Jordan slams Israel over West Bank evictions threat
Wed Apr 14, 11:47 am ET
AMMAN (AFP) – Jordan condemned Israel on Wednesday over a military order that could lead to the eviction of thousands of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, demanding it be revoked.The Amman government strongly condemned the Israeli decision, describing the move as illegal and a flagrant violation of international law and conventions, as well as the Jewish state's obligations as an occupying power.
In a statement, the government urged the international community to act to halt such unilateral measures,which would block peace efforts and raise tensions in the Middle East.It added that Foreign Minister Nasser Jawdeh, who is in Washington with King Abdullah II, had already started to contact his counterparts about the matter during a nuclear meeting there this week.Meanwhile, Israel Ambassador Dani Nevo was summoned to the foreign ministry and given a note of protest, the official Petra news agency reported.The note underlined Jordan's strong denunciation of the Israeli decision ... and the need to immediately stop its application, as well as the reaffirmation of the right of the Palestinian people to live in and move about freely on their national territory, Petra said.Jordan said on Monday it had received assurances from Israel that the order would not lead to expulsions of Palestinians living in the West Bank.The Israeli military insists the new orders merely formalise existing procedures and said there would be no new wave of deportations from the territory.On Tuesday, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad called the orders illegal,while the Arab League called on the Palestinians to refuse to heed them.
Obama voices frustration on stalled Mideast peace By Matt Spetalnick – Tue Apr 13, 6:44 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama voiced frustration on Tuesday over stalled Middle East peace efforts, saying Israelis and Palestinians may not be ready to resolve their conflict no matter how much pressure Washington exerts.Obama, speaking to reporters after hosting a nuclear security summit, made clear he harbored little hope for swift progress toward Middle East peace, more than a year after taking office and declaring it a high priority for his administration.U.S.-led peace moves have been stymied by a dispute over Jewish settlement construction on occupied land that has strained ties between Washington and its close ally Israel, and by divisions among the Palestinians.The truth is in some of these conflicts the United States can't impose solutions unless the participants in these conflicts are willing to break out of old patterns of antagonism,Obama told a news conference.
The Obama administration has tried to get Israel and the Palestinians to launch indirect peace talks but has made scant headway. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave little ground in White House talks with Obama last month.Obama recently acknowledged he had underestimated the obstacles to a renewed peace process that bedeviled many of his predecessors, and some critics have called his approach naive.The Israeli people, through their government, and the Palestinian people, through the Palestinian Authority, as well as other Arab states may say to themselves, We are not prepared to resolve these issues no matter how much pressure the United States brings to bear,Obama said.But Obama insisted the United States would press on, constantly present, constantly engaged.He said progress on issues like Middle East peace, nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament would be measured not in days, not in weeks.It's going to take time, and progress will be halting,he said.And there will be frustrations.
The White House promised on Friday not to surprise anybody at any time with a dramatic shift in Middle East peace strategy and said no decision had been made for Obama to offer his own solution to the conflict.While dampening expectations for a revamped U.S. approach, national security adviser Jim Jones left open the possibility of further internal discussions, following reports a broad new Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal was under consideration.(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Israel warns nationals of imminent kidnap threat in Egypt by Marius Schattner – Tue Apr 13, 5:41 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel warned its nationals on Tuesday that there was an imminent risk of kidnap attempts by militants against holidaymakers in the neighbouring Sinai peninsula in Egypt.Israel's anti-terrorism unit said it had concrete information about an imminent risk of a terrorist abduction operation.Israel already issued a general warning to its citizens in February about the dangers of travel over the next few months to the Red Sea resort area which is a major draw.But despite the travel advice, some 20,000 Israeli tourists still holidayed in the Sinai over the Jewish Passover holiday in late March and early April.The anti-terrorism unit cited threats from (Lebanese Shiite militant group) Hezbollah and Iran.A senior Egyptian security official contacted by AFP said the interior ministry was looking into the Israeli travel warning.But other officials played it down, saying that it was based on rumours and that there was no credible intelligence suggesting tourists were under threat.Israeli military radio reported that the warning was issued following an unconfirmed rumour about the kidnapping of an Israeli.The Sinai has been the scene of three major bombing attacks targeting Israeli or Western tourists.
In April 2006, 20 people were killed in the resort of Dahab; in July 2005, 70 people were killed in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh; and in October 2004, 34 people were killed in Taba, hard by the Israeli border.In April last year, Egyptian authorities said they had unveiled a plot by sympathisers of Hezbollah, which fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006, to kidnap or kill Israelis in the Sinai.The security forces carried out extensive search operations in the peninsula's mountainous interior at the time, sparking protests among the indigenous Bedouin nomads.An Egyptian court is to hand down its verdict later this month against 26 suspected members of the alleged Hezbollah cell. Prosecutors have called for death sentences in the trial, in which all but four of the accused are in the dock.
Hezbollah has said repeatedly that its only operatives in Egypt have been exclusively engaged in smuggling arms and money to the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza.Egypt depends heavily on its tourism industry. Revenues totalled 10.76 billion dollars last year despite a 2.1 percent decline in receipts in the face of the recession hitting its main European markets.Around 12.5 million tourists visited the country in 2009, including more than two million from Russia.Tourism Minister Zoheir Garana said in February that the government hoped to see arrivals rise to 14 million this year, bringing in revenues of 11.5 billion dollars.
Israel's Peres calls for urgent relaunch of peace talks
Tue Apr 13, 3:56 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – Israeli President Shimon Peres called on Tuesday for stalled negotiations with Palestinians to be urgently relaunched, on the first day of an official visit to Paris.A year has already gone by and it's already late. The negotiations have to be urgently taken up again and we can get to a compromise, Peres said after a meeting with French Prime Minister Francois Fillon.We should help create a Palestinian state, it's in Israel's interest. We need to tell our Palestinian friends that too much time has been lost towards the resumption of talks,he added.The Israeli president also paid tribute to France for the extraordinary role that it constantly plays in the peace process.Paris has offered to host a peace conference as long as the talks lead to results, while also firmly criticising Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Turning to Syria, Peres renewed his attacks against Damascus, which he accuses of supplying Scud missiles to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah while publicly talking peace.As regards Syria, the question is always the same: where are they going? what do they want, because they speak of peace at the same time they encourage Hezbollah ... which has only one sole objective which is to attack Israel, he said.The Syrians have to be clear. They have to decide whether they want to speak about peace or whether they want to support Hezbollah against Israel, he said.On Iran, Peres said that Israel and France completely agree on the need to show firmness towards Tehran over nuclear security.Peres is to meet with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Wednesday, the second day of a three-day trip to Paris, before meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy for a working lunch on Thursday.
Israeli stores pull book criticizing settlers By GRANT SLATER, Associated Press Writer – Tue Apr 13, 2:31 pm ET
JERUSALEM – An Israeli bookstore chain pulled a book that criticizes Jewish settlers as hypnotized zombies plagued by messianic madness after customers complained about it, the company said Tuesday.The decision set off protests from some academics and public figures, who accused the store of bowing to political pressure.The book also criticizes the Israeli right for its strong ties to West Bank Jewish settlers. The chain, called Tzomet Hasfarim, or Books Junction, packaged the book with an Israeli flag magnet ahead of Israel's independence day next week and sold it for one shekel, about 27 cents.The store said customers objected to the packaging of the book with the flag magnet for a symbolic price, implying that the chain endorsed the message of the book. For that reason, the store said it pulled the book from its shelves.The store issued a statement saying it has no connection and does not support one side or the other.
In response, some Israeli academics and public figures called for a boycott of the store. Their petition criticizes the chain for caving in to political pressure, saying its decision constitutes a critical blow to freedom of expression.About 300,000 Israeli settlers live among some 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank. Many Israelis oppose the settlements and are in favor of removing them in exchange for peace with the Palestinians.Dani Dayan, chairman of Settlers Council, blasted the book.This blasphemous publication attacks our communities with vulgar language, Dayan said, adding that he did not object to the book being published.The book was self-published by its authors, Shmuel Hasfari and Eldad Yaniv, and all of the bookstore's copies have been returned to the authors, the chain said.Yaniv told the Israeli Haaretz newspaper he intended to publish more copies of the book and distribute them for free on university campuses.I think that today (the settlers) proved what the book says about them is justified,Yaniv told Haaretz.It's time to put them in their place and say that we are Zionist and Israeli and want to stop the occupation of the West Bank.Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and started building settlements there shortly afterward. The Palestinians claim the West Bank for part of their future state and want the settlements removed.
Med water conference ends in failure due to Israel-Arab row by Pierre Ausseill – Tue Apr 13, 1:55 pm ET
BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) – Talks aimed at adopting a water management strategy for the Mediterranean failed Tuesday due to a row between Israel and Arab countries over a reference to the Palestinian territories, participants said.The stalemate was seen as a strong blow against the nascent 43-nation Mediterranean Union, which was set up two years ago to foster cooperation in one of the world's most volatile regions.
Unfortunately we can not reach an agreement,French secretary of state for European affairs Pierre Lellouche said at the end of the 4th Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Water in Barcelona where the body is based.The conference aimed to reach an agreement on a strategy for managing fresh water in the Mediterranean to ensure equal access to the non-renewable resource and prevent the issue from becoming a source of conflict in the future.But a reference to occupied territories in a proposed draft text prevented the approval of a final accord event though delegates were in agreement on 99 percent of the technical issues related to water management, said Lellouche.Israel disagreed with this wording while Arab nations opposed to the alternative formulation of territories under occupation proposed by European participants, he added.The head of the body, Jordan's Ahmad Masa'deh, said he was saddened by the failure to reach an agreement at the conference because it casts doubt on the future of the Mediterranean Union.The union groups all 27 EU member states with countries in North Africa, the Balkans, the Arab world as well as Israel in a bid to foster cooperation in the region.It was established in 2008 in Paris by France and Egypt but was temporarily mothballed in early 2009 because of tensions caused by Israel's offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.My disappointment is matched only by my hope, this structure is irreversible,said Lellouche, adding the body is a fundamental project for peace in this region and it has not lost any validity.
Israeli Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau rejected responsibility for the failure of the talks and blamed Arab nations instead.We wanted to concentrate solely on the problems of water and avoid entering into political themes. But Arab League nations lapsed into pure propaganda and made political declarations against the state of Israel,he said.They decided to obstruct the meeting, he added.The issue of access to water is of crucial importance for the inhabitants of the Mediterranean basin.Some 290 million people in the region could lack water by 2025 due to the combined effects of population growth, rising needs of agriculture, industry and tourism and global warming, according to the United Nations.Over 180 million people in the region already lack water and over 60 million people face chronic shortages, according to Mediterranean Union experts.Water management is a major source of tension between Israelis and Palestinians.Israel largely controls joint water resources and supplies most of the water consumed in the West Bank. International organisations say Israel's water supplies fall short of Palestinian needs, but also that the Palestinians have failed to set up the infrastructure and institutions needed in the water sector.
Jerusalem plans to build synagogue in settlement
Tue Apr 13, 6:44 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Jerusalem authorities plan to give the green light to build a new synagogue and school in east Jerusalem on land seized from Palestinians, Israeli army radio reported on Tuesday.The land was seized from its Palestinian owners shortly before planning for the buildings started in the 1990s, the radio said.The construction project in the Gilo neighbourhood, a Jewish settlement, still needs final approval from the city's planning commission, whose head Kobi Khalon said this would be a formality.But Khalon, who is also deputy mayor, added: We must act with prudence and responsibility as Jerusalem is an explosive city.The status of Jerusalem and Jewish settlements are major stumbling blocks in Middle East peace efforts.Israel has considered the Holy City its eternal and indivisible capital since it seized Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community.The Palestinians see east Jerusalem as part of the occupied West Bank and want it to be the capital of their promised state.The announcement of a plan for 1,600 new settler homes in east Jerusalem during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden last month triggered a major row with Washington, which has pushed for a freeze of settlement activity.
Israel's seven-strong security cabinet met on Monday to discuss Washington's demands for specific confidence-building measures to promote a restart of Middle East peace talks.The demands were made last month during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington that appeared to deepen the row with the administration of President Barack Obama.Under Netanyahu's orders, Jerusalem's planning commission -- whose approval is needed for any construction project in the city -- has not met since the ill-timed announcement during Biden's visit, said city council member Meir Margalit.Its first meeting for more than a month will be on Thursday, when it is expected to approve the Gilo project, said the leftwinger.
World Bank urges Israel to ease West Bank limits
Mon Apr 12, 3:28 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The World Bank warned on Monday that continued economic growth in the occupied West Bank would depend on Israel taking further steps to lift restrictions on movement.The fiscal position of the (Palestinian Authority) remains precarious. Despite evidence of economic growth in the West Bank, its sustainability remains in question, the Bank said ahead of a donors conference in Madrid.The warning came a day after the International Monetary Fund said the West Bank economy grew 8.5 percent in 2009 following Palestinian reforms, the easing of some restrictions, and nearly two billion dollars of foreign aid.Both bodies have cautioned that those gains could be in danger if Israel does not remove more of the hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints it maintains in the West Bank, which it says are necessary for security.The World Bank recommended that continued easing of the economic restrictions on the West Bank, and lifting the Gaza blockade, remain a top priority for the government of Israel.Specifically, it urges unlocking of the economic potential of Area C in the West Bank, it said, referring to the more than 60percent of the territory that is under complete Israeli civil and military control.
It also urged the liberalising of economic linkages with east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed in a move not recognised internationally, and which the Palestinians view as their capital.Both the World Bank and the IMF called for the lifting of sanctions on Gaza imposed after the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June 2007, which have crippled the private sector and spawned an informal smuggling economy based on tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egypt border.All parties must bear in mind that economic integration of the West Bank and Gaza is critical to the viability of a Palestinian state in the medium and long terms,World Bank regional vice president Shamshad Akhtar said.The current political and security uncertainty, as well as the movement restrictions, pose substantial impediments to the necessary integration of the Palestinian economy within the Middle East as well as globally.
Netanyahu at Holocaust ceremony: Stop Iran By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer – Sun Apr 11, 2:39 pm ET
JERUSALEM – The specter of Iran hovered over the start of Israel's annual memorial day for the 6 million Jews killed by Nazis in the Holocaust of World War II, as Israeli leaders warned of an Iranian nuclear program they believe is aimed at weapons production.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complained bitterly about international reaction to what he called Iran's drive toward nuclear bombs and its intention to destroy Israel, but he did not hint at a possible Israeli response.
We encounter in the best case a limp reaction, and even that is fading,Netanyahu said Sunday.We do not hear the necessary rejection, no harsh denunciation, no outcry.
Netanyahu spoke at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial authority, before hundreds of Holocaust survivors and their families, Israeli leaders, diplomats and others. A military honor guard stood at one side of the podium and a girls' choir on the other.If we have learned anything from the Holocaust,Netanyahu said,it is that we must not be silent or be deterred in the face of evil.In his address at the ceremony, President Shimon Peres recalled visiting the village in Poland where he was born. Of all the Jewish homes and synagogues, not a single beam remains,he said.Turning to the present, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate urged the world to confront threats of genocide, singling out Iran's nuclear program. Israel dismisses Iranian claims that it is not making nuclear bombs.Peres said, Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of those capable of mass destruction, with voices encouraging that destruction — that is the most perilous combination to world peace.
The day is one of the most solemn on Israel's calendar. Restaurants, cafes and places of entertainment closed down across Israel Sunday evening at the start of the annual remembrance day. Local TV channels scrapped their light entertainment and substituted documentaries about the Holocaust and other similarly serious programming. Radio networks aired interviews with survivors and panel discussions about the significance of the genocide and lessons for the future.At midmorning Monday, air raid sirens are set to wail across the country, marking two minutes of silence in memory of the victims.Yad Vashem picked Voices of the Survivors as the theme for this year's commemoration. About 220,000 survivors live in Israel, all of them aging, some of them destitute and alone. In a statement on its Web site, Yad Vashem said,The voice of the survivors is the link that binds the painful and tormented history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust to the future, to hope and to rebirth.On Monday, Holocaust memorial day ceremonies include gatherings around the country, starting in the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, where people read the names of victims of the Holocaust. The project, called Every Person Has a Name,is meant to break down the number of 6 million into stories of individuals, families and communities wiped out during the war.
A study released hours before the opening ceremony found that anti-Semitic incidents doubled worldwide last year compared with 2008. The Tel Aviv University report concluded that Muslim groups and radical leftists used Israel's bruising 22-day invasion to stop rocket attacks from Gaza, starting in late December 2008, as a wedge to expand their anti-Jewish agenda.Researchers counted 1,129 incidents, more than double the toll of the year before and the highest in two decades of studies. Researchers said they found an orchestrated and concerted attempt to delegitimize the Jewish people and Jewish state in Europe.The report by the Steven Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism charged that radical leftists and Muslim groups channeled Israel's invasion of Gaza into a campaign of anti-Semitism.Dina Porat, the report's editor, said the study tracked only instances of physical violence against Jewish targets. Verbal violence is violence, of course, but we don't count it,Porat said.
Israeli army detains 14 in West Bank land protest
Sat Apr 10, 9:33 am ET
BEIT OMAR, West Bank (AFP) – Israeli forces clashed with several dozen Palestinian protesters in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, arresting 14 people, the army and witnesses said.The protesters were joined by Israeli peace activists and foreigners at the rally near Beit Omar village, charging that Jews from nearby Bat Ayin settlement were farming on Palestinian-owned land.The demonstrators threw rocks and set fire to crops, the army and witnesses said.Security forces used riot dispersal means to disperse the protesters. The army declared the area a closed military zone and arrested 14 people,an army spokeswoman said.No casualties were reported in the incident in Beit Omar, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron which has been a frequent flashpoint in recent weeks between Palestinians and Israeli forces.
Thousands of Jews visit disputed West Bank tombs By BEN HUBBARD, Associated Press Writer – Fri Apr 9, 3:09 pm ET
KIFL HARES, West Bank – Thousands of devout Jews descended on a Palestinian village Friday in a rare pilgrimage to three disputed tombs, praying and dancing at a site they claim holds the remains of biblical ancestors.The visit, made under the guard of soldiers enforcing a curfew on local residents, took place before dawn Friday to try to avoid provoking trouble with the Palestinians of Kifl Hares, who say the graves hold the remains of Muslims.Such visits are especially sensitive because Palestinians fear Israeli hard-liners are using religious claims to buttress demands for areas the Palestinians want for a future state.Earlier this year, a decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to add two West Bank shrines to a list of Israeli heritage sites set off weeks of clashes between stone-throwing Palestinians and Israeli troops in the biblical city of Hebron. Both of those sites, the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem, hold great significance for Muslims and Jews.No clashes were reported during the pilgrimage to Kifl Hares, which began late Thursday and ended early Friday. The Palestinian mayor, however, called it a serious bother.
Israeli soldiers, some using glow sticks to direct traffic in the darkness, imposed a curfew on the Palestinian residents. The Jewish visitors, some carrying children or pushing strollers, walked the village's narrow streets. Near the tombs, groups of ultra-Orthodox men with sidelocks and black hats recited prayers, sang and danced in circles.Some devout Jews claim biblical Joshua, along with his father, Nun, and companion Caleb are buried in Kifl Hares. Local Palestinians say the graves hold the remains of Muslims.About 5,000 Jews from around Israel and its West Bank settlements flocked to the village on Thursday night, many on buses chartered for the trip. Israeli soldiers lined the streets, directing visitors to the three tombs.At the tomb pilgrims believe to be Joshua's, men in black hats and long coats jostled to enter. They recited prayers, read psalms and snapped photos. Women in long skirts, covering their hair with hats or scarves, prayed in a separate section.Outside, merchants hawked religious books, CDs and bumper stickers. Others distributed soft drinks and slices of noodle cake. Later, groups of Orthodox men joined arms and danced in a circle, singing praise songs.It's a unique opportunity where they are able to reach the burial place of one of the most important leaders of the Jewish people,said David Haivri, one of the organizers.The Israeli military says Jewish worshippers can only enter Palestinian communities with army escorts. In the West Bank, tensions continue to run high, particularly between Palestinian villagers and hard-line Jewish settlers, who in recent months have stepped up rampages in Palestinian communities.Ahmed Bouzia, the mayor of Kifl Hares, called the most recent visit a serious bother and said many villagers worry Israel will try to take the sites away from them.All three are Islamic graves,Bouzia said, adding that one contains the remains of an ancestor.Anyone who uses his eyes and head can see that these are Islamic graves.
Israel viewed as world's sixth nuclear power: analysts
Fri Apr 9, 1:14 pm ET
LONDON (AFP) – Israel, whose prime minister withdrew Friday from next week's US-hosted nuclear summit, is viewed as the sixth country to have acquired nuclear weapons -- a title it has neither denied nor confirmed.Analysts at British defence specialists Jane's believe the Jewish state has between 100 and 300 nuclear warheads, putting them among the more advanced nuclear weapons states and roughly on a par with Britain.The London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) estimates Israel has up to 200 warheads delivered on land-based short-range Jericho 1 and medium-range Jericho 2 missiles.The Nuclear Threat Initiative, a US advocacy group co-created by Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, puts the figure at 100 to 200.Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East with a programme dating back to the 1950s under Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion.It was developed with the help of France and is centred on the Dimona reactor in the southern Negev desert.According to Jane's, the Israeli strategic force could be deployed by the Jericho 2 missile, which has a range of up to 4,500 kilometres (2,800 miles), or the five-year-old Jericho 3, which reaches up to 7,800 kilometres.It is also believed to be able to deploy by air, using F-16 fighter jets, and even by sea through its submarine fleet, providing an opportunity for a second strike if its land systems are attacked.Israel acquired three diesel-powered Dolphin-class submarines in 1999-2000 which are capable of launching adapted Harpoon cruise missiles fitted with nuclear warheads.
In addition, Jane's says some observers believe Jerusalem has developed tactical nuclear weapons such as landmines and artillery shells.Some analysts believe that Israel probably keeps most, if not all, of its nuclear arsenal in an unassembled mode,the latest Jane's briefing says, adding that fully functional weapons could be completed in a matter of days.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly withdrew Friday from next week's nuclear summit in Washington, underscoring Israeli reluctance to expose its own nuclear programme to scrutiny.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Friday, April 09, 2010
NO US MIDEAST PEACE PLAN
Obama adviser says no US Mideast peace plan ready
Fri Apr 9, 8:44 am ET
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE – President Barack Obama's national security adviser says the administration discussing how to jump-start the lagging Mideast peace process, but doesn't have a new U.S. plan to offer.Speaking to reporters accompanying Obama back to Washington Friday from Prague, Gen. James Jones said, There's been no decision on that.There had been reports earlier this week that the administration was poised to offer a new U.S. peace proposal to the Israelis and Palestinians that would build on understandings reached at Camp David, Md., in 2000.Jones said the Mideast strategy came up during a meeting Obama recently had with a half-dozen former national security advisers. He said these are ongoing discussions and said that we don't intend to surprise anybody at any time.
Gaza power plant shuts down for lack of fuel
Fri Apr 9, 7:46 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – The sole power plant in the besieged Gaza Strip was shut down on Friday because fuel supplies ran out, with Palestinians and Israel blaming each other.The power plant shut down completely this morning as a result of a shortage of fuel caused by the Israeli siege, said Kanaan Obeid, assistant director of Gaza's electricity authority, referring to the Israeli blockade of Gaza since its 2007 takeover by the Islamist Hamas movement.But Israel said the shut-down was caused by a rift over funding among the Palestinians, and that the Hamas rival, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, had stopped fuel purchases.The industrial diesel needed to run the power plant -- which supplies about 25 percent of Gaza's energy -- comes through an Israeli-controlled fuel terminal, with Israel setting import quotas.The imports have declined since November when the European Commission transferred responsibility for buying the fuel to the Palestinian Authority, after its aid program expired.The Israeli army said the Palestinians had stopped buying fuel in recent days after Hamas failed to pay its share of the costs.There is no Israeli involvement; if they buy fuel we will let it in as we do on a daily basis, said Guy Inbar, a spokesman for the Israeli military liaison to Gaza.
Fuel supplies were particularly low in the past weeks, in part because there were no deliveries for two days over the recent Jewish Passover holiday.Only 550,000 litres (145,294 gallons) were delivered this week, and 721,660 litres (190,642 gallons) the week before that, compared with the 3.5 million litres (924,602) a week normally needed to operate the plant, according to the OXFAM aid group.Israel supplies about 70 percent of Gaza's power and Egypt provides five percent, with the remainder from the closed power plant.Since March 3, the facility had been producing only 30 megawatts of electricity, or 38 percent of its full capacity.This has led to blackouts of eight to 12 hours a day in parts of the impoverished territory, affecting the provision of essential services, including water supply, medical treatment and sewage disposal, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.The power plant has had to shut down on several occasions in the past because of fuel shortages.
Netanyahu pulls out of summit to avoid nuclear spotlight by Gavin Rabinowitz – Fri Apr 9, 5:39 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's abrupt withdrawal on Thursday from next week's nuclear summit in Washington has underscored Israeli reluctance to expose its own nuclear programme to scrutiny.The invitation to attend the 47-nation summit on nuclear security hosted by US President Barack Obama posed a dilemma for Netanyahu.Israel desperately wanted to discuss the perceived threat from Iran's nuclear drive and the risk that Islamist extremists could get hold of an atomic bomb.
At the same time, it did not want the spotlight turned on its own alleged nuclear arsenal.From the start, everyone said attending the conference would put him in a trap, but Netanyahu insisted, the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot newspaper said on Friday.The prime minister wanted to go. He is very committed to the agenda set for the conference, how to maintain nuclear safety and prevent terrorists obtaining nuclear weapons,a senior Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Netanyahu will instead send Intelligence and Atomic Energy Minister Dan Meridor.
Israel's commitment to halting nuclear proliferation in the region is evident, as is its uniquely aggressive approach -- bombing an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 and reportedly attacking what many believe to have been a nascent Syrian reactor in 2007.
Israel has threatened to strike Iran to goad the international community towards imposing further sanctions on arch-foe Tehran. Israel and the West believe Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.Israel also fears the consequences of a nuclear weapon falling into the hands of radical Islamic groups that have vowed to destroy the Jewish state.This is a very, very serious issue that nuclear weapons, even crude nuclear weapons, would find their way into the hands of terrorists and the consequences could be very very dire for all of humanity, Netanyahu said on Wednesday.But in the end this commitment was overshadowed by fears that the conference would be hijacked to focus on Israel's nuclear programme.
Recently we learned some countries were going to use it as an excuse to bash Israel over the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Israeli official said, explaining the late-night decision to pull out.Like nuclear-armed countries India, Pakistan, and North Korea, Israel is not party to the nuclear NPT in order to avoid international inspections.Foreign military experts believe Israel has an arsenal of several hundred nuclear warheads, but Israel has never publicly acknowledged it has nuclear weapons and has maintained a policy of deliberate ambiguity since it inaugurated its Dimona nuclear reactor in 1965.Israel has consistently insisted it will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East.In 1969, Israeli leaders undertook not to make any statement on their country's nuclear potential or carry out any nuclear test, while Washington agreed to refrain from exerting pressure on the issue.
However, some believe that Netanyahu backed out of the trip not over nuclear concerns but because of Israel's recent rift with Washington. It is more connected to Israel's relations with the US. It was a mistake to go to Washington last time and they learned the lesson,said Efraim Inbar, the director of the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies. Netanyahu returned from talks with Obama last month to a wave of derision in the Israeli press, with a showdown over Jewish settlement construction in east Jerusalem unresolved amid some of the most open hostility in US-Israeli relations in years. Netanyahu has not yet come up with a response to US demands aimed at paving the way for fresh peace talks with the Palestinians. Even before Netanyahu's announcement, the White House had said Obama had no plans to hold talks with the Israeli leader during the nuclear meeting in light of their recent tete-a-tete behind closed doors.Because Israel has not answered Obama's demands, why expose him to more pressure and have Obama treat him badly again? said Inbar.
Rival groups clash at Palestinian base in Lebanon By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer – Thu Apr 8, 3:35 pm ET
BEIRUT – Rival groups armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers battled for hours Thursday inside a Palestinian military camp in a remote part of eastern Lebanon, killing one person, security officials said.The Ein al-Bayda camp is one of several bases run by Palestinian militant groups in Lebanon. Most of them are located in the eastern Bekaa Valley near the border with Syria, whose government supports the groups.The bases, which are separate from the country's Palestinian refugee camps, are illegal. Lebanese authorities, however, have left them be for fear that any clash with the groups could be explosive.Thursday's fighting was between rival Palestinian groups and lasted three hours, Lebanese security officials said. The camp is run by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.A senior military official said the fighting stopped after four militants — three Palestinians and a Lebanese man — handed themselves over to Lebanese troops. Lebanese forces were seen taking up positions near the base but did not intervene.
Police officials said a member of the militant group was killed in the fighting.The security and military officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.
Israel corruption trial for ex-PM suspended By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer - Thu Apr 8, 11:16 am ET
JERUSALEM – An Israeli court suspended the corruption trial of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday, a day after a longtime confidant of the ex-premier was arrested in a multimillion-dollar bribery scandal.Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem when the bribery allegedly took place. It is not clear whether he was implicated in that case because there is a partial gag order on it.The money allegedly changed hands to promote several real-estate projects, including a large development in Jerusalem that required a radical change in zoning laws.On Wednesday, police arrested six men suspected of involvement in the case. Among them was Olmert's longtime confidant Uri Messer, who police suspect acted as a middleman, funneling bribes to a high-ranking city hall official who was not identified. The other suspects included a former city hall official and property developers.Messer was responsible for Olmert's campaign finances and the two were partners in a law office.Olmert is standing trial on separate corruption charges that include illegally accepting funds from an American supporter and double-billing Jewish groups for trips abroad. Messer has been questioned numerous times over the charges.The formal charges against Olmert include fraud and breach of trust. Israel's Justice Ministry has not said what penalties Olmert could face, but the fraud charge alone could carry a prison term of up to five years.
The incidents in question date from his time as Jerusalem mayor and later as a Cabinet minister, but emerged after he was elected prime minister in 2006.American supporter, businessman Morris Talansky, said he had given Olmert hundreds of thousands of dollars, some of it in envelopes stuffed with bills. His testimony helped galvanize public opinion, and in late 2008 Olmert was forced to resign.The trial began last September. On Thursday, the Jerusalem district court agreed to suspend the case until May — a four-week delay — after Olmert's lawyers said he couldn't receive a fair trial in the current climate.At the hearing, Olmert's lawyer Eli Zohar demanded to stop this trial here and now. Another Olmert lawyer made a personal plea to the court to allow for more time to prepare.The judges read a statement saying they partially accepted the request to suspend the trial and that it would resume May 6.The 63-year-old Olmert has largely been out of the public eye since leaving politics.Olmert is currently abroad on business and is expected to return to Israel next week. His spokesman, Amir Dan, said he had no plans to cut short his trip.Zohar did not expect the ex-premier to be arrested when he returns. He told Israel's Channel 10 TV,I can't imagine a reason, logic or basis for something like that to occur.
France launches joint Industrial Park in Bethlehem
Thu Apr 8, 10:06 am ET
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AFP) – French Industry Minister Christian Estrosi laid the foundation stone on Thursday of a Franco-Palestinian industrial park in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.The project, Estrosi said, underlines France's commitment to the economic development of Palestine.National economy minister Hassan Abu Lidbeh represented the Palestinian side at the ceremony for the project aimed at creating between 500 and 1,000 jobs while boosting the private sector.The 20 hectare (almost 50 acre) industrial park south of Bethlehem has a target opening date of January 2011.France has set aside 10 million euros (13.3 million dollars) to connect the site to the water and electricity networks as well as to build access roads.The project forms part of Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad's efforts for the establishment of a de facto state by August 2011.The Bethlehem project was launched in June 2008 with the signing of a memorandum of understanding by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
ZECHARIAH 14:1-9 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
Israel, US have not settled east Jerusalem spat By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer – Wed Apr 7, 3:10 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister acknowledged Wednesday that his government has yet to iron out its differences with the U.S. over Israeli construction in east Jerusalem, a dispute that has stalled American efforts to restart Mideast peace talks.Benjamin Netanyahu said both countries are still working to find a solution but staunchly defended his government's contentious settlement plans in the disputed holy city, calling them a long-standing Israeli policy.There are things we agree on, things we don't agree on, things we are closing the gap on, Netanyahu said of his talks with Washington. We are making an effort.The worst crisis in U.S.-Israeli ties in years erupted last month when Israel announced plans to build 1,600 new homes for Jews in east Jerusalem during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden, drawing sharp condemnation from Washington and calls to cancel the construction.The announcement also derailed U.S.-mediated indirect peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians just before they were slated to start.The Obama administration has pressured Israel to halt construction in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, the section of the holy city Palestinians claim as the capital of a future state, and has also pushed for a broader building freeze in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
In November, Netanyahu agreed to a 10-month freeze on most West Bank construction in order to get peace talks started, but refused to include east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in 1967 and considers part of its capital.Netanyahu on Tuesday dismissed talk of a crisis with Washington and accused the media of blowing the disagreement out of proportion — despite the tension in U.S.-Israeli ties.What is being published doesn't fit what we are talking about, he said. Apparently the discussion between us is more serious and more to the point than what is generally believed.The Palestinians, meanwhile, are wary of Netanyahu and his hawkish coalition partners, and have refused to resume direct negotiations until Israel halts all construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim those territories, along with the Gaza Strip, for their future state.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did, however, agree last month to return to the negotiating table for indirect talks, only to back off after Israel announced the new construction plans in east Jerusalem.Netanyahu, however, blamed the Palestinians for the delay in negotiations, saying the Palestinians simply climbed up the tree on the first day (of talks) and said, We're not coming to negotiations, we're setting all kinds of conditions.He also said his government has taken steps to boost conditions in the West Bank, removing dozens of military checkpoints and roadblocks in the territory to help revive the Palestinian economy. He also endorsed the concept of Palestinian independence for the first time last year, although with conditions the Palestinians say are unacceptable.
Netanyahu, who leads the hard-line Likud Party, took office in March 2009 on pledges he would take a different approach to peacemaking than his predecessor, Ehud Olmert. The more dovish Olmert has said he offered a broad pullout from the West Bank and some Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem to the Palestinians.Peace talks broke down in the waning days of Olmert's term, after Israel launched a bruising military offensive in the Gaza Strip to halt rocket fire coming from the territory.Also Wednesday, Israel expressed outrage after a report on Israeli TV showed that a street in the West Bank administrative center of Ramallah was named after Yehiya Ayyash, a master Hamas bombmaker blamed for attacks that killed hundreds of Israelis.
The Israeli statement called the decision "an outrageous glorification of terrorism by the Palestinian Authority.Ayyash was killed in 1996 in a blast assumed to have been set off by Israeli agents.
Israel PM doubts sanctions have teeth to dissuade Iran by Gavin Rabinowitz – Wed Apr 7, 12:37 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he doubts the sanctions being mulled against Iran would be tough enough to rein in the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions.I doubt that such a programme will have teeth and the real ability to stop Iran's nuclear drive, he said at a news conference in Jerusalem, referring to US-led efforts to slap new UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear defiance.Netanyahu stressed that the only real effective sanctions would those which hit Iran's energy market, either the imports of refined fuel or the production of petroleum.Israel shares the US conviction that Iran, its arch-foe, is seeking to obtain nuclear weapons, a claim Tehran denies.The sole, if undeclared, nuclear-armed power in the Middle East, the Jewish state has repeatedly said it would not rule out a military option in dealing with Iran.Netanyahu made the comments ahead of next week's international summit on nuclear security summit in Washington, which he will attend.The US administration said in a policy document presented on Tuesday that it would only use atomic arms in extreme circumstances and would not attack non-nuclear states, although Iran and North Korea were exceptions.
The Nuclear Posture Review described nuclear terrorism as an immediate and extreme threat, with efforts to prevent the spread of atomic weapons given top priority.This is a very, very serious issue that nuclear weapons, even crude nuclear weapons, would find their way into the hands of terrorists and the consequences could be very very dire for all of humanity, Netanyahu said.Responding to a question, he deflected concerns the spotlight could be turned onto Israel's nuclear arsenal.I'm not concerned that anyone will think that Israel is a terrorist regime. Everybody knows a terrorist and rogue regime when they see one, and believe me they see quite a few around Israel.Israel has never publicly acknowledged it has nuclear weapons and has maintained a policy of deliberate ambiguity since it inaugurated its Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert in 1965.This policy of ambiguity constitutes one of the pillars of Israeli national security and the Americans consider it very important, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told army radio.There is no reason for the Americans to change their approach or for Israel to change its position, he said.
For the past four decades, Israeli governments have insisted the Jewish state will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East.This policy will continue and no pressure from any country will make it change, Ayalon said.In a slight departure from the usual wording, Israel's ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, said in an interview with CNN last year that to introduce meant to deploy.
Foreign military experts believe Israel has an arsenal of several hundred nuclear weapons. In 1969, Israeli leaders undertook not to make any statement on their country's nuclear potential or carry out any nuclear test, while Washington agreed to refrain from exerting pressure on the issue. The Israeli programme is under military censorship. Like nuclear-armed countries India, Pakistan and North Korea, Israel has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in order to avoid inspections by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.
Israel to maintain nuclear ambiguity
Wed Apr 7, 4:38 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel plans to remain ambiguous over its nuclear policy, with US backing, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on Wednesday.This policy of ambiguity constitutes one of the pillars of Israeli national security and the Americans consider it very important, Ayalon told army radio.There is no reason for the Americans to change their approach or for Israel to change its position, he said.
For the past four decades, Israeli governments have insisted the Jewish state will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East.This policy will continue and no pressure from any country will make it change, Ayalon said.But foreign military experts believe Israel has an arsenal of several hundred nuclear weapons.Ayalon's comments came ahead of next week's nuclear security summit in Washington. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be among the leaders attending the international gathering.Israel has maintained its policy of deliberate ambiguity about its nuclear programme since it inaugurated its Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert in 1965.In 1969 it reached an understanding with the United States under which Israeli leaders refrain from making any statement on their country's nuclear potential and do not carry out any nuclear test, while Washington refrains from exerting any pressure on the issue.
The programme is under military censorship.Like nuclear-armed countries India, Pakistan and North Korea, Israel has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in order to avoid inspections by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.
Israel FM insists no settlement freeze in Jerusalem
Tue Apr 6, 3:31 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman reiterated on Tuesday that there would be no halt to construction in east Jerusalem despite international demands for a complete settlement freeze.We cannot freeze construction in Jerusalem, neither in the east nor the west, neither for Arabs nor for Jews, because it would jeopardise our sovereignty as a state in our own capital, he told public radio.Israel seized mostly Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed it shortly thereafter in a move not recognised by the international community or the Palestinians, who consider it the capital of their promised state.Lieberman, the tough-talking head of the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, said international demands that Israel withdraw from the entire West Bank, including east Jerusalem, were unrealistic.The international community wants us to go back to the lines of June 1967, which would not end the conflict but move it closer to Tel Aviv, he said.The United States has been struggling for months to relaunch peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians suspended after the launch of the Gaza war in December 2008.The Palestinians have refused to hold negotiations, direct or indirect, with Israel without a complete settlement freeze, including in east Jerusalem.
Israel in November imposed a 10-month halt to new settlement construction, but the move was rejected by the Palestinians as insufficient because it left out east Jerusalem, public buildings and projects already under way.In March the Palestinians, with Arab backing, reluctantly agreed to indirect US-brokered talks for a period of four months, but those plans collapsed days later when Israel said during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden that it would build 1,600 new settler homes in east Jerusalem.
Israeli inquiry criticizes soldiers in 4 Palestinians deaths
Mon Apr 5, 8:09 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – An Israeli military inquiry has criticised soldiers in the death of four Palestinians last month in clashes near the West Bank city of Nablus, an army spokesman said late Monday.In a first incident on March 20 in the village of Iraq Burin, a soldier fired rubber bullets at Palestinians after getting out of a vehicle during a riot, a statement from the spokesman said.Palestinians Osayed Qadus, 20, and 17-year-old Mohammed Qadus died of their wounds.The conclusions of the investigative team show that the rioters were apparently hit by live rounds, the statement said said.It added that the army could not verify the autopsy and could therefore not confirm that the rioters were in fact hit by live rounds.Israeli human rights association B'Tselem and medical sources said shortly after the clash that the two Palestinian youths had been killed by live rounds.According to the military investigators, the situation on the ground should have led to different actions than those taken by the force when it entered the village.
This operational incident is considered unnecessary, and its results severe,the inquiry concluded.In a second incident the following day in the village of Awarta, security forces were inspecting two Palestinians when one of the suspects began acting suspiciously and finally assaulted one of the soldiers with a bottle.
According to the inquiry, one of the soldiers felt his life was in danger and fired at the Palestinian.At that point, the second suspect, who was a few meters away, raised his hand holding a sharp object, causing the soldier to believe that he, too, was attempting to attack. As a result, the soldier fired and killed the Palestinian.
The inquiry found that the soldiers could have operated in a more professional manner and thus could have avoided the need to use fire although the first soldier operated correctly and in accordance with the rules of engagement.However,the second suspect was far enough so that the soldiers should have been able to disarm him without using live fire, the report said.Military authorities were currently considering taking steps against the commanding levels involved in the incident and the inquiries conclusions would be transmitted to the general staff, the statement added.The region around Nablus is the site of frequent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli settlers.The deaths of the four Palestinians cames amid high tensions between the Palestinians and Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Fri Apr 9, 8:44 am ET
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE – President Barack Obama's national security adviser says the administration discussing how to jump-start the lagging Mideast peace process, but doesn't have a new U.S. plan to offer.Speaking to reporters accompanying Obama back to Washington Friday from Prague, Gen. James Jones said, There's been no decision on that.There had been reports earlier this week that the administration was poised to offer a new U.S. peace proposal to the Israelis and Palestinians that would build on understandings reached at Camp David, Md., in 2000.Jones said the Mideast strategy came up during a meeting Obama recently had with a half-dozen former national security advisers. He said these are ongoing discussions and said that we don't intend to surprise anybody at any time.
Gaza power plant shuts down for lack of fuel
Fri Apr 9, 7:46 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – The sole power plant in the besieged Gaza Strip was shut down on Friday because fuel supplies ran out, with Palestinians and Israel blaming each other.The power plant shut down completely this morning as a result of a shortage of fuel caused by the Israeli siege, said Kanaan Obeid, assistant director of Gaza's electricity authority, referring to the Israeli blockade of Gaza since its 2007 takeover by the Islamist Hamas movement.But Israel said the shut-down was caused by a rift over funding among the Palestinians, and that the Hamas rival, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, had stopped fuel purchases.The industrial diesel needed to run the power plant -- which supplies about 25 percent of Gaza's energy -- comes through an Israeli-controlled fuel terminal, with Israel setting import quotas.The imports have declined since November when the European Commission transferred responsibility for buying the fuel to the Palestinian Authority, after its aid program expired.The Israeli army said the Palestinians had stopped buying fuel in recent days after Hamas failed to pay its share of the costs.There is no Israeli involvement; if they buy fuel we will let it in as we do on a daily basis, said Guy Inbar, a spokesman for the Israeli military liaison to Gaza.
Fuel supplies were particularly low in the past weeks, in part because there were no deliveries for two days over the recent Jewish Passover holiday.Only 550,000 litres (145,294 gallons) were delivered this week, and 721,660 litres (190,642 gallons) the week before that, compared with the 3.5 million litres (924,602) a week normally needed to operate the plant, according to the OXFAM aid group.Israel supplies about 70 percent of Gaza's power and Egypt provides five percent, with the remainder from the closed power plant.Since March 3, the facility had been producing only 30 megawatts of electricity, or 38 percent of its full capacity.This has led to blackouts of eight to 12 hours a day in parts of the impoverished territory, affecting the provision of essential services, including water supply, medical treatment and sewage disposal, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.The power plant has had to shut down on several occasions in the past because of fuel shortages.
Netanyahu pulls out of summit to avoid nuclear spotlight by Gavin Rabinowitz – Fri Apr 9, 5:39 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's abrupt withdrawal on Thursday from next week's nuclear summit in Washington has underscored Israeli reluctance to expose its own nuclear programme to scrutiny.The invitation to attend the 47-nation summit on nuclear security hosted by US President Barack Obama posed a dilemma for Netanyahu.Israel desperately wanted to discuss the perceived threat from Iran's nuclear drive and the risk that Islamist extremists could get hold of an atomic bomb.
At the same time, it did not want the spotlight turned on its own alleged nuclear arsenal.From the start, everyone said attending the conference would put him in a trap, but Netanyahu insisted, the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot newspaper said on Friday.The prime minister wanted to go. He is very committed to the agenda set for the conference, how to maintain nuclear safety and prevent terrorists obtaining nuclear weapons,a senior Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Netanyahu will instead send Intelligence and Atomic Energy Minister Dan Meridor.
Israel's commitment to halting nuclear proliferation in the region is evident, as is its uniquely aggressive approach -- bombing an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 and reportedly attacking what many believe to have been a nascent Syrian reactor in 2007.
Israel has threatened to strike Iran to goad the international community towards imposing further sanctions on arch-foe Tehran. Israel and the West believe Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.Israel also fears the consequences of a nuclear weapon falling into the hands of radical Islamic groups that have vowed to destroy the Jewish state.This is a very, very serious issue that nuclear weapons, even crude nuclear weapons, would find their way into the hands of terrorists and the consequences could be very very dire for all of humanity, Netanyahu said on Wednesday.But in the end this commitment was overshadowed by fears that the conference would be hijacked to focus on Israel's nuclear programme.
Recently we learned some countries were going to use it as an excuse to bash Israel over the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Israeli official said, explaining the late-night decision to pull out.Like nuclear-armed countries India, Pakistan, and North Korea, Israel is not party to the nuclear NPT in order to avoid international inspections.Foreign military experts believe Israel has an arsenal of several hundred nuclear warheads, but Israel has never publicly acknowledged it has nuclear weapons and has maintained a policy of deliberate ambiguity since it inaugurated its Dimona nuclear reactor in 1965.Israel has consistently insisted it will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East.In 1969, Israeli leaders undertook not to make any statement on their country's nuclear potential or carry out any nuclear test, while Washington agreed to refrain from exerting pressure on the issue.
However, some believe that Netanyahu backed out of the trip not over nuclear concerns but because of Israel's recent rift with Washington. It is more connected to Israel's relations with the US. It was a mistake to go to Washington last time and they learned the lesson,said Efraim Inbar, the director of the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies. Netanyahu returned from talks with Obama last month to a wave of derision in the Israeli press, with a showdown over Jewish settlement construction in east Jerusalem unresolved amid some of the most open hostility in US-Israeli relations in years. Netanyahu has not yet come up with a response to US demands aimed at paving the way for fresh peace talks with the Palestinians. Even before Netanyahu's announcement, the White House had said Obama had no plans to hold talks with the Israeli leader during the nuclear meeting in light of their recent tete-a-tete behind closed doors.Because Israel has not answered Obama's demands, why expose him to more pressure and have Obama treat him badly again? said Inbar.
Rival groups clash at Palestinian base in Lebanon By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer – Thu Apr 8, 3:35 pm ET
BEIRUT – Rival groups armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers battled for hours Thursday inside a Palestinian military camp in a remote part of eastern Lebanon, killing one person, security officials said.The Ein al-Bayda camp is one of several bases run by Palestinian militant groups in Lebanon. Most of them are located in the eastern Bekaa Valley near the border with Syria, whose government supports the groups.The bases, which are separate from the country's Palestinian refugee camps, are illegal. Lebanese authorities, however, have left them be for fear that any clash with the groups could be explosive.Thursday's fighting was between rival Palestinian groups and lasted three hours, Lebanese security officials said. The camp is run by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.A senior military official said the fighting stopped after four militants — three Palestinians and a Lebanese man — handed themselves over to Lebanese troops. Lebanese forces were seen taking up positions near the base but did not intervene.
Police officials said a member of the militant group was killed in the fighting.The security and military officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.
Israel corruption trial for ex-PM suspended By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer - Thu Apr 8, 11:16 am ET
JERUSALEM – An Israeli court suspended the corruption trial of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday, a day after a longtime confidant of the ex-premier was arrested in a multimillion-dollar bribery scandal.Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem when the bribery allegedly took place. It is not clear whether he was implicated in that case because there is a partial gag order on it.The money allegedly changed hands to promote several real-estate projects, including a large development in Jerusalem that required a radical change in zoning laws.On Wednesday, police arrested six men suspected of involvement in the case. Among them was Olmert's longtime confidant Uri Messer, who police suspect acted as a middleman, funneling bribes to a high-ranking city hall official who was not identified. The other suspects included a former city hall official and property developers.Messer was responsible for Olmert's campaign finances and the two were partners in a law office.Olmert is standing trial on separate corruption charges that include illegally accepting funds from an American supporter and double-billing Jewish groups for trips abroad. Messer has been questioned numerous times over the charges.The formal charges against Olmert include fraud and breach of trust. Israel's Justice Ministry has not said what penalties Olmert could face, but the fraud charge alone could carry a prison term of up to five years.
The incidents in question date from his time as Jerusalem mayor and later as a Cabinet minister, but emerged after he was elected prime minister in 2006.American supporter, businessman Morris Talansky, said he had given Olmert hundreds of thousands of dollars, some of it in envelopes stuffed with bills. His testimony helped galvanize public opinion, and in late 2008 Olmert was forced to resign.The trial began last September. On Thursday, the Jerusalem district court agreed to suspend the case until May — a four-week delay — after Olmert's lawyers said he couldn't receive a fair trial in the current climate.At the hearing, Olmert's lawyer Eli Zohar demanded to stop this trial here and now. Another Olmert lawyer made a personal plea to the court to allow for more time to prepare.The judges read a statement saying they partially accepted the request to suspend the trial and that it would resume May 6.The 63-year-old Olmert has largely been out of the public eye since leaving politics.Olmert is currently abroad on business and is expected to return to Israel next week. His spokesman, Amir Dan, said he had no plans to cut short his trip.Zohar did not expect the ex-premier to be arrested when he returns. He told Israel's Channel 10 TV,I can't imagine a reason, logic or basis for something like that to occur.
France launches joint Industrial Park in Bethlehem
Thu Apr 8, 10:06 am ET
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AFP) – French Industry Minister Christian Estrosi laid the foundation stone on Thursday of a Franco-Palestinian industrial park in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.The project, Estrosi said, underlines France's commitment to the economic development of Palestine.National economy minister Hassan Abu Lidbeh represented the Palestinian side at the ceremony for the project aimed at creating between 500 and 1,000 jobs while boosting the private sector.The 20 hectare (almost 50 acre) industrial park south of Bethlehem has a target opening date of January 2011.France has set aside 10 million euros (13.3 million dollars) to connect the site to the water and electricity networks as well as to build access roads.The project forms part of Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad's efforts for the establishment of a de facto state by August 2011.The Bethlehem project was launched in June 2008 with the signing of a memorandum of understanding by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
ZECHARIAH 12:1-5 King James Bible
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
ZECHARIAH 14:1-9 King James Bible
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
Israel, US have not settled east Jerusalem spat By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer – Wed Apr 7, 3:10 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister acknowledged Wednesday that his government has yet to iron out its differences with the U.S. over Israeli construction in east Jerusalem, a dispute that has stalled American efforts to restart Mideast peace talks.Benjamin Netanyahu said both countries are still working to find a solution but staunchly defended his government's contentious settlement plans in the disputed holy city, calling them a long-standing Israeli policy.There are things we agree on, things we don't agree on, things we are closing the gap on, Netanyahu said of his talks with Washington. We are making an effort.The worst crisis in U.S.-Israeli ties in years erupted last month when Israel announced plans to build 1,600 new homes for Jews in east Jerusalem during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden, drawing sharp condemnation from Washington and calls to cancel the construction.The announcement also derailed U.S.-mediated indirect peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians just before they were slated to start.The Obama administration has pressured Israel to halt construction in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, the section of the holy city Palestinians claim as the capital of a future state, and has also pushed for a broader building freeze in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
In November, Netanyahu agreed to a 10-month freeze on most West Bank construction in order to get peace talks started, but refused to include east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in 1967 and considers part of its capital.Netanyahu on Tuesday dismissed talk of a crisis with Washington and accused the media of blowing the disagreement out of proportion — despite the tension in U.S.-Israeli ties.What is being published doesn't fit what we are talking about, he said. Apparently the discussion between us is more serious and more to the point than what is generally believed.The Palestinians, meanwhile, are wary of Netanyahu and his hawkish coalition partners, and have refused to resume direct negotiations until Israel halts all construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim those territories, along with the Gaza Strip, for their future state.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did, however, agree last month to return to the negotiating table for indirect talks, only to back off after Israel announced the new construction plans in east Jerusalem.Netanyahu, however, blamed the Palestinians for the delay in negotiations, saying the Palestinians simply climbed up the tree on the first day (of talks) and said, We're not coming to negotiations, we're setting all kinds of conditions.He also said his government has taken steps to boost conditions in the West Bank, removing dozens of military checkpoints and roadblocks in the territory to help revive the Palestinian economy. He also endorsed the concept of Palestinian independence for the first time last year, although with conditions the Palestinians say are unacceptable.
Netanyahu, who leads the hard-line Likud Party, took office in March 2009 on pledges he would take a different approach to peacemaking than his predecessor, Ehud Olmert. The more dovish Olmert has said he offered a broad pullout from the West Bank and some Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem to the Palestinians.Peace talks broke down in the waning days of Olmert's term, after Israel launched a bruising military offensive in the Gaza Strip to halt rocket fire coming from the territory.Also Wednesday, Israel expressed outrage after a report on Israeli TV showed that a street in the West Bank administrative center of Ramallah was named after Yehiya Ayyash, a master Hamas bombmaker blamed for attacks that killed hundreds of Israelis.
The Israeli statement called the decision "an outrageous glorification of terrorism by the Palestinian Authority.Ayyash was killed in 1996 in a blast assumed to have been set off by Israeli agents.
Israel PM doubts sanctions have teeth to dissuade Iran by Gavin Rabinowitz – Wed Apr 7, 12:37 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he doubts the sanctions being mulled against Iran would be tough enough to rein in the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions.I doubt that such a programme will have teeth and the real ability to stop Iran's nuclear drive, he said at a news conference in Jerusalem, referring to US-led efforts to slap new UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear defiance.Netanyahu stressed that the only real effective sanctions would those which hit Iran's energy market, either the imports of refined fuel or the production of petroleum.Israel shares the US conviction that Iran, its arch-foe, is seeking to obtain nuclear weapons, a claim Tehran denies.The sole, if undeclared, nuclear-armed power in the Middle East, the Jewish state has repeatedly said it would not rule out a military option in dealing with Iran.Netanyahu made the comments ahead of next week's international summit on nuclear security summit in Washington, which he will attend.The US administration said in a policy document presented on Tuesday that it would only use atomic arms in extreme circumstances and would not attack non-nuclear states, although Iran and North Korea were exceptions.
The Nuclear Posture Review described nuclear terrorism as an immediate and extreme threat, with efforts to prevent the spread of atomic weapons given top priority.This is a very, very serious issue that nuclear weapons, even crude nuclear weapons, would find their way into the hands of terrorists and the consequences could be very very dire for all of humanity, Netanyahu said.Responding to a question, he deflected concerns the spotlight could be turned onto Israel's nuclear arsenal.I'm not concerned that anyone will think that Israel is a terrorist regime. Everybody knows a terrorist and rogue regime when they see one, and believe me they see quite a few around Israel.Israel has never publicly acknowledged it has nuclear weapons and has maintained a policy of deliberate ambiguity since it inaugurated its Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert in 1965.This policy of ambiguity constitutes one of the pillars of Israeli national security and the Americans consider it very important, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told army radio.There is no reason for the Americans to change their approach or for Israel to change its position, he said.
For the past four decades, Israeli governments have insisted the Jewish state will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East.This policy will continue and no pressure from any country will make it change, Ayalon said.In a slight departure from the usual wording, Israel's ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, said in an interview with CNN last year that to introduce meant to deploy.
Foreign military experts believe Israel has an arsenal of several hundred nuclear weapons. In 1969, Israeli leaders undertook not to make any statement on their country's nuclear potential or carry out any nuclear test, while Washington agreed to refrain from exerting pressure on the issue. The Israeli programme is under military censorship. Like nuclear-armed countries India, Pakistan and North Korea, Israel has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in order to avoid inspections by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.
Israel to maintain nuclear ambiguity
Wed Apr 7, 4:38 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel plans to remain ambiguous over its nuclear policy, with US backing, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on Wednesday.This policy of ambiguity constitutes one of the pillars of Israeli national security and the Americans consider it very important, Ayalon told army radio.There is no reason for the Americans to change their approach or for Israel to change its position, he said.
For the past four decades, Israeli governments have insisted the Jewish state will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East.This policy will continue and no pressure from any country will make it change, Ayalon said.But foreign military experts believe Israel has an arsenal of several hundred nuclear weapons.Ayalon's comments came ahead of next week's nuclear security summit in Washington. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be among the leaders attending the international gathering.Israel has maintained its policy of deliberate ambiguity about its nuclear programme since it inaugurated its Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert in 1965.In 1969 it reached an understanding with the United States under which Israeli leaders refrain from making any statement on their country's nuclear potential and do not carry out any nuclear test, while Washington refrains from exerting any pressure on the issue.
The programme is under military censorship.Like nuclear-armed countries India, Pakistan and North Korea, Israel has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in order to avoid inspections by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.
Israel FM insists no settlement freeze in Jerusalem
Tue Apr 6, 3:31 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman reiterated on Tuesday that there would be no halt to construction in east Jerusalem despite international demands for a complete settlement freeze.We cannot freeze construction in Jerusalem, neither in the east nor the west, neither for Arabs nor for Jews, because it would jeopardise our sovereignty as a state in our own capital, he told public radio.Israel seized mostly Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed it shortly thereafter in a move not recognised by the international community or the Palestinians, who consider it the capital of their promised state.Lieberman, the tough-talking head of the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, said international demands that Israel withdraw from the entire West Bank, including east Jerusalem, were unrealistic.The international community wants us to go back to the lines of June 1967, which would not end the conflict but move it closer to Tel Aviv, he said.The United States has been struggling for months to relaunch peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians suspended after the launch of the Gaza war in December 2008.The Palestinians have refused to hold negotiations, direct or indirect, with Israel without a complete settlement freeze, including in east Jerusalem.
Israel in November imposed a 10-month halt to new settlement construction, but the move was rejected by the Palestinians as insufficient because it left out east Jerusalem, public buildings and projects already under way.In March the Palestinians, with Arab backing, reluctantly agreed to indirect US-brokered talks for a period of four months, but those plans collapsed days later when Israel said during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden that it would build 1,600 new settler homes in east Jerusalem.
Israeli inquiry criticizes soldiers in 4 Palestinians deaths
Mon Apr 5, 8:09 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – An Israeli military inquiry has criticised soldiers in the death of four Palestinians last month in clashes near the West Bank city of Nablus, an army spokesman said late Monday.In a first incident on March 20 in the village of Iraq Burin, a soldier fired rubber bullets at Palestinians after getting out of a vehicle during a riot, a statement from the spokesman said.Palestinians Osayed Qadus, 20, and 17-year-old Mohammed Qadus died of their wounds.The conclusions of the investigative team show that the rioters were apparently hit by live rounds, the statement said said.It added that the army could not verify the autopsy and could therefore not confirm that the rioters were in fact hit by live rounds.Israeli human rights association B'Tselem and medical sources said shortly after the clash that the two Palestinian youths had been killed by live rounds.According to the military investigators, the situation on the ground should have led to different actions than those taken by the force when it entered the village.
This operational incident is considered unnecessary, and its results severe,the inquiry concluded.In a second incident the following day in the village of Awarta, security forces were inspecting two Palestinians when one of the suspects began acting suspiciously and finally assaulted one of the soldiers with a bottle.
According to the inquiry, one of the soldiers felt his life was in danger and fired at the Palestinian.At that point, the second suspect, who was a few meters away, raised his hand holding a sharp object, causing the soldier to believe that he, too, was attempting to attack. As a result, the soldier fired and killed the Palestinian.
The inquiry found that the soldiers could have operated in a more professional manner and thus could have avoided the need to use fire although the first soldier operated correctly and in accordance with the rules of engagement.However,the second suspect was far enough so that the soldiers should have been able to disarm him without using live fire, the report said.Military authorities were currently considering taking steps against the commanding levels involved in the incident and the inquiries conclusions would be transmitted to the general staff, the statement added.The region around Nablus is the site of frequent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli settlers.The deaths of the four Palestinians cames amid high tensions between the Palestinians and Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
ISRAEL BEWARE OF NEW ISRAEL FUND AND DALIT BAUM
A covert look at Dalit Baum & New Israel Fund-In-Depth undercover investigative report: Academic lesbians for jihad By Lee Kaplan, Communications Director
1 April 2010: The Israeli taxpayers should take notice of Dalit Baum who bills herself as a Professor of Gender Studies and World Economy at the University of Haifa and Beit Berl College. As these taxpayers work to feed their families in an always tight Israeli economy, little do they know that Dalit Baum is traveling the world and the Internet, funded in part by the two sinecures provided from these taxpayer-supported colleges in Israel, to do all she can to see that those taxpaying Israelis lose their jobs, if not their entire country, and that they be unemployed.
Dalit Baum
Dalit Baum’s specialty is promoting BDS, or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel as a modern extension of the Arab League Boycott. As a radical member of the Coalition of Women for Peace, an NGO set up mostly by lesbian academics in support of the Arabs getting whatever they want from Israel, Dalit Baum has further carved out a niche for herself in the subgroup titled Who Profits From the Occupation?
You want to know who profits from the Occupation? Dalit Baum profits, that’s who. Baum was the founder of the radical group Black Laundry that is composed of radical lesbians who support the misogynist Arabs in their quest to dismantle the Jewish state. One should write a book on Baum titled How to have an academic career based solely on your own sexual disambiguation and by destroying the State of Israel.The only advanced degree she holds is a PhD in mathematics. But her anti-Israel activism, or rather, subversion, lands her lots of teaching work worldwide where she strives to bring down the Jewish state. I searched for hours and could not find one book or significant academic article by Baum in either Gender Studies or Economics.
Despite this, Baum does the lecture circuit in the US in Women’s Studies departments, primarily ones that have lesbian activists like herself who will hire her. It’s easy to see how she proclaims herself an expert on Gender Studies since she is a study in and of herself. As for World Economy, she lectures on how to economically boycott Israel, so gets the bully pulpit of classrooms (particularly in America) to push that agenda too. Her reading materials for a course she gave once at UC Santa Cruz that required students plan and carry out an activist attack on something (preferably Israel) included a book by Miriam Simos, aka Starhawk, an International Solidarity Movement (ISM) crazy who tells everyone she is a witch and practices paganism. This is an example of the academic research and sourcing as practiced by Dalit Baum as a field of academic study.
Her real research is in how to help the Arabs destroy Israel.
On February 17, 2010, Dalit Baum gave a guest lecture in San Francisco, California that was sponsored by the UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine, part of the same ISM that foments riots every weekend in Bi’ilin and works to bring money and material goods to Hamas in Gaza. Baum’s Who Profits? website is even permanently linked on the SJP’s website where their mission is to destroy Israel.The purpose of her lecture was to train activists in San Francisco in how to expand the BDS campaign against Israel in America. About 35 hardcore radicals showed up for this session and I attended it undercover and filmed everything that is now viewable with this article.For an excellent example of how Dalit Baum over the last several years has routinely lied or distorted facts on the college lecture circuit in order to demonize the Jewish state, there is a post by a California blogger named Becky Johnson that illustrates Baum in action before a mostly college-aged audience in Santa Cruz, California, where she has been allowed to teach.Back then and even to this day, during the lecture I attended, and on her website, she says that Israel holds 10,000 political prisoners in its jails, meaning that every Palestinian Arab who murdered an Israeli, or attempted to, or built bombs, should be released unconditionally. She is not a pacifist working toward peace, but rather a subversive working to destroy the same state that employs her and gives her two sinecures to go abroad and isolate Israel in the world of public opinion.I arrived at Baum’s training lecture early at 745 Valenica Street in San Francisco to see her in action. At the door, I was asked to sign a pledge card agreeing to participate in activities to boycott any companies accused of being complicit with the occupation.
Literature accompanying the pledge card stated the goal of the campaign was to end the occupation and colonization of all Arab lands (i.e. Israel itself),to recognize the fundamental rights of the Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel (Israeli Arabs) to full equality (which they already have by law in Israel that is enforced by the government), and a guaranteed right of return of all refugees (any Arab who says he is one) to their homes and properties left in 1948 (the Catch 22 so there can never be peace without tearing apart the Jewish state).This wasn’t a limited program to make a peace settlement in the region, but another form of warfare against Jews, in essence, starving them out of their country and national homeland. This type of action was said to be nonviolent and helping human rights, that is, by starving the Jews into submission. This was a lecture by an Israeli woman (thing) who wants Israel destroyed to become Palestine despite her two-faced denials.The event was sponsored by the Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Berkeley that just fixed a divestment proposal to be passed by the student government there as well Break the Siege, a group that works to assist Hamas against Israel, by trying to stop Israel from preventing the importation of weapons into Gaza by sea or land from Iran.Of note, there was a colorful brochure handed out to us at the door for the Coalition of Women for Peace, the NGO that Dalit Baum also works for. CWP’s brochure boasted how “In November 2006 we led a collation of 17 Israeli organizations and more than 100 groups around the world to protest against the economic and military siege of the Gaza strip (in other words, support for Hamas). The one month campaign included demonstrations, public events, car convoys, an on-line petition and more.Another excerpt declared The world says no to Israeli occupation.
The document then had a section titled Re-framing Security. It explained that security was a euphemism to justify all military activity and the occupation of Palestinian territories.It continued,The Reframing Security Project explores this term from the broadest feminist-civil perspective, thus challenging the narrow militaristic understanding of security. Security in its civil forms includes aspects such as economic security (having a job, a roof over one’s head, access to health care), security in the family and the community (safety from gender-related violence, protection from crime, having one’s children safe in schools), environmental security (clean tap water, clean air), etc. The project generates critical discourse through lecture series, workshops and tours for groups of formal educators and informal educators (like Baum’s presentation that evening), young leaders, social activists and other actors for change.Ironically, the Boycott lecture and training that Baum was to give that evening, based on information from her, already has cost jobs and social welfare benefits to Israelis who I guess are not entitled to security in its civil forms. Gender related violence as honor killings is normal in the Palestinian Authority and prohibited in Israel, and Israeli children in Sderot at school are subject to missile attacks from Hamas that CWP supports, but this too is apparently lost on Baum and her supporters. Even Gaza enjoys clean water thanks to Israel, not Hamas.Despite this, Dalit Baum‘s perverse lecture implied that human rights would be served by denying these same basic feminist-civil ideas of security to Jews and other Israelis.The brochure then listed eleven CWP allies that are also affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement, such as Machsom Watch that interferes with Israeli soldiers at checkpoints, Women in Black that demonstrates also in favor of Hamas, New Profile that was recently raided by the police for encouraging desertion and draft dodging from the IDF, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, a pro-Marxist group that sponsors a woman named Anna Baltzer who tours churches in America giving Christians fake reports on how Israel routinely commits atrocities against innocent Arabs and where she concludes how violence against Israelis is a natural reaction to such things. Baltzer is against Israel existing as a Jewish state so it isn’t a stretch to figure out that Dalit Baum is on the same page given the evening’s lecture.
The back page of the brochure generated the most of my interest.It read, For a US-tax deduction (minimum $100), make out a check to New Israel Fund. Write in the memo line For the Coalition of Women for Peace and mail to NIF, 1101 14th Street NW, 6th Floor, Washington, DC 200005-5639.In Israel there has been a major scandal about the New Israel Fund (NIF) funding all manner of subversive and destructive organizations. Naomi Chazan, the head of NIF in Israel has denied publicly that NIF funds any such entities. Yet here in San Francisco was proof that NIF does exactly that; Baum’s event was advertised as a CWP event and her Who Profits? website is part of CWP. What most Israelis and even American Jews don’t know, is that above Chazan as Chairman of the Board of NIF, sits Martin Indyk, the former US State Department ambassador in Tel Aviv who has always opposed Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria and supported Palestinian goals no matter how unreasonable. NIF was clearly funding this starve the Jews out lecture by Dalit Baum.So much for Chazan’s denials and further proof of a fifth column working from inside Israel’s academia funded from the outside.Other flyers handed out at the door urged End Apartheid. Boycott Israeli Goods,South Africa Did It, and Take the Pledge Now. Given that Israel is the only state in the Middle East that does not practice apartheid, the goal of the literature and speech that evening was to fool the naïve into thinking they are promoting a campaign as was conducted against former South Africa where apartheid was really practiced. Sadly, this manipulation of facts to fool people into hating Israel was further promoted by Baum during the evening’s talk. Still another flyer listed companies the pledges should work to boycott or encourage people to divest from. These companies included non-Israeli companies that were American firms that have Jewish managers or owners such as Estee Lauder.
In that case, it was explained that the owner, Ron Lauder, who is Jewish, volunteers for the Jewish National Fund, a quasi-national governmental organization that was established in 1901 to acquire Palestinian land… according to one flyer. It mentioned Lauder’s company was targeted for attack by Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT)another homosexual anarchist group that Dalit Baum belongs to.Given that the JNF purchased all its land legally before the creation of either Israel or a Palestinian state when the area was part of the Ottoman Empire, particularly back in 1901, and is somehow responsible for settlements today (meaning helping Jews find homes in Israel), Lauder’s company being listed is really a boycott against American Jews, if anything, and a violation of US Civil Rights Laws. Other American companies targeted for boycott included Hanes, Playtex, Champion, Ball Park Hot dogs and even the Wonderbra (perhaps a different type of support?).Even Victoria’s Secret’s bras were subject to the list because their cotton is grown in Israel on confiscated Palestinian land.Of course, since all of Israel is on confiscated Palestinian land in the view of Dalit Baum and her crowd, even the land purchased legally by Lauder’s Jewish National Fund back in 1901, this was a Boycott against all of Israel, not just the occupation of the West Bank or its settlements.This fact was also explained to us by Dalit Baum during her lecture. At first she said her group, Who Profits?, as part of the CWP, was only interested in the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, not inside the Green Line from 1948. Yet at one point during the lecture she told us that it is impossible to boycott just the occupied territories as they claim they do, that her group does indeed promote the boycott of all of Israel.Although the event was sponsored and advertised by the UC Berkeley chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine that only weeks later was to push through a divestment bill by the University’s student government, the evening was introduced as an event by the BACIA, the Bay Area Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid. The host told us his group wasn’t shifting the debate away from the occupation,but rather devoting their efforts to do BDS work.
The goal of having Dalit Baum there that evening was to (1) get people to sign pledge cards to agree to boycott Israeli products (2) to damage the Israeli economy and 3) to keep in touch with a newsletter and other events to keep the boycott going.
Baum began her lecture by explaining that Who Profits? grew out of a discussion by CWP about the need to know more of the economic aspects of the 1967 occupation.She then went on to explain that it is impossible to separate the economy of the ’67 occupation from the entire community of Israel.Because of this, she said,we had to switch our thinking around.Occupation is expensive, costs a lot. Maybe we should pull out, too expensive to hold onto, when maybe the money could be used for health care,she explained.If you flip it, and look at it for profits and how all the money from US Israel relations goes to corporations and the military, some goes here, some goes there, we can trace money and look for a pattern.Israeli society profits from the occupation. Those close to the decision making in the government have more clout .Thus was born her organization and website with CWP, Who Profits? she explained, as a means of direct influence on Israel’s economy with three categories of involvement:The main idea is for activists to show things openly so as to invade the privacy of corporations or the government.Next, came the settlements calling to report on anything built beyond the Green Line. Although CWP is run by an Arab leader and an Israeli, she stated that since she and her colleagues are Israelis it allows them freedom of movement including at checkpoints only Israelis could have. She explained that most of her work involved taking photographs and using Google. She boasted about how she was told it is illegal for security reasons to take photos at checkpoints and how she scoffed at the soldiers who told her so, continuing on anyway.
She flashed a photo of the entrance to the Barkan Industrial Zone in Judea/Samaria, The biggest center with all the money,she said and explained how she made it a major target for boycott.It’s near the settlement of Ariel, she explained,most of their exports are kitchen items.She said that the settlers send her letters: They really were angry. We employ Palestinians, provide a service, why are you against us? she almost snickered. She said she replied to them We are doing what we can for peace, and offered them a chance to work with CWP to help Palestinians or do what she termed Green Work.The only Green Work I saw was Hamas green.There are many initiatives to boycott settlement products…, she continued,…very tiny, very small initiatives. Don’t buy settlement products. We want people to do much more.The life in Israel is affected by the economy of the settlements, she explained, as she described some of the settlement products such as halvah, and seasonings and herbs, whose origins in the settlements is concealed by some companies that use non-settlement addresses inside Israel.She explained the reason for this was Israel has free trade agreements with the US and EU that may not include the occupied territories. As such, her movement could force these Israeli companies to pay higher import taxes citing Germany as an example of how her group made some of the companies pay higher customs duties.This, of course, lowers profits and can cost people jobs. But Dalit Baum was on a mission and just getting warmed up.She mentioned that IT customer services are big in the settlements, as well.Two companies provide this,she said. She explained how people in America who thought they were calling an American customer service agent in the US were rerouted to places like Modi’in in Israel where there is usually an American Jewish woman who answers the phone and provides the service.It’s important to know which companies do the service,she said.
Why? So maybe she and her boycott acolytes can cost that woman a job. After all, what better way to promote peace as the Arab League see it? What Dalit Baum doesn’t mention during her lecture is that Modi’in is well within the Green Line from 1948 and has been a Jewish city for millennia. Baum uses deceptive language to imply that even parts of Israel, separate from disputed territory taken in 1967, are settlements stolen from the Arabs. This is nothing more then subversion and giving aid to Israel’s enemies. What she can’t do to hurt her fellow Israelis with guns she will do with disinformation and words. Then again, as an academic she lectures all the time in two Israeli universities on topics she also knows little about.Next, she mentioned Lev Leviev’s company for targeting. It seems the Leviev company does building in the settlements.It’s not just a product, it’s also construction, she advised. Maybe she can cost some construction workers, even Palestinian ones, their jobs too. It won’t cost the PLO or Hamas leaders she shills for any income, but the average Palestinian can be sure to find less work then blame it on Israel thanks to Dalit Baum.She then went after services provided to Israelis in Judea and Samaria by companies inside the Green Line. Such companies don’t provide the same services to the Palestinians, she said, recounting a letter from a victim of her project who said flatly,We do not discriminate.But she went on that it was a very clear apartheid economy, not for the Palestinians.She did not define what these services were. Perhaps gun cleaning and bomb assembly for the Palestinian Authority?
She took relish in discussing the Veolia corporation as being a good example of a good organizing campaign.Veolia, a French firm, provides myriad services abroad and in Israel, but mainly in the EU such as water services, public transportation and waste removal. She explained that privatization of services had made it easier to facilitate the boycott internationally and how they were able to get smaller municipalities overseas to boycott Veolia by going to local governments and getting them to refuse to work with the French company for violating international law for dealing with Israel. CWP and Who Profits? obviously work with Arabs overseas to organize these campaigns.The occupied territories are in dispute and the settlements are not illegal, but Baum constantly recites the Arab propaganda line that they are and her trainees do the same in the EU and elsewhere overseas. She boasted that evening in San Francisco that they got the city of Galway in Ireland to refuse business with Veolia and the Norwegian capital of Oslo to do the same.The next time a city needs clean streets they will know not to deal with Veolia,she bragged, and then explained that her actions and group had cost the company $10 billion dollars in contracts and how that’s a lot of money.It sure is. And it’s a lot of Israeli jobs lost too. She then explained how Veolia pulled out of a contract to build a light railway to Judea and Samaria from Jerusalem as the result of her work, thus depriving Israelis of transportation as well as jobs.Next, she discussed an action of which she said, I am really proud. A Belgian bank named Dexia bought an Israeli bank that loaned money to Israelis to buy homes in Judea and Samaria. It was Dalit Baum and Who Profits?, working with the Palestinians, who began a campaign in Europe to have the bank boycotted for loaning money to many of the municipalities in Judea and Samaria. The situation resulted in Knesset hearings because the bank was not loaning money to these Israeli residents. It is important to understand that regardless if one thinks borders should be redrawn in a final peace settlement, the uprooting of Jewish communities is not a route to peace. Dalit Baum, however, wants the Arabs to take all of Israel, only starting with Judea and Samaria. Her actions got the governments of France and Belgium to pressure Dexia to not give loans to Israeli citizens, the same ones who pay her salaries at Israeli universities.
But wait, there’s so much more:She told us how in the UK, food products produced in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria have to be labeled so as to be more easily boycotted as a result of her efforts. It’s really great, she said, and it makes organizing supermarket boycott events so much easier.It should be noted a similar campaign was done with the French supermarket chain Carrefour where Arabs marched through the market pulling Israeli goods off the shelves (not just from settlements) and destroyed them. Local activists tried doing this at Trader Joe’s in the San Francisco Bay Area but were advised by law enforcement it’s illegal to tamper with the public food supply.She boasted that she spends all her time looking for logos: Danone, Coca-Cola, Disney—anything, especially companies that are well-known in Israel in order to hurt their businesses through her activism to get them to change their policy.Fruits and vegetable are especially a target for Dalit Baum, so maybe she is attracted to such products because she is so like one of them.She claimed that Israel requires the Palestinians to buy important products at higher prices from Israel and prevents the PA from exporting unless it is cheap goods. This may be true, but the PA is under license to Israel that subsidizes it and has a right to control financial exports until there is a Palestinian state. This, she did explain, was because of the Oslo Accords. What she did not explain was that the only requirement for a PA state was the Arabs stop terrorism and arrest terrorists, something they refuse to do.Of course Israel has a right to control imports and exports until the Arabs produce a truly peaceful state next door. The importation of weapons is a favorite Arab import right now.
She accused Israel of controlling Palestinian water also. The water systems that provide clean water to the Holy Land were built and run by Israel to this day. Israel provides clean water even to Gaza where missiles are fired from at Israel. If the Arabs were given unfettered control of the water supply the first thing they would do is prevent Israel’s access to it from Lake Kinneret or even poison it if it goes to Jewish communities. None of this was explained by Dalit Baum, only her idea that Israel denies Palestinians Palestinian water that would be subject to Israeli control.She next displayed a photograph of many common Israeli logos that represented companies in cellular communications, banks, transportation, fuel, chain stores and even food.You cannot live in Israel without using these companies,she explained,This is why it is impossible to boycott settlements and not Israel. Her statements prove she knows she is damaging the livelihood of all Israelis, not just those in Jewish communities in Yesha.Offering more entities to attack, she said, Banks are good. They give construction loans for settlements (Jewish homes). All Israeli banks are complicit. If you have bank concerns that you can convince the EU are illegal, this is good. They can’t transfer funds, or open new branches or open new bank accounts.
This cost jobs in Israel.She then accused Israel of exploiting the Palestinian labor force. Israel doesn’t give jobs to the Palestinian Arabs, she claimed, it takes advantage of them (in the PA one of the best jobs is as a terrorist with $50K a year paid to Al Aksa terrorists, something she didn’t bother to mention). In fact, Arabs who work in construction for Jewish firms make sizeable incomes.Israel just does everything bad, you see, according to Dalit Baum. She found on Google a toxic waste dump in Yesha so the Israelis are dumping toxic waste on the Arabs even if it is on unused former Jordanian state land that is not lived on. She complained about a new light railway system from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem that takes 28 minutes but some in Israel objected to the noise near their homes. She alleged the route was changed to go through the West Bank to annoy the Arabs with the noise. Israel has hired an Italian firm to build a tunnel so as to abate the noise, she told us, and then said, It would be a good idea to start a campaign in Italy to stop the tunnel.More Israeli jobs lost.She continued,We have some reason to believe, some people told us that the kibbutz that manufactures Ahava skin care products might excavate some of the mud next to the Dead Sea shores for their product.She described this taking mud to make a saleable product abroad as pillage that is illegal per international law.Baum is not an international attorney and Ahava has been making skin care products forever. While the Arabs were training their kids how to shoot Jews and throw rocks, the Kibbutz at the Dead Sea produced a product from mud. Even this is objectionable to Baum and should be subject to international boycott.She attacked the gas supplier for Gaza for controlling gas supplies to Hamastan in favor of the Israeli government in time of war. Then she moved on to connections with the US complaining about Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut in Israel, more targets to boycott inside the Green Line.She mentioned an Israeli company that has one hundred 7/11 stores in the United States that need to be boycotted here and would thus cost American jobs in a bad economy too. It’s your job to find out about such companies and to attack them financially, she said.An audience member asked her what her position was on cases such as former PA Prime Minister Qureia holding a monopoly of the cement business in the PA.Oooh, a political hot potato,she said. Then continued, We only concern ourselves with Israeli companies and not what the Palestinians do.
So much for objectivity.She claimed next that her organization does not concern itself with weapons companies and says so on her website. However, it was plain to be this was a ruse to prevent the Israeli government from seeing her as a security risk that she clearly is. She told us that Israeli weapons do merit an investigation then showed us photos of security systems manned around Gaza by female IDF personnel.
It was at this point she moved into sedition as far as I was concerned. She showed a photo of a scanner at the Kalandia checkpoint and explained how she took pictures of it in defiance of orders by soldiers not to do so. She then explained the logo she found (she said she searches for logos at the checkpoints) revealed the scanner was made by an American company, but further research showed it was purchased by Israel through a Danish subsidiary. She explained how she and her allies took the issue before the Danish parliament. Their problem was how to convince the Danes that the scanner was from a Danish company and not America and they did just that, convincing the Danish government to not allow any future sales of the security equipment. She showed us how identity cards are made by a particular system for the Palestinian Arabs that allows them to pass through the checkpoints using biometric data, another target to pursue by ending business with Israel.Both of the above security systems save both Israeli and Palestinian lives, both Jews and Arabs, by stopping suicide bombers and terrorists. But Dalit Baum wants to facilitate their entry into Israel in her perception of peace that is definitely sedition for Arab enemies. Even the biometric cards that would make it faster and easier for Arabs to cross the checkpoints don’t escape her boycott plans.The rest of the lecture actually was devoted to attacking the weapons systems and security apparatus she claimed she does not pursue. She discussed the companies that build the Security Fence and boycotting them (The Security Fence has reduced terrorist bombings inside Israel by 95%). She boasted how the company that manufactures the fence used to have logos all along the fence but that now they are no longer seen due to her group’s efforts.
Again, more Israeli jobs lost.She mentioned how she and her acolytes go to the weekly riots in Bi’ilin and Ni’ilin in order to search for more Israeli companies to boycott worldwide.Then she concluded her presentation by discussing—weapons systems. She discussed drones used at sea and in the air. Displaying a photo of a drone boat used off Gaza, she claimed it was used to shoot at Palestinian fishermen, a barefaced lie.The sea drones are used to combat weapons and explosives smugglers. She also discussed the air force drones and unmanned vehicles then mentioned Elbit Systems, Israel’s weapons manufacturer, that makes missiles to shoot into people’s homes.She also mentioned that while her website features information on about 500 companies that they work to boycott Israel from, she has another thousand that she doesn’t post on the site. The Shin Bet should see those files.At the conclusion of her presentation, a member of the ISM in the audience pointed out I was in the room. Instead of running away as he must have thought I’d do, I went up to Dalit Baum and introduced myself by shaking her hand. I wrote an article about you, I said. She replied,I know. I read it. There isn’t a word of it that is true.Really? I said. As a journalist I surely don’t want to write things that are untrue. Can you tell me what I wrote in that article that isn’t true? I can even do corrections, if so. She couldn’t answer.Finally, she said, I don’t make a career out of reading your articles.I only wrote one article about you, I replied. Surely you can think of just one thing I wrote or said in the article that is untrue? You just said not one word in the article was true. Can you tell me one thing I wrote about you that’s not true in the article? I asked again.She just walked away without answering confirming that what I had written about her was, indeed, true.It’s one thing to be a pacifist, it’s even another to want to give concessions to the Palestinian Arabs in a delusional dream they will stop killing Jews, but for Dalit Baum, these are only ruses for a woman who wants Israel destroyed, and who will stop at nothing to do so by traveling worldwide and doing it by economic warfare. She is the most dangerous woman, er, person, in Israel in my opinion and of more danger than an armed terrorist, because her activities open the doors for terrorists by subverting Israel’s economy and security systems unconditionally in favor of the Arab terrorist groups. I firmly believe that’s what she really wants to do. Her deconstructing of the Israeli economy is chilling. All the while she is doing this on the Israeli taxpayer’s dime.
Maybe it’s time to boycott Dalit Baum? Want to complain? Contact University of Haifa and Beit Berl College administrators. They too have families in Israel who are threatened by this woman:President of the University of Haifa Prof. Aaron Ben-Ze’ev
Tel: 972-4-8240101 Fax: 972-4-8288110 E-mail: abenzeev@univ.haifa.ac.il
President of Beit Berl College Dr. Tamar Ariav Tel: 972 (9) 747 8701
Fax: 972 (9) 7478700 Email: ariavt@beitberl.ac.il
1 April 2010: The Israeli taxpayers should take notice of Dalit Baum who bills herself as a Professor of Gender Studies and World Economy at the University of Haifa and Beit Berl College. As these taxpayers work to feed their families in an always tight Israeli economy, little do they know that Dalit Baum is traveling the world and the Internet, funded in part by the two sinecures provided from these taxpayer-supported colleges in Israel, to do all she can to see that those taxpaying Israelis lose their jobs, if not their entire country, and that they be unemployed.
Dalit Baum
Dalit Baum’s specialty is promoting BDS, or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel as a modern extension of the Arab League Boycott. As a radical member of the Coalition of Women for Peace, an NGO set up mostly by lesbian academics in support of the Arabs getting whatever they want from Israel, Dalit Baum has further carved out a niche for herself in the subgroup titled Who Profits From the Occupation?
You want to know who profits from the Occupation? Dalit Baum profits, that’s who. Baum was the founder of the radical group Black Laundry that is composed of radical lesbians who support the misogynist Arabs in their quest to dismantle the Jewish state. One should write a book on Baum titled How to have an academic career based solely on your own sexual disambiguation and by destroying the State of Israel.The only advanced degree she holds is a PhD in mathematics. But her anti-Israel activism, or rather, subversion, lands her lots of teaching work worldwide where she strives to bring down the Jewish state. I searched for hours and could not find one book or significant academic article by Baum in either Gender Studies or Economics.
Despite this, Baum does the lecture circuit in the US in Women’s Studies departments, primarily ones that have lesbian activists like herself who will hire her. It’s easy to see how she proclaims herself an expert on Gender Studies since she is a study in and of herself. As for World Economy, she lectures on how to economically boycott Israel, so gets the bully pulpit of classrooms (particularly in America) to push that agenda too. Her reading materials for a course she gave once at UC Santa Cruz that required students plan and carry out an activist attack on something (preferably Israel) included a book by Miriam Simos, aka Starhawk, an International Solidarity Movement (ISM) crazy who tells everyone she is a witch and practices paganism. This is an example of the academic research and sourcing as practiced by Dalit Baum as a field of academic study.
Her real research is in how to help the Arabs destroy Israel.
On February 17, 2010, Dalit Baum gave a guest lecture in San Francisco, California that was sponsored by the UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine, part of the same ISM that foments riots every weekend in Bi’ilin and works to bring money and material goods to Hamas in Gaza. Baum’s Who Profits? website is even permanently linked on the SJP’s website where their mission is to destroy Israel.The purpose of her lecture was to train activists in San Francisco in how to expand the BDS campaign against Israel in America. About 35 hardcore radicals showed up for this session and I attended it undercover and filmed everything that is now viewable with this article.For an excellent example of how Dalit Baum over the last several years has routinely lied or distorted facts on the college lecture circuit in order to demonize the Jewish state, there is a post by a California blogger named Becky Johnson that illustrates Baum in action before a mostly college-aged audience in Santa Cruz, California, where she has been allowed to teach.Back then and even to this day, during the lecture I attended, and on her website, she says that Israel holds 10,000 political prisoners in its jails, meaning that every Palestinian Arab who murdered an Israeli, or attempted to, or built bombs, should be released unconditionally. She is not a pacifist working toward peace, but rather a subversive working to destroy the same state that employs her and gives her two sinecures to go abroad and isolate Israel in the world of public opinion.I arrived at Baum’s training lecture early at 745 Valenica Street in San Francisco to see her in action. At the door, I was asked to sign a pledge card agreeing to participate in activities to boycott any companies accused of being complicit with the occupation.
Literature accompanying the pledge card stated the goal of the campaign was to end the occupation and colonization of all Arab lands (i.e. Israel itself),to recognize the fundamental rights of the Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel (Israeli Arabs) to full equality (which they already have by law in Israel that is enforced by the government), and a guaranteed right of return of all refugees (any Arab who says he is one) to their homes and properties left in 1948 (the Catch 22 so there can never be peace without tearing apart the Jewish state).This wasn’t a limited program to make a peace settlement in the region, but another form of warfare against Jews, in essence, starving them out of their country and national homeland. This type of action was said to be nonviolent and helping human rights, that is, by starving the Jews into submission. This was a lecture by an Israeli woman (thing) who wants Israel destroyed to become Palestine despite her two-faced denials.The event was sponsored by the Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Berkeley that just fixed a divestment proposal to be passed by the student government there as well Break the Siege, a group that works to assist Hamas against Israel, by trying to stop Israel from preventing the importation of weapons into Gaza by sea or land from Iran.Of note, there was a colorful brochure handed out to us at the door for the Coalition of Women for Peace, the NGO that Dalit Baum also works for. CWP’s brochure boasted how “In November 2006 we led a collation of 17 Israeli organizations and more than 100 groups around the world to protest against the economic and military siege of the Gaza strip (in other words, support for Hamas). The one month campaign included demonstrations, public events, car convoys, an on-line petition and more.Another excerpt declared The world says no to Israeli occupation.
The document then had a section titled Re-framing Security. It explained that security was a euphemism to justify all military activity and the occupation of Palestinian territories.It continued,The Reframing Security Project explores this term from the broadest feminist-civil perspective, thus challenging the narrow militaristic understanding of security. Security in its civil forms includes aspects such as economic security (having a job, a roof over one’s head, access to health care), security in the family and the community (safety from gender-related violence, protection from crime, having one’s children safe in schools), environmental security (clean tap water, clean air), etc. The project generates critical discourse through lecture series, workshops and tours for groups of formal educators and informal educators (like Baum’s presentation that evening), young leaders, social activists and other actors for change.Ironically, the Boycott lecture and training that Baum was to give that evening, based on information from her, already has cost jobs and social welfare benefits to Israelis who I guess are not entitled to security in its civil forms. Gender related violence as honor killings is normal in the Palestinian Authority and prohibited in Israel, and Israeli children in Sderot at school are subject to missile attacks from Hamas that CWP supports, but this too is apparently lost on Baum and her supporters. Even Gaza enjoys clean water thanks to Israel, not Hamas.Despite this, Dalit Baum‘s perverse lecture implied that human rights would be served by denying these same basic feminist-civil ideas of security to Jews and other Israelis.The brochure then listed eleven CWP allies that are also affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement, such as Machsom Watch that interferes with Israeli soldiers at checkpoints, Women in Black that demonstrates also in favor of Hamas, New Profile that was recently raided by the police for encouraging desertion and draft dodging from the IDF, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, a pro-Marxist group that sponsors a woman named Anna Baltzer who tours churches in America giving Christians fake reports on how Israel routinely commits atrocities against innocent Arabs and where she concludes how violence against Israelis is a natural reaction to such things. Baltzer is against Israel existing as a Jewish state so it isn’t a stretch to figure out that Dalit Baum is on the same page given the evening’s lecture.
The back page of the brochure generated the most of my interest.It read, For a US-tax deduction (minimum $100), make out a check to New Israel Fund. Write in the memo line For the Coalition of Women for Peace and mail to NIF, 1101 14th Street NW, 6th Floor, Washington, DC 200005-5639.In Israel there has been a major scandal about the New Israel Fund (NIF) funding all manner of subversive and destructive organizations. Naomi Chazan, the head of NIF in Israel has denied publicly that NIF funds any such entities. Yet here in San Francisco was proof that NIF does exactly that; Baum’s event was advertised as a CWP event and her Who Profits? website is part of CWP. What most Israelis and even American Jews don’t know, is that above Chazan as Chairman of the Board of NIF, sits Martin Indyk, the former US State Department ambassador in Tel Aviv who has always opposed Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria and supported Palestinian goals no matter how unreasonable. NIF was clearly funding this starve the Jews out lecture by Dalit Baum.So much for Chazan’s denials and further proof of a fifth column working from inside Israel’s academia funded from the outside.Other flyers handed out at the door urged End Apartheid. Boycott Israeli Goods,South Africa Did It, and Take the Pledge Now. Given that Israel is the only state in the Middle East that does not practice apartheid, the goal of the literature and speech that evening was to fool the naïve into thinking they are promoting a campaign as was conducted against former South Africa where apartheid was really practiced. Sadly, this manipulation of facts to fool people into hating Israel was further promoted by Baum during the evening’s talk. Still another flyer listed companies the pledges should work to boycott or encourage people to divest from. These companies included non-Israeli companies that were American firms that have Jewish managers or owners such as Estee Lauder.
In that case, it was explained that the owner, Ron Lauder, who is Jewish, volunteers for the Jewish National Fund, a quasi-national governmental organization that was established in 1901 to acquire Palestinian land… according to one flyer. It mentioned Lauder’s company was targeted for attack by Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT)another homosexual anarchist group that Dalit Baum belongs to.Given that the JNF purchased all its land legally before the creation of either Israel or a Palestinian state when the area was part of the Ottoman Empire, particularly back in 1901, and is somehow responsible for settlements today (meaning helping Jews find homes in Israel), Lauder’s company being listed is really a boycott against American Jews, if anything, and a violation of US Civil Rights Laws. Other American companies targeted for boycott included Hanes, Playtex, Champion, Ball Park Hot dogs and even the Wonderbra (perhaps a different type of support?).Even Victoria’s Secret’s bras were subject to the list because their cotton is grown in Israel on confiscated Palestinian land.Of course, since all of Israel is on confiscated Palestinian land in the view of Dalit Baum and her crowd, even the land purchased legally by Lauder’s Jewish National Fund back in 1901, this was a Boycott against all of Israel, not just the occupation of the West Bank or its settlements.This fact was also explained to us by Dalit Baum during her lecture. At first she said her group, Who Profits?, as part of the CWP, was only interested in the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, not inside the Green Line from 1948. Yet at one point during the lecture she told us that it is impossible to boycott just the occupied territories as they claim they do, that her group does indeed promote the boycott of all of Israel.Although the event was sponsored and advertised by the UC Berkeley chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine that only weeks later was to push through a divestment bill by the University’s student government, the evening was introduced as an event by the BACIA, the Bay Area Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid. The host told us his group wasn’t shifting the debate away from the occupation,but rather devoting their efforts to do BDS work.
The goal of having Dalit Baum there that evening was to (1) get people to sign pledge cards to agree to boycott Israeli products (2) to damage the Israeli economy and 3) to keep in touch with a newsletter and other events to keep the boycott going.
Baum began her lecture by explaining that Who Profits? grew out of a discussion by CWP about the need to know more of the economic aspects of the 1967 occupation.She then went on to explain that it is impossible to separate the economy of the ’67 occupation from the entire community of Israel.Because of this, she said,we had to switch our thinking around.Occupation is expensive, costs a lot. Maybe we should pull out, too expensive to hold onto, when maybe the money could be used for health care,she explained.If you flip it, and look at it for profits and how all the money from US Israel relations goes to corporations and the military, some goes here, some goes there, we can trace money and look for a pattern.Israeli society profits from the occupation. Those close to the decision making in the government have more clout .Thus was born her organization and website with CWP, Who Profits? she explained, as a means of direct influence on Israel’s economy with three categories of involvement:The main idea is for activists to show things openly so as to invade the privacy of corporations or the government.Next, came the settlements calling to report on anything built beyond the Green Line. Although CWP is run by an Arab leader and an Israeli, she stated that since she and her colleagues are Israelis it allows them freedom of movement including at checkpoints only Israelis could have. She explained that most of her work involved taking photographs and using Google. She boasted about how she was told it is illegal for security reasons to take photos at checkpoints and how she scoffed at the soldiers who told her so, continuing on anyway.
She flashed a photo of the entrance to the Barkan Industrial Zone in Judea/Samaria, The biggest center with all the money,she said and explained how she made it a major target for boycott.It’s near the settlement of Ariel, she explained,most of their exports are kitchen items.She said that the settlers send her letters: They really were angry. We employ Palestinians, provide a service, why are you against us? she almost snickered. She said she replied to them We are doing what we can for peace, and offered them a chance to work with CWP to help Palestinians or do what she termed Green Work.The only Green Work I saw was Hamas green.There are many initiatives to boycott settlement products…, she continued,…very tiny, very small initiatives. Don’t buy settlement products. We want people to do much more.The life in Israel is affected by the economy of the settlements, she explained, as she described some of the settlement products such as halvah, and seasonings and herbs, whose origins in the settlements is concealed by some companies that use non-settlement addresses inside Israel.She explained the reason for this was Israel has free trade agreements with the US and EU that may not include the occupied territories. As such, her movement could force these Israeli companies to pay higher import taxes citing Germany as an example of how her group made some of the companies pay higher customs duties.This, of course, lowers profits and can cost people jobs. But Dalit Baum was on a mission and just getting warmed up.She mentioned that IT customer services are big in the settlements, as well.Two companies provide this,she said. She explained how people in America who thought they were calling an American customer service agent in the US were rerouted to places like Modi’in in Israel where there is usually an American Jewish woman who answers the phone and provides the service.It’s important to know which companies do the service,she said.
Why? So maybe she and her boycott acolytes can cost that woman a job. After all, what better way to promote peace as the Arab League see it? What Dalit Baum doesn’t mention during her lecture is that Modi’in is well within the Green Line from 1948 and has been a Jewish city for millennia. Baum uses deceptive language to imply that even parts of Israel, separate from disputed territory taken in 1967, are settlements stolen from the Arabs. This is nothing more then subversion and giving aid to Israel’s enemies. What she can’t do to hurt her fellow Israelis with guns she will do with disinformation and words. Then again, as an academic she lectures all the time in two Israeli universities on topics she also knows little about.Next, she mentioned Lev Leviev’s company for targeting. It seems the Leviev company does building in the settlements.It’s not just a product, it’s also construction, she advised. Maybe she can cost some construction workers, even Palestinian ones, their jobs too. It won’t cost the PLO or Hamas leaders she shills for any income, but the average Palestinian can be sure to find less work then blame it on Israel thanks to Dalit Baum.She then went after services provided to Israelis in Judea and Samaria by companies inside the Green Line. Such companies don’t provide the same services to the Palestinians, she said, recounting a letter from a victim of her project who said flatly,We do not discriminate.But she went on that it was a very clear apartheid economy, not for the Palestinians.She did not define what these services were. Perhaps gun cleaning and bomb assembly for the Palestinian Authority?
She took relish in discussing the Veolia corporation as being a good example of a good organizing campaign.Veolia, a French firm, provides myriad services abroad and in Israel, but mainly in the EU such as water services, public transportation and waste removal. She explained that privatization of services had made it easier to facilitate the boycott internationally and how they were able to get smaller municipalities overseas to boycott Veolia by going to local governments and getting them to refuse to work with the French company for violating international law for dealing with Israel. CWP and Who Profits? obviously work with Arabs overseas to organize these campaigns.The occupied territories are in dispute and the settlements are not illegal, but Baum constantly recites the Arab propaganda line that they are and her trainees do the same in the EU and elsewhere overseas. She boasted that evening in San Francisco that they got the city of Galway in Ireland to refuse business with Veolia and the Norwegian capital of Oslo to do the same.The next time a city needs clean streets they will know not to deal with Veolia,she bragged, and then explained that her actions and group had cost the company $10 billion dollars in contracts and how that’s a lot of money.It sure is. And it’s a lot of Israeli jobs lost too. She then explained how Veolia pulled out of a contract to build a light railway to Judea and Samaria from Jerusalem as the result of her work, thus depriving Israelis of transportation as well as jobs.Next, she discussed an action of which she said, I am really proud. A Belgian bank named Dexia bought an Israeli bank that loaned money to Israelis to buy homes in Judea and Samaria. It was Dalit Baum and Who Profits?, working with the Palestinians, who began a campaign in Europe to have the bank boycotted for loaning money to many of the municipalities in Judea and Samaria. The situation resulted in Knesset hearings because the bank was not loaning money to these Israeli residents. It is important to understand that regardless if one thinks borders should be redrawn in a final peace settlement, the uprooting of Jewish communities is not a route to peace. Dalit Baum, however, wants the Arabs to take all of Israel, only starting with Judea and Samaria. Her actions got the governments of France and Belgium to pressure Dexia to not give loans to Israeli citizens, the same ones who pay her salaries at Israeli universities.
But wait, there’s so much more:She told us how in the UK, food products produced in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria have to be labeled so as to be more easily boycotted as a result of her efforts. It’s really great, she said, and it makes organizing supermarket boycott events so much easier.It should be noted a similar campaign was done with the French supermarket chain Carrefour where Arabs marched through the market pulling Israeli goods off the shelves (not just from settlements) and destroyed them. Local activists tried doing this at Trader Joe’s in the San Francisco Bay Area but were advised by law enforcement it’s illegal to tamper with the public food supply.She boasted that she spends all her time looking for logos: Danone, Coca-Cola, Disney—anything, especially companies that are well-known in Israel in order to hurt their businesses through her activism to get them to change their policy.Fruits and vegetable are especially a target for Dalit Baum, so maybe she is attracted to such products because she is so like one of them.She claimed that Israel requires the Palestinians to buy important products at higher prices from Israel and prevents the PA from exporting unless it is cheap goods. This may be true, but the PA is under license to Israel that subsidizes it and has a right to control financial exports until there is a Palestinian state. This, she did explain, was because of the Oslo Accords. What she did not explain was that the only requirement for a PA state was the Arabs stop terrorism and arrest terrorists, something they refuse to do.Of course Israel has a right to control imports and exports until the Arabs produce a truly peaceful state next door. The importation of weapons is a favorite Arab import right now.
She accused Israel of controlling Palestinian water also. The water systems that provide clean water to the Holy Land were built and run by Israel to this day. Israel provides clean water even to Gaza where missiles are fired from at Israel. If the Arabs were given unfettered control of the water supply the first thing they would do is prevent Israel’s access to it from Lake Kinneret or even poison it if it goes to Jewish communities. None of this was explained by Dalit Baum, only her idea that Israel denies Palestinians Palestinian water that would be subject to Israeli control.She next displayed a photograph of many common Israeli logos that represented companies in cellular communications, banks, transportation, fuel, chain stores and even food.You cannot live in Israel without using these companies,she explained,This is why it is impossible to boycott settlements and not Israel. Her statements prove she knows she is damaging the livelihood of all Israelis, not just those in Jewish communities in Yesha.Offering more entities to attack, she said, Banks are good. They give construction loans for settlements (Jewish homes). All Israeli banks are complicit. If you have bank concerns that you can convince the EU are illegal, this is good. They can’t transfer funds, or open new branches or open new bank accounts.
This cost jobs in Israel.She then accused Israel of exploiting the Palestinian labor force. Israel doesn’t give jobs to the Palestinian Arabs, she claimed, it takes advantage of them (in the PA one of the best jobs is as a terrorist with $50K a year paid to Al Aksa terrorists, something she didn’t bother to mention). In fact, Arabs who work in construction for Jewish firms make sizeable incomes.Israel just does everything bad, you see, according to Dalit Baum. She found on Google a toxic waste dump in Yesha so the Israelis are dumping toxic waste on the Arabs even if it is on unused former Jordanian state land that is not lived on. She complained about a new light railway system from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem that takes 28 minutes but some in Israel objected to the noise near their homes. She alleged the route was changed to go through the West Bank to annoy the Arabs with the noise. Israel has hired an Italian firm to build a tunnel so as to abate the noise, she told us, and then said, It would be a good idea to start a campaign in Italy to stop the tunnel.More Israeli jobs lost.She continued,We have some reason to believe, some people told us that the kibbutz that manufactures Ahava skin care products might excavate some of the mud next to the Dead Sea shores for their product.She described this taking mud to make a saleable product abroad as pillage that is illegal per international law.Baum is not an international attorney and Ahava has been making skin care products forever. While the Arabs were training their kids how to shoot Jews and throw rocks, the Kibbutz at the Dead Sea produced a product from mud. Even this is objectionable to Baum and should be subject to international boycott.She attacked the gas supplier for Gaza for controlling gas supplies to Hamastan in favor of the Israeli government in time of war. Then she moved on to connections with the US complaining about Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut in Israel, more targets to boycott inside the Green Line.She mentioned an Israeli company that has one hundred 7/11 stores in the United States that need to be boycotted here and would thus cost American jobs in a bad economy too. It’s your job to find out about such companies and to attack them financially, she said.An audience member asked her what her position was on cases such as former PA Prime Minister Qureia holding a monopoly of the cement business in the PA.Oooh, a political hot potato,she said. Then continued, We only concern ourselves with Israeli companies and not what the Palestinians do.
So much for objectivity.She claimed next that her organization does not concern itself with weapons companies and says so on her website. However, it was plain to be this was a ruse to prevent the Israeli government from seeing her as a security risk that she clearly is. She told us that Israeli weapons do merit an investigation then showed us photos of security systems manned around Gaza by female IDF personnel.
It was at this point she moved into sedition as far as I was concerned. She showed a photo of a scanner at the Kalandia checkpoint and explained how she took pictures of it in defiance of orders by soldiers not to do so. She then explained the logo she found (she said she searches for logos at the checkpoints) revealed the scanner was made by an American company, but further research showed it was purchased by Israel through a Danish subsidiary. She explained how she and her allies took the issue before the Danish parliament. Their problem was how to convince the Danes that the scanner was from a Danish company and not America and they did just that, convincing the Danish government to not allow any future sales of the security equipment. She showed us how identity cards are made by a particular system for the Palestinian Arabs that allows them to pass through the checkpoints using biometric data, another target to pursue by ending business with Israel.Both of the above security systems save both Israeli and Palestinian lives, both Jews and Arabs, by stopping suicide bombers and terrorists. But Dalit Baum wants to facilitate their entry into Israel in her perception of peace that is definitely sedition for Arab enemies. Even the biometric cards that would make it faster and easier for Arabs to cross the checkpoints don’t escape her boycott plans.The rest of the lecture actually was devoted to attacking the weapons systems and security apparatus she claimed she does not pursue. She discussed the companies that build the Security Fence and boycotting them (The Security Fence has reduced terrorist bombings inside Israel by 95%). She boasted how the company that manufactures the fence used to have logos all along the fence but that now they are no longer seen due to her group’s efforts.
Again, more Israeli jobs lost.She mentioned how she and her acolytes go to the weekly riots in Bi’ilin and Ni’ilin in order to search for more Israeli companies to boycott worldwide.Then she concluded her presentation by discussing—weapons systems. She discussed drones used at sea and in the air. Displaying a photo of a drone boat used off Gaza, she claimed it was used to shoot at Palestinian fishermen, a barefaced lie.The sea drones are used to combat weapons and explosives smugglers. She also discussed the air force drones and unmanned vehicles then mentioned Elbit Systems, Israel’s weapons manufacturer, that makes missiles to shoot into people’s homes.She also mentioned that while her website features information on about 500 companies that they work to boycott Israel from, she has another thousand that she doesn’t post on the site. The Shin Bet should see those files.At the conclusion of her presentation, a member of the ISM in the audience pointed out I was in the room. Instead of running away as he must have thought I’d do, I went up to Dalit Baum and introduced myself by shaking her hand. I wrote an article about you, I said. She replied,I know. I read it. There isn’t a word of it that is true.Really? I said. As a journalist I surely don’t want to write things that are untrue. Can you tell me what I wrote in that article that isn’t true? I can even do corrections, if so. She couldn’t answer.Finally, she said, I don’t make a career out of reading your articles.I only wrote one article about you, I replied. Surely you can think of just one thing I wrote or said in the article that is untrue? You just said not one word in the article was true. Can you tell me one thing I wrote about you that’s not true in the article? I asked again.She just walked away without answering confirming that what I had written about her was, indeed, true.It’s one thing to be a pacifist, it’s even another to want to give concessions to the Palestinian Arabs in a delusional dream they will stop killing Jews, but for Dalit Baum, these are only ruses for a woman who wants Israel destroyed, and who will stop at nothing to do so by traveling worldwide and doing it by economic warfare. She is the most dangerous woman, er, person, in Israel in my opinion and of more danger than an armed terrorist, because her activities open the doors for terrorists by subverting Israel’s economy and security systems unconditionally in favor of the Arab terrorist groups. I firmly believe that’s what she really wants to do. Her deconstructing of the Israeli economy is chilling. All the while she is doing this on the Israeli taxpayer’s dime.
Maybe it’s time to boycott Dalit Baum? Want to complain? Contact University of Haifa and Beit Berl College administrators. They too have families in Israel who are threatened by this woman:President of the University of Haifa Prof. Aaron Ben-Ze’ev
Tel: 972-4-8240101 Fax: 972-4-8288110 E-mail: abenzeev@univ.haifa.ac.il
President of Beit Berl College Dr. Tamar Ariav Tel: 972 (9) 747 8701
Fax: 972 (9) 7478700 Email: ariavt@beitberl.ac.il
Sunday, April 04, 2010
CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE EASTER IN JERUSALEM
KING JESUS THE GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE WORLD LIVES TODAY ON RESURRECTION SUNDAY SO WE CAN LIVE WITH HIM FOREVER ON EARTH WHEN HE RETURNS SHORTLY.
Christian pilgrims mark Easter in Jerusalem by Majeda El Batsh – Sun Apr 4, 7:38 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Thousands of Christian pilgrims streamed into Jerusalem's cavernous Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Easter Sunday at the traditional site of Jesus's crucifixion and burial.Incense filled the air as Western and Orthodox pilgrims packed into the labyrinthine maze of chapels and crypts lit by thousands of candles as services were held at the grotto where Jesus is believed to have risen from the dead.Women in shawls knelt to kiss the stone where Jesus's body is believed to have been prepared for burial as bearded monks in long black robes watched over visitors making their way through Christianity's holiest site.I came all the way from Belarus for the holiday,said Lana, 38, as she waited in a long line at one of the chapels.I am so happy to be able to light a candle at this holy tomb.
The centuries-old church is shared uneasily by six denominations of Jesus Christ's followers -- Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Egyptian Copts, Syrian Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox.In previous years Israeli police have had to rush into the church to break up fist fights between rival monks over alleged attempts to alter a delicate status quo hammered out over centuries, but this year calm prevailed.The Latin Patriarch Fuad Twal welcomed the fact that Easter fell on the same day for Western and Eastern denominations, saying in his Easter sermon that this year... our joy is double.Someone might be disturbed by the overlapping of prayers and songs... Yet this seeming cacophony, lived in faith, becomes instead a symphony that expresses the unity of the faith,he said.Israeli police had stepped up security across the walled Old City during holy week, when thousands of pilgrims trace Jesus's final steps through its winding cobblestone streets.Israel maintained a general closure of the West Bank imposed for the weeklong Jewish Passover holiday but the military said it issued more than 10,000 permits allowing Palestinian Christians to enter for up to two weeks.Another 500 Christians from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, about a fourth of the territory's tiny non-Muslim minority, were also granted permits to travel to Israel and the West Bank, according to the military.The Palestinians have however complained of restrictions, including long waits at the hundreds of checkpoints scattered across the occupied territory.My family got permits to come to Jerusalem but they decided not to because they will suffer at Qalandiya,said Rimas Kasabreh, 34, a Greek Orthodox woman living in Jerusalem, referring to the main checkpoint outside the city.Her family hails from a village near the northern West Bank town of Jenin.The lines take hours. It would spoil the happiness of the holiday,she said.Jerusalem, with famed sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians, has seen rising tensions in recent weeks following Israel's announcement of plans for new Jewish settlements in the mostly Arab eastern side of the city.The Old City is part of east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed in a move not recognised by any other government.
Israel views all of Jerusalem as its eternal, undivided capital, but the Palestinians have demanded east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, and the dispute over the city has paralysed US-led peace efforts.In an Easter message delivered at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI called for a true exodus from the Middle East conflict. I pray... that in the Middle East, and especially in the land sanctified by (Christ's) death and resurrection, the peoples will accomplish a true and definitive exodus from war and violence to peace and concord,he said.
Pope hailed as unfailing leader at Easter Mass By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer - APR 4,10
VATICAN CITY – A senior cardinal staunchly defended Pope Benedict XVI from petty gossip on Sunday as the pontiff maintained his silence on mounting sex abuse cover-up accusations during his Easter message.The ringing tribute by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, at the start of Mass attended by tens of thousands of faithful in St. Peter's Square, marked an unusual departure from the Vatican's Easter rituals.Sodano's defense of the pope's unfailing leadership and courage, as well as of the work of priests worldwide with children entrusted to their care, built on a vigorous Vatican campaign to defend Benedict's moral authority.The pontiff and other church leaders have been assailed by accusations from victims of clergy sexual abuse that he helped shape and perpetuate a climate of cover-up toward the crimes against children in parishes, schools, orphanages and other church-run institutions.Dressed in gold robes and shielded from a cool drizzle by a canopy, Benedict looked weary as he listened to Sodano's speech at the start of Mass in the cobblestone square bedecked with daffodils, tulips and azaleas.
In early evening, the pope, who turns 83 later this month, was to fly by helicopter to the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, a lakeside retreat in the Alban Hills southeast of Rome, where he will greet pilgrims from the palace courtyard balcony on Monday.Easter Sunday Mass was the highlight of a heavy schedule of public appearances by the pope before the thousands of faithful who have poured into Rome for Holy Week services.With this spirit today we rally close around you, successor to (St.) Peter, bishop of Rome, the unfailing rock of the holy church, Sodano said. "Holy Father, on your side are the people of God, who do not allow themselves to be influenced by the petty gossip of the moment, by the trials which sometimes buffet the community of believers.At the end of the two-hour long ceremony, Benedict delivered the papacy's traditional Easter Urbi et Orbi message — Latin for to the city and to the world — which analyzes humanity's failings and hopes.Benedict singled out the trials and sufferings of Christians in Iraq and Pakistan, noting that these believers have risked persecution and death for their faith. He urged hope for the people of Haiti and Chile, devastated by earthquakes. He said Easter could signal the victory of peaceful coexistence and respect in crime-ravaged areas of Latin American countries plagued by drug trafficking and said he would pray for peace in the Middle East.But, despite repeated appeals by victims of clerical sexual abuse that he take responsibility for his role in the handling of pedophile priests, he stayed silent on that issue. The victims contend there were decades of systematic cover-up by bishops in many countries, including the United States, Ireland and Benedict's native Germany.
They want him to demand the resignations of bishops complicit in any conspiracy to shield pedophile priests by shuffling them from parish to parish instead of kicking them out of the priesthood.The accusations against the pope stem from his leadership as archbishop of Munich before he came to the Vatican three decades ago, as well as his long tenure in Rome leading the Holy See's office dealing with a growing pile of dossiers about pedophile priests.Sunday's edition of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano denounced the accusations against the pope as a vile defamation operation.Benedict hasn't made any explicit reference to the sex abuse scandals since he released a letter to the Irish faithful concerning the abuse crisis in that country on March 20.
Sodano defended the church's priests as well as the pontiff.Especially with you in these days are those 400,000 priests who generously serve the people of God, in parishes, recreation centers, schools, hospitals and many other places, as well as in the missions in the most remote parts of the world,the cardinal said.In rushing to Benedict's defense, the Vatican has angered abuse victims and their advocates. Jewish leaders also fumed after the papal preacher in a Good Friday sermon told the pope that the accusations against him were akin to the campaign of anti-Semitic violence that culminated in the Holocaust. The preacher, the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, told Corriere della Sera daily in an interview Sunday that he had no intention of hurting the sensibilities of the Jews and of the victims of pedophilia.
I have sincerely regretted and I ask forgiveness, reaffirming my solidarity with both lobbies, he was quoted as saying.
Israel allows commercial shipment of goods into Gaza by Sakher Abu El Oun – APR 4,10
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israel on Sunday allowed the first commercial shipment of clothes and shoes into the Gaza Strip since 2008 but said its policy towards the territory's Hamas rulers had not changed.A Palestinian official had earlier said the five truckloads of clothes and five of shoes were the first such shipment since the summer of 2008, but later clarified that smaller amounts of such items had entered Gaza as part of international aid packages.Today is the first time they have allowed the private sector to bring clothes and shoes into Gaza since August 2008, said Raid Fatuh, the Palestinian Authority border official in charge of coordinating such shipments.After the Gaza war in 2009 UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestinian refugees) and other international organisations brought in aid that included clothes and shoes, but it was a small amount.A military official said the shipment was part of a long-standing policy of allowing basic goods into the territory ruled by the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, which is sworn to Israel's destruction and blacklisted as a terrorist group by the West.This is a regular shipment that enters every few months. There has been no change in policy, he said on condition of anonymity.Israel has sealed the territory of 1.5 million people off from all but vital aid since Hamas seized power there in June 2007, tightening sanctions imposed after the 2006 capture of an Israeli soldier.However, large amounts of clothing, domestic appliances and other basic goods are smuggled in through tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egypt border, and although prices have gone up, there are no shortages of such goods.
The military official said Sunday's shipment was part of a package of goods approved for UN-run projects in the impoverished territory.Everything is coordinated with the UN so we are sure who is getting the clothes, he said.The Israeli official said the approved package would include a rare shipment of cement to be used for a UN waste water project, without specifying the amount or date of the shipment.Israel will not allow the reconstruction of Gaza, which we regard as a terrorist entity because it is controlled by Hamas and the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is still held captive, he said.Shalit was captured by Hamas and two smaller militant groups in a deadly cross-border raid nearly four years ago. Hamas has said it will only release him in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.UN chief Ban Ki-moon said during a visit to Gaza last month that Israel had approved the import of construction materials for UN projects to build 150 homes, a flour mill and a sewage treatment plant.He referred to the projects as a drop in the bucket, but expressed hope that they could pave the way for further reconstruction.The closures have prevented virtually any reconstruction following the December 2008 to January 2009 Gaza war, which killed some 1,400 Palestinians and destroyed thousands of homes.
Thirteen Israelis were killed during the offensive, which was aimed at halting years of near-daily rocket attacks on southern Israel.Israel has said any construction materials could be hijacked by Hamas and used for underground bunkers and makeshift rockets. Critics of the policy have said militant groups get all the cement they need from the tunnels.
Holy Fire brings Jerusalem Easter to joyful climax By Alastair Macdonald – Sat Apr 3, 2:47 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Bells, drums, ecstatic chants and flaming candles lit from the tomb of Jesus brought Easter to a joyful climax in Jerusalem on Saturday for Palestinians and thousands of Orthodox Christian pilgrims from around the world.
Sectarian tensions were, as ever, in evidence at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the ceremony of the Holy Fire, which symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus after his death on the cross. But, under a heavy Israeli police presence, there was none of the factional violence that has seen rival clergy trade punches -- and even a stabbing -- in the past few years.A mass influx of Russian and other visitors from the former Soviet bloc, and the absence of many Palestinians denied permits from Israel to enter the Old City, confirmed the changing face of Christian rites in Jerusalem since the fall of Communism.The coincidence of the Easter calendars of the Eastern and Western churches has prompted ecumenical gatherings during Holy Week, notably among the dwindling Christian communities in the West Bank, where Israeli occupation and more militant Islam have fostered emigration in recent years, local church figures said.Roman Catholics and Protestants, however, eschew the Holy Fire rite; Western visitors have for centuries scoffed at the ceremony in which the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem produces a lighted candle from the sealed and empty tomb -- without the aid of matches or other, visible, terrestrial aids.At times, terrible stampedes have left worshippers injured or even killed. Several hundred died in a crush in 1834.
RIVAL CELEBRATIONS
For thousands of locals and foreigners packed in the many corners of the ancient church around the ornate stone tomb on the traditional site of the crucifixion and resurrection, the ritual progressed much as it is must have done for a millennium.
For hours, competing chants, singing and processions marked out areas of the church dominated by the Greek Orthodox and the Armenians, congregations which, with Roman Catholics, have the main rights to the Holy Sepulchre through an arrangement drafted under 19th century Ottoman Turkish rulers anxious for calm.Colorful, noisy groups from other denominations, including Copts from Egypt and Syrian Orthodox, added to the throng.A couple of dozen teenagers in uniform red T-shirts from one church group, Roman Catholic monks observing with detachment from the upper balconies, and a preponderance of heavy-set young men in clerical garb at the forefront of the main Greek and Armenian delegations lent an air of sporting competition.But fears of a showdown between the two denominations, whose clergy engaged in a widely televised bout of fisticuffs inside the church less than 18 months ago, proved unfounded.The Greek patriarch and a senior Armenian cleric both emerged from the tomb bearing the holy fire for their followers.In seconds, light spread around the darkened chapels as the delighted faithful lit one bunch of candles from flaming others.This is the greatest joy of my life,said 64-year-old Suhair Amin, who had travelled two days by bus from Egypt and said many of her Coptic fellows were denied entry to the church.
Competition for places has become particularly intense with Israel's opening of visa-free travel for Russians, tens of millions of whom have embraced the Orthodox Christianity long frozen out under Communism. One Russian attending on Saturday said he had paid $700 for a pass given by one denomination.Asked whether it was worth it, as the candle flames raced around the church, he was speechless, simply beaming in reply.Members of smaller but hitherto influential denominations in Jerusalem, like the Greeks and Armenians, are wary of the surge in numbers and money coming from Russia -- and of Israel's potential to use its control as a diplomatic bargaining chip with Moscow, at the expense of smaller churches.(Editing by Paul Casciato)
Israel warns of new Gaza assault as US urges restraint by Gavin Rabinowitz – Sat Apr 3, 6:07 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Friday threatened widescale military action against the Gaza Strip after launching a string of air strikes in response to rocket fire from the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave.However, the United States urged restraint on both sides, saying there was no military solution to the conflict.Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom warned of a new offensive on the coastal territory unless militant rocket attacks ceased.If this rocket fire against Israel does not stop, it seems we will have to raise the level of our activity and step up our actions against Hamas, Shalom told public radio.We won't allow frightened children to again be raised in bomb shelters and so, in the end, it will force us to launch another military operation.I hope we can avoid it, but it is one of the options we have, and if we don't have a choice, we will use it in the near future, he said.Three Palestinian children -- aged two, four and 11 -- were hit by flying glass in one of six overnight raids, said Moawiya Hassanein, head of the Palestinian emergency services in Gaza.
There were no other reports of casualties.
The head of the Islamist Hamas movement's government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniya, blamed the Jewish state for the increase in tensions.We call on the international community to intervene to stop this escalation and Israeli aggression, he said in a statement. Israel closer to death if it attacks Gaza: Ahmadinejad
In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters Israel has a right to self-defence. At the same, as we've said many times, we don't ultimately think there is a military solution to this, he said.Our message remains to the Israelis and Palestinians that we need to get the proximity talks going, focus on the substance, move to direct negotiations and ultimately arrive at a settlement that ends the conflict once and for all.Britain and France also expressed concern at the escalation, calling for restraint and the launch of US-backed indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.We call on all parties to show restraint,a Foreign Office spokeswoman said in London. We encourage Israelis and Palestinians to focus efforts on negotiation and to engage urgently in US-backed proximity talks.In Paris, France's foreign ministry echoed British concern.Any initiative likely to raise tension is not appropriate, not welcome, not constructive, said ministry spokesman Bernard Valero, urging all sides to act responsibly and take brave and necessary measures to restore trust.The air strikes came after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants landed near the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon late on Thursday, causing damage but no casualties, the military said.Nearly 20 rockets have been fired into Israel in the past month, including one that killed a Thai farm worker, in the worst violence since the end of Israel's 22-day assault on Gaza that began in December 2008. Since the war, which killed some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, Israel has routinely responded to rocket fire by targeting smuggling tunnels and workshops it says are used to make rockets. Three of the overnight Israeli strikes struck near Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. Two missiles hit a guard post of Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades.
A fourth raid destroyed a workshop in Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Hamas and witnesses said. In the other raids, a small dairy was destroyed in western Gaza City. The Israeli military said it hit a weapons manufacturing site in the northern Gaza Strip, a weapons manufacturing site in the central Gaza Strip and two weapons storage facilities in the southern Gaza Strip.The (army) holds Hamas as solely responsible for maintaining peace and quiet in the Gaza Strip, it said. Haniya said his government was in contact with other Palestinian factions to maintain the internal consensus (truce), to protect our people and strengthen our unity.The increased rocket attacks come amid tensions over Israel's settlement plans for annexed east Jerusalem that have stymied US efforts to launch peace talks and after fresh clashes along the Gaza-Israel border. Two Israeli soldiers, including an officer, were killed along with two Palestinian gunmen on March 26-27 when Israeli tanks made a brief incursion into Gaza.And on Tuesday, a Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli troops near the border of the blockaded coastal strip.
US says talks the solution in Mideast
Fri Apr 2, 2:26 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States called Friday on Israel and the Palestinians to pursue talks and said there was no military solution to the conflict after a flare-up in violence.The Israelis have a right to self-defense. At the same, as we've said many times, we don't ultimately think there is a military solution to this, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.Our message remains to the Israelis and Palestinians that we need to get the proximity talks going, focus on the substance, move to direct negotiations and ultimately arrive at a settlement that ends the conflict once and for all.Israel has launched a string of air strikes in the Gaza Strip and threatened wide-scale military action after rocket attacks from the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave.We are always concerned that steps taken by other side, legitimate or otherwise, can be misconstrued, can be twisted and ends up causing turbulence that can be an impediment to progress, Crowley said.The United States has been seeking to launch peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.But even before the latest violence, the efforts were stymied by disagreements between Israel and the United States over the Jewish state's settlement plans in annexed east Jerusalem.
Israeli planes and helicopters mount Gaza attacks
Fri Apr 2, 4:31 am ET
GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli planes and helicopters mounted at least seven missile attacks on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Friday, destroying what a military spokesman described as Palestinian munitions sites.Four air strikes blew up two caravans near the town of Khan Younis, witnesses and Hamas officials said. There were no casualties in this attack.A fifth missile hit a cheese factory in Gaza City, setting it on fire, the witnesses and Hamas officials said. Hospital officials said two children were slightly wounded by flying debris.Helicopters struck twice in the central refugee camp of Nusseirat, destroying a metal foundry and no one was injured.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the attacks, saying they had targeted two weapons-manufacturing plants and two arms caches.The air strikes were Israel's response to a Palestinian short-range rocket that was fired across the border into the Jewish state on Thursday, the spokesman said. The attack, which went unclaimed by any Palestinian faction, caused no damage.Israel has said it will hold Hamas responsible for any attacks on its cities from the Gaza Strip.Hamas's leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said the Islamist group was trying to reaffirm an agreement reached last year with other Palestinian factions to curb the rocket fire.An Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip early last year was designed to counter such salvoes. Rocket attacks have resumed sporadically in recent weeks and Israel has responded with air strikes.(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Dan Williams)
Palestinian PM sees statehood by August 2011
Fri Apr 2, 4:09 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Palestinian premier Salam Fayyad predicts a Palestinian state will be established by August 2011 through positive facts on the ground, in an interview published on Friday in an Israeli newspaper.The birth of a Palestinian state will be celebrated as a day of joy by the entire community of nations, Fayyad told the Haaretz daily.The time for this baby to be born will come, he said,and we estimate it will come around 2011, the prime minister said.That is our vision and a reflection of our will to exercise our right to live in freedom and dignity in the country (where) we are born, alongside the State of Israel, in complete harmony.
Fayyad's August 2011 target is based on a decision taken by the Palestinian leadership in August 2009 to establish a state within two years. Since then Fayyad has been building institutions for a de-facto state.If for one reason or another, by August 2011 (the plan) will have failed ... I believe we will have amassed such credit, in the form of positive facts on the ground, that the reality is bound to force itself on the political process to produce the outcome, Haaretz quoted him as saying.Palestinians have repeatedly said they will unilaterally declare a state or ask for UN recognition of their independence amid growing frustration with so-far ineffective US efforts to relaunch peace negotiations with Israel.The talks were suspended during the Gaza war of December 2008-January 2009.Israel, however, has warned of a tough response to a unilateral Palestinian declaration.US President Barack Obama's administration has so far been unable to convince Israelis and Palestinians to resume their peace talks, amid deep disagreements on the thorny issue of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.The Palestinians insist on a freeze of all settlement activity before talks restart, while Israel is offering a temporary and limited ease on construction, saying the issue will be resolved during final-status negotiations.
US wants Syria to act as key peace player
Thu Apr 1, 12:55 pm ET
DAMASCUS (AFP) – President Barack Obama's administration considers Syria a key player in Washington's efforts to revive the stalled Middle East peace process, US Senator John Kerry said in Damascus on Thursday.Syria is an essential player in bringing peace and stability to the region, Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a speech after meeting President Bashar al-Assad.Both the United States and Syria have a very deep interest... in having a very frank exchange on any differences (and) agreements that we have about the possibilities of peace in this region, he said in the statement.A summit of Arab leaders last weekend ruled out renewed Palestinian-Israeli peace talks unless the Jewish state halts all settlement building, particularly in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.There are things that the United States can do, there are things that Syria can do, there are things that Israel can do, Turkey can do, some are unilateral, some are multilateral, Kerry said.But all of us have to work together in order to seize real opportunities.
Obama's administration has pursued a year-long campaign to engage Syria, a former US foe, and energise its thwarted push for a broad Arab-Israeli peace, particularly between Israel and the Palestinians.Its decision in February to appoint the first US ambassador to Damascus in five years was evidence that engagement with Syria is a priority at the highest levels of our government,said the former US presidential candidate.Envoy Robert Ford is still awaiting US confirmation of his new post, but he will be an excellent representative of the president's policies and an outstanding envoy to the Syrian government, Kerry said.He also called on Syria to play a role to halt the supply of weapons to Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah.We also remain deeply concerned about the flow of weapons in this area, through this area, to Hezbollah. That is something that must stop in order to promote regional stability and security,Kerry said.
Hezbollah will not be silent if accused in Hariri murder by Natacha Yazbeck – Wed Mar 31, 5:01 pm ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday warned that his Shiite militant group would not remain silent if a UN probe into the murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri pointed its finger at his party.Accusing individual members of our party is equivalent to accusing Hezbollah, he said.That would take Lebanon to a very difficult place.We will not remain silent if we find we are facing political accusations, Nasrallah said in an interview with Hezbollah's Al-Manar television.The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon was set up by a UN Security Council resolution in 2007 to find and try suspects in the murder of Hariri, who was killed in a massive bomb blast on the Beirut seafront in February 2005.In its first annual report published in March, the tribunal said investigators were getting closer to identifying the suicide bomber who carried out the attack.Tension has been brewing in Lebanon after a flurry of press reports said the UN court was readying to accuse Hezbollah operatives in the Hariri murder.But the tribunal said the reports were mere speculation in a statement last week.Nasrallah confirmed the UN team investigating the murder had interrogated members of his party but said Hezbollah was not currently in the tribunal's line of fire.In the past few weeks the prosecutor's office in Beirut contacted a number of our brothers, some of them members of Hezbollah and others close to the party, and requested they come in for interrogation,he said.They called in 12 of our brothers in recent weeks, and I believe they are now in the process of summoning six more,Nasrallah added.
Representatives of the prosecutor's office guaranteed us that all those being interrogated were called in as witnesses, and not as suspects, at a semi-official meeting with representatives of Hezbollah,he said.The prosecutor's office has not until now accused any Hezbollah member. But we don't know what could happen in the future.The Shiite leader downplayed the tribunal's credibility, saying it had ruled out the possibility of archfoe Israel being behind the Hariri murder too soon and was leaking information to the press.But Nasrallah said the court still had a chance to rebuild trust and said his party would continue to cooperate with the UN team.
We will cooperate ... Hezbollah has nothing to fear,he said.None of the Hezbollah members interrogated so far were public figures, Nasrallah said, adding that the tribunal had also interrogated male and female party members in previous years.Some of our brothers and sisters were interrogated at the end of 2008, after the events of May 7 and right before the four generals were released, he said.He was referring to street battles that broke out in the Lebanese capital Beirut on May 7, 2008 -- the worst sectarian fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war -- pitting supporters of a Hezbollah-led alliance to those of a rival camp loyal to Hariri's son Saad Hariri, now Lebanon's prime minister. The clashes, sparked by a government crackdown on Hezbollah's private communications network, left over 100 people dead. Four Lebanese generals were detained for nearly four years in connection with Hariri's assassination but were released last April, after evidence against them was deemed insufficient. The Hariri murder has been widely blamed on Syria, a main backer of Hezbollah, although Damascus has roundly denied any involvement. A UN commission of inquiry said it had found evidence to implicate Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services prior to the tribunal's formation, but there are currently no suspects in custody.
U.S. seeks 4-month Jerusalem building freeze: report
Wed Mar 31, 5:40 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama wants Israel to freeze construction in East Jerusalem for four months in exchange for an attempt to renew stalled Israeli peace talks with Palestinians, an Israeli newspaper said on Wednesday.Washington hopes such a deal could persuade Palestinians to renew direct negotiations rather than indirect proximity talks, as had been planned, the Haaretz daily said, quoting an unnamed Israeli political source.A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reached by telephone, declined to comment.Asked about the report, Nabil Abu Rdainah, a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said: What is required is firstly a freeze to settlement in Jerusalem and in the rest of the West Bank before a return to any negotiations, direct or indirect.
Obama has also pressed Israel to stop building in East Jerusalem, which it captured along with the West Bank in a 1967 war and annexed.Officials said he asked Netanyahu in talks last week in Washington to introduce some unspecified goodwill gestures to help persuade Palestinians to renew peace negotiations suspended since December 2008.
Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, a claim that has not won international recognition. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they hope to establish in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel's Maariv newspaper at the weekend Washington's main demand of Israel was freezing construction in most of the Jewish neighborhoods, listing four in the East Jerusalem area.Lieberman called the demand completely unreasonable and said it had not been accepted by any senior cabinet ministers.Netanyahu, who has thus far resisted U.S. pressure on the Jerusalem issue, has held two inconclusive cabinet consultations on Washington's proposals, and officials have said these discussions would continue.The Haaretz newspaper said a consensus among ministers, who last met on Sunday, was that Israel would avoid declaring an outright building freeze in Jerusalem, and seek instead to achieve a quiet understanding on the issue.
Netanyahu's differences with the Obama administration on Jerusalem have put him in a political bind, as he seeks to avoid harming Israel's critical security ties with Washington while keeping his pro-settler ruling coalition from breaking apart.The Israeli leader excluded East Jerusalem from a 10-month moratorium he declared, under U.S. pressure, in November on new housing starts in West Bank settlements.(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah)(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Sarkozy joins Obama in condemning settlements
Tue Mar 30, 5:15 pm ET
WASHINGTON – France is standing with the United States in condemning Israeli settlement activity in east Jerusalem.French President Nicolas Sarkozy (sar-koh-ZEE') says his own commitment to Israel's security is well known but adds that the settlement activity in an area claimed by the Palestinians contributes nothing.
Speaking at a news conference with President Barack Obama after their White House meeting Tuesday, Sarkozy praised Obama for trying to engage the two sides in peace talks. Sarkozy said that the absence of peace in the region is a problem for all of us — and that it feeds terrorism around the world.
Christian pilgrims mark Easter in Jerusalem by Majeda El Batsh – Sun Apr 4, 7:38 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Thousands of Christian pilgrims streamed into Jerusalem's cavernous Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Easter Sunday at the traditional site of Jesus's crucifixion and burial.Incense filled the air as Western and Orthodox pilgrims packed into the labyrinthine maze of chapels and crypts lit by thousands of candles as services were held at the grotto where Jesus is believed to have risen from the dead.Women in shawls knelt to kiss the stone where Jesus's body is believed to have been prepared for burial as bearded monks in long black robes watched over visitors making their way through Christianity's holiest site.I came all the way from Belarus for the holiday,said Lana, 38, as she waited in a long line at one of the chapels.I am so happy to be able to light a candle at this holy tomb.
The centuries-old church is shared uneasily by six denominations of Jesus Christ's followers -- Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Egyptian Copts, Syrian Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox.In previous years Israeli police have had to rush into the church to break up fist fights between rival monks over alleged attempts to alter a delicate status quo hammered out over centuries, but this year calm prevailed.The Latin Patriarch Fuad Twal welcomed the fact that Easter fell on the same day for Western and Eastern denominations, saying in his Easter sermon that this year... our joy is double.Someone might be disturbed by the overlapping of prayers and songs... Yet this seeming cacophony, lived in faith, becomes instead a symphony that expresses the unity of the faith,he said.Israeli police had stepped up security across the walled Old City during holy week, when thousands of pilgrims trace Jesus's final steps through its winding cobblestone streets.Israel maintained a general closure of the West Bank imposed for the weeklong Jewish Passover holiday but the military said it issued more than 10,000 permits allowing Palestinian Christians to enter for up to two weeks.Another 500 Christians from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, about a fourth of the territory's tiny non-Muslim minority, were also granted permits to travel to Israel and the West Bank, according to the military.The Palestinians have however complained of restrictions, including long waits at the hundreds of checkpoints scattered across the occupied territory.My family got permits to come to Jerusalem but they decided not to because they will suffer at Qalandiya,said Rimas Kasabreh, 34, a Greek Orthodox woman living in Jerusalem, referring to the main checkpoint outside the city.Her family hails from a village near the northern West Bank town of Jenin.The lines take hours. It would spoil the happiness of the holiday,she said.Jerusalem, with famed sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians, has seen rising tensions in recent weeks following Israel's announcement of plans for new Jewish settlements in the mostly Arab eastern side of the city.The Old City is part of east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed in a move not recognised by any other government.
Israel views all of Jerusalem as its eternal, undivided capital, but the Palestinians have demanded east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, and the dispute over the city has paralysed US-led peace efforts.In an Easter message delivered at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI called for a true exodus from the Middle East conflict. I pray... that in the Middle East, and especially in the land sanctified by (Christ's) death and resurrection, the peoples will accomplish a true and definitive exodus from war and violence to peace and concord,he said.
Pope hailed as unfailing leader at Easter Mass By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer - APR 4,10
VATICAN CITY – A senior cardinal staunchly defended Pope Benedict XVI from petty gossip on Sunday as the pontiff maintained his silence on mounting sex abuse cover-up accusations during his Easter message.The ringing tribute by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, at the start of Mass attended by tens of thousands of faithful in St. Peter's Square, marked an unusual departure from the Vatican's Easter rituals.Sodano's defense of the pope's unfailing leadership and courage, as well as of the work of priests worldwide with children entrusted to their care, built on a vigorous Vatican campaign to defend Benedict's moral authority.The pontiff and other church leaders have been assailed by accusations from victims of clergy sexual abuse that he helped shape and perpetuate a climate of cover-up toward the crimes against children in parishes, schools, orphanages and other church-run institutions.Dressed in gold robes and shielded from a cool drizzle by a canopy, Benedict looked weary as he listened to Sodano's speech at the start of Mass in the cobblestone square bedecked with daffodils, tulips and azaleas.
In early evening, the pope, who turns 83 later this month, was to fly by helicopter to the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, a lakeside retreat in the Alban Hills southeast of Rome, where he will greet pilgrims from the palace courtyard balcony on Monday.Easter Sunday Mass was the highlight of a heavy schedule of public appearances by the pope before the thousands of faithful who have poured into Rome for Holy Week services.With this spirit today we rally close around you, successor to (St.) Peter, bishop of Rome, the unfailing rock of the holy church, Sodano said. "Holy Father, on your side are the people of God, who do not allow themselves to be influenced by the petty gossip of the moment, by the trials which sometimes buffet the community of believers.At the end of the two-hour long ceremony, Benedict delivered the papacy's traditional Easter Urbi et Orbi message — Latin for to the city and to the world — which analyzes humanity's failings and hopes.Benedict singled out the trials and sufferings of Christians in Iraq and Pakistan, noting that these believers have risked persecution and death for their faith. He urged hope for the people of Haiti and Chile, devastated by earthquakes. He said Easter could signal the victory of peaceful coexistence and respect in crime-ravaged areas of Latin American countries plagued by drug trafficking and said he would pray for peace in the Middle East.But, despite repeated appeals by victims of clerical sexual abuse that he take responsibility for his role in the handling of pedophile priests, he stayed silent on that issue. The victims contend there were decades of systematic cover-up by bishops in many countries, including the United States, Ireland and Benedict's native Germany.
They want him to demand the resignations of bishops complicit in any conspiracy to shield pedophile priests by shuffling them from parish to parish instead of kicking them out of the priesthood.The accusations against the pope stem from his leadership as archbishop of Munich before he came to the Vatican three decades ago, as well as his long tenure in Rome leading the Holy See's office dealing with a growing pile of dossiers about pedophile priests.Sunday's edition of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano denounced the accusations against the pope as a vile defamation operation.Benedict hasn't made any explicit reference to the sex abuse scandals since he released a letter to the Irish faithful concerning the abuse crisis in that country on March 20.
Sodano defended the church's priests as well as the pontiff.Especially with you in these days are those 400,000 priests who generously serve the people of God, in parishes, recreation centers, schools, hospitals and many other places, as well as in the missions in the most remote parts of the world,the cardinal said.In rushing to Benedict's defense, the Vatican has angered abuse victims and their advocates. Jewish leaders also fumed after the papal preacher in a Good Friday sermon told the pope that the accusations against him were akin to the campaign of anti-Semitic violence that culminated in the Holocaust. The preacher, the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, told Corriere della Sera daily in an interview Sunday that he had no intention of hurting the sensibilities of the Jews and of the victims of pedophilia.
I have sincerely regretted and I ask forgiveness, reaffirming my solidarity with both lobbies, he was quoted as saying.
Israel allows commercial shipment of goods into Gaza by Sakher Abu El Oun – APR 4,10
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israel on Sunday allowed the first commercial shipment of clothes and shoes into the Gaza Strip since 2008 but said its policy towards the territory's Hamas rulers had not changed.A Palestinian official had earlier said the five truckloads of clothes and five of shoes were the first such shipment since the summer of 2008, but later clarified that smaller amounts of such items had entered Gaza as part of international aid packages.Today is the first time they have allowed the private sector to bring clothes and shoes into Gaza since August 2008, said Raid Fatuh, the Palestinian Authority border official in charge of coordinating such shipments.After the Gaza war in 2009 UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestinian refugees) and other international organisations brought in aid that included clothes and shoes, but it was a small amount.A military official said the shipment was part of a long-standing policy of allowing basic goods into the territory ruled by the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, which is sworn to Israel's destruction and blacklisted as a terrorist group by the West.This is a regular shipment that enters every few months. There has been no change in policy, he said on condition of anonymity.Israel has sealed the territory of 1.5 million people off from all but vital aid since Hamas seized power there in June 2007, tightening sanctions imposed after the 2006 capture of an Israeli soldier.However, large amounts of clothing, domestic appliances and other basic goods are smuggled in through tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egypt border, and although prices have gone up, there are no shortages of such goods.
The military official said Sunday's shipment was part of a package of goods approved for UN-run projects in the impoverished territory.Everything is coordinated with the UN so we are sure who is getting the clothes, he said.The Israeli official said the approved package would include a rare shipment of cement to be used for a UN waste water project, without specifying the amount or date of the shipment.Israel will not allow the reconstruction of Gaza, which we regard as a terrorist entity because it is controlled by Hamas and the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is still held captive, he said.Shalit was captured by Hamas and two smaller militant groups in a deadly cross-border raid nearly four years ago. Hamas has said it will only release him in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.UN chief Ban Ki-moon said during a visit to Gaza last month that Israel had approved the import of construction materials for UN projects to build 150 homes, a flour mill and a sewage treatment plant.He referred to the projects as a drop in the bucket, but expressed hope that they could pave the way for further reconstruction.The closures have prevented virtually any reconstruction following the December 2008 to January 2009 Gaza war, which killed some 1,400 Palestinians and destroyed thousands of homes.
Thirteen Israelis were killed during the offensive, which was aimed at halting years of near-daily rocket attacks on southern Israel.Israel has said any construction materials could be hijacked by Hamas and used for underground bunkers and makeshift rockets. Critics of the policy have said militant groups get all the cement they need from the tunnels.
Holy Fire brings Jerusalem Easter to joyful climax By Alastair Macdonald – Sat Apr 3, 2:47 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Bells, drums, ecstatic chants and flaming candles lit from the tomb of Jesus brought Easter to a joyful climax in Jerusalem on Saturday for Palestinians and thousands of Orthodox Christian pilgrims from around the world.
Sectarian tensions were, as ever, in evidence at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the ceremony of the Holy Fire, which symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus after his death on the cross. But, under a heavy Israeli police presence, there was none of the factional violence that has seen rival clergy trade punches -- and even a stabbing -- in the past few years.A mass influx of Russian and other visitors from the former Soviet bloc, and the absence of many Palestinians denied permits from Israel to enter the Old City, confirmed the changing face of Christian rites in Jerusalem since the fall of Communism.The coincidence of the Easter calendars of the Eastern and Western churches has prompted ecumenical gatherings during Holy Week, notably among the dwindling Christian communities in the West Bank, where Israeli occupation and more militant Islam have fostered emigration in recent years, local church figures said.Roman Catholics and Protestants, however, eschew the Holy Fire rite; Western visitors have for centuries scoffed at the ceremony in which the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem produces a lighted candle from the sealed and empty tomb -- without the aid of matches or other, visible, terrestrial aids.At times, terrible stampedes have left worshippers injured or even killed. Several hundred died in a crush in 1834.
RIVAL CELEBRATIONS
For thousands of locals and foreigners packed in the many corners of the ancient church around the ornate stone tomb on the traditional site of the crucifixion and resurrection, the ritual progressed much as it is must have done for a millennium.
For hours, competing chants, singing and processions marked out areas of the church dominated by the Greek Orthodox and the Armenians, congregations which, with Roman Catholics, have the main rights to the Holy Sepulchre through an arrangement drafted under 19th century Ottoman Turkish rulers anxious for calm.Colorful, noisy groups from other denominations, including Copts from Egypt and Syrian Orthodox, added to the throng.A couple of dozen teenagers in uniform red T-shirts from one church group, Roman Catholic monks observing with detachment from the upper balconies, and a preponderance of heavy-set young men in clerical garb at the forefront of the main Greek and Armenian delegations lent an air of sporting competition.But fears of a showdown between the two denominations, whose clergy engaged in a widely televised bout of fisticuffs inside the church less than 18 months ago, proved unfounded.The Greek patriarch and a senior Armenian cleric both emerged from the tomb bearing the holy fire for their followers.In seconds, light spread around the darkened chapels as the delighted faithful lit one bunch of candles from flaming others.This is the greatest joy of my life,said 64-year-old Suhair Amin, who had travelled two days by bus from Egypt and said many of her Coptic fellows were denied entry to the church.
Competition for places has become particularly intense with Israel's opening of visa-free travel for Russians, tens of millions of whom have embraced the Orthodox Christianity long frozen out under Communism. One Russian attending on Saturday said he had paid $700 for a pass given by one denomination.Asked whether it was worth it, as the candle flames raced around the church, he was speechless, simply beaming in reply.Members of smaller but hitherto influential denominations in Jerusalem, like the Greeks and Armenians, are wary of the surge in numbers and money coming from Russia -- and of Israel's potential to use its control as a diplomatic bargaining chip with Moscow, at the expense of smaller churches.(Editing by Paul Casciato)
Israel warns of new Gaza assault as US urges restraint by Gavin Rabinowitz – Sat Apr 3, 6:07 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Friday threatened widescale military action against the Gaza Strip after launching a string of air strikes in response to rocket fire from the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave.However, the United States urged restraint on both sides, saying there was no military solution to the conflict.Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom warned of a new offensive on the coastal territory unless militant rocket attacks ceased.If this rocket fire against Israel does not stop, it seems we will have to raise the level of our activity and step up our actions against Hamas, Shalom told public radio.We won't allow frightened children to again be raised in bomb shelters and so, in the end, it will force us to launch another military operation.I hope we can avoid it, but it is one of the options we have, and if we don't have a choice, we will use it in the near future, he said.Three Palestinian children -- aged two, four and 11 -- were hit by flying glass in one of six overnight raids, said Moawiya Hassanein, head of the Palestinian emergency services in Gaza.
There were no other reports of casualties.
The head of the Islamist Hamas movement's government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniya, blamed the Jewish state for the increase in tensions.We call on the international community to intervene to stop this escalation and Israeli aggression, he said in a statement. Israel closer to death if it attacks Gaza: Ahmadinejad
In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters Israel has a right to self-defence. At the same, as we've said many times, we don't ultimately think there is a military solution to this, he said.Our message remains to the Israelis and Palestinians that we need to get the proximity talks going, focus on the substance, move to direct negotiations and ultimately arrive at a settlement that ends the conflict once and for all.Britain and France also expressed concern at the escalation, calling for restraint and the launch of US-backed indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.We call on all parties to show restraint,a Foreign Office spokeswoman said in London. We encourage Israelis and Palestinians to focus efforts on negotiation and to engage urgently in US-backed proximity talks.In Paris, France's foreign ministry echoed British concern.Any initiative likely to raise tension is not appropriate, not welcome, not constructive, said ministry spokesman Bernard Valero, urging all sides to act responsibly and take brave and necessary measures to restore trust.The air strikes came after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants landed near the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon late on Thursday, causing damage but no casualties, the military said.Nearly 20 rockets have been fired into Israel in the past month, including one that killed a Thai farm worker, in the worst violence since the end of Israel's 22-day assault on Gaza that began in December 2008. Since the war, which killed some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, Israel has routinely responded to rocket fire by targeting smuggling tunnels and workshops it says are used to make rockets. Three of the overnight Israeli strikes struck near Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. Two missiles hit a guard post of Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades.
A fourth raid destroyed a workshop in Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Hamas and witnesses said. In the other raids, a small dairy was destroyed in western Gaza City. The Israeli military said it hit a weapons manufacturing site in the northern Gaza Strip, a weapons manufacturing site in the central Gaza Strip and two weapons storage facilities in the southern Gaza Strip.The (army) holds Hamas as solely responsible for maintaining peace and quiet in the Gaza Strip, it said. Haniya said his government was in contact with other Palestinian factions to maintain the internal consensus (truce), to protect our people and strengthen our unity.The increased rocket attacks come amid tensions over Israel's settlement plans for annexed east Jerusalem that have stymied US efforts to launch peace talks and after fresh clashes along the Gaza-Israel border. Two Israeli soldiers, including an officer, were killed along with two Palestinian gunmen on March 26-27 when Israeli tanks made a brief incursion into Gaza.And on Tuesday, a Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli troops near the border of the blockaded coastal strip.
US says talks the solution in Mideast
Fri Apr 2, 2:26 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States called Friday on Israel and the Palestinians to pursue talks and said there was no military solution to the conflict after a flare-up in violence.The Israelis have a right to self-defense. At the same, as we've said many times, we don't ultimately think there is a military solution to this, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.Our message remains to the Israelis and Palestinians that we need to get the proximity talks going, focus on the substance, move to direct negotiations and ultimately arrive at a settlement that ends the conflict once and for all.Israel has launched a string of air strikes in the Gaza Strip and threatened wide-scale military action after rocket attacks from the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave.We are always concerned that steps taken by other side, legitimate or otherwise, can be misconstrued, can be twisted and ends up causing turbulence that can be an impediment to progress, Crowley said.The United States has been seeking to launch peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.But even before the latest violence, the efforts were stymied by disagreements between Israel and the United States over the Jewish state's settlement plans in annexed east Jerusalem.
Israeli planes and helicopters mount Gaza attacks
Fri Apr 2, 4:31 am ET
GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli planes and helicopters mounted at least seven missile attacks on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Friday, destroying what a military spokesman described as Palestinian munitions sites.Four air strikes blew up two caravans near the town of Khan Younis, witnesses and Hamas officials said. There were no casualties in this attack.A fifth missile hit a cheese factory in Gaza City, setting it on fire, the witnesses and Hamas officials said. Hospital officials said two children were slightly wounded by flying debris.Helicopters struck twice in the central refugee camp of Nusseirat, destroying a metal foundry and no one was injured.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the attacks, saying they had targeted two weapons-manufacturing plants and two arms caches.The air strikes were Israel's response to a Palestinian short-range rocket that was fired across the border into the Jewish state on Thursday, the spokesman said. The attack, which went unclaimed by any Palestinian faction, caused no damage.Israel has said it will hold Hamas responsible for any attacks on its cities from the Gaza Strip.Hamas's leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said the Islamist group was trying to reaffirm an agreement reached last year with other Palestinian factions to curb the rocket fire.An Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip early last year was designed to counter such salvoes. Rocket attacks have resumed sporadically in recent weeks and Israel has responded with air strikes.(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Dan Williams)
Palestinian PM sees statehood by August 2011
Fri Apr 2, 4:09 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Palestinian premier Salam Fayyad predicts a Palestinian state will be established by August 2011 through positive facts on the ground, in an interview published on Friday in an Israeli newspaper.The birth of a Palestinian state will be celebrated as a day of joy by the entire community of nations, Fayyad told the Haaretz daily.The time for this baby to be born will come, he said,and we estimate it will come around 2011, the prime minister said.That is our vision and a reflection of our will to exercise our right to live in freedom and dignity in the country (where) we are born, alongside the State of Israel, in complete harmony.
Fayyad's August 2011 target is based on a decision taken by the Palestinian leadership in August 2009 to establish a state within two years. Since then Fayyad has been building institutions for a de-facto state.If for one reason or another, by August 2011 (the plan) will have failed ... I believe we will have amassed such credit, in the form of positive facts on the ground, that the reality is bound to force itself on the political process to produce the outcome, Haaretz quoted him as saying.Palestinians have repeatedly said they will unilaterally declare a state or ask for UN recognition of their independence amid growing frustration with so-far ineffective US efforts to relaunch peace negotiations with Israel.The talks were suspended during the Gaza war of December 2008-January 2009.Israel, however, has warned of a tough response to a unilateral Palestinian declaration.US President Barack Obama's administration has so far been unable to convince Israelis and Palestinians to resume their peace talks, amid deep disagreements on the thorny issue of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.The Palestinians insist on a freeze of all settlement activity before talks restart, while Israel is offering a temporary and limited ease on construction, saying the issue will be resolved during final-status negotiations.
US wants Syria to act as key peace player
Thu Apr 1, 12:55 pm ET
DAMASCUS (AFP) – President Barack Obama's administration considers Syria a key player in Washington's efforts to revive the stalled Middle East peace process, US Senator John Kerry said in Damascus on Thursday.Syria is an essential player in bringing peace and stability to the region, Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a speech after meeting President Bashar al-Assad.Both the United States and Syria have a very deep interest... in having a very frank exchange on any differences (and) agreements that we have about the possibilities of peace in this region, he said in the statement.A summit of Arab leaders last weekend ruled out renewed Palestinian-Israeli peace talks unless the Jewish state halts all settlement building, particularly in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.There are things that the United States can do, there are things that Syria can do, there are things that Israel can do, Turkey can do, some are unilateral, some are multilateral, Kerry said.But all of us have to work together in order to seize real opportunities.
Obama's administration has pursued a year-long campaign to engage Syria, a former US foe, and energise its thwarted push for a broad Arab-Israeli peace, particularly between Israel and the Palestinians.Its decision in February to appoint the first US ambassador to Damascus in five years was evidence that engagement with Syria is a priority at the highest levels of our government,said the former US presidential candidate.Envoy Robert Ford is still awaiting US confirmation of his new post, but he will be an excellent representative of the president's policies and an outstanding envoy to the Syrian government, Kerry said.He also called on Syria to play a role to halt the supply of weapons to Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah.We also remain deeply concerned about the flow of weapons in this area, through this area, to Hezbollah. That is something that must stop in order to promote regional stability and security,Kerry said.
Hezbollah will not be silent if accused in Hariri murder by Natacha Yazbeck – Wed Mar 31, 5:01 pm ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday warned that his Shiite militant group would not remain silent if a UN probe into the murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri pointed its finger at his party.Accusing individual members of our party is equivalent to accusing Hezbollah, he said.That would take Lebanon to a very difficult place.We will not remain silent if we find we are facing political accusations, Nasrallah said in an interview with Hezbollah's Al-Manar television.The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon was set up by a UN Security Council resolution in 2007 to find and try suspects in the murder of Hariri, who was killed in a massive bomb blast on the Beirut seafront in February 2005.In its first annual report published in March, the tribunal said investigators were getting closer to identifying the suicide bomber who carried out the attack.Tension has been brewing in Lebanon after a flurry of press reports said the UN court was readying to accuse Hezbollah operatives in the Hariri murder.But the tribunal said the reports were mere speculation in a statement last week.Nasrallah confirmed the UN team investigating the murder had interrogated members of his party but said Hezbollah was not currently in the tribunal's line of fire.In the past few weeks the prosecutor's office in Beirut contacted a number of our brothers, some of them members of Hezbollah and others close to the party, and requested they come in for interrogation,he said.They called in 12 of our brothers in recent weeks, and I believe they are now in the process of summoning six more,Nasrallah added.
Representatives of the prosecutor's office guaranteed us that all those being interrogated were called in as witnesses, and not as suspects, at a semi-official meeting with representatives of Hezbollah,he said.The prosecutor's office has not until now accused any Hezbollah member. But we don't know what could happen in the future.The Shiite leader downplayed the tribunal's credibility, saying it had ruled out the possibility of archfoe Israel being behind the Hariri murder too soon and was leaking information to the press.But Nasrallah said the court still had a chance to rebuild trust and said his party would continue to cooperate with the UN team.
We will cooperate ... Hezbollah has nothing to fear,he said.None of the Hezbollah members interrogated so far were public figures, Nasrallah said, adding that the tribunal had also interrogated male and female party members in previous years.Some of our brothers and sisters were interrogated at the end of 2008, after the events of May 7 and right before the four generals were released, he said.He was referring to street battles that broke out in the Lebanese capital Beirut on May 7, 2008 -- the worst sectarian fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war -- pitting supporters of a Hezbollah-led alliance to those of a rival camp loyal to Hariri's son Saad Hariri, now Lebanon's prime minister. The clashes, sparked by a government crackdown on Hezbollah's private communications network, left over 100 people dead. Four Lebanese generals were detained for nearly four years in connection with Hariri's assassination but were released last April, after evidence against them was deemed insufficient. The Hariri murder has been widely blamed on Syria, a main backer of Hezbollah, although Damascus has roundly denied any involvement. A UN commission of inquiry said it had found evidence to implicate Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services prior to the tribunal's formation, but there are currently no suspects in custody.
U.S. seeks 4-month Jerusalem building freeze: report
Wed Mar 31, 5:40 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama wants Israel to freeze construction in East Jerusalem for four months in exchange for an attempt to renew stalled Israeli peace talks with Palestinians, an Israeli newspaper said on Wednesday.Washington hopes such a deal could persuade Palestinians to renew direct negotiations rather than indirect proximity talks, as had been planned, the Haaretz daily said, quoting an unnamed Israeli political source.A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reached by telephone, declined to comment.Asked about the report, Nabil Abu Rdainah, a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said: What is required is firstly a freeze to settlement in Jerusalem and in the rest of the West Bank before a return to any negotiations, direct or indirect.
Obama has also pressed Israel to stop building in East Jerusalem, which it captured along with the West Bank in a 1967 war and annexed.Officials said he asked Netanyahu in talks last week in Washington to introduce some unspecified goodwill gestures to help persuade Palestinians to renew peace negotiations suspended since December 2008.
Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, a claim that has not won international recognition. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they hope to establish in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel's Maariv newspaper at the weekend Washington's main demand of Israel was freezing construction in most of the Jewish neighborhoods, listing four in the East Jerusalem area.Lieberman called the demand completely unreasonable and said it had not been accepted by any senior cabinet ministers.Netanyahu, who has thus far resisted U.S. pressure on the Jerusalem issue, has held two inconclusive cabinet consultations on Washington's proposals, and officials have said these discussions would continue.The Haaretz newspaper said a consensus among ministers, who last met on Sunday, was that Israel would avoid declaring an outright building freeze in Jerusalem, and seek instead to achieve a quiet understanding on the issue.
Netanyahu's differences with the Obama administration on Jerusalem have put him in a political bind, as he seeks to avoid harming Israel's critical security ties with Washington while keeping his pro-settler ruling coalition from breaking apart.The Israeli leader excluded East Jerusalem from a 10-month moratorium he declared, under U.S. pressure, in November on new housing starts in West Bank settlements.(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah)(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Sarkozy joins Obama in condemning settlements
Tue Mar 30, 5:15 pm ET
WASHINGTON – France is standing with the United States in condemning Israeli settlement activity in east Jerusalem.French President Nicolas Sarkozy (sar-koh-ZEE') says his own commitment to Israel's security is well known but adds that the settlement activity in an area claimed by the Palestinians contributes nothing.
Speaking at a news conference with President Barack Obama after their White House meeting Tuesday, Sarkozy praised Obama for trying to engage the two sides in peace talks. Sarkozy said that the absence of peace in the region is a problem for all of us — and that it feeds terrorism around the world.
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