AMERICA CLAIMS THEY WONN'T AID THE PALESTINIANS IF THEY GROUP UP.BUT AL-QUIDA IS A CIA AGENT AMERICA USES WHEN IT WANTS TO STEAL CITIZENS RIGHTS.THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT CLAIM THE BOOGY MAN BIN-LADIN IS OUT TO GET US,MEANWHILLE OTHER AL-QUIDA MEMBERS ARE EATING-DRINKING IN THE PENTEGON WITH THE GOVERNMENT FAT CATS.THIS MAKES A LOT OF SENSE.DREAM UP A BOOGY MAN CIA AGENTS CALL THEM AL-QUIDA.CLAIM THEIR ENEMIES OF THE GOVERNMENT WITH FALSE FLAG INCIDENTS.STEAL CITIZENS RIGHTS AND CONTROL THERE EVERY MOVE.THEN HELP THE CIA AGENTS(SO CALLED AL-QUIDA BOOGYMEN)SKIP TO SAUDI-ARABIA OR WHEREVER A MUSLIM COUNTRY THEY CHOOSE.UNTILL THE NEXT FALSE FLAG BY THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT COMES UP AND THEIR CIA AGENTS ARE NEEDED TO STEAL MORE CITIZENS RIGHTS AND CONTROL THEIR EVERY MOVE.WHAT A WONDER LIFE IN THE MERRY GO ROUND CONTROL FREAKS NEIGHBOURHOOD.
AMERICA WOULD WELCOME HAMAS-FATAH TEAMING UP.THEN THEY COULD HAVE MORE POWER AGAINST ISRAEL AND WOULD FUND THIS NEW SEX FOR MURDER CULT GROUP WITH 3 TIMES AS MUCH AID.BUT CLAIM THEY WILL LOOK AT LOOKING OVER THE AID SITUATION.THIS IS ANOTHER BOOGY MAN.WE KNOW THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT HATES ISRAEL AND WILL GIVE HAMAS AND FATAH ALL THE SECRET TRILLIONS THEY NEED TO KEEP SHOOTING ROCKETS AT INNOCENT ISRAELI BOYS AND GIRLS AND SCHOOLS AND INNOCENT ISRAELI WOMEN ALSO.THESE GOVERNMENT FRAUDS HAVE TO BE REVEALED FOR THE ISRAEL HATERS THEY ARE.
BUT THEN WE KNOW WERE THIS WILL ALL LEAD.AMERICA WILL BE NUKED BY RUSSIA FOR COMING AGAINST ISRAEL.JUST READ THE BIBLE.THESE GOVERNMENT FRAUDS WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH THEIR SCHEMES AND GAMES AND FALSE FLAG ATTACKS FOR VERY MUCH LONGER.
AND YES THERE ARE REAL TERROR ATTACKS BY IRAN,SYRIA,RUSSIA ARMING AND FUNDING THESE REAL TERRORISTS AGAINST ISRAEL ESPECIALLY AND THE WORLD.BUT AMERICA USES FALSE ATTACKS TO STEAL WORLDS CITIZENS RIGHTS.BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM AN ILLEGEL FRAUD MUSLIM IN OFFICE IN AMERICA.
US to assess aid if new Palestinian government formed
– Fri Apr 29, 7:14 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States is waiting to see if a new Palestinian government is formed after Hamas inks a deal with its rival Fatah before deciding on any changes to its aid policy, officials said Friday. The current Palestinian government remains in place and so our assistance programs continue, State Department Policy Planning Director Jacob Sullivan told reporters.Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal will meet next week in Cairo with Palestinian Authority president and Fatah leader Mahmud Abbas to sign a unity deal, a Fatah official said on Friday.
It will be the first time the two men have met since the Islamist movement Hamas -- designed a terrorist organization by the United States -- seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, ousting Fatah from the coastal territory after a week of bloody street battles.If a new Palestinian government is formed, we're going to have to assess it based on its policies at the time and determine, then, the implications for our assistance given US law,Sullivan said.Sullivan stressed any new Palestinian government would have accept the principles set down by the Diplomatic Quartet of the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia, in a so-called roadmap to peace.Those three principles are: renouncing violence, accepting past agreements, and recognizing Israel's right to exist, he said.The deal, announced in Cairo on Wednesday, saw the secular Fatah party which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority and Gaza's Islamist rulers agree to form a transitional government ahead of polls within a year.We support Palestinian reconciliation on terms that promote the cause of peace, Sullivan stressed.In terms of this particular deal, the specifics of it, and how it will be implemented that's something that we're continuing to study.Kay Granger, the Republican chair of the House of Representatives subcommittee that controls US foreign aid, has warned the United States will reexamine its aid to the Palestinians in the event of a deal.If a power-sharing agreement with a terrorist organization becomes a reality in the Palestinian territories, the US will be forced to reexamine our aid to the Palestinian Authority,Granger said.
Egypt's plan to open Gaza border reveals shifts
By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press – Fri Apr 29, 4:41 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Egypt's announcement that it will open a key border crossing with the Palestinian Gaza Strip within days sparked concern in Israel on Friday and revealed how the upheaval in the Arab world is shifting the Mideast conflict.Under former President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt restricted the movement of people and goods through the Rafah crossing in keeping with a blockade it imposed on Gaza along with Israel. The restrictions were aimed at weakening the Hamas militants who rule the Gaza Strip, and whom both Egypt and Israel saw, until recently, as a common enemy.After Mubarak's ouster in February by a popular uprising, Egypt's new transitional Cabinet and ruling military council are taking a cooler line toward Israel and the U.S. Egypt has also been warming its ties with Israel's enemies, chiefly Hamas and its main backer, Iran.Egypt's new foreign minister, Nabil al-Araby, said Thursday that the closure was about to end, calling the decision to close the crossing a disgusting matter in an interview with the Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera.Al-Araby said the crossing would be opened in the coming days.Israeli officials would not comment publicly Friday, but Israel is troubled by recent developments in Egypt, an Israeli government official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because there had been no official comment.
Israel views the Gaza blockade as essential to minimizing the flow of weaponry and militants into the territory, where Palestinian squads regularly launch rockets at Israeli towns, and to pressuring Hamas.In the past, despite efforts by the Egyptian government, Hamas succeeded in building a formidable military machine. If those efforts were to cease, how much easier would it be for Hamas to build a terrorist military machine, the official said.The decision appeared linked to the surprise announcement one day earlier that the two rival Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, had signed a reconciliation agreement brokered by Egypt. The deal is scheduled to be signed on Wednesday in Cairo, Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said Friday. It is to lead the way to a transitional unity government and elections.That announcement was also greeted with dismay in Israel, which said it ruled out any chance of peace talks with a Palestinian government that includes the Hamas militants. Hamas, which rejects peace talks and is committed to Israel's destruction, is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S., the European Union and others.The announcement on the border crossing also appeared to reflect a responsiveness by Egypt's new military rulers to street sentiment hostile to Israel and to the U.S. A recent poll showed more than half of Egyptians favor an annulment of the 1979 peace treaty with Israel.The number of travelers currently crossing through Rafah is limited to approximately 300 a day and is subject to Egyptian security clearance that is often withdrawn. The other crossings available to Gaza's 1.5 million people are with Israel and are closed with few exceptions, such as emergency medical cases. Israel allows goods into Gaza with restrictions on construction materials it says could be used by militants.
In Washington, Jake Sullivan, the State Department's director of policy planning, said the U.S. would continue to work with Egyptian authorities on ensuring that weaponry and other material cannot cross the Gaza border. He said he could not comment on the changes in Egyptian policy.The Israeli official said Friday that Israel was concerned about calls in Egypt for the abrogation of the three-decade-old peace agreement between the countries, by the rapprochement between Egypt and Iran, and by the upgrading of the relations between Egypt and Hamas.Hamas hailed the move. Taher Nunu, a Hamas spokesman, said Hamas has received positive signals from Egypt about the mechanism that Egypt is going to adopt in the terminal, and has been informed by the Egyptians that all future progress on Egypt's part is going to serve the interests of the people of Gaza.Before the blockade was imposed, the crossing was supervised by a detachment of European observers known as EUBAM that was meant to block the movement of weapons and other contraband through the terminal. The new details of the crossing's functioning, including the role of the European observers, remains unclear.Benoit Cusin, a EUBAM spokesman, said Friday that he was aware that discussions were ongoing among Egypt and other parties but that there had been no decision on redeployment of EUBAM monitors.The decision by Egypt marks a further cooling of ties with Israel. The peace agreement between the two countries, in return for which Egypt received the captured Sinai peninsula back from Israel and significant military and economic assistance from the U.S., has anchored regional stability for more than three decades. This week's unity deal between Hamas and Fatah drew praise from Iran. The official IRNA news agency quoted Ali Akbar Salehi, the foreign minister, expressing hope the deal could accelerate achieving great victories in confrontation with occupiers,meaning Israel.Associated Press writers Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City, Gaza Strip; Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran; and Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.
AP Exclusive: Syria's referral to UNSC likely
By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press – Fri Apr 29, 1:16 pm ET
VIENNA – The International Atomic Energy Agency is setting the stage for potential U.N. Security Council action against Syria as the organization prepares a report assessing that a Syrian target bombed by Israeli warplanes was likely a secretly built nuclear reactor meant to produce plutonium, diplomats say.Such a conclusion would back intelligence produced by Israel and the United States. Syria says the nearly finished building had no nuclear uses. It has repeatedly turned down IAEA requests to revisit the site after allowing an initial 2008 inspection that found evidence of possible nuclear activities.In interviews over the past week, three diplomats and a senior U.N. official said such an assessment — drawn up by IAEA chief Yukiya Amano — would be the basis of a Western-sponsored resolution at a meeting of the 35-nation IAEA board that condemns Syria's refusal to cooperate with the agency and sends the issue to the U.N. Security Council. They said reporting Syria to the council would likely come as early as a June board meeting and no later than in November.All spoke on condition of anonymity in exchange for discussing confidential information.In an apparent slip of the tongue that may have disclosed his plans, Amano said for the first time Thursday that the bombed site was a nearly finished nuclear reactor. He spoke in taped comments at a news conference and later to The Associated Press.Suggesting that Amano had erred in making such comments publicly, the IAEA later put out a statement that he did not say that the IAEA had reached the conclusion that the site was definitely a nuclear reactor.The rollback reflected previous, more circumspect, IAEA language. In a February report, Amano said only that features of the bombed structure were similar to what may be found at nuclear reactor sites.
Once formally involved, the council has options ranging from doing nothing to passing its own resolutions demanding compliance with the IAEA, followed by sanctions to enforce such demands. This has been the scenario for Iran, under four sets of U.N. sanctions for ignoring council demands to stop activities that could be used to build nuclear arms and to cooperate with an IAEA probe of experiments that could be used to develop such weapons.The greatest uncertainty, said one of the diplomats, is Syria's current unrest, which could delay or change Western plans to force a resolution and referral to the U.N. Security Council. Since the public uprising in Syria began in mid-March, inspired by revolts across the Arab world, hundreds of people have been killed nationwide, activists say.Syria sanctions are unlikely. While Tehran continues with its nuclear program, intelligence services believe that the Israeli bombing of the Al Kibar site in Syria effectively ended its covert activities. Also, the diplomats said, forcing the issue with Syria would detract council attention from Iran, the main focus of nuclear concern, and could muddy efforts to focus on an end of Syria's bloody crackdown on its grass-roots pro-democracy movement.Still, Security Council involvement carries both symbolic weight and opens the path for concrete action later, should new evidence be found.A U.S. official called any referral to the council significant, while the diplomats — all from IAEA board member nations — said that beyond sending a signal to Syria that defying the IAEA carries a price tag, reporting it to the council also would be a rehearsal for more action against Iran.They said that after more than four years of gridlock in IAEA attempts to investigate Iran's alleged experiments geared toward developing nuclear arms, Amano also was planning to draw up an assessment saying that such experiments were likely conducted, perhaps by the end of the year.
That, in turn, would open the path for renewed IAEA referral of Iran to the Security Council and lead to potential tightening of existing sanctions or a new set of U.N. penalties, the diplomats said.One said assessments such as ones for Syria and Iran were rare, if not unprecedented, in the IAEA's history and reflected the agency's frustration with both nation's refusal to cooperate.Beyond Iran, only five other nations — Saddam Hussein's Iraq, North Korea, Israel, Libya and Romania — have been reported to the U.N. Security Council by the IAEA in its 54-year history.Like Syria, neither Libya nor Romania had a live secret nuclear program at the time they were referred. Libya had voluntarily disclosed its attempts to develop nuclear arms and agreed to dismantle its program.Romania was reported after the IAEA — the U.N. nuclear watchdog on proliferation — found a small amount of plutonium in a lab set up under the nation's previous communist regime. Israel was reported for its 1981 attack on an Iraqi nuclear reactor that it suspected was being used to develop weapons — a claim the IAEA said was false.Along with Iran, Syria denies allegations of any interest in developing nuclear arms. But its refusal to allow IAEA inspectors new access to the bombed desert site has heightened suspicions that it had something to hide along with its decision to level the structure that was destroyed by Israel and later to build over it.Drawing on the 2008 visit to Syria by its inspectors, the IAEA determined that the destroyed building's size and structure fit specifications that a reactor would have had. It also found graphite and natural uranium particles that could be linked to nuclear use of the structure.
U.S. affirms aid to Palestinians -- for now
By Andrew Quinn – Thu Apr 28, 5:23 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will keep aid flowing to the Palestinian Authority, but future help depends on the new Palestinian government, the State Department said on Thursday.One day after a unity deal between rival Palestinian factions, the State Department said roughly $400 million in annual U.S. funding would be reassessed as the policies of the new leadership emerge.The current Palestinian government remains in place and our assistance programs continue,State Department spokeswoman Heide Bronke-Fulton said in an email.If a new Palestinian government is formed, we will assess it based on its policies at that time and will determine the implications for our assistance based on U.S. law.U.S. lawmakers from both parties have warned that the reconciliation deal between the western-backed Fatah party and the Islamist Hamas could imperil U.S. aid if Hamas continues to spurn demands that it renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist.
The top Republican and Democrat lawmakers on a House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee wrote a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday urging him to reconsider the Hamas deal and to stop moves to seek U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state.Our ability to support current and future aid would be severely threatened if you abandon direct negotiations with Israel and continue with your current efforts, Republican chairwoman Kay Granger and senior Democrat Nita Lowey said.Your current courses of action undermine the purposes and threaten the provision of United States assistance and support.The Palestinian deal comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to visit Washington next month and U.S. officials weigh the chances of restarting direct peace talks which collapsed shortly after their launch last year.U.S. taxpayer funds should not and must not be used to support those who threaten U.S. security, our interests and our vital ally, Israel, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a staunch defender of Israel, said in a statement.The Obama administration has reacted coolly to the Hamas-Fatah announcement. It insists that any future Palestinian government must renounce violence, respect past peace agreements and recognize Israel's right to exist.Hamas, founded on a charter that calls for Israel's destruction, appeared unlikely to comply with these demands. Hamas has been in control of the Gaza Strip since 2007 and it remains unclear exactly what role it might play in a unity arrangement with President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah that governs the West Bank.
BUILDING INSTITUTIONS
Since 1994, the United States has given more than $3.5 billion to the Palestinian Authority now headed by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, much of it aimed at strengthening governance and security in preparation for eventual statehood.Our current support for the Palestinian Authority, as led by President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad, serves as an important contribution to U.S. efforts to support the building of Palestinian institutions, Bronke-Fulton said.But with many details of the Palestinian agreement not known, it was unclear if this would continue.A Congressional Research Service report last year said a potential unity government could drop the development and reform objectives set by the Fayyad administration, which are used as major justifications for current U.S. aid levels.It also said that as long as Hamas refuses to agree to the basic benchmarks on renouncing violence and accepting Israel, the United States could not legally continue assistance to any government of which it is a part. Palestinian suggestions that the new interim government would be made up of technocrats without party affiliation may allow some legal room to maneuver, but Israel's vocal allies in the U.S. Congress were unlikely to be appeased.The Palestinian Authority has chosen an alliance with violence and extremism over the democratic values that Israel represents,a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers said on Thursday after a meeting in Tel Aviv with Netanyahu.The questions over Palestinian aid come amid a broader debate over U.S. foreign aid levels, which many Republicans have vowed to cut to help rein in the U.S. budget deficit. (Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
PLO will run peace talks: Abbas
– Thu Apr 28, 11:59 am ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The PLO will remain in charge of peace talks with Israel and will not hand that responsibility to a new interim government, Mahmud Abbas said on Thursday.Speaking to reporters in Ramallah, the Palestinian president insisted he would continue to set policy vis-a-vis Israel, regardless of a unity deal between his Fatah party and the rival Hamas movement.This government (will be) authorised to do two things -- fix a date for the elections and rebuild Gaza, he said in reference to a new transition government which is to be jointly put together by both factions with the aim of setting a date for presidential and parliamentary elections within a year.Politics is for the PLO and we will continue to follow my policies,he said, referring to the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
Wednesday's deal, which came after 18 months of fruitless talks, will see the two parties form an interim government of independent politicians chosen by both sides, in a process expected to begin next week, officials said.Abbas said it was too early to talk about who will be the prime minister,as several media reports suggested current prime minister Salam Fayyad would be shunted aside due to objections from Hamas.His comments were made during a visit by Israeli peace activists to his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah.The agreement, announced in Cairo on Wednesday, saw Abbas's Fatah party, which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, and Gaza's Islamist rulers agree to form a transitional government ahead of polls within a year.
Israel FM says Palestinian deal crosses red line
– Thu Apr 28, 3:14 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The Palestinian unity deal agreed in Cairo crossed a red line, Israel's Avigdor Lieberman said on Thursday, warning that an array of measures could be taken against the Palestinian Authority.With this accord, a red line has been crossed, the ultra-nationalist foreign minister told Israel's military radio a day after the Palestinian parties announced a surprise reconciliation agreement.We have at our disposal a vast arsenal of measures including the lifting of VIP status for Abu Mazen and Salam Fayyad, which will not allow them to move freely, he said referring to president Mahmud Abbas and his prime minister.We could also freeze the transfer of taxes collected by Israel for the Palestinian Authority, added Lieberman, who leads the Israel Beitenu party in the coalition of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.After 18 months of largely fruitless reconciliation talks, delegations from Hamas and Fatah meeting in Cairo on Wednesday announced a deal to form an interim unity government with a view to holding presidential and legislative elections within a year.The deal raises the prospect of an end to the devastating political divide that has seen the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority govern the West Bank while the Islamist Hamas movement controls the Gaza Strip.
But the agreement was criticised by Israel, with Netanyahu warning on Wednesday, shortly after the deal was announced, that Abbas must choose between peace with Israel or peace with Hamas.Lieberman said the reconciliation deal would mean the freeing of hundreds of Hamas terrorists detained by the Palestinian Authority in Judaea and Samaria -- the biblical name for the West Bank.He said the elections envisaged under the agreement would allow Hamas to take control of Judaea and Samaria.Lieberman said he wanted to see the international community insist that any unity government comply with conditions announced by the Middle East peacemaking Quartet, which includes the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia.
We hope that the whole international community will maintain the conditions imposed by the Quartet on the Palestinians, which means an end to violence, recognition of Israel and past agreements, and Hamas does not accept any of these conditions, he said.Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the latest events do nothing but reinforce the necessity of relying only on ourselves.The army and the security services will use an iron fist to deal with any threat and challenge,he warned.
Abbas must choose between Israel, Hamas: Netanyahu
– Wed Apr 27, 4:17 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas could not hope to forge a peace deal with Israel if he pursued a reconciliation accord with the Islamist group Hamas.The Palestinian Authority must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. There is no possibility for peace with both, Netanyahu said after the two Palestinian groups announced they had overcome past differences.Netanyahu is expected to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress during a visit to Washington next month where he plans to outline his plan to re-start frozen peace talks with Abbas's Palestinian Authority that controls the occupied West Bank.Talks opened last September with the aim of an accord in one year, but quickly broke down after Netanyahu refused to extend a partial freeze on Jewish settlement building in the West Bank.But top Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdaineh said the reconciliation did not concern Israel.The agreement between Fatah and Hamas movements is an internal affair and has nothing to do with Israel. Netanyahu must choose between a just peace with the united Palestinian people ... and settlements, Abu Rdaineh said.In his televised statement, Netanyahu said Israel could not accept Hamas as a negotiating partner because it aspires to destroy Israel, it says so publicly, it fires rockets on our cities, it fires anti-tank rockets on our children.
He said the surprise announcement of a reconciliation deal exposes the Palestinian Authority's weakness and raises questions whether Hamas will take hold of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) as it took hold of the Gaza Strip.Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip in a brief, bloody civil war in 2007 when it ousted Abbas's administration. Abbas's more secular Fatah faction controls the West Bank.Netanyahu added in his Hebrew statement that it was up to Abbas's administration to decide its upcoming steps.I hope that the Palestinian Authority will make the correct decision, that it will choose peace with Israel. The choice is in its hands,he said.(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Crispian Balmer)
Israeli leader wants Gaza flotilla stopped
– Wed Apr 27, 11:32 am ET
JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister is stepping up efforts to prevent an international flotilla from reaching the blockaded Gaza Strip in the coming months.
Israel wants to prevent a repeat of last year's showdown with a Gaza-bound flotilla that tried to break through the Israeli blockade. Nine Turkish activists were killed in clashes with naval commandos.Pro-Palestinian activists hope to send a new flotilla in late May or early June.Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Wednesday that he ordered the Foreign Ministry to press foreign countries to prevent the flotilla from sailing.It says he also ordered the military to make necessary preparations to enforce the naval blockade, which Israel says is needed to prevent Hamas militants from arming.
Arab uprisings may boost economies: IMF
by Ali Khalil – Wed Apr 27, 8:25 am ET
DUBAI (AFP) – Political changes in the Arab world could boost the region's economies in the long term through inclusive reforms that would render them more dynamic, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday.But oil-importing economies face pressure due to increased crude prices and disruption to economic activities, the IMF said in its Regional Economic Outlook report.The changes taking place in the region could provide a boost for its economies over time, the report said.A more inclusive reform agenda that meets the population?s demands by providing greater access to opportunity and more competition would make the economies more dynamic and leverage the region?s inherent strengths, it said.The strengths include a young labour force and a privileged geographic position at the crossroads between major markets in Europe and fast-growing emerging and developing economies in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.In the near term, however, a wave of pro-democracy uprisings spreading across several Arab countries pose risks to the oil-importing economies, including the possibility of spreading unrest, sharply higher oil prices, and rising fiscal deficits.
The IMF also warned that further deterioration of investor confidence and associated capital outflows could leave governments short of needed financing.Street protests have already swept away the two traditionally strong presidents of Tunisia and Egypt, while demonstrators in Yemen are keeping up determined protests to oust the long-serving President Ali Abdullah Saleh.Almost all other Arab countries have seen uprisings and demands for political reforms.The unrest has ranged from small demonstrations in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia to a full-blown armed struggle in Libya where the West intervened militarily to protect civilians, backed by a UN Security Council resolution.The IMF earlier this month revised its economic growth projection for the Middle East and North Africa region to 4.1 percent this year, down from a forecast of 4.6 percent made in January.It said that spreading unrest was putting pressure on economic growth in several countries, mainly Egypt where economic growth is now projected to drop from 5.1 percent last year to just 1.0 percent this year.With this change comes the challenge of putting economies back on track, but also the opportunity to turn to a path of more inclusive growth, said the IMF in its latest report.In addition to economic costs resulting from unrest, the economies of Egypt and Tunisia will also suffer from the effects of trouble in neighbouring Libya and the resultant return of more than 100,000 migrant workers, it said.Both countries face a virtual standstill in tourism and foreign direct investment with fiscal deficits widening to a projected 9.7 percent of the gross domestic product in Egypt and 4.3 of GDP in Tunisia, it said.
It said expenditure in the two countries increased in response to growing needs and higher borrowing costs, while revenues suffered from lower economic growth and collection rates.Meanwhile, countries of the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will continue to perform well, thanks to a surge in crude prices, except unrest-hit Bahrain.The performance of the GCC countries will remain strong in 2011, with the exception of Bahrain, where uncertainties prevail, it said. Qatar's gas-rich economy is projected to expand by a massive 20 percent this year, compared with 16.3 percent in 2010. Growth in Qatar has been revised upwards from 18.6 percent in October.
Growth in Saudi Arabia -- the largest Arab economy, has also been revised up to 7.5 percent this year, compared with 4.5 percent projected in October.
Israel anticipates change in Syria
By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press – Wed Apr 27, 5:42 am ET
JERUSALEM – With upheaval in Syria spreading and the crackdown by President Bashar Assad growing more violent, Israel has begun bracing for change in an authoritarian regime that has been a potent yet familiar enemy for four decades.A shake-up in Syria would have implications beyond the border the two countries share. While Syria has not fought a direct war with Israel since 1973, it has cultivated relations with Israel's most bitter foes. A staunch Iranian ally, it backs Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.These ties are suddenly in question as Assad faces the biggest challenge yet to his rule. Israeli officials now appear to believe that whether Assad survives, some sort of change in Syria is inevitable. For Israel, that will mean facing another wild card in a regional mix that has seen outwardly stable dictatorships quickly become volatile states in varying degrees of flux.Any potential outcome in the power struggle holds risks and opportunities for Israel, said an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of an order not to discuss the issue with the media.
Some in Israel believe changes in Syria's regime, or its disappearance altogether, could potentially weaken enemies such as Hamas and Hezbollah, which would work in Israel's favor. Others warn that the result could be anarchy or the strengthening of Islamic extremists.All seem to agree that peace with Syria, which several Israeli governments have pursued without success, is off the table indefinitely.Israeli officials are under strict instructions to remain silent on the events in Syria. This has made it difficult to gauge the official assessment.But the Israeli official, who is privy to senior policy debates, said the government is closely following the developments in Syria and believes Assad is in a battle for survival.
The official said it is impossible to predict whether Assad will succeed in outwitting or overpowering his opponents. Israeli leaders are divided over whether his downfall would serve the country's interest, he said.But he said officials believe irreversible change is under way. Even if Assad survives the challenge to his rule, the official said: The Assad of the past is not the same Assad we will see in the future.Israeli officials say that concerns that Assad may try to heat up hostilities with Israel to divert public outrage are unfounded, as he is currently too focused on his own domestic troubles.Nonetheless, Israeli army officials said military commanders are holding briefings every few hours to monitor developments in Syria. Israel's military believes that Assad's deployment of the Syrian army to confront protesters shows just how serious the threat is. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing sensitive and confidential assessments.The unrest sweeping the region has forced Israeli leaders to carefully calibrate their public statements. Israelis do not want to be seen as opposing the forces of freedom, but Israel has come to view moves toward democracy with suspicion, having watched Hamas and Hezbollah rise to power through internationally recognized elections.In an appearance earlier this month on YouTube's World View Project, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered support for democratic change in the Middle East but expressed concern that democracy will be hijacked by radical regimes or militant Islamic regimes.We'd like to see everywhere, including in Syria, genuine reforms for democracy, genuine emergence of democracy, Netanyahu said. That's no threat to any of us.A widening crackdown by Assad's forces has killed more than 400 people across Syria since mid-March, according to Syrian rights groups.
Guy Bechor, a Mideast expert at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, said months of unrest in Syria can be expected as Assad's ruling Alawite minority battles protesters in what he called a zero-sum game for both sides.The assessment is that stability for Israel will continue in any case, as Syria will be busy with internal affairs for months or possibly years, Bechor said.The Assad family has ruled Syria for four decades, constituting an unfriendly but stable presence along Israel's northeastern border.Syria arms Hezbollah, the Lebanese guerrilla group that battled Israel in a monthlong war five summers ago, and also hosts the headquarters of the Palestinian Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings and rocket attacks. Last month, Israel's navy seized a ship carrying weapons that it said were sent by Iran and Syria to Hamas.Regime change in Syria could be a blow to Israel's enemies, but could also usher in a successor that could be more extreme, Islamist and belligerent.Syria has enforced decades of quiet along a shared frontier, and expressed willingness to make peace in return for the Golan Heights, which it lost to Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. Several rounds of talks have failed.There is always a tendency to stick with the status quo: quiet on the security front, quiet on the diplomatic front, said Eyal Zisser, a Syria expert at Tel Aviv University. But there are those who say that with all due respect to quiet, Assad is causing more damage through Lebanon and Gaza.
The upheaval in Syria makes it unlikely that Israel will pursue a peace deal, but talks were not being discussed even before the recent protests, said Alon Liel, a former director general of Israel's Foreign Ministry and proponent of an Israeli-Syrian peace. Renewal of talks was never on the agenda, and isn't on the agenda now, he said.Some in Israel have seen the experience of Egypt, where Israeli ally Hosni Mubarak was ousted after 30 years in power, as a warning. Contenders for Egypt's presidency have taken a cooler line toward Israel and have suggested the peace treaty between the two countries would be reviewed and could be canceled.Ties with Jordan, the only other Arab regime to have a peace agreement with Israel, could also be in jeopardy as regional unrest touches on the ruling monarchy. Ties with Turkey, another one-time ally, have soured in recent years as Turkey has tilted away from the West and toward the Islamic world.Syria cannot be seen alone. It's a part of everything else that is happening around us, Liel said.Israel's isolation in the region is almost unprecedented.Associated Press writers Aron Heller and Josef Federman contributed from Jerusalem.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
ACTIVISTS PREPARE NEW HATE-RACIST AGAINST ISRAEL FLOTILLA FOR GAZA
Activists prepare new Gaza flotilla By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press – Tue Apr 26, 12:34 pm ET
ISTANBUL – Pro-Palestinian activists said Tuesday they are in the final stages of organizing a sea convoy to the Gaza Strip, likely to be much bigger than a similar flotilla that was raided a year ago by Israeli forces, leaving nine people dead.The campaign sets up the possibility of another showdown with Israel, which eased its land blockade of Gaza following the international furor over the raid, but is gearing up to thwart any attempt to breach its blockade off the Gaza coast.Eight Turks and one Turkish-American died in the botched commando operation on a Turkish boat, the Mavi Marmara, that was part of the flotilla on May 31, 2010. The incident drew world attention to the humanitarian situation in Gaza and plunged ties between former allies Israel and Turkey to a new low.Activists on the boat said they acted in self-defense in international waters during the melee, but Israel says troops opened fire after coming under assault by men with clubs and axes as they rappelled from helicopters during the nighttime raid onto the ship's deck. Seven Israeli soldiers were wounded.
Huseyin Oruc, a spokesman for IHH — an Islamic aid group that operates the Mavi Marmara — said this time an international coalition of 22 non-governmental groups hopes to send 15 vessels with up to 1,500 people. Last year, six ships and about half that number participated.The target date for departure of the new flotilla is the first anniversary of the raid, but it could be delayed, partly because it clashes with Turkish election campaigning. Organizers say the new effort includes activists from Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Canada and the United States.The Mavi Marmara was seized during the raid along with five other ships and docked in Israel, where it was thoroughly searched. On being returned to Turkey in August it was renovated by activists for the new flotilla. The boat has since become an icon for the IHH, which hands out small plastic models of the ship, emblazoned with the Turkish and Palestinian flags, to visitors at its headquarters.
Everybody is getting ready, Oruc said in an interview with The Associated Press at the Istanbul office. He predicted that Israel, mindful of negative fallout from last year's raid, would not try a similar operation this year.IHH is a Turkish acronym that means Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, and many of its regional missions are aimed at helping Palestinian refugees. Israel has accused the group of terrorist links, though it is not on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations.Israel has vehemently defended its land and sea blockade of Gaza, saying it prevents weapons from reaching Iran-backed Hamas militants who violently seized control of the territory in 2007. Last month, Israel intercepted a cargo ship in the Mediterranean that it said was carrying arms for Hamas.Israeli military officials say naval forces have been busy preparing for the new flotilla for weeks. They said the navy is taking the flotilla very seriously, but plans to use different tactics this time around. They declined to elaborate, but said the goal is to stop the flotilla while avoiding casualties.The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of the operation.Yigal Palmor, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said a recent conference of donors to the Palestinians had called on all parties to send any humanitarian aid through land crossings.People coming by sea are doing it as a provocation and are looking for violent confrontation. We call on all relevant parties to display responsibility and shun violence, said Palmor, noting aid for the region is provided by the United Nations, international groups and through the Palestinian Authority.There is no reason to try to circumvent the existing channels, he said.
Espen Goffeng, an activist in Norway, said the target for departure of the new flotilla was early summer, and that activists might finalize the date at a meeting in Europe in early May.It's not like a march up the street, he said by telephone.We need to buy boats, we need to buy cargo, we need to move people around, we need hotel rooms, we need food.Turkey holds parliamentary elections on June 12. IHH, which says it plans to send 100 to 150 people on the flotilla, is inclined to launch its ship after the vote for fear any controversy could disrupt the election debate. The group communicates closely with the Turkish government, but says it does not need permission to send its boat to Gaza. We can advise, we can say something, but we cannot stop the flotilla, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald that was published Monday.Turkey has harshly criticized Israel since the three-week war in Gaza that ended in early 2009. In an April 20 column in The New York Times, however, President Abdullah Gul alluded to Turkey's role as a facilitator of talks between Israel and Syria before the war, saying Turkey wanted to help the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.We are therefore ready to use our full capacity to facilitate constructive negotiations, Gul wrote. Turkey is ready to play the role it played in the past, once Israel is ready to pursue peace with its neighbors.Associated Press writer Matti Friedman contributed from Jerusalem.
Middle East peace process set for new airing
by Christophe Schmidt – Sun Apr 24, 2:58 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Shelved since late 2010 and eclipsed by the pro-democracy Arab uprisings, the faltering Middle East peace process may soon be back in focus as Palestinians push for UN recognition of their state.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has already unveiled his plan to achieve the long-cherished dream of Palestinian statehood which he hopes will win backing at the annual United Nations General Assembly in September.And Abbas believes some of his European peace partners are ready to support his unilateral move to secure UN recognition of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital.Frustrated by seven months of stalemate, which has only compounded decades of failed initiatives, Abbas's diplomatic initiative has been gaining ground even if he still seeks a negotiated comprehensive peace deal with Israel.After talks in Paris last week, he travels to Berlin on May 5 to press his cause. If France backs the unilateral move, other European nations may follow, much as a slew of Latin American countries followed Brazil's recognition late last year.
But neither Israel nor the United States wants to see a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now under mounting pressure to present his own peace plan rather than be faced with an imposed solution.President Shimon Peres, Israel's elder statesman and a Nobel peace laureate, Friday urged the premier to act before events overtake him. According to Israeli media reports Netanyahu will unveil his own plan in a speech to the US Congress in late May.If we don't want foreign plans, the best way would be a plan of our own, and if we do that, others won't go ahead with theirs, Peres said.Peres was responding to reports that US President Barack Obama is preparing to lay out his own vision for a peace settlement.Obama would make a speech on the Middle East perhaps soon, one US official confirmed to AFP.He will be talking about what's been going on in the Middle East, the various revolutions. It's not going to be a speech for just the peace process.The Arab uprisings sweeping many Middle East nations -- traditional partners in helping bring Israel and the Palestinians to the negotiating table -- have complicated the equation for the United States.A lot of this, we're still sorting out. When you look at what's happening in Syria... For any peace to work, Syria has to be a part of that, the official said.The outlines for any peace deal have long been drawn -- the Palestinians insist on a state based on the 1967 borders before the Israeli occupation, while Netanyahu has refused a total withdrawal from the West Bank where thousands of Jewish settlers live.The two sides also remain at odds over the status of east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as capital of their future state, while the Israelis maintain the city must remain their undivided capital.
So there is little room for any new initiatives.According to the New York Times, the White House will propose a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as a joint capital. But it won't envisage the right of return for Palestinian refugees -- something which will anger the Palestinian side. Without confirming any details, a senior US official said:We're looking at ways to re-energize the process but mindful of fact that no outside party can impose a solution.At end of day, this is about the two sides sitting at the table and finding ways to resolve these hard issues.For observers however the differences over the core issues at the heart of any peace deal are still too wide.Negotiations remain the only realistic path forward, but the gaps on the core issues are too large to bridge at present, wrote former diplomat Aaron David Miller, a veteran of the peace negotiations.He judged the chances of success of any new Washington initiative as slim to none in a commentary published by the Council of Foreign Relations.
Israeli shot by police in West Bank, army says
By Hassan Titi – Sun Apr 24, 12:20 pm ET
NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) – A Palestinian policeman shot dead an Israeli and wounded four others after they entered a holy site in a West Bank city without permission on Sunday, the Israeli military said.The group of ultra-Orthodox Jewish worshippers were shot at Joseph's Tomb, which some Jews believe to be the burial place of the biblical patriarch, in the Palestinian city of Nablus.The man killed, Ben-Yosef Livnat, was in his mid-twenties and a nephew of Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.
An Israeli civilian was killed and four others injured after entering Joseph's Tomb in Nablus un-permitted, the military said in a statement in English.The military said it had been notified by Palestinian officials that the civilians were shot by a Palestinian policeman who, after identifying suspicious movements, fired in their direction.Israeli and Palestinian security officials will meet to investigate the shooting, the statement said.The governor of Nablus, Jibreen al-Bakri, said the group of Israelis had entered the area without coordinating it with the Palestinian Authority, as is the understanding with Israel.We have detained the forces responsible for securing the area and are investigating what happened, Bakri told Reuters.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement condemning the killing and demanded that the Palestinian Authority take harsh steps against the perpetrators who carried out the criminal act against Jewish worshippers.Defense Minister Ehud Barak said a lack of coordination did not justify the shooting and called on the Palestinian Authority to take all necessary measures against those responsible.
A tearful Livnat said at her nephew's funeral in Jerusalem that he was an innocent victim murdered by a terrorist in the guise of a Palestinian policeman while on his way to prayers during the Passover holiday.It was the first reported fatal attack on Israelis in the West Bank since the killing of five family members last month in the settlement of Itamar in a nearby area in the central West Bank.After Sunday's incident, some settlers threw stones at Palestinian vehicles near the Hawara checkpoint close to Nablus, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.Violence in the West Bank has fallen significantly since its peak during a Palestinian uprising a decade ago.Some 500,000 settlers live among 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Palestinians say the presence of the enclaves will deny them a viable state on land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; writing by Ori Lewis; editing by Robert Woodward)
Pressure mounts for Netanyahu peace plan
by Jean-Luc Renaudie – Sat Apr 23, 2:48 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under mounting pressure to present his own peace plan rather than be faced with an imposed solution or the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.President Shimon Peres, Israel's elder statesman and a Nobel peace laureate, was the latest to add his voice to the growing chorus, urging Netanyahu to act before events overtake him.If we don't want foreign plans, the best way would be a plan of our own, and if we do that, others won't go ahead with theirs, Peres said on Friday.Peres was responding to reports indicating that US President Barack Obama was preparing to lay out his own vision for a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.First reported in the New York Times, it said the vision could include four principles, or terms of reference ... (which) could call for Israel to accept a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders of before that year's Middle East war.It also suggested the Palestinians could have to forgo the right of return to land inside Israel, that Jerusalem would be the capital of both states, and would also include principles safeguarding Israel's security.
Netanyahu has said he will deliver a policy speech to the US Congress in late May, where he is expected to present his plan.But it's not just the fear of being pre-empted by Obama and a settlement imposed by the United States that is spurring calls for immediate and far reaching action.Following the breakdown of direct talks last September, the Palestinians have adopted a diplomatic strategy aimed at securing UN recognition of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital.The move is expected to take place in September, when the UN General Assembly holds its annual meeting.The Palestinians have already won recognition from several South American nations and on Thursday France said European nations were also considering recognising a Palestinian state.Recognition of the state of Palestine is one of the options which France is considering, with its European partners in a bid to relaunch the peace process, French ambassador Gerard Araud told a UN Security Council debate on the Middle East.Defence Minister Ehud Barak, one of Netanyahu's closest allies, has warned that Israel faced a diplomatic tsunami.There is an international movement for the recognition of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders, Barak said, warning that only an Israeli diplomatic initiative could limit the risks to Israel.
Adding to international pressure on Israel is the turmoil in the region churned up by the Arab Spring.The Europeans in particular are constantly telling us that Israel must make concessions to meet the wave of protests in Arab countries and restart negotiations with the Palestinians, as if the two cases were linked, a senior Israel official told AFP on condition of anonymity.In fact, these movements differ from country to country and should rather encourage us to be cautious and wait to see what happens said the official.Netanyahu is likely to continue with the cautious approach. The Israeli leader has so far rejected dividing Jerusalem, wants to hold on to all major Israeli settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank and to keep Israeli troops on the West Bank's eastern border with Jordan.This, he argues, will prevent the West Bank turning into a base for Iranian supplied missiles like the other areas from which Israel has pulled back: the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.
But Israeli officials concede this is unlikely to lure the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.I don't see them coming back to the negotiating table. Their strategy is that they don't want to negotiate, so you can't force them, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor told AFP last week.
ISTANBUL – Pro-Palestinian activists said Tuesday they are in the final stages of organizing a sea convoy to the Gaza Strip, likely to be much bigger than a similar flotilla that was raided a year ago by Israeli forces, leaving nine people dead.The campaign sets up the possibility of another showdown with Israel, which eased its land blockade of Gaza following the international furor over the raid, but is gearing up to thwart any attempt to breach its blockade off the Gaza coast.Eight Turks and one Turkish-American died in the botched commando operation on a Turkish boat, the Mavi Marmara, that was part of the flotilla on May 31, 2010. The incident drew world attention to the humanitarian situation in Gaza and plunged ties between former allies Israel and Turkey to a new low.Activists on the boat said they acted in self-defense in international waters during the melee, but Israel says troops opened fire after coming under assault by men with clubs and axes as they rappelled from helicopters during the nighttime raid onto the ship's deck. Seven Israeli soldiers were wounded.
Huseyin Oruc, a spokesman for IHH — an Islamic aid group that operates the Mavi Marmara — said this time an international coalition of 22 non-governmental groups hopes to send 15 vessels with up to 1,500 people. Last year, six ships and about half that number participated.The target date for departure of the new flotilla is the first anniversary of the raid, but it could be delayed, partly because it clashes with Turkish election campaigning. Organizers say the new effort includes activists from Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Canada and the United States.The Mavi Marmara was seized during the raid along with five other ships and docked in Israel, where it was thoroughly searched. On being returned to Turkey in August it was renovated by activists for the new flotilla. The boat has since become an icon for the IHH, which hands out small plastic models of the ship, emblazoned with the Turkish and Palestinian flags, to visitors at its headquarters.
Everybody is getting ready, Oruc said in an interview with The Associated Press at the Istanbul office. He predicted that Israel, mindful of negative fallout from last year's raid, would not try a similar operation this year.IHH is a Turkish acronym that means Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, and many of its regional missions are aimed at helping Palestinian refugees. Israel has accused the group of terrorist links, though it is not on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations.Israel has vehemently defended its land and sea blockade of Gaza, saying it prevents weapons from reaching Iran-backed Hamas militants who violently seized control of the territory in 2007. Last month, Israel intercepted a cargo ship in the Mediterranean that it said was carrying arms for Hamas.Israeli military officials say naval forces have been busy preparing for the new flotilla for weeks. They said the navy is taking the flotilla very seriously, but plans to use different tactics this time around. They declined to elaborate, but said the goal is to stop the flotilla while avoiding casualties.The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of the operation.Yigal Palmor, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said a recent conference of donors to the Palestinians had called on all parties to send any humanitarian aid through land crossings.People coming by sea are doing it as a provocation and are looking for violent confrontation. We call on all relevant parties to display responsibility and shun violence, said Palmor, noting aid for the region is provided by the United Nations, international groups and through the Palestinian Authority.There is no reason to try to circumvent the existing channels, he said.
Espen Goffeng, an activist in Norway, said the target for departure of the new flotilla was early summer, and that activists might finalize the date at a meeting in Europe in early May.It's not like a march up the street, he said by telephone.We need to buy boats, we need to buy cargo, we need to move people around, we need hotel rooms, we need food.Turkey holds parliamentary elections on June 12. IHH, which says it plans to send 100 to 150 people on the flotilla, is inclined to launch its ship after the vote for fear any controversy could disrupt the election debate. The group communicates closely with the Turkish government, but says it does not need permission to send its boat to Gaza. We can advise, we can say something, but we cannot stop the flotilla, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald that was published Monday.Turkey has harshly criticized Israel since the three-week war in Gaza that ended in early 2009. In an April 20 column in The New York Times, however, President Abdullah Gul alluded to Turkey's role as a facilitator of talks between Israel and Syria before the war, saying Turkey wanted to help the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.We are therefore ready to use our full capacity to facilitate constructive negotiations, Gul wrote. Turkey is ready to play the role it played in the past, once Israel is ready to pursue peace with its neighbors.Associated Press writer Matti Friedman contributed from Jerusalem.
Middle East peace process set for new airing
by Christophe Schmidt – Sun Apr 24, 2:58 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Shelved since late 2010 and eclipsed by the pro-democracy Arab uprisings, the faltering Middle East peace process may soon be back in focus as Palestinians push for UN recognition of their state.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has already unveiled his plan to achieve the long-cherished dream of Palestinian statehood which he hopes will win backing at the annual United Nations General Assembly in September.And Abbas believes some of his European peace partners are ready to support his unilateral move to secure UN recognition of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital.Frustrated by seven months of stalemate, which has only compounded decades of failed initiatives, Abbas's diplomatic initiative has been gaining ground even if he still seeks a negotiated comprehensive peace deal with Israel.After talks in Paris last week, he travels to Berlin on May 5 to press his cause. If France backs the unilateral move, other European nations may follow, much as a slew of Latin American countries followed Brazil's recognition late last year.
But neither Israel nor the United States wants to see a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now under mounting pressure to present his own peace plan rather than be faced with an imposed solution.President Shimon Peres, Israel's elder statesman and a Nobel peace laureate, Friday urged the premier to act before events overtake him. According to Israeli media reports Netanyahu will unveil his own plan in a speech to the US Congress in late May.If we don't want foreign plans, the best way would be a plan of our own, and if we do that, others won't go ahead with theirs, Peres said.Peres was responding to reports that US President Barack Obama is preparing to lay out his own vision for a peace settlement.Obama would make a speech on the Middle East perhaps soon, one US official confirmed to AFP.He will be talking about what's been going on in the Middle East, the various revolutions. It's not going to be a speech for just the peace process.The Arab uprisings sweeping many Middle East nations -- traditional partners in helping bring Israel and the Palestinians to the negotiating table -- have complicated the equation for the United States.A lot of this, we're still sorting out. When you look at what's happening in Syria... For any peace to work, Syria has to be a part of that, the official said.The outlines for any peace deal have long been drawn -- the Palestinians insist on a state based on the 1967 borders before the Israeli occupation, while Netanyahu has refused a total withdrawal from the West Bank where thousands of Jewish settlers live.The two sides also remain at odds over the status of east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as capital of their future state, while the Israelis maintain the city must remain their undivided capital.
So there is little room for any new initiatives.According to the New York Times, the White House will propose a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as a joint capital. But it won't envisage the right of return for Palestinian refugees -- something which will anger the Palestinian side. Without confirming any details, a senior US official said:We're looking at ways to re-energize the process but mindful of fact that no outside party can impose a solution.At end of day, this is about the two sides sitting at the table and finding ways to resolve these hard issues.For observers however the differences over the core issues at the heart of any peace deal are still too wide.Negotiations remain the only realistic path forward, but the gaps on the core issues are too large to bridge at present, wrote former diplomat Aaron David Miller, a veteran of the peace negotiations.He judged the chances of success of any new Washington initiative as slim to none in a commentary published by the Council of Foreign Relations.
Israeli shot by police in West Bank, army says
By Hassan Titi – Sun Apr 24, 12:20 pm ET
NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) – A Palestinian policeman shot dead an Israeli and wounded four others after they entered a holy site in a West Bank city without permission on Sunday, the Israeli military said.The group of ultra-Orthodox Jewish worshippers were shot at Joseph's Tomb, which some Jews believe to be the burial place of the biblical patriarch, in the Palestinian city of Nablus.The man killed, Ben-Yosef Livnat, was in his mid-twenties and a nephew of Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party.
An Israeli civilian was killed and four others injured after entering Joseph's Tomb in Nablus un-permitted, the military said in a statement in English.The military said it had been notified by Palestinian officials that the civilians were shot by a Palestinian policeman who, after identifying suspicious movements, fired in their direction.Israeli and Palestinian security officials will meet to investigate the shooting, the statement said.The governor of Nablus, Jibreen al-Bakri, said the group of Israelis had entered the area without coordinating it with the Palestinian Authority, as is the understanding with Israel.We have detained the forces responsible for securing the area and are investigating what happened, Bakri told Reuters.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement condemning the killing and demanded that the Palestinian Authority take harsh steps against the perpetrators who carried out the criminal act against Jewish worshippers.Defense Minister Ehud Barak said a lack of coordination did not justify the shooting and called on the Palestinian Authority to take all necessary measures against those responsible.
A tearful Livnat said at her nephew's funeral in Jerusalem that he was an innocent victim murdered by a terrorist in the guise of a Palestinian policeman while on his way to prayers during the Passover holiday.It was the first reported fatal attack on Israelis in the West Bank since the killing of five family members last month in the settlement of Itamar in a nearby area in the central West Bank.After Sunday's incident, some settlers threw stones at Palestinian vehicles near the Hawara checkpoint close to Nablus, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.Violence in the West Bank has fallen significantly since its peak during a Palestinian uprising a decade ago.Some 500,000 settlers live among 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Palestinians say the presence of the enclaves will deny them a viable state on land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; writing by Ori Lewis; editing by Robert Woodward)
Pressure mounts for Netanyahu peace plan
by Jean-Luc Renaudie – Sat Apr 23, 2:48 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under mounting pressure to present his own peace plan rather than be faced with an imposed solution or the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.President Shimon Peres, Israel's elder statesman and a Nobel peace laureate, was the latest to add his voice to the growing chorus, urging Netanyahu to act before events overtake him.If we don't want foreign plans, the best way would be a plan of our own, and if we do that, others won't go ahead with theirs, Peres said on Friday.Peres was responding to reports indicating that US President Barack Obama was preparing to lay out his own vision for a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.First reported in the New York Times, it said the vision could include four principles, or terms of reference ... (which) could call for Israel to accept a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders of before that year's Middle East war.It also suggested the Palestinians could have to forgo the right of return to land inside Israel, that Jerusalem would be the capital of both states, and would also include principles safeguarding Israel's security.
Netanyahu has said he will deliver a policy speech to the US Congress in late May, where he is expected to present his plan.But it's not just the fear of being pre-empted by Obama and a settlement imposed by the United States that is spurring calls for immediate and far reaching action.Following the breakdown of direct talks last September, the Palestinians have adopted a diplomatic strategy aimed at securing UN recognition of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital.The move is expected to take place in September, when the UN General Assembly holds its annual meeting.The Palestinians have already won recognition from several South American nations and on Thursday France said European nations were also considering recognising a Palestinian state.Recognition of the state of Palestine is one of the options which France is considering, with its European partners in a bid to relaunch the peace process, French ambassador Gerard Araud told a UN Security Council debate on the Middle East.Defence Minister Ehud Barak, one of Netanyahu's closest allies, has warned that Israel faced a diplomatic tsunami.There is an international movement for the recognition of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders, Barak said, warning that only an Israeli diplomatic initiative could limit the risks to Israel.
Adding to international pressure on Israel is the turmoil in the region churned up by the Arab Spring.The Europeans in particular are constantly telling us that Israel must make concessions to meet the wave of protests in Arab countries and restart negotiations with the Palestinians, as if the two cases were linked, a senior Israel official told AFP on condition of anonymity.In fact, these movements differ from country to country and should rather encourage us to be cautious and wait to see what happens said the official.Netanyahu is likely to continue with the cautious approach. The Israeli leader has so far rejected dividing Jerusalem, wants to hold on to all major Israeli settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank and to keep Israeli troops on the West Bank's eastern border with Jordan.This, he argues, will prevent the West Bank turning into a base for Iranian supplied missiles like the other areas from which Israel has pulled back: the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.
But Israeli officials concede this is unlikely to lure the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.I don't see them coming back to the negotiating table. Their strategy is that they don't want to negotiate, so you can't force them, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor told AFP last week.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
LATEST ARAB REBELLION
Iraqi Shi'ites want Saudis to withdraw from Bahrain
APR 23,2011 – 11AM
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Hundreds of Iraqi Shi'ites rallied in Baghdad on Saturday to demand the immediate withdrawal of Saudi troops from Bahrain, which has sparked reminders of Iraq's own sectarian divide.Shi'ites in Iraq, Lebanon and Iran have expressed anger over the movement of forces from Sunni Arab states into Bahrain to help its Sunni royal family squash pro-democracy rallies by majority Shi'ites.
Protesters in central Baghdad on Saturday chanted no to al-Saud. Some carried banners which read Saudi occupation should end and Why is there Arab silence toward the massacres committed in Bahrain?.We advise (our) brothers in Saudi Arabia to immediately withdraw from Bahrain,Hadi al-Amiri, Iraq's transportation minister and head of the Badr Organization, which arranged the protest, said in an address to demonstrators.Badr is the former armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (ISCI), a main faction in Iraq's Shi'ite alliance, which also includes that of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.Maliki has criticized the intervention by Gulf states in Bahrain and said it could spark a sectarian war in the region.Like Bahrain, Iraq has a Shi'ite majority that complained for decades of oppression under a Sunni ruling class which is dominant throughout the Arab world.
Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion which toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein and enabled the Shi'ite majority to take power, Baghdad has had uneasy relations with Sunni neighbors.Neighboring Sunni countries have been unnerved by the Shi'ite-led uprising in Bahrain and Gulf Arab rulers have accused non-Arab Shi'ite Iran of interfering.Amri criticized Bahraini authorities for suppressing its Shi'ite population and asked the Arab League and human rights groups to do fact-finding missions in the Gulf Arab kingdom.Barbarian acts against people asking for freedom should stop and the Saudi occupation is not tolerated anymore,Hadi al-Ghurabi, a Shi'ite cleric said.(Reporting by Hadeer Abbas; Writing by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Serena Chaudhry)
Latest developments in Arab world's unrest
By The Associated Press – Fri Apr 22, 4:55 pm ET
LIBYA-U.S. Sen. John McCain calls for increased military support for Libya's rebels, including weapons, training and stepped-up airstrikes, in a full-throated endorsement of the opposition in its fight to oust Moammar Gadhafi. A day after the U.S. began flying armed drones to bolster NATO firepower, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee says the United States and other nations should recognize the opposition's political leadership as the legitimate voice of the Libyan people.The White House disagrees, saying it is for the Libyan people to decide who their leaders are.McCain is the highest profile U.S. visitor to meet with the rebels.
SYRIA-Syrian security forces fire bullets and tear gas on pro-democracy demonstrations across the country, killing at least 75 people — including a young boy — in the bloodiest day of the uprising against President Bashar Assad's authoritarian regime, witnesses and a human rights group say. The protests, held every Friday, have become weekly bloodbaths as security forces try to crush the demonstrations. But the mounting death tolls have only served to invigorate a protest movement whose demands have snowballed from modest reforms to the downfall of the 40-year Assad dynasty.Bullets started flying over our heads like heavy rain, says one witness in Izraa, a southern village in Daraa province, the same region where the uprising began in mid-March.
YEMEN-A sea of hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters swells along a five-lane boulevard reaching across Yemen's capital in the largest of two months of demonstrations, as the government tries to halt military defections by arresting dozens of officers. The defections have chipped away at a critical line of defense for President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who calls his opponents renegades and cowards.Two people are killed in new protests across the country, including a 15-year-old boy shot in the eye and a soldier killed in clashes with demonstrators and armed tribesmen.
EGYPT-Tens of thousands of Egyptians led by hard-line Islamists escalate their protests against the appointment of a Coptic Christian governor in southern Egypt, deepening mistrust between religious communities during the bumpy aftermath of Egypt's revolution.Friday's demonstrations were the largest in a week of protests against the newly appointed Qena governor, Emad Mikhail, and coincide with Good Friday services for most of Egypt's estimated 10 million Christians.Meanwhile, Egypt's general prosecutor extends the detention of ousted President Hosni Mubarak for a second 15-day period to allow questioning to continue over the killings of protesters.
OMAN -Witnesses say protesters calling for investigations into state corruption have staged a march in southern Oman in a sign that high-level concessions have failed to quell demands for reforms. The rally in Salalah, about 500 miles (850 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Muscat, includes calls to investigate state officials for alleged financial abuses in the Arabian peninsula nation.
Israel's Peres urges govt to lay out peace plan
– Fri Apr 22, 11:47 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's Shimon Peres on Friday urged the government to lay out a plan for peace with the Palestinians before the international community imposes its own initiative, the Haaretz website said.If we don't want foreign plans, the best way would be a plan of our own, and if we do that, others won't go ahead with theirs,the Israeli president was quoted as saying in the online version of the left-leaning paper.His comments were made during a visit to southern Israel just and came in response to questions about a possible initiative being prepared by US President Barack Obama, reports of which first emerged in the New York Times on Thursday.
Quoting unnamed White House officials, the paper said the plan, which was described in very vague terms, could include four principles, or terms of reference ... (which) could call for Israel to accept a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.It also suggested the Palestinians could have to forgo the right of return to land they fled or were forced out of, that Jerusalem would be the capital of both states, and would also include principles safeguarding Israel's security.Asked to comment on the report, Peres said it was all speculation while adding that it was too early to say anything about a possible new US initiative.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to travel next month to Washington where he will address the US Congress to outline a new political initiative aimed at kick-starting peace talks and pre-empting a Palestinian bid for UN recognition later this year.Following the breakdown of direct talks late last year, the Palestinians have adopted a diplomatic strategy aimed at securing UN recognition of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital.The move is expected to take place in September, when the UN General Assembly holds its annual meeting.
Abbas in Paris as France mulls recognising Palestine
by Herve Rouach – Thu Apr 21, 3:52 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – President Nicolas Sarkozy hosted Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in Paris on Thursday as France told the United Nations that Europe was considering giving formal recognition to a Palestinian state.Recognition of the state of Palestine is one of the options which France is considering, with its European partners, with a view to creating a political horizon for relaunching the peace process, French ambassador Gerard Araud told a UN Security Council debate on the Middle East.His statement came as Abbas was in the French capital to seek Sarkozy's advice, in his own words, on the Palestinian Authority's bid to convince the world to accept its statehood even ahead of an ever elusive peace deal.Any move to welcome a Palestinian state into the community of nations would be seen as an attempt to give a jolt to peace talks with Israel that stalled last September after Israel refused to extend a moratorium on settlements.Abbas told the French daily le Figaro that US President Barack Obama should propose a peace plan ahead of a September deadline previously set for an accord to create a Palestinian state.The United States, as the big power, has the duty to make proposals. It is they who can convince Israel, he said in an interview to be published on Friday.
European ambassadors at the UN Security Council, meanwhile, called for bold US leadership to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as Britain also indicated that state recognition could be considered.Nothing is off the table with regard to recognition in September, said a British spokesman.Pressure has mounted on Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid heightened Palestinian-Israeli hostilities and a US block on European attempts to break the deadlock.Abbas told France 24 television that, while he hoped to return to talks with Israel, he thought most European governments were ready to recognise a Palestinian state come what may.
All the signs from these organisations and states show that they're waiting for the right moment to recognise us, he said, while admitting there have been no outright promises to do so.Sarkozy has not recently taken a position on the issue, having distanced himself in January last year from his then foreign minister Bernard Kouchner's suggestion that France might unilaterally recognise Palestine.But Abbas' visit comes at a time when France, which holds the G8 and G20 presidencies, is adopting a more muscular foreign policy designed to revive its global role, in particular its position in the Arab world.
France led international calls for action against Moamer Kadhafi's Libyan regime, spearheading coalition air strikes and becoming the first power to adopt ties with the rebel shadow government in Benghazi.Paris backs the goal of statehood by the time of the UN General Assembly in September.But, as ever, profound differences remain between Israeli and Palestinian camps that could yet delay a vote.Ongoing Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank claimed by Palestinians has sharpened divisions, but the wider international community is also divided on how best to push the talks forward.The Middle East Quartet -- a diplomatic body overseeing the peace roadmap made up of Russia, the European Union, the United Nations and the United States -- postponed a meeting that had been scheduled for April 15. Europe hoped to announce the parameters of an imagined final agreement, but its partners in the process were not ready.Last week, the Palestinian Authority urged Washington to clearly support the idea of a Palestinian State based on its 1967 borders -- those used before the Six Day War with Israel -- with East Jerusalem as its capital.
U.N. urges bold steps to relaunch Mideast peace
By Patrick Worsnip – Thu Apr 21, 3:21 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations called on Thursday for bold and decisive steps to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian peace process as the region awaits a possible new initiative by U.S. President Barack Obama.U.N. political chief Lynn Pascoe and ambassadors of key Security Council countries said it was important to break the deadlock soon as a proclaimed September deadline for reaching an agreement draws closer.Peace talks opened last September with the aim of an accord in one year but quickly broke down after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to extend a partial freeze on Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank.Palestinian leaders have said that if the deadline expires with no deal, they may seek U.N. backing for a Palestinian state -- a move that Israel and its big power ally the United States are keen to avoid.Bold and decisive steps are needed to resolve this decades-long conflict, with vision, leadership and responsibility from all concerned,Pascoe told a monthly meeting of the Security Council on the Middle East.
He said it was a matter of concern that the political track is falling behind the significant progress made by the Palestinian Authority in its preparations to become a functioning government ready for statehood.A planned meeting of the Quartet of Middle East mediators -- the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union -- has twice been called off in recent weeks.European diplomats said the delays had been requested by the United States. Last week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Obama would lay out plans for a new U.S. push for Arab-Israeli peace in a speech to be made in coming weeks.Netanyahu is expected to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress during a visit to Washington next month. He was invited by Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner, one of Obama's chief critics.
STRONG LEADERSHIP
European countries believe the Palestinians could drop their push for U.N. recognition if parameters are announced for fresh peace talks. Diplomats said they had been hoping the Quartet would announce them, but now hoped Obama might do so.The parameters, spelled out in a British-French-German statement to the Security Council in February, include: Palestinian and Israeli states based on 1967 borders but amended by land swaps, security arrangements for both sides, Jerusalem as capital of both states, and a refugee solution.German Ambassador Peter Wittig told Thursday's council meeting that his country was looking forward to Obama's speech and that strong U.S. leadership is required.French Ambassador Gerard Araud said the time has passed for imagining new interim solutions.U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice gave little clue as to what Obama would propose, saying only that Washington favored a two-state solution achieved through direct negotiations.But she called on the United Nations to end, once and for all action on its controversial Goldstone report, which accused Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants of war crimes during the December 2008-January 2009 conflict in Gaza.Richard Goldstone, the South African judge who led the inquiry, has recently said he no longer believes Israel had a policy of targeting civilians, as his report had alleged.Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour appeared to lend support to the European initiative, saying Palestinians wanted to resume a credible peace process on the basis of internationally supported parameters.Israeli Ambassador Meron Reuben gave no detailed account of where he saw negotiations heading, but voiced long-standing Israeli skepticism about U.N. involvement, quoting President Shimon Peres as saying, We need solutions, not resolutions.(Editing by Xavier Briand)
Europe ups pressure on US over Mideast
– Thu Apr 21, 3:09 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – France said Thursday that European nations are considering recognizing a Palestinian state, heightening pressure on the United States and Israel to relaunch the Middle East peace process.European ambassadors at the UN Security Council joined the Palestinian envoy in calling for bold US leadership to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Recognition of the state of Palestine is one of the options which France is considering, with its European partners in a bid to relaunch the peace process,French ambassador Gerard Araud told a Security Council debate on the Middle East.Britain also indicated that state recognition could be considered.Nothing is off the table with regard to recognition in September,said a British spokesman.But nor are we specifying what conditions would be necessary, or sufficient, to recognize, or indeed not to recognize -- we'll have to look at all relevant factors at the time.Pressure has mounted on US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid heightened Palestinian-Israeli hostilities and a US block on European attempts to break the deadlock.Obama will soon make a speech on the Middle East conflict, diplomats said while adding that details on US plans remain vague.We expect that in a couple of weeks the president will have an opportunity to talk in more depth about the Middle East and North Africa,a senior US official said ahead of Thursday's UN Security Council debate.
At the meeting, US ambassador Susan Rice reinforced US calls for the Palestinian leadership to return to direct talks, frozen since last September amid recriminations over Israeli settlement building.Negotiations between the parties remain the only path to a solution that resolves all issues and establishes a sovereign state of Palestine alongside a secure state of Israel, Rice told the Security Council, without mentioning Obama's plans.Netanyahu is to outline his bid to tempt the Palestinians back to talks during a US visit in May. The US Republican party leadership has invited the Israeli leader to address a joint meeting of the US Senate and House of Representatives.Israel's ambassador Meron Reuben insisted there could only be peace through face-to-face talks.It cannot be imposed from the outside, Reuben said.And any lasting peace agreement must be built on the core principles of mutual recognition and security.Obama last year set a target of September 2011 for an accord to set up a Palestinian state. But talks between the rivals ended within weeks after Israel refused to extend a moratorium on settlements.
The United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution in February which would have condemned Israel's settlements.It also frustrated a plan by Britain, France and Germany to get the diplomatic Quartet -- the United States, European Union, Russia and United Nations -- to set out the parameters for a peace accord, including setting out frontiers and the future of Jerusalem.The Europeans had hoped a Quartet statement would tempt the Palestinians back to talks. But the United States blocked a meeting planned for Berlin on April 15.We are looking forward to the speech President Obama will give on the region,Germany's UN ambassador Peter Wittig told the Security Council. Strong US leadership is required.Risks are growing and chances are dwindling,Wittig added.We must overcome the deadlock and re-establish a credible political process -- well in advance of September deadlines, otherwise we might face serious consequences.Amid the diplomatic standoff, increased rocket attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza and counter-attacks by the Israeli military have only been halted with an uneasy and unofficial truce. The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, called for bold leadership by the United States. Mansour said US backing for setting out the conditions for a peace accord would seriously contribute to revival of the political process.If the peace efforts remain deadlocked, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has said he will in September seek recognition at the UN General Assembly for an independent state.
Israeli intellectuals endorse Palestinian state
– Thu Apr 21, 2:50 pm ET
TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Barely audible above the chants of traitor, an Israeli actress who lost a leg in a Palestinian attack read out on Thursday a declaration by Israeli intellectuals endorsing the creation of a Palestinian state.The event, attended by dozens of left-wing artists and academics, was held outside the hall where Israelis united to declare independence in 1948. Sixty-three years later, deep divisions over Israel's future played out at the historic venue.Right-wing demonstrators were out in force, heckling and sounding horns, as Hanna Maron, the 87-year-old grande dame of Israeli theater, struggled to make herself heard on Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard.She read from a Declaration of Independence from the Occupation that she and some 50 other peace activists signed ahead of an expected Palestinian bid to win broad endorsement of statehood at the U.N. General Assembly in September.In 1970, the German-born Maron was wounded when Palestinian militants attacked passengers waiting to board an Israeli airliner at Munich airport. One of her legs was amputated, but she continued to perform on stage and on television.
We are here assembled ... to welcome the coming Declaration of Independence of the Palestinian State,the document said, calling for its creation, alongside Israel, on the basis of what is known today as the '67 borders.Israel's government opposes any one-sided steps and has said that a peace deal may be reached only through direct talks.Palestinian Authority leaders, citing an impasse in peace talks that collapsed last year over the issue of Jewish settlements, say they will aim to seek U.N. recognition for statehood in all the territory captured by Israel in a 1967 war.That would include the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, over which the Western-backed Palestinian Authority has no control. Israel withdrew settlers and soldiers from Gaza in 2005 but still largely controls the territory's borders.More than 100 nations have said they recognize Palestine as a state. But full U.N. membership would also require Security Council approval, diplomats say, a development they see as unlikely given U.S. reservations about unilateral moves.The left-wing group, whose members include prize-winning writers, artists, professors and a former cabinet minister, Shulamit Aloni, demanded the complete end of occupation, referring to the lines that existed before Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza Strip some 44 years ago.Limor Livnat, Israel's culture and sport minister, and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, said she respected the Israel Prize laureates who signed the declaration, but did not agree with their extreme views.This is a group that is acting to spread a wrong message and is causing Israel serious harm internationally,she said on Israeli radio.(Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Ramallah; writing by Jeffrey Heller and Allyn Fisher-Ilan; editing by Mark Heinrich)
The Geneva Accord: a breakthrough model
By Yossi Beilin – Thu Apr 21, 11:03 am ET
Tel Aviv – Just over a decade ago, Israelis and Palestinians met at Camp David. The weeks leading to the summit were full of expectation. There was a sense that an agreement was within reach. It was the last summer of the Clinton administration, and everyone thought that the president of the United States would not convene a summit that would lead to anything short of a historic triumph. So determined, it seemed, was everyone to succeed, that success almost seemed predetermined. And indeed, some even believed that an agreement had already been secretly reached – that it was a done deal. Peace, it seemed, was at hand.But this, as it turned out, was not the case. Instead, the Camp David summit of July 2000 came to be one of the most tragic milestones of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. It was a particularly ironic tragedy, for the gap between expectations and results could not have been greater.The reasons for the summit's failure are complex and will probably remain in dispute. But the failure was real and the frustration was felt by everyone. It was felt particularly acutely by those of us members of the negotiating teams at Camp David and the too-brief round of talks that followed at Taba, Egypt.
Particularly frustrating was an emerging narrative that saw our failure as a sign that the very conflict was insoluble. Someone had to prove that this was not the case. And so, in a meeting with Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee member Yasser Abed Rabbo, I suggested that we continue the work that was interrupted in Taba until we could conclude an agreement. Frustrated as we were, we were determined to demonstrate to both Israelis and Palestinians that despite the disappointment, despite the violence, peace was possible.Our work was not easy – not only because of the essence of what we had set out to do, but also because of the conditions under which we worked. The violence that erupted in the wake of the failed Camp David summit led to roadblocks and closures and restrictions on travel that made a meeting itself nearly impossible. Sometimes we had to meet abroad because meeting at home was not possible. Other times we could only meet at a checkpoint and hold our discussions in a car. The contrast between the backdrop to our work (violence and crisis) and the center of our work (a comprehensive permanent-status peace agreement) could not have been greater.To support our effort, we built broad coalitions. On the Israeli side, we brought in a number of individuals from the heart of the establishment, including former senior military officers. On the Palestinian side we brought in officials from Fatah, parliamentarians, and leading academics. In 2003, after almost three years of hard work, our negotiating teams concluded the detailed draft agreement that has since been named the Geneva Initiative.
How the agreement worksOur proposal details what a credible, negotiated Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement could look like. It addresses all the major issues between the parties, including security arrangements, the status of Jerusalem, access to holy places, and a just and agreed-upon solution to the problem of refugees.And, of course, it addresses the contours of permanent borders and the future of West Bank settlements. In this, it draws heavily on the ideas presented to us by President Clinton. With pre-1967 lines (the Green Line) as our starting point, we devised a series of agreed-upon, minor land swaps on a reciprocal, one-to-one basis, according to a formula that would require Israel to evacuate the smallest number of settlements while granting Palestinians the greatest part of the land.The result is a model that would create a Palestinian state on nearly 98 percent of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with the shortfall compensated for by territories inside the Green Line. The borders we drew would allow the vast majority of the settler population (75 percent) to remain in territory that could come under Israeli sovereignty.Implementation of the plan would take place gradually over 30 months, in accordance with the detailed timetable set out in the Annexes to the Geneva Accord, which were produced under the collaboration of our Israeli and Palestinian teams and published in 2009.The key to our success in reaching a comprehensive agreement was not in the specific solution we offered to each issue †although there was also a lot of creative thinking there, too †but rather in the concurrence of the solutions we offered.
Comprehensive and conclusive That is to say, borders and settlements are not simply inter-related with one another alone, but with each of the other final-status issues – most notably those with the greatest symbolic significance: refugees and Jerusalem. We could not reach an agreement without understanding them as such. After all, the question of borders pertains to the area of Jerusalem as well. And as often happens in negotiations, a concession by one side on one issue often allowed a breakthrough in another. In short, we drafted an accord that, true to its name, became an accord not only between the two parties but also resolved all the outstanding issues between the two sides. It was comprehensive and conclusive.As such, it has drawn the support of majorities in both societies. According to the most recent polling data, solid majorities in both societies support a comprehensive, negotiated final-status agreement based on the parameters outlined in the Geneva Accords. These numbers reflect support for the total package that is higher than support for several of its individual elements.What now? In December, speaking to a delegation of senior Israelis in Ramallah, West Bank, at an event organized by the Geneva Initiative, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas suggested that [Once we] resolve the issue of borders, it will be possible to also resolve all the others.It is fortunate, then, that a mutually agreeable formula already exists.My colleagues and I – both Israeli and Palestinian – have pledged to work together and within our respective communities to turn Geneva into reality. We hope that people of goodwill around the world will join us in our pursuit of a just and lasting peace between our two peoples, so that we may live side by side in freedom and security as equal neighbors.Yossi Beilin is a former member of the Knesset and former minister in the Israeli government. A veteran Israeli negotiator, he launched the Geneva Initiative with Yasser Abed Rabbo in 2003, presenting a full model agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. He is the author of several books, including Israel: A Concise Political History and Touching Peace.
APR 23,2011 – 11AM
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Hundreds of Iraqi Shi'ites rallied in Baghdad on Saturday to demand the immediate withdrawal of Saudi troops from Bahrain, which has sparked reminders of Iraq's own sectarian divide.Shi'ites in Iraq, Lebanon and Iran have expressed anger over the movement of forces from Sunni Arab states into Bahrain to help its Sunni royal family squash pro-democracy rallies by majority Shi'ites.
Protesters in central Baghdad on Saturday chanted no to al-Saud. Some carried banners which read Saudi occupation should end and Why is there Arab silence toward the massacres committed in Bahrain?.We advise (our) brothers in Saudi Arabia to immediately withdraw from Bahrain,Hadi al-Amiri, Iraq's transportation minister and head of the Badr Organization, which arranged the protest, said in an address to demonstrators.Badr is the former armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (ISCI), a main faction in Iraq's Shi'ite alliance, which also includes that of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.Maliki has criticized the intervention by Gulf states in Bahrain and said it could spark a sectarian war in the region.Like Bahrain, Iraq has a Shi'ite majority that complained for decades of oppression under a Sunni ruling class which is dominant throughout the Arab world.
Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion which toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein and enabled the Shi'ite majority to take power, Baghdad has had uneasy relations with Sunni neighbors.Neighboring Sunni countries have been unnerved by the Shi'ite-led uprising in Bahrain and Gulf Arab rulers have accused non-Arab Shi'ite Iran of interfering.Amri criticized Bahraini authorities for suppressing its Shi'ite population and asked the Arab League and human rights groups to do fact-finding missions in the Gulf Arab kingdom.Barbarian acts against people asking for freedom should stop and the Saudi occupation is not tolerated anymore,Hadi al-Ghurabi, a Shi'ite cleric said.(Reporting by Hadeer Abbas; Writing by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Serena Chaudhry)
Latest developments in Arab world's unrest
By The Associated Press – Fri Apr 22, 4:55 pm ET
LIBYA-U.S. Sen. John McCain calls for increased military support for Libya's rebels, including weapons, training and stepped-up airstrikes, in a full-throated endorsement of the opposition in its fight to oust Moammar Gadhafi. A day after the U.S. began flying armed drones to bolster NATO firepower, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee says the United States and other nations should recognize the opposition's political leadership as the legitimate voice of the Libyan people.The White House disagrees, saying it is for the Libyan people to decide who their leaders are.McCain is the highest profile U.S. visitor to meet with the rebels.
SYRIA-Syrian security forces fire bullets and tear gas on pro-democracy demonstrations across the country, killing at least 75 people — including a young boy — in the bloodiest day of the uprising against President Bashar Assad's authoritarian regime, witnesses and a human rights group say. The protests, held every Friday, have become weekly bloodbaths as security forces try to crush the demonstrations. But the mounting death tolls have only served to invigorate a protest movement whose demands have snowballed from modest reforms to the downfall of the 40-year Assad dynasty.Bullets started flying over our heads like heavy rain, says one witness in Izraa, a southern village in Daraa province, the same region where the uprising began in mid-March.
YEMEN-A sea of hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters swells along a five-lane boulevard reaching across Yemen's capital in the largest of two months of demonstrations, as the government tries to halt military defections by arresting dozens of officers. The defections have chipped away at a critical line of defense for President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who calls his opponents renegades and cowards.Two people are killed in new protests across the country, including a 15-year-old boy shot in the eye and a soldier killed in clashes with demonstrators and armed tribesmen.
EGYPT-Tens of thousands of Egyptians led by hard-line Islamists escalate their protests against the appointment of a Coptic Christian governor in southern Egypt, deepening mistrust between religious communities during the bumpy aftermath of Egypt's revolution.Friday's demonstrations were the largest in a week of protests against the newly appointed Qena governor, Emad Mikhail, and coincide with Good Friday services for most of Egypt's estimated 10 million Christians.Meanwhile, Egypt's general prosecutor extends the detention of ousted President Hosni Mubarak for a second 15-day period to allow questioning to continue over the killings of protesters.
OMAN -Witnesses say protesters calling for investigations into state corruption have staged a march in southern Oman in a sign that high-level concessions have failed to quell demands for reforms. The rally in Salalah, about 500 miles (850 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Muscat, includes calls to investigate state officials for alleged financial abuses in the Arabian peninsula nation.
Israel's Peres urges govt to lay out peace plan
– Fri Apr 22, 11:47 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's Shimon Peres on Friday urged the government to lay out a plan for peace with the Palestinians before the international community imposes its own initiative, the Haaretz website said.If we don't want foreign plans, the best way would be a plan of our own, and if we do that, others won't go ahead with theirs,the Israeli president was quoted as saying in the online version of the left-leaning paper.His comments were made during a visit to southern Israel just and came in response to questions about a possible initiative being prepared by US President Barack Obama, reports of which first emerged in the New York Times on Thursday.
Quoting unnamed White House officials, the paper said the plan, which was described in very vague terms, could include four principles, or terms of reference ... (which) could call for Israel to accept a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.It also suggested the Palestinians could have to forgo the right of return to land they fled or were forced out of, that Jerusalem would be the capital of both states, and would also include principles safeguarding Israel's security.Asked to comment on the report, Peres said it was all speculation while adding that it was too early to say anything about a possible new US initiative.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to travel next month to Washington where he will address the US Congress to outline a new political initiative aimed at kick-starting peace talks and pre-empting a Palestinian bid for UN recognition later this year.Following the breakdown of direct talks late last year, the Palestinians have adopted a diplomatic strategy aimed at securing UN recognition of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital.The move is expected to take place in September, when the UN General Assembly holds its annual meeting.
Abbas in Paris as France mulls recognising Palestine
by Herve Rouach – Thu Apr 21, 3:52 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – President Nicolas Sarkozy hosted Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in Paris on Thursday as France told the United Nations that Europe was considering giving formal recognition to a Palestinian state.Recognition of the state of Palestine is one of the options which France is considering, with its European partners, with a view to creating a political horizon for relaunching the peace process, French ambassador Gerard Araud told a UN Security Council debate on the Middle East.His statement came as Abbas was in the French capital to seek Sarkozy's advice, in his own words, on the Palestinian Authority's bid to convince the world to accept its statehood even ahead of an ever elusive peace deal.Any move to welcome a Palestinian state into the community of nations would be seen as an attempt to give a jolt to peace talks with Israel that stalled last September after Israel refused to extend a moratorium on settlements.Abbas told the French daily le Figaro that US President Barack Obama should propose a peace plan ahead of a September deadline previously set for an accord to create a Palestinian state.The United States, as the big power, has the duty to make proposals. It is they who can convince Israel, he said in an interview to be published on Friday.
European ambassadors at the UN Security Council, meanwhile, called for bold US leadership to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as Britain also indicated that state recognition could be considered.Nothing is off the table with regard to recognition in September, said a British spokesman.Pressure has mounted on Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid heightened Palestinian-Israeli hostilities and a US block on European attempts to break the deadlock.Abbas told France 24 television that, while he hoped to return to talks with Israel, he thought most European governments were ready to recognise a Palestinian state come what may.
All the signs from these organisations and states show that they're waiting for the right moment to recognise us, he said, while admitting there have been no outright promises to do so.Sarkozy has not recently taken a position on the issue, having distanced himself in January last year from his then foreign minister Bernard Kouchner's suggestion that France might unilaterally recognise Palestine.But Abbas' visit comes at a time when France, which holds the G8 and G20 presidencies, is adopting a more muscular foreign policy designed to revive its global role, in particular its position in the Arab world.
France led international calls for action against Moamer Kadhafi's Libyan regime, spearheading coalition air strikes and becoming the first power to adopt ties with the rebel shadow government in Benghazi.Paris backs the goal of statehood by the time of the UN General Assembly in September.But, as ever, profound differences remain between Israeli and Palestinian camps that could yet delay a vote.Ongoing Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank claimed by Palestinians has sharpened divisions, but the wider international community is also divided on how best to push the talks forward.The Middle East Quartet -- a diplomatic body overseeing the peace roadmap made up of Russia, the European Union, the United Nations and the United States -- postponed a meeting that had been scheduled for April 15. Europe hoped to announce the parameters of an imagined final agreement, but its partners in the process were not ready.Last week, the Palestinian Authority urged Washington to clearly support the idea of a Palestinian State based on its 1967 borders -- those used before the Six Day War with Israel -- with East Jerusalem as its capital.
U.N. urges bold steps to relaunch Mideast peace
By Patrick Worsnip – Thu Apr 21, 3:21 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations called on Thursday for bold and decisive steps to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian peace process as the region awaits a possible new initiative by U.S. President Barack Obama.U.N. political chief Lynn Pascoe and ambassadors of key Security Council countries said it was important to break the deadlock soon as a proclaimed September deadline for reaching an agreement draws closer.Peace talks opened last September with the aim of an accord in one year but quickly broke down after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to extend a partial freeze on Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank.Palestinian leaders have said that if the deadline expires with no deal, they may seek U.N. backing for a Palestinian state -- a move that Israel and its big power ally the United States are keen to avoid.Bold and decisive steps are needed to resolve this decades-long conflict, with vision, leadership and responsibility from all concerned,Pascoe told a monthly meeting of the Security Council on the Middle East.
He said it was a matter of concern that the political track is falling behind the significant progress made by the Palestinian Authority in its preparations to become a functioning government ready for statehood.A planned meeting of the Quartet of Middle East mediators -- the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union -- has twice been called off in recent weeks.European diplomats said the delays had been requested by the United States. Last week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Obama would lay out plans for a new U.S. push for Arab-Israeli peace in a speech to be made in coming weeks.Netanyahu is expected to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress during a visit to Washington next month. He was invited by Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner, one of Obama's chief critics.
STRONG LEADERSHIP
European countries believe the Palestinians could drop their push for U.N. recognition if parameters are announced for fresh peace talks. Diplomats said they had been hoping the Quartet would announce them, but now hoped Obama might do so.The parameters, spelled out in a British-French-German statement to the Security Council in February, include: Palestinian and Israeli states based on 1967 borders but amended by land swaps, security arrangements for both sides, Jerusalem as capital of both states, and a refugee solution.German Ambassador Peter Wittig told Thursday's council meeting that his country was looking forward to Obama's speech and that strong U.S. leadership is required.French Ambassador Gerard Araud said the time has passed for imagining new interim solutions.U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice gave little clue as to what Obama would propose, saying only that Washington favored a two-state solution achieved through direct negotiations.But she called on the United Nations to end, once and for all action on its controversial Goldstone report, which accused Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants of war crimes during the December 2008-January 2009 conflict in Gaza.Richard Goldstone, the South African judge who led the inquiry, has recently said he no longer believes Israel had a policy of targeting civilians, as his report had alleged.Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour appeared to lend support to the European initiative, saying Palestinians wanted to resume a credible peace process on the basis of internationally supported parameters.Israeli Ambassador Meron Reuben gave no detailed account of where he saw negotiations heading, but voiced long-standing Israeli skepticism about U.N. involvement, quoting President Shimon Peres as saying, We need solutions, not resolutions.(Editing by Xavier Briand)
Europe ups pressure on US over Mideast
– Thu Apr 21, 3:09 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – France said Thursday that European nations are considering recognizing a Palestinian state, heightening pressure on the United States and Israel to relaunch the Middle East peace process.European ambassadors at the UN Security Council joined the Palestinian envoy in calling for bold US leadership to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Recognition of the state of Palestine is one of the options which France is considering, with its European partners in a bid to relaunch the peace process,French ambassador Gerard Araud told a Security Council debate on the Middle East.Britain also indicated that state recognition could be considered.Nothing is off the table with regard to recognition in September,said a British spokesman.But nor are we specifying what conditions would be necessary, or sufficient, to recognize, or indeed not to recognize -- we'll have to look at all relevant factors at the time.Pressure has mounted on US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid heightened Palestinian-Israeli hostilities and a US block on European attempts to break the deadlock.Obama will soon make a speech on the Middle East conflict, diplomats said while adding that details on US plans remain vague.We expect that in a couple of weeks the president will have an opportunity to talk in more depth about the Middle East and North Africa,a senior US official said ahead of Thursday's UN Security Council debate.
At the meeting, US ambassador Susan Rice reinforced US calls for the Palestinian leadership to return to direct talks, frozen since last September amid recriminations over Israeli settlement building.Negotiations between the parties remain the only path to a solution that resolves all issues and establishes a sovereign state of Palestine alongside a secure state of Israel, Rice told the Security Council, without mentioning Obama's plans.Netanyahu is to outline his bid to tempt the Palestinians back to talks during a US visit in May. The US Republican party leadership has invited the Israeli leader to address a joint meeting of the US Senate and House of Representatives.Israel's ambassador Meron Reuben insisted there could only be peace through face-to-face talks.It cannot be imposed from the outside, Reuben said.And any lasting peace agreement must be built on the core principles of mutual recognition and security.Obama last year set a target of September 2011 for an accord to set up a Palestinian state. But talks between the rivals ended within weeks after Israel refused to extend a moratorium on settlements.
The United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution in February which would have condemned Israel's settlements.It also frustrated a plan by Britain, France and Germany to get the diplomatic Quartet -- the United States, European Union, Russia and United Nations -- to set out the parameters for a peace accord, including setting out frontiers and the future of Jerusalem.The Europeans had hoped a Quartet statement would tempt the Palestinians back to talks. But the United States blocked a meeting planned for Berlin on April 15.We are looking forward to the speech President Obama will give on the region,Germany's UN ambassador Peter Wittig told the Security Council. Strong US leadership is required.Risks are growing and chances are dwindling,Wittig added.We must overcome the deadlock and re-establish a credible political process -- well in advance of September deadlines, otherwise we might face serious consequences.Amid the diplomatic standoff, increased rocket attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza and counter-attacks by the Israeli military have only been halted with an uneasy and unofficial truce. The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, called for bold leadership by the United States. Mansour said US backing for setting out the conditions for a peace accord would seriously contribute to revival of the political process.If the peace efforts remain deadlocked, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has said he will in September seek recognition at the UN General Assembly for an independent state.
Israeli intellectuals endorse Palestinian state
– Thu Apr 21, 2:50 pm ET
TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Barely audible above the chants of traitor, an Israeli actress who lost a leg in a Palestinian attack read out on Thursday a declaration by Israeli intellectuals endorsing the creation of a Palestinian state.The event, attended by dozens of left-wing artists and academics, was held outside the hall where Israelis united to declare independence in 1948. Sixty-three years later, deep divisions over Israel's future played out at the historic venue.Right-wing demonstrators were out in force, heckling and sounding horns, as Hanna Maron, the 87-year-old grande dame of Israeli theater, struggled to make herself heard on Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard.She read from a Declaration of Independence from the Occupation that she and some 50 other peace activists signed ahead of an expected Palestinian bid to win broad endorsement of statehood at the U.N. General Assembly in September.In 1970, the German-born Maron was wounded when Palestinian militants attacked passengers waiting to board an Israeli airliner at Munich airport. One of her legs was amputated, but she continued to perform on stage and on television.
We are here assembled ... to welcome the coming Declaration of Independence of the Palestinian State,the document said, calling for its creation, alongside Israel, on the basis of what is known today as the '67 borders.Israel's government opposes any one-sided steps and has said that a peace deal may be reached only through direct talks.Palestinian Authority leaders, citing an impasse in peace talks that collapsed last year over the issue of Jewish settlements, say they will aim to seek U.N. recognition for statehood in all the territory captured by Israel in a 1967 war.That would include the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, over which the Western-backed Palestinian Authority has no control. Israel withdrew settlers and soldiers from Gaza in 2005 but still largely controls the territory's borders.More than 100 nations have said they recognize Palestine as a state. But full U.N. membership would also require Security Council approval, diplomats say, a development they see as unlikely given U.S. reservations about unilateral moves.The left-wing group, whose members include prize-winning writers, artists, professors and a former cabinet minister, Shulamit Aloni, demanded the complete end of occupation, referring to the lines that existed before Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza Strip some 44 years ago.Limor Livnat, Israel's culture and sport minister, and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, said she respected the Israel Prize laureates who signed the declaration, but did not agree with their extreme views.This is a group that is acting to spread a wrong message and is causing Israel serious harm internationally,she said on Israeli radio.(Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Ramallah; writing by Jeffrey Heller and Allyn Fisher-Ilan; editing by Mark Heinrich)
The Geneva Accord: a breakthrough model
By Yossi Beilin – Thu Apr 21, 11:03 am ET
Tel Aviv – Just over a decade ago, Israelis and Palestinians met at Camp David. The weeks leading to the summit were full of expectation. There was a sense that an agreement was within reach. It was the last summer of the Clinton administration, and everyone thought that the president of the United States would not convene a summit that would lead to anything short of a historic triumph. So determined, it seemed, was everyone to succeed, that success almost seemed predetermined. And indeed, some even believed that an agreement had already been secretly reached – that it was a done deal. Peace, it seemed, was at hand.But this, as it turned out, was not the case. Instead, the Camp David summit of July 2000 came to be one of the most tragic milestones of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. It was a particularly ironic tragedy, for the gap between expectations and results could not have been greater.The reasons for the summit's failure are complex and will probably remain in dispute. But the failure was real and the frustration was felt by everyone. It was felt particularly acutely by those of us members of the negotiating teams at Camp David and the too-brief round of talks that followed at Taba, Egypt.
Particularly frustrating was an emerging narrative that saw our failure as a sign that the very conflict was insoluble. Someone had to prove that this was not the case. And so, in a meeting with Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee member Yasser Abed Rabbo, I suggested that we continue the work that was interrupted in Taba until we could conclude an agreement. Frustrated as we were, we were determined to demonstrate to both Israelis and Palestinians that despite the disappointment, despite the violence, peace was possible.Our work was not easy – not only because of the essence of what we had set out to do, but also because of the conditions under which we worked. The violence that erupted in the wake of the failed Camp David summit led to roadblocks and closures and restrictions on travel that made a meeting itself nearly impossible. Sometimes we had to meet abroad because meeting at home was not possible. Other times we could only meet at a checkpoint and hold our discussions in a car. The contrast between the backdrop to our work (violence and crisis) and the center of our work (a comprehensive permanent-status peace agreement) could not have been greater.To support our effort, we built broad coalitions. On the Israeli side, we brought in a number of individuals from the heart of the establishment, including former senior military officers. On the Palestinian side we brought in officials from Fatah, parliamentarians, and leading academics. In 2003, after almost three years of hard work, our negotiating teams concluded the detailed draft agreement that has since been named the Geneva Initiative.
How the agreement worksOur proposal details what a credible, negotiated Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement could look like. It addresses all the major issues between the parties, including security arrangements, the status of Jerusalem, access to holy places, and a just and agreed-upon solution to the problem of refugees.And, of course, it addresses the contours of permanent borders and the future of West Bank settlements. In this, it draws heavily on the ideas presented to us by President Clinton. With pre-1967 lines (the Green Line) as our starting point, we devised a series of agreed-upon, minor land swaps on a reciprocal, one-to-one basis, according to a formula that would require Israel to evacuate the smallest number of settlements while granting Palestinians the greatest part of the land.The result is a model that would create a Palestinian state on nearly 98 percent of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with the shortfall compensated for by territories inside the Green Line. The borders we drew would allow the vast majority of the settler population (75 percent) to remain in territory that could come under Israeli sovereignty.Implementation of the plan would take place gradually over 30 months, in accordance with the detailed timetable set out in the Annexes to the Geneva Accord, which were produced under the collaboration of our Israeli and Palestinian teams and published in 2009.The key to our success in reaching a comprehensive agreement was not in the specific solution we offered to each issue †although there was also a lot of creative thinking there, too †but rather in the concurrence of the solutions we offered.
Comprehensive and conclusive That is to say, borders and settlements are not simply inter-related with one another alone, but with each of the other final-status issues – most notably those with the greatest symbolic significance: refugees and Jerusalem. We could not reach an agreement without understanding them as such. After all, the question of borders pertains to the area of Jerusalem as well. And as often happens in negotiations, a concession by one side on one issue often allowed a breakthrough in another. In short, we drafted an accord that, true to its name, became an accord not only between the two parties but also resolved all the outstanding issues between the two sides. It was comprehensive and conclusive.As such, it has drawn the support of majorities in both societies. According to the most recent polling data, solid majorities in both societies support a comprehensive, negotiated final-status agreement based on the parameters outlined in the Geneva Accords. These numbers reflect support for the total package that is higher than support for several of its individual elements.What now? In December, speaking to a delegation of senior Israelis in Ramallah, West Bank, at an event organized by the Geneva Initiative, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas suggested that [Once we] resolve the issue of borders, it will be possible to also resolve all the others.It is fortunate, then, that a mutually agreeable formula already exists.My colleagues and I – both Israeli and Palestinian – have pledged to work together and within our respective communities to turn Geneva into reality. We hope that people of goodwill around the world will join us in our pursuit of a just and lasting peace between our two peoples, so that we may live side by side in freedom and security as equal neighbors.Yossi Beilin is a former member of the Knesset and former minister in the Israeli government. A veteran Israeli negotiator, he launched the Geneva Initiative with Yasser Abed Rabbo in 2003, presenting a full model agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. He is the author of several books, including Israel: A Concise Political History and Touching Peace.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
CLINTON URGES IMMEDIATE TALK ON MIDEAST
Clinton urges immediate dialogue on Middle East
– Wed Apr 20, 9:09 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Israel and the Palestinians to resume dialogue immediately even as unrest roils the region.The two parties are trying to analyze what this means for their future position, Clinton told PBS television.But I would hope -- and President (Barack) Obama has said that he will continue to press both sides, which is what we believe we have to do -- that everyone would realize that negotiations are the only way, but more than that, they are an immediate need.Clinton stressed that it is in the best interest of both the Israelis and the Palestinians, even in the midst of everything going on in the region, to try to turn to the hard work of negotiating a settlement.The last US effort to jumpstart the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue on a two-state solution has been bogged down since September as Israel refuses to freeze new settlements in occupied territories.But we do not support any unilateral effort by the Palestinians to go to the United Nations to try to obtain some authorization or approval vote with respect to statehood, because we think we can only achieve the two state solution that we strongly advocate through negotiations,Clinton added.
Palestinian leader: There will be no new uprising By BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA, Associated Press – Wed Apr 20, 11:34 am ET
TUNIS, Tunisia – The Palestinian president said Wednesday he is opposed to another armed uprising against Israel, even if faltering peace efforts fail later this year.
Mahmoud Abbas told reporters in Tunisia that he remains committed to the U.S.-backed target of reaching a negotiated peace agreement with Israel by September.But with talks stalled for months, he repeated his plan to unilaterally seek U.N. endorsement of Palestinian independence in the absence of a deal.Abbas said he would turn to the U.N. General Assembly, where he said he expects about 140 countries to vote in favor of an independent Palestine.Since the assembly's decisions are not legally binding, the vote would be largely symbolic, and it remains unclear what the Palestinians will do after that.At a news conference before heading to France, Abbas said, in answer to a question, that the Palestinians would not unilaterally proclaim a state.
We want this to come about in accord with the Israelis and in the framework of the United Nations, the Palestinian leader said.Abbas said whatever happens, he did not consider violence an option.I will not accept a third military uprising, he said, noting that the last armed uprising against Israel was disastrous for us.Around 6,000 Palestinians, along with more than 1,000 Israelis, were killed in years of fighting that erupted in September 2000. The fighting also heavily damaged the Palestinian economy.Abbas said he still supported popular resistance — or demonstrations — against Israel's occupation of the West Bank. Israel says these demonstrations often turn violent, and activists are sporadically wounded, or even killed, in clashes with Israeli forces.We have the popular resistance, he said.But to say that you want to hold a gun or pistol to fight, then excuse me, I will not allow that as long as I'm the president.Abbas called on the international community, in particular Washington, to pressure Israel to restart negotiations, saying that if Israel shows a serious willingness to negotiate, for our part we want to reach a solution.He said that, while in Paris, he would ask French President Nicolas Sarkozy to give new momentum to the peace process through the Quartet — the EU, the U.S., the U.N. and Russia.Israel and the Palestinians relaunched peace talks in September at the White House, where President Barack Obama pledged to forge a peace deal within a year.
The talks broke down just three weeks later after an Israeli moratorium on settlement construction expired. The Palestinians say there is no point in negotiating if Israel continues to build homes for Jews in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — captured territories the Palestinians claim for their future state.Abbas has in the past said he will return to the negotiating table if Israel halts settlement construction and commits to a near-total withdrawal from the West Bank and east Jerusalem.In Tunis on Wednesday, he said vaguely that there need be no pretexts.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says peace talks should start without any preconditions. September is shaping up to be a key month for peace efforts. The Palestinians say that in the absence of a peace deal, they will take their case to the United Nations.While they can expect strong support in the General Assembly, it appears doubtful that they can win recognition from the more powerful Security Council.The U.S., which wields veto power in the council, has been cool to the idea of a unilateral declaration of independence, saying Israel and the Palestinians must resolve their differences through negotiations.The Palestinians won an important endorsement last week when donor states, which send hundreds of millions of dollars in aid each year, said institutions developed by the Palestinian Authority are now above the threshold for a functioning state.
International support for the Palestinians has put heavy pressure on Netanyahu to offer his own diplomatic plan to end the impasse.Netanyahu is expected to deliver a major policy speech to U.S. Congress next month. But officials close to the prime minister say he has not yet decided what he plans to say.Abbas, meanwhile, pointed an accusatory finger at Iran in addressing bitter divisions within Palestinian ranks, saying on private Nessa TV that Tehran was behind a blockage in reconciliation with the Islamist Hamas movement controlling the Gaza Strip.We are for unifying our ranks and not for a nation torn within,he said in a plea directed at Hamas and was hoping for a positive response.
US rejects Palestinian bid to seek UN recognition
– Tue Apr 19, 5:44 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States again Tuesday rejected Palestinian plans to seek recognition for an independent state unilaterally from the United Nations without reaching a peace accord with Israel.We don't believe it's a good idea, we don't believe it's helpful, said US State Department spokesman Mark Toner.US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians resumed in September, 2010, but collapsed shortly afterwards when Israel refused to extend a moratorium on settlement building in the occupied territories. Israel has insisted that all issues, including the settlements, should be hammered out in direct talks.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas has said that he will seek recognition at the United Nations for an independent state in September.But the United States, which has shepherded the peace process, continues to insist that only a fully-negotiated agreement with Israel on a two-state solution can lead to a durable peace between the two countries.We continue to press both sides to begin talking again in direct negotiations, Toner said.
Palestinians to seek UN membership if no peace By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press – Tue Apr 19, 3:44 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS – The Palestinians say that if a peace treaty with Israel isn't reached by September, their first choice is to go to the U.N. Security Council with such strong support and arguments that it would recommend admission of Palestine as a new member of the United Nations.That would require convincing the U.S., Israel's ally, not to veto a resolution supporting membership for an independent Palestinian state, which won't be easy.U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Tuesday the Obama administration doesn't believe a Palestinian unilateral declaration of statehood or attempts to get the Security Council to endorse it are a good idea.I don't want to preview how we might vote on a council resolution, Toner said,but we don't view it as a helpful step.Riyad Mansour, the top Palestinian diplomat at the U.N., said in an interview with The Associated Press that there are other options to achieve the goal through the U.N.He said September looms large for the Palestinians because there are so many things that will converge.First, Israel and the Palestinians agreed on President Barack Obama's target of September 2011 for a peace agreement, a date endorsed by the European Union and much of the world. Second, the two-year program to build the infrastructure of a Palestinian state will be complete, and third, the Palestinians hope two-thirds of the 192 U.N. member states will have recognized Palestine as an independent state, Mansour said.Obama announced in September 2010, as U.S.-brokered direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations resumed, that a peace treaty should be signed in a year, but those talks collapsed weeks later after Israel ended its freeze on building settlements.
The Palestinians insist they will not resume peace talks until Israel stops building settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — lands it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which the Palestinians want for their future state. Israel maintains that the Palestinians should not be setting conditions for talks and that settlements didn't stop them negotiating in the past.Our preference what should happen in September is to have a peace treaty with the Israelis to end the occupation to allow for our independence and our membership in the United Nations, Mansour said.The U.S. has been heading efforts to restart negotiations but Mansour said the Palestinians want the Quartet — the mediating group consisting of the U.S., U.N., European Union and Russia — to take the lead.Mansour expressed regret that the U.S. blocked a Quartet meeting tentatively scheduled for last Friday in Berlin to discuss, and hopefully endorse, the outlines of a peace settlement proposed by Britain, France and Germany. A U.S. official said a Quartet meeting wouldn't produce anything that would help restart direct talks.But Mansour said Palestinian leaders indicated willingness to go back to negotiations if the Quartet agreed on the proposal by the three European countries.It calls for an immediate halt to settlement activity, a solution to the question of Palestinian refugees, and agreement on the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of both countries and on borders before the 1967 Mideast war, with approved land swaps. It also called for security arrangements that respect Palestinian sovereignty and protect Israel's security and prevent a resurgence of terrorism.We're trying our best to open doors for negotiations, Mansour said in the interview late Thursday.The Israelis are choosing settlements over peace.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the sooner the Palestinians agree to resume peace talks, the sooner we will all be able to take steps that will bring us closer to peace.
The goal of establishing a Palestinian state, living in peace with Israel,can only be achieved through dialogue and negotiations — there is simply no other way, Palmor said. Unilateral measures go exactly the opposite way.But Mansour said that if there is no peace treaty by September,for whatever reasons, then we are not going to be hostage to the position of Israel, nor will we accept that nothing can be done until the Israelis are ready and willing.For the last two years, he said, the Palestinians have been preparing for independence and on Thursday they won an important endorsement when a meeting of key donor states in Brussels said that the institutions developed by the Palestinian Authority are now above the threshold for a functioning state.The donors, who give the Palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars in aid each year, cited reports prepared by the World Bank, the U.N. and the International Monetary Fund.In addition, Mansour said, Palestine has been recognized as an independent state by 112 countries. Possible recognition by six others is being examined, he said, and hopefully by September 2011 we will have 130, maybe 140 countries recognizing the state of Palestine.That is important because U.N. membership not only requires a recommendation from the Security Council but approval by two-thirds of the General Assembly, or 128 countries.This is the end game, Mansour said — the more countries the Palestinians have on their side, the more they can pursue independence,whether in the Security Council or in the General Assembly or combined.Mansour said the Palestinian preference is for Security Council action in September, backed by widespread recognitions, to strengthen our argument for statehood.We want to make it difficult for anyone to block our effort for securing membership in the Security Council,he said.
If the U.S. vetoes a Security Council resolution recommending statehood, there's the option of going before the General Assembly, where there is no veto but resolutions are nonbinding.Mansour said that among other options is a General Assembly resolution similar to that of 1947 that called for Palestine to be divided into Jewish and Arab states. Another possibility advanced by some is Uniting for Peace, a General Assembly resolution that allows it to take action if it believes the Security Council has failed to head off a threat to world peace and security. But that option would be hard to implement because it would require proving that denying the Palestinians U.N. membership threatens international peace and security. Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report from Washington.
Netanyahu thanks Obama for Dome missile funding
– Mon Apr 18, 5:05 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US President Barack Obama on Monday for helping fund a missile defense system protecting the Jewish state from Palestinian rockets, the White House said.Netanyahu expressed his deep appreciation for US funding for the Iron Dome rocket and mortar defense system, which he noted has successfully intercepted several rockets aimed at Israeli communities,the White House said in a readout of the phone call.Obama congratulated the prime minister on this impressive Israeli technological achievement and expressed his pride that Israeli-American cooperation made it possible.The American president called Netanyahu in part to wish him a happy Passover, the White House said.The US Congress approved $205 million -- sought last May by Obama -- to help Israel deploy a short-range anti-missile defense system called Iron Dome.The aid became official when Obama signed off on a 2011 budget appropriation.The figure is in addition to Washington's annual military finance package to key Middle East ally Israel.Since 2007 the United States has allocated close to $3 trillion per year to Israel, entirely devoted to the purchase of US weapons, under a bilateral memorandum valid until 2017.Netanyahu assured in a statement Saturday that with the US funding, we will protect civilians and cities of Israel against rockets fired from Gaza.The Israeli army has now deployed Iron Dome in two locations, first in the southern desert city of Beersheva on March 27, just days after it was hit by Grad rockets fired by militants from the Gaza Strip, and on April 4 around the southern port city of Ashkelon.
– Wed Apr 20, 9:09 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Israel and the Palestinians to resume dialogue immediately even as unrest roils the region.The two parties are trying to analyze what this means for their future position, Clinton told PBS television.But I would hope -- and President (Barack) Obama has said that he will continue to press both sides, which is what we believe we have to do -- that everyone would realize that negotiations are the only way, but more than that, they are an immediate need.Clinton stressed that it is in the best interest of both the Israelis and the Palestinians, even in the midst of everything going on in the region, to try to turn to the hard work of negotiating a settlement.The last US effort to jumpstart the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue on a two-state solution has been bogged down since September as Israel refuses to freeze new settlements in occupied territories.But we do not support any unilateral effort by the Palestinians to go to the United Nations to try to obtain some authorization or approval vote with respect to statehood, because we think we can only achieve the two state solution that we strongly advocate through negotiations,Clinton added.
Palestinian leader: There will be no new uprising By BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA, Associated Press – Wed Apr 20, 11:34 am ET
TUNIS, Tunisia – The Palestinian president said Wednesday he is opposed to another armed uprising against Israel, even if faltering peace efforts fail later this year.
Mahmoud Abbas told reporters in Tunisia that he remains committed to the U.S.-backed target of reaching a negotiated peace agreement with Israel by September.But with talks stalled for months, he repeated his plan to unilaterally seek U.N. endorsement of Palestinian independence in the absence of a deal.Abbas said he would turn to the U.N. General Assembly, where he said he expects about 140 countries to vote in favor of an independent Palestine.Since the assembly's decisions are not legally binding, the vote would be largely symbolic, and it remains unclear what the Palestinians will do after that.At a news conference before heading to France, Abbas said, in answer to a question, that the Palestinians would not unilaterally proclaim a state.
We want this to come about in accord with the Israelis and in the framework of the United Nations, the Palestinian leader said.Abbas said whatever happens, he did not consider violence an option.I will not accept a third military uprising, he said, noting that the last armed uprising against Israel was disastrous for us.Around 6,000 Palestinians, along with more than 1,000 Israelis, were killed in years of fighting that erupted in September 2000. The fighting also heavily damaged the Palestinian economy.Abbas said he still supported popular resistance — or demonstrations — against Israel's occupation of the West Bank. Israel says these demonstrations often turn violent, and activists are sporadically wounded, or even killed, in clashes with Israeli forces.We have the popular resistance, he said.But to say that you want to hold a gun or pistol to fight, then excuse me, I will not allow that as long as I'm the president.Abbas called on the international community, in particular Washington, to pressure Israel to restart negotiations, saying that if Israel shows a serious willingness to negotiate, for our part we want to reach a solution.He said that, while in Paris, he would ask French President Nicolas Sarkozy to give new momentum to the peace process through the Quartet — the EU, the U.S., the U.N. and Russia.Israel and the Palestinians relaunched peace talks in September at the White House, where President Barack Obama pledged to forge a peace deal within a year.
The talks broke down just three weeks later after an Israeli moratorium on settlement construction expired. The Palestinians say there is no point in negotiating if Israel continues to build homes for Jews in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — captured territories the Palestinians claim for their future state.Abbas has in the past said he will return to the negotiating table if Israel halts settlement construction and commits to a near-total withdrawal from the West Bank and east Jerusalem.In Tunis on Wednesday, he said vaguely that there need be no pretexts.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says peace talks should start without any preconditions. September is shaping up to be a key month for peace efforts. The Palestinians say that in the absence of a peace deal, they will take their case to the United Nations.While they can expect strong support in the General Assembly, it appears doubtful that they can win recognition from the more powerful Security Council.The U.S., which wields veto power in the council, has been cool to the idea of a unilateral declaration of independence, saying Israel and the Palestinians must resolve their differences through negotiations.The Palestinians won an important endorsement last week when donor states, which send hundreds of millions of dollars in aid each year, said institutions developed by the Palestinian Authority are now above the threshold for a functioning state.
International support for the Palestinians has put heavy pressure on Netanyahu to offer his own diplomatic plan to end the impasse.Netanyahu is expected to deliver a major policy speech to U.S. Congress next month. But officials close to the prime minister say he has not yet decided what he plans to say.Abbas, meanwhile, pointed an accusatory finger at Iran in addressing bitter divisions within Palestinian ranks, saying on private Nessa TV that Tehran was behind a blockage in reconciliation with the Islamist Hamas movement controlling the Gaza Strip.We are for unifying our ranks and not for a nation torn within,he said in a plea directed at Hamas and was hoping for a positive response.
US rejects Palestinian bid to seek UN recognition
– Tue Apr 19, 5:44 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States again Tuesday rejected Palestinian plans to seek recognition for an independent state unilaterally from the United Nations without reaching a peace accord with Israel.We don't believe it's a good idea, we don't believe it's helpful, said US State Department spokesman Mark Toner.US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians resumed in September, 2010, but collapsed shortly afterwards when Israel refused to extend a moratorium on settlement building in the occupied territories. Israel has insisted that all issues, including the settlements, should be hammered out in direct talks.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas has said that he will seek recognition at the United Nations for an independent state in September.But the United States, which has shepherded the peace process, continues to insist that only a fully-negotiated agreement with Israel on a two-state solution can lead to a durable peace between the two countries.We continue to press both sides to begin talking again in direct negotiations, Toner said.
Palestinians to seek UN membership if no peace By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press – Tue Apr 19, 3:44 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS – The Palestinians say that if a peace treaty with Israel isn't reached by September, their first choice is to go to the U.N. Security Council with such strong support and arguments that it would recommend admission of Palestine as a new member of the United Nations.That would require convincing the U.S., Israel's ally, not to veto a resolution supporting membership for an independent Palestinian state, which won't be easy.U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Tuesday the Obama administration doesn't believe a Palestinian unilateral declaration of statehood or attempts to get the Security Council to endorse it are a good idea.I don't want to preview how we might vote on a council resolution, Toner said,but we don't view it as a helpful step.Riyad Mansour, the top Palestinian diplomat at the U.N., said in an interview with The Associated Press that there are other options to achieve the goal through the U.N.He said September looms large for the Palestinians because there are so many things that will converge.First, Israel and the Palestinians agreed on President Barack Obama's target of September 2011 for a peace agreement, a date endorsed by the European Union and much of the world. Second, the two-year program to build the infrastructure of a Palestinian state will be complete, and third, the Palestinians hope two-thirds of the 192 U.N. member states will have recognized Palestine as an independent state, Mansour said.Obama announced in September 2010, as U.S.-brokered direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations resumed, that a peace treaty should be signed in a year, but those talks collapsed weeks later after Israel ended its freeze on building settlements.
The Palestinians insist they will not resume peace talks until Israel stops building settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — lands it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which the Palestinians want for their future state. Israel maintains that the Palestinians should not be setting conditions for talks and that settlements didn't stop them negotiating in the past.Our preference what should happen in September is to have a peace treaty with the Israelis to end the occupation to allow for our independence and our membership in the United Nations, Mansour said.The U.S. has been heading efforts to restart negotiations but Mansour said the Palestinians want the Quartet — the mediating group consisting of the U.S., U.N., European Union and Russia — to take the lead.Mansour expressed regret that the U.S. blocked a Quartet meeting tentatively scheduled for last Friday in Berlin to discuss, and hopefully endorse, the outlines of a peace settlement proposed by Britain, France and Germany. A U.S. official said a Quartet meeting wouldn't produce anything that would help restart direct talks.But Mansour said Palestinian leaders indicated willingness to go back to negotiations if the Quartet agreed on the proposal by the three European countries.It calls for an immediate halt to settlement activity, a solution to the question of Palestinian refugees, and agreement on the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of both countries and on borders before the 1967 Mideast war, with approved land swaps. It also called for security arrangements that respect Palestinian sovereignty and protect Israel's security and prevent a resurgence of terrorism.We're trying our best to open doors for negotiations, Mansour said in the interview late Thursday.The Israelis are choosing settlements over peace.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the sooner the Palestinians agree to resume peace talks, the sooner we will all be able to take steps that will bring us closer to peace.
The goal of establishing a Palestinian state, living in peace with Israel,can only be achieved through dialogue and negotiations — there is simply no other way, Palmor said. Unilateral measures go exactly the opposite way.But Mansour said that if there is no peace treaty by September,for whatever reasons, then we are not going to be hostage to the position of Israel, nor will we accept that nothing can be done until the Israelis are ready and willing.For the last two years, he said, the Palestinians have been preparing for independence and on Thursday they won an important endorsement when a meeting of key donor states in Brussels said that the institutions developed by the Palestinian Authority are now above the threshold for a functioning state.The donors, who give the Palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars in aid each year, cited reports prepared by the World Bank, the U.N. and the International Monetary Fund.In addition, Mansour said, Palestine has been recognized as an independent state by 112 countries. Possible recognition by six others is being examined, he said, and hopefully by September 2011 we will have 130, maybe 140 countries recognizing the state of Palestine.That is important because U.N. membership not only requires a recommendation from the Security Council but approval by two-thirds of the General Assembly, or 128 countries.This is the end game, Mansour said — the more countries the Palestinians have on their side, the more they can pursue independence,whether in the Security Council or in the General Assembly or combined.Mansour said the Palestinian preference is for Security Council action in September, backed by widespread recognitions, to strengthen our argument for statehood.We want to make it difficult for anyone to block our effort for securing membership in the Security Council,he said.
If the U.S. vetoes a Security Council resolution recommending statehood, there's the option of going before the General Assembly, where there is no veto but resolutions are nonbinding.Mansour said that among other options is a General Assembly resolution similar to that of 1947 that called for Palestine to be divided into Jewish and Arab states. Another possibility advanced by some is Uniting for Peace, a General Assembly resolution that allows it to take action if it believes the Security Council has failed to head off a threat to world peace and security. But that option would be hard to implement because it would require proving that denying the Palestinians U.N. membership threatens international peace and security. Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report from Washington.
Netanyahu thanks Obama for Dome missile funding
– Mon Apr 18, 5:05 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US President Barack Obama on Monday for helping fund a missile defense system protecting the Jewish state from Palestinian rockets, the White House said.Netanyahu expressed his deep appreciation for US funding for the Iron Dome rocket and mortar defense system, which he noted has successfully intercepted several rockets aimed at Israeli communities,the White House said in a readout of the phone call.Obama congratulated the prime minister on this impressive Israeli technological achievement and expressed his pride that Israeli-American cooperation made it possible.The American president called Netanyahu in part to wish him a happy Passover, the White House said.The US Congress approved $205 million -- sought last May by Obama -- to help Israel deploy a short-range anti-missile defense system called Iron Dome.The aid became official when Obama signed off on a 2011 budget appropriation.The figure is in addition to Washington's annual military finance package to key Middle East ally Israel.Since 2007 the United States has allocated close to $3 trillion per year to Israel, entirely devoted to the purchase of US weapons, under a bilateral memorandum valid until 2017.Netanyahu assured in a statement Saturday that with the US funding, we will protect civilians and cities of Israel against rockets fired from Gaza.The Israeli army has now deployed Iron Dome in two locations, first in the southern desert city of Beersheva on March 27, just days after it was hit by Grad rockets fired by militants from the Gaza Strip, and on April 4 around the southern port city of Ashkelon.
Monday, April 18, 2011
ISRAEL RAISES ALERT LEVEL FOR PASSOVER
PASSOVER IN ISRAEL THIS WEEK AS WELL AS OUR EASTER SUNDAY APR 24
http://www.jewfaq.org/holidaya.htm
http://www.jewfaq.org/seder.htm
http://www.jewfaq.org/kfpfood.htm
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/passover-in-israel-today.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/china-sudan-military-ties.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/iran-to-set-free-hostages.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/eritrea-bans-female-circumcision.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/passover-for-christians-today.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/pestilence-in-iraq-again.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/risen-king-messiah-today.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/hevron-jews-no-leaving-here.html
Israeli police, army raise alert level for Passover
- APR 18,11
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's police have raised the alert level nationwide, while the army division deployed around Gaza says it is ready for every scenario as the Jewish state prepares for the feast of Passover.Thousands of police have been deployed across the whole country, and particularly in the Jerusalem region, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.No specific attack threats have been made public, but Israeli security is usually tightened during major Jewish holidays.Surveillance of synagogues, markets, stations, commercial centres and national parks, which tend to attract throngs of visitors during the Passover holiday, was being stepped up.Police were also strengthening their deployment inside Jerusalem's Old City to ensure the protection of crowds of Christian pilgrims in town to celebrate Easter, Rosenfeld said.The Israeli military, meanwhile, announced Sunday a nine-day closure of the West Bank during the holiday, and the deputy commander of the army division deployed along the Gaza Strip said his troops were on standby.We are on very high alert on the Gaza Strip, we are ready for every scenario and if necessary we will respond with force, Colonel Amir Avivi told Israeli public radio.The weeklong Jewish festival of Passover, marking the biblical Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, begins at sunset on Monday and lasts for a week.
7 Bahrain protesters face trial in military court
By BARBARA SURK, Associated Press - APR 18,11
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Seven detained anti-government protesters will go on trial before a Bahrain military court for the killing of two policemen, the state news agency said Monday, the latest development in the crackdown on dissent in the Gulf kingdom.Hundreds of protesters, opposition leaders and human rights activists have been taken into custody since Bahrain imposed martial law last month in attempts to crush the Shiite-led uprising against the Sunni rulers in the tiny but strategically important island nation that hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.The Bahrain News Agency said a military prosecutor charged seven suspected opposition supporters Sunday with premeditated murder of two policemen.The seven also face other charges, the report said. It did not elaborate, except to say the two policemen died after being overrun with a car in the capital Manama. Another hearing in the case is set for Tuesday.Earlier this month the authorities banned media from covering legal proceedings in the country's military courts. Bahrain's human rights organizations blasted the gag order, saying that trials behind closed doors have no legal credibility.If a government decides to hold trials in secret, it is very likely the government is hiding something, said Nabeel Rajab, the head of Bahrain's Human Rights Center.The seven are the first of the hundreds in custody to have been charged with a crime since Bahrain's military stormed the protesters' encampment in Manama's Pearl Square in an effort to end weeks of street marches by Bahrain's Shiite majority demanding greater political freedoms and equal rights.Among those detained are also dozens of Shiite professionals, such as doctors and lawyers, including the lawyer who was to defend the seven suspected opposition supporters in the military court, Rajab said.The attorney, Mohammed al-Tajer, is one of Bahrain's most prominent human rights lawyers. He has represented hundreds of clients against the state, including Shiite activists accused of plotting against the Sunni monarchy. He was taken into custody on Saturday.At least 30 people have died since Feb. 15, when anti-government protests erupted in Bahrain, inspired by the uprisings in the Arab world. Four opposition supporters have also died in police custody.
Latest developments in Arab world's unrest
By The Associated Press – Sun Apr 17, 6:33 pm ET
LIBYA-Libyan rebels fight Moammar Gadhafi's forces in close-quarters battles in the city center of Misrata, the last major rebel foothold in western Libya. Government troops pound Misrata with mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades, residents say. Seventeen people are killed, an NGO worker and an opposition activist say.
SYRIA-Gunmen open fire during a funeral for a slain anti-government protester, killing at least three people on a day when tens of thousands of people took to the streets nationwide as part of an uprising against the country's authoritarian regime, witnesses and activists say. Syria's state-run news agency later says one policeman is killed and 11 other policemen and security personnel are wounded when an armed criminal gang opened fire on them in Talbiseh.
EGYPT-Prosecutors file corruption charges against the former prime minister and two other senior members of the Cabinet that served under ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Ahmed Nazif, ex-Finance Minister Yousef Boutros Ghali and former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly were charged with wasting public money and profiteering. Their prosecution is the latest in a sweeping campaign to bring officials of Mubarak's toppled regime to justice.
YEMEN-Security forces fire on anti-government protesters in Yemen's capital, as hundreds of thousands of marchers — including many women — packed cities around the country to denounce the president and remarks he made against women taking part in rallies demanding his ouster.
ALGERIA-Two nearly simultaneous attacks by suspected Islamist extremists kill six members of the country's security forces.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES-Human rights lawyers say authorities have detained a fourth activist for advocating democratic reforms in the oil-rich Gulf nation. The federation of seven sheikdoms heavily restricts political activity but has been spared the unrest hitting other Arab nations.
OMAN -Oman says it will spend about 1 billion rials ($2.6 billion) to address demands by protesters for more jobs and state aid. The spending boost is a centerpiece of efforts to quell two months of sporadic demonstrations for more jobs and a greater political voice in the tightly ruled Gulf monarchy.
Gulf states call on UN to halt Iran interference
– Sun Apr 17, 6:23 pm ET
RIYADH (AFP) – Gulf Arab states on Sunday called on the international community and UN Security Council to make flagrant Iranian interference and provocations in Gulf affairs cease after unrest in Bahrain.Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, after a meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh, called in a statement for necessary measures against the Islamic republic to prevent it from sowing regional discord.The six-nation GCC called on the international community and the Security Council to take the necessary measures to make flagrant Iranian interference and provocations aimed at sowing discord and destruction among GCC states.It said the GCC -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- categorically rejects all foreign interference in its affairs... and invites the Iranian regime to stop its provocations.The statement also slammed aggression against Saudi diplomats in Iran.Earlier on Sunday, Riyadh threatened to recall its diplomats from Tehran unless they were better protected.I hope we won't be obliged to withdraw our diplomatic mission from Tehran if Iran fails to take the necessary measures to protect it, deputy foreign minister Prince Turki bin Mohammed told reporters.Iranian students had demonstrated on Monday outside the Saudi embassy to condemn Riyadh's military intervention in Bahrain and the murder of Bahraini citizens, the official IRNA news agency had reported.
Iran's Fars news agency, which is close to conservatives, had reported that six to seven petrol bombs were hurled against the embassy as students chanted slogans against the ruling Sunni dynasties in both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.On Sunday, Prince Turki said: Shiites in the Gulf are our brothers and have national rights under the umbrella of their loyalty (to their countries) and not to the outside.Iran has repeatedly condemned the dispatch of Saudi troops to Bahrain to support the Bahraini forces' crackdown on demonstrations there by Shiites who form the majority of the population of the country.Iran is predominantly a Shiite Muslim country.
New Israel pointman on Shalit appointed
– Sun Apr 17, 4:47 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday appointed a senior Mossad official to be the new pointman in efforts to free Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Gaza militants in 2006.David Maidan of the secret service replaces Haggai Hadas, who was appointed to the role in 2009 by Netanyahu but who has stepped down for personal reasons.An official statement said Netanyahu had informed the soldier's parents, Noam and Aviva Shalit, of the new appointment during a meeting at the premier's official residence.After the meeting, Noam Shalit expressed his frustration at the lack of progress in efforts to free his son.The only new element is the nomination of a new negotiator, Israeli public radio quoted him as saying.Militant group Hamas, which took control of the Gaza Strip a year after Shalit was seized in June 2006, has demanded hundreds of prisoners in exchange for his release, including scores of militants responsible for deadly attacks.But talks have stalled, with Netanyahu warning that militants released under previous prisoner exchanges have gone on to launch deadly attacks on Israel.Shalit, now 24, was seized in a dawn cross-border raid by three groups of Gaza militants include Hamas.Netanyahu has come under increasing criticism for his government's failure to secure Shalit's release in talks, which have been mediated by Germany.On Monday, a former head of Israel's Shin Bet security agency said Israel should be prepared to release Palestinians convicted of murder if that was necessary to secure Shalit's release.The last sign of life received from Shalit's captors was in October 2009 when a video recording showed him looking gaunt, but apparently in good health.
Israel arrests Palestinians over settler murders
by Shatha Yaish – Sun Apr 17, 11:11 am ET
AWARTA, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Israel has arrested two Palestinian suspects in connection with the grisly murder of a young settler family, Israeli security officials said on Sunday.A senior army officer said he believed the killing of the Israeli couple and three of their children in the West Bank settlement of Itamar was not ordered by a militant group but was the outcome of a burglary that went wrong.
I personally believe that what motivated them was to penetrate an Israeli settlement and maybe to steal a gun, and the murder as it occurred was something they didn't plan at the beginning, it just happened, Colonel Nimrod Aloni told reporters.Both the suspects' family and their home village of Awarta have traditional allegiances to the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, but Aloni said he did not believe the young men were directed by any organisation.I think that they acted by themselves with no direction whatsover, he said.My estimation is that they worked independently.Sunday's announcement of the arrests was the first public update on a murder investigation spanning more than a month since the March 11 slaying of the Fogel family.The news came just ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover, and after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials had suggested that a major breakthrough in the case would be made public soon.I have been kept updated in recent weeks and days on the progress of the investigation, Netanyahu said in comments released by his office Sunday.I must congratulate the security services ... very fine work was done here which expresses our commitment to justice, he said. We shall find murderers wherever they are.In a briefing document obtained by AFP, Shin Bet said it had arrested two main suspects and five suspected accomplices.The two, residents of the village of Awarta, confessed during the investigation to planning and carrying out the attack and staged a reconstruction, the document said.
A spokesman for the agency told AFP that they had not yet been charged and that the investigation was ongoing.Shin Bet said the two suspects had climbed over Itamar's electric fence and first stole an M16 automatic rifle from a house whose occupants were away before entering the Fogel household, where they stole a second weapon.
Both weapons were recovered, they said.Six of the men arrested in connection with the case are members of the Awad family from Awarta, and a seventh, a resident of Ramallah, was a friend of one of the suspected accomplices, the document said.Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld named the main suspects as Hakim Awad, who he said was arrested on April 5, and his relative Amjad Awad, who was arrested on April 10.Shin Bet did not give their precise ages but said they were born in 1993 and 1992 respectively.Awarta, a short walk from Itamar in the northern West Bank, has been the central focus of the investigation into the murders. It was put under curfew shortly after the attack, and Israeli troops have detained hundreds of its residents, prompting the local council head to accuse Israel of a policy of collective punishment.In Awarta, Hakim Awad's mother, Nouf Awad, told AFP it was impossible that her son had committed the murder.It wasn't my son who did it, she said. It is impossible that it's him, he was with me the whole night that the incident happened.In Itamar, the neighbour who discovered the Fogel family's bodies welcomed the arrests, but said the community was trying to move on.It's positive that they caught the murderers, the most important thing is that this should never happen again, Rabbi Yaakov Cohen told AFP.We're not looking for revenge, despite the feeling of loss, life goes back to normal.The brutal stabbing occurred late on March 11, as the family slept in the settlement southeast of Nablus.Ehud and Ruth Fogel were stabbed as they slept, along with three of their children -- a three-month-old baby girl, and two others aged three and 11.Two other children at home during the attack were spared. Another child, their 10-year-old daughter, was out during the attack, arriving home afterwards and alerting neighbours that something was wrong.
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.
EUROPEAN UNION ARMY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWmPqY8TE0&feature=player_embedded
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.( BE HEAD OF 3 NATIONS)
25 And he (EU PRESIDENT) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.(3 1/2 YRS)
DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.
DANIEL 11:36-39
36 And the king (EU DICTATOR) shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS JEWISH) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.(CLAIM TO BE GOD)
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(WAR) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god,(DESTROY TERROR GROUPS) whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
REVELATION 19:19
19 And I saw the beast,(EU LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse,(JESUS) and against his army.(THE RAPTURED CHRISTIANS)
Abbas rules out Israeli troops in future state
– Sun Apr 17, 9:41 am ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Palestinian Authority will collapse if Israel insists on stationing troops inside any future Palestinian state, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has told AFP.In an interview, Abbas said he would not allow any Israeli troops to be deployed in a future Palestinian state, despite Israel's insistence that it be able to maintain a military presence along the West Bank's border with Jordan.Israel says it would need such a security presence for around 40 years to ensure the border between any Palestinian state and Jordan was secure.Abbas said he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September 2010 that such a troop presence would torpedo the possibility of an independent Palestinian state, and would effectively destroy the Palestinian Authority (PA).If he wants to stay for 40 years, it means that it is an occupation, so he will keep his occupation, Abbas told AFP.I told him If you insist on that, keep your troops here and keep your occupation forever.Abbas said Netanyahu had rejected alternatives to the deployment of Israeli troops, such as an international force, or a NATO deployment.An Israeli troop deployment inside a future Palestine would effectively bring about the collapse of the PA, Abbas said.Netanyahu insisted earlier this year that Israel could not withdraw from the border between the West Bank and Jordan entirely.Our security border is here on the Jordan (river) and our defence line begins here, he said in March during a tour of the border area, which is currently under Israeli control.If that line is breached, they will be able to infiltrate terrorists, rockets and missiles all the way to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheva and the whole state, he said.
NOW WERE ON THE FAST TRACK TO FULFILING PROPHECY AS ABBAS WANTS THE EU (THE FRENCH & GERMANS IN ON THE PEACE PROCESS).
Abbas eyes French, German help on Palestinian state
– Sat Apr 16, 2:25 pm ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas has told AFP he will visit France next week and Germany in May to seek advice on the creation of a Palestinian state.We will ask the Europeans -- I will go to France on 21st, and next month I will be in Germany .. to ask What shall we do? because we want their advice, he said in the interview late on Friday conducted in English.We will ask (French President Nicolas) Sarkozy for his advice, Abbas told AFP, saying he wanted the Europeans' advice about the steps leading to the recognition of a Palestinian state later this year.His remarks were made just days after the cancellation of a meeting of the Middle East Quartet which had been hoping to find ways of bringing Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.The Quartet principals had been expected to meet in Berlin on Friday but the talks were blocked by Washington, diplomats at the UN said.Britain, France and Germany had been hoping to use the Berlin talks to push for a Quartet statement setting out specific guidelines for peace negotiations which would have included references to the major final status issues.
The three nations laid out their position in a communique issued in February after Washington torpedoed a UN Security Council vote condemning settlement activity, in which they called for clear parameters relating to the 1967 borders, security issues, refugees and Jerusalem.Abbas said the Palestinians had wanted the elements of the communique to be used by the Quartet because all the elements of a solution are in this statement, but unfortunately nothing happened and time is passing, he said.If we get to September without any results, of course we will ask the American president (Barack Obama) to fulfil his promise that he wishes to see a state with full partnership in the United Nations, Abbas said.Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath told AFP that the leadership would press ahead with the move even though it was clear that the United States would veto the initiative.We will go to the Security Council just to get an American veto because when we get an American veto we can go to the General Assembly and ask for a meeting under the "Uniting for Peace (resolution) which allows the General Assembly to take decisions as binding as those taken by the Security Council, he said.The resolution can be invoked in cases where the Security Council fails to act due to a dispute between its five permanent members, Shaath explained, saying he believed the Palestinian case would fit the criteria for such a referral to the General Assembly.They can admit us as a full member of the General Assembly and when we become a full member recognised by two thirds of the community of nations, we become an independent state whose land is occupied illegally by another member, he said.This is what's scaring Mr (Benjamin) Netanayhu and that's what Mr (Ehud) Barak calls the tsunami of September, he said, referring to the Israeli prime minister, and to the defence minister who has warned that the UN bid will mean Israel faces a diplomatic tsunami.Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians ran aground late last year after the expiry of a temporary ban on settlement construction.Since then, the Palestinians have refused all direct contact, saying they will not talk while Israel builds on land they want for a future state.
Israel raids Gaza after rocket attacks
– Sat Apr 16, 3:23 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli warplanes launched raids against targets in Gaza overnight after two rockets were fired at Israel from the coastal enclave, Palestinian security officials said on Saturday.No one was hurt in the air attacks which struck bases of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigade, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which rules Gaza, in Gaza City and east of it, one source said.A military spokeswoman confirmed the raids and said warplanes struck targets of a terrorist organisation in response to two rockets fired on Ashkelon and Ashdod in southern Israel on Friday afternoon.Friday's attack was the first time any rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip since Sunday when militants in the Hamas-run territory began observing an unspoken truce, a military spokesman had said.There were no injuries and no damage, policy spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP on Friday.
He did not specify what type of projectiles they were, but the military said it was likely they were Grad rockets because of their longer range.The truce came into effect after days of soaring violence in which Israeli troops pounded Gaza, killing 19 Palestinians, after militants fired an anti-tank missile at a school bus, critically wounding an Israeli teenager.
AP Interview: Palestinians want Quartet deal
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press – Fri Apr 15, 5:46 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS – The top Palestinian diplomat at the United Nations said the Palestinians still want the Quartet of Mideast mediators to take the lead in helping them negotiate a peace treaty with Israel by September.If that doesn't happen, Riyad Mansour said in an Associated Press interview that the Palestinians expect the international community at the United Nations to take action that would end Israel's occupation and allow for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and its membership in the 192-nation world body.He blamed Israeli intransigence for the stalled negotiations on a peace treaty and insisted: We are not going to be hostage to the position of Israel, nor will we accept that nothing can be done until the Israelis are ready and willing.The Palestinians won an important endorsement Thursday when key donor states meeting in Brussels said that the institutions developed by the Palestinian Authority are now above the threshold for a functioning state. The donors, who give the Palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars in aid each year, cited reports prepared by the World Bank, the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund.Mansour pointed to Israeli and Palestinian agreement on President Barack Obama's target date of September 2011 for a peace agreement, a date endorsed by the European Union and much of the world.Obama announced that date in September 2010, as direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations resumed, but those talks collapsed weeks later because Israel ended its moratorium on settlement construction.
The Palestinians insist they will not resume peace talks until Israel halts settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which the Palestinians want for their future state. Israel maintains that the Palestinians should not be setting conditions for talks and note that in the past they have negotiated while settlement construction continued.Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. observer, expressed regret that the United States blocked a meeting of the Quartet — the U.S., U.N., European Union and Russia — that had been tentatively scheduled to take place Friday in Berlin to discuss, and hopefully endorse, the outlines of a peace settlement proposed by Britain, France and Germany.A U.S. official said Monday it wasn't the right time and the Obama administration didn't think a Quartet meeting would produce anything that would help restart the talks.Mansour said the Palestinian leadership have indicated willingness to go back to negotiations with Israel if the Quartet agreed on the settlement outlines proposed by the three countries.The Palestinian envoy said in the interview late Thursday that the Quartet agreed at their last meeting in Munich on Feb. 5 that they wanted to play an active role, and we want them to play an active role.We want them to adopt parameters as a contribution to removing obstacles from the path of going back to direct negotiations, and we hope that the Quartet would succeed in doing so as soon as possible, Mansour said.
The U.S. veto on Feb. 18 of a Security Council resolution that would have condemned illegal Israeli settlements and demanded an immediate halt to all settlement building spurred Britain, France and Germany, who supported the measure, to issue a joint statement expressing serious concern about the stalemate in the Middle East peace process.The three countries said all settlement activity, including East Jerusalem, should cease immediately and called for direct negotiations to resume quickly.For talks to succeed, they said the Israelis and Palestinians must agree on borders of the two states, based on lines before the 1967 Mideast war, with approved land swaps, on the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of both and a solution to the question of Palestinian refugees.Both sides must also agree on security arrangements that respect Palestinian sovereignty and show that the occupation is over and protect Israel's security, prevent the resurgence of terrorism and deal effectively with new and emerging threats,they said.But putting the job of restarting negotiations in the hands of the Quartet would take it away from the United States, which has been in the forefront of trying to get direct Israeli-Palestinian talks restarted, Mansour said.U.S. officials say Obama is expected to make a speech on the Mideast in the coming weeks outlining the U.S. position. We hope that that position would be in line with the European position, and other partners of the Quartet — meaning to adopt the principles that were articulated by the Europeans, Mansour said.
Standing in the way of a solution, he said, is Israel's refusal to accept the 1967 borders as a starting point for negotiations and the Palestinians' demand that not a single Israeli soldier or official should remain in an independent Palestinian state.We have no problem in having a certain number of U.N. forces, NATO, American, combination of them, all of them, to be stationed on our side, Mansour said. But, he added,Israel is insisting to have some presence, especially in the Jordan Valley and on the tops of mountains and hills overlooking the Jordan Valley.
Clinton says Iran trying to hijack Mideast revolts
MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press – Fri Apr 15, 4:11 pm ET
BERLIN – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday accused Iran of trying to hijack democratic revolutions around the Mideast and warned Arab nations not to permit intolerance against women and religious minorities.Clinton said Iran was clearly trying to use uprisings around the region to further its own goals and foment broader unrest while at the same time cracking down on its own reform movement.I think that that everyone is aware if its efforts to exploit and even hijack what are legitimate protests. But certainly in an era of instant communication we hope that people will not be fooled by their tactics.Clinton said the U.S. sees no evidence yet that Iran instigated such protests but we do see activities by Iran to try to take advantage of these uprisings.Clinton also warned that rising intolerance toward women and religious minorities threatens to undermine democratic transitions around the Arab world and spread violent extremism.
Accepting an award named for a pre-Nazi era German Jewish businessman, politician and foreign minister who was murdered for his promotion of inclusion and tolerance, Clinton said she was disturbed by recent developments in post-revolt Egypt in which women and Coptic Christians were singled out for attacks and abuse. They are signs, she said, that extremists are intent on seizing transitions for their own aims.The 1922 assassination of Walter Rathenau, was a cautionary tale about how these transitions can be undermined by intolerance and hijacked by extremists, she told a ceremony in Berlin.She said the incidents in Egypt were testing the unity of pro-democracy demonstrators whose peaceful protests ousted Egypt's authoritarian president and could fracture the reform movement.Clinton said she feared similar backsliding elsewhere in the Mideast and stressed it was critical for Egyptians and other Arabs whose nations are in the throes of change to resist intolerance and demand that their new leaders embrace open and inclusive governments.It will be critical, she said, for citizens and leaders to work together to resist these dangers and keep their nations on track to become open, inclusive, pluralistic democracies.Democracy is a never-ending task that requires participation and protection and it is only possible if every citizen can enjoy its benefits, she said. Societies thrive when all their people contribute and participate. But they stagnate when women are excluded or minorities are persecuted.
US Senate asks UN to rescind Gaza War report
– Thu Apr 14, 11:54 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Senate asked the United Nations to rescind a report on the Gaza War after its lead author said he was wrong to conclude Israel targeted civilians during the 2008-2009 offensive.The Senate resolution calls on UN Human Rights Council members to reflect the author's repudiation of the Goldstone report's central findings, rescind the report and reconsider further Council actions with respect to the report's findings.The text was adopted by unanimous consent.It also urges UN chief Ban Ki-moon to help reform the Human Rights Council so that it no longer unfairly, disproportionately,\ and falsely criticizes Israel on a regular basis.Ban should do all in his power to redress the damage to Israel's reputation caused by the report, the resolution said.South African judge Richard Goldstone led the fact-finding team, established at the request of the United Nations. Its report was published in September 2009.The report had accused both Israel and the Hamas rulers of Gaza of potential war crimes, setting the tone for widespread international condemnation of the Israeli assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza in which 1,400 people lost their lives, the vast majority of them Palestinians.Goldstone announced in recent weeks that new information about Israel's military actions led him to believe he had erred in concluding that Israel targeted civilians during the 22-day conflict.The US House of Representatives had condemned the report in a November 2009 vote.Earlier Thursday, three of the authors of the report rejected calls to retract it.
They said in a statement to the Guardian newspaper in Britain that they found it necessary to dispel any impression that subsequent developments have rendered any part of the mission's report unsubstantiated.Aspersions cast on the findings of the report... cannot be left unchallenged, wrote Pakistani human rights lawyer Hina Jilani, Christine Chinvin, a professor of international law at the London School of Economics, and former Irish peacekeeper Desmond Travers.
Netanyahu to spell out peace policy to US Congress
– Thu Apr 14, 3:47 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he would use a rare speech to a joint session of the US Congress in May to spell out his plan for forging a lasting peace with the Palestinians.Netanyahu, in televised remarks to his Likud party, said he aimed for a durable end to the decades-old conflict, not just peace on paper, and that he had set some conditions to ensure that we have such an agreement.The two most important of them are, first of all, Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people. The second principle is real security arrangements on the ground, he said.Netanyahu's comments came after Republican US House Speaker John Boehner, an ardent defender of staunch US ally Israel, announced he was inviting the prime minister to address a rare joint session of the US Congress.America and Israel are the closest of friends and allies, and we look forward to hearing the prime minister's views on how we can continue working together for peace, freedom, and stability, said Boehner.Netanyahu delivered his first speech to a joint session of the US Congress on July 10, 1996, becoming the fourth Israeli prime minister to enjoy that particular honor.The move came as US President Barack Obama struggled with ways to revive stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after a wave of Arab uprisings crowded the agenda in the last few months.
Netanyahu, whose has had a difficult personal relationship with Obama, said he relished the opportunity to present the main points of our diplomatic and security policy during my visit to the United States.I very much appreciate the invitation, which symbolizes the bond the American people, the American Congress and the American administration have with the State of Israel and people of Israel, he said.
Boehner's office said he would formally invite Netanyahu once the US Congress approves a resolution calling for a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, a move all-but-sure to get backing from both major US parties.
Democratic House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi looks forward to the Prime Minister's address to the Joint Session during this critical time in history for the Middle East, said a spokesman, Drew Hammill.We look forward to hearing the prime minister's views on how we can work together to check the spread of radical Islam and promote peace, stability and prosperity in the region, said Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.In a speech on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged Washington's active leadership in ending the conflict as she cautioned the status quo between the Israelis and Palestinians is unsustainable.After Clinton's remarks, a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called on Washington to clarify its position on Palestinian statehood.We are calling for a clear American position on Palestinian statehood within the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital and a firm position on Israeli settlement, Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Palestinian leadership has set itself a September 2011 deadline to be ready for sovereignty, in the hope of pressuring Israel and the international community to recognise a Palestinian state on the territory that Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.A State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, said Clinton sought to counter skeptics about chances for peace after she helped relaunch negotiations last September only to see them stall within weeks.We're aware that some wonder whether there is any hope for progress, Toner told reporters. But We're committed to this process and that we'll make sure we commit the energy necessary to see it fulfilled, he added. Toner acknowledged that the parties had agreed to a September 2011 deadline to settle core differences.The core issues are security for Israel, the boundaries of a future Palestinian state, the status of the disputed city of Jerusalem, and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
Turkey tells Israel: Gaza flotilla not up to us
– Thu Apr 14, 1:34 pm ET
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey said on Thursday it had received a request from Israel to help stop activists sailing to Gaza on the first anniversary of an Israeli raid on a Turkish ship, but it said the flotilla plan was not Ankara's concern.Turkey, a Muslim former ally of the Jewish state, has scaled back ties, demanding Israel apologize and pay damages for last year's raid, which caused an international outcry.
Nine Turks were shot dead in the May 31 clash when Israeli marines stormed a flotilla organized by a Turkish Islamist charity, which ignored orders to turn back as it tried to breach an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.The Free Gaza Movement, a pro-Palestinian activist umbrella group, has said that a flotilla expected in late May would comprise 15 ships with international passengers including Europeans and Americans.Israel's ambassador to Turkey, Gaby Levy, asked the Turkish government this week to help stop the activists, saying sending humanitarian aide to Gaza outside legal channels was a provocation, an Israeli diplomatic official told Reuters.Asked about the request, a Turkish foreign ministry official told Reuters: We listened to the message given by the Israeli side and told them this is an initiative by civil society.The official did not elaborate.The IHH, the Turkish Islamist charity that owned the Mavi Marmara ship which was raided by the Israeli commandos, has said it will join the Freedom Flotilla II. It also plans to send its own convoy led by the Mavi Marmara after Turkey's general election on June 12.
An IHH official told Reuters the group has not been approached by the Turkish government over its plans to send another flotilla and added: In Turkey governments don't tell NGOs what to do and what not to do.Israel has also asked the United Nations to help stop the activists. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the mission of ships was being organized by Islamic extremist elements intent on bringing about a flare-up.Turkey, a secular Muslim nation, has been an important regional ally of Israel for more than a decade.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party government, which has roots in banned Islamist movements, froze relations with Israel after the deadly raid.Ankara has demanded an apology as a condition for mending ties, regardless of a U.N. probe's findings into the incident.(Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz; Editing by Gareth Jones)
THIS HEADLINE SHOULD READ PALESTINIANS READY FOR THE DESTRUCTON OF 5/6TH OF THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS INSTEAD FOR EVEN SUGGESTING A STATE OF THEIR OWN.
Diplomats say Palestinians ready for statehood
By DON MELVIN, Associated Press – Wed Apr 13, 4:23 pm ET
BRUSSELS – A group of international negotiators says the Palestinian Authority has succeeded in building the capabilities needed to run a country — and now the political work of a permanent peace just needs to catch up.The Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, which met Wednesday in Brussels, cited reports prepared for it by the World Bank, the United Nations, and the International Monetary Fund as saying that the Palestinian Authority is above the threshold for a functioning state in the key sectors they studied.The positive assessment came despite the fact that the Gaza Strip, part of any future state, is controlled by Hamas, a rival Palestinian faction that several countries including the United States, EU and Israel consider a terrorist group.The Islamic militant Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have been bitter rivals since Hamas overran Gaza in 2007.The UN report focused on institutions and infrastructure — aspects such as governance, human rights, education and water. In six areas where the UN is most engaged, governmental functions are now sufficient for a functioning government of a state, the report said.These are the sorts of capability that Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has been trying to develop during a two-year period meant to lay the groundwork for statehood. He has been working to clean up the Palestinian Authority's financing, reform the security forces, build up a legal system, develop the economy, and build roads and other infrastructure.He says his efforts will be complete by September.It is possible, with support and continued cooperation along the path to freedom, to get to the point where at long last we Palestinians are able as free people with dignity in a country of our own, Fayyad said.
He called Wednesday's meeting a landmark event.Participants at a press conference after the committee meeting heaped praise on the prime minister.It's about institution-building, so that when the state is there, the state can run. And this has been happening under the very able leadership of Prime Minister Fayyad, said Jonas Gahr Store, the Norwegian foreign minister.Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said the EU had allocated euro300 million ($434.79 million) this year for Palestinian institution-building.All those present at the meeting said it was time for the political track to catch up with the effort to build a viable government. The effort appeared to be place the political onus on Israel by removing the argument that the Palestinians are not ready to run their own country.But there was scant discussion of Gaza, which is not under Fayyad's control and from which rockets are sometimes launched at Israeli civilians.Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Mideast envoy of the Quartet — the U.S., the UN, the EU and Russia — that is trying to help negotiate peace, said attacks on Israeli citizens needed to end. He said he hoped that, with normality and growth in Gaza, the territory and the West Bank could be reunited.For his part, Fayyad turned aside a question about unilaterally declaring statehood in September if negotiations fail, saying he wanted real independence, not a virtual state.Associated Press Writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
http://www.jewfaq.org/holidaya.htm
http://www.jewfaq.org/seder.htm
http://www.jewfaq.org/kfpfood.htm
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/passover-in-israel-today.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/china-sudan-military-ties.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/iran-to-set-free-hostages.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/eritrea-bans-female-circumcision.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/passover-for-christians-today.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/pestilence-in-iraq-again.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/risen-king-messiah-today.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2007/04/hevron-jews-no-leaving-here.html
Israeli police, army raise alert level for Passover
- APR 18,11
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's police have raised the alert level nationwide, while the army division deployed around Gaza says it is ready for every scenario as the Jewish state prepares for the feast of Passover.Thousands of police have been deployed across the whole country, and particularly in the Jerusalem region, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.No specific attack threats have been made public, but Israeli security is usually tightened during major Jewish holidays.Surveillance of synagogues, markets, stations, commercial centres and national parks, which tend to attract throngs of visitors during the Passover holiday, was being stepped up.Police were also strengthening their deployment inside Jerusalem's Old City to ensure the protection of crowds of Christian pilgrims in town to celebrate Easter, Rosenfeld said.The Israeli military, meanwhile, announced Sunday a nine-day closure of the West Bank during the holiday, and the deputy commander of the army division deployed along the Gaza Strip said his troops were on standby.We are on very high alert on the Gaza Strip, we are ready for every scenario and if necessary we will respond with force, Colonel Amir Avivi told Israeli public radio.The weeklong Jewish festival of Passover, marking the biblical Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, begins at sunset on Monday and lasts for a week.
7 Bahrain protesters face trial in military court
By BARBARA SURK, Associated Press - APR 18,11
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Seven detained anti-government protesters will go on trial before a Bahrain military court for the killing of two policemen, the state news agency said Monday, the latest development in the crackdown on dissent in the Gulf kingdom.Hundreds of protesters, opposition leaders and human rights activists have been taken into custody since Bahrain imposed martial law last month in attempts to crush the Shiite-led uprising against the Sunni rulers in the tiny but strategically important island nation that hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.The Bahrain News Agency said a military prosecutor charged seven suspected opposition supporters Sunday with premeditated murder of two policemen.The seven also face other charges, the report said. It did not elaborate, except to say the two policemen died after being overrun with a car in the capital Manama. Another hearing in the case is set for Tuesday.Earlier this month the authorities banned media from covering legal proceedings in the country's military courts. Bahrain's human rights organizations blasted the gag order, saying that trials behind closed doors have no legal credibility.If a government decides to hold trials in secret, it is very likely the government is hiding something, said Nabeel Rajab, the head of Bahrain's Human Rights Center.The seven are the first of the hundreds in custody to have been charged with a crime since Bahrain's military stormed the protesters' encampment in Manama's Pearl Square in an effort to end weeks of street marches by Bahrain's Shiite majority demanding greater political freedoms and equal rights.Among those detained are also dozens of Shiite professionals, such as doctors and lawyers, including the lawyer who was to defend the seven suspected opposition supporters in the military court, Rajab said.The attorney, Mohammed al-Tajer, is one of Bahrain's most prominent human rights lawyers. He has represented hundreds of clients against the state, including Shiite activists accused of plotting against the Sunni monarchy. He was taken into custody on Saturday.At least 30 people have died since Feb. 15, when anti-government protests erupted in Bahrain, inspired by the uprisings in the Arab world. Four opposition supporters have also died in police custody.
Latest developments in Arab world's unrest
By The Associated Press – Sun Apr 17, 6:33 pm ET
LIBYA-Libyan rebels fight Moammar Gadhafi's forces in close-quarters battles in the city center of Misrata, the last major rebel foothold in western Libya. Government troops pound Misrata with mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades, residents say. Seventeen people are killed, an NGO worker and an opposition activist say.
SYRIA-Gunmen open fire during a funeral for a slain anti-government protester, killing at least three people on a day when tens of thousands of people took to the streets nationwide as part of an uprising against the country's authoritarian regime, witnesses and activists say. Syria's state-run news agency later says one policeman is killed and 11 other policemen and security personnel are wounded when an armed criminal gang opened fire on them in Talbiseh.
EGYPT-Prosecutors file corruption charges against the former prime minister and two other senior members of the Cabinet that served under ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Ahmed Nazif, ex-Finance Minister Yousef Boutros Ghali and former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly were charged with wasting public money and profiteering. Their prosecution is the latest in a sweeping campaign to bring officials of Mubarak's toppled regime to justice.
YEMEN-Security forces fire on anti-government protesters in Yemen's capital, as hundreds of thousands of marchers — including many women — packed cities around the country to denounce the president and remarks he made against women taking part in rallies demanding his ouster.
ALGERIA-Two nearly simultaneous attacks by suspected Islamist extremists kill six members of the country's security forces.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES-Human rights lawyers say authorities have detained a fourth activist for advocating democratic reforms in the oil-rich Gulf nation. The federation of seven sheikdoms heavily restricts political activity but has been spared the unrest hitting other Arab nations.
OMAN -Oman says it will spend about 1 billion rials ($2.6 billion) to address demands by protesters for more jobs and state aid. The spending boost is a centerpiece of efforts to quell two months of sporadic demonstrations for more jobs and a greater political voice in the tightly ruled Gulf monarchy.
Gulf states call on UN to halt Iran interference
– Sun Apr 17, 6:23 pm ET
RIYADH (AFP) – Gulf Arab states on Sunday called on the international community and UN Security Council to make flagrant Iranian interference and provocations in Gulf affairs cease after unrest in Bahrain.Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, after a meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh, called in a statement for necessary measures against the Islamic republic to prevent it from sowing regional discord.The six-nation GCC called on the international community and the Security Council to take the necessary measures to make flagrant Iranian interference and provocations aimed at sowing discord and destruction among GCC states.It said the GCC -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- categorically rejects all foreign interference in its affairs... and invites the Iranian regime to stop its provocations.The statement also slammed aggression against Saudi diplomats in Iran.Earlier on Sunday, Riyadh threatened to recall its diplomats from Tehran unless they were better protected.I hope we won't be obliged to withdraw our diplomatic mission from Tehran if Iran fails to take the necessary measures to protect it, deputy foreign minister Prince Turki bin Mohammed told reporters.Iranian students had demonstrated on Monday outside the Saudi embassy to condemn Riyadh's military intervention in Bahrain and the murder of Bahraini citizens, the official IRNA news agency had reported.
Iran's Fars news agency, which is close to conservatives, had reported that six to seven petrol bombs were hurled against the embassy as students chanted slogans against the ruling Sunni dynasties in both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.On Sunday, Prince Turki said: Shiites in the Gulf are our brothers and have national rights under the umbrella of their loyalty (to their countries) and not to the outside.Iran has repeatedly condemned the dispatch of Saudi troops to Bahrain to support the Bahraini forces' crackdown on demonstrations there by Shiites who form the majority of the population of the country.Iran is predominantly a Shiite Muslim country.
New Israel pointman on Shalit appointed
– Sun Apr 17, 4:47 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday appointed a senior Mossad official to be the new pointman in efforts to free Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Gaza militants in 2006.David Maidan of the secret service replaces Haggai Hadas, who was appointed to the role in 2009 by Netanyahu but who has stepped down for personal reasons.An official statement said Netanyahu had informed the soldier's parents, Noam and Aviva Shalit, of the new appointment during a meeting at the premier's official residence.After the meeting, Noam Shalit expressed his frustration at the lack of progress in efforts to free his son.The only new element is the nomination of a new negotiator, Israeli public radio quoted him as saying.Militant group Hamas, which took control of the Gaza Strip a year after Shalit was seized in June 2006, has demanded hundreds of prisoners in exchange for his release, including scores of militants responsible for deadly attacks.But talks have stalled, with Netanyahu warning that militants released under previous prisoner exchanges have gone on to launch deadly attacks on Israel.Shalit, now 24, was seized in a dawn cross-border raid by three groups of Gaza militants include Hamas.Netanyahu has come under increasing criticism for his government's failure to secure Shalit's release in talks, which have been mediated by Germany.On Monday, a former head of Israel's Shin Bet security agency said Israel should be prepared to release Palestinians convicted of murder if that was necessary to secure Shalit's release.The last sign of life received from Shalit's captors was in October 2009 when a video recording showed him looking gaunt, but apparently in good health.
Israel arrests Palestinians over settler murders
by Shatha Yaish – Sun Apr 17, 11:11 am ET
AWARTA, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Israel has arrested two Palestinian suspects in connection with the grisly murder of a young settler family, Israeli security officials said on Sunday.A senior army officer said he believed the killing of the Israeli couple and three of their children in the West Bank settlement of Itamar was not ordered by a militant group but was the outcome of a burglary that went wrong.
I personally believe that what motivated them was to penetrate an Israeli settlement and maybe to steal a gun, and the murder as it occurred was something they didn't plan at the beginning, it just happened, Colonel Nimrod Aloni told reporters.Both the suspects' family and their home village of Awarta have traditional allegiances to the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, but Aloni said he did not believe the young men were directed by any organisation.I think that they acted by themselves with no direction whatsover, he said.My estimation is that they worked independently.Sunday's announcement of the arrests was the first public update on a murder investigation spanning more than a month since the March 11 slaying of the Fogel family.The news came just ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover, and after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials had suggested that a major breakthrough in the case would be made public soon.I have been kept updated in recent weeks and days on the progress of the investigation, Netanyahu said in comments released by his office Sunday.I must congratulate the security services ... very fine work was done here which expresses our commitment to justice, he said. We shall find murderers wherever they are.In a briefing document obtained by AFP, Shin Bet said it had arrested two main suspects and five suspected accomplices.The two, residents of the village of Awarta, confessed during the investigation to planning and carrying out the attack and staged a reconstruction, the document said.
A spokesman for the agency told AFP that they had not yet been charged and that the investigation was ongoing.Shin Bet said the two suspects had climbed over Itamar's electric fence and first stole an M16 automatic rifle from a house whose occupants were away before entering the Fogel household, where they stole a second weapon.
Both weapons were recovered, they said.Six of the men arrested in connection with the case are members of the Awad family from Awarta, and a seventh, a resident of Ramallah, was a friend of one of the suspected accomplices, the document said.Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld named the main suspects as Hakim Awad, who he said was arrested on April 5, and his relative Amjad Awad, who was arrested on April 10.Shin Bet did not give their precise ages but said they were born in 1993 and 1992 respectively.Awarta, a short walk from Itamar in the northern West Bank, has been the central focus of the investigation into the murders. It was put under curfew shortly after the attack, and Israeli troops have detained hundreds of its residents, prompting the local council head to accuse Israel of a policy of collective punishment.In Awarta, Hakim Awad's mother, Nouf Awad, told AFP it was impossible that her son had committed the murder.It wasn't my son who did it, she said. It is impossible that it's him, he was with me the whole night that the incident happened.In Itamar, the neighbour who discovered the Fogel family's bodies welcomed the arrests, but said the community was trying to move on.It's positive that they caught the murderers, the most important thing is that this should never happen again, Rabbi Yaakov Cohen told AFP.We're not looking for revenge, despite the feeling of loss, life goes back to normal.The brutal stabbing occurred late on March 11, as the family slept in the settlement southeast of Nablus.Ehud and Ruth Fogel were stabbed as they slept, along with three of their children -- a three-month-old baby girl, and two others aged three and 11.Two other children at home during the attack were spared. Another child, their 10-year-old daughter, was out during the attack, arriving home afterwards and alerting neighbours that something was wrong.
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.
EUROPEAN UNION ARMY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWmPqY8TE0&feature=player_embedded
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.( BE HEAD OF 3 NATIONS)
25 And he (EU PRESIDENT) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.(3 1/2 YRS)
DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.
DANIEL 11:36-39
36 And the king (EU DICTATOR) shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS JEWISH) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.(CLAIM TO BE GOD)
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(WAR) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god,(DESTROY TERROR GROUPS) whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
REVELATION 19:19
19 And I saw the beast,(EU LEADER) and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse,(JESUS) and against his army.(THE RAPTURED CHRISTIANS)
Abbas rules out Israeli troops in future state
– Sun Apr 17, 9:41 am ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Palestinian Authority will collapse if Israel insists on stationing troops inside any future Palestinian state, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has told AFP.In an interview, Abbas said he would not allow any Israeli troops to be deployed in a future Palestinian state, despite Israel's insistence that it be able to maintain a military presence along the West Bank's border with Jordan.Israel says it would need such a security presence for around 40 years to ensure the border between any Palestinian state and Jordan was secure.Abbas said he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September 2010 that such a troop presence would torpedo the possibility of an independent Palestinian state, and would effectively destroy the Palestinian Authority (PA).If he wants to stay for 40 years, it means that it is an occupation, so he will keep his occupation, Abbas told AFP.I told him If you insist on that, keep your troops here and keep your occupation forever.Abbas said Netanyahu had rejected alternatives to the deployment of Israeli troops, such as an international force, or a NATO deployment.An Israeli troop deployment inside a future Palestine would effectively bring about the collapse of the PA, Abbas said.Netanyahu insisted earlier this year that Israel could not withdraw from the border between the West Bank and Jordan entirely.Our security border is here on the Jordan (river) and our defence line begins here, he said in March during a tour of the border area, which is currently under Israeli control.If that line is breached, they will be able to infiltrate terrorists, rockets and missiles all the way to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheva and the whole state, he said.
NOW WERE ON THE FAST TRACK TO FULFILING PROPHECY AS ABBAS WANTS THE EU (THE FRENCH & GERMANS IN ON THE PEACE PROCESS).
Abbas eyes French, German help on Palestinian state
– Sat Apr 16, 2:25 pm ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas has told AFP he will visit France next week and Germany in May to seek advice on the creation of a Palestinian state.We will ask the Europeans -- I will go to France on 21st, and next month I will be in Germany .. to ask What shall we do? because we want their advice, he said in the interview late on Friday conducted in English.We will ask (French President Nicolas) Sarkozy for his advice, Abbas told AFP, saying he wanted the Europeans' advice about the steps leading to the recognition of a Palestinian state later this year.His remarks were made just days after the cancellation of a meeting of the Middle East Quartet which had been hoping to find ways of bringing Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.The Quartet principals had been expected to meet in Berlin on Friday but the talks were blocked by Washington, diplomats at the UN said.Britain, France and Germany had been hoping to use the Berlin talks to push for a Quartet statement setting out specific guidelines for peace negotiations which would have included references to the major final status issues.
The three nations laid out their position in a communique issued in February after Washington torpedoed a UN Security Council vote condemning settlement activity, in which they called for clear parameters relating to the 1967 borders, security issues, refugees and Jerusalem.Abbas said the Palestinians had wanted the elements of the communique to be used by the Quartet because all the elements of a solution are in this statement, but unfortunately nothing happened and time is passing, he said.If we get to September without any results, of course we will ask the American president (Barack Obama) to fulfil his promise that he wishes to see a state with full partnership in the United Nations, Abbas said.Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath told AFP that the leadership would press ahead with the move even though it was clear that the United States would veto the initiative.We will go to the Security Council just to get an American veto because when we get an American veto we can go to the General Assembly and ask for a meeting under the "Uniting for Peace (resolution) which allows the General Assembly to take decisions as binding as those taken by the Security Council, he said.The resolution can be invoked in cases where the Security Council fails to act due to a dispute between its five permanent members, Shaath explained, saying he believed the Palestinian case would fit the criteria for such a referral to the General Assembly.They can admit us as a full member of the General Assembly and when we become a full member recognised by two thirds of the community of nations, we become an independent state whose land is occupied illegally by another member, he said.This is what's scaring Mr (Benjamin) Netanayhu and that's what Mr (Ehud) Barak calls the tsunami of September, he said, referring to the Israeli prime minister, and to the defence minister who has warned that the UN bid will mean Israel faces a diplomatic tsunami.Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians ran aground late last year after the expiry of a temporary ban on settlement construction.Since then, the Palestinians have refused all direct contact, saying they will not talk while Israel builds on land they want for a future state.
Israel raids Gaza after rocket attacks
– Sat Apr 16, 3:23 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli warplanes launched raids against targets in Gaza overnight after two rockets were fired at Israel from the coastal enclave, Palestinian security officials said on Saturday.No one was hurt in the air attacks which struck bases of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigade, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which rules Gaza, in Gaza City and east of it, one source said.A military spokeswoman confirmed the raids and said warplanes struck targets of a terrorist organisation in response to two rockets fired on Ashkelon and Ashdod in southern Israel on Friday afternoon.Friday's attack was the first time any rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip since Sunday when militants in the Hamas-run territory began observing an unspoken truce, a military spokesman had said.There were no injuries and no damage, policy spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP on Friday.
He did not specify what type of projectiles they were, but the military said it was likely they were Grad rockets because of their longer range.The truce came into effect after days of soaring violence in which Israeli troops pounded Gaza, killing 19 Palestinians, after militants fired an anti-tank missile at a school bus, critically wounding an Israeli teenager.
AP Interview: Palestinians want Quartet deal
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press – Fri Apr 15, 5:46 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS – The top Palestinian diplomat at the United Nations said the Palestinians still want the Quartet of Mideast mediators to take the lead in helping them negotiate a peace treaty with Israel by September.If that doesn't happen, Riyad Mansour said in an Associated Press interview that the Palestinians expect the international community at the United Nations to take action that would end Israel's occupation and allow for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and its membership in the 192-nation world body.He blamed Israeli intransigence for the stalled negotiations on a peace treaty and insisted: We are not going to be hostage to the position of Israel, nor will we accept that nothing can be done until the Israelis are ready and willing.The Palestinians won an important endorsement Thursday when key donor states meeting in Brussels said that the institutions developed by the Palestinian Authority are now above the threshold for a functioning state. The donors, who give the Palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars in aid each year, cited reports prepared by the World Bank, the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund.Mansour pointed to Israeli and Palestinian agreement on President Barack Obama's target date of September 2011 for a peace agreement, a date endorsed by the European Union and much of the world.Obama announced that date in September 2010, as direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations resumed, but those talks collapsed weeks later because Israel ended its moratorium on settlement construction.
The Palestinians insist they will not resume peace talks until Israel halts settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which the Palestinians want for their future state. Israel maintains that the Palestinians should not be setting conditions for talks and note that in the past they have negotiated while settlement construction continued.Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. observer, expressed regret that the United States blocked a meeting of the Quartet — the U.S., U.N., European Union and Russia — that had been tentatively scheduled to take place Friday in Berlin to discuss, and hopefully endorse, the outlines of a peace settlement proposed by Britain, France and Germany.A U.S. official said Monday it wasn't the right time and the Obama administration didn't think a Quartet meeting would produce anything that would help restart the talks.Mansour said the Palestinian leadership have indicated willingness to go back to negotiations with Israel if the Quartet agreed on the settlement outlines proposed by the three countries.The Palestinian envoy said in the interview late Thursday that the Quartet agreed at their last meeting in Munich on Feb. 5 that they wanted to play an active role, and we want them to play an active role.We want them to adopt parameters as a contribution to removing obstacles from the path of going back to direct negotiations, and we hope that the Quartet would succeed in doing so as soon as possible, Mansour said.
The U.S. veto on Feb. 18 of a Security Council resolution that would have condemned illegal Israeli settlements and demanded an immediate halt to all settlement building spurred Britain, France and Germany, who supported the measure, to issue a joint statement expressing serious concern about the stalemate in the Middle East peace process.The three countries said all settlement activity, including East Jerusalem, should cease immediately and called for direct negotiations to resume quickly.For talks to succeed, they said the Israelis and Palestinians must agree on borders of the two states, based on lines before the 1967 Mideast war, with approved land swaps, on the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of both and a solution to the question of Palestinian refugees.Both sides must also agree on security arrangements that respect Palestinian sovereignty and show that the occupation is over and protect Israel's security, prevent the resurgence of terrorism and deal effectively with new and emerging threats,they said.But putting the job of restarting negotiations in the hands of the Quartet would take it away from the United States, which has been in the forefront of trying to get direct Israeli-Palestinian talks restarted, Mansour said.U.S. officials say Obama is expected to make a speech on the Mideast in the coming weeks outlining the U.S. position. We hope that that position would be in line with the European position, and other partners of the Quartet — meaning to adopt the principles that were articulated by the Europeans, Mansour said.
Standing in the way of a solution, he said, is Israel's refusal to accept the 1967 borders as a starting point for negotiations and the Palestinians' demand that not a single Israeli soldier or official should remain in an independent Palestinian state.We have no problem in having a certain number of U.N. forces, NATO, American, combination of them, all of them, to be stationed on our side, Mansour said. But, he added,Israel is insisting to have some presence, especially in the Jordan Valley and on the tops of mountains and hills overlooking the Jordan Valley.
Clinton says Iran trying to hijack Mideast revolts
MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press – Fri Apr 15, 4:11 pm ET
BERLIN – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday accused Iran of trying to hijack democratic revolutions around the Mideast and warned Arab nations not to permit intolerance against women and religious minorities.Clinton said Iran was clearly trying to use uprisings around the region to further its own goals and foment broader unrest while at the same time cracking down on its own reform movement.I think that that everyone is aware if its efforts to exploit and even hijack what are legitimate protests. But certainly in an era of instant communication we hope that people will not be fooled by their tactics.Clinton said the U.S. sees no evidence yet that Iran instigated such protests but we do see activities by Iran to try to take advantage of these uprisings.Clinton also warned that rising intolerance toward women and religious minorities threatens to undermine democratic transitions around the Arab world and spread violent extremism.
Accepting an award named for a pre-Nazi era German Jewish businessman, politician and foreign minister who was murdered for his promotion of inclusion and tolerance, Clinton said she was disturbed by recent developments in post-revolt Egypt in which women and Coptic Christians were singled out for attacks and abuse. They are signs, she said, that extremists are intent on seizing transitions for their own aims.The 1922 assassination of Walter Rathenau, was a cautionary tale about how these transitions can be undermined by intolerance and hijacked by extremists, she told a ceremony in Berlin.She said the incidents in Egypt were testing the unity of pro-democracy demonstrators whose peaceful protests ousted Egypt's authoritarian president and could fracture the reform movement.Clinton said she feared similar backsliding elsewhere in the Mideast and stressed it was critical for Egyptians and other Arabs whose nations are in the throes of change to resist intolerance and demand that their new leaders embrace open and inclusive governments.It will be critical, she said, for citizens and leaders to work together to resist these dangers and keep their nations on track to become open, inclusive, pluralistic democracies.Democracy is a never-ending task that requires participation and protection and it is only possible if every citizen can enjoy its benefits, she said. Societies thrive when all their people contribute and participate. But they stagnate when women are excluded or minorities are persecuted.
US Senate asks UN to rescind Gaza War report
– Thu Apr 14, 11:54 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Senate asked the United Nations to rescind a report on the Gaza War after its lead author said he was wrong to conclude Israel targeted civilians during the 2008-2009 offensive.The Senate resolution calls on UN Human Rights Council members to reflect the author's repudiation of the Goldstone report's central findings, rescind the report and reconsider further Council actions with respect to the report's findings.The text was adopted by unanimous consent.It also urges UN chief Ban Ki-moon to help reform the Human Rights Council so that it no longer unfairly, disproportionately,\ and falsely criticizes Israel on a regular basis.Ban should do all in his power to redress the damage to Israel's reputation caused by the report, the resolution said.South African judge Richard Goldstone led the fact-finding team, established at the request of the United Nations. Its report was published in September 2009.The report had accused both Israel and the Hamas rulers of Gaza of potential war crimes, setting the tone for widespread international condemnation of the Israeli assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza in which 1,400 people lost their lives, the vast majority of them Palestinians.Goldstone announced in recent weeks that new information about Israel's military actions led him to believe he had erred in concluding that Israel targeted civilians during the 22-day conflict.The US House of Representatives had condemned the report in a November 2009 vote.Earlier Thursday, three of the authors of the report rejected calls to retract it.
They said in a statement to the Guardian newspaper in Britain that they found it necessary to dispel any impression that subsequent developments have rendered any part of the mission's report unsubstantiated.Aspersions cast on the findings of the report... cannot be left unchallenged, wrote Pakistani human rights lawyer Hina Jilani, Christine Chinvin, a professor of international law at the London School of Economics, and former Irish peacekeeper Desmond Travers.
Netanyahu to spell out peace policy to US Congress
– Thu Apr 14, 3:47 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he would use a rare speech to a joint session of the US Congress in May to spell out his plan for forging a lasting peace with the Palestinians.Netanyahu, in televised remarks to his Likud party, said he aimed for a durable end to the decades-old conflict, not just peace on paper, and that he had set some conditions to ensure that we have such an agreement.The two most important of them are, first of all, Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people. The second principle is real security arrangements on the ground, he said.Netanyahu's comments came after Republican US House Speaker John Boehner, an ardent defender of staunch US ally Israel, announced he was inviting the prime minister to address a rare joint session of the US Congress.America and Israel are the closest of friends and allies, and we look forward to hearing the prime minister's views on how we can continue working together for peace, freedom, and stability, said Boehner.Netanyahu delivered his first speech to a joint session of the US Congress on July 10, 1996, becoming the fourth Israeli prime minister to enjoy that particular honor.The move came as US President Barack Obama struggled with ways to revive stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after a wave of Arab uprisings crowded the agenda in the last few months.
Netanyahu, whose has had a difficult personal relationship with Obama, said he relished the opportunity to present the main points of our diplomatic and security policy during my visit to the United States.I very much appreciate the invitation, which symbolizes the bond the American people, the American Congress and the American administration have with the State of Israel and people of Israel, he said.
Boehner's office said he would formally invite Netanyahu once the US Congress approves a resolution calling for a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, a move all-but-sure to get backing from both major US parties.
Democratic House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi looks forward to the Prime Minister's address to the Joint Session during this critical time in history for the Middle East, said a spokesman, Drew Hammill.We look forward to hearing the prime minister's views on how we can work together to check the spread of radical Islam and promote peace, stability and prosperity in the region, said Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.In a speech on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged Washington's active leadership in ending the conflict as she cautioned the status quo between the Israelis and Palestinians is unsustainable.After Clinton's remarks, a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called on Washington to clarify its position on Palestinian statehood.We are calling for a clear American position on Palestinian statehood within the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital and a firm position on Israeli settlement, Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Palestinian leadership has set itself a September 2011 deadline to be ready for sovereignty, in the hope of pressuring Israel and the international community to recognise a Palestinian state on the territory that Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.A State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, said Clinton sought to counter skeptics about chances for peace after she helped relaunch negotiations last September only to see them stall within weeks.We're aware that some wonder whether there is any hope for progress, Toner told reporters. But We're committed to this process and that we'll make sure we commit the energy necessary to see it fulfilled, he added. Toner acknowledged that the parties had agreed to a September 2011 deadline to settle core differences.The core issues are security for Israel, the boundaries of a future Palestinian state, the status of the disputed city of Jerusalem, and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
Turkey tells Israel: Gaza flotilla not up to us
– Thu Apr 14, 1:34 pm ET
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey said on Thursday it had received a request from Israel to help stop activists sailing to Gaza on the first anniversary of an Israeli raid on a Turkish ship, but it said the flotilla plan was not Ankara's concern.Turkey, a Muslim former ally of the Jewish state, has scaled back ties, demanding Israel apologize and pay damages for last year's raid, which caused an international outcry.
Nine Turks were shot dead in the May 31 clash when Israeli marines stormed a flotilla organized by a Turkish Islamist charity, which ignored orders to turn back as it tried to breach an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.The Free Gaza Movement, a pro-Palestinian activist umbrella group, has said that a flotilla expected in late May would comprise 15 ships with international passengers including Europeans and Americans.Israel's ambassador to Turkey, Gaby Levy, asked the Turkish government this week to help stop the activists, saying sending humanitarian aide to Gaza outside legal channels was a provocation, an Israeli diplomatic official told Reuters.Asked about the request, a Turkish foreign ministry official told Reuters: We listened to the message given by the Israeli side and told them this is an initiative by civil society.The official did not elaborate.The IHH, the Turkish Islamist charity that owned the Mavi Marmara ship which was raided by the Israeli commandos, has said it will join the Freedom Flotilla II. It also plans to send its own convoy led by the Mavi Marmara after Turkey's general election on June 12.
An IHH official told Reuters the group has not been approached by the Turkish government over its plans to send another flotilla and added: In Turkey governments don't tell NGOs what to do and what not to do.Israel has also asked the United Nations to help stop the activists. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the mission of ships was being organized by Islamic extremist elements intent on bringing about a flare-up.Turkey, a secular Muslim nation, has been an important regional ally of Israel for more than a decade.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party government, which has roots in banned Islamist movements, froze relations with Israel after the deadly raid.Ankara has demanded an apology as a condition for mending ties, regardless of a U.N. probe's findings into the incident.(Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz; Editing by Gareth Jones)
THIS HEADLINE SHOULD READ PALESTINIANS READY FOR THE DESTRUCTON OF 5/6TH OF THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS INSTEAD FOR EVEN SUGGESTING A STATE OF THEIR OWN.
Diplomats say Palestinians ready for statehood
By DON MELVIN, Associated Press – Wed Apr 13, 4:23 pm ET
BRUSSELS – A group of international negotiators says the Palestinian Authority has succeeded in building the capabilities needed to run a country — and now the political work of a permanent peace just needs to catch up.The Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, which met Wednesday in Brussels, cited reports prepared for it by the World Bank, the United Nations, and the International Monetary Fund as saying that the Palestinian Authority is above the threshold for a functioning state in the key sectors they studied.The positive assessment came despite the fact that the Gaza Strip, part of any future state, is controlled by Hamas, a rival Palestinian faction that several countries including the United States, EU and Israel consider a terrorist group.The Islamic militant Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have been bitter rivals since Hamas overran Gaza in 2007.The UN report focused on institutions and infrastructure — aspects such as governance, human rights, education and water. In six areas where the UN is most engaged, governmental functions are now sufficient for a functioning government of a state, the report said.These are the sorts of capability that Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has been trying to develop during a two-year period meant to lay the groundwork for statehood. He has been working to clean up the Palestinian Authority's financing, reform the security forces, build up a legal system, develop the economy, and build roads and other infrastructure.He says his efforts will be complete by September.It is possible, with support and continued cooperation along the path to freedom, to get to the point where at long last we Palestinians are able as free people with dignity in a country of our own, Fayyad said.
He called Wednesday's meeting a landmark event.Participants at a press conference after the committee meeting heaped praise on the prime minister.It's about institution-building, so that when the state is there, the state can run. And this has been happening under the very able leadership of Prime Minister Fayyad, said Jonas Gahr Store, the Norwegian foreign minister.Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said the EU had allocated euro300 million ($434.79 million) this year for Palestinian institution-building.All those present at the meeting said it was time for the political track to catch up with the effort to build a viable government. The effort appeared to be place the political onus on Israel by removing the argument that the Palestinians are not ready to run their own country.But there was scant discussion of Gaza, which is not under Fayyad's control and from which rockets are sometimes launched at Israeli civilians.Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Mideast envoy of the Quartet — the U.S., the UN, the EU and Russia — that is trying to help negotiate peace, said attacks on Israeli citizens needed to end. He said he hoped that, with normality and growth in Gaza, the territory and the West Bank could be reunited.For his part, Fayyad turned aside a question about unilaterally declaring statehood in September if negotiations fail, saying he wanted real independence, not a virtual state.Associated Press Writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)