US envoy pushes Mideast peace agenda
MAY 07,10 6:15AM
JERUSALEM (AFP) – US envoy George Mitchell on Friday was scheduled to meet with Israel's president and later with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the hopes the two sides will start indirect talks within days.Mitchell, who already spoke on two occasions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to meet President Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and opposition leader Tzipi Livni on Friday.In the evening he was due to head to the Ramallah, the political capital of the occupied West Bank for talks with Abbas.The Palestine Liberation Organisation is due to decide on Saturday whether to proceed with the indirect talks, after which Mitchell will hold a final meeting with Abbas, a senior Palestinian official said.At that meeting, Abbas will convey to the US envoy the Palestinians' definitive answer on the talks, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
Mitchell is then expected to make a formal announcement about the start of the proximity talks on Saturday evening or on Sunday before he returns to Washington, the spokesman said.Direct talks resumed after a seven-year hiatus in November 2007 but had made little visible progress when they collapsed again just over a year later.The Palestinians had agreed in March to take part in proximity talks but pulled out after Israel announced plans to build 1,600 homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.After receiving US assurances the Jerusalem settlement expansion plan would be shelved, the Palestinians eventually agreed to consider a new attempt at proximity talks.They want east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state but Israel considers all of the Holy City to be its eternal and indivisible capital.The status of Jerusalem as well as the issue of settlements are among the thorniest in efforts to achieve a peace deal.Israel has imposed a partial and temporary freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, but it does not include occupied and annexed east Jerusalem, or buildings already under construction.
YESTERDAY THE DOW DROPPED 700 POINTS IN 10 MINUTES FROM 2:46 TO 2:56PM AND WIPPED OUT $1 TRILLION DOLLARS OF LOST MONEY.
World stocks slide on Dow collapse, debt crisis By PAN PYLAS, AP Business Writer Pan Pylas, Ap Business Writer – MAY 07,10
LONDON – World markets fell sharply Friday following a huge sell-off on Wall Street and amid fears that Europe's debt crisis could spread and derail the global economic recovery.In Britain, where investors were grappling with uncertain general election results, the FTSE 100 index was down 53.05 points, or 1 percent, at 5,207.94 following a slide in the pound.Germany's DAX fell 71.80 points, or 1.2 percent, at 5,836.46 while the CAC-40 in France was 92.81 points, or 2.6 percent, lower at 3,463.30.The falls in Europe follow big declines in Asia — Japan's benchmark Nikkei index closed 3.1 percent down at 10,364.59.Some respite could come when Wall Street traders return later, though analysts said the monthly U.S. payrolls report before the open could shift sentiment — Dow futures were up 2 points at 10,459 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose 1 point to 1,123.40.Investors around the world are uneasy about the prospect of trouble in the euro zone from Greece's crisis. Many economists say Greece may be insolvent in the end despite an EU-IMF bailout, and there are fears that other countries will face bond market skepticism — and higher borrowing costs that will worsen their finances in a vicious spiral. That could undermine markets and consumer confidence just as Europe crawls out of recession.They were further rattled by the massive sell-off on Wall Street — at one stage, the Dow Jones industrial average was in freefall, trading 1,000 points lower.
Though the collapse was blamed in part on a trading error and the Dow did recover to close 3.2 percent lower and regulators said they were reviewing what had happened, the drop fed into a prevailing fear that Greece's debt crisis was spreading to Portugal and Spain and possibly further afield. Finance ministers from the Group of Seven nations will hold a teleconference later in the day to discuss the situation, Japan's finance minister Naoto Kan said.Stock markets weren't alone in seeing massive swings — in the currency markets, the dollar was down a massive 6 yen at 88.68 yen one stage, while the euro dropped to $1.2520, its lowest level in 14 months. The retreats were reversed though and dollar was trading 1.5 percent higher on the day at 92.11 yen while the euro was up 0.9 percent at $1.2745.Contagion has smashed risk appetite and created panic while a fat finger glitch has created mayhem in equities, said Neil Mackinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital.Caution remains the watchword especially in front of the G7 conference call where markets will be wary of support/intervention action,said Mackinnon.The scale of the current stage in the crisis was evident in the news that the Bank of Japan was offering two trillion yen ($22 billion) in short-term loans to commercial banks to boost liquidity after the dollar had tumbled.We would like to ensure stability in financial markets by providing ample funds to banks, Bank of Japan official Yuichi Adachi said. He declined to elaborate further.
As if all that wasn't enough, investors, particularly in London, had to grapple with the inconclusive outcome of the British general election.With the counting of the votes coming to an end, it's clear than no party has won enough seats to control Parliament.The U.K. will have a coalition government irrespective of the remaining declarations and indeed the media's political focus has long since shifted to this front,said Simon Derrick, senior currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.The uncertainty was most evident in the currency markets where the pound tumbled 1.8 percent to a year low of $1.4481.Across Asia, stocks were hit hard even though the government debt crisis is centered on Europe — all the main indexes ended lower with Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and New Zealand down sharply. China's Shanghai Composite Index closed 1.9 percent lower while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ended around 1.1 percent down. Financial markets have begun to over-run policymakers' ability to implement measures to stem the crisis,said Sean Darby, a strategist with Nomura in Hong Kong. A strong dollar and the flight to quality mean that Asian equities have also been drawn into the contagion.Oil markets were also oscillating wildly — benchmark crude for June delivery was up 49 cents to $77.60 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That modest rise follows the $2.86 slide on Thursday.Associated Press Writer Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.
Report: Dubai IDs 5 new suspects in Hamas murder
MAY 07,2010
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A local newspaper says Dubai police has identified five new suspects in the slaying of a Hamas operative in the Gulf city-state.The National says the five traveled to Dubai with Australian, British and French passports to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. He was found dead in his Dubai hotel room in January.Dubai has accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of killing al-Mabhouh. The police previously released names of 27 suspects who traveled to Dubai on fake identities and forged European and Australian passports.Friday's report did not reveal the new suspects' names.If confirmed, this would bring the number of suspects behind the slaying to 32 people.Dubai police could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday. Government officials declined to comment.
Gaza smokers forced to cough up as Hamas seeks cash by Patrick Moser – MAY 07,10
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Gazans are trapped in their overcrowded strip by an Israeli blockade and are still struggling with the aftermath of war, but their anger today is directed at the Hamas rulers for taxing their smokes.Many see the new tax imposed on cigarettes smuggled from Egypt as a sign the Islamists are in deep financial trouble in the Palestinian territory that essentially survives on aid and a black market economy.Egypt has stopped the money from coming in (and) Hamas now badly needs money to pay salaries, said a local journalist, an inveterate smoker, who asked not to be named.Since Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of the Jewish state, violently seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel and Egypt have imposed a tight blockade, allowing in only essential and humanitarian goods.
Hundreds of tunnels that dot the border with Egypt have served to bring in other commercial goods -- anything from motorbikes to Marlboros -- as well as weapons and cash.But Egypt has recently cracked down on the smuggling, dealing a strong blow to Hamas, which is boycotted by most banks because it is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union.Hamas has made it clear it plans to gradually impose sales taxes on a wide range of items in order to address the financial crisis.Everybody is angry,says Hassan Abu El Kass, pointing to the stamp that shows the smokes he sells from a tiny street stall have been taxed.
The three-shekel sales tax (0.8 dollars, 0.60 euros) sent the price of a pack soaring by about 60 percent.Sales are down, people can't afford such prices, says Kass. A small crowd gathers around him, expressing outrage over the tax and lashing out -- albeit quietly -- at Hamas.One of Gaza's political factions recently warned in rare public criticism of the Islamists that there would be an explosion if Hamas continues collecting the new taxes.Battling power outages that leave Gaza in the dark for hours on end, Hamas is also trying to get people to pay their electricity bills, something many residents haven't done for years.Gaza gets about 70 percent of its electricity through power lines from Israel and five percent from Egypt, with the rest produced by the territory's sole power plant that relies on industrial fuel imports from Israel.That plant has been working at only a fraction of its capacity since Israel imposed the blockade, receiving only 2.2 million litres of fuel a week, as opposed to the 3.5 million litres it needs.Gazans have long been used to power cuts, but the outages have become longer and more frequent since the European Commission stopped funding fuel purchases in November.The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, dominated by president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah -- the arch-foe of Hamas -- is now in charge of buying the fuel, and supplies have dropped significantly.In March, a weekly average of 1.4 million litres of industrial fuel were imported into Gaza. That figure dropped to about one million litres in the last week of April.The shortfall has been blamed on animosity between Hamas and Fatah, but also on a failure by consumers to pay their bills.
The Gaza Electricity Corporation (GEDCO) says it has monthly sales of about 50 million shekels (13.4 million dollars, 10 million euros) but collects only about 35 to 40 percent of the bill. The accrued arrears of municipalities alone amounted to 413.5 million shekels (110.8 million dollars, 83.3 million euros) by January, according to GEDCO. People haven't been paying, Hamas hasn't been paying, municipalities haven't been paying,says Yaser Alwadeya, a Gaza industrialist and independent politician, who has pushed for Hamas to tackle the issue urgently. In recent weeks, municipal employees have been going door-to-door to collect well-overdue payments, sometimes backed by police and technicians ready to cut off anyone who doesn't pay up. But the power outages are still lengthy and frequent, affecting just about every sector of life from industrial plants to fishmongers, from sanitation facilities to reconstruction efforts.
And Gaza's blockade-ravaged economy was not much to start off with.
Nothing works properly: water is not drinkable, there's barely any electricity, there are no services and banks have no money available,says Alwadeya, who says he is among the few business leaders left in Gaza. Alwadeya's company was once the largest food maker in Gaza, but much of his production line was reduced to rubble by Israel's devastating three-week offensive launched in December 2008. He paints a bleak picture of the situation in the narrow coastal enclave.We no longer have an economy in Gaza. Just dealers from tunnels.The blockade has left many Gazans struggling to eke out a living, and 80 percent of the 1.5 million population depend on food aid. Fishermen, prevented by Israeli gunboats from venturing more than five kilometres (three miles) out to sea, now sail to the southern border to buy Egyptian fishermen's catch. Some fish is also brought in through the tunnels. Farmers risk their lives when they venture into fields near the border wall. Citing the risk of militant attacks, Israel regularly opens fire on anyone getting to close to the boundary. The risk does not deter hundreds of people who scavenge for construction materials among the ruined buildings by Gaza's northern border with Israel, using horse-drawn carts to carry their heavy loads. The closer they get to the border wall, the better the materials, and the higher the risk of getting shot. A little farther back, a cloud of dust rises from a spot where dozens of people collect pebbles that will be crushed and mixed into concrete. It's hard work, it's dangerous,says 12-year-old Motaz as he sifts through the sand just a few hundred metres from the border. Asked if he'd rather be at school, he mops his brow with a corner of his dusty Mickey Mouse T-shirt, adjusts his red baseball cap and shrugs. We need the money.
Israeli's Olmert says he is victim of a witch-hunt
Thu May 6, 8:08 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert appeared in court on Thursday to answer charges of corruption, claiming he is the victim of a witch-hunt.
Speaking to reporters just before the hearing in a Jerusalem court, Olmert said a brutal, ruthless witch-hunt, the likes of which have never before been seen in Israel,was being waged against him.I have never been offered and I never have accepted bribes,he added.Olmert is on trial on charges of unlawfully accepting gifts of cash-stuffed envelopes, multiple billing of foreign trips and influence-peddling.
In December, Olmert pleaded not guilty to the charges.Prosecutors are now considering filing additional charges in connection with a spiralling real estate scandal in which several suspects allegedly received bribes to smooth the way for construction of Jerusalem's grandiose Holyland residential complex in the 1990s.All the charges relate to a period before Olmert became premier. Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003 and then served as trade and industry minister.
After lengthy diplomacy, Mideast peace talks begin By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 5, 3:14 pm ET
JERUSALEM – A U.S. mediator launched Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations Wednesday after a break of more than a year, starting a shuttle mission between a hard-line Israeli government and a Palestinian administration in control of only part of its territory.President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, met for three hours with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to start the indirect negotiations. In a statement, Netanyahu's office said the talks would continue on Thursday. No details were released.In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the meeting was good and productive but did not give details.Mitchell will travel between Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem and the headquarters of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, less than half an hour's drive away.But the positions of the two sides are worlds apart, and Mitchell's shuttling would be considered a success if he managed no more than to persuade the Israelis and Palestinians to sit down at the same table — something they did for nearly two decades before the last round of talks ended in January 2009.
The two could not even agree about the technicality of whether the talks had begun. Israel labeled the Mitchell-Netanyahu meeting Wednesday as the beginning of the mediation, while Palestinians insisted they still had to give formal approval to the process over the weekend.Crowley said Mitchell's meeting on Saturday with Abbas would mark the start of the indirect talks.Restarting the talks after a year of intensive diplomacy could give the Obama administration a badly needed foreign policy achievement, but it would be a temporary gain unless progress is made.Abbas is allocating four months for the indirect talks, insisting that the main disagreements must be discussed — control of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, borders and Israel's West Bank settlements.Negotiations will focus on final status issues and there's no need to enter into details and small matters, because we have had enough of that in the previous negotiations,Abbas said after talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II in the Jordanian capital.We said the indirect negotiations will last only four months, Abbas said.After that, we will go to the Arab League to consult on whether to continue or what to do.The Palestinians have refused to hold direct talks with Israel until it freezes all Jewish construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Netanyahu agrees to talk about everything but has made it clear that his priority is safeguarding Israel's security.Over the past decade, the two sides have come close to a comprehensive accord twice, but talks broke down both times in disagreement over core issues, especially Jerusalem, home to holy sites revered by Christians, Jews and Muslims.Palestinians demand a state in all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, with some minor land exchanges and a link between the West Bank and Gaza through Israel.While Netanyahu has reluctantly endorsed creation of a Palestinian state, he has posed strict security conditions, fearing that the West Bank would fall under control of Islamic Hamas militants. Hamas forces expelled Abbas loyalists from Gaza in 2007, and since then, Israeli border communities have become frequent targets for rockets from Gaza.Both sides face formidable internal obstacles to far-reaching compromise.Abbas' loss of Gaza is a major impediment because he does not control all the territory that Palestinians claim for a state. Also, Hamas has rejected any peace talks with Israel and threatens to undermine Abbas' position in the West Bank. Netanyahu heads a coalition government that includes hard-line elements, like Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who oppose giving control of much of the West Bank to the Palestinians or removing Jewish settlements there.Associated Press writer Jamal Halaby contributed to this report from Amman, Jordan.
U.S. and other big powers back Mideast nuclear arms ban By Louis Charbonneau – Wed May 5, 12:57 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States, Russia, Britain, France and China voiced support on Wednesday for making the Middle East a nuclear-weapons-free zone, which would ultimately force Israel to scrap any atomic arms it has.The move, in a joint statement, reflected U.S. concern to win Arab backing for sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program by offering a concession over its ally Israel, but Washington says the zone cannot be actually established yet.We are committed to a full implementation of the 1995 NPT resolution on the Middle East and we support all ongoing efforts to this end,the five permanent U.N. Security Council members said in a statement issued at a conference taking stock of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.The 1995 resolution adopted by signatories of the landmark arms control treaty called for making the Middle East a zone without nuclear arms. The Jewish state has never confirmed or denied having nuclear arms.We are ready to consider all relevant proposals in the course of the (NPT) Review Conference in order to come to an agreed decision aimed at taking concrete steps in this direction,said the statement, which was obtained by Reuters.U.S. support for the idea of creating such a zone in the future could be unwelcome to Israel, which has said it can only consider it once there is Middle East peace.
But diplomats from the Jewish state's Western allies say Arab states are pushing hard on the issue in exchange for their support in U.S.-led efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program.Egypt, which chairs the powerful 118-nation bloc of non-aligned developing nations, circulated a proposal to the 189 signatories of the treaty calling for a conference by next year on ridding the Middle East of nuclear arms in which all countries in the region would participate.The United States and Russia, with the support of the other three countries allowed to keep nuclear weapons under the NPT, are negotiating with Egypt to come up with an acceptable compromise proposal, Western diplomats say.Despite U.S. support for the principle of the proposed zone and for Egypt's call for discussion of it, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday the time was not yet ripe for creating the zone.
IRAN AND NORTH KOREA
Without naming specific countries, the statement also urged those outside the NPT to join it. Israel, like nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, never signed the treaty but is presumed to have a sizable atomic arsenal.We urge those states that are not parties to the treaty to accede as non-nuclear-weapon states and pending accession to the NPT, to adhere to its terms,the five powers said.Israel has tried to fend off Egyptian-led scrutiny of its arsenal by urging Cairo to view Iran's atomic ambitions as the regional threat, an Israeli official has said. Egypt says both Israel and Iran are nuclear threats to the region and wants action on both countries.The statement by the five powers touched on the nuclear programs of both Iran and North Korea.The proliferation risks presented by the Iranian nuclear program remain of serious concern to us,the statement said. The five powers and Germany are negotiating on a fourth U.N. sanctions resolution against Iran for defying Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment.Tehran refuses to stop enriching, saying its program is intended solely for the peaceful generation of electricity.
The statement did not mention sanctions. Russia and China, Western diplomats say, are pushing hard in negotiations to dilute the measures in a U.S.-drafted sanctions proposal. The five powers also called for the renewal of six-nation talks on North Korea, which withdrew from the NPT in 2003 and carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. The five official nuclear powers also reaffirmed previous disarmament commitments they made in 2000 and praised a recent U.S.-Russian strategic arms reduction agreement. The previous U.S. administration infuriated Arab and other non-aligned nations by refusing to reaffirm those pledges -- and the call for a Middle East nuclear-arms-free zone -- at the last NPT review conference in 2005. That conference was widely viewed as a failure.(Editing by Patrick Worsnip and Vicki Allen)
Nuke-free Mideast idea rises on global agenda By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent – Wed May 5, 11:57 am ET
UNITED NATIONS – The Middle East, that timeless tinderbox at the core of so much in world affairs, looms as a battleground in the U.N.'s meeting halls this month, as 189nations debate nuclear proliferation.The idea of establishing the region as a zone free of nuclear weapons, a notion on the back burner for 15 years, has emerged as a central issue at the twice-a-decade conference reviewing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).It is rising higher on the agenda because Iran's ambitious nuclear program, which the West alleges is aimed at weapons-making, threatens to prompt other Mideast nations to develop their own programs. And an expected future shift toward nuclear power worldwide will put possibly sensitive technology in more hands.But Israel, with its long-established but unannounced nuclear arsenal, remains a highly uncertain partner in any move toward a nuke-free Mideast.Egypt has formally proposed that this 2010 NPT conference back a plan to start talks next year on such a Mideast nuclear ban. Algeria has also submitted a plan.This conference represents a pivotal turning point in the history of the treaty, and an opportunity that may be the last and that must be seized,Egyptian U.N. Ambassador Maged A. Abdelaziz told delegates Wednesday.
The Middle East would join five other nuclear-free regions — Africa, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the South Pacific and Latin America — covering some 116 countries that have outlawed the presence of atomic arms in their areas.The United States, Israel's prime international backer, has long endorsed the idea of a Mideast zone, but has never pushed for action. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton caught the General Assembly Hall's attention on Monday, however, by saying Washington is now prepared to support practical measures for moving toward that objective.The U.S. and Israel are discussing what such practical measures might be, said a Western diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity about other countries' contacts.Russia's deputy foreign minister, meanwhile, said Moscow is partnering with Washington on a draft plan. In recent weeks, we have managed to develop a joint approach with the United States,Sergei A. Ryabkov told reporters.He didn't elaborate, beyond saying they have focused on a compromise,common denominator plan in place of the Egyptian and Algerian proposals.Fifteen years ago, the 1995 NPT Review Conference adopted a resolution calling for a Mideast zone free of weapons of mass destruction — nuclear, chemical and biological. It was a concession by the U.S. and others to the Arabs, who want Israel to join the nonproliferation treaty, giving up its officially unacknowledged arsenal of perhaps 80 nuclear weapons, the Mideast's only such arms.
In exchange, the Arabs in 1995 backed the West's successful effort to extend the NPT's life indefinitely.With India, Pakistan and North Korea, Israel is one of four nations not party to the NPT.After 15 years of inaction on a Mideast zone, two ideas are now under discussion: appointing an official special coordinator to study and consult with governments about ways forward; or planning a Mideast regional conference in 2011 on the subject.Important details would have to be worked out for a conference: its precise mandate; its proposed length and venue; the participating countries.Although Western diplomats privately express optimism about something new emerging here on a Mideast WMD-free zone, no one expects quick movement after the session toward a treaty. Embattled Israel has long maintained that a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace must first be reached before it would consider such a region-wide regime.Still, any movement here would be seen again as a concession by Washington and its allies, perhaps enabling them to win support on other elements they favor for a 2010 conference final document — making withdrawal from the treaty more difficult, for example. Iran is viewed as a candidate for withdrawal, since the U.S. and others believe Tehran's uranium enrichment program is aimed at building bombs, something Iran denies. If it decides to produce nuclear weapons, this thinking goes, Tehran will give the required three months' notice and pull out of the NPT. One more complication faces those pushing for a WMD-free zone: the other WMD. The Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention outlaw possession of those mass-casualty devices. The small handful of nations that haven't ratified those pacts include three crucial to the Middle East effort: Egypt, Syria and Israel.The three countries would have to accede to those treaties, and work would have to begin on identifying and neutralizing the chemical or biological weapons they might have.
UN has no evidence of Hezbollah Scud smuggling
Wed May 5, 11:24 am ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – A UN peacekeeping force said in a newspaper report on Wednesday that it has no evidence of any Scud missiles in southern Lebanon, after Israel accused Syria of smuggling the missiles to Hezbollah.We have no evidence of any Scud missiles in UNIFIL's area of operations in southern Lebanon, the daily An-Nahar quoted Major General Alberto Asarta Cuevas of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, as saying.These missiles are large and difficult to hide, he added in comments made in English.Israel's President Shimon Peres sparked controversy in April when he accused Syria of supplying the Shiite Hezbollah movement with long-range Scud missiles, a charge Damascus has staunchly denied.Washington, which has sought rapprochement with Damascus, further fed the controversy when Defence Secretary Robert Gates accused Iran and Syria of arming Hezbollah with sophisticated weaponry, without naming Scuds.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad about the risks of triggering a regional war if he supplied the Shiite group with the missiles.But Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday refused to confirm or deny the Scud allegations, saying his militant party had a legal right to own any weapons it wished.We do not confirm or deny if we have received weapons or not, so we do not comment and we will not comment, Nasrallah said.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria, is the only group that did not disarm after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, arguing its weapons are necessary to fight Israel which it later faced off in a devastating conflict in 2006.Spain in January took over command of the 12,000-strong UNIFIL, which was set up in 1978 to monitor Lebanon's border with Israel and was beefed up after the 2006 war.
Gaza report judge meets critics in South Africa
Wed May 5, 8:44 am ET
JOHANNESBURG – An internationally respected jurist who accused Israel of war crimes has discussed his findings with fellow South African Jews who criticized his U.N. report.In a statement Wednesday, the South African Zionist Federation said Monday's meeting came after Richard Goldstone attended his grandson's Johannesburg bar mitzvah. Goldstone was able to attend the weekend rite of passage after protests by his Jewish critics were called off.The federation says neither side would add publicly to opening statements it released.In his statement, Goldstone says it would have been hypocritical to denounce war crimes around the world but remain silent when it came to Israel.Federation chair Avrom Krengel says Goldstone's report was biased against Israel and caused pain and anger.
Founder of Israel's Rabbis for Human Rights dies
Tue May 4, 1:51 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Rabbi David Forman, founder of Rabbis for Human Rights, a prominent group defending Palestinians, has died, a colleague said Tuesday.Forman was 65. He died Monday in a hospital in Dallas, Texas, where he was undergoing treatment, said Rabbi Arik Ascherman, current leader of the human rights group.Forman founded Rabbis for Human Rights in 1988 and led it until 1992. He served as its chairman again from 2002-2003.A Reform Jewish rabbi, he was director of the Israel office of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Reform umbrella group. He moved to Israel in 1972.Rabbi Forman was a mentor and a moral compass for several generations of rabbis and Jews around the world through his work in human rights, Ascherman told The Associated Press.Rabbis for Human Rights leads regular protests against the demolition of Palestinian homes and uprooting of olive trees in the West Bank.Forman is survived by his wife and four children. His funeral is set for Thursday in Israel.
Palestinian leader meets Saudi king ahead of new peace talks
Tue May 4, 1:50 pm ET
RIYADH (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas held talks with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday ahead of the expected launch of US-brokered indirect negotiations with Israel, a Palestinian diplomat said.Abbas spent half a day talking with Abdullah and other top Saudi officials in preparation for meeting US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell on Friday, as the US pushes proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians that it hopes will open the door to a deal on a two-state solution.The king expressed total solidarity with the Palestinians and Palestinian leadership,a Palestinian diplomat said after the talks.He also expressed support for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas,the two main rival Palestinian factions, the diplomat added.Abbas was on a whistlestop tour of the region to coordinate with his Arab backers as momentum built for the resumption of negotiations with Israel.He will see Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Wednesday ahead of his planned meeting with Mitchell, who arrived in the region on Tuesday.Riyadh's support for the talks is considered crucial. Saudi Arabia has played a key role in backing negotiations towards a two-state solution, and in 2002 launched an Arab peace initiative towards that end.The support of the kingdom for our cause springs from its strong belief that what it is doing for the Palestinian cause is a duty dictated by its conscience and its faith, Abbas told the Okaz newspaper in an interview before the visit.On April 15, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Arab leaders to prove their commitment to Middle East peace through action, not just rhetoric that would make it easier for the Palestinians to pursue negotiations and achieve an agreement.
She also urged countries like Saudi Arabia to step up financial support for the Palestinian Authority headed by Abbas.Arab states need to share a greater portion of these responsibilities,she said.Abbas's writ has effectively been limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank since Hamas forces seized the Gaza Strip in 2007. Saudi Arabia played a lead role in so far abortive efforts to reconcile factions.
Israel says Hezbollah missile buildup accelerating
Tue May 4, 9:39 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Syria's government routinely ships weapons to Lebanon's Shiite militia Hezbollah in an operation that goes well beyond sporadic smuggling, a top Israeli intelligence officer said on Tuesday.The head of the military intelligence research department, Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, told a parliamentary committee that Hezbollah's arsenal included thousands of rockets of all ranges and types, some solid-fuelled.Baidatz did not specifically name the long-range Scud missiles which Israeli President Shimon Peres has accused Hezbollah of stockpiling, but appeared to allude to Peres' warnings.The shipments of long-range missiles which have been reported recently are only the tip of the iceberg, Baidatz told the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.Syria has a significant role in the growing strength of Hezbollah's rocket arsenal, he said.Weapons are sent to Hezbollah from Syria on a regular basis under the direction of the Syrian and Iranian regimes.Hezbollah has not confirmed or denied the Scud allegations, saying only that it has the right to possess any weapon it chooses.
On Monday, President Barack Obama renewed US sanctions on Syria for a year, accusing Damascus of supporting terrorist groups and pursuing missile programs and weapons of mass destruction.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last week about the risks of sparking a regional war if he supplied long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah.
U.S. envoy arrives for Israeli-Palestinian talks By Jeffrey Heller – Mon May 3, 11:41 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. President Barak Obama's Middle East peace envoy arrived in Tel Aviv Monday for expected indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks but Israel voiced doubt about any breakthrough without direct negotiations.Hours before envoy George Mitchell flew into Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak conferred in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh about the upcoming U.S.-mediated negotiations. Obama's peace efforts received a boost Saturday when Arab states approved four months of proximity talks, whose expected start in March was delayed by Israel's announcement of a settlement project on occupied land near Jerusalem.Israeli Defense Ministry strategist Amos Gilad said on Israel Radio the indirect negotiations would begin Wednesday.It was not immediately clear when the envoy would hold talks with the Palestinian side. The executive committee of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was scheduled to meet only Saturday to give the formal nod to start the negotiations.Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor described indirect talks as a strange affair after face-to-face peace negotiations stretching back 16 years.There have been no direct talks for the past 18 months, a period that has included Israel's Gaza war, election of a right-wing Israeli government and entrenched rule in the Gaza Strip by Hamas Islamists opposed to the U.S. peace efforts.
REAL TALKS
I think it is clear to everyone that real talks are direct talks, and I don't think there is a chance of a significant breakthrough until the direct talks begin, Meridor said.The talks will be held. The envoy, Mitchell, will talk to us, to them. But the more we hasten to arrive at direct talks, the more we will be able to address the heart of the matter.Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Abbas, said the negotiations would show whether the Israeli government was serious about peace and test the sincerity of the Obama administration in pursuing Palestinian statehood.The truth is we are not in need of negotiations. We are in need of decisions by the Israeli government. This is the time for decisions more than it is the time for negotiations,Abu Rdainah said.In an interview published Sunday in the Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam, Abbas said Obama had given a commitment he would not allow any provocative measures by either side.
Abbas has long insisted Israel freeze Jewish settlement building before any negotiations resume, and he had rejected a temporary construction moratorium that Netanyahu ordered in the occupied West Bank last November as insufficient.Netanyahu, who heads a pro-settler government, has pledged not to curb Israeli home construction in East Jerusalem.But after angering Washington by announcing a 1,600-home project -- during a visit in March by Vice President Joe Biden -- Israel has not approved new homes for Jews in East Jerusalem, in what some Israeli politicians called a de facto freeze.Israel captured East Jerusalem along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip in a 1967 war, and considers all of Jerusalem its capital, a claim that is not recognized internationally.Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they intend to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.(Additional reporting by Cairo bureau, Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Tom Perry in Ramallah)
Jordan River could die by 2011: report by Patrick Moser – Sun May 2, 5:36 pm ET
ALUMOT, Israel (AFP) – The once mighty Jordan River, where Christians believe Jesus was baptised, is now little more than a polluted stream that could die next year unless the decay is halted, environmentalists said on Monday.The famed river has been reduced to a trickle south of the Sea of Galilee, devastated by overexploitation, pollution and lack of regional management, Friends of the Earth, Middle East (FoEME) said in a report.More than 98 percent of the river's flow has been diverted by Israel, Syria and Jordan over the years.The remaining flow consists primarily of sewage, fish pond water, agricultural run-off and saline water," the environmentalists from Israel, Jordan and the West Bank said in the report to be presented in Amman on Monday.Without concrete action, the LJR (lower Jordan River) is expected to run dry at the end of 2011.The river -- which runs 217 kilometres (135 miles) from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea -- and its tributaries are shared by Israel, Jordan, Syria and the West Bank.In 1847, a US naval officer who led an expedition along the river described navigating down cascading rapids and waterfalls. Today the Jordan is a brackish stream barely a few metres (yards) wide.
A couple of kilometres south of the Sea of Galilee -- which is actually a lake -- a dam cuts off the flow of the river. Just south of the dam, raw sewage gushes from a pipe.This is what is today the source of the lower Jordan River, FoEME director for Israel Gidon Bromberg says, pointing to the foul-smelling water.No one can say this is holy water. No one can say this is an acceptable state for a river this famous worldwide.A few metres away, saline water -- diverted from salt springs to protect the nearby lake -- flows into the foaming brown mess.About 100 kilometres downstream, a Russian clad in a white robe immerses himself in the river at a site in Jordan where many Christians believe Jesus was baptised.Every year, thousands of pilgrims take the plunge in the biblical river despite alarmingly high pollution.
Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian communities along the lower Jordan river -- about 340,000 people in all -- dump raw sewage into the river.Ironically, if the sewage stops flowing into the river -- which Israel plans to do on its stretch -- the damage could be even greater unless additional measures are taken to reduce the salinity of the water.FoEME believes the solution lies in releasing huge amounts of fresh water into the river.The Jordan once had a flow of 1.3 billion cubic metres (45.5 billion cubic feet) a year, but now discharges only an estimated 20 million to 30 million cubic metres into the Dead Sea.A new study we commissioned reveals that we have lost at least 50 percent of biodiversity in and around the river due to the near total diversion of fresh water, and that some 400 million cubic metres of water annually are urgently needed to be returned to the river to bring it back to life, said Munqeth Mehyar, FoEME's Jordanian director. Israel, Syria, Jordan must all return water to the ailing river, the report says. Israel, having diverted the largest share and being a developed nation, should return a proportionally higher percentage of water, it adds. Better management could save Israel 517 million cubic metres of water a year and Jordan 305 million cubic metres, part of which could be allocated to the Jordan river, the environmental group says.Improving the flow of the Jordan River would also go a long way towards saving the Dead Sea, which is in turn withering rapidly.
