US denies Israeli politics dooms peace efforts OCT 27,08
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Bush administration pledged Monday to pursue its efforts for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by year-end while acknowledging that anticipated Israeli elections would complicate matters.No doubt we have an uphill climb, but they have always had an uphill climb in the Middle East, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters eight days before US elections and three months before President George W. Bush leaves office.Her comments came one day after Israel's governing Kadima party leader, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, called for early elections following the failure of efforts to form a new government coalition to replace outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is stepping down over corruption claims.The elections are expected early next year, though an exact date has not been set.This is Israeli politics. As the president says, it's sometimes like full-court karate, said Perino, who dismissed worries that the political turmoil would quash hopes for peace process breakthroughs.I think that's a cynical way of looking at it, and I think that what the president wants to do is continue to try to work with them, she said. We're going to continue to work every day towards that goal.State Department spokesman Sean McCormack acknowledged that the possible Israeli elections complicates the issue, when he was asked for comment during the daily press briefing.
But when has this process not been complicated? he asked.What is important, here, is that you have a process; a process that is yielding results in terms of the parties working on all the hard issues that are between them and making progress on all of those hard issues, he said.Perino also said that US General Jim Jones, former British prime minister Tony Blair and others will continue their work to improve the Palestinian economy, political institutions and security forces.Blair is the special envoy of the so-called quartet of diplomatic powers working on Middle East peace, while Jones is the special US envoy tasked with helping the Palestinians bolster their security forces.The US remarks came as Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad warned on Monday that peace efforts with Israel based on a two-state solution are teetering because of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.The two-state solution, backed by the international community, entails the creation of an independent, viable Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel.The current peace talks were relaunched at a US-hosted conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November 2007, but have made little visible progress since.They have been further affected by the political crisis in Israel, which is heading for elections early next year after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stepped down amid claims of corruption.
Polls show even split in Israeli elections By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer OCT 27,08
JERUSALEM – Israel moved closer Monday to a bruising election campaign that will decide the future of peace talks, as polls showed the moderate foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, in a surprisingly close race with hard-line opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu.Neither of Israel's two leading political parties would have enough seats to form a government on its own, according to the surveys, which also showed an even split between the country's hawkish and center-left blocs. That signals more deadlock in peacemaking with Syria and the Palestinians.Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad expressed concern Monday that precious time was running out, although I still have hope that we can find a solution through negotiation.Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were relaunched nearly a year ago at a U.S.-hosted summit, where Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas set a December 2008 target for clinching a final accord. But both leaders have since acknowledged there will be no deal by year's end.President Shimon Peres began the countdown to new elections at the opening of the winter session of parliament, a day after Livni gave up on her attempts to form a new governing coalition.In the coming days, Israel will enter a decisive political campaign, Peres told lawmakers.Peres said elections were inevitable after consulting with the country's other political parties and concluding that no one had the support to form a government. Parliament now has three weeks to dissolve itself. The vote, Israel's third in six years, would take place three months later.Olmert, who is being forced from office by a series of corruption investigations, said he would remain in office as a caretaker in the meantime.Israel's ceremonial president is meant to be a unifying figure in this divided country, and Peres used the occasion to appeal to the parties to work together. The coming elections can raise Israel up and release it from its various weaknesses, he said.But almost immediately, the signs of division were evident.
Speaking to the same session, Netanyahu unofficially launched his campaign by staking out hardline positions on peace talks with Syria and the Palestinians.He said that if elected, Israel would keep defensible borders, and he pledged to retain the Golan Heights. That refusal would make an Israel-Syria agreement impossible. Israel captured the Golan, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel, in the 1967 Mideast war.Netanyahu also said Israel would have to keep large swaths of the West Bank as part of any agreement with the Palestinians, and that all of Jerusalem will remain in Israel's hands.We will not negotiate over Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish people for the past 3,000 years. I didn't do it in the past and I won't do it in the future, said Netanyahu, who was prime minister in the late 1990s.The speech prompted repeated heckling by dovish and Arab lawmakers.Speaking to retired Israeli security officials in Tel Aviv, Ahmed Qureia, the Palestinians' chief peace negotiator, said opposition leaders adopt a different tone than politicians in power.
But I want to say one thing: There will be no peace without Jerusalem, he said.
Netanyahu also said no Palestinian refugees would be allowed into Israel under any deal. The Palestinians want all of the West Bank as part of an independent state, with east Jerusalem as their capital. Israel captured both areas in the 1967 war. They also say Palestinians who were made refugees following Israel's establishment, and their descendants, should be allowed to return to lost properties. Livni, who has been Israel's chief peace negotiator with the Palestinians over the past year, says Israel must find a settlement to all outstanding issues, including borders, Jerusalem and the refugees. Netanyahu's Likud Party had a poor showing in the last elections and holds only 12 of parliament's 120 seats. The new polls show the Likud more than doubling its strength, while Livni's Kadima holds steady. A poll by the Dahaf Research Institute showed Livni's Kadima Party winning 29, the same number it has now, and Netanyahu's Likud taking 26 if elections were held today. A TNS Teleseker survey gave Kadima 31 seats to Likud's 29. The Dahaf poll of 500 people had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. The TNS survey of more than 900 people put the maximum margin of error at two parliamentary seats. Livni took the helm of the Kadima Party last month in a primary election forced by multiple corruption allegations against Olmert. She tried to avoid elections by keeping the current government intact, but one partner, the 12-seat ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, pressed new demands she said she could not accept. The poll results indicated that Israelis were not punishing Livni for failing to form a coalition and supportive of her refusal to cave in to what she called political blackmail.
Israeli president clears the way for snap election by Ron Bousso Ron Bousso – Mon Oct 27, 11:32 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli President Shimon Peres said on Monday that efforts to form a new government had failed, paving the way for snap elections that could turn on the future of the Middle East peace process.After having consulted with representatives of all parliamentary factions I would like to inform you that I see no possibility of forming a government, Peres said in a letter he delivered to parliament.The announcement came one day after governing Kadima party leader, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, called for early elections following the failure of efforts to form a new government coalition to replace outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who is stepping down over corruption claims.In the coming days Israel will enter a crucial electoral period, Peres told the Knesset, Israel's parliament, saying security and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were among the dominant issues.
Elections should now be held early next year, although an exact date is yet to be set.Kadima, the left-of-centre Labour and the right-wing Likud were already mapping out the outlines of their political agendas for the campaign.We have been in a period of uncertainty for several months and therefore the elections should take place as soon as possible, Livni said before Peres's announcement.The foreign minister said she abandoned efforts to form a coalition because she would not cave in to potential partners' demands.I was ready to pay a certain price... but I wasn't ready to mortgage the future of Israel, Livni said after Shas set budgetary conditions and insisted that the fate of Jerusalem could not be included in peace talks.Livni was elected Kadima leader last month to replace the scandal-plagued Olmert, who will remain interim premier until a new government is in place.Livni made it clear she would maintain Olmert's policies favouring the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel but with the Jewish state to retain its major settlements in the West Bank.Both Israel and the Palestinians had pledged to try to reach a deal before US President George W. Bush leaves office in January, but the talks have made little visible progress.Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad warned that peacemaking was teetering because of continued settlement construction and the construction of Israel's controversial separation barrier.Time has become more pressing, as far as such a solution is concerned, with every brick added to the settlements, every new road built for the settlers and every stone lengthening the wall, he said.With Israel set for early elections, peace efforts are now likely to hang in limbo for several months as both sides remain deeply divided on core issues, including the fate of the settlements and the future status of Jerusalem.Israel considers the whole city its eternal and undivided capital, but the Palestinians have demanded east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.Israel captured the mostly Arab sector of the city in the 1967 war and annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community.Likud, which is headed by hardline former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claims that Kadima and Livni are willing to divide Jerusalem and to withdraw from the West Bank, which Israel calls Judea and Samaria.
It turns out the Kadima leaders are ready to give up the whole of Judea and Samaria and carry out the programme of the extreme left, Likud parliamentary leader Gideon Saar said. He insisted Likud would devote itself to maintaining Israel's security interests in the West Bank as well as its national heritage -- a reference to Jewish settlements rooted in religious and nationalist claims to the land. A poll published in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper on Monday indicated Kadima would win 29 of the 120 parliamentary seats while Likud would get 26 and Labour would win just 11 seats if elections were held now. A majority of 61 MPs is required to form a government. Kadima currently has 29 deputies, Labour has 19, while Likud and Shas each have 12.
Israel's Peres clears way for snap elections Mon Oct 27, 10:21 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli President Shimon Peres on Monday cleared the way for snap elections, formally announcing that efforts to form a government had failed.After having consulted with representatives of all parliamentary factions I would like to inform you that I see no possibility of forming a government, Peres said in a letter he delivered to parliament speaker Dalia Itzik.He handed over the brief letter a day after governing Kadima party leader Tzipi Livni asked for snap elections following the failure of coalition negotiations.
Lebanon's Hariri, Nasrallah hold rare meeting By Yara Bayoumy Yara Bayoumy – Mon Oct 27, 8:18 am ET
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has met his main political foe, Sunni majority leader Saad al-Hariri, for the first time since the war with Israel in 2006, a statement said on Monday.The two men were adversaries in an 18-month political conflict that brought Lebanon to the brink of civil war in May before Qatari mediation produced a deal that led to the election of a new president and formation of a national unity government.The rare meeting, which occurred on Sunday night, marks a breakthrough in the relationship between the two opponents and is likely to cool tensions before 2009 parliamentary elections.There was an affirmation of national unity and civil peace and the need to take all measures to prevent tension ... and to reinforce dialogue and to avoid strife regardless of political differences, the statement issued by both sides said.
Hezbollah's al Manar television aired footage of the meeting which was attended by aides to both leaders. The statement also said that Nasrallah and Hariri would be in mutual contact.The political crisis reached breaking point in May when Hezbollah and its allies briefly took control of the predominantly Muslim half of Beirut, sparking fighting with followers of rival leaders, including Hariri's.The statement said the meeting was honest and open and said the leaders would encourage dialogue by taking steps to calm the situation in the media and in the street.Some of the rivals had earlier made reconciliatory efforts but Hariri and Nasrallah's meeting was seen as the most significant of these.The statement said Hariri and Nasrallah were also committed to implementing the Qatari-mediated deal which had called for national dialogue talks, the first of which were held last month. The next session is due on November 5.Central to the dialogue is a discussion on the fate of Hezbollah's weapons.Demands for the disarmament of the Syrian- and Iranian- backed Hezbollah are at the heart of more than three years of political turbulence in Lebanon since the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.Saad al-Hariri, his father's political heir, has insisted that the issue of Hezbollah's weapons be discussed. Hezbollah says it needs its weapons to defend Lebanon from Israel. The group stood its ground in the 34-day war with Israel in 2006.Hezbollah, which is the most powerful faction in Lebanon and heads an alliance with veto power in government, is not expected to yield to its opponents who want the group's weapons to be folded under state control.However it has expressed a willingness to discuss a defense strategy that would define the role of its guerrillas, who outgun the Lebanese army and are armed with thousands of missiles that can hit Israel.(Additional reporting by Nadim Ladki; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Israel says uncovered Hamas plot to capture soldiers Sun Oct 26, 11:21 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli security forces have apprehended a Hamas operative who planned to capture Israeli soldiers and smuggle them into the Gaza Strip to be used in future prisoner swaps, the army said on Sunday.An army spokesman said Israeli troops and intelligence agents arrested Gamal Abu Duabah, a 21-year-old Gaza resident, on September 21 after he attempted to infiltrate Israel from Egypt.Under questioning he admitted to being part of a Hamas plot to kidnap Israeli soldiers, the spokesman said.He also mentioned that he was sent by seniors in the Hamas organisation who trained his squad and funded its operations, seniors with whom he kept in direct and continuous contact.The Islamist Hamas movement -- which seized power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after routing forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas -- is sworn to Israel's destruction and blacklisted as a terror group in the West.In June 2006 militants from Hamas and two smaller Palestinian groups seized the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a deadly cross-border raid.Hamas has since demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel in exchange for the captured soldier.The army said Abu Duabah sneaked into Egypt from Gaza through a smuggling tunnel and spent several weeks in the Sinai planning the operation.During his interrogation he said he planned to lure Israeli soldiers to the border with an apparent drug smuggling operation, then seize them, put them under with sleeping pills, and smuggle them back into the Gaza Strip.
Israel and Hamas agreed to an Egypt-brokered truce in June which has brought a virtual halt to the near-daily rocket attacks Palestinians used to launch at communities near the Gaza border.Hamas has accused Israel of violating the truce by not lifting its crippling sanctions on the territory and Israel has charged Hamas with using the calm to re-arm and plan future attacks.
Palestinian forces deploy in West Bank city By NASSER SHIYOUKHI, Associated Press Writer Nasser Shiyoukhi, Associated Press Writer – Sat Oct 25, 2:44 pm ET
HEBRON, West Bank – Nearly 600 newly trained Palestinian troops took up positions in this tense city on Saturday, as part of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' attempt to expand his control in the West Bank and keep the Islamic militant Hamas in line.
Hebron, a former Hamas stronghold, is the third Palestinian city to be reinforced with Abbas' forces. The pre-dawn deployment signaled growing security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.An Israeli army statement said, however, that the Palestinian operation was a temporary measure to help combat Hamas and maintain public order and did not constitute a transfer of overall security responsibility from Israeli to Palestinian forces.The troops arrived before dawn, during the Jewish Sabbath, a time apparently chosen to prevent protests by hundreds of Israeli settlers who live in several heavily fortified enclaves in the city. Hebron is divided into an Israeli-controlled downtown area, and the larger Palestinian-run sector of the city.In recent months, Abbas has been trying to take over more areas of the once unruly West Bank, though Israel retains overall security control. Abbas' forces deployed first in Nablus and Jenin, and now in Hebron, targeting local thugs, criminals and Hamas supporters.The Hamas militants seized control over Gaza by force in June 2007, leaving Abbas only in control of the West Bank. Abbas has closed Hamas-linked organizations and arrested hundreds of supporters to prevent Hamas from taking over the West Bank.Hamas accused Abbas of collaborating with Israel.This (the deployment) comes as a reward by the occupation forces after what they have done against Hamas, their non-stop efforts to eliminate Hamas, said Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for the militant group.Several hundred Palestinian police officers were already stationed in Hebron before the arrival of the reinforcements.The new contingent of 585 officers, some trained in Jordan under U.S. guidance, drove into Hebron in jeeps, vans and buses early Saturday and assembled at the city's security headquarters. By midmorning, they began patrolling city streets.Hebron's Palestinian security chief, Samih Seifi, said he was determined to impose order. We will arrest whoever tries to stop us, and we will not let anyone deter us, Seifi said.
The Palestinian forces will not patrol the Israeli-controlled sector.In the Gaza Strip, three Palestinians were killed when a smuggling tunnel linking Gaza to Egypt collapsed, officials said. Egyptian medical official Imad Kharboush said the tunnel collapsed early Saturday while smugglers were digging an exit.Since late January, 49 people have died in tunnel collapses.Gazans use the tunnels to smuggle in cash, weapons and consumer goods, dodging an Israeli and Egyptian closure of the coastal territory. Israel only allows limited supplies into Gaza. Egypt sporadically permits sick Palestinians, students and pilgrims to leave Gaza through its territory.In the West Bank, a 23-year-old Palestinian was seriously wounded by Israeli army fire during a clash in the refugee camp of Fara early Saturday, said medic Adnan Ghawanmeh.Israeli forces entered the camp, apparently in search of a fugitive militant. Young men hurled rocks and firebombs at the soldiers, who responded with live fire, Palestinians said. An Israeli army spokesman said Palestinians also shot at the soldiers, who fired back.Associated Press writers Ali Daraghmeh in Nablus, Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza and Ashraf Sweilam in Rafah, Egypt contributed to this report.
Hamas passes on letter to captive Israeli soldier By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer Diaa Hadid, Associated Press Writer – Fri Oct 24, 9:31 am ET
FOX News JERUSALEM – Palestinian militant group Hamas has passed on a personal letter to captive Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit from his family, his father Noam and a Hamas spokesman said on Friday.It was the first letter to reach him from his family, although Schalit has been able to send a trickle of messages home since he was snatched by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid near Gaza in June 2006.
The letter was given to the soldier last month, Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha said.Noam Schalit said the letter was personal and did not detail its contents.Taha said Noam Schalit gave the letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who gave it to Qatari officials. Qatar passed it onto Syrian officials, who gave it to Hamas leader Khaled Mashal.Mashal transferred it to the group's militant leaders inside the Gaza Strip, Taha said.In the past, Hamas militants have allowed Noam Schalit to send a pair of eyeglasses to Gilad, who also holds French citizenship.Taha said passing on the letter was a humanitarian gesture but said there were no plans, so far, to allow more mail to pass between the family and their captured son.Egyptian-mediated efforts to arrange a prisoner swap have stalled over bickering between Hamas and Israel over the numbers of Palestinian prisoners Hamas demands that the Jewish state should release in exchange for Schalit.
Israel religious party rejects conditions to join govt Fri Oct 24, 5:37 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Leaders of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Shas party said on Friday that they had rejected conditions set by ruling Kadima party leader Tzipi Livni to join a coalition government.The decision was taken by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the 87-year-old spiritual leader, after consulation the party's supreme authority, Shas said.On Thursday, Livni set an ultimatum for her Kadima party's potential coalition partners, saying if there was no agreement on a coalition by a Sunday deadline she would call a snap general election.
