Israel, Egypt discuss efforts to revive peace process by Jailan Zayan – DEC 29,09
CAIRO (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed efforts to revive the stalled Middle East peace process Tuesday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, but Cairo said talks can only start when Jewish settlement activity stops.The talks were very positive, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told reporters after the meeting.We have seen that the Israeli prime minister wants to move ahead (with negotiations), and he insists on moving ahead, but we insist on an agreed platform, Abul Gheit said.There are conditions... we will not negotiate while settlement continues, he said.Egypt also wants to see a defined time frame for the talks.Any negotiation, for which a basis and a goal is agreed, must have a time-frame, Abul Gheit said.The two leaders also discussed a prisoner swap between Israel and the Palestinians that would see the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Gaza militants three and half years ago.Abul Gheit said the deal was still suspended and that a Hamas delegation currently in Syria, was to head back to Cairo for talks with officials on the issue.
The encounter, however, was overshadowed by Israel's announcement it has invited tenders for the construction of hundreds of new homes for Jewish settlers in annexed Arab east Jerusalem, which drew an angry rebuke from Egypt.Abul Gheit told the official MENA news agency before the meeting that continued settlement construction by Israel in the occupied territories was torpedoing the efforts being made to relaunch negotiations aimed at establishing a Palestinian state.Such behaviour raises questions about the serious willingness of Israel to reach a definitive agreement and leads one to believe that Israel is trying to welch on its obligations for a just and lasting peace, he said.Israel has invited tenders for the building of 692 new homes in the Jerusalem settlements of Neve Yaacov, Pisgat Zeev and Har Homa, the independent Channel 10 television reported on Sunday.The announcement prompted key ally the United States to express its opposition and the European Union to call for a rethink.Abul Gheit said he and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman were to travel to Washington for talks with officials on January 7.The visit comes as US President Barack Obama's administration was said to be drafting letters of guarantee for Israel and the Palestinians to serve as a basis for relaunching the talks which have been stalled for almost a year.
Abul Gheit said Egypt had asked for the written guarantees.
That is the crux of the Egyptian efforts... (but) it is premature to say whether or not we will receive the assurances of guarantees, we want, he said.On Monday, an Arab diplomat told AFP that US special envoy George Mitchell would present draft letters of guarantee to Israel and the Palestinian Authority on his next visit to the region. The United States is hoping that the two letters will serve as a basis for the relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations but we don't know if they will satisfy the Palestinians, who want a complete freeze of settlement activity before talks resume, the diplomat said. Washington was currently in talks with the Palestinians and Egypt -- a key US ally in the region -- over the letters, a Western diplomat said. Egypt had already asked for written US guarantees before peace talks resume, in order to ensure their aim is the establishment of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders.
Court lets Palestinians use major Israeli highway By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer – DEC 29,09
JERUSALEM – Israel's Supreme Court ordered the military on Tuesday to allow Palestinians to travel on the part of a major highway that runs through the West Bank, handing Palestinians their biggest victory yet against Israel's practice of reserving some roads for Jews.The West Bank section of a road linking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv was closed in 2002 to the Palestinians, after militants shot at Israeli vehicles on the highway and killed several motorists.About half of the 20-mile highway runs through the West Bank. Palestinians living in villages along the route petitioned to reopen it in 2007, as the Palestinian uprising against Israel wound down.The court said in a summary of its ruling that the military does not have the authority to impose a permanent and sweeping limitation on Palestinian travel along the West Bank section of the road because that in effect transforms the road into a route designed for internal Israeli traffic alone.It also said the closure of the road does not benefit the local population, from whom lands were appropriated to build it.The judges ruled that security considerations cannot take precedence.It's a huge victory, said Melanie Takefman, spokeswoman for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which represented the Palestinians in their petition before the court.The restrictions caused hardships for tens of thousands of Palestinians, who were forced to travel on dirt roads to other areas of the West Bank. That problem was eased last year with the opening of alternative paved routes for Palestinians.
Palestinian Hassan Mafarjeh, the mayor of Beit Liqya village near the highway, said the alternate road was not a solution. We reject the principle that our land is expropriated to build more roads, he said.He said the trip to the main city in the area, Ramallah, took an hour on the dirt roads and 30 minutes on the alternate road. Using the highway would cut that to just 15 minutes, he said.The court gave the military five months to implement the ruling.Under existing regulations, sections of the road that lie in Israeli territory will remain closed to Palestinian vehicles, as are all Israeli roads.It was the second time in months that the Supreme Court has ordered the military to open a West Bank road declared off-limits to Palestinians.
Lebanese troops fire on Israeli jets over south Tue Dec 29, 8:56 am ET
BEIRUT – The Lebanese military says its troops have fired on Israeli warplanes flying low over south Lebanon but no hits were reported.A military statement says four Israeli warplanes violated the airspace in southern Lebanon on Tuesday. This drew anti-aircraft fire from Lebanese gunners, which forced the planes to fly at a higher altitude.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.Israeli warplanes frequently fly over Lebanon on reconnaissance missions and the Lebanese have fired on them on several occasions since a U.N.-brokered cease-fire ended a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah in August 2006.The incident comes two days after U.N. peacekeepers found an explosives cache just 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) from the Israeli border.
Egypt encouraged during Israeli PM's visit By SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Writer – DEC 29,09
CAIRO – Israel's prime minister on Tuesday presented Egypt with ideas for restarting Mideast peace talks, impressing his hosts with proposals that go further than past Israeli positions, Egypt's top diplomat said.The meeting took place as a Hamas official said his group had rejected Israel's latest proposal for a prisoner swap with the Islamic militants. A top Hamas official in Syria told The Associated Press that the deal is on hold because Israel was refusing to release key prisoners and insisting on mass deportations of freed militants.The peace process and prisoner swaps were high on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's agenda Tuesday. Egypt, the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, has been a key mediator on both fronts. Germany, at Hamas' behest, is also involved in the mediation.Israeli-Palestinian talks broke off a year ago, and the two sides are odds on how to restart negotiations. The issue of Israeli settlements in areas claimed by the Palestinians has been a major sticking point, and Israel's offer of a partial settlement freeze has failed to break the deadlock. Israel committed to a full settlement freeze under a 2003 peace plan but never met that obligation.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit refused to divulge specifics on Tuesday's discussions, but said Netanyahu appears serious about trying to resume negotiations with the Palestinians.I can't talk about details, but the prime minister was discussing positions that surpass in our estimate what we've heard from them in a long time, Aboul Gheit told reporters.I can't say that he has come with changed positions, but he is moving forward.Netanyahu jetted in from neighboring Israel, joined by his top negotiator Yitzhak Molcho, for nearly three hours of talks with President Hosni Mubarak, his intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, and Aboul Gheit.
Egypt frequently mediates between the Jewish state and the broader Arab world. Aboul Gheit and Suleiman are traveling to the United States next week, while U.S. envoy George Mitchell is expected in Israel around the same time.For months, Mitchell has been trying to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. In the latest setback for peace efforts, Israel announced plans on Monday to build nearly 700 new homes in east Jerusalem, the section of the holy city that the Palestinians want to make their capital.Netanyahu has offered a 10-month slowdown on West Bank settlement construction in what he says is a gesture to restart talks. But the Palestinians say the gesture is insufficient because it does not include east Jerusalem, their hoped-for capital, or 3,000 homes already being built in the West Bank.The Palestinians have also insisted that Netanyahu resume talks from the point they broke off under his more dovish predecessor, Ehud Olmert. Netanyahu has said he is not bound by Olmert's offers — which included proposals for shared control of the holy city of Jerusalem and a broad pullout from nearly all of the West Bank.Aboul Gheit said Netanyahu gave his hosts the impression that he genuinely wants to get diplomacy moving again, and told The Associated Press that everything is on the table. At the same time, he said settlement construction must be halted for negotiations to succeed.Aboul Gheit also said Egypt asked Israel to ease restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and Israel promised to take measures what would ease freedom of movement.Also on the agenda were the prisoner swap talks. Hamas is seeking hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier it has held for more than three years.A delegation of Hamas leaders has left their Gaza Strip stronghold to discuss Israel's latest proposal with Hamas' exiled leadership in Syria. A top Hamas official in Damascus told The Associated Press that the group had rejected Israel's latest offer, and asked the German mediator to go back to Israel for another offer.
Hamas decided to tell the German mediator that they will not to accept this offer, the official said. We are waiting for another round of mediation.The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was discussing confidential discussions, said that Israel is refusing to release 10 senior militants sought by Hamas. He said Israel also wants 200 freed militants to be deported.Aboul Gheit said Egypt understands Hamas' reservations on the proposal, saying that Egypt doesn't agree with deporting prisoners and refusing to release certain prisoners.
Israeli officials had no comment. AP correspondent Mohammed Daraghmeh contributed reporting from Ramallah, West Bank.
Israel PM in Cairo for talks on peace process by Jailan Zayan – Mon Dec 28, 10:05 pm ET
CAIRO (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travels to Cairo on Tuesday for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak amid US efforts to revive stalled Middle East peace talks.The discussions were to focus on ways to advance peace efforts, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said.We will listen to his points of view and we will inform him that a fair settlement must be reached on the Palestinian refugee problem and east Jerusalem, he said, referring to two key issues in the peace talks.Abul Gheit said he would visit Washington in January for talks on the process as US President Barack Obama's administration was said to be drafting letters of guarantee for Israel and the Palestinians to serve as a basis for relaunching the talks which have been stalled for almost a year.US special envoy George Mitchell will present two draft letters of guarantee, one for Israel and one to the Palestinian Authority during his next visit to the region, one Arab diplomat in Cairo told AFP.The United States is hoping that the two letters will serve as a basis for the relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations but we don't know if they will satisfy the Palestinians, who want a complete freeze of settlement activity before talks resume, the diplomat said.Washington was currently in talks with the Palestinians and Egypt -- a key US ally in the region -- over the letters, a Western diplomat said.
Former Israeli left-wing MP Yossi Beilin told AFP that Netanyahu was nearing an agreement with the US administration on the principles of the negotiations.These principles include a real, albeit indirect commitment by Netanyahu to negotiate Palestinian demands to return to the 1967 borders, including the thorny question of the future status of Jerusalem, according to Beilin.Netanyahu was also ready to accept the US demand that the peace negotiations would be limited to 24 months, said Beilin, who was among the initiators of the 1993 Oslo accords.Netanyahu's spokeman Mark Regev said in reaction that Mr. Beilin only speaks for Mr. Beilin.The hawkish Israeli premier said in a speech before Israeli diplomats on Monday that he wanted to resume negotiations in the near future.We want to make progress and advance the negotiations in the near future.Egypt had already asked for written US guarantees before peace talks resume, in order to ensure their aim is the establishment of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders.The beginning of negotiations must come either with a complete freeze of settlement activity, which we continue to demand, or if we receive unequivocal guarantees that a Palestinian state will be established along the borders of 1967 including Jerusalem, Abul Gheit said in November.Netanyahu announced last month a 10-month moratorium on new housing projects in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in a move he said was aimed at helping to kick-start the peace talks suspended during the Gaza war at the turn of the year.The moratorium does not include public buildings or construction under way and does not apply to occupied and annexed east Jerusalem, which Israelis consider part of their capital. The government has reportedly invited tenders for building hundreds of new homes in annexed east Jerusalem.The Palestinians have rejected the moratorium, saying it fell far short of their demand for a complete halt of settlement activity in the whole West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, which they want as the capital of their promised state.
US opposes new settlements in east Jerusalem: White House
Mon Dec 28, 1:23 pm ET
HONOLULU, Hawaii (AFP) – The United States is opposed to building new Jewish settlements in annexed Arab east Jerusalem, the White House said Monday, calling for fresh talks on the future of the disputed territory.The United States opposes new Israeli construction in East Jerusalem, spokesman Robert Gibbs said.The status of Jerusalem is a permanent status issue that must be resolved by the parties through negotiations and supported by the international community, he said, adding that the two sides should return to the negotiating table as soon as possible.The United States recognizes that Jerusalem is a deeply important issue for Israelis and Palestinians, and for Jews, Muslims, and Christians, Gibbs said.He added: We believe that through good faith negotiations the parties can mutually agree on an outcome that realizes the aspirations of both parties for Jerusalem, and safeguards its status for people around the world.Gibbs issued his statement amid news reports in Israel which said the government had invited tenders for the building of hundreds of more homes in Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem.East Jerusalem settlements already house some 200,000 Jewish settlers alongside its 270,000 Palestinian residents.Israel's continued expansion of settlements is one of the biggest obstacles to the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians, now suspended for a year.Israel, which captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed it in a move which has not been recognized by the international community.
Israel insists that the entire city is its eternal, indivisible capital, but Palestinians are determined to make the city's eastern sector the capital of their promised state, a goal endorsed earlier this month by the European Union.
Israel's Kadima rejects offer to join govt Mon Dec 28, 11:16 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's centrist Kadima party headed by former foreign minister Tzipi Livni on Monday rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's offer to join a broad-based coalition.The prime minister's proposal as relayed to the Kadima chairman does not express an honest desire for such partnership, MP Yohanan Plasner told reporters after Kadima's parliamentary faction unanimously rejected the offer.
A unity government has many advantages, but a national unity should not be an empty expression, but a commitment for a real partnership with a joint vision and principles and an agreed way to materialise these principles.Netanyahu met Livni twice in recent days after inviting her to join his government and form a coalition to face the national and international challenges facing Israel today.Kadima, the largest in the 120-member parliament with 28 MPs, has been rocked in recent days by earlier reports the premier pressed several of its MPs to break away and join his coalition.Livni accused Netanyahu of applying gutter politics, saying he had made his offer after he failed to split Kadima despite his efforts to do so.Netanyahu's offer cynically uses threats. We are not in war or in a peace process, Livni told reporters after the party vote in parliament.The premier's office said in a statement he was sorry to hear about Kadima's rejection... In view of the challenges facing Israel, the prime minister hoped for a different position.
Netanyahu wants Israeli force on Palestinian border
Mon Dec 28, 10:50 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday raised publicly for the first time the prospect of maintaining Israeli forces along the eastern border of a future Palestinian state to prevent arms smuggling.The problem of demilitarization must be resolved effectively and this entails effectively blocking unauthorized entry, first and foremost from the east, wherever the border is defined, Netanyahu said in a speech to Israeli ambassadors.I doubt whether anything except a real presence of the State of Israel, of Israeli forces, can accomplish that, he said, expanding on his vision of a nation with only limited sovereignty.Netanyahu has said the state Palestinians want to establish in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip must be demilitarized, but he had not made specific reference until now to the stationing of Israeli forces on its Jordanian frontier.Israel and Egypt maintain control over the borders of the Gaza Strip under interim peace deals. Israel imposed a blockade after Hamas Islamists seized the territory in 2007 from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group.His comments about an Israeli presence along the border echoed a policy advocated by previous Israeli governments and spelled out new terms in any future negotiations with the Palestinians on statehood.Palestinians want a contiguous state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and were granted limited self-autonomy in the 1993 Oslo Accords. They have said they want full control over the entire border with Jordan in any future deal, but have not ruled out the presence of an international force.
Netanyahu said an international arrangement for the borders of a Palestinian state, similar to the deployment of a U.N. force in southern Lebanon after Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah guerrillas, would not suffice.Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been frozen for the past year. Abbas has said they could resume only if Israel halted all settlement activity.(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah; Writing by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Louise Ireland).
Israeli defense chief: Iran can build bomb by 2011
Mon Dec 28, 8:15 am ET
JERUSALEM – Iran will possess the technology to build a nuclear bomb by early 2010 and be able to produce one the following year, Israeli media quoted Israel's defense minister as saying Monday.Defense Minister Ehud Barak delivered his assessment before the Israeli parliament's defense and foreign affairs committee. It broadly matches assessments from other nations including the U.S., which estimates that Tehran could produce a nuclear weapon between 2010 and 2015.The Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the reports and a Barak spokesman wasn't immediately available for comment. The radio and newspaper Web site reports did not identify the source of their information, but participants in the committee meetings routinely brief reporters on the proceedings.Earlier this month, Israel's military intelligence chief said Iran was close to an unspecified technological breakthrough that would enable it to build nuclear weapons. He did not elaborate on the breakthrough or say when exactly he expected Iran to have weapons-making capability.
Israel, like the West, disputes Tehran's claims that its nuclear program is designed to produce energy, not bombs. It has lobbied for tough sanctions against Iran and has not ruled out a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.The international community must act, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a separate gathering of Israeli diplomats. If sanctions aren't imposed now, if true pressure isn't applied now — then when will they do it? A U.N.-drafted proposal aims to ease concerns that Iran could build a nuclear weapon by reducing its stockpile of low-enriched uranium. Under the proposal, the uranium would be shipped to France and Russia in exchange for more highly enriched fuel rods that are not suitable for use in weapons.Iran has not formally responded to the U.N. proposal, but recently proposed Turkey as a possible venue for exchanging nuclear material with the West.
Palestinians condemn planned Jerusalem settler homes
Mon Dec 28, 3:55 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – The Western-backed Palestinian Authority on Monday condemned Israeli plans to build new homes for settlers in east Jerusalem and said they were incompatible with peace efforts.The Palestinian Authority strongly condemns the new decision to build in east Jerusalem and wonders whether there is a freeze of settlement activity or an intensification of it, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.The American administration needs to realise that the policies of the Israeli government embody settlements and not peace and that their choice is settlements and not peace, he added.Israel's Channel 10 television reported Sunday that Israel has invited tenders for the building of some 692 new homes in three settlements in mostly Arab east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians have demanded as the capital of their promised state.There are already some 200,000 Jewish settlers living alongside 270,000 Arab residents in east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed later in a move not recognised by the international community.The Palestinians have refused to restart peace negotiations suspended a year ago during the Gaza war unless Israel halts all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem.Israel has agreed to a 10-month moratorium on building starts in the West Bank excluding public buildings and projects already underway. The partial freeze does not include east Jerusalem.On November 16, Israel gave its approval for 900 new housing units in another east Jerusalem settlement in a move that drew a strong rebuke from its US ally, which has been pressing both sides to restart peace talks.
Israel ups police chief's security after death threats
Sun Dec 27, 4:04 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has tightened security around police chief Dudi Cohen after he received death threats believed to be from hardline Jewish settlers, Israeli news reports said on Sunday.You have been condemned to the next life, your end is nigh, said one anonymous letter sent to Cohen, the reports carried by both public and independent television channels said.Police suspect that the threats are the work of hardline settlers angry at a 10-month moratorium on permits for new settler homes in the West Bank outside annexed Arab east Jerusalem, the reports added.
But they have not entirely ruled out a gangland connection.Police are responsible for enforcing the new building restrictions in the settlements.The police spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
THE HEADLINE SHOULD READ A YEAR SINCE ISRAEL DEFENDED ITSELF FROM 10,000 ROCKETS SHOT INTO ISRAEL BY THE ARABS.
Gaza marks year since start of deadly Israeli war by Adel Zaanoun – Sun Dec 27, 9:37 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Sirens wailed across the Gaza Strip on Sunday as the still-devastated Hamas-ruled enclave marked one year since the start of Israel's deadliest offensive ever launched on the territory.Events marking the anniversary began with sirens sounding at 11:20 am (0920 GMT), when the first bombs of Israel's Operation Cast Lead, launched in a bid to halt years of rocket fire from the enclave, slammed into the coastal strip.Senior Hamas leader Ahmed Bahar struck a defiant tone, saying the will of the steadfast and the resistance was victorious at a ceremony unveiling a war memorial with the names of hundreds of Palestinians killed in the fighting.
Gaza was steadfast and did not fall in this ugly, destructive war... And the resistance, which defended its land with honour, was not broken, he said.We call on all the sons of our people to unite and to take to the trenches of the resistance to face the criminal Zionist occupation.North of Gaza City, hundreds of people carried pictures of the fallen past a UN school hit during the war and the flattened house of senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayan, killed in an air strike with his four wives and 10 children.Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya was to make a television address in the evening, with other events planned for the next 22 days, the length of the war.
On Saturday, December 27, 2008, Israeli warplanes launched simultaneous strikes on numerous Hamas targets throughout the territory of 1.5 million people, raids that killed at least 225 people in what was one of the bloodiest single days in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.The war ended 22 days later with mutual ceasefires by Israel and Hamas, with some 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 400minors, and 13 Israelis left dead. Entire neighbourhoods of Gaza were flattened in the onslaught, which also wounded more than 5,500 people.Those were dark days. There was killing in every street and alley, said Dr Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services. Sixteen of his paramedics were killed as they struggled to collect the wounded.The time has come now for unity and peace and justice and an end to the blockade, he said, referring to Israeli and Egyptian border closures that have sealed Gaza off from all but basic goods since Hamas seized power in June 2007.
The end of the war ushered in the calmest period in years along Gaza's borders as the ceasefires have held despite occasional violations by both sides.The number of Palestinian rocket attacks in the year since the war has been 90 percent less than the one preceding it, according to Israeli figures.But analysts warn that the calm around the borders belies busy preparations for the inevitable next round of bloodshed. And Israel has come under intense criticism from the international community and human rights groups who have accused it of disproportionate force during the operation, including the use of white phosphorous in residential areas.
A UN Human Rights Council report released several months ago accused both Israel and Palestinian militants of committing war crimes during the offensive.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday warned that neither the issues that led to this conflict nor its worrying aftermath are being addressed.There is a sense of hopelessness in Gaza today for 1.5 million Palestinians, half of whom are under 18. Their fate and the well-being of Israelis are intimately connected, he added. The Jewish state has also faced withering criticism over the blockade, which has made it virtually impossible to import materials for postwar reconstruction. Some 6,400 homes were severely damaged or destroyed during the war, according to UN figures, as well as several large factories and farms. Most of the tens of thousands of people who lost homes now share crowded apartments with relatives or huddle under tents supplied by aid groups, and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has started building homes out of mud bricks because of the shortage of concrete. Gaza has been bombed back to the mud age, not the stone age,UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said.
Israel kills six Palestinians in West Bank,Gaza By Hassan Titi – Sat Dec 26, 10:53 am ET
NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli soldiers killed six Palestinians on Saturday in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the bloodiest violent outbreak in months.Three of those killed belonged to a militant group within the Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement Israel accused of perpetrating a roadside shooting that killed a Jewish settler two days earlier.An official in Abbas's government accused Israel of a grave escalation. A militant leader threatened revenge, charging Israel would now open the gates of hell.Israeli armored vehicles entered the West Bank city of Nablus before dawn, when soldiers surrounded homes where members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group of Abbas's Fatah group, were inside.The troops shot dead three militants suspected of killing the settler who ignored orders to surrender, spokesman Major Peter Lerner said.
The militants had not shot at the troops but soldiers had acted assuming each was armed and dangerous, Lerner said.One of the dead was found holding a gun and the wife of another had been wounded in the leg.In Gaza, soldiers shot and killed three Palestinians near a border fence they suspected of trying to infiltrate from the Hamas-ruled territory. A Hamas security source said the three were shot as they collected scrap metal.The violent upsurge threatened to derail Western-backed security cooperation forged between Abbas's police force and Israel, and potentially tip a Palestinian power struggle against his Fatah movement, in Islamist Hamas's favor.It also pointed up the risks of stalled U.S.-backed peace talks, frozen since a three-week Gaza war whose first year anniversary falls on Monday, December 27 and in which 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
BLOOD AND FIRE
Some Palestinians protested that Israel had not asked Abbas's forces to arrest the militants. Lerner said the militants had violated pledges to refrain from violence.
More than 10,000 Palestinians attended funerals for the militants in Nablus where businesses closed their doors answering calls for a general strike.Abu Mahmoud, a spokesman for the militants, urged a response of blood and fire against Israel saying its crime will not go unpunished, and would open the gates of hell.Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad accused Israel of having staged an assassination that could torpedo already stalled efforts to resume peace negotiations.This is a sad day for Palestinians, Fayyad added, also voicing a hope we would not be dragged into a circle of violence, chaos and instability.Nabil Abu Rdainah, an aide to Abbas, told Reuters: This grave Israeli escalation shows Israel is not interested in peace and is trying to explode the situation.The settler, a father of seven, was the first Israeli killed in a Palestinian attack in eight months.The death toll in Saturday's incidents was the highest of any Israeli-Palestinian confrontation in West Bank land since before the Gaza offensive, and the worst fatalities along the Gaza border since March.(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Abed Qusini in Nablus, Mohammed Assadi and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Palestinian groups claim killing Israeli in West Bank
Fri Dec 25, 4:51 am ET
GAZA (Reuters) – Two Palestinian militant groups on Friday claimed responsibility for the West Bank shooting of an Israeli who was killed in an attack on Thursday night, a joint statement from the groups said.Islamic Jihad and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, said their operatives had killed an Israeli settler in the West Bank.The Israeli military said Meir Avshalom Hai, a 40-year-old father of seven, died when his car came under fire in the occupied West Bank on Thursday night, either from a passing car or a roadside ambush, near the city of Nablus.Hai was the first Israeli fatality in a Palestinian militant attack in the West Bank since April.Colonel Avi Gil, an Israeli commander in the area said the military has been removing checkpoints from West Bank roads to ease travel restrictions on Palestinians but it would consider placing new ones if it would prevent future attacks.
He said there had been 11 other shooting attacks in 2009 in the West Bank.
Deadly West Bank attacks have tapered off significantly in the past few years through improved coordination between the Israeli military and Western-backed Abbas's security forces who have become more effective in patrolling Palestinian areas.(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Writing by Ori Lewis)
Pilgrims crowd Bethlehem on warm Christmas eve By Erika Solomon – Thu Dec 24, 9:20 pm ET
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) – Thousands of pilgrims and dignitaries crowded into Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity for a Christmas Mass, where Latin Patriarch Fuad al-Tuwal urged visitors to return home bearing a message of peace for the Holy Land.
Entertaining crowds outside, bagpipers played carols and whirling dervishes danced, unfurling giant white skirts embroidered with the word peace in various languages.
Some 15,000 visitors packed into the stone flagged square opposite the small Door of Humility where pilgrims stoop to enter the multi-denominational church, built above the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born.While much of North America and Europe were gripped in winter's icy embrace, visitors to Bethlehem were buying chilled fruit juice in Manger Square and stripping off sweaters in the mild weather.
It's about 20 degrees (68 Fahrenheit) and it's a little hard to get that Christmas feeling I'm used to having, said Phillip Well, 22, from Germany.Some tourists were bemused by the scene.I'm not used to seeing marching bands and scout troops do the Christmas festivities, but it's entertaining, said 40-year-old Vijey Raghavan, of San Francisco, California.Inside the church at midnight mass, monks kept the celebrations traditional with Christmas hymns and al-Tuwal delivered a special Christmas message in six different languages, including Arabic.Likening modern-day pilgrims to the shepherds who harkened the angel's message of Jesus' birth, al-Tuwal extended blessings of reconciliation and hope to families worldwide.You can take back with you the desire for peace and work for peace -- peace in the Holy Land where the prince of peace was born. And peace to all the world for men and women of goodwill, he said.Tourism in Bethlehem has picked up in the past few years, after collapsing during the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which erupted in 2000. Hotels expect a 60 to 70 percent rise in business this year.Still, many locals say development is hindered by elaborate security arrangements Israel has put in place to keep Palestinian attackers out, including an eight meter (25 foot) high wall between Bethlehem and neighboring Jerusalem.Visitors and local people cannot escape the sight of the wall but they were not allowing it to dampen the Christmas spirit. It's safe, it's warm, it's a happy time. It's good for visitors to see the good things too, said 16 year-old Bethlehem resident Reem Mohammad.(Editing by Jon Boyle)
Patriarch calls for peace as Bethlehem rocks Christmas by Gavin Rabinowitz – Thu Dec 24, 5:58 pm ET
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AFP) – The top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land called Friday on the faithful to pray for peace in this troubled region at midnight mass in Bethlehem, Jesus's traditional birthplace.I address myself to all believers throughout the world, and I urge them to pray for this Holy Land. It is a land that suffers and that hopes, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fuad Twal told worshippers at St Catherine's Church, adjoining the Church of the Nativity.The prayers capped a day of festivities in Bethlehem, unseen since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence at the turn of the millennium.Live rock music mingled with traditional carols in Manger Square on Christmas Eve as thousands of pilgrims and Palestinians celebrated.The celebrations, together with a resurgence in tourism, have provided some respite from the pall cast by the wall lurking over the entrance to the town -- part of Israel's controversial West Bank separation barrier -- and continued concern for the plight of Bethlehem's dwindling Christian population.But the patriarch warned true peace would not come to the Holy Land until Israelis and Palestinians treat each other with respect.Its inhabitants are brothers who see each other as enemies, he told the gathering that included Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. This land will deserve to be called holy when she breathes freedom, justice, love, reconciliation, peace and security.Earlier, thousands gathered outside the Church of the Nativity, watching as Austrian rock group Cardiac Move belted out a selection of Christmas-themed rock songs from a large stage.These are the local people, said shopkeeper Adnan Subeh, 40, looking on approvingly as about 200 Palestinian teenagers jumped up and down in front of the stage, waving their arms enthusiastically to a rendition of the 1980s Band Aid anthem "Do they know it's Christmas?
They are here because we are living in a big jail, they want to come here on this night to get away from it all, to enjoy (life) for once, he said.The concert was a part of Rock to Bethlehem, a plan to bring about a dozen international music acts to show solidarity with the youth of Bethlehem.But mindful the rest of Christendom may not be as appreciative of a full blown rock concert in Manger Square on Christmas Eve, the Bethlehem municipality selected just two groups to perform.It was great for us to send a sign to the people of the Holy Land that they are not forgotten, Johnny Krysl, lead singer of Cardiac Move, told AFP after the show, while signing autographs for a handful of young fans.Bethlehem brought us Christmas and we wanted to bring Christmas back to Bethlehem, he said.Earlier, a carnival-like atmosphere prevailed in the town as merchants hawked balloon animals, cotton candy, steamed corn and strong, black coffee poured from traditional copper urns.Inside the Church of the Nativity, black-clad monks chanted as hundreds of pilgrims quietly waited in line to pray in the grotto many Christians believe is the spot where Mary gave birth after she and Joseph found no rooms at the inn.This is the place where God gave us his son, so it is very special for me to be here, for me and my whole community, said Juan Cruz, 27, from Mexico.
The celebrations cap a year when tourists returned to the town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Buoyed by the West Bank's relative calm, more than 1.6 million people have visited Bethlehem so far this year, Palestinian Tourism Minister Khulud Duaibess said. Some 15,000 pilgrims were expected for Christmas. In 2008, one million tourists visited the town. However, the tourism boom has not brought prosperity to Bethlehem, with most tourists whisked in for the day and from hotels in Israel, Duaibess said. The financial woes have been exacerbated by the eight-metre (26-foot) high concrete barrier that separates Bethlehem from Jerusalem. It forms part of the projected 700-kilometre (440-mile) West Bank separation barrier.
Israel says it is a security barrier needed to stop attacks inside the Jewish state. Palestinians say it cuts them off from much of their land and hampers tourism, trade and freedom of movement.
Belgian-Israeli dual nationals sue Hamas By ROBERT WIELAARD, Associated Press Writer – Thu Dec 24, 10:00 am ET
BRUSSELS – Five Belgians living in Israel filed a complaint here Thursday against the Hamas rulers of Gaza, saying militant rocket fire into Israel had violated their human rights.Belgian courts let citizens living anywhere in the world request criminal prosecutions for violations of their human rights.In 1993 Belgium began allowing war-crimes cases to be filed by people in any country claiming violations of their basic rights. The universal jurisdiction law triggered a spate of politically charged cases against leaders such as ex-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, former President George W. Bush, late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.The Belgian law was scaled back in 2003 to cover only rights violations against Belgian nationals.Lawyer Roel Coveliers said he sent the federal prosecutor's office a complaint about rights violations by the Hamas government from mid-2008 until Jan. 18, when a cease-fire took ended several weeks of intense hostilities between Israel and Hamas.He said the complaint targets the radical Palestinian group's political and military leadership, but names no individuals.He did not name his five clients, who he described as civilians living in or near Ashdod, a town on the Mediterranean coast about 10 miles (15 kilometers) north of the Gaza Strip. Two were wounded by Qassam rockets from Gaza, he said.
This is a case of civilians who are just fed up with being victims of crimes against international humanitarian law, Coveliers said.Britain and Spain also have laws allowing charges against foreign officials. The UK promised to change its law so judges can no longer issue secret arrest warrants against foreign officials. The move came after Israelis expressed outrage when it emerged this month a London judge had issued an arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister, on suspicion of involvement in war crimes.Belgium toned down its 1993 universal jurisdiction law after the United States threatened to pull NATO out of Brussels to prevent American defense and other officials visiting the alliance headquarters from getting arrested on arrival in Belgium.Belgium's federal prosecutor's office will determine if the complaint against the Hamas leadership Hamas has merit. If so, it will appoint an investigating judge to review it in detail before any prosecution could start.Israel launched an offensive against Gaza's militant Hamas rulers Dec. 27, 2008, in a bid to halt years of rocket fire at Israeli towns.
The fighting killed 13 Israelis and nearly 1,400 Palestinians, many of them civilians.A UN report by an expert panel chaired by South African jurist Richard Goldstone found that both Israel and Palestinian militants committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the Gaza war.Israel has denied its soldiers targeted civilians but has said Hamas militants fired hundreds of rockets and mortar shells at Israeli towns.
Israelis seek arrest of Hamas leaders abroad by Ron Bousso – Wed Dec 23, 9:00 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – A group of Israelis wounded in Palestinian rocket attacks during this year's Gaza war have asked a Belgian court to issue war crimes arrest warrants against Hamas leaders, they said on Thursday.The lawsuit, which the plaintiffs say is unprecedented, follows a slew of requests filed by pro-Palestinian groups across Europe for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders over their role in the devastating Gaza offensive.The latest move was led by a European pro-Israeli lobby representing 15 victims of rocket attacks on southern Israel, who were wounded, whose homes were damaged and in one case who lost a relative.The Israelis, who also hold Belgian nationality, filed the complaint in Brussels, where a judicial probe would be held and arrest warrants issued if deemed necessary, their attorney, Roel Coveliers, said.The request for arrest warrants was submitted after six months of legal preparation and is based on strict evidence which ties Hamas leaders to terror attacks in which Belgium citizens ware harmed, Coveliers told AFP.The complaint accuses 10 top Hamas military and political leaders of war crimes, citing reports by international human rights organisations and a UN fact-finding mission which Israel boycotted.Named after former South African judge Richard Goldstone, who headed the inquiry committee, the UN report accuses both Israel and Hamas militants of war crimes during the 22-day conflict that ended in January and killed about 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.The Goldstone report says, among other things, that the rocket attacks by Hamas constitute a violation of international humanitarian law, so as a member of the United Nations, I don't believe Belgium will ignore the complaint, Coveliers said.
The Hamas leaders targeted by the lawsuit include the group's Damascus-based political supremo Khaled Meshaal, top Gaza leaders Ismail Haniya and Mahmud Zahar and the heads of its armed wing Ahmed Jaabari and Mohammed Def.Mordechai Tzivin, an Israeli attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the lawsuit in Belgium would be followed by similar requests in other European countries. The plaintiffs have asked that their names not be published.This is a first step in a broad offensive across Europe that will include Spain, Britain, Italy and other countries, he said.Uri Yablonka, the head of pro-Israeli lobby The European Initiative, said the goal of the complaint was to raise European awareness that Hamas is a terror organisation.We want to shatter the myth that draws a parallel between Israel and terror organisation such as Hamas, he told AFP.Earlier this month, Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni, who was foreign minister during the Gaza conflict, cancelled a trip to London after an arrest warrant was issued against her by a British court, sparking a diplomatic row.Similar arrest warrants against Israeli leaders have been issued in Spain and Belgium.The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip appointed in the wake of the war a committee to provide information to European lawyers investigating alleged war crimes by Israel in the Gaza war.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
ASSAD ISRAEL NOT INTERESTED IN PEACE
Israel not interested in peace: Syria's Assad DEC 23,09
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Wednesday that peace talks with Israel had been stalled because Israel was not interested in achieving peace.Israel's demand for negotiations without conditions meant that it wanted to bring down the peace process, Assad said after talks with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Damascus.We discussed today the ways to bring the peace process out of the deadlock that it has reached ... because of the absence of a serious Israeli partner who aims to achieve peace,he told a joint news conference with Erdogan.When Israel says it wants negotiations without conditions it means it wants negotiations with no foundation. This is like having a building with no foundation, then it's very easy to be brought down and they want to bring down the peace process,he said.Peace talks between Israel and Syria faltered in 2000 over Damascus's demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured in the 1967 war and later annexed.Turkey, NATO's only Muslim member, last year facilitated contacts that focused on Syrian demands for a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights, and Israel's accusations that Damascus was arming militants in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Those contacts failed to produce formal negotiations, and Turkey's repeated offers to re-open the peace track have not resulted in further talks.Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has ruled out resuming Turkish-mediated talks with Syria, insisting that any new contacts must be direct.Relations between Turkey and Israel turned sour after Israel launched a three-week incursion into the Gaza Strip last December and Erdogan said Israel no longer trusted Turkey to mediate peace talks with Syria.On Wednesday, Erdogan reiterated that Turkey remained committed to mediating peace talks.If the responsibilities fall on Turkey (to mediate between Syria and Israel), we are ready,Erdogan told the news conference, speaking through an Arabic interpreter.(Writing by Mariam Karouny in Beirut, editing by Tim Pearce)
UN expert slams tragic international failure in Gaza
Wed Dec 23, 2:45 pm ET
GENEVA (AFP) – A UN human rights expert on Wednesday condemned a tragic failure by major powers to end Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip or probe alleged war crimes committed during a military offensive one year ago.The UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk, urged Israel's European and North American allies to press for the immediate end of the blockade backed up by a credible threat of economic sanctions.There is no evidence of meaningful international pressure being brought to bear to end the blockade or to ensure that Israeli and Hamas officials are held accountable for alleged war crimes perpetrated during the Gaza attacks,he said in a statement.This represents both a tragic failure of responsibility by the powerful governments of the world and of the UN,he added.
Israel launched a devastating 22 day military offensive dubbed Operation Cast Lead on the Hamas-ruled territory on December 27, 2008.People of conscience everywhere, as well as governments worldwide and the United Nations, should take note of the dire situation in Gaza,said Falk.The ordeal of the 1.5 million residents of Gaza affected by the Israeli blockade, over half of whom are children, has been allowed to continue without any formal objection by governments and at the UN.Falk said a three-year blockade had stopped enough food and medicine reaching civilians in Gaza, harming their physical and mental health, and was still hampering reconstruction.He also called for full and swift implementation of the conclusions of a UN human rights investigation led by Richard Goldstone.The Goldstone report adopted in October recommended that Israel and Hamas should face possible prosecution at the International Criminal Court, if they fail to conduct credible investigations into war crimes within six months.
Renewed Lebanese drug trade hikes Mideast tensions
By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer – Wed Dec 23, 1:54 pm ET
BAALBEK, Lebanon – Lebanon's drug-producing heartland is back in business with a resurgence of marijuana and poppy fields, challenging the country's underpowered security forces and adding another dimension to Israel's war with Hezbollah militants.Associated Press interviews with farmers and Lebanese officials, and documents from international organizations that monitor drugs, show that the drug trade in the Bekaa Valley has ramped up again since its drop following the 1975-1990 civil war.Israel's Anti-Drug Authority claims Hezbollah is behind the flow of cross-border drugs as part of its war on the Jewish state. Hezbollah denies abetting drugs, saying it's un-Islamic.Production in the Bekaa peaked during the civil war, then died down to the point where the U.S. removed Lebanon from its list of big producers in 1997.But on a recent visit by the AP, acres of cannabis were seen growing behind concealing stands of tall corn stalks, and farmers spoke openly of the fortunes they are making off the plants.The Lebanese government, long preoccupied with violent political clashes in the country, has begun striking back by plowing up fields.It's hard to pin down independently what role Hezbollah plays in the trade, but the flat, green Bekaa Valley, with its sunny Mediterranean climate and terrorism-filled history, is a Hezbollah stronghold.The accusation is that Hezbollah, given its strong presence in the Bekaa and its unmatched influence there, is heavily involved in the trade, though indirectly, for ideological reasons,said Bilal Saab, a Lebanon expert at the University of Maryland.However, there is no independent evidence of this involvement.Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah strongly denies Israel's charge of narcoterrorism.In a speech last month, he claimed the Israelis were trying to put a political spin on what in his view is simply a drug operation run by Lebanese drug dealers in collusion with Israeli border guards.
Israeli police say that based on evidence gathered from interrogating busted traffickers, nothing happens on the Lebanon-Israel border without Hezbollah's consent.Aram Nerguizian, an expert at the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., says Hezbollah has enough financial support without depending on drug money, but uses the drug trade to gather intelligence on the Israeli military.Shamai Golan, a spokesman for Israel's Anti-Drug Authority, agrees the main goal is to gather intelligence information, but also to weaken Israeli society.Last year his agency ran an advertising campaign featuring an image of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah wafting out of a smoky pipe with the slogan: At the end of every joint sits Nasrallah ... Drug users are lending a hand to the next terror attack.In 2006, an Israeli army lieutenant colonel, Omar el-Heib, was sent to jail for 15 years for relaying maps and information about tank positions, troop deployments and the whereabouts of top Israeli commanders to Hezbollah in exchange for heroin, hashish, and thousands of dollars.Besides Bekaa drugs, Golan said, is heroin from Afghanistan, four tons of which enter Israel annually through Lebanon, controlled by two Lebanese families who answer directly to Hezbollah.He said there are dozens of documented cases implicating Hezbollah and also Syria, which has influence in the Bekaa. On the other hand, Jordan is doing great work in stopping smugglers with drugs bound for Israel, he added.Experts say the Lebanon trade is controlled by drug barons under the protection of powerful clans in the Bekaa Valley, largely beyond the reach of Lebanese authorities. About 10 families are involved, said Col. Adel Mashmoushi, the head of Lebanon's drug enforcement bureau.This is a clan affair most of the time,said Timor Goksel, a longtime U.N. official in Lebanon who is now a professor at the American University of Beirut. He noted that drug-growing was rife in the Bekaa Valley long before Hezbollah was created with Iranian backing in 1982. This year's U.S. International Narcotics Control Strategy Report doesn't say whether Hezbollah is involved in drugs. It says last year's data show Morocco and Afghanistan have replaced Lebanon and Jordan as Israel's main source of drugs. During the civil war, Bekaa drugs generated almost $500 million a year in revenues — 15 percent of the country's economy.
That money bought weapons and fighters for various sectarian militias. The Bekaa was notorious worldwide as a cauldron of terror and crime. Masked gunmen patrolled the streets brandishing automatic rifles and grenade launchers. Thousands of Iranian Revolutionary Guards and troops from neighboring Syria held sway, along with tribal warlords, and Syria was thought to benefit from parts of the drug trade. Westerners were snatched off the streets of Beirut and held for years in the valley by militants allegedly linked to Hezbollah.After the war ended, the U.S. pressured Lebanon and Syria to plow up most of the drug fields, and eventually the U.S. State Department dropped Lebanon from the offenders list. But a 2009 report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime says farmers appear to be resuming cannabis cultivation. Lebanon's government refuses to release the current estimate of volume but officials say they are less than during the civil war. A spate of factional clashes around the country kept the military so busy that from 2006 until this year, the government made no effort to wipe out cannabis.But in the spring the military started hunting drug smugglers, and things turned bloody when Bekaa gunmen killed four soldiers in an ambush. Undaunted, the government arrested 69 people, and in August and September it sent hundreds of policemen and workers into the Bekaa's northern districts of Baalbek and Hermel.They bulldozed more than 3,000 acres of harvest-ready fields as soldiers in armored cars stood by to protect them from villagers whose weaponry includes automatic rifles and even mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.The army is wary of going too far, said analyst Nerguizian. Instead, it applies limited pressure ... without getting dragged into a broader confrontation with drug cartels, he said.In many drug-producing countries, notably Afghanistan, farmers are offered money to switch to legal crops, but the farmers say the offers made in Lebanon never produced any money. Abu Mohammed, a 65-year-old Bekaa farmer who has been in the drug business for 40 years, said he can net $1,200 off 1,000 square meters (10,000 sq feet) of land planted with cannabis, much more than other crops would bring in.
And If I don't sell the hashish, I can keep it until next year and it does not need refrigerators,he said, asking to be identified by his nickname because he feared reprisals.He lives in a handsome two-story stone villa. Drug profits paid for it, he said.Associated Press Writer Ian Deitch contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
Captain of famed Exodus refugee ship dies at 86 By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer – Wed Dec 23, 1:42 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Yitzhak Ike Ahronovitch, the captain of the Exodus ship whose attempt to take Holocaust survivors to Palestine built support for Israel's founding, has died. He was 86.He died Wednesday in northern Israel after a long illness, his daughter Ella said.The Exodus 1947 ship left France in July 1947 carrying more than 4,500 people — most of them Holocaust survivors and other displaced Jews — in a secret effort to reach Palestine. At the time, Britain controlled Palestine and was limiting the immigration of Jews.The British navy seized the vessel off Palestine's shores, and after a battle on board that left three people dead, turned the ship and its passengers back to Europe, where the refugees were forced to disembark in Germany.The ship's ordeal was widely reported worldwide, garnering sympathy for the refugees, especially because they were taken to Germany, where the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews during World War II originated.It inspired a fictionalized account by American writer Leon Uris and a classic 1960 film directed by Otto Preminger and starring Paul Newman.Newman's character was patterned after Yossi Harel, who commanded the Exodus mission as a leader of the Haganah pre-state Jewish armed force. Harel died last year.Ahronovitch, who was nicknamed Ike, captained the ship. His daughter said the experience remained a pivotal part of his life for years afterward.It was one of the most important things of his life. He wasn't a big storyteller, but he'd happily tell schoolchildren about it,she said.The Exodus influenced him and his friends deeply. Those were the days that defined them and as far as they were concerned defined the character of this country.Ahronovitch was born in Poland in 1923 and moved to pre-state Israel 10 years later. He later worked with ships and always loved the sea, his daughter said.In a statement Wednesday, Israeli President Shimon Peres called Ahronovitch one of a kind ... a combination of pioneering, courage and love of his people.Ahronovitch is survived by two daughters, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. His funeral is scheduled for Friday in northern Israel.
Hamas leaders weigh Israeli draft on prisoner swap
By Nidal al-Mughrabi – Wed Dec 23, 11:17 am ET
GAZA (Reuters) – A German mediator gave Hamas on Wednesday Israel's response to a proposed swap freeing hundreds of jailed Palestinians for a captured soldier, and the Islamist group said it would need days to review the new draft.Signaling a possible breakthrough, a Hamas official said he expected the group to send a delegation from the Gaza Strip to Damascus by Thursday to meet exiled Hamas leaders. Such rare conferences are reserved by Hamas for important policymaking.Israel kept a lid on which of the Hamas demands it may meet to recover Gilad Shalit, an army conscript who has become a cause celebre during 3-1/2 years' captivity in Hamas-ruled Gaza.Security minister Eli Yishai reiterated Israel's misgivings over a prisoner amnesty likely to boost Hamas, which spurns peace with the Jewish state and is in a power struggle with Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.We always say not at any price because otherwise our enemies would exploit it. But on the other hand, we have to make every possible effort,Yishai told Israel's Army Radio.Where is the middle ground? I think any further (public) words about this would be excessive.Under the proposed exchange, about 1,000 of the some 11,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons would be released.Officials familiar with the negotiations said Israel had ruled out releasing a handful of top Palestinian militants serving life sentences for orchestrating lethal attacks.Israel was also intent on barring between 100 and 120 other Palestinians from returning to the West Bank, where Abbas holds sway, and they might be sent instead to Gaza or abroad.
DILEMMAS
Hamas had agreed that some prisoners be exiled but wanted them to be able to choose their destinations, officials said.Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza said the group had received Israel's response through the German mediator, and that Hamas will study the response.A Hamas official who spoke on condition of anonymity said it could take a few days to formulate a response it would then hand to the mediator. A delegation from the group in Gaza will leave for Syria for a broader discussion,the official added.Shalit, now 23, was seized by Hamas-led gunmen who tunneled into Israel in 2006. He is incommunicado except for a videotape, voice recording and letter released by Hamas as proof of life.For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a rightist who has long cultivated tough on terror credentials, the release of senior Hamas prisoners poses a particular dilemma.Developments in the negotiations look to coincide with the anniversary of a Gaza offensive launched by Israel on December 27 last year. At least 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died.
The United Nations and Western powers hope a swap will lead to a relaxation of Israel's blockade of Gaza, many of whose 1.5 million Palestinians depend on food aid and smuggled goods.Netanyahu has given no indication he will ease the restrictions after a deal with Hamas, which has rejected Western demands to recognize Israel and renounce violence. Israel Radio said the German mediator -- an intelligence officer whose name is barred from publication -- had left Gaza and was expected to fly home to await a possible return. (Writing by Dan Williams in Jerusalem; editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Russia says stalled Mideast talks need extra push
By Douglas Hamilton – Tue Dec 22, 8:33 am ET
SWEIMAH, Jordan (Reuters) – Russia on Tuesday said it planned to become more involved in resolving the Middle East conflict along with the European Union and the United States.Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov, who is President Dmitry Medvedev's envoy to the region, told a conference in Jordan that new efforts were needed to break the deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians.We have not exhausted the full potential of the Quartet,said, referring to the joint diplomatic committee formed by Russia, the EU, the United Nations and the United States.
Saltanov was addressing a meeting of Russia's Valdai Club on Jordan's Dead Sea coast, where Russian, Arab, Palestinian and Israeli speakers debated the prospects of a comprehensive Middle East peace accord in the coming decade.This conference itself is a small signal of Russia's intention to return to the Middle East arena, said Middle East specialist Patrick Seale. It has been absent for 20 years.Saltanov said the long-running conflict increasingly posed challenges of a strategic nature that could have a negative impact on states outside the immediate region, where rising Islamic radicalism could lead to religious wars.In a message on Monday to participants in a Russia - Muslim World strategic conference, Medvedev spoke of the need for a joint alternative to radicalism and extremism that are not inherent in any specific religion or ethnic group,the Interfax agency quoted the Kremlin as saying.
NO DEADLINES
Former Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov told the Valdai conference on Monday that the Quartet should formulate the basis of a framework Middle East peace agreement, and invite Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate in a fixed time period.
Saltanov said deadlines could prove disappointing.
The Quartet backs Washington's lead role in Middle East mediation, and there was no suggestion Russia would challenge this arrangement. Saltanov said he met often with U.S. presidential envoy George Mitchell, who has led shuttle diplomacy for 10 months with no sign of a breakthrough to relaunch the stalled talks.He denied that Russia wanted a Moscow Conference on the Middle East merely as an attention-grabbing publicity stunt, just for a photo opportunity.But he made clear Moscow still hoped to host a major peace conference, if and when Israel and the Palestinians agree to restore a dialogue interrupted since last December, and if the Quartet can set out the terms of reference of a peace accord.Collaboration in the Quartet should be intensified and all parties should be active players,Saltanov said.U.S. President Barack Obama may not have made much headway in the Middle East in a tumultuous year of war and economic crisis, Seale added, but I believe he will return (to it) in the new year with greater resolve.(Editing by Peter Millership)
Latin Patriarch says Holy Land peace efforts a failure by Gavin Rabinowitz – Tue Dec 22, 6:47 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Efforts to bring peace to the Holy Land have failed, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem said on Tuesday in a sombre Christmas message.Our dreams for a reconciled Holy Land seem to be utopia,said Fuad Twal, the top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land. Despite the praiseworthy efforts of politicians and men of goodwill to find a solution to the ongoing conflict, all of us, Palestinians and Israelis, have failed in achieving peace.Twal said this was particularly disappointing in a year that Pope Benedict XVI had visited the region.Spiritually (the visit) gave us more hope, but on the ground nothing changed till now,he told reporters in his headquarters in the Old City of Jerusalem.Twal singled out the continuing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, a siege maintained on the Hamas-run Gaza strip and clashes in Jerusalem.Palestinians still do not have their own state where they can live in peace and harmony with their Israeli neighbours, he said.
Nevertheless, he urged the faithful not to give up hope.Hope means not giving into evil but standing up to it,he said. That was a quote from a recent statement by Palestinian Christian leaders who called for an end to the Israeli occupation and accused Christian Zionist groups of misusing Christian theology to justify Israel's occupation of the West Bank.
In the Holy Land everything is not desperate,Twal added.A recent Israeli move to limit settlement building and ease restrictions on Palestinians had led to an improved economic situation for the Palestinians.It is not enough, but a step forward, he said.On the other hand Palestinians are more and more expressing resistance in a non-violent fashion. It is a positive sign pointing in the right direction.
Twal also singled out an increase of pilgrims to the Holy Land.Born into a Bedouin Christian tribe in Jordan in 1949, Twal was enthroned last year as the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, the title given to the Latin rite Roman Catholic archbishop of Israel and Palestine.The patriarch urged his followers to work for peace in the Christmas season.The best gift we seek, above money and wealth, is peace. It is the wish of all the inhabitants of this land, Israelis and Palestinians alike. Peace is a gift of God for men of good will; we have to deserve it.
Amid Gaza calm, Israel and Hamas prepare for battle
by Djallal Malti – Mon Dec 21, 9:35 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – A year after Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, an unprecedented calm has held around the Hamas-run enclave, but both sides are busily preparing for the inevitable next round, analysts say.Since Israel's massive 22-day offensive to stop rocket fire from Gaza ended in reciprocal ceasefires on January 18, the borders of the territory have remained largely quiet despite violations by both sides.Not one soldier or Israeli citizen was killed in acts of terror in the winter of 2009, a phenomenon which we have not seen in the past decades,the head of Israeli military intelligence General Amos Yadlin was quoted as saying.
Each side has its own reasons for keeping the status quo, analysts say.Both Hamas and Israel are interested to maintain the current (situation). Israel wants a degree of political stability, and Hamas needs to rebuild its war capacity,said David Hartwell, a senior Middle East analyst at Jane's, a London-based information group specialising in defence issues.But behind the quiet exterior, regional foes are busy preparing for the next conflict, which is certain to erupt sooner or later.Because both sides expect a conflict, eventually it happens,Hartwell said.Israel has poured millions of dollars into developing defensive shields against the makeshift rockets often fired from Gaza as well as the more sophisticated weapons used by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia in its 2006 war with Israel, or the medium-range missiles in the arsenal of arch-foe Iran.Although there has been a steady improvement in security along our borders... our enemies have significantly improved their capabilities to fire precisely and for an extended time at the Israeli homefront,said Brigadier General Aviv Kochavi of the Israeli army's operations branch.
Behind it all, to a large extent, is Iran,he said.Iran supports both Hamas and Hezbollah, although there are disagreements over the extent of the aid. Israel says Iran gives them arms and training, while Tehran says it provides only moral support.
For Hamas, the lull is a time to restock arsenals in Gaza, which has been under a strict Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the Islamists seized power in June 2007, ousting forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.The lion's share of Hamas's weapons are smuggled into the territory via tunnels on the border with Egypt and the group is notoriously secretive about the types of weapons it has.
But in September its political supremo Khaled Meshaal boasted that the group was procuring weapons by all means at its disposal.Your brothers in Palestine, despite the blockade and the closing of border passages ... we buy arms, we manage to produce arms and we smuggle arms,he said during a trip to Sudan.Israel says that the smuggling has included more and more sophisticated weapons, including a rocket that is capable of reaching its densely populated commercial centre Tel Aviv.
Hamas has called the claim a fabrication.Hamas is rebuilding its forces, recruiting more militants, and testing new equipment to be more efficient in the next military escalation against Israeli forces,a senior Israeli military commander said. Hamas's rearming efforts may be severely hampered, however, by an underground barrier that Egypt is building on its border with Gaza, where most of the smuggling tunnels lie.
The steel barrier, which an Egyptian state-owned daily last week finally confirmed was under construction, will reportedly reach up to 30 metres (100 feet) into the ground and extend some 10 kilometres (six miles).
Status quo won't hold, warn Middle East experts
By Douglas Hamilton – Mon Dec 21, 12:33 pm ET
DEAD SEA, Jordan (Reuters) – Efforts to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict are at a dangerous standstill and in need of a rescue mission that goes beyond U.S. mediation, speakers at a Russian-sponsored debate said on Monday.At a conference on the Jordan shore of the Dead Sea, they warned that Israeli and United States bids to re-launch peace talks that have been suspended for one year would yield nothing if both sides still have a veto on the resolution.There is no bilateral solution,said Gershon Baskin of the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information. The fastest road to the next round of violence is through another failed negotiation process ... and it has zero chance.In remarks endorsed by Palestinian and Arab participants, he said 2009 had been a wasted year.Next year could be ripe for peace, but also ripe for an explosion unless the Russians, the Europeans and the United Nations stepped up their role.Former Russian Prime Minister Evgeny Primakov warned that a real crisis could develop that may strengthen the position of radical elements in the Muslim world and fuel a religious war, if the international community did not intervene.The so-called Middle East Quartet (the United States, United Nations, Russia and the European Union) had not played enough of a role, Primakov said.It should set out a constructive foundation for a settlement and make its recommendations to the parties, and set a time-frame for a peace conference.
FUTILE AND IN VAIN
In a straight-talking session of Russia's Valdai Club, Israeli speakers rejected charges that Israel was putting itself above the law, relying on power to prolong its occupation of the West and Bank, and closing its eyes to the wider risks.If it was not for the Israel Defense Forces, with our soldiers patrolling, the West Bank would be like Gaza,said retired IDF general Jacob Amidror. Palestinians in 2006 had voted for the Islamist movement Hamas, he reminded the conference.Hamas rejects peace with Israel and is now in control of the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, pledged to continue armed struggle to liberate all Palestinian lands.Israelis would not be stupid enough to come to a proposed Moscow conference where all the participants would be against us, like they are here,Amidror added.And don't sell us this nonsense that all regional conflicts will be resolved as soon as Israel signed a treaty swapping land for peace and creating a Palestinian state,he added.Primakov said the remarks show the very radical views against peace in Israel, and they're probably quite widespread.But he said a Moscow conference was only conceivable once the current deadlock was broken by the Quartet's presentation of a framework for talks defining the core issues.Speakers clashed on whether an international force could relieve Israeli security fears.
It's nice to preach to others,Amidror said. But Russia did not invite international peacekeepers to prevent last year's war with Georgia, and U.N. forces had done nothing to reduce the threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon who are stronger than ever.
Rejecting Palestinian demands to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future state as an obstacle to peace,Israeli strategic analyst Efraim Inbar said Jerusalem had been Jewish for 3,000 years and was the focus of our yearnings.Former Palestinian prime minister Ahmad Qurie replied that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was deluded if he believed Jerusalem, as Israel's undivided capital,could simply be excluded from peace talks. Is anyone dreaming of a solution not including Jerusalem? It would be futile and in vain. It would not work regardless of force, regardless of power,the former premier said. (Editing by Jon Hemming)
Former Israeli premier Olmert pleads not guilty
Mon Dec 21, 8:56 am ET
JERUSALEM – Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert is pleading not guilty to charges of illegally accepting funds from an American supporter and double-billing Jewish groups for trips abroad.Olmert spokesman Amir Dan says Olmert and his office chief, Shula Zaken, denied all charges at the Jerusalem district court Monday.The accusations relate to offenses allegedly committed during Olmert's time as Jerusalem mayor and Cabinet minister, but emerged when he was prime minister. He eventually resigned over the allegations.The 63-year-old Olmert left politics when Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister in March.
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Wednesday that peace talks with Israel had been stalled because Israel was not interested in achieving peace.Israel's demand for negotiations without conditions meant that it wanted to bring down the peace process, Assad said after talks with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Damascus.We discussed today the ways to bring the peace process out of the deadlock that it has reached ... because of the absence of a serious Israeli partner who aims to achieve peace,he told a joint news conference with Erdogan.When Israel says it wants negotiations without conditions it means it wants negotiations with no foundation. This is like having a building with no foundation, then it's very easy to be brought down and they want to bring down the peace process,he said.Peace talks between Israel and Syria faltered in 2000 over Damascus's demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured in the 1967 war and later annexed.Turkey, NATO's only Muslim member, last year facilitated contacts that focused on Syrian demands for a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights, and Israel's accusations that Damascus was arming militants in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Those contacts failed to produce formal negotiations, and Turkey's repeated offers to re-open the peace track have not resulted in further talks.Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has ruled out resuming Turkish-mediated talks with Syria, insisting that any new contacts must be direct.Relations between Turkey and Israel turned sour after Israel launched a three-week incursion into the Gaza Strip last December and Erdogan said Israel no longer trusted Turkey to mediate peace talks with Syria.On Wednesday, Erdogan reiterated that Turkey remained committed to mediating peace talks.If the responsibilities fall on Turkey (to mediate between Syria and Israel), we are ready,Erdogan told the news conference, speaking through an Arabic interpreter.(Writing by Mariam Karouny in Beirut, editing by Tim Pearce)
UN expert slams tragic international failure in Gaza
Wed Dec 23, 2:45 pm ET
GENEVA (AFP) – A UN human rights expert on Wednesday condemned a tragic failure by major powers to end Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip or probe alleged war crimes committed during a military offensive one year ago.The UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk, urged Israel's European and North American allies to press for the immediate end of the blockade backed up by a credible threat of economic sanctions.There is no evidence of meaningful international pressure being brought to bear to end the blockade or to ensure that Israeli and Hamas officials are held accountable for alleged war crimes perpetrated during the Gaza attacks,he said in a statement.This represents both a tragic failure of responsibility by the powerful governments of the world and of the UN,he added.
Israel launched a devastating 22 day military offensive dubbed Operation Cast Lead on the Hamas-ruled territory on December 27, 2008.People of conscience everywhere, as well as governments worldwide and the United Nations, should take note of the dire situation in Gaza,said Falk.The ordeal of the 1.5 million residents of Gaza affected by the Israeli blockade, over half of whom are children, has been allowed to continue without any formal objection by governments and at the UN.Falk said a three-year blockade had stopped enough food and medicine reaching civilians in Gaza, harming their physical and mental health, and was still hampering reconstruction.He also called for full and swift implementation of the conclusions of a UN human rights investigation led by Richard Goldstone.The Goldstone report adopted in October recommended that Israel and Hamas should face possible prosecution at the International Criminal Court, if they fail to conduct credible investigations into war crimes within six months.
Renewed Lebanese drug trade hikes Mideast tensions
By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer – Wed Dec 23, 1:54 pm ET
BAALBEK, Lebanon – Lebanon's drug-producing heartland is back in business with a resurgence of marijuana and poppy fields, challenging the country's underpowered security forces and adding another dimension to Israel's war with Hezbollah militants.Associated Press interviews with farmers and Lebanese officials, and documents from international organizations that monitor drugs, show that the drug trade in the Bekaa Valley has ramped up again since its drop following the 1975-1990 civil war.Israel's Anti-Drug Authority claims Hezbollah is behind the flow of cross-border drugs as part of its war on the Jewish state. Hezbollah denies abetting drugs, saying it's un-Islamic.Production in the Bekaa peaked during the civil war, then died down to the point where the U.S. removed Lebanon from its list of big producers in 1997.But on a recent visit by the AP, acres of cannabis were seen growing behind concealing stands of tall corn stalks, and farmers spoke openly of the fortunes they are making off the plants.The Lebanese government, long preoccupied with violent political clashes in the country, has begun striking back by plowing up fields.It's hard to pin down independently what role Hezbollah plays in the trade, but the flat, green Bekaa Valley, with its sunny Mediterranean climate and terrorism-filled history, is a Hezbollah stronghold.The accusation is that Hezbollah, given its strong presence in the Bekaa and its unmatched influence there, is heavily involved in the trade, though indirectly, for ideological reasons,said Bilal Saab, a Lebanon expert at the University of Maryland.However, there is no independent evidence of this involvement.Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah strongly denies Israel's charge of narcoterrorism.In a speech last month, he claimed the Israelis were trying to put a political spin on what in his view is simply a drug operation run by Lebanese drug dealers in collusion with Israeli border guards.
Israeli police say that based on evidence gathered from interrogating busted traffickers, nothing happens on the Lebanon-Israel border without Hezbollah's consent.Aram Nerguizian, an expert at the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., says Hezbollah has enough financial support without depending on drug money, but uses the drug trade to gather intelligence on the Israeli military.Shamai Golan, a spokesman for Israel's Anti-Drug Authority, agrees the main goal is to gather intelligence information, but also to weaken Israeli society.Last year his agency ran an advertising campaign featuring an image of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah wafting out of a smoky pipe with the slogan: At the end of every joint sits Nasrallah ... Drug users are lending a hand to the next terror attack.In 2006, an Israeli army lieutenant colonel, Omar el-Heib, was sent to jail for 15 years for relaying maps and information about tank positions, troop deployments and the whereabouts of top Israeli commanders to Hezbollah in exchange for heroin, hashish, and thousands of dollars.Besides Bekaa drugs, Golan said, is heroin from Afghanistan, four tons of which enter Israel annually through Lebanon, controlled by two Lebanese families who answer directly to Hezbollah.He said there are dozens of documented cases implicating Hezbollah and also Syria, which has influence in the Bekaa. On the other hand, Jordan is doing great work in stopping smugglers with drugs bound for Israel, he added.Experts say the Lebanon trade is controlled by drug barons under the protection of powerful clans in the Bekaa Valley, largely beyond the reach of Lebanese authorities. About 10 families are involved, said Col. Adel Mashmoushi, the head of Lebanon's drug enforcement bureau.This is a clan affair most of the time,said Timor Goksel, a longtime U.N. official in Lebanon who is now a professor at the American University of Beirut. He noted that drug-growing was rife in the Bekaa Valley long before Hezbollah was created with Iranian backing in 1982. This year's U.S. International Narcotics Control Strategy Report doesn't say whether Hezbollah is involved in drugs. It says last year's data show Morocco and Afghanistan have replaced Lebanon and Jordan as Israel's main source of drugs. During the civil war, Bekaa drugs generated almost $500 million a year in revenues — 15 percent of the country's economy.
That money bought weapons and fighters for various sectarian militias. The Bekaa was notorious worldwide as a cauldron of terror and crime. Masked gunmen patrolled the streets brandishing automatic rifles and grenade launchers. Thousands of Iranian Revolutionary Guards and troops from neighboring Syria held sway, along with tribal warlords, and Syria was thought to benefit from parts of the drug trade. Westerners were snatched off the streets of Beirut and held for years in the valley by militants allegedly linked to Hezbollah.After the war ended, the U.S. pressured Lebanon and Syria to plow up most of the drug fields, and eventually the U.S. State Department dropped Lebanon from the offenders list. But a 2009 report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime says farmers appear to be resuming cannabis cultivation. Lebanon's government refuses to release the current estimate of volume but officials say they are less than during the civil war. A spate of factional clashes around the country kept the military so busy that from 2006 until this year, the government made no effort to wipe out cannabis.But in the spring the military started hunting drug smugglers, and things turned bloody when Bekaa gunmen killed four soldiers in an ambush. Undaunted, the government arrested 69 people, and in August and September it sent hundreds of policemen and workers into the Bekaa's northern districts of Baalbek and Hermel.They bulldozed more than 3,000 acres of harvest-ready fields as soldiers in armored cars stood by to protect them from villagers whose weaponry includes automatic rifles and even mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.The army is wary of going too far, said analyst Nerguizian. Instead, it applies limited pressure ... without getting dragged into a broader confrontation with drug cartels, he said.In many drug-producing countries, notably Afghanistan, farmers are offered money to switch to legal crops, but the farmers say the offers made in Lebanon never produced any money. Abu Mohammed, a 65-year-old Bekaa farmer who has been in the drug business for 40 years, said he can net $1,200 off 1,000 square meters (10,000 sq feet) of land planted with cannabis, much more than other crops would bring in.
And If I don't sell the hashish, I can keep it until next year and it does not need refrigerators,he said, asking to be identified by his nickname because he feared reprisals.He lives in a handsome two-story stone villa. Drug profits paid for it, he said.Associated Press Writer Ian Deitch contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
Captain of famed Exodus refugee ship dies at 86 By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer – Wed Dec 23, 1:42 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Yitzhak Ike Ahronovitch, the captain of the Exodus ship whose attempt to take Holocaust survivors to Palestine built support for Israel's founding, has died. He was 86.He died Wednesday in northern Israel after a long illness, his daughter Ella said.The Exodus 1947 ship left France in July 1947 carrying more than 4,500 people — most of them Holocaust survivors and other displaced Jews — in a secret effort to reach Palestine. At the time, Britain controlled Palestine and was limiting the immigration of Jews.The British navy seized the vessel off Palestine's shores, and after a battle on board that left three people dead, turned the ship and its passengers back to Europe, where the refugees were forced to disembark in Germany.The ship's ordeal was widely reported worldwide, garnering sympathy for the refugees, especially because they were taken to Germany, where the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews during World War II originated.It inspired a fictionalized account by American writer Leon Uris and a classic 1960 film directed by Otto Preminger and starring Paul Newman.Newman's character was patterned after Yossi Harel, who commanded the Exodus mission as a leader of the Haganah pre-state Jewish armed force. Harel died last year.Ahronovitch, who was nicknamed Ike, captained the ship. His daughter said the experience remained a pivotal part of his life for years afterward.It was one of the most important things of his life. He wasn't a big storyteller, but he'd happily tell schoolchildren about it,she said.The Exodus influenced him and his friends deeply. Those were the days that defined them and as far as they were concerned defined the character of this country.Ahronovitch was born in Poland in 1923 and moved to pre-state Israel 10 years later. He later worked with ships and always loved the sea, his daughter said.In a statement Wednesday, Israeli President Shimon Peres called Ahronovitch one of a kind ... a combination of pioneering, courage and love of his people.Ahronovitch is survived by two daughters, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. His funeral is scheduled for Friday in northern Israel.
Hamas leaders weigh Israeli draft on prisoner swap
By Nidal al-Mughrabi – Wed Dec 23, 11:17 am ET
GAZA (Reuters) – A German mediator gave Hamas on Wednesday Israel's response to a proposed swap freeing hundreds of jailed Palestinians for a captured soldier, and the Islamist group said it would need days to review the new draft.Signaling a possible breakthrough, a Hamas official said he expected the group to send a delegation from the Gaza Strip to Damascus by Thursday to meet exiled Hamas leaders. Such rare conferences are reserved by Hamas for important policymaking.Israel kept a lid on which of the Hamas demands it may meet to recover Gilad Shalit, an army conscript who has become a cause celebre during 3-1/2 years' captivity in Hamas-ruled Gaza.Security minister Eli Yishai reiterated Israel's misgivings over a prisoner amnesty likely to boost Hamas, which spurns peace with the Jewish state and is in a power struggle with Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.We always say not at any price because otherwise our enemies would exploit it. But on the other hand, we have to make every possible effort,Yishai told Israel's Army Radio.Where is the middle ground? I think any further (public) words about this would be excessive.Under the proposed exchange, about 1,000 of the some 11,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons would be released.Officials familiar with the negotiations said Israel had ruled out releasing a handful of top Palestinian militants serving life sentences for orchestrating lethal attacks.Israel was also intent on barring between 100 and 120 other Palestinians from returning to the West Bank, where Abbas holds sway, and they might be sent instead to Gaza or abroad.
DILEMMAS
Hamas had agreed that some prisoners be exiled but wanted them to be able to choose their destinations, officials said.Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza said the group had received Israel's response through the German mediator, and that Hamas will study the response.A Hamas official who spoke on condition of anonymity said it could take a few days to formulate a response it would then hand to the mediator. A delegation from the group in Gaza will leave for Syria for a broader discussion,the official added.Shalit, now 23, was seized by Hamas-led gunmen who tunneled into Israel in 2006. He is incommunicado except for a videotape, voice recording and letter released by Hamas as proof of life.For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a rightist who has long cultivated tough on terror credentials, the release of senior Hamas prisoners poses a particular dilemma.Developments in the negotiations look to coincide with the anniversary of a Gaza offensive launched by Israel on December 27 last year. At least 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died.
The United Nations and Western powers hope a swap will lead to a relaxation of Israel's blockade of Gaza, many of whose 1.5 million Palestinians depend on food aid and smuggled goods.Netanyahu has given no indication he will ease the restrictions after a deal with Hamas, which has rejected Western demands to recognize Israel and renounce violence. Israel Radio said the German mediator -- an intelligence officer whose name is barred from publication -- had left Gaza and was expected to fly home to await a possible return. (Writing by Dan Williams in Jerusalem; editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Russia says stalled Mideast talks need extra push
By Douglas Hamilton – Tue Dec 22, 8:33 am ET
SWEIMAH, Jordan (Reuters) – Russia on Tuesday said it planned to become more involved in resolving the Middle East conflict along with the European Union and the United States.Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov, who is President Dmitry Medvedev's envoy to the region, told a conference in Jordan that new efforts were needed to break the deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians.We have not exhausted the full potential of the Quartet,said, referring to the joint diplomatic committee formed by Russia, the EU, the United Nations and the United States.
Saltanov was addressing a meeting of Russia's Valdai Club on Jordan's Dead Sea coast, where Russian, Arab, Palestinian and Israeli speakers debated the prospects of a comprehensive Middle East peace accord in the coming decade.This conference itself is a small signal of Russia's intention to return to the Middle East arena, said Middle East specialist Patrick Seale. It has been absent for 20 years.Saltanov said the long-running conflict increasingly posed challenges of a strategic nature that could have a negative impact on states outside the immediate region, where rising Islamic radicalism could lead to religious wars.In a message on Monday to participants in a Russia - Muslim World strategic conference, Medvedev spoke of the need for a joint alternative to radicalism and extremism that are not inherent in any specific religion or ethnic group,the Interfax agency quoted the Kremlin as saying.
NO DEADLINES
Former Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov told the Valdai conference on Monday that the Quartet should formulate the basis of a framework Middle East peace agreement, and invite Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate in a fixed time period.
Saltanov said deadlines could prove disappointing.
The Quartet backs Washington's lead role in Middle East mediation, and there was no suggestion Russia would challenge this arrangement. Saltanov said he met often with U.S. presidential envoy George Mitchell, who has led shuttle diplomacy for 10 months with no sign of a breakthrough to relaunch the stalled talks.He denied that Russia wanted a Moscow Conference on the Middle East merely as an attention-grabbing publicity stunt, just for a photo opportunity.But he made clear Moscow still hoped to host a major peace conference, if and when Israel and the Palestinians agree to restore a dialogue interrupted since last December, and if the Quartet can set out the terms of reference of a peace accord.Collaboration in the Quartet should be intensified and all parties should be active players,Saltanov said.U.S. President Barack Obama may not have made much headway in the Middle East in a tumultuous year of war and economic crisis, Seale added, but I believe he will return (to it) in the new year with greater resolve.(Editing by Peter Millership)
Latin Patriarch says Holy Land peace efforts a failure by Gavin Rabinowitz – Tue Dec 22, 6:47 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Efforts to bring peace to the Holy Land have failed, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem said on Tuesday in a sombre Christmas message.Our dreams for a reconciled Holy Land seem to be utopia,said Fuad Twal, the top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land. Despite the praiseworthy efforts of politicians and men of goodwill to find a solution to the ongoing conflict, all of us, Palestinians and Israelis, have failed in achieving peace.Twal said this was particularly disappointing in a year that Pope Benedict XVI had visited the region.Spiritually (the visit) gave us more hope, but on the ground nothing changed till now,he told reporters in his headquarters in the Old City of Jerusalem.Twal singled out the continuing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, a siege maintained on the Hamas-run Gaza strip and clashes in Jerusalem.Palestinians still do not have their own state where they can live in peace and harmony with their Israeli neighbours, he said.
Nevertheless, he urged the faithful not to give up hope.Hope means not giving into evil but standing up to it,he said. That was a quote from a recent statement by Palestinian Christian leaders who called for an end to the Israeli occupation and accused Christian Zionist groups of misusing Christian theology to justify Israel's occupation of the West Bank.
In the Holy Land everything is not desperate,Twal added.A recent Israeli move to limit settlement building and ease restrictions on Palestinians had led to an improved economic situation for the Palestinians.It is not enough, but a step forward, he said.On the other hand Palestinians are more and more expressing resistance in a non-violent fashion. It is a positive sign pointing in the right direction.
Twal also singled out an increase of pilgrims to the Holy Land.Born into a Bedouin Christian tribe in Jordan in 1949, Twal was enthroned last year as the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, the title given to the Latin rite Roman Catholic archbishop of Israel and Palestine.The patriarch urged his followers to work for peace in the Christmas season.The best gift we seek, above money and wealth, is peace. It is the wish of all the inhabitants of this land, Israelis and Palestinians alike. Peace is a gift of God for men of good will; we have to deserve it.
Amid Gaza calm, Israel and Hamas prepare for battle
by Djallal Malti – Mon Dec 21, 9:35 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – A year after Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, an unprecedented calm has held around the Hamas-run enclave, but both sides are busily preparing for the inevitable next round, analysts say.Since Israel's massive 22-day offensive to stop rocket fire from Gaza ended in reciprocal ceasefires on January 18, the borders of the territory have remained largely quiet despite violations by both sides.Not one soldier or Israeli citizen was killed in acts of terror in the winter of 2009, a phenomenon which we have not seen in the past decades,the head of Israeli military intelligence General Amos Yadlin was quoted as saying.
Each side has its own reasons for keeping the status quo, analysts say.Both Hamas and Israel are interested to maintain the current (situation). Israel wants a degree of political stability, and Hamas needs to rebuild its war capacity,said David Hartwell, a senior Middle East analyst at Jane's, a London-based information group specialising in defence issues.But behind the quiet exterior, regional foes are busy preparing for the next conflict, which is certain to erupt sooner or later.Because both sides expect a conflict, eventually it happens,Hartwell said.Israel has poured millions of dollars into developing defensive shields against the makeshift rockets often fired from Gaza as well as the more sophisticated weapons used by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia in its 2006 war with Israel, or the medium-range missiles in the arsenal of arch-foe Iran.Although there has been a steady improvement in security along our borders... our enemies have significantly improved their capabilities to fire precisely and for an extended time at the Israeli homefront,said Brigadier General Aviv Kochavi of the Israeli army's operations branch.
Behind it all, to a large extent, is Iran,he said.Iran supports both Hamas and Hezbollah, although there are disagreements over the extent of the aid. Israel says Iran gives them arms and training, while Tehran says it provides only moral support.
For Hamas, the lull is a time to restock arsenals in Gaza, which has been under a strict Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the Islamists seized power in June 2007, ousting forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.The lion's share of Hamas's weapons are smuggled into the territory via tunnels on the border with Egypt and the group is notoriously secretive about the types of weapons it has.
But in September its political supremo Khaled Meshaal boasted that the group was procuring weapons by all means at its disposal.Your brothers in Palestine, despite the blockade and the closing of border passages ... we buy arms, we manage to produce arms and we smuggle arms,he said during a trip to Sudan.Israel says that the smuggling has included more and more sophisticated weapons, including a rocket that is capable of reaching its densely populated commercial centre Tel Aviv.
Hamas has called the claim a fabrication.Hamas is rebuilding its forces, recruiting more militants, and testing new equipment to be more efficient in the next military escalation against Israeli forces,a senior Israeli military commander said. Hamas's rearming efforts may be severely hampered, however, by an underground barrier that Egypt is building on its border with Gaza, where most of the smuggling tunnels lie.
The steel barrier, which an Egyptian state-owned daily last week finally confirmed was under construction, will reportedly reach up to 30 metres (100 feet) into the ground and extend some 10 kilometres (six miles).
Status quo won't hold, warn Middle East experts
By Douglas Hamilton – Mon Dec 21, 12:33 pm ET
DEAD SEA, Jordan (Reuters) – Efforts to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict are at a dangerous standstill and in need of a rescue mission that goes beyond U.S. mediation, speakers at a Russian-sponsored debate said on Monday.At a conference on the Jordan shore of the Dead Sea, they warned that Israeli and United States bids to re-launch peace talks that have been suspended for one year would yield nothing if both sides still have a veto on the resolution.There is no bilateral solution,said Gershon Baskin of the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information. The fastest road to the next round of violence is through another failed negotiation process ... and it has zero chance.In remarks endorsed by Palestinian and Arab participants, he said 2009 had been a wasted year.Next year could be ripe for peace, but also ripe for an explosion unless the Russians, the Europeans and the United Nations stepped up their role.Former Russian Prime Minister Evgeny Primakov warned that a real crisis could develop that may strengthen the position of radical elements in the Muslim world and fuel a religious war, if the international community did not intervene.The so-called Middle East Quartet (the United States, United Nations, Russia and the European Union) had not played enough of a role, Primakov said.It should set out a constructive foundation for a settlement and make its recommendations to the parties, and set a time-frame for a peace conference.
FUTILE AND IN VAIN
In a straight-talking session of Russia's Valdai Club, Israeli speakers rejected charges that Israel was putting itself above the law, relying on power to prolong its occupation of the West and Bank, and closing its eyes to the wider risks.If it was not for the Israel Defense Forces, with our soldiers patrolling, the West Bank would be like Gaza,said retired IDF general Jacob Amidror. Palestinians in 2006 had voted for the Islamist movement Hamas, he reminded the conference.Hamas rejects peace with Israel and is now in control of the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, pledged to continue armed struggle to liberate all Palestinian lands.Israelis would not be stupid enough to come to a proposed Moscow conference where all the participants would be against us, like they are here,Amidror added.And don't sell us this nonsense that all regional conflicts will be resolved as soon as Israel signed a treaty swapping land for peace and creating a Palestinian state,he added.Primakov said the remarks show the very radical views against peace in Israel, and they're probably quite widespread.But he said a Moscow conference was only conceivable once the current deadlock was broken by the Quartet's presentation of a framework for talks defining the core issues.Speakers clashed on whether an international force could relieve Israeli security fears.
It's nice to preach to others,Amidror said. But Russia did not invite international peacekeepers to prevent last year's war with Georgia, and U.N. forces had done nothing to reduce the threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon who are stronger than ever.
Rejecting Palestinian demands to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future state as an obstacle to peace,Israeli strategic analyst Efraim Inbar said Jerusalem had been Jewish for 3,000 years and was the focus of our yearnings.Former Palestinian prime minister Ahmad Qurie replied that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was deluded if he believed Jerusalem, as Israel's undivided capital,could simply be excluded from peace talks. Is anyone dreaming of a solution not including Jerusalem? It would be futile and in vain. It would not work regardless of force, regardless of power,the former premier said. (Editing by Jon Hemming)
Former Israeli premier Olmert pleads not guilty
Mon Dec 21, 8:56 am ET
JERUSALEM – Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert is pleading not guilty to charges of illegally accepting funds from an American supporter and double-billing Jewish groups for trips abroad.Olmert spokesman Amir Dan says Olmert and his office chief, Shula Zaken, denied all charges at the Jerusalem district court Monday.The accusations relate to offenses allegedly committed during Olmert's time as Jerusalem mayor and Cabinet minister, but emerged when he was prime minister. He eventually resigned over the allegations.The 63-year-old Olmert left politics when Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister in March.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
BRITAIN ABUSES ISRAEL
Virus of abuse in Britain towards Israel: ambassador
Sun Dec 20, 11:23 pm ET
LONDON (AFP) – Israel's ambassador to London said Monday there was a virus of abuse towards his country spreading through Britain as he slammed those behind an arrest warrant for former foreign minister Tzipi Livni.It comes after the director of a committee set up by the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip said it was providing information to European lawyers investigating alleged war crimes by Israel in the Gaza war.Livni, the leader of the Kadima main opposition party and the foreign minister during the conflict, cancelled a trip to London last week after an arrest warrant was issued against her by a British court, sparking a diplomatic row.
An obsession to delegitimise and demonise the Jewish state was now daily routine in Britain, Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor wrote in The Daily Telegraph newspaper.A virus of abuse towards Israel and Israelis has spread throughout British public life.
When this obsession leaps from the campus soapboxes to courts, the British public can no longer ignore the alarm bells.In this instance and at a time when both Israel and Britain find themselves confronted by terrorist foes, their sympathisers are cynically abusing Britain's legal system.The scandalous treatment of Mrs Livni is another example of 'lawfare', waged for the sole purpose of delegitimising the State of Israel and its leaders.The fanatics who specialise in hounding Israelis are the first to defend the worst abusers of human rights and decency.As ever, where attacks on Israel are concerned, double standards, hypocrisy and irony are never far away.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has insisted that Livni is welcome and has voiced his determination to change the law that allows British courts to issue warrants for alleged war crimes suspects around the world.The warrant was understood to have been issued by a London court at the weekend following an application by pro-Palestinian activists.Diya al-Madhun, the judge who heads the committee, told AFP on Sunday: We provide documents, reports and evidence of crimes to all international bodies aiding the Palestinian people in bringing Israeli civilian and military leaders to trial and issuing warrants for their arrest.
Parents of captured Israeli soldier plead for his release
Sun Dec 20, 4:26 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The parents of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit made an impassioned appeal on Sunday for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal with his captors, saying time was running out.We believe that the next few days are fateful for our beloved son Gilad,his parents, Noam and Aviva Shalit, wrote in a letter to Netanyahu.We watch the actions of the government of Israel with deep trepidation and great hope,they said.The appeal comes amid mounting speculation that a deal may be close between Israel and the Hamas movement on a prisoner exchange of some 1,000 jailed Palestinians for Shalit, who was captured by Gaza militants in 2006.Netanyahu convened a meeting of his security cabinet for a third time on Sunday, for what officials said were talks to discuss the Shalit case.The meeting ended late at night without any announcement, but officials said Netanyahu was objecting to Hamas militants convicted of involvement with suicide bombings being released to their homes in the West Bank.Adding to the speculation, Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman -- who is Cairo's pointman for the indirect talks between Israel and Hamas -- held talks in Israel on Sunday with senior officials.
Israel does not officially comment on the negotiations over Shalit.
Hamas and two smaller Palestinian militant groups captured Shalit in June 2006 when they tunnelled into Israel from Gaza and attacked an army post, killing two soldiers.
We appeal to you, Mr prime minister, before it is too late, please don't lay all the problems of the Middle East on the slim shoulders of our son,the Shalits wrote.
Netanyahu was expected to meet Shalit's parents on Monday.
Israel and Hamas have in recent weeks appeared to be edging closer to an agreement to free the 23-year-old soldier.But despite the involvement of a German mediator the two sides have yet to reach a deal, with both imposing strict internal censorship on any discussion of the negotiations.On Tuesday, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said Israel was responsible for the delay in releasing Shalit and insisted that he would only be freed when Israel agrees to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Netanyahu and Israeli leaders will never again see Shalit if Hamas's demands are not met, Meshaal said during a visit to Tehran.
Israel threatens to use force against settlers By IAN DEITCH, Associated Press Writer – Sun Dec 20, 11:31 am ET
JERUSALEM – Israeli authorities could soon use special commando units, unmanned spy planes and cellphone-jamming equipment to enforce a moratorium on new settlement construction in the West Bank, military officials said Sunday, deepening a showdown between the government and Jewish settlers.Enraged settlers leaders vowed to resist the plan, prompting Defense Minister Ehud Barak to warn that settlers would face the full wrath of the military if they continue to flout the 10-month construction slowdown.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the settlement slowdown last month in an attempt to restart peace talks with the Palestinians. But the Palestinians have rejected the plan because it allows for construction to proceed in 3,000 settlement homes already under construction in the West Bank and does not affect east Jerusalem, which Palestinians hope will be their capital.Nonetheless, settlers have repeatedly blocked inspectors and security forces trying to enter their communities to enforce the order. The resistance has grown increasingly violent.The issue of settlements on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state is a key sticking point in Mideast peace efforts, with the Palestinians demanding a halt to all settlement construction as a condition for returning to peace talks. U.S. President Barack Obama made a similar demand shortly after taking office, but has since adopted a softer stance.The military plan calls for the deployment of unmanned spy drones to photograph illegal construction, and would create closed military zones to keep out protesters and reporters during demolitions of illegal buildings, according to a military memo leaked to Israeli media and confirmed by The Associated Press. The document said various units of the military would be used, including special forces, military police and even communication specialists to jam settler cell phone frequencies.
The enforcement plan was drafted by the military's central command and most likely leaked by settler sympathizers within the army, according to military officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal orders not meant for public consumption.Those same officials confirmed the plan to The Associated Press, though the army later said the plan was only a first draft for potential action.The leak itself points to a growing concern among Israeli officials relating to insubordination. A number of nationalist soldiers have refused to obey orders to act against settlers. The government has jailed defiant servicemen, issued stern warnings to rebellious rabbis and expelled one pro-settler seminary from a program combining religious study and military service.It's also possible the authorities wanted the plan to be known, as it might help the government portray itself as willing to confront domestic opposition for the sake of peace.All that is required of the settlers and their leaders is to carry out the government's decision regarding freezing new construction in the West Bank for this defined period and that will prevent the use of force and friction with the defense forces,Barak said at a political meeting.
Settler leaders feel betrayed by Netanyahu, a former longtime ally.Using special forces, jamming cell phones and banning journalists from the area is what you do when you are fighting an enemy,settler leader Dani Dayan told Israel's Army Radio.
Settlers have frequently scuffled with government inspectors sent to enforce the building moratorium. A week ago, a female Israeli police officer was beaten by settlers opposing the ban.We will protect the houses with our bodies if they come to destroy them,Arieh Eldad, a lawmaker from the hardline National Union party, told Israel Radio.About 300,000 settlers live in the West Bank, in addition to 180,000 Jewish Israelis living in east Jerusalem.
Hamas aids foreign lawyers trying to prosecute Israelis
Sun Dec 20, 7:04 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – A committee set up by the Hamas government is providing information to European lawyers investigating alleged war crimes by Israel in the Gaza war, its director said on Sunday.We provide documents, reports and evidence of crimes to all international bodies aiding the Palestinian people in bringing Israeli civilian and military leaders to trial and issuing warrants for their arrest,Diya al-Madhun, the judge who heads the committee, told AFP.We have provided a group of independent lawyers in Britain with documents, information and evidence concerning war crimes committed by Israeli political and military leaders, including (Tzipi) Livni.He added however that the foreign lawyers acted independently and were not hired by the Islamist Palestinian group.Livni, who served as foreign minister during the war, cancelled a trip to London last week after an arrest warrant was issued against her by a British court, sparking a diplomatic row between the two countries.
Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the three-week Israeli offensive launched on December 27, 2008 and aimed at halting Palestinian rocket fire from the impoverished enclave.A controversial UN Human Rights Council report authored by the respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone earlier this year accused both Israel and Palestinian militants of committing war crimes during the conflict.Hamas, which seized Gaza in June 2007 after a week of bloody street battles, is blacklisted as a terrorist group by Israel and the West.
Egyptian FM implicitly confirms Gaza border barrier
Sat Dec 19, 8:43 am ET
CAIRO (AFP) – Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit implicitly confirmed on Saturday that his country was building an underground barrier with the Gaza Strip, saying it was Cairo's right to protect itself.Be it a wall or detection hardware, the important thing is that Egypt's territory must be protected; it must not be violated in any way,Abul Gheit told the government weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi.The weekly was questioning him about reports concerning the construction by Egypt of a steel barrier along the border with Gaza and the deployment in the border area of American equipment to detect tunnels used by smugglers moving goods into the Palestinian enclave.It was the closest confirmation so far that Egypt is building the barrier to stem smuggling into Gaza through underground tunnels, since a report Thursday in the government paper Al-Gomhuria.The barrier ... is the same barrier that currently exists but with the addition of underground foundations, the newspaper said in a front-page editorial, confirming that work was under way on the barrier.Previously security sources had only confirmed witness reports anonymously, while Israel's Haaretz newspaper said the barrier will reach a depth of 30 metres (100 feet) and 10 kilometres long (six miles).
Abul Gheit told Al-Ahram Al-Arabi: Egypt has the right to control its border.The Palestinian cause is dear to our heart and the Egyptians have paid a heavy price defending this cause, but Egyptian territory and its security are more important than anything else,the foreign minister said.A network of tunnels beneath the Egypt-Gaza border provide a crucial economic lifeline to Gaza, which has been sealed off from all but vital humanitarian aid by Israel and Egypt since Hamas took over in June 2007.
Israel settlements: rabbis say soldiers' loyalty to God trumps army orders
By Joshua Mitnick – Fri Dec 18, 1:05 pm ET
Tel Aviv, Israel – In Israel, a standoff is escalating between the Israeli defense establishment and religious nationalists over the possible evacuation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. On Thursday, a group of rabbis published a letter saying a soldiers' loyalty to the divine takes precedence over their commanders.The declaration was signed by dozens of teachers in government-affiliated religious seminaries – known as hesder yeshivas – after Defense Minister Ehud Barak took the unprecedented step earlier this week of cutting ties with a hesder yeshiva because its dean, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, openly advocates refusing of orders in case of an evacuation.One of the signatories, hesder yeshiva Rabbi Ariel Bareli, told Israel Radio that faith trumps implementing democratic adopted government policy in the event of a clash.You must understand, that the desire of the nation isn't meaningful for someone who believes in the creator, he said. Split allegiance of Israel's religious nationalistsAs pressure increases on the government to curtail and eventually remove many West Bank settlements, the dispute highlights the growing political and spiritual dilemma of a split allegiance on the part of religious nationalists, the spearhead of the settlement movement. Though they have always hewed to a strict interpretation of Jewish religious law, the national religious rabbis taught loyalty to Israel's secular state because it is considered a precursor of religious redemption.The hesder yeshiva system harnessed that loyalty by allowing nationalist religious youths to split time between spiritual study and military service. The system has become an important channel for funneling highly motivated soldiers into the military.
Sensitive moment: Rare contradiction between state policy, Jewish lawBut that loyalty to the secular state is being tested by the likelihood that religious soldiers might be forced to violate what they consider a divine prohibition against ceding parts of the biblical land of Israel.For decades the national religious never saw a contradiction between the policy of the state and the halacha [Jewish law]. The [goals] were identical, says Yair Ettinger, a reporter for the Haaretz newspaper who covered Israel's evacuation of Gaza settlements in 2005.It's become much harder for the rabbis to square between the state and the [Jewish law]. This is a very sensitive moment.
EU to work for Palestinian state in 2010: Spain
Fri Dec 18, 12:08 pm ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) – Spain, as incoming European Union president, will work to build next year a Palestinian state living peacefully alongside Israel, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Friday.My idea, and my dream, and my engagement, is to work for having in 2010, finally, a Palestinian state that could live in peace and security with Israel,he told reporters in Brussels.We are all in the international community defending the two-state solution. Why should we wait for a Palestinian state? We have Israel as a state, we want its neighbour, the Palestinians, to have the same status,he said.However Moratinos, who was laying out the priorities of Spain's six-month term at the EU's helm starting on January 1, underlined that a Palestinian state could only come about through negotiations.It has to be done through negotiation, it has to be done by agreement, it has to be done through international community recognition,he said.It's not going to be easy, but I think it's needed. We need a Palestinian state, the sooner, the better, and that is going to be our objective,said Moratinos, who as Spain's top diplomat has been very active in the Middle East.
Middle East peace efforts are currently at a standstill.
The talks, which resumed in 2007 after a seven-year hiatus, came to a halt again when Israel launched a military offensive against the Gaza Strip late last year.The Palestinians insist they will not return to the negotiating table unless there is a complete freeze on Jewish construction in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.
The EU is the world's biggest donor of aid to the Palestinians but holds limited influence over the Israeli government.
Israeli, Turkish presidents meet to mend ties
Fri Dec 18, 10:16 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The Israeli and Turkish presidents met on Friday on the sidelines of the UN climate summit in the highest-level meeting since ties between the two allies nosedived in the wake of the Gaza war.Israeli President Shimon Peres and Turkey's Abdullah Gul, who met in Copenhagen, agreed to return to normal, positive and stable routine in relations, Peres's office said.Peres thanked Gul for Turkey's efforts to advance peace in the Middle East, and extended him an invitation to visit Israel, which the Turkish president accepted, the statement said.Turkey has been Israel's main regional ally since 1998 when the two signed a military cooperation deal. Relations took a downturn in January when the Islamist-rooted government in Ankara launched an unprecedented barrage of criticism of the Jewish state over its deadly offensive on Gaza.In a memorable outburst, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed out of a debate at the World Economic Forum, accusing Israel of barbarian acts and telling Peres, sitting next to him, that you know well how to kill people.In October, Turkey excluded Israel from joint military drills and said ties would continue to suffer unless Israel ends the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza and revives peace talks with the Palestinians.But since then, both sides have taken steps towards mending the strained ties, with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak saying on Thursday he had been invited to Turkey.
EU hits out at Israeli settler credit scheme
Fri Dec 18, 5:36 am ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) – The European Union criticised Israel Friday for listing some Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank as special zones, saying the move is against the spirit of a freeze on settlement building.The European Union expresses its disapproval of the decision of the government of Israel on December 13 to include settlements in the National Priority Areas programme,EU president Sweden said in a statement.
The decision runs counter to the spirit of the settlement freeze,it said.
The move by Israel on Sunday entitles the communities to millions of dollars of state funding, and is seen as a gesture to settlers furious about a 10-month moratorium on new building permits in settlements after months of US pressure.It also prevents the creation of an atmosphere conducive to resuming negotiations on a two-state solution. The European Union encourages Israel instead to continue along the path set forth by the moratorium,the EU said.The European Union reiterates that settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law,the statement said, and urged Israel to immediately end all settlement activities.The communities designated as national priority zones will have access to credits of 41 million dollars (28 million euros), which will benefit 110,000 settlers and can be used for vocational training, education or cultural activities.
Sun Dec 20, 11:23 pm ET
LONDON (AFP) – Israel's ambassador to London said Monday there was a virus of abuse towards his country spreading through Britain as he slammed those behind an arrest warrant for former foreign minister Tzipi Livni.It comes after the director of a committee set up by the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip said it was providing information to European lawyers investigating alleged war crimes by Israel in the Gaza war.Livni, the leader of the Kadima main opposition party and the foreign minister during the conflict, cancelled a trip to London last week after an arrest warrant was issued against her by a British court, sparking a diplomatic row.
An obsession to delegitimise and demonise the Jewish state was now daily routine in Britain, Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor wrote in The Daily Telegraph newspaper.A virus of abuse towards Israel and Israelis has spread throughout British public life.
When this obsession leaps from the campus soapboxes to courts, the British public can no longer ignore the alarm bells.In this instance and at a time when both Israel and Britain find themselves confronted by terrorist foes, their sympathisers are cynically abusing Britain's legal system.The scandalous treatment of Mrs Livni is another example of 'lawfare', waged for the sole purpose of delegitimising the State of Israel and its leaders.The fanatics who specialise in hounding Israelis are the first to defend the worst abusers of human rights and decency.As ever, where attacks on Israel are concerned, double standards, hypocrisy and irony are never far away.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has insisted that Livni is welcome and has voiced his determination to change the law that allows British courts to issue warrants for alleged war crimes suspects around the world.The warrant was understood to have been issued by a London court at the weekend following an application by pro-Palestinian activists.Diya al-Madhun, the judge who heads the committee, told AFP on Sunday: We provide documents, reports and evidence of crimes to all international bodies aiding the Palestinian people in bringing Israeli civilian and military leaders to trial and issuing warrants for their arrest.
Parents of captured Israeli soldier plead for his release
Sun Dec 20, 4:26 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The parents of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit made an impassioned appeal on Sunday for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal with his captors, saying time was running out.We believe that the next few days are fateful for our beloved son Gilad,his parents, Noam and Aviva Shalit, wrote in a letter to Netanyahu.We watch the actions of the government of Israel with deep trepidation and great hope,they said.The appeal comes amid mounting speculation that a deal may be close between Israel and the Hamas movement on a prisoner exchange of some 1,000 jailed Palestinians for Shalit, who was captured by Gaza militants in 2006.Netanyahu convened a meeting of his security cabinet for a third time on Sunday, for what officials said were talks to discuss the Shalit case.The meeting ended late at night without any announcement, but officials said Netanyahu was objecting to Hamas militants convicted of involvement with suicide bombings being released to their homes in the West Bank.Adding to the speculation, Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman -- who is Cairo's pointman for the indirect talks between Israel and Hamas -- held talks in Israel on Sunday with senior officials.
Israel does not officially comment on the negotiations over Shalit.
Hamas and two smaller Palestinian militant groups captured Shalit in June 2006 when they tunnelled into Israel from Gaza and attacked an army post, killing two soldiers.
We appeal to you, Mr prime minister, before it is too late, please don't lay all the problems of the Middle East on the slim shoulders of our son,the Shalits wrote.
Netanyahu was expected to meet Shalit's parents on Monday.
Israel and Hamas have in recent weeks appeared to be edging closer to an agreement to free the 23-year-old soldier.But despite the involvement of a German mediator the two sides have yet to reach a deal, with both imposing strict internal censorship on any discussion of the negotiations.On Tuesday, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said Israel was responsible for the delay in releasing Shalit and insisted that he would only be freed when Israel agrees to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Netanyahu and Israeli leaders will never again see Shalit if Hamas's demands are not met, Meshaal said during a visit to Tehran.
Israel threatens to use force against settlers By IAN DEITCH, Associated Press Writer – Sun Dec 20, 11:31 am ET
JERUSALEM – Israeli authorities could soon use special commando units, unmanned spy planes and cellphone-jamming equipment to enforce a moratorium on new settlement construction in the West Bank, military officials said Sunday, deepening a showdown between the government and Jewish settlers.Enraged settlers leaders vowed to resist the plan, prompting Defense Minister Ehud Barak to warn that settlers would face the full wrath of the military if they continue to flout the 10-month construction slowdown.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the settlement slowdown last month in an attempt to restart peace talks with the Palestinians. But the Palestinians have rejected the plan because it allows for construction to proceed in 3,000 settlement homes already under construction in the West Bank and does not affect east Jerusalem, which Palestinians hope will be their capital.Nonetheless, settlers have repeatedly blocked inspectors and security forces trying to enter their communities to enforce the order. The resistance has grown increasingly violent.The issue of settlements on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state is a key sticking point in Mideast peace efforts, with the Palestinians demanding a halt to all settlement construction as a condition for returning to peace talks. U.S. President Barack Obama made a similar demand shortly after taking office, but has since adopted a softer stance.The military plan calls for the deployment of unmanned spy drones to photograph illegal construction, and would create closed military zones to keep out protesters and reporters during demolitions of illegal buildings, according to a military memo leaked to Israeli media and confirmed by The Associated Press. The document said various units of the military would be used, including special forces, military police and even communication specialists to jam settler cell phone frequencies.
The enforcement plan was drafted by the military's central command and most likely leaked by settler sympathizers within the army, according to military officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal orders not meant for public consumption.Those same officials confirmed the plan to The Associated Press, though the army later said the plan was only a first draft for potential action.The leak itself points to a growing concern among Israeli officials relating to insubordination. A number of nationalist soldiers have refused to obey orders to act against settlers. The government has jailed defiant servicemen, issued stern warnings to rebellious rabbis and expelled one pro-settler seminary from a program combining religious study and military service.It's also possible the authorities wanted the plan to be known, as it might help the government portray itself as willing to confront domestic opposition for the sake of peace.All that is required of the settlers and their leaders is to carry out the government's decision regarding freezing new construction in the West Bank for this defined period and that will prevent the use of force and friction with the defense forces,Barak said at a political meeting.
Settler leaders feel betrayed by Netanyahu, a former longtime ally.Using special forces, jamming cell phones and banning journalists from the area is what you do when you are fighting an enemy,settler leader Dani Dayan told Israel's Army Radio.
Settlers have frequently scuffled with government inspectors sent to enforce the building moratorium. A week ago, a female Israeli police officer was beaten by settlers opposing the ban.We will protect the houses with our bodies if they come to destroy them,Arieh Eldad, a lawmaker from the hardline National Union party, told Israel Radio.About 300,000 settlers live in the West Bank, in addition to 180,000 Jewish Israelis living in east Jerusalem.
Hamas aids foreign lawyers trying to prosecute Israelis
Sun Dec 20, 7:04 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – A committee set up by the Hamas government is providing information to European lawyers investigating alleged war crimes by Israel in the Gaza war, its director said on Sunday.We provide documents, reports and evidence of crimes to all international bodies aiding the Palestinian people in bringing Israeli civilian and military leaders to trial and issuing warrants for their arrest,Diya al-Madhun, the judge who heads the committee, told AFP.We have provided a group of independent lawyers in Britain with documents, information and evidence concerning war crimes committed by Israeli political and military leaders, including (Tzipi) Livni.He added however that the foreign lawyers acted independently and were not hired by the Islamist Palestinian group.Livni, who served as foreign minister during the war, cancelled a trip to London last week after an arrest warrant was issued against her by a British court, sparking a diplomatic row between the two countries.
Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the three-week Israeli offensive launched on December 27, 2008 and aimed at halting Palestinian rocket fire from the impoverished enclave.A controversial UN Human Rights Council report authored by the respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone earlier this year accused both Israel and Palestinian militants of committing war crimes during the conflict.Hamas, which seized Gaza in June 2007 after a week of bloody street battles, is blacklisted as a terrorist group by Israel and the West.
Egyptian FM implicitly confirms Gaza border barrier
Sat Dec 19, 8:43 am ET
CAIRO (AFP) – Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit implicitly confirmed on Saturday that his country was building an underground barrier with the Gaza Strip, saying it was Cairo's right to protect itself.Be it a wall or detection hardware, the important thing is that Egypt's territory must be protected; it must not be violated in any way,Abul Gheit told the government weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi.The weekly was questioning him about reports concerning the construction by Egypt of a steel barrier along the border with Gaza and the deployment in the border area of American equipment to detect tunnels used by smugglers moving goods into the Palestinian enclave.It was the closest confirmation so far that Egypt is building the barrier to stem smuggling into Gaza through underground tunnels, since a report Thursday in the government paper Al-Gomhuria.The barrier ... is the same barrier that currently exists but with the addition of underground foundations, the newspaper said in a front-page editorial, confirming that work was under way on the barrier.Previously security sources had only confirmed witness reports anonymously, while Israel's Haaretz newspaper said the barrier will reach a depth of 30 metres (100 feet) and 10 kilometres long (six miles).
Abul Gheit told Al-Ahram Al-Arabi: Egypt has the right to control its border.The Palestinian cause is dear to our heart and the Egyptians have paid a heavy price defending this cause, but Egyptian territory and its security are more important than anything else,the foreign minister said.A network of tunnels beneath the Egypt-Gaza border provide a crucial economic lifeline to Gaza, which has been sealed off from all but vital humanitarian aid by Israel and Egypt since Hamas took over in June 2007.
Israel settlements: rabbis say soldiers' loyalty to God trumps army orders
By Joshua Mitnick – Fri Dec 18, 1:05 pm ET
Tel Aviv, Israel – In Israel, a standoff is escalating between the Israeli defense establishment and religious nationalists over the possible evacuation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. On Thursday, a group of rabbis published a letter saying a soldiers' loyalty to the divine takes precedence over their commanders.The declaration was signed by dozens of teachers in government-affiliated religious seminaries – known as hesder yeshivas – after Defense Minister Ehud Barak took the unprecedented step earlier this week of cutting ties with a hesder yeshiva because its dean, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, openly advocates refusing of orders in case of an evacuation.One of the signatories, hesder yeshiva Rabbi Ariel Bareli, told Israel Radio that faith trumps implementing democratic adopted government policy in the event of a clash.You must understand, that the desire of the nation isn't meaningful for someone who believes in the creator, he said. Split allegiance of Israel's religious nationalistsAs pressure increases on the government to curtail and eventually remove many West Bank settlements, the dispute highlights the growing political and spiritual dilemma of a split allegiance on the part of religious nationalists, the spearhead of the settlement movement. Though they have always hewed to a strict interpretation of Jewish religious law, the national religious rabbis taught loyalty to Israel's secular state because it is considered a precursor of religious redemption.The hesder yeshiva system harnessed that loyalty by allowing nationalist religious youths to split time between spiritual study and military service. The system has become an important channel for funneling highly motivated soldiers into the military.
Sensitive moment: Rare contradiction between state policy, Jewish lawBut that loyalty to the secular state is being tested by the likelihood that religious soldiers might be forced to violate what they consider a divine prohibition against ceding parts of the biblical land of Israel.For decades the national religious never saw a contradiction between the policy of the state and the halacha [Jewish law]. The [goals] were identical, says Yair Ettinger, a reporter for the Haaretz newspaper who covered Israel's evacuation of Gaza settlements in 2005.It's become much harder for the rabbis to square between the state and the [Jewish law]. This is a very sensitive moment.
EU to work for Palestinian state in 2010: Spain
Fri Dec 18, 12:08 pm ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) – Spain, as incoming European Union president, will work to build next year a Palestinian state living peacefully alongside Israel, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Friday.My idea, and my dream, and my engagement, is to work for having in 2010, finally, a Palestinian state that could live in peace and security with Israel,he told reporters in Brussels.We are all in the international community defending the two-state solution. Why should we wait for a Palestinian state? We have Israel as a state, we want its neighbour, the Palestinians, to have the same status,he said.However Moratinos, who was laying out the priorities of Spain's six-month term at the EU's helm starting on January 1, underlined that a Palestinian state could only come about through negotiations.It has to be done through negotiation, it has to be done by agreement, it has to be done through international community recognition,he said.It's not going to be easy, but I think it's needed. We need a Palestinian state, the sooner, the better, and that is going to be our objective,said Moratinos, who as Spain's top diplomat has been very active in the Middle East.
Middle East peace efforts are currently at a standstill.
The talks, which resumed in 2007 after a seven-year hiatus, came to a halt again when Israel launched a military offensive against the Gaza Strip late last year.The Palestinians insist they will not return to the negotiating table unless there is a complete freeze on Jewish construction in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.
The EU is the world's biggest donor of aid to the Palestinians but holds limited influence over the Israeli government.
Israeli, Turkish presidents meet to mend ties
Fri Dec 18, 10:16 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The Israeli and Turkish presidents met on Friday on the sidelines of the UN climate summit in the highest-level meeting since ties between the two allies nosedived in the wake of the Gaza war.Israeli President Shimon Peres and Turkey's Abdullah Gul, who met in Copenhagen, agreed to return to normal, positive and stable routine in relations, Peres's office said.Peres thanked Gul for Turkey's efforts to advance peace in the Middle East, and extended him an invitation to visit Israel, which the Turkish president accepted, the statement said.Turkey has been Israel's main regional ally since 1998 when the two signed a military cooperation deal. Relations took a downturn in January when the Islamist-rooted government in Ankara launched an unprecedented barrage of criticism of the Jewish state over its deadly offensive on Gaza.In a memorable outburst, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed out of a debate at the World Economic Forum, accusing Israel of barbarian acts and telling Peres, sitting next to him, that you know well how to kill people.In October, Turkey excluded Israel from joint military drills and said ties would continue to suffer unless Israel ends the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza and revives peace talks with the Palestinians.But since then, both sides have taken steps towards mending the strained ties, with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak saying on Thursday he had been invited to Turkey.
EU hits out at Israeli settler credit scheme
Fri Dec 18, 5:36 am ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) – The European Union criticised Israel Friday for listing some Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank as special zones, saying the move is against the spirit of a freeze on settlement building.The European Union expresses its disapproval of the decision of the government of Israel on December 13 to include settlements in the National Priority Areas programme,EU president Sweden said in a statement.
The decision runs counter to the spirit of the settlement freeze,it said.
The move by Israel on Sunday entitles the communities to millions of dollars of state funding, and is seen as a gesture to settlers furious about a 10-month moratorium on new building permits in settlements after months of US pressure.It also prevents the creation of an atmosphere conducive to resuming negotiations on a two-state solution. The European Union encourages Israel instead to continue along the path set forth by the moratorium,the EU said.The European Union reiterates that settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law,the statement said, and urged Israel to immediately end all settlement activities.The communities designated as national priority zones will have access to credits of 41 million dollars (28 million euros), which will benefit 110,000 settlers and can be used for vocational training, education or cultural activities.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
STANDOFF OVER PALESTINIANS
Stand-off over Palestinian demo in Jerusalem
Thu Dec 17, 9:37 am ET
JERUSALEM (Israel) (AFP) – Israeli police surrounded the French cultural centre in mostly Arab east Jerusalem on Thursday, apparently to detain the organiser of a Palestinian cultural event, a French diplomat said.Around 50 people, including officials from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA), took part at an event at the centre in honour of Jerusalem's selection as the 2009 capital of Arab culture by UNESCO and the Arab League.The cultural counsellor at the French consulate, Benoit Tadie, said police were looking for one of the Palestinian organisers of the event, who left the centre through a back door to avoid being arrested.As police arrived at the scene, participants gave up plans to stage a demonstration outside the centre, but a few dozen people later took part in a protest at nearby Damascus Gate.Israel bans all PA events in the Holy City, which it views as its eternal, undivided capital.The French consul general, Frederic Desagneaux, arrived at the scene after the police showed up.
Israeli police did not immediately comment on the incident.Israel seized east Jerusalem along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six Day war and then annexed the eastern sector of the city.The Palestinians have demanded east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state, and the international community has never recognised Israel's claim to it. Foreign embassies in Israel are located in Tel Aviv.
Hardline Israeli settlers start building W.Bank outpost
Thu Dec 17, 6:36 am ET
ALON SHVUT, West Bank (AFP) – Hardline Jewish settlers have started rebuilding an outpost in the occupied West Bank in an act of defiance against Israel's partial moratorium on settlement construction.About 50 settlers, among them children, started building a brick house on a hill close to the Alon Shvut settlement near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem.This is our response to the construction freeze decided by the government,hardline settler leader Yehudit Katzover told AFP on Wednesday.If authorities stop us, we will come back as many times as possible to restart construction,she said, pointing out that on several occasions police had previously demolished outposts built on the hilltop.
The international community considers all settlement in the West Bank illegal.Under US pressure, the Israeli government last month announced a 10-month moratorium on new building permits in settlements.The settlement issue is one of the thorniest in Middle East peace efforts and the Palestinians have said they would not resume negotiations, which came to a halt almost one year ago, unless there is a total settlement freeze.A growing number of Israelis are opposed to a settlement freeze, according to poll results broadcast on Wednesday by Channel 10 television, a private Israeli station.It said 46 percent answered that they were opposed, 31 percent were for and 23 percent gave no opinion, in a survey of 500 Israelis that had a margin of error of 4.5 percent.A similar poll in September, before the moratorium, found 44.7 percent in favour and 38 percent opposed.
Israeli MPs threaten boycott of British products
Thu Dec 17, 3:11 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli MPs on Thursday threatened to call a boycott of British products unless London withdraws an advisory allowing retailers to state whether West Bank products were made by Palestinians or Jewish settlers.So far, 40 of Israel's 120 MPs have signed the petition which is to be sent to the British parliament, according to an aide to MP Ronit Tirosh of the centrist Kadima party.
Tirosh, leading the initiative, said the petition threatens to call on Israelis to think twice before buying British products if the decision is not rescinded by the British government.
She also called on officials to boycott British airlines.
I urge official Israeli representatives to abstain from using British airlines as long as the British government treats Israel as though two states existed, one within the green line and another outside,Tirosh said in reference to the border between the occupied West Bank and Israel.She said parliamentary president Reuven Rivlin had expressed support for the petition.Earlier this month the British government issued an advisory suggesting retailers could use labels distinguishing whether West Bank items are Israeli settlement produce or Palestinian produce.The move infuriated the Israeli government, which said it would encourage extremism among Palestinians.Tirosh likened the measure to the Nazi persecution of Jews. We intend to protest anything that singles out Jews as this kind of method brings back very bad memories,she told Israeli radio.The international community considers the Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal and a major hurdle to peace efforts.Relations between Britain and Israel soured further after an arrest warrant was issued against former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni for her role in the devastating military offensive in the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year.But British officials expressed opposition to the warrant, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday told Livni over the telephone that she would always be welcome in Britain.
The arrest warrant was understood to have been issued by a London court at the weekend.
Britain says Livni welcome despite arrest warrant By IAN DEITCH, Associated Press Writer – Wed Dec 16, 12:02 pm ET
JERUSALEM – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown phoned former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni Wednesday to say she is still welcome in Britain, despite a recent attempt by pro-Palestinian activists to have her arrested during a planned visit to London.Livni's office said the British premier called on Wednesday afternoon to say he objects to the arrest warrant and that he intends to act to change the law that allowed it to be issued.A Downing Street spokesman confirmed the phone call. Brown "said it was a disappointment she couldn't visit, and that she would be welcome in the U.K. at any time, the spokesman said.The gesture did little to calm an uproar in Israel over the attempt to arrest Livni — the latest in a string of Israeli leaders to be threatened with legal action in Britain.Livni told reporters in Jerusalem that the warrant put other world leaders and countries at risk. This isn't just a warrant against me or the state of Israel, this is against every democratic country that is fighting terrorism, Livni said.The terrorists should be charged, not those fighting against them, Livni said.This is a challenge to the whole free world and not just Israel or Britain.Several Israeli officials have recently canceled visits to Britain because of efforts by Palestinians to bring Israelis before British courts under a law that allows trial for noncitizens accused of crimes committed elsewhere.Livni apparently was targeted because she was foreign minister during Israel's war against militants in the Gaza Strip in January. She has been opposition leader since a new government took office in March.The military campaign has drawn strong international condemnation because hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed, and a U.N. investigation has said that both Israel and Hamas militants committed war crimes. Israel denies wrongdoing, saying it did its best to avoid civilian casualties and that Hamas used civilians as human shields.
Livni's office said she was supposed to appear at a Jewish National Fund convention in Britain on Sunday, but canceled her visit two weeks ago for reasons unconnected with any legal action against her. Israel's Foreign Ministry says the warrant has since been canceled.Israel's president, Shimon Peres, angrily denounced the arrest attempt against Livni as one of the greatest political mistakes that could be done and urged Britain to quickly change its laws.Basically you could put any world leader on trial,he said in a statement. Everything is based on unilateral informants, on a hostile majority public opinion. The British promised they would fix this and it is time that they do so. Britain has to decide where it stands on our matter.British lawyers working with Palestinian activists have in recent years sought the arrest of senior Israeli civilian and military figures under terms of universal jurisdiction. This ill-defined legal concept empowers judges to issue arrest warrants for visiting officials accused of war crimes in a foreign conflict.
The threat of arrest has forced several former security officials to call off trips to London, including a former general who remained holed up on an airplane at Heathrow Airport in order to avoid arrest. Earlier this year, Defense Minister Ehud Barak fended off an arrest attempt by successfully arguing he enjoyed diplomatic immunity.British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Tuesday announced that Britain would no longer tolerate legal harassment of Israeli officials in this fashion.After meeting Israel's ambassador, Miliband said the British law permitting judges to issue arrest warrants against foreign dignitaries without any prior knowledge or advice by a prosecutor must be reviewed and reformed.
Israeli navy briefly detains five Gaza fishermen
Wed Dec 16, 9:36 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – The Israeli navy detained five Palestinian fishermen off the coast of Gaza and held them for several hours, witnesses and the military said on Wednesday.A military spokeswoman said the five were arrested on Tuesday afternoon when they left a designated area for fishing and did not respond to warning shots. They were released Wednesday, she said.Palestinian witnesses and an official in the Hamas-run police, however, said the arrests took place early Wednesday morning close to the shore.Israel and Egypt have sealed the Gaza Strip off from all but limited humanitarian aid since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June 2007.Under the blockade, Israel prevents fishermen from venturing more than five kilometres (three miles) offshore, even though a 2002 agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority set the boundary at 22 kilometres (13.5 miles).Before the embargo, some 3,500 fishermen plied their trade off Gaza's 40-kilometre (25-mile) Mediterranean coastline, with around 30,000 people relying on the fishing industry.
US backing lets Israel stall peace: Saudi FM
Wed Dec 16, 7:26 am ET
RIYADH (AFP) – Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said that US backing for Israel gave the Jewish state the option of not making peace, in an interview published on Wednesday.Absolute US backing... has made Israel see the option of living in the area without the acceptance of the people of the area, Prince Faisal was quoted as saying in the International Herald Tribune.This has led to many years of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.The prince also lamented the failure of his efforts to establish a Palestinian state and regional peace during his tenure of almost 35 years as foreign minister.During this period, we have seen only moments of crisis, we have seen only moments of conflict, Prince Faisal said.And how can you have any pleasure in anything that happens when you have people like the Palestinians living as they are? he asked.Peace until now is like holding water or sand in your hand. You see the amount of water, you think you can hold something, but it falls away. Sand is the same thing.
So unless there is something to hold in your hand and to point to as a success and as an achievement, you have done nothing.Separately, the prince said Lebanon would be denied true sovereignty as long as the Shiite militia Hezbollah owns more arms than the military forces of the country.He added he was suspicious of Iranian claims its nuclear programme is peaceful, and that Tehran should never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, the IHT reported.Many countries in the West accuse Iran of trying to obtain nuclear weapons, a charge it vehemently denies, saying its program is for peaceful energy purposes.The Saudi prince said Israel should also give up its nuclear arsenal, the existence of which it neither confirms nor denies.
PLO keeps Abbas as Palestinian president: officials
By Mohammed Assadi – Wed Dec 16, 7:14 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Wednesday extended until further notice the tenure of Mahmoud Abbas as president of the Palestinian Authority, PLO officials told Reuters.Members of the PLO Central Council said Abbas, whose term ends on January 25, will stay on until elections can be held, extending the tenure of the Western-backed leader who heads the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.Presidential and legislative elections called for January 24 were canceled due to a ban imposed by the Islamist Hamas group on participation in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, which controls the coastal enclave, disputes Abbas's legitimacy.The PLO Central Council also decided to extend the term of the Palestinian Legislative Council -- a dysfunctional parliament in which Hamas won a majority in 2006 elections.The chamber, whose term also expires in January, has not met since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.Abbas had repeatedly said he will not run again for the presidency but no date has been set for a future vote.The president has decided to stay in his post, Tawfiq al-Tirawi, a PLO Central Council member, told Reuters.Hamas, which is not part of the PLO, has already declared as illegitimate any extension of the 74-year-old's tenure.The Central Council also decided there should be no resumption of peace talks with Israel until a full halt to its settlement building in the occupied West Bank, Tirawi said.We will not go to negotiations until Israel fully halts settlement activities and agrees to a term of reference for such negotiations, he said.Abbas has been under pressure from the United States and the European Union to resume talks, frozen for the past year.He has said a partial, 10-month freeze on West Bank settlement building announced by Israel last month is not enough for a resumption of peace negotiations.
Abbas replaced Yasser Arafat as head of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority after his death in 2004.Founded in 1964 and recognized internationally as the representative of the Palestinians, the PLO is dominated by the Fatah party. The PLO Central Council created the Palestinian Authority in 1993 under interim peace accords with Israel. (Writing by Tom Perry)
Peace possible with full settlement freeze: Abbas
Wed Dec 16, 3:06 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel and the Palestinians could clinch a peace deal within six months if the Jewish state halted all settlement growth, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said in an interview published on Wednesday.I spoke with Defence Minister Ehud Barak twice over recent weeks, Abbas told Israel's left-leaning Haaretz daily.I suggested to him three weeks ago that Israel freeze all settlement construction for six months, including in east Jerusalem, without declaring it, just carrying it out in practice.During this time, we can return to the negotiating table and perhaps even achieve a final-status agreement. I have yet to receive an answer, the moderate Western-backed president said.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month announced a 10-month construction freeze in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in the hope it would help kick-start peace talks suspended nearly a year ago.But the Palestinians have rejected the move, saying it fell far short of their demand for a complete halt of settlement activity in the whole West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem.Netanyahu's moratorium does not include east Jerusalem or the 3,000 homes already under construction in the West Bank, or public buildings.In the interview, Abbas once again accused Israel of violating the 2003 roadmap agreement adopted by the international community, which calls on the Jewish state to freeze settlements.The roadmap makes demands of all parties. We were required to stop terror attacks, recognise Israel and even stop incitement. So come and see what we did,Abbas said.They said there is a problem with incitement in speeches in mosques during Friday prayers. Today there is no more incitement at any mosque... The security situation in the West Bank is excellent.The most recent round of peace talks between the two sides was suspended nearly a year ago at the start of Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli policewoman wounded in clash with settlers
Tue Dec 15, 1:00 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – An Israeli border policewoman was wounded on Tuesday in clashes with Jewish settlers protesting a 10-month moratorium on new building permits for settlers in the occupied West Bank, officials said.The officer was part of a group protecting inspectors trying to enforce the new building restrictions in the settlement of Tsofim in the northern West Bank.During work by the security forces to enforce the freeze in Tsofim some 60 youths rampaged, wounding one policewoman, said border police spokesman Moshe Finsi.Two of the youths, who allegedly punched her in the stomach, have been arrested, he said, adding that she was hospitalised in a moderate condition.
Previous attempts to stop the inspectors have ended with minor scuffles only.
Late last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a 10-month moratorium on new permits for house construction in West Bank settlements.Settlers and right-wing politicians expressed outrage that the government should limit Jewish construction on what they consider the biblical Land of Israel.The settlement issue has been one of the thorniest in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.The Palestinians insist they will not return to the negotiating table unless there is a complete freeze on Jewish construction in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.
Egyptian, Turkish leaders discuss Mideast
Tue Dec 15, 12:39 pm ET
ANKARA (AFP) – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul held talks here Tuesday on the impasse in the Middle East peace process and the rift between Palestinians factions.The two leaders discussed the threats posed to the peace process... by the Israeli government's practices in the West Bank and the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip, Mubarak told reporters through an interpreter.
Gul said Ankara was closely following Egypt's great efforts on issues related to (securing) Palestinian unity and pledged Turkish support so that this issue is resolved as soon as possible.Instability in Iraq and Yemen as well as tensions over Iran's nuclear activities were also on the agenda of the talks, Mubarak said.
Gulf Arab states move closer to single currency
By TAREK EL-TABLAWY, AP Business Writer – Tue Dec 15, 8:34 am ET
CAIRO – Gulf Arab nations put into force a monetary pact Tuesday, moving a step closer toward the elusive goal of a single regional currency and greater integration between the mainly oil-rich states.The announcement by Kuwait's finance minister came as leaders from the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council nations were wrapping up a two-day summit in which they launched a regional electricity project and discussed, among other issues, Iran's nuclear program and the war in Yemen.Mustafa al-Shimali told Kuwait's official KUNA news agency that the launching of the monetary pact would now allow the governors of the central banks of the six GCC nations to set up a timetable for the establishment of a regional central bank, with the aim of launching a unified Gulf currency.The GCC, which groups Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain, has been trying for years to develop a unified currency as part of a push for broader economic integration between their predominantly oil-rich nations.This is something that a lot of people were looking forward to,said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based Banque Saudi Fransi-Credit Agricole Group. This is a good step forward, but we also need to have some clarity on the authority of the monetary council" such as the timeframe at which they will move ahead.The plan has hit repeated obstacles, however, with the United Arab Emirates and Oman saying they would not participate.
Still under review is whether the unified currency would be pegged to a basket of currencies, the U.S. dollar or some other currency. All GCC nations peg their currencies to the dollar except for Kuwait which relies on a basket of currencies.
Also unclear is whether the UAE — the second largest economy in the Arab world — will do an about-face and join the union. Oman has said it won't join because it is not ready.
Al-Shimali voiced hopes that the two nations would join in the near future.
The UAE, a federation of seven semiautonomous sheikdoms that includes glitzy and now debt-saddled Dubai, said it was pulling out shortly after GCC officials selected Saudi Arabia — the Arab world's largest economy and home to the world's largest proven reserves of oil — as the future headquarters of the new central bank.They have made it clear that they will move ahead without the UAE and Oman, said Sfakianakis. But one should be optimistic that at some later stage, the UAE and Oman ... or one of the two, will eventually become a participant in this.At this stage, I see it as highly unlikely,he said.
Israeli court bars Gazans from jail visits
Tue Dec 15, 8:34 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a government decision that bars Gaza Strip residents visiting relatives in Israeli jails, saying this is not a basic humanitarian need.Israel, which holds thousands of Palestinians in its prisons, has barred all travel from Gaza to Israel, except for humanitarian cases, since the Islamist group Hamas seized control of the coastal strip in June 2007.In its ruling Tuesday on a petition brought by a rights group, the court said it would not make an exception to this for prisoners' families as the decision was made in accordance with Israel's political and security needs.Allowing the entry of Gaza residents into Israel for this purpose is not included within the framework of the basic humanitarian needs of Gaza Strip residents that Israel is required to meet, the court wrote.The court also said it believed that the extra traffic of relatives passing through the Israel-Gaza border crossing posed a security threat given that the crossings have been a repeated target for terror attacks.Human rights groups criticised the decision, saying it was not only the rights of Gazans but also those of the prisoners themselves that were being violated.We argue that the rights to prison visits are a basic right under international law, said Joel Greenberg, spokesman for the Israeli group Moked, which filed the petition.
Greenberg also said the ban amounted to collective punishment for Gaza residents.
Because it is applied in a sweeping way and not on an individual basis it is a form of collective punishment, he said.Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2004 and since the Hamas takeover has regarded Gaza as a hostile territory,sealing it off to all but vital humanitarian supplies.
Thu Dec 17, 9:37 am ET
JERUSALEM (Israel) (AFP) – Israeli police surrounded the French cultural centre in mostly Arab east Jerusalem on Thursday, apparently to detain the organiser of a Palestinian cultural event, a French diplomat said.Around 50 people, including officials from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA), took part at an event at the centre in honour of Jerusalem's selection as the 2009 capital of Arab culture by UNESCO and the Arab League.The cultural counsellor at the French consulate, Benoit Tadie, said police were looking for one of the Palestinian organisers of the event, who left the centre through a back door to avoid being arrested.As police arrived at the scene, participants gave up plans to stage a demonstration outside the centre, but a few dozen people later took part in a protest at nearby Damascus Gate.Israel bans all PA events in the Holy City, which it views as its eternal, undivided capital.The French consul general, Frederic Desagneaux, arrived at the scene after the police showed up.
Israeli police did not immediately comment on the incident.Israel seized east Jerusalem along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six Day war and then annexed the eastern sector of the city.The Palestinians have demanded east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state, and the international community has never recognised Israel's claim to it. Foreign embassies in Israel are located in Tel Aviv.
Hardline Israeli settlers start building W.Bank outpost
Thu Dec 17, 6:36 am ET
ALON SHVUT, West Bank (AFP) – Hardline Jewish settlers have started rebuilding an outpost in the occupied West Bank in an act of defiance against Israel's partial moratorium on settlement construction.About 50 settlers, among them children, started building a brick house on a hill close to the Alon Shvut settlement near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem.This is our response to the construction freeze decided by the government,hardline settler leader Yehudit Katzover told AFP on Wednesday.If authorities stop us, we will come back as many times as possible to restart construction,she said, pointing out that on several occasions police had previously demolished outposts built on the hilltop.
The international community considers all settlement in the West Bank illegal.Under US pressure, the Israeli government last month announced a 10-month moratorium on new building permits in settlements.The settlement issue is one of the thorniest in Middle East peace efforts and the Palestinians have said they would not resume negotiations, which came to a halt almost one year ago, unless there is a total settlement freeze.A growing number of Israelis are opposed to a settlement freeze, according to poll results broadcast on Wednesday by Channel 10 television, a private Israeli station.It said 46 percent answered that they were opposed, 31 percent were for and 23 percent gave no opinion, in a survey of 500 Israelis that had a margin of error of 4.5 percent.A similar poll in September, before the moratorium, found 44.7 percent in favour and 38 percent opposed.
Israeli MPs threaten boycott of British products
Thu Dec 17, 3:11 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli MPs on Thursday threatened to call a boycott of British products unless London withdraws an advisory allowing retailers to state whether West Bank products were made by Palestinians or Jewish settlers.So far, 40 of Israel's 120 MPs have signed the petition which is to be sent to the British parliament, according to an aide to MP Ronit Tirosh of the centrist Kadima party.
Tirosh, leading the initiative, said the petition threatens to call on Israelis to think twice before buying British products if the decision is not rescinded by the British government.
She also called on officials to boycott British airlines.
I urge official Israeli representatives to abstain from using British airlines as long as the British government treats Israel as though two states existed, one within the green line and another outside,Tirosh said in reference to the border between the occupied West Bank and Israel.She said parliamentary president Reuven Rivlin had expressed support for the petition.Earlier this month the British government issued an advisory suggesting retailers could use labels distinguishing whether West Bank items are Israeli settlement produce or Palestinian produce.The move infuriated the Israeli government, which said it would encourage extremism among Palestinians.Tirosh likened the measure to the Nazi persecution of Jews. We intend to protest anything that singles out Jews as this kind of method brings back very bad memories,she told Israeli radio.The international community considers the Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal and a major hurdle to peace efforts.Relations between Britain and Israel soured further after an arrest warrant was issued against former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni for her role in the devastating military offensive in the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year.But British officials expressed opposition to the warrant, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday told Livni over the telephone that she would always be welcome in Britain.
The arrest warrant was understood to have been issued by a London court at the weekend.
Britain says Livni welcome despite arrest warrant By IAN DEITCH, Associated Press Writer – Wed Dec 16, 12:02 pm ET
JERUSALEM – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown phoned former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni Wednesday to say she is still welcome in Britain, despite a recent attempt by pro-Palestinian activists to have her arrested during a planned visit to London.Livni's office said the British premier called on Wednesday afternoon to say he objects to the arrest warrant and that he intends to act to change the law that allowed it to be issued.A Downing Street spokesman confirmed the phone call. Brown "said it was a disappointment she couldn't visit, and that she would be welcome in the U.K. at any time, the spokesman said.The gesture did little to calm an uproar in Israel over the attempt to arrest Livni — the latest in a string of Israeli leaders to be threatened with legal action in Britain.Livni told reporters in Jerusalem that the warrant put other world leaders and countries at risk. This isn't just a warrant against me or the state of Israel, this is against every democratic country that is fighting terrorism, Livni said.The terrorists should be charged, not those fighting against them, Livni said.This is a challenge to the whole free world and not just Israel or Britain.Several Israeli officials have recently canceled visits to Britain because of efforts by Palestinians to bring Israelis before British courts under a law that allows trial for noncitizens accused of crimes committed elsewhere.Livni apparently was targeted because she was foreign minister during Israel's war against militants in the Gaza Strip in January. She has been opposition leader since a new government took office in March.The military campaign has drawn strong international condemnation because hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed, and a U.N. investigation has said that both Israel and Hamas militants committed war crimes. Israel denies wrongdoing, saying it did its best to avoid civilian casualties and that Hamas used civilians as human shields.
Livni's office said she was supposed to appear at a Jewish National Fund convention in Britain on Sunday, but canceled her visit two weeks ago for reasons unconnected with any legal action against her. Israel's Foreign Ministry says the warrant has since been canceled.Israel's president, Shimon Peres, angrily denounced the arrest attempt against Livni as one of the greatest political mistakes that could be done and urged Britain to quickly change its laws.Basically you could put any world leader on trial,he said in a statement. Everything is based on unilateral informants, on a hostile majority public opinion. The British promised they would fix this and it is time that they do so. Britain has to decide where it stands on our matter.British lawyers working with Palestinian activists have in recent years sought the arrest of senior Israeli civilian and military figures under terms of universal jurisdiction. This ill-defined legal concept empowers judges to issue arrest warrants for visiting officials accused of war crimes in a foreign conflict.
The threat of arrest has forced several former security officials to call off trips to London, including a former general who remained holed up on an airplane at Heathrow Airport in order to avoid arrest. Earlier this year, Defense Minister Ehud Barak fended off an arrest attempt by successfully arguing he enjoyed diplomatic immunity.British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Tuesday announced that Britain would no longer tolerate legal harassment of Israeli officials in this fashion.After meeting Israel's ambassador, Miliband said the British law permitting judges to issue arrest warrants against foreign dignitaries without any prior knowledge or advice by a prosecutor must be reviewed and reformed.
Israeli navy briefly detains five Gaza fishermen
Wed Dec 16, 9:36 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – The Israeli navy detained five Palestinian fishermen off the coast of Gaza and held them for several hours, witnesses and the military said on Wednesday.A military spokeswoman said the five were arrested on Tuesday afternoon when they left a designated area for fishing and did not respond to warning shots. They were released Wednesday, she said.Palestinian witnesses and an official in the Hamas-run police, however, said the arrests took place early Wednesday morning close to the shore.Israel and Egypt have sealed the Gaza Strip off from all but limited humanitarian aid since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June 2007.Under the blockade, Israel prevents fishermen from venturing more than five kilometres (three miles) offshore, even though a 2002 agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority set the boundary at 22 kilometres (13.5 miles).Before the embargo, some 3,500 fishermen plied their trade off Gaza's 40-kilometre (25-mile) Mediterranean coastline, with around 30,000 people relying on the fishing industry.
US backing lets Israel stall peace: Saudi FM
Wed Dec 16, 7:26 am ET
RIYADH (AFP) – Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said that US backing for Israel gave the Jewish state the option of not making peace, in an interview published on Wednesday.Absolute US backing... has made Israel see the option of living in the area without the acceptance of the people of the area, Prince Faisal was quoted as saying in the International Herald Tribune.This has led to many years of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.The prince also lamented the failure of his efforts to establish a Palestinian state and regional peace during his tenure of almost 35 years as foreign minister.During this period, we have seen only moments of crisis, we have seen only moments of conflict, Prince Faisal said.And how can you have any pleasure in anything that happens when you have people like the Palestinians living as they are? he asked.Peace until now is like holding water or sand in your hand. You see the amount of water, you think you can hold something, but it falls away. Sand is the same thing.
So unless there is something to hold in your hand and to point to as a success and as an achievement, you have done nothing.Separately, the prince said Lebanon would be denied true sovereignty as long as the Shiite militia Hezbollah owns more arms than the military forces of the country.He added he was suspicious of Iranian claims its nuclear programme is peaceful, and that Tehran should never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, the IHT reported.Many countries in the West accuse Iran of trying to obtain nuclear weapons, a charge it vehemently denies, saying its program is for peaceful energy purposes.The Saudi prince said Israel should also give up its nuclear arsenal, the existence of which it neither confirms nor denies.
PLO keeps Abbas as Palestinian president: officials
By Mohammed Assadi – Wed Dec 16, 7:14 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Wednesday extended until further notice the tenure of Mahmoud Abbas as president of the Palestinian Authority, PLO officials told Reuters.Members of the PLO Central Council said Abbas, whose term ends on January 25, will stay on until elections can be held, extending the tenure of the Western-backed leader who heads the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.Presidential and legislative elections called for January 24 were canceled due to a ban imposed by the Islamist Hamas group on participation in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, which controls the coastal enclave, disputes Abbas's legitimacy.The PLO Central Council also decided to extend the term of the Palestinian Legislative Council -- a dysfunctional parliament in which Hamas won a majority in 2006 elections.The chamber, whose term also expires in January, has not met since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.Abbas had repeatedly said he will not run again for the presidency but no date has been set for a future vote.The president has decided to stay in his post, Tawfiq al-Tirawi, a PLO Central Council member, told Reuters.Hamas, which is not part of the PLO, has already declared as illegitimate any extension of the 74-year-old's tenure.The Central Council also decided there should be no resumption of peace talks with Israel until a full halt to its settlement building in the occupied West Bank, Tirawi said.We will not go to negotiations until Israel fully halts settlement activities and agrees to a term of reference for such negotiations, he said.Abbas has been under pressure from the United States and the European Union to resume talks, frozen for the past year.He has said a partial, 10-month freeze on West Bank settlement building announced by Israel last month is not enough for a resumption of peace negotiations.
Abbas replaced Yasser Arafat as head of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority after his death in 2004.Founded in 1964 and recognized internationally as the representative of the Palestinians, the PLO is dominated by the Fatah party. The PLO Central Council created the Palestinian Authority in 1993 under interim peace accords with Israel. (Writing by Tom Perry)
Peace possible with full settlement freeze: Abbas
Wed Dec 16, 3:06 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel and the Palestinians could clinch a peace deal within six months if the Jewish state halted all settlement growth, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said in an interview published on Wednesday.I spoke with Defence Minister Ehud Barak twice over recent weeks, Abbas told Israel's left-leaning Haaretz daily.I suggested to him three weeks ago that Israel freeze all settlement construction for six months, including in east Jerusalem, without declaring it, just carrying it out in practice.During this time, we can return to the negotiating table and perhaps even achieve a final-status agreement. I have yet to receive an answer, the moderate Western-backed president said.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month announced a 10-month construction freeze in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in the hope it would help kick-start peace talks suspended nearly a year ago.But the Palestinians have rejected the move, saying it fell far short of their demand for a complete halt of settlement activity in the whole West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem.Netanyahu's moratorium does not include east Jerusalem or the 3,000 homes already under construction in the West Bank, or public buildings.In the interview, Abbas once again accused Israel of violating the 2003 roadmap agreement adopted by the international community, which calls on the Jewish state to freeze settlements.The roadmap makes demands of all parties. We were required to stop terror attacks, recognise Israel and even stop incitement. So come and see what we did,Abbas said.They said there is a problem with incitement in speeches in mosques during Friday prayers. Today there is no more incitement at any mosque... The security situation in the West Bank is excellent.The most recent round of peace talks between the two sides was suspended nearly a year ago at the start of Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli policewoman wounded in clash with settlers
Tue Dec 15, 1:00 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – An Israeli border policewoman was wounded on Tuesday in clashes with Jewish settlers protesting a 10-month moratorium on new building permits for settlers in the occupied West Bank, officials said.The officer was part of a group protecting inspectors trying to enforce the new building restrictions in the settlement of Tsofim in the northern West Bank.During work by the security forces to enforce the freeze in Tsofim some 60 youths rampaged, wounding one policewoman, said border police spokesman Moshe Finsi.Two of the youths, who allegedly punched her in the stomach, have been arrested, he said, adding that she was hospitalised in a moderate condition.
Previous attempts to stop the inspectors have ended with minor scuffles only.
Late last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a 10-month moratorium on new permits for house construction in West Bank settlements.Settlers and right-wing politicians expressed outrage that the government should limit Jewish construction on what they consider the biblical Land of Israel.The settlement issue has been one of the thorniest in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.The Palestinians insist they will not return to the negotiating table unless there is a complete freeze on Jewish construction in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.
Egyptian, Turkish leaders discuss Mideast
Tue Dec 15, 12:39 pm ET
ANKARA (AFP) – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul held talks here Tuesday on the impasse in the Middle East peace process and the rift between Palestinians factions.The two leaders discussed the threats posed to the peace process... by the Israeli government's practices in the West Bank and the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip, Mubarak told reporters through an interpreter.
Gul said Ankara was closely following Egypt's great efforts on issues related to (securing) Palestinian unity and pledged Turkish support so that this issue is resolved as soon as possible.Instability in Iraq and Yemen as well as tensions over Iran's nuclear activities were also on the agenda of the talks, Mubarak said.
Gulf Arab states move closer to single currency
By TAREK EL-TABLAWY, AP Business Writer – Tue Dec 15, 8:34 am ET
CAIRO – Gulf Arab nations put into force a monetary pact Tuesday, moving a step closer toward the elusive goal of a single regional currency and greater integration between the mainly oil-rich states.The announcement by Kuwait's finance minister came as leaders from the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council nations were wrapping up a two-day summit in which they launched a regional electricity project and discussed, among other issues, Iran's nuclear program and the war in Yemen.Mustafa al-Shimali told Kuwait's official KUNA news agency that the launching of the monetary pact would now allow the governors of the central banks of the six GCC nations to set up a timetable for the establishment of a regional central bank, with the aim of launching a unified Gulf currency.The GCC, which groups Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain, has been trying for years to develop a unified currency as part of a push for broader economic integration between their predominantly oil-rich nations.This is something that a lot of people were looking forward to,said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based Banque Saudi Fransi-Credit Agricole Group. This is a good step forward, but we also need to have some clarity on the authority of the monetary council" such as the timeframe at which they will move ahead.The plan has hit repeated obstacles, however, with the United Arab Emirates and Oman saying they would not participate.
Still under review is whether the unified currency would be pegged to a basket of currencies, the U.S. dollar or some other currency. All GCC nations peg their currencies to the dollar except for Kuwait which relies on a basket of currencies.
Also unclear is whether the UAE — the second largest economy in the Arab world — will do an about-face and join the union. Oman has said it won't join because it is not ready.
Al-Shimali voiced hopes that the two nations would join in the near future.
The UAE, a federation of seven semiautonomous sheikdoms that includes glitzy and now debt-saddled Dubai, said it was pulling out shortly after GCC officials selected Saudi Arabia — the Arab world's largest economy and home to the world's largest proven reserves of oil — as the future headquarters of the new central bank.They have made it clear that they will move ahead without the UAE and Oman, said Sfakianakis. But one should be optimistic that at some later stage, the UAE and Oman ... or one of the two, will eventually become a participant in this.At this stage, I see it as highly unlikely,he said.
Israeli court bars Gazans from jail visits
Tue Dec 15, 8:34 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a government decision that bars Gaza Strip residents visiting relatives in Israeli jails, saying this is not a basic humanitarian need.Israel, which holds thousands of Palestinians in its prisons, has barred all travel from Gaza to Israel, except for humanitarian cases, since the Islamist group Hamas seized control of the coastal strip in June 2007.In its ruling Tuesday on a petition brought by a rights group, the court said it would not make an exception to this for prisoners' families as the decision was made in accordance with Israel's political and security needs.Allowing the entry of Gaza residents into Israel for this purpose is not included within the framework of the basic humanitarian needs of Gaza Strip residents that Israel is required to meet, the court wrote.The court also said it believed that the extra traffic of relatives passing through the Israel-Gaza border crossing posed a security threat given that the crossings have been a repeated target for terror attacks.Human rights groups criticised the decision, saying it was not only the rights of Gazans but also those of the prisoners themselves that were being violated.We argue that the rights to prison visits are a basic right under international law, said Joel Greenberg, spokesman for the Israeli group Moked, which filed the petition.
Greenberg also said the ban amounted to collective punishment for Gaza residents.
Because it is applied in a sweeping way and not on an individual basis it is a form of collective punishment, he said.Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2004 and since the Hamas takeover has regarded Gaza as a hostile territory,sealing it off to all but vital humanitarian supplies.
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