ELECTION 2008 Report: Obama backs Palestinian capital in Jerusalem
Leaders claim presidential candidate asked them to keep his remarks secret November 04, 2008 10:09 am Eastern By Aaron Klein 2008 WorldNetDaily
JERUSALEM – Sen. Barack Obama told the Palestinian leadership during a trip to the region in July he supports their rights to a capital in eastern Jerusalem, but he asked them to keep his remarks secret, according to a Lebanese newspaper.The Al-Akhbar daily, known to have close contacts to Palestinian leaders in Lebanon, quoted sources in Ramallah claiming that in a meeting in July with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the two heard from Obama the best things they ever heard from an American presidential candidate.The report claimed Obama told Abbas and Fayyad he supports the rights of the Palestinians to east Jerusalem, as well as their right to a stable, sovereign state, but he petitioned them to keep the remarks confidential.Asked for comment by WND, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat would neither confirm nor deny knowledge of Obama's purported remarks.The Lebanese report echoes a similar exclusive WND article immediately following Obama's meeting with Abbas and Fayyad in which a senior Palestinian source said Obama informed the Palestinians he supports a negotiated settlement that may grant the PA control over sections of Jerusalem.He assured us there was a misunderstanding when he said in [June] he supports the Israelis' rights to hold on to Jerusalem, the PA official, who took part in the meeting with Obama told WND at the time. He told us he corrected this right away and that he supports a negotiated settlement that will give the Palestinians territory.The official was referring to a speech Obama delivered in June to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in which he stated if he is elected president, Jerusalem would remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided.Immediately following the speech, Obama reversed himself during a CNN appearance, explaining he meant Jerusalem shouldn't be physically divided with a partition.
Well, obviously, it's going to be up to the parties to negotiate a range of these issues. And Jerusalem will be part of those negotiations, he said in response to a question about whether Palestinians have a legitimate claim to the city.Obama said that as a practical matter, it would be very difficult to execute a division of the city.And I think that it is smart for us to, to work through a system in which everybody has access to the extraordinary religious sites in Old Jerusalem but that Israel has a legitimate claim on that city.
Mediterranean Union agrees on HQ, Arab-Israeli role by Emma Charlton Emma Charlton – NOV 4,08
MARSEILLE, France (AFP) – Foreign ministers from the new Mediterranean Union struck a deal Tuesday for Barcelona to host the forum's headquarters and for Israel and the Arab League to take part side-by-side.The Union's 43 member states held two days of talks in the port of Marseille to end a four-month deadlock on the two contentious issues, which threatened to hamstring the fledgling organisation.French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit, whose countries currently co-chair the forum, announced the breakthrough at a joint news conference in the southern French city.It wasn't supposed to work, and yet it did, said Kouchner, adding: The essential points were accepted completely and without reservation by all 43 states in the Union for the Mediterranean.Ministers from the Mediterranean's mainly-Arab southern rim agreed to back the Spanish city of Barcelona's candidacy to host the Union in exchange for the post of secretary-general going to a southern member.They also clinched a deal on granting the Arab League a full-time seat at the forum -- a key demand of Arab members, strongly opposed by Israel which feared the pan-Arab group would try to block its involvement.
The Arabic participation will take place in every meeting with the right to speak at all levels, said Abul Gheit, although it will have no right to vote.Israel agreed to the Arab League's role in exchange for one of five deputy secretary-general posts for an initial three-year period, possibly renewable.The deputy posts will rotate between three European members and two southern ones, and will initially be held by the Palestinian Authority, Greece, Malta and Italy, alongside Israel, according to the final declaration.The text -- with likely technical amendments -- still has to be formally ratified however by the two co-presidents of the Union, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak.Launched at a Paris summit in July, the new union brings together EU members with states from north Africa, the Balkans, the Arab world and Israel in a bid to foster cooperation in one of the world's most volatile regions.An Israeli diplomat said it agreed to the Arab League compromise on the basis it would be able to play a front-seat role in setting up the fledgling Union, and hopefully build bridges around the Mediterranean.
But she warned the Barcelona Process can never replace direct bilateral negotiations to resolve Israel's conflicts with Arab nations.A spokesman for the Arab League also warned that its participation would not lead to normalisation with Israel, Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he was delighted by the accord on Barcelona, while EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner called it a logical choice.The Mediterranean capital of Spain's Catalonia region, Barcelona lent its name to the 13-year-old Barcelona Process, a previous EU regional initiative that stalled in part over Arab-Israeli disputes.In exchange for hosting its headquarters, Spain also agreed to drop the tag Barcelona Process from the name of the new forum.France, which championed the Union, hoped that by basing it on modest regional projects, such as cleaning up pollution in the Mediterranean, it would be able to sidestep the trap of regional disputes.
Priorities set out in the declaration include fighting pollution in the Mediterranean, solar energy, building land and sea highways and cooperation on higher education and research. The Marseille accord, clinched after months of tough negotiations, rescues the forum from the threat of looming deadlock, but it also amounts to formally recognising tensions over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And the highly-political compromise to create five deputies to the secretary-general is a far cry from the slimmed-down, nimble governing structure at first envisaged for the Union.
Israeli troops clash with Palestinian militants By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer NOV 4,08
ABC News GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli troops and Palestinian militants clashed in a fierce gunbattle along the Israel-Gaza border Tuesday in the first armed confrontation between the sides since a truce took effect in June. One militant was killed, Palestinian officials said.The Israeli army said its forces uncovered a tunnel about 300 yards inside the Gaza Strip that militants planned to use to abduct Israeli soldiers. It said a special army unit had headed to the area to destroy the tunnel. It was not immediately clear whether troops were inside Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamic militant group Hamas.Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas' military wing, said in a text message to reporters that Hamas forces were engaged in a gunfight with Israeli troops in central Gaza.Israel and Palestinian militant groups reached a cease-fire in June after months of indirect negotiations. The deal halted a deadly cycle of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli reprisals, though sporadic rocket attacks on southern Israel have persisted.The Israeli army claimed the move Tuesday did not violate the truce, but instead was a legitimate step to remove an immediate threat to Israel.Moaiya Hassanain, a Palestinian Health Ministry official, said heavy gunbattles erupted, killing one Palestinian. Residents identified the man as a Hamas militant.It was the just the second fatality in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in Gaza since the truce took effect. Israeli troops shot and killed a teenage Palestinian militant along the border with Gaza in July.
Hassanain said rescue officials were having a hard time reaching the site of the fighting and getting precise information on casualties.
No matter who wins US vote, hope remains for Mideast peace NOV 4,08
ABC News JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas expressed hope on Tuesday for the prospects of Middle East peace, no matter who wins US presidential elections.Olmert said peace efforts "have nothing to do with the identity of the US president or the person who will replace him, whether it's Barack Obama or John McCain. I know them both and know they will be Israel's friends.Analysing what is happening here, and the developments in the Palestinian Authority and in the international arena, the question is whether we can delay our handling of these problems. I think not.Quoted by the online edition of daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot, Olmert heaped praise on US President George W. Bush and expressed the conviction that whoever replaces him will be a friend of Israel.He dismissed calls to freeze the US-backed peace talks or indirect negotiations with the Syrians.There is no doubt that what we received from the Bush administration will ensure that his name will remain engraved in letters of gold for many long years on the heart of Israel, Olmert said.There is no possibility of saying too much about what we got from the Bush administration, he added.There are many things which we cannot even touch on. The 30 billion dollars (in defence aid) which we received in a 10-year period represents only the tip of the iceberg.
For his part, Abbas said he hoped the winner of Tuesday's US presidential election would make more headway in the peace process.We hope that the new American president will have more success in his efforts towards peace in the Middle East, he was quoted as saying after meeting Hungarian parliamentary president Katalin Szili in Budapest.We expect change and we hope that that will bring peace for us, Abbas said.
The two American candidates are working on achieving peace and Palestine will cooperate with the new president whoever he is, he said.Israel and the Palestinians relaunched peace talks almost a year ago but they have made little visible progress since then.Olmert dismissed calls to put negotiations on hold until Israeli elections on February 10, rejecting claims that his provisional government had no powers to conduct the talks.In September, he resigned over graft allegations, but remains at the head of a caretaker government.Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was elected to replace him as head of the ruling Kadima party. Over the following month, she tried unsuccessfully to form a new coalition. After failing to do so, she opened the way to early elections.Livni, who is a top candidate for the premiership, also stressed the importance of the talks with the Palestinians.Israel will continue to promote the diplomatic process, with the backing of the international community, in a way that ensures its interests, she said during a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch. The world must support the process and not expect Israel to take shortcuts that would harm its ability to meet its needs.Members of the Middle East peace Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- are meeting in Egypt at the weekend to discuss the status of Middle East peacemaking.
Speaking in Dubai, meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he believed a peace settlement could come about quickly if the circumstances were right. Asked if a settlement could be negotiated soon, he told Al-Arabiya television: I think that's possible, I think people understand how it can happen. We know that very detailed negotiations have taken place over the last few months, he said on the last day of a Gulf tour. We know that the political situation at the moment has made it difficult for this to be brought to a conclusion but I think that given people understand not only the importance but how a solution would look, I think it's possible with the right circumstances to move quickly to a settlement.
World Bank officials in Gaza for sewage project By BEN HUBBARD Ben Hubbard NOV 4,08
News GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A World Bank delegation launched a sewage project, long delayed by the standoff between Israel and Hamas, in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to prevent raw sewage from spilling into residential areas.The $63 million project is the initiative of Mideast envoy Tony Blair, and the launch brought the highest level World Bank delegation to visit Gaza in three years.The delegation, which included the bank's executive director for the Middle East, met with representatives of the Palestinian Water Authority but not with members of militant Muslim group Hamas, which has run Gaza since it seized power here last summer.The officials oversaw a test of the first $15 million stage of a project, which will drain a northern Gaza sewage lake containing 660,000 gallons of partially treated human waste into nine treatment basins.The successful testing of phase one of the North Gaza sewage project is an important achievement, Blair said in a statement. It will also provide a much-needed upgrade to the sanitation facilities for north Gaza ... this project is a key example of how all sides can work together to alleviate the situation in the Palestinian Territories, particularly in Gaza.The standoff with Israel has led to the collapse of the coastal strip's sewage system, with much of the human waste flushing directly into the ocean or backing up in overburdened facilities.Last year, a part of the wastewater lake ruptured into a nearby village, killing five people. The lake's western side is still in danger of collapsing — which could flood crowded residential areas nearby, said Sadi Ali, the project's director.We are very afraid, Ali said. This lake is really threatening the lives of the people.Israel's reluctance to ship materials into Gaza that could be used to make weapons for militants, contributed to the delays completing the project's first phase.The next phase, expected to start next year, includes the construction of a new treatment plant.
Palestinian officials urge boycott of Jerusalem election Tue Nov 4, 1:12 pm ET
West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian personalities, including a leading Muslim cleric, on Tuesday urged residents of the mainly Arab eastern sector of the city to boycott November 11 municipal elections.Our religious and national positions on the issue are clear: they forbid participation as a voter or a candidate in these elections for an authority that represents the Israeli occupation, said Mohammed Hussein, the mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories.Palestinians from Jerusalem, who make up one third of the city's 750,000 inhabitants, have boycotted municipal elections ever since Israel occupied the city in the 1967 Six-Day-War and later annexed it.The three main candidates for the post of mayor all stand firmly behind the claim the city is the eternal and indivisible capital of Israel.Jerusalem is Arab land and its population has always boycotted the elections because taking part would harm the status of Jerusalem as spiritual and political capital of the Palestinians, said Hussein.Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their promised future state.The head of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's office also called for a boycott of the vote.A participation by Jerusalem Palestinians in these elections would weaken our position in the negotiations which president Abbas is holding with Israelis in which the question of Jerusalem is one of the main issues, said Rafiq al-Husseini.
Jerusalem's Palestinian governor, Adnan al-Husseini, for his part, lashed out at city authorities for discriminating against Arab sectors of town which receive fewer municipal services than Jewish neighbourhoods.We only hear from the municipality when it's election time or when it wants to destroy our homes. This mayor's office is only ripping people off, the official said.City authorities seldom grant building permits to Palestinians and often tear down houses built without permits.
British PM says Mideast peace deal could come quickly NOV 3,08
10 hours ago
DUBAI (AFP) — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday he believed that a Middle East peace settlement could come about quickly if the circumstances were right.Asked if a settlement could be negotiated soon, he told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television: I think that's possible, I think people understand how it can happen.
We know that very detailed negotiations have taken place over the last few months, Brown said on the last day of a Gulf tour which has seen him hold talks with regional leaders including King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.We know that the political situation at the moment has made it difficult for this to be brought to a conclusion but I think that given people understand not only the importance but how a solution would look, I think it's possible with the right circumstances to move quickly to a settlement.Israel and the Palestinians relaunched US-backed peace talks almost a year ago but they have made little visible progress since and the prospects of a deal have been further clouded with Israel facing a general election in February.
In the whole region it is important to the stability of the region that we have a Middle East peace settlement between Palestinians and Israel... that is key to the future stability of the region and the world, Brown added.He said the international community needed to make the peace process a priority.He later told journalists: All the building blocks (are) in place so that a settlement could be reached if we could find the right environment in which it could happen.Members of the so-called international peace Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- are meeting in Egypt at the weekend to discuss the status of Middle East peacemaking.
Hamas Ready For Talks With New US President - Exiled Leader NOV 3,08
AMMAN (AFP)--The exiled Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, said in an interview published Tuesday that his Palestinian Islamist movement is ready to hold talks with any elected U.S. president.Hamas is ready for dialogue with any incoming U.S. president ... Democrat Obama or Republican McCain, Meshaal told Jordan's Al-Arab Al-Yawm daily.I am confident that we are ready to deal with any presidential candidate, but we will always stick to our rights. We acknowledge that the United States is powerful, but we are more powerful on our territory.The U.S. votes Tuesday, with frontrunner Obama seeking to become the first black president and McCain hoping for a poll-defying comeback.Meshaal, who lives in exile in Syria, said Hamas welcomes any change in U.S. foreign policies ... We welcome any change to end favoritism towards Israel, as well as aggression on the region.Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, is boycotted by the U.S. as a terrorist group. Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http:// www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=qYsyrujoKFsPavOl5yfDKQ%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day. (END) Dow Jones Newswires.
FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU U.S. partner' firing rockets at Jewish homes
Using front group to claim responsibility for attacks November 03, 2008
9:55 pm Eastern By Aaron Klein 2008 WorldNetDaily
JAFFA, Israel – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party is responsible for the rockets fired recently from the Gaza Strip at Jewish civilian population centers, informed sources told WND.The information indicates Fatah, which U.S. policy considers moderate, has been violating a five-month-old truce in Gaza, while the Hamas terrorist organization has been strictly enforcing the cease-fire.
Just last week, rockets were fired at the Israeli city of Sderot by Palestinians in Gaza with a previously unknown group, calling itself Hezbollah-Palestine, taking responsibility. The same group took credit for rocket attacks on Oct. 21. Since the truce went into affect in June, few violations have been reported.Hamas sources in Gaza told WND an investigation has found Hezbollah-Palestine actually is a front group for the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's declared military wing. The Hamas sources said their organization arrested several Al Aqsa members who admitted to firing the rockets under the banner of the Hezbollah front group. The sources also said they inquired within the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, which denied involvement in any rocket attacks or knowledge of the Hezbollah-Palestine group.A source within the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades admitted to WND his group was behind the recent rocket-fire in Gaza.Hamas surmises the rival Fatah organization is looking to disrupt the Gaza truce in a bid to draw Israeli retaliation and a closing of the borders between Israel and the Gaza Strip, which would restrict significantly the flow of goods into Gaza, likely leading to the Palestinian street losing some support for Gaza's Hamas rulers.Last summer, Hamas violently seized control of Gaza, expelling the U.S.-backed Fatah organization and taking over all Fatah security compounds in the territory.This weekend, Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades released an official pamphlet calling for attacks against Israel and terming the truce a gift to the Zionist enemy.
We call on all Palestinian organizations to start the next round of resistance confrontations against the Zionist enemy. Hamas is salivating toward Israel like a hungry dog. The true resistance cannot wait any longer, read the Fatah pamphlet, which was obtained and translated by WND.The pamphlet was released as Israel and the PA announced they will hold a high-level joint briefing in Egypt next week for the international community to assess the status of U.S.-backed negotiations aimed at creating a Fatah-led Palestinian state before the end of the year.Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will head Israel's delegation, with Abbas representing the Palestinians at a meeting with leaders of the Mideast Quartet, which consists of the U.S., EU, U.N. and Russia. Ahead of the briefing, Abbas announced in Jordan he does not believe there will be a final agreement between the two sides before the 2009 deadline.Israel and the PA have been holding regular, high-level talks expected to result in an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.
But while Fatah leads peace talks, its chief negotiator, Ahmed Queri, recently warned that if Israel does not conclude a deal toward a Palestinian state the result will be attacks against the Jewish state.
Monday, November 3, 2008 Israel monitoring Egyptian buildup in the Sinai
TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has publicly disavowed an assessment that Egypt has been assembling a military force in the Sinai Peninsula, in violation of the 1979 peace accord.Officials said thousands of Egyptian troops, many of them under the guise of police, have been deployed throughout the Sinai. Egypt is waiting for the right moment to deploy its army in the Sinai, contrary to the peace agreement, former Strategic Threats Minister Avigdor Lieberman said. There are enough signs and enough estimations that the Egyptians are just waiting for their window of opportunity.Hours after the interview, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert apologized for Lieberman's remarks.Those words should never have been said, Olmert said in a statement. From the moment they were uttered those words were nothing but useless and harmful. Egypt and Mubarak are [Israel's] strategic partners.Israeli sources said the military has been closely following the Egyptian buildup in the Sinai. The sources said that so far the military has determined that the Egyptian buildup was limited to internal security rather than combat operations. The peace with Egypt is a strategic asset for the state of Israel, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said. Egypt is a responsible and important factor in the Middle East.
In late October, Israeli Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad discussed Egypt's military presence. The sources said Gilad cited an Egyptian Navy exercise in October, reported to have been the largest ever and which cited Israel as the enemy. Egypt's navy has been deemed the largest in the Arab world.The provocation came in the form of the massive military exercise Egypt held several days ago, that identified us as the enemy, Lieberman said in a television interview on Nov. 1. You have the smuggling of arms into Gaza and Hamas' hands from the Sinai. If Egypt genuinely wanted to put an end to it they could.Israeli sources said the Egyptian buildup in the Sinai began in 2005 when Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip. At the time, the government of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approved the Egyptian deployment of 750 special troops along the demilitarized Sinai-Gaza border.Within months, Egypt proposed the stationing of another 2,500 troops in eastern Sinai. In early 2008, amid massive Palestinian infiltration and weapons smuggling, Egypt sent several thousand troops to the eastern peninsula as part of a counter-insurgency operation. The Israeli sources said Egypt did not ask for Israeli permission despite the violation of the peace treaty.Former Mossad director Efraim Halevy agreed that Egypt was expanding its troop presence in the Sinai. But Halevy said Egypt's intentions were not hostile.I don't think that Egypt is planning war against Israel, Halevy said. Egypt, like Israel, is preparing for any possibility. The same way we ask where Egypt is heading, they ask where Israel is heading.
