Hamas leader says Nazi genocide was a lie
– Thu Jan 6, 1:22 pm ET
JABALIYA, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – A senior Hamas leader on Thursday accused Israel of carrying out countless holocausts against the Palestinians while saying the Nazi genocide was a lie.Mahmud Zahar made the remarks during a memorial ceremony for 43 Palestinians who were killed at a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp during Israel's 22-day war on Gaza that began in December 2008.The lie according to which they were a victim of a holocaust and the (Jewish) people are a victim -- this lie has crumbled with the holocaust of Beit Hanun, the holocaust of Al-Fakhura and the other countless holocausts ... committed by the Zionist enemy, he said.Zahar was speaking on the second anniversary of an Israeli air strike on the United Nations' Al-Fakhura school in the northern Gaza Strip.The incident was one of the deadliest in Israel's Operation Cast Lead" offensive, which left 1,400 Palestinians dead, most of them civilians, along with 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.Before an audience that included members of the Hamas leadership in Gaza, Zahar paid tribute to those who died in the school where they had taken refuge from the heavy fighting.
The blood that was shed in Al-Fakhura and in every inch of Palestine will not be in vain, he said.Cast Lead, which Israel said it launched in response to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, ended in a ceasefire on January 18, 2009.Israel was established in 1948 in the wake of World War II when six million Jews were killed during the Nazi Holocaust.
EU's Ashton meets Palestinian chief in talks drive
– Thu Jan 6, 1:07 pm ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Thursday called for an immediate meeting of the Mideast peace Quartet to tackle the impasse in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.The call was made in a statement issued after she met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah to discuss ways to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table.During my talks, we discussed latest developments and ways to move beyond the current impasse, said Ashton, adding that she had urged both sides to find a satisfactory way to engage without delay in substantive negotiations on all final status issues.I propose the Quartet meet as soon as possible to help find a solution to the current impasse, she said, suggesting that such a meeting could take place on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in early February.Her remarks were made a week after Abbas called on the Mideast Quartet, which is comprised of the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union, to spearhead efforts to forge a new peace plan.We demand that the Middle East Quartet and the various UN bodies, headed by the Security Council, draft a peace plan which conforms with international law, instead of keeping up negotiations which do not solve the problem, Abbas said on Friday in remarks broadcast on Palestinian television.Ashton said there was no alternative to a negotiated solution, and said the European Union would do whatever possible to help both parties reach an agreement.
The two met as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh holding talks with President Hosni Mubarak about the crisis in the peace process.Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the first for nearly two years, began on September 2 but hit a crisis just three weeks later when an Israeli ban on settlement building expired.Since then, the Palestinians have refused to continue talking until Israel renews a freeze on settlement activity. Last month, Washington admitted that its efforts to coax Israel into reimposing a new freeze had failed, with international efforts now focusing on drawing the two sides into some form of indirect dialogue.
Egypt's Mubarak warns Israel against new Gaza war
– Thu Jan 6, 11:47 am ET
CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday warned Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu against launching a new war on Gaza, as they met in a bid to break the impasse in Middle East peace negotiations.Mubarak's remarks were made during joint talks in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, which came after several weeks of rising tensions and clashes along Israel's border with the Palestinian enclave.At the meeting, the Egyptian leader warned of the danger of the latest Israeli threats and their repercussions on the stability and security of the region and the cause of Middle East peace, the official MENA news agency reported.
Mubarak affirmed Egypt's rejection of any new offensive on Gaza, it said.Senior Israeli officials have warned in recent weeks that Israel could launch another strike on Gaza, like the devastating 22-day war that ended in January 2009.That offensive killed some 1,400 Palestinians, around half of them civilians, and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.Following the war, the number of rocket attacks dropped significantly, although 230 rockets and mortar rounds were fired into Israel last year, the army said.Israel's vice prime minister Silvan Shalom said last month that Israel would be forced to respond with all our force if Gaza militants kept firing rockets into the Jewish state.The warnings were made against the backdrop of almost daily rocket attacks and retaliatory Israeli air strikes on Gaza.Late on Wednesday, Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians who were apparently trying to breach the border fence after a day in which militants fired seven projectiles, most of them mortar rounds, into southern Israel without causing casualties or damage.
Mubarak also warned the Israeli leader about the impact of a surge in violence on the deadlocked peace talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.Direct talks between Netanyahu and Abbas stalled in September last year when Israel refused to renew a moratorium on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.The Palestinians have refused to continue talking while Israel builds on land they want for a future state.The Egyptian leader stressed the need for Israel to revisit its stances and policies, and to take tangible steps to build trust with the Palestinians, MENA said.A statement from Netanyahu's office described the meeting as friendly and comprehensive.Netanyahu highlighted the central role of Egypt in pushing forward the peace process and requested that Mubarak exert pressure on the Palestinians to return to direct, intensive and serious negotiations, the statement said.Netanyahu also updated Mubarak on the fence that Israel is building along the Egyptian border, aimed at stopping the influx of African illegal immigrants into the Jewish state.One of the stumbling blocks to any peace deal is the rift between Abbas and Hamas, which ousted the Palestinian leader's Fatah faction from the Gaza Strip in 2007 and rejects any form of negotiations with Israel. Israel and Egypt imposed a tight blockade on Gaza after Hamas seized power there, and since then, Egypt has failed in efforts to to mediate a unity deal between the rival Palestinian factions.
Israel asks U.S. to ban Turk group behind Gaza ships
– Wed Jan 5, 4:35 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has asked the United States to consider outlawing the Turkish Islamist group behind a flotilla that tried to break Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in May, Israeli officials said on Wednesday.Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman requested the outlawing of the IHH, or Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, at a meeting with visiting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Tuesday.The IHH is a prominent Turkish charity banned in Israel over its alleged support for Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that appears on Israeli, U.S. and EU terrorist lists.The IHH describes itself as an aid organization, and organized the Gaza flotilla, which the Israeli navy intercepted, storming one of the ships and killing nine Turkish activists who fought the Israeli marines.Once-strong ties between Turkey and Israel hit rock-bottom as a result of the incident. Turkey has demanded an apology and compensation, which Israel has refused.The U.S. embassy in Israel did not immediately return a call for comment on Lieberman's request.A U.S. diplomatic cable from December 2009 and published by WikiLeaks said a U.S. Treasury official who visited Ankara raised concerns about IHH and described it as a large NGO providing material assistance to Hamas.(Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Tim Pearce)
Swift action needed for peace: Jordan
– Wed Jan 5, 3:59 pm ET
AMMAN (AFP) – Jordan's King Abdullah II on Wednesday urged swift action to help push forward the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, warning against wasting more time, a palace statement said.Efforts for having serious and effective peace talks should continue, based on a two-state solution, which is the only way to achieve regional stability and security, the statement quoted the king as telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the telephone.The deadlocked peace process threatens the entire region.The king, whose country signed a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, said practical steps are needed to remove obstacles facing the peace process, the statement said.Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the first for nearly two years, began in Washington on September 2 but quickly stalled when a 10-month Israeli settlements freeze expired on September 26.The Palestinians refused to return to talks until all settlement building stopped in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem.The telephone call came after controversial hard-right Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told AFP on Tuesday that at least a decade would be needed to reach a peace accord with the Palestinians.Meanwhile, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh will visit the Palestinian territories on Thursday for talks on the peace process, an official statement said.
Russian president to visit Palestinian territories
– Wed Jan 5, 8:32 am ET
MOSCOW – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will visit the Palestinian territories even though his trip to Israel has been canceled due to an Israeli Foreign Ministry strike, the Kremlin said in a statement.The Kremlin statement, released late Tuesday, said Israeli President Shimon Peres had apologized to Medvedev for the inability to prepare for his visit in mid-January.During their telephone conversation, the two presidents agreed to meet during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, at the end of the month, the Kremlin and Peres' office said.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman shrugged off suggestions that Israel might be offended by Medvedev's visit to the Palestinians, saying the Russian leader is free to visit wherever he wants.The Kremlin did not say Wednesday whether Medvedev planned to visit the West Bank, Gaza or both. But in a statement, Peres said Medvedev would be meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Jericho.The cancellation of the Israeli leg of his trip was due to a strike at Israel's Foreign Ministry, which made it difficult to organize the Russian president's visit.Workers are striking because they say they are underpaid. The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot published a pay slip Tuesday it said belonged to an Israeli diplomat showing he earns just over minimum wage_ about $1,000 a month.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Wednesday that Israel had reached an understanding with Russia that Medvedev's visit should be postponed until after the strike.The president is most welcome to visit Israel any time he wants and the Russians know this, Palmor said. The problem is that the Foreign Ministry is on strike and there is no one to properly take care of such an important visit.
No Mideast peace for at least a decade: Lieberman
by Philippe Agret and Charly Wegman – Tue Jan 4, 7:13 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Controversial hard-right Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told AFP on Tuesday at least a decade would be needed to reach a peace accord with the Palestinians.I think that we have good cooperation (with the Palestinians) on the economy and security and we must continue cooperation on these two levels and postpone the political solution for at least a decade, he said in an exclusive interview.I think that it's impossible in an artificial way to accelerate the political process. I think that we must move step by step. All relations between... two countries, two entities are on three levels -- the political level, security and the economy.We must advance step by step, said the hardline leader of the Yisrael Beitenu party, who has been largely sidelined by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in peace talks with the Palestinians.What we need today is a long-term intermediate agreement.But he said he does not see what he thinks is any readiness, any goodwill from this Palestinian leadership for a real political process. They think that they can achieve from the international community everything they want without talks, without any compromise. This is their strategy.Asked what the steps were to achieving peace, he said first of all we must tighten our economic and security cooperation; second, less international involvement... which creates a lot of expectations and after the expectations you get frustration and it will lead to violence and clashes.
He said there was an overdoing, overspeaking and over involvement on the part of the whole international community, including the United States, the Middle East diplomatic Quartet and others.He also pointed to what he said was the emotional nature of the conflict.It's not a logical one. Issues like refugees and Jerusalem and recognition of Israel as a Jewish state ... It's very difficult to resolve emotional issues.And he repeated Israeli objections to Palestinian threats to declare independence unilaterally if the avenue of talks fails, saying it's against all our agreements, all our understandings and what we signed.I think they will lose much more than they can gain in establishing a unilateral independent country, adding that the Palestinian Authority could not exist without Israeli assistance.
Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the first for nearly two years, began in Washington on September 2 but quickly stalled when a 10-month Israeli settlements freeze expired on September 26.The Palestinians refused to return to talks until all settlement building stopped in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem.After weeks of seeking to convince Israel to extend the freeze, Washington acknowledged on December 7 that it had failed.Netanyahu had reluctantly accepted a US proposal to extend the moratorium for another three months, but the Israeli premier demanded written guarantees from Washington and the matter went nowhere.The United States subsequently proposed a return to the indirect proximity talks the two sides had been engaged through US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.
But that was rejected by the Palestinians, who continued to insist on a halt to settlement construction. On Monday Netanyahu said talks to secure a new settlement freeze ground to a halt when the United States stopped pressing for the ban, not because Israel rejected it, media reported.
Lebanon urges UN to curb Israel offshore drilling
– Tue Jan 4, 1:33 pm ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanon's foreign minister on Tuesday asked the United Nations to curb Israel's offshore drilling plans, days after a US firm announced the discovery of a large field off the Jewish state's coastline.We request you do everything possible to ensure Israel does not exploit Lebanon's hydrocarbon resources, which fall within Lebanon's economic zone as delineated in the maps the foreign ministry submitted to the United Nations in 2010, Foreign Minister Ali Shami said in a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.Any exploitation by Israel of this resource is a flagrant violation of international law and an attack on Lebanese sovereignty, read the letter, which was carried by the state-run National News Agency.US firm Noble Energy announced last week that the Leviathan gas field, offshore from Israel, holds an estimated 450 billion cubic metres (16 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas.The discovery, which surpasses the Tamar field discovered off the northern port of Haifa, has positioned the Jewish state as an exporter, Noble Energy said.News of the offshore fields, which surfaced in 2010, has increased tensions between the two neighbouring countries which do not have formal maritime borders and sparked an angry exchange of warnings between the two states.Lebanon's Energy Minister Gebran Bassil has said his country plans to outline its maritime sea borders and auction off rights to explore potential offshore natural gas and petrol reserves in 2012.
Netanyahu: Israel never said no to new freeze
by Steve Weizman – Mon Jan 3, 5:22 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said talks to secure a new settlement freeze ground to a halt when the United States stopped pressing for the ban, not because Israel rejected it.Israeli radio and news sites quoted him as telling parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee that Washington initially asked Israel to extend a 10-month building freeze which expired in September.The truth is that we were prepared to do this but contrary to what was reported Israel did not refuse to extend the freeze, Maariv daily's nrg website quoted Netanyahu as telling lawmakers.In the end the United States decided not to take that path, rightly in my opinion, he added.Haaretz daily's website quoted Netanyahu as saying that he told US President Barack Obama he would ask his cabinet to approve a three-month extension.I told Obama that I am prepared to go with this to the cabinet and that I will be able to enforce the move, but then I received the surprising phone call from the Americans who said they no longer demand that Israel extends the freeze, the paper quoted him as telling the committee on Monday.
Netanyahu said in November that he would put the US request to a cabinet vote if incentives from Washington were put in writing, among them finance for advanced warplanes and a promise to veto any UN Security Council resolution against Israel's interests.
That letter apparently never came.
US officials admitted last month that efforts to coax Israel into imposing new curbs on West Bank settlement construction had gone nowhere.Netanyahu on Monday said that senior Obama aide Dennis Ross would be in Israel this week for discussions. Netanyahu also confirmed that he himself would visit Egypt for talks with President Hosni Mubarak.This week the envoy Dennis Ross and other American envoys will arrive. On Thursday I shall go to Egypt, he told senior members of his Likud party in remarks broadcast on public radio.We have a single aim, to strengthen security and to move toward achieving peace.Mubarak has publicly blamed Israel for the collapse of peace talks, and has urged the international community, especially the United States, to move the process forward.Without a new freeze, the Palestinians have refused to negotiate, effectively deadlocking direct peace talks that began on September 2, only to run aground three weeks later when building resumed in the settlements.We have been pursuing a moratorium as a means to create conditions for a return to meaningful and sustained negotiations, US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said on December 7.After a considerable effort, we have concluded that this does not create a firm basis to work towards our shared goal of a framework agreement.Haaretz on Sunday quoted an unnamed Israeli official as saying that a US counterpart told him Washington was deeply disappointed with Israeli Defence Minister and Labour party leader Ehud Barak for failing to deliver on promises that he could win government approval for a fresh freeze.
Some Labour ministers in Netanyahu's right-dominated coalition government are calling for Barak to lead the party out of the government if there is no progress towards peace talks.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is now calling for the international community, spearheaded by the peacemaking Quartet of the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union, to come up with a new peace plan. We demand that the Middle East Quartet and the various UN bodies, headed by the Security Council, draft a peace plan which conforms with international law, instead of keeping up negotiations which do not solve the problem, he said in a televised address last week. Netanyahu said on Sunday that he was prepared for an immediate resumption of face-to-face talks with Abbas until white smoke emerges," a statement from his office said.If Abbas were to accept the invitation, the statement quoted Netanyahu as saying, they could discuss all key aspects of the dispute and see if there were prospects for progress.We shall very soon know if we shall be able to reach an agreement,Netanyahu said.
Aftenposten: Israel gears up for Iran attack
– Mon Jan 3, 7:07 am ET
OSLO, Norway – Israel believes it would have only 10-12 minutes' warning if Iran launched rockets but that threats from Hamas and Hezbollah are the most pressing, according to leaked U.S. State Department cables published in a Norwegian newspaper.
The Aftenposten daily on Sunday cited a cable describing a Nov. 15, 2009, meeting between an American congressional delegation and Israel's military chief in which he reportedly said Israel was preparing to defend itself against such attacks.The paper quoted Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi as telling the delegation that Iran has 300 Shihab rockets which could reach Israel. Some 1 million Israelis would be at risk from attacks from the country's enemies in the region, including Hezbollah and Hamas, he said.It also cited Israeli military leaders as saying the two militant groups are the most immediate threat to the country, with Lebanon's Hezbollah sitting on a stockpile of 40,000 rockets and Hamas having the capacity to attack Tel Aviv. The next war in the Middle East would take place in Lebanon and on the Gaza Strip, Ashkenazi said.The cables come from a trove of 250,000 uncensored U.S. diplomatic documents that secret-spilling site WikiLeaks has been making public. Aftenposten said last month it had obtained all the documents.Hamas took over Gaza soon after Israel pulled out in 2005, and Hezbollah took over most of southern Lebanon when Israel left in 2000.In separate U.S. cables dating back to talks in September 2009 between the Israeli military and an American congressional delegation, an officer from the Israeli Security Agency Shin Bet gave a detailed description of the situation in Gaza to U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
According to Aftenposten, the officer said that six months after the Israeli attack against Gaza in 2008-2009, Hamas had already regained the same amount of weapons it had before the operation.He reportedly said that Hamas was working actively to develop its own weapons production and had been trying to obtain Iranian rockets that can reach Tel Aviv.
