Monday, August 31, 2009

Hamas slams UN over "Holocaust classes" in Gaza

Reuters, By Nidal al-Mughrabi (30/8/2009)

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas condemned the United Nations Sunday, saying it planned to teach Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip about the Holocaust -- but the U.N. agency which runs schools in the enclave would not confirm any change.

Branding the Nazi genocide of the Jews "a lie invented by the Zionists," the Islamist movement which runs the Gaza Strip wrote in an open letter to a senior U.N. official that he should withdraw plans for a new history book in U.N. schools.

A spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which educates some 200,000 refugee children in Gaza, said the Holocaust was not on its current curriculum. He would not comment on Hamas's statement that it was about to change...

Israelis are angered by denial of the Holocaust among some in the Middle East, notably lately by leaders in Iran, who provide support for Hamas. Abbas, who has engaged in negotiation with Israel, has had to distance himself from his own 1980s doctoral thesis, which cast doubt on the scale of the Holocaust.

Hamas's official spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, said he did not want to discuss the history of the Holocaust but said:

"Regardless of the controversy, we oppose forcing the issue of the so-called Holocaust onto the syllabus, because it aims to reinforce acceptance of the occupation of Palestinian land."

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Israeli-Arab indicted for Hizbullah plot to assassinate Ashkenazi

The Jerusalem Post, By Yaakov Katz (31/8/2009) Rawi Sultani. Photo: Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency)
On Monday, an indictment was filed at the Petah Tikva District Court against Rawi Sultani, a 23-year-old Israeli-Arab from the town of Tira, was recruited by Hizbullah in the summer of 2008 when he traveled to Morocco to attend a Balad Party summer camp.

Hizbullah recruited an Israeli-Arab and ordered him to collect intelligence on IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi ahead of plans to assassinate him to avenge the death of the guerrilla group's military leader Imad Mughniyeh...

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Will the Japanese Obama put pressure on Israel?

Haaretz, By Ben-Ami Shillony (31/8/2009) The immediate consequence of the opposition's sweeping victory in Japan's elections yesterday will be psychological - it will create an atmosphere of optimism that could strengthen the economy. Such optimism will be fleeting if it is not followed by concrete results. The victorious Democratic Party, headed by Yukio Hatoyama, has never before governed in Japan. It is seeking to be perceived as a center-left party... Withdrawing from American guardianship could also change Japanese policy toward Israel. Until now, Japan limited its support for the Palestinians to aiding economic projects, in keeping with American requests. The Hatoyama government is likely to take a more pro-Arab stance, such as by recognizing Hamas and making tougher demands of Israel, such as calling for an end to construction in the settlements. Such a position would be similar to the line taken by some European governments, and will not necessarily lead to a confrontation with the United States. The Obama administration may actually be pleased. This January, the Israeli ambassador in Tokyo, Nissim Ben-Shitrit, participated in a Democratic Party convention. At the end of the convention, he met with Hatoyama. The party's Web site stated that Hatoyama expressed his deep concern over the Palestinian victims of Israel's Cast Lead operation in the Gaza Strip, and added that he hoped Israel would change its policies toward the Arab world, like American foreign policy had changed with the election of Barack Obama. Hatoyama called himself the Japanese Obama in his election campaign, and said he would bring hoped-for change. When it comes to Israel, Obama and Hatoyama may coordinate efforts in ways Israel hasn't expected. Ben-Ami Shillony is an emeritus professor of East Asian studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem

Following inflammatory article, Sweden to demand EU condemn anti-Semitism

Haaretz, By Adar Primor (31/8/2009) Is the crisis in relations between Israel and Sweden coming to an end? That is what Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, would like to believe. In a telephone conversation with Haaretz, Frattini said he recently met with his Swedish counterpart, Carl Bildt, and the two agreed that at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers later this week, they will work to pass a resolution making it clear that the EU, under the Swedish presidency, strongly condemns anti-Semitism and will take action against any manifestation of it on the continent... Click here for full story

At War - Arab Press Roundup

The New York Times, By Nadia Taha (25/8/20009) A look at discussions inside the Arab world, as played out on the front pages of five major Arabic newspapers. Azzaman.com: The most recent major bombing in Baghdad has led the Arab news media to focus its attentions on who, exactly, among Iraq’s intelligence services fell down on the job and who was responsible for the continuing violence. Al-Quds al-Arabiya: Just days after a visit to the White House by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, the emergency state security court in Cairo held a hearing for 26 men who are suspected of belonging to a Hezbollah cell. Al-Quds al-Arabiya, a pan-Arab newspaper published in London by Palestinian expatriates, leads with coverage of the hearing. The group denied all the allegations that they collaborated with Hezbollah to attack tourist destinations and ships in the Suez Canal, and they said they were tortured during their interrogations. During Sunday’s proceedings, in which the judge ruled to postpone the trial until October, one defendant shouted, “I obey you, Nasrallah,” referring to the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Asharq al-Awsat, another major pan-Arab newspaper published in London, prominently features the Hezbollah trial in Cairo. The article also reports that the judge allowed one of the defendants to be taken to a hospital for treatment for internal bleeding, potentially giving credence to the prisoners’ claims that they were tortured. Al-Ahram , the major Egyptian newspaper, leads with the return of the fishermen, who were held hostage for four months. They escaped by killing two of their captors and overpowering the others. The Somalis will now be tried in Egyptian court. Al-Akhbar , a populist publication from Beirut, Lebanon, leads with the latest on the fallout of a Swedish newspaper article that alleges the harvesting of organs from Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers. The headline reads, “Sale of Organs of Prisoners of War: Israel Denies, Hamas Confirms, Sweden Does Not Apologize.” The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist Palestinian group, has called for investigation into the accusations.

Most Western news organizations covering Iran for the day focused on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s cabinet nominations, but Al-Akhbar instead ran an article from United Press International reporting that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard claimed to have killed 26 people in an airstrike against the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, on the southern Kurdish border.

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70 years on, Poland's WWII wounds haven't healed

The Associated Press, By Vanessa Gera (31/8/2009)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Back home in Germany, Erika Steinbach is hardly a household name. But in neighboring Poland she is a national hate figure, caricatured on magazine covers as a Nazi in SS uniform.

Her offense, in Polish eyes, is that she claims to speak for the millions of ethnic Germans who were expelled from their homes in Poland and elsewhere in eastern Europe after World War II. These accusers say she is revising history and drawing a moral parallel between the cruelties the Germans inflicted and the sufferings they later endured.

...And what horrors they were. Less than three weeks after the Germans attacked, the Soviet army invaded from the east. The Nazis regarded Poles as an inferior race. Centuries of shared history, during which innumerable Germans had settled in what is now Poland, became a master-slave relationship. The Germans blitzed Polish cities and built Auschwitz on Polish soil. At the end of the war, 6 million Polish citizens out of a prewar population of 35 million were dead - half of them Jews, half Christians... Click here for full story

Meir Amit: Israeli intelligence chief and soldier

Times Online (26/8/2009)

As chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, Meir Amit did more than anyone to build the organisation’s reputation for audacity and cunning. Most famously, in the spring of 1967, he convinced the United States of Israel’s need to strike pre-emptively at Egyptian positions, which coupled with the intelligence he had accumulated, laid the groundwork for Israel’s triumph in the ensuing Six-Day War.

A decorated soldier, Amit combined a talent for military strategy with the negotiating skills of a diplomat. His assertions that “personal contacts can solve most problems” and that “people are more important than rifles” enabled him to find allies in the most unexpected of places...

Meir Amit, intelligence chief and soldier, was born on March 17, 1921. He died on July 17, 2009, aged 88

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Sunday, August 30, 2009

Ziosweat launches ziosweat.com!

Ziosweat.com will work together with the blog to keep you updated on a variety of news as well as many sources and recommendations. Join the Era of Ziosweat!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Auschwitz blueprints given to Israeli PM (AP)

The Associated Press, By David Rising (27/8/2009)

BERLIN (AP) -- Architectural plans for the Auschwitz death camp that were discovered in Berlin last year were handed over Thursday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for display at Israel's Holocaust memorial.

The 29 sketches of the death camp built in Nazi-occupied Poland date as far back as 1941. They include detailed blueprints for living barracks, delousing facilities and crematoria, including gas chambers, and are considered important for understanding the genesis of the Nazi genocide.

The sketches are initialed by the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, and Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoess.

"There are those who deny that the Holocaust happened," Netanyahu said. "Let them come to Jerusalem and look at these plans, these plans for the factory of death."

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Yad Vashem Official Website- The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority

"Diplomacy, painful history for Netanyahu in Berlin" The Associated Press, By Matti Friedman (27/8/2009): 'We cannot allow those who wish to perpetrate mass deaths, those who call for the destruction of the Jewish people or the Jewish state to go unchallenged," he said.

Big-name celebrities to appear on Jewish kids show (AP)

The Associated Press, By Jen Thomas (26/8/2009)

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Stiller and Christina Applegate are just a few of the stars slated to appear in a new Sesame Street-style production geared at teaching Jewish-American children about Jewish culture.

"Shalom Sesame," a 12-part series for preschoolers featuring the globe-trotting Muppet Grover, will explore Jewish identity and traditions and will film on location at several Israeli sites, including the Western Wall.

Big-name guest stars, including actors Debra Messing, Greg Kinnear and Cedric the Entertainer, will join puppets and children in segments filmed in Israel and the U.S., according to the series' producers...

The series is expected to debut around the Hanukkah holiday in December 2010.

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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Children in the Service of Terror

MEMRI (21/7/2009)

"From Afghanistan to Pakistan, from Iraq to Palestine, [terror] organizations are recruiting boys (some under 15) and training them to carry out suicide bombings - and sometimes these are carried out. For diverse reasons and under diverse circumstances, children are stripped of their innocence and transformed into deadly weapons. Whatever the [reasons and circumstances], the result is the same: lost childhood, a bleak future, and the spread of terrorism...

"The recruitment of children is a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly widespread. UNESCO estimates that a quarter of a million children have been recruited into armed organizations, behind whose banner of religion are political causes."

Thus read the introduction to a series of articles posted on May 26 and 27, 2009, [1] on the liberal website Elaph, about recruitment of children by terror organizations, particularly for suicide bombings. The articles present examples of children who were recruited by terror organizations, including some who carried out suicide operations, as well as interviews with clerics and social affairs experts on the phenomenon.

The clerics interviewed largely rejected the legitimacy of recruiting children for military activity, although some said it was permissible under extreme circumstances. Representatives of Palestinian organizations, in their interviews, denied that they were using children - even though the article on Palestinian organizations in the Elaph series includes statistics on these children. Most of the articles in the series are descriptive in nature, and present no practical proposals for solving this problem.

The following are summaries of and excerpts from the articles in the series: Here

Hamas Transforms Gaza Into Totaliltarian Islamists State

GLORIA, By Barry Rubin Hamas is Turning the Gaza Strip into a Repressive, Radical Islamist, Terrorist State Allied to Iran. Might this suggest the need for concerted Western action to eliminate this threat? Apparently not. Here’s a detailed report on how Hamas is gradually turning the Gaza Strip into an Islamist state by a wide variety of activities including: indoctrination of children in its Islamist beliefs, control of the media, gender segregation, banning of alcohol, spending considerable parts of its limited funds on building additional mosques (the number has doubled in eight years) fully controlled by Hamas, and creation of morals’ police. Traditional weddings have been broken up (because they played music) and two singers have been arrested because of their song lyrics. Chewing gum is banned, clothing stores are inspected and items removed if they don’t correspond with Hamas’s dress code. Paramilitary summer camps have been created to prepare young people to be terrorists. There, in school, and in children's television shows, kids are being taught systematic hatred of Jews, Christians, and the West, while being told that violence is the remedy to wipe out all these evil forces... Click here for full story

Egyptian Government Daily 'Al-Gumhouriyya': The Palestinian People, All of It, Should Adhere to the Path of Resistance

Al-Gymhouriyya (Egyptian government daily, translated by MEMRI) (7/8/2009)

In response to statements by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the sixth Fatah conference regarding the Palestinians' right to resistance, [1] the Egyptian government daily Al-Gumhouriyya published a short editorial supporting his position and calling on the Palestinians to persist in resistance in order to obtain their rights.

The following is a translation of the editorial: [2]

"PA President Mahmoud 'Abbas provoked the wrath of the radical racists who rule Israel when he mentioned, at the Fatah conference, that the Palestinians have a right to resistance [muqawama] if the peace process has failed to restore their historic rights, and especially [their right] to their stolen land, to an independent state and to the return of the refugees.

"The angry racists in Israel have deluded themselves [into thinking] that the Palestinian people have laid down their arms, to which they clung so steadfastly throughout their exhausting and noble struggle, and have capitulated to the illusion of the peace process and the [empty] talk of the negotiation tables...

"The Palestinian people, all of it, has no choice but to cling to the path of resistance, like all the oppressed people who seized their freedom and rights through force and steadfastness, struggle and unity..." Click here for full story

Why the Israeli Organ-Harvesting Story Is Probably False

The New York Times, By Stephen J. Dubner (25/8/2009)

A strange story has broken out in Sweden and Israel, with an article in Aftonbladet, a Swedish newspaper, by a journalist named Donald Boström.

According to The Times, Boström’s article “accuses the Israeli Army of harvesting organs from Palestinians wounded or killed by soldiers.”

...Al Roth, the Harvard economist whose work on matched-pair organ donations has started to transform the organ-transplantation scenario, told me he found the accusation unbelievable because of the logistics of organ harvesting itself. “Organs don’t last very long and have to be matched rather particularly,” he said, “so it would be hard to take them on spec for an international market. So I think black market organs must mostly be from live donors. Live donors can take blood tests well in advance and travel to where the patient is. Deceased organs have to be put on ice, and the clock starts ticking immediately and fast.”

Roth also points to a response of sorts on Ynet, a website affiliated with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot. It’s by Uria Asor, and is headlined “Special Report: Sweden’s Dirty Secret” :

[T]hose in the know and lox connoisseurs have been claiming that the Swedish gravad lax tastes differently than the Norwegian, Finnish, and Danish variety. ‘The Swedish variety contains some sort of slight sourness,’ says Danish Chef Richard Muller Holstrum. ‘I was never able to detect its source.’

However, Ynet’s special investigative report has revealed, for the first time, what may be the secret ingredient in Sweden’s gravad lax. The horrifying findings indicate that the source is fungus removed from the feet of innocent Norwegian fishermen.

Those who dislike Israel for whatever reason should at least acknowledge that, between parody and poetry, its journalism is pretty interesting.

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Monday, August 24, 2009

Reflections on the Sixth Fatah General Congress

"Reflections on the Sixth Fatah General Congress" Europe News, By Daniel Pipes (18/8/2009): As Khaled Abu Toameh summed it up, "Fatah is sending a message both to the Palestinians and the world that it's still not ready for any form of compromise or reforms." "Fatah Members: The Principle of Resistance and Armed Struggle Must Not Be Relinquished"MEMRI, By C. Jacob (6/8/2009) "Palestinian Politics and The Peace Process: The Looming Gigantic Danger" GLORIA Center, By Barry Rubin (12/8/2009): What happened at the Fatah Congress? It was pretty successful as far as maintaining the status quo goes, but very bad for any chance at making progress toward a comprehensive peace. And there’s one terribly dangerous issue—the next Fatah leader—which could blow up everything...
Once Abbas appoints four more to make a Fatah Central Committee of 22 people, at least two-thirds will be old-style Fatah bureaucrats, with almost all the rest younger Fatah bureaucrats. Of the 18 elected, at least 5 are hardliners who don’t even accept the peace process and Oslo agreement and the rest are Abbas’s allies or lieutenants. "Fatah's Sixth Convention: An Initial Assessment" INSS, By Shlomo Brom (17/8/2009) "A Critique: Jewish Telegraphic Agency coverage of Fatah Congress in Bethlehem" Israel Resource Review, By David Bedein (4/8/2009) "Sixth Fatah Congress: The Myth of Moderation" CAMERA (12/8/2009): The media has long promoted Fatah — in contrast to Hamas — as the party of Palestinian political moderates seeking peace with Israel, while glossing over evidence to the contrary. (See "Is Fatah Moderate?") "Nobody Here but Us Moderates" Commentary Magazine, By Noah Pollack (13/8/2009):

Who to believe in reportage of the Fatah conference: the New York Times’s Isabel Kershner or Khaled Abu Toameh, the Jerusalem Post’s veteran reporter on the Palestinians, himself an Arab Muslim?

Kershner:

The new leaders [elected at the conference] are considered more pragmatic than their predecessors and grew up locally, in contrast to the exile-dominated leadership they are replacing. . . . By the end, many of the participants seemed buoyant. They said that Fatah, led by the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, had emerged from the conference energized and more unified than it had been in years.

The rest of her report is a litany of mostly self-serving quotes from Fatah leaders, interspersed with Kershner’s own credulous analysis.

Reading Toameh, one wonders if they attended the same event:

The assumption that [the newly-elected] Muhammad Dahlan, Jibril Rajoub, Marwan Barghouti and Tawfik Tirawi are more moderate than old-timers like Ahmed Qurei, Nabil Sha’ath and Hani al-Hassan is completely mistaken. . . .

In fact, all the newly-elected Central Committee members voted during the Fatah convention in Bethlehem last week in favor of a political platform that does not rule out the armed struggle option against Israel.

Jerusalem Post Guest Blog: Is Israel responsible for Palestinian misery?

The Jerusalem Post Blog, By David Turner (23/8/2009) At Camp David in 2000, Yasser Arafat rejected Israel's offer to return to the 1967 pre-war borders with minor land swaps, East Jerusalem as Palestinian capital, the return of refugees to unite Israeli Arab families, and compensation for Arab refugees settling outside of Israel.

Seven years later, Mahmoud Abbas is reported to have turned down a better offer, and for the same reason: the demand that Israel absorb "all refugees and their descendents."

Do the Palestinians want independence and sovereignty? Put differently and more to the point, are their leaders willing to share what was previously Mandatory Palestine with an independent Jewish state?

In 1947, the Palestinian leadership turned down any division of the land leading to Jewish independence. The result was what they now describe as the nakba, the loss not only of the opportunity for their own state, but also the creation of the Palestinian Diaspora and their 60+ year-long refugee problem.

Fifty years later, in 1998, Yasser Arafat turned down Netanyahu and Clinton at the Wye River summit, and two years after that refused Ehud Barak and Clinton at Camp David, turning down concessions many believe to be maximum Israel can offer if it is to survive as an independent state...

So, do the Palestinians want a state? Maybe, but apparently not one that also provides for a Jewish state...

Israel is a partner in Palestinian misery because status quo, even with terror and Intifada, is easier than the difficulties of achieving peace.

But primary responsibility for 60+ years of Palestinian misery lies squarely at the doorstep of the Palestinians themselves. To remain true to their 1947 decision of all-or-nothing to the lands of Mandatory Palestine through the demand that Israel absorb all "refugees" is nothing less than a guarantee of continued statelessness, perpetual reaffirmation of their Nakba.

Until the Palestinians manage to produce a leader of the caliber of a Ben-Gurion, a politician with the intelligence and acumen to appreciate that compromise and accommodation are the path to statehood, they will continue a people of the Diaspora, apparently content in their misery, a self-pitying and dignity-less existence. That is their curse, and their choice.

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Friday, August 21, 2009

Israel says UN covering up Iran's nuclear arms drive

Agence France Presse (19/8/2009)

JERUSALEM — Israel is accusing the UN nuclear weapons watchdog of holding back incriminating evidence of Iran's drive to obtain nuclear weapons, the Haaretz newspaper reported on Wednesday.

It cited unnamed Israeli officials as saying the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was refraining from publishing data obtained in recent months that indicates Iran is pursing information about weaponisation efforts and a military nuclear programme.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who is to vacate his post in December, has said the UN watchdog does not have any evidence suggesting Iran is developing a nuclear weapons programme.

But Haaretz cited officials as saying the new evidence was presented to the IAEA in a classified annex written by its inspectors and said to have been signed by the head of the inspection team in Iran.

The document was not included in the final report, it said...

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Hamas rejects elections, Arab normalization with Israel

Xinhua, By Saud Abu Ramadan (19/8/2009)

GAZA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic Hamas movement rejected on Wednesday participation in Palestinian elections early next year unless a reconciliation deal is reached with rival Fatah party.

Hamas sources in Gaza stressed that the movement would never go to legislative and presidential elections on Jan. 25 before signing a reconciliation deal that ends the current internal rift.

"Ending the file of political prisoners in the West Bank, and reaching a reconciliation agreement are conditions for holding the elections on time. Otherwise, the idea will be rejected for sure," the sources told Xinhua.

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Israel Says Russia May Reconsider Plans to Sell Missiles to Iran

The New York Times, By Ellen Barry (19/8/2009)

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev, right, shakes hands with Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres, left. AP Photo.

MOSCOW — The Israeli president, Shimon Peres, said Wednesday that his Russian counterpart, Dmitri A. Medvedev, had promised to reconsider Russia’s plans to provide advanced surface-to-air missiles to Iran, a deal that Washington has also sought to halt.

The missiles would offer Iran considerable confidence that it could prevent airstrikes on its nuclear sites...

Mr. Peres spoke about the missiles at a morning news conference in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, after talks with Mr. Medvedev there on Tuesday. He said Mr. Medvedev “gave a promise he will reconsider the sales of the S-300 because this affects the delicate balance which exists already in the Middle East, and will enforce, in my judgment, the aggressive intentions of Iran.”

Israel and many Western nations suspect that Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon, while Iran says its nuclear program is solely for generating electricity. Israel has repeatedly raised the possibility of airstrikes to halt Iran’s nuclear progress.

Blocking the missile deal has been one of the United States’ goals in its pursuit of improved relations with Moscow...

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Israel fury at Sweden organ claim

BBC News (21/8/2009) Israel is to lodge an official complaint with Sweden over claims in a newspaper that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians to sell their organs.

The article was published in the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet this week.

The Swedish ambassador to Israel condemned the newspaper article as "shocking and appalling".

The government in Stockholm has not issued a similar condemnation, and Israeli foreign ministry officials have reacted furiously.

"It is regrettable that the Swedish foreign ministry does not intervene when it comes to a blood libel against Jews," Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.

"[This] reminds one of Sweden's conduct during World War II, when it also did not intervene."

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Monday, August 17, 2009

Obama and Israel, Into the Abyss

Philadelphia Bulletin, By Daniel Pipes (21/7/2009)

What I dubbed the Obama administration's "rapid and harsh turn against Israel" has had three quick, predictable, and counter-productive results. These point to further difficulties ahead.

First result: Barack Obama's decision to get tough with Israel translates into escalating Palestinian demands on Israel. In early July, Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas and Saeb Erekat, his top negotiator, insisted on five unilateral concessions by Israel:

  • An independent Palestinian state;
  • Israel shrunk to its pre-June 1967 borders, minus a Palestinian land-bridge between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip;
  • A Palestinian "right of return" to Israel;
  • Resolution of all permanent status issues on the basis of the 2002 Abdullah plan; and
  • A complete stop to building by Jews in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Palestinians and Americans are the intended audience for this preemptory list; such exorbitant demands, the record shows, only reduces Israeli willingness to make concessions...

Third result: The U.S. demand has prompted an Israeli resolve not to bend but to reiterate its traditional positions. Oren rejected State's demand. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who confessed to being "surprised" by the U.S. demand, assured colleagues "I won't cave in on this matter."

Publicly, Netanyahu closed the door on concessions. Insisting that Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem "cannot be challenged," he noted that "residents of Jerusalem may purchase apartments in all parts of the city" and pointedly recalled that "in recent years hundreds of apartments in Jewish neighborhoods and in the western part of the city have been purchased by – or rented to – Arab residents and we did not interfere.

"This says that there is no ban on Arabs buying apartments in the western part of the city and there is no ban on Jews buying or building apartments in the eastern part of the city. This is the policy of an open city, an undivided city that has no separation according to religion or national affiliation."

Then, his blistering finale: "We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live and purchase in all parts of Jerusalem. I can only describe to myself what would happen if someone would propose that Jews could not live in certain neighborhoods in New York, London, Paris or Rome. There would certainly be a major international outcry. Accordingly, we cannot agree to such a decree in Jerusalem."

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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Hezbollah vows tougher reaction than 2006 if Israel attacks

Xinhua (10/8/2009)

BEIRUT -- Hezbollah's Executive Council Chief Hashem Safiyyeddine warned Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the organization will take tougher reactions than that during the second Lebanon war if Israel attacks again, the local El-Nashra website reported on Monday.

"If Barak's threats were serious, though I don't think they were, he should be aware that if he commits an error or stupid act against Lebanon... he will discover that the months of July and August 2006 were just a bit of fun," Safiyyeddine said... Click here for full story

Lebanon army on alert after reported IDF build-up on border

Haaretz, By Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff, Zohar Blumenkrantz, and Irit Rosenblum, and DPA (10/8/2009) Tension mounted Monday in southern Lebanon after Israeli forces reportedly advanced to the area of the Shaba farms, forcing the Lebanese army on alert, a Lebanese army source said. The source said three armored Israeli vehicles, accompanied by a civilian car, advanced towards Shaba Farms, located at the junction of south-east Lebanon, south-west Syria and northern Israel... Click here for full story

Iran Executes Seven Lawyers

CBN News (7/8/2009)

MASHHAD, Iran - Seven lawyers representing young Iranians being held for protesting the recent presidential election have been killed, The Jerusalem Post reported on Friday.

According to anonymous Iranian sources who spoke with the Post by telephone, the killings took place in two cities - Tabriz and Mashhad.

The bodies of five of the lawyers, who were representing many of the young Iranians imprisoned by the government, were delivered to their families in Tabriz earlier in the week.

According to the sources, some family members were sentenced to three-year prison terms for "disrupting security" and "encouraging unethical actions" against the Iranian regime.

Three of the attorneys had been beaten to death, their swollen faces barely recognizable by their families...

Click here for full story

Monday, August 10, 2009

Fatah's 6th General Assembly Coverage

"Fatah set for West Bank conference" Al Jazeera (3/8/2009) "Fatah commits to Israel Peace Talks in Party Draft" The Associated Press (3/8/2009) "Abbas: Popular resistance to go on" The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (4/8/2009): The Palestinians will not resume peace talks with Israel unless Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government accepts a two-state solution and halts settlement construction "in the West Bank and Jerusalem," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated on Tuesday...Abbas boasted that the PA had succeeded in mobilizing the world to exert pressure on Israel to halt construction in the settlements, accept the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 and fulfill its obligations in accordance with the road map for peace in the Middle East... "Fatah Seeks to Expand Influence" The Wall Street Journal, By Margaret Coker and Joshua Mitnick (4/8/2009) "Abbas Urges 'New Start' at Fatah Conference" The New York Times, By Isabel Kershner (4/8/2009) "Delegates gather for Fatah congress" Al Jazeera (4/8/2009) "Profile: Fatah Palestinian movement" BBC News (4/8/2009) "Can Fatah reinvent itself?" BBC News, By Heather Sharp (4/8/2009) "Mideast media say Gaza overshadows conference" BBC News (4/8/2009) "Palestinian rift worse than Israel" The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (5/8/2009): Saudi King Abdullah told Fatah delegates meeting in Bethlehem Wednesday that divisions among the Palestinians were more damaging to their cause of an independent state than the Israeli "enemy..." "The arrogant and criminal enemy was not able, during years of continued aggression, to hurt the Palestinian cause as much as the Palestinians hurt their cause themselves in the past few months," Abdullah said in the letter... "At Palestinian congress, Abbas urges nonviolent resistance" The Los Angeles Times, By Richard Boudreaux (5/8/2009) "No talks unless Israel frees prisoners" The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (6/8/2009): Fatah delegates meeting here Thursday resolved not to renew peace negotiations with Israel until all Palestinian prisoners are released from Israeli jails, all settlement-building is frozen and the Gaza blockade is lifted... "Fatah extends stormy conference" BBC News (6/8/2009) "Fatah searches for renewal" The Economist (6/8/2009) "Fatah voting delayed by divisions" BBC News (7/8/2009) "Fatah reform problems highlight Palestinian split" Reuters, By Douglas Hamilton (7/8/2009) "We'll sacrifice victims until Jerusalem is ours" Haaretz (8/8/2009): ...According to Israel Radio, the Fatah general conference, which convened in Bethlehem for a three-day gathering, adopted a position paper which also states that the Palestinian national enterprise will not reach fruition until all of Jerusalem, including the outlying villages, come under Palestinian sovereignty... "Fatah will continue to sacrifice victims until Jerusalem will be returned [to the Palestinians], clean of settlements and settlers," the paper states... "Fatah: Jerusalem must be made void of settlers" The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (8/8/2009) "The agony of Fatah" The Financial Times (9/8/2009)

The Iranian Threat Coverage

"Time's running out for Obama in Iran" The Guardian, By Simon Tisdall (3/8/2009): Humiliated by North Korea's nuclear defiance, struggling to keep Israel on side in planned Middle East peace talks, and with engagement undermined by the regime's brutality, Obama still wants to talk to Iran – but may lack the political strength to keep the path to dialogue open much longer. His officials are already anticipating that moment. "Clinton: No illusions about Iran talks" The Associated Press (9/8/2009) "America will confront Iran alone if the United Nations dithers" Times Online, By Bronwen Maddox (4/8/2009) "There is a Military Option on Iran" The Wall Street Journal, By Chuck Wald (6/8/2009): The military can play an important role in solving this complex problem without firing a single shot. Publicly signaling serious preparation for a military strike might obviate the need for one if deployments force Tehran to recognize the costs of its nuclear defiance. Mr. Obama might consider, for example, the deployment of additional carrier battle groups and minesweepers to the waters off Iran, and the conduct of military exercises with allies.

If such pressure fails to impress Iranian leadership, the U.S. Navy could move to blockade Iranian ports. A blockade—which is an act of war—would effectively cut off Iran’s gasoline imports, which constitute about one-third of its consumption. Especially in the aftermath of post-election protests, the Iranian leadership must worry about the economic dislocations and political impact of such action.

Should these measures not compel Tehran to reverse course on its nuclear program, and only after all other diplomatic avenues and economic pressures have been exhausted, the U.S. military is capable of launching a devastating attack on Iranian nuclear and military facilities... But the risks of military action must be weighed against those of doing nothing. If the Iranian regime continues to advance its nuclear program despite the best efforts of Mr. Obama and other world leaders, we risk Iranian domination of the oil-rich Persian Gulf, threats to U.S.-allied Arab regimes, the emboldening of radicals in the region, the creation of an existential threat to Israel, the destabilization of Iraq, the shutdown of the Israel-Palestinian peace process, and a regional nuclear-arms race...

"Iran in arms race with Israel" Al Jazeera, By Paul Beaver (6/8/2009) "Countdown" Al Jazeera (6/8/2009): As mutual fear, mistrust and polarisation increases between Iran and Israel, an arms race between the two sworn enemies is gathering momentum. Central to this is the Russian-made S-300 missile system. "NKorea, Iran use similar script to get their way" The Associated Press, By Brian Murphy (6/8/2009) "Hezbollah rockets part of Iran and Israel's political game of chess" Times Online, By Richard Beeston (5/8/2009) "Hezbollah stockpiles 40,000 rockets near Israel border" Times Online, By Richard Beeston (5/8/2009)

Obama's Middle East Peace Plan Coverage

"Barack Obama is close to revealing plan for Middle East peace" Times Online , By James Hider and Tim Reid (5/8/2009): “...In the coming weeks, their plan will be formulated and presented to the parties,” Mr Barak told the parliamentary foreign and defence committee. “I believe that Israel must take the lead in accepting the plan...” No details were released, although it is thought that the plan is based on an Arab initiative whereby Israel would gain recognition from the Arab world in return for the creation of a Palestinian state... It is thought that the plan will have a broader regional approach than previous peace efforts, and will include the participation of Syria, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon.The Palestinian leadership refuses to resume negotiations until all settlement construction ceases... "Obama's faltering peace drive" The Guardian, By Simon Tisdall (27/7/2009): ...Obama's peace drive, like some other of his flagship policies, has faltered. Now the Americans are publicly making nice while continuing to press hard in private. US envoy George Mitchell stressed the enduring strength of bilateral friendship. Defence secretary Robert Gates is offering security reassurance in talks on missile defence and Iran. Meanwhile, a deal on freezing Jewish settlement construction for a fixed, possibly six-month period, with the exception of 700 buildings now under construction, is reportedly edging closer – although no announcements are expected this week.The response from the Arab neighbours and the Palestinians to any such deal will be crucial if Obama is to achieve negotiating lift-off... "U.S. Wants Israel to Freeze Settlements For Year - Report" Reuters (6/8/2009) "Saudis reject call for Israel Ties" Al Jazeera (1/8/2009)

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Fatah prepares for 6th General Assembly

The Jerusalem Post, By Khaled Abu Toameh (4/8/2009) Fatah is scheduled to launch its sixth General Assembly in Bethlehem on Tuesday, amid growing skepticism that the faction will succeed in implementing major reforms or endorsing a more moderate attitude toward the conflict with Israel. The conference, which is supposed to bring together more than 2,000 delegates, is the first since 1989...

Many Fatah officials said on Monday that they would strongly oppose any attempt to drop the armed struggle option from the faction's political program that was endorsed in 1989.

According to a draft of the proposed political program that was leaked to the Palestinian media on Monday, the Fatah leadership plans to replace the term "armed struggle" with "resistance."

The new program would state that while Fatah supports the peace process with Israel, it maintains the right to continue the "resistance" to achieve the goals of the Palestinians.

"Negotiations with Israel were not part of Fatah's culture," said Jamal Nazzal, a Fatah spokesman in the West Bank.

He declared that Fatah had never recognized Israel's right to exist and denied that his faction had asked Hamas or any other Palestinian party to do so...

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Sunday, August 2, 2009

Analysis: Depressing signs from Riyadh, Ramallah and Damascus

The Jerusalem Post, By Herb Keinon (2/8/2009) Call it the three noes of the summer of '09. Following intensive efforts by US Mideast envoy George Mitchell to relaunch a diplomatic process in the region that would lead to a comprehensive peace process, the Arab world over the weekend - in three seemingly disconnected events - seemed to give its response, and it sounded like echoes of the famous three noes from Khartoum following the Six Day War...

Sources in Jerusalem were less diplomatic.

"For many years most of the Arab world was not involved directly in the peace process. It was like a soccer game, and they chose not to be a player, but rather to sit in the stands and boo or cheer," one senior government source said.

"If they decide to continue with that pattern of behavior they will continue to be largely irrelevant," the source said. "They can continue booing and cheering, but their ability to influence the peace process will be marginal."

And then, sounding a warning that Israel was indeed watching carefully to see what gesture the Arab world would make, the official added, "It is clear that Israel's ability to move forward in the peace process will be more limited if the Arab world takes a decision to remain aloof."

Six months after US President Barack Obama took over and began seriously recalibrating the country's Middle East policy, and a week after he sent his A-Team here for intensive discussions, this is what he has to show for it: an Israeli public that, as recent polls indicate, doesn't trust him; and an Arab world that remains unwilling, despite all his coddling, to make any practical move or gesture toward Israel - not promises of normalization at the end of the process, but practical steps that would give Israelis any confidence in any of those promises.

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Iran's "show trial" of foes hurts system: Khatami

Reuters, By Parisa Hafezi (2/8/2009)

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have tightened pressure on their opponents by staging what former President Mohammad Khatami derided on Sunday as a "show trial" of 100 reformists accused of trying to instigate a "velvet revolution."

...The political uncertainty has posed fresh challenges for Western powers which had hoped to engage the Islamic Republic in substantive talks on its nuclear program, which they suspect has military purposes, not only civilian ones as Iran insists.

Another potential source of friction with the United States arose on Saturday when Iran arrested three American hikers who an Iraqi Kurdish official said had strayed across the border.

Washington said it was taking the case very seriously.

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Palestinian peace-making, through the eyes of a Diaspora Jew

Haaretz, Adam Abrams (17/7/2009) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and various Western leaders have taken of late to touting the "illegal Jewish settlements" in the West Bank as a major obstacle to peace. After visiting the settlements and coming to know them intimately first hand, I can agree that in many ways they do indeed complicate matters. Nevertheless, forcing the settlers to leave the West Bank will not create peace, nor will it create a viable Palestinian state. Why? Because there is no viable peace partner to be found within the Palestinian leadership. I also believe that if Israel were to withdraw from the West Bank right now, Hamas would take control the following morning. Let's say the Jewish settlers were all moved out of the West Bank and a Palestinian state was created there. Who would rule this newly declared Palestinian state? Mahmoud Abbas? Hamas? The Islamic Jihad? If Abbas were put in control of the new Palestinian state, how would he implement a peace agreement with Israel? One thing that is certain: He would find no willing peace partners in the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip. Over the last fifteen years, the Palestinian Authority has received approximately $6.5 billion in aid from the European Union and United States yet, what do they have to show for it? ...The majority of Israelis do not want to occupy the West Bank, and they accept the two-state solution. The majority of Israelis want to disengage from the Palestinians and because of this, a Palestinian state could greatly benefit Israel. However, the formation of a Palestinian state is still many generations away from becoming a reality. Click here for full story