Israel removes fewer roadblocks than promised: U.N. By Adam Entous APR 11,08
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has removed 44 roadblocks in the occupied West Bank, short of the number promised to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a United Nations agency has found. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said most of the roadblocks removed were of little or no significance.Palestinians say Israel's network of hundreds of checkpoints and roadblocks amount to collective punishment, stifle their economy and undermine support for U.S.-backed peace talks.
Israel says the barriers are needed to stop suicide bombers from reaching its cities.OCHA, which charts the location of roadblocks in the West Bank, conducted its own field survey of the 61 obstacles that Israel said it removed earlier this month after Rice's visit.OCHA found that 44 of the 61 obstacles had been removed, six remained and 11 could not be found, according to a preliminary report presented to Western donors, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the U.N. findings. The army announced last week the removal of 50 roadblocks plus one checkpoint, as promised to Rice. It subsequently said an additional 10 barriers were taken down, but the army would not disclose their locations publicly.Of the 44 obstacles that OCHA confirmed as having been removed, five were classified by the U.N. agency as significant for Palestinians in the area.OCHA said nine of the 44 were of minimal significance to Palestinians, noting there was another roadblock nearby or that the obstacle blocked an unpopulated area used by the Israeli army.OCHA said 17 of the 44 roadblocks were of no significance, either because they obstructed a closed military zone, had already been removed, were located near a Jewish settlement or were in the middle of a field.
OCHA cited 13 questionable circumstances. In those cases, the agency visited the sites where it received repeated reports that obstacles were added at the last minute and then removed.A U.S. general has been tasked with monitoring whether the roadblocks were removed as promised, but his findings have not been made public.
Rice said during her recent visit that she would push hard to ease West Bank restrictions to try to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose authority has been limited to the West Bank since Hamas Islamists seized the Gaza Strip in June.But Israel's army and defense establishment have put up stiff resistance to making sweeping changes to the roadblock network, citing security concerns.(Editing by Catherine Evans)
Israel sends tanks, bulldozers into Gaza by Adel Zaanoun
APR 11,08
BUREIJ, GAZA STRIP (AFP) - Israeli tanks and bulldozers, backed by helicopters, crossed into Gaza on Friday after the Jewish state vowed to retaliate against Hamas for an explosion of violence earlier this week. A 10-year-old child was fatally wounded by tank fire in Bureij and another seven Palestinians, two of them teenagers, were wounded in clashes, Gaza medics said.Ten tanks and two armoured bulldozers entered one kilometre (0.6 mile) into Gaza, west of the Bureij refugee camp, drawing heavy fire from militants, Palestinian security sources said. Two assault helicopters flew overhead.Dozens of teenagers stood on the outskirts of the refugee camps facing the Israeli force some 200 meters (yards) away.An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed forces were operating in the Hamas-run territory and had come under gun and mortar fire.She said Israeli forces carried out an air strike in the same area. Witnesses did not immediately report any casualties from the air raid.
Hours earlier two Hamas militants were killed in another air strike in southern Gaza.Israel has vowed to settle the score with the Islamist group for a border attack that killed two Israeli civilians on Wednesday, which followed a month of relative calm in and around Gaza.While Hamas has not claimed responsibility for that attack, which three other groups said they carried out, Israel blames the Islamist group because it controls Gaza, where it ousted forces loyal to moderate president Mahmud Abbas in June.Hamas today runs the Gaza Strip, and this organisation and all its members bear responsibility for the incessant terror and it will have to bear the inevitable price for its actions, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told a rally of his Kadima party near Tel Aviv late Thursday.I promise you that the response against Hamas will be such that Hamas will be no longer able to act against Israeli citizens, he said.
Hamas said such statements clearly showed Israel was preparing the ground for a new military operation against Gaza.Gaza militants on Wednesday breached the border with Israel under cover of mortar fire, killing two Israeli contractors at the Nahal Oz oil terminal that provides the Palestinian territory with its fuel supplies.On the Palestinian side, four civilians and three fighters were killed during and immediately after the attack.Israel said it temporarily shut down the terminal, but insisted it would continue providing minimal fuel supplies to the Palestinian territory that has been under a crippling blockade for months.While Hamas did not claim the border raid, its armed wing said it fired three homemade rockets at the crossing after the battle, the first time it has claimed such an attack on Israel since the beginning of March.The two sides had refrained from engaging in any major attacks for several weeks following a massive Israeli military assault on Gaza launched in late February that killed 130 Palestinians and five Israelis.
But Hamas this week threatened to storm Gaza's borders in a repeat of a breach in January that sent hundreds of thousands of weary Palestinians streaming into Egypt to stock up on goods they can't get at home because of a tight Israeli-imposed embargo. Egypt has since brought in extra troops to reinforce its border with Gaza.
And authorities at the Suez Canal were limiting the number of trucks being allowed to proceed onwards to the border in order to prevent shops there from overstocking in anticipation of another break-out. While violence threatened to erupt again in Gaza, Olmert reiterated that peace talks with Abbas could lead to a historic peace deal this year, but that he did not believe it could be implemented at this stage. The first step of offering hope to us and the Palestinians can and should be done, and we will do every effort to succeed this year, he said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that a Moscow peace conference would give a second wind to peace efforts in the region.
Israeli army puts limits on Facebook By BETH MARLOWE, Associated Press Writer APR 11,08
JERUSALEM - Israeli defense officials say they have identified an unlikely new threat to national security — Facebook. A new list of rules announced Thursday aims to prevent soldiers and Defense Ministry employees from revealing classified information on social networking sites.The officials say some soldiers have uploaded pictures of themselves with classified equipment, inadvertently revealing sensitive information.The rules allow soldiers to create pages on networking sites as long as they do not identify themselves as soldiers or reveal any information about what they do.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because the rules have not been officially published.
U.S., Israel criticize Carter plans to see Hamas By Sue Pleming Thu Apr 10, 6:56 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Thursday it had advised former President Jimmy Carter against meeting the leader of Hamas in Syria next week, saying it went against U.S. policy of isolating the militant group. Carter plans to visit Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan during a nine-day trip due to start on Sunday but gave no details of specific meetings.This is a study mission and our purpose is not to negotiate but to support and provide momentum for current efforts to secure peace in the Middle East, the Carter Center said in a statement.Our delegation has considerable experience in the region, and we go there with an open mind and heart to listen and learn from all parties, it said.Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, discussed with the State Department's point person on Israeli-Palestinian issues, David Welch, his plans to meet exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus, but the department said it went against U.S. policy.We counseled against it, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
U.S. government policy is that Hamas is a terrorist organization and we don't believe it is in the interests of our policy or in the interests of peace to have such a meeting.Israel's ambassador to the United States, Sallai Meridor, also expressed concern over such a meeting. The unintended consequences of such a meeting would be to embolden terrorists and undermine the cause of peace, he told Reuters.Carter, 83, served one term as president from 1977 to 1981. He succeeded in negotiating the 1978 Camp David Accords that paved the way for peace between Israel and Egypt but he has increasingly taken positions highly critical of Israel.In a 2006 book, he described Israeli policy in the occupied territories as a system of apartheid.U.S. policy is to isolate Hamas, which has control of Gaza and is committed to the destruction of Israel. Washington sees pro-Western Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as its partner in U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Israelis.
PLANS UNDER WAY
There is an agreement to hold the meeting and arrangements are under way, Hamas official Ayman Taha told Reuters in Gaza of Carter's meeting.Taha said the meeting was to be held following a request from the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which aims to promote global peace, health, democracy and human rights.A spokeswoman for Carter declined to comment on specific meetings. The delegation will include former first lady Rosalynn Carter and ex-Congressman Stephen Solarz.Initially, Carter had hoped to go with a group of elder statesmen, including former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former South African President Nelson Mandela, but the others decided the timing was wrong.The elders will consider consultations with key leaders in the region and outside with the purpose of developing a comprehensive report, but have decided to postpone their visit, said a statement on Tuesday from the group of 12 former leaders on their Web site, www.theelders.org.Carter has been harshly critical of the Bush administration's foreign policy, from the invasion of Iraq to its approach to Iran as well as the Israeli-Palestinian issue. McCormack said the U.S. government would provide support for Carter's Syrian trip but would not take part in any of his meetings or the planning and scheduling of those talks. (Additional reporting by Matthew Bigg in Atlanta, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and the Johannesburg bureau; Editing by Michael Christie and Peter Cooney)
Israel concludes largest civil defence drill Thu Apr 10, 12:55 PM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel wound up its largest ever civil defence exercise on Thursday with a simulation of a chemical weapons attack on a hospital and claimed the five days of drills worked well. In the final drill a hospital in the northern city of Afula was evacuated during a simulated chemical weapons strike, a military spokesman said.The home front manoeuvre was aimed at preparing Israel for possible attacks involving conventional weapons as well as missiles equipped with chemical or bacteriological warheads.
The exercise, which began on Sunday worked very well, everything worked according to what we planned. We thought we would have many more problems, said defence ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror.The drills also aimed to prepare the country for possible concerted attacks by Syria, its Lebanese Hezbollah militia allies from the north, and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas from the south.
The nationwide exercise raised tensions with Israel's northern neighbours Syria and Lebanon, but Israel insisted the drill was solely designed to test civilian defences.The objective of the drill was to check all kinds of situations, Dror said. We said earlier that if everything went well (during the 2006 Lebanon war) we wouldn't have to do a drill.The commander of the homefront northern command said Israel was today much better prepared for missile attacks than it was at the 2006 war against the Shiite Hezbollah militia when over 4,000 rockets struck northern Israel.We are at a completely different place today. The level of our readiness is much higher and everyone understands what they have to do, Colonel Yossi Luchy told AFP.An official inquiry harshly criticised Israel's leadership for failing to protect civilians during the 34-day conflict which killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.
Rapturous night for US evangelicals in West Bank by Joseph Krauss Wed Apr 9, 12:19 PM ET
ARIEL, West Bank (AFP) - The speakers throbbed as teenage girls in buckskin fringe and cowboy hats danced a hoedown in an occupied West Bank gym packed with American evangelicals keen to show support for Israel. The more than 100 Christians who travelled to the Ariel settlement in the heart of the occupied territory last week were led there by biblical prophecy and by megachurch pastor John Hagee, the evening's guest of honour.Evangelical Christians may feel they have been left out in the cold by US election fever, with none of the three remaining candidates generating the excitement of President George W. Bush's successful 2004 run.But in Ariel they received an enthusiastic welcome, not only because of the millions of dollars they have given the settlement, but because of pastor Hagee's firm opposition to giving anything to the Palestinians.They believe in God's word in the Bible, and in God's promise to the Jewish people that the land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel, master of ceremony and head of the Ariel Development Fund Dina Shalit told the crowd.Ariel's mayor Ron Nachman added, And only to the people of Israel! to a thunderous roll of applause.
Then the stage was cleared for the For Zion's Sake dance troupe, which had prepared a special number for the Texans in the crowd, including Hagee, who leads the 19,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio.The crowd clapped along as the dancing cowgirls stamped to a Hebrew rock song across an indoor basketball court decked with American and Israeli flags, the first of several local acts to entertain the Americans.In the audience were members of Christians United For Israel (CUFI), a nationwide American evangelical movement launched by Hagee to support the Jewish state, one that boasts over 400 Christian leaders.They had come to see a vast new sports and recreation centre under construction in the heart of the settlement and largely funded by Hagee, whose name is emblazoned on the side of its main building, and his followers.Since founding CUFI in February 2006 the millionaire pastor has become a key ally of Israel in the United States.He has opposed conceding any occupied land to the Palestinians, citing a biblical injunction against dividing the land of Israel, and has branded Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a new Hitler who must be stopped.
Believe me, my dear friends, he is amazing, mayor Nachman said as he called Hagee to the stage.I'm delighted to be in Ariel tonight, the heartland of America in Judea and Samaria, Hagee drawled in the sandpaper baritone of a country preacher, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.On the hot-button issues of the decades-old Middle East conflict Hagee tells the people of Ariel -- a town built on land seized by Israel in the 1967 war and considered illegal under international law -- what they want to hear.May Jerusalem forever be undivided, always under Jewish control, and may it never be traded off for any reason, to anyone, not ever, he says to rising applause.He then slammed Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, saying all it brought was a monsoon season of raining rockets from Palestinian militants.Hagee has in the past drawn fire in the United States for linking the Catholic Church to the Holocaust and for saying that the Koran gives Muslims a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, after welcoming Hagee's endorsement, last month released a statement saying he did not wish to suggest that I in turn agree with all of pastor Hagee's views, which I obviously do not.A day before Hagee's visit to Ariel, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish religious organisation in the United States with over 1.5 million members, denounced him and his followers. On Israeli-Palestinian politics, John Hagee and the CUFI are extremists, he told a conference of American rabbis in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Israel's greatest friends and most important defenders are not the fundamentalists and extremists and those who take their orders directly from God, but those who work for an end to this terrible conflict, he added. In Israel Hagee was nevertheless granted face-to-face meetings with Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. And days after visiting Ariel he announced that his church would be donating six million dollars to Israeli organisations at an event in Jerusalem in which he appeared alongside right-wing Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Hagee's support for Israel is rooted in a specific reading of the Bible that predicts a rapture in which all true Christians will be whisked away from the world before a cosmic end of days showdown between Israel and its enemies. Audience member Kelly Stewart, a human resources director in Atlanta, Georgia, said she supported Israel because that's where our blessings come from, as an American nation. It's biblical.Others were surprised by the size of Ariel, a sprawling, fully-developed town of red-roofed homes, and wide, suburban streets, all constructed on a hilltop deep inside the West Bank, several miles (kilometres) from Israel. This really makes me rethink some of the things people say. This is not a settlement to me, Scott Brennan, a sixth-grade teacher in Riverside, California said. The way the media portrays it is as a bunch of tents.While most Israelis have accepted, at least in principle, the idea of land for peace, Hagee is firmly allied with the settler movement and its goal of permanently colonising the West Bank.
The government of Israel wants to divide Jerusalem, the government of Israel wants to give land for nothing, no peace, no nothing, Nachman said. When we see our friends the Christians, who are so much committed to the promised land, to the prophecy, to the Jewish people... I wish that our Jewish people, especially in this country, will be so committed to Israel.
