Egypt police raid missile workshop, arrest 13 Fri Apr 10, 1:12 pm ET
CAIRO (AFP) – Egyptian security forces raided a workshop in the Sinai peninsula they said was used to make rocket parts and arrested 13 men, officials said on Friday.
Police found three rudimentary warheads in the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zwaid, close to Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip.There were three warheads prepared, to be used for rudimentary rockets, said a security official, adding police suspected they were due to be smuggled to Gaza.Another official said 13 men had been arrested and police seized rocket casings ready to be smuggled into Gaza.A network of tunnels links Egypt with the Palestinian Gaza Strip, which Israel has blockaded since the Islamist Hamas movement seized the enclave in a week of fighting in June 2007.Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza have regularly fired primitive rockets, made in Gaza, and more sophisticated Grad rockets into Israel.The tunnels, which Egypt has taken increasingly robust measures to close, are used for smuggling food and fuel.Israel, which fought a devastating 22-day war with Hamas in December and January, says weapons too are brought through the tunnels.On Wednesday, Egypt's public prosecutor announced the arrest of 49 people accused of having links with the Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah and of plotting attacks in Egypt.A security official and the suspects' lawyer told AFP they were also suspected of running arms to Hamas.Police found quantities of explosives in homes they had rented or bought in the Rafah border town, a security official said.
Hezbollah-hit Americans sue North Korea Fri Apr 10, 4:27 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US citizens in Israel injured by Hezbollah rockets on Friday sued North Korea seeking more than 100 million dollars, saying the communist state assisted the Lebanese Shiite group.Hezbollah in 2006 fired thousands of missiles into northern Israel, which launched a deadly month-long offensive agianst its northern neighbor.In a lawsuit filed in the US District Court in Washington, 30 Americans who said they were injured in the rocket attacks accused North Korea of helping Hezbollah build underground bunkers to safely store their Katyusha rockets.As a facilitator of the Hezbollah rockets, North Korea is financially liable to all those Americans injured by the terrorists,lawyer Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said in a statement.The lawsuit aims to secure a measure of justice for the terror victims and teach North Korea that it cannot continue to support Hezbollah with impunity,she said.Darshan-Leitner is well-known for filing lawsuits against Islamic militant groups that have targetted Israelis or Jews.
The lawsuit on North Korea cites as its source for the allegations a paper by the Congressional Research Service, a government-funded think tank that provides briefings to members of Congress.North Korea, one of the world's poorest nations, is believed to rely on arms sales overseas as a key money-maker. Some experts say the communist state went ahead with its defiant April 5 long-range rocket launch in hopes of exporting the technology to the Middle East.An Israeli air raid in 2007 destroyed a facility in Syria -- a key Hezbollah backer -- which the United States said was a secret nuclear reactor built with North Korea's help. Both Damascus and Pyongyang denied the allegations.However, the United States last year removed North Korea from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, saying it was not involved in terrorism in the previous six months. The step came amid a US-led drive to provide North Korea incentives to end its nuclear program.
Christian pilgrims flock to Holy City by Majeda El Batsh – Fri Apr 10, 12:39 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world poured into the Holy City of Jerusalem under sunny skies on Friday to pray along the traditional route Jesus took to his crucifixion.As part of the Good Friday ceremonies, the Christian faithful descend onto the twisted cobblestoned streets of Jerusalem's Old City to walk along the Via Dolorosa, or Way of Suffering.Christians believe it is along this route that Jesus bore the cross on which he was later crucified by the Romans and many of the pilgrims carried crosses of varying sizes as they retraced the revered route.We're blessed to be in Jerusalem during the holy week, said Kathy, a 65-year-old visitor from the US state of Ohio. This moment is changing my life. I feel like I am becoming another person.The Good Friday procession begins at the Monastery of Flagellation, where Jesus was beaten, mocked and crowned with thorns.It follows the narrow often climbing street and the stations of the cross along its way, where Jesus met his mother, fell several times, was helped with carrying the cross, and met the holy women of Jerusalem, among others.The procession ends at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built over the sites where Christians believe Christ was crucified and buried.The din of Christians praying in French, Spanish and Italian mixed with the muezzin calling the Muslim faithful for mid-day prayers at the Old City mosques.
Meanwhile Jews clad in black suits and hats hurried toward the Wailing Wall to hold prayers for the Passover holiday that began earlier in the week.I feel very well, but also sad and feeling the agony of Jesus Christ crucified, said Paulo Antonio, a 68-year-old pilgrim from Spain.Each year, thousands of Christians flock to tread the route that is based on a devotional walk first laid out by the Roman Catholic Church's Franciscan order in the 14th century.The Christian Gospels teach that on the third day after he was crucified, Jesus rose from the dead. That event is commemorated by Easter, the most important day of the church year to most Christians.
Catholics and other Christians in the west celebrate Easter on a different date each year than do Orthodox Christians. Latin Christians will celebrate Easter this Sunday, April 12, with the Orthodox Easter coming a week later.As the faithful arrive at the Holy Sepulchre church, representatives from the two Muslim families that have kept keys to it since the 13th century open its doors to them.Israeli police deployed reinforcements to prevent any incidents in the Old City, which Israel annexed along with the rest of Arab east Jerusalem after capturing it in the 1967 Six Day War.I am happy because I am going to the church, but I also feel sad because I entered my own country with a permit, said Nizam, a 60-year-old Christian from Ramallah, referring to the permits that Palestinians must get from Israeli authorities in order to leave the occupied territory.This is my country, my land. I can't move freely in my own country,he said.We can't go to our churches.
Egypt offers Palestinian rivals new unity ideas By Nidal al-Mughrabi – Fri Apr 10, 12:09 pm ET
GAZA (Reuters) – Egyptian mediators trying to break the deadlock in talks on a Palestinian government of national unity have told rival groups Fatah and Hamas to cooperate on reconstructing Gaza as a first step, officials said.Palestinian groups have been talking in Cairo for months but have so far failed to agree on a unity government which would prepare for elections. The proposal to cooperate on Gaza was an attempt to break the impasse, an official said.It became clear that a deal between the two sides was near impossible,a senior Palestinian official involved in the talks told Reuters.Palestinian elections are supposed to take place in January 2010, but a Hamas leader, Mohammed Nazzal, told a pro-Hamas website: There will be no elections next year unless an agreement is reached in the dialogue.The aim of the talks is to end almost two years of enmity between the groups, who fought a brief civil war that culminated in Hamas's seizure of the Gaza Strip in 2007.Egypt's new plan is for a Fatah-Hamas committee answerable to the West Bank-based government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Western-backed Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to oversee reconstruction work, while the Hamas administration in Gaza provides the headquarters and logistics.
NEW SESSION
Fatah welcomed the proposal as an introduction to a solution but Hamas said it would give legitimacy to Fayyad's government, which the Islamist group has never accepted.
Senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath, an Abbas aide, said the Egyptian leadership gave Abbas a written proposal during his visit to Cairo this week and that he was expected to respond before a new round of talks is set to start on April 26.Both factions must provide Egypt with answers when they return for a new session of talks, said the official, who asked not to be named.Talks have failed so far because of disagreement over the political agenda for the proposed unity government and the way it will handle the conflict with Israel.Another sticking point has been Fatah's wish to limit restructuring of the security services to Hamas-run Gaza, excluding the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Hamas official Ayman Taha told Reuters his group would probably reject the Egyptian proposal of a joint committee.We want to return to dialogue on April 26 but Fatah will have to change its position. Without that I do not think the new round of talks will take us anywhere, Taha said.An Arab diplomat said Cairo awaited an official response.Shaath said the Egyptian proposal was a tool to eventually arrive at a unity government.He said the joint committee would begin to implement whatever the groups agree in Cairo, including reconstruction of Gaza by an internationally accepted government headed by Fayyad.Hamas insists implementation of any accord must proceed in parallel in Gaza and the West Bank. (Editing by Ori Lewis and Charles Dick)
Abbas to Quartet: Israel must commit for talks to resume Fri Apr 10, 6:17 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has made peace talks with Israel's new government conditional on it committing to previous agreements and freezing Jewish settlement growth, aides said on Friday.Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Abbas conveyed that message directly to the so-called Quartet of Middle East mediators -- the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.It was conveyed to the Quartet that Israel must accept the two-state solution and agreements signed, including Annapolis, and freeze settlement activities, in order to have political negotiations. You cannot have political negotiations without that, Erekat said.If Israel made such a commitment, Erekat added, Abbas would agree to resume the negotiations immediately.
Western diplomats said that seemed unlikely, at least for the time being.
Israel's new foreign minister, ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman, has declared invalid statehood talks launched at a U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November 2007. He says peace efforts with the Palestinians have reached a dead end and that Israel should focus on other matters.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been more vague, saying his priority was to focus on economic and security issues instead of negotiating statehood borders, and the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.That could put Netanyahu on a collision course with the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, who called this week for a Palestinian state alongside Israel as outlined in Annapolis, and said both sides needed to make compromises.Netanyahu and Lieberman also support settlement growth despite U.S. calls for a freeze.The Quartet's special envoy, Tony Blair, has urged Netanyahu to resume statehood talks in parallel with a push to boost the West Bank economy and to let Palestinians control more of their territory. Abbas's Western-backed government is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Blair also urged Netanyahu to ease Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, which Hamas Islamists seized in June 2007 after routing forces loyal to Abbas's secular Fatah faction.(Reporting by Adam Entous and Mohammed Assadi; Editing by Charles Dick)
Army's ethics chief: Israel fought fair in Gaza By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer – Thu Apr 9, 12:01 pm ET
NETANYA, Israel – In some ways, Brig. Gen. Eli Shermeister's job is one of the toughest in the Israeli army.Shermeister serves as the Israeli army's ethics watchdog at a time when the military is under international scrutiny for its behavior during its Gaza invasion. That puts him in the front line of a war of words that extend into the white-hot realm of war crimes,anti-Semitism,atrocities and blood libel.But his job is made easier by the fact that most Israelis support his contention that they have nothing to be ashamed of. I didn't see in the Gaza operation anything that can teach us or show us that something in the moral attitude of the IDF (military) was ... changed or spoiled,Shermeister said in an interview with The Associated Press at an officers' school in Netanya, north of Tel Aviv.The three-week Gaza war has widened the gap between Israel's self-image and how it is perceived abroad. The wave of international criticism, and an imminent U.N. investigation, have deepened a sense here that Israel is being treated unfairly and held to impossible standards.
However, the war that took more than 1,000 lives by both sides' count and left entire neighborhoods in rubble has a few Israeli critics, too. They say their countrymen are too quick to brush aside tough questions arising from the military's overwhelming use of force in Gaza, including mounting hundreds of bombing raids and firing imprecise artillery shells in one of the most crowded places on Earth.They say Israeli leaders haven't posed the right question to the public — how much force and loss of civilian life is it willing to sanction to stop the rockets that Gaza militants had been firing at Israeli communities for eight years.The offensive, launched Dec. 27, had been intended as a punishing blow to Hamas, similar to what Israel unleashed in the 2006 war in Lebanon. The campaigns sent a message, both to Gaza's Hamas rulers and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, that rocket attacks would draw a harsh response.
Deterrence, say Israeli military experts, is the key weapon in Israel's arsenal; the military is developing a shield against short-range rockets and missiles, but it would only be deployed next year at the earliest, and will likely be expensive and only partially effective.One army officer, Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, has spoken of the Dahiya doctrine, named after the Beirut suburbs considered a Hezbollah stronghold where Israel destroyed dozens of buildings in 2006.We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective, these are military bases, Eizenkot told the daily Yedioth Ahronoth in October.This isn't a suggestion. This is a plan that has already been authorized.The army would not confirm such a doctrine exists, but acknowledged many similarities between the Lebanon and Gaza wars.
In Israel, debate about the Gaza offensive came late and quickly fizzled.
Even as the full scope of destruction emerged, the military's conduct was not questioned in Israel. Most Israelis felt the war was a justified response to the missile campaign that has disrupted life in southern Israel and killed more than 20 people.While acknowledging that the crude, homemade missiles have nothing like the menace of an air-to-ground rocket, schoolchildren rushing to bomb shelters is something no government can tolerate on a long-term basis, they argue.The consensus has become that Hamas provoked the war by firing rockets, and then hid behind civilians when the counterattack came.Yet while most of the country rallied around the troops, some Israeli newspapers and human rights groups kept the questions alive by publishing reports the public may not want to hear.Last month, the Maariv and Haaretz dailies quoted from a discussion at a military prep school in which unidentified Gaza war veterans described vague rules of engagement, an anything goes atmosphere, and two cases of fatal shootings of Palestinian civilians caught in the war zone.The military police investigated the alleged shootings and in less than two weeks the military prosecutor's office concluded the reports of the killings had been based on hearsay. It said several other investigations into alleged troop misconduct would continue. The military has been quick to defend the conduct of troops in Gaza as ethical, with the defense minister and army chief both praising them as the most moral army in the world.
Two commanders, Shermeister and Col. Bentzi Gruber, said in recent interviews that every effort was made to spare civilians, including dropping leaflets and sending telephoned warnings to thousands of Gazans of impending attacks. They say Hamas used schools, mosques and homes as weapons depots, rocket-launching grounds and hiding places for fighters, turning them into legitimate targets. Gruber said his force of reservists operated in a complex battlefield. He said almost every other house his forces entered in the northern town of Beit Lahiya had been booby-trapped. He acknowledged that there may have been errors of judgment. Nevertheless, we made an enormous effort, including endangering myself and my soldiers, in order not to kill others,he said. Shermeister, 48, whose role as ethics chief comes under his title of chief education officer, said teams of investigators are still debriefing Gaza veterans and a final report should be ready in July. He said the reports he has received so far did not cause concern. Nick Witney of the European Council on Foreign Relations said in a phone interview that this sort of operation ... was inevitably going to produce civilian casualties on this sort of scale.Most Europeans would react by regarding 1,300 Palestinians dead as a grossly excessive price, said Witney, former chief executive of the European Defense Agency which works to improve the defense capabilities of European Union member states. Last week, the U.N. Human Rights Council appointed Richard Goldstone, a respected South African judge and war crimes investigator, to head a war crimes investigation of Israel and Hamas. The Islamic militants say they have no objection to the team touring Gaza. Israel hasn't decided whether it will cooperate. Meanwhile, an alliance of Israeli human rights groups says Israel should conduct its own independent probe. The B'Tselem group said it should look not only at individual soldiers' conduct, but also at certain army practices, such as the artillery fire and the use of white phosphorous shells that caused horrific burns.An initial review raises grave suspicion that Israel violated international law, the group said.Haaretz wrote that the speedy closing of investigations was indicative of a military and public in denial, adding: This repression is palpable in the wholesale rationalizations made in explaining away the harm to Palestinian civilians and their property as an unassailable, operational necessity in the fight against terrorism.
Sinn Fein head meets Hamas leader in Gaza By BEN HUBBARD, Associated Press Writer – Thu Apr 9, 11:48 am ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – The leader of Irish Republican Army-linked Sinn Fein party met with the head of the internationally shunned Hamas government during a two-day visit to Gaza and said he plans to brief President Obama's special Mideast envoy about his contacts.Gerry Adams, a key player in Northern Ireland's peace process, met with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh late Wednesday and planned more talks with officials of the Islamic militant group Thursday.Haniyeh's meeting with Adams, at an undisclosed location in Gaza City, was not announced ahead of time. TV footage from a local news outlet showed Adams sitting in an armchair next to Haniyeh
We want to help. We support the Palestinian people,Adams said.
Adams told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday he said he met Obama's special Mideast envoy George Mitchell in Washington last month and told him of his plan to visit Gaza. He said he plans to brief the Irish government, friends in the U.S., others I deal with internationally, and that would include Sen. Mitchell.
Mitchell did not meet with Hamas officials during a visit to the region several months ago. Mitchell and Adams have known each other since the former U.S. senator helped broker a Northern Ireland peace deal in the 1990s.Sinn Fein is a political party linked to the Irish Republican Army — a group that, like Hamas, was labeled terrorist because of violent tactics used to battle Britain. But unlike Hamas, Sinn Fein engaged in negotiations that transformed it into a legitimate political player, recognized by Britain and local foes.Haniyeh welcomed Adams as a man of rich political experience who faced circumstances in Ireland similar to what we face in Gaza.Hamas, which seized control of Gaza by force in 2007, is widely shunned by the West. Some European politicians have called for dialogue with Hamas, but few Western politicians have met with Hamas officials. Hamas is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union.The United States has said it will not deal with Hamas until it recognizes Israel, renounces violence and accepts previous agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority — which Hamas has refused to do.Adams called on all sides to the conflict to renounce violence and called for dialogue between all parties.A willingness to talk and compromise produced success in the case of Northern Ireland. Following the IRA's cease-fire in 1997, Sinn Fein joined in negotiations with other parties and the British and Irish governments, and is now the second-largest political party in Northern Ireland.Adams also visited the Israeli town of Sderot — a frequent target of Hamas rockets — before traveling to Gaza and said he found it deeply saddening to realize the depth of the human tragedy on both sides.He also said Gaza's border crossings — kept tightly closed by Israel and Egypt since the Hamas takeover — should be opened.
Britain worried about Jerusalem demolitions Thu Apr 9, 10:01 am ET
AMMAN (AFP) – British Foreign Secretary David Miliband expressed concern on Thursday at Israel's plans to demolish scores of Palestinian houses in mainly Arab east Jerusalem.We view with real concern the proposed demolitions in east Jerusalem, Miliband told a joint news conference in Amman with his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh.Israel in February ordered hundreds of Palestinians to leave their homes in annexed east Jerusalem, warning that 90 houses would be destroyed because they are illegal.Jerusalem should be the capital of both the Palestinians and Israel, Miliband said.The Jewish state, which considers the whole of Jerusalem its eternal, undivided capital, rarely grants building permits to Arab residents of east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want to make the capital of their promised state.About 250,000 Palestinians live in east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed.Palestinian officials say that the demolitions, if they go ahead, would deprive more than 1,000 people of their homes and mark the largest destruction of Palestinian property in east Jerusalem since 1967.
The position of the United Kingdom is very clear. The issue of Jerusalem is obviously central... it has great explosive and dangerous power to divide people, Miliband warned.The British foreign secretary is in Jordan on a one-day trip during which he held talks with King Abdullah II and Prime Minister Nader Dahabi that mainly focused on the Middle East peace process.Europe has a key role to play in supporting Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and help establish peace in the region, a palace statement quoted the king as telling Miliband, who is visting the kingdom for the first time.Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.
Obama taps Lebanon hand as top US Mideast diplomat Wed Apr 8, 6:14 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama on Wednesday nominated Jeffrey Feltman, a former ambassador to Lebanon who recently paid a rare visit to Syria, as the top US diplomat on the Middle East.Obama praised the skill and dedication of Feltman and three other nominees presented Wednesday, voicing hope they would serve the American people well as we work to keep our nation safe at home and abroad.An Arabic speaker and career diplomat, Feltman needs Senate approval to be confirmed as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.He would replace David Welch, who was seen as a defender of Arab interests in the administration of president George W. Bush.Feltman has already been the acting assistant secretary. In his capacity, he and a fellow envoy last month paid the first trip to Syria by high-level US officials in four years.Feltman said at the time that his trip was constructive and was part of the Obama administration's new effort of trying to engage all nations.US-Syrian ties were especially tense under former president George W. Bush, who accused Damascus of meddling in neighboring Lebanon and turning a blind eye to the flow of arms and supplies to insurgents in Iraq.Feltman earlier served as the US ambassador to Lebanon, including during the 2006 Israeli offensive against the Shiite militant movement Hezbollah.Testifying last month before Congress, Feltman said the United States emphatically rejected opening contacts with Hezbollah -- a step recently taken by British.He also said Lebanon's next government after its June elections should be decided by Lebanese themselves, for Lebanon, free from outside interference, political intimidation and violence.
Tony Blair on How to Restart the Mideast Peace Process By TIM MCGIRK / Jerusalem – Wed Apr 8, 5:20 pm ET
In between bites of an orange on a balcony in the fabled American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem, Tony Blair, ex–British Prime Minister and current mediator for the Quartet - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, spoke candidly with TIME's Jerusalem bureau chief Tim McGirk about the obstacles to peace. Earlier, Blair had met with Benjamin Netanyahu, the hawkish new Israeli premier, who says he will keep talking peace but left open the question of whether Israel would accept a Palestinian state. One thing I learned, says Blair, is that you simply just don't give up. (See pictures of Tony Blair's 10 years as British Prime Minister.)TIME: How much longer do you expect to keep shuttling to the Middle East?
Blair: [Laughing] As long as it takes. People keep saying this to me as if I were going to bunk off at any point. I knew this would be extremely difficult. But I don't give up on these things. I also think the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is of fundamental importance to the whole struggle going on in the Islamic world. That isn't to say that its cause is the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict, but its resolution would be a major part to solving it. If this thing could be put on a better and different path, it would change the whole dynamic within Islam.
How so?
It will empower the moderates. This is the issue far more than Iraq or Afghanistan - it's what allows the extremists to reach across into moderate opinion.Your job as peace envoy got a lot tougher after the recent Israeli offensive in Gaza and a new right-wing government in Israel ...There's a lot of cynicism and concern about what the new [Israeli] government means here - and obviously a lot of despair after what happened in Gaza. But we have no option but to pick ourselves up from here. What happens in these next couple of months will really be critical. We need three elements: a credible political negotiation for a two-state solution; a program of major change on the West Bank, and an easing of the blockade in Gaza. If we get those, we'll be back in business again. (See pictures of the recovery attempts in Gaza after the Israeli invasion.)
Are you optimistic?
By nature I'm optimistic. I look for silver linings.
Have you found any?
Yes, I think the fact that the new Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] is really clear that he wants economic and security change on the West Bank. That's what we agreed we'd work on with him. There are one or two things that [Netanyahu's] term economic peace can mean. One, that economic development is a substitute for state, and that's obviously not acceptable. I personally think he wants the second, to build the [Palestinian] state from the bottom up. I understand and buy into that. It's important for the Israeli government to come out and say we want a two-state solution, but the circumstances have got to be right.Under what conditions should the international community deal with Hamas? There's a problem. It's very hard for the international community to put the money into the Palestinian government where [Hamas] is saying, We reserve the right to use violence, to fire rockets at innocent Israeli civilians. Truth is, if Hamas were to say, We're pursuing our political objectives by nonviolent means,they would, at a stroke, liberate the international community to say there's now got to be a solution.
But Hamas keeps shooting rockets into Israel.
Firing these rockets isn't just morally wrong - they're shooting at innocent civilians - but it's also tactically useless. At no level is it sensible. I'm all for Hamas coming into this process, but only on a basis that we can deal with. Otherwise, we're put in an impossible situation in which we're tacitly supporting activities that are geared to violent resistance. (See pictures of life under Hamas in Gaza.)The U.N. is calling for Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza. Do you agree? We've got to change this policy on Gaza. It doesn't work. Hamas gets what they want through the tunnels and civil society is put at a disadvantage. We've got to help the people in Gaza. I'd like to see humanitarian help in its broadest sense going in - that's not just food and fuel but also help in rebuilding infrastructure and houses. The Israelis obviously are concerned about anything that might have a security implication. But we have to distinguish between what is a security risk [for the Israelis] and, as it were, a decision that while Gaza remains under Hamas control, that even necessary help for rebuilding infrastructure will be denied.
Are you ready to go back into Gaza?
Absolutely. At one level, Gaza is a dangerous place, but I've been in before and I'll go in again. It's really important that the international community engages in Gaza. There are lots of people in Gazan society who are anxious for support and who have nothing to do with politics. They just want to make a living.
Once again, peace talks seem to have stalled. Why?
For last six months you've had a hiatus - paralysis in the Israeli government, problems on the Palestinian side, and a transition going on in America. All these things are now clearing. The next couple of months will determine if we can breathe new life back into this process. No doubt we need to. The question is: Can we?
What's the answer?
The hiatus is over. Now we have to return to basic principles and put this back together again. You've got a new U.S. Administration determined to take this forward, and you've got an Israeli government that at least is going to be empowered to make decisions [because of its majority in Knesset]. For all these reasons we're back in with a shout. (See pictures of Tony Blair's friendship with George W. Bush.)But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says that all these talks with Israel have yielded nothing.I think it's very simple. If the moderates on the Palestinian side show they can make progress by engagement [with Israel] they'll be strong. If they engage and can't make progress they'll be weak. It's an absolutely simple equation.
Is this tougher than bringing peace to Northern Ireland?
One thing I learned is that you simply just don't give up. People said Northern Ireland was completely hopeless. But in the end, it wasn't. And this isn't, either. On one level, this is easier because there is an agreement among most people - and that's trying to reach a two-state solution.
Saudi says new Israeli govt policies dangerous Wed Apr 8, 3:03 pm ET
RIYADH (AFP) – Saudi Arabia on Wednesday slammed the policies of Israel's new right-wing government as dangerous and an obstacle to Middle East peace efforts, and said only international pressure can change them.It is now clear that Israel, which has until now frustrated all peace efforts, whose new government has declared dangerous policies, cannot be expected to automatically change its stand, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters.This requires a solid and firm international action, especially on the part of the United States, to prompt Israel to change its policies which contravene... international legality and the requirements of peace.At a joint news conference with visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, he said Arab states still backed the Saudi-crafted Arab Peace Initiative, and that it would remain on offer as long as Israel shows interest in reaching a peace deal.
The Arab plan offers Israel full recognition in return for the creation of a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders.Prince Saud said negative remarks by the coalition government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hardline Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman were taking the peace process back to square one.
It is no exaggeration to say that the failure to put an end to this chronic struggle... has been behind dangerous phenomena that have swept many parts of the world such as terrorism, violence and extremism,he said.He cited the Israeli government continuing to allow expansion of Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.Miliband, in Riyadh for a British-Saudi Two Kingdoms dialogue, called on both Israel and the Palestinians to keep commitments made by their previous leaders in the peace process.It is very important that both sides adhere to the commitments of their predecessors, the Palestinians in respect to security improvement, for example, and the Israeli government in respect to the freeze on settlement activity,Miliband said.At this time the need for a peace plan has never been greater,he said.
Syria ready for Israel talks on Golan pullout Wed Apr 8, 7:28 am ET
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syria is ready to resume indirect peace talks with the new Israeli government on the basis of a total pullout from the Golan Heights, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Wednesday.He said the four rounds of Turkish-mediated talks held last year had been launched on the basis of three principles, but without preconditions.A full agreement from Israel to a commitment to a withdrawal from the Golan Heights,was the main point, Muallem said at a joint press conference with his Italian counterpart Franco Frattini.The talks process was suspended when Israel, which seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, waged a deadly offensive against the Palestinian Islamist Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip in December-January.Muallem said Syria is now ready to resume a land-for-peace process on the same basis as arranged with the government of (former Israeli prime minister) Ehud Olmert under Turkish mediation.These indirect talks must not in any way affect the Palestinian-Israeli talks and also not be used as a cover to launch attacks against Lebanon or Gaza,the Syrian foreign minister said.Late last month, a largely right-wing coalition headed by hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in the Jewish state and quickly ruled out a pullout from Golan in exchange for peace with Syria.There is no cabinet resolution regarding negotiations with Syria, and we have already said that we will not agree to withdraw from the Golan Heights,Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in his first days at his new post.
Peace will only be in exchange for peace,said Lieberman.
Frattini, who met President Bashar al-Assad during his visit to Damascus, said Italy was prepared to play an active role toward the relaunch of the negotiations as soon as possible.
