Palestinian PM urges US to draft Mideast peace plan
Sat Jul 18, 1:38 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad made a fresh appeal on Saturday to the United States for a plan and a timetable aimed at resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.I call anew on the United States to come up with a plan and a timetable for its application that will contribute to put an end to Jewish settlements and Israeli offensives, and lead to serious negotiations,Fayyad said.In a speech at the Qalandiya refugee camp he also said that the international community must bear its responsibilities in pushing Israel to respects its peace commitments.
Israel is turning its back on international legitimacy,he told hundreds of Palestinian refugees in the camp between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem.
Palestinian-Israeli peace talks relaunched at a US-hosted conference in November 2008 have been frozen since the end of 2008.During a landmark speech in Cairo in June, US President Barack Obama pledged to forge a state for Palestinians and rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to halt West Bank settlement expansion.At the time Fayyad said he saw hope for a new era in the speech.Last week the hawkish Netanyahu invited Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to meet him to restart the stalled peace negotiations.But the Palestinians have said they will not resume talks unless Israel freezes all Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank in line with US demands.The presence of more than 280,000 Jewish settlers in communities across the West Bank and another 200,000 in mostly Arab east Jerusalem has been a major stumbling block in past peace negotiations.
14 UN peacekeepers injured in Lebanon protest Sat Jul 18, 3:39 pm ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – Fourteen UN peacekeepers were injured in south Lebanon on Saturday when protesters tried to stop an investigation into an arms cache that exploded in a Hezbollah stronghold last week, a spokeswoman said.During the entire course of the incident, 14 UNIFIL soldiers were lightly injured and some UNIFIL vehicles were damaged, among them one ambulance from the investigation team,spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane told AFP.Ammunition stored in an abandoned house in the village of Khirbet Selm, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Israeli border, exploded on Tuesday. The area is widely considered to be a Hezbollah stronghold.The UN had launched an investigation into the cause of the blast in coordination with the Lebanese army, and Bouziane said around 100 people gathered on Saturday and tried to stop it by throwing stones at the troops.UNIFIL -- the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon -- called for reinforcements and one patrol was forced to fire warning shots into the air before it could pass, she added.The peacekeeping force has said the blasts marked a serious violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a devastating 34-day war between Israel and the Shiite militant group in the summer of 2006.Hezbollah has refused to disarm although Resolution 1701 reaffirms the need for militias in Lebanon to turn in their weapons. The Shiite group argues that its arsenal is needed to defend the country against Israel.Lebanese soldiers deployed in the south in the wake of the 2006 war for the first time in 30 years.UNIFIL, set up in 1978 to monitor the border between Israel and Lebanon, was considerably expanded after the 2006 conflict, which Israel launched after Hezbollah captured two of its soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid.
Israel slams civilian occupation of army post Sat Jul 18, 8:40 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The Israeli army strongly criticised on Saturday the brief occupation of one its observation posts by Lebanese civilian demonstrators, saying that they had put themselves in danger.An army spokesman charged that Friday's action in the unmanned post in a disputed area near the ceasefire line between the two neighbours was a breach of the UN Security Council truce resolution that brought an end to the devastating 2006 war between Israel and Shiite militant group Hezbollah.We consider this intrusion by Lebanese civilians to be a gross violation of UN Resolution 1701,the spokesman said.These civilians, who included children, put themselves in danger through their actions.Our forces deliberately refrained from intervening after establishing that these civilians were unarmed,the spokesman added.
Around 70 Lebanese, led by Shiite MP Qassem Hashem, cut through barbed wire and marched on the post in the Kfar Shuba hills which Israel set up earlier this week, an AFP correspondent said.The protesters put up Lebanese and Hezbollah flags just outside the post, before being asked by UN peacekeepers to evacuate the area.Shortly afterwards three Israeli tanks approached and soldiers were seen removing the flags.
The Lebanese army asked the UN on Tuesday to remove the Israeli outpost.But the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, which is charged with overseeing the 2006 ceasefire resolution, has said that it lies outside the area of its mandate.The post lies just outside the disputed Shebaa Farms -- a sliver of land rich in water resources located at the junction of southeast Lebanon, southwest Syria and north Israel.Israel seized the Shebaa Farms from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war as part of the Golan Heights, a territory it then annexed in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community.The area has since been caught in a tug-of-war over ownership, with the UN saying it is part of the Syria Golan Heights, while Damascus and Beirut insist it is Lebanese.
Arabs must talk to Israeli media: Bahrain's crown prince Fri Jul 17, 2:06 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Arab leaders must begin talking to the Israeli media to better communicate their desire for a lasting Middle East peace, Bahrain's crown prince said on Friday.We as Arabs have not done enough to communicate directly with the people of Israel,Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa wrote in an opinion article published in the Washington Post.The article was published alongside a commentary by former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert in Friday's paper.Al Khalifa said Arab leaders must tell our story more directly to the Israeli people by getting the message out to their media" and emphasizing support for the so-called Arab Initiative, which promises normalized relations between Israel and the Arab world in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian state.Essentially, we have not done a good enough job demonstrating to Israelis how our initiative can form part of a peace between equals in a trouble land holy to three great faiths,he wrote.The call came two days after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on the Arab world to take meaningful steps in support of Israeli-Palestinian peace.On Friday, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley described Al Khalifa's call for more engagement as a very, very welcome step.These are important gestures,he said.Last month, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called in The Wall Street Journal for Arab leaders to reach out to Israel in support of peace in the region.The Egyptian head of state called for leadership and concerted effort from all sides,and pledged that his country -- one of only two in the region to have signed a peace deal with Israel -- would continue to support efforts to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
Turkey warns on EU call for Palestinian state deadline Fri Jul 17, 12:49 pm ET
ANKARA (AFP) – Turkish President Abdullah Gul Friday cast doubt on a European Union call for a deadline for the creation of a Palestinian state, warning such a move could be counter-productive.Speaking after talks with visiting Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, Gul reiterated Turkey's support for an independent Palestinian state.
But we believe that any efforts to achieve that without the consent of the main players will not be of any use, and can even be harmful,Gul told a joint press conference.He said Turkey, which currently holds a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council, will do its best for the creation of Palestinian state on condition that a compromise is secured.EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said last week that a deadline should be set for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He said that if the two sides fail to meet it, the Security Council should proclaim a Palestinian state under a settlement backed by the international community.
Turkey has close ties with Israel and the Palestinians.
Abbas renewed calls on Israel to abide by the internationally adopted 2003 roadmap which requires Israel to halt all settlement activity and for the Palestinians to halt attacks against Israel.The Palestinians say they will not resume peace talks unless Israel ends settlement activity in the occupied West Bank in line with US demands, something that Israel's hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far rejected.Before wrapping up his visit later Friday, Abbas was to meet with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and inaugurate the new Palestinian mission building in Ankara, which was financed by Turkish government.Turkey has sought an active role in Middle East affairs, including efforts to bridge the gap between Abbas' Fatah faction and the radical movement Hamas. It also mediated four rounds of indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria.
Israel's Peres to visit Russia in mid-August
Fri Jul 17, 7:40 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel President Shimon Peres will visit Russia in mid-August at the invitation of Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, the president's office in Jerusalem announced on Friday.President Peres will meet President (Dmitry) Medvedev on August 18 at his summer residence on the Black Sea as part of a working visit, a presidential spokeswoman said.With the visit in mind, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday briefed Peres on talks he had held with Medvedev in Moscow in June, foreign ministry spokesman Tzahi Moshe told AFP.Lieberman had reiterated at that meeting that he was not opposed to Israel's participation in a Middle East conference which Russia wants to stage in Moscow, on condition that (Palestinian group) Hamas and (Lebanon's) Hezbollah are kept out,Moshe said.Israel will not agree to take part in such a conference if Hamas or Hezbollah are represented in a direct or indirect way,he added.Hamas, which rules the Gaza enclave, and Hezbollah both advocate armed struggle against Israel.
Anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jews visit Gaza By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jul 16, 3:39 pm ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Representatives of an anti-Zionist, ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect paid a brief visit to the Gaza Strip on Thursday on a solidarity mission with the area's militantly anti-Israel Hamas leaders.It was the first time envoys from the Neturei Karta have visited the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized control in June 2007.The sect denounces Israel's existence and traditionally embraces its enemies — including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom Neturei Karta members famously hugged at a Holocaust denial conference in December 2006.Four sect representatives from the U.S. sat down with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday, after crossing into the territory through Egypt the night before with dozens of other pro-Palestinian activists. Israel, which maintains a strict blockade of Gaza, would not let them cross through its passages with the territory.We feel your suffering, we cry your cry,said Rabbi Yisroel Weiss upon arriving Wednesday night.It is your land, it is occupied, illegitimately and unjustly by people who stole it, kidnapped the name of Judaism and our identity,said Weiss, wearing the black hat, black coat and long side-curls typical of ultra-Orthodox Jews. His delegation left early Thursday.Hamas seeks the destruction of the state of Israel and has killed more than 250 Israelis in suicide bombings. Israel, along with the U.S. and European Union, considers Hamas a terrorist group.During their Thursday meeting, Haniyeh told them he held no grudge against Jews, but against the state of Israel, according to a Hamas web site.Neturei Karta, Aramaic for Guardians of the City,was founded some 70 years ago in Jerusalem by Jews who opposed the drive to establish the state of Israel, believing only the Messiah could do that. Estimates of the group's size range from a few hundred to a few thousand.Representatives of the sect had previously visited Gaza when it was ruled by Fatah, Hamas' more secular rival.One acted as Yasser Arafat's adviser on Jewish affairs, and a delegation traveled to Paris in 2004 to pray for the Palestinian leader's health as he lay dying in a hospital. Months later, a group participated in a conference in Lebanon with Hamas and Hezbollah militants.
Syria tells US that it wants the Golan Heights back Thu Jul 16, 11:40 am ET
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told visiting US official Frederic Hof on Thursday that Damascus wants the Golan Heights back as part of any Middle East peace deal.Muallem stressed Syria's wish to recover Golan as far as the border of June 4, 1967, before Israel occupied the upland region in that year's six-day war, Sana official news agency reported.The Syrian minister reaffirmed his country's support for achieving a fair and global peace (deal) in the region in line with the principle of exchanging land for peace,the news agency said.Hof, deputy to American special Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell, reiterated the desire of the United States to work for a peace deal in the Middle East, Sana added.The US wants to play an active and balanced role to relaunch peace talks on all Syrian and Palestinian issues with Israel, the report quoted him as saying.Relations between the United States and Syria have begun to improve since Barack Obama became US president.
Washington announced on June 24 its decision to send an ambassador back to Damascus, the latest of a series of cautious signals from the Obama administration.The United States recalled its ambassador to Syria in 2005 after the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, which many blamed on Syria though it denies involvement.The embassy remained open directed by a charge d'affaires.Washington has accused Damascus of supporting terrorist groups, seeking to destabilise Lebanon and allowing transit through Syria of weapons for fighters in Iraq.
Israel anti-missile system passes live fire test By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer – Wed Jul 15, 3:48 pm ET
JERUSALEM – A homegrown Israeli missile defense system performed well in its first live trial, bringing down a short-range rocket similar to those used by Palestinian and Lebanese militants, an Israeli Defense Minister official said Wednesday.Spokesman Shlomo Dror told The Associated Press that a missile from the Iron Dome system intercepted and destroyed a Grad rocket. He did not say when or exactly where the system was tested, but the Web site of local daily Yediot Ahronot said the trials were held during the past week.Dror said that while the missile's guidance and control systems have been tested several times in the past, this was the first trial under live battle conditions.The laser-based system is scheduled to be fully-operational by the end of next year.Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired dozens of Grads, and hundreds of smaller homemade rockets, into southern Israel during a three-week Israeli offensive last winter. Dror said Iron Dome was equally effective against both types of rockets.The Grad is also similar to the Katyusha rockets used by the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, which fired almost 4,000 of them across Israel's northern border during fierce fighting in 2006.Israel has been looking at anti-rocket systems since 2003 but put the search into high gear after the summer 2006 war.Developed at a cost of over $200 million, the Iron Dome system is intended to eventually be integrated into a multilayered defense umbrella to meet all missile threats.Its manufacturer, state-owned Rafael is also working with U.S. company Raytheon Co. to develop a system against medium-range missiles.
To meet long-range threats, such as an Iranian attack, Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. and Chicago-based Boeing Co. are producing the Arrow missile, which has been successfully tested and partially deployed.The most advanced version, the Arrow II, was specifically designed to counter Iran's Shahab ballistic missile, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.The Shahab-3 has a range of up to 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers), putting Israel well within striking distance.Israel sees Iran as its biggest threat, citing the country's nuclear program and its development of long-range ballistic missiles. Those fears have been compounded by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated references to the destruction of the Jewish state.
Israel says Lebanon blast a secret Hezbollah cache By Dan Williams Dan Williams – Wed Jul 15, 1:53 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Hezbollah guerrillas have secretly stockpiled rockets and other arms in southern Lebanon, Israel said on Wednesday, citing as proof the explosion of a suspected cache in the U.N.-patrolled truce zone.Tuesday morning's blast hit a Hezbollah arsenal in the village of Khirbet Selim, near the Israeli border, a Lebanese security source said, adding that it was not clear how old the ordnance was.
Hezbollah had no comment on the incident. UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeper force that was beefed up after Israel and Hezbollah fought a 2006 war in south Lebanon, said it and the Lebanese army were conducting an investigation.Israel has accused Iranian- and Syrian-sponsored Hezbollah of rearming in the former battlegrounds, a violation of the U.N. Security Council ceasefire resolution. Israel has itself been in breach by continuing military overflights of the area.Briefing reporters, a top Israeli military official said Tuesday's blast had rocked the area and destroyed a building.
Denying knowledge of what had caused the explosion, the official described the site as one of dozens of ammunition and rocket storage (sites) in south Lebanon.Hezbollah quickly cordoned off the blast site and took items away, the Israeli official said, adding that the Lebanese army let Hezbollah manage this event and (did) not help UNIFIL do its job in the area.Even if the UNIFIL forces want to go somewhere, the Hezbollah forces do not let them do so. There is a kind of understanding among all the forces that everyone knows who is the strong one,the official said in English.
Asked about the incident, UNIFIL said it was investigating in line with its mandate.
Yesterday we couldn't access the area because of security reasons. The area was not safe enough because there was still a potential risk of fire or explosion. But we cordoned off the area and this morning we were able to access the area,said a UNIFIL spokesman, Andrea Tenenti.From preliminary information that we have, the incident was an explosion caused by a deflagration of ammunitions.The Lebanese army said in a statement that it had secured the area after the explosion, which it described as having taken place in one of the deserted buildings of Khirbet Selim.Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri's U.S.-backed coalition secured a victory in Lebanon's June 7parliamentary election.Hariri has been holding talks over the shape of the new government which is expected to group his March 14 alliance, backed by countries like Saudi Arabia, with rivals including Hezbollah.(Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Beirut, Editing by Matthew Jones)
Hebrew-only road signs racist: Arab League
Wed Jul 15, 12:56 pm ET
CAIRO (AFP) – The Cairo-based Arab League denounced on Wednesday an Israeli decision to scrap Arabic and English names on road signs and keep only Hebrew ones, branding the move as racist.This is a grave racist move,said Mohammed Sobeih, the deputy secretary general in charge of Palestinian affairs at the 22-member organisation, in a statement carried by the official Egyptian news agency MENA.The Israeli transport ministry said on Monday that it will get rid of Arabic and English names for cities and towns on road signs, keeping only the Hebrew ones.This decision is part of a series of measures and Israeli policies aimed at imposing the Jewish state motto, Sobeih said.He also urged all international organisations... to oppose, as firmly as possible, this racist decision,MENA reported.Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz told the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper that the move was a response to the Palestinian refusal to use Hebrew names for some Israeli towns.On Palestinian maps, Israeli towns are often still identified with the Arabic names used before the 1948 war when Israel was created, he said.Currently Israeli road signs are written in Hebrew, Arabic and English, with the city names in each language.Jerusalem is identified as Yerushalaim in Hebrew, Jerusalem in English and Al-Quds in Arabic but under the new policy the Holy City will only be identified as Yerushalaim in all three languages.Israel gave Hebrew names, often of biblical origin, to many villages, towns and areas that came under its control following the 1948 war.
West Bank economy on the mend, says IMF by Yana Dlugy – Wed Jul 15, 10:50 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The West Bank economy can post its best result in several years if Israel continues to relax restrictions on internal trade and movement, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.Macroeconomic conditions in the West Bank have improved, reflecting a relaxation of Israeli restrictions on internal trade and improved security conditions,the IMF said in a statement that marked a rare positive assessment of the Palestinian economy.Real GDP growth in the West Bank could stand at seven percent in 2009, compared with some four percent in 2008, if Israel continues easing the massive web of restrictions on the movement of goods and people that it imposed on the Palestinian territory in the wake of the second intifada in 2000.This would represent the first significant improvement in living standards in the West Bank since 2006,the statement said.The trade has been so restricted up till now, if all of the sudden you relax them, you're going to have growth,said Oussama Kanaan, the IMF chief of mission in the West Bank and Gaza.
The situation in Gaza however remains much more dismal, the statement said.
While the Gaza blockade has been relaxed somewhat compared to the situation before the war last January, including on the transfer of cash to banks, restrictions on a wide range of non-humanitarian goods remains tight and decisions by the Israeli authorities on cash entry are still being undertaken on an ad hoc basis.Unemployment in the Palestinian territories remains high, with 20 percent in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and 34 percent in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, it said.If Israel continues to ease its restrictions, overall GDP growth in the West Bank and Gaza in 2009 is expected to stand at five percent, compared with the 2.3 percent in 2008.The IMF statement also praised steady progress that has been made by the Palestinian Authority in institution building and reforms since Salam Fayyad, a respected economist and a former Fund official, became prime minister in 2007.The Palestinian Authority also has made impressive strides in strengthening the public financial management system, which has helped prioritise and raise the quality of public expenditure.These economic and financial reforms have complemented the PA's security reforms to bolster confidence of both the private and public sectors.In order to sustain economic growth in the medium term, the PA must continue with reforms and a prudent fiscal policy, Israel must continue to ease trade restrictions and donors would have to make good on their pledges, it said.Sustainable GDP growth will require not only the removal of internal trade restrictions, but also the removal of trade restrictions between the Palestinian territories and Israel.Under this scenario, GDP growth would rise to some eight percent by 2012 and the deficit would fall to 10 percent from the 20 percent where it stood at 2008, it said.
Blair says West Bank bottom-up effort gets result Tue Jul 14, 11:51 am ET
NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) – Improving conditions for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank prove that a Palestinian state can be built from the bottom up while it's being negotiated from the top down,Tony Blair said Tuesday.The Middle East envoy said on a visit to the central city of Nablus that the Palestinian Authority's improving security capability together with Israel's easing of some checkpoints had delivered some economic progress.Blair, representing the Quartet of Middle East mediators made up of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, also said he believed U.S.-led efforts to revive the stalled peace process would soon lead to talks.The Americans are working very hard on this ... in the next few weeks, next few months, we're going to see the launch of credible political negotiations,he told Reuters in Nablus.Blair said the economy in Nablus was improving because the Palestinians are providing their own security today, and doing it well, and the Israelis are starting to lift the access and movement restrictions.There could be immense change here,he said, if talks went in parallel with bottom-up efforts, including providing the security, lifting the weight of occupation, allowing the Palestinians to move and getting the economy going.Palestinian militants were in control of Nablus, the former West Bank commercial hub, during a violent uprising that erupted in 2000. Until weeks ago Israeli troops operated a major checkpoint controlling access to the city.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposes support for the Palestinian economy while negotiating the creation of a state with limited sovereignty, provided Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state -- which they have rejected.(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta and Atef Saad; Writing by Douglas Hamilton, editing by Dominic Evans)
Two Israeli warships cross Suez Canal Tue Jul 14, 11:21 am ET
ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) – Two Israeli warships passed through Egypt's Suez Canal on Tuesday heading to the Red Sea on a mission to stop arms smuggling to Palestinian-ruled Gaza, sources said.A Suez Canal Authority source named the warships as the Eilat and Hanit and said the Hanit had passed through the canal twice in June.This is part of an Israeli effort to stop arms smuggling to Gaza,a security source, who declined to be identified by name or nationality, told Reuters.
Israel declined to comment.
The Jewish state has regular patrols to stop arms getting into the Palestinian enclave on the Mediterranean coast. The 193 km-long waterway links the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.In January, Sudanese authorities reported that a convoy of arms smugglers had been hit by the air in Sudan's eastern Red Sea state, a strike that some reports said may have been carried out by Israel to stop weapons bound for Gaza.
Egypt, the only country apart from Israel to border Gaza, says most of the arms smuggled into the Palestinian area arrive by sea rather than through tunnels on its land border.The Israeli submarine crossed the canal in June as part of a naval drill which Israeli defense sources described as a show of strategic reach in the face of a perceived threat from Iran.Israel, like many Western nations, accuses Iran of seeking to build nuclear bombs, a charge Tehran denies. Israel is the only Middle East state believed to possess nuclear weapons.Both ships are Saar-5 class corvettes. The Eilat is the second Israeli naval vessel of that name after the first, a destroyer, was sunk by the Egyptian navy after the 1967 war. The Hanit was damaged off Lebanon's coast in the 2006 war.(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed in Ismaili, Ori Lewis, Allyn Fisher-Ilan and Dan Williams in Jerusalem, writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
In Israel, US envoy maps peace with Syria By Ilene R. Prusher – Tue Jul 14, 5:00 am ET
Jerusalem – The arrival in Jerusalem of a US diplomat with a longstanding interest in bringing about Israeli-Syrian peace is fueling speculation that the Obama administration is trying to relaunch negotiations between Jerusalem and Damascus.
Frederic C. Hof, a conflict resolution expert and senior adviser to US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, arrived in Israel Sunday. He will remain through Wednesday, and is meeting with a variety of Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak and senior military officers, before continuing to Damascus for talks.Yediot Aharonoth, Israel's largest circulation newspaper, reports that Mr. Hof is in the process of presenting the draft of a plan for Israeli-Syrian peace that would find solutions to the two countries' dispute over the Golan Heights, a territory Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed. While Israeli officials have declined to comment on whether such a plan is being floated, Mr. Hof's vision was outlined in part in March when he published a report, Mapping Peace Between Syria and Israel,with the United States Institute for Peace in Washington. (Click here for the full report in pdf format.)An American embassy official in Tel Aviv confirmed that Hof was here exploring peace concepts with various officials in the region.The status of the Golan Heights is the main obstacle to Israeli-Syrian peace, which various efforts have failed to secure in recent years. In 2008, Israel and Syria conducted back-channel discussions facilitated by Turkey, but Syrian President Bashar al-Assad suspended the talks in protest over the January war in Gaza.However, then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who left office in late January, was optimistic that the talks would resume and eventually produce an accord.We started negotiations with Syria and... at the end of the day, we will be able to reach an agreement that will end the conflict between us and the Syrians,he said in a speech.
Hof envisions environmental preserve in Golan Heights
A key facet of the deal would involve shared water resources and the creation of a Jordan Valley-Golan Heights Environmental Preserve. While Israeli settlements would be dismantled, the plan envisions both Israelis and Syrians having free access to the territory for the purposes of tourism, among other things. In addition to mitigating Israeli concerns about the return of sensitive territories and providing a venue for informal people-to-people contacts, the Jordan Valley-Golan Heights Environmental Preserve approach would give the parties a good platform for practical bilateral cooperation even as the ink on a peace treaty is drying, allowing for a constructive, confidence-building start to the implementation phase of the withdrawal process," the report says, according to the USIP's website.
Israelis dampen expectations
Israeli officials have tried to downplay expectations over Hof's visit, noting that a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not on the schedule. Officials in Mr. Netanyahu's office have indicated that the emphasis should continue to be placed on reaching a two-state with the Palestinians. Uzi Arad, Netanyhau's national security adviser, said in a weekend interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Israel would not consider any peace deal that would prevent it from staying deep into the Golan Heights,a definition sure to be off-putting to Syrian negotiators. The Syrians are certainly aware that the Netanyahu government and the majority of the public will not leave the Golan Heights,Dr. Arad said in the interview.There are more than two dozen Israeli settlements in the area, with 9,000 settlers living there.
Israeli spokesman: It's Syria that's stalling talks
A spokesman for Netanyahu says that Syria should not expect Israel to agree to preconditions – such as recognizing verbal agreements that are said to have been made by the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in the 1990s. Israel, in return, would be ready to talk to Syria, despite its disinclination to do so, given support in Damascus for Hamas and Hizbullah.We are ready for negotiations with the Syrians without preconditions, but it's the Syrians who are putting all sorts of preconditions on the talks that prevent them from happening, says Mark Regev, a spokesman for Netanyahu.They're actively supporting both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, not just political support but very tangible support. If we wanted to say no talks until that stops, we could.The Obama administration decided in June to send an ambassador to Damascus, ending a four-year hiatus in diplomatic ties.
Obama talks of progress on Israeli settlements Mon Jul 13, 10:07 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama indicated to Jewish-American leaders on Monday that the United States and Israel are making progress in bridging their differences on the issue of Jewish settlements.Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have differed sharply on Israeli settlements on the occupied West Bank. The United States wants a complete halt to settlement construction, a demand that has opened the most serious rift in U.S.-Israeli relations in a decade.Israel has raised the possibility it might temporarily refrain from starting new building projects -- while continuing many under way -- in return for steps toward a regional peace agreement, including progress on Arab states normalizing relations with Israel.
U.S. envoy George Mitchell and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak have conducted a series of talks on the issue.Obama, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and political adviser David Axelrod sat down with 16 Jewish-American leaders to discuss the Middle East and other issues.He (Obama) said that there is more progress than appears in the negotiations and spoke quite positively of the tracks between Mitchell and Barak and between the two administrations, said one participant, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.One major obstacle has been Israel's insistence on allowing some natural growth of existing settlements.Hoenlein said Obama indicated that there might be some opening for an understanding between the two parties. I don't know what the understanding is.Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of J Street, a pro-Israel lobby group in Washington, said Obama stressed that further expansion of settlements was not in the interest of the United States or Israel.The president said that the gaps are narrowing and he did allude to progress and his hope that an agreement would be reached. He definitely alluded to that,Ben-Ami said.
He said members of the group urged Obama to visit Israel.
Rabbi Steven Wernick, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, said Obama stressed that he was also pressing the Palestinians to take steps necessary for peace.A spokesman for Stephen Savitsky, president of the Orthodox Union, said there was concern about what appeared to be one-sided pressure on Israel. The spokesman said Obama indicated that he intends in coming weeks to make more public what is being done to nudge the Palestinians as well.A White House statement said Obama reiterated his unshakable commitment to Israel's security, and reiterated his commitment to working to achieve Middle East peace.(Reporting by David Alexander and Steve Holland, editing by Vicki Allen)
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
LIEBERMAN TRADES BARBES WITH ARABS
Britain revokes five Israeli arms export licences Mon Jul 13, 10:29 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Britain has revoked five Israeli arms export licences over the Gaza war, blocking the supply of replacement parts to navy gunships used in the offensive, officials and reports said on Monday.The Foreign Office told the Israeli embassy in London last week that following a decision by parliament, Great Britain will stop the sale of certain arms to Israel, a senior official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The move came after the British government reviewed all 182 licences for arms exports to Israel and ultimately decided to cancel five, which cover spare parts for Saar missile boats, said the Haaretz daily.By participating in the Gaza war, the boats violated the security agreements between Britain and Israel, which specify what uses may be made of British equipment, Haaretz quoted the British directive as saying.The British embassy in Israel said in a statement that there is no partial arms embargo on Israel as such a move would not improve the current situation in the Middle East.In light of Operation Cast Lead, and in line with our obligations after a conflict, we conducted a review of extant export licences for Israel,it said.We judged that in a small number of cases Israeli action in Operation Cast Lead would result in the export of those goods now contravening the consolidated criteria. These licences have been revoked.We do not grant export licences where there is a clear risk that arms will be used for external aggression or internal repression,it said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman brushed off the sanctions, telling public radio: We've had many embargoes in the past... We can manage. This shouldn't bother us.Israel launched its devastating three-week war on Gaza in December. More than 1,400Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the offensive that has been widely criticised around the globe.
Israel's Lieberman trades barbs with Palestinians Mon Jul 13, 10:26 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's controversial Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman fanned the flames of a diplomatic feud on Monday when he cast doubt on the right of president Mahmud Abbas to represent the Palestinians.The more Abu Mazen's authority and legitimacy decline, the more he increases his demands and the more rigid he becomes in his attitude, Lieberman told Israeli public radio, referring to Abbas by his popular nickname.Today you have Fatah-land in Judea and Samaria (the Hebrew name for the occupied West Bank) and Hamastan in Gaza, Lieberman told Israeli radio, referring to Abbas's Fatah party and the Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza.And who exactly does Abu Mazen represent? Only half the people, at best.Lieberman went on to mock remarks made by Abbas to an Egyptian newspaper that he should be replaced as foreign minister, calling it a compliment.All of Abu Mazen's demands are simply a reflection of his distress and inability to conduct negotiations and spearhead a true political process,he added.The demand for a (settlement) freeze is not legitimate either.Lieberman's comments drew an angry response from the Palestinian leadership, which accused him of using diversion tactics to mask Israel's failure to halt settlement building in the West Bank.Israel?s foreign minister is hoping to deflect attention away from Israel?s refusal to implement its obligations,Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said in a statement.Monday's fiery exchange was the latest in a row that erupted over the weekend after Abbas told the Egyptian press that Israel would be better off without its outspoken foreign minister.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had painted himself into a corner by bringing Lieberman's ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party into his government, Abbas told Egypt's October weekly magazine.The Palestinian president said that Tzipi Livni, the leader of the opposition and one of Lieberman's chief political adversaries,would have been much better as a coalition partner.Livni was foreign minister under the previous government led by Ehud Olmert, who joined with Abbas to relaunch the peace process under US auspices at an international conference in November 2007.Despite repeated invitations from Netanyahu, the Palestinians have said they will not hold any negotiations with him until Israel freezes all Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank in line with US demands.
Israel rejects call for Palestinian state deadline by Marius Schattner – Mon Jul 13, 8:58 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Monday rejected a European Union call for the United Nations to recognise a Palestinian state by a certain deadline even if Israel and Palestinians fail to agree on a peace deal.A peace agreement can come only following direct negotiations and cannot be imposed, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told public radio.Lieberman was commenting on a speech by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in London on Saturday in which he called for the international community to set a deadline for recognising the state of Palestine.The mediator has to set the timetable, Solana said, according to a transcript of his speech. If the parties are not able to stick to it, then a solution backed by the international community should ... be put on the table.After a fixed deadline, a UN Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the two-state solution. This should include all the parameters of borders, refugees, Jerusalem and security arrangements, he said.It would accept the Palestinian state as a full member of the UN, and set a calendar for implementation. It would mandate the resolution of other remaining territorial disputes and legitimise the end of claims.A spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said UN recognition would be one option if Israel derails the efforts of US President Barack Obama's administration and its vision of a two-state solution.Europe, as a member of the international Quartet, must continue in its efforts to apply pressure to Israel to freeze the settlements and stop wasting time, Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.But the Israeli foreign ministry blasted Solana's call, which would effectively impose a solution to the decades-old Middle East conflict.
Any approach that calls for an artificial deadline undermines the prospects of actually reaching a bilateral agreement,it said in a statement.Israel has come under increasing pressure from its closest ally Washington to take steps in the stalled peace process, such as freezing all settlement activity on occupied land, but the right-leaning government led by hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to do so.Israel and the Palestinians revived peace negotiations at an international conference in November 2007, but the talks were put on ice after Israel launched its war against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in December.The Palestinians have said they will not return to the negotiating table unless Israel freezes all settlement activity, one of the main obstacles in the hobbled peace process.On Sunday, Netanyahu called on Abbas to meet him to restart talks. I say to the leader of the Palestinian Authority, let's meet to reach a political and economic peace, he said at Israel's weekly cabinet meeting.Netanyahu has said he will not allow new settlements to be built but will permit construction in annexed east Jerusalem and existing settlement blocs that Israel intends to keep in any future peace deal.The premier has spoken on the phone with Abbas since being sworn into office on March 31, but he has yet to meet the Palestinian leader.
Israeli minister dismisses Solana's peace ideas Mon Jul 13, 7:50 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel on Monday dismissed and the Palestinians welcomed a call by the European Union's foreign policy chief for U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state if negotiators fail to achieve a peace agreement.Peace must be built, not imposed,Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio, questioning whether remarks made by the EU's Javier Solana in a lecture in London on Saturday represented the policies of the European Union.With all due respect to Solana, he's about to retire ... and we should not overstate the importance of his statement,Lieberman said.
Solana said mediators should set a timetable for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement and if the parties are not able to stick to it, then a solution backed by the international community should be put on the table.After such a deadline has passed, he said, a U.N. Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the two-state solution and accept a Palestinian state as a full member of the United Nations.Asked about Solana's proposal, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said: We do not object. It's time for the international community to stop treating Israel as above the laws of man.Israeli-Palestinian peace talks backed by a quartet of international mediators -- the European Union, the United States, the United Nations and Russia -- are frozen.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will not revive the negotiations unless Israel halts settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, in accordance with a 2003 peace road map that commits the Palestinians to rein in militants.U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, was due to return to the region soon, U.S. officials said, for further talks with Israel on ending a rift with Washington over halting construction within settlements.No date has been announced for the visit, but Erekat said Mitchell would arrive in 10 days' time.(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Anne Jolis in Brussels; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)
Israel to keep only Hebrew names on road signs Mon Jul 13, 4:23 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The Israeli transport ministry said on Monday that it will get rid of Arabic and English names for cities and towns on road signs, keeping only the Hebrew terms.Minister Yisrael Katz took this decision that will be progressively applied,a ministry spokeswoman told AFP.Currently Israeli road signs are written in Hebrew, Arabic and English, with the city names in each language. So Jerusalem is identified as Yerushalaim in Hebrew, Jerusalem in English and Al-Quds in Arabic (along with Yerushalaim written in Arabic script).Under the new policy the Holy City will only be identified as Yerushalaim in all three languages. Nazareth (Al-Nasra in Arabic) will be identified as Natzrat and Jaffa (Jaffa in Arabic) will only be written as Yafo.Katz told the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot that the move was a response to the Palestinian refusal to use Hebrew names for some Israeli towns.On Palestinian maps, Israeli towns are often still identified with the Arabic names used before the 1948 war when Israel was created, he said.Israel gave Hebrew names, often of biblical origin, to many villages, towns and areas that came under its control following the 1948 war.Elections earlier this year brought a right-wing coalition to power that includes the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, which has demanded Israel's Arab minority demonstrate greater loyalty to the Jewish state.Israel's 1.2 million Arab citizens account for 20 percent of its population and are descended from Palestinians who remained inside Israel following the 1948 war and the creation of the state.
Israeli PM calls on Abbas to meet Sun Jul 12, 9:19 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to meet him to restart stalled Middle East peace negotiations.I say to the leader of the Palestinian Authority, let's meet to reach a political and economic peace, Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting.The hawkish premier has previously called on the Palestinians to revive peace talks that were relaunched in November 2007 but suspended after Israel launched its three-week war on Gaza in late December.The Palestinians have said they would not resume talks unless Israel freezes all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank in line with US demands, something that Netanyahu has so far refused to do.As we have said before, what is required... is for all parties, Palestinian and Israeli, to fulfill their obligations under the roadmap,Abbas told reporters in Ramallah.The internationally adopted 2003 roadmap agreement requires Israel to halt all settlement activity -- including the so-called natural growth of existing settlements -- and for the Palestinians to halt attacks against Israel.Netanyahu has said he will not allow new settlements to be built but will permit construction in annexed east Jerusalem and existing settlement blocs that Israel intends to keep in any future peace deal.
Sunday's cabinet meeting was held in the desert town of Beersheva instead of Jerusalem to show the government's commitment to development in the Negev desert.
Netanyahu has spoken on the phone with Abbas since being sworn into office on March 31, but he has yet to meet the Palestinian leader.The presence of more than 280,000 Jewish settlers in communities across the West Bank and another 200,000 in mostly Arab east Jerusalem has been a major stumbling block in past peace negotiations.
Israeli-Palestinian peace not moving forward: French FM Fri Jul 10, 1:14 pm ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – The peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is not moving forward" though there is progress in the Middle East as a whole, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Friday.In the region, things are moving... countries such as Syria and Saudi Arabia appear to be moving closer to one another, Kouchner said after meeting Lebanese President Michel Sleiman.In the Middle East, things seem to be advancing. But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not moving forward -- on the contrary,Kouchner said in Beirut.The situation is a worry for France but we are very hopeful that this will move forward as well, meaning (the creation of) a viable, independent Palestinian state that can live in peace side by side with Israel, he added.The French minister reiterated a call for Israel to freeze its settlement activity and urged the Jewish state to resume peace talks.Israel has refused to stop construction work in settlements in occupied territory, which the international community considers illegal and which is one of the major obstacles in the hobbled Middle East peace process.In a move considered a sign of rapprochement, Saudi Arabia in June named an ambassador to Syria after leaving the post vacant for a year.Relations between the two had soured following the allegedly Syrian-linked 2005 assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, who was close to the Saudi monarchy. Damascus has denied any link.Riyadh was also unhappy about Damascus's warm relations with Saudi arch-rival Iran and their support for the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.Diplomats in Riyadh say the Saudis have viewed approvingly Damascus's apparent non-interference in Lebanon's recent elections, which led to the designation of Hariri's son, Saad Hariri, as next prime minister.Kouchner, who on Friday held talks with officials including Hariri and Hezbollah international relations chief Nawaf Moussawi, called for the formation of a Lebanese government without any foreign intervention.It is up to the prime minister-designate to form a government (after consultations) within Lebanon or abroad, whatever he wants, Kouchner told reporters. It is not for France to advise on this.The French FM also said he was pleased with the improvement of his country's relations with Syria, Lebanon's former powerbroker.I am not unaware that Syria continues to be important in this part of the world, and we are pleased to have established normal relations with Syria,he said.Kouchner heads to Damascus on Saturday for a two-day visit.
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Britain has revoked five Israeli arms export licences over the Gaza war, blocking the supply of replacement parts to navy gunships used in the offensive, officials and reports said on Monday.The Foreign Office told the Israeli embassy in London last week that following a decision by parliament, Great Britain will stop the sale of certain arms to Israel, a senior official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The move came after the British government reviewed all 182 licences for arms exports to Israel and ultimately decided to cancel five, which cover spare parts for Saar missile boats, said the Haaretz daily.By participating in the Gaza war, the boats violated the security agreements between Britain and Israel, which specify what uses may be made of British equipment, Haaretz quoted the British directive as saying.The British embassy in Israel said in a statement that there is no partial arms embargo on Israel as such a move would not improve the current situation in the Middle East.In light of Operation Cast Lead, and in line with our obligations after a conflict, we conducted a review of extant export licences for Israel,it said.We judged that in a small number of cases Israeli action in Operation Cast Lead would result in the export of those goods now contravening the consolidated criteria. These licences have been revoked.We do not grant export licences where there is a clear risk that arms will be used for external aggression or internal repression,it said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman brushed off the sanctions, telling public radio: We've had many embargoes in the past... We can manage. This shouldn't bother us.Israel launched its devastating three-week war on Gaza in December. More than 1,400Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the offensive that has been widely criticised around the globe.
Israel's Lieberman trades barbs with Palestinians Mon Jul 13, 10:26 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's controversial Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman fanned the flames of a diplomatic feud on Monday when he cast doubt on the right of president Mahmud Abbas to represent the Palestinians.The more Abu Mazen's authority and legitimacy decline, the more he increases his demands and the more rigid he becomes in his attitude, Lieberman told Israeli public radio, referring to Abbas by his popular nickname.Today you have Fatah-land in Judea and Samaria (the Hebrew name for the occupied West Bank) and Hamastan in Gaza, Lieberman told Israeli radio, referring to Abbas's Fatah party and the Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza.And who exactly does Abu Mazen represent? Only half the people, at best.Lieberman went on to mock remarks made by Abbas to an Egyptian newspaper that he should be replaced as foreign minister, calling it a compliment.All of Abu Mazen's demands are simply a reflection of his distress and inability to conduct negotiations and spearhead a true political process,he added.The demand for a (settlement) freeze is not legitimate either.Lieberman's comments drew an angry response from the Palestinian leadership, which accused him of using diversion tactics to mask Israel's failure to halt settlement building in the West Bank.Israel?s foreign minister is hoping to deflect attention away from Israel?s refusal to implement its obligations,Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said in a statement.Monday's fiery exchange was the latest in a row that erupted over the weekend after Abbas told the Egyptian press that Israel would be better off without its outspoken foreign minister.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had painted himself into a corner by bringing Lieberman's ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party into his government, Abbas told Egypt's October weekly magazine.The Palestinian president said that Tzipi Livni, the leader of the opposition and one of Lieberman's chief political adversaries,would have been much better as a coalition partner.Livni was foreign minister under the previous government led by Ehud Olmert, who joined with Abbas to relaunch the peace process under US auspices at an international conference in November 2007.Despite repeated invitations from Netanyahu, the Palestinians have said they will not hold any negotiations with him until Israel freezes all Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank in line with US demands.
Israel rejects call for Palestinian state deadline by Marius Schattner – Mon Jul 13, 8:58 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Monday rejected a European Union call for the United Nations to recognise a Palestinian state by a certain deadline even if Israel and Palestinians fail to agree on a peace deal.A peace agreement can come only following direct negotiations and cannot be imposed, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told public radio.Lieberman was commenting on a speech by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in London on Saturday in which he called for the international community to set a deadline for recognising the state of Palestine.The mediator has to set the timetable, Solana said, according to a transcript of his speech. If the parties are not able to stick to it, then a solution backed by the international community should ... be put on the table.After a fixed deadline, a UN Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the two-state solution. This should include all the parameters of borders, refugees, Jerusalem and security arrangements, he said.It would accept the Palestinian state as a full member of the UN, and set a calendar for implementation. It would mandate the resolution of other remaining territorial disputes and legitimise the end of claims.A spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said UN recognition would be one option if Israel derails the efforts of US President Barack Obama's administration and its vision of a two-state solution.Europe, as a member of the international Quartet, must continue in its efforts to apply pressure to Israel to freeze the settlements and stop wasting time, Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.But the Israeli foreign ministry blasted Solana's call, which would effectively impose a solution to the decades-old Middle East conflict.
Any approach that calls for an artificial deadline undermines the prospects of actually reaching a bilateral agreement,it said in a statement.Israel has come under increasing pressure from its closest ally Washington to take steps in the stalled peace process, such as freezing all settlement activity on occupied land, but the right-leaning government led by hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to do so.Israel and the Palestinians revived peace negotiations at an international conference in November 2007, but the talks were put on ice after Israel launched its war against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in December.The Palestinians have said they will not return to the negotiating table unless Israel freezes all settlement activity, one of the main obstacles in the hobbled peace process.On Sunday, Netanyahu called on Abbas to meet him to restart talks. I say to the leader of the Palestinian Authority, let's meet to reach a political and economic peace, he said at Israel's weekly cabinet meeting.Netanyahu has said he will not allow new settlements to be built but will permit construction in annexed east Jerusalem and existing settlement blocs that Israel intends to keep in any future peace deal.The premier has spoken on the phone with Abbas since being sworn into office on March 31, but he has yet to meet the Palestinian leader.
Israeli minister dismisses Solana's peace ideas Mon Jul 13, 7:50 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel on Monday dismissed and the Palestinians welcomed a call by the European Union's foreign policy chief for U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state if negotiators fail to achieve a peace agreement.Peace must be built, not imposed,Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio, questioning whether remarks made by the EU's Javier Solana in a lecture in London on Saturday represented the policies of the European Union.With all due respect to Solana, he's about to retire ... and we should not overstate the importance of his statement,Lieberman said.
Solana said mediators should set a timetable for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement and if the parties are not able to stick to it, then a solution backed by the international community should be put on the table.After such a deadline has passed, he said, a U.N. Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the two-state solution and accept a Palestinian state as a full member of the United Nations.Asked about Solana's proposal, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said: We do not object. It's time for the international community to stop treating Israel as above the laws of man.Israeli-Palestinian peace talks backed by a quartet of international mediators -- the European Union, the United States, the United Nations and Russia -- are frozen.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will not revive the negotiations unless Israel halts settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, in accordance with a 2003 peace road map that commits the Palestinians to rein in militants.U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, was due to return to the region soon, U.S. officials said, for further talks with Israel on ending a rift with Washington over halting construction within settlements.No date has been announced for the visit, but Erekat said Mitchell would arrive in 10 days' time.(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Anne Jolis in Brussels; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)
Israel to keep only Hebrew names on road signs Mon Jul 13, 4:23 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The Israeli transport ministry said on Monday that it will get rid of Arabic and English names for cities and towns on road signs, keeping only the Hebrew terms.Minister Yisrael Katz took this decision that will be progressively applied,a ministry spokeswoman told AFP.Currently Israeli road signs are written in Hebrew, Arabic and English, with the city names in each language. So Jerusalem is identified as Yerushalaim in Hebrew, Jerusalem in English and Al-Quds in Arabic (along with Yerushalaim written in Arabic script).Under the new policy the Holy City will only be identified as Yerushalaim in all three languages. Nazareth (Al-Nasra in Arabic) will be identified as Natzrat and Jaffa (Jaffa in Arabic) will only be written as Yafo.Katz told the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot that the move was a response to the Palestinian refusal to use Hebrew names for some Israeli towns.On Palestinian maps, Israeli towns are often still identified with the Arabic names used before the 1948 war when Israel was created, he said.Israel gave Hebrew names, often of biblical origin, to many villages, towns and areas that came under its control following the 1948 war.Elections earlier this year brought a right-wing coalition to power that includes the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, which has demanded Israel's Arab minority demonstrate greater loyalty to the Jewish state.Israel's 1.2 million Arab citizens account for 20 percent of its population and are descended from Palestinians who remained inside Israel following the 1948 war and the creation of the state.
Israeli PM calls on Abbas to meet Sun Jul 12, 9:19 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to meet him to restart stalled Middle East peace negotiations.I say to the leader of the Palestinian Authority, let's meet to reach a political and economic peace, Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting.The hawkish premier has previously called on the Palestinians to revive peace talks that were relaunched in November 2007 but suspended after Israel launched its three-week war on Gaza in late December.The Palestinians have said they would not resume talks unless Israel freezes all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank in line with US demands, something that Netanyahu has so far refused to do.As we have said before, what is required... is for all parties, Palestinian and Israeli, to fulfill their obligations under the roadmap,Abbas told reporters in Ramallah.The internationally adopted 2003 roadmap agreement requires Israel to halt all settlement activity -- including the so-called natural growth of existing settlements -- and for the Palestinians to halt attacks against Israel.Netanyahu has said he will not allow new settlements to be built but will permit construction in annexed east Jerusalem and existing settlement blocs that Israel intends to keep in any future peace deal.
Sunday's cabinet meeting was held in the desert town of Beersheva instead of Jerusalem to show the government's commitment to development in the Negev desert.
Netanyahu has spoken on the phone with Abbas since being sworn into office on March 31, but he has yet to meet the Palestinian leader.The presence of more than 280,000 Jewish settlers in communities across the West Bank and another 200,000 in mostly Arab east Jerusalem has been a major stumbling block in past peace negotiations.
Israeli-Palestinian peace not moving forward: French FM Fri Jul 10, 1:14 pm ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – The peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is not moving forward" though there is progress in the Middle East as a whole, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Friday.In the region, things are moving... countries such as Syria and Saudi Arabia appear to be moving closer to one another, Kouchner said after meeting Lebanese President Michel Sleiman.In the Middle East, things seem to be advancing. But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not moving forward -- on the contrary,Kouchner said in Beirut.The situation is a worry for France but we are very hopeful that this will move forward as well, meaning (the creation of) a viable, independent Palestinian state that can live in peace side by side with Israel, he added.The French minister reiterated a call for Israel to freeze its settlement activity and urged the Jewish state to resume peace talks.Israel has refused to stop construction work in settlements in occupied territory, which the international community considers illegal and which is one of the major obstacles in the hobbled Middle East peace process.In a move considered a sign of rapprochement, Saudi Arabia in June named an ambassador to Syria after leaving the post vacant for a year.Relations between the two had soured following the allegedly Syrian-linked 2005 assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, who was close to the Saudi monarchy. Damascus has denied any link.Riyadh was also unhappy about Damascus's warm relations with Saudi arch-rival Iran and their support for the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.Diplomats in Riyadh say the Saudis have viewed approvingly Damascus's apparent non-interference in Lebanon's recent elections, which led to the designation of Hariri's son, Saad Hariri, as next prime minister.Kouchner, who on Friday held talks with officials including Hariri and Hezbollah international relations chief Nawaf Moussawi, called for the formation of a Lebanese government without any foreign intervention.It is up to the prime minister-designate to form a government (after consultations) within Lebanon or abroad, whatever he wants, Kouchner told reporters. It is not for France to advise on this.The French FM also said he was pleased with the improvement of his country's relations with Syria, Lebanon's former powerbroker.I am not unaware that Syria continues to be important in this part of the world, and we are pleased to have established normal relations with Syria,he said.Kouchner heads to Damascus on Saturday for a two-day visit.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
NO GOLAN FOR PEACE
Conflict-worn Palestinians carve out niches of joy By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer – Sat Jul 11, 11:37 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank – Middle-class matrons shop for imported furniture in a marble-and-glass emporium. A new movie house is screening Transformers.Teens bop to a Danish hip-hop band performing on their high school basketball court.Life in the West Bank — in sharp contrast to beaten down, Hamas-ruled Gaza — has taken on a semblance of normalcy.Exhausted after more than two decades of on-and-off conflict with Israel and deeply skeptical about prospects of statehood, Palestinians here are increasingly trying to carve out their own little niches of happiness.We need to enjoy our life despite all the difficulties,said housewife Nadia Aweida, in her 50s, after taking in a dance show in the town of Ramallah.It would seem that the West Bank, under U.S.-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, has finally made first steps toward the stability the international community has tried to foster with massive foreign aid and training for Abbas' security forces.
But the hopeful signs come with many qualifiers.
While Israel has removed several West Bank checkpoints, other obstacles still limit Palestinian mobility to half the territory. The West Bank economy is no longer in free fall, but its growth is insignificant and cannot make up for the continued steep decline in Gaza, according to the World Bank. Whatever prosperity there is depends mainly on foreign aid.Meanwhile, Abbas remains locked in a power struggle with the Islamic militant group Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip, under Israeli- and Egyptian-imposed blockade for two years and growing steadily poorer.Israeli settlements in the West Bank keep expanding, and Palestinians fear the idea of economic peace espoused by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a weak substitute for a state of their own.With unemployment widespread, many Palestinians still struggle just to get by. But those with a little cash in their pockets, including those with steady government jobs, say they're tired of waiting for the comforts of a world they can only see on the Internet and TV.Palestinian companies in Ramallah are sponsoring a pickup basketball tournament, first prize $2,500. A festival at Ramallah's Palace of Culture featuring dance and music groups from Turkey, Germany and France is drawing sellout crowds.The Danish hip hop group Outlandish recently performed for 2,000 fans, including teenage girls in jeans and tank tops. With black-clad Palestinian riot police watching from the sidelines, the excited crowd danced, whistled and sang along.The next night, an Iraqi singer had hundreds swaying to his music at an outdoor performance.This is new in our life and we deserve to live like the others,said audience member Maher Saleh, 29, who works for an advertising agency.An internationally supported law-and-order campaign by Abbas has been critical to the changed atmosphere. Abbas started cracking down two years ago after he lost Gaza, the other territory that is supposed to comprise a Palestinian state, to Hamas.After the second Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation broke out in 2000, vigilante gunmen ruled and security forces were largely powerless. Even ordinary people took it as license to ignore such basics as paying utility bills.Now they're even being made to wear seat belts while driving. Police are visible in the streets, the vigilantes have handed over their weapons and Hamas militants — the main opponents of the government — have gone underground.The uprising was characterized by suicide bombers striking in Israeli cities and drawing sweeping Israeli reprisals. Israeli raids in search of suspects still go on, but attacks on Israel have all but ended.The West Bank's relative calm could help sway skeptics in Israel who feel Israeli troops cannot leave the territory for fear of ensuing chaos and a takeover by Islamic militants.
While Islamists have deepened their hold on Gaza, there are signs that in the West bank, the traditionally secular nature of Palestinian society, which receded during troubled times, is beginning to reassert itself. Mosques still draw bigger crowds for Friday prayers than they did two decades ago, but men and women mingle easily in public and preachers haven't attempted to stop the summer fun. The outside world has come closer in other, unexpected ways: China has led the way in swamping the West Bank with foreign goods, and Persian Gulf firms plan to build large housing complexes.The new feeling of safety has encouraged some Palestinians to invest, particularly in the former militant strongholds of Nablus and Jenin in the northern West Bank, though most business people still hedge their bets.In Nablus, cinemas were shut down by uprising activists in the late 1980s, and when one briefly reopened in 2006, militants shut it at gunpoint, saying it was inappropriate to have fun at a time of national struggle.But now the 175-seat Cinema City, built for $2 million in a new 10-story commercial high-rise, is showing four films a day, mainly Egyptian dramas and comedies but also Hollywood fare like Transformers (the 2008 version; the newly released sequel isn't here yet).A former Nablus gunman, Mahdi Abu Ghazaleh, embodies the change. Once a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a feared militia, he has won amnesty from Israel, like many of his cohorts. He got married this month and now works in the family wholesale business, selling leather goods and plastics.In Jenin, the flagship of change is Herbawi home furnishings, a seven-story tribute to consumerism with gleaming floors and carefully arranged displays. A world away from the West Bank's typical mom-and-pop stores, it carries Krupps espresso machines, along with furniture imported from Malaysia and Turkey.Durgham Zakarneh, 32, makes only makes $600 a month as a civil servant, but he has managed to buy a refrigerator for $400 in 11 monthly payments. Life is much better now,he said. People can do business without worrying.Other Herbawi stores will open soon in other West Bank cities, said Ziad Turabi, manager of the fledgling chain. Like the Nablus cinema manager, Turabi said he wouldn't have made the $4 million investment in Jenin without the new sense of security, provided in part by disciplined police freshly trained in neighboring Jordan in a U.S.-sponsored program. However, Israeli checkpoints still put a damper on the business — though Israel would argue the presence of its troops also helps keep a lid on militants.The Israeli separation barrier, built to keep out suicide attackers, cuts off the Herbawi store in Jenin from a valued clientele — Israeli Arabs. Israel doesn't allow its citizens to drive through the barrier crossing closest to Jenin, so they have to detour for miles to get to Herbawi's. Even so, there's more freedom of movement. The Hawara roadblock outside Nablus used to be the West Bank's worst bottleneck, allowing Palestinians to cross only on foot after long waits. Now, for the first time since 2000, they can drive through.
The Israeli army has loosened the other checkpoints in its noose around the city, and large crowds are expected at the city's monthlong shopping festival, which will feature an attempt to get into the Guinness Book of World Records with a city-block-length tray of kanafe, a sweet-and-sour pastry Saleh, the ad agency employee, said he's ready to have a good time after years of gloom. We had an uprising, we had hardship under occupation,he said.We need singing and joy. We need to live a human life.Additional reporting by Ali Daraghmeh in Nablus, Dalia Nammari in Ramallah and Mohammed Ballas in Jenin.
Israeli-Palestinian peace not moving forward: French FM Fri Jul 10, 1:14 pm ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – The peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is not moving forward" though there is progress in the Middle East as a whole, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Friday.In the region, things are moving... countries such as Syria and Saudi Arabia appear to be moving closer to one another, Kouchner said after meeting Lebanese President Michel Sleiman.In the Middle East, things seem to be advancing. But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not moving forward -- on the contrary,Kouchner said in Beirut.The situation is a worry for France but we are very hopeful that this will move forward as well, meaning (the creation of) a viable, independent Palestinian state that can live in peace side by side with Israel, he added.The French minister reiterated a call for Israel to freeze its settlement activity and urged the Jewish state to resume peace talks.Israel has refused to stop construction work in settlements in occupied territory, which the international community considers illegal and which is one of the major obstacles in the hobbled Middle East peace process.In a move considered a sign of rapprochement, Saudi Arabia in June named an ambassador to Syria after leaving the post vacant for a year.Relations between the two had soured following the allegedly Syrian-linked 2005 assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, who was close to the Saudi monarchy. Damascus has denied any link.
Riyadh was also unhappy about Damascus's warm relations with Saudi arch-rival Iran and their support for the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.Diplomats in Riyadh say the Saudis have viewed approvingly Damascus's apparent non-interference in Lebanon's recent elections, which led to the designation of Hariri's son, Saad Hariri, as next prime minister.Kouchner, who on Friday held talks with officials including Hariri and Hezbollah international relations chief Nawaf Moussawi, called for the formation of a Lebanese government without any foreign intervention.It is up to the prime minister-designate to form a government (after consultations) within Lebanon or abroad, whatever he wants,Kouchner told reporters.It is not for France to advise on this.The French FM also said he was pleased with the improvement of his country's relations with Syria, Lebanon's former powerbroker.I am not unaware that Syria continues to be important in this part of the world, and we are pleased to have established normal relations with Syria,he said.Kouchner heads to Damascus on Saturday for a two-day visit.
Netanyahu aide: No Golan pullout for peace By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jul 10, 1:12 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israel will not withdraw from the entire Golan Heights in return for a peace deal with Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's top policy adviser said in an interview published Friday, rejecting Syria's key demand for an agreement.The two countries could split the territory, suggested Uzi Arad, Netanyahu's national security adviser and the aide widely seen as closest to Netanyahu. But in the comments in the daily Haaretz newspaper, he said Israel must remain on the Golan Heights to a depth of several miles and cannot withdraw in full even in return for a peace agreement.Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the territory in 1981, a move that was never internationally recognized. Syria has always maintained that peace will be possible only if Israel withdraws entirely from the Heights.Syrian forces used the strategic plateau to shell nearby Israeli communities before 1967, and Israel fears those communities will once again become vulnerable should the Heights be ceded. Israeli officials also argue that holding the area gives Israel early warning of Syrian military moves and a buffer zone in case of attack.The area is also home to crucial water sources, a profitable Israeli winery, and Israeli settlements with about 18,000 residents. About 17,000 Druse Arabs loyal to Syria also live there.At 485 square miles (1,250 square kilometers), the Heights are roughly one-third the size of the U.S. state of Rhode Island.Indirect peace talks mediated by Turkey between representatives of Syrian President Bashar Assad and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have not been renewed under Netanyahu, who replaced Olmert in April. Direct talks between Israel and Syria broke down in 2000.
Netanyahu has said repeatedly that Israel would not cede the Golan to Syria.
Israel needs to retain part of the Golan for strategic, military and settlement reasons. For water, landscape and wine,said Arad. He nonetheless called on the Syrians to resume peace talks with Israel with no preconditions but with each side aware of the other's position.Like the contacts with Syria, talks between Israel and the Palestinians have also been frozen since Netanyahu came to power.Under U.S. pressure, Netanyahu has accepted the idea of a Palestinian state, while attaching conditions the Palestinians reject. But in the Haaretz interview, Arad took a dim view of the Palestinian leadership, saying he saw not a government but a disorderly constellation of forces and factions.There could be worse leaders than Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Arad said. But even with him I don't see a real interest and desire to arrive at the end of the conflict with Israel. On the contrary, he is preserving eternal claims against us and inflaming them,he said.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called Arad's remarks inappropriate and unacceptable.Israeli officials must stop playing this broken record,Erekat said. President Abbas is president of the Palestinian people and he is a full partner. And he's waiting for an Israeli partner.Israeli leaders have complained that Abbas is too weak to govern effectively. Abbas' Western-backed government rules only the West Bank, one of the two territories the Palestinians seek for their future state. He lost control of the Gaza Strip more than two years ago to the Islamic militants of Hamas.
West Bank should not be Judenrein: Israel PM Fri Jul 10, 1:01 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the German foreign minister the West Bank cannot be Judenrein -- a Nazi expression meaning cleansed of Jews -- a senior official said on Friday.The hawkish premier made the remarks during a visit by Frank Walter Steinmeier earlier this week, according to the official who asked not to be named.Using Israel's normal terminology for the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu said: Judaea and Samaria cannot be Judenrein.There has been mounting EU and US pressure for Israel to halt Jewish settlement expansion in the Palestinian territory.
Egypt in first West Bank talks with Hamas in three years Thu Jul 9, 3:32 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Egyptian mediators on Thursday held their first West Bank talks with Hamas representatives since before the Islamist movement seized the Gaza Strip in June 2007.For the first time in three years, we are delighted to meet our Egyptian friends here and are optimistic that the negotiations will bear fruit, Hamas representative Omar Abdel Razek told AFP ahead of the meeting.The talks aimed at ending the two-year rift between Hamas and the Palestinian leadership of president Mahmud Abbas were held in a hotel in Abbas's West Bank base of Ramallah.They followed talks earlier in the day between the Egyptian delegation led by deputy intelligence chief Mohammed Ibrahim, and Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad and chief negotiator Ahmed Qorei.The rival Palestinian factions resumed reconciliation talks in February. They have agreed to begin what they say will be a final round on July 25.
U.S. denies Israeli report of deal on settlements Wed Jul 8, 3:42 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A U.S. official denied an Israeli newspaper report Wednesday that Washington had agreed to the continued construction of 2,500 housing units in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, despite its calls for a freeze.The report in Israel's Maariv daily followed Defense Minister Ehud Barak's talks in London Monday with U.S. envoy George Mitchell on ending a rift with Washington over its demand to stop the building in land that Palestinians seek for a state.Asked in Washington whether the report was true, State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly replied: No, that report in the Israeli media outlet is incorrect.Our bottom line is -- is the same. It has not changed. And that's that all parties in the region have to honor their obligations. And you know what our position is regarding settlements. This activity has to stop,Kelly said.Kelly said Barak and Mitchell held good, productive discussions and that the U.S. envoy would head to Israel soon but that he had no firm date yet for that visit.Spokesmen for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they had no comment on the report.Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said the United States and Israel had been trying to find common ground on the settlement issue.Uzi Arad, a political aide to Netanyahu, said Israel was pressing Washington to respect understandings referring to agreements Israel says it procured with the administration of President Bush to permit building inside existing settlements.
There is still discussion on this issue, Arad told reporters at a briefing.
Western officials said the United States was moving in the direction of making allowances so Israel could finish off at least some existing projects which are close to completion or bound by private contracts that cannot be broken.Israel estimates that 2,500 units are in the process of being built and cannot be stopped under Israeli law. Maariv reported the units are in 700 buildings in various settlements and that Washington had agreed to their completion.Barak has been seeking a deal with the United States that would include initial steps by Arab states to normalize relations with Israel in return for limiting settlement activity.Palestinian leaders have said U.S.-backed peace negotiations with Israel could not resume unless there was a complete halt to settlement activity in the West Bank, Israeli-occupied territory where they hope to establish a state.While in London, Barak told reporters that he presented to the Americans the scope of current construction work, which from a practical point of view can't be stopped.Netanyahu, under U.S. pressure, has pledged not to build new settlements in the West Bank or expropriate more land.(Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Ori Lewis; Additional reporting by Adam Entous and Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Charles Dick)
Israel to extend hours of key Jordan crossing Wed Jul 8, 1:58 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Wednesday said it would increase the operating hours of the key Allenby border crossing with Jordan in a move aimed at boosting the Palestinian economy.At a cabinet committee charged with improving the West Bank economy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the extension of hours of operation of Allenby for the transport of goods, his office said in a statement.Until now the crossing was open until eight in the evening, a spokesman for the prime minister said.It will now be open until midnight, with the option to extend operations to 24 hours according to need.The border checkpoint near the West Bank town of Jericho is the only point of access to Jordan for Arab residents and businesses in the West Bank.Netanyahu also vowed to push ahead with development of three internationally-backed West Bank projects that have been stalled for years, instructing relevant government bodies to remove the bureaucratic obstacles.The projects include a French-backed light-industrial park in Bethlehem, a German-assisted industrial park near Jenin and a Japanese-funded scheme to export farming products from Jericho.Since forming a government in February, the hawkish prime minister has come under heavy international pressure to remove economic restrictions on Palestinians and end Israeli settlement building in the West Bank.Also on Wednesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and other Israeli officials presented steps the government has implemented over the past three months in a bid to ease the daily life of West Bank Palestinians.The measures included the removal of dozens of checkpoints in the occupied territory, although according to United Nations figures there are still more than 600 checkpoints.The number of checkpoints was decreased from 41 in July 2007 to 14 today... The vast majority of inspection points and crossings in the West Bank are open 24 hours a day,Ayalon said at a press conference.
Hamas denies Palestinian Authority freed prisoners Wed Jul 8, 1:13 pm ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Hamas on Wednesday denied that dozens of its prisoners had been released in the occupied West Bank, as announced by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.The statements by the Palestinian Authority about the release of 185 prisoners in recent days are meant for the media and are baseless, said Sami Abu-Zuhri, a spokesman for the Islamist party that rules the Gaza Strip.The PA said on Tuesday that Abbas had ordered the release of 40 Hamas members detained in the West Bank in a bid to encourage national unity.Last month, the PA announced the release of 100 security detainees in a bid to bolster Egyptian-brokered unity talks with Hamas.The Hamas and Abbas's secular Fatah movement have been bitterly divided since the Islamists overran Gaza in June 2007, confining Abbas loyalists to the West Bank and splitting the Palestinian territories into rival entities.The two groups have held several rounds of Cairo-brokered unity talks since the start of the year but have made little visible progress. They hope to meet again in the Egyptian capital at the end of the month to sign an agreement.
Israel raps EU over settlement criticism Wed Jul 8, 3:36 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has protested to the European Union over a critical report on Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, summoning the bloc's envoy to tell him the statement ignored security concerns.The head of the EU delegation to Israel, Ramiro Cibrian Uzal, was summoned to the foreign ministry after a report by the European Commission on Monday said settlements were strangling the Palestinian economy and perpetuating Palestinian dependence on donors, a ministry statement said.
The foreign ministry blasted the EU report as unfounded.
It ignores the fact that the issue of settlements has been agreed by the parties to be addressed in parallel with the fulfillment of other obligations -- including Palestinian security obligations,it said.Even more troubling is the... implication that Israeli security measures in the West Bank are unnecessary and even illegal, alongside a total failure to recognise that it is the continued activity of Palestinian terrorist groups which makes such measures an unfortunate necessity, it said.The issue of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the international community considers illegal, is one of the main stumbling blocks in the stalled Middle East peace process.The European Union is one of the largest donors to the Palestinians.
Absolutely no green light for Israel to strike Iran: Obama Tue Jul 7, 6:52 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama strongly denied in an interview on Tuesday that the United States had given Israel a green light to strike Iran's nuclear facilities.Asked on CNN television whether Washington had given Israel the go-ahead for such an attack, Obama said: Absolutely not.In the interview with the US network broadcast from Russia where he is on an official visit, Obama added that Washington could not dictate the security interests of other countries and would seek to settle the dispute through diplomacy.What is also true is, it is the policy of the United States to try to resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear capabilities,Obama said.
This would be achieved through diplomatic channels,he said.The remarks followed comments by Vice President Joe Biden over the weekend that the United States would not stand in the way of Israel in its response to Iran's nuclear ambitions.Israel can determine for itself... what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else,Biden told ABC television's This Week program in an interview broadcast Sunday.We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination -- if they make a determination -- that they're existentially threatened,Biden said.Obama on Tuesday stressed that he wanted first to see progress on diplomacy, as the United States attempts to end Tehran's controversial nuclear drive.I think Vice President Biden stated a categorical fact, which is that we can't dictate to other countries what their security interests are, the US president said.Obama said that the United States reserve(s) the right, and I as commander-in-chief reserve the right, to take whatever actions are necessary to protect the United States.Asked about Iran at an event Tuesday in Washington, the top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, said Tehran could have an atomic bomb within one to three years and that such a development risked unleashing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.If Iran secured a nuclear arsenal it would be potentially very destabilizing,Mullen told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.My concern is that, you know, the clock has continued to tick,he said.Saying Israel viewed a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat, Mullen spoke of the criticality in my view of solving this before Iran gets a nuclear capability or that anyone would, you know, take action to strike them.Mullen, who is chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the focus was on diplomatic efforts but echoed Obama's comments, refusing to rule out military options.There is a great deal that certainly depends on the dialogue and the engagement, and I think we need to do that with all options remaining on the table, including certainly military options,he said.
Mideast must seize window of opportunity: German FM By Deborah Cole – Tue Jul 7, 1:37 pm ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged Middle Eastern leaders on Tuesday to seize the window of opportunity that the new US administration has opened in the region.US President Barak Obama's initiative creates many opportunities that we need to use now, Steinmeier said after meeting Lebanese prime minister designate Saad Hariri in Beirut.That is why all the partners must take part constructively in this process and make their positions clear quickly before the window of opportunity closes.The Obama administration has repeatedly called for a complete halt to Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and has demanded that the Israeli government sign up to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Steinmeier, who visited Damascus earlier before heading to Beirut, also voiced support for the resumption of Syrian-Israeli negotiations to help pave the way for eventual talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.Dialogue between Syria and Israel was frozen after the Jewish state launched a massive offensive against the Gaza Strip last December.Steinmeier expressed concern that the Syrian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas had shown no interest in the success of the peace talks.In my view, the peace process can only proceed when destructive elements in the region are reined in,the German foreign minister said in a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem.
Muallem said his country was keen to have further indirect contacts with Israel.
But he added that demands for Damascus to break its longstanding alliance with Hezbollah and its main foreign sponsor Iran were an issue that went beyond the peace process set by an international conference in Madrid in 1991 -- the exchange of land for peace.As for the issue of our relations with Hezbollah or Iran, that's a precondition,he said of Israeli demands for a clean break as part of a normalisation of ties under any peace deal with the Jewish state.We think a resumption of indirect contacts with Israel through Turkish go-betweens is the best way of getting to direct negotiations, but first and foremost we have to be confident that there is a political will in Israel to achieve peace.Muallem said Syria's demands for the unconditional return of the whole of the strategic Golan Heights, which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community, was an entirely different matter.Yes, we do what to get the Golan back on a silver platter, he said.Let's face it -- it's our land and our right to have it back is the most normal thing in the world.The last direct peace talks between Israel and Syria, sponsored by the United States, broke down in 2000 when Israel baulked at handing back the entire Golan right down to the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Israel's main water source.Israel's right-leaning government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea of exchanging the Golan for peace with Syria.
Egypt president hopes Schalit issue resolved soon By Aron Heller, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jul 7, 12:09 pm ET
CAIRO – An Israeli soldier being held in Gaza by Hamas militants is alive and in good condition, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Tuesday, adding that he hopes the soldier will be released soon.Sgt. Gilad Schalit has been held by Hamas-allied militants since being captured more than three years ago in a cross-border raid from Gaza.The 22-year-old soldier has not been seen since, and Hamas has prevented the Red Cross from visiting him. Egypt has been mediating attempts to arrange a swap of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including militants involved in deadly attacks, for the soldier.Speaking at a news conference with visiting Israeli President Shimon Peres, Mubarak said that negotiations to secure his release are continuing.Schalit is in good condition. I hope that in the coming period, not in a long time, the Schalit issue will be closed,he said.Peres' visit was designed to discuss efforts to free Schalit as well as ways to promote a regional peace agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab nations with peace agreements with Israel.Both Mubarak and Peres emphasized that there is a good opportunity now for peace with the Palestinians.The differences between us are not that great that they cannot be overcome,Peres said.We cannot miss this opportunity.Mubarak said the Palestinian issue will continue to be the top priority for Egypt and the Arab world, and said Israel must stop settlement construction in the West Bank and resume peace talks toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.Israel's continued construction in settlements on lands claimed by the Palestinians is the focus of a disagreement straining ties with the U.S.Peres' visit was his first to Egypt since a new, conservative government took office in Israel.
The role of the presidency in Israel is largely ceremonial. But Peres' stature as a Nobel winner and Israel's elder statesman, along with the difficult reputation of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, gave his visit greater diplomatic significance.With the blessing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Peres has been meeting overseas with foreign leaders in recent months in an attempt to soften the new government's image and express its desire to pursue peace efforts.Last month, in a move at least partly aimed at easing tensions with Washington, Netanyahu expressed support for the first time for the creation of a Palestinian state. But the Palestinians have rejected Netanyahu's conditions, namely that such a state would have to be demilitarized and recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people. They have also said they will not resume negotiations until Israel halt's its settlement construction.Speaking at the presidential palace in Cairo, Peres insisted that following Netanyahu's speech the Israeli government was firmly committed to the creation of a Palestinian state.The formal position of the Israeli government is a solution of two states for two people: Palestine will be an Arab state and Israel will be a Jewish state,he said.Israel has no intention to rule over the Palestinian people. We have no intention to confiscate land, and we have no intention to build new settlements.He did not address the issue of building within existing settlements, which has been the key point of contention between Israel and the United States. The Obama administration has been pushing for a freeze on all settlement building while the Israeli government wants to continue building in existing settlements to allow for growing families.
RAMALLAH, West Bank – Middle-class matrons shop for imported furniture in a marble-and-glass emporium. A new movie house is screening Transformers.Teens bop to a Danish hip-hop band performing on their high school basketball court.Life in the West Bank — in sharp contrast to beaten down, Hamas-ruled Gaza — has taken on a semblance of normalcy.Exhausted after more than two decades of on-and-off conflict with Israel and deeply skeptical about prospects of statehood, Palestinians here are increasingly trying to carve out their own little niches of happiness.We need to enjoy our life despite all the difficulties,said housewife Nadia Aweida, in her 50s, after taking in a dance show in the town of Ramallah.It would seem that the West Bank, under U.S.-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, has finally made first steps toward the stability the international community has tried to foster with massive foreign aid and training for Abbas' security forces.
But the hopeful signs come with many qualifiers.
While Israel has removed several West Bank checkpoints, other obstacles still limit Palestinian mobility to half the territory. The West Bank economy is no longer in free fall, but its growth is insignificant and cannot make up for the continued steep decline in Gaza, according to the World Bank. Whatever prosperity there is depends mainly on foreign aid.Meanwhile, Abbas remains locked in a power struggle with the Islamic militant group Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip, under Israeli- and Egyptian-imposed blockade for two years and growing steadily poorer.Israeli settlements in the West Bank keep expanding, and Palestinians fear the idea of economic peace espoused by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a weak substitute for a state of their own.With unemployment widespread, many Palestinians still struggle just to get by. But those with a little cash in their pockets, including those with steady government jobs, say they're tired of waiting for the comforts of a world they can only see on the Internet and TV.Palestinian companies in Ramallah are sponsoring a pickup basketball tournament, first prize $2,500. A festival at Ramallah's Palace of Culture featuring dance and music groups from Turkey, Germany and France is drawing sellout crowds.The Danish hip hop group Outlandish recently performed for 2,000 fans, including teenage girls in jeans and tank tops. With black-clad Palestinian riot police watching from the sidelines, the excited crowd danced, whistled and sang along.The next night, an Iraqi singer had hundreds swaying to his music at an outdoor performance.This is new in our life and we deserve to live like the others,said audience member Maher Saleh, 29, who works for an advertising agency.An internationally supported law-and-order campaign by Abbas has been critical to the changed atmosphere. Abbas started cracking down two years ago after he lost Gaza, the other territory that is supposed to comprise a Palestinian state, to Hamas.After the second Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation broke out in 2000, vigilante gunmen ruled and security forces were largely powerless. Even ordinary people took it as license to ignore such basics as paying utility bills.Now they're even being made to wear seat belts while driving. Police are visible in the streets, the vigilantes have handed over their weapons and Hamas militants — the main opponents of the government — have gone underground.The uprising was characterized by suicide bombers striking in Israeli cities and drawing sweeping Israeli reprisals. Israeli raids in search of suspects still go on, but attacks on Israel have all but ended.The West Bank's relative calm could help sway skeptics in Israel who feel Israeli troops cannot leave the territory for fear of ensuing chaos and a takeover by Islamic militants.
While Islamists have deepened their hold on Gaza, there are signs that in the West bank, the traditionally secular nature of Palestinian society, which receded during troubled times, is beginning to reassert itself. Mosques still draw bigger crowds for Friday prayers than they did two decades ago, but men and women mingle easily in public and preachers haven't attempted to stop the summer fun. The outside world has come closer in other, unexpected ways: China has led the way in swamping the West Bank with foreign goods, and Persian Gulf firms plan to build large housing complexes.The new feeling of safety has encouraged some Palestinians to invest, particularly in the former militant strongholds of Nablus and Jenin in the northern West Bank, though most business people still hedge their bets.In Nablus, cinemas were shut down by uprising activists in the late 1980s, and when one briefly reopened in 2006, militants shut it at gunpoint, saying it was inappropriate to have fun at a time of national struggle.But now the 175-seat Cinema City, built for $2 million in a new 10-story commercial high-rise, is showing four films a day, mainly Egyptian dramas and comedies but also Hollywood fare like Transformers (the 2008 version; the newly released sequel isn't here yet).A former Nablus gunman, Mahdi Abu Ghazaleh, embodies the change. Once a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a feared militia, he has won amnesty from Israel, like many of his cohorts. He got married this month and now works in the family wholesale business, selling leather goods and plastics.In Jenin, the flagship of change is Herbawi home furnishings, a seven-story tribute to consumerism with gleaming floors and carefully arranged displays. A world away from the West Bank's typical mom-and-pop stores, it carries Krupps espresso machines, along with furniture imported from Malaysia and Turkey.Durgham Zakarneh, 32, makes only makes $600 a month as a civil servant, but he has managed to buy a refrigerator for $400 in 11 monthly payments. Life is much better now,he said. People can do business without worrying.Other Herbawi stores will open soon in other West Bank cities, said Ziad Turabi, manager of the fledgling chain. Like the Nablus cinema manager, Turabi said he wouldn't have made the $4 million investment in Jenin without the new sense of security, provided in part by disciplined police freshly trained in neighboring Jordan in a U.S.-sponsored program. However, Israeli checkpoints still put a damper on the business — though Israel would argue the presence of its troops also helps keep a lid on militants.The Israeli separation barrier, built to keep out suicide attackers, cuts off the Herbawi store in Jenin from a valued clientele — Israeli Arabs. Israel doesn't allow its citizens to drive through the barrier crossing closest to Jenin, so they have to detour for miles to get to Herbawi's. Even so, there's more freedom of movement. The Hawara roadblock outside Nablus used to be the West Bank's worst bottleneck, allowing Palestinians to cross only on foot after long waits. Now, for the first time since 2000, they can drive through.
The Israeli army has loosened the other checkpoints in its noose around the city, and large crowds are expected at the city's monthlong shopping festival, which will feature an attempt to get into the Guinness Book of World Records with a city-block-length tray of kanafe, a sweet-and-sour pastry Saleh, the ad agency employee, said he's ready to have a good time after years of gloom. We had an uprising, we had hardship under occupation,he said.We need singing and joy. We need to live a human life.Additional reporting by Ali Daraghmeh in Nablus, Dalia Nammari in Ramallah and Mohammed Ballas in Jenin.
Israeli-Palestinian peace not moving forward: French FM Fri Jul 10, 1:14 pm ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – The peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is not moving forward" though there is progress in the Middle East as a whole, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Friday.In the region, things are moving... countries such as Syria and Saudi Arabia appear to be moving closer to one another, Kouchner said after meeting Lebanese President Michel Sleiman.In the Middle East, things seem to be advancing. But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not moving forward -- on the contrary,Kouchner said in Beirut.The situation is a worry for France but we are very hopeful that this will move forward as well, meaning (the creation of) a viable, independent Palestinian state that can live in peace side by side with Israel, he added.The French minister reiterated a call for Israel to freeze its settlement activity and urged the Jewish state to resume peace talks.Israel has refused to stop construction work in settlements in occupied territory, which the international community considers illegal and which is one of the major obstacles in the hobbled Middle East peace process.In a move considered a sign of rapprochement, Saudi Arabia in June named an ambassador to Syria after leaving the post vacant for a year.Relations between the two had soured following the allegedly Syrian-linked 2005 assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, who was close to the Saudi monarchy. Damascus has denied any link.
Riyadh was also unhappy about Damascus's warm relations with Saudi arch-rival Iran and their support for the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.Diplomats in Riyadh say the Saudis have viewed approvingly Damascus's apparent non-interference in Lebanon's recent elections, which led to the designation of Hariri's son, Saad Hariri, as next prime minister.Kouchner, who on Friday held talks with officials including Hariri and Hezbollah international relations chief Nawaf Moussawi, called for the formation of a Lebanese government without any foreign intervention.It is up to the prime minister-designate to form a government (after consultations) within Lebanon or abroad, whatever he wants,Kouchner told reporters.It is not for France to advise on this.The French FM also said he was pleased with the improvement of his country's relations with Syria, Lebanon's former powerbroker.I am not unaware that Syria continues to be important in this part of the world, and we are pleased to have established normal relations with Syria,he said.Kouchner heads to Damascus on Saturday for a two-day visit.
Netanyahu aide: No Golan pullout for peace By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jul 10, 1:12 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israel will not withdraw from the entire Golan Heights in return for a peace deal with Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's top policy adviser said in an interview published Friday, rejecting Syria's key demand for an agreement.The two countries could split the territory, suggested Uzi Arad, Netanyahu's national security adviser and the aide widely seen as closest to Netanyahu. But in the comments in the daily Haaretz newspaper, he said Israel must remain on the Golan Heights to a depth of several miles and cannot withdraw in full even in return for a peace agreement.Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the territory in 1981, a move that was never internationally recognized. Syria has always maintained that peace will be possible only if Israel withdraws entirely from the Heights.Syrian forces used the strategic plateau to shell nearby Israeli communities before 1967, and Israel fears those communities will once again become vulnerable should the Heights be ceded. Israeli officials also argue that holding the area gives Israel early warning of Syrian military moves and a buffer zone in case of attack.The area is also home to crucial water sources, a profitable Israeli winery, and Israeli settlements with about 18,000 residents. About 17,000 Druse Arabs loyal to Syria also live there.At 485 square miles (1,250 square kilometers), the Heights are roughly one-third the size of the U.S. state of Rhode Island.Indirect peace talks mediated by Turkey between representatives of Syrian President Bashar Assad and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have not been renewed under Netanyahu, who replaced Olmert in April. Direct talks between Israel and Syria broke down in 2000.
Netanyahu has said repeatedly that Israel would not cede the Golan to Syria.
Israel needs to retain part of the Golan for strategic, military and settlement reasons. For water, landscape and wine,said Arad. He nonetheless called on the Syrians to resume peace talks with Israel with no preconditions but with each side aware of the other's position.Like the contacts with Syria, talks between Israel and the Palestinians have also been frozen since Netanyahu came to power.Under U.S. pressure, Netanyahu has accepted the idea of a Palestinian state, while attaching conditions the Palestinians reject. But in the Haaretz interview, Arad took a dim view of the Palestinian leadership, saying he saw not a government but a disorderly constellation of forces and factions.There could be worse leaders than Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Arad said. But even with him I don't see a real interest and desire to arrive at the end of the conflict with Israel. On the contrary, he is preserving eternal claims against us and inflaming them,he said.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called Arad's remarks inappropriate and unacceptable.Israeli officials must stop playing this broken record,Erekat said. President Abbas is president of the Palestinian people and he is a full partner. And he's waiting for an Israeli partner.Israeli leaders have complained that Abbas is too weak to govern effectively. Abbas' Western-backed government rules only the West Bank, one of the two territories the Palestinians seek for their future state. He lost control of the Gaza Strip more than two years ago to the Islamic militants of Hamas.
West Bank should not be Judenrein: Israel PM Fri Jul 10, 1:01 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the German foreign minister the West Bank cannot be Judenrein -- a Nazi expression meaning cleansed of Jews -- a senior official said on Friday.The hawkish premier made the remarks during a visit by Frank Walter Steinmeier earlier this week, according to the official who asked not to be named.Using Israel's normal terminology for the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu said: Judaea and Samaria cannot be Judenrein.There has been mounting EU and US pressure for Israel to halt Jewish settlement expansion in the Palestinian territory.
Egypt in first West Bank talks with Hamas in three years Thu Jul 9, 3:32 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Egyptian mediators on Thursday held their first West Bank talks with Hamas representatives since before the Islamist movement seized the Gaza Strip in June 2007.For the first time in three years, we are delighted to meet our Egyptian friends here and are optimistic that the negotiations will bear fruit, Hamas representative Omar Abdel Razek told AFP ahead of the meeting.The talks aimed at ending the two-year rift between Hamas and the Palestinian leadership of president Mahmud Abbas were held in a hotel in Abbas's West Bank base of Ramallah.They followed talks earlier in the day between the Egyptian delegation led by deputy intelligence chief Mohammed Ibrahim, and Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad and chief negotiator Ahmed Qorei.The rival Palestinian factions resumed reconciliation talks in February. They have agreed to begin what they say will be a final round on July 25.
U.S. denies Israeli report of deal on settlements Wed Jul 8, 3:42 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A U.S. official denied an Israeli newspaper report Wednesday that Washington had agreed to the continued construction of 2,500 housing units in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, despite its calls for a freeze.The report in Israel's Maariv daily followed Defense Minister Ehud Barak's talks in London Monday with U.S. envoy George Mitchell on ending a rift with Washington over its demand to stop the building in land that Palestinians seek for a state.Asked in Washington whether the report was true, State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly replied: No, that report in the Israeli media outlet is incorrect.Our bottom line is -- is the same. It has not changed. And that's that all parties in the region have to honor their obligations. And you know what our position is regarding settlements. This activity has to stop,Kelly said.Kelly said Barak and Mitchell held good, productive discussions and that the U.S. envoy would head to Israel soon but that he had no firm date yet for that visit.Spokesmen for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they had no comment on the report.Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said the United States and Israel had been trying to find common ground on the settlement issue.Uzi Arad, a political aide to Netanyahu, said Israel was pressing Washington to respect understandings referring to agreements Israel says it procured with the administration of President Bush to permit building inside existing settlements.
There is still discussion on this issue, Arad told reporters at a briefing.
Western officials said the United States was moving in the direction of making allowances so Israel could finish off at least some existing projects which are close to completion or bound by private contracts that cannot be broken.Israel estimates that 2,500 units are in the process of being built and cannot be stopped under Israeli law. Maariv reported the units are in 700 buildings in various settlements and that Washington had agreed to their completion.Barak has been seeking a deal with the United States that would include initial steps by Arab states to normalize relations with Israel in return for limiting settlement activity.Palestinian leaders have said U.S.-backed peace negotiations with Israel could not resume unless there was a complete halt to settlement activity in the West Bank, Israeli-occupied territory where they hope to establish a state.While in London, Barak told reporters that he presented to the Americans the scope of current construction work, which from a practical point of view can't be stopped.Netanyahu, under U.S. pressure, has pledged not to build new settlements in the West Bank or expropriate more land.(Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Ori Lewis; Additional reporting by Adam Entous and Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Charles Dick)
Israel to extend hours of key Jordan crossing Wed Jul 8, 1:58 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Wednesday said it would increase the operating hours of the key Allenby border crossing with Jordan in a move aimed at boosting the Palestinian economy.At a cabinet committee charged with improving the West Bank economy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the extension of hours of operation of Allenby for the transport of goods, his office said in a statement.Until now the crossing was open until eight in the evening, a spokesman for the prime minister said.It will now be open until midnight, with the option to extend operations to 24 hours according to need.The border checkpoint near the West Bank town of Jericho is the only point of access to Jordan for Arab residents and businesses in the West Bank.Netanyahu also vowed to push ahead with development of three internationally-backed West Bank projects that have been stalled for years, instructing relevant government bodies to remove the bureaucratic obstacles.The projects include a French-backed light-industrial park in Bethlehem, a German-assisted industrial park near Jenin and a Japanese-funded scheme to export farming products from Jericho.Since forming a government in February, the hawkish prime minister has come under heavy international pressure to remove economic restrictions on Palestinians and end Israeli settlement building in the West Bank.Also on Wednesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and other Israeli officials presented steps the government has implemented over the past three months in a bid to ease the daily life of West Bank Palestinians.The measures included the removal of dozens of checkpoints in the occupied territory, although according to United Nations figures there are still more than 600 checkpoints.The number of checkpoints was decreased from 41 in July 2007 to 14 today... The vast majority of inspection points and crossings in the West Bank are open 24 hours a day,Ayalon said at a press conference.
Hamas denies Palestinian Authority freed prisoners Wed Jul 8, 1:13 pm ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Hamas on Wednesday denied that dozens of its prisoners had been released in the occupied West Bank, as announced by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.The statements by the Palestinian Authority about the release of 185 prisoners in recent days are meant for the media and are baseless, said Sami Abu-Zuhri, a spokesman for the Islamist party that rules the Gaza Strip.The PA said on Tuesday that Abbas had ordered the release of 40 Hamas members detained in the West Bank in a bid to encourage national unity.Last month, the PA announced the release of 100 security detainees in a bid to bolster Egyptian-brokered unity talks with Hamas.The Hamas and Abbas's secular Fatah movement have been bitterly divided since the Islamists overran Gaza in June 2007, confining Abbas loyalists to the West Bank and splitting the Palestinian territories into rival entities.The two groups have held several rounds of Cairo-brokered unity talks since the start of the year but have made little visible progress. They hope to meet again in the Egyptian capital at the end of the month to sign an agreement.
Israel raps EU over settlement criticism Wed Jul 8, 3:36 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has protested to the European Union over a critical report on Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, summoning the bloc's envoy to tell him the statement ignored security concerns.The head of the EU delegation to Israel, Ramiro Cibrian Uzal, was summoned to the foreign ministry after a report by the European Commission on Monday said settlements were strangling the Palestinian economy and perpetuating Palestinian dependence on donors, a ministry statement said.
The foreign ministry blasted the EU report as unfounded.
It ignores the fact that the issue of settlements has been agreed by the parties to be addressed in parallel with the fulfillment of other obligations -- including Palestinian security obligations,it said.Even more troubling is the... implication that Israeli security measures in the West Bank are unnecessary and even illegal, alongside a total failure to recognise that it is the continued activity of Palestinian terrorist groups which makes such measures an unfortunate necessity, it said.The issue of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the international community considers illegal, is one of the main stumbling blocks in the stalled Middle East peace process.The European Union is one of the largest donors to the Palestinians.
Absolutely no green light for Israel to strike Iran: Obama Tue Jul 7, 6:52 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama strongly denied in an interview on Tuesday that the United States had given Israel a green light to strike Iran's nuclear facilities.Asked on CNN television whether Washington had given Israel the go-ahead for such an attack, Obama said: Absolutely not.In the interview with the US network broadcast from Russia where he is on an official visit, Obama added that Washington could not dictate the security interests of other countries and would seek to settle the dispute through diplomacy.What is also true is, it is the policy of the United States to try to resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear capabilities,Obama said.
This would be achieved through diplomatic channels,he said.The remarks followed comments by Vice President Joe Biden over the weekend that the United States would not stand in the way of Israel in its response to Iran's nuclear ambitions.Israel can determine for itself... what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else,Biden told ABC television's This Week program in an interview broadcast Sunday.We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination -- if they make a determination -- that they're existentially threatened,Biden said.Obama on Tuesday stressed that he wanted first to see progress on diplomacy, as the United States attempts to end Tehran's controversial nuclear drive.I think Vice President Biden stated a categorical fact, which is that we can't dictate to other countries what their security interests are, the US president said.Obama said that the United States reserve(s) the right, and I as commander-in-chief reserve the right, to take whatever actions are necessary to protect the United States.Asked about Iran at an event Tuesday in Washington, the top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, said Tehran could have an atomic bomb within one to three years and that such a development risked unleashing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.If Iran secured a nuclear arsenal it would be potentially very destabilizing,Mullen told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.My concern is that, you know, the clock has continued to tick,he said.Saying Israel viewed a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat, Mullen spoke of the criticality in my view of solving this before Iran gets a nuclear capability or that anyone would, you know, take action to strike them.Mullen, who is chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the focus was on diplomatic efforts but echoed Obama's comments, refusing to rule out military options.There is a great deal that certainly depends on the dialogue and the engagement, and I think we need to do that with all options remaining on the table, including certainly military options,he said.
Mideast must seize window of opportunity: German FM By Deborah Cole – Tue Jul 7, 1:37 pm ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged Middle Eastern leaders on Tuesday to seize the window of opportunity that the new US administration has opened in the region.US President Barak Obama's initiative creates many opportunities that we need to use now, Steinmeier said after meeting Lebanese prime minister designate Saad Hariri in Beirut.That is why all the partners must take part constructively in this process and make their positions clear quickly before the window of opportunity closes.The Obama administration has repeatedly called for a complete halt to Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and has demanded that the Israeli government sign up to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Steinmeier, who visited Damascus earlier before heading to Beirut, also voiced support for the resumption of Syrian-Israeli negotiations to help pave the way for eventual talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.Dialogue between Syria and Israel was frozen after the Jewish state launched a massive offensive against the Gaza Strip last December.Steinmeier expressed concern that the Syrian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas had shown no interest in the success of the peace talks.In my view, the peace process can only proceed when destructive elements in the region are reined in,the German foreign minister said in a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem.
Muallem said his country was keen to have further indirect contacts with Israel.
But he added that demands for Damascus to break its longstanding alliance with Hezbollah and its main foreign sponsor Iran were an issue that went beyond the peace process set by an international conference in Madrid in 1991 -- the exchange of land for peace.As for the issue of our relations with Hezbollah or Iran, that's a precondition,he said of Israeli demands for a clean break as part of a normalisation of ties under any peace deal with the Jewish state.We think a resumption of indirect contacts with Israel through Turkish go-betweens is the best way of getting to direct negotiations, but first and foremost we have to be confident that there is a political will in Israel to achieve peace.Muallem said Syria's demands for the unconditional return of the whole of the strategic Golan Heights, which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community, was an entirely different matter.Yes, we do what to get the Golan back on a silver platter, he said.Let's face it -- it's our land and our right to have it back is the most normal thing in the world.The last direct peace talks between Israel and Syria, sponsored by the United States, broke down in 2000 when Israel baulked at handing back the entire Golan right down to the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Israel's main water source.Israel's right-leaning government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea of exchanging the Golan for peace with Syria.
Egypt president hopes Schalit issue resolved soon By Aron Heller, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jul 7, 12:09 pm ET
CAIRO – An Israeli soldier being held in Gaza by Hamas militants is alive and in good condition, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Tuesday, adding that he hopes the soldier will be released soon.Sgt. Gilad Schalit has been held by Hamas-allied militants since being captured more than three years ago in a cross-border raid from Gaza.The 22-year-old soldier has not been seen since, and Hamas has prevented the Red Cross from visiting him. Egypt has been mediating attempts to arrange a swap of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including militants involved in deadly attacks, for the soldier.Speaking at a news conference with visiting Israeli President Shimon Peres, Mubarak said that negotiations to secure his release are continuing.Schalit is in good condition. I hope that in the coming period, not in a long time, the Schalit issue will be closed,he said.Peres' visit was designed to discuss efforts to free Schalit as well as ways to promote a regional peace agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab nations with peace agreements with Israel.Both Mubarak and Peres emphasized that there is a good opportunity now for peace with the Palestinians.The differences between us are not that great that they cannot be overcome,Peres said.We cannot miss this opportunity.Mubarak said the Palestinian issue will continue to be the top priority for Egypt and the Arab world, and said Israel must stop settlement construction in the West Bank and resume peace talks toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.Israel's continued construction in settlements on lands claimed by the Palestinians is the focus of a disagreement straining ties with the U.S.Peres' visit was his first to Egypt since a new, conservative government took office in Israel.
The role of the presidency in Israel is largely ceremonial. But Peres' stature as a Nobel winner and Israel's elder statesman, along with the difficult reputation of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, gave his visit greater diplomatic significance.With the blessing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Peres has been meeting overseas with foreign leaders in recent months in an attempt to soften the new government's image and express its desire to pursue peace efforts.Last month, in a move at least partly aimed at easing tensions with Washington, Netanyahu expressed support for the first time for the creation of a Palestinian state. But the Palestinians have rejected Netanyahu's conditions, namely that such a state would have to be demilitarized and recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people. They have also said they will not resume negotiations until Israel halt's its settlement construction.Speaking at the presidential palace in Cairo, Peres insisted that following Netanyahu's speech the Israeli government was firmly committed to the creation of a Palestinian state.The formal position of the Israeli government is a solution of two states for two people: Palestine will be an Arab state and Israel will be a Jewish state,he said.Israel has no intention to rule over the Palestinian people. We have no intention to confiscate land, and we have no intention to build new settlements.He did not address the issue of building within existing settlements, which has been the key point of contention between Israel and the United States. The Obama administration has been pushing for a freeze on all settlement building while the Israeli government wants to continue building in existing settlements to allow for growing families.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
US TAKES 1350 PALESTINIANS
Risking Israel's ire, US takes 1,350 Palestinian refugees
By Patrik Jonsson – Tue Jul 7, 5:00 am ET
Atlanta – The State Department confirmed today that as many as 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians – once the well-treated guests of Saddam Hussein and now at outs with much of Iraqi society – will be resettled in the US, mostly in southern California, starting this fall.It will be the largest-ever resettlement of Palestinian refugees into the US – and welcome news to the Palestinians who fled to Iraq after 1948 but who have had a tough time since Mr. Hussein was deposed in 2003. Targeted by Iraqi Shiites, the mostly-Sunni Palestinians have spent recent years in one of the region's roughest refugee camps, Al Waleed, near Iraq's border with Syria.Really for the first time, the United States is recognizing a Palestinian refugee population that could be admitted to the US as part of a resettlement program, says Bill Frelick, refugee policy director at Human Rights Watch in Washington.Given the US's past reluctance to resettle Palestinians – it accepted just seven Palestinians in 2007 and nine in 2008 –the effort could ruffle some diplomatic feathers.For many in the State Department and international community, the resettlement is part of a moral imperative the US has to clean up the refugee crisis created by invading Iraq. The US has already stepped up resettlement of Iraqis, some who have struggled to adjust to life in America.The resettlement of Iraqi Palestinians is an important gesture for the United States to demonstrate that we're not heartless,says Alon Ben-Meir, a professor of international relations and Middle Eastern studies at New York University.But some critics say the State Department is sloughing off its problems onto American cities, especially since in this case the Palestinians were sympathizers of Hussein, who was deposed by the US.
This is politically a real hot potato,says Mark Krikorian, director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, adding, [A]merica has become a dumping ground for the State Department's problems – they're tossing their problems over their head into Harrisburg, Pa., or Omaha, Neb.
Saddam's guests
Palestinian refugees came to Iraq in successive waves over several decades, first in 1948, then in 1967, and in 1991. They were treated well under Hussein but were also used to attack Israeli policies, and their presence was resented by many Iraqis.After Hussein was deposed in 2003, many of these Palestinians were driven out of their homes and now live at the mercy of the weather in rough camps along the Syrian and Jordanian border, says Mr. Ben-Meir. The number of Palestinians in Iraq has fallen from around 34,000 to an estimated 15,000, with about 2,773 living in camps, according to the State Department.The US, which takes in about 80,000 refugees annually, hopes to bring 17,000 Iraqi refugees this year.
Categorized as Iraqi refugees
While the US generally doesn't accept Palestinians, Todd Pierce, a spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, says that the Iraqi population of Palestinians falls under a different category from those in Gaza and the West Bank. Each applicant will be carefully scrutinized for terrorist ties, he adds.The US reluctance to accept Palestinians is because it doesn't want the refugee program to become an issue in its relationship with Israel,says a diplomat in the region, who requested anonymity because he is not cleared to talk to the press. But these Palestinians, he says, will be processed as refugees from Iraq.Mr. Krikorian says the US should be the last refuge for those fleeing persecution. Only Jordan of all the Arab countries routinely grants citizenship to Palestinian refugees, he notes. More recently, says Mr. Frelick, Jordan has also shut its borders to Palestinians coming from Iraq.Frelick, who has visited a camp on the Jordanian border, said the Iraqi Palestinians are apolitical, and basically desperate, scared, miserable, and ready to just get out of Iraq.
German foreign minister starts Mideast tour Sun Jul 5, 5:31 pm ET
BERLIN (AFP) – Germany's foreign minister left for Israel Sunday at the start of a two-day tour that will also take in Syria and Lebanon and is aimed at lending support to the new US engagement in the region.Frank-Walter Steinmeier is to hold talks in Jerusalem Monday with Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and the leader of the opposition Kadima party, Tzipi Livni.He will also pay his respects at the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem and meet representatives of the Palestinian Authority.Steinmeier, who is also vice-chancellor and is challenging conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel in a September general election, is on his 14th Middle East tour since taking office in November 2005 in a left-right government.He aims to underline Germany's desire to actively back US President Barack Obama's drive to kickstart the dormant peace process between Israelis and Palestinians and enlist the support of regional neighbours.We have had new momentum in the Middle East peace process since the new government took office in Washington and support its fresh efforts to reach a two-state solution and a return to negotiations, a ministry spokesman, Andreas Peschke, told reporters Friday.Germany sees the absence of violence surrounding the Lebanese elections on June 7 and improved relations between Lebanon and Syria as factors that present a window of opportunity that Europe must help to seize.
Peschke said Germany was pursuing a Middle East policy, in close consultations with its European partners and the United States, that moved away from slogans and focused on practical assistance on the ground.Such steps include development assistance for the Palestinians and training for security forces in the territories to help prepare for eventual statehood.Steinmeier faced criticism from the chancellery, the United States and France for earlier efforts to engage Syria.But each has since softened its stance toward the country. The Obama administration has said it would send an ambassador back to Damascus after a four-year hiatus amid a region-wide drive to lay the groundwork for Middle East peace.During his stop in Damascus Tuesday, Steinmeier holds talks with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallem and President Bashar al-Assad before meeting with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman and designated prime minister Saad Hariri in Beirut.He will return to Berlin late Tuesday.
Saudis would ignore Israeli jets en route to Iran: report Sun Jul 5, 8:12 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli warplanes flying over the kingdom in any raid on Iran's nuclear sites, The Sunday Times said in a report denied by Israel.Citing diplomatic sources, it said the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence service had assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Saudi Arabia has tacitly agreed to the use of its airspace.Netanyahu's office denied the report, however, calling it fundamentally wrong and baseless.The Sunday Times said Mossad director Meir Dagan had held secret talks with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility.The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of Israel and Saudi Arabia,it quoted a diplomatic source as saying.Israel and Saudi Arabia have no formal diplomatic relations but Mossad has working relations with the Saudis, the newspaper added, citing an Israeli defence source.
Israeli sub enters Suez Canal for first time: report Sun Jul 5, 3:20 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – An Israeli submarine used the Suez Canal for the first time recently to get to military exercises in the Red Sea, a paper said, adding the move was aimed as a message to arch-foe Iran.The Dolphine submarine entered the canal that connects the Mediterranean and the Red Seas during the day and was escorted by Egyptian navy vessels sometime in June, the Yediot Aharonot daily said.Previously Israeli submarines rounded the whole of Africa to get to exercises in the Red Sea, Israel's biggest-selling newspaper said.The daily said that with the move Egypt and Israel wanted to show their coordination in the face of Iran pursuing its nuclear programme.No comment on the report was immediately available from either Israeli or Egyptian officials.Israel, widely considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, suspects Iran of trying to build atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran has vehemently denied.The Jewish state sees the Islamic republic as its top enemy following repeated assertions by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel is doomed to be wiped off the map.
Palestinian police arrest West Bank plotters Sat Jul 4, 12:34 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas have seized large cash sums and West Bank homes from men they accuse of plotting to kill government officials, a security source said on Saturday.The official, who could not be named, said evidence would only be produced at a later date but added that over the past few weeks men known to have connections to Islamist Hamas have been arrested at a number of locations in the West Bank.Security forces have seized some $8.5 million in cash since March until now and have arrested a number of people who have recently purchased homes adjacent to government and military installations, mainly in the city of Nablus. We will produce the evidence at the appropriate time,the official told Reuters.He said investigators suspected that the location of the homes allowed operatives loyal to Hamas to observe movements by government officials and security forces.The official said forces had also seized uniforms used by various Palestinian security forces.Hamas's intention is to establish a parallel security services in the West Bank,the source said.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Last week, Tayyeb Abdel Rahim, a top aide to Abbas, said about 10 Hamas loyalists were arrested on suspicion of planning attacks against Palestinian officials and institutions in the West Bank. Hamas said the accusations were false.Saturday's accusations are the latest in series of claims and counter-claims by the rival factions, both of whom seek dominate the Palestinian political scene.Tension between Islamist Hamas and Western-backed Abbas's secular Fatah faction has increased since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in a brief but bloody civil war two years ago. Fatah still holds sway in the West Bank.Both sides also accuse each other of arresting men from the other faction and of torturing detainees.For months, Fatah and Hamas have tried to agree a power-sharing deal in Egyptian-brokered reconciliation talks but earlier this week they again failed to clinch a deal, missing a July 7 deadline for an agreement.The Egyptian mediators have now set July 28 as the target date for a deal.Abbas wants to reinstate his authority in the Gaza Strip and Hamas hopes a deal can persuade the West to ease restrictions imposed on it over its refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept Israeli-Palestinian interim peace accords.(Reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, writing by Ori Lewis; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
By Patrik Jonsson – Tue Jul 7, 5:00 am ET
Atlanta – The State Department confirmed today that as many as 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians – once the well-treated guests of Saddam Hussein and now at outs with much of Iraqi society – will be resettled in the US, mostly in southern California, starting this fall.It will be the largest-ever resettlement of Palestinian refugees into the US – and welcome news to the Palestinians who fled to Iraq after 1948 but who have had a tough time since Mr. Hussein was deposed in 2003. Targeted by Iraqi Shiites, the mostly-Sunni Palestinians have spent recent years in one of the region's roughest refugee camps, Al Waleed, near Iraq's border with Syria.Really for the first time, the United States is recognizing a Palestinian refugee population that could be admitted to the US as part of a resettlement program, says Bill Frelick, refugee policy director at Human Rights Watch in Washington.Given the US's past reluctance to resettle Palestinians – it accepted just seven Palestinians in 2007 and nine in 2008 –the effort could ruffle some diplomatic feathers.For many in the State Department and international community, the resettlement is part of a moral imperative the US has to clean up the refugee crisis created by invading Iraq. The US has already stepped up resettlement of Iraqis, some who have struggled to adjust to life in America.The resettlement of Iraqi Palestinians is an important gesture for the United States to demonstrate that we're not heartless,says Alon Ben-Meir, a professor of international relations and Middle Eastern studies at New York University.But some critics say the State Department is sloughing off its problems onto American cities, especially since in this case the Palestinians were sympathizers of Hussein, who was deposed by the US.
This is politically a real hot potato,says Mark Krikorian, director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, adding, [A]merica has become a dumping ground for the State Department's problems – they're tossing their problems over their head into Harrisburg, Pa., or Omaha, Neb.
Saddam's guests
Palestinian refugees came to Iraq in successive waves over several decades, first in 1948, then in 1967, and in 1991. They were treated well under Hussein but were also used to attack Israeli policies, and their presence was resented by many Iraqis.After Hussein was deposed in 2003, many of these Palestinians were driven out of their homes and now live at the mercy of the weather in rough camps along the Syrian and Jordanian border, says Mr. Ben-Meir. The number of Palestinians in Iraq has fallen from around 34,000 to an estimated 15,000, with about 2,773 living in camps, according to the State Department.The US, which takes in about 80,000 refugees annually, hopes to bring 17,000 Iraqi refugees this year.
Categorized as Iraqi refugees
While the US generally doesn't accept Palestinians, Todd Pierce, a spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, says that the Iraqi population of Palestinians falls under a different category from those in Gaza and the West Bank. Each applicant will be carefully scrutinized for terrorist ties, he adds.The US reluctance to accept Palestinians is because it doesn't want the refugee program to become an issue in its relationship with Israel,says a diplomat in the region, who requested anonymity because he is not cleared to talk to the press. But these Palestinians, he says, will be processed as refugees from Iraq.Mr. Krikorian says the US should be the last refuge for those fleeing persecution. Only Jordan of all the Arab countries routinely grants citizenship to Palestinian refugees, he notes. More recently, says Mr. Frelick, Jordan has also shut its borders to Palestinians coming from Iraq.Frelick, who has visited a camp on the Jordanian border, said the Iraqi Palestinians are apolitical, and basically desperate, scared, miserable, and ready to just get out of Iraq.
German foreign minister starts Mideast tour Sun Jul 5, 5:31 pm ET
BERLIN (AFP) – Germany's foreign minister left for Israel Sunday at the start of a two-day tour that will also take in Syria and Lebanon and is aimed at lending support to the new US engagement in the region.Frank-Walter Steinmeier is to hold talks in Jerusalem Monday with Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and the leader of the opposition Kadima party, Tzipi Livni.He will also pay his respects at the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem and meet representatives of the Palestinian Authority.Steinmeier, who is also vice-chancellor and is challenging conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel in a September general election, is on his 14th Middle East tour since taking office in November 2005 in a left-right government.He aims to underline Germany's desire to actively back US President Barack Obama's drive to kickstart the dormant peace process between Israelis and Palestinians and enlist the support of regional neighbours.We have had new momentum in the Middle East peace process since the new government took office in Washington and support its fresh efforts to reach a two-state solution and a return to negotiations, a ministry spokesman, Andreas Peschke, told reporters Friday.Germany sees the absence of violence surrounding the Lebanese elections on June 7 and improved relations between Lebanon and Syria as factors that present a window of opportunity that Europe must help to seize.
Peschke said Germany was pursuing a Middle East policy, in close consultations with its European partners and the United States, that moved away from slogans and focused on practical assistance on the ground.Such steps include development assistance for the Palestinians and training for security forces in the territories to help prepare for eventual statehood.Steinmeier faced criticism from the chancellery, the United States and France for earlier efforts to engage Syria.But each has since softened its stance toward the country. The Obama administration has said it would send an ambassador back to Damascus after a four-year hiatus amid a region-wide drive to lay the groundwork for Middle East peace.During his stop in Damascus Tuesday, Steinmeier holds talks with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallem and President Bashar al-Assad before meeting with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman and designated prime minister Saad Hariri in Beirut.He will return to Berlin late Tuesday.
Saudis would ignore Israeli jets en route to Iran: report Sun Jul 5, 8:12 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli warplanes flying over the kingdom in any raid on Iran's nuclear sites, The Sunday Times said in a report denied by Israel.Citing diplomatic sources, it said the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence service had assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Saudi Arabia has tacitly agreed to the use of its airspace.Netanyahu's office denied the report, however, calling it fundamentally wrong and baseless.The Sunday Times said Mossad director Meir Dagan had held secret talks with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility.The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of Israel and Saudi Arabia,it quoted a diplomatic source as saying.Israel and Saudi Arabia have no formal diplomatic relations but Mossad has working relations with the Saudis, the newspaper added, citing an Israeli defence source.
Israeli sub enters Suez Canal for first time: report Sun Jul 5, 3:20 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – An Israeli submarine used the Suez Canal for the first time recently to get to military exercises in the Red Sea, a paper said, adding the move was aimed as a message to arch-foe Iran.The Dolphine submarine entered the canal that connects the Mediterranean and the Red Seas during the day and was escorted by Egyptian navy vessels sometime in June, the Yediot Aharonot daily said.Previously Israeli submarines rounded the whole of Africa to get to exercises in the Red Sea, Israel's biggest-selling newspaper said.The daily said that with the move Egypt and Israel wanted to show their coordination in the face of Iran pursuing its nuclear programme.No comment on the report was immediately available from either Israeli or Egyptian officials.Israel, widely considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, suspects Iran of trying to build atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran has vehemently denied.The Jewish state sees the Islamic republic as its top enemy following repeated assertions by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel is doomed to be wiped off the map.
Palestinian police arrest West Bank plotters Sat Jul 4, 12:34 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas have seized large cash sums and West Bank homes from men they accuse of plotting to kill government officials, a security source said on Saturday.The official, who could not be named, said evidence would only be produced at a later date but added that over the past few weeks men known to have connections to Islamist Hamas have been arrested at a number of locations in the West Bank.Security forces have seized some $8.5 million in cash since March until now and have arrested a number of people who have recently purchased homes adjacent to government and military installations, mainly in the city of Nablus. We will produce the evidence at the appropriate time,the official told Reuters.He said investigators suspected that the location of the homes allowed operatives loyal to Hamas to observe movements by government officials and security forces.The official said forces had also seized uniforms used by various Palestinian security forces.Hamas's intention is to establish a parallel security services in the West Bank,the source said.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Last week, Tayyeb Abdel Rahim, a top aide to Abbas, said about 10 Hamas loyalists were arrested on suspicion of planning attacks against Palestinian officials and institutions in the West Bank. Hamas said the accusations were false.Saturday's accusations are the latest in series of claims and counter-claims by the rival factions, both of whom seek dominate the Palestinian political scene.Tension between Islamist Hamas and Western-backed Abbas's secular Fatah faction has increased since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in a brief but bloody civil war two years ago. Fatah still holds sway in the West Bank.Both sides also accuse each other of arresting men from the other faction and of torturing detainees.For months, Fatah and Hamas have tried to agree a power-sharing deal in Egyptian-brokered reconciliation talks but earlier this week they again failed to clinch a deal, missing a July 7 deadline for an agreement.The Egyptian mediators have now set July 28 as the target date for a deal.Abbas wants to reinstate his authority in the Gaza Strip and Hamas hopes a deal can persuade the West to ease restrictions imposed on it over its refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept Israeli-Palestinian interim peace accords.(Reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, writing by Ori Lewis; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Saturday, July 04, 2009
BARAK MITCHELL MEET ON SETTLEMENTS
Barak, Mitchell to meet again on settlements By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer JULY 4,09
JERUSALEM – An Israeli defense official says Defense Minister Ehud Barak is to hold a second round of talks with U.S. special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell next week in an effort to resolve differences between the two sides on Jewish settlements in the West Bank.The official spoke on condition of anonymity as neither Israel or the U.S. has made a formal announcement. He said the meeting was expected to take place in London on Monday, less than a week after Barak and Mitchell met in New York.The U.S. wants settlement construction halted completely to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Israel's insistence that building within existing settlements be allowed to accommodate growing families and marriages has been an irritant in its relations with President Barack Obama's administration.After his June 30 meeting with Mitchell, Barak said Israel is considering what it can do to enable the Mideast peace process and allow Palestinian-Israeli negotiations to take off, including instituting a temporary freeze on settlements.But when asked by reporters whether Israel would agree to a freeze of perhaps three to six months, Barak replied: I think it's a little bit too early to predict.
He added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would meet Mitchell in the next two or three weeks.Netanyahu was scheduled to see Mitchell last month in Paris but called the meeting off in an apparent sign of growing friction over Obama's call for a halt to settlement construction.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said peace talks cannot resume until settlement construction in Palestinian territories comes to a complete halt.
Syria mends US, Arab ties as ally Iran in turmoil By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jul 3, 4:50 pm ET
BEIRUT – Syria's leader sent a July 4 message full of praise to President Barack Obama on Friday and invited him to visit Syria — the latest signs Damascus is hedging its bets in Mideast politics, warming up to its rival the United States at a time when its longtime ally Iran is in turmoil.The United States and its Arab allies have been hoping to pull Syria out of the fold of Iran and Islamic militant groups in the region.Damascus so far appears unlikely to take such a dramatic step, but it does appear worried about Iran's reliability and the long-term impact of that country's postelection unrest. Also, its Lebanese ally Hezbollah suffered a setback when its coalition failed to win June parliament elections, beaten out by a pro-U.S. bloc.
Syrian President Bashar Assad has been expressing hopes for better ties with Washington for months. But the latest developments may make dialogue look even more attractive.Assad sent a telegram to Obama on the occasion of the July 4 Independence Day holiday, saying, The values that were adopted by President Obama during his election campaign and after he was elected president are values that the world needs today.It is very important to adopt the principle of dialogue in relations with countries based on respect and mutual interest,Assad said in the telegram, which was carried by state-run news agency SANA.In an interview with Britain's Sky News, Assad invited Obama to visit Damascus to discuss Mideast peace.We would like to welcome him in Syria, definitely. I am very clear about this,Assad said in English. Asked whether such a visit could take place soon, Assad said: That depends on him.He added with a smile,I will ask you to convey the invitation to him.The last time a U.S. president visited Syria was a 1994 trip by Bill Clinton.For the U.S., even pulling Syria only partly away from Iran and its militant allies would represent a major shift and could help ease Mideast crises. The U.S.-Syrian rivalry has fueled instability in Lebanon, and the U.S. and Israel say Syria's backing of the Palestinian Hamas undermines the Arab-Israeli peace process. Syrian cooperation could make Obama's fresh push for a peace deal take off.The Obama administration has stepped up its wooing of Syria. The U.S. is sending back its ambassador to Damascus after a four-year break over terrorism accusations. Obama's special Mideast peace envoy, George Mitchell, became the highest-level U.S. administration official to visit Damascus since 2005, and he acknowledged Syria's clout, declaring Damascus has a key role to play in forging Mideast peace.
In a separate interview with Sky News, Assad's wife, Asma, said she believed the Syrian and American leaders could work together.The fact that President Obama is young — well President Assad is also very young as well — so maybe it is time for these young new leaders to make a difference in the world,she said.In one sign of Syrian cooperation on regional issues, Damascus is believed to have played a behind-the-scenes role in ensuring Lebanon's elections remained peaceful.Damascus likely won't move away from its Iran alliance easily. Iran's regional clout has been key to boosting Syria's status in the Middle East, and Tehran gives considerable financial and military backing. Assad was the first Arab leader to congratulate Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for winning the disputed presidential election.But Iran is now mired in the fallout from that election, following the widespread protests that erupted amid claims Ahmadinejad's victory in the June election was fraudulent. A heavy crackdown has largely quelled the protests, but the show of anger has raised questions over Ahmadinejad's long-term legitimacy.All the world around Syria on which it built its policy is falling apart,said Sateh Noureddine, managing editor of the Lebanese As-Safir daily, which tilts toward Syria's Lebanese allies.Hezbollah lost the election in Lebanon, Hamas is being subjected to unprecedented attrition and Iran is drowned in its internal crises,he told The Associated Press.All the elements of strength they (Syrians) built on their foreign policy are collapsing, so for certain they are going to reassess and look for alternatives, without abandoning their past.Writing in the Saudi-owned daily Al-Hayat, Saudi analyst Dawood al-Shirian urged Syria to take this opportunity and rid itself of having to pay a price for the Iranians' reputation.U.S. ally Saudi Arabia — one of the bitterest rivals of Syria in the region since 2005 — has been working in recent months to thaw ties with Damascus in hopes of drawing it away from Iran.The oil powerhouse sent a senior envoy to Damascus on June 28. Assad and Saudi King Abdullah have twice met in recent months in Riyadh and Kuwait, and there has been persistent media speculation that Abdullah will visit Damascus in July — perhaps as early as next week — to crown the renewed relationship.
Assad and Jordan's king have also recently exchanged visits for the first time in several years.
Syria has several long-term aims in any reconciliation with the U.S. Assad has said he wants the U.S. to mediate Syrian-Israeli negotiations, in which Damascus seeks the return of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Syria also wants U.S. economic sanctions lifted and foreign investment, particularly Gulf Arab money for its economy. It is also wary of an international tribunal set up to try the perpetrators of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut at a time when Syria controlled the country.Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
Obama believes pope will share view on Middle East: report Fri Jul 3, 3:06 pm ET
ROME (AFP) – US President Barack Obama said in an interview published Friday he thought Pope Benedict XVI would share my approach on policy in the Middle East.Obama, who is due to meet the pope on July 10, told Catholic Italian newspaper Avvenire he was keen to discuss the situation in the Middle East with the head of the Roman Catholic Church.It is a subject I am keen to discuss with the pope, I think he will share my approach,said Obama, who will meet the pope after the G8 summit in the central Italian town of L'Aquila.Obama has made relaunching the Middle East peace process a top priority, pledging a new beginning for Islam and the United States in a landmark speech to the world's Muslims delivered in Cairo last month.He has also bluntly called for Israel to halt settlement activity on Palestinian land while urging Arabs to move closer to making peace with Israel.Asked about US policy in the region, Obama told Avvenire: What the United States can do, without imposing a solution, is to hold a mirror up to both of the parties to show them the consequences of their actions.
He went on: On one hand, it is not just Israel's fault.The Palestinians have the responsibility to stop the violence and Arab countries in the region must understand that Israel is called upon to take some very difficult political decisions, the Jewish state has security needs like any country,he said.Obama said he hoped to find much common ground with the pope from peace in the Middle East to the fight against poverty, from climate change to immigration.All these areas where the pope has shown extraordinary leadership,he told Avvenire, the Italian bishops' mouthpiece.
Bahrain officials make unprecedented Israel visit Fri Jul 3, 1:40 pm ET
MANAMA (AFP) – An official Bahrain delegation travelled to Israel on an unprecedented trip to recover a group of nationals held by the Jewish state, the state news agency reported on Friday.According to BNA, the Bahrainis were in a group of pro-Palestinian activists on a ship seized by the Israeli navy on Tuesday as it headed for the Gaza Strip in defiance of Israel's blockade of the territory.Israel handed over the Bahraini citizens at the international airport near Tel Aviv, BNA said, without saying how many people were involved.Bahrain -- a staunch US ally which also hosts the US Navy's Fifth fleet -- does not recognise Israel and reports of the trip were the first to be announced publicly.Last October the foreign minister of Bahrain, Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad al-Khalifa, triggered criticism at home for suggesting the creation of a regional organisation that would include Israel.Bahrain's crown prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa met Israeli officials during World Economic Forum summits in 2000 and 2003, while Sheikh Khaled met former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni at the United Nations in 2007.
But political groupings in Bahrain, which is ruled by a Sunni dynasty and has a Shiite majority, resist any attempt at normalisation of ties with Israel.Only two Arab countries -- Egypt and Jordan -- have full fledged peace treaties with Israel. Bahrain's Gulf neighbour Qatar, another close US ally, is one of a handful of Arab countries to maintain political contacts with Israel.
Israel rejects unbalanced Amnesty report on Gaza war Thu Jul 2, 3:24 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel rejected an Amnesty International report that accused it of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip, and said the human rights group was manipulated by Hamas.The slant of their report indicates that the organisation succumbed to the manipulations of the Hamas terror organisation, the Israeli military said in a statement.London-based Amnesty accused Israeli forces of war crimes, saying they used civilians, including children as human shields and conducted wanton attacks on civilians during the December-January Gaza offensive.Israel called the report unbalanced and said it presented a distorted view of the laws of war that does not comply with the rules implemented by democratic states battling terror.It ignores the efforts of the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) to minimise as much as possible harming uninvolved non-combatant civilians,it said.It insisted Israeli forces used various fighting methods and advanced technology to minimise harm to the civilian population while engaging terrorists who were operating from densely populated areas and using the local population as human shields.Amnesty said it found no evidence the Hamas rulers of Gaza had used civilians as human shields, but claimed Israeli forces forced Palestinian families to remain in one room of their home while using the rest of the house as a base and sniper position.Israel accused the rights group of ignoring the blatant violations of international law perpetrated by Hamas.Thirteen pages of the 117-page report are devoted to the conduct of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups and points out the rocket attacks they carried out against Israel constitute war crimes.More than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died during the massive offensive launched by Israel in response to rocket fire from Palestinian militants.
Israel rejects total settlement freeze Thu Jul 2, 2:15 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel will not impose a complete halt on settlement construction on occupied Palestinian land as demanded by the United States, a senior official said.
Israel will not freeze natural growth and will not suffocate the life of 300,000 Israelis who live in settlements in all legality, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told public radio.The international community considers all settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem illegal, saying they violate international law under which an occupying power cannot transfer part of its population to the land it occupies.The US administration is pressing Israel to freeze all construction activity in the settlements, which are seen as a major hurdle in efforts to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians.Ayalon made it clear he did not believe the Palestinians were willing to make any concessions.One cannot demand immediate and complete payment by Israel if the other side is not willing to take the slightest step,he said.Israeli media has said hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was willing to consider a three-month construction freeze, but would exclude east Jerusalem from the moratorium, as well as the 2,000 to 3,200 private homes currently being built in the West Bank.
Israel considering options to promote peace By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jun 30, 8:38 pm ET
NEW YORK – Israel is considering what it can do to enable a full-fledged Mideast peace process and Palestinian-Israeli negotiations to take off, including instituting a temporary freeze on settlements, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday.
But after four hours of talks with U.S. special Mideast peace envoy, George Mitchell, Barak would not commit to a temporary settlement freeze.Asked whether Israel would agree to a freeze of perhaps three to six months, Barak replied: I think it's a little bit too early to predict.The U.S. wants settlement construction to stop completely to help revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Israel's insistence that natural growth be allowed in existing settlements to deal with births and marriages has been an irritant in its relations with President Barack Obama's administration.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said peace talks cannot resume until settlement construction in Palestinian territories comes to a complete halt.We are considering every positive contribution Israel can make towards the taking off of a significant, important peace effort,Barak told reporters after the meeting at a New York hotel.He said it was important to look at the wider picture and to deal with each and every issue including the settlements.We think this wider framework ... is needed in order to enable (a) full-fledged regional peace process and a promising Palestinian-Israeli track as well as other tracks taking off successfully in a positive way,Barak said.He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would meet Mitchell in the next one, two or three weeks.Netanyahu had planned to see Mitchell last week in Paris but called the meeting off in an apparent sign of growing friction over Obama's call for a halt to settlement construction.Looking ahead to the Netanyahu-Mitchell meeting, Barak said, I believe it will contribute to further moving forward of the prospects of a regional peace and Israeli-Palestinian peace led by the United States.Mitchell appeared for a photo opportunity with Barak before the talks began but did not make any comments.I don't think we are stuck now,Barak said after the meeting.He called his talks with the U.S. envoy positive and in a good atmosphere, even though there are still differences.They covered a wide range of issues including the strategic situation in the Middle East, prospects for a U.S.-led regional peace initiative which we in Israel support fullheartedly,and potential negotiations with the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese, Barak said.
Lieberman accuses Sarkozy of meddling Tue Jun 30, 3:14 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman issued a tough rebuke after French President Nicolas Sarkozy was quoted as suggesting the ultra-nationalist Israeli official be fired.If this report is correct then this is an unacceptable interference in internal Israeli affairs,Lieberman's office said.The statement was issued after Israel's Channel 2 television reported that Sarkozy had urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting in Paris last week to get rid of Lieberman, who heads the far right-wing Yisrael Beitenu party.Netanyahu reportedly defended his minister, saying that in private he is pragmatic,to which Sarkozy is said to have responded that controversial far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen is very pleasant in private.A staunch defender of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Lieberman has been called a racist by critics over his anti-Arab diatribes.
Israel to build 50 new homes at West Bank settlement By Ori Lewis – Mon Jun 29, 3:35 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel's Defense Ministry said on Monday it had approved construction of 50 new homes at a West Bank settlement as part of a plan for 1,450 housing units, an expansion that defies a U.S. call for a settlement freeze.News of the planned building work emerged hours before Defense Minister Ehud Barak left for the United States for talks aimed at narrowing a rift with Washington over settlements.He will meet President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, in New York on Tuesday, Barak's office said.An affidavit submitted by the Defense Ministry to the Supreme Court outlined plans to relocate settlers from Migron, an outpost built in the West Bank without Israeli government permission, to the settlement of Adam, north of Jerusalem.According to the document, a response to a court case brought by the Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now, a master plan for Adam calls for the construction of 1,450 homes there.But the ministry said it had given the go-ahead for the construction of only 50 of the dwellings and any additional units would require its separate approval.Separately, Israel went public with a plan to expropriate 139 sq. kms (54 sq. miles) of West Bank land, including shoreline exposed by the receding Dead Sea, saying it would give Palestinians 45 days to contest the decision in court.Hatem Abdel-Qader, Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs, denounced what he said would be the largest area of land ever confiscated by Israel in one go since 1967,when the West Bank and East Jerusalem were captured from Jordan in a war.
STATEHOOD
Obama has pressed Israel to halt settlement activity as part of a bid to revive peace talks under which the Palestinians would gain statehood.In a rare dispute between Israel and its main ally, the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to declare a settlement freeze, saying some construction should continue to match population growth within the enclaves.Some 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Palestinians say settlements, deemed illegal by the World Court, could deny them a viable and contiguous state.Underscoring tensions, Palestinians said settlers raided the West Bank village of Asira al-Qiblya, firing guns at the windows of buildings. Two Palestinians were injured, said Ghasan Daghlas, an official in nearby Nablus, quoting the villagers.An Israeli military spokesman quoted settlers as saying the incident began with a Palestinian arson attack on nearby Yitzhar settlement. Settlers tried to douse the flames and were stoned by Palestinians, he said, adding that a settler was hurt.The spokesman said he had no knowledge of live rounds being fired, saying troops called to quell the disturbance had used riot-dispersal gear usually a reference to rubber bullets.In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his refusal to resume negotiations with Israel until it froze settlement.
We won't accept the continuation of settlements,he said.
Abbas also urged Netanyahu to drop his conditions for the creation of a Palestinian state, which include international guarantees it would have no army and a demand the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Israel should accept the two-state vision and not put conditions that would render the issue meaningless,Abbas said.
Barak left open the possibility of a limited, temporary halt to construction in settlements in comments he made on Sunday in response to an Israeli newspaper report that he would propose a three-month moratorium. Barak has also spoken of couching a Palestinian deal within a wider Israeli-Arab peace accord. A goal of the Israeli-U.S. negotiations is advancing a process for a comprehensive regional settlement in the Middle East,Barak's office quoted him as saying in a statement.Peace Now said some 2,500 settlement homes are currently under construction in the West Bank. (Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Joseph Nasr in Jerusalem; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
World Bank approves Dead Sea canal plan: Israel Sat Jun 27, 1:33 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The World Bank has approved a pilot plan for a canal linking the Red Sea to the rapidly shrinking Dead Sea, Israeli Development Minister Sylvan Shalom announced on Saturday.Israeli public radio said the bank will provide 1.25 billion dollars in finance for the project.The initial proposal is for a 180 kilometre (110 miles) channel to transport 200 cubic metres of water, of which half would gush into the Dead Sea and half would feed a giant desalination plant jointly run by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, Shalom's ministry said.The next stage would see the construction of a canal to supply two billion m3 of water a year to maintain and increase water levels in the Dead Sea, which is on course to dry out completely by 2050 if nothing is done.Shalom, who met World Bank president Robert Zoellick in Washington on Friday, said approval from the global institution was a spectacular development aimed at relaunching the project.The idea of a link between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the planet, was first mooted several years ago and in December 2006 representatives from Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority ordered a feasibility study.Progressed has been slow because of the stalling of the Middle East peace process.The level of the Dead Sea, a natural site of prime historic and economic importance, has been falling by a metre (three feet) every year, creating major environmental problems.
Israel to register land near West Bank settlement Sat Jun 27, 5:17 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has decided to register some 13,900 hectares of land adjacent to its largest West Bank settlement, a step that could pave the way for its expansion, a newspaper reported on Saturday.The Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper published an order on Friday from the Israeli military telling Arab residents living near the massive Maale Adumim settlement outside Jerusalem to register their land within 45 days.On Saturday the newspaper reported that the order concerns some 13,900 hectares (about 34,348 acres) of land east of Maale Adumim, near the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley.The sparsely populated desert region is mostly inhabited by Arab Bedouin tribes, who have been expelled during previous expansions of the settlement, the boundaries of which already extend to the Jordan Valley.US President Barack Obama has pressed Israel to halt all settlement activity, including the so-called "natural growth" in existing settlements in the occupied West Bank, in order to relaunch peace talks with the Palestinians.Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not build new settlements but will allow growth in existing ones, including Maale Adumim, which Israel intends to keep in any future peace deal.Israel has long sought to expand Maale Adumim westward to incorporate the so-called E-1 area of land that would link it to Jerusalem, but has frozen the project in the face of US pressure.The Palestinians have vigorously opposed any expansion into E-1, saying its incorporation into Maale Adumim would split the occupied West Bank in half and severely threaten the viability of their future state.The presence of more than 280,000 Israeli settlers in more than 100 settlements scattered across the West Bank has long been seen as one of the main obstacles to the Middle East peace process.
JERUSALEM – An Israeli defense official says Defense Minister Ehud Barak is to hold a second round of talks with U.S. special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell next week in an effort to resolve differences between the two sides on Jewish settlements in the West Bank.The official spoke on condition of anonymity as neither Israel or the U.S. has made a formal announcement. He said the meeting was expected to take place in London on Monday, less than a week after Barak and Mitchell met in New York.The U.S. wants settlement construction halted completely to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Israel's insistence that building within existing settlements be allowed to accommodate growing families and marriages has been an irritant in its relations with President Barack Obama's administration.After his June 30 meeting with Mitchell, Barak said Israel is considering what it can do to enable the Mideast peace process and allow Palestinian-Israeli negotiations to take off, including instituting a temporary freeze on settlements.But when asked by reporters whether Israel would agree to a freeze of perhaps three to six months, Barak replied: I think it's a little bit too early to predict.
He added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would meet Mitchell in the next two or three weeks.Netanyahu was scheduled to see Mitchell last month in Paris but called the meeting off in an apparent sign of growing friction over Obama's call for a halt to settlement construction.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said peace talks cannot resume until settlement construction in Palestinian territories comes to a complete halt.
Syria mends US, Arab ties as ally Iran in turmoil By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jul 3, 4:50 pm ET
BEIRUT – Syria's leader sent a July 4 message full of praise to President Barack Obama on Friday and invited him to visit Syria — the latest signs Damascus is hedging its bets in Mideast politics, warming up to its rival the United States at a time when its longtime ally Iran is in turmoil.The United States and its Arab allies have been hoping to pull Syria out of the fold of Iran and Islamic militant groups in the region.Damascus so far appears unlikely to take such a dramatic step, but it does appear worried about Iran's reliability and the long-term impact of that country's postelection unrest. Also, its Lebanese ally Hezbollah suffered a setback when its coalition failed to win June parliament elections, beaten out by a pro-U.S. bloc.
Syrian President Bashar Assad has been expressing hopes for better ties with Washington for months. But the latest developments may make dialogue look even more attractive.Assad sent a telegram to Obama on the occasion of the July 4 Independence Day holiday, saying, The values that were adopted by President Obama during his election campaign and after he was elected president are values that the world needs today.It is very important to adopt the principle of dialogue in relations with countries based on respect and mutual interest,Assad said in the telegram, which was carried by state-run news agency SANA.In an interview with Britain's Sky News, Assad invited Obama to visit Damascus to discuss Mideast peace.We would like to welcome him in Syria, definitely. I am very clear about this,Assad said in English. Asked whether such a visit could take place soon, Assad said: That depends on him.He added with a smile,I will ask you to convey the invitation to him.The last time a U.S. president visited Syria was a 1994 trip by Bill Clinton.For the U.S., even pulling Syria only partly away from Iran and its militant allies would represent a major shift and could help ease Mideast crises. The U.S.-Syrian rivalry has fueled instability in Lebanon, and the U.S. and Israel say Syria's backing of the Palestinian Hamas undermines the Arab-Israeli peace process. Syrian cooperation could make Obama's fresh push for a peace deal take off.The Obama administration has stepped up its wooing of Syria. The U.S. is sending back its ambassador to Damascus after a four-year break over terrorism accusations. Obama's special Mideast peace envoy, George Mitchell, became the highest-level U.S. administration official to visit Damascus since 2005, and he acknowledged Syria's clout, declaring Damascus has a key role to play in forging Mideast peace.
In a separate interview with Sky News, Assad's wife, Asma, said she believed the Syrian and American leaders could work together.The fact that President Obama is young — well President Assad is also very young as well — so maybe it is time for these young new leaders to make a difference in the world,she said.In one sign of Syrian cooperation on regional issues, Damascus is believed to have played a behind-the-scenes role in ensuring Lebanon's elections remained peaceful.Damascus likely won't move away from its Iran alliance easily. Iran's regional clout has been key to boosting Syria's status in the Middle East, and Tehran gives considerable financial and military backing. Assad was the first Arab leader to congratulate Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for winning the disputed presidential election.But Iran is now mired in the fallout from that election, following the widespread protests that erupted amid claims Ahmadinejad's victory in the June election was fraudulent. A heavy crackdown has largely quelled the protests, but the show of anger has raised questions over Ahmadinejad's long-term legitimacy.All the world around Syria on which it built its policy is falling apart,said Sateh Noureddine, managing editor of the Lebanese As-Safir daily, which tilts toward Syria's Lebanese allies.Hezbollah lost the election in Lebanon, Hamas is being subjected to unprecedented attrition and Iran is drowned in its internal crises,he told The Associated Press.All the elements of strength they (Syrians) built on their foreign policy are collapsing, so for certain they are going to reassess and look for alternatives, without abandoning their past.Writing in the Saudi-owned daily Al-Hayat, Saudi analyst Dawood al-Shirian urged Syria to take this opportunity and rid itself of having to pay a price for the Iranians' reputation.U.S. ally Saudi Arabia — one of the bitterest rivals of Syria in the region since 2005 — has been working in recent months to thaw ties with Damascus in hopes of drawing it away from Iran.The oil powerhouse sent a senior envoy to Damascus on June 28. Assad and Saudi King Abdullah have twice met in recent months in Riyadh and Kuwait, and there has been persistent media speculation that Abdullah will visit Damascus in July — perhaps as early as next week — to crown the renewed relationship.
Assad and Jordan's king have also recently exchanged visits for the first time in several years.
Syria has several long-term aims in any reconciliation with the U.S. Assad has said he wants the U.S. to mediate Syrian-Israeli negotiations, in which Damascus seeks the return of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Syria also wants U.S. economic sanctions lifted and foreign investment, particularly Gulf Arab money for its economy. It is also wary of an international tribunal set up to try the perpetrators of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut at a time when Syria controlled the country.Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
Obama believes pope will share view on Middle East: report Fri Jul 3, 3:06 pm ET
ROME (AFP) – US President Barack Obama said in an interview published Friday he thought Pope Benedict XVI would share my approach on policy in the Middle East.Obama, who is due to meet the pope on July 10, told Catholic Italian newspaper Avvenire he was keen to discuss the situation in the Middle East with the head of the Roman Catholic Church.It is a subject I am keen to discuss with the pope, I think he will share my approach,said Obama, who will meet the pope after the G8 summit in the central Italian town of L'Aquila.Obama has made relaunching the Middle East peace process a top priority, pledging a new beginning for Islam and the United States in a landmark speech to the world's Muslims delivered in Cairo last month.He has also bluntly called for Israel to halt settlement activity on Palestinian land while urging Arabs to move closer to making peace with Israel.Asked about US policy in the region, Obama told Avvenire: What the United States can do, without imposing a solution, is to hold a mirror up to both of the parties to show them the consequences of their actions.
He went on: On one hand, it is not just Israel's fault.The Palestinians have the responsibility to stop the violence and Arab countries in the region must understand that Israel is called upon to take some very difficult political decisions, the Jewish state has security needs like any country,he said.Obama said he hoped to find much common ground with the pope from peace in the Middle East to the fight against poverty, from climate change to immigration.All these areas where the pope has shown extraordinary leadership,he told Avvenire, the Italian bishops' mouthpiece.
Bahrain officials make unprecedented Israel visit Fri Jul 3, 1:40 pm ET
MANAMA (AFP) – An official Bahrain delegation travelled to Israel on an unprecedented trip to recover a group of nationals held by the Jewish state, the state news agency reported on Friday.According to BNA, the Bahrainis were in a group of pro-Palestinian activists on a ship seized by the Israeli navy on Tuesday as it headed for the Gaza Strip in defiance of Israel's blockade of the territory.Israel handed over the Bahraini citizens at the international airport near Tel Aviv, BNA said, without saying how many people were involved.Bahrain -- a staunch US ally which also hosts the US Navy's Fifth fleet -- does not recognise Israel and reports of the trip were the first to be announced publicly.Last October the foreign minister of Bahrain, Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad al-Khalifa, triggered criticism at home for suggesting the creation of a regional organisation that would include Israel.Bahrain's crown prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa met Israeli officials during World Economic Forum summits in 2000 and 2003, while Sheikh Khaled met former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni at the United Nations in 2007.
But political groupings in Bahrain, which is ruled by a Sunni dynasty and has a Shiite majority, resist any attempt at normalisation of ties with Israel.Only two Arab countries -- Egypt and Jordan -- have full fledged peace treaties with Israel. Bahrain's Gulf neighbour Qatar, another close US ally, is one of a handful of Arab countries to maintain political contacts with Israel.
Israel rejects unbalanced Amnesty report on Gaza war Thu Jul 2, 3:24 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel rejected an Amnesty International report that accused it of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip, and said the human rights group was manipulated by Hamas.The slant of their report indicates that the organisation succumbed to the manipulations of the Hamas terror organisation, the Israeli military said in a statement.London-based Amnesty accused Israeli forces of war crimes, saying they used civilians, including children as human shields and conducted wanton attacks on civilians during the December-January Gaza offensive.Israel called the report unbalanced and said it presented a distorted view of the laws of war that does not comply with the rules implemented by democratic states battling terror.It ignores the efforts of the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) to minimise as much as possible harming uninvolved non-combatant civilians,it said.It insisted Israeli forces used various fighting methods and advanced technology to minimise harm to the civilian population while engaging terrorists who were operating from densely populated areas and using the local population as human shields.Amnesty said it found no evidence the Hamas rulers of Gaza had used civilians as human shields, but claimed Israeli forces forced Palestinian families to remain in one room of their home while using the rest of the house as a base and sniper position.Israel accused the rights group of ignoring the blatant violations of international law perpetrated by Hamas.Thirteen pages of the 117-page report are devoted to the conduct of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups and points out the rocket attacks they carried out against Israel constitute war crimes.More than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died during the massive offensive launched by Israel in response to rocket fire from Palestinian militants.
Israel rejects total settlement freeze Thu Jul 2, 2:15 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel will not impose a complete halt on settlement construction on occupied Palestinian land as demanded by the United States, a senior official said.
Israel will not freeze natural growth and will not suffocate the life of 300,000 Israelis who live in settlements in all legality, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told public radio.The international community considers all settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem illegal, saying they violate international law under which an occupying power cannot transfer part of its population to the land it occupies.The US administration is pressing Israel to freeze all construction activity in the settlements, which are seen as a major hurdle in efforts to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians.Ayalon made it clear he did not believe the Palestinians were willing to make any concessions.One cannot demand immediate and complete payment by Israel if the other side is not willing to take the slightest step,he said.Israeli media has said hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was willing to consider a three-month construction freeze, but would exclude east Jerusalem from the moratorium, as well as the 2,000 to 3,200 private homes currently being built in the West Bank.
Israel considering options to promote peace By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jun 30, 8:38 pm ET
NEW YORK – Israel is considering what it can do to enable a full-fledged Mideast peace process and Palestinian-Israeli negotiations to take off, including instituting a temporary freeze on settlements, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday.
But after four hours of talks with U.S. special Mideast peace envoy, George Mitchell, Barak would not commit to a temporary settlement freeze.Asked whether Israel would agree to a freeze of perhaps three to six months, Barak replied: I think it's a little bit too early to predict.The U.S. wants settlement construction to stop completely to help revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Israel's insistence that natural growth be allowed in existing settlements to deal with births and marriages has been an irritant in its relations with President Barack Obama's administration.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said peace talks cannot resume until settlement construction in Palestinian territories comes to a complete halt.We are considering every positive contribution Israel can make towards the taking off of a significant, important peace effort,Barak told reporters after the meeting at a New York hotel.He said it was important to look at the wider picture and to deal with each and every issue including the settlements.We think this wider framework ... is needed in order to enable (a) full-fledged regional peace process and a promising Palestinian-Israeli track as well as other tracks taking off successfully in a positive way,Barak said.He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would meet Mitchell in the next one, two or three weeks.Netanyahu had planned to see Mitchell last week in Paris but called the meeting off in an apparent sign of growing friction over Obama's call for a halt to settlement construction.Looking ahead to the Netanyahu-Mitchell meeting, Barak said, I believe it will contribute to further moving forward of the prospects of a regional peace and Israeli-Palestinian peace led by the United States.Mitchell appeared for a photo opportunity with Barak before the talks began but did not make any comments.I don't think we are stuck now,Barak said after the meeting.He called his talks with the U.S. envoy positive and in a good atmosphere, even though there are still differences.They covered a wide range of issues including the strategic situation in the Middle East, prospects for a U.S.-led regional peace initiative which we in Israel support fullheartedly,and potential negotiations with the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese, Barak said.
Lieberman accuses Sarkozy of meddling Tue Jun 30, 3:14 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman issued a tough rebuke after French President Nicolas Sarkozy was quoted as suggesting the ultra-nationalist Israeli official be fired.If this report is correct then this is an unacceptable interference in internal Israeli affairs,Lieberman's office said.The statement was issued after Israel's Channel 2 television reported that Sarkozy had urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting in Paris last week to get rid of Lieberman, who heads the far right-wing Yisrael Beitenu party.Netanyahu reportedly defended his minister, saying that in private he is pragmatic,to which Sarkozy is said to have responded that controversial far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen is very pleasant in private.A staunch defender of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Lieberman has been called a racist by critics over his anti-Arab diatribes.
Israel to build 50 new homes at West Bank settlement By Ori Lewis – Mon Jun 29, 3:35 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel's Defense Ministry said on Monday it had approved construction of 50 new homes at a West Bank settlement as part of a plan for 1,450 housing units, an expansion that defies a U.S. call for a settlement freeze.News of the planned building work emerged hours before Defense Minister Ehud Barak left for the United States for talks aimed at narrowing a rift with Washington over settlements.He will meet President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, in New York on Tuesday, Barak's office said.An affidavit submitted by the Defense Ministry to the Supreme Court outlined plans to relocate settlers from Migron, an outpost built in the West Bank without Israeli government permission, to the settlement of Adam, north of Jerusalem.According to the document, a response to a court case brought by the Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now, a master plan for Adam calls for the construction of 1,450 homes there.But the ministry said it had given the go-ahead for the construction of only 50 of the dwellings and any additional units would require its separate approval.Separately, Israel went public with a plan to expropriate 139 sq. kms (54 sq. miles) of West Bank land, including shoreline exposed by the receding Dead Sea, saying it would give Palestinians 45 days to contest the decision in court.Hatem Abdel-Qader, Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs, denounced what he said would be the largest area of land ever confiscated by Israel in one go since 1967,when the West Bank and East Jerusalem were captured from Jordan in a war.
STATEHOOD
Obama has pressed Israel to halt settlement activity as part of a bid to revive peace talks under which the Palestinians would gain statehood.In a rare dispute between Israel and its main ally, the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to declare a settlement freeze, saying some construction should continue to match population growth within the enclaves.Some 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Palestinians say settlements, deemed illegal by the World Court, could deny them a viable and contiguous state.Underscoring tensions, Palestinians said settlers raided the West Bank village of Asira al-Qiblya, firing guns at the windows of buildings. Two Palestinians were injured, said Ghasan Daghlas, an official in nearby Nablus, quoting the villagers.An Israeli military spokesman quoted settlers as saying the incident began with a Palestinian arson attack on nearby Yitzhar settlement. Settlers tried to douse the flames and were stoned by Palestinians, he said, adding that a settler was hurt.The spokesman said he had no knowledge of live rounds being fired, saying troops called to quell the disturbance had used riot-dispersal gear usually a reference to rubber bullets.In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his refusal to resume negotiations with Israel until it froze settlement.
We won't accept the continuation of settlements,he said.
Abbas also urged Netanyahu to drop his conditions for the creation of a Palestinian state, which include international guarantees it would have no army and a demand the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Israel should accept the two-state vision and not put conditions that would render the issue meaningless,Abbas said.
Barak left open the possibility of a limited, temporary halt to construction in settlements in comments he made on Sunday in response to an Israeli newspaper report that he would propose a three-month moratorium. Barak has also spoken of couching a Palestinian deal within a wider Israeli-Arab peace accord. A goal of the Israeli-U.S. negotiations is advancing a process for a comprehensive regional settlement in the Middle East,Barak's office quoted him as saying in a statement.Peace Now said some 2,500 settlement homes are currently under construction in the West Bank. (Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Joseph Nasr in Jerusalem; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
World Bank approves Dead Sea canal plan: Israel Sat Jun 27, 1:33 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The World Bank has approved a pilot plan for a canal linking the Red Sea to the rapidly shrinking Dead Sea, Israeli Development Minister Sylvan Shalom announced on Saturday.Israeli public radio said the bank will provide 1.25 billion dollars in finance for the project.The initial proposal is for a 180 kilometre (110 miles) channel to transport 200 cubic metres of water, of which half would gush into the Dead Sea and half would feed a giant desalination plant jointly run by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, Shalom's ministry said.The next stage would see the construction of a canal to supply two billion m3 of water a year to maintain and increase water levels in the Dead Sea, which is on course to dry out completely by 2050 if nothing is done.Shalom, who met World Bank president Robert Zoellick in Washington on Friday, said approval from the global institution was a spectacular development aimed at relaunching the project.The idea of a link between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the planet, was first mooted several years ago and in December 2006 representatives from Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority ordered a feasibility study.Progressed has been slow because of the stalling of the Middle East peace process.The level of the Dead Sea, a natural site of prime historic and economic importance, has been falling by a metre (three feet) every year, creating major environmental problems.
Israel to register land near West Bank settlement Sat Jun 27, 5:17 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has decided to register some 13,900 hectares of land adjacent to its largest West Bank settlement, a step that could pave the way for its expansion, a newspaper reported on Saturday.The Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper published an order on Friday from the Israeli military telling Arab residents living near the massive Maale Adumim settlement outside Jerusalem to register their land within 45 days.On Saturday the newspaper reported that the order concerns some 13,900 hectares (about 34,348 acres) of land east of Maale Adumim, near the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley.The sparsely populated desert region is mostly inhabited by Arab Bedouin tribes, who have been expelled during previous expansions of the settlement, the boundaries of which already extend to the Jordan Valley.US President Barack Obama has pressed Israel to halt all settlement activity, including the so-called "natural growth" in existing settlements in the occupied West Bank, in order to relaunch peace talks with the Palestinians.Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not build new settlements but will allow growth in existing ones, including Maale Adumim, which Israel intends to keep in any future peace deal.Israel has long sought to expand Maale Adumim westward to incorporate the so-called E-1 area of land that would link it to Jerusalem, but has frozen the project in the face of US pressure.The Palestinians have vigorously opposed any expansion into E-1, saying its incorporation into Maale Adumim would split the occupied West Bank in half and severely threaten the viability of their future state.The presence of more than 280,000 Israeli settlers in more than 100 settlements scattered across the West Bank has long been seen as one of the main obstacles to the Middle East peace process.
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