Egypt pushes Hamas to accept truce By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer
JAN 13,09
CAIRO, Egypt – Egyptian mediators pushed the militant Palestinian Hamas group to accept a truce proposal for the embattled Gaza Strip in talks Tuesday, while the U.N. secretary-general headed to the region to join the multitrack diplomatic efforts for a cease-fire.U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has backed the Egyptian truce proposal to halt the fighting, now in its third week. Before leaving New York for the Egyptian capital on Tuesday, he urged Israel and Hamas to accept a U.N. cease-fire resolution and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.To both sides, I say: Just stop, now, Ban told a news conference Monday. Too many people have died. He said Hamas militants who have been firing rockets into southern Israel must stop, they must look to the future of the Palestinian people.Ban won't be meeting Hamas officials and has no plans to go to Gaza during his trip, which will also include Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian-controlled West Bank, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Kuwait.Tuesday's talks between Hamas and Egyptian officials in Cairo were the latest in intensive diplomatic efforts. In Damascus, the Turkish prime minister's top foreign policy adviser, Ahmet Davutoglu, met for the third time in two days with Hamas' exiled political leader, Khaled Mashaal, about truce proposals.But so far, the push has yielded little public progress. A Palestinian official close to Hamas said the previous round of Egypt-Hamas talks on Sunday were stormy.During that session, Egypt's top mediator, intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, told Hamas to accept Egypt's truce proposal without amendments or else Hamas will be considered responsible for Israel's continuing offensive in Gaza, the Palestinian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity for discussing the closed-door talks.On Tuesday morning, the Hamas delegation held a new round of talks with Suleiman and Egyptian officials. Later in the day, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak left on a previously unannounced trip to Riyadh to meet with his ally, Saudi King Abdullah to brief him on the efforts to persuade Hamas to accept an immediate cease-fire, Egyptian officials said.Suleiman accompanied Mubarak on the trip, leaving his aides to hold further talks with Hamas on Tuesday evening, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.The talks come as Israeli ground troops pushed deeper into Gaza City in their 18-day offensive, in which more than 900Palestinians have been killed, half of them civilians. Israel says its assault aims to stop Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli towns, saying it will stop only when there are guarantees the rocket fire and smuggling of weapons into Gaza will stop.
Hamas demands an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, a halt to the offensive and the opening of border crossings into the tiny Mediterranean coastal territory, which Israel and Egypt have mostly kept sealed since Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007.How those crossings are to be opened, however, is a major sticking point. The Egyptian proposal calls for international monitors at the borders to prevent smuggling — and there is also talk of such monitors also tasked with ensuring the cease-fire. Hamas has so far rejected any international monitors and demands a role in controlling the border crossings, which Egypt and Israel reject.
One Egyptian official on Tuesday accused Hamas of procrastinating and making preconditions. They want to score a political victory, regardless of how long this bloodshed will continue, the official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks are closed.Hamas' deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk told Al-Jazeera TV that the Egyptian proposal is not acceptable as it stands. Hamas has amendments for it and if taken into consideration, it will be a framework for moving toward a solution, he said.Qatar has called for an emergency summit of Arab heads of state on Friday in Doha to discuss the Gaza crisis.But Egypt and Saudi Arabia have rejected the idea, and it wasn't clear if any summit would take place. So far only Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Syria's Bashar Assad, Lebanon and Algeria officially accepted.
Israeli forces squeeze Gaza, say work still ahead By Nidal al-Mughrabi JAN 13,09
GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli forces tightened their hold around the city of Gaza on Tuesday and Israel's top general said there is still work ahead against Hamas in an 18-day-old offensive that has killed more than 900 Palestinians.Explosions and heavy machinegun fire echoed through the city of 500,000 after Israeli tanks drew closer to its densely populated center but did not enter, local residents said.Talat Jad, a 30-year-old resident of the Gaza suburb of Tel al-Hawa where tanks thrust overnight, said he and 15 members of his family gathered in one room of their house, too frightened to look out the window.We even silenced our mobile phones because we were afraid the soldiers in the tanks could hear them, Jad said. Some of us recited from the Koran and others prayed the sounds of explosions would die down.Medical workers said 18 Palestinian gunmen, most of them members of the Islamist Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip, and seven civilians were killed in fighting in the territory.
The cemetery is full, read a sign outside one of the biggest cemeteries in the city of Gaza. Please do not bury here because there is no room.In Cairo, a Hamas delegation resumed talks with Egypt on a ceasefire plan proposed by the Arab country, which borders the Gaza Strip and Israel and has made peace with the Jewish state.Israeli aircraft attacked 60 targets, including tunnels used by Gaza militants to smuggle arms across the border from Egypt, weapons-making sites and Hamas command posts, the army said. Two rockets hit Beersheba in southern Israel, causing no casualties.We have achieved a lot in hitting Hamas and its infrastructure, its rule and its armed wing, but there is still work ahead, Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, chief of staff of Israel's armed forces, told a parliamentary committee.
Ashkenazi said Israeli aircraft had carried out more than 2,300 strikes since the offensive -- Israel's deadliest against Palestinians in decades -- was launched on December 27.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was heading to the region for a week of talks with leaders in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Syria aimed at ending the bloodshed.My message is simple, direct, and to the point: the fighting must stop. To both sides, I say: Just stop now, Ban told reporters before his departure.Human rights groups have reported shortages of vital supplies, including water, in the Gaza Strip. A fuel shortage has brought frequent power blackouts.Israel has permitted almost daily truck shipments of food and medicine. But in a new report, Human Rights Watch said Israel's daily 3-hour break in attacks to facilitate the supply of humanitarian aid to Gazans was woefully insufficient.Iranian state radio said an Iranian ship carrying aid to the Gaza Strip was stopped by Israel's navy off the coast of the Palestinian territory. An Israeli military spokesman said he had no report of any such encounter.
URBAN WARFARE
Palestinian medical officials said at least 937 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed and nearly 4,000 wounded since the offensive began. The health minister in Gaza's Hamas-run government said close to 400 of those were women and children.
Thirteen Israelis -- 10 Israeli soldiers and three civilians hit by mortar bombs and rockets from the Gaza Strip -- have been killed since Israel launched the offensive with the declared aim of ending Hamas's cross-border strikes. Political sources said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni decided late on Monday against ordering troops in the next two or three days to engage in all-out urban warfare. Opening a Phase 3 of the offensive would likely complicate truce efforts, lead to intense street fighting and could cause heavy casualties on both sides, a politically risky move less than a month before Israel's parliamentary election. Barak said in broadcast remarks that Israel had respectfully heard Ban's appeal and was monitoring Egypt's ceasefire mediation, but it would continue to hit Hamas while diplomatic efforts were under way. Hamas says Israel must pull back all its troops under a ceasefire and end the blockade of the Gaza Strip that it tightened after the group seized the coastal enclave from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007. Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouq told Al Jazeera television it had substantial observations about the ceasefire plan. Israel has rebuffed as unworkable a U.N. Security Council ceasefire resolution last week and said a truce must ensure Hamas cannot rearm through tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border. Ashkenazi said Israeli warplanes had bombed all of the known tunnels during the offensive, very seriously hurting Hamas's ability to smuggle in weapons.Earlier an Israeli general, speaking to reporters touring Israeli positions, said his forces were tightening the encirclement of the city of Gaza. Israeli amour also pushed into villages near the southern town of Khan Younis. The bloodshed has opened fault lines in the map of Middle East diplomacy, with the Bush administration in its final week standing behind Israel, Europe pressing Israel to call off its attacks and Arab leaders speaking out against the Jewish state.
(Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem, Writing by Jeffrey Heller, editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Israel, Hamas locked in fierce Gaza City street battles by Mai Yaghi Mai Yaghi JAN 13,09
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli troops and Hamas fighters traded fierce gunfire on the streets of Gaza City on Tuesday as Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas accused the Jewish state of trying to wipe out his people.Israeli special forces backed by tanks and air strikes lunged ever deeper into the largest city in Gaza, advancing several hundred metres (yards) into several neighbourhoods in the south, witnesses and correspondents said.The thuds of tanks shells and the rattle of gunfire kept terrified residents awake overnight, although many had fled the area. Witnesses said the fighting was the most intense of the 18-day-old conflict.As Egypt pressed on with an initiative designed to bring about an immediate end to Israel's deadliest ever offensive in the impoverished strip of land, Abbas said the Jewish state appeared intent on waging a war of extermination.This is the 18th day of the Israeli aggression against our people, which is become more ferocious each day as the number of victims rises, Abbas said.Israel is keeping up this aggression to wipe out our people over there, he said at a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in the West Bank.Israel's military chief said Operation Cast Lead was making good progress but warned that troops faced complicated conditions in Gaza City, home to more than half a million Palestinians where Israel has little combat experience.We have already achieved a lot against both Hamas's infrastructure and its military wing but we still have work to be done, Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi told lawmakers.
In a late-night television address, Ismail Haniya, who heads the Hamas administration in Gaza, proclaimed Israel had failed to break the will of Gaza and that the Islamists were nearing victory.The overall death toll from the conflict on the Palestinian side has risen to at least 940, including 280 Palestinian children. A further 4,350 people have been wounded, according to the Palestinian emergency services.A Saudi jihadist who was fighting alongside Hamas was among the latest fatalities, according to Islamist websites.Three Israeli soldiers were wounded by an explosion in the north of the territory, one of whom were in a critical condition, an army spokesman said.On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and three civilians have been killed in combat or by rocket attacks since December 27 when the Jewish state began its offensive.Israeli warplanes also pounded the strip with more than 60 air strikes overnight, targeting rocket launching sites, weapons storage facilities, Hamas outposts and smuggling tunnels on Gaza's border with Egypt, the army said.
Although the stated aim of the Israeli offensive has been to put an end to rockets and mortars being fired its territory from Gaza, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said the Hamas regime would ultimately have to be ousted.At the end of the day, there will be no escape from toppling the Hamas rule, said Netanyahu, a former premier who is favourite to return to power after Israeli elections on February 10.
If the government decides to adopt this goal, we will also back it.
In his address, Haniya, who is not considered to wield influence over the group's armed wing, said the Islamists were ready to examine in a positive manner any initiative which can put an end to this aggression and the blood of our children being shed.A Hamas delegation was to hold yet another round of talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman on Tuesday on a Western-backed proposal drawn up by President Hosni Mubarak on how to end the fighting. A senior official in Cairo indicated Egypt was getting increasingly frustrated at Hamas's response so far to its initiative. We're working seriously with Hamas, we need to end the vagueness and they need to say yes, now, to our plan, the Egyptian diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity. UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who was headed to the Middle East on Tuesday, also called on Israel and Hamas to immediately stop the fighting, saying too many people have died.The Security Council, meanwhile, was to hold closed-door consultations on the crisis. Aid agencies have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in the territory where the vast majority of the 1.5 million population depends on foreign aid and that is already reeling from months of a punishing Israeli blockade. Speaking on a tour of Gaza's main hospital, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said he had been saddened by what he had seen. I wanted to see this hospital and I can only say this is really very sad and it hurts a lot when you see what I've just seen, Jakob Kellenberger told reporters. Kellenberger said it was totally unacceptable that at least 12 medics had been killed since December 27. It's absolutely indispensable and not negotiable that (the) medical mission in such a conflict has to be protected.
Gaza dents Turkey-Israel ties SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer JAN 13,09
ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey has in recent years been Israel's best friend in the Muslim world, forging close security ties and even seeking to develop a role as a mediator between the Jewish state and its Arab enemies.Now, an outpouring of grassroots anger over Israel's Gaza operation has rocked that special relationship and Turkey's prime minister appears under increasing pressure to take a tough stand against the offensive — raising questions about the fate of longterm ties.Since the beginning of the Gaza attacks in late December, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lambasted Israel in public statements — in one case saying its Gaza offensive would bring a curse — and halted regular communications with Jerusalem. On a Middle Eastern tour after the launch of the operation, Erdogan kept Israel off his itinerary.Turkish officials say Erdogan told his party in a closed-door session last week that he would not contact Israeli officials until a ceasefire is in place. And newspapers have reported Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's recent request to visit Ankara was denied.
Beyond the snubs has been a series of vitriolic outbursts that may point to a desire to respond to anger at Israel among ordinary Turks as well as in Erdogan's ruling party. Tens of thousands have staged almost daily protests, many calling on the government to cut off ties to Israel.In one of his harshest statements, Erdogan last week said a curse will fall on Israel over the children who died in those bombs.Then on Tuesday, Erdogan told Parliament: They say my criticism is harsh, I assume it is not as harsh as phosphorus bombs or fire from tanks ... I am reacting as a human and a Muslim.Experts are torn over the longterm consequences of the chill.Ties between Israel and Turkey have been frayed in the past over Israel's attacks on Palestinians but their interest in maintaining strong security ties have eventually helped mend fences.Israel and Turkey signed a cooperation agreement in 1996, and Israel has since renovated almost 200 of Turkey's M60 tanks and dozens of combat aircraft. Israeli pilots even trained in Turkish air space, flying training sorties from a Turkish base near Ankara. More recently, Israel has supplied unmanned air vehicles to monitor Kurdish rebel activities in Turkey's southeast.Erdogan's grassroots are protesting in the streets and he is reflecting that reaction at the highest level on the international platform, said Nihat Ali Ozcan, an analyst based at the Economic Policy Research Institute in Ankara.But Turkey's friendship with Israel is unlikely to be seriously affected since it would weaken Turkey's hand as a go-between between all sides and strategically it is not in Turkey's interest.Israel also said it did not expect lasting damage to ties.Our relationship with Turkey is a special relationship and if today there are a few bumps in the road, we are positive they are only temporary, said Olmert spokesman Mark Regev.However, some observers believe the new Turkish tone — along with recent moves that point to closer ties with militant group Hamas — may undermine Turkey's ability to carry out any mediating role in the Middle East.
Turkey has said it would be willing to contribute to an international peacekeeping force to monitor crossings into the Gaza strip. Turkey has hosted four rounds of low-level talks between longtime enemies Israel and Syria, boosting its clout as a regional go-between; the Gaza conflict has now led Turkey to suspend those efforts, and Damascus is also refusing to speak with Israel.Erdogan's statements on Israel and (Turkey's) position toward Hamas have not only weakened its role as a potential mediator in the crisis, but in all Arab-Israeli conflicts, said Semih Idiz, a foreign policy commentator for Turkey's Milliyet newspaper.And Turkey's Middle East diplomacy has always been multi-pronged — at once a key asset and potential complication to its status as a regional mediator. Even as it has sought warm relations with Jerusalem, Erdogan's government has, since coming to power in 2003, also forged closer ties to the Jewish state's traditional rivals such as Iran and hosted exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in 2006. Turkey believes Hamas must play a key role in the Palestinian territories — a break with other Arab countries like Egypt. Turkey has called for the involvement of all actors, even the difficult actors such as Hamas, said Ibrahim Kalin, of the pro-government Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research. They have to be part of the process.
Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser has covered Turkey for 12 years. Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara contributed to this report.
Israel will ultimately have to topple Hamas: Netanyahu JAN 13,09
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel will ultimately have to topple the Hamas regime which rules the Gaza Strip where it is currently waging war, right wing opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.At the end of the day, there will be no escape from toppling the Hamas rule... If the government decides to adopt this goal, we will also back it, the hawkish former prime minister told reporters in Jerusalem.
Israel must achieve a decisive victory against Hamas, a victory that will fundamentally damage its ability to launch terror attacks against Israel, he said.
Hamas... must ultimately be removed from Gaza, said Netanyahu, whom polls indicate is likely to become the Jewish state's prime minister following parliamentary elections on February 10.Likud party leader Netanyahu accused Israel's archfoe Iran of backing the Islamist movement, which seized power in Gaza in June 2007, and providing it with weapons that are smuggled into the impoverished enclave through Egypt.Israel cannot tolerate an Iranian base right next to its cities, he said.The centrist government of outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said the aim of the offensive launched on December 27 is to end rocket fire from Gaza and halt arms smuggling from neighbouring Egypt but not to topple the Hamas administration.More than 930 Palestinians have been killed in the air and ground offensive, many of them women and children. Four people have been killed in rocket attacks against Israel since December 27.
Tunnel-sniffing revolution on Gaza's last frontline by Charles Onians Charles Onians JAN 13,09
CAIRO (AFP) – From radar to fibre optics and sonar to sweat, the quest to find an efficient method of unearthing Gaza's smuggling tunnels has become crucial to achieving a truce in the beleaguered territory.The United States has promised Egypt 33 million dollars (25 million euros) of equipment to detect the tunnels which Israel says are used to smuggle weapons, including the rockets that are regularly fired at Israel, as well as food and medicine.And while Israel says it will not halt its offensive until it has guarantees that tunnel smuggling will end, neither the US nor Egypt will answer questions about what techniques are being used along the 14-kilometre (nine-mile) border.The Nazis buried microphones to detect POW escape attempts, while Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) invented by the US to combat Viet Cong tunnels has been further developed by archaeologists in their quest for the secrets of the past.Such methods, as well as more bizarre techniques such as sniffing around for human sweat, have remained favourites of tunnel busters from Mexico to Northern Ireland.Lawrence Conyers of the University of Denver says that GPR -- in this case dragging a radar behind a moving vehicle -- is the best tunnel detecting technology, especially for the sandy type of soil on the Egypt-Gaza border.
But it's not like turning on a metal detector and having it beep when it finds things, he told AFP. Data processing and interpretation are needed.He says that it can be difficult to tell the difference between the top and the bottom of a tunnel using radar techniques.Sometimes the radar energy gets into the void space and bounces around a good deal before coming back to the surface, which makes it very complicated.Egyptian soldiers have reportedly been trained to use the US equipment, but, says Conyers, it takes someone who has a real interest in doing it, they must make it more than just a soldier's job.The soldier must learn how to collect the data while dragging the device behind a truck travelling at 20 miles per hour (30 kilometres per hour) and take it on a laptop and process it and then spend time looking hard at it.Conyers dismisses other tunnel busting methods such as sonar, magnetics, resistivity, electromagnetic induction as inferior to GPR.Another technique, detecting tiny muon particles created by cosmic rays, is wacky stuff and only just beginning to be understood, he says.But Israeli researchers have now developed a potentially revolutionary system which uses a fibre optic cable that can detect and identify the most minute soil movements -- and requires no expertise to operate.The advantage is that we can monitor 30 kilometres of fibre using only one computer and you don't need to go along the border because it's already buried underground, says Dr Assaf Klar of Israel's Technion Institute of Technology.
And it costs less than a few dollars per metre, says Klar, who came up with the idea while doing research on the effects of building work on tunnels and pipelines in Britain.The major part of the research was the computer brain that can recognise that it's a tunnel and not just traffic or a vehicle or rain, to distinguish the signal of the tunnel compared to other signals, Klar told AFP.It's just a programme at the end and it will tell the soldier I recognise a tunnel at this and this metre please go and check. It's very easy, says Klar, adding that a working prototype could be ready in two months. But what if a smuggler simply cuts the fibre optic cable? You can put two fences either side of the cable to protect it, but even if there's no fence, the cable is buried one metre (three feet) down and you must start to excavate to reach it.And once you do that the cable feels soil movement and it will alert that someone is excavating. Even if someone does manage to cut the cable then we know immediately exactly where it is and just splice it together again.But Klar admits that while his system is excellent for detecting the digging of new tunnels, it's of little use against the hundreds that reportedly already exist on the border -- for them, old school GPR remains the best way to sniff.
Abbas ready to go to Arab summit in Qatar Tue Jan 13, 7:04 am ETRAMALLAH, West Bank
(AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is ready to participate in an Arab summit on the Gaza crisis should it go ahead in Qatar on Friday, his spokesman told AFP.
President Abbas has received an invitation to participate in the extraordinary Arab summit in Qatar and he has accepted it, Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.Qatar on Monday called for an emergency Arab summit in Doha to discuss Israel's deadly offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 900 Palestinians.Qatar... has called for an emergency Arab summit to take place on Friday in Doha, the Qatari News Agency quoted Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani as saying.There has been no confirmation that the summit will indeed go ahead.Qatar's latest call is its third since Israel launched its offensive on December 27. An emergency summit has so far not been held because some states, such as Egypt, are not in favour.Arab governments are divided in their stance towards Hamas, which took control of Gaza in a coup against president Mahmud Abbas's Palestinian Authority in June 2007.
Ministers voice fears Gaza will radicalise British Muslims Mon Jan 12, 7:22 pm ET
LONDON (AFP) – Government ministers expressed concern Monday that Israel's military campaign in Gaza was radicalising Muslims in Britain.Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said she was very concerned that the conflict could help extremists, and justice minister Shahid Malik warned it was having a profoundly acute and unhealthy effect on Muslim communities here.I am very concerned indeed that the events in Gaza could well be used by those people who want to peddle pernicious extremist views to draw particularly vulnerable young people into that kind of extremism, Blears told the BBC.That's why its doubly important for us now to get the facts across about what our government has done, leading the fight at the UN to get a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, she added.Blears is a key figure in the government's drive to improve relations between Britain's 1.6 million Muslims and non-Muslims which were strained after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and those in London in 2005.The London attacks were carried out by four British Muslim suicide bombers, throwing a spotlight on the threat posed by homegrown extremism.Foreign Secretary David Miliband earlier Monday renewed a call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, telling lawmakers in an update on the conflict: Peace benefits Israelis and Palestinians.... War kills both.But Malik, Britain's first Muslim minister, said he feared many people had failed to draw a distinction between current policy and the government's failure to condemn Israel in the war with Lebanon in 2006.
I was extremely concerned that many British Muslims had failed to distinguish between the UK's current response and the response in 2006 during the Lebanon crisis, he said in an interview with the Guardian website.People have become so disillusioned that they almost appear to have stopped listening to politicians.He added: There is a real feeling of helplessness, hopelessness and powerlessness among Britain's Muslims in the context of Gaza and the sense of grievance and injustice is both profoundly acute and obviously profoundly unhealthy.Israel's offensive in Gaza has sparked protests across Britain, and between 15,000 to 20,000 people marched through central London on Saturday. It ended with violence, and 24 people were arrested.Last week, the head of Britain's domestic intelligence service, MI5 director general Jonathan Evans, predicted Israel's action would see extremists try to radicalise individuals for their own purposes.In a string of newspaper interviews, he said there was no single path to violent extremism but social, foreign policy, economic and personal factors all lead people to throw their lot in with extremists.On Thursday, representatives of Muslim organisations who have been active in tackling extremism in Britain warned Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a letter that anger over the Israeli campaign in Gaza has reached acute levels.The Israeli government's use of disproportionate force ... has revived extremist groups and empowered their message of violence and perennial conflict, said the letter.
Israel's Olmert: Rice embarrassed over UN vote By JASON KEYSER, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jan 12, 6:12 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister said Monday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was embarrassed by orders to abstain from voting last week on a U.N. truce resolution for Gaza that she helped arrange.Israel had argued that the Security Council measure calling for a halt to the Gaza fighting — which passed Thursday in a 14-0 vote with the U.S. abstaining — was unworkable because it did not guarantee Israel's security.Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he called President George W. Bush to seek an abstention from the U.S., a key Israeli ally at the United Nations.I said: Get me President Bush on the phone, Olmert said in a speech in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn't care: I need to talk to him now. He got off the podium and spoke to me.Olmert said he argued that the United States should not vote in favor, and the president then called Rice and told her not to do so.She was left pretty embarrassed, Olmert said.A senior U.S. official in Washington disputed the account.The plan had been all along, as agreed by the secretary and the president, that if all of the pieces fell into place, we would abstain, the official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.The government of Israel does not make policy for the United States, the official added.
The approved resolution called for an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.Rice said later that the United States fully supports the resolution but abstained because it thought it important to see the outcomes of the Egyptian mediation, referring to an Egyptian-French initiative aimed at achieving a cease-fire.Still, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said he was surprised by the U.S. abstention.We were told that the Americans were going to vote in favor, he said Friday, a day after the vote.But when Rice came in to the Security Council chamber, she informed the Saudi foreign minister with an apology that she would abstain and would clarify later that the U.S. supported the resolution nonetheless, according to Malki.What happened in the last 10 or 15 minutes, what kind of pressure she received, from whom, this is really something that maybe we will know about later, he said.AP writer Matthew Lee in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
Joe the Plumber calls on Obama to help Israel Mon Jan 12, 2:57 pm ET
ASHKELON, Israel – Joe the Plumber called on President-elect Barack Obama on Monday to help Israel in its campaign against Hamas.The plumber-turned-war correspondent has been unabashed in his support of Israel's two-week campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and has been touring the Gaza border region and Israeli towns hit by Palestinian rocket fire.President Obama has already spoken about what he would do here. That if his daughters were living here he would take whatever means necessary to protect his daughters. So I just hope he carries through with it, but that is going to be up to him, said Joe, whose real name is Samuel J. Wurzelbacher.
Wurzelbacher was given a model rocket as a gift from Israeli plumber Moshe Nissimpur in the southern city of Ashkelon, near Gaza.The Ohio man, who rose to fame during the U.S. presidential campaign for asking Barack Obama about his tax plan, was in southern Israel to tell readers of the conservative pjtv.com Web site about the rockets that rain down from the neighboring Gaza Strip.The black, red and gold rocket given to Wurzelbacher had writing on it thanking him for supporting Israel.
For Joe the Plumber. Thank you for your support in these difficult days. From the Israeli plumber, said the writing on the slim rocket.On Sunday, Wurzelbacher had nothing but contempt for Israel's critics and the mainstream media — who he said was not presenting the full story behind the campaign, which has left more than 870 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.When Wurzelbacher joined Republican Sen. John McCain on the campaign trail, he agreed with a supporter who asked if he thought a vote for Obama is a vote for the death of Israel.On the Net:http://www.pajamasmedia.com/
Arab leaders to discuss Gaza reconstruction in Kuwait Mon Jan 12, 1:56 pm ET
KUWAIT CITY (AFP) – Arab leaders gathering in Kuwait next week for their first economic summit will discuss reconstruction in the Gaza Strip that has been devastated by an Israeli onslaught, an official said on Monday.The summit will discuss the reconstruction of Gaza, Mohammad Abulhassan, adviser to Kuwaiti emir and head of the summit's media committee, told a news conference.Arab foreign ministers are due to hold an emergency meeting in Kuwait on the Gaza conflict on Friday ahead of the economic summit, Arab League chief Amr Mussa said on Monday.Qatar requested such a meeting on Sunday to discuss Israel's rejection of a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.The meeting in Kuwait will examine the developments relating to Israel's refusal to abide by UN Security Council Resolution 1860, Mussa told reporters in Cairo.It was not immediately known whether the foreign ministers' meeting will lead to a special emergency summit on Gaza, but Abulhassan said that Arab leaders will be free to add any subject to their agenda.He said that all Arab countries have confirmed their attendance at the economic summit and that so far no Arab country has notified the host nation it will not attend.Asked if Hamas had been invited, Abulhassan said: Invitations were sent out to all member countries of the Arab League, specifically to heads of state.The January 19-20 summit will discuss ways to boost Arab economic integration.
American Jews split over Israeli offensive by Sylvie Lanteaume Sylvie Lanteaume – Mon Jan 12, 1:16 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – American Jews are divided over the Israeli military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which is being vigorously denounced by an increasingly active progressive Jewish movement.The war has sown divisions among Jews here, according to Ori Nir, spokesman for the US branch of the Israeli pacifist movement Peace Now, long overshadowed by the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).Many American Jews view this as a legitimate war, Nir said.There are however people who are very uncomfortable with the way in which it was carried out and with the extend to which diplomatic means were not exhausted ... to prevent this war, he added.Divisions within the US Jewish community burst open in 2006 with the scandal over the publication of a book critical of the influence of the pro-Israel lobby group, AIPAC, on US foreign policy.Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, co-authors of The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, were accused of anti-Semitism and pilloried by AIPAC, which the pair said gave unconditional support to the right-wing Likud party.
However, their criticism made its way to the heart of the US Jewish community and a progressive Jewish organization, J Street, was established several months ago to defend the goals of pacifist Jews before the US Congress.J Street circulated a petition calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip just days after Israel's December 27 launch of massive air strikes -- at a time when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice balked at such calls.We reiterate that J Street is deeply committed to Israel, its security and the safety of its citizens, the group's director Jeremy Ben-Ami said on the J Street website.However, as Americans and as friends and supporters of Israel, we do not believe the continuation of the present military operation is in the best interests of either the United States or Israel, he added.He pointed to anti-Israeli demonstrations in Iraq and Afghanistan, where tens of thousands of US soldiers are deployed.Demonstrations throughout the Middle East and the Muslim world indicate that this week's events are only further damaging America's image, interests and relationships around the world, Ben-Ami argued.
Another sign that progressive Jews are gaining ground in the United States is that Walt is today one of the authors that the respected Foreign Policy magazine has chosen to launch a series of blogs on US diplomacy.In 2006, Harvard University distanced itself from the article that gave rise to the book -- which was also written by Walt, a Harvard professor, and Mearsheimer, a University of Chicago professor.Walt now blasts the response of President George W. Bush's administration to the latest Israeli offensive, comparing it to its decision in 2006 to wait one month before calling for a truce in Israel's war against Lebanon's Hezbollah.The sooner we redefine what it means to be pro-Israel, the better for us and the better for Israel. Needless to say, it would be much better for the Palestinians too, Walt noted.
Thousands of Israeli reservists move into Gaza By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jan 12, 12:58 pm ET
ASHKELON, Israel – Thousands of Israeli reservists began moving into the Gaza Strip on Monday, signaling that Israel could be ready to escalate its campaign to silence Hamas rocket attacks and enter a new and more punishing phase of its 2-week-old war.
The military announced earlier that it had begun sending reserve units into Gaza to assist the thousands of ground forces already in the Hamas-ruled territory. The deployment of reservists, many in their late 20s and 30s, was the strongest sign that Israel was prepared to intensify its war against Gaza's Hamas rulers.The army has called up thousands of reserves troops for its Gaza campaign, meant to halt years of Palestinian rocket fire on southern Israel.Israel is a small country and (in) all of our battles and all the wars we've had in the past reserve soldiers are called up, Capt. Doron Spilmann, a spokesman for the Israeli military, told Associated Press Television News. It's standard that they then begin to work hand in hand along with our permanent standing force in the air, on the ground and at sea.
Defense officials say about 5,000 reservists entered Gaza and thousands of others have been drafted.Reservists in Gaza have been taking over areas cleared out by the regular troops, allowing those forces to push toward new targets, defense officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified operational strategy.President Shimon Peres met with hundreds of reservists at a staging area in southern Israel as they prepared to enter Gaza.I don't think that Israel has ever had an army better trained, organized and sophisticated than you, he said. I came in the name of the nation to say to you a deep thank you for your achievements so far and to wish you luck during battle.The group he met with were a mixed bunch, some apparently in their early 30s, at least one with a gray ponytail and beard. They were wearing crisp olive battledress, obviously freshly issued, and had M-16 assault rifles slung across their shoulders.Asked if they knew what they were getting into, one soldier one said he lost a good friend in combat during his compulsory military service 18 years ago and named his son after him.I know exactly what the price may be. I left three children at home, one a month-old baby girl, and I came here fully motivated to do whatever needs to be done, with full knowledge of the cost, he said. The reservist was not identified in line with military guidelines.
Israel says all weapons legal amid phosphorus claims by Catherine Dupeyron – Mon Jan 12, 12:56 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The Israeli army on Monday insisted all weapons being used in its Gaza war were within the bounds of international law amid accusations it was using white phosphorus and other deadly munitions.Medics in Gaza say they have treated more than 50 people suffering burns caused by controversial white phosphorus shells, a claim backed up by a report of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.And two Norwegian doctors, recently returned from working in the Gaza Strip, accused Israel of using the territory as a testing ground for a new extremely nasty type of explosive.An army spokesman refused to confirm or deny claims it was using white phosphorus, saying: All weapons used by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) are in accordance with international law.We are only using what is being used by other Western armies -- we are not using anything out of the ordinary, he said.The controversy surrounding the nature of weapons being used by the Israeli army stepped up a notch on Monday when the two medics said they had seen clear signs that DIME explosives, a new experimental kind of weapon, were being used in Gaza.According to Mads Gilbert, the two had seen evidence of a number of very brutal amputations... without shrapnel injuries -- injuries which were likely to have been caused by such a weapon.An army spokeswoman said she was not aware of this type of weapon and reiterated claims that all weapons used by the military were legal.Mark Regev, spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Israel was only using legal weapons of the type used by other Western armies.Israel military forces only use munitions that are acceptable under international law and international convention, he said.
The type of munitions used by Israel are similar, if not identical, to munitions used by other Western democracies, including NATO members.His comments came as Yusef Abu Rish, a doctor at Gaza City's Nasser hospital, said he had treated at least 55 people suffering burns caused by white phosphorus shells.Under international law, white phosphorus is banned for use against civilians, but is permitted if used for creating a smokescreen.Earlier, Human Rights Watch had slammed Israel's use of white phosphorus which it said had been used in areas of Gaza City and the northern district of Jabaliya.Israel appears to be using white phosphorus as an obscurant (a chemical used to hide military operations), a permissible use in principle under international humanitarian law, HRW said in a statement.However, white phosphorus has a significant, incidental, incendiary effect that can severely burn people... The potential for harm to civilians is magnified by Gaza's high population density, among the highest in the world, it said.The group said its researchers in Israel had observed multiple air-bursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus which would spread the chemical over an area between 125 and 250 metres (yards) in diameter.Human Rights Watch believes that the use of white phosphorus in densely populated areas of Gaza violates the requirement under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life, it said. During Israel's 2006 war against Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, the army was accused of using cluster bombs -- the use of which is banned in civilian areas -- but Israel said they were only being used within the confines of international law. White phosphorus is a toxic chemical agent which can cause severe burns. Dispersed in artillery shells, bombs, and rockets, it burns on contact with oxygen and creates a smokescreen in order to hide the movement of troops.
Bush backs Israel, says Iran dangerous By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jan 12, 12:12 pm ET
WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush on Monday renewed his support for Israel's military operations in Gaza, saying it has the right to defend its citizens from Hamas rocket attacks. But he also called for a lasting cease-fire that includes the disarming of militants.In his final press conference before leaving office next week, Bush said Israel should do what it can to prevent civilian casualties but he again laid blame for the violence squarely on Hamas and countries that supply it with weapons. He did not identify those countries, but was clearly referring to Iran, which he said is still dangerous.Israel has a right to defend herself, the president told reporters at the White House. Obviously, in any of these kinds of situations I would hope that she would continue to be mindful of innocent folks and that they help expedite the delivery of humanitarian aid.I'm for a sustainable cease-fire, he said, adding that such a truce would require Hamas' agreement to halt firing rockets into Israel. There will not be a sustainable cease-fire if they continue firing rockets. I happen to believe the choice is Hamas' to make.Bush gave his backing to Egyptian-led efforts to secure a truce that would end the smuggling of weapons into Gaza through underground tunnels. Israel has been pounding the underground arteries with air strikes since it launched the operation on Dec. 27. Officials in Gaza say some 870 Palestinians have been killed. More than a dozen Israelis, including 10 soldiers, have died.The best way to ensure that there is a sustainable cease-fire is to work with Egypt to stop the smuggling of arms into the Gaza that enables Hamas to continue to fire rockets, Bush said. Countries that supply weapons to Hamas have got to stop and the international community needs to continue to pressure them to stop providing weapons.
Egypt, which often serves as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, has been playing a key role in trying to forge a cease-fire. Egypt's state-owned news agency reported progress in truce talks with Hamas but provided no specifics.International Mideast envoy Tony Blair was in Cairo on Monday, meeting with President Hosni Mubarak following talks with Israeli leaders on Sunday. Egypt has put forward a three-stage proposal to end the fighting.I think the elements of an agreement for the immediate cease-fire are there, Blair said, adding that, while more work needed to be done, he hoped to see a cease-fire in the coming days.Israel's representative to the talks is in close contact with Egypt but, in a sign that more work is needed, postponed a trip to Cairo.Bush repeated his belief that his administration had made progress in trying to seal a peace deal between Israel and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas but acknowledged that President-elect Barack Obama would face stiff challenges in keeping up the effort.Will this ever happen? I think it will, he said. And I know we've advanced the process.Obama has remained largely silent on foreign policy issues, including the Middle East, since his election, sticking to the mantra that there is only one president at a time.On Sunday, he repeated that stance, but suggested that he understood the Israeli position.A basic principle of any country is that they've got to protect their citizens, the president-elect said on ABC television's This Week program, adding that his team would be ready on Jan. 20 to be immediately engaged in the Middle East peace process as a whole.
(They) are going to be engaging with all of the actors there (to) create a strategic approach that ensures that both Israelis and Palestinians can meet their aspirations, Obama said, adding that deaths of Israeli and Palestinian civilians was heartbreaking and made him much more determined to try to break a deadlock that has gone on for decades now.Bush and Obama have both described Iran as a continuing menace. In his Monday press conference, Bush warned that Iran is still dangerous. And Obama did likewise in his ABC appearance, accusing Iran of backing terrorist groups in the region, notably Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, and of trying to develop nuclear weapons.I think that Iran is going to be one of our biggest challenges, Obama said. But, unlike Bush, Obama said he would take a new approach to Iran, which has been shunned by the Bush administration. I've outlined my belief that engagement is the place to start, Obama said. He said he would advocate a new emphasis on respect and a new emphasis on being willing to talk, but also a clarity about what our bottom lines are. We are in preparations for that. We anticipate that we're going to have to move swiftly in that area.
