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Stephen Lendman: Tragedy and Travesty at Annapolis Stephen Lendman, Palestine Chronicle 11/28/2007
November 27 at Annapolis kicks off the latest Israeli-Palestinian Middle East peace process round that may be an historic first. It’s the first time in memory the legitimate government of one side is excluded, and that alone dooms it. Like previous rounds, it’s more pretense than peace, and as Jonathan Steele puts it in his November 16 Guardian column "The Palestinian path to peace does not go via Annapolis....so what do....Palestinians do next....In their decades-long bid for justice, they have tried everything:" armed struggle to compromise, but nothing works and the reason is simple. Their sincerity isn’t matched by Israel, the West, other Arab states and the US most of all with all the muscle in its hands to push or constrain Israelis to be serious and fair. That’s the problem. How can one side negotiate in good faith without a willing partner.
Nothing new will be introduced this time; the conference is for one day; no peace negotiations will be held; Israeli Prime Minister Olmert calls the summit "a meeting, not a negotiating session;" respected Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk says Olmert "has no more interest in a Palestinian state than....Ariel Sharon;" no advance agreement of intentions or principles has been reached; and it’s still not sure who’s coming.
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Omelettes into Eggs .
Uri Avnery, Middle East Online 10/11/2007
I was awakened from deep sleep by the noise. There was a commotion outside, which was getting louder by the minute. The shout of excited people. An eruption of joy.
I stuck my nose outside the door of my Haifa hotel room. I was told enthusiastically that the United Nations General Assembly had just decided to partition the country.
I went back into my room and closed the door behind me. I had no desire to join the celebrations.
November 29, 1947 - a day that changed our lives forever.
At this historic moment, how could I feel lonely, alienated and most of all - sad?
I was sad because I love all of this country - Nablus and Hebron no less than Tel-Aviv and Rosh-Pina.
I was sad because I knew that blood, much blood, would be shed.
But it was mainly a question of my political outlook.
I was 24 years old. Two years before, I and a group of friends had set up a political-ideological group ... more..
The Judaization of East Jerusalem
Alice Rothchild - The Electronic Intifada, International Middle East Media Center 11/28/2007
With the Golden Dome and the ancient walls of the Old City as backdrop, the cascade of Palestinian homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan is undergoing a dramatic transition.
At first it is hard to spot the Israeli flags draped over scattered homes on the hill, but it is soon easily apparent that right-wing Jewish settlers and politically motivated archaeologists are rushing to claim this fragment of the Holy City as the ancient City of David, complete with a visitors center and busloads of young Israeli recruits and tourists, and plaques thanking generous donors for their support.
Then there is the little-noticed news that the Israeli Parliament has given preliminary approval to a bill, in violation of international law and United Nations resolutions, which would seize East Jerusalem as a permanent part of Israel. It is thus not surprising that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s belated efforts ... more..
Israeli military has power over Palestinian farmers’ lives and source of income.
Ali Samoud - IMEMC News, International Middle East Media Center 11/28/2007
Open the gate’.close the gate, a command which only an Israeli soldier has the right to declare on a huge iron gate set up near the electronic fence supplementing the illegal separation wall in the centre of Faqqu’a village lands.
The fate of the farmers of Faqqu’a village located to the north of the West Bank city of Jenin, rests on these words to bring an end to their hardship.
The daily life of the villagers became even tougher as Israeli military forces confiscated huge areas of the village orchards and built the annexation wall on the lands.
The only one who can make the decision to open or close the gate is the armed Israeli soldier, who wields power over the farmers’ source of income because if he decides not to open the door the farmers can’t reach their orchards.
With the approach of the olive harvest season which constitutes the main source of income for the farmers, residents of the village ... more..
The 29th of November, then and now
Tom Segev, Ha’aretz 11/29/2007
On Saturday night, November 29, 1947, many of the Jews in the Land of Israel went out to dance in the streets of the cities. They were celebrating the United Nations decision to establish a Jewish state in part of the country. The Arabs were also supposed to get a state, but they went to war.
In his new book, Yoav Gelber, a professor of history at the University of Haifa, ponders what would have happened had the Arabs agreed to the Partition Plan adopted by the UN 60 years ago today. "We can only guess," writes Gelber cautiously.
Such guessing fires the imagination: It is possible that everything would have happened as it did, from one war to the next. The Zionist movement invested great efforts into attaining a majority in favor of partition, but the borders proposed by the UN were far from being an answer to its yearnings. Had the Arabs agreed to those lines, the Zionists might have rejected them.
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Peace talks are likely to fail, just as the ’road map’ did
Rami G. Khouri Daily Star staff, Daily Star 11/29/2007
The Annapolis conference on Tuesday was full of lofty rhetoric, intriguing new promises, a few bold commitments, and a tantalizing cast of characters - alongside plenty of rehashed rhetoric, rigid positions, and regurgitated, failed diplomatic mechanisms. It left us with as many questions as answers about whether this was a serious Arab-Israeli peace-making endeavor, or a hoax garnished with Chesapeake Bay clam cakes.
Annapolis the day after looks remarkably like the day before, because we can only judge it once the substantive negotiations start. It was impressive to see so many leaders and officials seeking a breakthrough for permanent peace on the single most important radicalizing and destabilizing issue in the Middle East: the Arab-Israeli conflict. A few dramatic twists were evident: renewed American engagement, Saudi and Syrian participation, and the pledge by Palestinians and Israelis to finalize a peace agreement within one year. more..
If the conference fails, what’s Plan B for peace?
Daoud Kuttab Commentary by, Daily Star 11/28/2007
American officials usually spend enormous energy highlighting the "process" in the Middle East "peace process." Only in the last 18 months of a second-term president or following a military engagement in the Middle East does the United States actually start to concern itself with "peace."
This pattern seems to be holding true for this week’s US-sponsored Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland. The difference now is that, unlike the Madrid Conference after the 1991 American-led Gulf war, the current effort is coming after a perceived American defeat in Iraq.
Assuming that the Bush administration is serious in its current efforts, the US must have a Plan B in case the just-completed Annapolis talks fail. For Palestinians, the main concern is to avoid negative repercussions if they do. Unlike former President Bill Clinton, who blamed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the failure of the Camp David ... more..
Annapolis is Madrid on tranquilizers
Rami G. Khouri, Daily Star 11/28/2007
It is ironic, but symbolically telling, that the latest attempt to spark serious Arab-Israeli peace negotiations is physically based at an American naval facility in Annapolis, Maryland. Whether the political anchorage of the process is similarly reliant on America’s military engagement and strategic interests in the Middle East remains to be seen. The signs are not encouraging if we are to judge the players by their actions.
The key unanswered question about the Annapolis meeting involves the motives of the American hosts. I write on the morning the gathering gets under way, before the outcome is clear. It is hard to be very hopeful on substantive breakthroughs when the past nine months of continuous trips by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and equally frequent, high-level bilateral Israeli-Palestinian meetings have been unable to bring about even a simple declaration of principles. more..
Palestinians protest the Annapolis summit
Rami Almeghari, The Electronic Intifada, 28 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/28/2007
"We do not recognize those who hold talks in Annapolis; they do not represent the Palestinian people," said Ismail Haniyeh, the dismissed Palestinian Prime Minister, in response to the Washington-sponsored Palestinian-Israeli summit in Annapolis.
The streets of Palestine bore witness that it isn’t only the Hamas leader who doesn’t grant legitimacy to the Palestinian negotiating team at the Annapolis conference. On Tuesday, 27 November, large crowds of Palestinians in Gaza poured out of their homes -- as did their brothers and sisters in the West Bank -- to protest what they call the "renunciation of Palestinians’ legitimate rights."Critics of the conference held large demonstrations and rallies in the coastal strip, voicing their strongly worded objections to the Annapolis gathering.
"No recognition of Israel! No recognition of Israel!" thousands of Gaza residents chanted in front of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) building in Gaza City.
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PA forcefully disperses peaceful demonstrations, killing one
Report, PCHR, 28 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/28/2007
PCHR strongly condemns the excessive use of force by Palestinian security forces to disperse peaceful demonstrations and assemblies in several West Bank governorates yesterday. The security forces used gunfire in dispersing these gatherings, resulting in the death of one person and the injury of 25 others. The Centre calls upon the Palestinian government in Ramallah to seriously investigate the circumstances of the death of Hisham Baratha’a in Hebron and other attacks, including attacks on several journalists as they were covering the events. The Centre calls upon the government in Ramallah to prosecute the perpetrators and to take effective steps to prevent the recurrence of such attacks.
The Center’s preliminary investigation and eyewitness account indicate that yesterday 27 November 2007, hundreds of participants took part in peaceful demonstrations and rallies in Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Nablus that were organized by several political parties and civil society organizations to protest the Annapolis conference in the US.
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Coexistence in Gaza
Mohammed Omer, The Electronic Intifada, 28 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/28/2007
GAZA CITY, November 27 (IPS) - As Sunday dawns in Gaza City the traditional Islamic call to prayer mingles melodically with church bells.
Side by side, mosque and church doors swing open, welcoming the faithful. Greetings are eagerly exchanged.
The October kidnapping and murder of Rami Ayyad, the manager of Gaza’s only Christian bookstore, sent shudders through the Christian community.
Was this a hate crime or simply a tragic occurrence?
Monsignor Manuel Musallam, head of Gaza’s Roman Catholic community, doubts the attack was religiously motivated.
"Rami was not only Christian," the Musallam told IPS. "He was Palestinian. Violent acts against Christians are not a phenomenon unique to Gaza."
Immediately upon hearing of the murder, the elected Prime Minister Ismail Hanyieh of Hamas ordered the Palestinian ministry of interior to dispatch an investigative committee to "urgently look into the matter," labeling Ayyad’s death a "murderous crime."
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Jim Miles: Iran and the US – Book Review
Palestine Chronicle 11/27/2007
Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies -- Iran, the U.S., and the Twisted Path to Confrontation. Barbara Slavin. St. Martin’s Press, New York. 2007.
If I had to provide an overall rating for Barbara Slavin’s "Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies" I would have to tell the reader that it is well worth reading, but with several qualifications that make the recommendation somewhat underwhelming. It is an uneasy read, something I could not quite put into thought until two phrases summed it up.
First the phrase "accurate yet superficial" came to mind, as what Slavin says is true, but does not carry a broader or deeper perspective that other works do. Most of what is reported here, other than some of her personal interviews, is very much newspaper level journalism, a phrase I use pejoratively indicating a narrow perspective that is available from reading or listening to most U.S. media rather than other media and more academic research. There is also a very important misrepresentation of information early in the work that helped set up the uneasiness of the read. I’ll return to that in a moment.
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A Foundation not an Afterthought: Upholding International Law at Annapolis
Al-Haq, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
Joint Letter to Negotiating Parties by Palestinian Civil Society Organisations*As Palestinian human rights and civil society organisations, we the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the lack of a clearly articulated legal framework for the upcoming diplomatic negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to be held at Annapolis on 27 November. While the process of negotiation is inherently political, the legitimate demands of the Palestinian people to dignity, territorial sovereignty and self-determination as enshrined in binding international law may not be made the subjects of negotiation.
Following 40 years of occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, and numerous rounds of failed diplomatic initiatives, international law must at last be understood to be the essential over-arching framework for negotiations. International law not only provides a means of dispassionately assessing Israel’s existing policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), but also limits the discretion of the negotiating parties, and their sponsors, in deciding certain fundamental issues. Under the terms of Article 4 of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1949 (the Fourth Geneva Convention), the Palestinian civilian population of the OPT are “protected persons.” By virtue of this status, they are entitled to certain protections that may not be undermined or disregarded in political agreements. This is clearly set forth in Article 47 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which establishes:
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The Price of Arab Inclusion
Haaretz - Editorial, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
U.S. President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice can chalk up an important achievement with the Annapolis summit that begins tomorrow: The Arab countries acceded to the American request and are taking part in the conference with a high profile, let alone taking part. Foreign ministers and not ambassadors will represent them. This decision’s significance goes beyond Arab backing for the Palestinians, or a pat on the back for the American president, whose stature is eroding greatly in the region.
The Arab countries’ decision should be interpreted as full involvement in the process in the hope of jump-starting a comprehensive peace process, part of which will be talks on withdrawal from the Golan Heights, as per the Syrian demand. The Arab countries thus make clear they see their inclusion in the Annapolis summit as an inseparable part of their resolutions at the 2002 Arab summit in Beirut, which became known as the "Arab initiative." This initiative proposes normalization with Israel in exchange for full withdrawal from the occupied territories and finding a just solution to the refugee problem.
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Bush Might Fail at Annapolis, But Give him Credit for Trying
The Daily Star - Editorial, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
Many flaws have been identified in the organization of the Middle East peace conference this week at Annapolis, in the US state of Maryland. Arab officials, in particular, harbor deep-seated fears that their participation may be used as cover for a gathering that fails to achieve anything of substance toward settling the dispute at the core of the region’s troubles, that between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Surveys indicate that ordinary Palestinians, meanwhile, have grown tired of the seemingly endless diplomacy that promises statehood, only to deliver continued occupation.
On its face, Annapolis is indeed a shaky enterprise. Critics note that until this venture, US President George W. Bush appeared to have made ignoring the Palestinian-Israeli conflict a key pillar of his foreign policy. Having botched so many other endeavors in the region, he was also suspected of having concluded that it was better not to try anything else that might end in yet another failure, especially given the thorny issues that Annapolis will start trying to resolve. In the twilight of his presidency, Bush looked increasingly unlikely to undertake such a complicated mission.
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High-Stake Meet
Arab News - Editorial, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
President Bush probably saved his blushes when announcing that the Arab-Israeli conflict would not be solved in a day and a night at Annapolis, but that a full year would be needed — basically the rest of his term — for the US to try to broker a peace. Washington hopes that the two sides work toward the establishment of an independent Palestinian state before Bush leaves office and that the negotiations will be launched at the conference in Annapolis. The US is thus giving itself more breathing space and not putting too much pressure on itself or the other parties to come up with anything big at Annapolis. It is going for what looks like an unambitious definition of success. It will be satisfied if the conference does not end in an argument, and if it can kick-start a new series of meetings between the Palestinians and Israelis that will begin trying to tackle the biggest differences they have between them, the “final status” issues.
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Defiant Hamas Rules by Fear in Isolated Gaza
Marie Colvin, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
The nights in Gaza belong to the Izzedine al-Qassam brigades. On potholed streets in the border city of Rafah last week, disciplined rows of fighters bristling with guns and rocket launchers listened to a midnight pep talk from their commander before melting into the darkness.
The militia that was once the underground military wing of Hamas, the Islamic extremist organisation, has become a feared unofficial army controlling this isolated strip of Palestinian territory.
The Qassam commander, a fighter wanted by the Israelis, sent them into the winter rain with exhortations to “remember that God is with you” and “don’t fall asleep”. Every night they patrol the streets and the border with Egypt, looking for wayward citizens and ever ready for Israel to invade. The streets are deserted. Gazans fear these men.
The most impressive thing about Qassam is its armoury. Each six-man unit travels with rocket-launchers, machineguns and grenades and carries a locally made antitank mine similar to the explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) that have wreaked havoc against allied armoured vehicles in Iraq.
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The Middle East Summit: Mission Impossible?
Rupert Cornwell, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
This week will see George Bush make his first, and almost certainly his only, major attempt to bring an end to the world’s most intractable conflict. As participants gather for tomorrow’s Middle East conference in Annapolis, Maryland, the spotlight is on the Israelis, the Palestinians, the Syrians and the Saudis – but the most important consideration lies closer to home: how will President Bush fare in a belated attempt to play peacemaker.
The reasons propelling the various parties to attend the conference are well known. They include the common domestic weaknesses of Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, and Mr Bush himself. For all three, a genuine and concerted push for peace would improve their standing at home.
For Mr Bush especially, and his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, major progress in their remaining year or so in office would put a positive gloss on a "legacy" that now consists primarily of the debacle in Iraq, and the huge strategic victory the 2003 invasion presented to Iran. Indeed, Tehran’s growing power in the region, feared by Israel and moderate Sunni Arab states alike, is a main reason why the gathering is taking place.
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Deja Vu, Again
The Guardian - Editorial, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, said yesterday that he would attend next week’s Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland. Syria might also attend, although it is not clear at what level. The two last building blocks appear to be in place for an event which will relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks for the first time in seven years. The real question is: will any of the noble declarations that we will get next week - from Mahmoud Abbas, Ehud Olmert and George Bush - mean anything? Bill Clinton peered at the political horizon in the Middle East in a speech in 2000. Mr Bush restated the long view four years later. Why will a third such tour d’horizon make any difference?
Of all the weak leaders present, none will be more so than the Palestinian president. He does not have to be dragged to the table, as Arafat was to Camp David in 2000. But he goes to Annapolis as the leader of only half his people. To the other half, who are locked up in a prison called Gaza, Mr Abbas has to show that engagement with Israel brings concrete benefits. Hamas argues that only force works with Israel. Mr Abbas has to show that politics can bring down roadblocks.
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Annapolis is Just the First Step
Aaron David Miller, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
If Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice want to set the Annapolis conference to music, I have a suggestion: the chorus from Sugarland’s latest country music hit: "Everybody’s dreamin’ big, but everybody’s just gettin’ by."
The meeting in Annapolis, Md., slated to get underway Tuesday, is shaping up to be a case study of what happens when you call a peace conference with high expectations and then reality intrudes. Yet Annapolis can still be consequential -- if Israelis and Palestinians take bigger risks and the Bush administration takes a more forceful, hands-on role than we’ve seen to date.
I’ve planned my fair share of negotiations, conferences and summits, so I know a little about success in this department and quite a lot about failure. Such events are usually good for two things: opening a process, as in Madrid (October 1991), which launched unprecedented Arab-Israeli negotiations; or closing a process, as was the case with the Wye River Summit (October 1998), which produced an agreement on security for Israelis and gradual withdrawal from the West Bank for Palestinians.
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Obstacles and Opportunity for Mideast Peace
James Carroll, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
Obstacles abound. When representatives of more than 40 nations convene in Annapolis tomorrow, hoping to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, there will be many reasons for pessimism.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas presides over a fractured people, with Hamas ready to spoil any agreement. Qassam rockets fired from Gaza remind Israelis what a hostile Palestinian state could do from the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is politically vulnerable to extremist figures on the Israeli side who want no concessions.
Olmert last week promised to suspend construction in settlements near Jerusalem, but the endless expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian areas remains a paramount impediment to any agreement - exactly as it was intended to be. In the Knesset, a law advances that forbids any compromise on the status of Jerusalem.
The last thing Palestinians need is a high profile peace conference that debates abstractions while ignoring the crushing realities of life under a brutal occupation. Issues of free movement within the territories, the crippling isolation of Gaza, malnourished children, Israeli readiness to punish a population for actions of individuals - such matters must be not be left to the distant by-and-by.
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The Middle East’s Middle Ground
The Christian Science Monitor - Editorial, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
An air of necessity, and thus possibility, lies over the Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Md. If Ben Franklin were there, as he was in Philadelphia to help 13 states draft a US Constitution, he might give the same advice to participants: We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.
Despite the pessimism heading into Tuesday’s one-day confab of nearly 50 countries, it’s a welcome step forward. The peace process between Israelis and Palestinians has stagnated, as it has between Israel and Syria and between Palestinian factions. Israeli politicians, too, are hardly unified on what kind of compromises to make.
Merely keeping the various antagonists talking is the first art of diplomacy. For that alone, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice deserves credit for her months of arm-twisting preparation. The best outcome would be follow-up actions as well as talks.
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Bush, Olmert Said Hopeful on Mideast
Mohammed Daraghmeh, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
Hours before the opening of a high-stakes international conference on the Middle East, President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed hope Monday that peace finally could be achieved. A senior member of the Palestinian delegation said an elusive joint statement on the contours for future talks was within reach.
"I’m looking forward to continuing our serious dialogue with you and the president of the Palestinian Authority to see whether or not peace is possible," Bush said after meeting with Olmert in the Oval Office ahead of the conference. Bush had a similar meeting scheduled with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later in the day. "I’m optimistic," Bush said.
Olmert said that international support _ from Bush and also, presumably, from the Arab nations that will attend the conference in Annapolis, Md. _ "is very important to us" and could make all the difference.
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Messiah on a Hill
Kevin Peraino, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
By car they’re only 15 minutes apart, but you can’t get much further from the West Bank’s desperate refugee camps than the summit of Mount Gerizim, on the outskirts of Nablus. The Palladian-style mansion perched there—the home of Palestinian billionaire Munib al-Masri—houses a staircase imported from Sicily, a Gothic fireplace from Versailles and a glassed-in winter garden that al-Masri says was a gift from Napoleon to Josephine. "This is a Picasso, but it looks like a Goya," the billionaire says with a casual wave. He is unapologetic about the excess. "I could live in New York, Geneva or London," he says. "I prefer Nablus."
That’s a rare sentiment, billionaire or not. Israeli and American officials have noted, somewhat smugly, that disillusionment with the Hamas government in Gaza is growing. Less hyped is frustration with the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank—a third of Palestinians in a recent poll expressed disgust with both sides. "Palestinians are fed up with all these inexperienced people," says al-Masri. Hamas’s boasts of an imminent military victory ring hollow, but so does optimism from Fatah diplomats about this week’s Mideast summit in Annapolis, Md. Al-Masri, whose ambitions are as lofty as his Nablus mansion, thinks he’s the man to seize that middle ground.
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Appointment in Annapolis
The Washington Post - Editorial, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
SECRETARY OF State Condoleezza Rice chose to plunge into Mideast peacemaking earlier this year because, she said, she saw an opportunity in the rise of a moderate Palestinian government in the West Bank and a common interest of Israel and many Arab states in checking Iranian-backed extremism in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Yet exploiting that opening is proving excruciatingly difficult. The Bush administration is expecting some 40 countries to attend a meeting Tuesday in Annapolis that is meant to kick off intensive negotiations on a final Israeli-Palestinian settlement. But the two sides have been unable to agree even on a statement to be issued at the meeting, despite extensive negotiations in recent weeks. Several of the Arab governments whose support Ms. Rice is counting on confirmed their attendance only after a conspicuous show of reluctance.
The meeting, at the U.S. Naval Academy, may yet serve the modest purpose of providing an international blessing for the first formal Mideast peace process in seven years. But events of the past few weeks have tested Ms. Rice’s notion that conditions in the region now favor the two-state settlement that President Bush has endorsed.
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For Bush, It’s Not about Being there
Michael Abramowitz, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
The opening of Tuesday’s Middle East conference in Annapolis, seven years into the Bush administration, is a reminder of how little the traditional concept of brokering an Arab-Israeli settlement through an ongoing "peace process" has figured into President Bush’s foreign policy.
Another is Bush’s near-absence from the Middle East during his presidency. He has traveled to the region four times, but two of those visits were one-day trips to Iraq, and one was for a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
The only time Bush traveled for the express purpose of trying to nudge Israel and the Palestinians toward a peace agreement came in 2003. He met Arab allies in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and then attended a three-way summit in Aqaba, Jordan, with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, then prime minister and now president of the Palestinian Authority.
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Bush’s Best Hope
Roger Cohen, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
The Palestinians are the cause of exiting and ex-presidents. There’s no electoral payback in supporting them. Jews and Israel-loving evangelicals dwarf any Arab lobby to the extent it’s not even funny.
President Bush is on the exit track. It’s time to rectify the fundamental error he made in allowing war-on-terror rhetoric to discredit the Palestinian national movement.
His best hope in Annapolis may be the Texas connection. If Bush gets behind Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister who attended the University of Texas, things may move. But he has to stick with him.
Fayyad, 55, is the can-do face of the Palestinian movement. Like his people, he’s long been in the wilderness. Unlike many of them, he hasn’t succumbed to the culture of the victim. “One year,” he said in an hour-long conversation, “is more than adequate to come to a peace treaty and end this conflict.”
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Rice’s Turnabout on Mideast Talks
Elisabeth Bumiller, MIFTAH 11/27/2007
At President Bush’s first National Security Council meeting in January 2001, he announced that he did not want to be drawn into the shattered Middle East peace process, people at the meeting recalled, because he believed that former President Bill Clinton had pushed so hard for an Israeli-Palestinian accord that he made the situation worse.
Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld agreed with the president, while Secretary of State Colin L. Powell countered that even if the breakdown in peace talks during Mr. Clinton’s term helped lead to the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, the United States could not stay aloof.
Condoleezza Rice, the new national security adviser, kept silent, but privately she shared Mr. Bush’s views.
“There was absolutely no prospect of a Middle East peace process that was going to lead to anything,” she said in an interview in May about her thinking in 2001. “I just didn’t see it.”
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Woman dies after being denied medical treatment
Report, PCHR, 27 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/27/2007
On Saturday morning, 24 November 2007, a Palestinian patient from the Gaza Strip died as Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) refused to grant her permission to enter Israel to receive medical treatment at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns measures taken by IOF violating Palestinians’ right to health, and denying them access to hospitals outside the Gaza Strip. PCHR also demands IOF to allow Rowaida ’Omar Shakshak, who is in a serious health condition, to receive urgent medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip.
According to information available to PCHR, on Saturday morning, 24 November 2007, Muna Fayez ’Ali Noufal, a mother of seven children from Nussairat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, died as her health condition deteriorated after IOF had denied her access to medical treatment at an Israeli hospital.
According to the victim’s husband, Wa’el Noufal ’Ali Noufal, his wife had been suffering from cancer in the colon. She had received medical treatment at Nasser Institute Hospital in Egypt. She came back to the Gaza Strip from the last round of medical treatment in Egypt on 9 May 2007, deciding to continue medical treatment, which included three sessions of chemotherapy, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. However, doctors at Shifa Hospital informed her that chemotherapy was not available at the hospital and decided to transfer her again to Egypt. She had not been able to travel to Egypt due to the closure of Rafah International Crossing Point since 11 June 2007. On 27 August 2007, she was transferred to Ichilov Hospital in Israel, where she underwent the first session of chemotherapy. She had stayed at the hospital for two weeks. She was supposed to travel to the hospital again for the second session of treatment in two weeks, but IOF delayed issuing permission for her. On 7 October 2007, IOF allowed her to travel to Ichilov Hospital to undergo the second session of chemotherapy. She had stayed at the hospital for 18 days.
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The Judaization of East Jerusalem
Alice Rothchild, The Electronic Intifada, 27 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/27/2007
With the Golden Dome and the ancient walls of the Old City as backdrop, the cascade of Palestinian homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan is undergoing a dramatic transition.
At first it is hard to spot the Israeli flags draped over scattered homes on the hill, but it is soon easily apparent that right-wing Jewish settlers and politically motivated archaeologists are rushing to claim this fragment of the Holy City as the ancient City of David, complete with a visitors center and busloads of young Israeli recruits and tourists, and plaques thanking generous donors for their support.
Then there is the little-noticed news that the Israeli Parliament has given preliminary approval to a bill, in violation of international law and United Nations resolutions, which would seize East Jerusalem as a permanent part of Israel. It is thus not surprising that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s belated efforts to corral reluctant world diplomats to an increasingly downgraded meeting in Annapolis are rapidly becoming mission impossible.
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Terry Walz: Jump-Starting the Peace Process
Palestine Chronicle 11/22/2007
Invitations have gone out to some 50 countries and international agencies involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to attend an international meeting on Israel and Palestine organized by the United States and scheduled to open November 27.The list of invitees remains unknown as of this writing, but it apparently includes Syria and Saudi Arabia, two key countries whose attendance is needed if the meeting is to be a success.It does not include Hamas, the political party in control of Gaza that is also backed by many Palestinians opposed to, impatient with or suspicious of the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas and the never-ending process of peace-making.
Much ink has already been spilt on the possibility of success of such a conference since President Bush first announced it in July.From the beginning, almost everyone was skeptical that, given the poor record of the Israelis in the seven years - the brutal occupation of Palestine, the targeted bombing of Gaza, and the prolonged attack on Lebanon resulting in the death of many civilians - to say nothing of the shameful and murderous occupation of Iraq by the conference hosts, the Israelis or the Americans as "peace brokers" would be in a position to offer anything substantive to the Palestinians and the Arab World that has long championed their cause.A collection of encircled Bantustans for a country is not what Palestinians want -- nor anything their friends want. more..
Hasan El-Hasan: Palestine in US Presidential Elections
Palestine Chronicle 11/22/2007
It is the election ritual season in the US. Presidential aspirants are campaigning, debating issues and attacking each other. Candidates from both major parties seem to have profound disagreements among themselves on almost every major issue facing the US except in their support of Israel. If there is any difference it is how far they can go to support and protect the Jewish state even when its survival is not threatened. Announced reasons for such unqualified and uncompromised support include the importance of Israel as a strategic partner in the war against terror or sharing the same values, but the real reason is the presidential candidates "electability". Calling for even-handed approach in solving the Arab-Israeli conflict or expressing sympathy with the Palestinians can ruin the prospects of the candidate.
In the 2004 presidential campaign, Howard Dean, a strong supporter of Israel, did not help himself politically when he promised to take more "even-handed role" in dealing with the conflict should he become a president. One of his rivals called such reasonable idea "irresponsible" approach that would lead to "selling Israel down the river". And majority of Dean’s fellow Democrat members of Congress signed a letter criticizing his statement. Dean failed to win the Democratic nomination for many reasons including his "even-handed role" suggestion. more..
Robert Higgs: Crackpot Realism is Riding High
Palestine Chronicle 11/22/2007
In 1958, the New Left sociologist C. Wright Mills made a seminal contribution to political science in his book The Causes of World War Three, by introducing the concept of "crackpot realism." He applied the notion specifically to the intellectual outlook of top government officials, especially the ones known as the "serious people," who have proven their capacity for dealing with important practical affairs by, say, managing a giant corporation, such as Halliburton or G. D. Searle, or a huge educational institution, such as Texas A&M University or the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
Mills’s key insight was that although such people have indeed been movers and shakers, they have moved and shaken within such a constricted milieu of experience and training that in most respects they are fools. Despite having developed supreme confidence in their own judgment and a corresponding contempt for other people’s views, they are astonishingly ignorant of many workaday aspects of the world and bewildered in the face of unexpected difficulties. As government leaders responsible for matters of war and peace, they have a tendency to paint themselves into corners of their own making and, then, seeing no way out, to conclude that their only escape lies in dropping bombs on somebody. As Mills observed, "instead of the unknown fear, the anxiety without end, some men of the higher circles prefer the simplification of known catastrophe." more..
Sherri Muzher: More Couples’ Therapy in Annapolis
Palestine Chronicle 11/22/2007
Here we go again with another meaningless "couples’ therapy" session with no concrete goals or meaningful substance.Palestine is the spouse that wants to discuss tangible issues.Israel appears to be the spouse that doesn’t really want to be there but would rather just say, "Hey, I showed up.Isn’t that proof enough that I want this to work out?"
Ahem, right, and Hugh Hefner is going to give the keynote at the next major abstinence conference.
The reality is that the Palestinian economy continues to be strangled; Israeli settlements on private Palestinian lands thrive; children go to school malnourished and are unable to concentrate while hundreds of other children sleep on the cold concrete floors of Israeli prisons; the Wall is cutting into Palestinian towns and effectively halting the flow of goods between Palestinians; and Jewish settlers have burned thousands of Palestinian olive trees with impunity. more..
Gaza: the Final Solution in Slow Motion
Palestine Chronicle 11/22/2007
On Sunday, 11th November 2007, at about four o’clock in the morning, the pharmacist Salim Madani is in Sufa, the only border post to the Gaza Strip that the government of Israel opens every now and then. He, and a few others have been waiting for 14 day for a truck loaded with medicines for distribution in the Strip, still stuck on the Israeli side. They have been waiting for permission from the Israeli government so that they may move the load onto another truck so the medicines can move into Khan Yunis on the Palestinian side.
For many months ill Palestinians have been dying needlessly because many other trucks have not been authorized to transport medicines or even any other basic products - to the prison into which Gaza has been transformed. The children Mohammad Turk, Mohammad Helow and Shaban Lulu, are only three of the hundreds of Palestinians that have died in the last so many months as a result of the Israeli and international blockade. more..
Reinventing the Mideast Wheel
George S. Hishmeh, MIFTAH 11/22/2007
It is infuriating when one spends hours reviewing all the give-and-take about the perfunctory meeting in Annapolis next week to kick-start Palestinian-Israeli negotiations for a final settlement only to realise that one does not need to reinvent the wheel.
All that needs to be done is there and has been available for more than 40 years!
A simple review of all the international and bilateral resolutions covering the conflict since the establishment of Israel in Palestine in 1948 and all the pertinent issues - Jerusalem, borders, refugees, colonies - should give any fair-minded researcher all the ammunition to come up with a clear-cut formula.
What is missing, however, is an honest commitment, as underlined beautifully and succinctly in an advertisement placed by a Jewish group - Gush Shalom, the Israeli peace bloc - in the Israeli paper Haaretz on November 16. more..
Peace Conference at Annapolis!
Elias H. Tuma, MIFTAH 11/22/2007
In 1974 I had a meeting with Aaron Yariv, then Minister of Information in Israel. As expected we discussed the Arab Israeli conflict and how to promote a peace process. Two points were highlighted. First, negotiation is the only viable way because neither side would be able to annihilate the other. Second, each party to the conflict would be wise to put itself in the position of the other and imagine how they see the issues and how they would decide in the given circumstances. To illustrate this point, Yariv said that he had followed the development of Yasser Arafat’s political career since the 1950s and he has admired his dedication to the Palestinian cause.If he were in Arafat’s position, he would have acted the same way that Arafat had acted, except for Arafat’s failure to see the issues from Israel’s standpoint. In other words, Arafat was not realistic enough for his own cause. more..
Olmert’s Roadmap Policy Shift
Shlomo Gazit, MIFTAH 11/22/2007
The roadmap was one of the most central and important diplomatic achievements of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. It was intended to delineate the stages of entering into a peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, up to and including a permanent status peace agreement between them.
At the time, some optimists undoubtedly hoped to see the roadmap usher in a process that would lead us to peace. Ariel Sharon, on the other hand, saw in the roadmap and the international imprimatur that rendered it official the ultimate diplomatic maneuver. It would free him and Israel from pressures to offer concessions and to enter into a dangerous peace process that contradicted his determined strategy of anchoring Israel’s grip on Judea and Samaria.
Sharon’s great achievement was phase I of the roadmap: as a precondition to initiating final status negotiations between the two sides, the Palestinian Authority was required to condemn all violent activity and dismantle and eliminate the terrorist infrastructure. True, Israel too was required to take action in phase I as a precondition for negotiations: to cease all new construction in the territories and remove all illegal outposts. But Sharon was confident the Palestinian side would not deliver on its obligations. Since there was in any case no Israeli intention to negotiate, Israel too ignored its obligations under the roadmap. more..
An Interview with Naji Shurab - The Roadmap Includes the Arabs
Bitterlemons, MIFTAH 11/22/2007
bitterlemons:
Why do you think the public statements of the negotiators in the lead-up to Annapolis have changed to focus on the roadmap?
Shurab:
I believe that this concentration on the roadmap may not be useful for the Palestinian side because the roadmap provides pretence for Israel not to continue the political negotiations process.
In its first phase, [the roadmap] calls on Palestinians to put an end to various types of resistance, what is called "weapons-collection" from the militias, and to "destroy the infrastructure" of the Palestinian organizations. In any case, this is a basic need for Palestinians at this time. Simultaneously, it calls on the Israelis to stop the construction of settlements.
The current concentration on the roadmap seems to stem from the Arab initiative that was adopted at the two Arab summits, Beirut and Riyad. The roadmap is also a focus because it represents the international initiative of the Quartet, and reflects the most general and broad outlines of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and ongoing positions. It was announced four years ago, and I think it now incorporates many transformations and developments. more..
Gaza: The Final Solution in Slow Motion
Agustin Velloso, MIFTAH 11/22/2007
On Sunday, 11th November 2007, at about four o’clock in the morning, the pharmacist Salim Madani is in Sufa, the only border post to the Gaza Strip that the government of Israel opens every now and then. He, and a few others have been waiting for 14 day for a truck loaded with medicines for distribution in the Strip, still stuck on the Israeli side. They have been waiting for permission from the Israeli government so that they may move the load onto another truck so the medicines can move into Khan Yunis on the Palestinian side.
For many months ill Palestinians have been dying needlessly because many other trucks have not been authorized to transport medicines or even any other basic products - to the prison into which Gaza has been transformed. The children Mohammad Turk, Mohammad Helow and Shaban Lulu, are only three of the hundreds of Palestinians that have died in the last so many months as a result of the Israeli and international blockade. more..
More Couples’ Therapy in Annapolis
Sherri Muzher, MIFTAH 11/22/2007
Here we go again with another meaningless “couples’ therapy” session with no concrete goals or meaningful substance.Palestine is the spouse that wants to discuss tangible issues.Israel appears to be the spouse that doesn’t really want to be there but would rather just say, “Hey, I showed up.Isn’t that proof enough that I want this to work out?”
Ahem, right, and Hugh Hefner is going to give the keynote at the next major abstinence conference.
The reality is that the Palestinian economy continues to be strangled; Israeli settlements on private Palestinian lands thrive; children go to school malnourished and are unable to concentrate while hundreds of other children sleep on the cold concrete floors of Israeli prisons; the Wall is cutting into Palestinian towns and effectively halting the flow of goods between Palestinians; and Jewish settlers have burned thousands of Palestinian olive trees with impunity. more..
Jump-Starting the Peace Process
Terry Walz, MIFTAH 11/22/2007
Invitations have gone out to some 50 countries and international agencies involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to attend an international meeting on Israel and Palestine organized by the United States and scheduled to open November 27.The list of invitees remains unknown as of this writing, but it apparently includes Syria and Saudi Arabia, two key countries whose attendance is needed if the meeting is to be a success.It does not include Hamas, the political party in control of Gaza that is also backed by many Palestinians opposed to, impatient with or suspicious of the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas and the never-ending process of peace-making.
Much ink has already been spilt on the possibility of success of such a conference since President Bush first announced it in July.From the beginning, almost everyone was skeptical that, given the poor record of the Israelis in the seven years - the brutal occupation of Palestine, the targeted bombing of Gaza, and the prolonged attack on Lebanon resulting in the death of many civilians - to say nothing of the shameful and murderous occupation of Iraq by the conference hosts, the Israelis or the Americans as "peace brokers" would be in a position to offer anything substantive to the Palestinians and the Arab World that has long championed their cause.A collection of encircled Bantustans for a country is not what Palestinians want -- nor anything their friends want. more..
The Annapolis Circus
Akiva Eldar, MIFTAH 11/22/2007
With all due respect for Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a settler, and Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai, a rabbi, forces many times stronger than them will transform Annapolis from the launching pad for an Israeli-Palestinian declaration of principles into "merely a support parley that will set the process in motion," as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert put it at the Sunday cabinet meeting.
Behind the civilian front to thwart the negotiations on a permanent status agreement lurks a military home front that is very knowledgeable about assassinations. It stretches from the bureau of Amos Gilad, the coordinator of government activities in the territories, who represents his current minister on the negotiating team with the Palestinians, all the way to the headquarters of the current Samaria Brigade commander. One is erecting barriers on the road to a meaningful joint declaration, and the other is erecting barriers on the road to rehabilitating Palestinian grassroots support for the remnants of Oslo. more..
An Endless Pool of Prisoners
Haaretz - Editorial, MIFTAH 11/22/2007
Why is Israel releasing 440 Palestinian prisoners specifically ahead of the Annapolis conference, and not 500 or 300, or 2,000 as the United States had expected? The impression is that no one is exercised by the security risk entailed in releasing prisoners - aside from politicians who want to make political capital off of it - and that all the wheeling and dealing revolves around the question of how many prisoners "are worth wasting" on this or that event.
This regular game with the fate of people - some 10,000 of them - who are incarcerated in Israel, taking no account of the length of their prison sentences but only the political utility their fate can serve, warps Israel’s image as a law-abiding state. If at any given moment there is a pool of candidates for release, it stands to reason they could have been released long ago.
The impression created is that Israel’s prisons have become a gestures bank with revolving doors: At night they arrest dozens of wanted gunmen, and in the morning decide to release several hundred, just so long as the supply of prisoners doesn’t dry up and a few dozen candidates for immediate release are always available. more..
Palestinian Source: Gaps Remain on Way to Summit
Amira Hass, MIFTAH 11/22/2007
Haaretz has obtained a copy of the joint document drafted by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators ahead of the upcoming peace conference, scheduled for next Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland, and a Palestinian source told the paper that he believes there is still too much of a gap between the views of the two parties.
(Click
here
for a copy of the document).
The source, however, said the draft was an early version of the joint document, dated November 17, and he did not know what changes, if any, had been made since.
The source said the opening stance by the PLO as it appears in the Palestinian proposals in the draft is weak and gives up on demands that were once presented as a counterweight to Israeli demands on the struggle against terror, for example.
The source said the main flaw in the Palestinian formulations was that there is no paragraph clearly stating that the construction of settlements will be frozen during the negotiations. more..
DRAFT: Joint [P: Document][I: Statement]
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, MIFTAH 11/22/2007
Haaretz has obtained a copy of the joint document drafted by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators ahead of the upcoming peace conference, scheduled for next Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland, and a Palestinian source told the paper that he believes there is still too much of a gap between the views of the two parties.
(Click
here
for a copy of the document).
Source: Haaretz, 22 November. more..
Only in Israel
Joharah Baker for MIFTAH, MIFTAH 11/22/2007
Taking a family vacation is usually a chance to relax, kick back and enjoy oneself. Hopefully, in my case, it will eventually be so, once I get to my destination. The problem is all the procedures that must be endured before that can actually happen.
I am off to London, to attend my little sister’s wedding. A joyous occasion no doubt, and one that my entire family is looking forward to. However, whereas my father can quickly book a flight from the United States to London and my brother just as simply from Berlin, I had to map things out much more carefully and began planning this trip months ago.
This is why. Of dual Palestinian-American citizenship, fate had it that I would marry someone with Jerusalem residency. Almost a decade after our wedding, we are still trying to obtain family reunification that would effectively make me a Jerusalem resident and hence deem me “legal” in my own home. Until this gargantuan feat is conquered, I live, like approximately 40,000 other Palestinians “in the palm of a goblin”, that is, without ever having any real security or stability. more..
Demolition decimating Palestinian village
Ramsey Ben-Achour, The Electronic Intifada, 22 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/22/2007
RAMALLAH, Nov 21 (IPS) - Al-Walajeh village was once a quiet but busy place. Just four kilometers from Bethlehem and 8.5 km from Jerusalem, its rolling hills filled with fruit trees, natural forests, and blooming vegetation made it a prime farming location. Easy access to large and consistent markets led its inhabitants to relative economic prosperity. Life was good.
Today, however, al-Walajeh village is a different place altogether.
"The demolishing of houses is a weekly event here in al-Walajeh," Sheerin Alaraj, al-Walajeh Village Council member, told IPS.
"People have nowhere else to go and so there are at least three families living in every house, sometimes even more. Some families have even been forced to live in caves," she said.
Since Israel’s full-scale military occupation of the West Bank began, more than 12,000 Palestinian homes have been demolished, making house demolitions a grim hallmark of Israel’s occupation strategy. more..
Likudnik hawks work to undermine Annapolis
Jim Lobe, The Electronic Intifada, 22 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/22/2007
WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (IPS) - Despite near-universal skepticism about the prospects for launching a serious, new Middle East peace process at next week’s Israeli-Palestinian summit in Annapolis, a familiar clutch of neo-conservative hawks close to the Likud Party leader, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, isn’t taking any chances.
Hard-liners associated with the American Enterprise Institute and Freedom’s Watch, a bountifully funded campaign led by prominent backers of the Republican Jewish Coalition, among other like-minded groups, are mounting a concerted attack against next week’s meeting which they fear could result in pressure on Israel to make territorial concessions.
The attack, which comes amid steadily growing neo-conservative fears that the administration of President George W. Bush is becoming increasingly "realist" in its last year in office, is being directed primarily against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, rather than the president himself. more..
West Bank maze of movement restrictions
Report, The Electronic Intifada, 22 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/22/2007
JERUSALEM, 21 November (IRIN) - Traffic news on the radio in the West Bank is more likely to be about checkpoints and barriers than jams and accidents, as a complex system of controls and permits can make a short journey for work, family or medical reasons into a time-consuming marathon, according to a new UN report.
A joint Special Focus by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, released in November, said that only about 18 percent of the people who worked the land are now able to obtain Israeli-issued permits, required to access the zone between the Barrier and the Green Line, Israel’s pre-1967 border.
Israel began building the barrier in 2002 to prevent armed attacks, although much of it extends into the West Bank.
Israel has a permit system, which allows certain Palestinians access to areas otherwise forbidden, in an attempt to lessen the negative impact. The sometimes difficult to obtain permits can be issued for several reasons: access to agricultural land; studies; medical purposes; and other reasons. more..
"A matter of revenge": Israel denying medical treatment to Gaza
Rami Almeghari writing from the Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine, Live, Electronic Intifada 11/22/2007
"We had been waiting for an urgent referral to an outside hospital for the past six days, until he died today," said Dr. Ismail Yassin Monday, in response to the death of one more patient at the Gaza Children’s Hospital.
Tamer al-Yazji, a 12-year-old chicken pox patient, died on Monday on his hospital bed after his referral to an Israeli hospital had been delayed.
Dr. Yassin explained that Tamer’s condition had gotten worse over the past few weeks, showing symptoms of blood problems in his brain, so the ill-equipped hospital requested his urgent referral for an MRI scan and follow-up, which meant accessing medical care facilities in Israel or Egypt.
Working in less than ideal conditions with fuel supplies cut and medicine not entering the strip, Gaza Children’s Hospital is currently hospitalizing a number of patients, including many infants and 10 cases of cardiac disease patients. more..
Dan Lieberman: The Turbulent Winds of the Annapolis Conference
Palestine Chronicle 11/21/2007
Discussing the proposed Annapolis Conference, in face-to-face talks with the prime ministers, foreign ministers and non-government officials (NGOs) of Israel, Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, revealed how far we are from achieving peace in the Middle East and how far Annapolis is from the Earth that others walk upon. As part of a delegation of six intrepid fact finders, supported by the Council for the National Interest (CNI), a Washington based NGO that labors intensively to determine paths towards Middle East peace, I found a hopeful wind that moved Israeli and Palestinian to portray optimism. This hopeful wind slowly reduced in force in Jordan, quickly diminished when meeting Syrian vice-presidents and turned to an ill wind in meetings with the Lebanese president, prime minister and foreign minister in the second week of November.
The search for Middle East peace started on a discordant note at a meeting with Gush Shalom (peace bloc) spokesperson Uri Avnery, the most notable advocate for a just peace with the Palestinians. Uri used the words "unsure" and "window dressing" to describe the intended conference. He didn’t sense that Hamas, with whom he has close contacts, would agree to a piece of paper and voiced the opinion that Hamas would "only make a truce and not a peace pact." more..
Proceed Steadily but Firmly
Caelum Moffatt for MIFTAH, MIFTAH 11/21/2007
After seven years of stalled negotiations between Israel and Palestine, one could possibly not presume that all problems would be solved by one summit, let alone a summit that had been penciled in just as the two old enemies had reconvened dialogue.
The summit in Annapolis is set to begin next Monday and the negotiating teams on both sides are still attempting to construct a joint document on “core” issues under significant pressure from the US and Arab states. The truth is that President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert should push for the “core” issues they are able to openly discuss and implement with immediate effect – namely those raised in the Road Map. If they rush an agreement on all six “core” issues, the summit is headed for disagreement, exhausting debate, wasted words and failure. There are too many exterior forces presently preventing them from deliberating on such issues. more..
The Annapolis Talks / Blaming the other Guy
Aluf Benn, MIFTAH 11/21/2007
Israeli-Palestinian disputes over the anticipated Annapolis declaration resemble theological disputes from the Middle Ages: Negotiators argue over whether the road map’s first stage should be implemented sequentially or simultaneously, and whether disagreements should be resolved by a trilateral Israeli-Palestinian-American committee or a single American arbitrator.
The road map’s first phase states that the Palestinian Authority must take "sustained, targeted and effective" action against terror, while Israel must freeze settlements, evacuate outposts and reopen PA institutions in East Jerusalem. Both sides know that none of these things will happen. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas opposes terror, but is incapable of fighting it. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert supports evacuating both outposts and settlements, but does not want a battle with the settlers now. That is clear from the way he avoided announcing a settlement freeze yesterday, instead making do with an ambiguous comment about Israel’s commitment to the road map and pledges not to build new settlements or expropriate Palestinian land - pledges that Ariel Sharon made to the Americans six years ago. As Dov Weissglas said, Abbas and Olmert would need "to become Finns" to implement the road map. more..
Fewer Americans Believe Israel is Ready to Make Peace
Shmuel Rosner, MIFTAH 11/21/2007
My New York-based colleague Shlomo Shamir (and other reporters in other news outlets), wrote yesterday about the new Anti Defamation League survey dealing with American attitudes toward Israel. "Majority of Americans are still strong supporters of Israel" was the headline. That is certainly true, and the poll is definitely positive.
But not all of it is positive, and the numbers merit another look. So here it is:
1.According to the ADL, 58 percent of Americans hold Israel in high regard compared to other countries. That is much lower than Britain and Japan, still higher than France, much higher than Pakistan. A similar comparison can be found in a Quinnipiac poll from last November. France is much lower in the Quinnipiac poll, which tells you how fast such things can change. Also, in the Quinnipiac poll India is 12 points lower than Israel ? while in the ADL poll they are tied. more..
Sidetracked by the Roadmap
Ghassan Khatib, MIFTAH 11/21/2007
The sudden reference by Palestinian and Israeli negotiators to the roadmap, drafted years ago in an attempt to rescue the parties from the quicksand of violence and recriminations, was a bit confusing for analysts on both sides. The shift seemed inconsistent with the major political issues that require sorting out through negotiations, particularly the final status issues. In addition, Palestinians and Israelis have already tried the roadmap--and failed to navigate it.
The political investments that are approaching fruition at the end of this month in Annapolis began when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, with the encouragement of US Secretary of State Rice, tried to narrow the existing political gaps between the two sides. No doubt, these talks sparked a unique political discussion on issues such as Jerusalem, settlements and borders. Over time, however, everyone involved came to realize that it would not be easy to make progress on these issues. Hence we are now returning to implementing the roadmap. more..
Documentary on Carter Offers Insights into a Great Man
Ray Hanania, MIFTAH 11/21/2007
Even before anyone realized that Jimmy Carter’s book “Palestine: Peace not Apartheid” would stir up controversy and a lively but sometimes vicious debate, filmmaker Jonathan Demme decided to follow the former president during his book tour.
Demme has produced a powerful documentary, “Jimmy Carter: A Man from Plains,” now showing in limited distribution in major cities around the country.
For me, it was one thing to read Carter’s book — most journalists and critics who trashed it and the author did not read it. But it is even more moving to witness Carter through Demme’s Hollywood lens as he travels from book stores, to media interviews to university speeches preaching peace, justice and principle.
Demme is best known to me as the director of the shocking Hollywood film, “Silence of the Lambs.”
In an ironic way, Demme’s documentary on Carter might also borrow the same film title, but in a different way. “Man from Plains” exposes the “silence of the lambs” when it comes to how the news media reports the facts in the Middle East conflict. more..
Will Annapolis Fail Like All the Others?
Paul Reynolds, MIFTAH 11/21/2007
A veteran reporter on the Middle East asked me the other day: "Is it too late?"
We had been discussing the prospects for the meeting in Annapolis in the United States scheduled for next week at which the Israelis and Palestinians are supposed to commit themselves to reaching a peace agreement.
My instinct was to agree with him. We had first met in Jerusalem in the mid 1980s and have followed the ups and downs of negotiations since. The experience has not made us optimists.
Aims of Annapolis
As yet another attempt to get a final settlement gets underway, it is fair to ask if this is really more about giving the appearance of progress than making progress.
Annapolis is a pleasant Maryland town on the Chesapeake Bay and home to the US Naval Academy.
No doubt some fine words will be spoken there.
The Annapolis "meeting" (it is denied the honour of being called a "conference" in order to reduce expectations) is designed to launch a process not complete it. more..
UN Aid Chief Attacks New Israeli Checkpoint Plan
Rory Mccarthy, MIFTAH 11/21/2007
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees launched a scathing attack today on a new Israeli plan for a system of checkpoint terminals across the occupied West Bank.
Karen AbuZayd, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said Israeli authorities had told them of plans to install six specially built terminals to check people and cargo, including aid deliveries.
She said it would hamper the agency’s work and dramatically raise costs.
"An insidious new regime to limit freedom of movement is threatening to further stifle economic activity and smother social interaction between villages and towns in the West Bank," AbuZayd said today at a meeting of UNRWA donors in Amman, Jordan.
Israeli officials said the terminals were intended to "streamline" crossings.
The new checkpoint policy comes at a time when Israel and the Palestinians are engaged in a new round of talks ahead of a summit expected next week in Annapolis, in the US, which is intended to restart peace negotiations. more..
Negotiations on a Knife-Edge Ahead of Middle East Summit
Donald Macintyre, MIFTAH 11/21/2007
Israeli and moderate Palestinian leaders were last night struggling to agree a joint declaration intended to be the centrepiece of the international United States-convened Middle East summit less than a week away.
Palestinian and Israeli negotiators reconvened in the wake of two and half hours of direct talks between the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, to overcome differences still clouding the planned summit, intended to kick-start the first resumption of a peace process in seven years.
Miri Eisin, Mr Olmert’s spokesperson, said there had been "progress" at the talks but officials on both sides acknowledged the possibility that the summit scheduled for next week in Annapolis, Maryland, could go ahead without a joint declaration designed to define common ground between the two sides. One possibility, if a joint declaration cannot be agreed, is said to be two separate declarations by Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas – or even for the parameters of future negotiations to be left to the speech President George Bush makes to the conference. more..
In Annapolis, A Middle East Peace Meeting Defined By Fear
Trudy Rubin, MIFTAH 11/21/2007
Thirty years ago, on Nov. 19, 1977, I stood at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport as Anwar el-Sadat’s plane landed on the tarmac. The scene defied imagination, as the Egyptian leader embraced Israeli leaders. Hope was in the air. Suddenly, anything seemed possible.
Mr. Sadat’s bold move led to Israeli accords with Egypt and Jordan and the tantalizing hope of a deal with the Palestinians. But over the last seven years, the peace process has virtually collapsed.
Now comes the Annapolis meeting - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s gamble that she can spark a new push for a Palestinian state living peacefully beside Israel.
Yet this upcoming peace conference is defined less by hope than by fear.
The United States and its Sunni Arab allies are worried stiff about Iran’s growing clout in the Middle East and the rapid decline of U.S. influence. So is Israel. more..
As Order Slides, Palestinian Women Face Honor Killings
Ilene Prusher, MIFTAH 11/21/2007
QALQILYA, WEST BANK
All the women in the family say Wafa Wahdan was wonderful.
But her sisters-in-law add that they noticed a few little things. She had changed the way she dressed in the past year to a less conservative style and she sometimes went out for a drive without saying where she was going.
A few weeks ago, the body of the young mother of four was found in a garbage dump east of town. Police arrested two of the woman’s male cousins for having trapped Ms. Wahdan and shot her to death, committing the third "honor killing" in Qalqilya last month.
Wahdan’s brutal murder devastated her husband and immediate family, who say that the rumor mill’s tales of Wahdan having an affair were untrue. But regardless of their veracity, suspicion alone can be enough to get a woman killed by distant relatives looking to "cleanse" the family honor when there is talk of an illicit relationship. more..
Israel Takes Steps to Attract Arab States to Peace Talks
Scott Wilson, MIFTAH 11/21/2007
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, hoping to draw more Arab countries to a U.S.-sponsored peace conference this month, persuaded his cabinet Monday to endorse the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and restated a pledge to stop building new Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.
But Palestinian officials said Olmert had not gone far enough in signaling his willingness to make concessions before the meeting, tentatively scheduled for Nov. 27 in Annapolis. Earlier in the day, Olmert cautioned against creating "exaggerated expectations," although he said the meeting is an important step in restarting formal negotiations with the Palestinians after nearly seven years of dormancy.
Such influential Arab countries as Saudi Arabia, which does not officially recognize Israel, are deciding now whether to attend the meeting. The release of Palestinian prisoners, roughly 10,000 of whom are in Israeli jails, and a freeze on all settlement activity have been two items the Saudis and other Arab countries have demanded in return for their participation. more..
Halting Steps Taken to Frame Mideast Talks
Isabel Kershner, MIFTAH 11/21/2007
Israeli and Palestinian leaders made new efforts on Monday toward preparing a joint statement before an international peace gathering planned for next week, but some issues have yet to be resolved, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, met at the prime minister’s residence here to try to salvage efforts to agree on a short written text.
The statement would be presented at the American-sponsored gathering tentatively scheduled for Nov. 26 and 27 in Annapolis, Md.
Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Mr. Olmert, said after the meeting that there appeared to be progress and “enough agreement on enough issues” to avert any sense of crisis.
Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiator, said the leaders had exchanged new proposals. “Are there differences remaining? Yes,” he said. Aides from both sides said the negotiating teams planned to continue working. more..
Israel Setting Tone for Talks
Abraham Rabinovich, MIFTAH 11/21/2007
Israeli leaders have taken to using a new phrase loaded with hidden meaning ahead of a proposed conference this month in Annapolis — "two states for two peoples."
The phrase is a variation on the Bush administration’s repeated calls for a "two-state solution," which implies Israel’s abandonment of the notion of a Greater Israel that incorporates the West Bank and the Palestinians’ abandonment of any notion of destroying Israel.
The "two peoples" formulation — acquiring currency among Israeli leaders in the weeks before an international conference in Maryland — sounds innocuous enough to the untrained ear.
But the formulation is in fact a political battle cry — a blunt rejection of Arab demands that Palestinian refugees be permitted to return to Israel.
If this was not clear enough, Israeli spokesmen have spelled it out. The phrase, they said, means that Palestinian refugees could return to the planned Palestinian state but not to Israel, whose Jewish character would be overwhelmed by such an influx. more..
Invites Set for Mideast Conference
Anne Gearan, MIFTAH 11/21/2007
The United States plans to issue as early as Tuesday official invitations to a much-anticipated Middle East conference, to be held next week at Annapolis, Md., hoping for strong backing from a select group of Arab nations for the U.S. effort to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
As the U.S. finalizes preparations, the State Department will start sending out invitations overnight for the event, U.S. officials said Monday. The conference will be held in Annapolis on Nov. 27 in between meetings in Washington. The main guests are the Israelis and the Palestinians, and the Bush administration also is inviting Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and key international players in the peace process, the officials said.
The invitations are to be sent by diplomatic cable to U.S. embassies in the countries concerned, with instructions to Washington’s ambassadors to present them to their host governments’ foreign ministries, the officials said. They will ask that each nation send its highest-ranking appropriate official to Annapolis. more..
Photostory: The month in pictures
Slideshow, The Electronic Intifada, 21 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/21/2007
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You have reached an Electronic Intifada slide show. The Electronic Intifada (EI), found at electronicIntifada.net, publishes news, commentary, analysis, and reference materials about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict from a Palestinian perspective.
The above slideshow is a selection of images from the month of October 2007. The month in pictures is an ongoing feature of the Electronic Intifada. If you have images documenting Palestine, Palestinian life, politics and culture, or of solidarity with Palestine, please email images and captions to photos A T electronicintifada D O T net. more..
Homes in Illegal Israeli Settlements for Sale at London Expo
Haroon Siddique, MIFTAH 11/19/2007
Israeli companies are using UK property shows to sell housing in illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Guardian Unlimited can reveal.
At the Israel Property Exhibition at Brent town hall, North London last Sunday, one company, Anglo-Saxon Real Estate, was offering for sale properties in Maale Adumim and Maccabim. Both West Bank settlements lie on the Palestinian side of the so-called green line, the pre-1967 boundary and often cited as the border between Israel and a future Palestinian state.
The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, are expected to meet before the end of the year in Annapolis, in the US, for peace talks that have the backing of the UK government.
Abbas has demanded the Israelis halt all settlement activity and that the whole West Bank be included in a future Palestinian state. Kim Howells, the British minister for foreign and commonwealth affairs, has described settlement activity as an "obstacle to peace". more..
Visiting Palestine
Deborah Agre, MIFTAH 11/19/2007
Almost every day, I think, talk, and read about Palestine. But it had been more than three years since my last trip and there are some things you can really only get by going there -- seeing the landscape and its destruction, the daily insults and injuries of occupation, and most of all, getting to know a few people, hearing their stories, and being invited into their lives.
Yacoub Odeh was the guide for Middle East Children’s Alliance’s twelve-day tour through Palestine/Israel. He became a friend who told me and showed me things I know I will never forget. At age 67, Yacoub seems to carry with him the whole history of modern Palestine. And that is above all a history -- and ongoing experience -- of terrible loss.
On day one, Yacoub took us to Lifta, the village in West Jerusalem where he was born and where he lived until 1948 when he, along with his family, his neighbors and approximately 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes by the militias that would soon become the Israeli military. more..
The PA Cannot Remain Transitional Much Longer
Ghassan Khatib, MIFTAH 11/19/2007
The Palestinian Authority was created as a result of the interim agreement stipulated in the Oslo accords. However, the nature and perception of this authority developed in a way that deviated from what Palestinians originally intended. This was partly a result of the vagueness of the original agreement and the contradicting understandings of the Palestinian and Israeli sides of those accords and their different components, including the nature of the PA.
Palestinians perceived the PA as a transitional authority that would develop into a full state. Different Israeli political parties, however, held different views on the future of the PA. The regular changes of coalitions in Israel thus affected the dominant Israeli policies vis-a-vis the PA. Since the assassination of Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin, several Israeli governments were led by parties that did not necessarily believe in the goal of ending the occupation and establishing a fully sovereign independent Palestinian state. As a result, these Israeli government pursued policies aimed at preventing the PA from emerging as the basis of such a state. more..
We Were as Dreamers
Gideon Levy, MIFTAH 11/19/2007
It was the end of the summer of 1977. Menachem Begin, the father of all "revolutions" and fears, was already prime minister, and I was walking down Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv with a German colleague. He was telling me about his visit to Cairo, and I said to him: "That’s the difference between us. You are free to travel the world and I will never reach countries that are terra incognita - Egypt, for example."
At the end of that year, I landed in the middle of the night in Cairo and arrived at my hotel, Mena House. I threw myself down on the bed, exhausted from the long trip via Athens and from the tension of being an Israeli traveling alone to an enemy country. In the morning I opened the curtains to one of the wonders of the world: the pyramids of Giza. I knew this would be a moment to treasure forever.
I will also never forget - a few weeks before that special moment and exactly 30 years ago today - November 19, when, as a young broadcaster for Army Radio, I was waiting for then president Anwar Sadat to land at Ben-Gurion International Airport. We stood in the press box, and we were as dreamers. more..
Israeli and PA Sources: Summit May End Without Joint Declaration
Barak Ravid and Avi Issacharoff, MIFTAH 11/19/2007
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will meet today in an effort to achieve a breakthrough in the drafting of the joint declaration for the Annapolis summit.
Also today, the cabinet will hold a special session for a discussion of the conference, planned for next week, and the issues that are expected to be raised there, during which ministers will have the opportunity to voice concerns about the talks with the Palestinians.
In the Palestinian camp, meanwhile, there is an increasingly acrimonious discussion over the way negotiations with Israel and the United States are being conducted.
Olmert and Abbas will meet today in Jerusalem to discuss ways of moving forward on the issue of the joint declaration. Yesterday, negotiating teams of the two sides met but achieved no progress.
A senior government official said yesterday that "we have summarized all the points so that the leaders will be able to cut through and decide what will be in and what will not, forming an idea of what the joint declaration will look like." more..
How to Get Out?
Uri Avnery, MIFTAH 11/19/2007
THE ANNAPOLIS conference is a joke. Though not in the least funny.
Like quite a lot of political initiatives, this one too, according to all the indications, started more or less by accident. George Bush was due to make a speech. He was looking for a theme that would give it some substance. Something that would divert attention away from his fiascos in Iraq and Afghanistan. Something simple, optimistic, easy to swallow.
Somehow, the idea of a "meeting" of leaders to promote the Israeli-Palestinian "process" came up. An international meeting is always nice - it looks good on television, it provides plenty of photo-opportunities, it radiates optimism. We meet, ergo we exist.
So Bush voiced the idea: a "meeting" for the promotion of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Without any preceding strategic planning, any careful preparations, anything much at all. more..
Israeli closure claims cancer victim
Report, PCHR, 18 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/18/2007
PCHR strongly condemns Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) for continuing to deny Palestinians in Gaza access to medical care outside the strip through the prevention of passage or delay in movement, placing at risk the lives of dozens of critically ill patients. The latest victim of this IOF policy, who died yesterday, was a cancer patient from Gaza City who was not able to reach Egyptian hospitals due to the closure of Rafah Crossing or Israeli hospitals due to IOF’s ban on his passage through Beit Hanoun "Erez" checkpoint.
The Center’s preliminary investigation indicates that on the morning of Saturday, 17 November 2007, Na’el Abd al-Rahman Khamis al-Kordi (21), from Sheikh Radwan Quarter in Gaza City, died when his health condition deteriorated after IOF banned him from obtaining a permit for treatment in an Israeli hospital. The victim’s brother, Rami, stated that his brother was diagnosed with cancer about a year and half ago. At the time, the family applied for a permit to treat Na’el in an Israeli hospital. However, the request was denied and the family took him to an Egyptian hospital for treatment. He returned to Gaza, but was due for a follow-up appointment in Egypt in June 2007. The closure of Rafah Crossing since 15 June 2007 prevented him from traveling for the appointment. His condition deteriorated due to the lack of availability of treatment in the Gaza Strip. The family made three attempts to obtain a permit for Na’el to be treated inside Israel. However, IOF rejected all applications. The last attempt was on 31 October 2007 through the Liaison Office in the Ministry of Health. Médecins Sans Frontières intervened to secure the permit but the family did not receive a reply. The victim’s condition continued to deteriorate during the waiting period till he died Saturday morning. more..
Meet the Lebanese Press: Eleventh hour politics and social malaise
Hicham Safieddine, Electronic Lebanon, 19 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/19/2007
A billboard in Beirut marks the days since Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated by a car bomb, 10 November 2007. (
Matthew Cassel
Confused last ditch efforts to "elect" a president by local, regional, and international consensus has thrown Lebanon into new uncertainty with only a few days left before the current president’s term expires. International brokers and kingpins are busy making the rounds domestically and regionally to resolve the deadlock. Following futile attempts to reach a deal amongst the different political leaders, an uneasy consensus relegated the duty of choosing a list of candidates to the Maronite Christian Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir. Sfeir in turn -- and after much hesitation but with prompting from France -- reportedly handed over such a list to Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri and MP Saad Hariri, both engaged in one-on-one negotiations on behalf of their respective coalitions, March 8 and March 14. (A lot of secrecy is surrounding this list. Press reports estimate that a total of six names are included and several names are speculated.) more..
Israel, free speech, and the Oxford Union
Avi Shlaim, The Electronic Intifada, 19 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/19/2007
Israel is often portrayed by its supporters as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. But these very same supporters, in their excessive zeal for their cause, sometimes end up violating one of the most fundamental principles of democracy -- the right to free speech. While accepting free speech as a universal value, all too often they try to restrict it when it comes to Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians. The result is not to encourage but to stifle debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Britain prides itself on its tradition of free speech and civilized debate on all subjects, including Israel. The great majority of British Jews are part of this tradition. Professor Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, is a notable example of this fair-minded, liberal, and pluralistic tradition. One of his sixteen books is called The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations. On the other side of the Atlantic, on the other hand, the public debate on the subject of Israel is much more fierce and partisan, leaving relatively little space for the dignity of difference. The passion with which many prominent American Jews defend Israel betrays an atavistic attitude of "My country, right or wrong." more..
After 20 years, freedom is sweet
Michel Shehadeh, The Electronic Intifada, 19 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/19/2007
For the last 20 years, the US government has accused me of being a terrorist. Along with six other Palestinians and a Kenyan, we were dubbed the "Los Angeles Eight" by the media. Our case even made it to the US Supreme Court.
On 30 October -- 20 grueling years after the early morning raid in which armed federal agents barged into my apartment, brutally arrested me before my three-year-old son’s eyes, incarcerated me in maximum security cells in San Pedro State Prison for 23 days without bond, and attempted to deport me -- the government dropped all charges fabricated against me. The charges involved accusations of aiding a member group of the Palestine Liberation Organization that the government alleged aided terrorism. But Los Angeles immigration Judge Bruce J. Einhorn had ordered an end to the deportation proceedings against us last January because the government failed to comply with his order to disclose evidence that supported our innocence. He called their behavior "an embarrassment to the rule of law." more..
Photostory: Bil’in, the art of shaking off
Adam Beach, The Electronic Intifada, 19 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/19/2007
In January 2005 the people of the West Bank village of Bil’in began holding weekly demonstrations demanding access to their farmlands that had been cut off by the Israeli separation barrier. During that time of popular and nonviolent struggle the response by the Israeli army intensified and grew increasingly violent. Because of their resilience, the people of Bil’in’s struggle began to receive media coverage and support internationally. The separation barrier has stagnated the agriculturally-based economy in Bil’in and has become a symbol of Israeli oppression and colonization in the West Bank.
A few weeks ago the Israeli High Court finally followed through on its classification of the route of the wall as illegal and ordered the IDF and Israeli government to reroute the wall in Bil’in. Though only a little over half the stolen farmland will be given back it is still unclear when the decision will be enforced. more..
The PA cannot remain transitional
Ghassan Khatib, Daily Star 11/16/2007
The Palestinian Authority was created as a result of the interim agreement stipulated in the Oslo Accords. However, the nature and perception of this authority developed in a way that deviated from what Palestinians originally intended. This was partly a result of the vagueness of the original agreement and the contradicting understandings of the Palestinian and Israeli sides of those accords and their different components, including the nature of the PA.
Palestinians perceived the PA as a transitional authority that would develop into a full state. Different Israeli political parties, however, held different views on the future of the PA. The regular changes of coalitions in Israel thus affected the dominant Israeli policies vis-a-vis the PA. Since the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, several Israeli governments were led by parties that did not necessarily believe in the goal of ending the ... more..
Middle East Talks in Annapolis: Photo-Op or Talk-Fest
Phyllis Bennis, ZNet 11/17/2007
There is one thing certain about the international (or regional or bilateral) Middle East peace conference (or meeting or get-together) called by Condoleezza Rice (or George Bush or Elliott Abrams) for November (or maybe December): it’s going to be held in Annapolis, Maryland (probably).
Rice’s sudden renewal of interest in and commitment to a new Middle East "peace process" has two main goals: buying support from Arab regimes for Washington’s war in Iraq and escalating threats against Iran, and providing a photo-op to restore Rice’s tarnished legacy.
The agenda for the talks has not yet been finalized, but it will not include the goal of reversing Israeli occupation and dispossession and ending Israel’s discriminatory apartheid policies.
Because of U.S.-Israeli control of the agenda, "success" in Annapolis will depend on whether the Palestinian leadership can be coerced to sign on to a U.S.-Israeli text that many Palestinians will view as further abandonment of Palestinian national goals, and many in international civil society will see as violations of international law and human rights. There are serious questions whether the meeting as currently envisioned will be convened at all because of Palestinian refusal to accept U.S.-backed Israeli preconditions. more..
Articulating the Unprintable: Ramzy Baroud Discusses Media Response to His Book
Ramzy Baroudinterviewed byJune Rugh, ZNet 11/15/2007
Ramzy Baroud, veteran Palestinian-American journalist and Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Chronicle, recently completed a speaking tour of the United States’ East Coast to promote his second book, The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle (Pluto Press, 2006). The Second Palestinian Intifada is a far-reaching account of key events of the past five years that transformed the political landscape not only of Palestine and Israel, but of the entire Middle East. With a critical eye, Baroud takes the most controversial issues head-on: the alarming escalation in suicide bombings, the construction of the Separation Wall, the devastating hunger and unemployment in the Occupied Territories, the brutality of the Israeli army, the political surprise of the Palestinian elections. more..
Torturing Palestinian Detainees
Stephen Lendman, ZNet 11/15/2007
B’Tselem is the conservative Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories with a well-deserved reputation for accuracy. A group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists and Knesset members founded the organization in 1989 to "document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel" to convince government officials to respect human rights and comply with international law.
Its work covers a wide range of human rights issues that include detentions and torture. In May, 2007, it prepared a detailed 100 page report titled "Absolute Prohibition: The Torture and Ill-treatment of Palestinian Detainees" that’s now available in print for those who request it. This article summarizes its findings that represent a joint effort by B’Tselem and HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual that was founded in 1988 to support Palestinian rights during the first intifada in the late 1980s. more..
JUSTmedia.net: New People Media Project to launch Soon
Palestine Chronicle 11/17/2007
The project has a diverse range of board members that include internationally-renowned intellectuals and activists such as Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Vandana Shiva and Arun Gandhi.
Dedicated to dialogue, democratic discourse and the availability and viability of such values in today’s media, the project characterizes itself as the facilitator of productive communication between a large array of experts who represent diverse views - especially those often overlooked or discounted entirely by the media - and existing media channels.
The project promises utilizing the proficiency of hundreds of people in fields like democracy, human rights, politics, health, the environment, and others, to make possible a wider and more informative discourse about such issues.
The database on the website JustMedia.net will provide a conduit that enables scholars, experts and activists to present their profiles to media producers worldwide. more..
George McLeod: Finkelstein: Taking on the Lobby
Palestine Chronicle 11/17/2007
’I have no regrets," says Norman Finkelstein, after losing one of the most divisive and publicised campus battles in US history.
Despite student demonstrations and sit-ins, protests from some of the world’s most prominent academics and an outcry from free speech groups, Finkelstein was dismissed from DePaul University, the US’ largest Catholic university. The firing generated headlines around the world with many claiming it was an effort to gag his criticisms of the Israel lobby and Israel’s human rights record in Palestine.
One of the most well-known and outspoken commentators on Israeli policy, Finkelstein is the author of five noted books on the Israel-Palestine issue and is a popular speaker on the subject.
Finkelstein accuses the lobby of using the Holocaust to stifle debate on Israel and to embezzle funds earmarked for Holocaust victims. Much of Finkelstein’s research on Israel relies on mainstream human rights organisations, which he says universally condemn Israel for torture, illegal imprisonment and intentionally killing civilians. more..
Stephen Lendman: Torturing Palestinian Detainees
Palestine Chronicle 11/17/2007
B’Tselem is the conservative Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories with a well-deserved reputation for accuracy. A group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists and Knesset members founded the organization in 1989 to "document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel" to convince government officials to respect human rights and comply with international law.
Its work covers a wide range of human rights issues that include detentions and torture. In May, 2007, it prepared a detailed 100 page report titled "Absolute Prohibition: The Torture and Ill-treatment of Palestinian Detainees" that’s now available in print for those who request it. This article summarizes its findings that represent a joint effort by B’Tselem and HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual that was founded in 1988 to support Palestinian rights during the first intifada in the late 1980s. more..
Terry Walz: Gaza: A Vast Unimproved Refugee Camp
Palestine Chronicle 11/17/2007
Gaza is reverting to its status as the largest of the Palestinian refugee camps. It is a bleak and hopeless territory twice the size of Washington, DC where 1.5 million inhabitants eke out living on $2 a day and handouts from the UN Relief and Works Agency and the World Food Program. The steady deterioration of Gaza life to camp-like conditions is the result of Israeli and American policies toward Hamas, the dominant political party who took power in Gaza in a violent coup this past summer.
The painful irony of Gaza’s evolution from regular refugee camp to mammoth refugee camp is that it is being painfully ignored in the run-up to the "international peace conference" for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The grandness of the concepts being tossed about - of new tripartite commissions to monitor the implementation of post-Annapolis peace steps, of political horizons, and core issue resolution - monstrously ridicule the facts on the ground. more..
Don’t honor Peres’ war criminal history
Open Letter, PACBI, 9 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/9/2007
The following is an open letter to Professor Ali Dogramaci, Rector of Bilkent University, Ankara:
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) views with grave concern your university’s intention to honor Shimon Peres with an Honorary Doctorate. We feel certain that you do so without the knowledge of his personal history and his history as president of a state that practices the most pernicious form of colonialism and apartheid. Bear with us as we recount the most salient points of his career and life which directly point to a record of war crimes which will immeasurably tarnish the image of Bilkent University, should you confer an Honorary Degree upon him. Those who have received this prestigious degree from your university will be tainted by being in the company of such a notorious personality.
On 18 April 1996, when Israel still occupied southern Lebanon, Shimon Peres was Prime Minister. He was in the midst of an election campaign, so he took a decision to do something to change his "dovish" image because doves are not respected in Israel. He launched "Operation Grapes of Wrath" causing 400,000 Lebanese to flee their homes, with almost 800 of them fleeing to a UN base in Qana, South Lebanon. more..
Visiting Palestine
Deborah Agre writing from occupied Jerusalem, Live from Palestine, 15, Electronic Intifada 11/15/2007
Almost every day, I think, talk, and read about Palestine. But it had been more than three years since my last trip and there are some things you can really only get by going there -- seeing the landscape and its destruction, the daily insults and injuries of occupation, and most of all, getting to know a few people, hearing their stories, and being invited into their lives.
Yacoub Odeh was the guide for Middle East Children’s Alliance’s twelve-day tour through Palestine/Israel.He became a friend who told me and showed me things I know I will never forget.At age 67, Yacoub seems to carry with him the whole history of modern Palestine.And that is above all a history -- and ongoing experience -- of terrible loss.
On day one, Yacoub took us to Lifta, the village in West Jerusalem where he was born and where he lived until 1948 when he, along with his family, his neighbors and approximately 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes by the militias that would soon become the Israeli military. more..
Meeting the Other in Israel, Palestine
By Kathleen and Bill Christison - Former CIA Analysts - PalestineChronicle.com, International Middle East Media Center 11/14/2007
One hesitates to criticize these enterprises. They're so well meaning, and it seems so curmudgeonly. But the myriad efforts around the world to bring the children of political conflicts, most notably the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, together in some kind of forced intimacy -- schools or camps or the like -- so that they can get to know each other and learn that each is human, can and often do actually perpetuate the conflict.
One of these camps for Israeli and Palestinian girls meets several times every summer at a mountain retreat near where we live in New Mexico. For the last several years, this camp has brought together teenage girls from both sides for two weeks of living together -- sharing rooms, eating communally, doing crafts and musical activities together, and talking endlessly about themselves, their societies, their fears of each other. They leave with a new perspective, able to see each other as real people with similar concerns over boys, similar teenage angst, similar difficulties with parents. But, however equal they may be in the mountains of New Mexico, they do not return home as equals or return to a new and different set of circumstances in their daily lives. more..
The Deadly Dance for Peace
Sonja Karkar, ZNet 11/15/2007
With the beating of war drums sounding louder by the day, the US is nevertheless engaging its Middle East protagonists in an elaborate dance for peace that it hopes will resolve the Israel/Palestine conflict after a November summit.
But, in all the flurry of preliminary talks intended to establish a joint statement of principles, Israel is showing no signs of good faith. This leaves the Palestinian negotiators as unequal as ever in their desire to be partners for peace.
History should give everyone pause to reflect.
Past peace talks have never amounted to anything and there is nothing to suggest that this summit will achieve anything either. One has only to recall the failures of Oslo, Camp David, Taba, the Saudi Peace Plan, the Road Map and the Geneva Accord.
more..
Sonja Karkar: The Deadly Dance for Peace
Palestine Chronicle 11/13/2007
With the beating of war drums sounding louder by the day, the US is nevertheless engaging its Middle East protagonists in an elaborate dance for peace that it hopes will resolve the Israel/Palestine conflict after a November summit. But, in all the flurry of preliminary talks intended to establish a joint statement of principles, Israel is showing no signs of good faith. This leaves the Palestinian negotiators as unequal as ever in their desire to be partners for peace.
History should give everyone pause to reflect. Past peace talks have never amounted to anything and there is nothing to suggest that this summit will achieve anything either. One has only to recall the failures of Oslo, Camp David, Taba, the Saudi Peace Plan, the Road Map and the Geneva Accord. Yet, the Palestinians are again allowing themselves to be swept up in the diplomatic contredanse, with America confidently waving on the show.
more..
Uri Avnery: The Last Refuge
Palestine Chronicle 11/13/2007
Israel is an island in the global sea. We live in a bubble. This week I was sharply reminded of this.
I was returning home from Germany. On the eve of the flight, all TV networks, from CNN and BBC to the German channels, were reporting on the events in Pakistan. In the airplane, I opened Israel’s largest circulation tabloid, Yedioth Aharonoth, in order to read about the Pakistani mess. I did not find any mention of it on page 1. Nor on page 2. I found a small item on page 27. The first pages were devoted to something much more important: the shouts of protest by right-wing football hooligans when they were requested to stand up in memory of Yitzhak Rabin.
The next day, Yedioth found an Israeli angle that enabled it to put Pakistan on the front page after all: the fear that the Pakistani nuclear bomb would fall into the hands of Osama bin Laden, who would aim it at Israel. Hallelujah, there is again something to be afraid of.
more..
Nicola Nasser: NATO Expands into Arab South
Palestine Chronicle 11/13/2007
Discreetly but progressively and confidently the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is expanding south and southeast almost uncontested -- after the collapse of the former USSR-led Warsaw Pact -- outside the mandate designated by its statute into the Arab Middle East as well as into the Caspian Sea regions.
However, the U.S. obsession with the Iranian threat and with finding an exit strategy from the Iraqi quagmire made Washington less attentive to Turkey’s legitimate vital national interests, thus insensitively antagonizing the alliance’s southern strong arm and alerting it into the defensive, not against enemies, but against its own allies. Turkey now stands in the eye of a storm created by this same ally, a storm threatening a geopolitical fall out between the two NATO allies since 1952.
NATO has already secured its presence on the middle tier between the two regions, in Turkey (a member), Afghanistan (where it has a 25.000-strong force) and to a lesser extent in Iraq where the western alliance is training the “new Iraqi army.”
more..
Aijaz Zaka Syed: Whose War is It, Anyway?
Palestine Chronicle 11/13/2007
The other day I was watching this movie, The Sum of All Fears. The movie is based on a Tom Clancy novel by the same name. Clancy has long been a darling of Hollywood dream merchants. And if you’ve read any of his breathlessly racy thrillers, you would know why.
Here’s a master storyteller who brings to life our worst fears and insecurities. And they appear frighteningly close to reality. After all, that is what all good fiction is supposed to do: reflect life as it is or could be. This is what The Sum of All Fears seems to do too. In the Ben Afleck and Morgan Freeman-starrer, the world comes as close as within 30 seconds to a nuclear holocaust. The action is set in post-Soviet Union world when there’s a weak leader in Kremlin. Some Israeli rogue scientists and closet Nazis from East Germany (what a combination!) use a nuclear weapon that Israel couldn’t use against the Arabs in 1973 war to wreak nuclear havoc on an unsuspecting world. As a footnote, we are told it was Israel’s friends in high places in the US who ‘stole’ the nuke to gift it to the Jewish state after 1967 War with Arabs.
more..
Felicity Arbuthnot: Mosul: Another ‘Paradise Lost’?
Palestine Chronicle 11/13/2007
Iraq is now threatened with a flood of biblical proportions. The Mosul dam, thirty miles north of Iraq’s ancient third city is likely to burst, due to the mismanagement and potential fraud relating to the $27 million “donated” by the United States for its repair, according to a Report by Stuart Bowen, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, released on Tuesday, 30th October.
In September 2006, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) stated: “In terms of internal erosion potential of the foundation, Mosul Dam is the most dangerous dam in the world .... If a small problem (at) Mosul Dam occurs, failure is likely.” The dam is the largest in Iraq and the fourth largest in the Middle East. Were the dam breached, the ACE estimate that Mosul city (2002 population 1.7 million) would be engulfed in a wall of water twenty metres (sixty six feet) high, which would flood all in its path down to Baghdad. In May this year, General David Petraeus and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker, wrote to “Prime Minister” Nuri Maliki, urging him to make the repair of the dam a “national priority”. Maliki’s U.S., puppet, corruption ridden, government is playing down the dangers - it is thought to avoid causing panic - and next to nothing has been done by way of action.
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Monthly Summary of Israeli Violations
Palestinian Monitoring Group, MIFTAH 11/13/2007
The following summary table and overview of events is a survey of Israeli violations during the period 01 October 2007 to 31 October 2007. The report includes a summary table of events by type throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in addition to a comparative table surveying events over the past three months.
The survey is compiled from Daily Situation Reports of the Palestinian Monitoring Group (PMG), Negotiations Affairs Department (NAD), and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PMG monitors all aspects of ground conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including Israeli violations, Palestinian violations, and Palestinian achievements.
The PMG Daily Situation Reports are a survey of daily events collated from information provided by Palestinian Authority civil ministries and
security agencies. The information reported through the PMG process only represents data available at the time of distribution.
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Good News from Gaza
Gideon Levy, MIFTAH 11/13/2007
The group of reservist paratroopers returned all astir: Hamas fought like an army. The comrades of Sergeant-Major (Res.) Ehud Efrati, who fell in a battle in Gaza about two weeks ago, told Amos Harel that "in all parameters, we are facing an army, not gangs." The soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces were impressed by their enemy’s night vision equipment, the tactical space they kept between one another - and their pants even had elastic bands to make them fit snugly around their boots. This is good news from Gaza.
First, it is good that reservists were sent on this mission because "if these missions were left to the regular soldiers, no one on the home front would understand what’s happening in Gaza," one of them said. Indeed, the time has come for the soldiers to speak out. But the news the soldiers brought is also encouraging on several other levels. According to their descriptions, a Palestinian Defense Force has emerged. Instead of a rabble of armed gangs, an orderly army is coalescing that is prepared to defend its land. If it makes do with a defensive deployment against Israeli incursions, we will again have no moral claim against them: Hamas is entitled to defend Gaza, just as the IDF is entitled to defend Israel.
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Good Ackerman, Bad Ackerman
Shmuel Rosner, MIFTAH 11/13/2007
There are people in Jerusalem who have not yet forgotten the criticism leveled at Prime Minister Ehud Olmert by Gary Ackerman, a United States congressman from New York and head of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. He "kissed President Bush’s ass," said the representative, in language that was not quite diplomatic, commenting to The Forward about Olmert’s criticism of the new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, after her visit with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus last April.
Ackerman’s slaps at Olmert might have led one to suspect that the 64-year-old, 12-term congressman misses Ariel Sharon, Olmert’s predecessor. And perhaps he really does miss Sharon a little, but the criticism that he levels today against Sharon’s most dramatic decision - the withdrawal from Gaza - is harsh. It was, he says, "a mistake."
But you supported this move.
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An Interview With Eyad Sarraj - Unite or Dissolve
Bitterlemons, MIFTAH 11/13/2007
bitterlemons:
Hamas is saying that by pursuing negotiations with Israel under current circumstances, the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority is in effect collaborating with the occupying power. Is this a fair assessment?
Sarraj:
I don’t think we can go that far. However, Hamas does seem to be in the middle of a kind of tacit agreement tp work against it between Fateh, particularly after the takeover of the Gaza Strip, and Israel and the US. Certainly that’s how it seems to Hamas members. The signs started to appear immediately after the election of Hamas when there were antagonistic statements from the US administration, from Israel and then even from Europe.
Of course when Hamas took military control of Gaza, this angered Fateh, including the president, who felt personally humiliated and stabbed in the back. So in a way, there is a big camp, perhaps including most of the world, working against Hamas, or at least not accepting Hamas rule over Gaza.
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Enlarge Annapolis
The Middle East Times - Editorial, MIFTAH 11/13/2007
The good thing that may be said about the Annapolis meeting is that the expectations are gloomily but realistically low. There are not many illusions left in the Middle East, and little is expected from yet another U.S.-brokered summit between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Perhaps what is wrong is not just the plot of this over-familiar drama, but the personnel. Maybe it is the three-way relationship between Americans, Israelis and Palestinians, who all know each very well by now; that is the problem.
Dwight Eisenhower, the American General and later president, used to say that if a problem seemed intractable, then enlarge it. The best example was how to evacuate people from American cities in the event of a nuclear alert. The answer was to enlarge the problem to think about modern transportation systems. Eisenhower’s solution was the interstate highway system.
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Remembering Yitzhak Rabin
The Economist, MIFTAH 11/13/2007
The inner price Israel pays for its continuing occupation of the West Bank
“YOU were the pillar of fire before the camp and now we are left only as the camp, alone and in the dark”. So said his weeping grand-daughter, eulogising Yitzhak Rabin after he was shot in the back by a Jewish religious zealot 12 years ago. The murder of a strong and popular prime minister appeared briefly to unite the Jewish state. But the Israel of that time was in fact a camp divided. This year’s anniversary has brought grim new evidence of how bitter the divisions have grown.
Millions of Israelis continue to mourn the war hero who shook the hand of Yasser Arafat and had seemed poised like a Moses to save the Jewish state by leading it out of the West Bank and Gaza, the lands he had himself conquered as army chief in 1967. But to a large minority of Israelis, Yigal Amir, his unrepentant murderer, has also become a hero. Though he remains in prison, Mr Amir has been allowed to marry and produce a son. A quarter of Israelis say they would not object to his sentence being commuted. At a recent football match, fans of one Jerusalem team horrified respectable Israel by greeting a call to remember the anniversary with chants in praise not of the fallen leader but of the fanatic who killed him.
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Mideast: All Not Quite Aboard for Annapolis
Peter Hirschberg, MIFTAH 11/13/2007
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has again paid a visit to the Middle East, held meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, spoken about the seriousness of the two sides in their efforts to revive the peace process, but has again left the region without issuing invitations to a planned U.S.-led peace summit in Annapolis, Maryland.
Listening to the main players, they all sound as though they have had a meeting to coordinate their positions and have decided on a unified line to feed the public. Over the last week, Olmert, Abbas and Rice have all said that they want to reach a Middle East peace agreement before President George Bush finishes his term in early 2009.
Olmert was first to talk about the "Bush" deadline. "If we act decisively together, we and the Palestinians, there is a chance for us to reach real achievements, maybe even before the end of President Bush’s term," he said recently at a think-tank forum in Jerusalem.
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A Glimpse at a Life in Line
Robert Cotton Fite, MIFTAH 11/13/2007
Waiting in line at a West Bank border checkpoint, intimidated by the prisonlike atmosphere and frustrated by the Israeli soldier denying me passage back into Israel, I got my first real taste of what it’s like most days for thousands of Palestinians. There I was, having just enjoyed visits to several Palestinian towns, looking very much the harmless, middle-class American tourist, with what I was sure were the right stamps in my passport, being told I could not re-enter Israel nor continue my trip to Nazareth.
I gave the young soldier my best surely-you-don’t-mean-me look. Then, a polite request to "please call a superior officer." All to no avail. I would have to return to "wherever I came from."
This was my second trip to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. I had wandered all over Jerusalem, spent a day at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum, talked with young people at the Aida refugee camp and walked the battle-scarred market in Hebron. I had been treated to full-gauge Middle Eastern hospitality at friends’ homes in Jifna and Jerusalem.
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The Spy Who Wants Israel to Talk
David Ignatius, MIFTAH 11/13/2007
Efraim Halevy, the former head of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, titled his memoirs "Man in the Shadows." But now that he’s out in the sunlight, the 72-year-old retired spy chief has some surprisingly contrarian things to say about Iran and Syria. The gist of his message is that rather than constantly ratcheting up the rhetoric of confrontation, the United States and Israel should be looking for ways to establish a creative dialogue with these adversaries.
Halevy is a legendary figure in Israel because of his nearly 40 years of service as an intelligence officer, culminating in his years as Mossad’s director from 1998 to 2003. He managed Israel’s secret relationship with Jordan for more than a decade, and he became so close to King Hussein that the two personally negotiated the 1994 agreement paving the way for a peace treaty. So when Halevy talks about the utility of secret diplomacy, he knows whereof he speaks.
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Gaza’s Isolation Takes Toll on Students and Prices
Steven Erlanger, MIFTAH 11/13/2007
Miriam Ashour will turn 18 in November and speaks English with only the slightest of accents. She has a scholarship to study for a college degree in business administration at Columbia College, affiliated with the United Methodist Church, in Columbia, S.C.
But she will miss at least the first semester. She is among some 670 Gazans enrolled in schools abroad who have been denied permission to leave the territory.
That number includes six Fulbright scholars. Another two students, including Ms. Ashour, are sponsored by the Hope Fund, and a third by the Open Society Institute. At least 35 are enrolled in American institutions, according to an Israeli lobbying group, Gisha, which has sued the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of the students.
Ms. Ashour said she still hoped to be allowed to leave, “but I feel sad, because I may lose the scholarship.”
Israel and Egypt have tightened the movement of goods and people into and out of Gaza since Hamas routed Fatah in June and took control of Gaza. The main goods crossings are shut, as is the Rafah crossing to Egypt for people. Israel is trying to use only the crossing at Kerem Shalom, which it controls, but Hamas and other militants have been mortaring it intermittently and demanding that the other crossings be opened.
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U.S. and Israel Play Down Hopes for Peace Talks
Steven Erlanger, MIFTAH 11/13/2007
The American-sponsored Middle East peace conference expected by the end of the month looks to be thin on content, mostly serving as a stage to begin formal negotiations on a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Israeli and American officials have been so busy dampening expectations that they are not even calling the event a conference anymore, instead referring to it merely as a “meeting.”
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are having trouble agreeing on even a short declaration about the shape of a final peace. Their leaders, Mr. Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, have a rough understanding on where they are heading, officials of both sides say, but they are afraid to write it down or say so publicly, given the political cost of any concessions.
Before the meeting, tentatively scheduled for Nov. 25-27 in Annapolis, Md., Israeli coalition members are warning Mr. Olmert not to go too far or get too specific. And Palestinian negotiators are squabbling among themselves, getting little firm direction from Mr. Abbas.
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The Politics of Servility
William Cook - palestinechronicle.com, International Middle East Media Center 11/13/2007
Shakespeare's Caesar caustically commented, "Cowards die many times before their deaths; /The valiant never taste of death but once." Curious how our lawmakers huddle behind their sophistries, their voice votes, their parliamentary play acting to avoid the daring feat that would force them to confront the moral consequences of their obsequious pandering to the lobbyists who pad their pin striped suits with the means to stay in office, all the while selling their souls to their executioners. Every day they die another death; every day a new resurrection to fulfill their obligation to their puppeteers.
How different from their forebears who understood the valiant feast on liberty, even in the face of death: "Americans! Liberty or Death" rang through the hills of Massachusetts and all the colonies as the Revolution loomed, a fervor marked by foreigners because they could see the Americans really meant it. But how can our representatives be free if they are at the mercy of a foreign lobby? (David Fisher, Liberty and Freedom, Oxford University Press, 2005).
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The one-state reality
Ben White, Electronic Intifada 11/13/2007
A few weeks ago, the Oxford University Union held a debate on the "one-state solution" in Palestine/Israel. Before the speakers had even taken to the floor, however, the event was the focus of an intense controversy, over allegations that the Union organizers had buckled under pressure to cancel Norman Finkelstein’s appearance. Ghada Karmi, Ilan Pappe, and Avi Shlaim -- all scheduled to speak on the opposite side of the floor to Finkelstein -- pulled out in solidarity. [1]
Though concerning, the hullabaloo risked overshadowing what was at the core of the tabled motion -- a much-needed discussion about the best way forward for Palestine/Israel. While private initiatives offering "creative" solutions come and go, from all ends of the political spectrum, their "innovation" is typically restricted to how elaborately they can sugarcoat Israeli land theft or how best to dress up a refusal to implement core Palestinian rights. [2]
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The Last Refuge
Uri Avnery, ZNet 11/12/2007
ISRAEL IS an island in the global sea. We live in a bubble. This week I was sharply reminded of this.
I was returning home from Germany. On the eve of the flight, all TV networks, from CNN and BBC to the German channels, were reporting on the events in Pakistan. In the airplane, I opened Israel’s largest circulation tabloid, Yedioth Aharonoth, in order to read about the Pakistani mess. I did not find any mention of it on page 1. Nor on page 2. I found a small item on page 27. The first pages were devoted to something much more important: the shouts of protest by right-wing football hooligans when they were requested to stand up in memory of Yitzhak Rabin.
The next day, Yedioth found an Israeli angle that enabled it to put Pakistan on the front page after all: the fear that the Pakistani nuclear bomb would fall into the hands of Osama bin Laden, who would aim it at Israel. Hallelujah, there is again something to be afraid of.
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Lords of the Land
Jim Miles, ZNet 11/12/2007
Lords of the Land - The War Over Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007 - Akiva Eldar and Idith Zertal. Nation Books, New York, 2007.
In my previous article I entered into a direct discussion on possible outcomes for the Israel-Palestine question based on a CBC radio interview between two different proponents and the most recent books they had written. Within that, while I was not fully receptive of Akiva Eldar’s arguments for the two-state outcome, I also mentioned his most recent book, co-authored with Idith Zertal, identifying it as an excellent political read concerning the issue of settlements in the occupied territories. To do justice to this book, as it is an important view of the settlement process from within the Israeli political structure and from within the settlers themselves, I feel it needs more emphasis as a positive work in relationship to the historiography of Israel-Palestine. more..
Philip Rizk: The Blame Game in Gaza
Palestine Chronicle 11/12/2007
The blame game surrounding Gaza’s current political and social crisis is too unilateral and simplistic. In the public sphere responsibility for the instability of Gaza and the general Palestinian political malaise is placed either on Fatah’s corruption in leadership or on Hamas’ violent tendencies while seizing control of the Gaza Strip and during its consequent rule. Such a stance is feeding into the dichotomous derision of the rival Palestinian parties’ rhetoric. Both Hamas and Fatah must bare responsibility for their action and inaction. Meanwhile, unless the International Community pressures Israel to put an end to human rights abuses carried out against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank the milieu for any compromise between Hamas and Fatah remains unattainable.
In mid-June of this year Hamas carried out a military takeover of the Gaza Strip that, although ruthless and shocking to many Gazans, can be argued to have been justified in political terms. Fatah, the sole representative of the Palestinian people since taking the helm of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in the late 60s had long gone too far; its time of reckoning had come.
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A Public Opinion Poll Conducted by Jerusalem Media & Communications Center - Poll No. 63
JMCC, MIFTAH 11/12/2007
* The majority expects the failure of Annapolis Conference and desires to give the peace negotiations a chance
* Slight continuous rise in the popularity of Abbas and Fatah compared with similar downward trend with regards to popularity of Hanieh and Hamas
* The general public is satisfied with the performance of President Abbas and the
government of Fayyad; the general public prefers a government with a majority of
independent figures
* Rise in level of optimism regarding the formation of a national unity government
through dialogue between Fatah and Hamas
The public opinion poll conducted by Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC) with a
sample of 1,200 respondents showed that the majority of the respondents (62%) expects the failure of
Annapolis Conference which has been called for by US President Bush, while a ratio of (35.3%) expects
the success of the meeting. When asked about the expected scenario in case the Annapolis Conference
fails, a ratio of (47%) said nothing will change in the Palestinian general situation, while (28%) of the
respondents expect the eruption of a new Intifada, and (21.7%) pointed to the possibility of a third party
intervention.
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The Prime Minister vs. Public Opinion
Caelum Moffatt for MIFTAH, MIFTAH 11/12/2007
Most commentaries inundating the press at the moment meticulously analyze the consequences of a failed summit and center on the probable break out of another Intifada, as highlighted by Ahmad Qurei. This may well be the case but it is important to recognize that a successful summit could also cause uproar amongst Israelis which in turn could affect the Palestinians and hinder any positive steps taken.
As it stands there is a date for Annapolis, or is there? According to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the peace summit will apparently take place “in the last week of November”, stating also that invitations will be sent out in the next few days. Condoleezza Rice is believed to have informed Mahmoud Abbas last week that the summit will take place “in principle” on November 26. Then Ahmad Qurei, head of the Palestinian negotiating team, confirmed that November 26 is the date the summit would convene. However, Saeb Erekat, an associate of Qurei, has maintained that the date, the attendees and the invitations are yet to have been divulged. The head of the PLO negotiating affairs department declared that the situation is still working “under the frame of speculations”.
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Abed the Martyr
Ella Smom, MIFTAH 11/12/2007
Abed Shinawi has died. In the words of the Palestinians, among others, he was martyred.
The notion of martyrdom, in the context of anything Arab-related, is a loaded word in many Westerners’ understanding: it often has a negative connotation, or insinuation of an extreme ideology or lack of love for life, and often of suicide bombings. However, a martyr is one who has died as a result of not renouncing their beliefs or principles, religious or otherwise. "Martyr" in Palestine refers to anyone who has died as a result of the Israeli occupation, as with the 38-year-old handicapped, wheelchair-bound man killed in an Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) invasion in Nablus’ al-Ain refugee camp a month and a half ago. Or it refers to the elderly man shot five times in the chest after he opened his door to IOF assurances of his safety during the same 16 October Israeli invasion that eventually claimed Abed’s life.
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Punishing Gaza
Stephen Lendman, MIFTAH 11/12/2007
On September 20, Haaretz reported: "The security cabinet voted unanimously yesterday to increase sanctions against the Hamas-run Gaza Strip (and declare) the region a ’hostile entity.’ "A further statement read: "We will reduce the amount of megawattage we provide to the Strip, and Hamas will have to decide whether to provide electricity to hospitals or weapons lathes." Israeli officials also decided to punish Gazansby restricting:
-- fuel as well as electricity from Israel to Gaza;
-- the passage of goods and people through border crossings that are already severely restricted; and
-- visits to prisoners even further than how limited they are already.
An increased monitoring of funds was also announced as well as stating border crossings would be closed for up to 48 hours in response to (crude small homemade) Qassam rocket fire, and that Israel would supply nothing further to Gaza residents "except for (whatever Israel considers) humanitarian needs." Hamas’ response was swift and sharp. Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called the cabinet’s decision and sanctions a "declaration of war" and said "we must unite the ranks to come together in the conflict with the cruel enemy....This is another attempt to force us to surrender (our sovereignty)."
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Death of a Young Man
PalestineChronicle - Special Report, MIFTAH 11/12/2007
“IDF soldiers on Tuesday morning killed the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades commander in the old city of Nablus, Bassam Abu-Seria, also known as Gaddafi, Palestinian sources reported.” 1
“Three Fatah members were injured in the incident, two of them critically. One of them, Abed Shinawi, was a senior member of Fatah’s military wing.” 2
“The spokesperson of the Israeli army expressed his sorrow at the death of Abed Al-Wazir. ‘During the military operation in Nablus, armed clashes erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants, and the elderly Palestinian citizen received a mortal gunshot,’ he said.”3
Abed has died. In the words of the Palestinians, among others, he was martyred.
The notion of martyrdom, in the context of anything Arab-related, is a loaded word in many Westerners’ understanding: it often has a negative connotation, or insinuation of an extreme ideology or lack of love for life, and often of suicide bombings. A martyr is anyone who has died as a result not renouncing their beliefs or principles, religious or otherwise. Martyr in Palestine refers to anyone who has died as a result of the Occupation and Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), as with the 38 year old handicapped wheelchair-bound man killed in an IOF invasion in Nablus’ Al-Ain Refugee camp 1.5 months ago4, or the elderly man shot 5 times in the chest life after he opened his door to IOF assurances of his safety during the same Israeli October 16th invasion which eventually claimed Abed’s life.
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Jewish Settlements Defy Annapolis
PalestineChronicle, MIFTAH 11/12/2007
CAIRO - While Palestinians were holding their breath in anticipation of the upcoming US-sponsored peace process, Israel was busy accelerating settlement building in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli peace group said on Wednesday, November 7.
"In 88 settlements construction is underway, ranging from a single house to large projects of tens and hundreds of housing units," the Peace Now group said in a new report.
It noted that a new 600-unit ultra-Orthodox Jewish housing community was being added to Givat Zeev settlement, northwest of al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem).
The report, covering the period from May to October, added that construction was also underway in 34 of 105 outpost settlements in the occupied West Bank.
"In 34 outposts there has been construction or trailers (caravans) were added.
"At least 35 new trailers have been delivered to the various outposts, and 14 new rooms have been added to existing trailers," said Peace Now.
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Peace and Democracy in Palestine
Ramzy Baroud, MIFTAH 11/12/2007
After years of marked absence, the Bush administration has finally decided to upgrade its involvement in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The announcement of a Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland has raised red flags for anyone who has learned from past experience how unbalanced and insincere peace efforts actually can lead to further violence. And it requires little cynicism to ponder how genuine these current efforts are.
It has been suggested that President Bush — whose actions have thus defined his legacy as that of a war president — wishes to leave on a more positive note. We heard the same argument in mid 2000 when President Bill Clinton facilitated ill-prepared talks, the failure of which sparked tension and violence, which were of course blamed solely on Palestinians.
Others argue that the conference is motivated not by a desire for lasting peace, but by the wish to further isolate Hamas – the party that was democratically elected by a decisive majority in the Occupied Territories’ legislative elections in January 2006.
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PA Negotiating Chief Says Talks with Israel in Crisis
Avi Issacharoff, MIFTAH 11/12/2007
RAMALLAH - The head of the Palestinian negotiating team in the talks with Israel, Ahmed Qureia, says there is a serious crisis between the two sides. Speaking to Haaretz yesterday, Qureia was pessimistic on whether the two sides would reach an agreement because of the way the talks are being carried out.
During a trip to meet the head of the Israeli negotiating team, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Qureia was held up for more than 20 minutes at the Al-Zaim roadblock.
As a result of the delay yesterday, Qureia told his Israeli counterparts he was cancelling the meeting.
"This is a major insult to me," Qureia said. "This is only one side of the crisis in the negotiations with the Israelis, and we can certainly say that there is currently a genuine crisis in the talks that does not only stem from a delay at a checkpoint."
Qureia - a former Palestinian Authority prime minister - wondered "why should an Israeli police officer stop me at the checkpoint when he knows full well who I am and where I am heading?"
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The Last Refuge
Uri Avnery, MIFTAH 11/12/2007
ISRAEL IS an island in the global sea. We live in a bubble. This week I was sharply reminded of this.
I was returning home from Germany. On the eve of the flight, all TV networks, from CNN and BBC to the German channels, were reporting on the events in Pakistan. In the airplane, I opened Israel’s largest circulation tabloid, Yedioth Aharonoth, in order to read about the Pakistani mess. I did not find any mention of it on page 1. Nor on page 2. I found a small item on page 27. The first pages were devoted to something much more important: the shouts of protest by right-wing football hooligans when they were requested to stand up in memory of Yitzhak Rabin.
The next day, Yedioth found an Israeli angle that enabled it to put Pakistan on the front page after all: the fear that the Pakistani nuclear bomb would fall into the hands of Osama bin Laden, who would aim it at Israel. Hallelujah, there is again something to be afraid of.
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Hamas and Fatah are betraying Arafat’s legacy
The Daily Star, Daily Star 11/13/2007
Editorial
Yasser Arafat has been dead for three years, harried to an early death by the Israeli siege of his battered presidential compound in Ramallah. Two camps - his own secular Fatah faction and the Islamist group Hamas - that claim to carry on his struggle for Palestinian rights have effectively been at war for months. In so doing, they have undermined their shared goal of justice for the Palestinian people and trampled a principle of ideological inclusiveness that was perhaps the most important hallmark of Arafat’s leadership. And now they have marred the anniversary of his death with bloodshed.
Leaders of both Fatah and Hamas need very much to take a step back and think about the position of their people - not their respective constituents, but the Palestinian people whom they both purport to represent- and therefore about the consequences of their actions. Their people have been dispossessed for decades, and their Arab allies have never been of much help except (in a limited fashion) when it has suited their own purposes. Their would-be peace partner, the Israeli government, has made clear that it is in no rush to conclude an agreement, and the Jewish state’s cohorts in Washington can be relied upon to support this intransigence as best they can. more..
Mother dies after being denied access to health care
Rami Almeghari writing from occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine, Electronic Intifada 11/12/2007
Ayda is yet another victim of Israel’s devastating closure of Gaza.
While her husband, 37-year-old Zakariya Abdelal from the Gaza City neighborhood of al-Tuffah, was receiving condolences from friends and neighbors, their youngest son, 10-month-old baby Mustafah, lay calmly in the corner.
Thirty-one-year-old mother of seven Ayda died after losing her fight with breast cancer, which necessitated chemotherapy treatment currently unavailable in Gaza. Ayda had almost recovered from her illness after the first round of chemotherapy in a Cairo hospital some months ago.
"She used to watch on us at night, give us a hug when we go to school and kiss us, but now she can longer do this. She is in heaven, she is in paradise, no woman can replace her," her 12-year-old son Yehya said.
Breast cancer claims the lives of hundreds of thousands of women around the globe each year.However, access to treatment that might have prevented Ayda’s death was denied by Israel for political reasons.
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Audio: Crossing the Line focuses on the right of return
Podcast, Crossing the Line, 12 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/12/2007
This week on Crossing The Line: Presently there are around seven million Palestinian refugees around the world. Host Christopher Brown speaks first with activist Adam Shapiro, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement. Next Brown speaks with Diana Buttu, legal adviser, and former spokesperson for the PLO about the most contentious issue with regards to peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
As always, Crossing the Line begins with "This week in Palestine," a service provided by
The International Middle East Media Center
Listen Now
[MP3 - 18.8 MB, 47:00 min]
Crossing the Line
is a weekly podcast dedicated to giving voice to the voiceless in occupied Palestine. Through investigative news, arts, eyewitness accounts, and music, Crossing the Line does its best to present the lives of people on the ground.
Crossing the Line’s host, Christopher Brown, is an independent journalist currently living in San Francisco.Brown’s South African roots and desire for social change are the reason for his strong solidarity with the Palestinian people. In 1990 Brown was arrested in South Africa where he was detained and tortured for nearly two years by the South African secret police. Brown also lived and worked in the Old City of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.
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Palestinian, Israeli scholars to advance one-state solution in London
Report, The Electronic Intifada, 12 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/12/2007
Leading Palestinian and Israeli scholars and activists will be among the speakers at an unprecendentedconference to explore a one-state solution, at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London on 17-18 November.
Organized by the London One State Group and the SOAS Palestine Society, the conference, "Challenging the Boundaries: A Single State in Israel/Palestine," will explore new models for a just peace including binationalism, secular democracy, a ’state of all its citizens’ and federalism.
The London conference comes as prominent politicians including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and UK Foreign Secretary David Milliband have recently warned that the window for implementing a two-state solution is fast closing. Israel has continued to block the establishment of a Palestinian state by accelerating its colonization of the occupied West Bank and tightening its starvation siege of the occupied Gaza Strip, even as Rice makes last ditch efforts to implement a partition.
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Abed the martyr
Ella Smom writing from Nablus, occupied West Bank, Live from, Electronic Intifada 11/12/2007
Abed Shinawi has died. In the words of the Palestinians, among others, he was martyred.
The notion of martyrdom, in the context of anything Arab-related, is a loaded word in many Westerners’ understanding: it often has a negative connotation, or insinuation of an extreme ideology or lack of love for life, and often of suicide bombings. However, a martyr is one who has died as a result of not renouncing their beliefs or principles, religious or otherwise. "Martyr" in Palestine refers to anyone who has died as a result of the Israeli occupation, as with the 38-year-old handicapped, wheelchair-bound man killed in an Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) invasion in Nablus’ al-Ain refugee camp a month and a half ago. Or it refers to the elderly man shot five times in the chest after he opened his door to IOF assurances of his safety during the same 16 October Israeli invasion that eventually claimed Abed’s life.
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Don’t forget Palestine - Arafat never did, and he never let others forget
Sonja Karkar, ZNet 11/12/2007
For fifty years, Yasser Arafat - or Abu Ammar as he is more familiarly known - made the Palestinian cause his life’s journey, and along the way, be became the undisputed leader of the Palestinian people. His passion spilled over into three words "Don’t forget Palestine" - words he wrote to Egypt’s first President in 1953 when he was still a student, and words which remained his mantra to the end. He lived and breathed Palestine, but sadly, he did not survive to see an independent Palestinian state.
While the dream eluded him, Arafat was still looked upon as "father of the nation", a man who had almost single-handedly put Palestine back on the world stage when the very name Palestine had been practically obliterated from the history books and maps, and its people had been deemed non-existent. Naturally, as one would expect after fifty years of controversial public life, there are those who love him and those who hate him, the praise and the slander each creating their own version of the man. Some criticisms are valid: most have been manufactured. Yet, Arafat managed to keep his head above the madding crowd, determined always to bring his people home from the wilderness. more..
Whose Road Map?
Jeff Halper, ZNet 11/11/2007
As did his pronouncements last August in Jericho, where Prime Minister Ehud Olmert indicated a willingness to withdraw from an area equivalent to 100% of the occupied territories, his latest declarations to the Saban Forum, in the presence of Condoleezza Rice and Tony Blair, sounded promising, even stirring. "Annapolis is a landmark," he said, "on the path to negotiations and of the genuine effort to achieve the realization of the vision of two nations: the State of Israel - the nation of the Jewish people; and the Palestinian state - the nation of the Palestinian people."
Moreover, he expressed the hope that the two-state solution would be achieved before US President George W. Bush’s term ends in January 2009.
The speech sounded sincere, even impassioned. Olmert gave the impression that he was willing to confront all the difficulties - including the necessity of Israel fulfilling its part of the road map bargain. He stated firmly and clearly that Israel had now "partners for peace" in the Palestinian leadership. All the bases appeared to have been covered; the commitment of the Israeli government to the road map and a two-state solution beyond doubt. more..
Settlements Expand before Annapolis Summit
MIFTAH, MIFTAH 11/10/2007
Despite optimistic statements made by Palestinians, Israelis and US officials about the “possibility” for peace, facts on the ground remain much stronger testimony than any promises or words of encouragement.
While the United States prepares to host the Middle East summit, slated to be held on November 26, Palestinians oscillate between encouraging hopes for the summit’s success and the daunting Israeli measures on the ground. On November 7, the Israeli peace movement Peace Now announced that there is ongoing construction in 88 settlements in the West Bank, including the expansion of already existing settlements and the creation of new settlement outposts. According to Peace Now, 8.1 percent of Israelis live in these illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Most of the construction, the organization said, is in the major settlement blocs Israel insists on annexing to Israel in any final agreement with the Palestinians, including Maaleh Adumim, Gush Etzion and Givat Zeev.Peace Now also said work on the E1 settlement project was continuing in east Jerusalem. more..
The Skeptic and the Believer
Aluf Benn, MIFTAH 11/10/2007
Defense Minister Ehud Barak rose to speak at the annual conference of the Saban Forum in Jerusalem, on Monday of this week. Unlike Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Quartet envoy and former British prime minister Tony Blair and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had delivered their speeches the previous evening directly into the cameras transmitting directly into the news broadcasts, Barak maintained ambiguity and his remarks were ostensibly intended only for closed discussion.
He opened with an analysis of the importance of renewing negotiations with Syria, both to distance it from Iran and so that in case of a conflict, "our soldiers will know what they are fighting for." A comment like that can just conceivably be considered criticism of Olmert, who has stubbornly been opposed to dialogue with Syria. But Barak was measured, analytical and calculated and his remarks sounded more like an assessment of the situation than a political jab. more..
Time for Modesty in the Middle East Peace Process
Richard Naass, MIFTAH 11/10/2007
"Ripeness is all," concludes Edgar in King Lear. I will leave it to Shakespeare scholars to decipher what he had in mind. But for diplomats and historians, understanding the concept of ripeness is central to their jobs: it refers to how ready a negotiation or conflict is to be resolved.
This may sound academic, but it is anything but. The United States and the three other members of the Quartet - the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations - are planning to convene many of the parties to the Israeli-Arab conflict at a meeting near Washington in November.
The problem is that the conflict is not even close to being ripe for resolution. Ignoring this reality will lead to failure, if not catastrophe.
Ripeness has several elements: there must be a formula for the parties involved to adopt, a diplomatic process to get them to that point, and protagonists who are able and willing to make a deal. more..
What’s Good for the Goose...
George Hishmeh, MIFTAH 11/10/2007
As the expectations for a serious movement towards a Palestinian-Israeli settlement seem to be growing by the day, a little-known group, Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC), is trying to ride the coattails of the upcoming US-sponsored Mideast peace “meeting” in Annapolis later this month.
The five-year-old US-based organisation has scheduled a two-day conference in New York earlier this week to drum up support for its long-dormant cause, but no sooner was its announcement released than Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told it to cool it. He said it was “premature” to raise the issue of Arab Jews who settled in Israel at this stage, but assured them that when the Palestinian refugee issue is eventually on the table, Israel will “reaffirm its commitment to resolving the rights of Jewish refugees from Arab countries as well”.
According to the estimates of this Jewish advocacy group, there are about 850,000 Arab Jews, the largest number coming from Morocco, who settled in Israel after the Zionist state was founded in 1948. Raising its profile, the JTA News Agency reported, it “could provide the Israeli government a powerful bargaining chip to offset claims by Palestinian refugees”. more..
Arab-Israeli Dispute Percolates
The Middle East Times - Editorial, MIFTAH 11/10/2007
For some 60 odd years the Arab-Israeli conflict has been percolating, periodically exploding into open conflict then returning to a simmering position on the back-burner of world politics, usually after intense diplomatic efforts.
During those six decades Arabs and Israelis have stopped short of accepting the one piece to this geopolitical jigsaw puzzle needed to bring lasting peace to the region. That is the mutual acceptance by Israel and the Palestinians of each other and recognizing that a two-state solution is the sole avenue leading to peace in the region.
The American Task Force on Palestine is telling anyone who will listen that without the two-state solution peace in the Middle East remains utopic for one side, while perceived as a threat to the other’s national security. The reality is that without the establishment of two states – one Palestinian and one Jewish -- coexisting in peace side by side, there will never be peace in the Middle East. more..
Olive Branch Blossoms Amid Harvest of Fear
James Hider, MIFTAH 11/10/2007
In an olive grove on the edge of Nablus, Fuad Amr and his sons keep one eye on the branches they are stripping and the other warily on the Jewish settlement that overlooks their land from a hilltop.
The settlers could descend at any time to intimidate them or even beat them and steal the fruit of their labour, as happens every year across the West Bank in the olive season.
The Palestinian farmers, however, have found unlikely allies - Jewish activists, some of them Orthodox rabbis, who risk violence to protect them.
“I am afraid,” Mr Amr said, as he flung black olives on to a plastic sheet, from which his wife gathered them into a sack. “I’m picking the olives and all the time I’m looking out for settlers. They come in buses, sometimes 20 or 30 of them.”
Last year one of his neighbours was hit on the head by a rock thrown by settlers, who cite the biblical-era Jewish settlements in the area as a claim to the land. more..
Has Hamas Split?
The Economist, MIFTAH 11/10/2007
JUST how divided is Hamas? Since the Islamist party took over the Gaza Strip in June, after months of violent clashes with the rival, secular-minded Fatah faction, Israel and the rest of the world have imposed an economic siege on the strip. Many perceive signs that Hamas is splitting under the pressure. That, in turn, has raised the prospect of Hamas becoming a busted flush—or of a moderate wing emerging that could do business with Fatah, rebuild a broader Palestinian front and perhaps even agree to the conditions that would enable it to negotiate with Israel.
Khaled Meshal, the head of Hamas’s politburo, lives in exile in Damascus and reports to a council that takes decisions by consensus. But the physical separation between Hamas members in Damascus, the West Bank, Gaza and Israeli jails have created sub-leaderships, each with its own ideological nuances. Ismail Haniyeh, who was the Palestinian prime minister from Hamas’s election victory in 2006 until the president, Fatah’s Mahmoud Abbas, dismissed him after the June showdown, is Hamas’s political leader in Gaza. But already in June he seemed to have little control over the military wing which led the push against Fatah. That has led to much speculation over whether the militias’ real commander is Mr Meshal or two hardline former members of Mr Haniyeh’s cabinet, Mahmoud Zahar and Said Siam. more..
Boosting the Slim Chances for Mideast Breakthrough
Shibley Telhami, MIFTAH 11/10/2007
Should the imminent Israeli-Arab meeting in Annapolis inspire optimism?
Critics of the Bush administration who have urged active peace diplomacy are hard-pressed to gainsay its seeming turnaround after years of neglect. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has convincingly projected seriousness, and many want to support her new activism. Even if the prospects for peace seem small, most breakthroughs in history come unexpectedly, often through surprising acts of leadership.
But even aside from the obvious obstacles (divided Palestinians, weak Israeli leadership, other American priorities), it is hard to separate the prospects for peace from the way we arrived at this point - or from other regional issues that will inevitably be affected. The fact is, without quick improvements in Palestinians’ lives and a new U.S. approach to the problem of Hamas, any success achieved at the summit would be short-lived. more..
High Stakes for Annapolis Peace Meet
Ali Gharib, MIFTAH 11/10/2007
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas joined U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Ramallah Monday to express optimism that progress towards a Palestinian state could be made in the upcoming talks sponsored by the George W. Bush administration between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Annapolis, Maryland.
But many critics fear that the hastily thrown-together meeting has greater inherent risks than the participants are willing to acknowledge.
"The failure of this gathering, which will be the last effort of [the Bush] administration on this issue, will have serious consequences," said Rita Hauser, the former head of Bush’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and the current chair of the International Peace Academy, at a think-tank conference about the upcoming meetings.
Citing the start of heavy violence associated with the Second Intifada -- touched off after the failure of then-president Bill Clinton’s 2000 Camp David summit -- many fear that the collapse of the talks, or even frustration with a mere token gesture towards some progress towards peace, will reignite large-scale violence both between Israel and Palestine and within the two warring factions that split the two Palestinian territories. more..
Israel Flouts Pledge to Curb Settlements
Richard Bourdreaux, MIFTAH 11/10/2007
Israel is enlarging 88 of its 122 West Bank settlements despite an agreement to halt the spread of Jewish communities in Palestinian territory, the watchdog group Peace Now said Wednesday.
A report by the group, which documented the construction of new homes with aerial photography and on-site visits, heated up the debate here over a key issue for the U.S.-sponsored peace summit planned by year’s end.
Israel wants to keep large blocks of settlements in a final peace accord, but the Palestinians demand the entire West Bank for a future state. Under a 2003 U.S.-backed plan known as the "road map," Israel agreed to stop the expansion of settlements as a first step toward negotiations on final borders.
During a visit this week to prepare for the summit, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice won renewed pledges from Israel and the Palestinians to abide by the long-ignored road map. But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, while acknowledging that both sides had failed to live up to the plan, did not say when Israel would move to stop settlement expansion. more..
Palestinians Ease Demands for Conference
Josef Federman, MIFTAH 11/10/2007
Encouraged by a conciliatory speech by Israel’s prime minister, Palestinian negotiators have eased their demands that an upcoming U.S.-hosted peace conference lay out a plan for statehood, officials said Thursday.
The Palestinians said they were pleased with Israeli pledges to resume peace talks after the conference this month — and were now less concerned with a pre-summit understanding that had bogged down earlier negotiations.
In Tel Aviv, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki indicated how far the Palestinians have retreated from their original demand that the pre-conference document include concrete statements on all the "core issues" — borders, Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
Malki said the framework was made up of previous peace initiatives. "The second component of the document is the core issues," he said, "and here of course we have to find exactly what are these core issues, at least if we can mention them by name."
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Israel and Palestinians Turn to U.S. as Talks Hit Snag
Wafa Amr, MIFTAH 11/10/2007
Palestinian and Israeli negotiators are turning to U.S. mediators to bridge serious gaps in drafting a common approach to peace negotiations, officials on both sides said on Thursday.
A senior Palestinian negotiator told Reuters the two sides sought U.S. intervention on Tuesday after negotiators failed to resolve differences over a document they hope to present at a conference in the coming weeks in Annapolis, Maryland, that aims to set terms for relaunching peace talks.
Another senior Palestinian official said that when the sides disagreed this week over the terms of an earlier understanding that Washington would adjudicate in disputes over whether peace terms had been met, U.S. officials sent both a written text.
Palestinian officials also said the latest talks had shown that any document would be shorter on detail than they hoped.
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel’s chief negotiator, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, said: "Anyone who thought it would be smooth sailing all the time was deluding himself." more..
Nothing less than our freedom
Mohammed Khatib, The Electronic Intifada, 7 November 2007, International Middle East Media Center 11/12/2007
For the people of our small village of Bil’in, which lies west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the planned negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli leaders in Annapolis, Maryland evoke mixed feelings. Like all Palestinians, we pray that our children will not spend their lives as we did, under Israeli military occupation.
But our experience has been that Israel, the stronger party, exploits peace talks as a smokescreen to obscure facts that it is establishing on the ground. During the Oslo "peace" process Israel built settlements in the occupied territories at an unprecedented rate. Israel’s system of settler-only roads, which is now strangling our cities and villages, was created during the Oslo process. This makes us wary of the Annapolis negotiations.
Israel built settlements throughout the West Bank even though international law prohibits an occupying power from settling its population in occupied territory. Now Israel intends to annex most West Bank settlement blocs either through negotiated agreement with the Palestinians, or unilaterally. more..
The Last Refuge
Uri Avnery - IMEMC, International Middle East Media Center 11/11/2007
ISRAEL IS an island in the global sea. We live in a bubble. This week I was sharply reminded of this.
I was returning home from Germany. On the eve of the flight, all TV networks, from CNN and BBC to the German channels, were reporting on the events in Pakistan. In the airplane, I opened Israel’s largest circulation tabloid, Yedioth Aharonoth, in order to read about the Pakistani mess. I did not find any mention of it on page 1. Nor on page 2. I found a small item on page 27. The first pages were devoted to something much more important: the shouts of protest by right-wing football hooligans when they were requested to stand up in memory of Yitzhak Rabin.
The next day, Yedioth found an Israeli angle that enabled it to put Pakistan on the front page after all: the fear that the Pakistani nuclear bomb would fall into the hands of Osama bin Laden, who would aim it at Israel. Hallelujah, there is again something to be afraid of. more..
Campaign: End the siege on Gaza
Statement, End the Siege, 10 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/10/2007
On 25 October, a Palestinian patient died at Erez crossing while awaiting being allowed to cross to an Israeli hospital. A week ago, a woman died in Gaza hospital with her newly born baby, while awaiting a permit to be transferred to Israel for medical treatment.
These are not the first victims, and will certainly not be the last should the current situation continue to prevail.
Last week, the operation rooms in Gaza’s main hospital were shut down due to the lack of medical gases, which were not allowed in by Israel. Today Israel does not allow except 12 basic items to enter Gaza, out of over 9,000 commodities. From soap to coffee, from water to soft drinks, from fuel to gas, from computers to spare parts, from cement to raw materials for industry, all and hundreds of other items are not allowed into Gaza today.
The Israeli cabinet declared Gaza a hostile entity, and has declared its intentions to further intensify the collective punishment by cutting the electricity power and entry of fuel products. Banks in Israel are also threatening to cut off all financial cooperation with Palestinian banks in Gaza. more..
Petitioners: Cutting Gaza supplies collective punishment
Report, The Electronic Intifada, 10 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/10/2007
JERUSALEM, 8 November (IRIN) - Israel’s highest court on 7 November ordered the state to explain within one week how it planned to ensure that the latest sanctions imposed on Gaza, including fuel and power cuts, would not have a negative humanitarian impact.
The court was hearing a petition lodged by 10 Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups, and the deputy-director of the Gaza Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU), demanding an end to the restrictions.
Since implementing sanctions on 28 October, Israel has cut supplies of regular diesel by more than 40 percent and industrial gasoline, vital for Gaza’s power plant, by about nine percent, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs(OCHA) and Gaza petrol companies.
Israel said it had cut fuel by about 15 percent overall, but refrained from limiting electricity since its Attorney-General, Menahem Mazuz, ordered a policy review to ascertain it would not cause a humanitarian crisis. more..
In humanity lies hope to end conflict
Hilla Medalia, Daily Star 11/12/2007
Delegates from Israel and some Arab states will meet in the United States this month with the hope of devising an agreement leading to the formation of a Palestinian state and, theoretically, stability in the Middle East. It is the first such US-led summit in years, and regardless of the outcome, it will be an historic event.
History, unfortunately, has not favored success when it comes to peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The road to peace is littered with numerous failed plans that have left in their wake a sea of bitter cynicism, a resignation that this is a road that will forever stretch beyond the horizon. One can’t be blamed for believing this summit will be no different.
The cynicism is understandable. Perhaps this is because in both the United States and Middle East, much of what we know, ... more..
Hussein Al-alak: Iraq: Hearts and Minds
Palestine Chronicle 11/9/2007
Once more the destructive nature of Iraq’s democracy, has exposed the damaged minds of those, whose hatred of the Iraqi people has allowed their own ambitions to be the building blocks of Iraq’s national suffering.
The opportunism of those who ran to the British and Americans in 1991, were those who saw the systematic murder of 1.5 million children due to sanctions, as being the "price worth paying", to insure that Saddam Hussain was unable to build their imaginary Weapons of Mass Destruction.
For everyone who knows Iraq and remembers the suffering of the Iraqi people, they will remember the Harvard Study, which was conducted after the first Gulf War and they will remember that it exposed the "fourfold increase in child mortality and a high incidence of health problems among women, including psychosomatic conditions such as sleeplessness and mental disorders."
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Whose Road Map?
Jeff Halper, MIFTAH 11/9/2007
As did his pronouncements last August in Jericho, where Prime Minister Ehud Olmert indicated a willingness to withdraw from an area equivalent to 100% of the occupied territories, his latest declarations to the Saban Forum, in the presence of Condoleezza Rice and Tony Blair, sounded promising, even stirring. "Annapolis is a landmark," he said, "on the path to negotiations and of the genuine effort to achieve the realization of the vision of two nations: the State of Israel - the nation of the Jewish people; and the Palestinian state - the nation of the Palestinian people."
Moreover, he expressed the hope that the two-state solution would be achieved before US President George W. Bush’s term ends in January 2009.
The speech sounded sincere, even impassioned. Olmert gave the impression that he was willing to confront all the difficulties - including the necessity of Israel fulfilling its part of the road map bargain. He stated firmly and clearly that Israel had now "partners for peace" in the Palestinian leadership. All the bases appeared to have been covered; the commitment of the Israeli government to the road map and a two-state solution beyond doubt.
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If Not Annapolis, Then What?
Haaretz - Editorial, MIFTAH 11/9/2007
Gideon Sa’ar, Likud’s most fluent spokesman, believes that after Hamas took over Gaza, Israel should have understood the trap it had fallen into and "run for its life" instead of getting into another round of talks in Annapolis.
The question is, of course, where does Likud want Israel to run to. Likud has no solution to the conflict with the Palestinians and has made do for 40 years with taking the wind out of the sails of every agreement.
From this point of view there is an unsurprising similarity between statements by Sa’ar and Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal. Each sees concessions to the other side as a trap.
Each prefers the status quo to a historic compromise.
Likud never drew the borders of the country as it imagines them. The settlements were intended to blur the previous border and disrupt the placement of a new border. Instead of dividing the land into two states for two peoples, the right proposes waiting for the messiah.
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No Understanding for the Region
The Jordan Times, MIFTAH 11/9/2007
Tuesday, BBC radio ran a fascinating interview with former US undersecretary for public diplomacy Karen Hughes. Among her briefs, Hughes was in charge of “promoting American values and confronting ideological support for terrorism.” She was the first person to hold such a position.
The interview was interesting for one particular response. When asked whether she understood that Arab anger against the US was in large part spurred by Washington’s support for Israel and perceived bias against the Palestinians, she replied that US policy is in favour of a two-state solution, so any anger at the US is against the details or simply misplaced.
US policy is for a two-state solution, so that’s all good then?
This disingenuous reply came from a person supposed to defend “American values.”
The reply is nonsense of course. Anyone can say that they are environmentalists, but until they get out of their SUVs and start trying to make a difference, they are not. They are either hypocrites or ignorant.
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Gaza and West Bank Viewpoints
BBC News, MIFTAH 11/9/2007
Palestinians describe how they think divisions between the separate administrations of Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza are becoming more entrenched.
SHAIMA, 22, GAZA CITY
We are running out of lots of materials because Israel is blocking the borders.
Food, every day materials, medicine - it’s very hard to find what you want. And it’s all much more expensive. Things which used to cost one or two shekels now cost five or six.
The electricity supply is normal so far. We have a small generator, which we use for important things like the refrigerator, for television news and for my computer. But the cost of fuel makes using the generator expensive.
There used to be lots of explosions, but since Hamas took control, there is more quiet.
Hamas are always searching houses for weapons, they then remove them, which is a good thing.
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Last Call for a Two-state Solution
Immanuel Wallerstein, MIFTAH 11/9/2007
The prevailing worldwide view of how to resolve politically the conflict of two nationalisms in Israel/Palestine is the so-called two-state solution - the creation of two states, Israel and Palestine, within the boundaries of the onetime British Mandate of Palestine.
Actually, this position is not at all new. One might argue that it was the prevailing worldwide position throughout the 20th century.
The Balfour Declaration of the British government in 1917 called for the establishment of a "Jewish national home" within Palestine, which implied the idea of two states. When the United Nations passed its resolution in 1947, it called explicitly for the establishment of two states, with a special status for Jerusalem.
The partition was supported at the time by both the United States and the Soviet Union. The Oslo accords of 1993 called for two states. And today, Condoleezza Rice insists that a final agreement on two states is an urgent matter that she hopes to see advanced at a conference to be convened in Annapolis, Maryland.
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Analysis: Rice’s Shuttle Diplomacy
Claude Salhani, MIFTAH 11/9/2007
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has borrowed a chapter or two from Henry Kissinger’s book of applied negotiations as she headed back out to the Middle East for her eighth visit to the region in the last six months.
Kissinger, of course, was secretary of state under Richard Nixon and was the one who invented the concept of shuttle diplomacy. Fully determined not to walk away without an agreement, Kissinger conducted non-stop diplomacy, flying continuously back and forth, carrying messages, proposals and counterproposals between Damascus and Jerusalem. In a single month he made more than four times the number of trips Rice has undertaken since taking over as America’s top diplomat. And when he wasn’t flying to Damascus and Jerusalem, Kissinger was flying to Cairo and Jerusalem.
Much like Kissinger’s, Rice’s repeated visits to Jerusalem and Ramallah, along with side trips to Cairo and Riyadh, are intended to consult with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and to convince Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as well as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that Annapolis will offer the Middle East antagonists a last chance for peace. Should that peace conference flop, it will be a long while before the United States gets involved anew in the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. The outcome of a failed conference will result in a new round of violence.
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’Failure Risks Devastating Consequences’
Zbigniew Brzezinski, MIFTAH 11/9/2007
The following letter on the Middle East peace conference scheduled for Annapolis, Maryland, in late November, was sent by its signers on October 10 to President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The statement is a joint initiative of the US/Middle East Project, Inc. (General Brent Scowcroft, chairman, International Board, and Henry Siegman, president), the International Crisis Group (Gareth Evans, president), and the New America Foundation/American Strategy Program (Steven Clemons, director).
The Israeli-Palestinian peace conference announced by President Bush and scheduled for November presents a genuine opportunity for progress toward a two-state solution. The Middle East remains mired in its worst crisis in years, and a positive outcome of the conference could play a critical role in stemming the rising tide of instability and violence. Because failure risks devastating consequences in the region and beyond, it is critically important that the conference succeed.
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Mideast Religious Leaders Say they Vital to Peace
Deborah Charles, MIFTAH 11/9/2007
In an unusual joint appearance, senior Israeli and Palestinian religious leaders said on Wednesday they were not a roadblock to peace in the Middle East but a vital part of the process.
Dressed in traditional religious garb, the chief rabbis of Israel sat alongside Muslim leaders and Christian patriarchs and said they had agreed on steps to help resolve the conflict.
"It is our responsibility to find the right way to live together in peace rather than to fight and kill one another," the leaders, who make up the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land, said in a joint statement.
The leaders said they had agreed that each religious community should respect other faiths’ holy sites. They said they wanted to set up a "hot line" of rapid communication among the groups to deal with issues of protection and access to holy sites to avoid clashes.
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Israeli Settlements Burden Peace Push
Amy Teibel, MIFTAH 11/9/2007
The pounding chatter of jackhammers echoes over a wind-swept West Bank hilltop as workers lay bricks at a new apartment building rising in this sprawling Jewish settlement.
The Israeli government says it’s ready to make a deal that would give Palestinians their own state. But realities on the ground — outlined in a report Wednesday showing vigorous Israeli construction in the West Bank — hold important implications for the latest U.S. peace push.
Israel insists on retaining some settlements to keep a foothold around Jerusalem and create a broader cushion at its narrow Tel Aviv-area waist.
Palestinians want a viable state, and the settlements — along with Israeli roads and a separation barrier jutting into the West Bank — threaten to fragment the territory and cut off east Jerusalem, where they want to establish their capital.
It has been a bitter issue for years, and finding a solution will tax efforts to work out a final peace accord.
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When do we Stop Sitting Shiva for the Holocaust?
Rita Corriel, MIFTAH 11/8/2007
I marched and lobbied in DC last June to call for an end to forty years of Israeli occupation and the US policies that support it. The sign I carried posed a single question. It is one that urgently begs to be addressed, debated and answered. I believe it holds significant implications, not only for Jews, but for the entire Middle East. "When do we stop sitting shiva for the Holocaust?"
Shiva is the traditional seven-day period of mourning which follows a Jewish funeral. It takes place in the home of the closest surviving relative, because this is where the spirit of the recently departed is traditionally believed to be present. So where in the world were we as a people, go to sit shiva for the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust? It seems that the state of Israel was destined to become the designated "shiva house" for the Holocaust. And based upon a kind of literalistic biblical perspective, it would appear to make a certain intuitive sense. It could serve as the spiritual and ancestral home for those who died in the death camps in Europe. It may even be seen by many as G-d’s compensation for "allowing" the Holocaust to happen, a kind of divine reconciliation.
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West Bankers Get some Medical Care
Ramsey Ben-Achour, MIFTAH 11/8/2007
After packing the ambulance with medical equipment and bags full of medicine, Dr. Jameel Mashny, Dr. Rami Habash and their nurse, Maysa Youseff, all from the Palestine Medical Relief Society (PMRS), prepare themselves for the long day ahead.
If it is business as usual, it will be a day of organized chaos. Screaming children will hide behind their mothers, elderly men will complain that they do not like the taste of their medicine -- and a poor village will get desperately needed medical relief.
Next door, Israeli citizens have access to some of the most sophisticated medical care in the world.
The Israeli ministry of health runs about 480 medical centers, with one doctor for every 200 people, one of the highest ratios in the world. Every Israeli citizen has access to a fund that will cover the cost of medical treatment, no matter how poor they are.
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Gaza’s Hard Place Between Israeli and Palestinian Violence
Rami Almeghari, MIFTAH 11/8/2007
Since the Hamas-led government seized control of the Gaza Strip in mid-June, severe Israeli pressure has been imposed on the coastal region’s 1.4-million-strong population. This pressure has been enforced through strict border closures, continuous attacks and invasions and most recently a series of Israeli punitive after the Jewish state declared the region a "hostile entity" and began to cut off crucial power and fuel supplies.
Gaza has been sustaining the effects of such pressure at the same time as it has been absorbing the impact of the seemingly unending inter-Palestinian violence, which has claimed the lives of at least 400 Palestinians and continues to disrupt everyday life inthe already impoverished society.
In October, internal fighting flared up again with incidents like the Gaza City clashes between Hamas’ police forces and a Fatah-aligned family. There were also skirmishes in the southern city of Rafah with a number of Islamic Jihad members.
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Nothing Less than our Freedom
Mohammed Khatib, MIFTAH 11/8/2007
For the people of our small village of Bil’in, which lies west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the planned negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli leaders in Annapolis, Maryland evoke mixed feelings. Like all Palestinians, we pray that our children will not spend their lives as we did, under Israeli military occupation.
But our experience has been that Israel, the stronger party, exploits peace talks as a smokescreen to obscure facts that it is establishing on the ground. During the Oslo "peace" process Israel built settlements in the occupied territories at an unprecedented rate. Israel’s system of settler-only roads, which is now strangling our cities and villages, was created during the Oslo process. This makes us wary of the Annapolis negotiations.
Israel built settlements throughout the West Bank even though international law prohibits an occupying power from settling its population in occupied territory. Now Israel intends to annex most West Bank settlement blocs either through negotiated agreement with the Palestinians, or unilaterally.
more..
Erez Crossing: What the Eye Doesn’t See
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Appeal, MIFTAH 11/8/2007
Barely two weeks since extensive media attention successfully compelled Israel to allow access to lifesaving care for patients through Erez Crossing, Israeli policies at the Crossing lead to a repetition of a similar crisis:
- Sixteen patients in life-endangering condition stranded in Gaza without proper care due to "security prohibitions."
- Permit-bearing cancer patient detained a full day at Erez Crossing and ordered to return
- Two permit-bearing patients die within one week at Erez Crossing
- Erez Crossing closed again since 28.10.2007
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) referred urgent letters yesterday and today to Israeli policy-makers reiterating its demand that Erez Crossing be immediately opened to patients needing care unavailable in Gaza.
PHR-Israel requested that the Israeli army Attorney General and the Legal Counsel to the Israeli Government immediately open an investigation into individual cases in which patients in need of lifesaving care were denied passage, endangering their lives and in at least two cases leading to death.
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$2.5 Billion Seeks Government Minister
Akiva Eldar, MIFTAH 11/8/2007
After Shimon Peres was appointed president, his Peace Conduit project - channeling water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea for the mutual benefit of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians - was for all intents and purposes orphaned. So it will remain until Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decides which minister will assume responsibility for it - Minister without Portfolio Haim Ramon, Minister without Portfolio Ami Ayalon or Minister of National Infrastructures Benjamin (Fuad) Ben-Eliezer. The head of the project administration, Colonel (res.) Erez Ron, is about to join three colleagues who have already resigned.
Sooner or later, at the Annapolis summit or during talks over core issues (set to begin immediately after the summit), Olmert will have to make a number of important decisions.
If the prime minister means every one of the lofty remarks he has made of late, he will have to decide soon on withdrawing from most of the West Bank, partitioning Jerusalem and a compromise of some sort with respect to the Palestinian refugees.
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And after Annapolis, Gaza?
Aluf Benn, MIFTAH 11/8/2007
PRO:
After the Annapolis summit there will be no more excuses, and the Israel Defense Forces can embark on a large-scale ground operation in the Gaza Strip. First they said there was tension in the North and we should not open a front in the South, and then that we could not endanger the preparations for the peace conference. But the situation in Gaza has only worsened, and as time passes the enemy is becoming stronger. The time has come to go in, stop the intolerable firing of Qassams, prevent the terror organizations from getting stronger and bring down the Hamas government. How long will we wait? Until the rockets reach Ashdod? Rishon Letzion?
CON:
The timing will be problematic even after Annapolis. The political leadership will not want to disrupt the negotiations on the "core issues" and the conflict’s solution amid photographs of tanks confronting children in the refugee camps, with the entire world watching.
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Will Annapolis be a Bust?
Joharah Baker for MIFTAH, MIFTAH 11/7/2007
It looks as if the long-anticipated November summit is actually going to be held in November like scheduled. After much speculation and rumors of delay, the United States has announced November 26 as the tentative date for the Middle East peace summit to be held in Annapolis, Maryland.
While the Palestinians, Israelis and even the Americans are all no strangers to summits, agreements and peace conferences all gone bust, this summit could just be the make or break meeting for all those involved. Everyone, - politicians and political pundits alike – agree that the autumn summit under American auspices, is a risk, a political wager, that could result either in a breakthrough of sorts or disastrous repercussions for the Palestinians in particular.
For the newly established Palestinian government under Mahmoud Abbas, this summit could be the single event that secures his legacy as a responsible and successful leader of the Palestinians, who achieved feats no other leader before him could. If the leaders emerge from this summit with an agreement in hand, and broad and acceptable guidelines drawn out for solving the core issues such as refugees, permanent borders and Jerusalem, then it is fair to assume that Abbas will be hailed as a national hero, not just at home but in the international arena as well.
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Gaza’s hard place between Israeli and Palestinian violence
Rami Almeghari, The Electronic Intifada, 7 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/7/2007
Palestinian owners of fuel stations protest in Gaza City against Israel’s restrictions on fuel shipments into the Gaza Strip, 6 November 2007. (Wissam Nassar/
MaanImages
Since the Hamas-led government seized control of the Gaza Strip in mid-June, severe Israeli pressure has been imposed on the coastal region’s 1.4-million-strong population. This pressure has been enforced through strict border closures, continuous attacks and invasions and most recently a series of Israeli punitive after the Jewish state declared the region a "hostile entity" and began to cut off crucial power and fuel supplies.
Gaza has been sustaining the effects of such pressure at the same time as it has been absorbing the impact of the seemingly unending inter-Palestinian violence, which has claimed the lives of at least 400 Palestinians and continues to disrupt everyday life inthe already impoverished society.
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West Bankers get some medical care
Ramsey Ben-Achour, The Electronic Intifada, 7 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/7/2007
Israeli soldiers stop and search Palestinian paramedics in the West Bank city of Nablus, October 2007. (Rami Swidan/
MaanImages
RAMALLAH, 6 November (IPS) - After packing the ambulance with medical equipment and bags full of medicine, Dr. Jameel Mashny, Dr. Rami Habash and their nurse, Maysa Youseff, all from the Palestine Medical Relief Society (PMRS), prepare themselves for the long day ahead.
If it is business as usual, it will be a day of organized chaos. Screaming children will hide behind their mothers, elderly men will complain that they do not like the taste of their medicine -- and a poor village will get desperately needed medical relief.
Next door, Israeli citizens have access to some of the most sophisticated medical care in the world.
The Israeli ministry of health runs about 480 medical centers, with one doctor for every 200 people, one of the highest ratios in the world. Every Israeli citizen has access to a fund that will cover the cost of medical treatment, no matter how poor they are.
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Nothing less than our freedom
Mohammed Khatib, The Electronic Intifada, 7 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/7/2007
Israeli border policemen scuffle with Palestinians and peace activists during a demonstration against the apartheid wall in the West Bank village of Bil’in, November 2006. (Fadi Arouri/
MaanImages
For the people of our small village of Bil’in, which lies west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the planned negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli leaders in Annapolis, Maryland evoke mixed feelings. Like all Palestinians, we pray that our children will not spend their lives as we did, under Israeli military occupation.
But our experience has been that Israel, the stronger party, exploits peace talks as a smokescreen to obscure facts that it is establishing on the ground. During the Oslo "peace" process Israel built settlements in the occupied territories at an unprecedented rate. Israel’s system of settler-only roads, which is now strangling our cities and villages, was created during the Oslo process. This makes us wary of the Annapolis negotiations.
more..
Special Report: Death of a Young Man
Palestine Chronicle 11/8/2007
"IDF soldiers on Tuesday morning killed the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades commander in the old city of Nablus, Bassam Abu-Seria, also known as Gaddafi, Palestinian sources reported." 1
"Three Fatah members were injured in the incident, two of them critically. One of them, Abed Shinawi, was a senior member of Fatah’s military wing." 2
"The spokesperson of the Israeli army expressed his sorrow at the death of Abed Al-Wazir. ’During the military operation in Nablus, armed clashes erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants, and the elderly Palestinian citizen received a mortal gunshot,’ he said."3
Abed has died. In the words of the Palestinians, among others, he was martyred.
The notion of martyrdom, in the context of anything Arab-related, is a loaded word in many Westerners’ understanding: it often has a negative connotation, or insinuation of an extreme ideology or lack of love for life, and often of suicide bombings. A martyr is anyone who has died as a result not renouncing their beliefs or principles, religious or otherwise. Martyr in Palestine refers to anyone who has died as a result of the Occupation and Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), as with the 38 year old handicapped wheelchair-bound man killed in an IOF invasion in Nablus’ Al-Ain Refugee camp 1.5 months ago4, or the elderly man shot 5 times in the chest life after he opened his door to IOF assurances of his safety during the same Israeli October 16th invasion which eventually claimed Abed’s life. more..
Adam Keller: Contemplations on the Rabin Memorial Rally
Palestine Chronicle 11/8/2007
"I am not going to that rally, not at any price. To be among Barak’s audience? Barak? Just this week, Shulamit Aloni said he should be tried for war crimes. And you call that a peace rally?" "But we don’t go to the Rabin Memorial Rallies for the sake of the speakers on the podium, we go there for the audience. This is the largest gathering in the whole year of Israelis who care for peace.Even if there is a bastard on the podium, there are still a lot of decent people in the audience, young people who can be open to what we say. We should be there for them, to give out the leaflets, especially the leaflets about what Barak is doing in Gaza. " "Sorry, this year you will have to do it without me".
Also people less radical than this veteran Gush Shalom activist had their considerable qualms. The call published by Peace Now reiterated that "The continuing occupation, the expansion of settlements, but also the window of possibility created by the upcoming Annapolis summit" made it "crucial for us all this year, especially this year, to attend the rally and voice our call for negotiations and peace".N more..
Stephen Lendman: Punishing Gaza
Palestine Chronicle 11/8/2007
On September 20, Haaretz reported: "The security cabinet voted unanimously yesterday to increase sanctions against the Hamas-run Gaza Strip (and declare) the region a ’hostile entity.’ "A further statement read: "We will reduce the amount of megawattage we provide to the Strip, and Hamas will have to decide whether to provide electricity to hospitals or weapons lathes." Israeli officials also decided to punish Gazansby restricting:
-- fuel as well as electricity from Israel to Gaza;
-- the passage of goods and people through border crossings that are already severely restricted; and
-- visits to prisoners even further than how limited they are already.
An increased monitoring of funds was also announced as well as stating border crossings would be closed for up to 48 hours in response to (crude small homemade) Qassam rocket fire, and that Israel would supply nothing further to Gaza residents "except for (whatever Israel considers) humanitarian needs." Hamas’ response was swift and sharp. Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called the cabinet’s decision and sanctions a "declaration of war" and said "we must unite the ranks to come together in the conflict with the cruel enemy....This is another attempt to force us to surrender (our sovereignty)." more..
James Petras: Deadly Embrace: Zion-power and War (Part I)
Palestine Chronicle 11/8/2007
Explanations for the US attack on Iraq range from military-political pretexts to accounts focusing on geopolitical and economic interests.
The original official explanation was the now discredited claim that Saddam Hussein possessed chemical, biological and other weapons of mass destructions (WMD), which threatened the US, Israel and the Middle East.
Subsequent to the US military occupation, when no WMD were discovered, Washington justified the invasion and occupation by citing the removal of a dictator and the establishment of a prosperous democracy in the Arab world. The imposition of a colonial puppet regime, propped up by an imperial occupation force of over 200,000 troops and irregular death squads, which have killed close to a million Iraqi civilians, forced over 4 million into exile and impoverished over 95% of the population, puts the lie to that line of argument. The latest line of justification revolves around the notion that the US occupation is necessary to ’prevent a civil war’. more..
James Petras: Deadly Embrace: Zion-power and War (Part II)
Palestine Chronicle 11/8/2007
War For Oil or War For Israel: The Public Record
Zionist Power Configuration support for the Iraq War was an open, relentless, propaganda campaign by well-known writers, publicists, and community leaders as well as by the 52 leading Jewish organizations. There was ’no conspiracy’ or ’cabal’ -- the Zionist campaign was brazenly public, aggressive and reiterative.
A systematic review of the major propaganda organ of the Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organization’s newsletter, Daily Alert, from 2002 to September 2007 -- 1,760 issues -- provides us with a scientific sample of ZPC opinion. On average, each issue contained 5 articles in favor of the war or moves toward war with Iraq and/or Iran. The Daily Alert featured op-ed articles by the major liberal, conservative and Zion-fascist writers and academics which regularly appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, the New York Sun, and the New York and Los Angeles Times, the Daily Telegraph and Times of London, YNet and others. In other words, in the crucial pre-war to post-invasion period, the leading pro-Israel Jewish organizations produced approximately 8800 pieces of pro-Iraq war propaganda and circulated it to all its member organizations, every Congressman, every leading member of the executive branch with follow-ups by local activists and an army of Washington lobbyists (150 from AIPAC alone) plus several hundred full-time activists from local and regional offices. more..
Gaza’s hard place between Israeli and Palestinian violence
Rami Almeghari - 1 of International Middle East Media Center - IMEMC, International Middle East Media Center 11/8/2007
Sincce the Hamas-led government seized control of the Gaza Strip in mid-June, severe Israeli pressure has been imposed on the coastal region’s 1.4-million-strong population. This pressure has been enforced through strict border closures, continuous attacks and invasions and most recently a series of Israeli punitive after the Jewish state declared the region a "hostile entity" and began to cut off crucial power and fuel supplies.
Gaza has been sustaining the effects of such pressure at the same time as it has been absorbing the impact of the seemingly unending inter-Palestinian violence, which has claimed the lives of at least 400 Palestinians and continues to disrupt everyday life inthe already impoverished society.
In October, internal fighting flared up again with incidents like the Gaza City clashes between Hamas’ police forces and a Fatah-aligned family. more..
Where have all the trucks gone?
Jesse Rosenfeld - Palestine Monitor, International Middle East Media Center 11/7/2007
The roads to Gaza were long, dusty and, apart from Israeli military vehicles, almost completely empty on 24 October as tanks doing military exercises were far more prevalent than trucks carrying goods towards the border.
The crossings are the only way Gaza can receive goods and Israel has been blockading them since June, recently tightening the blockade further with cuts to fuel and pending cuts to electricity. The once busy checkpoint crossings now lie empty.
Entrance to Gaza is severely restricted now -- with the army even blocking Israeli journalists from access for the past year -- and all the reports from residents inside indicate that the Gaza Strip has spiraled into a humanitarian crisis with drastic food and medical shortages. Residents contend that because of the shortages, the price of a sack of ... more..
Punishing Gaza
Stephen Lendman, ZNet 11/7/2007
On September 20, Haaretz reported: "The security cabinet voted unanimously yesterday to increase sanctions against the Hamas-run Gaza Strip (and declare) the region a ’hostile entity.’ " A further statement read: "We will reduce the amount of megawattage we provide to the Strip, and Hamas will have to decide whether to provide electricity to hospitals or weapons lathes." Israeli officials also decided to punish Gazans by restricting:
-- fuel as well as electricity from Israel to Gaza;
-- the passage of goods and people through border crossings that are already severely restricted; and
-- visits to prisoners even further than how limited they are already.
An increased monitoring of funds was also announced as well as stating border crossings would be closed for up to 48 hours in response to (crude small homemade) Qassam rocket fire, and that Israel would supply nothing further to Gaza residents "except for (whatever Israel considers) humanitarian needs." Hamas’ response was swift and sharp. Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called the cabinet’s decision and sanctions a "declaration of war" and said "we must unite the ranks to come together in the conflict with the cruel enemy....This is another attempt to force us to surrender (our sovereignty)." more..
Bush Warned of God Fury over Annapolis
Palestine Chronicle 11/6/2007
Israeli rabbis claim ‘the New Orleans flood from the Katrina hurricane was God’s punishment for dismantling the settlements" of Gaza. They say expect more of God’s wrath.
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OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli rabbis are threatening US President George W. Bush of divine punishment if he did not scrap an upcoming US-sponsored Mideast peace conference, saying Hurricane Katrina and California fires were God’s punishment for America.
"We wrote to President Bush, a man who believes in the Bible, to warn him against the terrible danger to which he is exposing his country by hosting such a conference," Rabbi Meir Druckman told Israel radio on Monday, November 5.
The letter, signed by eight rabbis, threatens Bush that "God punishes anyone who wants to force Israel to give up its land."
The US is expected to host later this year a conference bringing Arabs and Israel to talk peace.
Druckman claimed that the US should learn a lesson from earlier divine punishments.
"There is no doubt the New Orleans flood from the Katrina hurricane was God’s punishment for dismantling the settlements," he said, referring to the pullout from occupied Gaza Strip.
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Hasan Afif El-Hasan: Balfour Declaration
Palestine Chronicle 11/6/2007
But Britain should apologize to the victims of its colonialism for the injustice that it had inflicted upon them by erecting a racist colonialist state on the ruins of their society.
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By Hasan Afif El-Hasan
Special to PalestineChronicle.com
The Palestinians today are dispossessed and oppressed. The vast majority is either living under occupation or in refugee camps across the Middle East or living as second class citizens inside Israel deprived of their human rights. The British owe the Palestinians an apology for planting the seed of the disasters that have befallen them beginning ninety years ago. Britain never apologized for giving itself the right to grant a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine against the will of its Arab population who constituted 93 percent of its inhabitants. Just in case somebody forgot, let us review the story of the British colonialists in Palestine.
Eighteen months after British-French Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 that divided the eastern Mediterranean Arab lands between the two countries, the president of the Zionist Federation, Baron Lionel Rothschild was able to extract the ground-breaking Balfour Declaration. On November 2nd, 1917, the British foreign secretary, Balfour, presented a letter that has been called the “Balfour Declaration” to Lord Rothschild, committing the British Government support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. Although the declaration carried the name of Balfour, it was actually framed and authored by Jewish Zionists. It was a one sentence statement drafted by Zionist linguistic and legal experts to lay the grounds for a future Jewish statehood and limit the rights of “the non-Jewish” [Arab] population to religious and civil rights without even referring to them as Arabs.
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PHR-Israel: Erez Crossing: What the Eye Doesn’t See
Palestine Chronicle 11/6/2007
PHR-Israel calls once again upon its supporters in Israel and overseas to do all within their power to join its call for medical ethics, against the isolation of the Gaza Strip, and against the violation of the right to health under occupation.
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By Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Appeal
Barely two weeks since extensive media attention successfully compelled Israel to allow access to lifesaving care for patients through Erez Crossing, Israeli policies at the Crossing lead to a repetition of a similar crisis:
- Sixteen patients in life-endangering condition stranded in Gaza without proper care due to "security prohibitions."
- Permit-bearing cancer patient detained a full day at Erez Crossing and ordered to return
- Two permit-bearing patients die within one week at Erez Crossing
- Erez Crossing closed again since 28.10.2007
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) referred urgent letters yesterday and today to Israeli policy-makers reiterating its demand that Erez Crossing be immediately opened to patients needing care unavailable in Gaza.
more..
PHR-Israel: Erez Crossing: What the Eye Doesn’t See
Palestine Chronicle 11/6/2007
PHR-Israel calls once again upon its supporters in Israel and overseas to do all within their power to join its call for medical ethics, against the isolation of the Gaza Strip, and against the violation of the right to health under occupation.
Subscribe Now
By Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Appeal
Barely two weeks since extensive media attention successfully compelled Israel to allow access to lifesaving care for patients through Erez Crossing, Israeli policies at the Crossing lead to a repetition of a similar crisis:
- Sixteen patients in life-endangering condition stranded in Gaza without proper care due to "security prohibitions."
- Permit-bearing cancer patient detained a full day at Erez Crossing and ordered to return
- Two permit-bearing patients die within one week at Erez Crossing
- Erez Crossing closed again since 28.10.2007
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) referred urgent letters yesterday and today to Israeli policy-makers reiterating its demand that Erez Crossing be immediately opened to patients needing care unavailable in Gaza.
more..
Jim Miles: Lords of the Land – Book Review
Palestine Chronicle 11/6/2007
The settlements are the main cause of Israel’s problems and their continued support will continue to aggravate problems into the unknown future.
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By Jim Miles
Special to PalestineChronicle.com
Lords of the Land - The War Over Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007. Akiva Eldar and Idith Zertal. Nation Books, New York, 2007.
In my previous article I entered into a direct discussion on possible outcomes for the Israel-Palestine question based on a CBC radio interview between two different proponents and the most recent books they had written. Within that, while I was not fully receptive of Akiva Eldar’s arguments for the two-state outcome, I also mentioned his most recent book, co-authored with Idith Zertal, identifying it as an excellent political read concerning the issue of settlements in the occupied territories. To do justice to this book, as it is an important view of the settlement process from within the Israeli political structure and from within the settlers themselves, I feel it needs more emphasis as a positive work in relationship to the historiography of Israel-Palestine.
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Caelum Moffatt: Walking in Paradise
Palestine Chronicle 11/6/2007
The olive branch has been a symbol of peace since ancient Greek mythology three millennia ago. With the masses of olive groves which span across the land, it is an anomaly that peace has not yet ensued.
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By Caelum Moffatt
Whether a Palestinian, an Israeli settler or a foreigner currently residing in the West Bank, engaging in whatever activity that makes the days pass, all are undeniably guilty of the same crime – obstinate blindness.
I am not talking about blindness toward each other with regard to the political situation nor am I attempting to highlight and promote mutual sensitivity, respect or coexistence. I am stressing the existence of blindness of another kind. It is a kind more visually obvious but yet somewhat overlooked – the disregard for the sheer beauty of the West Bank landscape. With this said, it is not so surprising an occurrence when one considers the current climate.
There are more than 500 Israeli checkpoints dispersed throughout the West Bank and over 120 Israeli settlements with a combined population of 450,000. Hundreds of kilometers of pristine roads, exclusively for Israeli use, connect these settlements with their place of destination. In addition, there stands a nine meter high, approximately 800 kilometer long wall which weaves through the West Bank.
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A Land with People, For a People with a Plan
Palestine Chronicle 11/6/2007
The reunification of Palestine’s shattered remains in a unitary state for all its inhabitants, old and new, is the only realistic, humane and durable route out of the morass.
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By Ludwig Watzal
Two rabbis, visiting Palestine in 1897, observed that the land was like a bride, "beautiful, but married to another man". By which they meant that, if a place was to be found for a Jewish "homeland" in Palestine, the indigenous inhabitants had to leave. Where should the people of Palestine go? Squaring that circle has been the essence of Israel’s dilemma ever since its establishment and the cause of the Palestinian tragedy that it led to. It has remained insoluble. Ghada Karmi’s new book, Married To Another Man, Israel’s Dilemma in Palestine, (published by Pluto Press, London-Ann Arbor) shows that the major reason for this failure was the original and unresolved Zionist quandary of how to create and maintain a Jewish state in a land inhabited by another people. Zionism was never able to resolve the problem of "the other man".
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Olmert: Core Issues are on the Annapolis Agenda
Barak Ravid, MIFTAH 11/6/2007
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took the stage at the Saban Forum on Sunday evening in Jerusalem, and delivered an impassioned speech promising to seriously pursue current Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, saying that "all the fundamental questions and substantial problems will be on the table at Annapolis."
Palestinians have been seeking negotiations surrounding the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - including the issues of Jerusalem, borders and the Palestinian refugees - before the U.S.-sponsored peace summit scheduled for next month in Annapolis. Israel has refused to discuss these issues in the past, but Olmert said on Sunday that "all of the questions are on the agenda. We won’t run away from any of them."
Speaking on the 12th anniversary of the assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Olmert recalled his predecessor’s peace efforts - which he acknowledged he did not support at the time. He declared he is "indebted" both to the legacy of Rabin and of former prime minister Ariel Sharon, who carried out the 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and who Olmert replaced after Sharon suffered a debilitating stroke in January 2006.
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In Mideast, Rice Pushes Annapolis Talks
Karen Deyoung, MIFTAH 11/6/2007
Israel is ready to put "all basic questions, all the substantive problems, all the historical questions" about Palestinian statehood on the table in a U.S.-hosted peace conference later this month in Annapolis, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday.
"It is time," Olmert said in an impassioned speech. "All questions are on the agenda. We won’t run away from any of them."
His remarks provided a significant boost for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s uphill efforts to convene a conference that would move the languishing peace process forward. In a speech immediately following Olmert’s, Rice insisted, "We can succeed. Failure is simply not an option."
The aims of the Annapolis conference, tentatively scheduled for the last week of November, have diminished since Rice proposed it in September as a venue for the Israelis and Palestinians to set out their positions on core issues including borders, the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
But in her second visit here in three weeks, Rice indicated that she was pursuing less ambitious goals. Rather than a joint declaration of parameters for a final settlement, sources said the document now envisioned for the conference would declare the implementation of the multistep "road map" first drawn up by the United States, Europe and the United Nations in 2003.
The first phase of the road map called for confidence-building security measures, including Palestinian action against armed groups, Israeli dismantlement of settlement outposts and the easing of restrictions on Palestinian movements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Annapolis document, in its new format, would state that negotiations were proceeding toward the "final status" core issues.
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Carter’s Clarity, Bush’s Befuddlement
Robert Novak, MIFTAH 11/6/2007
The timing of the release of the new documentary "Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains" was not intentional. The movie is arriving in theaters just before the Bush administration’s proposed Middle East conference in Annapolis, scheduled for the end of this month. But the former president’s clarity on the Palestinian question contrasts sharply with George W. Bush’s refusal to face reality, casting a pall over hopes to conclude his presidency with a diplomatic triumph.
In the film, Carter repeatedly and unequivocally states what Palestinian and Israeli peace advocates view as undeniable: to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace, with all its benefits for the world, Israel must end its illegal and oppressive occupation of the West Bank. That is a prerequisite that neither President Bush nor congressional leaders of both parties can approach for fear of being labeled anti-Israeli or even anti-Semitic (as Carter has been).
With the end to the occupation not on any participant’s agenda, hopes for substantive accomplishment at Annapolis are dim. Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Oct. 24, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned of "further radicalization of Palestinian politics, of politics in the region" if "we lose the window for a two-state solution." But she did not mention the forbidden words of Israeli removal from the West Bank.
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That Promised Peace Conference
The New York Times - Editorial, MIFTAH 11/6/2007
One month before President Bush’s Mideast peace conference — the administration’s first serious effort in six years — it’s still not clear what will be on the agenda or who, beyond the Americans, Israelis and Palestinians, will show up. Even the date is still up in the air.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the region through early next week for what we hope will be more than just another one of her listening tours. If the conference has any chance of success, she needs to be carrying with her creative proposals, a willingness to twist everyone’s arms and the stamina to keep at it for as long as it takes.
The issue is less how peace would look than whether leaders — including Mr. Bush — have the political courage to make decisions and finally move forward.
The broad outlines of a deal for Israel and the new state of Palestine have been apparent since President Clinton’s 2000 push. The two states would be separated by a line approximating Israel’s pre-1967 war border, with small land swaps to permit most Jewish settlers in the West Bank to be part of Israel. There would be some kind of agreed resolution of the Palestinian refugees issue, while the two sides would find a way to split control of Jerusalem. A guarantee to use the full resources of the Palestinian Authority to help protect Israel from future terrorist attacks is also essential.
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Air strikes first, questions later
Khody Akhavi, Asia Times 11/7/2007
WASHINGTON - More than two months after Israeli warplanes conducted a mysterious raid in northeast Syria, there is a growing consensus among US government and independent analysts that the suspicious target was a nuclear facility.
But the evidence they are relying on - a series of satellite photos showing a building and an adjacent pumping station near the Euphrates River - is anything but definitive, given how closely guarded US-Israeli discussions have been. With the exception of
several highly classified one-on-one briefings about the incident to a handful of US congressional leaders, the George W Bush administration has kept mum.
Western analysts say a tall, boxy building on the site may have contained a nuclear reactor under construction similar to a North Korean design, but the structure itself was razed after the September 6 air raid. They say that the secret nuclear reactor may be several years old.
Whether or not the facility was nuclear, the episode - and Israeli, Syrian and US silence over the issue - raises even more questions as to the actual threat posed by the facility, the timing of the raid, and what the unilateral action portends for the nuclear ambitions of Israel’s regional neighbors.
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Hamas: ’Meeting does not Amount to Dialogue’
MIFTAH, MIFTAH 11/3/2007
On the November 2, President Mahmoud Abbas met with Hamas officials for the first time since their seizure of Gaza in June. Former deputy Prime Minister, Nassereddin al-Shaer and Hamas officials Faraj Rumana, Hussein Abu Qweik and Ayman Daraghmeh were amongst those invited for prayers with the president at the Muqata in Ramallah.
This meeting in the Muqata was the conclusion to a busy week of rhetoric exchanged between Hamas and Fatah. On the October 29, in an interview with Kuwaiti al Ra’i newspaper, President Abbas declared that Hamas intended on repeating their take over of Gaza in the West Bank. However, Abbas claimed that they would fail assuring that the supposedly controversial contacts between Hamas and Israel are not in fact new developments and therefore not a reason to worry.
In a rebuttal of Abbas’ words, a leading Hamas figure in Gaza, Nizar Rayyan, stated that Abbas would “fall like leaves of the tree” confidently asserting that Hamas would pray in the Muqata by next fall. PLC member, Mushir al-Masri, reiterated these words by saying that Abbas has no legitimacy or mandate from the Palestinian people. However, on Thursday November 1, West Bank Hamas officials, Faraj Rumana and Abu Qweik publicly announced that they rejected such statements as they “contradict with the policies of the movement”.
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The Enemy Within
David Kimche, MIFTAH 11/3/2007
Our worst enemies do not live in Ramallah, nor even in Gaza. No, they can be found in Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem, in Haifa. They live in our midst. They are motivated by greed, by avarice. They wear expensive suits, don the latest in ties.
The high cost lawyer with, oh, such refined cultural taste who swindled tens of millions of dollars from Holocaust survivors without batting an eyelid, is one of them. In my book he rates high up, at the top of the list of the worst of the worst.
Alas, he is not alone. The former minister, exuding good will and bonhomie, with his charming grandfatherly smile, who dared to lord over our country’s finances knowing all the time that he had helped himself to millions of shekels of other peoples’ money, is, in all probability, another one of them. Unlike the aforementioned lawyer, he has not yet been found guilty, but the case that the police have put against him seems to be ironclad.
There are many, many others - this entire page could be filled with example after example - yet, unfortunately, these corrupt, greed-driven scions of our society are only one facet of the enemy that is eating us up in our midst.
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PA Infighting / Blood Brothers
Avi Issacharoff, MIFTAH 11/3/2007
The Palestinian organizations responsible for the massive firing of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds at Israel over the past few days may harbor hostility toward one another, but they share a common goal: Dragging Israel into a massive activity in the Gaza Strip.
Yesterday, it was the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades that fired a heavy salvo of rockets at Sderot. But despite their affiliation, the men who launched the rockets are not taking orders from Fatah chief and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
They are a group of militants embroiled in a protracted conflict with Hamas. Their feud with the Islamist organization began when Hamas engaged the Khiles clan in gunfights. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades men want to place Hamas and Israel on a collision course leading up to a large-scale Israeli incursion.
The men who fired the mortars yesterday see this incursion as a possible means of overthrowing Hamas’ grasp on the Gaza Strip; Hamas conquered the Strip five months ago.
But before the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades fired rockets, Islamic Jihad and Hamas fired rockets. They, too, are trying to provoke Israel into launching an offensive, which would quash all hope for the Annapolis peace summit scheduled to take place next month.
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Lessons from the Failed Peace Talks at Camp David
Moshe Amirav, MIFTAH 11/3/2007
This month US President George W. Bush proposes to host an international conference in Annapolis, near Washington, in the hope of advancing a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. The failures of previous attempts - in Madrid in 1991, in Oslo in 1993 and at Camp David in 2000 - highlight the difficulties. What have we learned from these failures to suggest that the same errors in judgment will recur?
The conflict is no longer simply about territories. Israel was ready in secret negotiations with Syria in the 1990s to return the Golan Heights. At Camp David in 2000 Israel agreed to a Palestinian state and was prepared to offer the Palestinians 92 percent of the occupied West Bank and Gaza. But no peace agreement was reached. So if the territories and acceptance of a Palestinian state are not the main problem, what still divides Israelis and Arabs?
At the psychological level, the main requirements for Israelis are security and recognition, while those of the Palestinians and Syrians remain justice and equality. Academic literature dealing with conflict resolution emphasizes that simplistic principles of justice, equality and security do not sufficiently define tangible interests, but are purely subjective. An issue such as security is difficult to define. Can territorial compromise promise security? It was clear to me at Camp David that the Palestinians were more interested in the elusive ideas of justice and equality than in definable interests. Agreement was reached on all the concrete issues, including territories and settlements, and even on the thorny issue of Jerusalem. The two main obstacles, the refugee problem and the political status of the Temple Mount, were more symbolic than concrete.
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US Hopes Iran Fears will Prod Progress at Mideast Peace Meet
Agence France Presse, MIFTAH 11/3/2007
The United States hopes it can translate mounting concerns about Iran’s strength into progress in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, officials and observers say.
Publicly, State Department officials strain to downplay expectations for the conference expected before year’s end in scenic Annapolis, Maryland, near Washington. Privately, they are aglow with an optimism that clashes head-on with the pessimism many Arab leaders have voiced.
‘We have made progress,’ one senior department official said privately in mid-October, following lengthy talks by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Ramallah and Jerusalem. The talks did not yield any visible steps forward between the Israelis and Palestinians.
But no political party now rejects the creation of a Palestinian state, which was not the case at the last Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, according to the same official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
While recognizing the weak positions of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who leads a fragile coalition; and that of Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, who has to contend with the Hamas uprising in Gaza, US officials say in private that the conditions oddly enough may be ripe for a deal.
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Saudis Signal Doubts Over Middle East Peace Talks Called by US
Ian Black, MIFTAH 11/3/2007
Saudi Arabia has signalled that it will not attend the Middle East peace conference scheduled by the US for this month unless there is significant agreement in advance on the core issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians.
But Prince Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister, also held out a vision of normalisation between the Arab world and Israel - "not just the absence of war" - if the conflict could be resolved.
"We need a successful meeting. To be successful it must deal with the main issues of peace in the Middle East: Jerusalem, borders, the return of the Palestinians," he told reporters at the end of the Saudi state visit to London yesterday.
The US and Britain have been working hard to persuade their Saudi allies to attend the event in Annapolis, Maryland, although no formal invitations have yet been issued and there are signs the timing may slip. Israeli and Palestinian officials have been trying to agree a joint document amid fears that failure could trigger new violence. Saudi Arabia has led an Arab League initiative calling peace with Israel "a strategic option". Its attendance is considered vital by the US and Israel to create a sense of wider legitimacy.
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We aren’t One: American Jewish Voices for Peace
Murray Polner, MIFTAH 11/3/2007
Back in the 1980s the major American Jewish welfare organization adopted as its fundraising slogan "We are One." The implication was that American Jews were a united bloc. But we are not "one" and never have been. Ideologically, we are everything from anarchists to Zionists, working people to the gilded rich. Noam Chomsky is as Jewish as Irving Kristol, and Norman Finkelstein as Jewish as Alan Dershowitz. We are neither angels nor saints. And we are certainly not monolithic, despite perennial efforts to paint anyone critical of various aspects of Israeli policies as "self-hating" Jews.
The truth is that the overwhelming number of America’s estimated 6 million Jews is opposed to the Cheney-Bush-neocon regime as their voting patterns have shown time and again. In 2000 and 2004 the overwhelming majority of us voted for Gore and Kerry. In the 2006 congressional elections 80% of the Jewish vote went Democratic. And repeated surveys of Jewish college students show them to be overwhelmingly liberal to moderate. Tikkun Olam or "saving the world" remains our true heritage and legacy.
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Abbas Holds Rare Meeting with Hamas
Dalia Nammari, MIFTAH 11/3/2007
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with members of Hamas on Friday for the first time since the militant group ousted his forces and took over the Gaza Strip in June.
Abbas’ aides described the meeting with four West Bank-based Hamas members as an informal gathering after Friday prayers at Abbas’ presidential compound, saying it was not an official contact between the two movements. Abbas has repeatedly said he would have no contact with Hamas until it cedes power in Gaza.
But one of the Hamas men, Hussein Abu Quaik, said Abbas invited them to prayers.
"Everybody in Hamas knew about this," Abu Quaik said. "This will contribute to strengthening our relationship, and lay the basis for national unity, God willing."
Nasser al-Shaer, who was deputy prime minister in the Hamas-led unity government that broke apart after the Gaza takeover, said the group discussed "internal affairs in an open atmosphere" with Abbas, but added that the visit was "not a meeting between Hamas and the President."
For the Hamas men, Friday’s meeting appeared to be an attempt to distance themselves from their movement’s members in Gaza, where a Hamas leader said this week that Abbas would soon be deposed and that the Islamic group would take over the West Bank as it did Gaza.
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Palestinian Force Enters Nablus in Security Drive
Atef Saad, MIFTAH 11/3/2007
Hundreds of Palestinian security officers arrived in Nablus on Friday in the first stage of a Western-backed drive to crack down on gunmen in the occupied West Bank ahead of a peace conference with Israel.
Israel, which is trying to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas against his Hamas rivals, approved the deployment in the flashpoint West Bank city. Israeli government spokesman David Baker said the move would improve security and could be repeated elsewhere in the West Bank if it worked well.
Dressed in green berets and carrying new automatic rifles, 308 officers belonging to the Palestinian National Security Forces -- the equivalent of an army -- arrived in Nablus at dawn from a training centre in Jericho and some set up roadblocks.
The officers, who will be officially deployed in the next few days, provide a significant boost to a small police force that struggles to crack down on gunmen and gangs.
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who inspected the officers in a ceremony on Friday, told reporters it was the "starting point" of a broader drive "aimed at restoring the rule of law" in the Palestinian territories.
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You Can Learn it in a Negotiations Course
Aluf Benn, MIFTAH 11/2/2007
It is not easy to discuss the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in a practical manner, without past grudges. Too many emotions, historical memories and political interests are involved, turning every discussion of a solution to the conflict into a slogan contest: "diplomatic horizon," "partition of Jerusalem," "right of return."
Sometimes it pays to observe even events close to home from a distance, and to learn from the advice of others. Jeanne Brett and Lee Thompson, professors from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago, study and teach how to conduct negotiations. The model they have developed is universal, and is supposed to suit any situation - from buying a house and finding a job to agreements between huge corporations and governments. The two have studied commercial negotiations and labor relations.
They have not taken an interest in the Oslo Accords or in Camp David, nor have they read the "road map," but their observations are also relevant to the discussions now being held by Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni with Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) and Abu Ala, and explain some of the past failures.
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Reaping the Occupation’s Fruit
Amira Hass, MIFTAH 11/2/2007
If the plot of land belonging to Dr. Salam Fayad, the Palestinian prime minister, were located 50 meters west of its present location, in the level part of the village of Deir al-Ghusun, it would now be growing thorns and thistles. If it were located 50, or at most 100 meters, to the west, Fayad’s plot would have found itself on the other side of the separation fence, on the other side of Gate 609, which soldiers open and close three times a day to allow entrance to those who have managed, after investing considerable efforts, to get permits in order to get to their land.
Deir al-Ghusun, eight kilometers north of Tul Karm, incorporates about 15,000 dunams (including the built-up area and the master plan). Of these, 2,200 dunams are pinned between the separation fence and the Green Line. About 300 families own plots of land in this area. Throughout the year - not including the height of the agricultural season - about 150 people need regular permits to reach their private land.
A few hundred more request permits during the olive-picking and harvesting seasons. Of the village’s 10,000 residents, about 4,000 make a living from the plots located behind the fence. Or to be more accurate: they could, theoretically, make a living from them.
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’Fence Driving Christians Out of Holy Land’
Matthew Wagner, MIFTAH 11/2/2007
Socioeconomic hardships caused by the West Bank security barrier are contributing to the decline in the Christian population in the Holy Land, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
"I recently met with Christians in Bethlehem, people by no means extreme, and they told of the daily burdens driving in and out of the city that were created by the wall," Williams said by telephone during a break in his 24-hour visit to these parts.
Williams did not mention other, long-standing, explanations for the exodus from traditionally Christian towns.
Muslim violence against Christians coupled with Hamas’s victory in the latest Palestinian Authority election and economics hardships caused, in part, by Hamas’s refusal to recognize Israel, are the most commonly cited reasons for the steady decrease in the number of Christians living in the PA.
Williams said he was aware of "claims" that the project had reduced the number of victims of Palestinian terrorism, but felt that in the long-term, building a barrier between two populations was "causing deeper problems" for the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations.
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From Payer to Player in the Middle East
El - Hassan Bin Talal, MIFTAH 11/2/2007
The European Union’s policy in the Middle East is the litmus test of its common foreign and security policy. Many Europeans share this belief, but, as the EU considers entering the fray of Middle East peace talks, it must respond to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s jibe that in the region "you are payers, not players."
Yet Europe’s potential contribution should not be underestimated. Europe’s financial contribution to the Middle East has been consistent and impressive. Between 1995 and 1999, it spent roughly 3.4 billion euros ($4.9 billion) in the region, to which the European Investment Bank added a further 4.8 billion euros in loans. From 2000 to 2006, Europe spent another 5.35 billion euros, and the EIB approved 6.4 billion euros in loans. This year, the European Commission has committed 320 million euros in Palestine alone.
So much for the role of payer. But has Europe’s financial aid brought peace any closer? The Palestinian Authority has received more aid per capita than did post-war Europe under the Marshall Plan, yet the politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have foiled hopes of a broader Euro-Mediterranean framework that, through dialogue and investment, would bring tangible improvements to the lives of millions.
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America and Gaza in Darkness
George S. Hishmeh, MIFTAH 11/2/2007
Although the Bush administration may be on the verge of taking a big leap forward in paving the way for a Palestinian-Israeli settlement, brewing for nearly 60 years, none of the US presidential candidates have yet bothered to make any noteworthy comment about the upcoming Mideast peace meeting in Annapolis at the end of November.
The only step some of the leading candidates - there are more than a dozen running for the top position in each party - have taken on this key issue is not much different than what motivated the Democratic front-runner, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Jewish news agency, JTA, said the senator’s action was "not only to praise the Jewish state but to bury doubts that she would be any less vigilant in its protection than the Bush administration". But it is surprising to see that Rudolph G. Giuliani, the former New York mayor and the Republican Party’s front-runner, has outranked Clinton in scoring higher on a poll just published in Haaretz.
Top Republican Jewish activists are reportedly enamoured by his combativeness and this probably explains why he has "significantly outpaced" fellow Republican hopefuls, John McCain and Mitt Romney, in raising money from the 60 board members of the Republican Jewish Coalition "Victory 2008" Forum last week.
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Middle Eastern Links: In Place of a Boycott...
The Independent, MIFTAH 11/2/2007
When the university and college lecturers’ union, the UCU, voted at its conference in May this year to have a debate on an academic boycott of Israel, all hell broke loose. British academia was criticised by many commentators in the UK, and by professors around the world, for anti-Semitism and for inhibiting the free flow of ideas.
In August a full-page advertisement appeared in The New York Times signed by 286 American university presidents, including the bosses of MIT and Princeton. Headlined "Boycott Israeli Universities? Boycott Ours, Too", it contained an eloquent statement by Lee Bollinger, a noted free speech lawyer and president of Columbia University in New York. He said: "In seeking to quarantine Israeli universities and scholars, this vote threatens every university committed to fostering scholarly and cultural exchanges that lead to enlightenment, empathy and a much-needed international marketplace of ideas."
The row was deeply embarrassing to the British Government. So Bill Rammell, the higher education minister, and Drummond Bone, the former president of Universities UK, paid a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories to lower the temperature and to reassure Middle Eastern universities that the United Kingdom was committed to promoting dialogue rather than boycotts.
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The Siege of Gaza is Going to Lead to a Violent Escalation
Seumas Milne, MIFTAH 11/2/2007
There is, it seems, an unbridgeable gap between the western world’s apparent recognition of the dangers of Palestinian suffering and its commitment to do anything whatever to stop it. This week the collective punishment of the people of Gaza reached a new level, as Israel began to choke off essential fuel supplies to its one and a half million people in retaliation for rockets fired by Palestinian resistance groups. A plan to cut power supplies has only been put on hold till the end of the week by the intervention of Israel’s attorney general.
Both moves come on top of the existing blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel since last year’s election of Hamas and the confiscation of hundreds of millions of dollars of taxes it is obliged to pass on as part of previous agreements. And instead of being restrained by the US or European Union, both have deepened the crisis by imposing their own sanctions and withdrawing aid. The result has, inevitably, been further huge increases in unemployment and poverty. But far from discouraging rocket attacks, they have risen sharply - though the ratio of Palestinian to Israeli deaths has been running at more than 30 to one, compared with four to one at the height of the intifada five years ago.
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The ’Innocent Civilians’ Not on Israel’s Agenda
Joharah Baker for MIFTAH, MIFTAH 10/31/2007
It is ironic how everyone across the spectrum – politicians, civil society and the average man on the street – all stress on the protection of innocent civilians during times of conflict, and yet it is these very civilians who pay the heaviest price.
This is not exclusive to Palestine. Look at Iraq or Afghanistan. The United States, the great defender of democracy and civil rights, prides itself on waging war right. The “innocent civilians” caught in themidst of its sublime endeavor to grant freedom and independence to the Iraqi people are brushed off as unfortunate collateral damage. They were never the target of America’s wrath, the US claims, but they are certainly the ones who have suffered from it the most.
Here in Palestine, the Gaza Strip is the new Iraq. This cramped 365 km2 piece of land is packed with 1.4 million people, most of whom are living in poverty and unemployment and all of whom have been virtually isolated from the rest of the world, particularly since last June.
It is no secret that Israel loathes Hamas and that the United States fervently backs its ally in this opinion. With Hamas in control – or at least as much control as possible under the circumstances – Israel, the United States, and to a large extent, the Fateh-led government in the West Bank all want to see a weakened and politically incapacitated Hamas that would no longer pose as a threat to their strategic plans.
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Diaspora Palestinians to Abbas: Right of return not negotiable
Palestinian National Voice, The Electronic Intifada, 1 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/1/2007
Granting the right to return to Palestinian refugees like these children in the Shatila refugee camp in Lebanon is one of the issues the Palestinian diaspora has criticized Mahmoud Abbas for not raising ahead of the scheduled November conference. (
Matthew Cassel
The following Hamilton Declaration was unanimously approved by 18 Palestinian Canadian community associations (representing Palestinian communities in: Toronto, Mississauga, Ottawa, Halifax, Vancouver, London (Ontario), Hamilton, Brantford, and Montreal) at the third conference of the Palestinian National Voice initiative in Canada held in Hamilton, Ontario on 27-28 October 2007:
We the Palestinian Canadian community assembly at the Palestinian National Voice Preparatory Conference in Hamilton, Canada, issue this letter out of profound concern regarding the present state of the Palestinian national struggle and the November 2007 "peace" conference to be hosted by the United States in Annapolis, Maryland.
While Palestinians still suffer from the disaster of the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian National Authority has now agreed to attend another round of flawed negotiations.This time it does so under the pressure of North American and European nations that have actively collaborated with Israel to divide the Palestinian people and inflict collective punishment and other war crimes against them. Even now Israel is being allowed to deny the Palestinians the basic necessities for a functioning society through a humiliating siege against the Palestinian people in response to the exercise of Palestinian democracy and the adherence to its results.
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Patients dying at closed Erez checkpoint
Appeal, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, 31 October 2007, Electronic Intifada 10/31/2007
Barely two weeks since extensive media attention successfully compelled Israel to allow access to lifesaving care for patients through Erez Crossing, Israeli policies at the crossing lead to a repetition of a similar crisis:
Sixteen patients in life-endangering condition stranded in Gaza without proper care due to "security prohibitions"
Permit-bearing cancer patient detained a full day at Erez Crossing and ordered to return
Two permit-bearing patients die within one week at Erez Crossing
Erez Crossing closed again since 28 October 2007
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) referred urgent letters yesterday and today to Israeli policy-makers reiterating its demand that Erez Crossing be immediately opened to patients needing care unavailable in Gaza.
PHR-Israel requested that the Israeli army Attorney General and the Legal Counsel to the Israeli Government immediately open an investigation into individual cases in which patients in need of lifesaving care were denied passage, endangering their lives and in at least two cases leading to death.
PHR-Israel also demanded that an external independent committee be appointed to examine both the individual violations recorded and the policy of authorities at Erez Crossing, including that of the Israeli secret service, GSS (Shabak).
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Killing of Palestinian prisoner condemned
Press Release, United Against Torture Coalition, 1 November 2007, Electronic Intifada 11/1/2007
The United Against Torture Coalition (UAT), comprised of Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights NGOs that cooperate in the struggle to combat torture and abuse in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), is gravely concerned by the actions of the Israel Prison Service (IPS) in Ketziot Prison in the Negev that left one Palestinian prisoner dead and dozens more injured.
On Monday 22 October, in the early hours of the morning, whilst the prisoners were sleeping, the IPS riot control unit, the Massada Unit, carried out a search in the prisoners’ quarters; this allegedly was a search for weapons and other items prohibited by the prison authorities. The prisoners reacted in self-defense and protested and the excessive response by the Massada Unit led to the death of one prisoner, Mohammad Sati Mohammad al-Ashkar, 29 years of age. Al-Ashkar, from the town of Saida, near Tulkarem, was serving a two-year sentence and was due to be released in January 2008. Lawyers who visited the prisoners state that nine prisoners were severely wounded and required hospitalization; they also state that up to 260 prisoners were lightly injured, including those suffering from breathing difficulties. There is evidence to suggest that clubs, tear gas and possibly rubber bullets were used by the Massada Unit during the unrest. Haaretz newspaper reports that about 15 wardens were lightly wounded. To date, there have been no press reports or publicizing of any weapons or other items having been uncovered in the raid.
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Israeli rocket fire kills four Gaza policemen
Report, PCHR, 31 October 2007, Electronic Intifada 10/31/2007
In the evening of 30 October 2007, Israeli warplanes fired rockets at a police station in the southern Gaza Strip and killed four policemen in the police force of the dismissed government in Gaza. Israeli military sources commented on this crime by saying that "the air strike that [has been] relatively rare recently is an indication that Israel will not continue to exhibit restraint towards the firing of mortars at Israeli population centers." PCHR expresses concern over the Israeli escalation in the Gaza Strip, and calls upon the international community to intervene to stop these crimes. This week alone, the Centre has documented the death of 15 Palestinians in the Strip as a result of Israel aerial and land bombardment that disregards the civilian nature of targeted areas.
The Center’s preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 21:40 on 30 October 2007, Israeli war planes fired two rockets at a police station in the town of New Abasan to the east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. The rockets hit the entrance of the station, where the four policemen were on guard duty. They were killed instantly, and their bodies were dismembered. The victims are:
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Charges dropped in 20-year-old US case against Palestinian activists
Press Release, Legal rights organizations, 31 October 2007, Electronic Intifada 10/31/2007
The 20-year effort to deport two men over their alleged political support of Palestinian self-determination officially came to an end today when the nation’s highest administrative body overseeing immigration cases dismissed all charges against Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh, members of a group of Palestinian student activists arrested in January 1987, who became known as the LA 8.
The action by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) closes one of the nation’s longest-running and most controversial deportation cases, one that tested whether immigrants have the same First Amendment rights as citizens.
Hamide and Shehadeh expressed both relief and happiness that the case is finally over but also anger over what they believed to be a politically motivated, baseless prosecution.
"My family and I feel a tremendous amount of relief today," said Hamide."After 20 years, the nightmare is finally over. I feel vindicated at long last. This is a victory not only for us, but for the First Amendment of the Constitution and for the rights of all immigrants."
Shehadeh agreed.
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