Israel in new settler move before Peres, Obama meet
by Marius Schattner – Mon Apr 4, 3:38 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Jerusalem city council on Monday approved the construction of 942 new homes in Gilo, a settlement neighbourhood in the city's mostly Arab eastern sector, officials said.The move comes on the eve of a meeting between Israeli President Shimon Peres and US President Barack Obama. Similar moves in the past have infuriated the United States and strained relations between Israel and its main ally.
Elisha Peleg, from the right-wing Likud party, confirmed that the new construction in Gilo, close to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, had been approved during an afternoon session of the district planning council.Of course we approved it, it is only the first step, he told AFP, saying that it was approved by five in favour and one against.The municipality said this project was in addition to an earlier tranche of more than 900 new homes in Gilo approved in November 2009, which brought sharp condemnation from Washington which expressed dismay.The latest decision came just one day ahead of a top-level meeting in Washington between Peres and Obama.In March 2010, during a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden, the interior ministry announced a plan to build 1,600 settler homes in Ramat Shlomo, an Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood in east Jerusalem.Washington saw this as a slap in the face as it sought to revive long-stalled peace talks and brought relations between Israel and the United States to their lowest level in years.Gilo lies in mostly Arab east Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community.Israel considers both halves of the Holy City its eternal, indivisible capital, and does not view construction in the east to be settlement activity.The Palestinians, however, want east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and fiercely contest any actions to extend Israel's control over the sector.The Palestinians condemned Monday's move, and said they would appeal to the international community to pressure Israel to respect international law.
We strongly condemn the decision of the Jerusalem municipality to build 942 new homes in Gilo, said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat.This decision proves once again that Israel has chosen settlements over peace.Some 180,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem alongside nearly 270,000 Palestinians.The international community has repeatedly called on Israel to avoid new building projects in east Jerusalem.US-brokered peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are deadlocked over the issue of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.The Palestinians walked out of direct peace talks three weeks after they started last September when Israel baulked at extending a 10-month partial freeze on West Bank settlement construction.They refuse to negotiate with Israel while it builds on land they want for a future Palestinian state.
US pressured Gulf states over Iran: Ahmadinejad
by Mohammad Davari – Mon Apr 4, 1:54 pm ET
TEHRAN (AFP) – The United States and its allies pressured Gulf Arab states to accuse Iran of interfering in the region, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday and also demanded Saudi forces leave Bahrain.Gulf Arab states on Sunday expressed concern at Iranian meddling in Bahrain and Kuwait, but Ahmadinejad told reporters in Tehran: This statement was issued under pressure from America and its allies. It does not bear any legal value.The hardline Iranian president also said that Saudi-led forces brought into Bahrain amid protests by the Shiite majority in the kingdom should leave.It is hideous that troops have been brought in, Ahmadinejad said. Take them out. The people have demands so listen to them.Foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), in a statement issued after a Sunday meeting in Riyadh, said they were deeply worried about continuing Iranian meddling.Ahmadinejad said the Gulf Arab monarchies must not fall into the trap of the Americans, and should boost their ties with Tehran instead.We have extended the hand of friendship... do not fall into the American trap, all should be alert, Ahmadinejad said at a news conference broadcast live on state television.Pointing the finger at Tehran's regional arch-foe Israel, he said: Their (the West's) intention in interfering in the region is to save the Zionist regime.He reiterated: Rest assured, there will soon be a new Middle East without the Zionist regime, without the US presence and their lackeys.The GCC -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- accused Shiite Iran of plotting against the security of its Sunni monarchies and of fanning confessional discord.
Tehran was violating the sovereignty of members of the regional grouping, it said on Sunday.Reacting earlier on Monday, Kazem Jalali, spokesman for the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, said the Gulf states would be better advised to address the grievances of their own peoples as anti-regime protests sweep the Arab world.Iran will never interfere in the internal affairs of its neighbours, he was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.
The GCC countries had better reconsider their own actions rather than issuing emotional statements.The Arab monarchies are aware that their dependency on America and their cowardly behaviour towards the Zionist regime is a form of humiliation that they are imposing on their own people, Jalali said.Iran's foreign ministry on Sunday said the tension between Tehran and its Arab neighbours was the result of a Western and Zionist conspiracy aimed at sowing discord between Islamic countries.
Acrimony between Iran and the Gulf Arab states was exacerbated by a Kuwait announcement on Thursday that it was expelling an unspecified number of Iranian diplomats for alleged links to a spy ring working for Tehran.Ahmadinejad denied that Iran had any link to the cell.It is clear that (this allegation) has no meaning. What is this spying in Kuwait all about? What does Kuwait have that we spy on it? Ahmadinejad asked at the news conference.If it is (about) its people, well its people are our friends and we are the friend of its people. If it is (about) its government, then we are friends with its government and it is our friend,he said.
Ahmadinejad also said that Iran was not interfering in Syria, as pro-democracy protests sweep the country.The government of Syria is our very good friend and it is the resistance's forefront. So are the people of Syria... the Zionists cannot see the Syrian people and government in peace... the government and the people of Syria can solve their issue through dialogue,he added.
Israel demands retraction of UN Gaza war report
by Charly Wegman – Sun Apr 3, 11:32 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel demanded on Sunday that the United Nations bin a report critical of its deadly 2008-2009 offensive on Gaza after the author said he had been wrong to say it had targeted civilians.South African judge Richard Goldstone had faced down enormous criticism in Israel at the time over the report which accused both Israel and the Hamas rulers of Gaza of potential war crimes during the 22-day conflict.But in a surprise about-turn on Saturday, he said information he had received since indicated Israel had not deliberately targeted civilians during the campaign, a key charge of the report.While Israel was quick to latch on to his remarks in a commentary piece in the Washington Post, calling them a vindication, the Palestinians said they were surprised, accusing him of folding under Israeli pressure.The report's findings had set the tone for widespread international condemnation of the Israeli assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza in which more than 1,400 people lost their lives, the vast majority of them Palestinians.Israeli officials said the United Nations now needed to set the record straight.This is an extremely important development and right now we are multiplying our efforts to get this report rescinded, Defence Minister Ehud Barak told army radio on Sunday, adding he deeply regretted the harm already done.Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would set up a team of legal experts and diplomats to find concrete ways "to turn the clock back and try to lessen the enormous damage of this train of vilification against the state of Israel.
Goldstone himself has just confirmed what we all knew all along... I think our soldiers and army behaved according to the highest international standards, the premier said during a brief televised address on Saturday.
In his opinion piece in the Post, Goldstone said he now concurred with Netanyahu that the council had a history of bias against Israel.A UN committee of independent experts that followed up on the Goldstone Report's recommendations found Israel has dedicated significant resources to investigate over 400 allegations of operational misconduct in Gaza.In contrast, Hamas leaders have not conducted any investigations into the rocket and mortar attacks against Israel that were its grounds for going to war.If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document, he wrote.In Gaza, Hamas said it was surprised by Goldstone's comments and said he did not now have the right to change the findings.It is not Goldstone's private property, as a team of international judges as well as Goldstone participated in developing it -- apart from the fact that it relies on a number of documents and eyewitness testimony which increases the report's strength and credibility.The statement from spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri did not respond to Goldstone's assertion that Hamas had not investigated charges levelled against it in the report of deliberately targeting civilians with rocket fire.Meanwhile, veteran Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi said she was disappointed and accused Goldstone of buckling under Israeli pressure.While he has come under relentless attack within Israel ever since the publication of the Goldstone report, Judge Goldstone is the last person we expected to succumb to that pressure, she said in a statement.
Goldstone said allegations of Israeli intent were based on the death and wounding of civilians in situations where his fact-finding mission could not reach any other reasonable conclusion.He said while some incidents were validated in cases involving individual soldiers, Israeli investigations found civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.Goldstone recalled one of the most serious incidents his team investigated -- without Israel's cooperation due to its allegations that the investigators were biased -- when Israeli shelling of a Gaza home killed 29 members of the Al-Samouni family.He noted Israel's investigation into the attack found it was apparently due to a commander's misinterpretation of a drone image and that an officer was under investigation for having ordered the shelling.I regret that our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes,Goldstone wrote.
Hamas warns of consequences after Israel air strike
– Fri Apr 1, 10:15 pm ET
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Hamas on Saturday warned Israel of consequences after its latest air strike on Gaza killed three members of the radical Islamist group's armed wing.The three were members of Hamas' Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, who were killed overnight Friday near the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis, a statement said.Hamas identified the three as Ismael Lubbad, Abdallah Lubbad and Mohammed Eldayah.The strike is a serious escalation and Israel will bear all the consequences, the Brigades warned.Medical staff and witnesses earlier said that one person was also wounded in the air strike.They said the target was a car driving between Khan Yunis and the Deir al-Balah refugee camp.An Israeli military spokesman said the raid, planned jointly with the Shin Bet domestic security agency, was a preemptive strike against militants planning to kidnap Israelis during the coming Jewish festival of Passover.
Netanyahu seeks UN help to stop flotilla
– Fri Apr 1, 6:13 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday called on UN chief Ban Ki-moon to stop an international flotilla of ships seeking to break Israel's Gaza blockade, Netanyahu's office said.The flotilla of about 15 ships with activists from 25 countries is to leave next month to mark the first anniversary of an Israeli commando raid on an aid convoy trying to get to Gaza that left nine Turkish activists dead.Netanyahu told Ban in a telephone call that among the organisers of the new flotilla are extremist Islamic elements whose aim is to create a provocation and bring about a conflagration, his office said in a statement.A UN statement also said Netanyahu raised concerns about the flotilla but that Ban stressed as well that Israel should take meaningful steps to end the closure of Gaza.
The secretary general stressed his concern at the current difficulties in the peace process. They discussed the recent violence affecting Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. The secretary general said he hoped the prime minister would act with wisdom and restraint.The Israeli statement said Netanyahu added that all kinds of goods could now enter Gaza by land, while the territory's Hamas rulers sought to smuggle in arms by sea.
Hamas is a terror organisation controlled by Iran and only recently part of the huge effort to arm it and smuggle arms by sea was exposed with the capture of the Victoria,the statement quoted him as saying.The Liberian-flagged Victoria was intercepted by Israeli commandos in mid-March about 200 nautical miles west of Israel's coast.The army said about 50 tonnes of weapons were concealed in containers holding lentils and cotton. The haul included tens of thousands of rounds of small-arms ammunition, more than 2,200 mortar bombs and six Chinese-made C704 anti-ship missiles.The shipment also included two missile launchers and an advanced radar system to track targets and guide the missiles.Israel said the missiles represented an escalation in attempts to arm militant groups in Gaza and accused arch-foe Iran of being behind the shipment. Tehran denied any connection.
Syrian protesters clash with security forces
By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press – Fri Apr 1, 4:08 pm ET
CAIRO – The protest movement against Syrian President Bashar Assad's authoritarian rule proved its resilience Friday as thousands of people took to the streets in cities across the country, brushing off Assad's limited gestures of reform and defying security forces who beat them back with tear gas, batons and bullets.At least three people were killed, bringing the death toll from two weeks of demonstrations to at least 75. The government blamed Friday's bloodshed on armed gangs. However, the state-run news agency acknowledged for the first time that Syria was seeing gatherings of people calling for reform.The extraordinary wave of protests has proved the most serious challenge yet to the four-decade ruling dynasty of the Assad family, one of the most rigid regimes in the Middle East.There's this incredible momentum that has built up across the Middle East that has galvanized people in Syria, said Joshua Landis, an American professor and Syria expert. But the regime will likely crush any attempts to keep up the resistance — unless the opposition movement can rally enough people to overwhelm the army, he said.The long-term strength of the burgeoning protest movement is difficult to gauge because Syria has restricted media access and expelled journalists, making it difficult to determine the extent of the protests and how many people are turning out. Two Associated Press journalists were ordered to leave the country Friday with less than an hour's notice.
But the regime had appeared fairly confident in recent days that it could appease the protesters.Assad made his first public appearance Wednesday since the demonstrations began, blaming a foreign conspiracy for the unrest. He then announced he was forming committees to look into civilian deaths and the possibility of replacing Syria's despised emergency laws, which have been in place for decades and allow security forces to arrest people without charge.His reaction enraged many Syrians who hoped to see more serious concessions after the wave of protests in a country where any rumblings of dissent are crushed.The unrest comes against the backdrop of revolutionary change across the wider Middle East, including Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.In Yemen on Friday, hundreds of thousands packed a square in the capital and marched in villages and cities across the nation, demanding that longtime ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh step down. The demonstrations appeared to be the largest in more than a month of protests.Analysts say that by blaming outsiders and offering only minor concessions, Assad is following a strategy that failed leaders in Egypt and Tunisia, who were swept out of power by popular uprisings.That speech was a disappointment to everyone, said Andrew Tabler at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.So I think (Friday's protests) are definitely a reaction.Friday was billed by activists as a Day of Martyrs, with mass demonstrations in honor of those killed in the protests.Several eyewitnesses told The Associated Press by telephone that up to 5,000 people were marching in Daraa — an impoverished southern city that has become the epicenter for the movement — shouting We want freedom! and The blood of martyrs is not cheap! The account could not be independently confirmed.
An activist in Douma, just outside Damascus, the capital, said that he and hundreds of others came under attack by security forces as they left the town's Grand Mosque, chanting slogans for freedom. The troops hit people with clubs and threw stones before firing tear gas and finally live ammunition.I saw three people dead and six wounded, said the activist, who, like the other witnesses requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.Douma's streets are now totally empty except for security forces.
Protests also were reported in the northeastern city of Qamishli and the central city of Homs.Scores of plainclothes security agents deployed Friday in Damascus near the historic Umayyad mosque. A crowd of at least 300 Assad supporters, carrying Syrian flags and pictures of the president, broke out into clapping and chants of Allah, Syria, Bashar! Security forces made no attempt to stop them. State Department spokesman Mark Toner condemned the violence and called on Syrian authorities to allow peaceful demonstrations.We've been very clear all along in our support for their essential rights to express their views, he told reporters in Washington. The unrest in Syria could have implications well beyond the country's borders, given its role as Iran's top Arab ally and as a front line state against Israel.The protests also have brought the country's internal, sectarian tensions into the open for the first time in decades. Syria has a Sunni majority ruled by minority Alawites, a branch of Shiite Islam.Assad has placed his fellow Alawites into most positions of power in Syria. But he also has increased economic freedom and prosperity to win the allegiance of the prosperous Sunni Muslim merchant classes. Dissenters have been punished with arrest, imprisonment and physical abuse.Assad inherited power 11 years ago at the age of 34 after the death of his father, Hafez, who ruled Syria with an iron fist for three decades. While Assad came to power promising reforms, internal challengers and regional upheaval have slowed down the reform process, including an old guard that fears an end to its privileges.Syrians have seemed generally sympathetic to Assad facing an old guard clinging to power — but now, it seems, many are starting to tire of the excuse.AP writers Bassem Mroue Beirut, Lebanon, and Ahmed Al Haj in Sanaa, Yemen, contributed to this report.
Islamic Jihad militant killed in tunnel collapse
– Thu Mar 31, 3:32 pm ET
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – An Islamic Jihad militant was killed Thursday when a tunnel he was digging to attack Israeli troops collapsed in the northern Gaza Strip, the group said.An Al-Quds Brigade member was martyred when a resistance tunnel collapsed, Islamic Jihad said in a statement, referring to its military wing.It said the collapse was accidental and occurred near Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip.Militants use resistance tunnels to try and infiltrate into Israel or attack Israeli soldiers, like the one used to capture Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.More than 100 Palestinians have also been killed in accidents in smuggling tunnels linking southern Gaza to Egypt.Also Thursday militants fired a rocket from Gaza toward the Israeli city of Ashkelon, but it fell in an open are without causing damage, Palestinian witnesses and Israeli media said.
The Israeli military said it could not confirm the rocket attack.Last week militants had agreed to observe a period of calm, effectively calling a halt to 10 days of rocket attacks and Israeli counter strikes.Despite the tension in and around Gaza, both Israel and Hamas appear reluctant to be dragged into another bloody confrontation along the lines of the deadly 2008-2009 war, which killed more than 1,400 people, the vast majority Palestinians.That 22-day offensive was launched by Israel in order to stamp out persistent rocket fire from Gaza.
