... I will not be posting for several weeks! I went to spend time with my daughter who will pass a back surgery coming Tuesday and watch my 6-year old grandson.
~
She doesn't have internet service and there's no internet cafe close by.
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I hope to be back in around four to six weeks!
~
Friday, October 16, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
PETITION
PETITION
Submitted by Arafat Madi of The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza – Deadline to sign up by: 12 March 2010
We the undersigned petition call on the British Premier, Gordon Brown, to support the Goldstone Report and to ensure its acceptance in the Human Rights Council in March 2010. The report which was issued by a special committee assigned by the UN proved in a report of 570 pages that Israel perpetrated war crimes against Humanity in Gaza within its offensive in January 2009. Endorsing the report is endorsing humanity and rights of the besieged people of Gaza who are defenseless victims of the Israeli army. Israeli soldiers themselves confessed to have received orders to shot children in Gaza. TV Footages, Photographs and Media materials entirely supports the Goldstone report. The full-scale offensive in Gaza left at least 1,450 Palestinians killed and over 5000 injured. The entire infrastructure in Gaza was destroyed as Israeli attacks targeted schools, hospitals, streets, water wills, sewage system, farms and police stations. Till this moment, Israel is still imposing a harsh and criminal siege on the civilian population Gaza.
SIGN IT HERE
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/GoldstoneReport/#detail
Submitted by Arafat Madi of The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza – Deadline to sign up by: 12 March 2010
We the undersigned petition call on the British Premier, Gordon Brown, to support the Goldstone Report and to ensure its acceptance in the Human Rights Council in March 2010. The report which was issued by a special committee assigned by the UN proved in a report of 570 pages that Israel perpetrated war crimes against Humanity in Gaza within its offensive in January 2009. Endorsing the report is endorsing humanity and rights of the besieged people of Gaza who are defenseless victims of the Israeli army. Israeli soldiers themselves confessed to have received orders to shot children in Gaza. TV Footages, Photographs and Media materials entirely supports the Goldstone report. The full-scale offensive in Gaza left at least 1,450 Palestinians killed and over 5000 injured. The entire infrastructure in Gaza was destroyed as Israeli attacks targeted schools, hospitals, streets, water wills, sewage system, farms and police stations. Till this moment, Israel is still imposing a harsh and criminal siege on the civilian population Gaza.
SIGN IT HERE
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/GoldstoneReport/#detail
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Yishai: Deporting foreign children preserves Israel's Jewish identity
This is sick! The man needs help seriously.
Interior Minister and Shas Party chairman Eli Yishai plans "to muster all of Shas' political power on the issue of the foreign workers," he told Haaretz on Tuesday.
During a conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Yishai warned that if the cabinet rejects his demand that children of foreign workers not be given residency or citizenship in Israel, he will abdicate responsibility for the Immigration Authority, which is currently in his ministry's purview, to the Prime Minister's Office, and foment a coalition crisis to boot.
He also reminded Netanyahu of a similar case in 1986, when then-Shas chairman and interior minister Yitzhak Peretz resigned from the cabinet after the High Court of Justice ordered the ministry to register people who underwent Reform conversions overseas as Jews.
Yishai does not object to Monday's decision to postpone deporting the children and their parents until the end of the school year, saying this was for "humanitarian reasons." But he stressed that he will not agree to any further postponements and will vehemently oppose granting the children citizenship or residency.
Allowing these children to stay in Israel "is liable to damage the state's Jewish identity, constitute a demographic threat and increase the danger of assimilation," he said.
Source:
Interior Minister and Shas Party chairman Eli Yishai plans "to muster all of Shas' political power on the issue of the foreign workers," he told Haaretz on Tuesday.
During a conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Yishai warned that if the cabinet rejects his demand that children of foreign workers not be given residency or citizenship in Israel, he will abdicate responsibility for the Immigration Authority, which is currently in his ministry's purview, to the Prime Minister's Office, and foment a coalition crisis to boot.
He also reminded Netanyahu of a similar case in 1986, when then-Shas chairman and interior minister Yitzhak Peretz resigned from the cabinet after the High Court of Justice ordered the ministry to register people who underwent Reform conversions overseas as Jews.
Yishai does not object to Monday's decision to postpone deporting the children and their parents until the end of the school year, saying this was for "humanitarian reasons." But he stressed that he will not agree to any further postponements and will vehemently oppose granting the children citizenship or residency.
Allowing these children to stay in Israel "is liable to damage the state's Jewish identity, constitute a demographic threat and increase the danger of assimilation," he said.
Source:
Daughter of Ahmadinejad aide makes anti-torture film, seeks asylum in Germany
Narges Kalhor, daughter of Mahdi Kalhor, a senior adviser to Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The daughter of a top adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad has applied for asylum in Germany, organizers of a film festival that she was attending said Tuesday.
Narges Kalhor, the daughter of Ahmadinejad's adviser on cultural and media affairs, submitted her asylum application to authorities in southern Germany, Nuremberg Human Rights Film Festival spokesman Matthias Rued said.
Her father, Mahdi Kalhor, has been seen as a close ally of Ahmadinejad since early this decade.
In an interview with fellow Iranian filmmaker Hana Makhmalbaf posted on YouTube on Monday, Narges Kalhor said she did not believe her father knew about her plans.
"I'm certain he hasn't seen my film or know about this festival or where I am," she said. "I came from my own desire, for cinema, and I have to continue."
Narges Kalhor had been at the Nuremberg festival to present her film Darkhish (The Rake), which condemns the use of torture and the barbarity of totalitarianism.
Mahdi Kalhor told Iran's official IRNA news agency that he knew nothing about details of his daughter's films or her plans to leave the country.
He blamed the Iranian opposition for supporting her attempts to challenge the government.
"This issue is one of the symbols of a media and soft war that opposition has launched," the agency quoted Mahdi Kalhor as saying.
He also told IRNA he had divorced Narges' mother a year ago over differences of opinion, saying she was a zealous opponent of Ahmadinejad. Narges had been living with her mother.
In the video, Narges Kalhor appears wearing a green scarf - the color of the Iranian opposition - draped about her neck and expresses support for the reform movement.
She said that, while she and her father have differing opinions, she hoped he would support her and possibly even change his mind.
"Any moment, a person can change," Narges Kalhor said. "At any time, a person can have a moment of calm and think about what the correct path is."
"Just a little solitude can open our eyes to the world and we can decide, this is the correct path, the path of these millions of people who went to the streets asking for freedom" she went on to say.
Source:
Teen Charged With Attempted Murder In Burn Attack
What the hell is going on with kids today?
One Of Two Additional Teens Charged
5 Teens Now Face Charges In Torching Of Michael Brewer
Attempted murder charges were filed against a 15-year-old boy Tuesday afternoon and another teen was charged with aggravated battery, bringing to five the number of teens charged with intentionally setting a boy on fire in an argument that started over a video game.
15-year-old Jesus Mendez was charged with attempted second degree murder Tuesday afternoon, while the four other teens now face charges of aggravated battery. CBS4 is not identifying those teens at this time. All five have been charged as juveniles.
The teens have been accused of dousing 15-year-old Michael Brewer with rubbing alcohol Monday afternoon and setting him on fire as he sat by the pool at the Lime Tree Village apartments in Deerfield Beach.
"One of the more horrific crimes I have been associated with since I've been with BSO. It's just a horrible, horrible case," said Sgt. Steve Feeley of the Broward Sheriff's Office. "It doesn't reflect very well on our community or our society," said BSO Sheriff Al Lamberti.
Four of the suspects are 15, and the fifth is a 13-year-old boy. All are accused of setting Brewer on fire.
According to BSO, one of the juvenile suspects, the alleged ringleader, was owed money by Brewer for a video game. The ringleader allegedly stole Brewer's father's bike as payment, but was caught on Sunday.
Officers arrested the ringleader on Sunday, but he was later released into his parent's custody later. Monday, the five suspects allegedly surrounded Brewer when the ringleader said, "pour it on him, pour it on him," according to Sgt. Feeley.
One of the suspects allegedly poured alcohol on Brewer, and then Mendez allegedly used a lighter to set Brewer on fire, according to the BSO. The lighter was found by Broward Sheriff's Deputies at the scene of the crime.
A neighbor heard his screams for help and put out the flames with a fire extinguisher, said Malissa Durkee, Brewer's sister. The teen then ripped off his shirt and jumped into the pool.
Neighbor Jennifer Nielsen, a former lifeguard, heard Michael's screams and ran outside to help. She said she comforted Michael as he screamed in agony.
"I was like who did this to you? What happened?" she said. "He said someone threw something on me. He couldn't even say liquid. He said someone threw something on me, so it was a surprise attack."
Brewer's mother, Valerie, told CBS4's Carey Codd, "We just don't understand why anyone would do this."
Nielsen said Brewer's top layer of skin was peeling off; his eyebrows were gone as was the hair on the right side of his head. Family members said most of his hair, including his eyelashes, had been burned off.
"I'm still shaken up," Neilsen said. "But I'm happy I was there for that child. I just want that child to be ok."
Brewer was airlifted to Broward General Medical Center and then moved to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. The pain of the burns was so intense that he was placed on a medically-induced coma.
Monday night, the suspects were in custody and at least two of them were laughing about the burning of Brewer. Mendez showed remorse for the crime, according to Sgt. Feeley. BSO deputies were able to find the suspects with the help of witnesses, who said they were afraid of the ringleader.
According to BSO, all five of the suspects have had run-ins with the law before. Some of the suspects have reportedly confessed to the crime, according to Sgt. Feeley.
"The victim will be in hospital for five months. He has second degree burns over 80 percent of body. He's in for a long, long recovery," said Sheriff Lamberti. "The violence in our schools need to stop. I don't know what the answer is. As parents and leaders we need to do a better job teaching our kids right from wrong."
Source:
One Of Two Additional Teens Charged
5 Teens Now Face Charges In Torching Of Michael Brewer
Attempted murder charges were filed against a 15-year-old boy Tuesday afternoon and another teen was charged with aggravated battery, bringing to five the number of teens charged with intentionally setting a boy on fire in an argument that started over a video game.
15-year-old Jesus Mendez was charged with attempted second degree murder Tuesday afternoon, while the four other teens now face charges of aggravated battery. CBS4 is not identifying those teens at this time. All five have been charged as juveniles.
The teens have been accused of dousing 15-year-old Michael Brewer with rubbing alcohol Monday afternoon and setting him on fire as he sat by the pool at the Lime Tree Village apartments in Deerfield Beach.
"One of the more horrific crimes I have been associated with since I've been with BSO. It's just a horrible, horrible case," said Sgt. Steve Feeley of the Broward Sheriff's Office. "It doesn't reflect very well on our community or our society," said BSO Sheriff Al Lamberti.
Four of the suspects are 15, and the fifth is a 13-year-old boy. All are accused of setting Brewer on fire.
According to BSO, one of the juvenile suspects, the alleged ringleader, was owed money by Brewer for a video game. The ringleader allegedly stole Brewer's father's bike as payment, but was caught on Sunday.
Officers arrested the ringleader on Sunday, but he was later released into his parent's custody later. Monday, the five suspects allegedly surrounded Brewer when the ringleader said, "pour it on him, pour it on him," according to Sgt. Feeley.
One of the suspects allegedly poured alcohol on Brewer, and then Mendez allegedly used a lighter to set Brewer on fire, according to the BSO. The lighter was found by Broward Sheriff's Deputies at the scene of the crime.
A neighbor heard his screams for help and put out the flames with a fire extinguisher, said Malissa Durkee, Brewer's sister. The teen then ripped off his shirt and jumped into the pool.
Neighbor Jennifer Nielsen, a former lifeguard, heard Michael's screams and ran outside to help. She said she comforted Michael as he screamed in agony.
"I was like who did this to you? What happened?" she said. "He said someone threw something on me. He couldn't even say liquid. He said someone threw something on me, so it was a surprise attack."
Brewer's mother, Valerie, told CBS4's Carey Codd, "We just don't understand why anyone would do this."
Nielsen said Brewer's top layer of skin was peeling off; his eyebrows were gone as was the hair on the right side of his head. Family members said most of his hair, including his eyelashes, had been burned off.
"I'm still shaken up," Neilsen said. "But I'm happy I was there for that child. I just want that child to be ok."
Brewer was airlifted to Broward General Medical Center and then moved to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. The pain of the burns was so intense that he was placed on a medically-induced coma.
Monday night, the suspects were in custody and at least two of them were laughing about the burning of Brewer. Mendez showed remorse for the crime, according to Sgt. Feeley. BSO deputies were able to find the suspects with the help of witnesses, who said they were afraid of the ringleader.
According to BSO, all five of the suspects have had run-ins with the law before. Some of the suspects have reportedly confessed to the crime, according to Sgt. Feeley.
"The victim will be in hospital for five months. He has second degree burns over 80 percent of body. He's in for a long, long recovery," said Sheriff Lamberti. "The violence in our schools need to stop. I don't know what the answer is. As parents and leaders we need to do a better job teaching our kids right from wrong."
Source:
'We have a right to go to school'
Around the world millions of children are not getting a proper education because of poverty or war. In the second report in the BBC's Hunger to Learn series, Katya Adler meets children in Gaza whose schooling has been repeatedly interrupted by conflict.
It is early morning in northern Gaza. The streets are filled with children on their way to school. Most carry backpacks almost as big as themselves. All are dressed in crisply-ironed uniforms. It is quite an incongruous sight as they walk past piles of rubble and devastation - leftovers from Israel's military operation earlier this year.
In the Elyen family home, nine-year-old Huda is nervous. Her mother is still preparing sandwiches. Huda is worried she will be late for school.
As bags are packed and hair plaited, there is not much wriggle room for the three school-aged children here. The Elyens live in a flimsy, one-bedroom shack.
Their house was destroyed and one of their cousins killed in an Israeli airstrike in January. Amer, their father, is worried about the winter. He tells me he cannot afford a proper roof.
He has been out of work for three years, ever since Israel imposed heavy restrictions on border crossings into the Gaza Strip, crushing the already weak local economy.
Amer says he hopes his children will finish their schooling, regardless of poverty or violence.
He had to leave school as a young boy to help support his brothers and sisters. He firmly believes that education can open doors to a better life.
But many of Gaza's schoolchildren are less optimistic. They know that no matter how educated they are, opportunities are scarce. Unemployment is rampant.
Escaping Gaza for a better life elsewhere is almost impossible, as neighbouring Israel and Egypt keep their crossings with Gaza pretty much sealed shut.
Schooling is also repeatedly interrupted by conflict. This is sometimes due to violence between rival factions in Gaza but mainly because of military action by Israel. Israel says this is in response to rocket and mortar fire by Gaza militants, aimed at Israeli citizens.
School bombed
Huda Elyen's primary school was bombed during Israel's recent large-scale operation in Gaza.
On 17 January, Israeli white phosphorus shells hit the Beit Lahia Elementary School. Israel said it wanted to provide a smokescreen to protect Israeli troops from Palestinian gunmen.
But the school - run by the United Nations - was packed with families sheltering from the war. The UN insists no militants were operating there.
Two little brothers aged five and seven were killed, while women and children were wounded. People in the school said it was literally raining fire, and some of the classrooms were burned beyond recognition.
The classrooms have since been re-painted but the children's memories of that day cannot be erased.
Nine-year-old Mahmoud Zakout lives near the school. He describes a scene of chaos, panic and destruction.
Mahmoud say he wants a good education but is angry with the Israelis for bombing Gaza centres of learning.
"We are innocent," he protests. "Why do they do this to us? We have a right to go to school, like they do."
According to the United Nations, at least 280 schools and nurseries were damaged during the war with Israel this year. Israeli troops have since withdrawn but sporadic military operations in Gaza continue.
The strip is run by Hamas, which believes Israel has no right to exist, and continues to allow occasional rocket fire across the border.
Israel only allows basic supplies into Gaza and this makes rebuilding virtually impossible.
Scarred
Children in Gaza also remain scarred. Many lost parents or other close relatives during Israel's three-week offensive. Thousands were displaced, some lost their homes altogether and countless youngsters witnessed violent and bloody scenes.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, 1,800 youngsters were wounded and 400 killed. Israel's military puts the number of dead children at 89. Israeli human rights groups put the figure far higher, at more than 250.
Teachers in Gaza say living in a war zone affects children's performance at school.
Halla Abya, an English teacher at the UN primary school in Beit Lahia, says many of her students have trouble concentrating. She describes them as psychologically and socially destroyed.
The children we speak to in Beit Lahia say they suffer from nightmares.
Huda Elyen tells us she dreams of burning phosphorus and that the Israelis will come back and bomb them again. At school, she and her friends study and play, she says, but they cannot forget the days of the war.
The war in January was not the first. It is hard to find anyone in Gaza or Israel who believes it will be the last.
Schoolchildren in Gaza are no strangers to Israeli airstrikes or to masked Palestinian gunmen firing rockets from their neighbourhoods.
Being a child here means growing up with conflict.
Source:
It is early morning in northern Gaza. The streets are filled with children on their way to school. Most carry backpacks almost as big as themselves. All are dressed in crisply-ironed uniforms. It is quite an incongruous sight as they walk past piles of rubble and devastation - leftovers from Israel's military operation earlier this year.
In the Elyen family home, nine-year-old Huda is nervous. Her mother is still preparing sandwiches. Huda is worried she will be late for school.
As bags are packed and hair plaited, there is not much wriggle room for the three school-aged children here. The Elyens live in a flimsy, one-bedroom shack.
Their house was destroyed and one of their cousins killed in an Israeli airstrike in January. Amer, their father, is worried about the winter. He tells me he cannot afford a proper roof.
He has been out of work for three years, ever since Israel imposed heavy restrictions on border crossings into the Gaza Strip, crushing the already weak local economy.
Amer says he hopes his children will finish their schooling, regardless of poverty or violence.
He had to leave school as a young boy to help support his brothers and sisters. He firmly believes that education can open doors to a better life.
But many of Gaza's schoolchildren are less optimistic. They know that no matter how educated they are, opportunities are scarce. Unemployment is rampant.
Escaping Gaza for a better life elsewhere is almost impossible, as neighbouring Israel and Egypt keep their crossings with Gaza pretty much sealed shut.
Schooling is also repeatedly interrupted by conflict. This is sometimes due to violence between rival factions in Gaza but mainly because of military action by Israel. Israel says this is in response to rocket and mortar fire by Gaza militants, aimed at Israeli citizens.
School bombed
Huda Elyen's primary school was bombed during Israel's recent large-scale operation in Gaza.
On 17 January, Israeli white phosphorus shells hit the Beit Lahia Elementary School. Israel said it wanted to provide a smokescreen to protect Israeli troops from Palestinian gunmen.
But the school - run by the United Nations - was packed with families sheltering from the war. The UN insists no militants were operating there.
Two little brothers aged five and seven were killed, while women and children were wounded. People in the school said it was literally raining fire, and some of the classrooms were burned beyond recognition.
The classrooms have since been re-painted but the children's memories of that day cannot be erased.
Nine-year-old Mahmoud Zakout lives near the school. He describes a scene of chaos, panic and destruction.
Mahmoud say he wants a good education but is angry with the Israelis for bombing Gaza centres of learning.
"We are innocent," he protests. "Why do they do this to us? We have a right to go to school, like they do."
According to the United Nations, at least 280 schools and nurseries were damaged during the war with Israel this year. Israeli troops have since withdrawn but sporadic military operations in Gaza continue.
The strip is run by Hamas, which believes Israel has no right to exist, and continues to allow occasional rocket fire across the border.
Israel only allows basic supplies into Gaza and this makes rebuilding virtually impossible.
Scarred
Children in Gaza also remain scarred. Many lost parents or other close relatives during Israel's three-week offensive. Thousands were displaced, some lost their homes altogether and countless youngsters witnessed violent and bloody scenes.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, 1,800 youngsters were wounded and 400 killed. Israel's military puts the number of dead children at 89. Israeli human rights groups put the figure far higher, at more than 250.
Teachers in Gaza say living in a war zone affects children's performance at school.
Halla Abya, an English teacher at the UN primary school in Beit Lahia, says many of her students have trouble concentrating. She describes them as psychologically and socially destroyed.
The children we speak to in Beit Lahia say they suffer from nightmares.
Huda Elyen tells us she dreams of burning phosphorus and that the Israelis will come back and bomb them again. At school, she and her friends study and play, she says, but they cannot forget the days of the war.
The war in January was not the first. It is hard to find anyone in Gaza or Israel who believes it will be the last.
Schoolchildren in Gaza are no strangers to Israeli airstrikes or to masked Palestinian gunmen firing rockets from their neighbourhoods.
Being a child here means growing up with conflict.
Source:
Monday, October 12, 2009
UN chief backs Abbas decision to debate Goldstone report
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon supports a Palestinian proposal to reopen debate in the Human Rights Council on the Goldstone Commission's report on the Gaza war, his spokeswoman Michele Montas said on Monday.
She said Ban assured Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on the matter during a telephone conversation on Sunday.
Israeli officials across the board have condemned the 575-page report which accuses Israel of war crimes during the wintertime offensive. The report also accused Hamas of actions amounting to war crimes by firing rockets at civilians in southern Israel.
The Palestinian Authority, Hamas' rival in the West Bank, initially retracted its proposal for an immediate vote on the probe. Following weeks of criticism Abbas on Sunday retracted the deferral and ordered his envoy to the United Nations to resubmit the report.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he would never allow any of the Israel's leaders or soldiers to be put on trial for war crimes.
Netanyahu opened his fiery speech at the inauguration of the Knesset's winter session by blasting the Goldstone Commission's report sponsored by the United Nations, that accused Israel of committing war crimes during its war against militants in the Gaza Strip last year.
Israel has the right to defend itself, Netanyahu declared, and would not acquiesce to a situation where wartime leaders or troops who participated in the operation stand trial.
"This distorted report, written by this distorted committee, undermines
Israel's right to defend itself. This report encourages terrorism and
threatens peace," Netanyahu said. "Israel will not take risks for peace if it can't defend itself."
Israeli officials across the board have condemned the report, saying the
operation came in response to years of Hamas rocket attacks. They also blame Hamas for civilian casualties, saying the Islamic militant group took cover in residential areas during the fighting.
Netanyahu angrily noted the report's portrayal of Israeli leaders as war
criminals during his address on Monday. "The truth is exactly the opposite," he said. "Israel's leaders and its army are those who defended the citizens of Israel from war criminals."
"We will not allow Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak, who sent our sons to war, to arrive at the international court in the Hague," he added.
When details of the investigation's conclusions first emerged in September, Netanyahu blasted the commission as nothing but a "kangaroo court."
"The Goldstone report is a kangaroo court against Israel, whose consequences harm the struggle of democratic countries against terror," said Netanyahu during closed meetings.
He was referring to the report's author, Richard Goldstone, a South African war crimes prosecutor.
Source:
She said Ban assured Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on the matter during a telephone conversation on Sunday.
Israeli officials across the board have condemned the 575-page report which accuses Israel of war crimes during the wintertime offensive. The report also accused Hamas of actions amounting to war crimes by firing rockets at civilians in southern Israel.
The Palestinian Authority, Hamas' rival in the West Bank, initially retracted its proposal for an immediate vote on the probe. Following weeks of criticism Abbas on Sunday retracted the deferral and ordered his envoy to the United Nations to resubmit the report.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he would never allow any of the Israel's leaders or soldiers to be put on trial for war crimes.
Netanyahu opened his fiery speech at the inauguration of the Knesset's winter session by blasting the Goldstone Commission's report sponsored by the United Nations, that accused Israel of committing war crimes during its war against militants in the Gaza Strip last year.
Israel has the right to defend itself, Netanyahu declared, and would not acquiesce to a situation where wartime leaders or troops who participated in the operation stand trial.
"This distorted report, written by this distorted committee, undermines
Israel's right to defend itself. This report encourages terrorism and
threatens peace," Netanyahu said. "Israel will not take risks for peace if it can't defend itself."
Israeli officials across the board have condemned the report, saying the
operation came in response to years of Hamas rocket attacks. They also blame Hamas for civilian casualties, saying the Islamic militant group took cover in residential areas during the fighting.
Netanyahu angrily noted the report's portrayal of Israeli leaders as war
criminals during his address on Monday. "The truth is exactly the opposite," he said. "Israel's leaders and its army are those who defended the citizens of Israel from war criminals."
"We will not allow Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak, who sent our sons to war, to arrive at the international court in the Hague," he added.
When details of the investigation's conclusions first emerged in September, Netanyahu blasted the commission as nothing but a "kangaroo court."
"The Goldstone report is a kangaroo court against Israel, whose consequences harm the struggle of democratic countries against terror," said Netanyahu during closed meetings.
He was referring to the report's author, Richard Goldstone, a South African war crimes prosecutor.
Source:
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Israel fears Gaza war damaged Turkey ties
Officials called an emergency meeting at the Foreign Ministry yesterday to discuss the crisis between Israel and Turkey, marked by the cancellation of a joint military exercise that was to include the Israel Air Force.
A senior source at the ministry told Haaretz about concerns that strategic ties with Turkey are in jeopardy after Operation Lead Cast in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.
Foreign Ministry sources confirmed that the meeting had taken place following instructions by ministry director general Yossi Gal, but they declined to give details.
Officials are debating the depth of the crisis. One view holds that "strategic ties" has become a unilateral description of the situation and that Turkey's government under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not interested in such links.
"It may be that the reality has changed and the strategic ties that we thought existed have simply ended," said a senior Israeli official. "Maybe we need to be the ones who initiate renewed thinking regarding our ties and must adopt response measures."
Supporters of this approach point out that of the countries with diplomatic ties with Israel, Turkey might be the most hostile.
But other officials argue that the situation can be saved. "There is a serious crisis and we need to address it quickly," said a senior official who has experience with the Turkish file.
Last week Turkey canceled an international aerial exercise that was due to take place in its territory. It was to include the IAF and aircraft and pilots from NATO.
The exercise, to be based at an air base in the central Anatolian city of Konya, was scheduled to include crews from Italy, the Netherlands, the United States and other NATO countries. But unlike the preparations with other participants, the Turks stalled on beginning talks with their Israeli counterparts.
Last week, Turkish military officials surprised the Israel Defense Forces with news that they were canceling Israel's participation in the exercise because of the country's activities in the Gaza Strip.
Israel's efforts to gain an answer from the Turkish Foreign Ministry met with evasive responses. Israel then contacted the United States, Italy and the Netherlands on the issue; these countries announced that they would not take part in the exercise.
Senior Foreign Ministry officials say this is an unusual move by the Turks because, despite the tension and Erdogan's anti-Israeli rhetoric, it's the first real step that violates the tripartite agreement between Israel, the United States and Turkey.
Israeli officials say that as far as they know, the move by the Turkish military stemmed from direct orders by Erdogan, who has been piling on anti-Israeli rhetoric since the Gaza offensive, which also led to a freeze in the negotiations Turkey was mediating between Syria and Israel.
Analysts say the key change in Turkey's attitude is that the military has acquiesced to the prime minister's political directives on an issue of defense strategy.
Erdogan has blamed Israel for committing what it calls genocide in the Gaza Strip and says then prime minister Ehud Olmert betrayed him. Erdogan also confronted President Shimon Peres at Davos in January and has insisted that Israel must be tried for war crimes.
The Turkish leader has also called for sanctions against Iran to be lifted, and has called on the international community to focus on Israel's nuclear capabilities instead.
Source:
A senior source at the ministry told Haaretz about concerns that strategic ties with Turkey are in jeopardy after Operation Lead Cast in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.
Foreign Ministry sources confirmed that the meeting had taken place following instructions by ministry director general Yossi Gal, but they declined to give details.
Officials are debating the depth of the crisis. One view holds that "strategic ties" has become a unilateral description of the situation and that Turkey's government under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not interested in such links.
"It may be that the reality has changed and the strategic ties that we thought existed have simply ended," said a senior Israeli official. "Maybe we need to be the ones who initiate renewed thinking regarding our ties and must adopt response measures."
Supporters of this approach point out that of the countries with diplomatic ties with Israel, Turkey might be the most hostile.
But other officials argue that the situation can be saved. "There is a serious crisis and we need to address it quickly," said a senior official who has experience with the Turkish file.
Last week Turkey canceled an international aerial exercise that was due to take place in its territory. It was to include the IAF and aircraft and pilots from NATO.
The exercise, to be based at an air base in the central Anatolian city of Konya, was scheduled to include crews from Italy, the Netherlands, the United States and other NATO countries. But unlike the preparations with other participants, the Turks stalled on beginning talks with their Israeli counterparts.
Last week, Turkish military officials surprised the Israel Defense Forces with news that they were canceling Israel's participation in the exercise because of the country's activities in the Gaza Strip.
Israel's efforts to gain an answer from the Turkish Foreign Ministry met with evasive responses. Israel then contacted the United States, Italy and the Netherlands on the issue; these countries announced that they would not take part in the exercise.
Senior Foreign Ministry officials say this is an unusual move by the Turks because, despite the tension and Erdogan's anti-Israeli rhetoric, it's the first real step that violates the tripartite agreement between Israel, the United States and Turkey.
Israeli officials say that as far as they know, the move by the Turkish military stemmed from direct orders by Erdogan, who has been piling on anti-Israeli rhetoric since the Gaza offensive, which also led to a freeze in the negotiations Turkey was mediating between Syria and Israel.
Analysts say the key change in Turkey's attitude is that the military has acquiesced to the prime minister's political directives on an issue of defense strategy.
Erdogan has blamed Israel for committing what it calls genocide in the Gaza Strip and says then prime minister Ehud Olmert betrayed him. Erdogan also confronted President Shimon Peres at Davos in January and has insisted that Israel must be tried for war crimes.
The Turkish leader has also called for sanctions against Iran to be lifted, and has called on the international community to focus on Israel's nuclear capabilities instead.
Source:
Friday, October 9, 2009
Goldstone fall-out plagues Abbas
Palestinians sometimes joke about the fact that, when written in Arabic, "Palestinian National Authority" looks the same as "Palestinian National Salad".
And to many here, the PA's handling of Richard Goldstone's UN report on the conflict in Gaza has been mixed up and limp.
What began as the publication of a damning report on Israel's military conduct - although it also condemned Hamas - has turned into an embarrassing debacle for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president and Fatah leader.
Palestinians were outraged after the authority last week, under Israeli and US pressure, abruptly halted its drive to speed the report, which accuses both sides of war crimes, to the higher echelons of the mechanisms of international justice.
The PA initially urged UN human rights council members to refer the issue to the powerful Security Council which could in theory ask the International Criminal Court to open a war crimes prosecution.
But when the day of the vote came, the authority backed deferring discussion until March.
In response, rights groups in the PA's nerve centre of Ramallah took to the streets to denounce the decision.
Gazans threw shoes - a sign of disrespect in Arabic culture - at Mr Abbas's portrait on posters that branded him a traitor.
Syria cancelled a planned visit by Mr Abbas to Damascus. An Israeli-Arab political party urged him to step down.
The authority's damage limitation exercises have done little to help.
Some PA figures initially denied a change in policy, while others tried to cast the move as a step to allow more time to build consensus.
On Sunday Mr Abbas ordered an "investigation" into how his own government made the decision.
On Wednesday one senior figure, Yasser Abed Rabbo, conceded the move was a "mistake".
Meanwhile negotiator Saeb Erekat has been threatening to name other countries - hinting that these include Arab governments which would face domestic anger - that he says pressured the Palestinians to back down.
Damaged credibility
Mr Abbas's credibility, which is heavily tied to attempts to negotiate a Palestinian state into existence, had already taken a knock two weeks ago as US attempts to restart peace talks appeared to stall.
The PA leader faced domestic criticism for participating in a tri-lateral meeting with US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite Israel's refusal to halt settlement building in the West Bank.
Unofficial reports of the mini-summit, and US talk of Israel "restraining" rather than "freezing" settlement building, left Palestinians deeply disappointed. It seemed that Mr Obama had eased US pressure on Israel.
Also, Mr Abbas's Fatah faction's long-running feud with Hamas, and his own conduct during the Israeli operation in Gaza, have come back to haunt him.
He angered even some Fatah supporters by being slow to condemn the Israeli offensive which started in December. He criticised Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel, even as Palestinian civilians were dying in Israeli air strikes.
According to local media, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said the PA actually "pressured Israel to go all the way" in the operation.
There have been reports - albeit from a news agency based in Hamas-controlled Gaza - that Israel threatened to release a video tape showing Palestinian leaders urging Israel to be tougher on Hamas during the Gaza offensive, unless the PA backed down over the Goldstone report.
While the tape may not exist at all, the rumours feed into perceptions among some Palestinians that Mr Abbas has at times swung almost traitorously close to Israel in his attempts to defeat his Hamas opponents.
Reconciliation
Paradoxically, the crisis for Mr Abbas has come amid signs that Fatah and Hamas may be close to a reconciliation deal that has eluded them for so long, that would pave the way for presidential and legislative elections.
Mr Abbas's four-year term ended in January, and his authority now rests on disputed legal arguments, rather than a clear expression of voters' views.
But Hamas, which won legislative elections in January 2006, will find itself in a similar position from January onwards.
Hamas declared the PA's Goldstone decision "a betrayal of the blood of the martyrs", and called for a delay in the planned reconciliation process.
But it has not pulled out of talks completely, and one school of thought suggests Hamas leaders may actually be keen to negotiate while Mr Abbas's hand is weakened.
Having failed to make progress on lifting Israel's blockade of Gaza, they are currently enjoying a rare moment of triumph boosted by the release last week of 20 female Palestinian prisoners in exchange of footage for the captured soldier Gilad Shalit.
The PA move in Geneva has probably not made a major difference to the likelihood of Israel ending up in the dock of the International Criminal Court. This was always low.
Even if the Palestinians had persuaded enough countries to vote last Friday to forward the Goldstone report to the UN Security Council, the US and possibly others would most likely have vetoed sending it any further.
But backing from UN member states would ratchet up pressure on Israel to comply with Mr Goldstone's recommendation that both it and Hamas mount credible, independent investigations into the report's allegations.
However, the PA decision's repercussions for Mr Abbas may be wider, especially if Mr Obama's drive to relaunch peace negotiations fails to bear fruit.
The weaker Mr Abbas becomes, the less credible any attempted peace process looks - and the less credible any peace process looks, the weaker he becomes.
Source:
And to many here, the PA's handling of Richard Goldstone's UN report on the conflict in Gaza has been mixed up and limp.
What began as the publication of a damning report on Israel's military conduct - although it also condemned Hamas - has turned into an embarrassing debacle for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president and Fatah leader.
Palestinians were outraged after the authority last week, under Israeli and US pressure, abruptly halted its drive to speed the report, which accuses both sides of war crimes, to the higher echelons of the mechanisms of international justice.
The PA initially urged UN human rights council members to refer the issue to the powerful Security Council which could in theory ask the International Criminal Court to open a war crimes prosecution.
But when the day of the vote came, the authority backed deferring discussion until March.
In response, rights groups in the PA's nerve centre of Ramallah took to the streets to denounce the decision.
Gazans threw shoes - a sign of disrespect in Arabic culture - at Mr Abbas's portrait on posters that branded him a traitor.
Syria cancelled a planned visit by Mr Abbas to Damascus. An Israeli-Arab political party urged him to step down.
The authority's damage limitation exercises have done little to help.
Some PA figures initially denied a change in policy, while others tried to cast the move as a step to allow more time to build consensus.
On Sunday Mr Abbas ordered an "investigation" into how his own government made the decision.
On Wednesday one senior figure, Yasser Abed Rabbo, conceded the move was a "mistake".
Meanwhile negotiator Saeb Erekat has been threatening to name other countries - hinting that these include Arab governments which would face domestic anger - that he says pressured the Palestinians to back down.
Damaged credibility
Mr Abbas's credibility, which is heavily tied to attempts to negotiate a Palestinian state into existence, had already taken a knock two weeks ago as US attempts to restart peace talks appeared to stall.
The PA leader faced domestic criticism for participating in a tri-lateral meeting with US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite Israel's refusal to halt settlement building in the West Bank.
Unofficial reports of the mini-summit, and US talk of Israel "restraining" rather than "freezing" settlement building, left Palestinians deeply disappointed. It seemed that Mr Obama had eased US pressure on Israel.
Also, Mr Abbas's Fatah faction's long-running feud with Hamas, and his own conduct during the Israeli operation in Gaza, have come back to haunt him.
He angered even some Fatah supporters by being slow to condemn the Israeli offensive which started in December. He criticised Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel, even as Palestinian civilians were dying in Israeli air strikes.
According to local media, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said the PA actually "pressured Israel to go all the way" in the operation.
There have been reports - albeit from a news agency based in Hamas-controlled Gaza - that Israel threatened to release a video tape showing Palestinian leaders urging Israel to be tougher on Hamas during the Gaza offensive, unless the PA backed down over the Goldstone report.
While the tape may not exist at all, the rumours feed into perceptions among some Palestinians that Mr Abbas has at times swung almost traitorously close to Israel in his attempts to defeat his Hamas opponents.
Reconciliation
Paradoxically, the crisis for Mr Abbas has come amid signs that Fatah and Hamas may be close to a reconciliation deal that has eluded them for so long, that would pave the way for presidential and legislative elections.
Mr Abbas's four-year term ended in January, and his authority now rests on disputed legal arguments, rather than a clear expression of voters' views.
But Hamas, which won legislative elections in January 2006, will find itself in a similar position from January onwards.
Hamas declared the PA's Goldstone decision "a betrayal of the blood of the martyrs", and called for a delay in the planned reconciliation process.
But it has not pulled out of talks completely, and one school of thought suggests Hamas leaders may actually be keen to negotiate while Mr Abbas's hand is weakened.
Having failed to make progress on lifting Israel's blockade of Gaza, they are currently enjoying a rare moment of triumph boosted by the release last week of 20 female Palestinian prisoners in exchange of footage for the captured soldier Gilad Shalit.
The PA move in Geneva has probably not made a major difference to the likelihood of Israel ending up in the dock of the International Criminal Court. This was always low.
Even if the Palestinians had persuaded enough countries to vote last Friday to forward the Goldstone report to the UN Security Council, the US and possibly others would most likely have vetoed sending it any further.
But backing from UN member states would ratchet up pressure on Israel to comply with Mr Goldstone's recommendation that both it and Hamas mount credible, independent investigations into the report's allegations.
However, the PA decision's repercussions for Mr Abbas may be wider, especially if Mr Obama's drive to relaunch peace negotiations fails to bear fruit.
The weaker Mr Abbas becomes, the less credible any attempted peace process looks - and the less credible any peace process looks, the weaker he becomes.
Source:
Thursday, October 8, 2009
'U.S. furious over Israeli incitement against Obama'
The U.S. administration is furious over Israeli incitement against President Barack Obama, Democratic congressmen close to Obama told an Israeli source who returned from a visit to Washington this week.
The congressmen even hinted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been personally involved.
The source, who met in Washington with administration officials and members of Congress, told Haaretz he was stunned by the level of anger there over attempts to portray Obama to the American public as an enemy of Israel because of his efforts to restart peace talks and freeze settlement construction.
"There are people here who are playing with fire by damaging our relationship with the U.S.," the source said.
Last month's summit in New York between Obama, Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also reduced Washington's expectations of a speedy resumption of final-status talks between Israel and the PA. While U.S. envoy George Mitchell will meet Netanyahu again Friday, the meeting is not expected to resolve the crisis in Israeli-Palestinian relations.
Meanwhile, King Abdullah of Jordan warned Washington recently that Israel's settlement policy in East Jerusalem is undermining the stability of Israeli-Jordanian relations.
He also ordered the Jordanian embassy in Israel to submit an official protest to the Foreign Ministry over a plan to build a new Jewish neighborhood on lands belonging to the East Jerusalem village of Walaja.
Finally, he warned against opening the Mughrabi Gate leading to the Temple Mount after the Jewish holidays end next week, and against using planned renovations to change the status quo on the site.
A senior official in Amman told Haaretz this week that the clashes between Israel and the Palestinians in Jerusalem are causing unrest throughout Jordan and encouraging extremists. During Israel's operation in Gaza this January, he said, there were no fewer than 600 anti-Israel demonstrations in Jordan - several times the number registered in the West Bank during those same weeks.
Abdullah himself sought to use his his exclusive interview with Haaretz to rouse Israeli public opinion from its apathy about the freeze in the peace process and the government's support for rightist groups that seek to deepen Jewish control over Jerusalem's Old City and its environs. Amman is concerned that Abbas' growing weakness, along with the lack of progress despite Mitchell's many visits to the region, will increase pressure on the Arab League to suspend the peace initiative it adopted in March 2002.
Source:
The congressmen even hinted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been personally involved.
The source, who met in Washington with administration officials and members of Congress, told Haaretz he was stunned by the level of anger there over attempts to portray Obama to the American public as an enemy of Israel because of his efforts to restart peace talks and freeze settlement construction.
"There are people here who are playing with fire by damaging our relationship with the U.S.," the source said.
Last month's summit in New York between Obama, Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also reduced Washington's expectations of a speedy resumption of final-status talks between Israel and the PA. While U.S. envoy George Mitchell will meet Netanyahu again Friday, the meeting is not expected to resolve the crisis in Israeli-Palestinian relations.
Meanwhile, King Abdullah of Jordan warned Washington recently that Israel's settlement policy in East Jerusalem is undermining the stability of Israeli-Jordanian relations.
He also ordered the Jordanian embassy in Israel to submit an official protest to the Foreign Ministry over a plan to build a new Jewish neighborhood on lands belonging to the East Jerusalem village of Walaja.
Finally, he warned against opening the Mughrabi Gate leading to the Temple Mount after the Jewish holidays end next week, and against using planned renovations to change the status quo on the site.
A senior official in Amman told Haaretz this week that the clashes between Israel and the Palestinians in Jerusalem are causing unrest throughout Jordan and encouraging extremists. During Israel's operation in Gaza this January, he said, there were no fewer than 600 anti-Israel demonstrations in Jordan - several times the number registered in the West Bank during those same weeks.
Abdullah himself sought to use his his exclusive interview with Haaretz to rouse Israeli public opinion from its apathy about the freeze in the peace process and the government's support for rightist groups that seek to deepen Jewish control over Jerusalem's Old City and its environs. Amman is concerned that Abbas' growing weakness, along with the lack of progress despite Mitchell's many visits to the region, will increase pressure on the Arab League to suspend the peace initiative it adopted in March 2002.
Source:
Something-doesnt-quite-add-up-here
This was written by a friend of mine who I am in total agreement with.
...and it's time to add some thoughts here because SOMETHING doesn't quite add up here. I admit, I should have analyzed that earlier - but didn't. I talked indepth with a dear friend about it and came up with the following:
A few days ago I posted an article which refers to the Palestinian initiative on suspending the Goldstone report, the UN report on Gaza war crimes. The source was an alleged Palestinian news agency called "SHEHAB" (or "SHAHAB"). I searched the net over and over and couldn't find an inkling of it and so did my friend - with the same result. That alone is enough to raise my suspicion. Any respectable news agency is readily tracable over the net ...
Back to the beginning. The first one who picked up on it was Ma'ariv, a center-right Israeli newspaper, right? From that moment on it spread faster than a wildfire. But who did Ma'ariv refer to? SHAHAB! To quell my suspicion - I would like to see the original report ... as reader I am entitled to! Where is it? Nobody seems to know ...
The second one to pick it up was Al-Jazeera and even I am fully convinced, the reports coming from this news organisation are serious and truthful - it had as original source as well only SHAHAB!
To top it all off though ... the very first one who broke the news was nobody else but Norman Finkelstein! Hm ... why would he do that? What idea or intention is lurking here? Sounds more than fishy to me ...
To bring all this under one hat: Everybody was worked up and alarmed from a report coming from an Israeli newspaper, which refered to a source nobody seems to be able to track down. This report was picked up by others and spread ... and undoubtadly managed to sow a LOT of trouble, suspicion and even hatred, to say the least! Who profits from trouble in the Palestinian camp? I leave the answer (which is EASY!) up to you ...
Furthermore - Hamas and Fatah held talks in order to finally achieve unification. It is sad it took an eternity for them to understand that only UNIFIED they have a voice which is heard loud and clear and a chance to be heard! Hamas jumped over its own green shadow and even agreed to come to Cairo on the 24th of this month to finalize the deal - and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this report comes out! Am I paranoid or does that seem a bit fishy to anyone else as well? Of course Hamas digs in its heels now and refuses ... that was an expected reaction. In other words, the unification talks are down the drain - at least for now. WHO, I am asking myself, PROFITS from that? WHO might be MOST interested in preventing them to get unified and does everything to prevent the other party to get "too strong"? There is only one answer ... Israel!
A new story in Ha'Aretz from today reports that Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's extreme-right Foreign Minister, states loud and clear that a "PEACE DEAL (is) IMPOSSIBLE NOW"!
Was THAT the intention? To prevent a peace deal which would have determined the future of a Palestinian state??
Stupid me ... I almost forgot - Israel is busier than a bee (who cares about UN resolutions) to expand and build one settlement after the other! The US, UN as well as EU can talk till they turn blue - Israel has her own agenda and doesn't give a hoot! When will it become obvious enough for those in the upper eschelon to understand? Just very recently they laid the cornerstone for a new one -in East Jerusalem that is ... which finalizes the failure to have it designated as capital of a Palestinian state! "NOF ZION" it is called ...the "Beautiful view of Zion" (NOF means beautiful outlook or view) ... how very tasteful!
In MY humble opinion it is all interconnected and I thank the friend who assisted me to put it into context. It is without doubt designed to prevent unity, sow discord to say the least and make sure, no peace accord is possible in the near future! I wish politicians would see more clear and recognize the dirty game ...
KUDOS Israel ... mission accomplished - for now!
...and it's time to add some thoughts here because SOMETHING doesn't quite add up here. I admit, I should have analyzed that earlier - but didn't. I talked indepth with a dear friend about it and came up with the following:
A few days ago I posted an article which refers to the Palestinian initiative on suspending the Goldstone report, the UN report on Gaza war crimes. The source was an alleged Palestinian news agency called "SHEHAB" (or "SHAHAB"). I searched the net over and over and couldn't find an inkling of it and so did my friend - with the same result. That alone is enough to raise my suspicion. Any respectable news agency is readily tracable over the net ...
Back to the beginning. The first one who picked up on it was Ma'ariv, a center-right Israeli newspaper, right? From that moment on it spread faster than a wildfire. But who did Ma'ariv refer to? SHAHAB! To quell my suspicion - I would like to see the original report ... as reader I am entitled to! Where is it? Nobody seems to know ...
The second one to pick it up was Al-Jazeera and even I am fully convinced, the reports coming from this news organisation are serious and truthful - it had as original source as well only SHAHAB!
To top it all off though ... the very first one who broke the news was nobody else but Norman Finkelstein! Hm ... why would he do that? What idea or intention is lurking here? Sounds more than fishy to me ...
To bring all this under one hat: Everybody was worked up and alarmed from a report coming from an Israeli newspaper, which refered to a source nobody seems to be able to track down. This report was picked up by others and spread ... and undoubtadly managed to sow a LOT of trouble, suspicion and even hatred, to say the least! Who profits from trouble in the Palestinian camp? I leave the answer (which is EASY!) up to you ...
Furthermore - Hamas and Fatah held talks in order to finally achieve unification. It is sad it took an eternity for them to understand that only UNIFIED they have a voice which is heard loud and clear and a chance to be heard! Hamas jumped over its own green shadow and even agreed to come to Cairo on the 24th of this month to finalize the deal - and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this report comes out! Am I paranoid or does that seem a bit fishy to anyone else as well? Of course Hamas digs in its heels now and refuses ... that was an expected reaction. In other words, the unification talks are down the drain - at least for now. WHO, I am asking myself, PROFITS from that? WHO might be MOST interested in preventing them to get unified and does everything to prevent the other party to get "too strong"? There is only one answer ... Israel!
A new story in Ha'Aretz from today reports that Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's extreme-right Foreign Minister, states loud and clear that a "PEACE DEAL (is) IMPOSSIBLE NOW"!
Was THAT the intention? To prevent a peace deal which would have determined the future of a Palestinian state??
Stupid me ... I almost forgot - Israel is busier than a bee (who cares about UN resolutions) to expand and build one settlement after the other! The US, UN as well as EU can talk till they turn blue - Israel has her own agenda and doesn't give a hoot! When will it become obvious enough for those in the upper eschelon to understand? Just very recently they laid the cornerstone for a new one -in East Jerusalem that is ... which finalizes the failure to have it designated as capital of a Palestinian state! "NOF ZION" it is called ...the "Beautiful view of Zion" (NOF means beautiful outlook or view) ... how very tasteful!
In MY humble opinion it is all interconnected and I thank the friend who assisted me to put it into context. It is without doubt designed to prevent unity, sow discord to say the least and make sure, no peace accord is possible in the near future! I wish politicians would see more clear and recognize the dirty game ...
KUDOS Israel ... mission accomplished - for now!
After Goldstone, Hamas faces fateful choice
The political collapse underway has put Hamas, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, in a bind. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages) The uproar over the Palestinian Authority's (PA) collaboration with Israel to bury the Goldstone report, calling for trials of Israeli leaders for war crimes in Gaza, is a political earthquake. The whole political order in place since the 1993 Oslo accords were signed is crumbling. As the initial tremors begin to fade, the same old political structures may appear still to be in place, but they are hollowed out. This unprecedented crisis threatens to topple the US-backed PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, but it also leaves Hamas, the main Palestinian resistance faction, struggling with fateful choices.
Abbas, accustomed to being surrounded by corrupt cronies, sycophants and yes-men, badly misjudged the impact of his decision -- under Israeli and American instructions -- to withdraw PA support for the resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, forwarding the Goldstone report for further action. After all, the PA had actively sabotaged measures supporting Palestinian rights at the UN on at least two occasions in recent years without much reaction.
This time, torrents of protest and outrage flowed from almost every direction. It was as if all the suppressed anger and grief about PA collaboration with Israel during the massacres in Gaza last winter suddenly burst through a dam. "The crime at Geneva cannot pass without all those responsible being held accountable," the widely-read London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi stated in its lead editorial on 8 October. The newspaper called for the removal of Abbas and his associates who betrayed the victims of Israel's massacres and "saved Israel from the most serious moral, political and legal crisis it has faced since its establishment."
Naming collaboration -- even treason -- for what it is has always been a painful taboo among Palestinians, as for all occupied peoples. It took the French decades after World War II to begin to speak openly about the extent of collaboration that took place with the Nazi-backed Vichy government. Abbas and his militias -- who for a long time have been armed and trained by Israel, the United States and so-called "moderate" Arab states to wage war against the Palestinian resistance -- have relied on this taboo to carry out their activities with increasing brazenness and brutality. But the taboo no longer affords protection, as calls for Abbas' removal and even trial issued from Palestinian organizations all over the world.
Hamas too seems to have been taken by surprise at the strength of reaction. Hamas leaders were critical of Abbas' withdrawal of the Goldstone resolution, but initially this was notably muted. Early on, Khaled Meshal, the movement's overall leader, insisted that despite the Goldstone fiasco, Hamas would proceed with Egyptian-mediated reconciliation talks with Fatah and smaller factions scheduled for later in the month, stating that reaching a power-sharing deal remained a "national interest."
As the tremors continued, however, Hamas leaders escalated their rhetoric -- seemingly following, not leading, public opinion. Mahmoud Zahar, a prominent Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, labeled Abbas a "traitor" and urged that he be stripped of his Palestinian nationality. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, speaking before a hastily convened session of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said Abbas was personally responsible for the "crime" committed in Geneva, and a senior officer from the Hamas-controlled Gaza police force held a press conference to announce that Abbas and his associates would be subject to arrest if they set foot in Gaza.
All of this puts Hamas in a bind. Before the Goldstone report crisis, Hamas had signaled that it accepted the most recent Egyptian proposals for reconciliation. The Egyptian position paper can be described as technocratic -- it deals with mechanisms for elections, release of prisoners, the formation of committees and other matters. It does not resolve core political and philosophical differences over the role of resistance and armed struggle, which Abbas rejects and Hamas defends. Nor does it deal with the problem of PA "security coordination" with Israel which has resulted in the killing and arrest by the PA of numerous Palestinian resistance fighters and the closure of hundreds of Palestinian organizations and charities.
Despite the remaining gulf, Hamas wanted to sign a unity deal. Being part of a Western-recognized PA would be Hamas' ticket to the "peace process" -- something Meshal has made no secret that Hamas seeks, although on its own terms. Abbas was less keen on a unity deal, as he and his cronies still resist dealing with Hamas as a political force that has popular legitimacy. But after Goldstone, Abbas needs Hamas.
Hamas now cannot have it both ways: it cannot talk about "unity" and "reconciliation" with people that it -- and many Palestinians -- view as "traitors." To seek unity with such people is in effect to say that Hamas wishes to join a government of traitors. For the moment, Hamas is buying time and has asked Egypt to postpone the scheduled Cairo meeting later this month.
Hamas' long-term strategy of trying to join the slowly crumbling edifice of the Palestinian Authority now makes no sense. It now seems more likely that the deal will not go ahead, although Hamas is maneuvering to avoid blame, and to maintain its lifeline to Egypt, which backs Fatah. Perhaps the more likely outcome, at least in the short term, is a continued stalemate, where Abbas, now entirely dependent on Israeli and American forces to remain in power, limps on even though he has no legitimacy or credibility, and is widely despised.
The more difficult question for Hamas will be, what comes next? Will it try to muddle through as it has, or will it rally the Palestinian public to oppose and resist Abbas until the collaborationist PA is dissolved? This would be an enormous strategic shift -- Hamas would likely have to drop the trappings of "government" it has taken up since it won the 2006 legislative elections and return to its roots as a social movement and a clandestine organization.
It will not have much time to decide where it is going. The hopes raised by the Obama Administration's initial foray into peacemaking have been dashed in the wake of Obama's surrender to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over settlements, even though US Middle East envoy George Mitchell continues with utterly sterile "diplomacy" aimed at bringing the rejectionist Israeli government face to face in "negotiations" with the political corpse of Abbas. As Israel accelerates its colonization of the West Bank and its ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem, there is increasing talk of a new intifada.
The political collapse underway offers all Palestinians -- including Hamas -- a new opportunity: to build a broad-based, internationally legitimate popular resistance movement that mobilizes all of Palestinian society as the first intifada did, and to reconnect with Palestinians inside Israel who face an existential threat from escalating Israeli racism. This movement must work with and enhance the global solidarity campaign to put maximum pressure on Israel -- and its collaborators -- to end their repression, racism and violence, and hasten the emancipation of all the people of Palestine.
Source:
UN body to debate Gaza 'crimes'
The UN has brought forward a regular Security Council meeting on the Middle East after Libya demanded an urgent debate on alleged war crimes in Gaza.
Arab states say the 14 October debate must tackle a report which criticised Israel, after the US argued against a emergency session dedicated to it.
The UN Human Rights Council delayed its debate on the findings of the Goldstone report following a Palestinian request.
Libya's envoy to the Security Council said its aim was to "keep momentum".
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has come under sharp criticism at home for requesting the UNHRC delay, which followed intense pressure from the US.
State department spokesman Ian Kelly insisted the US focus was solely on reviving the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process and wanted "to clear the decks of any issues that might impede our progress towards this".
Palestinian officials voiced "full support" for Libya's efforts to get the issue on the agenda of the Security Council, and senior PA politician Yasser Abed Rabbo has called the request for a UNHCR delay a "mistake".
Mr Abbas himself has ordered an "investigation" into how his own government made the decision, in an apparent attempt to head off a wave of anger and protests.
'Disproportionate'
Libya is the only Arab state on the 15-member body, where US diplomats regularly use their power of veto to block measures against its close ally Israel.
The Human Rights Council will not now address the 574-page Goldstone report - which accuses both Israel and Palestinian militants of committing war crimes in the conflict - until March 2010.
The UN panel led by eminent South African judge Richard Goldstone accused Israel of using disproportionate force and deliberately harming civilians. Hamas militants were accused of indiscriminate rocket fire at Israeli civilians.
It urged the UN Security Council to refer allegations to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if either side failed to investigate and prosecute suspects.
Israel has rejected the evidence, saying it has already investigated its troops' conduct, clearing most of the subjects of wrongdoing. Hamas also denied committing war crimes.
Israeli military action destroyed thousands of homes, hundreds of factories and 80 official buildings in Gaza.
Palestinians and human rights groups say more than 1,400 people were killed in the violence between 27 December 2008 and 16 January 2009, more than half of them civilians.
Israel puts the number of deaths at 1,166 - fewer than 300 of them civilians. Three Israeli civilians and 10 Israeli soldiers were also killed.
Source:
Arab states say the 14 October debate must tackle a report which criticised Israel, after the US argued against a emergency session dedicated to it.
The UN Human Rights Council delayed its debate on the findings of the Goldstone report following a Palestinian request.
Libya's envoy to the Security Council said its aim was to "keep momentum".
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has come under sharp criticism at home for requesting the UNHRC delay, which followed intense pressure from the US.
State department spokesman Ian Kelly insisted the US focus was solely on reviving the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process and wanted "to clear the decks of any issues that might impede our progress towards this".
Palestinian officials voiced "full support" for Libya's efforts to get the issue on the agenda of the Security Council, and senior PA politician Yasser Abed Rabbo has called the request for a UNHCR delay a "mistake".
Mr Abbas himself has ordered an "investigation" into how his own government made the decision, in an apparent attempt to head off a wave of anger and protests.
'Disproportionate'
Libya is the only Arab state on the 15-member body, where US diplomats regularly use their power of veto to block measures against its close ally Israel.
The Human Rights Council will not now address the 574-page Goldstone report - which accuses both Israel and Palestinian militants of committing war crimes in the conflict - until March 2010.
The UN panel led by eminent South African judge Richard Goldstone accused Israel of using disproportionate force and deliberately harming civilians. Hamas militants were accused of indiscriminate rocket fire at Israeli civilians.
It urged the UN Security Council to refer allegations to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if either side failed to investigate and prosecute suspects.
Israel has rejected the evidence, saying it has already investigated its troops' conduct, clearing most of the subjects of wrongdoing. Hamas also denied committing war crimes.
Israeli military action destroyed thousands of homes, hundreds of factories and 80 official buildings in Gaza.
Palestinians and human rights groups say more than 1,400 people were killed in the violence between 27 December 2008 and 16 January 2009, more than half of them civilians.
Israel puts the number of deaths at 1,166 - fewer than 300 of them civilians. Three Israeli civilians and 10 Israeli soldiers were also killed.
Source:
Report: EU to sign partnership deal with Syria
The European Union will sign a partnership deal with Syria later this month, a diplomatic source told AFP Thursday, after refraining from doing so for years over human rights concerns.
A senior Israeli source later voiced displeasure with the report, saying: "Israel does not like this, and we have sent messages opposing it to the Europeans."
While longtime enemies Israel and Syria held indirect peace negotiations under former prime minister Ehud Olmert, the talks broke down last year and have not been renewed since.
"The Israeli claim was that even if this deal is far from what Israel has with the European Union, this step is not in line with the European Union's policy on the subject of human rights," the source added. "This is a double message - with a country like Syria they further relations, but with Israel they freeze the upgrade."
He was referring to the freezing of a planned upgrade of relations between Israel and the EU earlier this year.
Source:
A senior Israeli source later voiced displeasure with the report, saying: "Israel does not like this, and we have sent messages opposing it to the Europeans."
While longtime enemies Israel and Syria held indirect peace negotiations under former prime minister Ehud Olmert, the talks broke down last year and have not been renewed since.
"The Israeli claim was that even if this deal is far from what Israel has with the European Union, this step is not in line with the European Union's policy on the subject of human rights," the source added. "This is a double message - with a country like Syria they further relations, but with Israel they freeze the upgrade."
He was referring to the freezing of a planned upgrade of relations between Israel and the EU earlier this year.
Source:
Where did Israel get the gall to decide the fate of another people?
Is the discourse we are conducting - if indeed we are conducting any discourse among ourselves and with our interlocutor - legitimate at all? Ever since the territories were occupied a public debate has been going on here about their future and what is being done there. The questions have come and gone, all of them in the same cursed vein: To give? To concede? Under what conditions? In exchange for what? The settlements - yes or no; the roadblocks - yes or no; the assassinations, the arrests, the starving, the closure, the encirclement, the curfew, the exposure, the torture, the freedom of movement, the choice or the ritual - yes or no.
An excellent example was provided this week by Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco, who said that the city's Muslims were "ungrateful." For what? We gave them - here we have that word "gave" again - permission to pray at the Temple Mount and they replied with violence.
Indeed, we do not have any moral right to conduct this discussion. First of all, it's a lie that we have given the Muslims permission to worship - only men over 50. But more importantly, who are we to "give" them rights to which they are entitled in a way that is taken for granted in every democracy? Is it imaginable that we would prevent young Jews from going to the Western Wall? Can Palestinians, too, dream of holding a "Jerusalem March" of their own?
Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his spokesmen are boasting of having taken down a number of roadblocks, and the deputy director general in charge of frequencies at the Communications Ministry is considering whether to "give" the Palestinians a second mobile telephone network after the government has piled up conditions - Goldstone in exchange for Wataniya, the cellular phone operator.
Where does this right come from? Just as a rapist does not have the right to discuss carrying out his nefarious scheme, and the robber cannot haggle over the conditions under which he will return his loot, the occupier, the taskmaster, the jack-booted soldier and the exploiter cannot discuss the conditions under which they will carry out their deeds. This is a blatantly immoral discussion. The discussion by free people of the fate of other people under their rule is just as legitimate as the discussion by slave-runners or human traffickers. The only legitimate discussion is one that intends to end the situation, immediately and unconditionally.
This starts from the top. The Supreme Court deliberates on various matters. Is torture legal? Are assassinations permitted? Is it permissible to take land away from a farmer? Is it permissible to impose a siege on hundreds of thousands of people? Is it legal to imprison people for years without trial? Is it possible to prevent people from getting medical treatment? Is it legitimate to prevent children from getting to school? The mere fact of raising these questions in court, as if there weren't already a conclusive answer to them, is the most depressing proof of the moral nadir to which we have declined.
Of course, this illegitimate discussion seeped long ago into every walk of society. On television, learned commentators discuss whether the siege of Gaza is "effective." Over a can of Red Bull, soldiers argue about whether Operation Cast Lead wasn't stopped too soon and when "we'll stick it to them" again. In their cafes, over a cup of iced java, young people sit and discuss whether "we should give the Palestinians a state," as if this were a question at all and we "give" states. But these discussions, too, monstrous as they may be, have in recent years given way to repression (in the psychological sense), silence, complacence and indifference.
About an hour's drive from us, the unbelievably cruel reality continues. Everything is done there in the name of us all, supposedly, and in the name of security, supposedly. And here among us there is either distorted discourse or non-discourse.
Nothing will change as long as this state of affairs continues. A recent report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs draws a shocking picture of what is happening in Gaza. For example, 75 percent of its inhabitants, more than 1 million people, are suffering from nutritional deficiencies, 90 percent must live through power blackouts for four to eight hours every day, 40 percent of those who apply to leave for medical treatment are refused by Israel and 140,000 inhabitants are unemployed.
All these figures reflect a situation that has degenerated badly over the past year, and all of them stem from the siege in its third year. How many of us know this? How many of us does this touch at all, between the bar and the gym? And above all, where did we get the gall to decide the fate of another people?
Source:
An excellent example was provided this week by Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco, who said that the city's Muslims were "ungrateful." For what? We gave them - here we have that word "gave" again - permission to pray at the Temple Mount and they replied with violence.
Indeed, we do not have any moral right to conduct this discussion. First of all, it's a lie that we have given the Muslims permission to worship - only men over 50. But more importantly, who are we to "give" them rights to which they are entitled in a way that is taken for granted in every democracy? Is it imaginable that we would prevent young Jews from going to the Western Wall? Can Palestinians, too, dream of holding a "Jerusalem March" of their own?
Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his spokesmen are boasting of having taken down a number of roadblocks, and the deputy director general in charge of frequencies at the Communications Ministry is considering whether to "give" the Palestinians a second mobile telephone network after the government has piled up conditions - Goldstone in exchange for Wataniya, the cellular phone operator.
Where does this right come from? Just as a rapist does not have the right to discuss carrying out his nefarious scheme, and the robber cannot haggle over the conditions under which he will return his loot, the occupier, the taskmaster, the jack-booted soldier and the exploiter cannot discuss the conditions under which they will carry out their deeds. This is a blatantly immoral discussion. The discussion by free people of the fate of other people under their rule is just as legitimate as the discussion by slave-runners or human traffickers. The only legitimate discussion is one that intends to end the situation, immediately and unconditionally.
This starts from the top. The Supreme Court deliberates on various matters. Is torture legal? Are assassinations permitted? Is it permissible to take land away from a farmer? Is it permissible to impose a siege on hundreds of thousands of people? Is it legal to imprison people for years without trial? Is it possible to prevent people from getting medical treatment? Is it legitimate to prevent children from getting to school? The mere fact of raising these questions in court, as if there weren't already a conclusive answer to them, is the most depressing proof of the moral nadir to which we have declined.
Of course, this illegitimate discussion seeped long ago into every walk of society. On television, learned commentators discuss whether the siege of Gaza is "effective." Over a can of Red Bull, soldiers argue about whether Operation Cast Lead wasn't stopped too soon and when "we'll stick it to them" again. In their cafes, over a cup of iced java, young people sit and discuss whether "we should give the Palestinians a state," as if this were a question at all and we "give" states. But these discussions, too, monstrous as they may be, have in recent years given way to repression (in the psychological sense), silence, complacence and indifference.
About an hour's drive from us, the unbelievably cruel reality continues. Everything is done there in the name of us all, supposedly, and in the name of security, supposedly. And here among us there is either distorted discourse or non-discourse.
Nothing will change as long as this state of affairs continues. A recent report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs draws a shocking picture of what is happening in Gaza. For example, 75 percent of its inhabitants, more than 1 million people, are suffering from nutritional deficiencies, 90 percent must live through power blackouts for four to eight hours every day, 40 percent of those who apply to leave for medical treatment are refused by Israel and 140,000 inhabitants are unemployed.
All these figures reflect a situation that has degenerated badly over the past year, and all of them stem from the siege in its third year. How many of us know this? How many of us does this touch at all, between the bar and the gym? And above all, where did we get the gall to decide the fate of another people?
Source:
One in four is Muslim, study says
A report from an American think-tank has estimated 1.57 billion Muslims populate the world - with 60% in Asia.
The report, by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, took three years to compile, with census data from 232 countries and territories.
It showed that 20% of Muslims lived in the Middle East and North Africa.
The data also showed that there were more Muslims in Germany than in Lebanon, and more in Russia than in Jordan and Libya together.
Surprise
Researchers analysed approximately 1,500 sources including census reports, demographic studies and general population surveys.
Senior researcher Brian Grim told CNN that the overall figure was a surprise and said: "Overall, the number is higher than I expected."
The report, published on Wednesday, also found that Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.
Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University, told the AP news agency: "This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report."
Instead the report found that more than 300 million Muslims live in countries where Islam was not the majority religion.
Of the total Muslim population, 10-13% are Shia Muslims and 87-90% are Sunni Muslims.
Most Shias live in Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq.
Europe is home to 38 million Muslims - around 5% of its population with European Muslims making up slightly more than 2% of the world's Muslim population.
More than half of the 4.6 million Muslims in the Americas live in the US - however they make up just 0.8% of the population there.
The Pew Forum has said the findings will lay the foundation for a forthcoming study that will look at how Muslim populations worldwide have grown and what they may look like in the future.
It also plans to compile figures for the other major world religions.
According to internet-based group, Adherents, there are currently 2.1 billion Christians, 900 million Hindus and 14 million Jews worldwide.
Source:
The report, by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, took three years to compile, with census data from 232 countries and territories.
It showed that 20% of Muslims lived in the Middle East and North Africa.
The data also showed that there were more Muslims in Germany than in Lebanon, and more in Russia than in Jordan and Libya together.
Surprise
Researchers analysed approximately 1,500 sources including census reports, demographic studies and general population surveys.
Senior researcher Brian Grim told CNN that the overall figure was a surprise and said: "Overall, the number is higher than I expected."
The report, published on Wednesday, also found that Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.
Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University, told the AP news agency: "This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report."
Instead the report found that more than 300 million Muslims live in countries where Islam was not the majority religion.
Of the total Muslim population, 10-13% are Shia Muslims and 87-90% are Sunni Muslims.
Most Shias live in Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq.
Europe is home to 38 million Muslims - around 5% of its population with European Muslims making up slightly more than 2% of the world's Muslim population.
More than half of the 4.6 million Muslims in the Americas live in the US - however they make up just 0.8% of the population there.
The Pew Forum has said the findings will lay the foundation for a forthcoming study that will look at how Muslim populations worldwide have grown and what they may look like in the future.
It also plans to compile figures for the other major world religions.
According to internet-based group, Adherents, there are currently 2.1 billion Christians, 900 million Hindus and 14 million Jews worldwide.
Source:
Prominent rabbi to Peres: Jews forbidden on Temple Mount
As tensions flare once again over a Jerusalem holy site claimed by Israel and Palestinians as their own, one of the most influential leaders of Israel's religious community told the president on Thursday that Jews should not make pilgrimages to the Temple Mount so as not to evoke global outrage.
"According to halacha (Jewish religious law), it is forbidden to ascend to Temple Mount," Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv is quoted by Israel Radio as telling President Shimon Peres. "I've said this in the past, and I am once again repeating this statement that Jews are forbidden to go up to the site."
Elyashiv, the nonagenarian leader of the Lithuanian sect of the ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi community, hosted the president at his sukkah hut in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem.
Since Israel captured East Jerusalem and the holy sites in the Old City during the Six-Day War in 1967, Haredi rabbinical scholars have decreed that religious law bans Jews from entering any part of the Temple Mount for fear of desecrating the Holy of Holies, whose exact location is unknown but is believed to be situated somewhere in the Temple courtyard.
Police maintained high alert in the Old City, East Jerusalem and West Jerusalem on Thursday for fear of renewed unrest in the capital. Despite concerns that the arrest of the leader of the Islamic Movement's northern branch, Sheikh Ra'ad Salah, would spark further mayhem, the city was completely quiet on Wednesday.
For the fifth day in a row, entry to the Temple Mount on Thursday will be permitted to Muslim men 50 or over and Muslim women of any age. Jews and tourists will not be allowed to enter.
The same rules will apparently apply on Friday, with thousands of Muslims seeking to pray on the Temple Mount and masses of Jews coming to the Western Wall, immediately below the Mount, for the last day of Sukkot.
"This is an event with potential for escalation," a police official said.
In response to the rabbi's warning, Peres replied, "The nation has ears and you must let your voice be heard. Your voice is heard, you are a Torah sage and you are respected by the public. We must ensure that your position is heard."
The president added that the authorities must do everything in their power to calm tensions in Jerusalem for fear that events could escalate into a religious war.
"The inciters are capable of fanning the flames," Peres told the rabbi.
This was the first time that the president met with the Haredi rabbi, who rarely sits down with political figures who do not represent the ultra-Orthodox community.
Palestinians call for strike
Palestinian leaders on Thursday called for a one-day general strike and warned of more street protests over Jerusalem, but Israel played down the risk of an uprising despite two weeks of tension in the disputed city.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction made the call for the strike on Friday in Jerusalem and the occupied West Banko, and Palestinian leaders warned of a battle ahead of Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa mosque.
The compound housing the mosque is a holy place for both Muslims and Jews, and has often been a flashpoint. Israeli security forces control access to the area and regularly prohibit young Muslim men from entering the holy site in Jerusalem's Old City.
Tensions rose two weeks ago when police and Palestinian protesters clashed near the Al-Aqsa mosque.
Palestinians said the clashes were triggered by religious Israeli Jews and settlers trying to enter the site, which they see as a provocation to Muslim feelings. Israel said Palestinian protesters tried to prevent Israeli groups from entering the compound, leading to clashes with police.
A beefed-up Israeli police presence, and a relatively small turnout of Palestinian protesters, has kept violence under control in sporadic clashes since late September.
Palestinians in senior positions have warned of the risk of a third intifada, or uprising, but Israel has tried to avoid getting involved in a war of words over Jerusalem.
"I don't think we're facing a third intifada," Vice Premier Silvan Shalom said in a statement to Reuters. "Whoever says so is trying to instill fear."
One Israeli political source said the government saw a greater threat in Palestinian anger developing into mass protests and demonstrations, rather than the suicide bomb attacks against Israelis that marked the previous uprising.
Source:
"According to halacha (Jewish religious law), it is forbidden to ascend to Temple Mount," Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv is quoted by Israel Radio as telling President Shimon Peres. "I've said this in the past, and I am once again repeating this statement that Jews are forbidden to go up to the site."
Elyashiv, the nonagenarian leader of the Lithuanian sect of the ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi community, hosted the president at his sukkah hut in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem.
Since Israel captured East Jerusalem and the holy sites in the Old City during the Six-Day War in 1967, Haredi rabbinical scholars have decreed that religious law bans Jews from entering any part of the Temple Mount for fear of desecrating the Holy of Holies, whose exact location is unknown but is believed to be situated somewhere in the Temple courtyard.
Police maintained high alert in the Old City, East Jerusalem and West Jerusalem on Thursday for fear of renewed unrest in the capital. Despite concerns that the arrest of the leader of the Islamic Movement's northern branch, Sheikh Ra'ad Salah, would spark further mayhem, the city was completely quiet on Wednesday.
For the fifth day in a row, entry to the Temple Mount on Thursday will be permitted to Muslim men 50 or over and Muslim women of any age. Jews and tourists will not be allowed to enter.
The same rules will apparently apply on Friday, with thousands of Muslims seeking to pray on the Temple Mount and masses of Jews coming to the Western Wall, immediately below the Mount, for the last day of Sukkot.
"This is an event with potential for escalation," a police official said.
In response to the rabbi's warning, Peres replied, "The nation has ears and you must let your voice be heard. Your voice is heard, you are a Torah sage and you are respected by the public. We must ensure that your position is heard."
The president added that the authorities must do everything in their power to calm tensions in Jerusalem for fear that events could escalate into a religious war.
"The inciters are capable of fanning the flames," Peres told the rabbi.
This was the first time that the president met with the Haredi rabbi, who rarely sits down with political figures who do not represent the ultra-Orthodox community.
Palestinians call for strike
Palestinian leaders on Thursday called for a one-day general strike and warned of more street protests over Jerusalem, but Israel played down the risk of an uprising despite two weeks of tension in the disputed city.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction made the call for the strike on Friday in Jerusalem and the occupied West Banko, and Palestinian leaders warned of a battle ahead of Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa mosque.
The compound housing the mosque is a holy place for both Muslims and Jews, and has often been a flashpoint. Israeli security forces control access to the area and regularly prohibit young Muslim men from entering the holy site in Jerusalem's Old City.
Tensions rose two weeks ago when police and Palestinian protesters clashed near the Al-Aqsa mosque.
Palestinians said the clashes were triggered by religious Israeli Jews and settlers trying to enter the site, which they see as a provocation to Muslim feelings. Israel said Palestinian protesters tried to prevent Israeli groups from entering the compound, leading to clashes with police.
A beefed-up Israeli police presence, and a relatively small turnout of Palestinian protesters, has kept violence under control in sporadic clashes since late September.
Palestinians in senior positions have warned of the risk of a third intifada, or uprising, but Israel has tried to avoid getting involved in a war of words over Jerusalem.
"I don't think we're facing a third intifada," Vice Premier Silvan Shalom said in a statement to Reuters. "Whoever says so is trying to instill fear."
One Israeli political source said the government saw a greater threat in Palestinian anger developing into mass protests and demonstrations, rather than the suicide bomb attacks against Israelis that marked the previous uprising.
Source:
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Signs of anger at Abbas spread in Gaza
Gaza – Ma’an – Expressions of anger at the Palestinian Authority reached a new level in Gaza on Wednesday as hundreds of posters of President Mahmoud Abbas with a black “X” through his face appeared in public locations.
The text on one poster under an Abbas photo reads: ''To the trash heap of history, you traitor, Mahmoud Abbas.''
Abbas and his circle of advisors have come under heavy public criticism after they withdrew a resolution from the United Nations Human Rights Council to demand further action on a report on alleged war crimes during Israel’s war on Gaza last winter. Judge Richard Goldstone’s UN-backed investigation called for prosecutions of Israeli officials over the war, which left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead.
A crew dressed in civilian clothes was seen putting up the posters on Wednesday morning, though it was not immediately clear who was behind the campaign. The posters were signed ''Intellectuals and university professors.”
Later, three university professors (Hussam Edwan of Al-Aqsa University, Kamal Abu Nada, and Asad Abu Sharkh of Al-Azhar University) held a news conference claiming responsibility for the posters. They said their aim was to demand Abbas’ resignation.
“The public opinion is against sitting with those who withdrew the Goldstone report,” Hamas leader Ismail Radwan told Ma’an, commenting on the possibility of renewed talks with Abbas’ Fatah party.
“There is much anger in the Palestinian community at all levels. This is a reaction and a result of the anger,” he said of the posters.
At another demonstration in Gaza City’s Palestine Square, members of the families of the victims from the winter offensive threw shoes at posters of Abbas, a reference to the shoes thrown at US President George W Bush by an Iraqi journalist last winter.
Source:
UN Security Council to hold debate on Goldstone report
Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies – The United Nations Security Council will hold a closed-door debate on Wednesday on a report detailing allegations of war crimes committed during Israel’s winter war on Gaza.
Diplomats told reporters that the meeting will take place after Libya, which holds one of the rotating seats on the 15-member council, requested a full debate on Judge Richard Goldstone’s investigation into the Israeli offensive on Gaza.
The Palestinian Mission to the UN in New York reportedly issued a press release saying it fully supported the Libyan request.
The United Nations Human Rights Council had been set to vote on the 574-page report on Friday until the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) envoy withdrew a motion endorsing the report, allegedly under pressure from the United States.
The withdrawal of the motion meant that the Human Rights Council would delay a vote until March. The decision to delay the report has sparked a political crisis in Palestine, threatening the legitimacy of President Mahmoud Abbas and his circle of advisors.
A spokesperson for Libya's UN mission, Ahmed Gebreel, told Reuters that his country had requested a meeting "because of the seriousness of the report and because we think it's too long to wait until March."
If the Security Council meeting ends without a vote, or with a resolution being vetoed by the US, Libya could bring the issue to the General Assembly, of which it holds the rotating presidency.
Source:
Diplomats told reporters that the meeting will take place after Libya, which holds one of the rotating seats on the 15-member council, requested a full debate on Judge Richard Goldstone’s investigation into the Israeli offensive on Gaza.
The Palestinian Mission to the UN in New York reportedly issued a press release saying it fully supported the Libyan request.
The United Nations Human Rights Council had been set to vote on the 574-page report on Friday until the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) envoy withdrew a motion endorsing the report, allegedly under pressure from the United States.
The withdrawal of the motion meant that the Human Rights Council would delay a vote until March. The decision to delay the report has sparked a political crisis in Palestine, threatening the legitimacy of President Mahmoud Abbas and his circle of advisors.
A spokesperson for Libya's UN mission, Ahmed Gebreel, told Reuters that his country had requested a meeting "because of the seriousness of the report and because we think it's too long to wait until March."
If the Security Council meeting ends without a vote, or with a resolution being vetoed by the US, Libya could bring the issue to the General Assembly, of which it holds the rotating presidency.
Source:
Carlo Strenger / Ahmadinejad, Netanyahu and the Holocaust: The ethics of memory
In using the Holocaust to defend indefensible policies, Netanyahu harms the ethics of memory that Ahmadinejad is incapable of endorsing.
When the German Foreign minister recently called Ahmadinejad a shame to his own country and people, he spoke the minds of many. Now that Ahmadinejad is not even recognized by many of his own countrymen and women as legitimate, and that the Iranian regime's legitimacy is questionable within Iran itself, it is time for the world to support the opposition by making clear what a miserable figure this fanatic ignoramus is.
Because an ignoramus he is: Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial is not a cynical ploy. He believes what he says - and he is unlikely to have invested much time in the huge historical evidence for the Holocaust.
The question then remains: is there anything interesting about Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial - except, of course, that it provides one of his 'arguments' against the state of Israel (unfortunately he hasn't read up on the history of Zionism, which started almost a century before the Holocaust, either)
I think there is something interesting. I have a heavy dislike for the question whether the Jewish Holocaust perpetuated by the Nazis does or doesn't compare to others; whether it is the worst of all genocides in history. How do you measure the horror of human cruelty and suffering? Do you count the dead? In this case Mao is probably the worst killer in history, closely followed by Stalin, with Hitler coming in 'only' third. Do you measure the means, the organization, the hatred, the irrationality and the sheer inhumanity?
While the Nazi Holocaust certainly has unique features, I do not think that this should be a moral or political argument for or against anything, including the existence of the State of Israel. That nowadays is simply a fact that even most Arab states are acknowledging.
I believe that it is the commemoration of the Holocaust that is unique. The Jewish people, after a period of initial shock, have turned remembering of the Holocaust and its victim into a moral duty. Historians, novelists, psychologists and filmmakers have invested huge energies simply in remembering; museums have been built around the world, simply to make sure that those murdered will not vanish without a trace, and that humanity should never forget what it is capable of.
Here is the question that I would like to pose to Mr. Ahmadinejad - without expecting a response, of course. Could it be that the main problem he has with the Holocaust of the Jews is that we adhere to a very strict ethics of memory, to use Israeli philosopher Avishai Margalit's felicitous phrase? That we try not to allow any of the victims to have died without a trace? That we try to mourn the horrors that our families have endured, without turning these horrors into mythical heroism?
Mr. Ahmadinejad perpetuates a regime that has done horrible things to its own people. Khomeini sent scores of thousands of children into a useless war of attrition, arming them with plastic keys he told them would open the doors of paradise. He sent them into minefields using a military approach discarded after WWI, of trying to conquer positions through waves of human beings. Are the people of Iran allowed to mourn this act of horror? Or are they only allowed to glorify the useless death of their children (Khomeini sent them into battle when the Iraqi army was no longer on Iranian soil) by saying that they are shaheeds?
In speaking in favor of the ethics of memory, I do not really address Mr. Ahmadinejad; he seems incurable, and it is only to be hoped that his people will find ways to get rid of him. There is a lesson for us here.
Netanyahu has made the comparison of Iran with Nazi Germany and warning the world that a new Holocaust is on the way the centerpiece of his rhetoric. As Aluf Benn has pointed out, Netanyahu likes to think of himself as the Churchill who refuses to accommodate Hitler. Let us leave aside the question whether the comparison between Nazi Germany and Iran is justified - I think it isn't.
Netanayhu's latest installment was the speech at the UN. (Get the full text of Netanyahu's speech here). The part of the speech in which he attacks Ahmadinejad and the Holocaust denial is certainly justified. But then he moves on to defend operation Cast Lead by comparing it to the London Blitz. Netanyahu plays the Holocaust card to defend the indefensible. Even if Netanyahu thinks that the Gaza operation was justified, the constant harping on the Holocaust to justify Israel's policies in the West Bank and Gaza is both politically useless and ethically problematic.
Nobody in the world can see any connection between the Iranian threat and holding on to the West Bank and pandering to Israel's ideological right. Nobody can see how making the lives of Palestinians miserable will stop Iranian missiles. And while many believe that Israel had the right to defend itself against the Qassam attacks, they feel (and I agree) that the way Operation Cast Lead was conducted is indefensible.
In making use of the Holocaust to defend indefensible policies, Netanyahu harms the very ethics of memory that Ahmadinejad is incapable of endorsing. Remembering the Holocaust is a moral duty for Jews and non-Jews alike. Netanyahu's politicization of it does not fulfill this duty; it taints it. Instead of weakening Ahmadinejad, he enters the arena in which truthfulness about history is no longer a duty in its own right, but where history is used for the sake of political manipulation.
He taints the work of Raoul Hilberg, a Jewish soldier who participated in the liberation of Concentration Camps, and became the first historian to document Nazi extermination of the Jews; of those like Primo Levi, Shaul Friedlander and Steven Spielberg, who have made every effort to remember without embellishment and without manipulation. The lessons we should learn from Mr. Ahmadinejad is that remembering for its own sake is a virtue that must never be compromised.
Source:
When the German Foreign minister recently called Ahmadinejad a shame to his own country and people, he spoke the minds of many. Now that Ahmadinejad is not even recognized by many of his own countrymen and women as legitimate, and that the Iranian regime's legitimacy is questionable within Iran itself, it is time for the world to support the opposition by making clear what a miserable figure this fanatic ignoramus is.
Because an ignoramus he is: Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial is not a cynical ploy. He believes what he says - and he is unlikely to have invested much time in the huge historical evidence for the Holocaust.
The question then remains: is there anything interesting about Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial - except, of course, that it provides one of his 'arguments' against the state of Israel (unfortunately he hasn't read up on the history of Zionism, which started almost a century before the Holocaust, either)
I think there is something interesting. I have a heavy dislike for the question whether the Jewish Holocaust perpetuated by the Nazis does or doesn't compare to others; whether it is the worst of all genocides in history. How do you measure the horror of human cruelty and suffering? Do you count the dead? In this case Mao is probably the worst killer in history, closely followed by Stalin, with Hitler coming in 'only' third. Do you measure the means, the organization, the hatred, the irrationality and the sheer inhumanity?
While the Nazi Holocaust certainly has unique features, I do not think that this should be a moral or political argument for or against anything, including the existence of the State of Israel. That nowadays is simply a fact that even most Arab states are acknowledging.
I believe that it is the commemoration of the Holocaust that is unique. The Jewish people, after a period of initial shock, have turned remembering of the Holocaust and its victim into a moral duty. Historians, novelists, psychologists and filmmakers have invested huge energies simply in remembering; museums have been built around the world, simply to make sure that those murdered will not vanish without a trace, and that humanity should never forget what it is capable of.
Here is the question that I would like to pose to Mr. Ahmadinejad - without expecting a response, of course. Could it be that the main problem he has with the Holocaust of the Jews is that we adhere to a very strict ethics of memory, to use Israeli philosopher Avishai Margalit's felicitous phrase? That we try not to allow any of the victims to have died without a trace? That we try to mourn the horrors that our families have endured, without turning these horrors into mythical heroism?
Mr. Ahmadinejad perpetuates a regime that has done horrible things to its own people. Khomeini sent scores of thousands of children into a useless war of attrition, arming them with plastic keys he told them would open the doors of paradise. He sent them into minefields using a military approach discarded after WWI, of trying to conquer positions through waves of human beings. Are the people of Iran allowed to mourn this act of horror? Or are they only allowed to glorify the useless death of their children (Khomeini sent them into battle when the Iraqi army was no longer on Iranian soil) by saying that they are shaheeds?
In speaking in favor of the ethics of memory, I do not really address Mr. Ahmadinejad; he seems incurable, and it is only to be hoped that his people will find ways to get rid of him. There is a lesson for us here.
Netanyahu has made the comparison of Iran with Nazi Germany and warning the world that a new Holocaust is on the way the centerpiece of his rhetoric. As Aluf Benn has pointed out, Netanyahu likes to think of himself as the Churchill who refuses to accommodate Hitler. Let us leave aside the question whether the comparison between Nazi Germany and Iran is justified - I think it isn't.
Netanayhu's latest installment was the speech at the UN. (Get the full text of Netanyahu's speech here). The part of the speech in which he attacks Ahmadinejad and the Holocaust denial is certainly justified. But then he moves on to defend operation Cast Lead by comparing it to the London Blitz. Netanyahu plays the Holocaust card to defend the indefensible. Even if Netanyahu thinks that the Gaza operation was justified, the constant harping on the Holocaust to justify Israel's policies in the West Bank and Gaza is both politically useless and ethically problematic.
Nobody in the world can see any connection between the Iranian threat and holding on to the West Bank and pandering to Israel's ideological right. Nobody can see how making the lives of Palestinians miserable will stop Iranian missiles. And while many believe that Israel had the right to defend itself against the Qassam attacks, they feel (and I agree) that the way Operation Cast Lead was conducted is indefensible.
In making use of the Holocaust to defend indefensible policies, Netanyahu harms the very ethics of memory that Ahmadinejad is incapable of endorsing. Remembering the Holocaust is a moral duty for Jews and non-Jews alike. Netanyahu's politicization of it does not fulfill this duty; it taints it. Instead of weakening Ahmadinejad, he enters the arena in which truthfulness about history is no longer a duty in its own right, but where history is used for the sake of political manipulation.
He taints the work of Raoul Hilberg, a Jewish soldier who participated in the liberation of Concentration Camps, and became the first historian to document Nazi extermination of the Jews; of those like Primo Levi, Shaul Friedlander and Steven Spielberg, who have made every effort to remember without embellishment and without manipulation. The lessons we should learn from Mr. Ahmadinejad is that remembering for its own sake is a virtue that must never be compromised.
Source:
Netanyahu's UN speech was that of a Jew, not an Israeli
By Yaron Ezrahi
Benjamin Netanyahu's address at the United Nations General Assembly last month was the speech of a proud Jew and not that of a liberal and sober Israeli. It was the speech of a victim reopening the wounds in order to again stir support, and not the speech of a brave and daring Israeli striving to solve the largest threat to the future of Israel and its citizens - a speech in which the drama was reserved for a reference to the tragedies of the past and not to processes that stir hope for the future. It was a speech that moved Netanyahu's supporters abroad and among the Israeli right wing and made them stand tall, and contributed nothing to dealing with the dangerous rift between us and our neighbors.
As Nachum Barnea wrote, Netanyahu "was at his best" during his speech; but really it was only Netanyahu at his best, not in our best interests and not an Israeli prime minister at his best. It was a speech that exposed the Diaspora mentality of the prime minister, a speech from the school of Golda Meir (who also talked with Jewish pride and in fluent English) and not that of a leader with a vision and real goals intended to advance the well being of the Israeli public.
It is no coincidence that the problematic analogy between Iran and Nazi Germany appeared at the beginning of his speech and the part about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was left for a brief appendix at the end.
Can one suspect that Netanyahu used the conflict with the dictator from Iran to distract attention from his responsibility to freeze construction in the settlements as an effective means for progress toward an arrangement?
But even when he appealed to the Arab world with a call to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Netanyahu erred, perhaps not by chance. As may be recalled, every time Yasser Arafat wanted to intensify the conflict and flee from negotiations, he wore a kaffiyeh and turned to religious symbols such as the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Hamas turned the collective Muslim identity into the fundamental element of the Palestinian rejectionist position. Against this backdrop it seems that Netanyahu's decision to wear a skullcap was meant to spark Muslim zealotry and rejectionist views and weaken the Palestinian Authority in the face of Hamas opposition. The responses from the Palestinian side were predictable.
Is it not obvious that the attempt to replace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians with an interreligious conflict between Jews and Muslims is the cherished goal of the extremist enemies of peace on both sides?
Therefore it seems the demand for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is an ostensibly sophisticated distraction on the part of a veteran peace rejectionist.
Furthermore, is there a single Muslim anymore who today could recognize a Jewish state that occupies a Muslim population? Recognize a Jewish state where a group of law-breaking Jewish extremists leads the elected government by the nose, in order to expand the borders of the country, against the wishes of most of the population in the country and the world?
Can the Palestinians be expected to recognize a country where the right-wing leaders in the government announce every morning that the battle of the settlements is the continuation of the War of Independence, that Israel is still a country in formation with no constitution and no borders?
In light of all this, Netanyahu's rhetoric victory on the world stage is a Pyrrhic victory that does not auger well for the Israeli public that he is supposed to represent. It was an emotional speech by a public relations minister that focused on Holocaust deniers, and not by an Israeli prime minister looking out for Israelis yearning for quiet and stability.
Netanyahu, "at his best," missed the rare opportunity to promote the burning Israeli interest to reach an agreement that will prevent the next wave of violence.
The writer is a professor of political science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Source:
Benjamin Netanyahu's address at the United Nations General Assembly last month was the speech of a proud Jew and not that of a liberal and sober Israeli. It was the speech of a victim reopening the wounds in order to again stir support, and not the speech of a brave and daring Israeli striving to solve the largest threat to the future of Israel and its citizens - a speech in which the drama was reserved for a reference to the tragedies of the past and not to processes that stir hope for the future. It was a speech that moved Netanyahu's supporters abroad and among the Israeli right wing and made them stand tall, and contributed nothing to dealing with the dangerous rift between us and our neighbors.
As Nachum Barnea wrote, Netanyahu "was at his best" during his speech; but really it was only Netanyahu at his best, not in our best interests and not an Israeli prime minister at his best. It was a speech that exposed the Diaspora mentality of the prime minister, a speech from the school of Golda Meir (who also talked with Jewish pride and in fluent English) and not that of a leader with a vision and real goals intended to advance the well being of the Israeli public.
It is no coincidence that the problematic analogy between Iran and Nazi Germany appeared at the beginning of his speech and the part about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was left for a brief appendix at the end.
Can one suspect that Netanyahu used the conflict with the dictator from Iran to distract attention from his responsibility to freeze construction in the settlements as an effective means for progress toward an arrangement?
But even when he appealed to the Arab world with a call to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Netanyahu erred, perhaps not by chance. As may be recalled, every time Yasser Arafat wanted to intensify the conflict and flee from negotiations, he wore a kaffiyeh and turned to religious symbols such as the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Hamas turned the collective Muslim identity into the fundamental element of the Palestinian rejectionist position. Against this backdrop it seems that Netanyahu's decision to wear a skullcap was meant to spark Muslim zealotry and rejectionist views and weaken the Palestinian Authority in the face of Hamas opposition. The responses from the Palestinian side were predictable.
Is it not obvious that the attempt to replace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians with an interreligious conflict between Jews and Muslims is the cherished goal of the extremist enemies of peace on both sides?
Therefore it seems the demand for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is an ostensibly sophisticated distraction on the part of a veteran peace rejectionist.
Furthermore, is there a single Muslim anymore who today could recognize a Jewish state that occupies a Muslim population? Recognize a Jewish state where a group of law-breaking Jewish extremists leads the elected government by the nose, in order to expand the borders of the country, against the wishes of most of the population in the country and the world?
Can the Palestinians be expected to recognize a country where the right-wing leaders in the government announce every morning that the battle of the settlements is the continuation of the War of Independence, that Israel is still a country in formation with no constitution and no borders?
In light of all this, Netanyahu's rhetoric victory on the world stage is a Pyrrhic victory that does not auger well for the Israeli public that he is supposed to represent. It was an emotional speech by a public relations minister that focused on Holocaust deniers, and not by an Israeli prime minister looking out for Israelis yearning for quiet and stability.
Netanyahu, "at his best," missed the rare opportunity to promote the burning Israeli interest to reach an agreement that will prevent the next wave of violence.
The writer is a professor of political science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Source:
Abbas aide: Deferring action on Goldstone report was a mistake
The Palestinian leadership made a mistake by suspending action on a U.N. report on Gaza war crimes, a member of President Mahmoud Abbas' inner circle said Wednesday - the first such acknowledgment after days of protests in the West Bank and Gaza.
At issue is a 575-page United Nations report that alleged both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Israel's three-week offensive against the Islamic militants in Gaza last winter.
Last week, Abbas withdrew Palestinian support for a vote in the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to have the report sent to the UN General Assembly for possible action. Such a vote would have been a first of many steps toward possible war crimes tribunals.
With the Palestinians out of the picture, the council set the report aside for six months.
Abbas made the decision under heavy U.S. pressure, Palestinian and Israeli officials have said. U.S. officials told Palestinian leaders that a war crimes debate would complicate efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, according to participants in such meetings.
Abbas' aides have defended the step, saying the Palestinians needed more time to win international support for the U.N. report. They said deferring action did not mean burying the report.
But Abbas apparently underestimated the angry response at home. With every day, there were more protests, marches and statements of condemnations, not only from his Hamas rivals, but also from human rights groups and intellectuals.
On Wednesday, senior Abbas adviser Yasser Abed Rabbo told the Voice of Palestine radio that the Palestinian leadership had erred.
"What happened is a mistake, but [it] can be repaired," said Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization. "We have the courage to admit there was a mistake."
In Gaza, public outrage at Abbas reached a new level on Wednesday, when hundreds of posters criticizing the Palestinian president appeared in public areas around Gaza City. Abbas and Hamas have been bitter rivals since the Islamic group violently seized control of Gaza from pro-Abbas forces in June 2007.
The text on one poster under an Abbas photo read: To the dumps of history, you traitor, Mahmoud Abbas. Another had a big, black X over Abbas' face.
A crew dressed in civilian clothes was seen putting up the posters Wednesday morning, though it was not immediately clear who headed the campaign. The posters were signed Intellectuals and university professors.
In an apparent attempt at damage control, Abbas' government is now backing a request by Libya to convene the UN Security Council for an emergency session on the report, written by South African Judge Richard Goldstone. Council members were to meet Wednesday to discuss the request.
Libya is the only Arab member on the 15-nation council, the U.N.'s most powerful body.
Whether the Libyans and Palestinians succeed remains to be seen.
The United States, Israel's closest ally, is expected to argue that the Security Council should not take up the document until the Human Rights Council considers it. The U.S., along with four other permanent members of the Security Council, can veto any resolution before the Council. Israeli officials declined comment on the council meeting.
The Goldstone report accused Israel of using disproportionate force and deliberately harmed civilians. It said Hamas fired rockets indiscriminately at civilians in southern Israel.
Both Israel and Hamas have denied the allegations.
PA: Advance peace talks or face war crimes tribunal
On Tuesday, a close associate of Abbas told Haaretz that if Israel does not soften its positions on the peace process, the Palestinian Authority will resume pushing to get the Goldstone report moved to the Security Council, and thence to the International Criminal Court.
The PA initially proposed that the UN Human Rights Council pass the report onto the Security Council, which has the power to ask the International Criminal Court to open a criminal case, but then withdrew its motion under pressure from the United States, which feared that such a move would derail Washington's drive to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Abbas' associate said that not only the U.S., but also Britain and China vehemently opposed the PA's original motion. And since all three have veto power in the Security Council, referral to the Security Council would have accomplished nothing except to antagonize three major powers, he explained.
Several Arab states also urged Abbas to withdraw the motion, after they too, came under pressure from Washington, he said.
Erekat threatens to name names
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told the French media Tuesday that Abbas is now considering asking Arab states to raise the Goldstone report in the Security Council themselves. Erekat also threatened to reveal the names of all the countries that pressured Abbas to pull the motion and instead negotiate with Israel without preconditions.
The growing criticism of Abbas' decision is apparently what prompted him to publicly demand Tuesday that Arab states fight what he termed an Israeli takeover of Jerusalem, even though privately the PA is worried by the possibility of a conflagration in the city: It was an effort to divert attention from the Goldstone issue.
However, it did not stop Nabil Amr, a leading member of Abbas' Fatah movement who has long been one of his outspoken critics, from resigning as the PA's ambassador to Egypt Tuesday to protest Abbas' decision on the Goldstone report.
Moreover, the Israeli Arab party Balad announced a rally in Acre on Saturday at which it plans to demand that Abbas resign over the decision, which it termed "a political crime." This is very unusual, as Israeli Arab parties generally refrain from coming out openly against the PA leadership.
"Someone who ignores the occupier's crimes and even tries to whitewash them cannot be the legitimate representative of his people," Balad said in a statement.
Hadash, another Israeli Arab party, also slammed Abbas' move Tuesday.
Source:
At issue is a 575-page United Nations report that alleged both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Israel's three-week offensive against the Islamic militants in Gaza last winter.
Last week, Abbas withdrew Palestinian support for a vote in the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to have the report sent to the UN General Assembly for possible action. Such a vote would have been a first of many steps toward possible war crimes tribunals.
With the Palestinians out of the picture, the council set the report aside for six months.
Abbas made the decision under heavy U.S. pressure, Palestinian and Israeli officials have said. U.S. officials told Palestinian leaders that a war crimes debate would complicate efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, according to participants in such meetings.
Abbas' aides have defended the step, saying the Palestinians needed more time to win international support for the U.N. report. They said deferring action did not mean burying the report.
But Abbas apparently underestimated the angry response at home. With every day, there were more protests, marches and statements of condemnations, not only from his Hamas rivals, but also from human rights groups and intellectuals.
On Wednesday, senior Abbas adviser Yasser Abed Rabbo told the Voice of Palestine radio that the Palestinian leadership had erred.
"What happened is a mistake, but [it] can be repaired," said Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization. "We have the courage to admit there was a mistake."
In Gaza, public outrage at Abbas reached a new level on Wednesday, when hundreds of posters criticizing the Palestinian president appeared in public areas around Gaza City. Abbas and Hamas have been bitter rivals since the Islamic group violently seized control of Gaza from pro-Abbas forces in June 2007.
The text on one poster under an Abbas photo read: To the dumps of history, you traitor, Mahmoud Abbas. Another had a big, black X over Abbas' face.
A crew dressed in civilian clothes was seen putting up the posters Wednesday morning, though it was not immediately clear who headed the campaign. The posters were signed Intellectuals and university professors.
In an apparent attempt at damage control, Abbas' government is now backing a request by Libya to convene the UN Security Council for an emergency session on the report, written by South African Judge Richard Goldstone. Council members were to meet Wednesday to discuss the request.
Libya is the only Arab member on the 15-nation council, the U.N.'s most powerful body.
Whether the Libyans and Palestinians succeed remains to be seen.
The United States, Israel's closest ally, is expected to argue that the Security Council should not take up the document until the Human Rights Council considers it. The U.S., along with four other permanent members of the Security Council, can veto any resolution before the Council. Israeli officials declined comment on the council meeting.
The Goldstone report accused Israel of using disproportionate force and deliberately harmed civilians. It said Hamas fired rockets indiscriminately at civilians in southern Israel.
Both Israel and Hamas have denied the allegations.
PA: Advance peace talks or face war crimes tribunal
On Tuesday, a close associate of Abbas told Haaretz that if Israel does not soften its positions on the peace process, the Palestinian Authority will resume pushing to get the Goldstone report moved to the Security Council, and thence to the International Criminal Court.
The PA initially proposed that the UN Human Rights Council pass the report onto the Security Council, which has the power to ask the International Criminal Court to open a criminal case, but then withdrew its motion under pressure from the United States, which feared that such a move would derail Washington's drive to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Abbas' associate said that not only the U.S., but also Britain and China vehemently opposed the PA's original motion. And since all three have veto power in the Security Council, referral to the Security Council would have accomplished nothing except to antagonize three major powers, he explained.
Several Arab states also urged Abbas to withdraw the motion, after they too, came under pressure from Washington, he said.
Erekat threatens to name names
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told the French media Tuesday that Abbas is now considering asking Arab states to raise the Goldstone report in the Security Council themselves. Erekat also threatened to reveal the names of all the countries that pressured Abbas to pull the motion and instead negotiate with Israel without preconditions.
The growing criticism of Abbas' decision is apparently what prompted him to publicly demand Tuesday that Arab states fight what he termed an Israeli takeover of Jerusalem, even though privately the PA is worried by the possibility of a conflagration in the city: It was an effort to divert attention from the Goldstone issue.
However, it did not stop Nabil Amr, a leading member of Abbas' Fatah movement who has long been one of his outspoken critics, from resigning as the PA's ambassador to Egypt Tuesday to protest Abbas' decision on the Goldstone report.
Moreover, the Israeli Arab party Balad announced a rally in Acre on Saturday at which it plans to demand that Abbas resign over the decision, which it termed "a political crime." This is very unusual, as Israeli Arab parties generally refrain from coming out openly against the PA leadership.
"Someone who ignores the occupier's crimes and even tries to whitewash them cannot be the legitimate representative of his people," Balad said in a statement.
Hadash, another Israeli Arab party, also slammed Abbas' move Tuesday.
Source:
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Working for peace is a form of prayer
By Bradley Burston
It's been a decade and a half that fanatics on both sides have ruined our lives. But there's a change coming. Whether the extremists like it or not. The sign came on the eve of the Sukkot festival, when Israel freed a group of Palestinian women prisoners in exchange for a video of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, held by Hamas for well over three years.
The exchange was a quiet tectonic shift. The families of the Palestinian women told Israel television that they hoped that the Shalit family would soon be as happy as they were. A natural response, to be sure, but shocking in contrast to the tone of years past.
The exchange came about not because Ismail Haniyeh and Benjamin Netanyahu wanted it, and certainly not Avigdor Lieberman and Mahmoud Zahar. It came about because Palestinians and Israelis wanted it. They want to see their loved ones come home. And the result may well be a tectonic shift in the peace process, deriving from an issue of crucial importance to huge numbers of Israelis and Palestinians, one overshadowed in most accounts of the Mideast impasse, which is often portrayed as confined largely to questions of borders, holy sites, refugee repatriation and settler repatriation.
A prisoner exchange, in the context of a wider deal encompassing the Israeli siege on Gaza, rocket fire against Israel, and accompanied by Fatah-Hamas rapprochement and close Quartet involvement, could spark powerful, publicly supported momentum toward the establishment of Palestinian statehood and an eventual solution of the conflict.
There was something propitious about the timing of the release of the prisoners and of proof that Gilad Shalit was alive. Another sign may well come later this month. An unapologetically pro-peace and pro-Israel political convention may prove to be a landmark event in American Jewish history, and a turning point in the relationship between Israel and the largest Jewish community in the Diaspora.
The national conference of J Street will see an unprecedented North
American gathering of activists seeking a Mideast future anchored by the co-existence of a safely independent Israel and a justly independent Palestine.
Then there is the matter of Sukkot, a time of deep gladness and imminent judgment. It is a time for leaving the armor of the comfort zone, for going out and setting up a vulnerable shelter which allows neighbors to come not only as guests, but as equals.
May we take the opportunity to forget, for the moment, to hate. May we take our stomped expectations, our crumpled wish lists, our boiling blood and our lanced dreams, and still have the vision to seek a future in which two curiously similar, wholly incompatible peoples can be themselves, both secure, both self-governing, both truly independent. Two states.
Do people outside of the Holy Land have the right to push for changes in the Israeli-Palestinian equation? Absolutely. There are more Palestinians living outside of Palestine than within it, and more Jews living outside of the Jewish state than within it. For those who feel it, Palestine and Israel are certainly part of them, a core of their identity.
But in a region which needs healing much more than it needs hatred, it is more important than ever that activism be oriented toward a goal that can work. God knows, there are enough well-financed extremists working on both sides for a one-state solution that disenfranchises the other. As the real common enemy of both sides, fanatics don't need more help. They are more than capable of delaying peace on their own. They're praying as hard as they can that the two-state solution fails.
Yet prayer can also arouse new awareness, recover lost hope, and broaden compassion, and that is what the two-state solution requires. If it is to succeed, this is the time. If it is to succeed, the groups mentioned below are some of the people who could make it happen. They'll need all the help, and prayers, they can get.
It's only fitting. Working for peace is itself a form of prayer. Bearing the taunts, the frustration, the abuse from your own side and the distrust of the other, and yet retaining the faith and the power to keep on, is worship at its core. Working for peace is doing God's work.
Especially now. Now that extremism has corrupted two of the world's great religions. It has distorted them, taken them over, driven them as tools and engines of fanaticism. It has taken the two religions most zealous in their opposition to idolatry, and commanded them to hold certain collections of stones, certain parcels of soil, sacred beyond human life.
It has taken two peoples descended from one man, and turned them into mortal enemies. It has taken two peoples schooled and skilled as no others in the art of bargaining, negotiation, and reaching agreements, and has forbidden compromise, openness, creativity, compassion, accommodation, as forms of treason and mortal sin. It has taken one God, and taught Jews that Allah is not their Almighty, and Muslims that Elohim is not their All Merciful.
Working for peace is a form of reclaiming holiness lost. Like prayer, working for peace is a way of meeting, at long last, and often in surprise, our own hearts. The heart, that fist of muscle which appears from the outside to be in a continual fight with itself. Working for peace is a way to find out what that fight is really for.
Source:
It's been a decade and a half that fanatics on both sides have ruined our lives. But there's a change coming. Whether the extremists like it or not. The sign came on the eve of the Sukkot festival, when Israel freed a group of Palestinian women prisoners in exchange for a video of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, held by Hamas for well over three years.
The exchange was a quiet tectonic shift. The families of the Palestinian women told Israel television that they hoped that the Shalit family would soon be as happy as they were. A natural response, to be sure, but shocking in contrast to the tone of years past.
The exchange came about not because Ismail Haniyeh and Benjamin Netanyahu wanted it, and certainly not Avigdor Lieberman and Mahmoud Zahar. It came about because Palestinians and Israelis wanted it. They want to see their loved ones come home. And the result may well be a tectonic shift in the peace process, deriving from an issue of crucial importance to huge numbers of Israelis and Palestinians, one overshadowed in most accounts of the Mideast impasse, which is often portrayed as confined largely to questions of borders, holy sites, refugee repatriation and settler repatriation.
A prisoner exchange, in the context of a wider deal encompassing the Israeli siege on Gaza, rocket fire against Israel, and accompanied by Fatah-Hamas rapprochement and close Quartet involvement, could spark powerful, publicly supported momentum toward the establishment of Palestinian statehood and an eventual solution of the conflict.
There was something propitious about the timing of the release of the prisoners and of proof that Gilad Shalit was alive. Another sign may well come later this month. An unapologetically pro-peace and pro-Israel political convention may prove to be a landmark event in American Jewish history, and a turning point in the relationship between Israel and the largest Jewish community in the Diaspora.
The national conference of J Street will see an unprecedented North
American gathering of activists seeking a Mideast future anchored by the co-existence of a safely independent Israel and a justly independent Palestine.
Then there is the matter of Sukkot, a time of deep gladness and imminent judgment. It is a time for leaving the armor of the comfort zone, for going out and setting up a vulnerable shelter which allows neighbors to come not only as guests, but as equals.
May we take the opportunity to forget, for the moment, to hate. May we take our stomped expectations, our crumpled wish lists, our boiling blood and our lanced dreams, and still have the vision to seek a future in which two curiously similar, wholly incompatible peoples can be themselves, both secure, both self-governing, both truly independent. Two states.
Do people outside of the Holy Land have the right to push for changes in the Israeli-Palestinian equation? Absolutely. There are more Palestinians living outside of Palestine than within it, and more Jews living outside of the Jewish state than within it. For those who feel it, Palestine and Israel are certainly part of them, a core of their identity.
But in a region which needs healing much more than it needs hatred, it is more important than ever that activism be oriented toward a goal that can work. God knows, there are enough well-financed extremists working on both sides for a one-state solution that disenfranchises the other. As the real common enemy of both sides, fanatics don't need more help. They are more than capable of delaying peace on their own. They're praying as hard as they can that the two-state solution fails.
Yet prayer can also arouse new awareness, recover lost hope, and broaden compassion, and that is what the two-state solution requires. If it is to succeed, this is the time. If it is to succeed, the groups mentioned below are some of the people who could make it happen. They'll need all the help, and prayers, they can get.
It's only fitting. Working for peace is itself a form of prayer. Bearing the taunts, the frustration, the abuse from your own side and the distrust of the other, and yet retaining the faith and the power to keep on, is worship at its core. Working for peace is doing God's work.
Especially now. Now that extremism has corrupted two of the world's great religions. It has distorted them, taken them over, driven them as tools and engines of fanaticism. It has taken the two religions most zealous in their opposition to idolatry, and commanded them to hold certain collections of stones, certain parcels of soil, sacred beyond human life.
It has taken two peoples descended from one man, and turned them into mortal enemies. It has taken two peoples schooled and skilled as no others in the art of bargaining, negotiation, and reaching agreements, and has forbidden compromise, openness, creativity, compassion, accommodation, as forms of treason and mortal sin. It has taken one God, and taught Jews that Allah is not their Almighty, and Muslims that Elohim is not their All Merciful.
Working for peace is a form of reclaiming holiness lost. Like prayer, working for peace is a way of meeting, at long last, and often in surprise, our own hearts. The heart, that fist of muscle which appears from the outside to be in a continual fight with itself. Working for peace is a way to find out what that fight is really for.
Source:
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Student travels through Gaza
By Katie Sullivan
Collegian Staff Writer
Before his trip to the Gaza Strip, Sean Healy formed his opinions of the Middle East from what he read in the newspaper and saw on TV. But in just seven days, the Penn State student fell in love with a region that has been engulfed in violence for years, changing his perception of world affairs and view of the Gaza Strip forever.
At the end of a study-abroad trip to Egypt last spring, Healy (junior-political science) took a weeklong excursion into the Gaza Strip, a region that borders Egypt and Israel and has been an ongoing source of conflict between Palestine and Israel.
Healy entered the region with the first student delegation to visit since the rise of Hamas. What he saw in the war-torn region surprised him.
"People were just so happy to see us," Healy said. "They just want their story to be heard. It's really beautiful, and it's really sad."
Instead of the violent Muslim radicals he expected, Healy was greeted with smiles. He went to restaurants with his friends and felt safe. But he recognized the area has seen its share of tough times.
"There are bullet holes everywhere," he said. "It looks like a movie -- mortar and bombed buildings."
During his seven-day stay in the Gaza Strip, Healy had a chance to hear United Nations speakers, travel to refugee camps and see the cost of war.
The most powerful thing he heard during the trip came from an Irish lawyer assisting in the refugee camp, he said. His message was clear: Choosing sides doesn't matter. Making sure people are made responsible for their actions do.
"The fact is, you need to install a rule of law," Healy said. "People need to be held accountable for their actions. How are we going to talk about a two-state solution when there's no system to hold people accountable?"
Healy also met Ahmad Hamad, a 22-year-old Palestinian man who's been surrounded by the Gaza conflict his whole life. The young Muslim man has seen his friends blown up and Israeli soldiers occupy his house.
Healy said Hamad didn't like to discuss the death of his loved ones but wondered why the United States didn't care more about the problems in Gaza.
Healy said it changed his view.
"I'm definitely not anti-Israel ... and I don't agree with everything that Hamas does," Healy said. "[The Palestinians] feel helpless in a lot of ways. The frustration was so hard to grasp. I want to know why we view someone as right or wrong when we don't even hear stories."
Healy said Hamad told him many Palestinians don't think of the turmoil as Muslim versus Jew -- they think of it as a battle for respect and human rights.
Before his trip, Healy admitted he was uneducated about what was going on in the Gaza region and took for granted what he had heard about it. But now, even after four months, Healy said he wants to share what he learned with others.
"I don't think everyone should be held responsible for the actions of their government," Healy said about the people living in the Gaza Strip. "The saddest thing is -- they're kids like us. What have they done wrong, and why do they have to pay for it?"
Source:
Collegian Staff Writer
Before his trip to the Gaza Strip, Sean Healy formed his opinions of the Middle East from what he read in the newspaper and saw on TV. But in just seven days, the Penn State student fell in love with a region that has been engulfed in violence for years, changing his perception of world affairs and view of the Gaza Strip forever.
At the end of a study-abroad trip to Egypt last spring, Healy (junior-political science) took a weeklong excursion into the Gaza Strip, a region that borders Egypt and Israel and has been an ongoing source of conflict between Palestine and Israel.
Healy entered the region with the first student delegation to visit since the rise of Hamas. What he saw in the war-torn region surprised him.
"People were just so happy to see us," Healy said. "They just want their story to be heard. It's really beautiful, and it's really sad."
Instead of the violent Muslim radicals he expected, Healy was greeted with smiles. He went to restaurants with his friends and felt safe. But he recognized the area has seen its share of tough times.
"There are bullet holes everywhere," he said. "It looks like a movie -- mortar and bombed buildings."
During his seven-day stay in the Gaza Strip, Healy had a chance to hear United Nations speakers, travel to refugee camps and see the cost of war.
The most powerful thing he heard during the trip came from an Irish lawyer assisting in the refugee camp, he said. His message was clear: Choosing sides doesn't matter. Making sure people are made responsible for their actions do.
"The fact is, you need to install a rule of law," Healy said. "People need to be held accountable for their actions. How are we going to talk about a two-state solution when there's no system to hold people accountable?"
Healy also met Ahmad Hamad, a 22-year-old Palestinian man who's been surrounded by the Gaza conflict his whole life. The young Muslim man has seen his friends blown up and Israeli soldiers occupy his house.
Healy said Hamad didn't like to discuss the death of his loved ones but wondered why the United States didn't care more about the problems in Gaza.
Healy said it changed his view.
"I'm definitely not anti-Israel ... and I don't agree with everything that Hamas does," Healy said. "[The Palestinians] feel helpless in a lot of ways. The frustration was so hard to grasp. I want to know why we view someone as right or wrong when we don't even hear stories."
Healy said Hamad told him many Palestinians don't think of the turmoil as Muslim versus Jew -- they think of it as a battle for respect and human rights.
Before his trip, Healy admitted he was uneducated about what was going on in the Gaza region and took for granted what he had heard about it. But now, even after four months, Healy said he wants to share what he learned with others.
"I don't think everyone should be held responsible for the actions of their government," Healy said about the people living in the Gaza Strip. "The saddest thing is -- they're kids like us. What have they done wrong, and why do they have to pay for it?"
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Israeli envoy in Russia sent home
An Israeli diplomat has left his post in Russia after being accused of "unlawful activities", reports say.
Shmuel Polishuk, the first secretary of Israel's Moscow embassy, was reportedly detained in the city last week.
Russian intelligence agents questioned him on suspicion of spying, Israel's Maariv newspaper reported.
"Shmuel Polishuk was caught red-handed in Moscow," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
"He has already left for home."
After discussions between Russia and Israel, it was decided the diplomat would not be declared persona non grata - the term usually applied to expelled spies - but would have to leave the country, Maariv reported.
A spokesman from the Israeli embassy said the two countries were working to solve what he called a "misunderstanding", dismissing suggestions the diplomat had been expelled on espionage charges, AP reported.
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Shmuel Polishuk, the first secretary of Israel's Moscow embassy, was reportedly detained in the city last week.
Russian intelligence agents questioned him on suspicion of spying, Israel's Maariv newspaper reported.
"Shmuel Polishuk was caught red-handed in Moscow," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
"He has already left for home."
After discussions between Russia and Israel, it was decided the diplomat would not be declared persona non grata - the term usually applied to expelled spies - but would have to leave the country, Maariv reported.
A spokesman from the Israeli embassy said the two countries were working to solve what he called a "misunderstanding", dismissing suggestions the diplomat had been expelled on espionage charges, AP reported.
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