Pope to visit Holy Land in May By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer – Sun Mar 8, 12:17 pm ET
VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday he would visit the Holy Land from May 8-15 in the first papal trip to the area since 2000.The visit would be the second official trip by a pope to Israel.Announcing the dates of the long-planned pilgrimage, the pope said he would go to sites Jesus visited and would pray for the precious gift of unity and peace for the Middle East and all of humanity.Benedict told a crowd gathered in St. Peter's Square for the traditional noontime blessing that he was asking the faithful for their spiritual support for the Holy Land pilgrimage and a trip to Africa from March 17-23.Benedict said the African trip would show the concrete closeness of myself and of the Church to the Christians and the people of that continent, which is particularly dear to me.The pope will stop in Cameroon and Angola, meeting with local bishops, Muslim representatives and women's rights advocates.The pope's Mideast tour will touch Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, with stops in cities including Amman, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth, the Vatican said.Though a detailed program has not yet been announced, officials in destination countries have said they expect Benedict to visit an Amman mosque, hold public Mass in Jordan and Nazareth and make a stop at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.There has been only one other official visit by a pope to the Jewish state, Pope John Paul II's pilgrimage in 2000. Pope Paul VI made an unofficial trip there in 1964.
Israeli President Shimon Peres, who invited Benedict to visit, called the trip an important and thrilling event of the first order, that emanates a wind of peace and hope.Benedict's pilgrimage comes at a time of strained relations between Israel and the Holy See.Israel was offended when senior Vatican Cardinal Renato Martino said during Israel's recent military campaign to stop rocket fire from the Gaza Strip that Gaza resembled a big concentration camp.Ties were further rattled when the German-born pope reinstated an excommunicated bishop who has questioned the extent of the Holocaust. Benedict later condemned the bishop's remarks and spoke out against anti-Semitism.The two sides are also at odds over the legacy of the wartime pontiff Pius XII, who some historians say did not do everything in his power to prevent the Holocaust.That dispute centers on a caption of a photo of Pius at Yad Vashem's museum that says he did not protest the Nazi genocide of Jews and maintained a largely neutral position.The Vatican, which is pushing Pius' sainthood cause, wants the caption changed and maintains the wartime pontiff made every effort to help Jews and other victims through quiet diplomacy.Israeli and Vatican historians met Sunday at Yad Vashem for a two-day workshop to discuss research into Pius, signaling a growing willingness to resolve the sensitive issue.Israel and Jewish groups have encouraged the Vatican to open its wartime archives to allow researchers to look for concrete examples of Pius' actions. Yad Vashem director Avner Shalev said he was pleased to learn that Benedict instructed the archive to speed up the process of cataloging the material and hoped it could now be completed in three to four years. The Vatican, which has said the work could take up to six years, had no comment on Sunday. Vatican-Muslim ties were also tested by a 2006 speech in which Benedict linked Islam to violence. Amid angry reactions from the Muslim world, he expressed regret for any offense caused by his remarks. Jordan will be the first stop on Benedict's Mideast tour. Bishop Francis Solikat, the papal nuncio in Amman, said the pope's visit to the Hussein bin Talal mosque, the largest in the country, will be another gesture on the part of the Holy Father to promote inter-religious dialogue, especially in Jordan.The pope will also stop at the site on the Jordan River where, according to tradition, Jesus was baptized, Solikat said. AP Writer Aron Heller contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
Palestinian leader seeks reconciliation with Hamas By DALIA NAMMARI, Associated Press Writer – Sun Mar 8, 10:51 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged his Hamas rivals Sunday to move quickly toward a unity government able to rebuild Gaza after the devastating Israeli military offensive.Abbas made his comments as negotiators from his Fatah Party plan to meet Hamas officials in Egypt this week for what are expected to be the most serious reconciliation talks since Hamas violently seized power in Gaza nearly two years ago.We must reach a national reconciliation government, Abbas said. This government will be responsible for reconstruction (in Gaza). The faster a government is formed, the faster we will be able to rebuild in the Gaza Strip, quickly, for the sake of our people.Fatah and Hamas are expected to begin 10 days of talks in Cairo on Tuesday but it remains far from certain whether they can work out a deal.Hamas defeated Fatah in 2006 a parliamentary election, though Abbas remained president. In June 2007, after five days of civil war, Hamas routed Abbas' forces in Gaza and seized complete control. In addition to the lingering mistrust, the sides must overcome their deep differences over dealing with Israel and the international community.In his speech, the Western-backed Abbas said a new unity government must accept past Palestinian agreements. That would include recognizing Israel's right to exist — which Hamas rejects. He said the government would serve in a caretaker capacity until new elections are held by next January.Abbas' prime minister, Salam Fayyad, submitted his resignation on Saturday to clear the way for a unity government. On Sunday, Fayyad urged Palestinians to embrace Abbas' efforts to ensure the success of the dialogue that Egypt is overseeing.
A previous unity government was paralyzed by Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel, before their agreement deteriorated into the 2007 Gaza civil war. Since then, Abbas' internationally recognized government has ruled in the West Bank, while the isolated Hamas regime controls Gaza. The two areas, both claimed by the Palestinians for a future independent state, lie on opposite sides of Israel.In Gaza, Hamas showed few signs of flexibility heading into the latest talks. We don't accept any preconditions regarding the platform and the program of the coming government, said spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. We want a government that can satisfy the needs of our people, not the conditions and dictations of others.Despite the tough line, Hamas may be forced into moderation. Israel's three-week operation in Gaza killed some 1,300 people, according to Palestinian medics and human rights groups. It also destroyed or damaged some 15,000 homes and caused heavy damage to Gaza's infrastructure.For reconstruction to take place, Israel and Egypt must lift a blockade of Gaza's borders imposed after the Hamas takeover. A unity government would have a better chance of easing the blockade to allow building materials and other supplies into Gaza.The Palestinians also will soon be dealing with a new Israeli government headed by Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, who advocates tough action against Hamas and says the Islamic militants should be toppled.The Israeli offensive, launched to halt Palestinian rocket attacks, ended with separate cease-fire declarations by Israel and Hamas on Jan. 18. While Egypt has been trying to broker a more lasting truce, sporadic violence has persisted.In new fighting, Israeli aircraft attacked an empty Gaza City warehouse, causing no injuries, Hamas officials said. The military said the warehouse was used to store weapons. It said aircraft also struck two tunnels along the Egypt-Gaza border used to smuggle weapons into Gaza.
Three Israeli air strikes on Gaza: army Sun Mar 8, 3:07 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The Israeli army carried out three air raids on Hamas-run Gaza on Sunday in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave, an army spokesman said.There were no reports of injuries from the strikes.Two raids hit smuggling tunnels on the territory's border with Egypt and one targeted a building that allegedly used to store arms in Gaza City, the army said.Militants in the impoverished enclave fired two rockets into Israel early on Sunday, the army said. There were no injuries.There have been repeated violations by both sides of tenuous ceasefires that Israel and Hamas separately announced on January 18 to end a 22-day war that the Jewish state unleashed on the territory in response to rocket fire.The war killed more than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis and left large swathes of Gaza in ruins. Egypt has been brokering talks to turn the ceasefires into a lasting truce.
Palestinian PM resigns but Abbas asks him to continue By Mohammed Assadi and Ali Sawafta – Sat Mar 7, 8:36 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Saturday he intended to resign by the end of March in a move that could help unity talks between the rival Fatah and Hamas factions.But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader who appointed Fayyad after Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007, triggering a schism amongst the Palestinians, said he had asked the prime minister to stay on until results emerged from the Egyptian-sponsored reconciliation talks.Brother Salam Fayyad has submitted his resignation to us in order to support and strengthen the Palestinian dialogue on forming a government, Abbas told reporters.
Islamist Hamas has long criticized Fayyad, accusing him of doing the bidding of the United States and other Western powers which finance his government in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.The executive committee of the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization, run by Abbas, said in a statement that Fayyad's resignation would pave the way to forming a new Palestinian government emanating from national dialogue.This move is meant to encourage the dialogue, an aide to Abbas said. If we do not reach an agreement, the president can ask Fayyad to continue as prime minister.Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said he believed Fayyad's move was motivated by internal and personal differences with Abbas and not part of an effort to promote unity.
CONTINUED HOPES FOR PEACE
In Washington a White House spokesman said it expected to see continued progress in Arab-Israeli peace despite Fayyad's resignation.This government made great strides in providing the transparency, accountability and security that will be essential to achieving a two-state solution,said White House National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer.We expect any future Palestinian government to continue this progress, in line with the Quartet principles and consistent with President Abbas' vision,Hammer said, referring to the quartet of Middle East mediators: the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union.After Hamas beat the long-dominant Fatah in a 2006 parliamentary election, the factions formed a government alliance vexed by disagreement over how, or whether, to pursue peace talks with Israel. Hamas refuses to recognize the Jewish state and was shunned by Western powers that continued to court Abbas.The president dissolved the government after Hamas drove his forces out of Gaza. Fayyad was appointed to replace Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, who still heads the administration in Gaza. Abbas' authority has been effectively limited to the West Bank.Palestinian officials and Western diplomats said it was unclear whether the two factions would be able to form a coalition acceptable to Western powers in Cairo talks, which entered a first round last week and will resume on March 10.
GOVERMENT OF TECHNOCRATS
Abbas wants the factions to form a unity government of non-partisan technocrats to spearhead reconstruction of Gaza after Israel's 22-day offensive and prepare the way for new Palestinian elections.A senior Western diplomat said Fayyad had said privately in recent weeks he wanted to leave his post because he doesn't see any hope of healing factional rifts or making progress in peace talks with Israel.Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has been cool to U.S.-backed peace talks and has ruled out ceding parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians and freezing Jewish settlement growth in the West Bank, key Abbas demands.The United States and the European Union have strongly backed Fayyad, and they have privately urged him to stay on, possibly to head a unity administration, diplomats said. The brief statement announcing Fayyad's resignation offered few details. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced tendering the resignation of his cabinet to President Mahmoud Abbas, effective once a government of national reconciliation is formed, but no later than the end of March, it said. A source in Fayyad's office said the prime minister's resignation would take effect by the end of month, regardless of the outcome of talks. But Abbas could then ask Fayyad to remain in the prime ministerial post or form another government.(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Debbie Charles in Washington; editing by Giles Elgood and Todd Eastham)
Jerusalem needs special regime: experts Sat Mar 7, 8:22 pm ET
OTTAWA (AFP) – A solution to Jerusalem could be a special regime that administers the Old City without dividing it, leaving the thorny issue of sovereignty for a future date, two former diplomats wrote.In the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs, professors Michael Bell of Canada and Daniel Kurtzer of the United States, both former ambassadors in the Middle East, propose a way to deal with Jerusalem in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.They suggest creating an impartial, Old City Special Regime (OCSR) chosen by the Israelis and Palestinians together, that would appoint a chief administrator.The most promising alternative to a street-by-street, site-by-site division of the Old City is to construct a special regime that defers the issue of sovereignty and instead focuses on how to administer and manage the Old City with strong third-party participation, the two experts write in the magazine.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem -- which includes the Old City and its numerous holy sites for Jews, Muslims and Christians -- after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The Palestinians want Jerusalem to become the capital of their future state.Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Saturday that there will never be peace in the Middle East unless Israel and the Palestinians share Jerusalem.Bell -- Canada's former ambassador to Egypt, Israel and Jordan -- and Kurtzer -- a former US ambassador to Egypt and Israel -- said that quite simply, the Old City cannot be divided between the Israelis and the Palestinians.It is too small, too densely populated, too architecturally linked, and the Israelis and the Palestinians are too riven by systemic distrust for them to govern the Old City on their own.They also said too much focus has been placed on the issue of sovereignty, and that because the claims are based on such diametrically opposed historical narratives, the standard compromise solution -- shared governance -- simply will not work.They urge an OCSR comprised of senior Israelis and Palestinians and a limited number of international participants selected by both sides.The board would appoint a chief administrator for a fixed, renewable term, with independent authority to implement the OCSR's mandate and who would establish and oversee an internationally staffed police force.The regime, the two professors said, would not constitute internationalization of Jerusalem -- an idea both sides oppose -- but would operate with the framework of a two-state solution and allow both states to claim Jerusalem as their capital.
We believe it is the most promising approach to meeting the basic needs of all Jerusalem's stakeholders,the pair wrote.It may also represent the best and most realistic hope for achieving peace in the Holy Land.US President Barack Obama has vowed vigorously to pursue Israeli-Palestinian peace talks which were relaunched in November 2007 but were frozen during Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip in December and January.
No peace without shared Jerusalem: Olmert Sat Mar 7, 8:09 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in remarks broadcast on Saturday that there will never be peace in the Middle East unless Israel and the Palestinians share Jerusalem.Let us be under no illusion, there will never be peace with the Arabs and the Palestinians if part of Jerusalem does not ultimately become the capital of a Palestinian state, he said in remarks carried on public radio.
Olmert said Israel would have to make courageous but painful decisions if it hoped to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians, including an almost total withdrawal from the West Bank.Olmert resigned from his post last year amid a series of corruption scandals and is heading a transitional government until a new coalition can be formed following February 10 elections that saw right-wing parties make major gains.In November, Olmert said Israel would have to give up most of the territories it occupied in the 1967 Six Day war, including some Arab neighbourhoods in annexed east Jerusalem, in order to secure a peace deal.Israel considers the entire city its eternal, undivided capital, but the international community has never recognised that claim and the Palestinians have demanded mostly Arab east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.Olmert has held several rounds of talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas since the peace process was formally relaunched in November 2007, but the talks showed little sign of progress and were frozen during the Gaza war.The hawkish former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, likely to lead Israel's next government, has said he will postpone talks on core issues and focus on improving the economy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Barak says he is ready to join Bibi govt in Israel Fri Mar 6, 2:29 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli defence minister and Labour party leader Ehud Barak said on Friday he was willing to join a government led by prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud party.Most of the people and members of the Labour party demand the formation of a broad government of national unity, the outgoing defence minister, himself a former prime minister, told the private Channel Two television station.Media reports on Monday said Netanyahu, charged by President Shimon Peres with forming the next government, was trying to woo centre-left Labour after the centrist Kadima of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni rejected his entreaties.
Labour suffered its worst ever showing in the February 10 election, winning just 13 seats in the 120-member parliament and slipping into fourth place after Kadima, Likud and the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu of Avigdor Lieberman.On Thursday a Likud official told AFP that Netanyahu was seriously considering Lieberman, whose statements on Israeli Arabs have earned him the label of racist among his critics, as foreign minister.Immediately after last month's election defeat Barak indicated that Labour would join the ranks of the opposition, but he has since been negotiating with Netanyahu, who is popularly known in Israel as Bibi.Media reports suggested Barak wants to retain his post as defence minister.Israel, which faces threats to its security and an acute economic crisis, needs a broad unity government, Barak told the channel on Friday. A government restricted to the right can only provoke problems.
But Barak's move to join a Netanyahu government is opposed by the vast majority of his party.Barak has also said he will not join a cabinet in which the current minister of justice, Daniel Friedman who is supported by Lieberman, keeps his portfolio.Netanyahu can in theory form a coalition with parties to the right of his Likud, but is widely believed to want a broader grouping that will have a better chance of lasting the notoriously tumultuous world of Israeli politics.
Israel closes Mauritania embassy after Gaza spat Fri Mar 6, 8:38 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Friday closed down its embassy in Mauritania, one of three Arab nations that has diplomatic ties with the Jewish state, the foreign ministry said, in the wake of a dispute over the Gaza war.Following a January 16 decision of the Mauritanian government to freeze ties with Israel, and at the request of Mauritania, Israel today closed its embassy in Nouakchott, a foreign ministry statement said.Mauritania called back its ambassador in Israel following the 22-day offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip that was launched on December 27.In Nouakchott, an AFP correspondent said the Israeli flag and security measures, including surveillance cameras, had been taken down overnight.A diplomatic source said embassy staff were expected to leave Mauritania on Friday or Saturday.An Israeli diplomatic official declined to comment on the matter.It was not clear if the embassy closure was temporary or permanent, signalling a break in diplomatic ties which date from 1999.Egypt and Jordan are the only other Arab countries to have formal diplomatic relations with Israel.Israel's attack on Gaza in response to rocket fire killed more than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
Britain re-establishing contact with Hezbollah Thu Mar 5, 4:56 pm ET
LONDON – Britain is re-establishing contact with the militant group Hezbollah following the formation of a unity government in Lebanon, the British government said Thursday.The Foreign Office said that it has established contact with the group's political wing but still has no contact with its military wing.Britain ceased contact with members of Hezbollah in 2005 and listed the military wing as a proscribed terrorist organization last year.The Foreign Office said that it had reconsidered its position following positive developments in Lebanon.Our objective with Hezbollah remains to encourage them to move away from violence and play a constructive, democratic and peaceful role in Lebanese politics, in line with a range of UN Security Council Resolutions,the ministry said.The ministry said Britain's ambassador attended a meeting in January in Beirut alongside a Hezbollah lawmaker, and that the government was seeking to build relations with other legislators attached to the group.Israel and Hezbollah fought a brutal 34-day war in the region in 2006. More than 1,200 people in Lebanon — most of them civilians — and 159 in Israel died in the conflict.Hezbollah has a large rocket arsenal but is not believed to have used it against Israel since the 2006 war. It has denied involvement in recent rocket attacks on Israel.After showing its military strength against Israel in 2006 and then again in May 2008 against its Lebanese rivals — when it took control of large parts of Beirut by force — Hezbollah became a partner in Lebanon's government with veto power over decisions.Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Hezbollah has always been a terror group.This organization represents serious danger to any reasonable or peaceful political arrangement in the region and those who want to promote peace and compromise would be well advised to keep themselves at a safe distance from these dishonorable people,he said.
