Thursday, March 05, 2009

IRAN SUPPORTS HAMAS:CONFERENCE

Iran throws conference to support Hamas By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer MAR 5,09

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran, Hamas and their supporters from 30 countries spent two days probing ways to provide assistance to the militant Palestinian group and promote resistance against Israel at an international gathering in Tehran, an Iranian lawmaker said Thursday.The conference in the Iranian capital aimed to counter an international meeting in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik on Monday that gave a powerful boost to Hamas' rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.The gathering in Egypt raised $5.2 billion in pledges to rebuild Gaza and fund Abbas' West Bank-based Palestinian Authority after Israel's recent offensive. The funds will bypass the coastal strip's Hamas rulers.Hamas wasn't invited to the Egyptian meeting and is considered a terrorist group by the Unites States, Europe and Israel. Iran, like Hamas, doesn't recognize Israel and is the militant group's chief political and financial backer.The conference in Egypt sought to weaken Hamas, promote compromise and treason against the cause of the Palestinian people, said lawmaker Mohammad Reza Mirtajoddini, one of the organizers of the Iranian gathering. But the Tehran conference speaks of resistance against the Zionist entity, which understands only the language of force.Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opened the conference Wednesday calling Israel a cancerous tumor and saying resistance against the Jewish state was the only way to save Palestinians.Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denounced the meeting in Egypt and was quoted Tuesday by the official IRNA news agency as saying that the difference between the two conferences is like that between Satan and man.Hamas' Gaza strongman, Mahmoud Zahar, attended the Tehran conference, which organizers said focused on how to provide assistance to Palestinians. Other Palestinian militant factions, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad attended, as well as parliamentary delegations from 30 different countries.The lawmakers came from a wide range of nations, such as Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Mali. Other countries, including Turkey, Indonesia, Algeria, Bolivia, Jordan and Yemen, also had representatives.

However, it was not clear if the gathering, which ended Thursday, actually raised any funds for Hamas.Israel's three-week military offensive against Hamas meant to put a halt to Hamas' years-long rocket fire on southern Israel ended in an informal cease-fire Jan. 18. The campaign killed nearly 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, and left some 15,000 homes destroyed or damaged in the war.Hamas seized Gaza from Abbas' more moderate Fatah group in 2007.

Bulldozer rams cars in Jerusalem, driver killed By Ari Rabinovitch MAR 5,09

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A Palestinian driver crashed his bulldozer into a police car and hit a bus at one of Jerusalem's busiest intersections on Thursday before police and a taxi driver shot him dead.An open Koran, the Muslim holy book, was found in the driver's cabin, Niso Shaham, Jerusalem's deputy police chief, told reporters at the scene. A police spokesman said it was a terrorist attack.Israeli police and Palestinian residents identified the driver as Marei Radaydeh, a West Bank construction worker in his mid-20s who lived with his family in the Arab East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina.No Palestinian militant groups have claimed responsibility for the incident, which came a day after a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Riyad al-Malki, information minister for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Western-backed government, described the incident as a traffic accident,and called for an investigation into why he was shot.Hamas said the attack was a natural response to Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and to the Jewish state's military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which the Islamist movement controls. Hamas and Abbas's secular Fatah faction are rivals.Police and witnesses said the driver of the bulldozer first turned over a police car, crushing its roof and injuring two officers inside.The bulldozer then slammed the police car into a large bus but no one was hurt, police said.Radaydeh, whom police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld called a terrorist,was not carrying any identification papers.

Nir Barkat, Jerusalem's mayor, said he would recommend that authorities take the harshest measures we can take by law against those involved in the attack. Two of Radaydeh's brothers were later arrested, family members said.Israel has previously threatened to demolish the homes of Palestinian attackers.Police compared Thursday's attack to three similar incidents last year, two with bulldozers and one with a BMW car.In the 2008 incidents, which police also called terrorist attacks, the drivers were identified as Palestinians from Arab East Jerusalem.One witness, who identified himself as Shai, said the bulldozer driver was shot by both a policeman and a civilian who was later identified by police as a taxi driver.Amateur video obtained by Reuters captured the sound of four gunshots fired near the bulldozer, which came to a stop at the end of a highway that leads to Jerusalem's main shopping mall.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr and Ivan Karakashian, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Mohammed Abu Ganeya in Bethlehem, Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah; writing by Adam Entous; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Britain re-establishing contact with Hezbollah MAR 5,09

LONDON – Britain is re-establishing contact with the militant group Hezbollah following the formation of a unity government in Lebanon, the British government said Thursday.The Foreign Office said that it has established contact with the group's political wing but still has no contact with its military wing.Britain ceased contact with members of Hezbollah in 2005 and listed the military wing as a proscribed terrorist organization last year.The Foreign Office said that it had reconsidered its position following positive developments in Lebanon.Our objective with Hezbollah remains to encourage them to move away from violence and play a constructive, democratic and peaceful role in Lebanese politics, in line with a range of UN Security Council Resolutions, the ministry said.The ministry said Britain's ambassador attended a meeting in January in Beirut alongside a Hezbollah lawmaker, and that the government was seeking to build relations with other legislators attached to the group.Israel and Hezbollah fought a brutal 34-day war in the region in 2006. More than 1,200 people in Lebanon — most of them civilians — and 159 in Israel died in the conflict.Hezbollah has a large rocket arsenal but is not believed to have used it against Israel since the 2006 war. It has denied involvement in recent rocket attacks on Israel.After showing its military strength against Israel in 2006 and then again in May 2008 against its Lebanese rivals — when it took control of large parts of Beirut by force — Hezbollah became a partner in Lebanon's government with veto power over decisions.

Israel's Netanyahu in cabinet talks with key hardliner MAR 5,09

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu was to hold talks on Thursday with ultra-nationalist Avigdor Lieberman as he struggles to put together a broad-based coalition government.Representatives of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party and Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu held talks before the meeting between the two leaders to discuss the outlines of any government agreement.According to Stas Meseznikov, who is heading Yisrael Beitenu's team for the coalition talks, the outlines will include a commitment to topple the Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip using all available means.Netanyahu is considering Lieberman, whose controversial statements on Israeli Arabs have earned him the label of racist among his critics, as foreign minister, a Likud official said.There is a serious possibility that Avigdor Lieberman will take the helm of the foreign ministry, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, but added: Nothing has been decided for the moment.Yisrael Beitenu is the third largest party in parliament after winning 15 seats in the 120-member house in the February 10 election.For the moment, the Russian immigrant party is expected to be the second-largest party in a Netanyahu coalition, and is laying claim to a senior portfolio, such as foreign affairs, finance or defence.Netanyahu has excluded giving him the defence job because he lacks experience. The finance post could be a problem because of an ongoing corruption investigation into Lieberman, local media have reported.Public radio reported that in addition to foreign affairs, Netanyahu could give Lieberman's party the justice, interior and economic ministries.

Lieberman, 50, a Moldovan former bouncer, has built his reputation on statements that have earned him accusations of being a racist and fascist among critics and while his admirers hail him as a refreshing straight-talker with a tough line on security.In the three years since the last election, he has called for the execution of Israeli Arab MPs who had dealings with Hamas, for Gaza to be treated like Chechnya and for Israel to fight Hamas just like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II.A resident of a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, Lieberman wants to keep major settlement blocs in exchange for transferring areas with heavy concentration of Israeli Arabs to a future Palestinian state.Netanyahu has until April 3 to form a government.

Israeli raids kill Gaza militants after Clinton visit by Sakher Abu El Oun – Thu Mar 5, 7:19 am ET

AP GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli air raids on Hamas-run Gaza killed four militants just hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ended her first Middle East trip vowing to breathe life into the peace process.An air strike in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on Thursday killed three militants and wounded two others, medics said.An army spokesman said the raid targeted a group who had fired an anti-tank shell at an army unit on the Israeli side of the border.Late Wednesday, an Israeli air raid killed a senior Islamic Jihad military commander as he drove through the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City.The radical Palestinian group vowed to avenge his death and on Thursday said its militants fired three rockets into Israel. None caused casualties.It was the latest blow to the tenuous ceasefire Hamas and Israel declared on January 18 to end Israel's 22-day devastating war on the tiny coastal strip. Egypt has been brokering talks to turn the ceasefires into a durable truce but has so far failed to clinch any agreement.Israeli leaders have repeatedly warned of tough action to try to stamp out the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, which Israel withdrew from in 2005 after 38 years of occupation.The latest violence erupted just hours after Clinton left Israel on Wednesday after wrapping up her first trip to the Middle East since being appointed by US President Barack Obama.The United States aims to foster conditions in which a Palestinian state can be fully realised," she said after talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the occupied West Bank. Time is of the essence.She called for Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, which was devastated by the war that Israel launched on December 27 in response to rocket fire and that ended up killing more than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.Israel sealed the impoverished territory to all but humanitarian goods in June 2007 when Hamas, an Islamist group pledged to Israel's destruction, seized power in the enclave booting out forces loyal to moderate Abbas.We have obviously expressed concerns about the border crossings. We want humanitarian aid to get into Gaza in sufficient amounts to alleviate the suffering of the people in Gaza, Clinton said.

Gaza is one of the world's most densely-populated places. More than half of the 1.4 million population is under 18 and the vast majority of residents depend on foreign aid.Clinton slammed Israel's plans to raze houses in east Jerusalem that were built without building permits, notoriously difficult to obtain for the city's Palestinian residents.Clearly this kind of activity is unhelpful and not in keeping with the obligations entered into under the roadmap,Clinton said, referring to a blueprint for peace talks adopted by the international community in 2003.

Obama plans to boost security aid to Abbas's forces By Adam Entous – Thu Mar 5, 3:34 am ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Obama administration plans to expand a program to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's security forces in the occupied West Bank as part of a push for statehood, officials said on Thursday.Israel has given tentative backing to the program as a test of Abbas's ability to rein in militants, one of its main conditions in stalled U.S.-backed negotiations over establishing a Palestinian state.Hamas Islamists, shunned by the United States and other Western powers for refusing to recognize Israel and renounce violence, have denounced Abbas's forces as collaborators and say the program has fueled inter-Palestinian tensions.U.S. and Western officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration planned to boost security assistance, including funding for training conducted by Jordanian police at a base near Amman, by up to 70 percent, from $75 million in fiscal year 2008 to as much as $130 million.The State Department had no immediate comment. President Barack Obama has been vague about his policies in the region.

After talks with Palestinian leaders in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged to work with Abbas to address Palestinian security needs, but she has offered no details.At a donors' conference in Egypt on Monday, Clinton pledged $600 million to support Abbas's Palestinian Authority and $300 million for humanitarian aid in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, which was devastated by a three-week Israeli offensive.Diplomats said it was unclear when the new money would arrive. Winning congressional approval could take months.Obama's envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, has asked Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, the American who has been overseeing the training of Abbas's forces, to stay on for two more years. Dayton, whose three-year assignment was due to end, has agreed, diplomats said.While the security program has garnered bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress, it could run into opposition if Egyptian-backed reconciliation talks between Hamas and Abbas's secular Fatah faction result in another unity government.

Hamas, which won a 2006 election and receives support from Iran and other Islamist allies, forcibly seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after routing Abbas's forces there, bringing an end to a previous unity deal opposed by Washington.The extra funding would allow the United States to increase the number of battalions undergoing training and to provide them with more equipment. The United States provides non-lethal equipment like vehicles. Arms are supplied by Arab states.Some 1,600 members of Abbas's National Security Force and Presidential Guard have undergone U.S.-funded training since January 2008. Many of them have since been deployed in major West Bank cities, including Jenin, Nablus and parts of Hebron.

Hamas has accused Abbas's forces of targeting its members in the West Bank. Hamas, in turn, has rounded up Fatah activists in Gaza. Human rights groups have accused both factions of abuses.

ISRAELI SUPPORT

Israel's defense establishment has slowly warmed to the U.S. training program after initially delaying Palestinian deployment and the delivery of some equipment for Abbas's men.The training has advanced while other major initiatives launched by then-President George W. Bush, including Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, foundered.

Israel's prime minister-designate, right-wing Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, has yet to take a public position on the program. But Silvan Shalom, a Netanyahu ally and former foreign minister, expressed satisfaction with the training in a Reuters interview last week, suggesting it would enjoy support. Netanyahu has said he wants to focus on bolstering the West Bank economy by creating development zones and lifting some travel restrictions rather than pursuing thorny territorial issues linked to the creation of a Palestinian state. While he advocates greater Palestinian self-rule, Netanyahu has been vague about creation of an independent state, which he says must have limited powers of sovereignty and no army.(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington and Sue Pleming in Brussels; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Clinton criticizes Israel over East Jerusalem demolition By Sue Pleming and Mohammed Assadi – Wed Mar 4, 6:01 pm ET

AP RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Israel Wednesday over plans to demolish Palestinian homes in Arab East Jerusalem and said Washington would engage Israeli leaders on Jewish settlements.Calling the planned destruction of more than 80 dwellings unhelpful, Clinton said after talks with Palestinian leaders: It is an issue that we intend to raise with the government of Israel and the government at the municipal level in Jerusalem.Israel says the homes slated for demolition were built without permits.Palestinians say authorization from Israel's Jerusalem municipality is nearly impossible to obtain. They accuse Israel of trying to drive them out of East Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 war, to make room for Jewish families.Israel considers all of Jerusalem its united and eternal capital, a claim that does not have international recognition. The Palestinian Authority wants East Jerusalem to be the capital of a Palestinian state.

At a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank, Clinton stopped short of repeating U.S. calls for an immediate cessation of Israeli settlement expansion but promised to follow up on the issue.We will be looking for a way to put it on the table along with all the other issues that need to be discussed and resolved, she said.I think at this time, we should wait until we have a new Israeli government. That will be soon and then we will look at whatever tools are available, Clinton said.She also repeated her support for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

PEACE PARTNERS

Abbas said that unless Israel's incoming leaders were committed to a two-state solution and halted settlement construction and Jerusalem demolitions, we will not consider them as peace partners.Clinton, on her first visit to the region as secretary of state, said the United States planned to play a coordinating role to revive peace efforts.But at the end of the day, no one can make a decision on whether or not there will be two states or a comprehensive peace settlement except those that are directly involved, she told reporters traveling with her.It is a time of political transition in Israel, which held an election on February 10 that led to right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu being invited to form a government by April 3.The Likud party leader's reluctance to commit himself to the creation of a Palestinian state could put him on a collision course with the Obama White House.With Israel still in political flux and peace talks with the Palestinians stalled, Clinton used her Middle East visit to announce a new approach to improve U.S. relations with Syria.

She said the decision to send two senior U.S. officials to Damascus later this week was also aimed at laying the groundwork for a comprehensive peace agreement.We believe that there is an opportunity for Syria to play a constructive role if it chooses to do so, she said. Political analysts said the overture is also aimed at weakening Syria's ties with Iran and Palestinian and Lebanese militant groups.

Clinton, like her predecessor Condoleezza Rice, said she planned to get personally involved in peacemaking and that her special envoy, George Mitchell, would be back in the region as soon as an Israeli government was formed. Are there risks to being actively involved? Yes, there are risks in getting up in the morning and pursuing whatever your particular interests might be. I am absolutely committed to this, she said. Rice made more than a dozen trips to Israel and the Palestinian territories during her tenure but came away with no peace deal, despite public optimism that Palestinian statehood could be achieved before the end of the Bush administration. We are going to give it everything we have. We can't promise any outcomes but we can promise the very best efforts of the United States,said Clinton. (Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Editing by Adam Entous and Tim Pearce)

Iran urges world Muslim 'resistance' against Israel by Jay Deshmukh – Wed Mar 4, 4:18 pm ET

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged world Muslims on Wednesday to join the Palestinian resistance against Israel, but his call was dismissed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.The only way to save Palestine is resistance, Khamenei said in an address to a global summit organised by Tehran in aid of the war-battered Gaza Strip and the Palestinians.Support and help to Palestinians is a mandatory duty of all Muslims. I now tell all Muslim brothers and sisters to join forces and break the immunity of the Zionist criminals.Iran's top military commander Mohammad Ali Jafari also declared that the Islamic republic has long-range missiles that can reach Israeli nuclear sites.Today the Islamic republic has missiles with a range of more than 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) and... all the land of the Zionist regime, including its nuclear installations, is within our range,Jafari, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, told the ISNA news agency.He said the Islamic republic could firmly retaliate if it was attacked by Israel, which considers Iran its biggest threat.

Khamenei said any negotiations to solve the Israel-Palestinian conflict were fruitless, adding that the United States and Britain committed the crime of creation and supporting this cancerous tumour (Israel).Even the new president of the United States who came to power with the motto of changing the (George W.) Bush administration's policies talks about unconditional commitment to secure Israel. This is defending terrorism by a government.But Khamenei's call was bluntly dismissed by Abbas and Clinton after the two met during her first visit to the region since taking office.We are sending a message to the Iranians and others -- stop interfering in our affairs, Abbas said.They are interfering only to deepen the rift between Palestinians.

Clinton too said Khamenei's remarks were clear interference in the internal affairs of the Palestinian people, continuing efforts on the part of the Iranians to undermine the Palestinian Authority.Musa Abu Marzuk and Abu Zahar from the Islamist Hamas movement that controls Gaza and who attended the Tehran summit acknowledged the role Iran played in tackling the Middle East problem.Zahar openly said Iran and other countries have been offering aid to Palestinians, which included paying salaries of our employees since we came to power in 2006.Iran does not recognise Israel, and Khamenei has repeatedly rejected a two-state solution to solve the decades-old conflict.Shiite Iran's efforts to tackle the issue have received sceptical response from much of the Muslim world, especially from the neighbouring Sunni-ruled Arab states which are also wary of Tehran's nuclear programme.On Tuesday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal called for a joint Arab strategy to deal with the Iranian challenge at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers.In his address at the Tehran summit, Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for the creation of a global anti-Zionist front.On the other hand we must seriously pursue punishing the Zionist criminals, so that by saving Palestine and the establishment of a popularly chosen government, the world gets rid of racism, lies and occupation forever.

Prominent lawmaker Khazem Jalili said the Tehran conference will suggest setting up a common fund of participating nations to channel the donations. But unfortunately, the route for delivering the aid is not open,he said referring to the Israeli blockade of Gaza.The summit, attended by officials from such neighbours as Kuwait and Bahrain, as well South Africa and Nigeria, comes two days after global donors meeting in Egypt pledged around 4.5 billion dollars to rebuild Gaza.

US says Hamas must recognise Israel Wed Mar 4, 12:32 pm ET

AP JERUSALEM (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Washington would not work with a Palestinian unity cabinet that includes Hamas unless the Islamists recognise Israel and renounce violence.If there is to be a unity government that includes Hamas, then we would expect that Hamas would comply with the principles as set forth by the Quartet,Clinton told CNN, referring to a group consisting of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia.

(Those principles) are the same: that Hamas must renounce violence, recognize Israel, and agree to abide by prior PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) commitments,she added.In the absence of Hamas agreeing to the principles that have been adopted by such a broad range of international actors, I don?t see that we or they, anyone, could deal with Hamas.When pressed, Clinton said Hamas would have to make a formal announcement recognising Israel and giving up armed struggle, as the PLO -- which includes most Palestinian factions but not Hamas -- did in 1988.The principles are clear. They have been adopted. And we would expect any unity government to abide by those,she said.Clinton made the remarks on her first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories since being appointed secretary of state, a two-day tour during which she met senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders.US President Barack Obama has vowed vigorously to pursue the peace process between Israel and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority of president Mahmud Abbas, but has ruled out any negotiations with Hamas.The Islamist movement -- which is sworn to Israel's destruction and blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Israel and the West -- seized power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after routing forces loyal to Abbas.

Israel launches overnight strikes on Gaza tunnels Wed Mar 4, 1:37 am ET

GAZA CITY, (AFP) – Israeli warplanes launched two new raids early Wednesday on smuggling tunnels linking the Gaza Strip to Egypt without causing casualties, witnesses said.An Israeli army spokesman confirmed the bombings, saying three tunnels had been attacked and secondary explosions took place in one of them, indicating the presence of explosives.On Tuesday, the airforce had carried out some seven raids wounding four people, following rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled territory, witnesses and medics said.Palestinian witnesses said aircraft carried out at least seven strikes along Gaza's southern border, where dozens of tunnels are used for trafficking people, goods and arms into the impoverished territory.Four people were wounded in the raids, Palestinian medics said.An army spokeswoman told AFP that the air force carried out six strikes against smuggling tunnels near the southern Gaza town of Rafah in response to barrages of rockets fired over the past week.Outgoing Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had earlier warned that Israel would not shy away from striking Gaza in response to persistent rocket fire.If it turns out that Hamas has not got the message, it will be hit again, Livni told public radio hours before meeting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her first official visit to the Jewish state.Late Tuesday Palestinians fired more rockets at southern Israel from the northern Gaza Strip, but nobody was hurt and no damage reported, an army spokesman said, adding that the rockets fell on wasteland south of the town of Ashkelon.Some 120 rockets fired from the Palestinian coastal strip have been tallied since twin ceasefires came into force on January 18 following a three-week Israeli offensive which claimed more than 1,300 lives.

Clinton: US to support Palestinian state Tue Mar 3, 7:40 am ET

JERUSALEM – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the U.S. will vigorously pursue the creation of a Palestinian state.Clinton is making her first visit to the Mideast as the top U.S. diplomat. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, she said pursuit of a peace agreement that includes a Palestinian state seems inescapable.Clinton says the U.S. will be vigorously engaged in the pursuit of a two-state solution every step of the way.She spoke alongside Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni ahead of a meeting later in the day with Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.Netanyahu's criticism in the past of peace talks with the Palestinians and the possibility of Palestinian independence has raised concerns that his new government could clash with the U.S.

Monday, March 02, 2009

DONORS PLEDGE BILLIONS TO ARABS:SICK

International donors pledge billions for Palestinians by Ezzedine Said – Mon Mar 2, 3:32 pm ET

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) – International donors on Monday pledged almost 4.5 billion dollars to the Palestinians and demanded the immediate lifting of Israel's crippling blockade on war-battered Gaza.But the donors meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh insisted that the aid money for the Gaza Strip must bypass its Islamist rulers Hamas, which is boycotted by the West as a terrorist group.We have gathered today 4.481 billion dollars, in addition to previous pledges, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abul Gheit said at the close of the conference aimed at helping to rebuild Gaza after Israel's three-week war.He said donors called for the immediate, total and unconditional opening" of Gaza's borders to ease a blockade that has prevented all but vital humanitarian aid reaching the impoverished enclave's 1.4 million inhabitants.World leaders at the conference also appealed for urgent action to breathe new life into the moribund Middle East peace process and said reconciliation between Hamas and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah was crucial.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on her first visit to the region as America's top diplomat, said the economic aid must go hand-in-hand with efforts to reach a comprehensive peace deal.The assistance we are offering is integral to our broader goals of a comprehensive peace and a two-state solution,she said.The US is prepared to engage in aggressive diplomacy with all sides in pursuit of comprehensive settlement that brings peace and security to Israel and its Arab neighbours.The Palestinian Authority had been seeking 2.8 billion dollars from the 75 countries and donor groups gathered in Sharm six weeks after the guns fell largely silent around Gaza.This conference has been 100 percent successful,Palestinian planning minister Samir Abdallah told AFP.

Abul Gheit said the amount pledged on Monday was more than expected and added to previous pledges brought the total aid to 5.2 billion dollars.More than 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the three-week Israeli offensive which also left large swathes of Gaza in ruins, destroying homes, schools and other infrastructure.However, it is still unclear how the aid will reach Gaza as Israel has linked any lifting of its blockade, and any agreement to a long-term truce with Hamas, to the release of a soldier held by Gaza militants since June 2006.The US administration pledged 900 million dollars, which Clinton said must not end up in the wrong hands, while the Arab monarchies of the Gulf have pledged 1.65 billion and the EU 554 million dollars.

Abbas said any economic aid was insufficient without a political settlement to the decades-old Middle East conflict, with the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.He called on the international community to take urgent steps to help revive peace talks at a time when Israel is set for a right-wing government led by hawkish former premier Benjamin Netanyahu.Clinton, who met fellow members of the Middle East Quartet to discuss the state of peace negotiations, flew into Israel later for talks with leaders there.As well as members of the outgoing administration, she is also due to meet Netanyahu.Asked in Egypt if she intended to put pressure on Israeli leaders to further US goals in the region, Clinton said: We will be discussing specific policies with the new government whenever it is formed. It is important that Israel work with its responsible Palestinian partners including Abbas and (Palestinian prime minister Salam) Fayyad,she added. UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the opening of the crossings to Gaza, whose largely aid-dependent population has been suffering under the Israeli blockade since Hamas seized the territory in June 2007, was indispensible.

The situation at the border crossings is intolerable. Aid workers do not have access. Essential commodities cannot get in.Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad had said that Gaza construction could begin within six weeks if the crossing points are open.

However, Hamas said it will not accept any politicised aid and has called on the international community not to get involved in internal Palestinian divisions.

Report: Many EU nations do not track anti-Semitism By VERONIKA OLEKSYN, Associated Press Writer – Mon Mar 2, 1:10 pm ET

VIENNA – Anti-Semitism in some European countries appears to have risen since Israel's offensive in Gaza, but it fell during 2007 and most of 2008, a new report says.At the same time, the study notes that most EU countries fail to compile statistics on anti-Semitism, complicating efforts to gauge the level of animosity toward Jews within the 27-nation bloc.Monday's report by the Vienna-based European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights said a number of attacks against Jews and synagogues have been reported by the media in France, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Britain since the Dec. 27 start of Israel's three-week military offensive in the Gaza Strip, during which an estimated 1,300 Palestinians died. It also cited recent reports of anti-Semitic incidents in Cyprus, Spain and the Netherlands.It did not give a total number of incidents but said German authorities recorded 292 anti-Semitic offenses during the fourth quarter of 2008.In France, home to western Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities, the Interior Ministry recorded 48 anti-Semitic acts and 65 threats between Dec. 27 and Jan. 26, according to the report.

This recent surge in anti-Semitic incidents is reason for great concern,said agency director Morten Kjaerum. While it is too early to draw conclusions, there are indications that this rise could partly be affected by the situation in the Middle East, as well as by the global financial crisis.The agency said it did not have enough information to conclusively calculate an overall trend in anti-Semitic activity for the period between 2001 to 2008. But it noted that in the countries for which data are available there appears to be a decrease in such offenses in 2007 and most of 2008.That follows an increase in anti-Semitic activity between 2001 and 2002, between 2003 and 2004 and again in 2006, according to the report. However, it warned against making direct comparisons between countries since statistics are compiled in different ways.Although the report notes recent examples of anti-Semitic incidents in other EU countries, it only breaks down country-specific data for nine nations — Austria, Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.The agency's data collection work shows that most member states do not have official or even unofficial data and statistics on anti-Semitic incidents,the report says.The researchers noted that even when countries compile information, it often can't be used for comparative purposes because it's collected in different ways.Often, anti-Semitic incidents do not make it into official records because they are not labeled as such or because victims or witnesses do not report them.

Reed Brody, a Brussels-based spokesman for Human Rights Watch, described anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incidents as serious and growing problems in Europe and said the lack of statistics was hindering efforts to effectively fight them.It's difficult to develop an effective response when we don't know the exact scope and contours of the problem,Brody said in an interview.The European Jewish Congress said it considered the report's conclusions to be insufficient and announced it was organizing a symposium to produce proposals on monitoring anti-Semitism and implementing existing EU legislation on racism and xenophobia. The symposium will take place in Brussels on March 30.On the Net:European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights: http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/home/home_en.htm

Israel plans to double West Bank settlers by Marius Schattner – Mon Mar 2, 9:08 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's housing ministry has plans for West Bank construction that would nearly double the number of settlers in the occupied territory, the anti-settlement group Peace Now said on Monday.The group gave the estimate in research issued on the day that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to visit to Israel on her first trip to the region since taking office.US President Barack Obama has vowed to vigorously pursue peace efforts in the region, and Israeli settlements on occupied land have long been one of the main obstacles to an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.The ministry of construction and housing is planning to construct at least 73,000 housing units in the West Bank, said the Peace Now study, based on analysis of data on Israeli government websites.At least 15,000 housing units have already been approved and plans for an additional 58,000 housing units are yet to be approved,it said.Out of the units already approved, nearly 9,000 have been built, Peace Now said.

If all the plans are realised, the number of settler in the territories will be doubled,the research document said, saying the estimate is based upon an average of four people in each housing unit.The completion of these projects will make the plan of creating a Palestinian state next to Israel totally unrealistic,Peace Now head Yariv Oppenheimer told army radio.Peace Now calculates that there are a total of more then 280,000 Israeli settlers living in some 121 settlements in the West Bank. Another estimated 200,000 live in annexed east Jerusalem.Housing ministry spokesman Eran Sidis insisted "these plans refer only to potential construction and would yet need to be approved by various government bodies.In practice only a very small part of these urbanism projects are implemented,Sidis told AFP.He claimed Peace Now mixed together unrelated data,but he did not deny the existence of the project.Included among the plans are some 17,000 housing units outside existing settlements in the Bethlehem area, the Peace Now study said.There are plans for huge construction to double the size of some settlements including Beitar Illit, Ariel, Maale Adumim and Efrat, it said.Some 19,000 units are planned to be built to the east of the controversial Israeli separation barrier in the West Bank, and the ministry plans include at least six wildcat outposts -- settlements not authorised by the Israeli government, Peace Now said.The plans published are only a small part of the overall housing plans for the occupied territories,the group said.There are other thousands of housing units in plans of the local authorities, private initiators and other public authorities, all of which we are in the process of collating.Under the internationally drafted roadmap for peace,Israel is committed to dismantle all settlements built since March 2001.But construction in Israeli settlements jumped 60 percent in 2008 in the wake of the relaunching of the Middle East peace process at a US conference at which the parties pledged to implement the roadmap.

Five Gaza rockets strike Israel: military Sun Mar 1, 7:52 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Palestinian militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip fired five rockets at southern Israel on Sunday, according to the Israeli military, further straining a fragile ceasefire.One of the rockets exploded in the yard of a house in Sderot causing some damage. The other four blew up on waste land, the military said.

Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed earlier Sunday to respond severely to militant rocket strikes from Gaza.If the rocket fire from Gaza continues, we will hit back severely, so much so that the terrorist organisations will understand that Israel is not ready to resign itself to this, Olmert said at the weekly cabinet meeting.Defence Minister Ehud Barak will give directions so that Israeli forces bring calm to southern Israel,the outgoing premier said.His comments came six weeks after the end of Israel's three-week war on Gaza, which left more than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead and destroyed homes and infrastructure throughout the Hamas-ruled territory.A donors conference takes place in Egypt Monday to finance reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.Palestinian militants have fired more than 100 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel since the fragile January 18 truce that ended Israel's massive military offensive on Gaza.Israel has in turn carried out several air raids targeting alleged militants, weapons caches and smuggling tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egypt border.Egypt has been struggling to mediate a more permanent ceasefire between the two sides in recent weeks but the talks have shown little sign of progress.

Mideast envoy Blair makes first Gaza visit by Joseph Krauss – Sun Mar 1, 11:30 am ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair paid a brief visit to a UN school in the Gaza Strip on Sunday on his first trip to the Hamas-run enclave since being appointed Middle East Quartet envoy.I wanted to come to hear for myself first-hand from people in Gaza, whose lives have been so badly impacted by the recent conflict,Blair said at the school in the northern town of Beit Hanun.These are the people who need to be the focus of all our efforts for peace and progress from now on," he said, adding that he would relay what he saw to an international conference on Gaza reconstruction in Egypt on Monday.The Middle East Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- is due to meet on the sidelines of the conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.Blair's visit coincided with a trip by British International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander, the first to Gaza by a British minister since the Islamists violently seized power in the enclave in June 2007.Alexander pledged 30 million pounds (43 million dollars, 34 million euros) toward rebuilding and called on Israel to open the borders of the territory where he said he was horrified by the scale of human suffering.Today I am making an allocation of 30 million pounds as a new statement of our commitment to do what we can as a British government to alleviate the suffering, Alexander said at a press conference.We want to see full and unfettered access both for aid and for aid workers here in Gaza.Blair met Gaza businesspeople, members of civil society and representatives of the water authority, as well as dropping in on an English class, British consulate officials said.But unlike recent high-profile visitors to Gaza -- including UN chief Ban Ki-moon and US Senator John Kerry -- Blair did not visit the areas most devastated by the three-week Israeli war on the territory.

John Ging, the Gaza director of the UN refugee agency, said he hoped the visits had convinced decision-makers to change their failed policies and lift the Israeli and international blockade.We rest our case now, there is nothing more to say. They have seen it and now it's up to them to live up to their responsibility to actually change it,he said after accompanying Blair on the school visit.Focus on the people, not the politics, and get the crossings open. It's as simple as that.Israel and Egypt have sealed Gaza off from all but limited humanitarian aid since Hamas, a group pledged to Israel's destruction, seized power in June 2007 after weeks of deadly street battles with secular Fatah rivals.Most of Gaza's 1.4 million population relies on aid from the outside world.Israel's 22-day onslaught in December and January caused damaged estimated at 1.95 billion dollars, the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction says.Blair was appointed Quartet representative in June 2007 after he stepped down following 10 years as prime minister.He had planned to make his maiden visit to Gaza in July 2008, but it was cancelled because of security concerns.

Since his appointment, Blair has been spearheading several projects aimed at revitalising the Palestinian economy, including three planned industrial zones in the occupied West Bank. He has also pushed development projects in Gaza, including the repair of the water treatment plant, where a reservoir burst its banks in March 2007, flooding a village with raw sewage and drowning five Palestinians. The Quartet has refused to have dealings with Hamas, which swept Palestinian elections in January 2006, saying the group first has to renounce violence, recognise Israel and agree to abide by past peace deals.Blair said he hopes the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas can together develop a unified Palestinian response in a way that the international community can engage with the Palestinian people.

Mideast Quartet to meet alongside Gaza aid talks Sat Feb 28, 2:27 pm ET

CAIRO (AFP) – The international Middle East Quartet will meet on Monday on the sidelines of a conference on reconstruction in Gaza, the Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman told AFP on Saturday.Such a meeting is planned in principle, but the details have yet to be fixed,Hossam Zaki said.The Quartet -- the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia -- in 2003 adopted a road map intended to lead by stages to a permanent settlement of the Israel-Palestinian crisis, based on the principle of the existence of two states.Hillary Clinton, on her first trip to the Middle East as US Secretary of state, will take part in the donors' conference at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and will also attend the Quartet meeting.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are also expected to be at the Quartet event.The road map struggled to make progress and ground to a halt in December when Israel launched a bloody three-week assault on the Gaza Strip which killed 1,330 people and destroyed hospitals, schools and thousands of homes.Israeli prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday abandoned attempts to bring Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni into a new coalition government when she failed to persuade him to back the two-state proposal.An Arab League official said a meeting is also planned between Clinton and nine Arab foreign ministers from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Jordan tells US two states key to Mideast peace Sat Feb 28, 9:07 am ET

AMMAN (AFP) – Jordan's King Abdallah II told US envoy George Mitchell on Saturday that Middle East peace can only be achieved on the basis of two states, Palestinian and Israeli, supported by all involved.There is no alternative to the solution based on two states which must be backed by all the parties, who must work with determination to achieve it,the king told the Middle East envoy of US President Barack Obama.A statement from the palace said the king, who met Mitchell in Amman, called on Washington to take concrete steps to put Israel-Palestinian negotiations back on the rails.Obama has several times called for negotiations to resume. They came briefly back to life after a US conference in November 2007 but subsequently stalled, before being completely moribund after the December-January war between Israel and Hamas.Israel launched its offensive against Gaza in response to militant rocket fire. The conflict killed more than 1,300 Palestinians, including several hundred children, and 13 Israelis.Mitchell's second visit to the Middle East, aimed at trying to advance peace talks, comes ahead of a planned international conference on the reconstruction of Gaza scheduled for Monday in Egypt.Last Thursday the envoy visited Israel for talks with senior officials and on Friday met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah.Israel Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday abandoned efforts to persuade Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to join a ruling coalition, after he refused to accept her call to back a two-state solution.

Rocket fired from Gaza hits Israeli school: army Sat Feb 28, 4:52 am ET

ASHKELON, Israel (Reuters) – A rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip exploded near a school in Israel Saturday, causing damage but no injuries, Israel's military said.The rocket, one of three fired from the coastal territory on Saturday, landed in the courtyard of a school in the Israeli city of Ashekelon, some 12 km (7 miles) north of the Gaza border. Shrapnel flew into classrooms.Authorities said the school was empty for the weekend.Israel has responded to similar attacks with air strikes.Egypt has been trying to broker a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas to take the place of a shaky January 18 ceasefire that ended a 22-day Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. There have been almost daily exchanges of fire since then.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday's rocket fire.(Reporting by Yehuda Peretz, Writing by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)

EU's Solana on unprecedented Gaza visit Fri Feb 27, 8:41 am ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) – EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana toured the war-shattered Gaza Strip on Friday, his first such trip since the Islamist Hamas seized power in the Palestinian territory in June 2007.I came to Gaza to see by myself the situation and the destruction and to show the solidarity to the good people of Gaza who have suffered so much,he said at a news conference.I wanted to see with my eyes the level of destruction,he said of the devastation wrought by Israel's 22-day military offensive that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians.He viewed the ruins of the American International School and the wasteland of Ezbet Abed Rabbo, where scores of Palestinians huddle in shanties erected on mounds of rubble that used to be their homes.His visit came ahead of an international conference in Egypt on the rebuilding of Gaza. I hope the meeting that will take place on Monday will be a good meeting with good consequences for people here,said Solana.Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere was on a similar visit to Gaza on Friday, touring areas hard hit by the Israeli offensive which ended on January 18.Neither Solana nor Stoere were due to meet any representative of Hamas, which the European Union, Israel and the United States consider a terrorist organisation.We have not had any meeting with Hamas at the political level since June 2007,said Norwegian foreign ministry spokesman Haakon Svane.The Islamist movement violently seized power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, ousting forces loyal to moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.