SAfrican school presses Israelis on Palestinians By JENNY GROSS, Associated Press Writer 12:10PM SEPT 29,10
JOHANNESBURG – University of Johannesburg professors rejected calls to sever ties with an Israeli university Wednesday, but called on Ben-Gurion University to work with its Palestinian counterparts.Calls for similar academic boycotts to protest Israel's Palestinian policies also have failed in the West.The South African university's faculty senate met Wednesday to vote on the proposal, which had been endorsed by anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu, but instead accepted a compromise without a vote. They asked Ben-Gurion University to work with Palestinian universities on research projects, and to start the collaborations within six months if it wants to maintain ties with the University of Johannesburg.UJ Vice Chancellor Adam Habib said the compromise reflected his institution's values.We believe in reconciliation, Habib said.We'd like to bring BGU and Palestinian universities together to produce a collective engagement that benefits everyone.The universities have joint research projects and academic exchanges on biotechnology and water purification.Relations between Ben-Gurion University and Rand Afrikaans University, a formerly all-white university under South Africa's apartheid system, began in 1987. The University of Johannesburg, created in 2005, took over various campuses including Rand Afrikaans University and a university in the black township of Soweto as part of efforts to ensure higher education was transformed with the rest of South Africa after the end of apartheid.
Israel officially opposed apartheid, but its ties with the white government were seen as close. South Africa's post-apartheid government has been a sharp critic of Israel's Palestinian policies. The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was among the guests at Nelson Mandela's 1994 inauguration as South Africa's first black president.Tutu and more than 200 prominent South African academics had supported ending UJ's links with the Israeli institution.Israeli universities are an intimate part of the Israeli regime, by active choice, Tutu wrote in an essay that appeared in a South African newspaper Sunday. While Palestinians are not able to access universities and schools, Israeli universities produce the research, technology, arguments and leaders for maintaining the occupation.Academic boycotts of Israeli universities have been inspired by boycotts of South African institutions during apartheid. A 2003 proposal for British universities to sever all ties with Israeli academic institutions was defeated. Two years later Britain's Association of University Teachers voted to boycott Israel's Haifa and Bar Ilan universities. That decision was overturned only a month later under fierce international pressure.U.S. professors and students also have called for academic and cultural boycotts of Israel.The moves have prompted sharp criticism. Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz once threatened legal action that would "devastate and bankrupt" anyone who boycotts Israeli universities.The New York-based Anti-Defamation League described the British moves as anti-Semitic, arguing Israel was being singled out while human rights violators such as Iran, Sudan, Venezuela and Zimbabwe were ignored.
Palestinian rights groups slam Gaza vote at UN
SEPT 29,10
GENEVA – Palestinian human rights groups have condemned a U.N. resolution backed by their own government that delays action on a report alleging war crimes during last year's Gaza conflict.Maysa Zorob of the Palestinian group Al-Haq says the resolution passed Wednesday in the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council is a betrayal of victim's rights and reflects a lack of genuine commitment to justice.The vote effectively freezes the so-called Goldstone report that called on Israel and Hamas to probe and prosecute alleged war crimes or face scrutiny by the International Criminal Court.Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, said backing the resolution was a grave mistake by the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas.
EU chief diplomat to visit Mideast leaders
SEPT 29,10
BRUSSELS (AFP) – European Union chief diplomat Catherine Ashton announced Wednesday she would travel to the Middle East to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week.Ashton will arrive in the region on Thursday on a three-day visit to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and the US special representative for the Middle East George Mitchell, her office said.
Ashton said in a statement that she would travel directly from the United States, where she was on an official visit, after Israel refused to extend a 10-month ban on new settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.I have decided to travel directly from the United States to the Middle East as a matter of priority to urge both Israelis and Palestinians to find a satisfactory way for negotiations to continue and gather momentum, she said.As I have said, the EU regrets the Israeli decision not to extend the moratorium on settlements.During my visit I will reiterate the call for both parties to act responsibly and choose the path of peace. There is no alternative to a negotiated solution.
Germany, Qatar urge continuing Mideast peace talks
– Wed Sep 29, 9:26 am ET
BERLIN – Germany's chancellor and the ruler of Qatar have called on Israelis and Palestinians to press forward with the Mideast peace talks.
Angela Merkel and Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani stressed at a joint news conference on Wednesday that a continuation of the Mideast peace process was in everybody's interest.Merkel urged both sides to show a willingness to compromise.Al Thani, speaking through a translator, said the peace talks should be continued and appealed to Israel to show the wisdom to support a Palestinian state.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recently threatened to withdraw from the newly launched U.S. brokered negotiations if Israel resumes building in the West Bank settlements.While in Berlin Al Thani also met with German President Christian Wulff.
ABBAS IS DOING THE SAME WHEN TALKS FALTER.
Arafat urged attacks when talks faltered: Hamas
– Wed Sep 29, 6:23 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat urged Hamas to carry out attacks inside Israel when he felt peace talks had failed, a senior Hamas leader said in remarks published on Wednesday.Arafat signalled to the Hamas movement to carry out a number of military operations in the heart of the Jewish state when he felt that the negotiations with the occupation government had failed, Mahmud Zahar said during a meeting with Hamas MPs on Tuesday, according to the Hamas-linked Falasteen newspaper.He spoke on the 10th anniversary of the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which engulfed the occupied territories months after the collapse of the 2000 Camp David peace talks.His comments come as renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians again appear to be on the verge of collapse in the face of a dispute over Israeli settlements. Hamas opposes the new talks.At the height of the uprising in 2002 Palestinian militants launched scores of suicide bombings in Israeli cities as Israel frequently carried out large-scale military incursions across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Arafat had always insisted that the uprising was a spontaneous reaction to the Israeli occupation and that he had no control over Hamas, the long-time rivals of his secular Fatah movement.He publicly condemned attacks targeting civilians inside Israel, including those carried out by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah.Arafat died of mysterious causes in a Paris hospital in November 2004 after having been besieged in his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah for nearly three years.His successor, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, always opposed the militarisation of the uprising and moved to end it when he assumed power.An Israeli-Palestinian summit in February 2005 was widely seen as signalling the end of the uprising, although the violence continued. Some 4,700 people had been killed by then, around 80 percent of them Palestinians.
Israeli calls for intermediate peace agreement By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 28, 3:45 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS – Israel's foreign minister called Tuesday for an intermediate agreement with the Palestinians, a position directly at odds with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is trying to reach a final peace deal in the coming year.
Speaking at the annual ministerial meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, Avigdor Lieberman also said the guiding principle in a final agreement must not be land-for-peace but an exchange of land to better reflect demographic realities.He said the solution must be two-staged because the emotional problems between Israelis and Palestinians can't be resolved until a new generation is raised that has mutual trust and will not be influenced by incitement and extremist messages.Under these conditions, we should focus on coming up with a long-term intermediate agreement, something that could take a few decades,Lieberman said.The prime minister's office immediately distanced Netanyahu from Lieberman's comments.The contents of the foreign minister's speech at the U.N. were not coordinated with the prime minister, it said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the one heading the political negotiations on behalf of the state of Israel. The various subjects of the peace agreement will be discussed and set only around the negotiation table and not in any other place.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who heads the Labor Party, said Lieberman's remarks do not reflect the position of the Israeli government and certainly not the position of the Labor Party.The Labor Party believes it is vital to continue the negotiations and toward a breakthrough to achieve a peace accord with the Palestinians, and not to play into the hands of israel's enemies, Barak's office said in a statement.During Lieberman's speech, two Palestinian diplomats got up and walked out of the assembly chamber. The seats for Iran and Iraq were empty when shown on U.N. television.Lieberman heads Yisrael Beitenu, an ultranationalist party that is the second-largest member of the coalition government led by Netanyahu. He also is a West Bank settler.While Lieberman is not directly involved in the Mideast negotiations, his comments illustrate the hardline pressures that Netanyahu faces if he begins to make concessions to the Palestinians. In his speech, he alluded to the perception of differences in the government.I want to emphasize that contrary to what is often shown in the international media, the political arena in Israel is not divided between those who seek peace and those who seek war, Lieberman said. Everyone wants peace and the controversy in Israel centers on the specific question of how to achieve this peace; how to reach security and stability in the region.In trying to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian problem, Lieberman said there are practical problems but equally important emotional problems, first and foremost the utter lack of confidence between the sides and issues such as Jerusalem, recognition of Israel as a nation-state of the Jewish people and refugees.This lack of trust cannot be solved until a new generation is raised, he said.To achieve a final status agreement, we must understand that the primary practical obstacle is the friction between the two nations,Lieberman stressed.
He spoke as U.S. special Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, rushed to the region to try to keep peace Israeli-Palestinian peace talks from collapsing just weeks after they began.Israel's decision to resume new West Bank settlement construction after a 10-month moratorium expired at midnight Sunday has angered Palestinians who threatened to abandon talks if building resumed. But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he wouldn't make a decision until he consults senior Arab officials in Cairo next week, giving U.S. mediation a brief window to find a solution.In his speech, Lieberman insisted that the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not Israel's so-called occupation of the West Bank and the settlers themselves. The other misguided argument is the claim that the Palestinian issue prevents a determined international front against Iran,he said. In truth, the connection between Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is precisely reversed,Lieberman said. Iran can exist without Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, but the terrorist organizations cannot exist without Iran.As a result, he said, to deal with the true roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the Iranian issue must be resolved.Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moualem told the General Assembly that in Israel, there is much talk about peace, yet the drums of war continue to sound.He warned that Israel's continued settlement activities are about to make a two-state solution where Israel and Palestine live side-by-side in peace a dead letter than stands no chance of survival.Nonetheless, Al-Moualem said, Syria wants peace and is ready to resume peace negotiations from the point where they stopped through the Turkish mediator.
He reiterated that a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, captured in the 1967 war, is not negotiable nor is it a bargaining chip. Netanyahu has not said he is willing to cede the territory Syria wants. Turkey, a predominatly Islamic nation which has close ties to Arab nations and Israel, mediated four rounds of indirect peace negotiations between the two countries in 2008, But Syria suspended the talks in December 2008 over Israel's military offensive in Gaza.
Israel stops Jewish activist yacht on way to Gaza
By Rami Amichai – Tue Sep 28, 3:20 pm ET
ASHDOD, Israel (Reuters) – The Israeli navy boarded a yacht in the Mediterranean on Tuesday to prevent 10 Jewish activists sailing to Gaza to protest against Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory.Israel's policies for containing the militant Islamists of Hamas, who control Gaza, came under scrutiny in May after its marines killed nine Turkish activists in boarding one ship in a flotilla of vessels trying to reach the Gaza coast.The catamaran Irene, dubbed the Jewish Boat for Peace and flying a British flag, was taken over around midday off the Gaza Strip on Tuesday without incident, a military statement said.Reuters Television filmed the yacht sailing for the port of Ashdod under its own power, led by a small naval escort vessel.Five of the 10 activists were Israelis and the others came from Britain, Germany and the United States. Police held the Israeli nationals for questioning and later released them. A police spokesman said the foreign activists would be deported.
One of the activists who set sail from Cyprus on Sunday was an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor, Reuven Moskovitz.Before leaving, he told reporters he was taking part because I am a survivor. When I was in a ghetto and almost died, I hoped there would be human beings who would show compassion and help.Israel maintains the naval blockade in what it says is an effort to stop arms being smuggled to Hamas, which has run Gaza since 2007 and considers itself at war with Israel.But critics and humanitarian groups say this amounts to collective punishment of the 1.5 million Palestinians who live in the territory.(Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr; Writing by Douglas Hamilton; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Lieberman UN speech doesn't reflect Israel view on talks: PM
– Tue Sep 28, 3:12 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's UN General Assembly speech, which outlined controversial proposals for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, did not reflect the official Israeli position, the premier's office said on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to be distancing himself from Lieberman's proposals, including making mostly-Arab regions of Israel part of a future Palestinian state and striving for an interim agreement instead of a full peace deal.
The content of the foreign minister's speech to the United Nations was not coordinated with the prime minister,read a tersely worded statement from Netanyahu's office.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the one who handles the diplomatic negotiations. The various arrangements for peace will be determined only around the negotiating table and nowhere else.Lieberman, whose outspoken remarks regularly attract controversy, told the UN General Assembly, that the friction caused by two nations, two religions and two languages with competing claims to the same land meant there has to be a new look at the makeup of any new state.The guiding principle for a final status agreement must not be land-for-peace but rather, exchange of populated territory, he said.Let me be very clear: I am not speaking about moving populations, but rather about moving borders to better reflect demographic realities.Lieberman advocates ceding parts of Israel with large Arab populations to a future Palestinian state in exchange for Israel keeping large Jewish settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank.
The minister also said the focus should be on securing a long-term intermediate agreement, something that could take a few decades -- despite the fact that Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas committed themselves to inking a comprehensive deal within a year.Last week, Lieberman again raised the idea of swapping populated territories in a bid to redress the demographic balance, which is seen as a major threat to Israel's future as a democratic and Jewish country.There are some 1.3 million Israeli Arabs -- those Palestinians who remained after Israel was founded in 1948, and their descendants -- making up about 20 percent of the population.A day later, he issued a hasty clarification -- saying the plan was his personal view and did not reflect the official position of the Israeli government, in which he is a key coalition partner.The maverick nationalist has in the past campaigned for Israel's Arab citizens to be stripped of their nationality unless they take an oath of allegiance to the Jewish state.The issue of recognising Israel as a Jewish state is one of Netanyahu's key demands in the ongoing peace talks, which were launched with great fanfare on September 2.The Palestinians oppose the demand, fearing that it could harm the future of refugees seeking to return to old homes now in Israel.
Iran the key to Middle East solution: Israeli minister
– Tue Sep 28, 12:39 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Iran is at the heart of the Middle East conflict and any settlement with the Palestinians could take decades to cement, Israel's hardline foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday.He told the UN General Assembly that Iran, through its links with militant groups, could foil any peace accord with the Palestinians, or with neighboring Lebanon.The Iran issue must be resolved before there can be agreement with the Palestinians, said the minister who is a key coalition ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Lieberman made no mention of the end of the Israeli moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank. He said simply that Israel is ready for a fair solution and we are ready to cooperate with the international community.He focused his address to the UN ministerial session on Iran and the utter lack of confidence between Israelis and Palestinians.Lieberman said it was completely irresponsible to suggest that the decades old Israel-Palestinian conflict prevents a determined international front against Iran and its nuclear drive.In truth, the connection between Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is precisely reversed. Iran can exist without Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, but the terrorist organizations cannot exist without Iran, he declared.
Relying on these proxies, Iran can at any given time foil any agreement between Israel and the Palestinians or with Lebanon.Thus, in searching for a durable agreement with the Palestinians, one which will deal with the true roots of the conflict and which will endure for many years, one must understand that first, the Iranian issue must be resolved. One must deal first with the root of the problem and not its symptoms.Israeli leaders regularly joust on the diplomatic stage against Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the comments have become more hard edged in recent months as the international campaign against Iran's nuclear programme has toughened.Ahmadinejad said in New York last week that there would be war with no limits if there was a US-backed Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.Lieberman, whose comment also regularly attract controversy, said the emotional and practical problems between Israelis and Palestinians meant there has to be a two-stage peace settlement.The emotional problems are first and foremost the utter lack of confidence between the sides and issues such as Jerusalem, recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish People and refugees.Under these conditions, we should focus on coming up with a long-term intermediate agreement, something that could take a few decades.We need to raise an entire new generation that will have mutual trust and will not be influenced by incitement and extremist messages.He added that the friction caused by two nations, two religions and two languages with competing claims to the same land meant there has to be a new look at the makeup of any new state.The guiding principle for a final status agreement must not be land-for-peace but rather, exchange of populated territory, Lieberman said.
Let me be very clear: I am not speaking about moving populations, but rather about moving borders to better reflect demographic realities.
Divided Palestinians mark anniversary of intifada
by Adel Zaanoun – Tue Sep 28, 9:55 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Palestinian leaders from Hamas and Fatah paid tribute to the Al-Aqsa intifada on Tuesday as they marked the 10th anniversary of the devastating Palestinian uprising.The intifada restored the dignity of the Palestinian people and brought them closer to victory and liberation, Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya said during a special meeting of his government in Gaza.Our people will not hand over their weapons nor stop the resistance because it is our legitimate right as long as there is an occupation, he said.Tuesday marks a decade since Ariel Sharon's controversial visit to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, an event that sparked deadly violence that soon engulfed the occupied territories.Over the next four years scores of Palestinian suicide bombers struck inside Israel as Israel sent tanks, bulldozers and fighter jets into cities and towns across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.An Israeli-Palestinian summit in early 2005 was seen as signalling the end of the uprising but the unrest lingered for years.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas moved to end the violence when he succeeded Yasser Arafat after his death in 2004 and has long sought to bring about an independent state through peaceful negotiations.
His Fatah movement played an active role in the uprising, however, and a jailed leader of the group praised the intifada.The cause of the immense destruction was the (Israeli) occupation, not the intifada, Marwan Barghuti, one of the architects of the uprising, said in a statement from prison published by Al-Quds newspaper.The main cause of the intifada was the continuation of the occupation. The Palestinian people will continue their struggle and their resistance of the occupation until it is gone, he said.But I think it is too early to speak of a new intifada, especially because of the Palestinian divisions.The 51-year-old -- arrested in 2002 and sentenced to five life terms for murder for his role in deadly attacks on Israelis during the uprising -- remains highly popular and is often spoken of as a successor to Abbas.Fatah and Hamas have been brutally divided since the Islamist movement seized power in Gaza in June 2007.On Monday the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said more than 7,400 people had been killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence since the outbreak of the second intifada, 85 percent of them Palestinians.The 10 years surveyed included not only the intifada, but the 22-day Gaza war launched in December 2008, which left some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.
U.S. and Israel ink deal on short-range missile defense
– Mon Sep 27, 8:02 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and Israel on Monday agreed to advance work on a weapons system that would help Israel defend against short-range ballistic missiles like those launched by Hezbollah during the Lebanon war of 2006.The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency announced the deal late on Monday evening, saying it underscored the continued commitment of the United States to the defense of Israel.News of the agreement about the so-called David's Sling missile defense project comes amid continued tensions between Israel and Iran, and Russia's decision last week to ban the export of high-precision missile systems and other weapons to Iran.Army Lieutenant General Patrick O'Reilly, head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, signed the agreement with several top-ranking Israeli military officers, including Rear Admiral Ophir Shoham, who heads Israel's defense research agency.The agreement continues efforts initiated under a U.S.-Israeli short-range missile defense agreement signed in 2008, the agency said.The new weapons system will help Israel bolster its defenses against short-range and theater ballistic missiles, large-caliber rockets, and cruise missiles, it said.It includes continued development of the Stunner interceptor being developed by Israel's Rafael and Raytheon Co as part of Israel's layered missile defense system.David's Sling will also address the threat posed by the types of inexpensive and easily-produced short-range missiles and rockets used during the 2006 Lebanon War,the agency said in a statement.It will also advance low-altitude intercept technology and provide that technology to benefit U.S. and Israeli industry, it said.(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Bernard Orr)
YOU WILL NEVER READ IN THESE STORIES OVER 10,000 ROCKETS WERE FIRED AT INNOCENT ISRAELIS WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN THIS SPAN.AND ISRAEL PROTECTS THEIR CITIZENS FROM THE ROCKETS.
7,400 killed in decade of Mideast violence: report
– Mon Sep 27, 11:30 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – More than 7,400 people have been killed by Israeli-Palestinian violence since the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising 10 years ago this month, an Israeli rights group said Monday.The vast majority of the 7,454 killed were Palestinians, who accounted for 6,371, or about 85 percent, of the total, the B'Tselem human rights group said in a statement. Of the Palestinian dead, 1,317 were minors.The Palestinian toll includes at least 2,996 people who were not taking part in hostilities when they were killed and 2,193 who were, the group said.The remainder include 694 people who may or may not have been fighters, in addition to 240 who were assassinated and 248 police employed by the Hamas-run government who were killed during the 2008-2009 Gaza war.Palestinians killed 1,083 Israelis during the same period, including 741 civilians, of whom 124 were minors. The other 342 were members of security forces.
Tuesday marks the 10th anniversary of Ariel Sharon's controversial visit to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, an event widely seen as sparking the second intifada, or uprising.The next four years saw scores of Palestinian suicide bombings in Israeli cities and large-scale military incursions in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.The violence began to fade after a 2005 summit between Sharon, then prime minister, and Mahmud Abbas, who succeeded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in late 2004. The meeting was widely seen as signalling the end of the uprising.The other major round of bloodletting in the last decade was the 22-day Israeli offensive on Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, in which some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
Jewish settlers declare end to building moratorium
By Allyn Fisher-Ilan – Sun Sep 26, 6:16 pm ET
REVAVA, West Bank (Reuters) – With a tooting of horns and pouring of cement, several thousand Jewish settlers and supporters declared a symbolic end Sunday to a 10-month moratorium on construction starts in their enclaves.The building freeze is over, Danny Danon, a right-wing lawmaker from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, declared as balloons were released into the air at sundown in the red-roofed West Bank settlement of Revava.Today we mark the resumption of building in Judea and Samaria, he bellowed, using biblical names for the West Bank, captured by Israel in a 1967 war.Netanyahu had urged Israeli settlers to show restraint after a limited building freeze expires at midnight (2200 GMT) on Sunday, a plea that appeared aimed at persuading Palestinians not to quit peace talks.But at Revava, near the West Bank city of Nablus, residents expressed their defiance at a groundbreaking ceremony where a mixer poured cement into a hole in the ground to launch construction of a creche.While the act was symbolic, settlers said they would soon begin building some 2,000 homes across the West Bank for which permits were issued before Netanyahu, under U.S. pressure, called a partial building freeze last year.The festivities were attended by thousands bused in for the occasion. They coincided with U.S. efforts, still afoot, to prolong the construction hiatus in order to avert a Palestinian walkout from the peace talks.
In a plot apparently intended for construction in Revava, where signs advertise plans to put up more than two dozen homes, settlers blared shofars, a religious instrument made of a ram's horn, as their leaders proclaimed the building freeze had ended.The freeze was declared over exactly at sunset, which according to Jewish law is the start of the following day.Spokesmen for the 300,000 settlers living in the West Bank renewed their calls on Netanyahu to resist further pressure to delay construction in enclaves they say Israel must keep as a strategic asset, and as its biblical birthright.Underscoring the pressure Netanyahu faces from political allies as well as the settlers, some right-wing leaders demanded Israel annex all its settlements rather than negotiate with Palestinians on their future.Tsipi Hotovely, a Likud lawmaker, said Israel should annex all the settlements to prevent their removal under a peace deal, and pledged to introduce a bill to that effect in parliament.Israeli sovereignty must be applied to the areas were settlements have been built, she said.Benny Katsover, a veteran settlements leader, exhorted supporters to prepare for a struggle, denouncing peace talks as nothing but a false Messiah.(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Abbas to consult Arab ministers on peace talks
by Nasser Abu Bakr – Sun Sep 26, 8:44 am ET
PARIS (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Sunday he would meet Arab foreign ministers on October 4 to decide how to proceed with peace talks following the expected resumption of settlement construction.Abbas appeared to have decided to consult the Arab League ministers once a partial moratorium on Israeli settlements expires later on Sunday instead of immediately walking out of US-backed peace talks relaunched earlier this month.He told AFP that in addition to the meeting with Arab ministers he would convene the governing bodies of his Fatah movement and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) to decide on his future course.They will discuss the continuation of negotiations in light of the decisions Israel takes on the settlement freeze, whether they are negative or positive, whether they continue the freeze or resume settlement activity, Abbas told AFP on a flight from New York to Paris.US, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators have been struggling for weeks to reach a compromise on settlements, with Washington urging Israel to extend the restrictions and the Palestinians to remain at the negotiating table.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he would be open to some kind of compromise but that building will resume, and settler groups have deployed bulldozers and cement trucks on at least two construction sites.Abbas, meanwhile, faces mounting calls to withdraw from the peace talks, both from his rivals in the militant Hamas movement ruling Gaza and smaller factions in his own PLO.The continuation of these negotiations is a crime against the Palestinian people and a dangerous and slippery slope,Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said on Sunday in a statement issued in Gaza.
In light of the arrogance and pomposity of the Zionists, Mahmud Abbas must immediately withdraw from these negotiations and announce their end.Meanwhile, the left wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said it had suspended participation in the powerful PLO Executive Committee over both the peace talks and the umbrella group's decision-making process.The PLO, dominated by Abbas's Fatah movement since it was founded in the mid-1960s, is the sole international representative of the Palestinians, and includes most factions but not Hamas.The latest round of peace talks was launched on September 2 after months of shuttle diplomacy. The last round of direct negotiations collapsed in December 2008 after the outbreak of the 22-day Gaza war.Abbas was to meet local Jewish leaders in Paris on Sunday before talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Monday to explore developments in the peace process, his spokesman said.Abbas will update Sarkozy on the latest results of the international and American efforts to press Israel to continue the freeze of settlements as a necessity for continuing the negotiations, Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.Abbas will meanwhile continue efforts to reach out to the Jewish community after similar meetings with Jewish leaders in the United States.Abu Rudeina said the Palestinian president would encourage French Jews to play a positive role in the peace process in the region.
Abbas meets US Middle East envoy Mitchell
– Sat Sep 25, 2:58 pm ET
NEW YORK (AFP) – US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell on Saturday met Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in a bid to avoid a Palestinian withdrawal from new negotiations with Israel, officials said.The US administration was also in contact with Israeli leaders ahead of Sunday's end to an Israeli moratorium on settlement building in the occupied territories, officials said.Abbas has threatened to leave the US-organized talks if Israel halts the moratorium.A top Abbas aide said the Palestinian leader was meeting Mitchell at a New York hotel.US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley confirmed the meeting was to be held and said: We are staying in touch with the Israelis as well.Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak and lawyer Yitzhak Molcho, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's point man on the peace talks, were in New York to aid efforts toward a compromise, Israeli radio reported.
Abbas and Israeli leaders are in New York for the UN General Assembly.Abbas had also been predicted to meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to follow up an encounter between the two dignitaries Friday night, but Crowley said no meeting had been scheduled.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
ISRAEL ENDS BUILDING FREEZE
Israel: Settlers brace for end of building freeze
SEPT 25,10 10:45AM
JERUSALEM – An Israeli lawmaker says Jewish settlers have hauled construction equipment into a settlement deep inside the West Bank in preparation for the end of a construction moratorium.The end of the settlement slowdown presents the first major crisis in Mideast peace talks launched early this month in Washington.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who imposed the slowdown 10 months ago as a peace gesture, says he will not extend the restrictions. But the Palestinians say they will not continue negotiations if building resumes. The U.S. is trying to broker a compromise.Pro-settler lawmaker Danny Danon said Saturday that activists plan to lay the cornerstone of a new neighborhood in the Revava settlement Sunday, the last day of the slowdown.He said further construction is planned Monday.
Intense US efforts fail again to break Mideast deadlock by Lachlan Carmichael – Sat Sep 25, 3:16 am ET
NEW YORK (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will meet for a second day of talks Saturday, after failing to break the deadlock between Israelis and Palestinians.Clinton has sought to use her clout to bring renewed impetus to the flagging peace process, and has persuaded the two sides to go back to the negotiating table for the first time after a 20-month hiatus.
But the talks are overshadowed by the end of an Israeli moratorium on settlement building, with the Palestinians threatening to walk out of the fledgling peace talks if it is allowed to expire as planned on Sunday.
The pair met in New York on Friday after US officials bluntly told both the Israelis and Palestinians not to wreck the fledgling peace negotiations.Abbas had earlier rejected an Israeli suggestion that a compromise may be possible ahead of the scheduled end of the moratorium.Our efforts will continue, Clinton spokesman Philip Crowley said after Abbas and the chief US diplomat met for 25 minutes on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.Nothing new until now, Abbas told AFP after emerging from his evening meeting with Clinton, noting the two would meet again on Saturday.Abbas advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina said: We're discussing American efforts about the continuation of the negotiations.A senior Israeli government official said the Jewish state was willing to cut a deal acceptable to the United States and the Palestinians, after US President Barack Obama's call for the moratorium to be extended.But he also stressed that there cannot be zero construction in West Bank settlements, a compromise Abbas rejected as a partial solution.A total freeze must be maintained on settlement activity in the Palestinian territories, including in Jerusalem,Abu Rudeina said, adding that Abbas rejected any compromise that does not guarantee a complete halt to all settlement activity.
US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman echoed a toughening US line toward both the Palestinians and the Israelis.At this point, we are urging both sides to create the atmosphere that is most conducive to a successful conclusion to the negotiations, he said.We don't think either side should be using the threat to walk out, to interrupt the process.He acknowledged the discussions are pretty intense right now as Washington tries to keep the negotiations on track.Arab League chief Amr Mussa, in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, told reporters that Israel must show a readiness to extend the freeze if the peace talks are to continue.Obama on Thursday firmly urged Israel to extend the moratorium. On the same day, he issued a passionate call at the UN General Assembly for the world to back his peace drive.On Friday, Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Israelis and Palestinians to do all they can to sustain the direct peace talks. The previous round of direct negotiations collapsed when Israel launched a devastating military offensive on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in December 2008.Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not appear to have made any progress towards narrowing their differences during talks last week in Egypt and in Jerusalem attended by Clinton.US officials have suggested a three-month extension to the moratorium, during which the two sides could agree on borders, which could neutralize the settlements dispute, a senior Palestinian official said.
Abbas told AFP this week he was not opposed to a settlement freeze for a month or two.The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, to be illegal. Some 500,000 Israelis live in more than 120 Jewish settlements across the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories expected to form the bulk of a future Palestinian state.Israel captured Arab east Jerusalem in 1967, and considers the city its eternal and indivisible capital.
Another core issue that has eluded six decades of peacemaking efforts is Palestinian refugees.The Palestinians want Israel to recognize the right of return of those who fled or were expelled when the Jewish state was created in 1948. With their descendants, they number 4.7 million people.
Israel rejects the demand.
US-backed Abbas and his secular Palestinian party Fatah only control the West Bank since the Islamist movement Hamas routed out his forces from the Gaza Strip in 2007.
The two movements have been deadly enemies ever since, but on Friday, Fatah and Hamas leaders held reconciliation talks in Damascus and said they wanted the discussions to continue.
US striving for peace between Israel and Syria
– Fri Sep 24, 11:04 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The United States would like to see Israel and Syria settle their differences as part of a comprehensive peace in the Middle East, a top US official said.We want to get to a comprehensive peace. It has to include a Syria-Israel track. It's absolutely essential that Syria be part of this process, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeff Feltman told reporters.He said Monday's meeting in New York between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem will take place in that spirit.We have a lot of differences with Syria. Those differences aren't going to disappear overnight. But we also recognize that it is certainly in our interest to do what we can to engage the Syrians and the Israelis in a peace process that can lead to a comprehensive peace, said Feltman.He also hoped Arab nations continue and expand support to PA (Palestinian Authority) and find ways to signal what are the benefits to Israel from a Middle East peace.Clinton and Mouallem's meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly will be their second since their brief, March 2009 encounter in Egypt during a donor conference for the Gaza strip.US-Syria relations have been improving since US President Barack Obama took office in January 2009.
Israel plays down scope of future settler projects
By Dan Williams – Fri Sep 24, 11:18 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel urged the Palestinians Friday not to abandon recently resumed peace negotiations over the imminent expiry of a West Bank settlement moratorium, saying any new construction projects would be limited in scope.The scheduled end Sunday of the 10-month partial halt to building in Jewish settlements has drawn Palestinian threats to quit the talks sponsored by President Barack Obama, who has repeatedly called on Israel to extend the freeze.Obama renewed his appeal from the rostrum of the United Nations General Assembly Thursday, raising pressure on the Jewish state.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose rightist coalition government includes pro-settler parties, has so far deflected Obama's pleas. But he has also said renewed construction in the settlements might be on a reduced scale.Netanyahu was in contact with U.S. and other world leaders, and had envoys working with the Americans, as part of intensive efforts to find a mutually agreed compromise to the issue of the moratorium ending, an Israeli official said Friday.If this is going to work, it must be a two-way street, the official said.It also has to be said that the plan for building in the West Bank in the coming year is so modest that in no way would they impact on the parameters for a peace deal.
The official, who declined to be named, would not elaborate on what Israel had offered to, or asked of, the Palestinians in recent contacts.Among stop-gap ideas floated by Israeli officials has been resuming full construction in settlement blocs which the Jewish state would eventually annex, while scaling back projects in isolated settlements. Another has been for Israel to ration approval for new buildings de facto, without a formal freeze.But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly stated he would not accept a renewal of building in the settlements and has threatened to pull out of peace talks if they resume.The president will not agree on even a single new house in the settlements, a senior Abbas aide told Reuters Friday.Officials close to the talks said last week that Netanyahu had turned down a proposal to extend the moratorium by 3 months.
OBAMA SAYS TALKS SHOULD CARRY ON
The Palestinians want the West Bank as part of their future state and say all settlement construction must stop because the projects prejudge future borders. The World Court regards the settlements, built on land occupied in the 1967 war, as illegal.Netanyahu's office quoted him in a statement as saying that continued settlement construction had not blocked previous rounds of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations dating back to 1993.Neither did those talks always include a condition set by Netanyahu and rejected by the Palestinians -- that they recognize Israel as a Jewish nation-state.If the Palestinians want peace, they will stay in the talks with us, in order to reach a framework agreement within a year,Netanyahu said. I hope the Palestinians will not leave the talks and will not turn their back on peace.
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly Thursday, Obama envisaged the foundations of a Palestinian state being in place in a year and said: We believe that the moratorium should be extended ... We also believe that talks should press on until complete.
Abbas welcomed Obama's words.
The president (Abbas) expressed his full readiness to cooperate with the American efforts to make the peace process succeed,the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said.(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Paul Taylor)
Obama urges Arabs and Israel to support fragile talks By Alister Bull and Patrick Worsnip – Thu Sep 23, 8:08 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – President Barack Obama urged Israel on Thursday to extend its partial freeze on settlement-building and Arab states to move toward normal ties with the Jewish state to help keep fragile peace talks alive.Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly three weeks after Israeli and Palestinian officials resumed direct peace talks, Obama urged world leaders to make sure this time is different from previous failed efforts to end the six-decade conflict.The U.S. president spoke on the opening day of the annual, 192-nation gathering amid global disagreements on issues from Iran's nuclear program to a maritime dispute between Japan and China and a U.S.-China currency spat.In talks on the sidelines of the U.N. meeting, Obama urged Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to take rapid steps to address the dispute over the yuan's value, U.S. officials said, making clear he wants it to rise further and faster.The U.S. president also told Iran the United States remained open to diplomacy to resolve questions about its nuclear program, which Washington believes aims to develop weapons despite Tehran's denials.But U.S.-Iranian animosities resurfaced almost immediately when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the assembly most people believe the U.S. government was behind the attacks of September 11, 2001, on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.That prompted a walkout by the U.S. and several European delegations, which have also walked out during past speeches by Ahmadinejad at the United Nations because of anti-American or anti-Israeli comments.
Speaking about four miles from the Ground Zero site where the World Trade Center once stood, Ahmadinejad gave no hint of interest in Obama's offer of a diplomatic solution to the nuclear dispute.Obama devoted much of his somewhat subdued, roughly half-hour speech to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.The U.S.-brokered talks are in danger of collapsing almost before they have begun because of the September 30 expiration of Israel's self-imposed, partial moratorium on new construction in Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank.Israel's refusal so far to maintain the freeze -- and the Palestinians' threat to walk out if it does not -- have imperiled the negotiations, which aim to resolve the main issues in the conflict within a year.
We believe that the moratorium should be extended, Obama said.We also believe that talks should press on until completed. ... Now is the time for this opportunity to be seized, so that it doesn't slip away.
GLOBAL MESSAGE
Obama, who brought the Israeli and Palestinian leaders together in Washington on September 2 to restart direct talks after a 20-month hiatus, argued that Arab states must show Israel how much it has to gain from seeking peace.He urged countries that back the Palestinians to follow through with political and financial support and said they must stop trying to tear Israel down and take tangible steps toward normalization with the Jewish state.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose coalition government is dominated by pro-settler parties, has said he will not extend the construction moratorium but could limit the scope of further building in some settlements.Israel's delegation was absent from the assembly hall, but a spokeswoman for the Israeli U.N. mission said it was due to the Jewish holiday of Sukkoth. It's not a boycott, she said.The African Union urged the United Nations to put genocide and war crimes charges against Sudan's leader on hold, warning they could destabilize Africa's biggest nation and endanger an upcoming referendum on southern independence. Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika called for a one-year deferral of the International Criminal Court case against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, charged with crimes in Sudan's western Darfur region.(Additional reporting by Alister Bull and Lou Charbonneau at the United Nations and Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem; Writing by Arshad Mohammed and Patrick Worsnip; Editing by Eric Walsh)
Israeli police, Palestinians clash in Jerusalem
– Thu Sep 23, 3:16 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Stone-throwing youths clashed with Israeli police in an Arab area of east Jerusalem on Thursday, an AFP journalist said, a day after violence was sparked when a Jewish settlement guard shot dead a Palestinian.Police fired tear gas grenades and water cannon to disperse groups of youths hurling stones and burning tyres in the Issawiya district of the holy city.Jerusalem police spokesman Shmulik Ben Rubi said there were no casualties or arrests, adding that it was now calm again, apart from some sporadic clashes.The fighting on Wednesday erupted when Arab residents of the Silwan neighbourhood stoned a security guard in his vehicle and he opened fire, police said.Witnesses said another two Palestinians were wounded in the shooting, and several were injured later as police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters in and around Silwan.There were also sporadic clashes in Silwan in the evening (Thursday) between security forces and stone-throwers, the police spokesman said.The violence came as negotiators sought to reach a compromise on the impending end of a partial settlement moratorium that threatens to torpedo Israeli-Palestinian peace talks relaunched earlier this month.
U.N. experts condemn Israel attack on Gaza flotilla
– Wed Sep 22, 11:31 pm ET
GENEVA (Reuters) – An attack by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May was unlawful and resulted in violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, a panel of international experts said on Wednesday.The three experts, nominated by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the Israeli attack in which nine pro-Palestinian activists -- eight Turks and one Turkish American -- were killed, also said that Israel's blockade of Gaza had caused a humanitarian crisis and was unlawful.The experts -- judges from Britain and Trinidad and a Malaysian human rights campaigner -- said in a report that the Israeli military's action had used disproportionate force and totally unnecessary and incredible violence in intercepting the flotilla.It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality. Such conduct cannot be justified or condoned on security or any other grounds, they said in the report, to be submitted to the rights council on September 27.It constituted grave violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law.The three experts said Israel had a right to security, and the firing of rockets into Israel from Hamas-controlled Gaza also constituted violations of humanitarian law.But the Israeli blockade of Gaza amounted to collective punishment of the civilian population and was not lawful in any circumstances, they said.The rights experts, who were not allowed to enter Israel, said Israel had refused to cooperate with their mission, and called on the Israeli authorities to identify those involved in the violence and prosecute them.Israel, which says pro-Palestinian activists on the boat were killed when they attacked its commandos, had said from the outset it would not work with the probe by the rights council.
Many nations believe the council, on which Islamic states and their allies have a majority, focuses on Israeli treatment of Palestinians at the expense of other rights issues.Israel has said it would cooperate with another U.N. probe convened by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon into the incident, which damaged Israel's ties with Turkey.Israel is also conducting its own inquiry.Monday's session of the rights council will also examine another report by experts on the follow-up investigations by Israeli and Palestinian authorities into the 2008-2009 Gaza conflict. That report has found the probes were inadequate.(Reporting by Jonathan Lynn, editing by Tim Pearce)
Israel's Russian migrants an obstacle to peace: Bill Clinton
– Wed Sep 22, 8:23 pm ET
NEW YORK (AFP) – Russian immigrants to Israel are a key obstacle to reaching peace with the Palestinians, according to ex-US president Bill Clinton -- words that elicited a terse reaction from Israel's leader.Clinton, speaking Tuesday at the annual Clinton Global Initiative conference, said that an increasing number of members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are the children of Russians and settlers, the hardest-core people against a division of the land.This presents a staggering problem, according to an account in Foreign Policy magazine. It's a different Israel. 16 percent of Israelis speak Russian.According to Clinton, who was president from 1993-2001, Israel's Russian immigrants are those least interested in reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians.They've just got there, it's their country, they've made a commitment to the future there, Clinton said. They can't imagine any historical or other claims that would justify dividing it.In Clinton's view, the most pro-peace Jewish Israelis are the native-born Israelis who can trace their family roots back for centuries and more.They can imagine sharing a future because they can see events in historical context, he said.
Those next most supportive of a peace deal are the Jews who emigrated from Europe and have been in Israel for one or more generations.Clinton described the North African Jews who immigrated to Israel in the 1970s as the swing voters.When they think peace is possible, they vote peace. When they think it's not, they vote for the toughest guys on the block, Clinton said.On Wednesday, the office Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a terse statement saying that the Israeli leader regrets the comments.As a friend of Israel, Bill Clinton surely knows that immigrants from the former Soviet Union have contributed and continue to contribute greatly to the progress, development and strength of the Israel Defense Forces and to the state of Israel, read the statement, quoting Netanyahu.Only a strong Israel can bring about a secure and stable peace, Netanyahu said.Bill Clinton's wife, Hillary Clinton, is the US secretary of state.
Egypt accuses Israel of chutzpah at nuclear meet
– Wed Sep 22, 8:15 am ET
VIENNA – Egypt accused Israel on Wednesday of displaying chutzpah — blatant shamelessness — in unusually harsh comments at a 151-nation meeting on the issue of a nuclear-free Mideast.The remarks at the International Atomic Energy Agency's general conference reflect the bitterness dividing Arab nations and Israel and its supporters over whether Israel should open up its nuclear program to the U.N. watchdog's perusal.The Egyptians issued the statement Wednesday after Israel accused Egypt of unfairly singling out the Jewish state while ignoring its own commitments to the IAEA.Egyptian delegate Aly Omar Sirry characterized those comments as demonstrating the full meaning of the world chutzpah — a Hebrew world for blatant shamelessness.Israel is commonly considered to be the only Mideast nation with nuclear weapons.The conference votes this week on an Arab-sponsored resolution urging Israel to open its nuclear activities to inspection.
Quartet urges Israel settlement freeze
by Ron Bousso – Tue Sep 21, 9:39 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The world sponsors of the Middle East peace process urged Israel to extend its settlement freeze after Palestinians warned the thorny issue could derail fledgling peace talks.The Quartet, comprised of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly as Israeli and Palestinians held talks in an effort to defuse the crisis.The Quartet noted that the commendable Israeli settlement moratorium instituted last November has had a positive impact and urged its continuation, it said in a statement after its representatives met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.It also urged both sides to promote an environment conducive to progress, including by refraining from provocative actions and inflammatory rhetoric.A planned press conference following the meeting was nevertheless called off at the last minute with officials citing an electricity cut as the reason.The dispute over the settlements has threatened to undermine the fledgling efforts by the United States to revive the Middle East peace talks after their official launch in Washington last month following a nearly two-year hiatus.Shortly before the Quartet meeting, a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who is in New York for talks, said the next 10 days will be key for the future of the Middle East peace talks.
The next 10 days will be decisive and determine the fate of the direct negotiations with Israel, Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.There is a very large international effort made to overcome the obstacles in the way of direct negotiations. In particular, the obstacle of the settlements, he said.The Palestinians have repeatedly demanded that Israel extend a 10-month freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, which expires next week.Abbas said after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the world must understand our need to halt settlement activity.But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refused to extend the partial ban despite the urging of US President Barack Obama. He has hinted, however, he would confine building to major settlement blocs.We said there would be no preconditions (to starting talks,) so you can't come after five minutes with conditions, Netanyahu said Tuesday, referring to Abbas's threat.Israeli deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon told AFP that the two sides should find a middle of the road solution, but that ultimately the future of the settlements will be decided by the borders of the future Palestinian state.Abbas and senior Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, are in the United States for talks on the peace process.Netanyahu's top advisor Yitzhak Molkho and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat held talks in New York earlier on Tuesday, according to an Israeli official.
The deadline for the end of the freeze is widely accepted as September 26, 10 months and a day after the original cabinet decision expires. But a military order regarding the moratorium states it will only close on October 1.US Middle East envoy George Mitchell said last week that talks between Israelis and Palestinians had made progress on the settlements issue. He also said the two leaders again tackled the issues at the heart of their decades-old conflict -- Israel's security, the borders of a future Palestinian state, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.Some 500,000 Israelis live in more than 120 Jewish settlements across the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories expected to form the bulk of a future Palestinian state.In the meantime, the committee coordinating international funds to support the Palestinian Authority's institutions and economy said that a new international donor conference will be announced later this year.
Anti Settler Discrimination by Josh Hasten
Yesha residents of even so-called consensus communities including Gush Etzion are treated as if living in an entirely different country altogether. After moving with my family from Jerusalem to the Gush Etzion settlement of Elazar just several weeks ago, it makes perfect sense to me how the democratic government of the State of Israel was able to implement a draconian ten month building freeze (so far) on Jewish construction and get away with such a discriminatory policy with very little opposition. True, those who were directly affected by the freeze as well as other Yesha residents and Yesha leaders protested the move, but the majority of the country remained silent as people’s lives were so abruptly disrupted. Think about it, Israelis who were sent by their leadership to live in these areas, both by governments on the left and on the right, were deprived of their basic right to expand homes to accommodate growth, or to build homes on new plots, while those Israelis who make a living in the construction industry had to seek alternative sources of income or barely scrape to get by.So what has my brief experience as a so-called settler taught me that would allow this policy implementation? The answer is rather simple: I have learned that Jews who live in lands acquired by Israel in 1967 through a defensive war of survival whether they are religious or secular, Ashkenazi or Sephardi, new olim or born sabras, are viewed and treated as second class citizens by the establishment. I would go so far as to say that it’s as if Yesha residents of even so-called consensus communities including as Gush Etzion are living in an entirely different country altogether.
Here are some examples: Why is it that in the year 2010 living just 15 minutes away from our capital city of Jerusalem I don’t have access to cable television? Yes, satellite is an option, but shouldn’t I at least have the choice? Also, why is it that while Jordan’s top-40 pop music station comes in crystal clear I can’t seem to tune in to Israel Army radio’s Galgalatz music station? In addition, there are many areas throughout the Gush that my cell phone provider Orange does not offer reception, thus leaving me without a phone for business calls personal calls, or in case of emergency. In fact Arutz 7 reported that the couple who miraculously survived a drive by shooting carried out by Arab terrorists near Rimonim several weeks ago was lucky that they recently changed from Orange to another provider. If they hadn’t who knows how they would have been able to contact emergency crews
thus saving their lives.And just the other day a shipping company dropped off some newly purchased appliances and the delivery man wanted to charge an outrageous additional delivery fee in addition to the normal fees just because in his words we were living over the green line. We refused to pay the fee and after some heating bickering, he decided to release the merchandise without us having to pay the penalty. And you thought it was only the European Union that instituted similar measures.Despite the fact that I now feel like second class citizen I have absolutely no regrets about making the move. While Jerusalem was a wonderful place to live, life in a Yeshuv is unparalleled. We were welcomed into the community by our neighbors and new friends with sucha sense of warmth. Whether it was instant invitations for Shabbat meals, people stopping by to say hello and to drop off welcomin platters of cookies and cake or just offering a helping hand to get settled, we knew right away that our klitah to Yeshuv life would be most pleasant. Throw in the fact that our kids are enjoying their new found freedom and are spending much more time in the outdoors exploring, we knew we made the right decision.But the question remains, how can residents of post-1967 Israel explain to our fellow countrymen living in Israel proper, that we deserve to be treated as equals? I think the first step is to invite the typical center of the country Tel-Aviv Israeli to see what life is like in a Yesha community. I know that the Yesha Council along with some of the other local municipalities have recently launched an initiative inviting high profile journalists, businessmen, and community leaders on tours throughout Yesha to show them that we are not a bunch of gun-toting messianic crazies, but are just regular people trying to make a living and raise our families in a good environment like everyone else.
I think these tours, which focus on community instead of security are a step in the right direction and should be regularly available to all Israelis who want to explore outside their comfort zone. At the end of the day these trips can provide crucial education, which is key to understanding the realities of the situation on the ground. If they are willing to come visit, those opportunities should be readily available.Once that happens and people are given eye opening experiences, hopefully there will be a paradigm shift very soon perhaps I’ll be able to sing along with Galgalatz like the rest of the country.Tishrei 8, 5771 / 16 September 10
SEPT 25,10 10:45AM
JERUSALEM – An Israeli lawmaker says Jewish settlers have hauled construction equipment into a settlement deep inside the West Bank in preparation for the end of a construction moratorium.The end of the settlement slowdown presents the first major crisis in Mideast peace talks launched early this month in Washington.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who imposed the slowdown 10 months ago as a peace gesture, says he will not extend the restrictions. But the Palestinians say they will not continue negotiations if building resumes. The U.S. is trying to broker a compromise.Pro-settler lawmaker Danny Danon said Saturday that activists plan to lay the cornerstone of a new neighborhood in the Revava settlement Sunday, the last day of the slowdown.He said further construction is planned Monday.
Intense US efforts fail again to break Mideast deadlock by Lachlan Carmichael – Sat Sep 25, 3:16 am ET
NEW YORK (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will meet for a second day of talks Saturday, after failing to break the deadlock between Israelis and Palestinians.Clinton has sought to use her clout to bring renewed impetus to the flagging peace process, and has persuaded the two sides to go back to the negotiating table for the first time after a 20-month hiatus.
But the talks are overshadowed by the end of an Israeli moratorium on settlement building, with the Palestinians threatening to walk out of the fledgling peace talks if it is allowed to expire as planned on Sunday.
The pair met in New York on Friday after US officials bluntly told both the Israelis and Palestinians not to wreck the fledgling peace negotiations.Abbas had earlier rejected an Israeli suggestion that a compromise may be possible ahead of the scheduled end of the moratorium.Our efforts will continue, Clinton spokesman Philip Crowley said after Abbas and the chief US diplomat met for 25 minutes on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.Nothing new until now, Abbas told AFP after emerging from his evening meeting with Clinton, noting the two would meet again on Saturday.Abbas advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina said: We're discussing American efforts about the continuation of the negotiations.A senior Israeli government official said the Jewish state was willing to cut a deal acceptable to the United States and the Palestinians, after US President Barack Obama's call for the moratorium to be extended.But he also stressed that there cannot be zero construction in West Bank settlements, a compromise Abbas rejected as a partial solution.A total freeze must be maintained on settlement activity in the Palestinian territories, including in Jerusalem,Abu Rudeina said, adding that Abbas rejected any compromise that does not guarantee a complete halt to all settlement activity.
US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman echoed a toughening US line toward both the Palestinians and the Israelis.At this point, we are urging both sides to create the atmosphere that is most conducive to a successful conclusion to the negotiations, he said.We don't think either side should be using the threat to walk out, to interrupt the process.He acknowledged the discussions are pretty intense right now as Washington tries to keep the negotiations on track.Arab League chief Amr Mussa, in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, told reporters that Israel must show a readiness to extend the freeze if the peace talks are to continue.Obama on Thursday firmly urged Israel to extend the moratorium. On the same day, he issued a passionate call at the UN General Assembly for the world to back his peace drive.On Friday, Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Israelis and Palestinians to do all they can to sustain the direct peace talks. The previous round of direct negotiations collapsed when Israel launched a devastating military offensive on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in December 2008.Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not appear to have made any progress towards narrowing their differences during talks last week in Egypt and in Jerusalem attended by Clinton.US officials have suggested a three-month extension to the moratorium, during which the two sides could agree on borders, which could neutralize the settlements dispute, a senior Palestinian official said.
Abbas told AFP this week he was not opposed to a settlement freeze for a month or two.The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, to be illegal. Some 500,000 Israelis live in more than 120 Jewish settlements across the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories expected to form the bulk of a future Palestinian state.Israel captured Arab east Jerusalem in 1967, and considers the city its eternal and indivisible capital.
Another core issue that has eluded six decades of peacemaking efforts is Palestinian refugees.The Palestinians want Israel to recognize the right of return of those who fled or were expelled when the Jewish state was created in 1948. With their descendants, they number 4.7 million people.
Israel rejects the demand.
US-backed Abbas and his secular Palestinian party Fatah only control the West Bank since the Islamist movement Hamas routed out his forces from the Gaza Strip in 2007.
The two movements have been deadly enemies ever since, but on Friday, Fatah and Hamas leaders held reconciliation talks in Damascus and said they wanted the discussions to continue.
US striving for peace between Israel and Syria
– Fri Sep 24, 11:04 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The United States would like to see Israel and Syria settle their differences as part of a comprehensive peace in the Middle East, a top US official said.We want to get to a comprehensive peace. It has to include a Syria-Israel track. It's absolutely essential that Syria be part of this process, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeff Feltman told reporters.He said Monday's meeting in New York between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem will take place in that spirit.We have a lot of differences with Syria. Those differences aren't going to disappear overnight. But we also recognize that it is certainly in our interest to do what we can to engage the Syrians and the Israelis in a peace process that can lead to a comprehensive peace, said Feltman.He also hoped Arab nations continue and expand support to PA (Palestinian Authority) and find ways to signal what are the benefits to Israel from a Middle East peace.Clinton and Mouallem's meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly will be their second since their brief, March 2009 encounter in Egypt during a donor conference for the Gaza strip.US-Syria relations have been improving since US President Barack Obama took office in January 2009.
Israel plays down scope of future settler projects
By Dan Williams – Fri Sep 24, 11:18 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel urged the Palestinians Friday not to abandon recently resumed peace negotiations over the imminent expiry of a West Bank settlement moratorium, saying any new construction projects would be limited in scope.The scheduled end Sunday of the 10-month partial halt to building in Jewish settlements has drawn Palestinian threats to quit the talks sponsored by President Barack Obama, who has repeatedly called on Israel to extend the freeze.Obama renewed his appeal from the rostrum of the United Nations General Assembly Thursday, raising pressure on the Jewish state.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose rightist coalition government includes pro-settler parties, has so far deflected Obama's pleas. But he has also said renewed construction in the settlements might be on a reduced scale.Netanyahu was in contact with U.S. and other world leaders, and had envoys working with the Americans, as part of intensive efforts to find a mutually agreed compromise to the issue of the moratorium ending, an Israeli official said Friday.If this is going to work, it must be a two-way street, the official said.It also has to be said that the plan for building in the West Bank in the coming year is so modest that in no way would they impact on the parameters for a peace deal.
The official, who declined to be named, would not elaborate on what Israel had offered to, or asked of, the Palestinians in recent contacts.Among stop-gap ideas floated by Israeli officials has been resuming full construction in settlement blocs which the Jewish state would eventually annex, while scaling back projects in isolated settlements. Another has been for Israel to ration approval for new buildings de facto, without a formal freeze.But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly stated he would not accept a renewal of building in the settlements and has threatened to pull out of peace talks if they resume.The president will not agree on even a single new house in the settlements, a senior Abbas aide told Reuters Friday.Officials close to the talks said last week that Netanyahu had turned down a proposal to extend the moratorium by 3 months.
OBAMA SAYS TALKS SHOULD CARRY ON
The Palestinians want the West Bank as part of their future state and say all settlement construction must stop because the projects prejudge future borders. The World Court regards the settlements, built on land occupied in the 1967 war, as illegal.Netanyahu's office quoted him in a statement as saying that continued settlement construction had not blocked previous rounds of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations dating back to 1993.Neither did those talks always include a condition set by Netanyahu and rejected by the Palestinians -- that they recognize Israel as a Jewish nation-state.If the Palestinians want peace, they will stay in the talks with us, in order to reach a framework agreement within a year,Netanyahu said. I hope the Palestinians will not leave the talks and will not turn their back on peace.
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly Thursday, Obama envisaged the foundations of a Palestinian state being in place in a year and said: We believe that the moratorium should be extended ... We also believe that talks should press on until complete.
Abbas welcomed Obama's words.
The president (Abbas) expressed his full readiness to cooperate with the American efforts to make the peace process succeed,the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said.(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Paul Taylor)
Obama urges Arabs and Israel to support fragile talks By Alister Bull and Patrick Worsnip – Thu Sep 23, 8:08 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – President Barack Obama urged Israel on Thursday to extend its partial freeze on settlement-building and Arab states to move toward normal ties with the Jewish state to help keep fragile peace talks alive.Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly three weeks after Israeli and Palestinian officials resumed direct peace talks, Obama urged world leaders to make sure this time is different from previous failed efforts to end the six-decade conflict.The U.S. president spoke on the opening day of the annual, 192-nation gathering amid global disagreements on issues from Iran's nuclear program to a maritime dispute between Japan and China and a U.S.-China currency spat.In talks on the sidelines of the U.N. meeting, Obama urged Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to take rapid steps to address the dispute over the yuan's value, U.S. officials said, making clear he wants it to rise further and faster.The U.S. president also told Iran the United States remained open to diplomacy to resolve questions about its nuclear program, which Washington believes aims to develop weapons despite Tehran's denials.But U.S.-Iranian animosities resurfaced almost immediately when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the assembly most people believe the U.S. government was behind the attacks of September 11, 2001, on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.That prompted a walkout by the U.S. and several European delegations, which have also walked out during past speeches by Ahmadinejad at the United Nations because of anti-American or anti-Israeli comments.
Speaking about four miles from the Ground Zero site where the World Trade Center once stood, Ahmadinejad gave no hint of interest in Obama's offer of a diplomatic solution to the nuclear dispute.Obama devoted much of his somewhat subdued, roughly half-hour speech to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.The U.S.-brokered talks are in danger of collapsing almost before they have begun because of the September 30 expiration of Israel's self-imposed, partial moratorium on new construction in Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank.Israel's refusal so far to maintain the freeze -- and the Palestinians' threat to walk out if it does not -- have imperiled the negotiations, which aim to resolve the main issues in the conflict within a year.
We believe that the moratorium should be extended, Obama said.We also believe that talks should press on until completed. ... Now is the time for this opportunity to be seized, so that it doesn't slip away.
GLOBAL MESSAGE
Obama, who brought the Israeli and Palestinian leaders together in Washington on September 2 to restart direct talks after a 20-month hiatus, argued that Arab states must show Israel how much it has to gain from seeking peace.He urged countries that back the Palestinians to follow through with political and financial support and said they must stop trying to tear Israel down and take tangible steps toward normalization with the Jewish state.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose coalition government is dominated by pro-settler parties, has said he will not extend the construction moratorium but could limit the scope of further building in some settlements.Israel's delegation was absent from the assembly hall, but a spokeswoman for the Israeli U.N. mission said it was due to the Jewish holiday of Sukkoth. It's not a boycott, she said.The African Union urged the United Nations to put genocide and war crimes charges against Sudan's leader on hold, warning they could destabilize Africa's biggest nation and endanger an upcoming referendum on southern independence. Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika called for a one-year deferral of the International Criminal Court case against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, charged with crimes in Sudan's western Darfur region.(Additional reporting by Alister Bull and Lou Charbonneau at the United Nations and Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem; Writing by Arshad Mohammed and Patrick Worsnip; Editing by Eric Walsh)
Israeli police, Palestinians clash in Jerusalem
– Thu Sep 23, 3:16 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Stone-throwing youths clashed with Israeli police in an Arab area of east Jerusalem on Thursday, an AFP journalist said, a day after violence was sparked when a Jewish settlement guard shot dead a Palestinian.Police fired tear gas grenades and water cannon to disperse groups of youths hurling stones and burning tyres in the Issawiya district of the holy city.Jerusalem police spokesman Shmulik Ben Rubi said there were no casualties or arrests, adding that it was now calm again, apart from some sporadic clashes.The fighting on Wednesday erupted when Arab residents of the Silwan neighbourhood stoned a security guard in his vehicle and he opened fire, police said.Witnesses said another two Palestinians were wounded in the shooting, and several were injured later as police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters in and around Silwan.There were also sporadic clashes in Silwan in the evening (Thursday) between security forces and stone-throwers, the police spokesman said.The violence came as negotiators sought to reach a compromise on the impending end of a partial settlement moratorium that threatens to torpedo Israeli-Palestinian peace talks relaunched earlier this month.
U.N. experts condemn Israel attack on Gaza flotilla
– Wed Sep 22, 11:31 pm ET
GENEVA (Reuters) – An attack by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May was unlawful and resulted in violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, a panel of international experts said on Wednesday.The three experts, nominated by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the Israeli attack in which nine pro-Palestinian activists -- eight Turks and one Turkish American -- were killed, also said that Israel's blockade of Gaza had caused a humanitarian crisis and was unlawful.The experts -- judges from Britain and Trinidad and a Malaysian human rights campaigner -- said in a report that the Israeli military's action had used disproportionate force and totally unnecessary and incredible violence in intercepting the flotilla.It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality. Such conduct cannot be justified or condoned on security or any other grounds, they said in the report, to be submitted to the rights council on September 27.It constituted grave violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law.The three experts said Israel had a right to security, and the firing of rockets into Israel from Hamas-controlled Gaza also constituted violations of humanitarian law.But the Israeli blockade of Gaza amounted to collective punishment of the civilian population and was not lawful in any circumstances, they said.The rights experts, who were not allowed to enter Israel, said Israel had refused to cooperate with their mission, and called on the Israeli authorities to identify those involved in the violence and prosecute them.Israel, which says pro-Palestinian activists on the boat were killed when they attacked its commandos, had said from the outset it would not work with the probe by the rights council.
Many nations believe the council, on which Islamic states and their allies have a majority, focuses on Israeli treatment of Palestinians at the expense of other rights issues.Israel has said it would cooperate with another U.N. probe convened by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon into the incident, which damaged Israel's ties with Turkey.Israel is also conducting its own inquiry.Monday's session of the rights council will also examine another report by experts on the follow-up investigations by Israeli and Palestinian authorities into the 2008-2009 Gaza conflict. That report has found the probes were inadequate.(Reporting by Jonathan Lynn, editing by Tim Pearce)
Israel's Russian migrants an obstacle to peace: Bill Clinton
– Wed Sep 22, 8:23 pm ET
NEW YORK (AFP) – Russian immigrants to Israel are a key obstacle to reaching peace with the Palestinians, according to ex-US president Bill Clinton -- words that elicited a terse reaction from Israel's leader.Clinton, speaking Tuesday at the annual Clinton Global Initiative conference, said that an increasing number of members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are the children of Russians and settlers, the hardest-core people against a division of the land.This presents a staggering problem, according to an account in Foreign Policy magazine. It's a different Israel. 16 percent of Israelis speak Russian.According to Clinton, who was president from 1993-2001, Israel's Russian immigrants are those least interested in reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians.They've just got there, it's their country, they've made a commitment to the future there, Clinton said. They can't imagine any historical or other claims that would justify dividing it.In Clinton's view, the most pro-peace Jewish Israelis are the native-born Israelis who can trace their family roots back for centuries and more.They can imagine sharing a future because they can see events in historical context, he said.
Those next most supportive of a peace deal are the Jews who emigrated from Europe and have been in Israel for one or more generations.Clinton described the North African Jews who immigrated to Israel in the 1970s as the swing voters.When they think peace is possible, they vote peace. When they think it's not, they vote for the toughest guys on the block, Clinton said.On Wednesday, the office Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a terse statement saying that the Israeli leader regrets the comments.As a friend of Israel, Bill Clinton surely knows that immigrants from the former Soviet Union have contributed and continue to contribute greatly to the progress, development and strength of the Israel Defense Forces and to the state of Israel, read the statement, quoting Netanyahu.Only a strong Israel can bring about a secure and stable peace, Netanyahu said.Bill Clinton's wife, Hillary Clinton, is the US secretary of state.
Egypt accuses Israel of chutzpah at nuclear meet
– Wed Sep 22, 8:15 am ET
VIENNA – Egypt accused Israel on Wednesday of displaying chutzpah — blatant shamelessness — in unusually harsh comments at a 151-nation meeting on the issue of a nuclear-free Mideast.The remarks at the International Atomic Energy Agency's general conference reflect the bitterness dividing Arab nations and Israel and its supporters over whether Israel should open up its nuclear program to the U.N. watchdog's perusal.The Egyptians issued the statement Wednesday after Israel accused Egypt of unfairly singling out the Jewish state while ignoring its own commitments to the IAEA.Egyptian delegate Aly Omar Sirry characterized those comments as demonstrating the full meaning of the world chutzpah — a Hebrew world for blatant shamelessness.Israel is commonly considered to be the only Mideast nation with nuclear weapons.The conference votes this week on an Arab-sponsored resolution urging Israel to open its nuclear activities to inspection.
Quartet urges Israel settlement freeze
by Ron Bousso – Tue Sep 21, 9:39 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The world sponsors of the Middle East peace process urged Israel to extend its settlement freeze after Palestinians warned the thorny issue could derail fledgling peace talks.The Quartet, comprised of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly as Israeli and Palestinians held talks in an effort to defuse the crisis.The Quartet noted that the commendable Israeli settlement moratorium instituted last November has had a positive impact and urged its continuation, it said in a statement after its representatives met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.It also urged both sides to promote an environment conducive to progress, including by refraining from provocative actions and inflammatory rhetoric.A planned press conference following the meeting was nevertheless called off at the last minute with officials citing an electricity cut as the reason.The dispute over the settlements has threatened to undermine the fledgling efforts by the United States to revive the Middle East peace talks after their official launch in Washington last month following a nearly two-year hiatus.Shortly before the Quartet meeting, a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who is in New York for talks, said the next 10 days will be key for the future of the Middle East peace talks.
The next 10 days will be decisive and determine the fate of the direct negotiations with Israel, Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.There is a very large international effort made to overcome the obstacles in the way of direct negotiations. In particular, the obstacle of the settlements, he said.The Palestinians have repeatedly demanded that Israel extend a 10-month freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, which expires next week.Abbas said after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the world must understand our need to halt settlement activity.But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refused to extend the partial ban despite the urging of US President Barack Obama. He has hinted, however, he would confine building to major settlement blocs.We said there would be no preconditions (to starting talks,) so you can't come after five minutes with conditions, Netanyahu said Tuesday, referring to Abbas's threat.Israeli deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon told AFP that the two sides should find a middle of the road solution, but that ultimately the future of the settlements will be decided by the borders of the future Palestinian state.Abbas and senior Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, are in the United States for talks on the peace process.Netanyahu's top advisor Yitzhak Molkho and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat held talks in New York earlier on Tuesday, according to an Israeli official.
The deadline for the end of the freeze is widely accepted as September 26, 10 months and a day after the original cabinet decision expires. But a military order regarding the moratorium states it will only close on October 1.US Middle East envoy George Mitchell said last week that talks between Israelis and Palestinians had made progress on the settlements issue. He also said the two leaders again tackled the issues at the heart of their decades-old conflict -- Israel's security, the borders of a future Palestinian state, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.Some 500,000 Israelis live in more than 120 Jewish settlements across the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories expected to form the bulk of a future Palestinian state.In the meantime, the committee coordinating international funds to support the Palestinian Authority's institutions and economy said that a new international donor conference will be announced later this year.
Anti Settler Discrimination by Josh Hasten
Yesha residents of even so-called consensus communities including Gush Etzion are treated as if living in an entirely different country altogether. After moving with my family from Jerusalem to the Gush Etzion settlement of Elazar just several weeks ago, it makes perfect sense to me how the democratic government of the State of Israel was able to implement a draconian ten month building freeze (so far) on Jewish construction and get away with such a discriminatory policy with very little opposition. True, those who were directly affected by the freeze as well as other Yesha residents and Yesha leaders protested the move, but the majority of the country remained silent as people’s lives were so abruptly disrupted. Think about it, Israelis who were sent by their leadership to live in these areas, both by governments on the left and on the right, were deprived of their basic right to expand homes to accommodate growth, or to build homes on new plots, while those Israelis who make a living in the construction industry had to seek alternative sources of income or barely scrape to get by.So what has my brief experience as a so-called settler taught me that would allow this policy implementation? The answer is rather simple: I have learned that Jews who live in lands acquired by Israel in 1967 through a defensive war of survival whether they are religious or secular, Ashkenazi or Sephardi, new olim or born sabras, are viewed and treated as second class citizens by the establishment. I would go so far as to say that it’s as if Yesha residents of even so-called consensus communities including as Gush Etzion are living in an entirely different country altogether.
Here are some examples: Why is it that in the year 2010 living just 15 minutes away from our capital city of Jerusalem I don’t have access to cable television? Yes, satellite is an option, but shouldn’t I at least have the choice? Also, why is it that while Jordan’s top-40 pop music station comes in crystal clear I can’t seem to tune in to Israel Army radio’s Galgalatz music station? In addition, there are many areas throughout the Gush that my cell phone provider Orange does not offer reception, thus leaving me without a phone for business calls personal calls, or in case of emergency. In fact Arutz 7 reported that the couple who miraculously survived a drive by shooting carried out by Arab terrorists near Rimonim several weeks ago was lucky that they recently changed from Orange to another provider. If they hadn’t who knows how they would have been able to contact emergency crews
thus saving their lives.And just the other day a shipping company dropped off some newly purchased appliances and the delivery man wanted to charge an outrageous additional delivery fee in addition to the normal fees just because in his words we were living over the green line. We refused to pay the fee and after some heating bickering, he decided to release the merchandise without us having to pay the penalty. And you thought it was only the European Union that instituted similar measures.Despite the fact that I now feel like second class citizen I have absolutely no regrets about making the move. While Jerusalem was a wonderful place to live, life in a Yeshuv is unparalleled. We were welcomed into the community by our neighbors and new friends with sucha sense of warmth. Whether it was instant invitations for Shabbat meals, people stopping by to say hello and to drop off welcomin platters of cookies and cake or just offering a helping hand to get settled, we knew right away that our klitah to Yeshuv life would be most pleasant. Throw in the fact that our kids are enjoying their new found freedom and are spending much more time in the outdoors exploring, we knew we made the right decision.But the question remains, how can residents of post-1967 Israel explain to our fellow countrymen living in Israel proper, that we deserve to be treated as equals? I think the first step is to invite the typical center of the country Tel-Aviv Israeli to see what life is like in a Yesha community. I know that the Yesha Council along with some of the other local municipalities have recently launched an initiative inviting high profile journalists, businessmen, and community leaders on tours throughout Yesha to show them that we are not a bunch of gun-toting messianic crazies, but are just regular people trying to make a living and raise our families in a good environment like everyone else.
I think these tours, which focus on community instead of security are a step in the right direction and should be regularly available to all Israelis who want to explore outside their comfort zone. At the end of the day these trips can provide crucial education, which is key to understanding the realities of the situation on the ground. If they are willing to come visit, those opportunities should be readily available.Once that happens and people are given eye opening experiences, hopefully there will be a paradigm shift very soon perhaps I’ll be able to sing along with Galgalatz like the rest of the country.Tishrei 8, 5771 / 16 September 10
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
ISRAELI TROOPS ON PALESTINIAN BORDER-NETANYAHU
Premier wants Israeli troops at Palestinian border By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer 8:30AM SEPT 21,10
JERUSALEM – Israel's leader is demanding that Israeli troops remain on the eastern border of a future Palestinian state, further antagonizing the Palestinians at a time when they are already threatening to walk out of peace talks.The negotiations, which resumed this month in Washington after a two-year breakdown, are foundering over Palestinian demands that Israel extend a curb on Jewish construction in the West Bank. That curb, in place for 10 months, is to expire Sunday.Israel's military chief told lawmakers on Tuesday that the military was preparing for possible clashes between Israelis and Palestinians should the negotiations run aground.Resolution of the construction dispute is critical to the fate of the peace talks because the Palestinians say they won't negotiate unless the construction slowdown continues.
For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the cardinal factor for Israel in any peace deal is the Jewish state's security. He has contended that Israel must maintain a troop presence along the border with Jordan to keep Palestinian militants from smuggling in weapons to the West Bank after a peace deal is reached.On Monday, Netanyahu drove home this position in great detail — angering the Palestinians, who flatly reject the idea as an infringement of their prospective sovereignty. They have proposed that an international force be deployed instead.I don't believe that under these circumstances, international troops will do the job, Netanyahu said in a conference call with U.S. Jewish leaders. The only force that can be relied on to defend the Jewish people is the Israeli Defense Force.That will never happen, said Palestinian spokesman Husam Zomlot, adding that not one Israeli soldier will be permitted to remain in a future Palestinian state.An international presence will be able to monitor and enforce security once the political situation has been sorted (out), Zomlot said.Military chief Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi underscored concerns of possible violence should the talks falter.The Palestinians have very sober expectations regarding progress and in Israel, tensions exist among the Jewish population ahead of the expiry of the settlement construction freeze, the Haaretz newspaper quoted Ashkenazi as telling parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee. He said the military was planning for an eruption of violence, but details weren't immediately known.Under intense U.S. pressure, Israel agreed in November to slow West Bank settlement construction to help lure the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. Netanyahu maintains his coalition government, dominated by hard-line parties that champion settlement construction, would be fractured if the slowdown were to be extended.Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau told Army Radio he would advance plans to build hundreds of millions of dollars in water and sewer projects for the settlements. Right-wing lawmakers plan to hold a celebration Sunday in the West Bank settlement of Revava, where, they say, bulldozers and cement mixers would begin work on a new neighborhood.
The Palestinians, backed by the U.S. and other world powers, want Israel to extend the curbs, hoping that would create the goodwill needed to prod talks ahead.The settlements, home to some 300,000 Israelis, dot the West Bank, gobbling up territory claimed by the Palestinians. The Palestinians say that further expansion makes it ever more difficult to establish a viable state that would not be broken up by Israeli enclaves.Palestinian and Israeli officials are currently in the U.S., meeting with American leaders in an effort to salvage the negotiations. The U.S. has urged both sides to continue the talks, calling on Israel to extend the slowdown and on the Palestinians not to walk out.The impending end to the construction curb has intensified tensions between settlers and Palestinians. Near the West Bank town of Nablus, settlers and Palestinians lobbed rocks at each other Tuesday after Palestinians accused settlers of trying to steal their olives. The olive-harvesting season in the West Bank traditionally is a time of violence between the two sides.
The peace talks have also exacerbated tensions between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' West Bank government and the rival Islamic militant Hamas that rules the Gaza Strip and opposes negotiations with Israel. Palestinian police briefly detained a Hamas lawmaker Tuesday after he insinuated the West Bank government helped Israel kill a Hamas activist last week.The lawmaker, former Cabinet minister Abdel-Rahman Zidan, was the highest-level Hamas official the Palestinian Authority has ever taken into custody.Palestinian police surrounded the main West Bank headquarters of Hamas legislators in Ramallah several hours later and arrested several people there after Zidan announced he would hold a news conference at the building. Police would not comment on the operation.Associated Press Writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
Quartet to urge Israel to keep settlement freeze By Andrew Quinn – Tue Sep 21, 12:50 am ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators will on Tuesday call on Israel to extend its settlement moratorium, saying the freeze has had a positive impact as the two sides seek a peace deal within the next year, according to a draft statement seen by Reuters.The Quartet noted that the commendable Israeli settlement moratorium instituted last November has had a positive impact and urged its continuation, said the statement, due to be issued by the Quartet, comprised of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.The Quartet statement, to be issued after a meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, increases pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend a 10-month settlement freeze due to expire at the end of September.U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have already urged Netanyahu to extend the moratorium on new settlement activity on land in the West Bank captured in the 1967 war.The Palestinians have said they will drop out of the peace talks, launched just this month with Obama's backing, unless the freeze continues. But Netanyahu has been reluctant to take that step, which could affect his ruling coalition dominated by pro-settler parties.The Quartet draft statement repeated the group's backing for the current peace talks and reaffirmed its hopes for a deal within one year that will see a viable Palestinian state emerge side-by-side with Israel.
The statement urged both sides to refrain from provocative actions and inflammatory rhetoric, and called upon Israel to further ease restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip -- a step the World Bank says will be important for the economic viability of a future Palestinian state.It stressed the importance of parallel peace deals between Israel, Syria and Lebanon and called on Arab states to support Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and progress on the other tracks by taking bolder steps to foster positive relations throughout the region and to combat violence and extremism.The group's statement condemned continued violence against both sides, particularly an attack in the occupied West Bank which killed four Israelis on August 31 and was claimed by the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas, which has rejected the current peace negotiations.It also repeated calls on Arab states to step up financial support for the fledgling Palestinian Authority, which needs much more help as it seeks to take on more of the attributes of full statehood in advance of a possible peace deal.The statement committed the group -- the main guarantors of any future Middle East peace deal -- to remain involved in the negotiations, and said it supported holding an international Mideast peace conference in Moscow at a date yet to be determined.A diplomatic source said Israeli and Palestinian leaders met in New York on Monday, a week after the latest round of Middle East peace talks ended without visible signs of progress on the settlement issue.Israeli President Shimon Peres, whose position is largely ceremonial, met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting, the source said.It remains unclear when Abbas will next hold talks with Netanyahu. They have held two rounds of direct talks since the negotiations resumed on September 2, after a 20-month hiatus.(Reporting by Andrew Quinn, editing by Todd Eastham)
Peres: Turkish conditions for meeting unacceptable By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 21, 12:18 am ET
UNITED NATIONS – A planned meeting between Israeli President Shimon Peres and his Turkish counterpart was scrapped because of the Israeli leader's refusal to apologize for the deadly commando raid on a Turkish-led flotilla that tried to breach Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, Israeli officials said Monday.In the latest bid to repair Israel's relations with its only Muslim ally in the region, Peres told reporters he had agreed to join Turkish President Abdullah Gul at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, then accepted Gul's invitation to meet on the sidelines. But Israeli officials said Gul then set unacceptable conditions for the meeting.Gul on Monday denied that any such meeting had ever been planned. That is not true,the Turkish president told The Associated Press. There was never a meeting scheduled between us.A report by Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency quoted Gul as telling reporters in New York on Sunday that he would not meet with Peres because of a scheduling problem. Some reports had suggested that the two men would meet in a sign of a thaw in strained relations between the two formerly close allies.Relations between the two countries have been deteriorating and hit a low point after the May raid in which nine people, including eight Turks and a Turkish-American, were killed when Israeli commandos boarded a Turkish ferry that was part of the aid flotilla heading to Gaza. Turkey has demanded that an Israeli apology for the raid and compensation for the victims' families.Peres told reporters that he found Turkey's conditions for a meeting with Gul to be unacceptable.I got some conditions which made this meeting in my judgment not a positive one, Peres told reporters as the U.N. General Assembly's Millennium Development Goals summit was getting under way.
Now we didn't change our attitude to Turkey. We were friends, we remain friends. Maybe Turkey changed her mind, and that's for the Turks to decide,Peres said. We don't intend to worsen the situation. Neither can we submit to preconditions which are totally unacceptable.Peres did not elaborate on the preconditions. But senior Israeli officials confirmed that Gul wanted Israel to publicly apologize for the flotilla raid.The Turks came with the demands that could not be met ..., said Israel's U.N. Ambassador Meron Reuben. The demands included that we apologize for the flotilla incident, he said.Investigators from a U.N. human rights inquiry on the May 31 flotilla attack have been interviewing witnesses, including an Israeli Knesset member. Israel refused to cooperate with that probe and accused the U.N. Human Rights Council of bias.But it is cooperating with a separate U.N. panel ordered by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. That panel, led by New Zealand's ex-Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and Colombia's ex-President Alvaro Uribe, is looking into legal issues surrounding the incident.Israeli commandos said they opened fire in self-defense after meeting what they called unexpected resistance when they boarded the ferry carrying aid supplies to Gaza.An international outcry resulted, forcing Israel to ease its blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza. Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade in June 2007 after Hamas militants took control of the area.Israel's military completed its own investigation, which found that its intelligence failed to predict the violent response but its troops reacted properly.Later Monday, Peres met privately with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In a brief appearance before reporters, neither leader would discuss particulars about the recently renewed Mideast peace talks. The key issue of whether Israel will extend a partial ban on settlement building in the West Bank, territory the Palestinians want for a future state, was not addressed by either man publicly.On Tuesday, Peres will appear at a roundtable discussion presented by the Clinton Global Initiative with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Bahrain's crown prince, Sheik Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. Bahrain and Israel have no formal relations. Former President Bill Clinton will moderate.
Israel angry at Russian plan to sell Syria missiles
– Mon Sep 20, 8:44 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel criticized Russia on Monday for planning to sell anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria, saying the advanced weapons could be transferred to Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon.U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Israel's visiting defense minister in Washington that he shared Israeli concerns about proliferation of advanced weapons that could destabilize the region, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said.The go-ahead for the $300 million Yakhont missile deal was made public last week by Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, who told news agency RIA that it dated back to a 2007 contract and had also met objections from the United States.The announcement raised hackles in Israel, whose defense minister, Ehud Barak, traveled to Moscow this month to seal a military cooperation pact and urge the Russians not to supply Syria with arms that could challenge Israel's might.Visiting Washington on Monday, Barak voiced concern during meetings with White House officials that the Yakhont missiles could be passed to Hezbollah, as has happened in the past, and be turned against Israel,his office said in a statement.Gates, who met Barak at the Pentagon, also raised the issue of weapons sales broadly with Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov during their meetings in Washington last week, Morrell said.The United States understood that Russia had a right to sell weapons, but we wish for them to take into account the strategic ramifications of sales, Morrell said, describing Gates' message to Serdyukov.Syria denies arming Hezbollah, which also enjoys Iranian backing. Hezbollah surprised Israel by hitting one of its naval vessels with a cruise missile during the 2006 Lebanon war.
Israel and Syria have exchanged peace overtures in recent years but remain divided over core demands regarding the future of the occupied Golan Heights and the Damascus-Tehran alliance.Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the Israel Hayom newspaper: This (Yakhont sale) complicates the situation. It does not contribute to stability and it does not create peace in the region. We will convey to Russia our position.State-run RIA on Friday quoted Serdyukov as saying the United States feared the Yakhonts could end up in the hands of terrorists -- an apparent reference to Hezbollah.Serdyukov called such concerns fruitless, RIA said.Lieberman said that Barak, on his Moscow visit, had dealt with the (Yakhont) issue, but things didn't work out.Russia, which is building up a fleet of Israeli-made drones, earlier pleased Israel by promising not to deliver S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran while new U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program are in place.(Writing by Dan Williams and Amie Ferris-Rotman; additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Tim Pearce and Eric Walsh)
Europe leaders urge bank tax to battle poverty
by Tim Witcher - SEPT 20,10 11PM
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – European leaders stepped up demands for a global financial tax on Monday as they faced mounting calls for money to pay for the Millennium Goals battle to cut extreme poverty.President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero said they would press for the new tax at international summits.The world's wealthy countries face growing pressure at the three day Millennium Development Goals (MDG) summit to contribute more to the drive to eradicate poverty and improve child and maternal health.African nations in particular are calling for more action and the West can expect little sympathy when the likes of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speak on Tuesday.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the struggling effort to reach eight key development goals by 2015 could still be met if world leaders provide the necessary money and political will.The aims include cutting the more than one billion people living on less than a dollar a day, reducing by two-thirds the number of children who die before the age of five, seeking fairer trade, and spreading the Internet to the world's poor.While spectacular progress has been made in some areas, most experts say none of the goals will be reached by the target date. The international financial crisis has cut off badly needed funding.
Sarkozy said: We have no right to shelter behind the economic crisis as supposed grounds for doing less.He added: Finance has globalized, so why should we not ask finance to participate in stabilizing the world by taking a tax on each financial transaction.Sarkozy vowed to press for a global tax when France is head of the Group of 20 and Group of Eight countries next year.While all developed countries are in deficit, we must find new sources of financing for the struggle against poverty, for education and for the ending of the planet's big pandemics.Sarkozy also said that France would increase its payments to the UN fund on AIDS and malaria by 60 million euros a year to 360 million euros (470 million dollars).The Spanish prime minister also took up the bank tax campaign. We must launch a tax on financial transactions to complete the MDGs and my government has promised to defend them and to put them into practice. This will be at all international meetings.In opening the summit, the UN secretary general said that world leaders must send a strong message of hope.Ban said that progress has been made since 2000 in increasing school attendance, expanding access to clean water and controlling deadly diseases.We must protect these advances, many of which are still fragile. And the clock is ticking, with much more to do.Recovery from the economic crisis should not mean a return to the flawed and unjust path that got us into trouble in the first place.UN officials estimate that at least 120 billion dollars will have to be found over the next five years to hope to meet the eight goals. Aid groups, however, say much more will be needed and have expressed doubts about the political will to meet the 2000 goals.
Politicians have also indicated some doubts.
At a meeting on the summit sidelines, Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said: We're on track not to reach any of the development goals. We need more finance and better strategies. If we are going to mobilize more money we have to make more sure to spend it more wisely.German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said at the meeting that not all the targets would be met in all countries by 2015.
Africa made increasingly strident criticism of wealthy nations.
Georges Rebelo Chukoti, Angola's secretary of state for external relations, said The fight against poverty cannot be won only with the holding of conferences and summits to negotiate more commitments to development.Overcoming hunger and poverty requires primarily that we implement the international commitments we have already made.
Nigeria's Health Minister It is important that our international partners meet their commitments today if we are to accelerate our progress towards meeting the MDGs by 2015.US President Barack Obama will make the keynote address to the summit on Wednesday, but US officials have warned against expecting significant new sums of money.
Ashton favours Lex building for new headquarters
ANDREW RETTMAN 20.09.2010 @ 17:26 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton is keen to house her new diplomatic corps in the so-called Lex building on Rue de la Loi in the EU quarter in Brussels.The change of mind comes after months of talks with Belgium's Axa insurance group on the potential lease of its Triangle building, a few hundred metres up the road from Lex on the Schuman roundabout.With two months left to go to the EEAS' grand opening, Ms Ashton has switched from the Triangle to the Lex building as her preferred new home (Photo: Sister Ray)Lex would be much cheaper than the €10-million-a-year Axa deal because the EU Council effectively owns the block and could lease it to the European External Action Service (EEAS) on sweetheart terms, a contact in the EU institutions said. Lex also has higher security specifications than the Triangle, the contact added.The current home of the European Commission's foreign relations department (Relex), the Charlemagne building on Rue de le Loi, has been discarded as an option partly for image reasons.People would see it [the EEAS] as a kind of Relex-plus. But it's a unique, stand-alone institution, the contact said.Time is ticking for Ms Ashton's self-imposed deadline to get the EEAS up and running by 1 December.The Axa negotiators received the surprise news just last Thursday (16 September) at an advanced stage in the negotiations. And it is unclear whether senior EU Council management will back the Lex idea.
Lex currently houses Council translators and lawyers. Member States would then have to give the Council an increased budget to enable it to rent accommodation for its translators. At present, the order of the day is budget cuts not increases, a source in the EU Council administration said. Our management admits that they were asked to entertain the theoretical possibility, but that they had replied in no uncertain terms that they did not want to give up the Lex building.The Brussels-based architects' firm, Jaspers-Eyers & Partners, built Lex between 2003 and 2006 for Belgian bank Dexia and the Belgian real-estate firm Immobel, which later sold the building to the EU.Covering 15 floors and 84,674 square metres, the glass-fronted structure is said to be liked by Ms Ashton for its modern, open-plan office design and conference facilities. The building also has an underground tunnel connecting it to the commission's Berlaymont headquarters across the road and the main EU Council premises, the Justus Lipsius building, next door. With senior EEAS personnel cleared to have access to documents up to EU TOP SECRET level, security is a major concern.
Your keyboard, your computer monitor, all give off radiation. I could sit across the street, 500 metres away, and with the right equipment I could read what's on your screen and what is being typed,a security specialist in the EU Council said.
EU seeks stress-resistant intelligence officer
ANDREW RETTMAN 20.09.2010 @ 09:27 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU is hiring three junior experts to join its intelligence-sharing bureau, the Joint Situation Centre (SitCen), with the job descriptions shedding some light onto the secretive body's work.The posts - a Deployable Security Information Officer, an Open Source Intelligence Analyst and a Security Information Officer - are to be filled at the same time as the appointment of a new SitCen director. The deadline for applications closed last Friday (16 September).The job advertisements, seen by EUobserver, were circulated to EU institutions and member states' foreign ministries in recent weeks, but were not made available to the general public.The deployable officer, according to the official notice, is to travel to potential crisis or conflict areas to overtly gather political and security information to support early crisis management decisions and to supplement information and assessments from other sources.The candidate is to have a diplomatic, intelligence or media background and to have experience in information collection and evaluation in areas with a high degree of tension.The right man or woman must also be prepared to travel extensively to potential crisis areas and to do so at short notice and to be physically fit and stress-resistant. Able to withstand potentially physically and psychologically harsh working environment.
The bulk of SitCen's work is drafting security reports out of its 100-person-strong office in the EU quarter in Brussels. EU diplomats say there is no political appetite among member states to create a genuine European Intelligence Service which carries out covert operations.But SitCen officers do travel to hotspots to help EU delegations carry out research. When the earthquake struck in Haiti earlier this year, the then SitCen director, William Shapcott, personally accompanied EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton to the Caribbean country to seek information.The job advertisement for the new SitCen director also mentions that the candidate must be fit and ready to travel to areas of crisis.Out of the other two junior jobs up for grabs, the open source analyst is to follow up on open and confidential sources of information relating to the political and security situation in areas where the EU has launched a CSDP [Common Security and Defence Policy] mission or may be considering doing so.The new Security Information Officer will focus on Asia and will do topical Internet research in response to requests for information. The ideal candidate is to speak Urdu, Persian, Russian or Mandarin.
LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS
Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
DANIEL 11:21-23
21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
23 And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.
24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
ZECHARIAH 14:1-9 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
Israel FM clarifies land swap proposal
– Mon Sep 20, 9:48 am ET
PRAGUE (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in Prague on Monday that his plan to push for swapping territories for people in peace talks with Palestinians was his personal view, not his government's position.On Sunday, Lieberman proposed the Palestinians should take his country's 1.3 million Arabs and let Israel keep its West Bank settlements instead of seeking a land for peace solution.I want to stress it's my personal view. It's not the official position of our government, he said on Monday after meeting his Czech counterpart Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country is one of Israel's staunchest allies.Israeli and Palestinian leaders this month renewed direct peace talks after a gap of nearly two years and have pledged to seek agreement within 12 months.The phrase land for peace refers to the concept of Israel withdrawing from the Palestinian territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war in return for an end to the drawn-out conflict.
I don't think the idea that we will establish a homogeneous Palestinian state without one Jew and that Israel will become a bi-national state with more than 20 percent of minorities can be a real, stable, long-term solution, Lieberman added in Prague.The maverick nationalist has campaigned in the past for Israel's Arab citizens to be stripped of their nationality unless they take an oath of allegiance to the Jewish state.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says any treaty must include recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.The Palestinians oppose the demand, fearing that it could prejudge the future of refugees seeking to return to old homes now in Israel.
Report: Netanyahu Pushes Referendum on Peace Deal
by Maayana Miskin SEPT 20,10
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139691
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is backing a call for a national referendum on any final agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority regarding Judea and Samaria, according to Channel 2 news.MK Ofir Akunis (Likud), a close associate of Netanyahu's, has written up a proposed law that would require a referendum. Netanyahu reportedly saw the bill on Friday and gave it his full support.Earlier in the month Netanyahu said that he had not ruled out the possibility of a national referendum if Israel and the PA were to succeed in reaching an agreement within a year.Political analysts suggested that the law could help Netanyahu keep his coalition together by reassuring the political Right that no territories will be ceded without the people's approval.Netanyahu has met twice with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and with senior United States diplomats. Talks between Netanyahu and Abbas focused on core issues such as the borders of a potential PA state in Judea and Samaria and the status of Jerusalem. Netanyahu's conditions, security and recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, were not considered core issues.Abbas has threatened to leave the talks over the resumption of construction for Jews in Judea and Samaria on September 26. He had demanded a building freeze before starting talks. Netanyahu unilaterally froze building for Israeli families in the region for 10 months in an unprecedented move aimed at bringing the PA to the negotiating table, however the PA waited until the freeze was about to end to use its continuation as a condition for continuing the fledgling talks.(Israel National News.com)
No Middle East peace talks scheduled for Obama this week
– Mon Sep 20, 4:24 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama has no current plans for peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in New York this week, the White House said Monday.There had been some expectations that the action in the direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would shift to the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this week, as the end of an Israeli settlement moratorium looms.But Ben Rhodes, a senior foreign policy advisor to Obama, said no talks were planned as of Monday.We don't have any currently planned. I would have to defer to the Israelis and the Palestinians about the schedule of their leaders, Rhodes, a deputy national security advisor, told reporters.Netanyahu's office had said he has no plans to head to the United States this week, but Israeli President Shimon Peres and Defence Minister Ehud Barak are already in the country.Peres is due to address the UN summit, and Barak is holding talks with US officials.The deadline for the end of Israel's freeze on settlement construction is widely accepted as September 26, exactly 10 months and a day after the original cabinet decision.But the Israeli military order regarding the moratorium states it will only close at midnight on September 30.Abbas told AFP on Monday he will not take part in US-backed peace talks for a single day if Israel does not extend a freeze on settlement building at the month's end.
Top Mideast officials fly to US as peace talks crisis looms
by Hazel Ward – Sun Sep 19, 2:58 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Top Israeli and Palestinian officials headed Sunday for the United States where they are expected to seek ways to break a deadlock over settlements threatening to sabotage peace talks.Israeli President Shimon Peres left on a four-day visit coinciding with the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, before Defence Minister Ehud Barak set off for talks in Washington.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was also to fly later to New York for the annual sitting, with efforts under way to arrange a meeting with US President Barack Obama, a senior Palestinian official told AFP.There are also preparations for a meeting between (Israeli premier Benjamin) Netanyahu, Obama and Abbas, he said.There is an expectation that they will meet.Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said the Palestinian leader had high-level engagements scheduled, but he would not give details.Abbas will take part in the UN General Assembly meetings in New York and meet with several world leaders, Abu Rudeina told AFP.He will deliver an important speech about the peace process and efforts to push it forward in a way that would help end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land in 1967 as well as create an independent Palestinian state, with east Jerusalem as its capital.
Netanyahu's office said he had no plans to fly to the United States this week, and would not say whether he would meet Abbas before the settlement freeze expires later this month.Israel and the Palestinians began long-awaited peace negotiations earlier this month, but the talks may well collapse if they fail to resolve a bitter dispute over the moratorium expiry.So far, Israel has stubbornly refused to extend the partial 10-month ban on new construction. The Palestinians have vowed to pull out of the talks if building resumes.Addressing ministers, Netanyahu reiterated Israel's position: that the moratorium will end as planned.Last week, I held political talks in (the Red Sea resort of) Sharm el-Sheikh and Jerusalem. I can't give any detail about the content of the talks because of its sensitivity. What I can say is that regarding the freeze, there has been no change in our position, he said.The talks, which brought together Abbas, Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, failed to break the impasse.Clinton said she hoped the Israeli leader would extend the freeze.Well, that certainly is our hope, she told ABC News.
It's been in effect for the time that it was set for, and the talks are just starting, she said. So we are working hard to make sure there remains a conducive atmosphere to constructive thought.But Israel's ultra-nationalist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said it was up to Netanyahu to withstand pressure over the moratorium.If we aren't able to withstand pressure on a relatively simple issue like building in (the West Bank), how will we defend our other national interests? Lieberman said on army radio. We said it would be a 10-month freeze and we told everyone. The minute it's over, we can start (building) again, he added. The deadline for the end of the freeze is widely accepted as September 26, 10 months and a day after the original cabinet decision. But the military order regarding the moratorium states it will only close at midnight on September 30. Efforts to reach a last-minute compromise now look set to shift to the United States.Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Israeli official told AFP the main negotiators would meet there this week in order to set up the next leaders' meeting.The negotiators will be meeting this week in North America where they will be planning the next round of talks at a leadership level, he said, without giving further details. Elsewhere, Barak, who reportedly backs an extension of the freeze, was set to meet with Clinton and with US Defence Secretary Robert Gates during his five-day trip.And Peres was expected on Monday to address the UN's millennium summit in a speech explaining why Netanyahu could not extend the settlement freeze, the Jerusalem Post reported. He was also expected to speak alongside Palestinian premier Salam Fayyad at a conference organised by former US president Bill Clinton, which Barak would also attend.
Palestinian state should take in Israeli Arabs
– Sun Sep 19, 11:35 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday proposed that in a future peace deal the Palestinians should take his country's 1.3 million Arabs and let Israel keep its West Bank settlements.Our guiding principle in negotiations with the Palestinians must not be 'land for peace' but an exchange of territories and populations, Lieberman told reporters as he arrived for Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting.The maverick nationalist has campaigned in the past for Israel's Arab citizens to be stripped of their nationality unless they take an oath of allegiance to the Jewish state.The phrase land for peace refers to the concept of Israel withdrawing from Palestinian territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war in return for an end to the conflict.Israeli and Palestinian leaders this month renewed direct peace talks after a gap of nearly two years and have pledged to seek agreement within 12 months.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says any treaty must include recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.The Palestinians oppose the demand, fearing that it could prejudge the future of refugees seeking to return to old homes now in Israel.
It's as if someone sells you a flat and then demands that his mother-in-law continues living there, Lieberman said.The vigorous refusal of the Arab League and the Palestinian Authority to recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people obliges us to make the question of the Israeli Arabs one of the main issues on the negotiating table, he said.In a separate interview with Israeli army radio, Lieberman said that the Israeli Arabs -- those Palestinians who remained after Israel was founded in 1948, and their descendants -- had long sought separation.Self-determination for Israeli Arabs, autonomy in the Galilee and the Negev and the right to be annexed to a future Palestinian state; Arab MPs talk about this from the rostrum of the Knesset (parliament), he said.Speaking to Israel's Haaretz daily, Arab legislator Haneen Zuabi, whose parliamentary privileges were revoked after she joined a flotilla of aid ships heading to the Gaza Strip, said Lieberman's views were racist.Lieberman represents apartheid and ethnic cleansing, she said, but acknowledged that the issue needed serious debate.Lieberman bases his claims on a doctrine of racism, while I base mine on the principle of full equality among citizens but both of us agree that there needs to be a discussion of the question, Zuabi added.
Iranian president stops in Syria on way to UN ALBERT AJI, Associated Press Writer – Sat Sep 18, 1:30 pm ET
DAMASCUS, Syria – Iran's president said Saturday that Middle Eastern countries will disrupt American and Israeli plans to change the political geography of the region, appearing to brush aside U.S. efforts to forge a regional peace deal between Israel and its neighbors.Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the comments during a brief stop in Syria, a key all in Tehran's confrontation with the West, where he held talks with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad.The meeting comes two days after Assad sat down with the Obama administration's special Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, in Damascus to discuss starting separate Syria-Israel peace talks.The back-to-back trips underscored the battle for influence in Syria between Washington and Tehran. Seeking to isolate Iran, President Barack Obama has tried - unsuccessfully, so far - to pry Damascus away from its alliance with Tehran.Speaking in Damascus, Ahmadinejad appeared to dismiss U.S. efforts to forge a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians and a wider deal with its neighbors. He said countries in the Middle East will disrupt U.S. and Israeli plans, but did not elaborate.Those who want to change the political geography of the region must know that they will have no place in the future of the region, Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by Iran's state-run news agency IRNA.The waves of free nations to join this resistance is spreading every day, he said.
Ahmadinejad said before his visit to Syria that he and Assad would discuss key areas of conflict and tension in the Middle East, including Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. He also told Iranian state TV Friday that he and Assad would discuss the Westerners' moves in the region, an apparent reference to the United States.We have to be ready and in harmony, he said in the state TV interview, without elaborating.Washington is at odds with Iran over its nuclear program, which it fears is aimed at making weapons, and with a military buildup by Tehran that it believes threatens the United States' Arab allies in the region as well as Israel. Iran says its nuclear activity is only for producing energy.The U.S. began reaching out to Syria soon after President Barack Obama took office, and has made repeated overtures to Damascus this year, including nominating the first U.S. ambassador to Syria since 2005 and sending top diplomats to meet with Assad.Mitchell said during his visit Thursday that the U.S. was determined to reach a comprehensive peace in the Middle East and that the administration's efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict did not contradict peace between Israel and Syria.Syria and Iran are both under U.S. pressure because of their support for anti-Israel militant groups. The U.S. also accuses Syria of secret nuclear activities, which Damascus denies.The two leaders stressed the need for Iraqi politicians to overcome arguments that have delayed formation of a new government there after national elections in March, according to Syria's state news agency, SANA.Ahmadinejad also called the new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks - revived this month with Washington's mediation - a failure, according to Iran's state-run Press TV. He said Israel had no place in the future of the region.Ahmadinejad later made a brief stop in Algeria and spoke with his Algerian counterpart, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, according to a statement from Algeria's presidency.The Iranian president was to fly from there to New York for the U.N. General Assembly.
Iran leads nuclear drive in the Middle East by Samer al-Atrush – Sat Sep 18, 5:13 am ET
CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt's plan to build four nuclear powerplants by 2025 underscores the emerging interest in atomic energy across the Middle East, where even oil-rich nations such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are eyeing fossil fuel alternatives to satisfy growing demand.In the region and beyond all eyes are on Iran, which says it is firing up its first nuclear reactor before the end of this year, becoming the first Muslim country in the Middle East to produce nuclear energy.
The announcement that the Russian-built Bushehr reactor in southern Iran will start up in October or November rang alarm bells in the region and beyond.Iran's neighbours and world powers largely suspect that behind its claimed drive to acquire atomic energy for peaceful purposes, Tehran's anti-Western government is hiding a covert atomic weapons programme.Though wary of Iran, Middle Eastern states want to harness nuclear energy more out of necessity than competition with Iran, some analysts and officials say.It is a matter of energy, said Mostafa el-Feki, who heads the Egyptian parliament's foreign relations committee and who was Egypt's ambassador to Austria and its representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency.He said Egypt has a scientific base for nuclear energy: When I was ambassador to Vienna, we used to have nearly 10 Egyptian inspectors.Egypt, which has flirted with nuclear power since the 1950s, is also planning solar and wind plants, with the target of producing 20 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2020. Its gas and oil reserves are expected to last three decades.Cairo said last month that a plant on the Mediterranean coast of el-Dabaa will be the centrepiece of a plan to build four nuclear plants by 2025, part of a regional trend away from conventional energy as demand soars.Oil-poor Jordan also says the regional drive is fuelled by economic necessity.
The increasing interest in the region in nuclear power is because of the high oil prices. Countries who don't have oil are now looking for other options to generate energy,said Jordan's Atomic Energy Commission chief Khaled Tukan.This month, Jordan and Japan signed an agreement on civilian nuclear energy cooperation in the ninth such accord by the kingdom.Jordan, which imports about 95 percent of its energy needs, wants its first nuclear plant to be ready by 2015.Oil-rich Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have also expressed interest in building nuclear power stations.The UAE, which hopes to start its first plant in 2017 and already imports natural gas to produce energy, says that necessity, not regional politics, is behind its nuclear ambitions.Its energy demand is projected to increase to 40,000 megawatts by 2020, double its current level. Last year, it awarded a multi-billion-dollar contract to a South Korean-led consortium for four nuclear power plants.
Kuwait, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, has signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with Japan, and announced it intends to build four nuclear reactors over the next 12 years.The emirate faced unprecedented violent protests this summer following record temperatures and power cuts. Saudi Arabia, which holds around a fifth of the world's known oil reserves, agreed in July to sign a nuclear cooperation accord with France, opening the way for French help for the development of peaceful uses of nuclear energy.But some analysts believe that regional interest in nuclear energy transcends economic necessity.In general the drive to build nuclear power plants transcends any economic rationale, there are strategic drivers, said Leila Benali, the Paris-based Middle East director for the energy advisory group Cambridge Energy Research Associates.You also have security reasons, and the fact that once Iran made its nuclear programme public it became clear that at some point some countries in the region would have to do something to counter nuclear Iran, whether for prestige or for deterrence, she added.Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran has ben repeatedly accused of trying to export Shiite militancy to the region, and Arab governments have been wary of Tehran and suspicious of its nuclear intentions.The Iranian nuclear programme was a wake up call. The Iranians insist on their right. They are talking about a strategic direction, said Mustafa Alani, a security expert with the Dubai-based think tank the Gulf Research Centre. It is widely accepted that Iran's arch-foe Israel possesses an undeclared nuclear arsenal.
World Bank: Palestinians managing reforms well
– Fri Sep 17, 1:28 pm ET
JERUSALEM – The World Bank is cautiously praising the Western-backed Palestinian Authority's government reforms.The organization says in a report Friday that if Palestinians maintain financial reforms, institution building and the delivery of public services, they will be ready to handle statehood at any point in the near future.It says Palestinian spending remained within budget and tax collection rates were nearly 15 percent above projection. Growth is estimated at 8 percent this year.
But the World Bank notes that Palestinians are dependent on donor aid. It says Israel must loosen restrictions on movement, access to land and markets for growth to be sustainable.U.S.-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians resumed earlier this month.
JERUSALEM – Israel's leader is demanding that Israeli troops remain on the eastern border of a future Palestinian state, further antagonizing the Palestinians at a time when they are already threatening to walk out of peace talks.The negotiations, which resumed this month in Washington after a two-year breakdown, are foundering over Palestinian demands that Israel extend a curb on Jewish construction in the West Bank. That curb, in place for 10 months, is to expire Sunday.Israel's military chief told lawmakers on Tuesday that the military was preparing for possible clashes between Israelis and Palestinians should the negotiations run aground.Resolution of the construction dispute is critical to the fate of the peace talks because the Palestinians say they won't negotiate unless the construction slowdown continues.
For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the cardinal factor for Israel in any peace deal is the Jewish state's security. He has contended that Israel must maintain a troop presence along the border with Jordan to keep Palestinian militants from smuggling in weapons to the West Bank after a peace deal is reached.On Monday, Netanyahu drove home this position in great detail — angering the Palestinians, who flatly reject the idea as an infringement of their prospective sovereignty. They have proposed that an international force be deployed instead.I don't believe that under these circumstances, international troops will do the job, Netanyahu said in a conference call with U.S. Jewish leaders. The only force that can be relied on to defend the Jewish people is the Israeli Defense Force.That will never happen, said Palestinian spokesman Husam Zomlot, adding that not one Israeli soldier will be permitted to remain in a future Palestinian state.An international presence will be able to monitor and enforce security once the political situation has been sorted (out), Zomlot said.Military chief Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi underscored concerns of possible violence should the talks falter.The Palestinians have very sober expectations regarding progress and in Israel, tensions exist among the Jewish population ahead of the expiry of the settlement construction freeze, the Haaretz newspaper quoted Ashkenazi as telling parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee. He said the military was planning for an eruption of violence, but details weren't immediately known.Under intense U.S. pressure, Israel agreed in November to slow West Bank settlement construction to help lure the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. Netanyahu maintains his coalition government, dominated by hard-line parties that champion settlement construction, would be fractured if the slowdown were to be extended.Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau told Army Radio he would advance plans to build hundreds of millions of dollars in water and sewer projects for the settlements. Right-wing lawmakers plan to hold a celebration Sunday in the West Bank settlement of Revava, where, they say, bulldozers and cement mixers would begin work on a new neighborhood.
The Palestinians, backed by the U.S. and other world powers, want Israel to extend the curbs, hoping that would create the goodwill needed to prod talks ahead.The settlements, home to some 300,000 Israelis, dot the West Bank, gobbling up territory claimed by the Palestinians. The Palestinians say that further expansion makes it ever more difficult to establish a viable state that would not be broken up by Israeli enclaves.Palestinian and Israeli officials are currently in the U.S., meeting with American leaders in an effort to salvage the negotiations. The U.S. has urged both sides to continue the talks, calling on Israel to extend the slowdown and on the Palestinians not to walk out.The impending end to the construction curb has intensified tensions between settlers and Palestinians. Near the West Bank town of Nablus, settlers and Palestinians lobbed rocks at each other Tuesday after Palestinians accused settlers of trying to steal their olives. The olive-harvesting season in the West Bank traditionally is a time of violence between the two sides.
The peace talks have also exacerbated tensions between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' West Bank government and the rival Islamic militant Hamas that rules the Gaza Strip and opposes negotiations with Israel. Palestinian police briefly detained a Hamas lawmaker Tuesday after he insinuated the West Bank government helped Israel kill a Hamas activist last week.The lawmaker, former Cabinet minister Abdel-Rahman Zidan, was the highest-level Hamas official the Palestinian Authority has ever taken into custody.Palestinian police surrounded the main West Bank headquarters of Hamas legislators in Ramallah several hours later and arrested several people there after Zidan announced he would hold a news conference at the building. Police would not comment on the operation.Associated Press Writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
Quartet to urge Israel to keep settlement freeze By Andrew Quinn – Tue Sep 21, 12:50 am ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators will on Tuesday call on Israel to extend its settlement moratorium, saying the freeze has had a positive impact as the two sides seek a peace deal within the next year, according to a draft statement seen by Reuters.The Quartet noted that the commendable Israeli settlement moratorium instituted last November has had a positive impact and urged its continuation, said the statement, due to be issued by the Quartet, comprised of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.The Quartet statement, to be issued after a meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, increases pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend a 10-month settlement freeze due to expire at the end of September.U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have already urged Netanyahu to extend the moratorium on new settlement activity on land in the West Bank captured in the 1967 war.The Palestinians have said they will drop out of the peace talks, launched just this month with Obama's backing, unless the freeze continues. But Netanyahu has been reluctant to take that step, which could affect his ruling coalition dominated by pro-settler parties.The Quartet draft statement repeated the group's backing for the current peace talks and reaffirmed its hopes for a deal within one year that will see a viable Palestinian state emerge side-by-side with Israel.
The statement urged both sides to refrain from provocative actions and inflammatory rhetoric, and called upon Israel to further ease restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip -- a step the World Bank says will be important for the economic viability of a future Palestinian state.It stressed the importance of parallel peace deals between Israel, Syria and Lebanon and called on Arab states to support Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and progress on the other tracks by taking bolder steps to foster positive relations throughout the region and to combat violence and extremism.The group's statement condemned continued violence against both sides, particularly an attack in the occupied West Bank which killed four Israelis on August 31 and was claimed by the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas, which has rejected the current peace negotiations.It also repeated calls on Arab states to step up financial support for the fledgling Palestinian Authority, which needs much more help as it seeks to take on more of the attributes of full statehood in advance of a possible peace deal.The statement committed the group -- the main guarantors of any future Middle East peace deal -- to remain involved in the negotiations, and said it supported holding an international Mideast peace conference in Moscow at a date yet to be determined.A diplomatic source said Israeli and Palestinian leaders met in New York on Monday, a week after the latest round of Middle East peace talks ended without visible signs of progress on the settlement issue.Israeli President Shimon Peres, whose position is largely ceremonial, met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting, the source said.It remains unclear when Abbas will next hold talks with Netanyahu. They have held two rounds of direct talks since the negotiations resumed on September 2, after a 20-month hiatus.(Reporting by Andrew Quinn, editing by Todd Eastham)
Peres: Turkish conditions for meeting unacceptable By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 21, 12:18 am ET
UNITED NATIONS – A planned meeting between Israeli President Shimon Peres and his Turkish counterpart was scrapped because of the Israeli leader's refusal to apologize for the deadly commando raid on a Turkish-led flotilla that tried to breach Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, Israeli officials said Monday.In the latest bid to repair Israel's relations with its only Muslim ally in the region, Peres told reporters he had agreed to join Turkish President Abdullah Gul at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, then accepted Gul's invitation to meet on the sidelines. But Israeli officials said Gul then set unacceptable conditions for the meeting.Gul on Monday denied that any such meeting had ever been planned. That is not true,the Turkish president told The Associated Press. There was never a meeting scheduled between us.A report by Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency quoted Gul as telling reporters in New York on Sunday that he would not meet with Peres because of a scheduling problem. Some reports had suggested that the two men would meet in a sign of a thaw in strained relations between the two formerly close allies.Relations between the two countries have been deteriorating and hit a low point after the May raid in which nine people, including eight Turks and a Turkish-American, were killed when Israeli commandos boarded a Turkish ferry that was part of the aid flotilla heading to Gaza. Turkey has demanded that an Israeli apology for the raid and compensation for the victims' families.Peres told reporters that he found Turkey's conditions for a meeting with Gul to be unacceptable.I got some conditions which made this meeting in my judgment not a positive one, Peres told reporters as the U.N. General Assembly's Millennium Development Goals summit was getting under way.
Now we didn't change our attitude to Turkey. We were friends, we remain friends. Maybe Turkey changed her mind, and that's for the Turks to decide,Peres said. We don't intend to worsen the situation. Neither can we submit to preconditions which are totally unacceptable.Peres did not elaborate on the preconditions. But senior Israeli officials confirmed that Gul wanted Israel to publicly apologize for the flotilla raid.The Turks came with the demands that could not be met ..., said Israel's U.N. Ambassador Meron Reuben. The demands included that we apologize for the flotilla incident, he said.Investigators from a U.N. human rights inquiry on the May 31 flotilla attack have been interviewing witnesses, including an Israeli Knesset member. Israel refused to cooperate with that probe and accused the U.N. Human Rights Council of bias.But it is cooperating with a separate U.N. panel ordered by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. That panel, led by New Zealand's ex-Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and Colombia's ex-President Alvaro Uribe, is looking into legal issues surrounding the incident.Israeli commandos said they opened fire in self-defense after meeting what they called unexpected resistance when they boarded the ferry carrying aid supplies to Gaza.An international outcry resulted, forcing Israel to ease its blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza. Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade in June 2007 after Hamas militants took control of the area.Israel's military completed its own investigation, which found that its intelligence failed to predict the violent response but its troops reacted properly.Later Monday, Peres met privately with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In a brief appearance before reporters, neither leader would discuss particulars about the recently renewed Mideast peace talks. The key issue of whether Israel will extend a partial ban on settlement building in the West Bank, territory the Palestinians want for a future state, was not addressed by either man publicly.On Tuesday, Peres will appear at a roundtable discussion presented by the Clinton Global Initiative with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Bahrain's crown prince, Sheik Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. Bahrain and Israel have no formal relations. Former President Bill Clinton will moderate.
Israel angry at Russian plan to sell Syria missiles
– Mon Sep 20, 8:44 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel criticized Russia on Monday for planning to sell anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria, saying the advanced weapons could be transferred to Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon.U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Israel's visiting defense minister in Washington that he shared Israeli concerns about proliferation of advanced weapons that could destabilize the region, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said.The go-ahead for the $300 million Yakhont missile deal was made public last week by Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, who told news agency RIA that it dated back to a 2007 contract and had also met objections from the United States.The announcement raised hackles in Israel, whose defense minister, Ehud Barak, traveled to Moscow this month to seal a military cooperation pact and urge the Russians not to supply Syria with arms that could challenge Israel's might.Visiting Washington on Monday, Barak voiced concern during meetings with White House officials that the Yakhont missiles could be passed to Hezbollah, as has happened in the past, and be turned against Israel,his office said in a statement.Gates, who met Barak at the Pentagon, also raised the issue of weapons sales broadly with Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov during their meetings in Washington last week, Morrell said.The United States understood that Russia had a right to sell weapons, but we wish for them to take into account the strategic ramifications of sales, Morrell said, describing Gates' message to Serdyukov.Syria denies arming Hezbollah, which also enjoys Iranian backing. Hezbollah surprised Israel by hitting one of its naval vessels with a cruise missile during the 2006 Lebanon war.
Israel and Syria have exchanged peace overtures in recent years but remain divided over core demands regarding the future of the occupied Golan Heights and the Damascus-Tehran alliance.Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the Israel Hayom newspaper: This (Yakhont sale) complicates the situation. It does not contribute to stability and it does not create peace in the region. We will convey to Russia our position.State-run RIA on Friday quoted Serdyukov as saying the United States feared the Yakhonts could end up in the hands of terrorists -- an apparent reference to Hezbollah.Serdyukov called such concerns fruitless, RIA said.Lieberman said that Barak, on his Moscow visit, had dealt with the (Yakhont) issue, but things didn't work out.Russia, which is building up a fleet of Israeli-made drones, earlier pleased Israel by promising not to deliver S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran while new U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program are in place.(Writing by Dan Williams and Amie Ferris-Rotman; additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Tim Pearce and Eric Walsh)
Europe leaders urge bank tax to battle poverty
by Tim Witcher - SEPT 20,10 11PM
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – European leaders stepped up demands for a global financial tax on Monday as they faced mounting calls for money to pay for the Millennium Goals battle to cut extreme poverty.President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero said they would press for the new tax at international summits.The world's wealthy countries face growing pressure at the three day Millennium Development Goals (MDG) summit to contribute more to the drive to eradicate poverty and improve child and maternal health.African nations in particular are calling for more action and the West can expect little sympathy when the likes of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speak on Tuesday.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the struggling effort to reach eight key development goals by 2015 could still be met if world leaders provide the necessary money and political will.The aims include cutting the more than one billion people living on less than a dollar a day, reducing by two-thirds the number of children who die before the age of five, seeking fairer trade, and spreading the Internet to the world's poor.While spectacular progress has been made in some areas, most experts say none of the goals will be reached by the target date. The international financial crisis has cut off badly needed funding.
Sarkozy said: We have no right to shelter behind the economic crisis as supposed grounds for doing less.He added: Finance has globalized, so why should we not ask finance to participate in stabilizing the world by taking a tax on each financial transaction.Sarkozy vowed to press for a global tax when France is head of the Group of 20 and Group of Eight countries next year.While all developed countries are in deficit, we must find new sources of financing for the struggle against poverty, for education and for the ending of the planet's big pandemics.Sarkozy also said that France would increase its payments to the UN fund on AIDS and malaria by 60 million euros a year to 360 million euros (470 million dollars).The Spanish prime minister also took up the bank tax campaign. We must launch a tax on financial transactions to complete the MDGs and my government has promised to defend them and to put them into practice. This will be at all international meetings.In opening the summit, the UN secretary general said that world leaders must send a strong message of hope.Ban said that progress has been made since 2000 in increasing school attendance, expanding access to clean water and controlling deadly diseases.We must protect these advances, many of which are still fragile. And the clock is ticking, with much more to do.Recovery from the economic crisis should not mean a return to the flawed and unjust path that got us into trouble in the first place.UN officials estimate that at least 120 billion dollars will have to be found over the next five years to hope to meet the eight goals. Aid groups, however, say much more will be needed and have expressed doubts about the political will to meet the 2000 goals.
Politicians have also indicated some doubts.
At a meeting on the summit sidelines, Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said: We're on track not to reach any of the development goals. We need more finance and better strategies. If we are going to mobilize more money we have to make more sure to spend it more wisely.German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said at the meeting that not all the targets would be met in all countries by 2015.
Africa made increasingly strident criticism of wealthy nations.
Georges Rebelo Chukoti, Angola's secretary of state for external relations, said The fight against poverty cannot be won only with the holding of conferences and summits to negotiate more commitments to development.Overcoming hunger and poverty requires primarily that we implement the international commitments we have already made.
Nigeria's Health Minister It is important that our international partners meet their commitments today if we are to accelerate our progress towards meeting the MDGs by 2015.US President Barack Obama will make the keynote address to the summit on Wednesday, but US officials have warned against expecting significant new sums of money.
Ashton favours Lex building for new headquarters
ANDREW RETTMAN 20.09.2010 @ 17:26 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton is keen to house her new diplomatic corps in the so-called Lex building on Rue de la Loi in the EU quarter in Brussels.The change of mind comes after months of talks with Belgium's Axa insurance group on the potential lease of its Triangle building, a few hundred metres up the road from Lex on the Schuman roundabout.With two months left to go to the EEAS' grand opening, Ms Ashton has switched from the Triangle to the Lex building as her preferred new home (Photo: Sister Ray)Lex would be much cheaper than the €10-million-a-year Axa deal because the EU Council effectively owns the block and could lease it to the European External Action Service (EEAS) on sweetheart terms, a contact in the EU institutions said. Lex also has higher security specifications than the Triangle, the contact added.The current home of the European Commission's foreign relations department (Relex), the Charlemagne building on Rue de le Loi, has been discarded as an option partly for image reasons.People would see it [the EEAS] as a kind of Relex-plus. But it's a unique, stand-alone institution, the contact said.Time is ticking for Ms Ashton's self-imposed deadline to get the EEAS up and running by 1 December.The Axa negotiators received the surprise news just last Thursday (16 September) at an advanced stage in the negotiations. And it is unclear whether senior EU Council management will back the Lex idea.
Lex currently houses Council translators and lawyers. Member States would then have to give the Council an increased budget to enable it to rent accommodation for its translators. At present, the order of the day is budget cuts not increases, a source in the EU Council administration said. Our management admits that they were asked to entertain the theoretical possibility, but that they had replied in no uncertain terms that they did not want to give up the Lex building.The Brussels-based architects' firm, Jaspers-Eyers & Partners, built Lex between 2003 and 2006 for Belgian bank Dexia and the Belgian real-estate firm Immobel, which later sold the building to the EU.Covering 15 floors and 84,674 square metres, the glass-fronted structure is said to be liked by Ms Ashton for its modern, open-plan office design and conference facilities. The building also has an underground tunnel connecting it to the commission's Berlaymont headquarters across the road and the main EU Council premises, the Justus Lipsius building, next door. With senior EEAS personnel cleared to have access to documents up to EU TOP SECRET level, security is a major concern.
Your keyboard, your computer monitor, all give off radiation. I could sit across the street, 500 metres away, and with the right equipment I could read what's on your screen and what is being typed,a security specialist in the EU Council said.
EU seeks stress-resistant intelligence officer
ANDREW RETTMAN 20.09.2010 @ 09:27 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU is hiring three junior experts to join its intelligence-sharing bureau, the Joint Situation Centre (SitCen), with the job descriptions shedding some light onto the secretive body's work.The posts - a Deployable Security Information Officer, an Open Source Intelligence Analyst and a Security Information Officer - are to be filled at the same time as the appointment of a new SitCen director. The deadline for applications closed last Friday (16 September).The job advertisements, seen by EUobserver, were circulated to EU institutions and member states' foreign ministries in recent weeks, but were not made available to the general public.The deployable officer, according to the official notice, is to travel to potential crisis or conflict areas to overtly gather political and security information to support early crisis management decisions and to supplement information and assessments from other sources.The candidate is to have a diplomatic, intelligence or media background and to have experience in information collection and evaluation in areas with a high degree of tension.The right man or woman must also be prepared to travel extensively to potential crisis areas and to do so at short notice and to be physically fit and stress-resistant. Able to withstand potentially physically and psychologically harsh working environment.
The bulk of SitCen's work is drafting security reports out of its 100-person-strong office in the EU quarter in Brussels. EU diplomats say there is no political appetite among member states to create a genuine European Intelligence Service which carries out covert operations.But SitCen officers do travel to hotspots to help EU delegations carry out research. When the earthquake struck in Haiti earlier this year, the then SitCen director, William Shapcott, personally accompanied EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton to the Caribbean country to seek information.The job advertisement for the new SitCen director also mentions that the candidate must be fit and ready to travel to areas of crisis.Out of the other two junior jobs up for grabs, the open source analyst is to follow up on open and confidential sources of information relating to the political and security situation in areas where the EU has launched a CSDP [Common Security and Defence Policy] mission or may be considering doing so.The new Security Information Officer will focus on Asia and will do topical Internet research in response to requests for information. The ideal candidate is to speak Urdu, Persian, Russian or Mandarin.
LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS
Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
DANIEL 11:21-23
21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
23 And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.
24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
ZECHARIAH 14:1-9 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
Israel FM clarifies land swap proposal
– Mon Sep 20, 9:48 am ET
PRAGUE (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in Prague on Monday that his plan to push for swapping territories for people in peace talks with Palestinians was his personal view, not his government's position.On Sunday, Lieberman proposed the Palestinians should take his country's 1.3 million Arabs and let Israel keep its West Bank settlements instead of seeking a land for peace solution.I want to stress it's my personal view. It's not the official position of our government, he said on Monday after meeting his Czech counterpart Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country is one of Israel's staunchest allies.Israeli and Palestinian leaders this month renewed direct peace talks after a gap of nearly two years and have pledged to seek agreement within 12 months.The phrase land for peace refers to the concept of Israel withdrawing from the Palestinian territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war in return for an end to the drawn-out conflict.
I don't think the idea that we will establish a homogeneous Palestinian state without one Jew and that Israel will become a bi-national state with more than 20 percent of minorities can be a real, stable, long-term solution, Lieberman added in Prague.The maverick nationalist has campaigned in the past for Israel's Arab citizens to be stripped of their nationality unless they take an oath of allegiance to the Jewish state.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says any treaty must include recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.The Palestinians oppose the demand, fearing that it could prejudge the future of refugees seeking to return to old homes now in Israel.
Report: Netanyahu Pushes Referendum on Peace Deal
by Maayana Miskin SEPT 20,10
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139691
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is backing a call for a national referendum on any final agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority regarding Judea and Samaria, according to Channel 2 news.MK Ofir Akunis (Likud), a close associate of Netanyahu's, has written up a proposed law that would require a referendum. Netanyahu reportedly saw the bill on Friday and gave it his full support.Earlier in the month Netanyahu said that he had not ruled out the possibility of a national referendum if Israel and the PA were to succeed in reaching an agreement within a year.Political analysts suggested that the law could help Netanyahu keep his coalition together by reassuring the political Right that no territories will be ceded without the people's approval.Netanyahu has met twice with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and with senior United States diplomats. Talks between Netanyahu and Abbas focused on core issues such as the borders of a potential PA state in Judea and Samaria and the status of Jerusalem. Netanyahu's conditions, security and recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, were not considered core issues.Abbas has threatened to leave the talks over the resumption of construction for Jews in Judea and Samaria on September 26. He had demanded a building freeze before starting talks. Netanyahu unilaterally froze building for Israeli families in the region for 10 months in an unprecedented move aimed at bringing the PA to the negotiating table, however the PA waited until the freeze was about to end to use its continuation as a condition for continuing the fledgling talks.(Israel National News.com)
No Middle East peace talks scheduled for Obama this week
– Mon Sep 20, 4:24 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama has no current plans for peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in New York this week, the White House said Monday.There had been some expectations that the action in the direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would shift to the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this week, as the end of an Israeli settlement moratorium looms.But Ben Rhodes, a senior foreign policy advisor to Obama, said no talks were planned as of Monday.We don't have any currently planned. I would have to defer to the Israelis and the Palestinians about the schedule of their leaders, Rhodes, a deputy national security advisor, told reporters.Netanyahu's office had said he has no plans to head to the United States this week, but Israeli President Shimon Peres and Defence Minister Ehud Barak are already in the country.Peres is due to address the UN summit, and Barak is holding talks with US officials.The deadline for the end of Israel's freeze on settlement construction is widely accepted as September 26, exactly 10 months and a day after the original cabinet decision.But the Israeli military order regarding the moratorium states it will only close at midnight on September 30.Abbas told AFP on Monday he will not take part in US-backed peace talks for a single day if Israel does not extend a freeze on settlement building at the month's end.
Top Mideast officials fly to US as peace talks crisis looms
by Hazel Ward – Sun Sep 19, 2:58 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Top Israeli and Palestinian officials headed Sunday for the United States where they are expected to seek ways to break a deadlock over settlements threatening to sabotage peace talks.Israeli President Shimon Peres left on a four-day visit coinciding with the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, before Defence Minister Ehud Barak set off for talks in Washington.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was also to fly later to New York for the annual sitting, with efforts under way to arrange a meeting with US President Barack Obama, a senior Palestinian official told AFP.There are also preparations for a meeting between (Israeli premier Benjamin) Netanyahu, Obama and Abbas, he said.There is an expectation that they will meet.Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said the Palestinian leader had high-level engagements scheduled, but he would not give details.Abbas will take part in the UN General Assembly meetings in New York and meet with several world leaders, Abu Rudeina told AFP.He will deliver an important speech about the peace process and efforts to push it forward in a way that would help end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land in 1967 as well as create an independent Palestinian state, with east Jerusalem as its capital.
Netanyahu's office said he had no plans to fly to the United States this week, and would not say whether he would meet Abbas before the settlement freeze expires later this month.Israel and the Palestinians began long-awaited peace negotiations earlier this month, but the talks may well collapse if they fail to resolve a bitter dispute over the moratorium expiry.So far, Israel has stubbornly refused to extend the partial 10-month ban on new construction. The Palestinians have vowed to pull out of the talks if building resumes.Addressing ministers, Netanyahu reiterated Israel's position: that the moratorium will end as planned.Last week, I held political talks in (the Red Sea resort of) Sharm el-Sheikh and Jerusalem. I can't give any detail about the content of the talks because of its sensitivity. What I can say is that regarding the freeze, there has been no change in our position, he said.The talks, which brought together Abbas, Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, failed to break the impasse.Clinton said she hoped the Israeli leader would extend the freeze.Well, that certainly is our hope, she told ABC News.
It's been in effect for the time that it was set for, and the talks are just starting, she said. So we are working hard to make sure there remains a conducive atmosphere to constructive thought.But Israel's ultra-nationalist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said it was up to Netanyahu to withstand pressure over the moratorium.If we aren't able to withstand pressure on a relatively simple issue like building in (the West Bank), how will we defend our other national interests? Lieberman said on army radio. We said it would be a 10-month freeze and we told everyone. The minute it's over, we can start (building) again, he added. The deadline for the end of the freeze is widely accepted as September 26, 10 months and a day after the original cabinet decision. But the military order regarding the moratorium states it will only close at midnight on September 30. Efforts to reach a last-minute compromise now look set to shift to the United States.Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Israeli official told AFP the main negotiators would meet there this week in order to set up the next leaders' meeting.The negotiators will be meeting this week in North America where they will be planning the next round of talks at a leadership level, he said, without giving further details. Elsewhere, Barak, who reportedly backs an extension of the freeze, was set to meet with Clinton and with US Defence Secretary Robert Gates during his five-day trip.And Peres was expected on Monday to address the UN's millennium summit in a speech explaining why Netanyahu could not extend the settlement freeze, the Jerusalem Post reported. He was also expected to speak alongside Palestinian premier Salam Fayyad at a conference organised by former US president Bill Clinton, which Barak would also attend.
Palestinian state should take in Israeli Arabs
– Sun Sep 19, 11:35 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday proposed that in a future peace deal the Palestinians should take his country's 1.3 million Arabs and let Israel keep its West Bank settlements.Our guiding principle in negotiations with the Palestinians must not be 'land for peace' but an exchange of territories and populations, Lieberman told reporters as he arrived for Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting.The maverick nationalist has campaigned in the past for Israel's Arab citizens to be stripped of their nationality unless they take an oath of allegiance to the Jewish state.The phrase land for peace refers to the concept of Israel withdrawing from Palestinian territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war in return for an end to the conflict.Israeli and Palestinian leaders this month renewed direct peace talks after a gap of nearly two years and have pledged to seek agreement within 12 months.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says any treaty must include recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.The Palestinians oppose the demand, fearing that it could prejudge the future of refugees seeking to return to old homes now in Israel.
It's as if someone sells you a flat and then demands that his mother-in-law continues living there, Lieberman said.The vigorous refusal of the Arab League and the Palestinian Authority to recognise Israel as the state of the Jewish people obliges us to make the question of the Israeli Arabs one of the main issues on the negotiating table, he said.In a separate interview with Israeli army radio, Lieberman said that the Israeli Arabs -- those Palestinians who remained after Israel was founded in 1948, and their descendants -- had long sought separation.Self-determination for Israeli Arabs, autonomy in the Galilee and the Negev and the right to be annexed to a future Palestinian state; Arab MPs talk about this from the rostrum of the Knesset (parliament), he said.Speaking to Israel's Haaretz daily, Arab legislator Haneen Zuabi, whose parliamentary privileges were revoked after she joined a flotilla of aid ships heading to the Gaza Strip, said Lieberman's views were racist.Lieberman represents apartheid and ethnic cleansing, she said, but acknowledged that the issue needed serious debate.Lieberman bases his claims on a doctrine of racism, while I base mine on the principle of full equality among citizens but both of us agree that there needs to be a discussion of the question, Zuabi added.
Iranian president stops in Syria on way to UN ALBERT AJI, Associated Press Writer – Sat Sep 18, 1:30 pm ET
DAMASCUS, Syria – Iran's president said Saturday that Middle Eastern countries will disrupt American and Israeli plans to change the political geography of the region, appearing to brush aside U.S. efforts to forge a regional peace deal between Israel and its neighbors.Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the comments during a brief stop in Syria, a key all in Tehran's confrontation with the West, where he held talks with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad.The meeting comes two days after Assad sat down with the Obama administration's special Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, in Damascus to discuss starting separate Syria-Israel peace talks.The back-to-back trips underscored the battle for influence in Syria between Washington and Tehran. Seeking to isolate Iran, President Barack Obama has tried - unsuccessfully, so far - to pry Damascus away from its alliance with Tehran.Speaking in Damascus, Ahmadinejad appeared to dismiss U.S. efforts to forge a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians and a wider deal with its neighbors. He said countries in the Middle East will disrupt U.S. and Israeli plans, but did not elaborate.Those who want to change the political geography of the region must know that they will have no place in the future of the region, Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by Iran's state-run news agency IRNA.The waves of free nations to join this resistance is spreading every day, he said.
Ahmadinejad said before his visit to Syria that he and Assad would discuss key areas of conflict and tension in the Middle East, including Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. He also told Iranian state TV Friday that he and Assad would discuss the Westerners' moves in the region, an apparent reference to the United States.We have to be ready and in harmony, he said in the state TV interview, without elaborating.Washington is at odds with Iran over its nuclear program, which it fears is aimed at making weapons, and with a military buildup by Tehran that it believes threatens the United States' Arab allies in the region as well as Israel. Iran says its nuclear activity is only for producing energy.The U.S. began reaching out to Syria soon after President Barack Obama took office, and has made repeated overtures to Damascus this year, including nominating the first U.S. ambassador to Syria since 2005 and sending top diplomats to meet with Assad.Mitchell said during his visit Thursday that the U.S. was determined to reach a comprehensive peace in the Middle East and that the administration's efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict did not contradict peace between Israel and Syria.Syria and Iran are both under U.S. pressure because of their support for anti-Israel militant groups. The U.S. also accuses Syria of secret nuclear activities, which Damascus denies.The two leaders stressed the need for Iraqi politicians to overcome arguments that have delayed formation of a new government there after national elections in March, according to Syria's state news agency, SANA.Ahmadinejad also called the new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks - revived this month with Washington's mediation - a failure, according to Iran's state-run Press TV. He said Israel had no place in the future of the region.Ahmadinejad later made a brief stop in Algeria and spoke with his Algerian counterpart, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, according to a statement from Algeria's presidency.The Iranian president was to fly from there to New York for the U.N. General Assembly.
Iran leads nuclear drive in the Middle East by Samer al-Atrush – Sat Sep 18, 5:13 am ET
CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt's plan to build four nuclear powerplants by 2025 underscores the emerging interest in atomic energy across the Middle East, where even oil-rich nations such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are eyeing fossil fuel alternatives to satisfy growing demand.In the region and beyond all eyes are on Iran, which says it is firing up its first nuclear reactor before the end of this year, becoming the first Muslim country in the Middle East to produce nuclear energy.
The announcement that the Russian-built Bushehr reactor in southern Iran will start up in October or November rang alarm bells in the region and beyond.Iran's neighbours and world powers largely suspect that behind its claimed drive to acquire atomic energy for peaceful purposes, Tehran's anti-Western government is hiding a covert atomic weapons programme.Though wary of Iran, Middle Eastern states want to harness nuclear energy more out of necessity than competition with Iran, some analysts and officials say.It is a matter of energy, said Mostafa el-Feki, who heads the Egyptian parliament's foreign relations committee and who was Egypt's ambassador to Austria and its representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency.He said Egypt has a scientific base for nuclear energy: When I was ambassador to Vienna, we used to have nearly 10 Egyptian inspectors.Egypt, which has flirted with nuclear power since the 1950s, is also planning solar and wind plants, with the target of producing 20 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2020. Its gas and oil reserves are expected to last three decades.Cairo said last month that a plant on the Mediterranean coast of el-Dabaa will be the centrepiece of a plan to build four nuclear plants by 2025, part of a regional trend away from conventional energy as demand soars.Oil-poor Jordan also says the regional drive is fuelled by economic necessity.
The increasing interest in the region in nuclear power is because of the high oil prices. Countries who don't have oil are now looking for other options to generate energy,said Jordan's Atomic Energy Commission chief Khaled Tukan.This month, Jordan and Japan signed an agreement on civilian nuclear energy cooperation in the ninth such accord by the kingdom.Jordan, which imports about 95 percent of its energy needs, wants its first nuclear plant to be ready by 2015.Oil-rich Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have also expressed interest in building nuclear power stations.The UAE, which hopes to start its first plant in 2017 and already imports natural gas to produce energy, says that necessity, not regional politics, is behind its nuclear ambitions.Its energy demand is projected to increase to 40,000 megawatts by 2020, double its current level. Last year, it awarded a multi-billion-dollar contract to a South Korean-led consortium for four nuclear power plants.
Kuwait, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, has signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with Japan, and announced it intends to build four nuclear reactors over the next 12 years.The emirate faced unprecedented violent protests this summer following record temperatures and power cuts. Saudi Arabia, which holds around a fifth of the world's known oil reserves, agreed in July to sign a nuclear cooperation accord with France, opening the way for French help for the development of peaceful uses of nuclear energy.But some analysts believe that regional interest in nuclear energy transcends economic necessity.In general the drive to build nuclear power plants transcends any economic rationale, there are strategic drivers, said Leila Benali, the Paris-based Middle East director for the energy advisory group Cambridge Energy Research Associates.You also have security reasons, and the fact that once Iran made its nuclear programme public it became clear that at some point some countries in the region would have to do something to counter nuclear Iran, whether for prestige or for deterrence, she added.Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran has ben repeatedly accused of trying to export Shiite militancy to the region, and Arab governments have been wary of Tehran and suspicious of its nuclear intentions.The Iranian nuclear programme was a wake up call. The Iranians insist on their right. They are talking about a strategic direction, said Mustafa Alani, a security expert with the Dubai-based think tank the Gulf Research Centre. It is widely accepted that Iran's arch-foe Israel possesses an undeclared nuclear arsenal.
World Bank: Palestinians managing reforms well
– Fri Sep 17, 1:28 pm ET
JERUSALEM – The World Bank is cautiously praising the Western-backed Palestinian Authority's government reforms.The organization says in a report Friday that if Palestinians maintain financial reforms, institution building and the delivery of public services, they will be ready to handle statehood at any point in the near future.It says Palestinian spending remained within budget and tax collection rates were nearly 15 percent above projection. Growth is estimated at 8 percent this year.
But the World Bank notes that Palestinians are dependent on donor aid. It says Israel must loosen restrictions on movement, access to land and markets for growth to be sustainable.U.S.-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians resumed earlier this month.
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