He said Benedict said he condemns all such things, anti-Semitism, hate,adding:I think we found in him an attentive ear.While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel's elimination, his exact remarks have been disputed, with some translators saying he called for Israel to be wiped off the map.Others say a better translation would be vanish from the pages of time — implying Israel would disappear on its own rather than be destroyed.Since taking office on March 31, Netanyahu has emphasized the Iranian threat in an apparent attempt to put the Palestinian question on the back burner.Unlike previous governments, Netanyahu's has refused to endorse the two-state formula, potentially putting him on a collision course with President Barack Obama. The two will meet in Washington next week.The Israeli leader called his meeting with Benedict very good and important,noting that the pope heads a church of 1 billion followers, and Israel wants good relations with them.Secondly, we spoke also about the historic process of reconciliation between Christianity and Judaism. and the pope is very interested,Netanyahu said.
The pope's ventures into diplomacy reflected what Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi called the focus of his Middle East pilgrimage — peace, peace, peace. He said the pope could be a bridge among the various positions.The Vatican has been active on the Middle East diplomatic front, seeking to protect Christians in the Holy Land and elsewhere in the region, while supporting a solution to the Israel-Palestinian dispute through creation of a Palestinian state and security for Israel.
From Israel's creation in 1948, the Jewish state and the Vatican had no formal relations until Pope John Paul II forged official ties in 1993, giving the Vatican a larger voice in Mideast diplomacy.Charging headlong into the touchiest Mideast political issues on his Holy Land pilgrimage, Benedict has criticized Israel's security barrier, a network of concrete and barbed wire along the West Bank built to keep out Palestinian attackers. He urged Palestinians to renounce terrorism, while pressing both sides to find the courage to achieve peace.Vatican officials also met with Israelis to discuss bilateral issues, including travel privileges for Arab Christian clergy, Lombardi said. The Vatican has asked Israel to allow 500 priests from Arab countries to receive visas to enter Israel at will. Interior Minister Eli Yishai refused the request on security grounds, a spokesman said, but Netanyahu pledged to re-examine the matter.At an inter-religious meeting after the pope met Netanyahu, Rabbi David Rosen took the normally shy Benedict's hand as he joined others in singing Lord Grant Us Peace, Shalom, Saalam — peace in Hebrew and Arabic.
The pope loved it,Rosen said.
On the next-to-last day of his pilgrimage, Benedict drew the largest crowd of his trip, some 50,000 people at an open-air Mass in Nazareth. He issued a message of reconciliation, urging Christians and Muslims to overcome recent strife and reject the destructive power of hatred and prejudice.The choice of Nazareth — home to many key sites in Christianity — as the venue reflected the interfaith strains the pope has tried to ease. The city, in northern Israel's Galilee region, is the country's largest Arab city. Roughly two-thirds of its 65,000 people are Muslims and a third are Christians. While the two communities usually get along, they have come into sporadic conflict.A decade ago, Muslims outraged Christians by building an unauthorized mosque next to the Basilica of the Annunciation, where Christians believe the Angel Gabriel foretold the birth of Jesus to Mary. Israeli authorities later tore down the mosque. Muslim activists also have periodically marched through the city in shows of strength meant to intimidate Christians. In his homily, Benedict spoke of the tensions that have harmed interfaith relations. I urge people of goodwill in both communities to repair the damage that has been done ... to work to build bridges and find the way to a peaceful coexistence,he said. Many at the Mass swayed back and forth to Arabic music played over loudspeakers, clapping and waving yellow and white Vatican flags. The pope passed through the crowd in his white popemobile, led by a procession of priests and bishops in flowing white robes. The Mass was celebrated on Mount Precipice, where Christian tradition says a mob tried to throw Jesus off a cliff. Jesus grew up in Nazareth and traveled through the Galilee with his disciples preaching and performing miracles in the final years of his life. Like Bethlehem in the West Bank, Nazareth once had a solid Christian majority, but church followers have left in the tens of thousands to seek a better life elsewhere.
Addressing a crowd of faithful, Benedict turned to the plight of the shrinking presence of Christians, saying it is essential that you should be united among yourselves.
Jordan king: Israel must accept Palestinian state By JAMAL HALABY, Associated Press Writer – Thu May 14, 4:42 pm ET
AMMAN, Jordan – Jordan's king pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to immediately commit to the establishment of a Palestinian state, as he pursues a sweeping resolution of the Muslim world's conflicts with Israel.Netanyahu made an unannounced, lightning visit to neighboring Jordan, as King Abdullah II and other regional leaders seek to lay the groundwork for restarting Israel-Arab peace efforts. Abdullah's lobbying has been in step with the Obama administration's efforts to link progress on Israel-Arab peacemaking to progress on curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions.The U.S. says moderate Arab states will not join a united front against Tehran unless Israel moves vigorously on peacemaking.Netanyahu, however, argues that the threat from Iran and its regional proxies — Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip — must be confronted first, before any progress can be made in peacemaking. And while he has been trying to forge cooperation with moderate Arab nations to pursue that agenda, he has pointedly refused to endorse Palestinian statehood.Abdullah pressed Netanyahu in their meeting Thursday to immediately declare his commitment to a two-state solution, acceptance of the Arab peace initiative and to take necessary steps to move forward toward a solution,according to a royal palace statement.Netanyahu said afterward that he and Abdullah had a very good conversation, but did not specifically comment on Palestinian statehood or the Arab peace initiative.He told Israeli television that they talked about ways to form a circle of peace in the Middle East that would include the Palestinians and Arab states.
The Arab peace initiative would offer Israel relations with the 23 Arab League members in exchange for its withdrawal from land it occupied in the 1967 war, a just solution for Palestinian refugees and the establishment of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.Several Arab diplomats have said the Americans have asked Arab nations to amend the initiative to make it more palatable to Israel by dropping demands for a right of return for Palestinian refugees and agree to either resettle them in the host countries or in the Palestinian territories. But Arab countries have rejected the idea.Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal told reporters in Damascus on Thursday that the right of return is fixed and cannot be changed.Abdullah said there is consensus in the international community that there is no alternative to the two-state solution.Netanyahu will likely hear a similar message when he meets President Barack Obama in Washington on Monday.Netanyahu's election this year has been ill-received in the Arab world because of his hard-line positions against yielding land captured in Middle East wars and his refusal to support Palestinian independence.Netanyahu says Iran's nuclear program is Israel's greatest threat and has hinted Israel might be willing to attack if international diplomatic pressure fails to stop Iran from enriching uranium — a process that can produce bombs, but also fuel for power plants.Iran says its nuclear program is designed to produce energy, but Israel, the U.S. and many other countries think Tehran is trying to develop atomic weapons.
But Vice President Joe Biden recently said Israeli military action in Iran would be ill-advised.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he would not meet with Netanyahu until he agrees to pursue Palestinian independence and freeze construction in Jewish West Bank settlements, something Netanyahu has said he would not do.Abbas met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus on Thursday to discuss Abdullah's new Mideast peace push. The Palestinian president said the meeting was positive but did not provide further comment. During the meeting, Assad urged rival Palestinian factions to reconcile, stressing that unity was indispensable for regaining Palestinian rights, Syria's official news agency reported. The two main factions have been divided since Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Abbas' Fatah group in June 2007. The two groups have failed to reconcile their differences in a series of talks mediated by Egypt.Syria hosts Hamas' exiled leadership, and Abdullah traveled to Damascus earlier this week to promote his ideas to Assad.Associated Press Writers Amy Teibel in Jerusalem and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.
