UN chief raises concern over Palestinian talks By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer – Wed Feb 24, 9:57 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon raised concern at a meeting Wednesday with Israel's defense chief that Israel's recent designation of holy sites in the West Bank as heritage sites and demolitions in East Jerusalem could hinder a resumption of stalled peace talks with the Palestinians, a U.N. spokesman said.The U.N. chief discussed prospects for reviving peace negotiations and broader Mideast issues with defense chief Ehud Barak for about an hour, including a 15-minute tete-a-tete, officials said.U.N. associate spokesman Farhan Haq said that in the discussion on efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks, the secretary-general regretted certain recent developments on the ground, including new demolition orders in East Jerusalem and the inclusion of holy sites in the occupied West Bank on an Israeli heritage list.The Palestinians consider the West Bank as part of a future Palestinian state and want East Jerusalem as its capital.At a special Cabinet meeting Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added the Cave of Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron and the traditional tomb of the biblical matriarch Rachel in Bethlehem, to the list of some 150 national heritage sites.
Palestinian President Mahmoud warned Tuesday that the region could plunge into a religious war over Israel's plans to recognize the disputed Hebron shrine, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims, as its own.Barak's meeting with Ban was his first on a brief trip to New York and Washington. He is also scheduled to meet U.S. envoy George Mitchell, who is trying to revive the stalemated Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other senior U.S. officials.The United Nations is part of the so-called Quartet which has been trying to promote a Mideast peace settlement along with the U.S., the European Union and Russia. The U.S. and Russia are trying to convene a Quartet meeting and a tentative date of March 19 has been discussed, diplomats in Washington said.During his meeting with Barak, the secretary-general also expressed concern at the situation in Gaza and his disappointment that Israel has not accepted the U.N.'s proposal to kickstart civilian recovery,Haq said. He underscored the need for Israel to take positive steps on the entry of reconstruction materials into Gaza.Barak did not speak to reporters at U.N. headquarters but Mirit Cohen, spokeswoman for Israel's U.N. Mission, said the defense minister told the U.N. chief that Israel is doing the utmost to make life easier for the citizens of Gaza and to prevent a humanitarian crisis.On Lebanon, Ban expressed hope for speedy progress on a proposal by the U.N. peacekeeping force for an Israeli withdrawal from the disputed border village of Ghajar, Haq said.
Ban also urged an end to Israeli overflights of Lebanon and expressed his continuing concern at the lack of progress in disarming Lebanese militias as called for in a 2004 Security Council resolution, he said.Israel and Hezbollah militants fought a 34-day war in Lebanon in the summer of 2006, and Cohen said Barak accused Iran and Syria of arming Hezbollah with over 40,000 missiles aimed at Israel like weapons of terror.The defense minister also called for enforcement of severe sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, she said.
Obama needs to get his poll numbers up -- in Israel
Wed Feb 24, 8:23 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama needs to get his poll numbers up -- in Israel -- if he hopes to make peace between Israelis and Palestinians, a senior Israeli official said Wednesday.Obama, who has made outreach to the Muslim world a feature of his presidency, has left many Israelis skeptical about his support for the Jewish state, particularly in comparison to his predecessors, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.We are literally taking the security future of our families, our kids, and placing it in the hands of the president of the United States and that's no small thing, said the Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.Trust is an essential component of the peace process, he added, saying Israel ultimately looked to the U.S. president for support should it strike peace deals with the Palestinians or other Arab states that later unravel.A poll released in August found only four percent of Israelis viewed Obama's policies as more pro-Israel versus more pro-Palestinian or neutral. A survey made public in December gave Obama a 41 percent favorable rating among Israelis.
Either figure, the Israeli official said, was too low and the two countries are in open dialogue ... on the need to get that number up in advance of any peace agreement.He said it would not be hard to boost Obama's standing among Israelis, starting with his visiting the Jewish state and engaging with ordinary citizens.The point is to reach out to common Israelis and then showing that ... he cares about their security and he is there for them and that he understands the pain and sacrifices that Israel is going to make and understands the risks they are going to be taking and will assure us that if the peace breaks down ... he'll be there, he added.We want to be reassured.(Editing by Paul Simao)
Clinton sounds upbeat on Israeli-Palestinian talks By Arshad Mohammed and Andrew Quinn – Wed Feb 24, 8:11 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday she hoped Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would resume shortly, sounding more upbeat than usual for a U.S. official.Separately, Israel's ambassador to the United States told Reuters if negotiations resumed after being frozen for more than a year they would start as indirect proximity talks, with U.S. envoy George Mitchell shuttling between the sides.Ambassador Michael Oren also said Israelis would only make territorial concessions to Syria if they believed it would be as part of a warm and genuine peace with a free flow of goods and people.Peace talks with the Palestinians and Turkish-mediated discussions with Syria stalled after Israel launched a major offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in December 2008 that left 1,400 Palestinians dead.Despite calling the Arab-Israeli conflict a priority from the start of his administration, U.S. President Barack Obama's efforts have failed to revive negotiations.After initially demanding a freeze on Israeli construction in Jewish settlements on the West Bank and in Jerusalem, the Obama administration last year abandoned that stance, a step seen as undercutting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.U.S. officials hope Abbas can be persuaded to give up his desire for an absolute halt to settlement construction before resuming talks, particularly if he gets backing from Arab states.They hope this might be forthcoming at an Arab League summit in Tripoli in March, setting the stage for fresh negotiations.We hope that that will commence shortly,Clinton told lawmakers.We think it's absolutely essential that they begin to talk about the final status issues that divide them ... but we are well aware of the difficulties that confront us.
A WAY FROM HERE TO THERE
Even if Israel and the Palestinians agree to resume talks, many analysts believe chances of a peace agreement soon are slim because of divisions among the Palestinians and the fragile, right-wing coalition in Israel.A senior U.S. official who spoke on condition that he not be identified said Clinton had some grounds for optimism about a resumption of talks.We're not there yet, but there's a way from here to there, said the U.S. official.Oren sketched out a negotiating technique that he said would take the two sides back to the 1940s when Israeli and Arab officials would not sit in the same room.At least in the initial stage, the talks will be proximity talks with ... Senator Mitchell as the intermediary between the Israeli government and the Palestinian authority, he told Reuters.The central issues in the six-decade conflict are the delineation of borders, the fate of Jewish settlements on the West Bank, the status of Jerusalem, which both sides claim, and the rights of Palestinian refugees.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.
A WARM AND GENUINE PEACE WITH SYRIA?
Oren suggested Israel was open to reviving peace talks with Syria but stressed it wanted these to be direct, face-to-face encounters rather than through mediation. He also suggested Israelis would only agree to giving back lands seized from Syria in 1967 if they believed Damascus wanted truly normal relations, ended support for Palestinian militant groups and distanced itself from Iran. Israelis would not be willing to make, I think, serious territorial concessions (to Syria) unless they were convinced that this was a warm and genuine peace, Oren said. Israel's peace treaty with Egypt, brokered by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter at the Camp David presidential retreat in 1978, has disappointed many Israelis who feel that Egyptians have never accepted the Jewish state as a full partner. (Editing by Paul Simao)
Top-level informer affair embarrasses Hamas By KARIN LAUB and MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writers – Wed Feb 24, 3:21 pm ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Claims by the son of a Hamas founder Wednesday that he was a long-term spy for Israel exposed a new side of the Islamic militant group's vulnerability and punched a hole in its meticulously groomed image of secrecy and discipline.The spy affair comes at a time when Hamas is still reeling from suspicions that Hamas informants helped Israel assassinate a top Hamas operative in a Dubai hotel. The back-to-back scandals were sure to leave Hamas leaders fearful of their own and ever more painfully aware of how capable Israel is of reaching the inner circles of their organization.At the center of the latest affair is 32-year-old Mosab Yousef, a son of Sheik Hassan Yousef, a Hamas founder serving a six-year term in an Israeli prison.Hamas, which overran the Gaza Strip in 2007, dismissed the younger Yousef's claims as a lie and said they were part of an Israeli attempt to weaken the movement. However, the man's father did not rule out that his son was an informer, contending he was blackmailed by Israeli agents as a teen.Analysts said the disclosures hurt Hamas' image and were sure to trigger new security concerns in the movement.The Israeli Haaretz daily reported Wednesday that Mosab Yousef provided intelligence to Israel's Shin Bet security service for more than a decade, preventing dozens of Hamas attacks against Israelis, including suicide bombings, saving hundreds of lives. The paper said he also helped put several senior Palestinian operatives behind bars.The younger Yousef, who moved to California in 2007, declined an interview request by The Associated Press.
His memoir, Son of Hamas,is being published in the United States next week. His publicist confirmed that the information presented by Haaretz is described in the book. The author wrote on his Facebook page that his memoir will blow your minds away, it is going to be like a tsunami in the Middle East.Mosab Yousef was considered one of the Shin Bet's most valuable assets and was dubbed The Green Prince, a reference to his Hamas pedigree and the Islamists' signature green color, Haaretz said.The newspaper said it confirmed Mosab Yousef's account with Shin Bet agents, including his handler. The report said Mosab, who converted to Christianity, despised Hamas and acted out of ideological conviction.The elder Yousef said in a statement from prison that he did not rule out that his son was recruited by Israeli intelligence, but he had no access to the movement's secrets.The father said Mosab was first blackmailed by the Israeli agents as a 17-year-old, and others in Hamas were told. The cleric did not say what damaging information Shin Bet might have used against his son.Whether what Haaretz reported is true or not, Mosab was not an active member in Hamas or in any of its military, political or religious branches, or any other body,the elder Yousef said in the statement distributed by Hamas.
Mosab Yousef was first jailed by Israel in 1996 and released in 1997.The Shin Bet routinely tries to recruit Palestinians of all factions as informers, including those in prisons, by using blackmail or promising benefits, such as work or travel permits.The spy affair comes at a time when Hamas is still smarting from the Jan. 19 assassination in Dubai of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, suspected by Israel of procuring Iranian arms for Gaza.On Wednesday, Dubai police said at least 15 more suspects using foreign passports are wanted for the slaying of the Hamas commander, raising the alleged hit squad tally to at least 26. Several names were traced to Israeli dual nationals, but all denied involvement.The violent Hamas has been in Israel's sights since its founding in 1987. Israel has killed key Hamas leaders in Gaza, most in airstrikes, though it botched a 1997 attempt to kill Khaled Mashaal, now the movement's supreme leader. Authorities in Dubai have arrested two Palestinians in the al-Mabhouh slaying. Hamas' Fatah rivals in the West Bank have alleged that Hamas moles helped the killers. Hamas officials have countered that the Syria-based al-Mabhouh was careless, booking his trip through the Internet and informing his Gaza family of the name of the Dubai hotel where he planned to stay. The family denied al-Mabhouh gave them information. Hamas also denied media reports that two al-Mabhouh aides in Damascus were sought for questioning about the assassination. Instead, Hamas has alleged that the two Palestinians in custody in Dubai had links to Fatah.
Hamas long prided itself in its secrecy and discipline, in contrast to the fractious, unruly Fatah movement. However, analysts said that as Hamas grew from a shadowy underground movement into Gaza's ruler, it became more vulnerable to infiltration.Hamas is no longer a small organization which is easily controlled by any leadership,said Khaled Hroub, a Hamas expert at Cambridge University. The al-Mabhouh assassination undermined Hamas' image as a coherent, organized group, and the exposure of Mosab Yousef as an informer was even more damaging, he added. There have been a number of stories of having some collaborators on the margins and fringes (of Hamas), but not the son of a leader,he said.It will leave a stain on Hamas' image.Mohammed Daraghmeh reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Additional reporting by Rizek Abdel Jawad in Gaza City and Diaa Hadid and Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem.
Facebook looks to capitalize on Arab world growth By ADAM SCHRECK, AP Business Writer – Wed Feb 24, 6:27 am ET
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Facebook Inc. said Wednesday it is teaming with a Middle Eastern digital advertising company as the online meet-up site looks to capitalize on rapid growth in the Arab world.Facebook said it hopes the deal with Connect Ads will give it better exposure to advertisers in a socially conservative region where online marketing is in its early stages. The Cairo-based advertising booker already handles sales for Microsoft Corp.'s MSN regional portals and other local sites.They have the reach and ... they have the connections, said Trevor Johnson, Facebook's head of strategy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.The tie-up with an outside ad sales provider mirrors a strategy Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook has used in other emerging markets, such as Eastern Europe and Asia, Johnson said in an interview.It also signals the potential the social networking site sees for the young and growing Arab market, where it counts 10 million regular users.The company expects Mideast user numbers to shoot significantly higher in the coming months, as it has in other markets, as more members follow their friends onto the site.The opportunity is massive ... we're very much at a tipping point, Johnson said.Now is the time where there are enough people where it makes brands sit up and listen.For now though, the Middle East represents a small fraction of Facebook's business. The company has more than 400 million active users worldwide. It says about 70 percent of those are outside the United States.Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The initial partnership lasts for three years.
The companies said it was too early to discuss sales targets. Connect Ads managing director Mohamed el-Mehairy said only that he expects high revenues from the deal given the site's explosive growth.Partnering with an established Arabic firm also could help Facebook find its way in a region where authorities typically maintain strict controls on the flow of online information.Censors in countries such as Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia routinely block Web sites based on political, religious and moral grounds. Those countries are also home to the bulk of Facebook's Middle Eastern users.It's whether or not we can continue to deliver on the local market experience people expect, but within the rules and regulations imposed by governments and society, Johnson said. That's one of the biggest challenges, is building that side of things.Other major Internet companies are also ramping up their operations in the Arab world.In August, Yahoo Inc. bought one of the region's largest online portals, Maktoob, for an undisclosed sum.Two weeks later, Google Inc. launched an online question-and-answer tool it said was designed to boost the amount of Web content available in Arabic. It already offers Arabic-language search pages, and its Blogger publishing platform is popular in the region.
US, Russia eye new Mideast peace push By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer – Tue Feb 23, 5:22 pm ET
WASHINGTON – The United States, Russia and their Mideast peace partners are hoping that a strategy session among top diplomats can prod Israel and the Palestinians to restart stalled talks and have begun organizing a gathering in the Russian capital next month.Diplomats said Tuesday that the Obama administration and Russia are trying to convene a meeting of the so-called Quartet group of peacemakers — the U.S., Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — in mid-March in Moscow.A tentative date of March 19 has been discussed but is not yet confirmed, the diplomats said. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the timing has not been finalized.The meeting would bring together Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton along with other European officials, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is now the Quartet's special representative.It was not immediately clear whether Israeli or Palestinian representatives would be invited or whether Arab officials would attend.
The meeting will seek to build on the work of the special U.S. envoy for Middle East peace, George Mitchell, who has been shuttling back and forth to the region with only limited success in improving the atmosphere for a resumption in peace talks.
Clinton spoke by telephone on Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about the prospect of getting together in the very near future as part of the Quartet to focus on the Middle East, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. He did not provide details or offer a potential time or venue for the meeting.If held as planned, the meeting would follow a recent flurry of U.S. diplomatic activity in the Middle East, including an upcoming trip to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden in the second week of March.Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg left Washington on Tuesday for Israel to participate in this week's U.S.-Israel Strategic Dialogue and Clinton's other two top deputies, Jacob Lew and William Burns, each returned from separate trips to the region in the past 10 days.Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is due in Washington later this week for talks with senior administration officials and will see Clinton at the State Department on Friday, Crowley said.Clinton herself just returned from a trip to Qatar and Saudi Arabia that coincided with a visit to Israel by Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Opposition leader praises Hamas commander killing By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer – Tue Feb 23, 1:02 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israel's parliamentary opposition leader on Tuesday praised the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai last month, in the first such comment from a top official.Tzipi Livni of the centrist Kadima Party said the death of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was good, but she did not indicate who was behind the killing.The fact that a terrorist was killed, and it doesn't matter if it was in Dubai or Gaza, is good news to those fighting terrorism, she said at a conference of the Jewish Agency board of governors in Jerusalem.Israel has refused to comment on assumptions that a Mossad team carried out the assassination. Dubai police have released pictures and passports with names of Israelis, saying the forged passports were used by the hit squad.The Israelis have said they were victims of identity theft. Britain, Ireland and Germany have called Israeli ambassadors in for explanations about the forged passports, but Israel has not accepted responsibility.Israel has come under withering criticism from some quarters in Europe and elsewhere in the wake of the killing of al-Mabhouh, who was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on Jan. 20. Dubai security cameras picked up 18 members of what the country's police commander said was a hit team, adding that he was virtually certain Mossad was to blame.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was grilled about Israel's alleged role in the killing when he met European foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. In a statement, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that as long as there is no evidence beyond media reports linking Israel to the killing, the minister felt there is no need to relate to the matter.In the only Israeli government comment to date, Lieberman said last week,Israel never responds, never confirms and never denies.He added,I don't know why we are assuming that Israel, or the Mossad, used those passports.Livni, a former foreign minister, served in the Mossad in the 1980s. In her address Tuesday, she rejected criticism of the assassination of al-Mabhouh, who Israel says was behind the kidnapping and killing of two soldiers in 1989 and more recently was in charge of obtaining rockets for Hamas militants in Gaza.The entire world must support those fighting terrorism,Livni said.Any comparison between terrorism and those fighting it is immoral.
Egypt police arrest Cairo synagogue bomb suspect
Tue Feb 23, 10:29 am ET
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian security forces arrested a 49-year-old tailor Tuesday on suspicion of trying to bomb a Cairo synagogue in retaliation for Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.Security forces believe Gamal Hussein Ahmed threw a primitive explosive device and a suitcase filled with petrol canisters at the synagogue in downtown Cairo Sunday. The device burst into flames but caused no injuries.Ahmed, a drug addict who had previously been in rehabilitation, was on his way to the American embassy to seek political asylum when police arrested him at 1 a.m. (2300 GMT on Monday), the ministry said.Egypt, the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, has been rounding up youths accused of links to Islamist groups in the past few months.Political analysts say they expect isolated incidents of violence but see no sign of a return of insurgency on the scale of the 1990s, when security forces fought gun battles to quash an organized Islamist rebellion.Analysts say such incidents also aid the government's push to extend emergency laws, in place since 1981, that sanction indefinite detention and military trials. Egypt's parliament is set to discuss their extension in April.Sources cited in the ministry statement said Ahmed confessed he threw the device at the synagogue out of anger over perceived Israeli injustices committed against Palestinians in the occupied territories.A bomb in a busy Cairo tourist area in February last year killed a French tourist. That was the first fatal attack against tourists in Egypt since bombs killed at least 23 people at tourist sites in the Sinai peninsula in 2006.Egypt was once home to tens of thousands of Jews, but most left decades ago and only a few dozen live in the Arab state.(Writing by Marwa Awad; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Palestinian state a vital interest for Israel: Abbas
Tue Feb 23, 12:59 pm ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) – The creation of an independent Palestine is a vital interest for Israel, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Tuesday, while reiterating his refusal to enter talks unless Jewish settlement building ends.An independent Palestinian state is a vital interest for Israel, the Palestinian Authority head said during exchanges with Belgian senators and deputies in Brussels.We all hope that a just and durable peace... in a state living peacefully with Israel, could bring peace and stability to the whole region,said Abbas, who was set to meet EU president Herman Van Rompuy and Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme later in the day.
While seeing no alternative to negotiations, Abbas stressed that these could not begin while Israel continues the colonisation of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem through the building up of Jewish settlements.Abbas also declared that the appeal by the European Union in December for Jerusalem to become the future capital of two states, as part of a negotiated settlement, marked the start of a political role for the EU in the region.I would like the United States to adopt such a declaration, he added.The Palestinian leader singled out the very good position taken by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who has floated the idea of granting international recognition to a Palestinian state even before Israel has agreed on its borders.However I can't say that it reflects the French position, he added.French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who met Abbas in Paris on Monday, did not reprise his foreign minister's remarks, calling them an idea for the future.
War of Words: Israel attacks Palestinian rhetoric By Erika Solomon – Tue Feb 23, 9:04 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Concerned that its image abroad is suffering, Israel is going on the offensive to show that Palestinians, not Israelis, are responsible for perpetuating the region's cycle of violence.With the peace process at a standstill since its war in Gaza a year ago, Israel is trying to paint the Palestinian Authority as the source of incitement to violence -- a violation of Palestinian obligations under peace agreements.Citing usage of the word martyr to honor dead Palestinian militants and speeches recalling the noble heritage of armed struggle, Israel's incitement accusations put the onus on Palestinian leadership for failure to return to negotiations.In January, Israel's Center for Near East Research stepped up the anti-incitement campaign with the launch of a monthly Incitement Report. Aimed at Western legislators, it chronicles language its writers say encourages violence.Israel's Ministry for Public Diplomacy is also inviting ordinary citizens to get involved, with a program to teach volunteers how to present a positive image of Israel abroad. Palestinian incitement is included as a talking point.Palestinian officials insist their speeches do not incite violence. Their political rhetoric, however, pays homage to a past of violent resistance to Israeli occupation.Fatah, the dominant force behind the Palestinian Authority, calls its legislative body the Revolutionary Council. Its charter still does not recognize Israel, even as its leaders promote a two-state solution and peace with the Jewish state.Palestinians say rhetoric from their side about guns or bloodshed is nothing compared with the physical subjugation and humiliation they suffer at the hands of Israeli occupation troops manning West Bank checkpoints and armed patrols.
Real incitement isn't just words, they say, it is actions.The Israelis keep taking Palestinian land to build settlements, their settlers provoke Palestinians by cutting their trees or taking their homes in Jerusalem. It goes on and on, says Ghassan Khatib, Palestinian Authority spokesman.Israeli behavior is the most effective incitement to the Palestinian public, he said.
SERMONS
The incitement debate stems from the Roadmap to peace, a 2003 Middle East peace plan whose first phase required Palestinian authorities to end violence, and Israel to help normalize Palestinian life and freeze settlement activity. Each side is called on to end incitement against the other.Palestinians insist they are meeting their obligations but can only do so much to muzzle individuals.A few weeks ago, a Palestinian official missed his appointment to give a sermon on non-violence at a small mosque in the West Bank village of Burin, on the frontline of skirmishes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians.While he was held by Israeli troops at a checkpoint, a replacement speaker stepped up to the minbar (dais) and delivered a blood-curdling call on Muslims to kill Jews.The PA, which has gagged the cleric, said such incidents can be hard to stop in places like Burin, where a neighboring mosque had just been attacked and Israel settlers were suspected. The Koran was burned and Hebrew graffiti scrawled on the walls, vandalism denounced by Israeli ministers and rabbis.Palestinians say some Israeli examples of incitement are unrelated to violence. In a speech last week, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon named Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as sources of incitement because they go from capital to capital to defame Israel...to vilify Israel.We need to have common definitions as to what incitement is and what it is not, said Khatib, who suggested creating a joint observation committee.
But others say no consensus is possible. Media analyst Nebal Thawabteh of Birzeit University in the West Bank recalls a joint incitement study by Israeli and Palestinian organizations a few years ago. They had completely different criteria. You can't even discuss the issue because there are no guidelines. It all depends on political views, she said. (Editing by Douglas Hamilton and Jon Boyle)
You watch too much Bond: Israeli diplomat
Mon Feb 22, 1:25 pm ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday made light of accusations that the Jewish state was involved in the murder of a top Hamas official in Dubai, likening the assassination to a James Bond movie plot.You see too many James Bond movies, Lieberman told journalists in Brussels, when asked whether the Israeli secret service Mossad was involved in the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmud al-Mabhuh.The comment was made after the Israel's top diplomat held talks with EU parliament president Jerzy Buzek, one of several European officials Lieberman met during a visit to Brussels which coincided with a meeting of EU foreign ministers.His visit was arranged before the outset of the furore over the Hamas official's murder, and the use of European passports by the killers.Lieberman also met up with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Irish counterpart Micheal Martin and EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton among others.According to Dubai police, the hit-men who killed al-Mabhuh, a founder of Hamas' military wing, held British, Irish, French and German passports between them.Investigators in the Emirates are convinced that Mossad was behind the attack.In a statement issued by his office Lieberman said there was no evidence the Jewish state was behind the killing.There is no proof Israel is involved in this affair, and if somebody had presented any proof, aside from press stories, we would have reacted, Lieberman said in his statement.
France's Sarkozy backs viable Palestinian state By James Mackenzie – Mon Feb 22, 11:49 am ET
PARIS (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy backed the creation of a viable Palestinian state on Monday but was cautious about repeating his foreign minister's support for possible recognition of a state before its borders were set.Speaking at a news conference in Paris with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Sarkozy repeated France's support for statehood for Palestinians but added:We have always said a viable Palestinian state.What we want when we argue for a Palestinian state is a real state, which can give hope and a future for millions of Palestinians. It's not just an idea, he told reporters.In a newspaper interview at the weekend, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that to break a stalemate in Middle East peacemaking, some countries might recognize a Palestinian state before its borders were fixed.One can imagine a Palestinian state being rapidly declared and immediately recognized by the international community, even before negotiating its borders. I would be tempted by that, he told the Journal du Dimanche.Sarkozy said that Kouchner was thinking of possible ways to bring momentum to the peace process but that France's goal remained a functioning Palestinian state in clearly set borders.In Bernard's comments, there was the thought that if we don't manage that, then when the time comes, in accord with our Palestinian friends, we might underline the idea of this state politically, to lift it up a notch in a way, he said.But the objective is the idea of a Palestinian state in the frontiers of 1967, with an exchange of territory, just as we have said all along.The Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership said last year it would seek U.N. Security Council backing for a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, referring to the West Bank and Gaza Strip borders as they were on the eve of the 1967 Middle East war.
It said the initiative would not be a unilateral declaration of statehood but would aim to secure international support for the eventual creation of a state based on the 1967 borders.Sarkozy said that if any such initiative were launched, we would see what we would do but that it was up to the Palestinians to decide how they wished to proceed.Israel has sharply criticized the idea of any unilateral initiative and says only negotiations can produce results.But there has been growing speculation in Israel that the Palestinians are looking for ways around direct talks which have been suspended for over a year.A think-tank close to the Israeli government says the Palestinians have largely abandoned a negotiated settlement and instead are actively pursuing a unilateral approach to statehood with serious implications for Israel.Palestinian unilateralism is modeled after Kosovo's February 2008 unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia, said a recent paper by Dan Diker of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.The EU and the United States recognized the independence of Kosovo without the support of a Security Council resolution. Palestinian leaders now believe geopolitical conditions are ripe to follow that path, Diker said.(Additional reporting by Douglas Hamilton in Jerusalem; Editing by Michael Roddy)
Gaza training camp blast kills Hamas militant
Mon Feb 22, 5:07 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – A Palestinian militant was killed in an explosion at a training camp run by Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Monday, medics and the Islamist movement said.
Another fighter was seriously wounded in the blast near the southern town of Khan Yunis, according to Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services.Hamas said the man was killed during a jihad mission, a phrase often used for accidental explosions.Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007 after driving out forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in a week of bloody street battles.
Jews force way into Jericho to pray at old synagogue: army
Sun Feb 21, 4:04 pm ET
JERICHO (AFP) – A group of Jewish faithful forced their way past an army checkpoint and into the West Bank town of Jericho on Sunday to pray at an ancient synagogue and were later arrested, the army and an AFP correspondent said.Our forces entered Jericho and apprehended 35 Israel civilians who had entered Jericho in the evening to pray at an ancient synagogue, a spokesman said, adding that they would be turned over to the police.Earlier, an AFP correspondent said the group, said to be extremist settlers, broke through a military checkpoint on one of the roads controlling access to Jericho.The synagogue, in the northern part of the town, contains a magnificent 6th century mosaic of a menorah, or seven-branch candelabra, and the words Shalom al Israel, or Peace to Israel.Israelis wishing to pray there are supposed to coordinate with the army and the Palestinian police.
France wants Middle East peace talks kick-start: PM
Sun Feb 21, 11:58 am ET
AMMAN (Reuters) – France is considering recognizing a Palestinian state before its borders have been negotiated in an effort to kick-start Middle East peace talks, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Sunday.France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told French weekend newspaper Journal du Dimanche he was tempted by the idea of international recognition of a Palestinian state even before its borders were negotiated.Kouchner's proposal showed France's willingness to accelerate the (peace) process, to take initiatives which will kick off negotiations which are taking too long to start, Fillon told a news conference in Jordan.French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Fillon plan to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on Monday.Peace talks were halted more than a year ago over the war in the conflict in the Gaza Strip and have not resumed, due largely to a Palestinian demand that Israel first impose a complete freeze on building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and Israel's refusal to do so.(Reporting by Sophie Louet; Writing by Sophie Taylor; Editing by Jon Hemming)
