IMF sees $160 billion in Middle East financing needs
– Thu May 26, 4:22 pm ET
WASHINGTON/DEAUVILLE (Reuters) – The external financing needs of oil-importing countries in the Middle East and North Africa will exceed $160 billion over the next three years and donor countries must step in to help, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.In a report to the Group of Eight meeting in Deauville, France, the IMF urged G8 industrial nations and rich Arab partners to develop an action plan that lays out what help they could provide countries in need.The region needs to prepare for a fundamental transformation of its economic model, Masood Ahmed, in charge of Middle East and Africa at the IMF, told journalists on the sidelines of a Group of Eight meeting in northern France.This will be greatly facilitated if international players including the G8 can enter into strategic partnership with these countries...where incentives are linked to a social agenda.
G8 leaders, meeting in the northern French seaside resort of Deauville for a two-day summit, said in an early draft of their joint statement that they stood ready to meet the region's financing needs.Countries such as Egypt and Tunisia are facing economic pressures following mass protests that toppled their autocratic rulers. Uprisings have also roiled Yemen, Jordan, Morocco and Syria, and left the government of Libya fighting to stay in power.In the immediate future, there is a need to restore confidence in the oil-importing countries, which face surging global commodity prices and domestic pressures associated with the initial transition shocks, the IMF said.The fund also said it was able to provide about $35 billion to try to stabilize countries' economies.Over the next 18 months the bulk of the financing will need to come from the international community, the IMF said, because markets were uncertain about the political and economic transitions in countries.
Ahmed said the group of oil importers would need to create 55-70 million jobs, mostly for young people, in the coming decade while stimulating a private sector economy that has long been neglected in favor of state-run businesses.In addition, countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Syria are facing inflationary pressures due to a surge in global food and energy prices, it added.IMF staff projected that Egypt lost about $15 billion in foreign exchange reserves over a four-month period until the end of April. Staff also put the country's external and fiscal financing gap at about $9 billion to $12 billion for fiscal year 2011/12.
Pressures on the balance of payments will ease only gradually with continued net capital outflows, and weak tax revenues and higher food and fuel subsidy costs will weigh on the budget, the IMF said.An agreement on aid for Egypt, which formally approached the IMF for aid earlier this month, could be reached within weeks, Ahmed said.For Tunisia, IMF staff forecast budgetary financing needs of about $3.7 billion in 2011, or 8 percent of gross domestic product. External financing needs, after foreign direct investment and short-term capital flows, are likely to be $4.4 billion this year, or about 9.5 percent of GDP.An IMF aid program for Yemen, currently rattled by heavy fighting between supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and opponents who want his ouster, had been suspended until the situation became clear, Ahmed added.(Editing by Jon Boyle)
Activists refuse to send Gaza aid via Israel
by Romen Bose – Thu May 26, 1:44 pm ET
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Activists on a Malaysian aid ship that had been bound for Gaza refused to hand their cargo to Egypt on Thursday, saying they feared it would end up in Israel.They had tried to land in Gaza last week but changed course when the Israeli navy fired warning shots.Matthias Chang, who is heading the mission for the Perdana Global Peace Foundation, told AFP the group was not consulted when the Malaysian and Egyptian governments worked out a deal to end the impasse.Chang said Egypt had insisted the cargo be discharged and transported via Kaern Shalom, at the Israeli border in Gaza.We are not assured that this cargo would in fact be delivered to Gaza, as in the past... most of the humanitarian aid was laid to waste in Israel, he added.Chang also questioned Cairo's refusal to allow the cargo, consisting of 7.5 kilometres (4.6 miles) of sewage pipes, to be transferred via the Rafah crossing -- Gaza's only crossing that bypasses Israel -- given that it would be open this weekend.This turn of events demonstrates the insincerity of the Egyptian government and their implicit endorsement of the illegal siege when they explicitly stated they would permanently open the Rafah crossing, Chang said.Egyptian state media have said the Rafah border crossing would open on a daily basis starting Saturday.Perdana Foundation adviser Mukhriz Mahathir, a son of former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad, told AFP they were unhappy with Cairo's actions.
We are disappointed that it has come to this as we were hopeful that with the new government there would be substantial change in regard to the way they treat Palestinians and Gaza but this is clearly not the case, he said.We urge the Egyptian government to allow the aid ship to dock and unload the pipes and ensure that they are delivered to Gaza via the Rafah crossing, Mukhriz added.However, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said Kuala Lumpur and Cairo were working to enable the MV Finch, which has been refused entry to El Arish for the last 10 days, to dock and unload its aid, according to a statement.Anifah and his Egyptian counterpart urged the parties concerned not to resort to any unnecessary action that could further aggravate the situation.The 12 activists and crew onboard the MV Finch aborted their second attempt to land in Gaza on Monday after engine trouble, and are anchored in a waiting area off the Egyptian port of El Arish.Perdana Foundation officials said the MV Finch left Greece on May 11, carrying the pipes to help restore the sewage system in Gaza.But Israeli naval forces fired warning shots at the vessel on May 16, when it was in Israeli waters about 400 metres (yards) from Gaza, forcing it into Egyptian waters.The Perdana Foundation is headed by Mahathir, an 85-year-old firebrand who was a strident critic of the West and Israel over the treatment of Palestinians during his two decades in power.The organisation was also involved in the first Freedom Flotilla, a May 2010 attempt to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza, which ended in disaster when naval commandos raided the aid ships, killing nine Turks on board one of the vessels.The incident sparked heavy criticism of Israel and led to a sharp deterioration in ties between Turkey and the Jewish state.
Palestinians eye $1 bln fund to rebuild Gaza: Abbas adviser – Thu May 26, 1:42 pm ET
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Palestinians are to create a $1 billion fund to invest in the reconstruction of the war-torn Gaza Strip, the economic adviser to president Mahmud Abbas has told AFP.In the coming weeks, we will approach private sector businessmen to create a $1 billion fund to invest in the Gaza Strip, said Mohammad Mustafa, chairman and chief executive of the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF), who is tipped as a favourite to become the next Palestinian prime minister.We will invest $200 million in this fund, and will work on attracting Palestinian, Arab and international investors for the rest, said Mustafa who was on his first visit to Gaza since it was taken over by the Islamist Hamas movement four years ago.The visit by a delegation of top businessmen and politicians from the West Bank came just three weeks after Abbas's Fatah movement, which controls the Palestinian Authority, signed a surprise unity deal with Gaza's Hamas rulers, ending years of bitter rivalry.Under terms of the agreement, Fatah and Hamas are working to build a caretaker government of independents, with no ties to either party, which will govern until elections can be held at some point over the next year.Mustafa said the investment will be funnelled into both private sector projects and local firms in Gaza who will engage in what he called an ambitious programme to revive the enclave's battered infrastructure.We want to start building Gaza's economy as a part of the upcoming state's economy which will be built on self-sufficiency, with the establishment of an airport, a port and desalination plants, he said.
And we will expand the electricity network in a partnership between the public and private sectors.The PIF chairman said there were also plans to invest in turnkey housing projects, which already exist in the West Bank.We have provided loan guarantees to more than 350 companies in the West Bank over the past two years, and through this programme we want to help small businesses in Gaza, he told AFP.We have a programme that allows for direct investment in small businesses working in industry, tourism, agriculture and fisheries.For Gaza, which has been languishing under an Israeli blockade for almost five years, having greater access to the outside world was essential for its development, he said.His remarks came as Egypt announced it would permanently open the Rafah border crossing from Saturday, opening up Gaza's only gateway to the rest of the world which is not controlled by Israel.We want more visibility for our exports and to be able to see the reality in neighbouring countries where we hope to play a more concrete role, Mustafa said, without elaborating.We cannot solve the economic problems without freedom of movement at the crossing points for goods and people, particularly in Gaza,he said.
Referring to cross-border smuggling tunnels along the Egyptian border, Mustafa said smuggling was not likely to continue.Since the start of the blockade, the tunnels have been used to bring in a bewildering array of foodstuffs and consumer goods.But since Israel eased the measure in June 2010, allowing previously banned foods and consumer goods into the enclave, the tunnels have been largely used to smuggle in construction materials but also as Gaza's sole export channel.What was happening before was exceptional and it does not need to continue because it relates to the blockade, Mustafa told AFP.In the next stage, a united government will manage the crossings, the economy and security, so the tunnels economy will not be needed, he said.
Blair: Obama anxious about Israel's fate
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press – Thu May 26, 10:15 am ET
LONDON – Middle East envoy Tony Blair said Thursday that he believes President Barack Obama launched his peace initiative out of concern for what might happen to Israel if Palestinian statehood is endorsed by the U.N. General Assembly.Speaking to an audience of Middle East-focused business leaders at London's Royal Institution, the former British prime minister said that Obama was frankly worried about the position that Israel is in.Blair described Obama's initiative — rejected by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu — as an attempt to fill a vacuum which he sees as dangerous, particularly dangerous for Israel in the run-up to September, when the assembly is expected to take up the issue of Palestinian statehood during the U.N.'s annual meeting.Such a vote would be potentially damaging for the United States and Israel. Although the move is largely symbolic — the U.S. can veto any such move in the Security Council — a lopsided vote in the General Assembly would leave Washington looking isolated while rallying anti-Israel sentiment in Europe and elsewhere.
It's with an eye toward avoiding an embarrassing diplomatic showdown in New York that Obama has tried to prod both parties back to the bargaining table. Last week, the president endorsed Israel's 1967 boundaries — with mutually agreed land swaps enabling Israel to keep some settlements — as the basis for a future Palestine in a bid to re-energize the anemic peace process. And at a recent news conference in London the president warned Palestinians that to take the United Nations route, rather than the path of sitting down and talking with the Israelis, is a mistake.Blair, who represents the Quartet of Mideast mediators — the U.S., the EU, the United Nations and Russia — didn't explicitly say what he thought the consequences of U.N.-backed Palestinian statehood might be. But he seemed to predict a rough ride ahead.I do think, especially with what's coming up in September ... we're going to live in interesting times.Blair was speaking alongside Ronald Cohen, the founder of The Portland Trust, a nonprofit devoted to promoting peace between Israelis and Palestinians through economic development.Online:The Portland Trust: http://www.portlandtrust.org/ Raphael G. Satter can be reached at: http://twitter.com/razhael(This version corrects title of Ronald Cohen in last paragraph.)
Poll: Israelis back Netanyahu's tough stance in US
– Thu May 26, 3:50 am ET
JERUSALEM – An Israeli poll indicates that support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has surged following his contentious visit to the United States.Netanyahu had a a tense meeting in Washington with President Barack Obama over the nature of a future Palestinian state. In an address before Congress, he insisted Israel would not return to its pre-1967 war borders.The survey has 51 percent of those polled supporting Netanyahu — a 13 percent increase from the Dialog Institute's previous poll published five weeks ago. The latest poll results were published Thursday in the Haaretz daily.Forty-seven percent of Israelis surveyed believe Netanyahu's U.S. trip was a success while only 10 percent see it as a failure. The poll surveyed 477 people and had a margin of error of 4.6 percentage points.
US concerned about UN atomic report on Syria
– Wed May 25, 4:32 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Wednesday it views with tremendous concern a UN report that a remote desert site in Syria that was bombed by Israeli planes in 2007 was probably a nuclear reactor.The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a report that it is very likely that the building destroyed at the Dair Alzour site was a nuclear reactor which should have been declared to the agency.The attempt by Syria to construct a clandestine nuclear reactor site is obviously a matter of concern, and we fully expect that the IAEA board will address this issue when it meets, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.The IAEA board will meet and then decide whether to advance it to the UN Security Council, Toner told reporters without actually saying that Washington would push for it to go to the council.We view this as a matter of tremendous concern and will make our views clear at the board meeting,he said.The nine-page report was the toughest ever by the IAEA since it began investigating allegations of illicit nuclear work by Syria in 2008 and reflects the agency's growing frustration with Damascus, diplomats said.Indeed, it is the first time that the IAEA has publicly stated its belief that Syria was building an undeclared reactor at Dair Alzour.And diplomats suggest the report could now pave the way for Western powers at the upcoming board of governors meeting next month to push for Syria to be referred to the UN Security Council.
Europe set for key Palestine role By DAN PERRY and DON MELVIN, Associated Press – Wed May 25, 2:35 pm ET
BRUSSELS – Europe, its global influence waning by the day, has long wished for more of a voice in a Middle Eastern diplomatic arena dominated by the U.S.That wish is now being granted, in a limited way: The position of key European nations could determine the impact of the Palestinians' plan to ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state at its September annual meeting.The issue emerged Wednesday during a European tour by President Barack Obama, who repeated his recent days' call on the Palestinians to change course.Speaking at a joint news conference in London with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Obama said that for the Palestinians to take the United Nations route, rather than the path of sitting down and talking with the Israelis, is a mistake.Cameron was tellingly noncommittal, saying it was too early to decide: We want to discuss this within the European Union and try to maximize the leverage and pressure the European Union can bring on both sides to get this vital process moving.The U.S. can veto a Security Council resolution on Palestine membership, which the U.N. Charter requires. The Palestinians plan to then go to the General Assembly, which cannot alone grant membership under normal procedures. A murky outcome looms — suggesting the symbolic aspect of the maneuver will be key.In this sense, Europe has a swing vote of sorts: Without its support a resolution could more easily be dismissed as nothing new, a result of the automatic anti-Israel majority in the General Assembly; but a pro-Palestinian groundswell by major European nations with deep ties to Israel, such as Britain and France, could make the event a watershed and provide tail wind to talk of boycotts and mass protests against Israel.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton acknowledged Wednesday that the Palestine issue was now on the table. It will be individual countries in the General Assembly who will make their decisions,she said.Europeans face a choice between substance and process: Most favor giving the Palestinians full statehood — but, like the Americans, they prefer negotiations to get there.The Palestinians, however, seem to have given up on negotiations, at least with the current Israeli government. And in a sentiment shared by many in Europe, they are fed up with Israel's continuing construction of Jewish homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas Israel occupied in 1967 and which the Palestinians claim.From conversations with officials and what public statements have been made, the following picture emerges: Spain seems set to vote in favor of the Palestinians, as are Ireland and possibly Norway. France, too, has indicated it would support Palestinian statehood if peace talks do not restart by September. Britain is wavering and has suggested it would contemplate a yes vote if Israel did not do more to enable talks to resume.As Europeans wrestle with the issue, they bump up against a host of other powerful concerns, all pointing in different directions: Relations with the awakening Arab world, ghosts of the Holocaust that lend Israel lingering moral sway, and the very role of Europe in a world increasingly turning its attention to developing powers in Asia and elsewhere.
And they are being lobbied by all sides.Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Paris and London, two capitals where he heard there was a chance his hosts would vote for Palestine.French President Nicolas Sarkozy was clearest, telling the weekly newsmagazine L'Express during that visit that if talks between Israel and the Palestinians don't resume over the summer, France will help promote international recognition of a Palestinian state.The idea that we have time is a dangerous idea. We must finish, Sarkozy said.And Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Wednesday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was also planning another European trip himself.We concentrate also on Europe ... They said they will recognize the Palestinian state when time is appropriate. We are telling them now that now is the appropriate time.Sharon Pardo, chairman of European Studies at Ben-Gurion University, likened the situation to the one created by the 2008 declaration of independence by the Serbian province of Kosovo, which divided opinion in Europe and around the world.But the majority of EU member states will vote in favor eventually, Pardo said.A French diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, agreed with that assessment, saying that if nothing moves on talks by September most European nations will likely vote for the Palestinians.Germany — widely considered Israel's best friend in Europe — is certain to vote against, as will Italy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said an agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians is more urgent than ever — but insists unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state would not be a constructive step.One major concern, said an EU diplomat, was fear that a yes vote, depending on how a resolution was worded, would be interpreted as accepting the Palestinians' terms — meaning a state on all the lands Israel captured in 1967, including the hotly contested eastern sector of Jerusalem.That would set up confrontation with Israel. In his speech to the U.S. Congress Tuesday, Netanyahu said Jerusalem would never be divided and ruled out a return to the pre-1967 lines.
Another complication is a fear that the project is fundamentally flawed since the General Assembly cannot normally grant membership. Legal arguments, procedural machinations and a vague result seem in the offing. One possibility being examined by the Palestinians is asking the General Assembly for observer status for Palestine as a nonmember state — which the wider body is authorized to grant.Meanwhile, some European countries have been upgrading the status of the Palestinians' diplomatic representation in their respective capitals, signaling their attitudes toward a possible independent state.In March, Britain upgraded the status of Palestinian representation in London, recognizing it as a full diplomatic mission, just short of a full-fledged embassy, rather than its previous status as a delegation. This month, Italy did the same.Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib said he thought upgrading was a message, and an indicator for the support that can develop into recognition.That prospect creates anguish beyond the diplomatic in Israel — which is psychologically conflicted on Europe, both eager to belong to the European club and distrustful of Europe's intentions.One fear in Israel is that Europe will eventually take a leading role in a movement to boycott the Jewish state, especially over its settlement policies. That could be disastrous for a country for whom the European Union is a major trade partner.According to the most recent government figures, European nations bought $18.9 billion worth of Israeli imports last year — about a third of the total and slightly higher than the U.S. They accounted for 45 percent of Israel's $59 billion of imports. European nations accounted for more than 2 million tourists, more than three times the number that arrived from the U.S. and 10 times all of Asia.Israel also has a type of associate status with the European Union which enables close cooperation on research and in other areas — and it participates in European sporting contests and cultural events like the Eurovision Song Festival, where its three victories over the years each brought outpourings of national joy.A European setback at the United Nations would strike hard at the sense among Israelis that theirs is a quasi-European country, and deepen a common perception that almost everyone except for Washington is against them.Dan Perry reported from Jerusalem. Angela Charlton in Paris, Juergen Baetz in Berlin, Bjorn Amland in Oslo, Cassandra Vinograd in London and Alessandra Rizzo in Rome contributed to this report.
Israel leaders attend east Jerusalem settler ceremony
by Majeda El Batsh – Wed May 25, 1:16 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The speaker of Israel's parliament and at least two ministers attended the dedication on Wednesday of new Jewish settler homes in east Jerusalem in what an Israeli NGO called a dangerous provocation.Among the first of the VIPs to arrive in the city's annexed Arab eastern sector were speaker Reuven Rivlin, Environment Minister Gilad Erdan and Education Minister Gideon Saar, all of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party.Also scheduled to attend were Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Science and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkowitz from the Jewish religious right.The ceremony, in which Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat also took part, came the day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed Israel's claim to all Jerusalem -- east and west.The new homes are in the Jewish enclave of Maaleh Zeitim, in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Ras al-Amud, where another 50 apartments were built in 2003. On the slopes of the Mount of Olives, overlooking the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, it is close to the centre of east Jerusalem.
Rivlin welcomed their completion.I am happy about all building in Jerusalem, which is part of the state of Israel, he told reporters.A third phase of the development is subject to a Jerusalem magistrates court hearing on Thursday in which a Palestinian family whose home stands in the way of further settler building are to fight an eviction order.Maaleh Zeitim was financed by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz, according to Israeli NGO Ir Amin, which advocates equitable division of Jerusalem between Israel and the Palestinians.Moskowitz has bankrolled other settlement projects in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem.The continuing settlement activity in east Jerusalem, which has gained support of government ministers and Knesset members, is a dangerous provocation that is intended to sabotage any chance of reaching a political settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ir Amim said in a statement.In an address to the US Congress on Tuesday, Netanhyahu rejected Palestinian claims to east Jerusalem, which they want as the capital of a future state.Jerusalem must never again be divided. Jerusalem must remain the united capital of Israel, he said.The international community has repeatedly called on Israel to stop new building projects in east Jerusalem, which it captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day war and annexed shortly afterwards.
Peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed after Netanyahu's government refused to extend a partial moratorium on settlement expansion.The Israeli interior minister was also to sign on Wednesday an agreement with Barkat incorporating about 24 hectares (60 acres) of orchards belonging to southern Jerusalem kibbutz Ramat Rachel into the city's jurisdiction, his spokesman told AFP.
A spokeswoman for settlement watchdog Peace Now told AFP that although a small part of the land jutted into the demilitarised zone between Israel and the West Bank it was territory which had never been under Jordanian control and was therefore not considered occupied.It's not a drama on the scale of Israel annexing new territory, Hagit Ofran said.This is land which has always been considered part of Israel.
Obama confident of Mideast two-state solution
By Matt Falloon – Wed May 25, 1:10 pm ET
LONDON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he believed a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine was achievable but urged the Palestinians to talk to Israel over statehood rather than seeking U.N. recognition.My goal, as I set out in a speech I gave last week, is a Jewish state of Israel that is safe and secure and recognized by its neighbors and a sovereign state of Palestine in which the Palestinian people are able to determine their own fate and their own future, Obama told a news conference in London.I am confident that can be achieved.During the joint news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Obama added: "For the Palestinians to take the United Nations route rather than the path of sitting down and talking with the Israelis is a mistake.Palestinians will seek recognition as a U.N. member-state at the world body's general assembly in September, a senior Palestinian official said on Saturday.Obama said Islamist group Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, had to recognize Israel's right to exist and abandon its strategy of violence for the peace process to succeed.It is very difficult for Israelis to sit across the table and negotiate with a party that is denying their right to exist and has not renounced the right to send missiles and rockets into your territory,he said.
I don't want the Palestinians to forget that they have obligations as well and they are going to have to resolve, in a credible way, the meaning of this agreement between Fatah and Hamas if we are to have any prospect of peace moving forward.Obama was referring to a recent powersharing deal between Hamas and the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which runs the West Bank.Britain this month welcomed the deal brokered by Egypt to end the four-year feud between Hamas and Fatah, and, speaking alongside Obama, Cameron offered a more nuanced view.We don't believe the time for making a decision about the U.N. resolution (on Palestinian statehood) -- there even isn't one there at the moment -- is right yet.We want to discuss this within the European Union and try and maximize the leverage and pressure that the European Union can bring frankly on both sides to get this vital process moving, Cameron told reporters.He said unified Hamas and Fatah had to accept some of what the people they are going to negotiate with desperately need.That, in the end, is why the peace process in Northern Ireland was successful because both sides had some understanding of what the other side needed for some dignity and some peace.(Writing by Olesya Dmitracova; Editing by Maria Golovnina)
Netanyahu Congress speech raises few hopes
– Wed May 25, 5:16 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Palestinians and Israelis alike saw little prospect of a fresh start to Middle East peace talks on Wednesday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's keynote speech to Congress.At a Washington encounter with sympathetic U.S. lawmakers, Netanyahu pleased core supporters while offering nothing new to secure peace with the Palestinians, in the assessment of most media commentators.
Invited by the Republican opponents of President Barack Obama, Netanyahu won standing ovations as he extolled Israel's democracy and military self-reliance while rejecting any Palestinian state based on Israel's pre-1967 borders.He ruled out dividing Jerusalem and urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to shun the Islamist Hamas movement, promising to be generous with West Bank land if Abbas would make peace. But he pledged to keep control of the Jordan Valley.Palestinians said it was a familiar offer of leftovers that could not divert them from their new strategy of seeking majority United Nations recognition of Palestinian statehood at the General Assembly in September.Netanyahu is the best spokesman Israel has in the United States,wrote Nahum Barnea in Yedioth Ahronoth.All Israelis love America ... and the members of Congress love Israel.American-educated Netanyahu chose exactly the right tone and used idioms like a native to create the right atmosphere in the packed chamber.Regrettably, members of Congress will not be there when Israel gets into trouble, Barnea said.Their engagement in foreign policy is marginal. Their influence on foreign affairs is small. And mainly, it is not they who will look for shelter in Ashkelon or Beersheba if rocket fire is resumed by Hamas in Gaza.
TOP OF POLL
Obama, currently on a visit to Europe, has won international support for the principles he set out in a major policy speech last week to revive the moribund Mideast peace process.Abbas is due to consult Arab states at the weekend on how to respond to the initiative.Israel's daily Maariv published a poll showing about 57 percent of voters believe Netanyahu should have supported Obama's initiative rather than opposing Obama.But the poll also showed Netanyahu was still Israel's most popular political leader.Netanyahu knows very well that the conditions that he set yesterday for a peace process are a complete non-starter, wrote Maariv's Ben Caspit.
There is no Palestinian in the world who will accept them, there is no Arab state in the world that will support them, there is not a single person in Europe who will take them seriously, and they will only make Barack Obama angry.Caspit also made the point that in the United States, foreign policy is set by the President, not Congress.Nobody in the world will change their attitude toward Benjamin Netanyahu as a result of this speech. Nobody will change their attitude toward Israel as a result of this speech. Peace will not break out as a result of this speech. No peace outline was presented in this speech,he concluded.(Writing by Douglas Hamilton; editing by Ralph Boulton)
Netanyahu stands firm on peace with Palestinians
by Gavin Rabinowitz – Tue May 24, 11:28 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu told US lawmakers he would uproot settlements in a generous peace deal with Palestinians, but ruled out a return to the 1967 borders or sharing Jerusalem.In his speech to a rare joint session of the US Congress, the Israeli leader broke no substantial new ground in his positions and rejected key calls from US President Barack Obama and the international community, who have been looking for ways to revive the comatose peace process.Netanyahu also ruled out any return to talks as long as the unity deal between Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and the Islamist movement Hamas holds, calling the Palestinians' refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state the real stumbling block to peace.In any peace agreement that ends the conflict, some settlements will end up beyond Israel's borders, Netanyahu said.We will be very generous on the size of a future Palestinian state.But Netanyahu, whose speech was frequently punctuated by warm applause and at least 20 standing ovations from the US lawmakers, again ruled out any return to the borders that existed before the Six-Day War or dividing the holy city of Jerusalem.The Palestinians demand east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.Jerusalem must never again be divided. Jerusalem must remain the united capital of Israel, Netanyahu said.The issue of accepting the 1967 borders as a starting point for negotiations has been at the core of an ongoing row between Netanyahu and Obama.Obama gave public voice last week to the long-held view of the US and international communities that a Palestinian state should be created based on those lines.
Such a state would include the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and mostly Arab but Israel-annexed east Jerusalem, with some adjustments and land swaps so that Israel can maintain settlement blocs.A senior Israeli official said taking such a strong stand against the proposal had been important.We needed to stop the deluge. You have to find that critical issue and make a stand, the official said.Netanyahu said Israel would not give up its main settlements nor compromise on the issue of Palestinian refugees, calling the 1967 lines indefensible.Israel must have defensible borders because in our part of the world, there is a simple truth: a peace you can't defend is a peace that will not hold, he told Fox News.As such, his positions are unlikely to entice the Palestinians back to the negotiating table or persuade them to abandon attempts to seek recognition for a Palestinian state when the UN General Assembly meets in September.In a swift reaction, a Palestinian official said the Israeli leader was just adding obstacles on the road to peace.A far-reaching Israeli initiative has been seen as the only way of heading off a Palestinian attempt to unilaterally secure recognition of statehood.But analysts said it appeared Netanyahu had not done enough.He made peace with Congress (but) there's no formula there for peace with the Palestinians, Israeli analyst Yossi Alpher told AFP.Obama pushed all the right buttons on Israeli-American relations and Israel's security needs, but there was nothing which constitutes a basis for renewed negotiations, Alpher added.Israeli officials said the speech had not aimed to assuage the Palestinians, but rather to ensure the United States and European powers would not support the UN bid.
Hopefully, this will lead to a stronger US position and also to other important countries opposing it, said the senior official, noting that Israel believes the Palestinians have an automatic majority at the UN.Still, Netanyahu said the bid must be forcefully opposed by all those who want to see this conflict end.But he also ruled out any negotiations until Abbas severs ties with Hamas.Israel is prepared to sit down today and negotiate peace with the Palestinian Authority. I believe we can fashion a brilliant future of peace for our children. But Israel will not negotiate with a Palestinian government backed by the Palestinian version of Al-Qaeda, Netanyahu added in his address.And he blamed the Palestinians for the failure to reach a peace deal over the last two decades.President Abbas must do what I have done. I stood before my people, and I told you it wasn't easy for me, and I said I will accept a Palestinian state, Netanyahu said.It is time for President Abbas to stand before his people and say:I will accept a Jewish state... Those six words will change history.
Netanyahu: Israel ready for painful compromises
By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press – Tue May 24, 5:42 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a cheering U.S. Congress on Tuesday he was willing to make painful compromises for peace with the Palestinians, but he offered little concrete to entice Palestinians back to the bargaining table.By giving such a high-profile speech before overwhelmingly supportive U.S. lawmakers, Netanyahu was able to demonstrate to Israelis that he retains strong backing in the United States despite his frosty relations with President Barack Obama.He also moved the needle on territorial compromise, for the first time explicitly saying in his address that Israel would have to give up some West Bank settlements.But Palestinians immediately rejected his overall peace package, which for the most part was a recycling of previously stated positions that the Palestinians had turned down. One senior Palestinian official even dubbed Netanyahu's peace blueprint a declaration of war.Speaking before a sympathetic Congress that showered him with more than two dozen sustained standing ovations, Netanyahu said Israel wants and needs peace and would make generous territorial concessions. Under any final peace accord, he added, some settlements will be beyond Israel's borders.But undercutting his overture was his insistence that Israel hold onto major settlement blocs and all of contested Jerusalem, that his country maintain a long-term military presence on the eastern edge of the West Bank and that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas scuttle his power-sharing agreement with the violently anti-Israel Hamas militants.
He also restated Israel's refusal to repatriate millions of Palestinians who lost homes in Israel during the fighting over the Jewish state's 1948 creation.Unlike the Americans, Palestinians had no accolades for Netanyahu.In the West Bank, Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official, called the speech a declaration of war against the Palestinians.This is an escalation and unfortunately, it received a standing ovation, he said, noting that Netanyahu had rejected Palestinian demands on central issues such as borders, competing claims to Jerusalem and the fate of refugees.In Gaza, the Islamic militant Hamas fumed that Netanyahu denied us all our rights.We must work to adopt an Arab and Palestinian strategy based on the right of resistance, said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, referring to armed attacks on Israeli targets.In lieu of negotiations, Abbas is campaigning to obtain U.N. recognition of Palestinian statehood when the General Assembly meets in September. Both Israel and the U.S. oppose this strategy, calling instead for the negotiated solution that has been the cornerstone of two decades of peace efforts.Abbas is to meet with leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization and his Fatah movement on Wednesday to discuss their next move. The Palestinians have developed an alternate strategy to moribund negotiations, largely on hold since 2008, and have said they will seek U.N. recognition of their state in September.Netanyahu came to the U.S. in a fighting mood, sparring — even before he landed — with Obama, who hours before had expressed support for drawing future borders on the basis of the boundaries Israel had before capturing east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967.Netanyahu repeatedly challenged the president's position, ignoring Obama's assertion that the territorial markers could be adjusted through mutually agreed land swaps. The Palestinians accept that principle, which would allow Israel to retain major West Bank settlement blocs and help to assure its security.
In his speech before Congress, Netanyahu backed off from this dispute, acknowledging that the president had not called for a return to Israel's prewar borders. Israeli officials said that was because Obama sharpened his position on this matter, but it is possible Netanyahu felt he could ease the assault because of the tremendous outpouring of support he received in Congress and, the night before, at a meeting of the powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington.That support in the U.S. has allowed Netanyahu in the past to fend off Obama's demands that he do more to advance peacemaking by freezing settlement construction.Obama has, in large part, staked his reputation in the Muslim world on finding a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
But he has not been able to draw Israelis and Palestinians back to the bargaining table for sustained talks. The Palestinians are refusing to return as long as Israeli settlement construction continues on lands they want for a future state.
Netanyahu, early in his speech, congratulated the United States for killing al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, wishing him good riddance. He dismissed shouts from an anti-Israel protester as evidence that freedom of speech is alive and well in the United States and is respected there and in Israel.Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this story.
Israel frees mother of exiled senior Hamas man
– Tue May 24, 4:01 pm ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Israeli army released on Tuesday the elderly mother of Salah Aruri, a senior member of Hamas exiled in Syria, AFP reporters said.Aisha Yussef Salah, almost 80, said police had taken her for questioning about the activities of her son, who is considered to be a leader of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.The Israeli army had no comment on the arrest or the release of the mother of Salah Aruri.She was arrested in a night-time raid by the Israeli army on her West Bank home near the village of Arura, her daughter, Jamila Mohammed Yussef, told AFP.The Israeli army at the time said it was investigating the report.Aruri served a 15-year sentence in an Israeli jail before being released in 2007 and arrested again three months later, Palestinian security sources said.He was released last year on condition that he go into exile and now operates from Hamas's political office in Syria.Hamas, in a statement issued in Damascus, denounced the arrest and the way in which it was carried out.We firmly denounce the raid on Aisha Yussef Salah's home and her arrest and we denounce the savage way in which she was arrested and her home searched,the statement said.This savage Zionist act is ... a desperate bid to terrorise Aruri's family.Hamas urged human rights groups to intervene to secure the woman's release.
Palestinians set sights on UN after Netanyahu speech
by Nasser Abu Bakr – Tue May 24, 3:46 pm ET
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – The Palestinians on Tuesday set their sights firmly on the United Nations after a speech by the Israeli premier which failed to offer any new incentive to talk peace.In a 45-minute address to the US Congress, Benjamin Netanyahu laid out his vision of peace in a speech which pundits said contained nothing to deter the Palestinians from plans to seek UN recognition for their state later this year or to revive the moribund peace process.Officials in the West Bank city of Ramallah said the speech offered nothing new and only added more obstacles on the path to peace, while Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers said Netanyahu had laid down conditions which were impossible for the Palestinians to meet.There is nothing new in Netanyahu's speech except that he is adding obstacles on the road towards a genuine, serious, lasting and comprehensive peace, said Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.Peace, he said, required international benchmarks such as the recognition of the borders of 1967 as the basis for any peace negotiations -- an idea which has been repeatedly rejected by Netanyahu in a series of addresses over the past four days.Jibril Rajoub, a senior official of Abbas's Fatah movement, told AFP the address revealed the true face of Netanyahu and his ruling right-wing Likud party, which he described as a danger to regional stability and international peace.
And Taher al-Nunu, a spokesman for the Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip told AFP it proved Netanyahu doesn't want any peace process and that he is setting impossible conditions for the Palestinians to meet.Netanyahu, he charged, was trying to deceive the world by speaking of the possibility of recognising a Palestinian state while destroying its foundations by rejecting a return to the 1967 borders, by refusing to give up annexed Arab east Jerusalem and by ruling out any return for the refugees.The Israeli leader had been expected to make some kind of gesture to prevent the Palestinians from pursuing a diplomatic campaign to win UN recognition for their promised state within the 1967 borders in a move expected to take place in September.But his speech only left them more determined.After the Netanyahu speech, the Palestinians have only one choice -- to go to the UN in September, to the General Assembly, negotiator Mohammed Shtayeh told AFP of the strategy adopted after the breakdown of peace talks late last year.Instead of offering a carrot, Netanyahu suggested a stick, urging anyone interested in resolving the decades-old conflict to forcefully oppose the Palestinian bid for UN recognition.The Palestinian attempt to impose a settlement through the United Nations will not bring peace, he said.It should be forcefully opposed by all those who want to see this conflict end.The Israeli leader also took aim at the recently-signed reconciliation deal between Abbas's secular Fatah movement and Hamas, which does not recognise the Jewish state, urging the Palestinian president to abandon the deal.I say to President Abbas: Tear up your pact with Hamas. Sit down and negotiate. Make peace with the Jewish state. And if you do, I promise you this: Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations -- it will will be the first.
But Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri dismissed his remarks as arrogant.The true response to this arrogant speech which denies Palestinian rights should be the complete ending of all negotiation and the implementation of reconciliation as soon as possible,he told AFP.
Suspect site in Syria very likely a nuclear reactor: IAEA by Simon Morgan – Tue May 24, 2:06 pm ET
VIENNA (AFP) – A remote desert site in Syria that was bombed by Israeli planes in September 2007 was very likely a nuclear reactor, the UN atomic watchdog said Tuesday.Based on all the information available to the agency and its technical evaluation of that information, the agency assesses that it is very likely that the building destroyed at the Dair Alzour site was a nuclear reactor which should have been declared to the agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a new restricted report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.The nine-page report was the toughest ever by the IAEA since it began investigating allegations of illicit nuclear work by Syria in 2008 and reflects the agency's growing frustration with Damascus, diplomats said.Indeed, it is the first time that the IAEA has publicly stated its belief that Syria was building an undeclared reactor at Dair Alzour.And diplomats suggest the report could now pave the way for Western powers at the upcoming board of governors meeting next month to push for Syria to be referred to the UN Security Council.A senior international official familiar with the IAEA's investigation said the agency felt it had no option but to make such an assessment after Damascus has persistently refused to cooperate since the very beginning.
We have given Syria ample opportunities to react, to engage with us. They didn't do that. I think we've exhausted all the possibilities. And so now we've made this assessment,the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.Even an unprecedented letter from IAEA chief Yukiya Amano to Syria's foreign minister late last year failed to unblock the situation, the official said.Damascus has indeed stonewalled the IAEA's investigation all along, granting inspectors access to the site only once in June 2008 and not allowing any follow-up visits to either Dair Alzour or other possible related sites.It maintains that Dair Alzour was a non-nuclear military installation and that the IAEA therefore had no right to go there.But suspicions only deepened when Syria cleared and hid all the debris from the site.Furthermore, at their one and only visit to Dair Alzour, UN inspectors detected significant traces of man-made uranium there, as yet unexplained by Damascus.In its new report, the IAEA said features of the destroyed building were comparable to those of gas-cooled graphite-moderated reactors.Indeed, photos of the building prior to the bombing showed a marked resemblance to North Korea's reactor at Yongbyong, which produced plutonium for Pyongyang?s small stockpile of nuclear weapons.The infrastructure at the site -- including its connections for cooling and treated water -- was configured in such a way as to support the operation of such a reactor and was not consistent with Syria's claims regarding the purpose of the infrastructure,the report said.The IAEA said the circumstances relating to the Dair Alzour site were unique in that the building on the site has been destroyed, the debris from the site has been cleared, several years have now passed, and Syria has not provided the necessary cooperation required by the agency.It was therefore forced to conclude that after considering the initial allegations and Syria's responses thereto and considering all information available to the agency ... the destroyed building was very likely a nuclear reactor and should have been declared by Syria.
Palestinians must tear up deal with Hamas: Netanyahu
– Tue May 24, 1:06 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday urged Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to tear up a pact with Hamas, and said a unilateral bid for Palestinian statehood must be opposed.Peace can only be negotiated with partners committed to peace. And Hamas is not a partner for peace, the Israeli premier told US lawmakers.Hamas remains committed to Israel's destruction and to terrorism, he argued, as he referred to a reconciliation pact between Abbas's Fatah party and Hamas signed earlier this month.So I say to President Abbas, tear up your pact with Hamas. Sit down and negotiate. Make peace with the Jewish state.The Israeli premier also took issue with a Palestinian drive, currently gathering steam, to convince the United Nations to unilaterally recognize an independent Palestinian state at its General Assembly in September.The Palestinian attempt to impose a settlement through the United Nations will not bring peace,Netanyahu insisted.It should be forcefully opposed by all those who want to see this conflict end.
Some settlements will be outside Israel: Netanyahu
– Tue May 24, 12:24 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tuesday that some Jewish settlements would end up beyond Israel's borders in a future peace deal with the Palestinians.The status of the settlements will be decided only in negotiations, but we must also be honest. So I'm saying today something that should be said publicly, by all those who are serious about peace, he told US lawmakers.In any real peace agreement, in any peace agreement that ends the conflict, some settlements will end up beyond Israel's borders.He was speaking in a historic address before the US Congress, as he outlined his vision for how to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians which has eluded both sides for decades.But Netanyahu stressed that the outline of Israel's future borders had sill to be negotiated, and insisted the Jewish state would not return to the 1967 territorial lines.Israel's refusal to extended a moratorium on settlement building, particularly in Jerusalem and the West Bank, led to the collapse of direct peace negotiations late last year.
Netanyahu: Israel cannot return to 1967 borders By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press – Tue May 24, 12:15 am ET
WASHINGTON – Israel's prime minister promised to present his vision for an Israeli-Palestinian peace in a speech before U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday, but vowed his country would not return to mid-1967 borders that he termed indefensible.Benjamin Netanyahu made this pledge in an address Monday to thousands of pro-Israel American Jews and U.S. lawmakers. His speech drew roaring cheers and standing ovations, a sign of the powerful backing he enjoys in the U.S. as the White House pressures him to do more to renew stalled Mideast peacemaking.The warm reception Netanyahu enjoyed at the gala dinner of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee contrasted sharply with the contentious quality of some of his recent exchanges with President Barack Obama precisely over border issues.His planned address on Tuesday to a joint meeting of Congress, where Israel enjoys strong bipartisan backing, could similarly remind Obama, ahead of his re-election bid, of the political price he might pay if he tries to push Netanyahu too hard.In that speech, Netanyahu said, he will outline a vision for a secure Israeli-Palestinian peace.But in language that suggested he was not going to take a conciliatory pose, he promised to speak the unvarnished truth.This conflict has raged for 100 years because the Palestinians refuse to end it. They refuse to accept a Jewish state.A peace agreement, he said, must assure Israel's security: Israel cannot return to the indefensible 1967 borders, he declared, rekindling the dispute with Obama in a possible effort to placate territorial hardliners in his government.Borders became an issue last week when Obama, in a major Mideast policy speech, took the position that any negotiations on final borders of the Jewish and Palestinian states must be based on the boundaries Israel held in 1967 before capturing east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip — lands the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state.
In direct statements and through aides, Netanyahu suggested Obama did not understand Israel's security needs or the realities of the conflict-riven Mideast.Obama said clearly in his policy speech and in his own address before AIPAC on Sunday that the territorial markers could be adjusted through mutually agreed land swaps — a principle accepted by the Palestinians that would allow Israel to retain major settlement blocs and help assure its security.But Netanyahu has repeatedly sidelined this part of the Obama message.In a sign of the sympathy Netanyahu can hope to enjoy in Congress, Obama's own political ally, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, challenged Obama on the border issue at the AIPAC dinner.No one should set premature parameters about borders, about building or about anything else, Reid, D-Nev., said.
The reference to building alluded to earlier U.S. demands that Israel renew an expired moratorium on settlement construction.Peacemaking with the Palestinians stalled in late 2008, shortly before Obama and Netanyahu each took office. Obama had hoped to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table and wrest a deal by September 2011. But those efforts foundered after Israel refused to extend a settlement construction slowdown and Palestinians abandoned negotiations after three short weeks, saying continued Israeli building on land they want for a future state did not show good faith.Now, they are refocusing their strategy on trying to obtain a unilateral declaration of statehood at the U.N. when the General Assembly meets in September. Israel would like to derail that campaign, which, if successful as expected, could compound its diplomatic isolation.The U.S. also opposes unilateral action, which would put Washington in the awkward position of having to vote against Palestinian statehood at a time when calls for greater democracy are ringing out across the Arab world.Further complicating peace efforts is a unity deal between rival Palestinian factions that would bring violently anti-Israel Hamas militants into the Palestinian government.Obama has said Israel should not be expected to negotiate with a government that does not recognize its right to exist.Anti-Israel hecklers interrupted Netanyahu's speech several times, but supporters drowned them out, leaping to their feet, giving him a standing ovation and at one point chanting his nickname, Bibi, Bibi and pumping their arms in the air.
