Israeli forces arrest two foreigners in West Bank
FEB 7,10
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli security forces made an incursion into a Palestinian city Sunday to arrest two foreign women belonging to an organization involved in protests against Israel's West Bank barrier.Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib said the arrest of Spaniard Ariadna Jove Marti and Australian Bridgette Chappell in the city of Ramallah violated interim peace accords that gave Palestinians self-rule in parts of the West Bank.An Israeli army spokesman said the two women were known to have been involved in illegal riots that interfered with Israeli security operations, apparently in reference to the protests against the barrier.Both in their 20s, the women were activists with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), established in 2001 to mobilize international support for Palestinian activism against Israeli occupation.They were arrested in Ramallah on the grounds of staying in Israel illegally,the military spokesman said, in apparent reference to tourist visas they received on entering Israel, which controls access to the occupied West Bank.Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad last week urged Israel to end incursions in West Bank areas which according to arrangements established under the Oslo peace process fall under full Palestinian control.
Ryan Olander, an ISM activist who shared an apartment with the two women, said around 12 members of the Israeli security forces had arrested the pair in the early hours of the morning.Palestinian and international activists say Israel, apparently concerned about plans for wider demonstrations, has stepped up a campaign of arrests against protest organizers in the last two months.The Israeli authorities deported a leading ISM activist last month, the organization said. Eva Novakova, from the Czech Republic, had also been arrested in Ramallah.Protesters stage weekly demonstrations in various Palestinian villages against Israel's construction of West Bank walls and fences that have denied them access to their land.Israel says the barrier, which the World Court has deemed illegal over its construction in occupied land, has stopped suicide bombers in the past and can be removed in the future if the security situation improves.(Writing by Erika Solomon, additional reporting by Ori Lewis in Jerusalem, Editing by Tom Perry and Angus MacSwan)
Netanyahu: Israel open to peace talks with Syria
Sun Feb 7, 7:10 am ET
JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister attempted to end a war of words with Syria on Sunday, saying his country is open to peace talks with its longtime enemy.Israeli and Syrian officials have traded threats over the past week, raising concerns of an escalation between two countries that have officially been at war for more than 60 years.Israel desires peace agreements with all of its neighbors, Netanyahu told his weekly Cabinet meeting.We did it with Egypt and Jordan, and we want to achieve similar agreements with the Palestinians and the Syrians, he said.I hope that we are on the brink of renewing negotiations with the Palestinians, and we are open to renewing the process with the Syrians as well.Netanyahu's comments came after an ominous exchange between officials in the two countries.Syrian President Bashar Assad accused Israel of avoiding peace and his foreign minister threatened that Israeli cities would come under attack in a future war. Israel's foreign minister responded that Syria would be defeated and Assad and his family would lose power in any future conflict.It has been a quarter-century since Israel and Syria fought directly, but Syria backs anti-Israel forces like the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic organization Hamas. Israel's sworn enemy Iran backs Hamas and Hezbollah.
The central point of disagreement between Israel and Syria is the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed. Syria has demanded a full withdrawal from the Golan as a condition for peace.Netanyahu said Israel would not accept preconditions to negotiations, indicating he would not agree ahead of time to a Golan withdrawal. He also said any agreement would have to guarantee Israel's security.Indirect talks between Syria and Israel's previous government ended unsuccessfully in late 2008.
Abbas awaits U.S. clarification over peace talks offer
Sat Feb 6, 10:47 am ET
CAIRO (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday he had asked the United States to clarify its offer to mediate indirect peace talks with Israel before he would announce any decision to resume the negotiations.Yesterday I met with an American delegation and we held an Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian trilateral meeting, Abbas said after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.We asked the Americans some questions and they will come back to us ... then we will announce our position, he said.An Israeli cabinet minister, echoing comments made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said this week that Israel and the Palestinians would begin proximity talks, with a U.S. mediator shuttling between negotiating teams, to restart negotiations that broke down at the start of a war in Gaza in December 2008.Palestinian officials did not confirm those remarks, but pointed out that U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell had made more than a dozen visits to the region to try to revive the long-stalled peace talks.Abbas has said he will only return to negotiations if Israel completely stops settlement-building in the occupied West Bank. He has rejected a limited, 10-month construction freeze ordered by Israel in November as insufficient.Israel has said it will continue to build homes for Jews in and around East Jerusalem, territory it captured in a 1967 war and annexed as part of its capital in a move not recognized internationally.
Palestinians want the city as the capital of a future state.
Also hindering progress in peace talks is a divide in the Palestinian territories, with Abbas's mandate limited to the West Bank since his Fatah faction was ousted from the Gaza Strip by Hamas Islamists in a 2007 civil war.Abbas said in Cairo there was no connection between resuming talks with Israel and reconciling the internal Palestinian divide.Everything is moving on and we do not prefer one issue over another, he said.Egypt, a U.S. ally which in 1979 became the first Arab state to sign a peace deal with Israel, has acted as a mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict and has been trying to broker a unity deal between the rival Palestinian factions.
The groups last met in July in Cairo, and Egypt has since increased pressure on Hamas by building an underground barrier along its border with Gaza to block tunnels that bring Palestinians weapons and commercial goods denied them by an Israeli-led blockade. (Reporting and writing by Yasmine Saleh; editing by Andrew Roche)
Rivals slam Hamas for apology to Israelis By Nidal al-Mughrabi – Sat Feb 6, 9:55 am ET
GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas's Palestinian rivals denounced the Islamist movement on Saturday for expressing regret over the deaths of Israeli civilians during the Gaza war a year ago.A spokesman for the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he was stunned at the remark in a report to the United Nations this week and said Hamas should apologize rather to fellow Palestinians for deaths and injury caused when Hamas routed Fatah forces to seize control in Gaza in 2007.In a statement from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Fatah still holds sway, spokesman Ahmed Assaf urged Hamas to apologize first to the Palestinian people for its bloody coup which has ... caused the worst damage to the Palestinian cause.He also said that Hamas's statement, issued to deflect U.N. accusations that its forces committed war crimes by firing rockets from Gaza at nearby Israeli towns, had been an admission that such rocket-fire had not helped ordinary Palestinians.Hamas, which unlike Fatah has rejected peace negotiations with Israel, said in the report obtained by Reuters on Friday that it did not target civilians but that it simply lacked technology to aim more accurately at Israeli military targets.Three Israeli civilians were killed, along with 10 soldiers, during a 22-day offensive begun in December 2008. Some 1,400 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were also killed.
Israel, where hundreds of civilians have been killed by Hamas suicide bombers in the past couple of decades, dismissed any regrets as insincere. Israel has also rejected suggestions by a U.N. inquiry its own forces may have committed war crimes.Hamas officials said on Friday that any expression of regret did not mark an abandonment of suicide bombing as a tactic, even if such attacks have been in abeyance in recent years.
APOLOGY DENIED
Clearly sensitive to the effect any conciliatory words for Israel could have on its support among Palestinian hardliners, Hamas was at pains on Saturday to play down the language, saying there was no apology to Israel and stressing that the report had blamed Israeli aggression for any deaths.We regret any harm that may have befallen any Israeli civilian, the Hamas-appointed investigative committee said in the report, which was handed to U.N. officials on Wednesday.We hope the Israeli civilians understand that their government's continued attacks on us were the key issue and the cause.Mohammed-Faraj al-Ghoul, justice minister in the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip and the chairman of the committee which drafted the report, said on Saturday: Some words or phrases were taken out of context. The report held the (Israeli) occupation fully responsible and it did not include apologies.Hamas, which formed a Palestinian government in 2006 after winning a parliamentary election, said it seized full control of the Gaza Strip the following year to pre-empt what it feared was a move by Abbas, with U.S. help, to oust it from government.Dozens were killed in days of civil war in Gaza, on which Israel has tightened a blockade. The division of the Palestinian territories between the two rival parties has hamstrung efforts to negotiate the establishment of a state alongside Israel.(Writing by Alastair Macdonald in Jerusalem; editing by Andrew Roche)
Hamas wants ICC to judge Zionist war criminals
Sat Feb 6, 8:44 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Hamas wants what it calls Zionist war criminals brought before the International Criminal Court over last year's Israeli assault on Gaza, an official of the Islamist group said on Saturday.We ask the United Nations to transfer the matter to the ICC so that the Zionist war criminals can be brought to justice, said Mohammed Faraj al-Ghul, justice minister in the Hamas administration of the Gaza Strip.However, he also said he expected that the United States would block any such move.We expect that the American administration will intervene to block these criminals being judged, Ghul said.Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the Israeli offensive aimed at halting rocket attacks from the territory ruled by the militant group which is sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state.A UN Human Rights Council report by the respected former international prosecutor Richard Goldstone accused both Israel and Palestinian groups of committing war crimes during the devastating 22-day conflict.On January 27, Hamas said it had investigated those allegations and absolved Palestinian armed groups of any atrocities.The Goldstone report recommended that its findings be referred to the ICC in The Hague if Israel and Hamas failed to carry out credible, independent investigations.Israel has rejected the report as anti-Semitic despite the fact Goldstone is himself Jewish, because the report accuses the Israeli military of deliberately targeting civilians and destroying vital infrastructure.
Israel FM warns Assad will lose power if Syria goes to war by Jean-luc Renaudie – Thu Feb 4, 2:40 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's firebrand foreign minister further fuelled a bitter battle of words with Syria on Thursday, warning that its president would be toppled in any armed conflict between the two countries.Avigdor Lieberman's direct verbal punch at President Bashar al-Assad capped several days of threats traded between Israel and Syria.When there is another war, you will not just lose it, but you and your family will lose power, Lieberman said a day after Syria cautioned Israel would face a bloody regional conflict if it failed to follow the path of peace.Hours after Lieberman spoke, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office sought to ease the tone, saying the premier had spoken to the ultra-nationalist foreign minister on the Syrian issue.The two would like to make it clear that the government's policy is clear: Israel seeks peace and negotiations with Syria without preconditions, a statement said.At the same time, Israel will respond vigorously and with determination to any threat against it.
And analysts warned against reading too much into the blunt language from both sides.
All this is just posturing and things will calm down in two or three days since neither Israel nor Syria want to cause a war, said Eyal Zisser, a specialist on relations with Syria at Tel Aviv University.The latest spat emerged after Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned on Monday that if there is no peace agreement with Syria,we might find ourselves in a forceful conflict that could lead to an all-out war.Syria responded angrily, with Assad saying it seemed Israel is working towards a war and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem telling Israel: do not test the power of Syria since you know the war will move into your cities.But Barak reaffirmed on Thursday that peace with Syria is a strategic objective, and tried to distance himself from the row.The least I can say is that I am unhappy with the exchanges of the past two days, the Labour party leader said.Zisser said he believes the Syrians misinterpreted Barak's original comments, which were meant as an argument in favour of renewed negotiations.The previous government of Ehud Olmert held a series of Turkish-brokered peace feelers in 2008.Netanyahu on Thursday suggested relaunching the contacts which collapsed after Israel launched its devastating military offensive in the Gaza Strip in December 2008.
The prime minister has declared on numerous occasions he is willing to go anywhere to negotiate with Syria, without precondition,his office said, lamenting what it said were obstacles put in the way by Syria.But Lieberman's warning to Assad overshadowed Netanyahu's statement.It should be clear that if he provokes us, it will end badly for him on the battlefield but also for his power. I hope this message will be heard in Damascus,the minister said at a business conference at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv. This must be our message because all that interests him is not human life, human values. The only value for him is power and that's what must be targeted,Lieberman said. There must be a correlation, because unfortunately until now a military defeat did not mean a loss of power.Lieberman noted Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad -- Bashar's father -- both stayed in power after they were defeated in wars against Israel. Moshe Maoz, a political analyst at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, called the minister's outburst a disaster that destroys Israeli efforts at making peace. Eitan Cabel, a member of parliament for Barak's centre-left Labour party, urged Netanyahu to get rid of Lieberman, calling the foreign minister a warmonger who has no honour or wisdom.
Israel to seal settler house in east Jerusalem
Thu Feb 4, 9:01 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Municipal authorities will comply under protest with a court order to seal a Jewish settler's building in mainly Arab east Jerusalem, the mayor's office announced on Thursday.Rightwing Mayor Nir Barkat pointedly insisted this meant the municipality must tear down 200 homes -- virtually all Palestinian -- built without permits in the same Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan.The decision to seal the Jewish house, built illegally in 2004, follows a harsh letter from State Prosecutor Moshe Lador who accused the mayor of deliberately delaying a court order. Sealing a house is seen as a first step towards possible demolition.In a letter to Lador, Barkat expressed his most vigorous protest and harsh criticism of the plan, his office said.In 2007, Jewish settlers were ordered to evacuate the illegally built seven-storey building in the heart of the Palestinian neighbourhood but the eviction order has so far not been enforced.
The municipality said it will move to seal the house despite the severe repercussions this might give rise to.It is important to note that carrying out this decision would result in the execution of over 200 demolition orders in the neighbourhood, the statement quoted Barkat as telling Lador.Law enforcement activity in Jerusalem, especially in its east, could be highly explosive, Barkat wrote. The demolition of Palestinian homes in Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem has in the past led to clashes.Many Palestinians in east Jerusalem risk having their homes razed because they were built or expanded without the necessary permits which are nearly impossible to obtain from the Israeli authorities.Several Western countries including the United States and Britain have urged Israel to refrain from such demolitions, to avoid further harming the already hobbled Middle East peace process.
Israel captured east Jerusalem with the rest of the West Bank in the Six Day War of 1967 and annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.Israel views the whole city as its eternal, indivisible capital while the Palestinians are determined to make the city's eastern sector the capital of their promised state.
Palestinian leader to visit S.Korea next week
Thu Feb 4, 2:28 am ET
SEOUL (AFP) – Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas will visit South Korea next week for talks with his South Korean counterpart on strengthening relations, officials said Thursday.He will be the first Palestinian head of state to visit Seoul since the two sides exchanged representatives in 2005, the foreign ministry said.Abbas will arrive next Wednesday for a two-day visit which includes talks with President Lee Myung-Bak and Prime Minister Chung Un-Chan.The ministry said the visit would help South Korea, which has diplomatic ties with Israel, gain a better understanding of peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine.It will also provide an opportunity for South Korea to contribute to peace in the Middle East, said spokesman Kim Young-Sun.South Korea has provided some 33 million dollars in aid for Palestine's economic development since 1991.
Hamas wants talks with US, Europe: Haniya by Philippe Agret – Thu Feb 4, 12:34 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Hamas is ready for dialogue with the international community, including the United States and European Union, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Ismail Haniya told AFP.Hamas is ready to dialogue with the world, international community, the US, the (Middle East) Quartet and the Europeans, Haniya said Wednesday.The Islamist movement, which has been in power in the Gaza Strip since June 2007 after a week of vicious street battles with Fatah loyalists, remains a pariah of the international community.It is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union refuses to hold formal talks with the group.
One of the main obstacles to opening a dialogue is the Islamists' refusal to recognise Israel's right to exist, a position inscribed in Hamas's founding charter. The international community demands an explicit recognition.They have to recognise us first, the right of the Palestinian people, we are the victims, said the 48-year-old, who merely repeated that Hamas supports the establishment of a Palestinian state with the 1967 borders.The Palestinians want their future state based on borders before the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967, with its capital in east Jerusalem, which is predominantly Arab and was annexed by Israel in the conflict.
The Hamas prime minister said his movement had come closer in political terms to conditions issued by the Quartet -- the US, EU, Russia and the United Nations -- to open dialogue, including a long-term ceasefire.Hamas has stopped rocket attacks against the Jewish state since the end of Israel's devastating offensive against the Palestinian enclave a year ago.Haniya said he was determined to establish Palestinian reconciliation and to have fair elections... in all Palestinian homes, including Jerusalem.Regarding reconciliation, it is moving. It needs a strong push to reach a signature with Fatah, the rival movement headed by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.A senior Fatah official, Nabil Shaath, made a rare visit to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Wednesday in a bid to encourage stalled reconciliation efforts.
Shaath, a member of the central committee of the secular Fatah, met with Khalil al-Hayya, a senior official from Hamas.We are one people, we have one homeland. Every Palestinian has the right to move in his own land at any time,Haniya said. If he (Shaath) asks for a meeting, we will do nothing to prevent it.After talks mediated by Egypt, Hamas has refused to sign a unity deal that was proposed by Cairo in October unless it is amended to reflect what the group says were previous understandings reached with Fatah.
Both Egypt and Fatah have said the deal is final.
In addition, relations between Hamas and Egypt have deteriorated recently after an armed confrontation at the Rafah border crossing that killed one Egyptian and wounded several Palestinians.What happened in Rafah did not affect the strategic relationships between Egypt and Hamas,said Haniya, adding the Egyptian role should continue and we welcome all Arab efforts for reconciliation, and Egypt has to be there.It is no secret that the US and Israel do not want reconciliation but we are committed to reach it.
US picks new ambassador to Syria amid Mideast peace push by Lachlan Carmichael – Wed Feb 3, 7:03 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama's administration said Wednesday it has picked its first ambassador to Syria in five years amid a drive to engage a former foe in efforts to promote Arab-Israeli peace.However, US officials said they were waiting to find out whether Damascus accepted the unnamed nominee, as Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem noted from Damascus that Syria has the right to study the proposed appointment.We have passed a name to the Syrian government, and we are awaiting its response to our request for agreement (approval), Philip Crowley, the spokesman for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, told reporters.Such an approval process is in line with diplomatic practice.Crowley said it is premature to make a formal announcement pending a reply from Damascus and Obama's own move to name publicly his choice for envoy to Damascus -- which also requires approval from the US Congress.Neither US officials nor Muallem would disclose the nominee's name.
A State Department official, who asked not to be named, told AFP that Middle East envoy George Mitchell submitted Washington's nominee for ambassador to the Syrian authorities when he visited Damascus two weeks ago.Since his appointment a year ago, Mitchell, a former Northern Ireland peacemaker, has made a number of visits to Syria during regional tours to neighbors Lebanon and Israel as well as the Palestinian territories.A key regional player, Syria backs anti-Israeli militants in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories but has also engaged in peace talks with the Jewish state in a bid to recover the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 war.
It was not clear how much progress Mitchell has made in trying to get Syria to drop support for the militants.We have questions for Syria in terms of its support, even current support, of extremist groups in the region, Crowley said.But we are committed to advance our relationship and we're committed to work with Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinians, in pursuit of Middle East peace, he said.The Obama administration announced in June last year it would send an ambassador back to Syria as Washington tries to engage with Damascus in a bid to revive Arab-Israeli peace talks.The previous administration of president George W. Bush recalled the US ambassador from Damascus and put relations with Syria on hold in 2005, following the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.Hariri's killing was widely blamed on Syria, although Damascus has steadfastly denied any involvement.
Analysts also say US moves to woo Damascus could isolate Syria's non-Arab ally Iran, which is accused of not only backing anti-Israeli militants in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip but also anti-US militants in Iraq.Speaking in Damascus, Muallem described the role of Washington in the Middle East peace process as essential, given the strategic relations between the United States and Israel,the close US ally.Syria holds out hope for its role, as long as the United States wants its role to be constructive, Syria's top diplomat said. Muallem also hit back at remarks from Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak who said Monday: In the absence of a peace agreement with Syria, we might find ourselves in a forceful conflict that could lead to an all-out war.The foreign minister said: Israelis, do not test the power of Syria since you know the war will move into your cities.
Group says anti-Semitic acts soar in France in '09
Wed Feb 3, 3:35 pm ET
PARIS – A group founded to protect France's Jewish community says anti-Semitic acts in France soared 75 percent last year — many coming as Israel pressed an offensive against Hamas in the Middle East in January.The Jewish Community Protection Service tallied 832 anti-Semitic acts in 2009, up from 474 a year earlier. Most involved graffiti and threatening gestures; about 17 percent involved vandalism and violence.
The group said Wednesday that 354 took place in January 2009 alone, when Israel ended a three-week offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas in response to rocket attacks from Gaza.France is home to western Europe's largest communities of Muslims and Jews. Flare-ups of anti-Semitic acts have often coincided with Mideast violence.
Gaza-made barrel bomb found on Israeli beach
Wed Feb 3, 3:16 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Police defused on Wednesday an explosives-laden barrel believed to have been sent from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, the third such container to wash up on an Israeli beach this week.Militants in Gaza claimed last week they had sent eight such barrels.Police cordoned off the Palmahim beach, 42 kilometres (26 miles) north of Gaza, after a barrel was discovered there, the army said.A bomb disposal unit confirmed the barrel contained explosives, it said.The Israeli army on Monday found two barrels packed with military-grade explosives on beaches south of Tel Aviv.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel views with great concern the Hamas operations from Gaza, operations which luckily were not fatal.Israel will respond appropriately,he said.Late on Tuesday night, Israeli jets bombed several targets in southern Gaza in what the army said was in response to the recent attempted naval attacks against Israel, and the recent rocket firing towards Israel.
Italy's prime minister links Gaza war to Holocaust By DALIA NAMMARI, Associated Press Writer – Wed Feb 3, 12:18 pm ET
BETHLEHEM, West Bank – Italy's prime minister on Wednesday called for empathy for all victims, whether from the Nazi Holocaust or Israel's war in Gaza, drawing a link that threatened to tarnish a visit that has cemented his already warm ties with Israel.Silvio Berlusconi's comments, while avoiding direct comparisons to the Holocaust, nonetheless could touch a raw nerve in Israel — a country that was founded in the wake of the Nazi massacre of 6 million Jews and that is home to more than 200,000 Holocaust survivors.Berlusconi has been warmly welcomed throughout this three-day visit to Israel, and he has repeatedly spoken of his strong affinity for the Jewish state and expressed sorrow over the Holocaust.During a speech to the Israeli parliament early Wednesday, Berlusconi called Israel's war against Gaza militants last year justified self-defense. He said a U.N. report accusing Israel of war crimes tried to incriminate Israel for its legitimate response to Palestinian militants' rocket attacks.But during a last-minute meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank, the Italian leader acknowledged the Gaza offensive, which killed some 1,400 people, including an estimated 900 civilians, had caused great pain to the Palestinians.Whenever war takes the place of peace, whenever violence takes the place of reason, humanity disappears. The relationship between men that should always be kept intact disappears, Berlusconi said at a joint news conference with Abbas.So just as it's right to cry for the victims of the Shoah, it's right to show pain for what happened in Gaza.
Shoah is the Hebrew term for the Holocaust.The Holocaust is an extremely sensitive topic in Israel, where the attempted genocide of European Jewry is viewed as a unique event without parallel.Berlusconi is one of Israel's closest friends in Europe.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office declined comment on his remark about the Holocaust.Throughout his trip, Berlusconi received a welcome afforded to few other leaders. He was wined and dined by Israeli leaders, brought eight government ministers with him for a joint Israeli-Italian Cabinet meeting and got a standing ovation for a speech to the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem.In the speech, Berlusconi told Israeli lawmakers that the world cannot accept a nuclear-armed Iran.
From the podium of the Knesset, or parliament, Berlusconi called on the international community to pursue stronger sanctions against Tehran, which Italy — like Israel and the West — suspects is developing nuclear weapons.We cannot accept the nuclearization of a country whose leaders have explicitly expressed their desire to destroy Israel, have denied the Holocaust and delegitimized the Jewish state, Berlusconi said.Iranian leaders, who have spoken repeatedly of Israel's annihilation, deny Iran is building nuclear bombs.Berlusconi repeatedly criticized Iran during his visit. On Tuesday, he announced that Italy had cut business ties with Iran by a third since 2007, noting that Italian energy giant ENI has decided not to extend an existing contract to develop an important oil field in Iran.
Berlusconi's speech before the Israeli lawmakers — an honor bestowed on few world leaders — was a sign of the friendship that has grown much closer under his stewardship.Before Berlusconi spoke, Netanyahu hailed him as a courageous leader who always stands by Israel's side.He concluded a speech filled with praise for Berlusconi with a story of a heavily pregnant Italian woman who confronted a German officer during World War II and, at great peril to her own life, persuaded him to let an arrested Jewish woman go. This woman's actions saved the life of the Jewish woman and cast, if only for a brief moment, a scintilla of humanity and courage upon the great darkness that enveloped the whole of Europe at that time,Netanyahu said.
That courageous woman's name was Rosa. And one of her children is called Silvio Berlusconi.The two men embraced, and the Italian leader took out a white handkerchief to wipe tears from his eyes. Wednesday marked the second anniversary of Rosa Bossi Berlusconi's death.
