Rocket fire from Lebanon sparks Israel retaliation By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 11 12:15PM
BEIRUT – Two rockets were fired from southern Lebanon into Israel on Friday, prompting Israel to respond with artillery fire, Lebanese security and military officials said.
The exchange, in which no casualties were reported by either side, was the latest in persisting tensions between the two countries. It was the fourth time rockets have been fired from Lebanon into Israel, each time bringing Israeli retaliation.It was not immediately known who fired the rockets Friday. But radical Palestinian factions in Lebanon have been blamed in the previous barrages this year.The border has been tense since Israel and the Lebanese Shiite guerrilla group Hezbollah fought a brutal 34-day war in 2006. More than 1,200 people in Lebanon and 160 in Israel died in the conflict. Hezbollah has a large rocket arsenal but is not believed to have used them against Israel since the 2006 fighting. It has denied involvement in previous rocket attacks on Israel.Michael Williams, the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, told reporters in Beirut that the incident is a very, very serious development and I would like to call on all sides to exercise absolute caution and restraint.Friday's exchange began when two rockets were fired into Israel from the area of the Lebanese town of Qlaileh, near the port city of Tyre, a Lebanese military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
One of the rockets hit near the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. No injuries were reported. Israel's Channel 10 TV showed a telephone pole near a kibbutz not far from the border that was toppled by a rocket.The Israeli military said it fired artillery at the source of rocket fire. The military views this incident very severely and we hold the government of Lebanon responsible,a statement said.At least two Israeli shells hit near Qlaileh, Lebanese security officials said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that nine Israeli artillery shells fell near the town, but there were no reports of casualties or damage.The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, which monitors the border, said it, in cooperation with Lebanese Armed Forces, deployed additional troops in the Qlaileh area to prevent escalation. The force, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that it had contacted both sides, urging them to exercise maximum restraint.Israel and Hezbollah have been increasingly exchanging warnings in recent weeks that they will retaliate against each other if either side sparks hostilities. The tensions come as Lebanese politicians are wrangling over the formation of a new government, which would likely include members of the Hezbollah-led opposition.Israel has said that if Hezbollah is part of the Cabinet, it would hold the Lebanese government directly responsible for any attack by the guerrillas.Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV reported on the exchange, but did not make any claim of responsibility.The last exchange, blamed on Palestinian militants, across the border came in February. Palestinian militants also fired rockets across the border twice in January, during Israel's offensive on Gaza against the militant Palestinian Hamas.Associated Press Writer Ian Deitch contributed to this report from Jerusalem.
Rockets hit Israel from Lebanon, no casualties SEPT 11,09
Tyre, Lebanon (Reuters) – At least two rockets from Lebanon struck northern Israel on Friday, prompting Israeli artillery to shell the fruit groves from which they were fired, security officials on both sides of the border said.No casualties were immediately reported by Israeli police, who said two rockets landed. Lebanese security sources, who reported at least two outgoing missiles and 15 incoming Israeli shells, did not say who may have fired the rockets.
Israeli television later reported a third missile damaged an electricity pylon.
An Israeli military spokesman said there were several rockets but no casualties and confirmed the Israeli army returned fire. The Israeli army holds the Lebanese government responsible, the spokesman said.U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon and the Lebanese army deployed extra troops to prevent any escalation, a spokeswoman for the UNIFIL peacekeeping force said.UNIFIL is in contact with both sides, urging them to exercise maximum restraint, uphold the cessations of hostilities and avoid taking steps which would lead to further escalation, Yasmina Bouziane said. UNIFIL was investigating the incident.It was the first time since February that rockets had been fired from Lebanon into Israel, raising tensions along a border that remains volatile three years after a war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah Islamist guerrillas in Lebanon.Occasional salvoes since then have been blamed by Israeli, Lebanese and U.N. peacekeeping forces in the area largely on fringe militant groups rather than on Hezbollah, the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shi'ite movement which remains a powerful force in Lebanon, especially in the south.During Israel's offensive against Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip in January, Hezbollah denied responsibility for several rockets fired from Lebanon. Security officials have said small groups active among Palestinian refugees or with links to al Qaeda were more likely to have mounted the attacks.(Reporting by Nadim Ladki and Tom Perry in Beirut and Ori Lewis and Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jersualem; Writing by Alastair Macdonald)
Israel PM, Egypt president to talk peace in Cairo by Patrick Moser – Fri Sep 11, 8:24 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's hawkish premier heads to Cairo on Sunday for talks focused on a US-led push to revive the Middle East peace process amid charges that his settlement policies are harming the efforts.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will discuss the peace process and issues of mutual concern, a spokesman for the premier said.Netanyahu is looking forward to a good meeting with the Egyptian president, the spokesman said without giving further details.The Israeli leader goes to Cairo amid a US-led push to get the Israelis and Palestinians to revive their peace talks which were suspended in December, and will coincide with a visit to the region by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.The United States has asked both Israel and Arab states to adopt confidence-building measures to advance the process, notably a freeze on Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and a start to a normalisation of Arab relations with Israel.
Several Arab states have said they will not normalise ties before there is a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, or at least substantive negotiations.
Israel's decision this month to authorise the construction of 455 new homes for settlers in the West Bank has drawn sharp criticism from the international community, which considers Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territory to be illegal.The White House said it regretted the decision and termed it inconsistent with its international commitments to the peace process, while the European Union expressed serious concern.Israel has said it would weigh demands for a freeze in settlement construction in the West Bank, but stressed it would be limited in time, would not include the newly authorised construction, nor the 2,500 homes currently under construction and would also exclude east Jerusalem.Netanyahu insisted on Thursday that his government was ready to make concessions for peace, but stressed that Israelis were not suckers.The Palestinians want a complete halt to Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank before they will return to the negotiating table.The peace talks had made little visible progress since they were relaunched in November 2007 after a seven year hiatus, and have been further hobbled by Palestinian divisions.
Egypt has been mediating between rival Palestinian factions Fatah, which holds sway in the West Bank, and Hamas, which rules the besieged Gaza Strip which the Israeli military attacked at the turn of the year.Cairo also has acted as a mediator in talks between Hamas and Israel on a possible deal to end the crippling Gaza blockade and free Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants more than three years ago.Egypt has been Israel's main Arab ally since the two signed a peace treaty in 1979, but the neighbours remain at odds over the Middle East peace process.
Gazans improvise to honor Ramadan traditions By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer – Fri Sep 11, 3:14 am ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Gazans have been learning to adapt to Hamas rule and a stifling border blockade, both now in their third year. But their skills of improvisation are particularly challenged during the holy month of Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.Coca-Cola is a Ramadan favorite in Gaza, but is banned by Israel's blockade on the Hamas-ruled territory, which only allows in humanitarian aid and basic foods.That helps make the holy month peak season for the territory's smugglers, who throughout the year haul everything from motorcycles to detergent through tunnels under the border with Egypt.During Ramadan, demand is particularly high for soft drinks and chocolates — sweet treats consumed after the fast-breaking evening meal, which Israel also bans. Smugglers also beef up imports of shoes, clothes and toys, bought in larger quantities for Eid el-Fitr, the three-day holiday capping Ramadan when families traditionally buy new clothes and other gifts.Tunnel boss Jihad says he imports more than 100,000 cans of soda a day during the fasting month, particularly Coca-Cola — double the amount he normally hauls in. Jihad, who asked that his family name not be used because he works in an illicit activity, has 32 laborers working from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., six days a week, using an electric pulley to move the goods.Most of the smugglers observe the fast, adding to the hardship of working in the unstable underground passages. More than 100 men have died in tunnel collapses since Israel and Egypt imposed a border blockade on Gaza in June 2007 after Hamas seized power of the coastal territory.On a recent morning, a smuggler, 25-year-old Atta, rested between hauls on an iron-frame bed in the sandy, rubble-strewn area near a tunnel exit.It's always the thirst and tiredness. But I won't break my fast,he said, shrugging his shoulders in a smeared white undershirt.
With the Islamic militant Hamas increasingly cementing control and silencing opponents, some Gazans resort to subtle acts of defiance.Choosing a Ramadan lantern is one. The brightly painted, battery-powered lanterns are hung in homes as a symbol of the season and come in different colors.This year's best-seller is yellow, the color of Hamas' political rival, Fatah, said Taha, a Gaza City toy vendor. Green, the color of Hamas, isn't in much demand.Customers tell me: I want yellow, I don't want any other color! Taha, 21, said.Now I've got a whole bunch of green lamps I can't sell, said the merchant, who asked not use his family name because he didn't want to get in trouble with Hamas.Gaza residents once proudly waved their factional flags from their rooftops. But under Hamas' tough rule, Fatah loyalists are often hounded, and few people dare to hoist flags of other factions, making lanterns a subversive sign of loyalty.The lack of demand for green isn't necessarily a sign of dwindling support for Hamas, lantern sellers said. Hamas loyalists are free to wave their own green flags, so they don't need green lanterns to make a statement.Gaza's few leftists are snapping up Taha's pink lamps — the closest to their signature color red.But nobody wants the blue lanterns. They aren't factional,Taha said.
Gaza's artisans are making a comeback as residents resort to their traditional ways to survive the blockade. Sabri Atallah's pottery workshop is thriving. Using local clay, he makes building bricks and roof tiles. And in a month when Gazans obsess over Iftar, the meal that breaks the 13-hour fast, there's a surge in demand for clay pots, which are used to bake Gaza's signature dish of shrimp, tomatoes, nuts and chili peppers. Attallah's workshop buzzes with barefoot young men in rolled up pants hauling clay, tending his kiln and working on pottery wheels. The bustle is in stark contrast to the deserted factories across Gaza. Virtually all have been forced to close because of the blockade, which prevents the import of raw materials and the export of manufactured goods.We only turn to Gaza products when we can't buy things from abroad,said Attallah, 56.But we should be proud of what we have.Gaza's largest and chronically overburdened hospital, Shifa, is normally a hive of haggard doctors, bearded male nurses in flip-flops and noisy families crowing around patients. But during the daylight hours of Ramadan, Shifa's hallways are eerily quiet. Patients and visitors are fewer, and the fasting staff is too tired to make much noise. Dr. Ahmad Fayoumi, head of admissions in the internal medicine department, says he sees around an average of 150 patients during the day in Ramadan — half the usual number.
Because people aren't eating, their bodies are resting,says Fayoumi.Diabetics don't have insulin problems, blood pressure goes down and the heart rests.But the evenings make up for the daytime calm.For many hungry Muslims, breaking the day's fast is a time to gorge on fatty meats, spicy rice and syrup-drenched fried pancakes stuffed with cheese, a Ramadan favorite.Fayoumi says the sugar-and-fat laden meals bring mostly middle-aged patients back to the hospital with high blood sugar or heartburn.
I'd call it a poor use of food,Fayoumi said.The body should be slowly prepared for food. Start with a date. Drink some milk. Pray. Then eat.The women in Gaza City's shrinking middle class jostle to have their hair done by Ramzi, a coiffeur so famous here he's reverently referred to by only his first name.
But Ramadan is a challenging time, both for the hairdresser and his customers.
Devout Muslim women believe its forbidden for any man, apart from their husband, father and brothers, to see their hair. It's a ruling that most wealthy Gazan women ignore — except in Ramadan, when even the most casual Muslims become a little more devout.At the moment, Ramzi's shop is empty.It's expected,he said, rolling his eyes as he folded tin foil pieces he uses to color hair.For the first 20 days of Ramadan, everybody becomes religious.He says his customers will troop back soon to prepare for the Eid el-Fitr holiday.In the last 10 days (of Ramadan), they beg Ramzi to fix them up,he said.
US envoy Mitchell due to leave for Mideast Friday Thu Sep 10, 2:30 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Thursday that special envoy George Mitchell was due to leave late Friday for talks in Israel and the Palestinian territories amid efforts to revive stalled peace talks.Mitchell's visit comes a week after the White House said it regretted Israel's reported plans to build new settlement homes, calling it inconsistent with its international commitments to the peace process.George Mitchell...will depart the United States tomorrow night,State Department spokesman PJ Crowley told reporters.Crowley expected Mitchell's talks to begin Sunday and last through Monday and Tuesday, but said details were still being worked out on exactly whom he would meet.Mitchell may also visit other cities than just those in Israel and the Palestinian territories, he said.White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said last Friday that the United States regret the reports of Israel's plans to approve additional settlement construction, saying such activity is inconsistent with Israel's commitment to a blueprint for a permanent two-state solution.
Israelis ready for peace talks, but not suckers: Netanyahu Thu Sep 10, 2:27 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday his government was ready to make concessions for peace, but that Israelis were not suckers.We have proved more than once that we are ready to make concessions for peace,Netanyahu told members of his Likud Party, referring to the 1979 peace deal with Egypt done when the party was in power.There is one thing we are not willing to do -- we are not willing to delude ourselves, or in common terms, we are not suckers,Netanyahu said.Netanyahu said Israel would not compromise on security or its demand that Palestinians and Arab nations recognise Israel as the Jewish state.
Netanyahu has been under pressure from the United States to make concessions to the Palestinians in order to jumpstart stalled peace talks.The Palestinians have demanded a complete halt to Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank before they will return to the negotiating table.Israel has agreed to a temporary halt to building, but authorised several hundred new settlement homes before the freeze goes into effect.In his speech, Netanyahu also sought to allay fears of the settlers.We will push ahead with the peace process but also let you live normal lives,Netanyahu said.
Palestinian rivals mull Egyptian plan for 2010 elections Thu Sep 10, 12:42 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – The feuding Fatah and Hamas movements are considering Egyptian proposals to hold Palestinian elections next year as part of a wider reconciliation plan, officials from the two factions said on Thursday.According to extracts of the proposals obtained by AFP, the plan calls for both presidential and parliamentary elections to be held across the Palestinian territories in the middle of 2010.It also calls for the reinforcement of the Fatah-dominated security forces under Egyptian supervision and the release of prisoners in both the Fatah-run West Bank and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who is also Fatah leader, received the proposals on Wednesday and is due to give his response within the next two days, his spokesman said.In Gaza, a Hamas spokesman said the Islamist movement, which seized the territory from Abbas loyalists in June 2007, was also preparing its response.Egypt has been attempting to reconcile the two factions for months and hopes to resume the latest round of the talks after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Netanyahu agreed to Golan withdrawal in 1998: report Thu Sep 10, 12:36 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the principle of withdrawing from the Golan Heights in return for peace with Syria in 1998 during his first stint as prime minister, a newspaper said on Thursday citing a newly revealed document.
Israel will withdraw from the Syrian land taken in 1967, in accordance with Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which established the right of all states to secure and recognised borders in the land for peace formula,according to a copy of the document published by the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily.The withdrawal will be to a commonly agreed border based on the line of June 4, 1967,it said.The document was drawn up by US businessman Ron Lauder to summarise the positions reached by Israel during its indirect talks with Syria in which he served as a go-between. Lauder presented it to then US president Bill Clinton in 1999, after Netanyahu had left office.Although the existence of the document has been known for years, Thursday marks the first time that its exact contents have been published.Netanyahu, who was sworn in for his second term as prime minister on March 31, has always denied that he agreed to fully withdraw from the Golan in the talks held during his first premiership from 1996 to 1999.Israel captured the strategic plateau from Syria in the Six Day War of 1967 and then annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community.The territory is currently home to some 20,000 Israeli settlers who live alongside roughly the same number of Druze.
Syria has always made return of the Golan a non-negotiable condition for peace.
But Netanyahu told a meeting of his right-leaning government on May 10 that he would not withdraw from the territory in return for peace.I have no intention of bringing Israeli forces down from the Golan,a senior official quoted him as telling members of his cabinet.Everything that has taken place up to this point has no relevance.
Jerusalem settler project ordered to stop Thu Sep 10, 11:43 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – In a rare victory for Palestinian residents, a judge has stopped an infrastructure project linked to a settler organisation in occupied east Jerusalem, civic rights groups said on Thursday.The Jerusalem District Court found that the eight million dollar (5.5 million euro) municipal project supported by the Eldad settler group in the Silwan neighbourhood was illegal because it lacked construction permits, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and rights group Bimkom said.ACRI said the planned construction of sidewalks and facade renovations was designed to make the neighbourhood suitable for tourists who visit the City of David archaeological site, at the expense of open spaces, green areas, and parking spots for actual residents of the neighbourhood.Eldad, a group dedicated to expanding Jewish ownership in Arab areas of east Jerusalem, says the site is where the palace of the biblical King David once stood, a claim disputed by many archaeologists.Rights groups say that over the years, government bodies have transferred both private Palestinian property and national parks in the Silwan neighbourhood to Elad, which they say effectively operates the City of David site.
Authorities plan to raze 88 Palestinian homes in Silwan they say were built illegally, a controversial decision which critics claim is part of a plan to Judaise east Jerusalem.The city's Palestinian residents accuse the Israeli-run municipality of discriminating against them and making it virtually impossible to get legal permits for new homes or extensions to existing ones.Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967 and annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community. It considers all of Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital, but foreign embassies are all located in Tel Aviv.The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their promised state.
Hamas produces and smuggles weapons: Meshaal Wed Sep 9, 1:21 pm ET
KHARTOUM (AFP) – The political supremo of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, said his group produces and smuggles weapons, during a visit to Sudan on Wednesday.Your brothers in Palestine, despite the blockade and the closing of border passages ... despite the fleets from east and west, despite all of this, we buy arms, we manage to produce arms and we smuggle arms,he said in a recording of a speech to young members of President Omar al-Beshir's ruling party.The Damascus-based leader of Hamas, who arrived in Khartoum on Tuesday, did not elaborate on the type of arms produced or the suppliers of weapons.An air raid by foreign aircraft on a convoy of trucks in eastern Sudan in January killed 119 people, the country's news agency Suna reported in May, giving an official death toll for the first time.The convoy had been transporting illegal immigrants to Egypt, General Abdul-Rahim Mohamed Hussein told a parliamentary committee investigating the attack, Suna said.
But Time Magazine has reported that the convoy was carrying rockets and Iranian explosives bound for the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip during an Israeli offensive against Palestinian militants.Citing two senior Israeli security officials, the magazine said Israeli fighter-bombers had carried out the attack.Hamas, whose militants fire homemade Qassam rockets at southern Israel, at the time denied the report.
How Obama Hopes to Restart the Middle East Peace Talks By MASSIMO CALABRESI / WASHINGTON – Wed Sep 9, 11:15 am ET
Arab leaders are bracing for disappointment as the Obama Administration prepares to unveil the next stage of its plan to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The Administration is hoping to announce the resumption of final-status negotiations over a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians later this month, either during the U.N. General Assembly meeting or soon thereafter, according to senior Arab officials involved in consultations on the plan. But with the deadline rapidly approaching, Washington's Arab allies have expressed concern to the Administration about the content of the proposals to be delivered by Obama's special envoy George Mitchell. One senior Arab official who asked to remain anonymous recently noted that the initial optimism generated by President Obama's decision to prioritize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had given way to a growing anxiety among his country's leaders.Arab governments fear that Mitchell and the White House are not ready to force Israel to make concessions on the most contentious issues that have stymied the achievement of peace over the years - and they don't expect the Israelis to move without U.S. pressure. The benchmark set by Arab regimes for proof of Israel's good faith is a freeze on settlements in territory conquered in 1967, a position supported by the Administration. Mitchell has spent the past six months trying to get the Israelis to agree to a settlement freeze, with mixed results. Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Jerusalem issued conflicting statements, saying that it would freeze settlements in part, but continue with certain projects underway. And on Sept. 7, Defense Minister Ehud Barak issued permits for the construction of almost 500 new housing units in West Bank settlements.
The Arabs are right to worry. Mitchell is still engaged in tough negotiations with the Israelis and will travel to Israel this weekend, but there are several reasons why Obama may accept a less than absolute freeze on settlement activity by the Israelis. First, even a partial settlement freeze is more than any Administration has been able to squeeze from Israeli leaders in the past, says Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group.If Israel says,We'll put a moratorium on settlement activity, except for some exceptions,it's something the Obama Administration achieves that their predecessors haven't.Second, the Administration's efforts on the Israeli-Palestinian front may be shaped by U.S. priorities elsewhere in the Middle East - namely, getting Iran to scale back its nuclear ambitions. The U.S. aims to impose crippling sanctions if Iran doesn't comply with its international obligations, but making such sanctions effective requires cooperation from Iran's Arab neighbors. Washington's prospects for securing Arab cooperation on Iran are improved if Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are underway.The Arab governments are aware of the Obama Administration's calculations, and have been playing the Iran card from their own side in the hope of convincing Washington to apply pressure on Israel. The neighboring states can hardly jump into bed with the U.S. on Iran if the ball is dropped on the peace process, says the senior Arab diplomat. But the threat of withholding Arab cooperation on Iran in the absence of a settlement freeze in the Palestinian territories is not entirely credible, because Arab regimes have as much to fear from a nuclear armed Iran as does the U.S. And if the Obama Administration accepts Israel's partial settlement freeze, it will be hard for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to refuse to talk.So, Obama is likely to call the Arab-Palestinian bluff with the best deal he can get from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. More than six months after starting work on reviving the peace process, the White House needs to get past talking about talks and get to the business of negotiation.This has become a losing game and it's time to move on to final status, the thing that matters most,says Malley.
Venezuela's Chavez accuses Israel of genocide Wed Sep 9, 7:47 am ET
PARIS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has accused Israel of genocide against the Palestinian people, telling a French newspaper that the bombing of Gaza late last year was an unprovoked attack.The question is not whether the Israelis want to exterminate the Palestinians. They're doing it openly, Chavez said in an interview with Le Figaro published on Wednesday.The Venezuelan president, who has just completed a tour of Middle Eastern and Arab countries, brushed aside Israeli assertions that its attack on Gaza was a response to rocket fire from Islamist group Hamas which rules the coastal enclave.What was it if not genocide? ... The Israelis were looking for an excuse to exterminate the Palestinians, Chavez said, adding that sanctions should have been slapped on Israel.Israel launched an offensive against the Gaza Strip on December 27 2008 with the declared aim of curbing rocket fire from the region into southern Israel.The land, sea and air assault lasted 22 days, and left some 1,300 Palestinians dead, according to medical sources.Chavez said he recognized Israel's right to exist, as with all countries, but added that the Jewish state must respect the Palestinian people's right to self-determination.The Venezuelan president said he wanted more clarity from the United States on its foreign policy, adding that he was disappointed by recent U.S. dealings in South America, including the installation of military bases in Colombia.Sadly, the arrival of Obama brought with it a lot of hope, but little change,he said.(Reporting by Vicky Buffery)
Israeli PM made secret visit to Russia over Iran Wed Sep 9, 5:41 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's prime minister stole away to Moscow this week to discuss Russian arms sales to arch-foes Iran and Syria, a report said on Wednesday amid speculation over the premier's mysterious disappearance.Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Moscow on Monday, the respected mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily said, citing anonymous sources.Asked to comment on the report, Netanyahu's office reiterated that the premier had spent Monday at the headquarters of the Mossad foreign intelligence agency.Spokesmen for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the two leaders did not meet Netanyahu on Monday, but did not explicitly deny that the visit took place.Netanyahu's hours-long absence from public view on Monday has sparked furious rumours in the Israeli media as to where he spent the day, with a secret visit to an Arab country topping the speculation.Israel has for years tried to convince Russia not to sell S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran, which the Jewish state fears Tehran could deploy around its controversial nuclear sites.Russia reportedly agreed to sell the systems to Tehran several years ago. Following an August 18 visit, Israeli President Shimon Peres said that he had secured a promise from his counterpart Dmitry Medvedev that Russia would review its decision.Widely considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, Israel suspects Iran of trying to develop an atomic bomb under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran denies.Israel considers Iran to be its arch-enemy following repeated statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Jewish state is doomed to be wiped off the map.
Israel-Europe relations strained under Netanyahu By STEVEN GUTKIN and ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Writers – Wed Sep 9, 4:35 am ET
JERUSALEM – A nasty diplomatic row with Sweden, Norway's decision to divest from an Israeli defense contractor and rising European condemnation of Israeli settlements point to growing friction in the Jewish state's already tricky relationship with Europe.European countries are taking a notably sharper tone at a time when a new U.S. administration is more willing to take Israel to task. Last winter's Gaza war and the advent of a right-wing government in Israel have fueled increasingly vociferous criticism of Israel on a continent that is home to some of its most important allies and trading partners.Israel's request for an upgrade in its trade relationship with the European Union has been put on hold. Calls for boycotts of Israel and divestment from Israeli companies have been gaining steam. And tens of thousands of Europeans have taken to the streets in recent months to protest Israeli actions, especially the high civilian toll in its bruising war against Hamas militants in Gaza.Western Europe, with its sizable Muslim minorities and influential leftist movements, has long been less buoyant about Israel than the United States, with its large Jewish population and conservative political base. Yet the European Union is Israel's biggest trading partner, accounting for about one third of imports and exports.
That could give Europe significant leverage in pushing Israel to stop expanding settlements on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state — the main U.S. and Palestinian demand before resuming Mideast peace talks.Israel is seeking upgraded trade ties that would give it tax breaks and better access to EU markets, closer cooperation in areas such as energy and battling terrorism, and more educational exchanges.Europe has been actively using this leverage, said Richard Youngs, a political analyst in Madrid, Spain, even though the EU has not taken up British-led calls to deny preferential treatment to Israeli products made in settlements.I think it has passed up what could have been a good opportunity for influence over the settlements,Youngs said.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to heed the demand for a complete settlement freeze — announcing plans to build hundreds of new housing units in the settlements. His government painted the new construction as a prelude to a freeze, but has had a hard time selling that viewpoint internationally — especially since Israel also plans to finish some 2,500 units under construction.The European criticism is not across the board. Italy has the most pro-Israel prime minister in its history and Germany sees itself as a stalwart protector of the state created in the wake of the Nazi Holocaust.
But Israeli analyst Jonathan Spyer said the hostility is reaching an extreme nature that we haven't seen before.It's not an ideal climate that Israel would want between itself and its major trade partners in the EU,he said.Israeli Foreign Ministry official Itzhak Levanon, a former ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, said that overall, nothing even approximating a crisis can be discerned in Israel-Europe relations.There are some voices coming from here or there but I would not dare to say there is a kind of political animosity against Israel,he said.
But there are signs of discontent.
Britain recently revoked several licenses granted to U.K. companies to sell weapons parts to Israel because of concerns over their use in the assault on Gaza. But the move was largely symbolic, as Britain supplies less than 1 percent of Israel's military imports.Norway decided to sell its shares in Elbit Systems Ltd., an Israeli company that provides surveillance equipment for the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank, leading Israel to lodge a formal diplomatic complaint.Jan Egeland, who helped organize the talks that led to the 1993 Oslo peace accords and directs the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, predicted further divestments and criticism. Israel changed from being the underdog that we could identify with to today being a local military superpower that occupies a vulnerable neighboring people,Egeland said. Sweden's foreign minister abruptly called off a visit to Israel this week amid a feud over an unsubstantiated Swedish newspaper article that accused Israeli soldiers of harvesting organs from dead Palestinians. Sweden's government has rebuffed furious Israeli calls for an official condemnation, citing freedom of the press.In France, an online grassroots campaign is trying to push cosmetics maker Sephora to pull products by Ahava — such as creams and face masks made from Dead Sea minerals and produced in West Bank settlements.A similar campaign persuaded British retailer Selfridges to suspend sales of Ahava products in 2001-2002, though they later resumed. Sephora officials would not comment on the campaign, and Ahava spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.
European governments have never been fond of Jewish settlements, but in recent months their criticism has been increasingly vocal.Profoundly sad and bad is how the Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen described the latest Israeli plan to build more housing units in the settlements. Britain's Foreign Office issued a statement saying,all settlements are illegal under international law. And the EU, in a statement Wednesday, expressed its serious concern over the approval of new settlement construction, which it called an obstacle to peace.The tougher European tone coincides with a major departure in the United States from President George W. Bush's blanket support of Israel. The Obama administration strongly condemned the settlement building plan.For the first time in a long time, Washington and Europe are speaking in tandem, speaking with the same voice,said Yossi Mekelberg, the director of the international relations program at Regent's College in London. While governments across Europe say settlements must stop, they vary in how far they're willing to push. And the priority of some European countries is clearly to keep ties with Israel as friendly as possible. Spain's prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, is expected in Israel next week on a mission meant to firm up ties ahead of Spain's ascension to the EU presidency in January.Chancellor Angela Merkel recently underlined Germany's special commitment to Israel's survival, saying it was her country's obligation to defend Israel always.In Italy, Premier Silvio Berlusconi has reversed a decades-long pro-Arab tilt by Italian governments and made Italy perhaps the Jewish state's best friend in Europe.Charlton reported from Paris. Associated Press Writers Constant Brand in Brussels, Raphael Satter in London, Ian MacDougall in Oslo, Mike Corder in the Hague, Matt Moore in Berlin, Daniel Woolls in Madrid and Jen Thomas in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
UN caught in Gaza dispute over study of Holocaust By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 8, 5:15 pm ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Gaza students won't learn about the Holocaust this year.
Angry protests by Palestinians have disrupted tentative plans to introduce information about the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews into the curriculum in U.N. schools.The dispute touches on one of the largest psychological barriers dividing Arabs and Jews: Arabs see the Holocaust as an excuse for Israel's creation, and Jews see Arab Holocaust denial as a rejection of Israel's right to exist.The uproar has left the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which runs 221 of more than 600 primary and secondary schools in Gaza, caught between the territory's Hamas leaders — some of them ardent Holocaust deniers — and outraged Jewish groups.Some in Hamas accused the U.N. agency of trying to generate sympathy for Israel and conspiring against the Palestinians. In turn, Jewish activists demanded to know why the subject of the genocide wasn't part of the human rights syllabus in the first place.Now we are being bashed from all quarters, the agency's chief in Gaza, John Ging, told The Associated Press.The controversy erupted last week, after an umbrella group for Palestinian refugees in Gaza protested what it said were plans to teach eighth-graders in U.N. schools about the Holocaust.U.N. officials denied they had such intentions for this school year and insisted they weren't scaling back in response to public pressure.
Regional agency chief Karen Abu Zayd suggested information about the Holocaust could be included in later years, as part of lessons about the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UNWRA's Web site mentions general plans to include the Holocaust in lessons on the historical context that gave rise to that declaration.Abu Zayd said the UNWRA field office in Gaza is still developing the curriculum, which would be presented to parents and others in the community before it is introduced.It is very much a draft,she said.A U.N. employee involved in shaping the curriculum, who was not authorized to discuss the subject and spoke on condition of anonymity, said that as recently as three months ago, the lessons had been under consideration for the 2009-10 human rights course.U.N. officials said their schools in Gaza already have the most detailed and advanced human rights courses, and teaching the Holocaust would break new ground.The subject is not taught in U.N.-run schools for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Nor is it taught in Palestinian government schools in the West Bank or Gaza.
The backlash in Gaza has highlighted why.
Holocaust denial is still common in the Palestinian territories, with many apparently fearful that acknowledging the genocide would diminish recognition of their suffering or claims to an independent state. Such sentiments seem particularly strong among Gazans, who have had only limited access to the outside world since 2007, when Israel and Egypt imposed a border blockade in response to the violent Hamas takeover of the territory.Palestinians complain that Israel refuses to recognize their hardship, including the expulsion and exile of hundreds of thousands during the war that followed Israel's creation in 1948, which Palestinians refer to as the naqba, or catastrophe.Israel's education minister, Gideon Saar, decided this summer to delete references to the word naqba from textbooks for Arab third-graders in Israel, though he said teachers can discuss tragedies that befell the Palestinians.
Jihad Zakarneh, the deputy education minister in the West Bank, the territory run by Palestinian moderates, said teaching Palestinian children about the Holocaust has to wait until there is a peace agreement with Israel.When Israel ends its occupation of our land and our people and gives us our right of independence and self-determination, then we discuss this issue with them,he said.The Gaza dispute over the syllabus also signaled growing tensions between Hamas and UNRWA, the largest independent organization in Gaza. Hamas has been trying to cement control over Gaza, while the U.N. agency is increasingly emerging as a shadow government, providing services to some 1 million of Gaza's 1.4 million people.Ging said he believes the dispute over the syllabus has more to do with attempts by Hamas to meddle in the U.N. organization's affairs than with the Holocaust.The U.N. schools in Gaza are required to follow the Palestinian curriculum but are allowed to make some changes, Ging said. The schools have added enrichment lessons on human rights since 2002, initially for elementary school students.Ging said he feels any human rights course is incomplete without discussing the Holocaust. But, he said, it would exceed UNWRA's mandate to write texts about the Holocaust and the Palestinian uprooting, subjects he said are better left to Israelis and Palestinians as part of future peace efforts.
Critics of the U.N. said the events of the Holocaust cannot be omitted from a human rights curriculum.By disconnecting the Holocaust from human rights, (the U.N. agency) is highlighting the anti-Semitic bias that pervades the U.N. system,Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican congresswoman from Florida, said in a statement. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish advocacy group and tracker of Nazi war criminals, called for the dismissal of Abu Zayd and Ging and demanded the U.S. and Canada suspend funding for the U.N. agency — which provides services for Palestinian refugees around the Mideast — until the issue is sorted out.The U.S. was the second-largest donor to the agency in 2008, giving it nearly $96 million of its $541.8 million budget. The European Commission was the largest donor, providing close to $140 million, according to U.N. figures.Marie Okabe, a U.N. spokeswoman in New York, said the world body stands by Ging and Abu Zayd.They are ably continuing their jobs and carrying the mandate to bring assistance to those in desperate need in the West Bank and Gaza,she said.There is no truth to accusations that they are denying the Holocaust.
The criticism has been just as strong from the other side.A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said the U.N. agency must stick to its mandate and not venture into politics.Hamas rejects any attempt to introduce the Holocaust into the curriculum as a kind of normalization with Israel and an attempt to bridge the psychological gap between Israel and the Palestinians,he said.The Palestinian refugee group that first raised the proposed Holocaust lesson plans called the Nazis' attempt to eradicate European Jewry a lie made up by the Zionists.AP correspondent Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
Nigeria sees Israel losing international goodwil by Ola Awoniyi – Tue Sep 8, 3:49 pm ET
ABUJA (AFP) – Israel's grip on the West Bank in defiance of international opinion is denying it the goodwill it is due, Nigerian Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe told his visiting Israeli counterpart on Tuesday.You are not touching that goodwill because of the distraction of violence, the distraction of holding on too much land which you had already been asked either through the Camp David accord or indeed through UN resolutions to give up for the sake of peace, he told Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.You are holding on too tight and I'm speaking to you as a friend, he said.Let us begin to see now the beginning of the ties of the moderates on both sides and Nigeria is ready to work with those moderates.Lieberman, who arrived in Nigeria on Monday, said that while Israel wants peace in the Middle East, the ongoing crisis in the region is the result of conflict between moderate people and extremist people.You must understand that the biggest problem of the Middle East is not the Israel-Palestinian dispute,he said.The biggest threat for the Palestinian Authority is not Israel but Hamas and (Islamic) Jihad. It is the same situation in Lebanon -- the biggest threat for the Hariri government is not Israel but Hezbollah.
Maduekwe disagreed, saying there were extremists and moderates in both camps.
We don't share the view that extremism is only an attribute of one side to the conflict,he said.There are also Jewish extremists, Israeli extremists who have impeded the peace process.Maduekwe suggested an African perspective to the age-long Middle East crisis since solutions from other continents seem not to have worked.
Every solution has been tried except that of the African perspective. All the big powers have moved in, in one way or the other... but what has not been tried is the African perspective,he said.Maduekwe said African option is defined by the experience we have in Africa, its living together as people of diversity, in co-existing as one African family.Earlier in the day, Lieberman held trade and investment talks with Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan in the capital Abuja as part of efforts to improve bilateral ties.We are here to preserve our relations. I brought with me a big business delegation, people who want to invest,Lieberman told reporters after a closed-door meeting with Jonathan.Recalling that his delegation includes representatives of top Israeli companies in the fields of water management, agriculture, medicine and infrastructure, he added: We hope to increase our business relations.Lieberman, who is also his country's deputy prime minister, said that annual trade volume between the two countries was around half a billion dollars.This figure shows that there is genuine potential for business, he said in his speech at the opening of the first Nigeria-Israel international trade and economic summit.
Syria urges global powers to put pressure on Israel Tue Sep 8, 2:52 pm ET
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem urged global powers to put more pressure on Israel and force it to respect UN resolutions Middle East peace, SANA state news agency reported on Monday.The hindrances Israel has put in the way of the peace process merit pressure from the international community on Tel Aviv to make it yield to the need for a fair and lasting peace based on UN Security Council resolutions, Muallem said.Two council resolutions require Israel to withdraw from Arab territory occupied since 1967, in return for peace.The minister was speaking during talks with Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos, who arrived in Syria from Cairo as part of a regional tour.Muallem stressed the support of Damascus for unity, sovereignty and stability in Iraq, reiterating Syria's condemnation for the terrorist attacks in Baghdad on August 19, that left at least 95 people dead and 600 others wounded.Baghdad wants Syria, which is sheltering 1.2 million Iraqi refugees, to extradite two Iraqi Baathists accused by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of being the ringleader of the August 19 attacks.Moratinos, whose country takes over the EU presidency on January 1, expressed his country's support for signature of a partnership between Damascus and Brussels as soon as possible,SANA reported.He also praised Syria's efforts to reach peace in the region, the news agency added.
Moratinos, who will visit Israel on Wednesday then the Palestinian territories, said in Cairo earlier on Tuesday that Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero plans a Middle East trip during the autumn.
