AIPAC LOBBY GROUP WORRIED

Lobby group AIPAC raises alarm over US-Israel spat
Sun Mar 14, 10:58 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A major pro-Israel US lobby group has warned that recent US administration remarks about bilateral ties with Israel were of serious concern, and urged the White House to ease tensions.Remarks by President Barack Obama's administration regarding the US relationship with Israel are a matter of serious concern, said the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in a statement issued Sunday.AIPAC calls on the administration to take immediate steps to defuse the tension with the Jewish State, it added.The statement came amid diplomatic upheaval between Washington and Jerusalem after Israel announced new settlement construction as US Vice President Joe Biden visited the region to boost indirect peace talks.

Administration officials including Biden, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and senior Obama advisor David Axelrod have slammed the new construction and the timing of the announcement as insulting and destructive.AIPAC, considered the most influential pro-Israel pressure group in the United States, has support across the political spectrum in Congress and routinely attracts senior US and Israeli political figures to its annual conference.This year, both Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are due to address the conference, scheduled for March 21-23.In their statement Sunday, AIPAC warned that the escalated rhetoric of recent days was distracting from the urgent issue of Iran's rapid pursuit of nuclear weapons, and the pursuit of peace between Israel and all her Arab neighbors.The administration should make a conscious effort to move away from public demands and unilateral deadlines directed at Israel, with whom the United States shares basic, fundamental, and strategic interests, AIPAC added.In an attempt at damage control, Netanyahu has set up a committee to investigate the settlement announcement, allegedly made without his knowledge, and offered an apology for its timing.

Israel captures senior Hamas militant in West Bank
Sun Mar 14, 6:12 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – A top Hamas commander in the West Bank has been arrested by the Israeli security services after more than a decade on the run, an Israeli military spokesman announced on Sunday.Maher Uda, 47, a senior commander in Hamas's armed wing in the occupied territory, was captured overnight in the West Bank political capital of Ramallah, the spokesman said.He had been on the wanted list since the end of the 1990s for his implication in a series of suicide attacks in Israel which claimed 70 lives, the military spokesman told AFP.Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said the arrest was the fruit of dangerous security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and the (Israeli) occupation, because he was wanted and hunted by both parties.The continuation of this security coordination is going to bury reconciliation alive because it comes in the context of uprooting Hamas and strengthening Fatah, he told AFP.A Palestinian security official in the West Bank said his forces did not know of Uda's whereabouts because he had gone underground several years ago and said they had yet to determine where exactly he was arrested.

If there were an earthquake or a flood in the West Bank, Hamas would blame it on the Palestinian Authority, he said on condition of anonymity.They don't want to admit they have informers within their ranks, he added.Long-running tensions between Hamas and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party boiled over when the Islamist movement drove his forces from Gaza in June 2007, seizing power in the impoverished coastal enclave.Since then each movement has accused the other of persecuting its rivals within the territory under its control.Palestinian security forces have imposed calm across the West Bank in recent years by ridding the streets of weapons and cracking down on armed groups, but they have denied going after Hamas for political reasons.

Israel orders inquiry into Biden visit upset: official
Sat Mar 13, 5:30 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an inquiry Saturday into why a contested settlement plan was announced during a landmark visit by US Vice President Joe Biden, a spokesman said.The prime minister has decided to create a committee bringing together ministry directors to examine what happened during vice-president Biden's visit and lay down rules to ensure such incidents are not repeated in future, a government spokesman said.The Israeli interior ministry announced during Biden's visit Tuesday that 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers would be built in predominantly Arab east Jerusalem, triggering fury among Arab and Palestinian leaders.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier issued a unusually stern rebuke to Netanyahu over the announcement, saying it sent a deeply negative signal about Israel's ties to its top ally.In an interview with CNN, she added that its timing -- during Biden's closely-watched visit -- was insulting.Clinton's criticism was backed by the Middle East Quartet, made up of the European Union, the United States, Russia and the United Nations.

Netanyahu has apologised for the timing of the settlement announcement.The Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state.Israel, which seized the sector in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community, considers the Holy City its eternal and indivisible capital.

Middle East Quartet condemns Israeli settlement plan
Fri Mar 12, 9:18 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The Middle East diplomatic Quartet condemned Israel's plans to build new settler homes and said unilateral actions would not be recognized by the international community.The group -- the European Union, the United States, Russia and the United Nations -- condemns Israel's decision to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem.The Quartet reaffirms that unilateral actions taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community, it added in a statement.Israel announced Tuesday during a landmark visit by US Vice President Joe Biden that 1,600 new settler homes would be built in predominantly Arab east Jerusalem.The announcement triggered fury among Arab and Palestinian leaders, just as fledgling indirect talks appeared to have been coaxed back to life by the United States.The Quartet said it had agreed to closely monitor developments in Jerusalem and to keep under consideration additional steps that may be required to address the situation on the ground.It reiterated that Arab-Israeli peace and the creation of an independent, contiguous and viable state of Palestine is in the fundamental interests of the parties, of all states in the region, and of the international community.It appealed to all concerned to back the urgent resumption of dialogue between the parties and to promote an atmosphere conducive to successful negotiations to resolve all outstanding issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the status of Jerusalem.The issue will be discussed at a ministerial session scheduled for March 19 in Moscow, to be attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state.Israel, which seized east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community, considers the city its eternal and indivisible capital.In an unusually sharp rebuke to a close ally, Clinton told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier Friday that Washington viewed the latest Israeli move as a deeply negative signal about Israel's approach to the bilateral relationship.The decision to build the homes in the ultra-Orthodox Ramat Shlomo neighbourhood was also criticized by both the European Union and the United Nations, which reiterated that all settlements are illegal.Russia called the move unacceptable and Britain said it would give strength to those who argue that Israel is not serious about peace.

Abbas blames Iran for blocking Palestinian reconciliation
Fri Mar 12, 4:37 pm ET

TUNIS (AFP) – Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas lashed out at Iran on Friday, blaming Tehran for being behind the latest failure to reconcile his secular Fatah movement with its Isalamist rival Hamas.Iran doesn't want Hamas to sign the Cairo reconciliation document, Abbas said during a meeting in the Tunisian capital.Fatah and Hamas struggled for months to reach a unity deal under Egyptian mediation, but the efforts collapsed late last year when Hamas refused to agree to a proposal that was signed by Fatah.Abbas said that while Hamas' leaders had initially indicated their approval of the document, they later began putting forth excuses to refuse to sign.The Fatah leader said his goal was to pull our people out from Iranian tutelage.

Hamas routed Fatah from the Gaza Strip in 2007 after deadly fighting, a year after winning Palestinian legislative elections.New legislative elections were due to have been held early this year, but they have since been postponed indefinitely as Hamas refuses to allow any vote in Gaza without a unity agreement with Abbas's Fatah movement.