Egypt: Israeli freeze must include east Jerusalem AUG 28,09
STOCKHOLM – Egypt's foreign minister says east Jerusalem must be included in a freeze of Israeli settlement activity before Middle East peace talks can restart.Ahmed Aboul-Gheit told reporters in Stockholm on Friday that Jerusalem is Arab and it will continue to be so.He said the Arab world expects the area to be included in a moratorium on Israeli settlements.The Obama administration has hinted it may be backing down on its insistence that Israel halt all settlement activity as a condition for restarting peace talks with the Palestinians.U.S. officials have denied Israeli media reports that Washington has agreed to leave East Jerusalem out of the agreement and settle for a nine- to 12-month freeze in the West Bank.
Palestinians must unite for talks, UN chief says Fri Aug 28, 9:28 am ET
VIENNA (Reuters) – Palestinians must be able to show a united front to help revive Middle East peace talks, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday.It will be crucially important that the Palestinian peoples are united among themselves and should be able to carry on these negotiations,he told a news conference in Vienna.Ban said that while a seven-year-old Arab League peace initiative provided a cornerstone for negotiations,at the same time we also value ... bilateral negotiations between Israel and Palestinian authorities.Hamas, the Islamist group which has controlled Gaza since defeating the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007, opposes Abbas' readiness to negotiate peace with Israel.U.S. President Barack Obama's administration is pressing Arab governments for positive gestures toward Israel if it freezes Jewish settlement building on occupied land.Washington hopes this will lead to regional peace talks but Arab states are cool to the idea.Arab leaders say they remain committed to an initiative, endorsed at a 2002 Arab League summit, offering Israel recognition in return for withdrawal from all lands Israel occupied in the 1967Middle East war, creation of a Palestinian state and a just solution for Palestinian refugees.Successive Israeli governments have rejected or ignored the offer, saying the return of refugees to areas now inside Israel would destroy the Jewish character of the state.Still, Ban said he had high hopes for Obama's approach in pushing forward with the peace process.We will see some positive results coming from the American administration's direct engagement in the Middle East,he said.(Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Michael Roddy)
Tens of thousands at Ramadan prayers in Jerusalem Fri Aug 28, 7:40 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Tens of thousands of faithful thronged the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City for the first Friday prayers of Ramadan, with Israeli police reporting no significant incident.Police estimated the crowd at 90,000.Israeli authorities eased access restrictions for Palestinians from the West Bank, allowing men aged 50 and over and women of 45 and over to enter the site.Authorities generally prohibit Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from entering Israel or east Jerusalem, which it occupied in the 1967 Six-Day-War and later annexed.At the Qalandia checkpoint into Jerusalem, long lines of people could be seen streaming into the city from early morning onwards.The Israeli army has extended opening times at some checkpoints for the month of Ramadan, and said in a statement soldiers manning the barriers have been told to refrain from eating and drinking in public whenever possible so as to demonstrate a high level of respect and understanding.Security forces beefed up their presence, particularly in the vicinity of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.The compound is known as Al-Haram Al-Sharif to Muslims and is Islam's third holiest site after Mecca and Medina.Jews refer to the same area as the Temple Mount, the location of the Second Jewish Temple razed by the Romans in 70 AD and Judaism's holiest site.
Three killed in Gaza smuggling tunnel collapse Fri Aug 28, 5:01 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Three Palestinian brothers were killed on Friday in the collapse of a smuggling tunnel along the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt, medics said.A fourth Palestinian, who was also working in the tunnel near Rafah, was seriously wounded, the sources said.Deadly cave-ins are common in the tunnels used to smuggle food, goods and, according to Israel, weapons and explosives into the besieged Gaza Strip.
Israel heavily bombed the vast network of tunnels during its deadly 22-day offensive against the Hamas rulers of Gaza at the turn of the year, but many tunnels were quickly redug.Tunnel operators say Egypt too is cracking down on the underground smuggling, pumping sewage or gas, or throwing explosives into the tunnels.
Just 4% of Israelis think Obama is pro-Israel Fri Aug 28, 4:30 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Only four percent of Jewish Israelis believe US President Barack Obama's policies are pro-Israel and 50 percent oppose a temporary freeze of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a poll out on Friday showed.The survey showed 51 percent considered Obama's administration more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israeli, as compared with 50 percent in June, the Jerusalem Post said.The percentage of Jewish Israelis who consider Obama as pro-Israel was down to four percent from six percent in the June 19 poll. By comparison, 88 percent of those interviewed for the June survey thought former US president George W. Bush was pro-Israel.Obama has pressed Israel to freeze settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, causing friction with the close US ally. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted natural growth makes a total halt of housing construction in settlements impossible.
The issue of settlements, which the international community considers illegal, is seen as one of the major hurdles in Middle East peace efforts.Asked whether they would support a one-year freeze, which has been raised as part of efforts to push forward the hobbled peace process with the Palestinians, 50 percent of the opinion poll's respondents said no and 41 percent said yes.The Smith Research poll was conducted this week among 500 Jewish Israelis and has a margin of error of 4.5 percent.
U.S. hints at flexibility on Israeli settlement halt By Arshad Mohammed – Thu Aug 27, 4:56 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations could possibly resume without a complete freeze in Israeli building of Jewish settlements, a senior U.S. official suggested on Thursday.The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said it was more important that the scope of a settlement freeze was acceptable to the Israelis and the Palestinians than to the United States.The Obama administration hopes next month to announce a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which have been stalled since December, but the pieces have not yet fallen into place, diplomats and U.S. officials said.U.S. special envoy George Mitchell is trying get Israel to freeze its construction of Jewish settlements, a Palestinian condition for resuming talks. He has also asked Arab states to offer some gestures toward normalization of ties with Israel.Even if Israel and the Palestinians agree to resume talks, analysts believe chances of a peace agreement any time soon are slim because of divisions among the Palestinians and a fragile, right-wing coalition in Israel.The Obama administration has taken the public stance that Israel must halt all settlement activity, including so-called natural growth under which new homes are built within existing enclaves to accommodate growing settler families.While saying this was still Washington's position, the U.S. official suggested the United States would not stand in the way if the two sides could agree on something short of that.
Are we going to argue, if at some point the parties say, you know, this is not everything that we hope for but it's enough? asked the U.S. official.That would then have us presenting an obstacle to the start of a negotiation.Mitchell and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an unusually upbeat statement after meeting in London on Wednesday, saying that their talks were very productive and that they had made good progress.However, Netanyahu on Thursday denied that they agreed on a temporary halt to settlement building. An Israeli team is due in the United States next week for more talks and Mitchell will return to the region in September.About half a million Israelis live in settlements built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in territory captured by Israeli forces in the 1967 Middle East War.Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with its capital in Jerusalem.
An Arab diplomat suggested neither side will get everything that it wants, with the Palestinians likely to accept something short of a total settlement freeze while Israel gets only symbolic normalization steps from Arab states.Whatever deal we get on the settlements will be less than perfect,said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.In other words, there comes a point where they just have to take what they can get,he said. (Editing by Alan Elsner)
Netanyahu calls for crippling sanctions against Iran by Ron Bousso – Thu Aug 27, 4:36 pm ET
BERLIN (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Thursday for crippling sanctions against Iran to stop its disputed nuclear work, on a solemn visit to Berlin marked by Holocaust remembrance.After talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Netanyahu expressed hopes for a quick resumption of Middle East peace talks as he warned of a mortal threat to Israel's survival posed by Iran.There is not much time to halt Tehran's nuclear ambitions, he told reporters.I think the most important thing that can be put in place is what the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called crippling sanctions. It is possible to put real pressure, real economic pressure, on this regime if the major powers of the world unite.He said that even if the UN Security Council failed to approve tougher sanctions against Tehran over its sensitive nuclear work due to opposition from Russia or China, a coalition of the willing could enact its own measures.Merkel told the same news conference that if Iran failed to meet international obligations by next month then more serious steps including energy sanctions would have to be considered.Widely considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear armed power, Israel suspects Iran of trying to develop atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran denies.
Israel considers the Islamic republic to be its main foe following repeated statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saying that the Jewish state is doomed to be wiped off the map and calling the Holocaust a myth.Netanyahu and Merkel said they were convinced the time was right to jumpstart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.I hope that in a timeframe of a month or two we can relaunch negotiations, Netanyahu said.Let's just get on with it. We have a big job to fend off the radicals and move forward.But Merkel echoed the US position that no progress could be made if Israel failed to halt construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.I made clear that the Federal Republic of Germany believes that progress on the issue of settlement building -- a stop to settlement building -- is an important building block and a condition for relaunching the Middle East peace process,she said.Netanyahu came to Berlin from London where he met British counterpart Gordon Brown and US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who also pressed him to freeze settlement building.Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has come under heavy criticism as well. On Thursday, Palestinian medics said a Gaza fisherman was killed by a shell fired by Israel's navy, though Israel denied the claim.Navy vessels enforcing Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory regularly fire at Palestinian fishermen to prevent them from venturing more than a few kilometers (miles) from shore.The Israeli premier was on the second and final leg of a four-day European tour. It was his first trip to Germany since taking office in March.Earlier, Netanyahu accepted a gift of rare original blueprints of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz for Jerusalem's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem from a German publisher.We cannot allow those who call for the destruction of the Jewish state to go unchallenged,he said in reference to Ahmadinejad as he took possession of the plans.We cannot allow evil to prepare the mass deaths of innocents.The blueprints, which date from 1941-42 and include plans drawn with cool technical precision of a gas chamber and a crematorium, were discovered in a Berlin apartment last year and then bought by the Bild newspaper.More than one million Jews, Roma and others deemed subhuman by Adolf Hitler's regime were killed at Auschwitz, near the Polish city of Krakow, out of a total six million Jews slaughtered by the end of World War II in 1945.Netanyahu later became the first Israeli premier to visit the museum at a lakeside villa on the outskirts of Berlin where top Nazis adopted in January 1942 the final solution -- plans to exterminate European Jewry.As the prime minister of the state of Israel, I only want to say the following -- that the Jewish nation is alive,he said as he examined records from the conference.
Settlements no precondition on Mideast talks: US Thu Aug 27, 3:50 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States indicated Friday that its calls on Israel to freeze settlements were not a precondition for restarting Middle East peace talks, as the Jewish state held firm in its refusal.President Barack Obama's administration insisted it was not changing its stance, which has caused friction with the close US ally, that Israel halt all settlements in the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem.But State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the main US goal was to relaunch talks between Israel and the Palestinians, who will decide for themselves on the contours of a peace deal.The United States position on settlements, we've said it many times, we haven't changed it,Crowley said.But he added: The key here is getting to the negotiations.Remember what we are trying to achieve here,he said.We are hoping to get to a formal negotiation through which we can reach a resolution between the Israelis and the Palestinians as part of our ambition to see comprehensive peace in the Middle East.A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged Israel's right-leaning prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has resisted the settlement demands.
The United States is waiting to see whether the Palestinians and other Arabs support holding peace talks nonetheless, the official said.We've set a high bar and the objective here is how close to that bar can you get,the official said.We have our very strong views which we have enunciated about what we think it necessary. But if you get close to that and the parties themselves say this is okay,then Washington will not complain, the official said.Netanyahu met Wednesday in London with the US special envoy on the Middle East, former senator George Mitchell, without any breakthrough.An Israeli delegation is expected to travel next week to New York for further talks with Mitchell.
UN council extends Lebanon force with same mandate By Patrick Worsnip – Thu Aug 27, 1:44 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The Security Council extended on Thursday the mandate of U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon but sidestepped the issue of whether they could do more to stop Hezbollah building up an armed presence in the south.Israel has criticized the UNIFIL force for not stopping weapons it says are flowing to Hezbollah guerrillas who might again bombard northern Israel with rockets as they did during a 2006 war. The United Nations says that is the primary responsibility of the Lebanese authorities.On July 14, an arms dump exploded in the south Lebanese village of Khirbet Selim. Israel said the incident showed Hezbollah was stockpiling weapons in breach of Security Council resolution 1701, passed after the war.UNIFIL is still investigating the blast. In a letter this month to the Security Council, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said there were signs the dump was Hezbollah-controlled although it appeared to have been in place for several years.A resolution approved unanimously by the council extended UNIFIL's mandate until August 31, 2010. The force, currently 12,000-strong, has been in Lebanon in various forms since 1978 but was beefed up after the 2006 war.Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev told the council that following the July 14 incident, the extension is an excellent opportunity for the Security Council and the (U.N. peacekeeping department) to further encourage UNIFIL to strengthen its good work.Shalev told reporters earlier this week that Israel was not seeking changes to UNIFIL's mandate, though council diplomats said privately that Israel made clear it would like UNIFIL to more aggressively counter any rearming by Hezbollah.No changes to the mandate were provided for in Thursday's resolution, which merely encouraged further coordination between UNIFIL and Lebanon's army.
VIOLATIONS
The resolution expressed deep concern at the serious violations cited in Ban's letter, but did not specifically mention the arms explosion or Israeli overflights of Lebanon, also a breach of resolution 1701 that Beirut regularly raises.Thursday's French-drafted text reaffirmed UNIFIL's authority to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind but said it should take action as it deems within its capabilities.Ban's August 6 letter stated that the Lebanese authorities have the primary responsibility to ensure that there are no unauthorized personnel, assets or weapons between the Litani River and the Israeli border, and that UNIFIL merely helped.
UNIFIL says disarming Hezbollah is not in its mandate.
A war of words between Israel and Hezbollah has heated up in recent weeks as Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri seeks to form a cabinet expected to include civilian representatives of the Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah group.Hezbollah has said its guerrilla force is back to full strength after the 2006 war and has recently hinted it could add anti-aircraft missiles to its arsenal of short-range rockets and small arms.Thursday's resolution also endorsed a review of the force structure of UNIFIL that Ban plans to launch.This will include an evaluation of UNIFIL's naval task force, which Ban said was stretched to the limits because its original 12 vessels had been reduced to seven.(Editing by Alan Elsner)
Netanyahu in Berlin: Iran, settlements, Auschwitz By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer – Thu Aug 27, 12:32 pm ET
BERLIN – With memories of the Holocaust as their backdrop, the leaders of Israel and Germany spoke Thursday about the need to keep the Jewish state safe from threats like a nuclear-armed Iran.Chancellor Angela Merkel also underlined her country's desire to see Israel stop building its controversial settlements, telling reporters after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that time on this is short.
Netanyahu's talks with Merkel in the German capital came a day after a rare sign of progress in bringing Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table, with both sides indicating a first meeting between their leaders was likely to take place within weeks.A meeting between Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which the officials said could happen in September at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, would be an important symbolic step toward resuming peace talks.I hope that in a time frame of a month or two we can relaunch negotiations, Netanyahu said Thursday.Let's just get on with it.But Netanyahu offered no indication that Israel would agree to a settlement freeze, the Palestinian condition for resuming the peace talks.Some 300,000 Israelis now live in West Bank settlements, besides 180,000 Israelis living in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim both areas.
The United States, a strong ally, has urged Israel to stop expanding the settlements.
Netanyahu arrived in Berlin from London, where he met British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell. The Israeli leader's meeting with Mitchell, centering on efforts to achieve a settlement compromise, appeared to have been inconclusive, with a joint statement afterward saying only that good progress was made.Netanyahu has said he wants a compromise that would allow Israel to continue with some settlement construction while at the same time restarting peace talks with the Palestinians. Israeli officials say one possibility being discussed would let Israel complete 2,500 housing units now under construction while promising not to build more.Netanyahu has said he will accept no restrictions in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and which the Palestinians see as their future capital.It is unclear what sort of compromise would be acceptable to American or Palestinian officials, who have said they will not resume talks before Israel freezes construction in its settlements.Turning to Iran, Merkel and Netanyahu underlined the need for Tehran to stop its nuclear program or face stiffer sanctions.Merkel noted after their meeting that the Group of Eight's position made it clear that a definitive point on the existing offer for Tehran to resume talks on the issue would be reached in September.If there is no answer, then we will have to talk about stronger measures and sanctions in the energy, financial and other important sectors, Merkel said.Netanyahu said he and Merkel also discussed a prisoner swap for an Israeli soldier held by Hamas since 2006. Germany has not confirmed reports it is involved in negotiations, but Netanyahu hinted that Berlin has been playing a role.
(Israel) appreciates all efforts of well meaning governments to help us in this regard, and Germany is definitely a well-meaning government,he said.A visit by an Israeli leader to Germany is never limited to current events. Between meetings with Merkel and the German foreign minister, Netanyahu was also visiting the Wannsee House, the site of a key 1942 meeting during which the Nazis formalized plans for the extermination of the Jews. Netanyahu also took possession of a set of blueprints of the notorious Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Accepting the blueprints from the editor of Bild, the German newspaper that obtained the plans after they surfaced in Berlin last year, Netanyahu drew a parallel between past and current events. We cannot allow those who wish to perpetrate mass deaths, those who call for the destruction of the Jewish people or the Jewish state, to go unchallenged, Netanyahu said.It is important for the leaders of other nations to realize that their own fate is imperiled by those who threaten our fate,he said. Netanyahu didn't explicitly mention Iran, but it was a clear reference to that country's nuclear program, which Israel sees as a grave threat and wants blocked by stronger international sanctions.The 29 sketches of the death camp built in Nazi-occupied Poland date as far back as 1941. They include detailed blueprints for living barracks, delousing facilities and crematoria, including gas chambers, and are considered important for understanding the genesis of the Nazi genocide.The sketches are initialed by the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, and Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoess.Germany and Israel today enjoy close ties, and Merkel underlined Germany's special commitment to Israel's existence, saying it was her country's obligation to defend Israel always.Germany built the Israeli navy's three Dolphin-class submarines, which foreign press reports say can launch nuclear-tipped missiles. It is also building two more submarines and is in talks with Israel's military about supplying its fleet with several modern missile boats.
PLO picks new leaders at landmark meeting Thu Aug 27, 12:58 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – The parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) elected on Thursday six new members to its executive body.Among the six elected are Ahmed Qorei, a veteran who recently lost his position in the leadership of the secular Fatah movement, along with top negotiator Saeb Erakat, and lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi, a PLO spokesman said.The Palestinian National Council (PNC), the organisation's parliament, last held a plenary meeting in 1996, and was replacing members of the PLO's 18-member Executive Committee who have since died.Among Executive Committee members who died in recent years was iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who passed away in 2004 in a Paris hospital.
The Executive Committee is headed by Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas.
The PLO groups the main Palestinian nationalist factions, including Abbas's Fatah, but not the Islamist Hamas which has ruled the Gaza enclave since 2007.It created the Palestinian Authority in July 1994 when Arafat returned to Palestinian land after 27 years in exile.The international community recognises the PLO as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, but Hamas disputes that claim and has in the past sought to create a rival body.
Abbas to call election if talks with Hamas fail By Mohammed Assadi – Wed Aug 26, 10:35 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday he would press ahead with a January parliamentary and presidential election opposed by the rival Hamas movement if reconciliation efforts failed.We are still offering the same proposal, but if it's refused, then the sole alternative is to go to presidential and parliamentary elections, Abbas said, referring to a unity government including his secular Fatah party and Islamist Hamas.Abbas was speaking at the first meeting of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) in 13 years.More than 300 members of the PNC, the top legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization, convened to determine how to replace, whether by appointment or vote, six deceased members of the PLO's 18-member Executive Committee.Hamas, which won a 2006 parliamentary election and seized control of the Gaza Strip a year later in fighting with Fatah, says it will not accept a new poll in January unless a package deal is reached with Abbas' party.Going to an election without a (unity) accord is not acceptable because it will not be based upon a national agreement, Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas official, said in Gaza.He said that without a reconciliation deal, Hamas would not allow a ballot to be held in the Gaza Strip. Hamas opposes the Western-backed Abbas' peace efforts with Israel.Egyptian mediation stretching over more than a year has failed to secure a deal on forming a unity government, restructuring security services, ending political arrests in the Gaza Strip and West Bank and establishing an election mechanism.(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)(For blogs and links on Israeli politics and other Israeli and Palestinian news, go to http://blogs.reuters.com/axismundi)
Abbas to meet Sarkozy in Paris next week Wed Aug 26, 4:35 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will meet his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on September 4, a Palestinian official told AFP on Wednesday.President Abbas will travel to Paris on September 3 and will meet President Sarkozy the next day,the official said on condition of anonymity.Abbas's second visit to the French capital since February comes amid an international push led by the United States to budge the stalled Middle East peace process by the time the UN General Assembly convenes in September.
Fayyad unveils plan for Palestinian state in two years by Hossam Ezzedine – Tue Aug 25, 2:44 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad on Tuesday unveiled his government's plans to create a de facto state in two years as international efforts to restart Middle East peace talks grind on.The Palestinian government is determined to build state institutions without waiting for the outcome of peace talks with the Israelis, Fayyad said at a news conference in the occupied West Bank's political capital of Ramallah.The Palestinian government is struggling determinedly against a hostile occupation regime... in order to establish a de facto state apparatus within the next two years,he said.This can and must happen within two years,he said, calling on Palestinians -- deeply divided since the June 2007 Hamas takeover of Gaza, the smaller part of their promised state -- to rally behind the plan.We must confront the whole world with the reality that Palestinians are united and steadfast in their determination to remain on their homeland, end the occupation and achieve their freedom and independence,he said.The world should also know that we are not prepared to continue living under a brutal occupation and siege that flouts not only the law, but also the principles of natural justice and human decency.The establishment of an independent, sovereign and viable Palestinian state is fundamental for peace, security and stability in our region.
This government seeks to involve all sectors and segments of society in the national drive to develop and advance our institutions.Among the priorities listed were disentangling the economy's dependence on Israel and foreign aid, trimming the size of the government, increasing the use of technology and implementing a performance-based system in the public sector.Another priority was keeping public sector wages in check and unifying the legal system that at present is a hodgepodge of Ottoman, British, Jordanian and Israeli laws and regulations.The plan also included objectives for each ministry and major government offices such as the central bureau of statistics.Fayyad, a former World Bank and International Monetary Fund official widely respected in the West who has twice served as Palestinian finance minister, has won international praise for reforms he has instituted in his two years as premier.He was appointed prime minister just days after Hamas ousted forces loyal to Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas from Gaza in June 2007, and the Islamist movement ruling the coastal strip does not recognise his authority.The plan comes amid a renewed drive by the US and the international community to get the Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace negotiations that were suspended during the Gaza offensive at the turn of the year.Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, criticised the plan.There is no place for either unilateral actions or threats, he said.It is clear that a Palestinian state, no matter what its form, will not see the light of day if Israel's security concerns are not taken into account.
Brown upbeat after talks with Israel's PM by Ron Bousso – Tue Aug 25, 12:05 pm ET
LONDON (AFP) – Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged visiting Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze settlement building Tuesday, but said he was increasingly confident of progress on Mideast peace.At the same time the hawkish Israeli leader, on the first full day of a European trip aimed at placating critics, reiterated that Jerusalem remains non-negotiable.Jerusalem is sovereign capital of Israel and we accept no limitation to our sovereignty. Jerusalem is not a settlement, said Netanyahu, at a joint press conference with Brown after talks in his Downing Street office.But he said that a winning formula was a demilitarised Palestinian state that recognises Israel as the Jewish state.We're working hard to advance a peace process that will lead to an actual peace result. And we hope to move forward in the weeks and months ahead,Netanyahu told reporters.Israel has come under increasing diplomatic heat over its settlement activity in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank and has refused to heed US and other international calls to freeze such construction.
Brown called Netanyahu a leader of immense courage,saying:We've had good talks which leave me as realistic as ever, but more optimistic than before.The Palestinian economy must be allowed to flourish so I strongly welcome his recent moves to remove checkpoints in the West Bank,Brown said, adding that an economic roadmap should underpin a sustained political dialogue.We also discussed the issue of settlements in East Jerusalem. I made it clear that settlement activity was a barrier to a two-state solution,he said.But he added: I am increasingly confident... that there is a genuine will to make progress, that a freeze of such activity would result in meaningful steps towards normalisation from Arab states.As well as the Middle East peace process, Brown and Netanyahu also discussed efforts to halt arch-foe Iran's nuclear drive. The United States has threatened new sanctions if Tehran fails to return to the negotiating table.
Brown reiterated concern over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
The region and the world have nothing to fear from a civilian nuclear programme in Iran, but Iran's actions do not make their arguments convincing,the British leader said.Netanyahu's talks at 10 Downing Street come ahead of a summit on Thursday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose government is traditionally one of Israel's closest allies in Europe.The visit to London offers Netanyahu a chance to patch up relations with Brown's government, which recently said it was appalled by the eviction of two Palestinian families from their homes in a district of Arab east Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel in 1967 after the Six Day War.On Wednesday, Netanyahu will meet US President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell.He is pressing Israel hard to freeze settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, where the Palestinians hope to establish the capital of their promised future state.Britain and Germany are among the many states to back the US demand, seen as key to reviving the peace talks halted last December when Israel launched a deadly offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.Netanyahu said Israel has removed 147 checkpoints in the West Bank -- and called on Palestinians to respond.We've moved on the ground, I've also moved not only in deed but in word. I have spoken about the need to achieve this balance of a demilitarised Palestinian state next to a Jewish state.We have moved, we expect similar movement from the Palestinian Authority,the Israeli leader said.
Palestinian PM seeks aid for embryo state By Mohammed Assadi – Tue Aug 25, 10:38 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – An international airport for a future state of Palestine, national institutions and new rail links were listed by the Palestinian prime minister on Tuesday in a government program needing foreign funding.Salam Fayyad's 65-page program proposes a generous tax regime for foreign investors in a Palestinian state, which he says could be made ready by 2011.The program appeared to be a wish-list rather than a detailed blueprint. Peace talks with Israel, in which Palestinians seek a state on Israeli-occupied land, have been suspended since December.We need continued support by the international community, Fayyad told reporters after introducing the document.We are going to seek this additional funding, he said without disclosing figures.Even after the state is established ... we will continue to need external financial support at least for development and public investment spending.The Palestinian Authority is heavily dependent on foreign assistance for most of its budget. In 2008, it received 1.8 billion in budget support.
The Fayyad plan is short on detail, but setting out such objectives is a departure from Palestinian policy over the past 15 years, which focused exclusively on negotiations with Israel rather than building institutions.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has made a resumption of peace talks with Israel conditional on a freeze on Jewish settlements in territory seized by Israel in a 1967 war.
AIR FORCE ONE
Fayyad said he had informed the European Union and U.S. president Barack Obama of his vision of an international airport in the Jordan valley, which is under Israeli occupation.He said he recently told U.S. officials during a visit to Washington that the Palestinians want to receive President Obama in our airport. We want to receive him landing in his Air Force One, not the Marine helicopter from Israel.We know that the path ahead is not planted with flowers, Fayyad said. But we are heading forward and we know that we are living under occupation but we should not give up and say this is our destiny.A technocrat with no significant political base, he heads a newly aligned cabinet with more ministers than before from the dominant Fatah faction of President Abbas, whose Islamist Hamas rivals refuse to recognize the premier.Fayyad's program includes building infrastructure, securing energy sources and water, and improving housing, education, and agriculture. No detailed schedules are included.
Fayyad said other projects for the would-be state include an oil refinery.
Israel PM hopes to resume peace talks by end of September Sun Aug 23, 2:46 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said he hoped to relaunch US-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians by the end of next month.
There is an assessment that we can (resume negotiations) by the end of September, depending on understandings between us, the Americans and the Palestinians, he said at a cabinet meeting, according to a senior official.This is more or less the direction and the time-frame we would like to achieve, Netanyahu added on the eve of a four-day trip to Europe during which he plans to meet US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.Israel and the Palestinians last relaunched peace talks in November 2007 in the US city of Annapolis, but the negotiations made little tangible progress and were suspended during the war in the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year.Israel's hardline Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman meanwhile said that US President Barack Obama's vision for Middle East peace was unrealistic.Bringing President Obama's dream to fruition in two years, including an overall agreement and a (Palestinian) state, is an unrealistic goal,Lieberman said after the weekly cabinet meeting.The controversial minister, who heads the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, said the foreign ministry in the past had concerned itself too much with the conflict.One of the foreign ministry's mistakes was to turn itself into a ministry for Palestinian affairs,he said.I have no intention of doing that, no plans for obsessive engagement.
Obama has repeatedly called on Israel to halt all settlement activity in the occupied territories and on Arab leaders to take steps towards normalising relations with the Jewish state.Netanyahu has rejected a complete freeze, but last week said the government would not issue new tenders for construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem until 2010.Netanyahu said his meeting with Mitchell on Wednesday will not be our last meeting before the launch of the American peace plan to resume negotiations.The presence of around a half million Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem has been a major stumbling block to past peace efforts and the Palestinians have said they will not meet with Netanyahu until all settlement activity is halted.
Plans for new settlement in Jerusalem: report by Charly Wegman – Sun Aug 23, 11:54 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – A plan for a new Jewish settlement in Israeli-annexed Arab east Jerusalem has been submitted for approval to city hall, a newspaper reported on Sunday.The plan calls for the construction of about 104 housing units in the Ras al-Amud neighbourhood, currently home to some 14,000 Palestinians, the Haaretz newspaper reported, quoting sources at the Jerusalem municipality.This plan for massive construction in a high-density Palestinian area is extremely dangerous for the urban equilibrium,Yariv Oppenheimer, the head of the Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now, told AFP.Approval of the plan is certain to cause a storm amid US efforts to get Israel to freeze all settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land in order to revive the stalled peace process.Palestinian senior negotiator Saeb Erakat slammed the project, saying in a statement that Israel?s continued settlement expansion in east Jerusalem is an out and out land grab that threatens the very possibility of a negotiated two-state solution.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the call for a settlement freeze, but in a gesture to Washington he agreed last week not to invite any new construction tenders in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, until early 2010.The US administration welcomed the announcement as a move in the right direction, but critics said it fell far short of demands for a total freeze on settlement construction, one of the main stumbling blocks in the peace talks.Israel has always made a distinction, not recognised by the international community, between east Jerusalem, which it regards as part of its eternal, undivided" capital, and the rest of the West Bank.
The Jewish state captured the territory from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed Arab east Jerusalem in a move not recognised by the international community, which considers all settlements on occupied land illegal.In a report published on Sunday, Peace Now said almost 600 housing units have been constructed in the West Bank since the start of the year, including 96 structures in wildcat outposts built without Israeli government approval.The construction continues with government support in the large settlement blocs and, in a roundabout manner, in isolated colonies,the report said.About half a million Israelis currently live in settlements in the West Bank including east Jerusalem.
Israel's New Visa Rule for Foreigners: If You Want To Visit Palestine, Stay There By MATTHEW KALMAN / RAMALLAH - Sat Aug 22, 3:20 am ET
When Canadian businessman Sam Ismail brought his wife and five children to visit his brother's family in Ramallah last week, he planned to stay for 10 days and tour both Israel and the Palestinian territories. They had flown into Amman, crossed over to the West Bank. Knowing that Palestinian Authority license plates are banned in Israel, Ismail reserved a car at an Israeli rental company. But, when he got to Israeli border control, he was shocked to discover that his Canadian passport was stamped Palestinian Authority Only.Last time they came, they visited Acre, Haifa, Jerusalem - the whole country,Ismail's brother Nedal, who lives in the West Bank, told TIME.This time they packed up after 96 hours and spent the extra week in Jordan instead.Ismail had fallen afoul of an Israeli border policy, quietly begun in June, that bars foreigners who say they are visiting the Palestinian Authority from entering Israel. Israel says the visa helps to exclude visitors who threaten security. According to Israeli Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad, the procedure is based on an unpublished 2006 decision by the Israeli interior and defense ministers that any foreign national who wants to enter the Palestinian Authority must have a permit issued by the army, and entry is permitted only into PA territory.(Read a story about Mike Huckabee's visit to Israeli settlements in the West Bank.)
Palestinians say it violates international law and the promise of unhindered movement for foreign travelers under the 1995 Oslo II Accords.Israel wishes to strictly regulate travel of visitors who come to the country, especially those curious to see the West Bank,says Toufic Haddad, a Palestinian-American activist. (Read about Ezra Nawi, the Israeli activist jailed for aiding Arabs.)The policy has affected U.S. citizens. This week, Betty Najjab, an American from Centreville, Virginia and the widow of a Palestinian, was given one of the new visa stamps after visiting in-laws in Jordan. She told TIME she didn't know if she would be able to fly home: the return leg of her ticket departs from Israel's Ben-Gurion airport.We have made it quite known to the Israeli Government... that we expect all American citizens to be treated the same regardless of their national origin,U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters this week.These kinds of restrictions we consider unacceptable.
It is being applied in an arbitrary manner,Salwa Duaibis, Coordinator for the Right to Enter Campaign in Ramallah, told TIME.It depends on the discretion of the person sitting at the border. If you want to go and visit family in Jerusalem and you get this visa, then your whole plans are thrown out of the window.The new policy is alienating businessmen like Khaled Sabawi of London, Ontario whose family has for years fostered investment in Palestine and whose father Mohamed was on the board of the Peres Peace Center. Sabawi runs the Ramallah-based MENA Geothermal, one of the first green energy companies in the Middle East. He has spent nearly three years traveling between Canada and Ramallah on three-month Israeli tourist visas. Last January, Sabawi was suddenly turned back at the border crossing from Jordan. Subsequently, he was denied entry twice. Since June, his visa has restricted him to Palestinian territory. Says Sabawi: I find myself being racially profiled, interrogated by security officials and forced to wait for up to eight hours at the border.I can't meet with Israelis any more and lots of our equipment comes from Israeli manufacturers. I can't buy from them if I can't meet them to negotiate, Sabawi told TIME.We will withdraw our investments if we can't be here to oversee our businesses. It will simply be too risky for us to invest in Palestine.
