zaterdag 18 juli 2009

Christelijk-conservatieve Republikeinen hebben Joodse steun verloren


Voor de meeste Joden in de VS is Israel niet het beslissende onderwerp wat betreft hun stemgedrag en partijlidmaatschap. Niet alleen stemde ca. 80% van de Amerikaanse Joden de afgelopen verkiezingen op Obama, de republikeinen hebben nog maar één Joods congreslid tegenover 30 bij de democraten.
 
By 2008, only 3 per cent of Jewish voters felt Israel was the issue they'd most like to hear candidates discuss, according to an American Jewish Committee survey. In another poll, Israel tied for seventh place with illegal immigration on a list of issues important to Jewish voters.
 
Jewish votes are not attracted by defending torture and waterboarding, opposing gay marriage, banning abortion, cutting taxes for the wealthiest, trying to privatize Social Security and cutting Medicare, blocking universal health insurance and being identified, in the words of Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME), as "the party of big business, big oil and the rich."
 
Ook andere minderheden in de VS zijn niet warm te krijgen voor de conservatief-christelijke politiek van de Republikeinen, die vooral de welgestelden en het platteland vertegenwoordigt.
 
RP
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Washington Watch: The Republicans' Jewish problem
Jul. 15, 2009
Douglas Bloomfield , THE JERUSALEM POST
 

The Republican Party has a Jewish problem. And a Hispanic problem. And an Asian problem. And a black problem. And a female problem.

This week's hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court illustrated the party's growing minority dilemma. It lost the Hispanic and female vote in last year's election, and GOP senators aren't about to reverse that by harping on the nominee's 2001 statement about the value of a "wise Latina" on the bench. That could be a particular problem for someone like Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who is running for reelection next year in a state with a large Hispanic population.

That's the same McCain who was supposed to create a "sea change" in Jewish voting patterns last year by drawing a record number of Jewish voters into the Republican column.

As the nation becomes more ethnically and racially diverse, the GOP is becoming more monochromatic - white, rural, Christian, conservative, male and angry. That's not the minority group it needs to take back the Congress or the White House.

Even some of its own members are calling the party powerless, leaderless and rudderless. The most recognizable voices of the party are Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove and Sarah Palin. Even Joe the Plumber quit the GOP.

Of course, the role of the opposition party is to oppose, but it also has to propose. It can't keep saying "No" without offering credible alternatives.

George W. Bush came to office promising to downsize the government and upsize the party, and wound up doing just the opposite. Today, only one in five Americans identifies as a Republican.

WHEN THE last Jewish Republican in the US Senate - Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania - crossed the aisle to join the Democrats, Limbaugh, et. al, cheered, "Good riddance." There is only one Jewish Republican in the 111th Congress, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the minority whip. There are 30 Jewish Democrats in the House and 13 in the Senate, record numbers.

For 20 years or so we've been hearing predictions by Jewish Republicans of a mass migration of Jewish voters from the Democratic party, but the GOP has never recovered from the damage done by George H.W. Bush's questioning the loyalty of American Jews and trying to block loan guarantees to Israel in 1991.

The Jewish vote, which had been between 30 and 39 percent in 1980s, dropped to 11 percent in 1988; 20 years later it was up, but not to previous levels, at 22 percent.

The 1994 Gingrich revolution that gave the GOP control of both chambers for the first time in 40 years, with support for Israel high on the party's agenda, was expected to reverse the decline in Jewish support. But it failed.

The foundation of the new Republican majority was the staunchly conservative Evangelical movement, and its positions on issues like church-state separation, abortion, gay rights, civil liberties and other domestic topics important to the Jewish community overshadowed its enthusiasm for Israel. After years of resistance, Republicans began voting for foreign aid, the pro-Israel community's number one legislative agenda, in large numbers.

It was at about that time that Israel peaked as the most important issue for Jewish voters. If Jews ever were single-issue voters, that was clearly changing in the 1990s. The reason wasn't a lack of interest but a feeling that both parties were good in their support for Israel, which allowed Jewish voters to focus more on other issues. That was bad news for Republicans, who were banking on outspoken support for Israel would overshadow Jewish concerns on their domestic agenda.

By 2008, only 3 per cent of Jewish voters felt Israel was the issue they'd most like to hear candidates discuss, according to an American Jewish Committee survey. In another poll, Israel tied for seventh place with illegal immigration on a list of issues important to Jewish voters.

Jewish votes are not attracted by defending torture and waterboarding, opposing gay marriage, banning abortion, cutting taxes for the wealthiest, trying to privatize Social Security and cutting Medicare, blocking universal health insurance and being identified, in the words of Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME), as "the party of big business, big oil and the rich."

WHAT CAN the GOP do about its Jewish problem? I asked a number of activists of various persuasions, and the most frequent answer I got was hope that the anger on the right toward Barack Obama's Mideast policies will spread across the Jewish community and finally give them a bigger chunk of the Jewish vote in 2012. Hoping the opposition fails is not a formula for success.

The Republicans are doing much better when it comes to Jewish money; indeed, some party pragmatists say Jewish campaign dollars, not votes, are what GOP leaders are really after. Jews are disproportionately large contributors to both parties, especially among a number of very large Republican givers, a party operative said. There are fewer Jewish GOP donors, but the size of their donations is larger, he said.

I believe it is in the interest of the Jewish community - in both foreign and domestic policy - to be well represented in both parties, but so long as the Evangelicals and social conservatives set the Republican agenda, Jews will keep voting overwhelmingly Democratic.

Commissie Buitenlandse Zaken VS: Abbas moet vredesbesprekingen met Netanjahoe beginnen


Het is de eerste keer dat ik zo'n duidelijke oproep aan (en kritiek op) president Abbas lees van Amerikaanse zijde. Helaas komt die van de voorzitter van de Commissie Buitenlandse Zaken van het Huis van Afgevaardigden, en niet van president Obama of Hillary Clinton, die wel steeds Israel zo fel hebben bekritiseerd over de bouw in de nederzettingen.
 
RP
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For Immediate Release
July 15, 2009
Contact: Lynne Weil, (202) 225-5021
www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca28_berman/NetanyahuPeaceTalkProposal.shtml
Berman Calls on Abbas to Accept Netanyahu Proposal for Unconditional Peace Talks

 
Washington, D.C. - Howard L. Berman (D-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today issued this statement regarding proposed unconditional peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian authorities:

"I am deeply disappointed that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has consistently rejected Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's call for unconditional talks on the Palestinian issue.

"As everyone familiar with Israeli politics knows, Netanyahu has taken a politically courageous and substantively important step in endorsing the idea of 'two states for two peoples,' and he has also taken significant steps to ease travel and access in the West Bank by dismantling numerous checkpoints and roadblocks. Nevertheless, Abbas is demanding that Netanyahu establish a settlement freeze as a condition for a meeting. This is a condition Abbas never required of Netanyahu's predecessor Ehud Olmert. Moreover, in the context of bilateral talks, Abbas could raise his settlement concerns directly with Netanyahu - concerns which, Abbas knows, are being discussed intensively between U.S. and Israeli officials.

"For the sake of re-establishing an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue and helping to create an environment of peace, I call on President Abbas immediately to accept Prime Minister Netanyahu's proposal for unconditional talks on peace."

De stilte doorbreken over Breaking The Silence


Zo gaan die dingen achter de schermen.
Een en ander versterkt de twijfel die ik toch al had over de intentie van Breaking the Silence. Wil men misstanden aan de kaak stellen met het doel dat het leger zaken verbetert of wil men Israel aan de schandpaal nagelen?
 
Het is jammer dat het artikel in de Jerusalem Post maar op enkele gemelde incidenten een reactie van het leger geeft. Is dat uit ruimtegebrek of omdat het leger op die andere zaken niet een-twee-drie een reactie had?
 
RP
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Breaking the silence on Breaking The Silence

Breaking The Silence, a small group of former Israeli soldiers on Wednesday embarked on an international campaign to show the world what it says are testimonies from soldiers pointing to immoral Israeli actions committed during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year.

I'm not going to get into the report itself, which may be totally true, somewhat true, entirely false, who knows. It is undoubtedly an important report that is reverberating globally. Instead, a brief look behind the scenes into the way Breaking The Silence operated on this report.

It promised the exclusive to Haaretz, because it knows the report would have gotten prominence there. What it didn't count on was Haaretz learning its lesson from its huge mistake last time it was given a report into alleged Israel Defense Forces human rights violations in Gaza. Last time Haaretz didn't do its journalistic job and published unsubstantiated hearsay. This time Haaretz military reporter Amos Harel had the presence of mind to send the Breaking The Silence report to the IDF for response.

My military reporter, Yaakov Katz, was in the right place at the right time, and got hold of most of the report himself. Breaking The Silence tried to get Yaakov off the story because it didn't fit into their strategy to have The Jerusalem Post take a critical look at their report. They promised Yaakov they would give him other stories in the future if he dropped this one for now. Katz refused, rightly so, and we published.

Several days before all this, Breaking The Silence gave out their report to a wide array of foreign media, and not to the IDF to probe into itself, with the caveat that they observe the embargo until after Haaretz published the report first. All of which shows their original intent was to get as much uncritical worldwide publicity for their report. Legitimate, sure. Fair? Not so sure.

 

VS wil bindend tijdschema voor Israelisch-Palestijnse onderhandelingen


Het is begrijpelijk dat de VS ervoor wil zorgen dat er voortgang zit in de onderhandelingen, maar ze lopen wel nogal op de zaken vooruit. Momenteel zijn er nog geen onderhandelingen want Abbas weigert met Israel te praten zolang dat niet geheel stopt met bouwen in de nederzettingen, en wellicht nog andere eisen, en ook de Arabische staten hebben afwijzend op Amerikaanse voorstellen voor goodwill gestures gereageerd. Volgens diplomaten heeft dat laatst Amerika's positie wat betreft de nederzettingen iets milder gemaakt:
 
The shift in the American position is also the product of the refusal on the part of the moderate Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, to make significant normalization gestures toward Israel. In all probability, when the Americans understood that in any event they would not obtain substantial gestures from the Arabs, they decided to reach a compromise with Israel.
 
Het vreemde is, dat Amerika al maanden de nederzettingenkwestie hoog opspeelt, met als resultaat dat Israel al een heel eind is opgeschoven, maar ook dat Israel publiekelijk veel schade heeft geleden en de regering zo mogelijk nog meer dan al het geval was als anti-vrede wordt gezien, terwijl de VS wat betreft de Arabische concessies veel omzichtiger te werk is gegaan. Het lijkt erop dat men wat dat betreft vooral vrijblijvend heeft geopperd of het misschien een idee is om alvast een symbolisch gebaar te maken naar Israel toe, zodat Israel er vertrouwen in heeft dat de Arabieren ook bereid zijn tot concessies. Het resultaat is een duidelijk 'nee', waarna de VS niet zegt 'we will press this issue', zoals Hillary Clinton zei wat betreft de nederzettingen, maar 'jammer dan, dan proberen we wat anders'. Ondertussen ziet de hele wereld alleen de nederzettingen als obstakel, en de haatpropaganda tegen Joden en Israel in de Arabische media, de Arabische boycot tegen Israel, de steun voor het 'Palestijnse verzet' en de weigering van de Palestijnen om Israel als nationaal thuis van het Joodse volk te erkennen, worden vrijwel genegeerd.
 
RP
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Report: US to set binding timetable for Israel-PA talks

Last update - 09:19 16/07/2009       
Obama to set binding timetable for Israel-PA talks
By Barak Ravid
 
 
U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to announce a diplomatic plan soon for renewal of the Middle East peace process.
 
A central feature of the plan, which will be presented to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, will be a binding timetable for negotiations on the core issues involved in a final resolution of the conflict.
 
It may also be precluded by an easing of pressure for a building freeze in the settlements on the part of the Unites States.

A senior Western diplomat closely involved in current contacts involving the U.S., Israel, the PA and moderate Arab states noted that the American administration is currently developing the diplomatic plan but is only interested in pursuing it after the settlement issue and the matter of pro-Israel gestures from the Arab states are resolved.
 
The American plan will essentially restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians which have been deadlocked for over six months. The plan will not deal with all of the specific details of the negotiations and will not provide parameters for the resolution of core issues. Rather it will provide a framework for negotiations, how they will be conducted, follow-up mechanisms and especially the timetable for negotiations.
 
The senior diplomat said Obama is interested in bringing talks to a conclusion "on time" as a way of obligating the parties to make progress.
 
The diplomat also noted that the U.S. is now interested in reaching a compromise with Israel on the settlement issue as a prelude to presentation of the American plan, as the Americans have understood that Israel cannot agree to an absolute freeze in construction in the settlements.
 
The change in the American view on the issue was the result of the fact that about 2,500 homes in the settlements are in various advanced stages of construction which cannot be halted.
 
U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell is therefore attempting to find a formula by which Israel will go as far as it can to stop settlement building.
 
The shift in the American position is also the product of the refusal on the part of the moderate Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, to make significant normalization gestures toward Israel. In all probability, when the Americans understood that in any event they would not obtain substantial gestures from the Arabs, they decided to reach a compromise with Israel.
 
The compromise will also include an agreement on a joint database between Israel and the U.S. which will permit close tracking of settlement construction and verification that it is being kept to a minimum.
 
The plan, according to the senior diplomat, would also include other Israeli confidence-building measures toward the Palestinians. The diplomatic source cautioned that the Arab world's total lack of trust in Netanyahu remained a major problem.
 
 

Nederland en Europese Unie subsidiëren 'Breaking the Silence'

 
Het is natuurlijk op zichzelf legitiem, maar wel opvallend dat wel heel veel organisaties die met name kritisch zijn naar Israel door de EU worden gefinancierd. Wij zijn er ook niet blij mee wanneer we vernemen dat islamitische of migrantenorganisaties in Nederland door Turkije, Marokko of Saoedi-Arabi� worden gefinancierd. Organisaties kunnen hier subsidie krijgen als ze aan de voorwaarden voldoen, en ze kunnen Nederlandse donors zoeken. Financiering vanuit het buitenland van organisaties die hier actief zijn wordt toch een beetje als een inmenging in onze zaken gezien. Vergelijk wat dit betreft ook de aantijgingen uit antizionistische kringen dat het CIDI door Israel zou worden gefinancierd. Dat is onjuist, maar als het waar zou zijn zou de verontwaardiging erover grote hoogten bereiken, en daar kan ik me, net als bij financiering van organisaties door Marokko of andere moslimlanden, ook wel iets bij voorstellen. Toch moet Israel al jaren aanzien dat tientallen NGO's die in naam voor vrede zijn maar in de praktijk eenzijdig tegen Israel ageren, royaal door de EU en verschillende lidstaten worden gesubsidieerd. En dan blijft men maar roepen dat Nederland, dat ook diverse van deze organisaties financiert, zo kritiekloos pro-Israel is....
 
RP
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The Jerusalem Post / July 17, 2009
Europeans funding 'Breaking the Silence'
Jul. 17, 2009
by YAAKOV KATZ and HERB KEINON
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443834129&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

 
A day after releasing a damning report on Operation Cast Lead, and amid accusations that it is operating without transparency, the group Breaking the Silence on Thursday presented The Jerusalem Post with its donor list for the year 2008, which included several European governments.

On Wednesday, Breaking the Silence released a report including testimonies from 26 unnamed soldiers who participated in the campaign and which claimed that the IDF used Gazans as human shields, improperly fired incendiary white phosphorous shells over civilian areas and used overwhelming firepower that caused needless deaths and destruction.

On Thursday, military sources and NGO Monitor - a Jerusalem-based research organization - raised suspicions regarding Breaking the Silence's setup as a nonprofit limited company and not an amuta, or nonprofit organization. The difference is that an amuta is required by law to publicly declare the identity of its donors. A limited company is not always required to do so.

"From our work, going through the files of dozens of Israeli nonprofits, we feel that groups like this that are not listed [as an amuta] raises a lot of red flags," said Prof. Gerald Steinberg, the head of NGO Monitor.

In response to the claims, Breaking the Silence presented the Post with its donor list for 2008. The British Embassy in Tel Aviv gave the organization NIS 226,589; the Dutch Embassy donated �19,999; and the European Union gave Breaking the Silence �43,514.

The NGO also received funding from the New Israel Fund amounting to NIS 229,949.

In 2007, Breaking the Silence received a total of NIS 500,000, and in 2008 it managed to raise NIS 1.5 million.

"We have nothing to hide," said Yehuda Shaul, one of the heads of Breaking the Silence. "We are open to complete transparency and are prepared to share this information with the public."

The 110-page report, which included videotaped testimonies in which soldiers' faces were blurred out, did not represent a cross-section of the army. Rather, they were troops who had approached the group or were reached through acquaintances of NGO members. Two were junior officers and the rest were enlisted personnel.

Many questioned the overwhelming use of force. One soldier said the army used weapons such as mortars and white phosphorous "to show off its strength."

Another soldier said white phosphorus artillery shells were used to ignite a house suspected of housing munitions. "The house went up in flames," he said.

In response to the IDF Spokesman's assertion that Breaking the Silence did not submit the report prior to its publication, Shaul said he sent the report to the IDF via e-mail 24 hours before it was published.

A senior IDF officer responded that even if the report was sent 24 hours before publication that would not have been enough time to properly investigate the findings.

"It appears to us that the organization's real motive was to slander the IDF and not to initiate a thorough investigation," the officer said. "If it had wanted to allow for a real investigation it would have given us the identities of the soldiers, the location where the alleged crimes took place and other identifying parameters."

Shaul rejected this assertion as well and said the report included unit names as well as most of the locations.

One senior security official noted the Breaking the Silence report came fast on the heels of highly critical reports issued earlier this month by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Committee of the Red Cross, giving the impression that the groups were coordinating the timing of their reports to "magnify their impact."

The Breaking the Silence report was for the most part based on hearsay and rumor, and not facts, the senior security official said.

Meanwhile, reports that Human Rights Watch used its work against Israel, and its withstanding "pro-Israel pressure groups" as a selling point to solicit funds in Saudi Arabia, are creating waves in the blogosphere, with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic monthly asking HRW's executive director Ken Roth in an e-mail exchange if this was indeed what the group did in Riyadh in May.

"Did your staff person attempt to raise funds in Saudi Arabia by advertising your organization's opposition to the pro-Israel lobby?" Goldberg asked Roth, in the exchange that he posted on his blog Wednesday.

"That's certainly part of the story," Roth responded. "We report on Israel.

"Its supporters fight back with lies and deception. It wasn't a pitch against the Israel lobby per se. Our standard shpiel is to describe our work in the region. Telling the Israel story - part of that pitch - is in part telling about the lies and obfuscation that are inevitably thrown our way."

According to an article that appeared in May in the Saudi English-language newspaper The Arab News, a delegation of senior members of HRW were in Saudi Arabia and were commended at a dinner attended by prominent members of Saudi society, human rights activists and dignitaries, for work on Gaza and the Middle East as a whole.

According to the newspaper, HRW presented a documentary and spoke on the report it had compiled "on Israel violating human rights and international law" during the Gaza operation.

"Human Rights Watch provided the international community with evidence of Israel using white phosphorus and launching systematic destructive attacks on civilian targets. Pro-Israel pressure groups in the US, the European Union and the United Nations have strongly resisted the report and tried to discredit it," Sarah Leah Whitson, director of HRW's Middle East and North Africa Division, was quoted in the Saudi paper as saying.

Roth admitted to Goldberg that the dinner included people connected to the government, including "a guy from the national human rights commission," which is a government body, and "someone from the Shura Council."

The Shura Council is Saudi Arabia's state-appointed religious leadership, a council which, as Goldberg pointed out, oversees, on behalf of the monarchy, the imposition in the kingdom of the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islamic law.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev said in response that "Human Rights Watch has admitted conducting a fund-raiser in Saudi Arabia with the Saudi elite, with representatives of different branches of the Saudi government in the room. They also admitted that they have used their criticism of Israel as a fund-raising tool in dealing with Arab audiences.

"Surely this fundamentally undermines the objectivity and the credibility that all too many in the past have attached to their reports."

Regev's comments come two days after the Prime Minister's Office said Jerusalem would begin waging a more aggressive battle against NGOs it deems biased against Israel.
 
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Betere veiligheid en economie zijn tekenen van hoop op Westoever

 
Het gaat beter op de Westelijke Jordaanoever. Voor het eerst sinds een lange tijd groeit de Palestijnse economie weer, en het IMF heeft voor volgend jaar een groei van maar liefst 7% voorspeld. Dat ligt met name aan de toegenomen veiligheid, bewegingsvrijheid en betere handhaving van de wet door de Palestijnse politie. Dat (nog) niet iedereen tevreden is, is niet meer dan logisch, en er is nog veel dat beide partijen, Israel en de Palestijnen, kunnen doen om de situatie verder te verbeteren.
 
RP
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New York Times / July 16, 2009
Signs of Hope Emerge in the West Bank
By ETHAN BRONNER
Published: July 16, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/world/middleeast/17westbank.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

 
NABLUS, West Bank — The first movie theater to operate in this Palestinian city in two decades opened its doors in late June. Palestinian policemen standing beneath new traffic lights are checking cars for seat belt violations. One-month-old parking meters are filling with the coins of shoppers. Music stores are blasting love songs into the street, and no nationalist or Islamist scold is forcing them to stop.

"You don't appreciate the value of law and order until you lose it," Rashid al-Sakhel, the owner of a carpet store, said as he stood in his doorway surveying the small wonder of bustling streets on a sunny morning. "For the past eight years, a 10-year-old boy could order a strike and we would all close. Now nobody can threaten us."

For the first time since the second Palestinian uprising broke out in late 2000, leading to terrorist bombings and fierce Israeli countermeasures, a sense of personal security and economic potential is spreading across the West Bank as the Palestinian Authority's security forces enter their second year of consolidating order.

The International Monetary Fund is about to issue its first upbeat report in years for the West Bank, forecasting a 7 percent growth rate for 2009. Car sales in 2008 were double those of 2007. Construction on the first new Palestinian town in decades, for 40,000, will begin early next year north of Ramallah. In Jenin, a seven-story store called Herbawi Home Furnishings has opened, containing the latest espresso machines. Two weeks ago, the Israeli military shut its obtrusive nine-year-old checkpoint at the entrance to this city, part of a series of reductions in security measures.

Whether all this can last and lead to the consolidation of political power for the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah, as the Obama administration hopes, remains unclear. But a recent opinion poll in the West Bank and Gaza by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, a Palestinian news agency, found that Fatah was seen as far more trustworthy than Hamas — 35 percent versus 19 percent — a significant shift from the organization's poll in January, when Hamas appeared to be at least as trustworthy.

"Two years ago I couldn't have even gone to Nablus," said Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who serves as international envoy to the Palestinians, after a smooth visit this week. "Security is greatly improved, and the economy is doing much better. Now we need to move to the next stage: politics."

The aim of American and European policy is to stitch Palestinian politics back together by strengthening the Palestinian Authority under the presidency of Mahmoud Abbas, which favors a two-state solution with Israel, while weakening the Islamists of Hamas, who rule in Gaza. Fatah says it will hold its first general congress in 20 years in early August to build on its successes, but it remains unclear if the meeting will take place.

The Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it shares the goal of helping Mr. Abbas, which is why it is seeking to improve West Bank economic conditions as a platform for moving to a political discussion. The Palestinians worry that the political discussion will never arrive and say the Israelis are doing far too little to ease the occupation. Still, they point with pride to the many changes in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, the Israeli-led economic siege of Gaza continues, letting in only humanitarian goods. That sets the desired contrast between the territories into sharp relief but causes enormous suffering and anger.

Asked to explain why the West Bank's fortunes were shifting, a top Israeli general began his narrative with a chart showing 410 Israelis killed by Palestinians in 2002, and 4 in 2008.

"We destroyed the terrorist groups through three things — intelligence, the barrier and freedom of action by our men," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with military rules. "We sent our troops into every marketplace and every house, staying tightly focused on getting the bad guys."

But he added that the 2006 legislative electoral victory by Hamas, followed by its violent takeover of Gaza in 2007, led Mr. Abbas to fight Hamas. Palestinian troops have been training in Jordan under American sponsorship.

There are now several thousand men trained in that way, and their skills, along with those of the European-trained police force here, have made a huge difference.

An important element in making the Palestinian force effective, American and Israeli officials say, was taking young Palestinian men out of the ancestral grips of their villages and tribal clans and training them abroad, turning them into soldiers loyal to units and commanders.

The Israeli general said that in the past year and a half, Israeli and Palestinian forces had shot at each other only twice, and in each case there was a meeting to restore trust.

Speaking of the seriousness of the Palestinians, he added, "Twice in recent months we have been amazed." The first time was during Israel's military invasion of Gaza when Palestinian police officers kept the West Bank calm during protests. The second was in June when the security forces clashed twice with Hamas men in the city of Qalqilya, fighting to the death.

The Israelis have pulled their forces to the outskirts of four cities, greatly reduced the number of permanent checkpoints and promised to help industry develop. They say the Palestinians now need courts, prisons and trained judges.

Mr. Blair agreed but said there was much more Israel should do, like ending the growth of settlements and taking away dirt mounds and other barriers. In addition, he said, Israel should allow greater Palestinian development in the 60 percent of the West Bank it fully controls.

Palestinian business leaders are incensed at the Israeli limitations. Paltel, which operates the only Palestinian cellphone company, says Israel will not permit it to place its towers on the land it controls. That forces Palestinian customers to pay roaming charges for many calls, and allows Israeli cellphone companies to offer lower rates.

For more than a year, Israel has promised to free a second frequency so that a competitor to Paltel can provide cellphone service, but it has not yet done so. This leaves the Palestinians skeptical.

"I fail to see any indications that Israel wants to help the Palestinian economy," Abdel-Malik al-Jaber, vice chairman of Paltel, said.

Still, his company has invested millions in the past year in call centers and customer service because of the increased security and disposable income.

As Nader Elawy, manager of Cinema City, the new movie theater here, put it: "We now have law and order. You can really feel the change."

IDF officier ontkent gebruik Palestijnen als menselijk schild in Gaza


Volgens een hoge officier uit het leger zijn de claims van Breaking the Silence overdreven en uit hun context gehaald, waardoor ze extremer lijken dan ze zijn. Hij geeft het voorbeeld waar een Palestijn zelf vroeg een huis eerst binnen te mogen gaan, om zo de schade te beperken. Hij wijst erop dat in onderzoek binnen zijn eigen brigade niks van dergelijke misstanden is gevonden. Het is natuurlijk lastig van buitenaf uit te maken wie gelijk heeft, maar het spreekt niet in het voordeel van Breaking the Silence dat zoveel getuigenissen anoniem zijn en bovendien uit derde hand komen: de soldaten hebben het niet zelf meegemaakt, maar zelf weer van een ander gehoord. Ook is het vreemd dat men de resultaten niet aan het leger heeft voorgelegd en om een reactie heeft gevraagd. Wanneer duidelijk is om welke soldaten, eenheden, plaatsen en data het gaat, kan de zaak worden onderzocht, en kunnen mensenrechtengroeperingen bijvoorbeeld aandringen op bestraffing van de betreffende soldaten of officieren.
 
RP
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Last update - 11:33 16/07/2009       
IDF officer: Troops did not use Gazans as human shields
By Amos Harel and Haaretz Service
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100669.html
 
 
A top-ranking Israel Defense Forces officer has hit back at claims by a combat soldier that IDF troops unlawfully used Palestinians as human shields to search for militants inside Gaza homes during Israel's recent offensive in the coastal strip.
 
The officer told Haaretz that soldiers' claims of having employed such practice were exaggerated and unfounded, and that a probe of the Golani Brigade's conduct during the war found that no such incidences occurred.
 
A staff sergeant from the Golani Brigade recently testified that a number of units, including his own, sent Palestinians into their neighbors' homes during fighting in eastern Gaza City to determine if there were any militants hiding inside.
 
The soldier was referring to the so-called "neighbor procedure" ? outlawed by the High Court of Justice in 2005 - when it raided homes in search of Palestinian militants.
 
The soldier said that while he had not actually witnessed the use of human shields, one of his commanding officers had informed him that procedure had been carried out.
 
"The practice was not to call it 'the neighbor procedure.' Instead it was called 'Johnny,'" the soldier said, using IDF slang for Palestinian civilians.
 
The soldier said that at every home where militants were thought to be hiding, troops besieged the building with the goal of removing the suspects alive. The soldier said he witnessed several such operations firsthand.
 
He testified that his commander had told him of a number of incidents where Palestinians were also used directly as human shields. One on such occasion, he said, attack helicopters were brought in as back-up for the arrest of three armed militants.
 
The soldier said he had heard of other instances in which Palestinian civilians were used as human shields. He cited a case in which a Palestinian was placed in front of an IDF force with a gun pointed at him from behind, but said he had not seen this for himself.
 
The soldier's testimony appeared in a collection of accounts being published earlier this week by Breaking the Silence, an organization that collects IDF soldiers' testimony on human rights abuses by the military. The Golani soldier gave similar testimony in a meeting with a Haaretz reporter.
 
In rejecting the claims, the officer told Haaretz that the soldier's account of troops pointing guns at a Palestinian acting as a human shield were exaggerated, and that a probe conducted in the brigade found no indication that such an episode took place.
 
The officer also said that while a Palestinian may have hammered through a wall of his home to assist soldiers, he did so on his own initiative and not as a result of orders from the troops.
 
'"The owner of the house in which the three gunmen had barricaded saw that the soldiers were trying to break in from a side wall. He claimed that they were causing too much damage to the house and asked to do it himself. That's why the soldiers gave him the hammer," said the officer.
 
While the officer confirmed that Palestinians were indeed used to sweep houses in search of militants, he claimed that the soldier had described the incidents out of context, and that the local residents had offered to enter homes first.
 
"The prevention of civilian casualties and the implementation of selective house searches, while avoiding massive use of gunfire, were especially upheld in the sector in which the unit operated," he said.
 
"People within the unit risked their own lives to avoid harming the innocent," he added. ?The simplest solution as far as the unit was concerned was to order two tank shells be fired into every suspicious house. But in reality, we used a completely different method."
 
"Two Palestinians, one of them the clan leader, appealed to the commanders and offered to enter first so as to prevent damage to the houses," said the officer. "On several occasions, we would find whole families huddled in a tiny room upon entering the home, and we thought that it was a good solution. It's far from a human shield. We didn't hide behind anyone. The whole idea was to prevent innocent people from being harmed by taking the risks upon ourselves."
 
When asked if he was aware of the High Court ruling forbidding all forms of the "neighbor procedure," the officer said that the commanders believed they were acting within the limits of the law. He said the sole purpose of their actions was the prevention of civilian casualties and "unnecessary collateral damage."
 
IDF: We expect every soldier to report violations
 
The IDF Spokesman's Office said in a statement that upon initial consideration, a few of the allegations appeared similar to claims reported by Haaretz
several months ago.
 
"Now, too," the spokesman said, "a considerable portion of the testimony is based on rumors and secondhand accounts. Most of the incidents relate to anonymous testimony lacking in identifying details, and accordingly it is not possible to check the allegations on an individual basis in a way that would enable an investigation, confirmation or refutation."
 
The spokesman said the Breaking the Silence report suggested that the organization may not be interested in a comprehensive examination of the allegations, "and to our regret this is not the first time the organization has taken this course of action. The IDF is obligated to examine every well-founded complaint it receives."
 
The spokesman also noted that allegations by Breaking the Silence that touch on specific incidents will be investigated.
 
"The IDF expects every soldier and commander who has witnessed a violation of orders or procedures, and especially with respect to violations causing injury to noncombatants, to bring the details to the attention of the relevant parties," the spokesman said.
 
"The IDF regrets the fact that a human rights organization would again present to the country and the world a report containing anonymous, generalized testimony without checking the details or their reliability, and without giving the IDF, as a matter of minimal fairness, the opportunity to check the matters and respond to them before publication."
 

 
__,_._,___

Neturei Karta ontmoet Haniyeh in Gaza


Naturei Karta mensen - een ultra-ortodoxe antizionistische sekte - waren te gast op Achmadinejads holocaust onkennings conferentie een paar jaar geleden, waar ook racisten als David Duke rondliepen. Wat deze mensen voorstaan heeft niks met vrede te maken, maar sluit naadloos aan bij het programma en de doelen van Hamas.

RP
----------

Neturei Karta meet with Haniyeh in Gaza
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3747700,00.html

Four followers of ultra-Orthodox stream that doesn't recognize State of Israel travel to Gaza Strip by boat with international activists.
Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh welcomes them, says Jews, Arabs not enemies.
Next ship scheduled to dock in Gaza to carry Venezuela's Chavez.

Ali Waked - Ynet
Published:  07.16.09, 14:24


While ultra-Orthodox, including Neturei Karta protest in Jerusalem against the arrest of the mother suspected of starving her son, a delegation of the religious stream that opposes the State of Israel arrived in Gaza on Thursday, where they met with Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh.

Four Neturei Karta members arrived in the Gaza Strip on the "Lifeline 2" boat along with dozens of international activists trying to break the siege on the Strip.

Hanyieh told his ultra-Orthodox guests that the Jews are not the enemies of the Arabs or Muslims. "Our problem is with the occupation, that stems from the Zionist ideology and its desire to disperse all the Palestinians."

Haniyeh praised his four Neturei Karta guests: "Those religious figures that express their objection to the siege, the aggression and the crimes – we can't help but respect them and for their beliefs and their culture."
 
The Hamas prime minister added, "This ship is proof that the American people is not entire a people of occupation and is not entirely on the side of the criminal Zionist regime.

"We view you as heroes, you are opening the eyes of the world to the siege in the Strip.

Officials in the Strip are now awaiting a third ship that is meant to arrive carrying Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
 
 

De dubbele standaarden van Groot-Brittannië

 
Dit soort dubbele standaarden worden voortdurend toegepast. Sri Lanka's offensief tegen de Tamil Tijgers en Pakistans offensief tegen de Taliban kregen weliswaar ook aandacht in de media, ook de gevolgen voor de burgerbevolking, maar dat was het dan. Bij Israel volgt altijd de vraag wat men eraan kan doen, en dan vooral, wat men tegen Israel kan doen: de kamer van reces terugroepen, sancties instellen, demonstraties, Israelische producten boycotten, etc. Bij andere landen legt men een dergelijke daadkracht niet aan de dag, ondanks het feit dat het daar vaak om veel grootschaligere mensenrechtenschendingen gaat. Bij het offensief van Sri Lanka zouden tussen 8.000 en 20.000 burgers zijn gedood, en de gevechten in de Swat Vallei hebben tot 200.000 vluchtelingen opgeleverd.
 
RP
-----------

The Jerusalem Post
Jul 15, 2009 20:24 | Updated Jul 15, 2009 21:21
Britain's breathtaking double standard
By JEREMY SHARON
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443820096&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


The decision made this week by the British Foreign Office to cancel export licenses for Israeli warship parts is not the first time Her Majesty's Government has embargoed arms to Israel. In 1969, Harold Wilson's Labour government reneged on its promise to supply Israel with the advanced Chieftain tank, a project which Israel had helped develop. So the fact that the Foreign Office, notorious for its unbalanced approach to affairs in the Middle East, has once again decided to embargo Israel should not come as much of a surprise. But the UK's concern for how its military equipment will be put to use by the IDF rings rather hollow when considering the list of other countries to whom the UK has recently supplied arms; countries which have not fallen foul of Westminster's new "ethical" standards for weapons exports.

In 2008, while the civil war in Sri Lanka was raging, Britain sold $22 million worth of armored vehicles, machine gun parts and semi-automatic pistols to the government in Colombo. During the course of the Sri Lankan army's assault on the last Tamil Tiger strongholds from January to May this year, approximately 20,000 civilians were killed.

The Foreign Office said of the cancelled Israeli contracts "We do not grant export licenses where there is a clear risk that arms will be used for external aggression or internal repression." The Sri Lankan army appears to have killed more than 40 times the number of civilians in its campaign against the Tamil Tigers than were killed in the IDF's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year, but we have yet to hear of any restrictions on British arms exports to Sri Lanka.

And the story doesn't end there. In recent years, the UK has sold arms to Algeria during the civil war there between 1991 and 1999. Components for air-to-air missiles were sold to Pakistan during the period of Musharraf's undemocratic rule. Recent British arms exports to China include components for military navigation equipment and naval radar, military aero-engines and technology for the production of combat aircraft. And the Foreign Office approved the sale of shotguns and sniper rifles to Saudi Arabia, as well as signing a contract with the Kingdom to supply it with 72 Typhoon fighter jets.

The double standard which the British Foreign Office has applied in defining which countries are suitable customers for British arms is quite breathtaking. China threatens Taiwan, occupies Tibet and brutally oppresses its own people. Relations between Pakistan and India in the earlier part of this decade were extremely volatile and the countries even teetered on the edge of nuclear conflict in 2001-2002. And the atrocious record of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses is well documented. Yet, oddly, none of this has prompted London to embargo weapons to any of these governments, despite its declared parameters precluding the export of British arms to countries which might use them for external aggression or internal repression.

BUT THE HYPOCRISY of the recent announcement is not perhaps the most concerning aspect of this affair. What is more alarming is the specific focus of the embargo, namely Israel's actions during Operation Cast Lead. The cancellation of the export licenses would seem to imply that Britain views Cast Lead as Israeli "external aggression".

It is extremely wearisome to continually repeat the same facts and arguments, but after Israel absorbed 10,000 rocket and mortar attacks over eight years into its sovereign territory, defining the IDF's operation in Gaza as aggression is quite an Orwellian turn of phrase. If Cornish separatists were to shell Plymouth or Welsh separatists would shell Liverpool, how long would it take the British government to send in the Royal Marines? Not very long, one imagines.

What this embargo says is that the UK denies Israel the right to self-defence. This was already made clear during Cast Lead when British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, just two days after the operation began, issued a call for an immediate cease-fire. Miliband ostensibly did not want Israel to destroy Hamas' rocket arsenal, did not want Israel to destroy Hamas' smuggling tunnels and did not want the extremist, rejectionist, Islamist terrorist group that is Hamas to be defeated. Civilian casualties are always sustained in war as the UK knows from its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But this does not mean that wars are therefore automatically illegitimate, much less defensive wars undertaken after the utmost provocation.

Britain's decision to cancel the export licenses is perfectly in keeping with its generally supine foreign policy, which, with regard to the Middle East, seems to be dictated largely by domestic political concerns. From Miliband's meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in Damascus last November to the recent meeting between the British Ambassador to Lebanon and a senior Hizbullah official, the UK's stance seems to be avowedly on the side of belligerent and reactionary forces in the region. Golda Meir said that the British decision to cancel the Chieftain contract was like "a bomb exploding above Israel's head". The most recent cancellation is far less serious, but it throws into sharp relief the fickle and self-serving nature of Israel's so-called friends.
 
============
The writer is a researcher and writer based in Jerusalem. He has worked at a number of Israeli think tanks and served in the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.

vrijdag 17 juli 2009

Charedische Joden in Jeruzalem op tilt na arrestatie zieke vrouw die kind mishandelde


In de Spits stond van de week een kort berichtje over deze moeder die haar kind verwaarloosde om aandacht te trekken, in de rubriek 'curieuze verhalen', zonder melding van de rellen, maar die zijn misschien pas daarna begonnen.
Het doet mij vooral denken aan wat Wafa Sultan zei tegen een Algerijnse imam:
 
"The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions or a clash of civilizations," Dr. Sultan said. "It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality."

Deze Haredi relschoppers, die niet terugdeinzen voor vernielingen, bedreigingen en mishandelingen, staan duidelijk niet aan de kant van de rationaliteit.
 
En voordat de Zionisten weer de schuld krijgen:
"The extremist anti-Zionist Eda Haredit umbrella organization, which is championing the woman's innocence, ..."
 
Wouter
___________

The Jerusalem Post
Jul 16, 2009 10:05 | Updated Jul 17, 2009 9:39
Haredim escalate riots over 'blood libel,' as police chief fumes that 'the Bible doesn't permit this'
By JPOST.COM AND JUDY SIEGEL
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443825185&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Haredi protests on the streets of Jerusalem over the arrest of a pregnant woman suspected of abusing her three-year-old son escalated throughout Thursday, culminating in late-night riots in which hundreds clashed with police on Jerusalem's main north-south Road One. 
 
Dozens were arrested and seven policemen were injured - some of them with head wounds from rocks. Police used water cannons to disperse rioters who tried to block the road.
 
The escalation saw several hundred haredim pelt police with stones at the end of a prayer vigil in Mea She'arim, police said. At the vigil, one of the rabbinical leaders of the radical anti-Zionist Toldot Aharon hassidic sect to which the mother belongs, Rabbi Yitzhak Kershenbaum, reportedly declared that his followers would "fight to the last drop of our blood" to secure the mother's release and clear her name of what the community has charged is a blood libel.
 
Jerusalem's police chief Cmdr. Aharon Franco castigated the instigators of the protests, saying "I have not found a single place in the Bible where it is written that these actions are permissible." He also said officers have "concrete" evidence against the mother in the case.
 
Franco wondered aloud why rabbinical and political leaders had not spoken out against the violence that has shaken Jerusalem for three successive days.
"We are talking about a city which is the capital, and not enough has been done on the national level to ease tensions," he said.

Earlier, thousands of haredim gathered at Kikar Shabbat in Mea She'arim. Some lit garbage bins on fire and threw rocks.
 
Franco said there "has been a marked escalation" in the riots over the past day, with the level of violence rising, "both toward municipal workers and toward public infrastructure."
 
"They've dismantled traffic lights, and without traffic lights deadly accidents could take place. They've disconnected systems in electricity poles and people could be electrocuted," he said.
 
He noted that the haredi violence began last month with the opening of a parking lot near the Jaffa Gate on Saturdays, and then escalated this week with the arrest of the mother from the radical Toldot Aharon hasidic sect who is suspected of nearly starving her toddler to death.
 
As attempts to broker an end to the violence continued late last night, police were bracing for renewed riots at the weekend over both the woman's arrest and the opening of the parking lot.
 
"I have not heard any condemnation from rabbis or senior leaders to stop the riots," Franco said. "No moderate authority in the haredi community is getting up and speaking out against this phenomenon."
 
Someone needed to "wake up" before people were seriously hurt, he said.
 
The woman, who is five months pregnant, is suspected of severely abusing her child for two years, until he weighed only 7 kilograms. She is not cooperating with police investigators, and apparently suffers from Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, a psychiatric disorder wherein those affected abuse someone else, typically a child, to draw attention or sympathy to themselves.
 
The boy was in and out of Jerusalem's Hadassah University Hospitals seven times over the last two years before staffers finally determined that the mother was abusing her child after surveillance cameras caught her disconnecting her son's feeding tubes.
 
The extremist anti-Zionist Eda Haredit umbrella organization, which is championing the woman's innocence, alleged that the hospital had treated the child with chemotherapy for nearly a year after misdiagnosing him with cancer.
 
Hadassah University Hospital spokeswoman Yael Bossem-Levy dismissed the allegations as outrageous and stressed the child did not have cancer. A small group of haredi men demonstrated Thursday afternoon near the hospital, police said.
 
The chief police investigator in the child abuse case said the mother's associates were behaving like mafioso.
 
"We are talking about actions that would not embarrass criminal organizations: threats against doctors and social workers, damage to property of welfare offices and rioting," Jerusalem police investigator Eli Cohen said at a briefing. Officers were concerned that the suspect might flee the country if released from detention, he said, adding that police would ask a Jerusalem court to extend the woman's custody at a hearing on Friday.
 
Cohen said that security had been stepped up at the hospital where the three-year-old is being treated to ensure he is not abducted.
 
The investigator noted that authorities had still been unable to question the woman's other children to determine if any of them suffered abuse, even though their father - who has proclaimed his wife's innocence - has agreed to that as a condition of his release from police questioning.
 
The woman, who is exercising her right to remain silent, has refused to cooperate with police or undergo a psychiatric evaluation, officers said.
 
In a sign of possible compromise, Franci said Thursday night that the refusal, through the woman's lawyer, to undergo such an examination was holding up her release from detention.
 
The court was to decide Friday on a possible compromise agreement which would see the woman released on bail and undergo the psychiatric test.
 
The Jerusalem Municipality said the rioters had caused more than NIS 550,000 in damage to city property, including vandalizing traffic lights and setting hundreds of neighborhood garbage bins on fire.
 
Protesters threw stones at police and motorists, as well as at the Education Ministry building in Jerusalem on Thursday morning. Several dozen haredim were also forcibly prevented from converging on nearby Jaffa Road. The garbage-strewn streets of Mea She'arim reeked of smoke, fire and refuse in the summer heat.
 
Meanwhile, Welfare and Social Services Minister of Isaac Herzog (Labor) lashed out at the "lies" being propagated on the haredi street by "publicists" and "uninvolved figures" as to the circumstances behind the mother's arrest.
 
"We all understand that what happened here was that a child was saved from the brink of death," Herzog told Israel Radio.
 
"It would be right for community leaders to ease the tensions and realize that in the end, they're hurting their sector," he added.

The Jerusalem Municipality has temporarily suspended welfare services to haredi neighborhoods after its offices came under repeated attack. The rare move was to be lifted as soon as the violence ceased.
 
The Association of Civil Rights in Israel on Thursday urged Mayor Nir Barkat to restore the services, calling the move collective punishment.
 
The city said the offices would reopen as soon as workers were no longer facing "life-threatening" danger, and expressed regret over the inconvenience caused to residents not involved in the violence.
 
 

Zwitserse diplomaten ontvangen Hamas leider


Zwitserland was altijd al graag neutraal, ofwel vriendjes en vooral handelspartner van iedereen zodat ze maximaal kunnen profiteren. De politieke gevolgen zijn bijzaak. Door dit soort bezoeken eroderen de officiële eisen van het Kwartet en de internationale gemeenschap verder en weet Hamas zich gesterkt in zijn weigering om ook maar een duimbreed toe te geven.
 
RP
------------

Israel furious over Hamas leader's trip to Switzerland
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
Last update - 05:37 15/07/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100299.html

 
The Foreign Ministry is furious over news that Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas official based in the Gaza Strip, recently headed a Hamas delegation to Switzerland for talks with Swiss diplomats.

A senior Foreign Ministry official said the visit will further destabilize already shaky relations between Jerusalem and Bern, after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Switzerland in April for the "Durban 2" United Nations anti-racism conference.

China's news agency broke the story of Zahar's visit nearly two weeks ago.

Officials at the Israeli Embassy in Bern were surprised by the report, since they knew nothing about the June visit.

The embassy has requested clarifications from the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, but Israeli officials say the responses have not been satisfactory.

One Jerusalem officials said it was many days before the Swiss confirmed the Hamas visit to the embassy.

Swiss officials told Israel's ambassador in Bern, Ilan Elgar, that the Hamas delegation was invited to Geneva by a nongovernmental research institute.

The Foreign Ministry source, however, noted that Swiss diplomats, including the Swiss envoy to the Middle East, met with the delegation during a conference at the institute.

When Elgar requested official clarification regarding the visa issued to the delegation, he was told by the Swiss foreign ministry, "In Switzerland, Hamas is not considered a terrorist organization."

Tensions between Jerusalem and Bern began to build about a year and a half ago, when the Swiss foreign minister went to Iran to sign a major gas purchase contract.

In May, in the wake of Ahmadinejad's visit to Geneva and the official working meeting with him held by Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz, Israel recalled Elgar to Jerusalem for consultations in protest.
 
 

Qassam raket komt neer in zuid Israel

 
Dit is volgens mij voor het eerst sinds weken. Volgens velen in Israel is dit aan het Gaza offensief te danken, zowel vanwege afschrikking als omdat Hamas nu eerst zijn wapenvoorraden weer op peil moet krijgen. Wat voor redenen men verder kan hebben blijft natuurlijk speculeren: verandering van strategie, orders uit Iran of Syrië, druk van Egypte of zelfs druk van de VS? Hoopt men zo internationaal makkelijker geaccepteerd te worden?
 
RP
--------------


Qassam rocket explodes in open area Thursday evening, no injuries reported in attack
Shmulik Hadad - YNET
 
Rockets are back? Palestinian terrorists fired a Qassam rocket from the northern Gaza Strip Thursday evening. The rocket landed in an open area in southern Israel.

No injuries or damages were reported in the attack.

Southern residents reported hearing a loud explosion a short while after the Color Red alert system was activated.

Earlier this week, Hamas security forces detained members of Islamic Jihad's military wing on suspicion of firing mortar shells at IDF troops near the Gaza border fence.

On Wednesday, members of the Kfar Aza Kibbutz in the south met with President Shimon Peres. During the meeting, residents expressed their fear over the possibility of renewed rocket attacks.

Regional Council Head Alon Shuster said that "the fear of rocket attacks is present all the time, as we know there is no control over all (Palestinian) organizations."

"We think the government needs to deal with the economic rehabilitation of Sderot and the Gaza region. A new government has been in power for several months now, and it needs to address it," he said.

Also on Wednesday, the defense establishment and the Rafael Armament Development Authority reported successful tests of the Iron Dome rocket defense system over the past few days. The system succeeded in intercepting and destroying targets.

The Iron Dome system was developed by Rafael in order to defend Israel from rocket and missile attacks.

donderdag 16 juli 2009

Israelische reactie op Gaza rapport "Breaking the Silence"

 
Vandaag kwam de organisatie Breaking the Silence met het zoveelste rapport over wangedrag door Israelische soadaten. 26 Soldaten deden anoniem hun verhaal over onder andere 'op alles schieten wat beweegt', onverschilligheid voor burgerslachtoffers en gebruik van burgers als menselijk schild. Het is, net als eerdere geuigenissen van Israelische soldaten, eigenlijk vooral nuttig voor interne consumptie, en om het leger te verbeteren. Het feit dat BTS ermee naar buiten treedt, en het in het Engels is opgesteld, roept dan ook vraagtekens op wat betreft hun motivatie. Is die om zaken in Israel te verbeteren of om Israel internationaal te beschadigen en in de beklaagdenbank te plaatsen?
 
Het leger heeft natuurlijk gelijk dat de betreffende soldaten hun klachten daar moeten melden, met concrete gegevens zodat het leger het kan onderzoeken. Dat klinkt echter gemakkelijker dan het waarschijnlijk is, en zoals in ieder bedrijf en instantie zijn er in theorie allerlei mechanismen om wangedrag aan de kaak te stellen en te voorkomen, maar in de praktijk wordt het de melders van dergelijke zaken niet altijd in dank afgenomen.
 
Omdat Israels reactie in de media weer nauwelijks en onfair werd gegeven, volgt zij hieronder.
 
RP
---------------
 
MFA - Government Communiques
Reaction to "Breaking the Silence" human rights report
 

The IDF Spokesperson Unit regrets the fact that yet another human rights organization is presenting to Israel and the world a report based on anonymous and general testimonies, without investigating their details or credibility.  Furthermore, this organization denied the IDF the minimal decency of presenting the report to the IDF and allowing it to investigate the testimonies prior to the report's publication. This was done while defaming and slandering the IDF and its commanders.

In order to ensure that the claims made in these testimonies are dealt with in an appropriate manner, the organization "Breaking the Silence" should urge those who made these claims to really 'break their silence,' and to present specific complaints to the IDF, and not hide behind general and anonymous statements.

Some of the testimonies in the report were brought to the attention of the IDF by the media, and these were reviewed in a preliminary fashion by the Military Advocate General.  As with the testimonies made at the Rabin Military Academy several months ago, a considerable number of the testimonies in this report are also based on hearsay and word of mouth.  Most of the testimonies are anonymous and lack any identifying details that would allow the IDF to investigate, confirm, or refute them.

The IDF engaged in Operation Cast Lead after eight years of continuous rocket fire on Israel's southern communities, heavily affecting daily life.  During the operation, the IDF succeeded in targeting the Hamas terror organization, increasing Israel's deterrence and restoring security to the area.

The decision of the organization "Breaking the Silence" to present such testimonies raises doubts about whether the organization really wishes for a credible and thorough investigation regarding the claims to be carried out, as is the norm in the IDF.  We regret that this is not the first time the organization has acted in this manner.

The IDF is committed to investigating any claim, supported by facts, that is brought to its attention, as was done immediately following Operation Cast Lead.  By order of the IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, five investigations headed by specialists in the field examined various aspects of the operation, including specific incidents.  In addition, the IDF is currently investigating other incidents which relate to individual claims.  As has previously been published, in several of these cases the IDF Military Police Investigations Unit has opened an investigation. 

The IDF expects every soldier and commander who feels that they have witnessed a violation of the IDF commands and regulations to turn to the appropriate authorities with all of the facts regarding the incident, in accord with their legal and moral obligations.  This duty is even more important where the suspected violations have caused harm to noncombatants.

This level of professionalism and integrity should be expected of any agency, organization, or association.  The IDF is committed to thoroughly investigating any claims presented, where there is sufficient information to do so. 

The IDF operates on the foundation of uncompromising ethical values. These will continue to guide the IDF in every mission, including in complex and difficult conditions.  Prior to and during Operation Cast Lead, IDF forces were given stringent briefings on the commands and orders that they should adhere to, as well as the international laws of war.  From testimonies which have been published, including those in this report, and from the investigations conducted by the IDF into the operation, it is clear that IDF soldiers operated in accord with international law and the orders they received, despite the complex and difficult fighting.


ADDENDUM TO IDF SPOKESPERSON ANNOUNCEMENT

 The IDF Spokesperson Unit requests that attention be given by the media to several methodological and ethical issues regarding this report:

1.      The report, as given to the IDF less than 24 hours prior to its publication, is based on testimonies that lack critical identifying features:

a.      No identification whatsoever was used for those who gave their testimonies, not even a first initial, as is customary throughout the media when a quote is given in anonymity.

b.      There is no mention of rank or position at the time of the claimed incidents.

c.       There is no mention of unit or unit type (regular or reserves).

2.      The report makes no mention of the way in which the testimonies were gathered - it is not clear whether they were gathered directly via interview or indirectly via mail or e-mail.  It is unclear whether there is one interviewer or more, or whether those who gave their testimonies were interviewed individually or in groups.

3.      There is no mention of how the credibility of the testimonies was checked:

a.      There is no way of knowing whether the testimony was given by a soldier or someone claiming to be a soldier.

b.      There is no mention of time period (date and time) or specific location with regards to the incidents described in the testimonies.


(OTR)
It is clear to the IDF, and from reading parts of the testimonies that were gathered by "Breaking the Silence", that there were isolated incidences in which unintentional harm was caused to noncombatants as the result of operational errors. These types of error are likely to occur in complex fighting such as that in the Gaza Strip.  One can also find within the testimonies statements that illustrate the self-restraint shown by the IDF and its commanders during Operation Cast Lead, as well as the steps taken to limit the harm to non-combatants and civilian property, even where this was done at the expense of the IDF's operational objectives. The testimonies also show that IDF forces adapted their behavior on the basis of the lessons learned during the fighting, as the IDF investigations after the operation have shown.


Defense Minister Ehud Barak also reacted to publication of the report:

"Any criticism of the IDF from this or that organization is misplaced and misdirected. If someone has a criticism, or information or conclusions about IDF actions, they should bring them to me, as Minister of Defense of the State of Israel, and to the Israeli government that instructed the IDF to restore quiet to the communities in the South." He added, "The IDF is the most moral army in the world and it operates according to the highest ethical code."

2008 Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs - The State of Israel. All rights reserved.
 
 

woensdag 15 juli 2009

Hakenkruisen en 'jood' in auto's gekrast

 
Vroeger had je nog wel eens milieuaktivisten (niet ik!) die auto's vernielden, maar dit is het werk van dom leeghoofdig tuig of neo-nazi's (wat is het verschil?). Een vriendin van mij met een groen hart had na haar vijfstigste alsnog haar rijbewijs gehaald en een autootje gekocht omdat het voor sommige zaken toch wel erg handig is. Binnen een week was hij bekrast met nog een reeks auto's in de straat. Daar zat bij mijn weten geen hakenkruis bij, gelukkig. In Oud-Zuid lijkt het wel antisemitisch te zijn gericht.
 
Wouter
______________
 

Hakenkruis in auto's gekrast

Gepubliceerd: 13 juli 2009 13:34 | Gewijzigd: 13 juli 2009 13:34
Door een onzer redacteuren
 
 
Rotterdam, 13 juli. In het Amsterdamse stadsdeel Oud-Zuid zijn in de nacht van zaterdag op zondag zo'n honderd auto's vernield. Bij twintig ervan was een hakenkruis of het woord 'jood' ingekrast.

De andere auto's hadden deuken en afgebroken spiegels, aldus de politie. Ze neemt de zaak hoog op wegens het antisemitische karakter. Er zijn nog geen aanwijzingen naar de dader(s).

Hakenkruisen vaak gebruikt

De vernielingen vonden plaats in de omgeving van de Jacob Obrechtstraat, waar een synagoge staat. Volgens het Centrum Informatie en Documentatie Israël (CIDI) wonen er veel als jood herkenbare mensen in de wijk. Scheldpartijen komen vaak voor, maar geweld bijna nooit. Elise Friedmann, die bij het CIDI gevallen van antisemitisme registreert, wil daarom nog geen conclusies uit het incident trekken. „Hakenkruisen worden zo vaak gebruikt, in veel gevallen zijn ze niet eens tegen joden gericht." Ook bij de Liberaal Joodse Gemeente Amsterdam is niets bekend over antisemitisme in Oud-Zuid.

In Limburg vond in de dezelfde nacht een gelijksoortig incident plaats. In de Lavendelstraat in Sittard werden diverse auto's vernield, waarbij in enkele ook een hakenkruis is gekrast. Bij de politie was vanmorgen viermaal aangifte voor vernieling gedaan. In drie gevallen was een hakenkruis op de auto gekrast.

Volgens een woordvoerder van de politie in Sittard is het de tweede keer in twee weken dat er melding is gedaan van het krassen van een hakenkruis in auto's.

 

Libanon schendt VN Resolutie 1701


Het is natuurlijk een publiek geheim dat Hezbollah ten zuiden van de Litani rivier actief is, en wapens heeft opgeslagen in civiel gebied, maar het kan geen kwaad er nog eens op te wijzen naar aanleiding van deze explosie. UNIFIL zou dit uitermate serieus moeten nemen, maar UNIFIL is afhankelijk van medewerking van het Libanese leger dat niks kan en wil ondernemen tegen Hezbollah.
 
RP
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Israel accuses Lebanon of violating UN Resolution 1701
AP and jpost.com staff , THE JERUSALEM POST
 
Israel accused Lebanon of violating United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 on Tuesday after a Hizbullah arms cache hidden inside a southern Lebanese town accidentally exploded.

The blast occurred inside the village of Hirbet Selm, some 20 kilometers north of the Israeli-Lebanese border, south of the Litani River and within the area which falls under the mandate of the UNIFIL multi-national force.

According to Israeli defense officials, the cache was hidden in a storehouse inside the village and contained dozens of 122-millimeter Katyusha rockets as well as high-powered machine guns. Some of the rockets reportedly flew into the sky.

Contrary to Lebanese media reports which claimed that the cache was hidden in the village before the Second Lebanon War in 2006, the Israeli defense officials said that the weaponry was recently placed inside the storehouse.

"This is a major violation of resolution 1701," one official said. "The weaponry was stored inside a village and is proof of our longstanding claim that Hizbullah uses civilian infrastructure to hide its weaponry."

According to Lebanese media reports, the Lebanese Armed Forces and UNIFIL sealed off the area surrounding the storehouse. The two reportedly announced plans to launch an investigation into the incident.

Last week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the fragile relationship between Israel and Lebanon was threatened by allegations of Israeli spy cells operating in Lebanon, by Israeli concerns that Lebanese "militias" were operating outside of state control and that Hizbullah had been deployed to southern Lebanon.

Palestijnse Autoriteit sluit Al-Jazeera kantoor op Westoever


Stel je voor dat Israel het kantoor van de BBC, dat geregeld eenzijdige of misleidende informatie verspreidt over Israel, zou sluiten en de volgende verklaring zou uitgeven:
 
"We expect all media outlets operating in Israel to go about their work in a way that does not contradict the Israeli national interest and rule of law".
 
Uiteraard zou de wereld te klein zijn, en iedereen zou overlopen van verontwaardiging. Maar voor de Palestijnen ligt dat natuurlijk geheel anders.
 
RP
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PA shuts down Al-Jazeera's West Bank offices
www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=212107
Published yesterday (updated) 15/07/2009 21:52
 
 
Ramallah - Ma'an - The Palestinian Authority will go ahead with a suit against the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television after they shut down their West Bank offices on charges of "incitement and false information."
 
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Wednesday night that he commissioned Attorney General Ahmed Al-Mughni to take the legal procedures necessary to prosecute Al-Jazeera. Analysts say the Tuesday report with comments by senior Fatah member Farouq Qaddoumi, who accused President Abbas of involvement in an alleged plot to kill Yasser Arafat was the final impetus for the suit.

In a statement Fayyad said his government would continue to ensure freedom of the press in Palestine but would at the same time take action "against anything that may cause discrimination among factions" and deepen the national division.

Qaddoumi, a Fatah member, will not likely be able to participate in the historic Sixth Fatah Conference, which will take place in the West Bank in August. The decision to hold the conference, the first since the 1980s, in the West Bank was a controversial one, as many members will have difficulty entering the area, whose borders are controlled by Israel. Qaddoumi's comments were seen by some as an attempt to jostle for political power.

Responding to the decision, the Palestinian Media Forum (PMF) called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to reverse the decision describing it as restricting freedom of press.

"The Palestinian information ministry should honor Al-Jazeera teams for their efforts in exposing Israeli crimes in the Palestinian territories rather than shutting down its offices just as Israel did before," a statement by the PMF said.

The statement pointed out that Al-Jazeera was the only station to expose "the false democracy which some Arab countries claim."

The closure of Al-Jazeera offices, the PMF asserted, was a political decision which has nothing to do with the professional performance of Al-Jazeera teams.

For his part, Fayyad said Al-Jazeera TV would not be permitted to work in Palestine under Law 9, passed in 1995.

Article 14 of chapter two of the Basic Law (1995) states:
Every person shall have right to freedom of thought, conscience and expression and publication of his opinion either orally, in writing or in the form of art or through any other form of expression, subject to observance of restrictions imposed by law for the respect of the rights or reputations of others, the protection of national security or of public order or of public health or morals.

The Palestinian Information Ministry said in a statement responding to the incident, that, "Al-Jazeera has always dedicated a wide portion of its broadcasts to incitement against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. Despite repeated requests to be impartial in its coverage of Palestinian affairs, the station continued to incite against the PLO and the PA. The latest false news was aired yesterday."

At the same time, the PA stated commitment to freedom of the press in Palestine. "We expect all media outlets operating in Palestine to go about their work in a way that does not contradict the Palestinian national interest and rule of law," the statement read.

Staat Israel krijgt van hooggerechtshof nog 4 maanden voor ontruimingsplan buitenpost

 
Ongelooflijk hoelang de Israelische regering het slopen van illegale woningen in een buitenpost voor zich uit schuift. In 2005 was al een sloopvergunning afgegeven, dus het mag duidelijk zijn dat de kolonisten - die ook weten dat ze daar illegaal zitten - niet goedschiks wensen te vertrekken.

Wouter
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The Jerusalem Post
Jul 13, 2009 12:06 | Updated Jul 13, 2009 12:18
'State has 4 months to establish illegal outposts removal plan'
By JPOST.COM STAFF
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443792278&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


The state will have four months to come up with a planned schedule for the evacuation of 18 structures in West Bank settlements, a Supreme Court panel headed by Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch ruled Monday morning.

In their decision, justice Beinisch as well as justices Elyakim Rubinstein and Yoram Danziger, wrote that "under these circumstances…the state should have carried out the warrants [ordering the buildings' destruction], or at the very least produce an abiding timetable, as part of its basic duty to uphold the law."

The justices wrote they contemplated issuing a binding warrant, but in the end decided to allot the state four more months during which discussions will be held with tenants facing evacuation.

The petition regarding the buildings was submitted by the Peace Now movement four years ago. It protested six buildings in the illegal outpost of Haresha and a dozen buildings erected in Yuval, another illegal settlement.

The state claimed that demolition warrants were issued and awaited implementation after a work-plan would be drafted. In a later discussion, the state claimed it was mapping the new construction site and was intending to produce a time-line for enforcing the law.

Last year, the state detailed its planned course of action regarding the settlements. The justices wrote that the state's preference to avoid forceful evacuation was "understandable" and also showed understanding for the "many different measures needed to prevent [those building illegally in the West Bank] from breaking the law."

"However," the justices wrote, "more than four years have passed since the petition was submitted; the state's consistent stand from early on in the discussion of the petition has been that the buildings were built illegally, some on private land. A demolition warrant regarding the buildings was issued back in 2005."

The court decided not to issue an immediate demolition warrant, because "the tenants have their own arguments and it is undeniable that hearings including all parties involved should be held prior to demolition." The court therefore gave the state an additional four months in order to hold all necessary hearings "before we give a final ruling on the petition."

The court will reconvene in four months to discuss further measures regarding the Peace Now petition.

PEACE moet misleidende uitspraken over Israël intrekken

 
"PEACE", een pseudoniem voor een radikaal antizionistische organisatie, beweerde ten onrechte dat Israel op grote schaal knoeit met de labels op producten om zo te verhullen dat ze uit de nederzettingen komen. Daarom moeten consumenten alle producten uit Israel boycotten, aldus de organisatie in een oproep die zij huis aan huis heeft verspreid. In werkelijkheid geeft Israel wel degelijk aan waar producten vandaan komen, en staat bij producten uit de Westoever de plaats van herkomst vermeld. Als er 'made in Israel' op staat zonder concrete plaatsaanduiding, komt het gewoon uit Israel zelf, en niet van een nederzetting.
 
Het is natuurlijk te gek voor woorden dat een organisatie op zo'n grote schaal ongestoord leugens kan verspreiden, en de uitspraak van de Reclame Code Commissie is dan ook niet meer dan logisch. Helaas heeft deze alleen een adviserend karakter en kan anti-PEACE deze dus naast zich neer leggen. Opvallend is hoe weinig aandacht deze uitspraak, die natuurlijk wel een belangijke morele waarde heeft, heeft gekregen. Onder het artikeltje van het RD staat een uitvoeriger persbericht van het Israel Producten Centrum.
 
RP
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„Peace moet uitspraken over Israël intrekken"
14-07-2009 11:42 | Binnenlandredactie
http://www.refdag.nl/artikel/1422326/Peace+moet+uitspraken+over+Israel+intrekken.html
NIJKERK – De consumenten­vereniging Peace is in een voorlopige uitspraak op de vingers getikt door de Reclame Code Commissie (RCC) over haar uitlatingen over producten uit Israël.

Dat meldde Pieter van Oordt van het Israel Producten Centrum in Nijkerk maandag. Het centrum daagde Peace voor de commissie „omdat zij grove leugens over Israel schreef", aldus Van Oordt.

In de voorlopige uitspraak zegt de RCC volgens Van Oordt dat Peace „niet meer mag schrijven dat het verboden is producten van de Westbank te importeren of te verkopen; dat Israël documenten vervalst om uit de West-Bank en de Golan te exporteren.

Peace gaat tegen de uitspraak in beroep. Daarom wilde de RCC de uitspraak in de zaak dinsdagmorgen niet vrijgeven. De zaak komt in september opnieuw voor.

___________________
 
Reclame code commissie: Beweringen van Peace in boycotcampagne "in strijd met de waarheid"
Consumentenvereniging Peace misleidt de consument met onwaarheden
 
donderdag 25 juni 2009
 
 
De 'consumentenorganisatie' Peace doet in haar campagne voor het boycotten van producten uit de Israelische nederzettingen beweringen die "in strijd zijn met de waarheid". Dit besliste de Reclame Code Commissie op 23 juni na een klacht die op 10 februari werd ingediend door het Israel Producten Centrum (IPC). Het Israel Producten Centrum importeert en verkoopt producten uit Israel. Het voelt zich door de onware beweringen van Peace aangetast in zijn goede naam en bovendien zakelijk benadeeld.
 
De klacht betrof een folder met antwoordkaart, die begin dit jaar is meegezonden met de Volkskrant en met de omroepgids van de VPRO. De folder staat ook op de website van Peace, en is bovendien huis aan huis verspreid.
 
Peace roept daarin op tot een boycot van producten uit de Joodse nederzettingen. Omdat Peace bovendien beweert dat er "massaal wordt gefraudeerd met valse papieren van herkomst" en dat de consument "systematisch wordt misleid met vervalste etiketten", geldt die oproep in feite alle producten uit heel Israel, ook alle producten van het Israel Producten Centrum.
 
Bovendien wekt Peace de indruk dat het IPC zich bezighoudt met illegale activiteiten, door te suggereren dat de verkoop van producten uit de nederzettingen in strijd zou zijn met de wet.
 
Die beweringen van Peace zijn echter in strijd met de Reclame Code, besliste de Commissie, omdat zij eenvoudig niet waar zijn:
 
De Commissie, schrijft zij, "acht de uiting in strijd met de waarheid en derhalve met artikel 2 NRC" voor wat betreft de mededelingen:
- "Om de nederzettingenproducten toch te kunnen verkopen, wordt door Israel bij de invoer in Europa al jarenlang massaal gefraudeerd met valse papieren van herkomst"
- "Ook worden de Europese consumenten door vervalste etiketten systematisch misleid"
- "Verkoop van deze producten is in strijd met (…) het beleid van de Nederlandse regering en met dat van de Europese Commissie".
 
Zij adviseert Peace om niet meer op een dergelijke wijze reclame te maken.
 
Uitspraken van de Reclame Code Commissie hebben, anders dan bijvoorbeeld gerechtelijke uitspraken, slechts een adviserend karakter.
 
Peace had betoogd dat de Reclame Code Commissie niet bevoegd zou zijn de klacht te behandelen, omdat zij als consumentenvereniging een politieke campagne voerde en slechts de rechter zou mogen beoordelen of ze daarmee binnen de in de wet verankerde grenzen van vrijheid van meningsuiting begaf. De Commissie stelt echter, dat Peace denkbeelden propageert en dat dit een reclame-uiting is. Denkbeelden vallen onder de vrijheid van meningsuiting, maar als iemand zich op feiten beroept moeten die feiten "controleerbaar en in overeenstemming met de waarheid"zijn.
 
Dat is hier dus niet het geval. Andere punten, die naar de mening van de Commissie geen feiten maar meningen zijn, verklaarde de Commissie daarom niet ontvankelijk.
 
Het IPC is blij met de uitspraak, maar voelt zich nog steeds in zijn goede naam aangetast.
 

Human Rights Watch vraagt geld in Saoedi-Arabië voor anti-Israel campagnes


Het is te gek voor woorden, en leest bijna als een satire. Human Rights Watch dat geldt inzamelt onder rijke oliesjeiks in Saoedi-Arabië om actie te voeren tegen Israel. Ik dacht dat HRW voor mensenrechten strijdt, altijd en overal? In de woorden van David Bernstein:
 
Finally, some would defend HRW by pointing it that it has criticized Saudi Arabia's human rights record rather severely in the past. The point of my post, though, is not that HRW is pro-Saudi, but that it is maniacally anti-Israel. The most recent manifestation is that its officers see nothing unseemly about raising funds among the elite of one of the most totalitarian nations on earth, with a pitch about how the money is needed to fight "pro-Israel forces," without the felt need to discuss any of the Saudis' manifold human rights violations, and without apparent concern that becoming dependent on funds emanating from a brutal dictatorship leaves you vulnerable to that brutal dictatorship later cutting off the flow of funds, if you don't "behave."
 
Ikzelf ben geen fan van Eurabia-achtige theorieën of om organisaties die zich wel erg focussen op (vermeend) Israelisch onrecht, meteen te beschuldigen van banden met de Arabische wereld, maar dergelijke zaken nodigen daar wel toe uit.
 
RP
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Human Rights Watch Goes to Saudi Arabia
Seeking Saudi Money to Counterbalance "Pro-Israel Pressure Groups"
BY DAVID BERNSTEIN
The Wall Steet Journal - JULY 13, 2009, 10:19 P.M. ET
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124528343805525561.html

 
A delegation from Human Rights Watch was recently in Saudi Arabia. To investigate the mistreatment of women under Saudi Law? To campaign for the rights of homosexuals, subject to the death penalty in Saudi Arabia? To protest the lack of religious freedom in the Saudi Kingdom? To issue a report on Saudi political prisoners?

No, no, no, and no. The delegation arrived to raise money from wealthy Saudis by highlighting HRW's demonization of Israel. An HRW spokesperson, Sarah Leah Whitson, highlighted HRW's battles with "pro-Israel pressure groups in the US, the European Union and the United Nations." (Was Ms. Whitson required to wear a burkha, or are exceptions made for visiting anti-Israel "human rights" activists"? Driving a car, no doubt, was out of the question.)

Apparently, Ms. Whitson found no time to criticize Saudi Arabia's abysmal human rights record. But never fear, HRW "recently called on the Kingdom to do more to protect the human rights of domestic workers.

There is nothing wrong with a human rights organization worrying about maltreatment of domestic workers. But there is something wrong when a human rights organization goes to one of the worst countries in the world for human rights to raise money to wage lawfare against Israel, and says not a word during the trip about the status of human rights in that country. In fact, it's a virtual certainty that everyone in Whitson's audience employs domestic servants, giving her a perfect, untaken opportunity to boast about HRW's work in improving the servants' status. But Whitson wasn't raising money for human rights, she was raising money for HRW's propaganda campaign against Israel.

Someone who claims to have worked for HRW wrote to me, "I can tell you that the people on the research and policy side of the organization have little, if any, contacts with people on the donor side." If that's true, apparently this is yet another exception HRW makes for Israel: Ms. Whitson, who gave the presentation to potential Saudi donors, is director of HRW's Middle East and North Africa Division.

Also, as a Nathan Wagner comments at OpinionJuris: "Surely there is a moral difference between raising funds in free nations through appeals to ideals of universal human rights and raising money in repressive nations through appeals highlighting pressure brought against their enemies. [Moreover], the former type of fundraising does not imperil the organization's mission, but fundraising Bernstein highlights does, since any significant reliance on such funds will necessarily mute criticism of the repressive government."

Finally, some would defend HRW by pointing it that it has criticized Saudi Arabia's human rights record rather severely in the past. The point of my post, though, is not that HRW is pro-Saudi, but that it is maniacally anti-Israel. The most recent manifestation is that its officers see nothing unseemly about raising funds among the elite of one of the most totalitarian nations on earth, with a pitch about how the money is needed to fight "pro-Israel forces," without the felt need to discuss any of the Saudis' manifold human rights violations, and without apparent concern that becoming dependent on funds emanating from a brutal dictatorship leaves you vulnerable to that brutal dictatorship later cutting off the flow of funds, if you don't "behave."

Gearresteerde Palestijn wilde Israelische grenswacht neersteken


De laatste tijd zijn er minder van zulke incidenten, en heeft Israel tientallen checkpoints weggehaald of versoepeld.
Het valt te verwachten dat extremisten daar misbruik van proberen te maken.

RP
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Detained Palestinian admits stabbing attack plan
Bethlehem resident caught trying to infiltrate Jerusalem with 16-centimeter knife; two other Palestinians who tried to enter capital with him released
 
Efrat Weiss - YNET
 
Border Guard officers thwarted a stabbing attack in Jerusalem Monday night when they detained a Palestinian carrying a 16-centimeter (6.2 inches) knife at the Ras Hamis checkpoint near the Shuafat refugee camp in the northern part of the capital.

During his interrogation, the Palestinian admitted that he had planned to infiltrate the city and stab a Border Guard officer or IDF soldier at the Shuafat checkpoint.

The Bethlehem resident arrived at the Ras Hamis checkpoint at around 10 pm along with two other Palestinians. The three were spotted trying to enter the city through a breach in the fence.

Two of the Palestinians were released following their interrogation, while the man carrying the knife was transferred to the custody of Jerusalem Police for further questioning.

On Thursday a police unit and a Kfir Brigade force arrested a Palestinian woman carrying two commando knives at the Einav checkpoint in the northern Samaria region.

The 27-year-old Tulkarm resident was turned over to the security forces for further questioning. Security sources estimated that the woman was planning to carry out a terror attack against Israelis.

Brits wapenembargo voor onderdelen Israelische marine

 
Het is een vreemde constructie en niet erg werkbaar, dat aan het gebruik van de wapens die Israel importeert allerlei voorwaarden zijn verbonden, en men die alleen mag gebruiken wanneer het land waarvan men ze kocht meent dat daar voldoende aanleiding toe is. Israel kan moeilijk voor een aanval eerst met allerlei landen gaan overleggen en onderhandelen over welke wapens voor welke operaties precies gebruikt mogen worden. De oplossing lijkt dan ook dat Israel minder afhankelijk wordt van andere landen, en haar eigen defensie industrie verder ontwikkelt.
 
The British embargo is not expected to have any impact on the navy's operational capability. However, it has great political significance, and could encourage other countries to halt defense exports to Israel. The country considered most likely to be next is Belgium, which sells Israel equipment used to disperse demonstrations.
 
Het is natuurlijk vooral van belang dat Israel haar eigen positie goed en overtuigend verdedigt en (vermeende) misstanden en fouten van het leger ook grondig onderzoekt en hiervoor verantwoording aflegt. Het was bijvoorbeeld bepaald onhandig dat Israel niet reageerde op de vele concrete voorvallen die Amnesty in haar rapport over oorlogsmisdaden in Gaza beschreef, en slechts met een algemene en nogal obligaat aandoende verklaring kwam. Het is waar dat Amnesty bevooroordeeld is, maar je komt er niet mee weg door dat slechts te stellen. Er is nou eenmaal continu een vergootglas gericht op wat Israel doet, en steeds meer mensen zien Israel als de grote agressor die een weerloze bevolking onderdrukt.
 
RP
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U.K. hits Israel with partial arms embargo over Gaza war
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
Last update - 07:43 13/07/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1099701.html

 
Britain has slapped a partial arms embargo on Israel, refusing to supply replacement parts and other equipment for Sa'ar 4.5 gunships because they participated in Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.

Britain's Foreign Office informed Israel's embassy in London of the sanctions a few days ago. The embassy, in a classified telegram to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, said the decision stemmed from heavy pressure by both members of Parliament and human rights organizations.

The embargo followed a government review of all British defense exports to Israel, which was announced three months ago. In total, the telegram said, Britain reviewed 182 licenses for arms exports to Israel, including 35 for exports to the Israel Navy. But it ultimately decided to cancel only five licenses, all relating to the Sa'ar 4.5 ships. The licenses in question apparently cover spare parts for the ship's guns.

The British said the embargo was imposed because these ships participated in Operation Cast Lead. In so doing, the British claimed, they violated the security agreements between Britain and Israel, which specify what uses may be made of British equipment.

Last week, Britain's foreign and defense ministries informed the relevant companies that they would have to cease their planned arms deals with Israel's navy.

Ever since the Gaza operation, British MPs and nongovernmental organizations have been trying to persuade London to impose a complete arms embargo on Israel. However, the British government has rejected this demand.

In February, Amnesty International published a report on arms sales to Israel in which it highlighted Britain's role in supplying engines for Hermes 450 drones. According to Amnesty, Israel uses these drones to conduct assassinations in Gaza. The report prompted the Palestinian organization Al-Haq to file a suit against the British government, arguing that British arms sales facilitate Israeli operations in Gaza.

In April, Foreign Secretary David Miliband informed Parliament that Britain would reexamine all its defense exports to Israel in light of Operation Cast Lead. An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said that since then, Britain's military attache in Israel has requested information on the uses Israel made of various types of British-supplied equipment during Cast Lead.

Foreign Ministry officials said that only a small percentage of Israel's defense-related imports come from Britain. According to data suppled by Britain's department of trade, these sales total some 20 million pounds - about NIS 130 million.

The British embargo is not expected to have any impact on the navy's operational capability. However, it has great political significance, and could encourage other countries to halt defense exports to Israel. The country considered most likely to be next is Belgium, which sells Israel equipment used to disperse demonstrations.

In response the British Embassy in Tel Aviv issued a statement saying, "On 21 April 2009 the Foreign Secretary issued a Written Ministerial Statement about U.K. exports to Israel which may have been used by the Israel Defense Forces during the conflict in Gaza. This statement makes clear that all exports are subject to stringent controls.

"The statement sets out clearly the detail of U.K. components in equipment that may have been used in Operation Cast Lead. U.K. equipment was not exported for specific use in Operation Cast Lead and export licenses were issued based on all the evidence available at the time they were granted.

"Future decisions will take into account what has happened in the recent conflict. We do not grant export licenses where there is a clear risk that arms will be used for external aggression or internal repression.

"We do not believe that the current situation in the Middle East would be improved by imposing an arms embargo on Israel. Israel has the right to defend itself and faces real security threats.

"This said, we consistently urge Israel to act with restraint and supported the EU Presidency statement that called the Israeli actions during operation Cast Lead 'disproportionate.'"

Hamas verdenkt Israel van distributie opwindende kauwgum in Gazastrook


Echte Hamas logica; de grote bevolkingsdruk in de Gazastrook is zeker ook voor Israel een probleem en een bedreiging. Als de Mossad over zo'n magnifiek geheim wapen zou beschikken, zouden ze het beter in Tel Aviv kunnen inzetten om de beruchte 'demografische bedreiging' te bestrijden!
 
Deze absurde beschuldiging past in een traditie waarin Israel van alles, maar dan ook werkelijk alles wordt beschuldigd dat mis gaat in Palestijns gebied. Eerder al werd Israel ervan beschuldigd vergiftigde snoepjes uit te delen aan Palestijnen, ze bij checkpoints met kanker te bestralen, bommen te maken die alleen Arabieren treffen maar Joden ongemoeid laten, en ratten in het moslimkwartier in de oude stad van Jeruzalem uit te zetten. De ratten waren speciaal afgericht om alleen moslims te pesten, want ze lieten de Joodse wijk links liggen!

Hoeveel mensen zouden dit soort onzin geloven?
 
RP & WB
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Hamas: Israel distributes libido-increasing gum in Gaza
Islamist group claims Israeli intelligence operatives transfer merchandise to Gaza dealers that increases sex drive, even encourage them to distribute them free of charge in order 'to destroy' young generation. Affair exposed after young girl chews gum, complains of bizarre side effects
 
Ali Waked - YNET
 
Is Israel targeting the Palestinian population in Gaza by distributing libido-increasing chewing gum in the Strip? A Hamas police spokesman in the Gaza Strip Islam Shahwan claimed Monday that Israeli intelligence operatives are attempting to "destroy" the young generation by distributing such materials in the coastal enclave.

Shahwan said that the police got their hands on gum that increases sexual desire that, according to him, reaches merchants in the Strip by way of the border crossings. According to him, a Palestinian drug dealer admitted that he sold products that increase sex drive. The dealer said that he received the materials from Israeli sources by way of the Karni crossing.

A number of suspects have been arrested.

The affair was exposed when a Palestinian filed a complaint that his daughter chewed the aforementioned gum and experienced the dubious side effects.

Shahwan even claimed that Israeli intelligence operatives encourage dealers in Gaza to distribute the gum for free.

"The Israelis seek to destroy the Palestinians' social infrastructure with these products and to hurt the young generation by distributing drugs and sex stimulants," said Shahwan.

However, he noted that drugs reach the Gaza Strip by way of Rafah tunnels, and said that the police keep a close watch on the illegal activities going on in the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt.

Shahwan added that the police have recently seized large amounts of drugs and alcohol attached to the underside of automobiles passing through Erez crossing. The automobile owners admitted receiving help for smuggling the materials from Israeli intelligence operatives.

PA onderhandelaar Erekat heeft geen haast, want Israels positie schuift langzaam op

 
Israelische concessies lijken niet te leiden tot Palestijnse concessies en flexibiliteit, maar juist tot een verharding van haar posities:
 
"Many people say that the [Israeli-Palestinian] negotiations of the last 10 or 15 years were useless and yielded nothing, but [that is not true]. In 1994 [i.e. during the Oslo negotiations] the Palestinian side could have capitulated and gained an achievement within one month. [That is,] we could have agreed to undertake the management of the education and health [systems] in the West Bank. [Likewise] Yasser Arafat could have accepted what was offered him at Camp David [in 2000], instead of [letting himself] be besieged in the Muqata'a and then murdered for no reason. President Mahmoud 'Abbas could have accepted [Olmert's] December 2008 proposal, [but he preferred to wait]...
 
"[Some ask] where the negotiations with the Israeli side have brought us. First [the Israelis] said we would [only have the right to] run our own schools and hospitals. Then they consented to give us 66% [of the occupied territories].
 
"At Camp David they offered 90%, and [recently] they offered 100%. So why should we hurry, after the all the injustice we have suffered? The agreement will not be stable anyway, unless it is based on international law and on justice."
 
Onder dit laatste verstaat Erekat dat alle vluchtelingen en hun miljoenen nakomelingen 'terug' kunnen keren naar Israel, om een einde te maken aan Israels Joodse karakter en er uiteindelijk een Arabische staat van te maken. (Zie ook: Right of Return of Palestinian Refugees.)
 
Vandaar dat hij ook zo fel is gekant tegen erkenning van Israel als Joodse staat, wat natuurlijk niks met religie heeft te maken maar met het recht op zelfbeschikking van het Joodse volk. De meeste Arabische staten en de Palestijnse grondwet verwijzen naar de Arabische etniciteit en de islam als basis van hun identiteit en karakter. (Zie ook: Israel een Joodse staat - en al die andere staten dan?) Dus waarom zou Israel niet Joods mogen zijn?
Het volgende is in tegenspraak met uitspraken van premier Fayyad die onlangs zei dat Joodse kolonisten de Palestijnse nationaliteit kunnen krijgen.
 
"[Likewise], nobody should agree to Israeli settlers remaining in the Palestinian [state]. We must not compare a Palestinian [whose family] lived in Palestine [long] before Netanyahu or his forefathers arrived, and who is still living there, to a settler who is living on Palestinian soil [and maintaining his presence there through] coercion, oppression and unacceptable [use of] force. We must not talk of land swap before we establish our sovereignty in practice...
 
Erekat ontkent met deze uitspraken 3.000 jaar Joodse geschiedenis in het land. Zowel in het oude Israel als in de tijd van de diaspora hebben er Joden in het gebied gewoond dat nu Israel en de bezette gebieden omvat, er gemeenschappen gesticht, er hun religie beleden en hun identiteit ontwikkeld. Sommige nederzettingen zijn na 1967 precies daar herbouwd waar vroeger ook Joodse gemeenschappen waren. Dat wil niet zeggen dat Israel die gebieden dus maar allemaal mag houden; beide kanten zullen immers pijnlijke concessies moeten doen.
 
Fayyads voorstel om kolonisten de mogelijkheid te bieden om te blijven wonen waar ze wonen als ze bereid zijn staatsburger van Palestina te worden heeft vooral symbolische betekenis. Weinig kolonisten zullen dat willen, en bovendien is de vraag of en hoe de Palestijnse Autoriteit hun veiligheid kan garanderen. De haat tegen de kolonisten is immers groot, en Israeli's die de weg kwijtraken en onverhoopt in een Palestijnse stad belanden hebben dat weleens met de dood moeten bekopen. Vandaar dat het voor hen verboden is om gebied onder controle van de PA te betreden.

RP
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MEMRI: Special Dispatch | No. 2440 | July 13, 2009
Palestinians

Saeb Ereqat: Over the Years, Israel Has Gradually Withdrawn from Its Positions; Therefore, We Have No Reason to Hurry


In a June 25, 2009 interview with the Jordanian daily Al-Dustour, Palestinian Authority negotiations department head Saeb Ereqat said that the previous Israeli government, under Ehud Olmert, had offered PA President Mahmoud 'Abbas territory equal in size to 100% of the land occupied in 1967, by means of a land swap. Ereqat explained, however, that the PA would not agree to a land swap before Israel recognized the Palestinians' right to sovereignty over all the territory occupied in 1967. He added that there had been a steady erosion in Israel's position over the years, to the point that it had recently offered the Palestinians 100% of the territory; therefore, the Palestinians had no reason to rush into accepting the Israeli proposals. He stressed that the Right of Return and monetary compensation for the refugees were not mutually exclusive, and that the Palestinians would insist on receiving both.

Addressing the issue of Hamas, he said that nobody was asking it to recognize Israel, but that any government in which Hamas was a partner would have to recognize Israel and the commitments undertaken by the PLO.

Ereqat stated further that the Palestinians were acting in full coordination with Jordan and keeping it informed of all Israeli proposals  and of their replies to these proposals. Regarding Iran, he said that it did not pose a threat, as was frequently claimed.

Following are excerpts from the interview:

"Once [the Palestinians] Establish Sovereignty, We Will Start Exchanging Land"

"After the [November 2007] Annapolis talks, PA President Mahmoud 'Abbas and [then-]Israeli prime minister [Ehud] Olmert held several closed-door meetings. [In fact,] from the [time of the] Annapolis talks until December 2008, there were 288 negotiation sessions by 12 [different] committees.

"During the last negotiation session, the Israelis presented their position to 'Abbas - and this was perhaps the first time that [Olmert's] proposal was revealed. Under the June 4, 1967 borders, the area of the West Bank and Gaza, including east Jerusalem, is 6,235 square km, and there are also 46 square km of no man's land, which are to be divided according to international law [i.e. equally between Israel and Palestine]. So all in all, our share of the territory is 6,258 square km.

"Olmert showed 'Abbas a map presenting Israel's position. In the Salfit [area], there is the settlement of Ariel, which [the Israelis] want to excise from the West Bank, and there is another settlement in the Tul Karem area, called Qedumim, which takes up [another] 21 square km of the West Bank. These two settlements also sit over the Western Palestinian aquifer, comprising 400 million cubic meters of water.

"Another densely populated area that [the Israelis] want [to keep] is the Maale Adumim [area], which is near Jerusalem, 13 km into the West Bank, and a third, called Gush Etzion, is located between Bethlehem and Hebron. Together, the areas that the Israelis want to keep constitute 6.5% of the West Bank, and in return they offered us [areas equivalent in size to] 5.8% in the Israeli territory south of Hebron, west of Bethlehem, and north of Jericho [near] Bet Shean. The remaining 0.7% will be a safe passage [between Gaza and the West Bank], 38 km long and 150 meters wide, connecting the town of Tarqumiya [near] Hebron with Bet Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip.

"'Abbas told [Olmert] that, according to the map he had obtained from a friendly country, the [Israeli] settlements that have been built to date occupy 1.2% of the West Bank, including east Jerusalem. He added that he would like to make progress, but [asked], 'How do you expect us to accept the principle of land-swap before we delineate the 1967 borders?' We know that in 1965, Jordan and Saudi Arabia exchanged territories amounting to 29 sq km. [Land swaps were also made between] Jordan and Iraq, the U.S. and Canada, and the U.S. and Mexico. It is an [accepted] practice. However, in order to talk about [land] swap, sovereignty must [first] be established.

"Olmert wanted first of all to trap us in his net. Without sovereignty, how can we accept the principle of land swap? It's not as if [the minute] we sign a [land swap] agreement, a Palestinian state will be established the same day and Israel will withdraw the same day. Once we establish our sovereignty, we will start exchanging land.

"But accepting the principle of land swap prior to that would be tantamount to waiving [U.N.] Resolution 242. It would be playing into [Israel's] hands, because [the Israelis] will then say that the 1967 territories and borders are not set in stone. There is no point in discussing a land swap until we have established our sovereignty in practice.

"'Abbas told Olmert something else [while] I was there. [He said:] 'I am not running a market or a bazaar, and I am not going to open one. There are the occupied territories, and there is Resolution 242, which states that occupation of other people's land is unacceptable. Do you accept this principle?'

"Many people say that the [Israeli-Palestinian] negotiations of the last 10 or 15 years were useless and yielded nothing, but [that is not true]. In 1994 [i.e. during the Oslo negotiations] the Palestinian side could have capitulated and gained an achievement within one month. [That is,] we could have agreed to undertake the management of the education and health [systems] in the West Bank. [Likewise] Yasser Arafat could have accepted what was offered him at Camp David [in 2000], instead of [letting himself] be besieged in the Muqata'a and then murdered for no reason. President Mahmoud 'Abbas could have accepted [Olmert's] December 2008 proposal, [but he preferred to wait]...

"We have an absolute right to east Jerusalem. We cannot not listen to the voices that ask who will run Al-Aqsa. We revere and sanctify the Al-Aqsa mosque, as well as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but they are no different from Rafah, Jericho, and the refugee camp of Aqbat Jabr. All these places were occupied by Israel, and I must not distinguish between them. No one should say that Al-Aqsa must be managed by a 'Muslim' or 'Arab,' [rather than by a Palestinian].

"[Likewise], nobody should agree to Israeli settlers remaining in the Palestinian [state]. We must not compare a Palestinian [whose family] lived in Palestine [long] before Netanyahu or his forefathers arrived, and who is still living there, to a settler who is living on Palestinian soil [and maintaining his presence there through] coercion, oppression and unacceptable [use of] force. We must not talk of land swap before we establish our sovereignty in practice...

"Those who are willing to hand over Al-Aqsa to the Muslim countries are talking only for themselves, and do not represent the PA president, the PLO, or the PLO negotiation department. Some say that we will [be willing to] grant the settlers citizenship. We reject [this idea] out of hand..."

The Right of Return and Compensation are Not Mutually Exclusive

"The problem of the [Palestinian] refugees is not the result of a volcano [eruption], earthquake, or flood. Someone caused it. Before we talk of international law, we must pinpoint the element responsible, and Israel must acknowledge this responsibility.

"The Palestinian decision makers do not have the right to decide the fate of the refugees; only the refugee himself can decide his own fate. It is not up to the international [community] either. It is the refugee who has the right to choose whether to return to Israel, return to Palestine, or remain where he is - and in all of these cases [he is entitled to] compensation.

"It is not the Right of Return or compensation; it's the Right of Return and compensation. Should Israel acknowledge its responsibility, and should the world want to resolve the conflict, there would be a need to establish an international mechanism to bear the cost. I estimate that we are talking about $140 billion."

Israel Is Slowly Softening Its Positions, So Why Should We Hurry?

"[Some ask] where the negotiations with the Israeli side have brought us. First [the Israelis] said we would [only have the right to] run our own schools and hospitals. Then they consented to give us 66% [of the occupied territories].

"At Camp David they offered 90%, and [recently] they offered 100%. So why should we hurry, after the all the injustice we have suffered? The agreement will not be stable anyway, unless it is based on international law and on justice."

Netanyahu's Speech Was One Big "No"

"Now a new Israeli government has arrived. Netanyahu comes from a home with a [specific] ideological [orientation]. His father, Ben-Zion Netanyahu, is a 92-year-old professor who believes that there is a non-Jewish minority in Israel which must be treated with respect by [allowing it] to manage its own affairs in education, health, culture and religion.

"Netanyahu's speech stayed within the framework of this logic. First of all, he spent an hour dictating terms [to us], and then, in 10 seconds, he demanded that we come and talk to him without preconditions. Furthermore, the claim that he mentioned a Palestinian state is unfounded... Netanyahu was very clear and precise.

"So when America published a statement saying that the speech had contained positive elements, I called the White House and said to one of the staffers there, 'We seem to have heard two [different] speeches by Netanyahu. The one I heard did not include anything positive. If you heard a different speech, please tell me about it, because [in the one I heard,] Netanyahu... said 'no' to the two-state solution [based on] the 1967 borders, ignored the Arab [Peace] Initiative, and, [in an act of] unprecedented disdain for the Arab leaders, proposed to talk to them about water pipelines and gas pipelines.

"He also said 'no' to [reaching] a final agreement on [the issues of] Jerusalem, the settlements, the borders and the refugees. He changed the meaning of the word 'negotiation' from 'give and take' to 'take and dictate.' He threw out the Road Map - especially the clause on freezing the settlements, including their natural growth - and rejected Obama's vision. The latter spoke of the future and of a new Middle East, while Netanyahu spoke of the past and of the old Middle East..."

"Netanyahu will tell [U.S. Envoy George] Mitchell that Israel is willing to agree to anything, but that there are housing units in the settlements that are [already] under construction as well as [construction] tenders that have [already] been issued [and cannot be stopped]. We have told the Americans that 3,290 new housing units are under construction in the settlements, and that tenders have been issued for the construction of 11,000 more, so that about 14,000 housing units will be built during the current [Israeli] administration and the following ones, until the construction is completed. The Americans are bound to fall into this trap.

"This is why Obama must launch his initiative for reviving the peace [process] as soon as possible, for otherwise the region will be driven into an abyss of violence, chaos, and extremism, and that is a serious problem that must be addressed...

"Everyone must know that President 'Abbas and the Palestinians will not accept the proposals [of a partial freeze of the settlements], and 'Abbas already made this clear in documents that he sent to Obama."


Recognizing Israel as a Jewish State Means Joining the Zionist Movement

"Another issue is [recognizing] Israel as a Jewish state. On May 14, 1948, Truman was asked to sign [a document] recognizing [the establishment of] a 'provisional Jewish state.' After reading it carefully, he crossed out the words 'Jewish state' and in their place penned in the words 'state of Israel' - because asking someone to recognize a Jewish state is tantamount to asking him to join the Zionist movement. This movement believes that religion and nationality are one and the same.

"There are also other well-known reasons [to avoid recognizing Israel as a Jewish state] - namely, the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the 1948 territories [i.e. Israel's Arab citizens], as well as the Right of Return, etc...  Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, and has relations with the entire world. So why doesn't it ask them to recognize [it as a Jewish state]? Why does it ask this only of me?

The Arab Peace Initiative is Good for the Palestinians

"Following Netanyahu's speech, it is possible to obtain only one thing from the Arabs - namely, adherence to the Arab Peace Initiative. Here I want to reveal the secret of why we adhere to this initiative. It includes a clause that says: 'Upon Israel's complete withdrawal from the territories occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem and Syria's occupied Arab Golan, [the Arabs] will begin taking steps [of rapprochement] with Israel." [Based on this clause], the Arabs can say to Israel: 'We will not take a single step in your direction before the goal [of a full Israeli withdrawal] is achieved.' This would help us. But there are those who want to torpedo the Arab Peace Initiative."

The Palestinians Coordinate All Their Actions with Jordan

"After the Annapolis [summit], President 'Abbas met with Jordanian King 'Abdallah II, and asked him to form a joint [Palestinian-Jordanian political] 'kitchen,' so that every word we exchange with the Israelis would first be perused by the king. [We told him], 'You are our partner. [We share] a border, and [our concerns about] security, water and refugees are [also] Jordanian interests. We will not surprise you. Every proposal we presented to Israel was first of all presented to our sister Jordan, and every proposal we received from Israel was presented to Jordan before we gave our reply, while taking into consideration the joint [Palestinian-Jordanian] interests. Relations between the Palestinians and Jordan have never been better than they are today. Everything that happens in Palestine affects Jordan. Besides, I cannot agree to the deployment of a third-party [military] force on the [Jordanian] border without Jordan's consent, and I cannot take a single step in resolving the refugee problem without ascertaining the fate of the refugees in Jordan - [the country] that hosts the greatest number of refugees..."

Hamas as a Movement Need Not Recognize Israel

"Hamas won the elections, but it is not reasonable to say that [just] because it won the elections, the U.N. must now change its charter, its bylaws, its rules, and its resolutions; that the Arab League must withdraw the [Arab Peace] Initiative; and that the PLO must change the humiliating agreements that have been signed.

"Nobody is asking Hamas to recognize Israel or the two-state [solution]. Nobody has asked Hamas to change even one letter in its [ideological] documents. It is the [PA] government that is required to recognize [Israel]. Resistance is a noble thing, and a sacred duty of anyone under occupation, but there is a great deal of difference between investing in resistance and carrying it out...

"What is needed at the moment is a Palestinian [national] unity government that will recognize the PLO's commitments, [because] this will enable us to reconstruct Gaza...

"If [Hamas'] goal is to establish a unified Arab nation state, or a caliphate, we will pursue [these goals] even before [Hamas] does - but first it is necessary to liberate Palestine... If all we want to do fight - no problem, let's bury the peace initiative, clean out the trenches, and do so..."

Iran Poses No Threat to the Region

"Is the Arab world really [divided] into a moderate camp and a resistance camp?... We do not see Iran as posing a threat to us. Iran is a country in the region with whom we [sometimes] disagree and [sometimes] agree.

"I want Iran to stand by the Palestinians and support the Palestinian cause without favoring one side [i.e. Hamas] over the other [i.e. the PLO/Fatah]. But Iran does not pose a threat to the region; that is an invention used by Netanyahu to convince the world.

"This region cannot tolerate more wars. The peaceful U.S.-Iran dialogue must succeed. I asked [former IAEA director-general] Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei in Vienna how many years it would take Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, and he said 14 to 16 years. We must change this worn-out record [about the Iranian threat]."
 
 
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Hamas blij met open houding van Europa

 
Het lijkt duidelijk dat de Europese toenadering door Hamas als steun voor haar harde lijn en compromisloosheid wordt uitgelegd. De voorwaarden van het 'Kwartet' maken allang geen indruk meer. Als het de bedoeling is van de EU dat Hamas verandert, en als dat een voorwaarde is voor een einde van de boycot van Hamas, dan moet zij zich wat standvastiger en minder soft uitlaten.
 
RP
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The European openness to Hamas is a result of Gaza steadfastness
13 July 2009
Website of  - Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades -  the armed branch of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
www. alqassam.ps/english/?action=showdetail&fid=1897

 
Agencies - Dr. Yousuf Rezqa, the political advisor to Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya, stated Sunday that the European openness to the Movement of Hamas and the government is a natural product of the Gaza people's steadfastness in the face of the Israeli aggression and blockade.

In a press interview published by the Palestinian information center and Al-Rai newspaper, Dr. Rezqa stressed that the government in Gaza has no fears of this European openness because it always seeks the interests of all Palestinian people.

He noted that the Israeli war on Gaza was a test for the official Arab position, asserting that major Arab countries had demonstrated regrettable and late positions towards the demands of their peoples during the war.

The political advisor saluted the Turkish attitude during the war and hailed the relationship with Turkey economically and politically as promising.

Regarding the national dialog, he underlined that the future of dialog is dependent on ending the file of political arrest in the West Bank and terminating the security mission of US officer Keith Dayton in the West Bank.

Ophef over reclamefilmpje: IDF voetbalt met Palestijnen over de muur


Ik kan het Hebreeuws niet verstaan, maar het reclamefilmpje ziet er uit als een ludieke en onschuldige advertentie. Als mensen zich om zoiets druk gaan maken en er kwaad in zien, zegt dat alles over hun verbetenheid. Volgens veel sympathisanten van de Palestijnen kan Israel helemaal niets goed doen, en in alles, zelfs in allerlei projecten die juist gericht zijn op samenwerking en dialoog met de Arabieren, ziet men een racistisch zionistisch ethos of een sluwe manier om de eigen misdaden wit te wassen. Zulke mensen zijn deel van het probleem, niet van de oplossing.

RP
------------------

WATCH: Israel cell phone ad has Facebook group crying 'racist'
By Haaretz Service
Last update - 16:53 12/07/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1099529.html


A Facebook group is trying to get Israel's leading cell phone operator, Cellcom, to pull a new TV commercial showing Israeli soldiers near the West Bank separation fence, arguing that the advert is "racist."

The commercial, produced by the Israeli branch of international advertising powerhouse McCann Erickson, shows IDF soldiers on patrol along the separation fence who stop their jeep when it is hit by a soccer ball from the Palestinian side of the fence.

The ball soon bounces back to the Israeli side, at which point the soldiers decide to hold an impromptu game with the Palestinians, cheered on by female soldiers.

The voiceover accompanying the advert says: "After all, what are we all after? Just a little fun."

The Facebook group, called "I too got nauseous watching the new Cellcom ad," severely criticized McCann Eriksson's use of the separation fence in its advert.

"We could go into the media messages spouting racism any which way, but if you have come here than you too think they're uncalled for," reads the introduction to the Facebook group. "The McCann Erickson copywriter displayed an unbelievable propensity for bad taste."

The group also centered on what they feel is offensive in the new commercial, pointing out the fact that the supposedly "good" soldiers fear the possibility that the "monster living on the other side of the wall could steal the ball - but when the ball returns to Israeli hands, we discover that that monster isn't fierce at all, and actually feels like playing with the soldiers - oh joy!"

"Good enough reason to set up a beach party under the wall, complete with sexy female soldiers and musical instruments."

The group ends by demanding the immediate removal of the commercial.

"What our group can agree on is the shame we feel seeing a major Israeli commercial company approving such a beastly advert to be aired in its name, and which brings us to demand - take this racist commercial off the air immediately!"

dinsdag 14 juli 2009

Israelische journalistenbond uit internationale federatie gezet


Het lijkt duidelijk dat er meer aan de hand is dan alleen een geldkwestie. De internationale federatie van journalisten laat zich blijkbaar al jaren lang bijzonder kritisch uit naar Israel toe, en de Israelische unie had bovendien geen volwaardig lidmaatschap, wat de reden zou zijn voor het niet betalen van de contributie. Hoe het ook precies gegaan is, het is een kwalijke zaak dat Israel, het land met de meeste persvrijheid in het Midden-Oosten, nu uit de internationale federatie is gezet.
 
RP
------------------
 
The Jerusalem Post
Jul 12, 2009 23:26 | Updated Jul 13, 2009 2:08
Israeli journalists ousted from union
By DANIELA FELDMAN
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443788924&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Though the National Federation of Israeli Journalists was expelled last month from an international union for not paying dues, the Israeli federation suspects it was due to more than just finances.

The 800-member National Federation of Israeli Journalists was dismissed by the International Federation of Journalists, in a unanimous vote conducted at an executive conference meeting in Oslo on June 7.

Based in Belgium, the International Federation represents 600,000 journalists in 123 countries.

According to a June 11 letter from International Federation General Secretary Aidan White, the union "plans to continue to support Israeli journalists despite its decision at the weekend to expel the National Federation of Israel Journalists (NFIJ) from membership of the International Federation of Journalists for nonpayment of fees. This difficult decision was taken after the NFIJ rejected an International Federation offer to waive three years of debt."

Haim Shibi, an active member of a journalists' union in Jerusalem who is involved with both the international and national journalists' unions, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday the tensions between the Israeli union and the international organization began to grow during the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

The National Federation of Israeli Journalists temporarily suspended the Israeli group's membership shortly after the war. The Jerusalem union soon began repaying its dues, while the Tel Aviv union did not, Shibi said.
"I thought at that time we should not quit or walk out," he said.

In January, the International Federation began issuing a series of letters condemning Israel for refusing to allow journalists to enter Gaza to cover Operation Cast Lead. The International Federation also published a report criticizing Israel's actions in Gaza and urging International Federation members and affiliated organizations to speak out against Israel's treatment of foreign journalists during the war.

According to Shibi, the International Federation report about Gaza was compiled without any Israeli input.

"No one called us to hear what we had to say," he said. Israeli journalists had things to say about the balance of rights of journalists to cover the war and the pressures coming from the army and the state, but the report was compiled without consulting a single Israeli source, he said.

"They are an organization fighting for ethics in journalism," he said. "Whoever may be the offended party, [everyone] has a right to say his piece; we were left out of the discussion completely."

"He [White] is kicking out the most free and fighting press corps in the region."

Shibi also mentioned that the International Federation had hosted a series of conferences in Europe about current media issues, but the Israeli unions were not invited.

The International Federation focused on the question of payments and how much the Israeli union should pay for membership. According to an International Federation document, the Israeli union was offered a special reduced fee extended to countries facing economic hardships.

Shibi said the Israeli union felt that it was not being accepted in the international framework. The National Federation of Israeli Journalists felt it should not pay "until we are full and equal members," he said. "No taxation without representation."

"The action against the NFIJ, which brings together autonomous groups in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, was taken after numerous actions over the past three years to try to resolve disputes with some NFIJ leaders who have criticized the IFJ [International Federation] for its condemnation of actions by Israeli military and government over attacks on media in Lebanon and Gaza," White explained, in the letter announcing that the National Federation of Israeli Journalists would no longer be a part of the international union.

Though the NFIJ has been given the opportunity to appeal at the international organization's general assembly in Spain in May 2010, Shibi said he does not think the national Israeli union is in a rush to do so.

"We don't feel guilty,' he said. "We find them biased and one sided."

Shibi feels that the International Federation's recent actions represent "a popular mood of pushing Israel into the corner."

He said it reflects the European sentiment to portray Israel as an aggressor and support the Arab world. He recalled many efforts made by the NJIF that were not supported by the international union that is supposed to fostered unity between journalists from across the world, including NFIJ's proposal to build a media club for Israeli and Palestinian journalists to work together.

In response to the notice that Israel will no longer participate in International Federation programming, Shibi, along with four of his colleagues, issued a letter to the international union on June 8.

"We see this step as biased - unfair - and one sided. The opposite of what we expect from an organization dedicated to ethics in journalism... It became clear that the IFJ did not wish to lead the two sides, Arabs and Israelis, into a carefully planned and jointly made regional media club but rather opted to slowly push the Israeli members out. Yes this was not only about money. It was about full and equal membership which we were denied. And no - there was no lack of respect to the IFJ on our part," they wrote.

maandag 13 juli 2009

Een land zonder volk voor een volk zonder land

 
Zeer vermoeiend is het hoe de Meulenbelts en Van Agts van deze wereld steeds weer met frasen komen aanzetten als dat de Zionisten dachten dat Palestina onbewoond was. "Een land zonder volk voor een volk zonder land" hoor je dan ook hoogst zelden in Zionistische kring maar des te vaker als sarcastische kritiek uit antizionistische hoek. Voor zover er zionisten waren die echt dachten dat het toenmalige Palestina onbewoond was, kwamen die er natuurlijk snel genoeg achter dat dat niet het geval was.
 
Dat neemt niet weg dat:
a) de toenmalige landstreek Palestina met pakweg een half miljoen inwoners relatief dun bevolkt was.
b) evenals de beruchte uitspraak van Golda Meir "Er zijn geen Palestijnen", waarschijnlijk niet bedoeld werd dat er geen mensen woonden, maar dat die mensen geen eigen natie vormden met de ambitie om in Palestina een eigen staat te stichten. De Arabische Palestijnen als volk hebben zich dan ook pas in de loop van de 20ste eeuw ontwikkeld, ironisch genoeg vooral als reactie - deels zelfs bewust - op de Zionistische immigratie en de oprichting van Israel.
 
Wouter
_________________
 

Where did this phrase come from?

De Joodse Nakba en de Palestijnse verzoening

 
Prof. Ada Aharoni is a Peace Culture Researcher, writer, poet and lecturer. She is the Founder and President of IFLAC: The International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace. Ada lives in Nesher, Israel.
 
Ada is een vredesactiviste. Zij werd met tienduizenden andere Joden uit Egypte verdreven en woont nu in Israel, waar ze een nieuw thuis heeft gevonden. Het verhaal van de Joodse vluchtelingen uit Arabische landen kan bijdragen aan vrede en verzoening, betoogt ze, omdat het de Palestijnen laat zien dat zij niet de enige slachtoffers zijn van het conflict. Ook laten zij zien, om met Tom Petty te spreken: "You don't have to live like a refugee!" Er is leven na de vlucht; je kunt opnieuw beginnen en een beter bestaan opbouwen, tenminste, als je daarvoor de kans krijgt en die kans ook grijpt, en vooruit kijkt en niet terug naar een geidealiseerd verleden dat er niet meer is.

Wouter
____________________


Ynetnews / July 10, 2009
What about Jewish Nakba?
Publicizing story of Jewish refugees could facilitate genuine peace process
 
by Ada Aharoni
Published: 07.10.09, 00:02 / Israel Opinion
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3743829,00.html

 
One of the main causes of the modern wave of anti-Semitism currently sweeping through Europe is the Palestinian propaganda campaign, which created an anti-Jewish climate. In order to counter this basic element, we must present the truth about the expulsion of the Jews from Arab states.

The world only heard about the injustice causes to the Palestinian refugees, but there is almost nothing out there about the disaster suffered by the Jews expelled from Arab states, and especially from Egypt, Iraq, and Syria. A comparison between the events reveals that while the number of Palestinian refugees in 1948 totaled 650,000 people, the number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries was higher, and stood at 900,000 people (according to UNWRA.)

The property which the Jews were forced to leave behind in Arab states – both private and communal assets – was of much greater value than what the Palestinians left behind in Israel, as documented by the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

In fact, the Jews suffered "ethnic cleansing" in Arab states. Only a few Jews live there today. Egypt's Jewish community, for example, comprised 90,000 Jews in 1948. Today, only 38 Jews live there. On the other hand, the Arabs (who prefer to call themselves Palestinians) who live in Israel today constitute 20% of the population.

Explaining these facts would be very beneficial and allow for change, shifting from prejudice to fairness, justice, and truth. Once the Palestinians realize they were not the only ones who suffered, their sense of victimization and rejectionism will decline. Moreover, if the Jews from Arab states, who along with their descendents constitute almost half of Israel's population today, will see that their history and their "Nakba" is being considered an integral part of the Arab-Israeli conflict, they may be willing to offer concessions for genuine peace.

Matter of dignity
During a course I taught at the University of Pennsylvania, the head of the Palestinian student group, Fouad, said with amazement: We're surprised that you, the Jews, who are known as smart people, did not publicize this important historical affair - the Nakba of Jews in Arab states. Why do you leave it tucked away in your drawers for 60 years?

I asked him: Why do you want Israel to publicize it? And He replied: Because the Nakba narrative of Jews in Arab states salvages my dignity and that of my people! It makes us realize we are not the only ones who suffered in the conflict. Familiarity with the historical facts allows us to hold up our heads and opens up reconciliation opportunities.

Fouad added: For us, reconciliation means erasing all the hatred and ill feelings. Yet the condition for it is that the side that did the harm pay the aggrieved side for the reconciliation. The research in this course taught us that Jews from Arab states today comprise about half the Jewish people in Israel. We didn't know that. So Israel already paid for the reconciliation, with half its population losing all its property in Arab states. People were forced to leave the countries they were born in, just like us Palestinians, and they too spread worldwide. It is so clear to us now that we are not the only refugees who suffered from this tragic conflict.

Fouad noted that should the Israeli government present this issue properly, both peoples would be able to advance towards a process of real peace. We, the Palestinians, will feel that our dignity has been salvaged, and as you know dignity is the most important thing for us, he said. I was thinking to myself: My students were able to understand what all Israeli governments have failed to grasp thus far.
 
---
Prof. Ada Aharoni is the chairman of The World Congress of the Jews from Egypt

EU wil deadline stellen voor Palestijnse staat

 
De EU lijkt zich steeds eenzijdiger uit te laten over het Israelisch-Palestijnse conflict. Zo'n deadline versterkt het idee bij de Palestijnen dat zij helemaal niks hoeven te doen, en Israel gedwongen zal worden om hun een staat te geven. Ook is de premisse verkeerd dat het alleen Israel valt te verwijten dat er nog geen Palestijnse staat is.
 
RP
---------------

Israel blasts 'dangerous' EU call for deadline on Palestinian state
By Barak Ravid and Assaf Uni, Haaretz Correspondents, and Reuters
Last update - 23:23 12/07/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1099550.html

 
The Foreign Ministry on Sunday dismissed a call by the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, for the United Nations to set a deadline for the establishment of a Palestinian state as "dangerous."

"Resolutions 242 and 338 of the United Nations, the roadmap [peace plan] and agreements between Israel and the Palestinians all cautiously determine that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only be reached through negotiations by the sides," the ministry said in a statement.

Speaking Saturday at a lecture in London, Solana said the UN Security Council should recognize a Palestinian state even if no peace accord had been reached between Israel and the Palestinians by the deadline.

The Foreign Ministry added: "Israel has called more than once for the immediate renewal of the talks without preconditions.

"Another demand setting an artificial deadline endangers and harms the chances of actually reaching a bilateral agreement between Israel and the Palestinians."

The Palestinians have said they will not revive peace talks unless there is a halt to Israel's settlement activities in the West Bank.

Solana said on Saturday that, "After a fixed deadline, a UN Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the two-state solution." He added that this should include border parameters, refugees, control over the city of Jerusalem and security arrangements.

"It would accept the Palestinian state as a full member of the UN, and set a calendar for implementation. It would mandate the resolution of other remaining territorial disputes and legitimize the end of claims," Solana went on.

Advocating a return to Israel's borders before the 1967 Six-Day War with Egypt, Syria and Jordan in which it took the West Bank and other territories, Solana said mediators should set a timetable for a peace agreement.

"If the parties are not able to stick to it [the timetable], then a solution backed by the international community should be put on the table," he said.

Solana also praised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "for finally generating an Israeli consensus" on a two-state solution.

The EU, along with the United States, Russia and the United Nations, is part of the Quartet of Middle East Negotiators.

Abbas weigert Netanjahoe te ontmoeten


Terwijl Netanjahoe al meermaals heeft gezegd Abbas te willen ontmoeten, blijft deze weigeren en voorwaarden stellen. Toch wordt Netanjahoe, die al de nodige concessies heeft gedaan zoals het opheffen van tientallen checkpoints, als de havik gezien en Abbas, die vast blijft houden aan zaken als de 'terugkeer' van miljoenen nakomelingen van de vluchtelingen, als gematigd. Hoe komt dat?
Dit is het gevolg van een sluwe mediacampagne en het opzetten van allerlei 'spontane' pro-Palestina groeperingen, het standpunt van de VN en mensenrechtenorganisaties die het steevast voor de Palestijnen opnemen, een disastreuze PR van Israel en het feit dat er een diepverankerde overtuiging is dat de Joden, sorry, zionisten zo sluw zijn en zoveel macht hebben achter de schermen. Dit laatste wordt ook wel antisemitisme genoemd maar dat mag je tegenwoordig niet meer zeggen want alom heeft de idee post gevat dat sympathisanten van Israel deze term alleen maar gebruiken om kritiek op Israel verdacht te maken en critici de mond te snoeren.
Zoals uit onderstaand bericht blijkt brengt een en ander de vrede niet dichterbij. Wat meer druk op, en een kritischer houding jegens de Palestijnen, zou wat dat betreft heilzaam zijn.

RP
--------------

Abbas says he won't meet Netanyahu
KHALED ABU TOAMEH and HAVIV RETTIG GUR , THE JERUSALEM POST
 
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated on Sunday his refusal to resume peace talks with Israel unless Binyamin Netanyahu's government accepted the two-state solution and agreed to freeze all construction in the settlements in the West Bank.

Abbas's remarks came in response to an appeal from Netanyahu made during the Sunday cabinet meeting in which the Israeli prime minister called for the two leaders to revive the stalled peace process.

Abbas was speaking to reporters in Ramallah after meeting with visiting Romanian President Traian Basescu.

"Israel must recognize the two-state solution and stop all settlement activities in order to resume peace talks over final status issues," Abbas said. "The final status issues are settlements, Jerusalem, borders, refugees, water, security and prisoners."

Abbas said that both the Palestinians and the Israelis were required to fulfill their obligations in accordance with the road map plan for peace in the Middle East.

"We care very much about the peace process," he added. "We are demanding that Israel fulfill its commitments under the terms of the road map, first and foremost recognizing the two-state solution and halting settlement construction." He said that only then would the way be paved for the resumption of the negotiations with Israel over the final status issues.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the PA would not make any compromises regarding settlements.

"There can be no half-solutions with regards to the settlements, including so-called natural growth there," he said, referring to unconfirmed reports that the US and Israel have reached agreement on building new homes in some of the settlements.

Erekat said that the continued construction in the settlements would sabotage the international community's efforts to persuade the Palestinians and Israelis to resume peace talks in the near future.

He said that Abbas sent a message to the US administration over the weekend reiterating his stance on the settlements and making clear that the Palestinians would not compromise regarding this issue.

"If the US administration can't force Israel to stop the settlements, how will it force Israel to abide by any agreement regarding final status issues such as Jerusalem, borders, refugees, water, security and settlements?"

The cabinet meeting was held in Beersheba Sunday, just over 30 years after the May 1979 meeting of former prime minister Menachem Begin and former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat.

"Let's make peace, both diplomatic and economic," Netanyahu said at the start of the meeting, which was also meant as an act of solidarity with the Negev city.

"There is no reason why we can't meet anywhere in Israel," he said of himself and Abbas, "and since we are in Beersheba, I say, let's meet here."

Netanyahu stressed the Palestinians' "basic right to live in peace, security and prosperity," and said the government had "made great efforts in recent weeks to ease their lives. We've removed many roadblocks; we decided to increase the operating hours of the Allenby Bridge for more goods; and I've decided to advance a series of projects with the Palestinians to promote peace. But all these efforts can only bring us to a certain point, and the results will be multiplied a dozen-fold if there is cooperation from the other side."

The prime minister called "on the leaders of the Palestinians and the Arab states: Let's meet and cooperate. We can bring many players on board."

Later in the day, at a ceremony on Mount Herzl marking 105 years since the death of the founder of political Zionism, Theodor Herzl, Netanyahu insisted the Palestinians "must abandon their demand to settle the descendents of Palestinian refugees in Israel and gradually 'eat away' at the State of Israel after a peace agreement is signed."

The Palestinian Authority leadership has refused to relinquish this demand while successive Israeli governments have rejected it outright.

At the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu also announced the resumption of planning work for construction of an Eilat-Beersheba train line that would connect Israel's southernmost city to the country's center, thereby creating a rail link between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. He said the line would be a "trade route between Asia and Europe and will open the entire South for [Israeli] travelers."

Ministers used the meeting to discuss infrastructure projects in Beersheba and the South.

 
Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.
 

Fatah's doel blijft de bevrijding van heel Palestina

 
Terwijl de kranten maar blijven schrijven over de bouw in de nederzettingen, en de EU Israel maar blijft veroordelen alsof er niet twee partijen zijn in dit conflict, gaat Fatah rustig door met het opeisen van geheel 'historisch Palestina'. In de zekerheid dat Europese politici en journalisten het toch niet zullen opmerken omdat alle aandacht naar de nederzettingen gaat, kan Fatah zeggen wat het wil, zonder dat het haar imago als 'gematigd' en 'vredelievend' ook maar enigzins zal aantasten.
 
"It doesn't mean that we don't want the 1948 borders [all of Israel]...but our current political program is to say that we want the 1967 borders." [PA TV, Aug. 25 2008].
 
"It has been said that we are negotiating for peace, but our goal has never been peace. Peace is a means; the goal is Palestine."  
 
"I want to say for the thousandth time, in my own name and in the name of all of my fellow members of the Fatah movement: We do not demand that the Hamas movement recognize Israel. On the contrary, we demand of the Hamas movement not to recognize Israel, because the Fatah movement does not recognize Israel, even today."
 
RP
----------------
 
Palestinian Media Watch
Fatah official: "Our goal has never been peace. Peace is a means; the goal is Palestine."
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

 

The PA will resume violence and terror against Israel when Fatah is "capable," and "according to what seems right," Fatah activist Kifah Radaydeh says in a PA TV interview. She states openly that peace is not a goal for Fatah: 

"It has been said that we are negotiating for peace, but our goal has never been peace. Peace is a means; the goal is Palestine."  

Radaydeh says that "armed struggle" has not been ruled out and will continue, depending on how "capable" the PA forces are. 
 
Click here to see the PATV interview with Fatah official, Kifah Radaydeh
 
Transcript:

"Fatah is facing a challenge, because [Fatah] says that we perceive peace as one of the strategies, but we say that all forms of the struggle exist, and we do not rule out the possibility of the armed struggle or any other struggle. The struggle exists in all its forms, on the basis of what we are capable of at a given time, and according to what seems right...
What exactly do we want? It has been said that we are negotiating for peace, but our goal has never been peace. Peace is a means; and the goal is Palestine. I do not negotiate in order to achieve peace. I negotiate for Palestine, in order to achieve a state." 
[PA TV July 7, 2009] 

It should be noted that when Fatah refers to "Palestine", it is routinely referring to all of Israel.

Some examples:
 
1. The Fatah flag still shows the map of Israel under rifles. The same symbol appears on the Fatah website (
http://www.fateh.ps) and other official Fatah publications.
  
2. Fatah MP Najat Abu-Bakr said in a PA TV interview last year that Fatah's goal remains the destruction of Israel, but that their political plan is to focus on the West Bank and Gaza Strip: 

 "It doesn't mean that we don't want the 1948 borders [all of Israel]...but our current political program is to say that we want the 1967 borders." [PA TV, Aug. 25 2008]. Click to view
 
3. A PA TV educational documentary broadcast monthly since 2007 includes the following words denying the existence of Israel:
"Another section in Palestine which is the Palestinian coast that spreads along the [Mediterranean] sea, from... Ashkelon in the south, until Haifa, in the Carmel Mountains. Haifa is a well-known Palestinian port. [Haifa] enjoyed a high status among Arabs and Palestinians especially before it fell to the 'occupation' [Israel] in 1948. To its north, we find Acre. East of Acre, we reach a city with history and importance, the city of Tiberias, near a famous lake, the lake of Tiberias [Kinneret- Sea of Galilee]. Jaffa, an ancient coastal city, is the bride of the sea, and Palestine's gateway to the world." [PA TV, August 2007-June 7, 2009, dozens of times] Click to view
4. Muhammad Dahlan, senior PA official, recently stressed that Fatah adamantly refuses to recognize Israel, and that even Palestinian Authority recognition is to have better standing internationally in order to receive foreign aid: 
"I want to say for the thousandth time, in my own name and in the name of all of my fellow members of the Fatah movement: We do not demand that the Hamas movement recognize Israel. On the contrary, we demand of the Hamas movement not to recognize Israel, because the Fatah movement does not recognize Israel, even today... It's required of the government but not of Hamas; it's required of the government but not of the Fatah, so that this government will be able to offer the necessary assistance, to carry out the necessary reconstruction, to offer assistance to the sick, to bring relief to needy families... This can be dealt with [only] by a government that has relations with the international community, one that is acceptable to the international community, in order that we can work together and benefit from the international community."  [PA TV March 17, 2009]
Click to view

Israel een Joodse staat - en al die andere staten dan?


Israels eis als een Joodse staat erkend te worden, wordt veelal bestempeld als racistisch omdat 20% van de Israeli's Arabisch is en het de Joodse bevolking voor zou trekken. Ook zou het niet van deze tijd zijn om een staat voor een religie te oormerken. Echter, de meeste landen in het Midden-Oosten noemen zichzelf expliciet Arabisch en islamitisch. Uiteraard wordt met 'Joodse staat' bedoeld een staat waar het Joodse volk zelfbeschikking heeft, ofwel een nationaal thuis voor het Joodse volk, en hoeft dat net zo min ten koste van minderheden te gaan als dat geldt voor iedere nationale staat waar een bepaalde bevolkingsgroep dominant is. Er is bovendien alle reden voor Israel dit expliciet erkend te willen hebben, want een van de oorzaken van het Midden-Oosten conflict is de Arabische weigering Israel te erkennen en er een compromis mee te sluiten. Ook voor haar stichting weigerden de Arabieren in Palestina ieder compromis met de Joodse gemeenschap, en ook tegenwoordig beschouwen zowel Hamas als Fatah het hele gebied van de Jordaan tot de zee als bezet Palestina (zie filmpje op YouTube). Dit is, misschien nog meer dan de nederzettingen, een van de grootste obstakels tot vrede.
 
RP
----------------

Friday, July 10, 2009
Religion and National Issues in the constitutions of Arab and European states
http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/07/religion-and-national-issues-in.html
 
 
The Palestinians and Arab states, including and especially Egypt, have bitterly opposed Israel's requirement that peace must include recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people. They insist alternately that a state of the Jewish people would necessarily discriminate against minorities and would be "racist," or pretending that "Jewish State" refers to a religion, they insist that no modern state can be based on religion. A survey of national constitutions in the Arab world and Europe reveals however, that many countries establish a nationality, a religion or both as the basis of their state either explicitly or by implication. In particular, Arab states declare themselves openly to be Arab and Islamic for the most part. In both Egypt and the Palestinian authority Islam is to be the basis of legislation. In Iraq, with an American inspired constitution, "Arab" is omitted in favor of the Kurds and other minorities, but Islam is the religion.
 
Greece is the mother of democracy as everyone knows. The Greek constitution declares:
 
In the name of the Holy and Consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity
...
Article 3
1. The prevailing religion in Greece is that of the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ.
 
 
Ami Isseroff
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Constitution of The Arab Republic of Egypt
http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/Politics/Constitution/Text/040703000000000001.htm
 
PART ONE: THE STATE

Article 1
The Arab Republic of Egypt is a democratic state based on citizenship. The Egyptian people are part of the Arab nation and work for the realization of its comprehensive unity.

Article 2
Islam is the religion of the state and Arabic its official language. Principles of Islamic law ( Shari'a) are the principal source of legislation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Palestinian Basic Law
http://www.mideastweb.org/basiclaw.htm

Article (1)

Palestine is part of the large Arab World, and the Palestinian People are part of the Arab Nation. Arab Unity is an objective which the Palestinian People shall work to achieve.


Article (4)

1. Islam is the official religion in Palestine. Respect and sanctity of all other heavenly religions shall be maintained.

2. The principles of Islamic Shari'a shall be the main source of legislation.

3. Arabic shall be the official language.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jordan
http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/const_ch1-3.html#CHAPTER%20ONE
 
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is an independent sovereign Arab State. It is indivisible and inalienable and no part of it may be ceded. The people of Jordan form a part of the Arab Nation, and its system of government is parliamentary with a hereditary monarchy.
 
Article 2: Islam is the religion of the State and Arabic is its official language.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Syria
http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/sy00000_.html
Chapter 1 Basic Principles

Part 1 Political Principles

Article 1 [Arab Nation, Socialist Republic]

(1) The Syrian Arab Republic is a democratic, popular, socialist, and sovereign state. No part of its territory can be ceded. Syria is a member of the Union of the Arab Republics.
(2) The Syrian Arab region is a part of the Arab homeland.
(3) The people in the Syrian Arab region are a part of the Arab nation. They work and struggle to achieve the Arab nation's comprehensive unity.


Article 3 [Islam]

(1) The religion of the President of the Republic has to be Islam.
(2) Islamic jurisprudence is a main source of legislation.

Article 4 [Language, Capital]
The Arab language is the official language. The capital is Damascus.
 
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Iraq
http://www.uniraq.org/documents/iraqi_constitution.pdf
 
Article 2:

First: Islam is the official religion of the State and is a foundation source of legislation:

A. No law may be enacted that contradicts the established provisions of Islam

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saudi Arabia
http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/sa00000_.html
 
Article 1
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a sovereign Arab Islamic state with Islam as its religion; God's Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet, God's prayers and peace be upon him, are its constitution, Arabic is its language and Riyadh is its capital.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

France
http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/english/8ab.asp#TITLE%20I
 
PREAMBLE

The French people solemnly proclaim their attachment to the Rights of Man and the principles of national sovereignty as defined by the Declaration of 1789, confirmed and complemented by the Preamble to the Constitution of 1946, and to the rights and duties as defined in the Charter for the Environment of 2004.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Morocco
http://www.al-bab.com/maroc/gov/con96.htm
 
PREAMBLE

An Islamic and fully sovereign state whose official language is Arabic, the Kingdom of Morocco constitutes a part of the Great Arab Maghreb.


Article 6: Islam shall be the state religion. The state shall guarantee freedom of worship for all.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ireland
http://www.uhb.fr/langues/cei/constit.htm
 
PREAMBLE
In the name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred,
We, the people of Éire,

Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial,


Article 1.

The Irish nation hereby affirms its inalienable, indefeasible, and sovereign right to choose its own form of Government, to determine its relations with other nations, and to develop its life, political, economic and cultural, in accordance with its own genius and traditions.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spain
http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/sp00000_.html
 
Preamble
The Spanish Nation, desiring to establish justice, liberty, and security, and to promote the well-being of all its members, in the exercise of its sovereignty....
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
In the name of the Holy and Consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity

Article 3
1. The prevailing religion in Greece is that of the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ. The Orthodox Church of Greece, acknowledging our Lord Jesus Christ as its head, is inseparably united in doctrine with the Great Church of Christ in Constantinople and with every other Church of Christ of the same doctrine, observing unwaveringly, as they do, the holy apostolic and syn- odal canons and sacred traditions. It is autocephalous and is administered by the Holy Synod of serving Bishops and the Permanent Holy Synod originating thereof and assembled as specified by the Statutory Charter of the Church in compliance with the provisions of the Patriarchal Tome of June 29, 1850 and the Synodal Act of September 4, 1928.
2. The ecclesiastical regime existing in certain districts of the State shall not be deemed contrary to the provisions of the preceding paragraph.
3. The text of the Holy Scripture shall be maintained unaltered. Official translation of the text into any other form of language, without prior sanction by the Autocephalous Church of Greece and the Great Church of Christ in Constantinople, is prohibited.
 
=============================
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors. Originally posted at
http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/07/religion-and-national-issues-in.html. Please do link to these articles, quote from them and forward them by email to friends with this notice. Other uses require written permission of the author.
 
 

zondag 12 juli 2009

Amnesty Internatonal partijdig in rapport Gaza Oorlog

 
Ik lees zelden rapporten, dus ik weet niet hoe Amnesty International gewoon is zijn rapporten op te stellen, maar "Operation 'Cast Lead': 22 Days of Death and Destruction" is geen objectief rapport, maar een onverbloemde aanklacht tegen Israel.
 
De titel zegt alles al: Israel heeft 22 dagen dood en vernieling gezaaid, volgens het rapport met schijnbare minachting voor mensenlevens en zeker met minachting van het internationale recht. De opstellers zijn naar Gaza geweest, duidelijk met een oordeel vooraf over de dood en vernielingen daar en wie daarvoor de schuld draagt. Men heeft de Palestijnse getuigenissen braaf opgetekend, de puinhopen gefotografeerd en de spreekwoordelijke Jood aan het kruis genageld. Een 'kokervisie' heet dat in opsporingstermen.
 
Neem die UNRWA school waarbij in de buurt tientallen doden vielen: volgens Amnesy werden géén raketten afgevuurd door Hamas uit de omgeving daarvan ("there had been no Palestinian fire from a yard adjacent to the school"). Toch vindt een klootje als ik al binnen 10 minuten berichten van getuigen die het tegendeel zeggen:
 
De opstellers van het rapport lijken maar 1 doel gehad te hebben: Barbertje moest hangen!
 
Wouter
 
============================
 
Amnesty Internatonal bias against Israel regarding Gaza
 
This letter makes a good point. Here are some additional resources regarding humanitarian issues in the Gaza campaign,
BBC Interview of Col Richard Kemp discussing IDF operations in Gaza
International Law and Military Operations in Practice (a new Richard Kemp video and transcript)
 
============================
 
July 9, 2009
Letter

A Bias Against Israel

To the Editor

Amnesty International's report on the conflict in Gaza is fundamentally biased against Israel ("Report Accuses Israel and Hamas of War Crimes in Gaza," news article, July 3). Nothing illustrates this more starkly than when the report deals with the issue of Gaza civilians caught up in the conflict.

When assessing Israeli efforts to warn civilians of an impending attack, whether by telephone or by leaflet, the report says that all such warnings did was create panic because the civilians had nowhere to flee.

On the other hand, when the report looked at Hamas's placing military infrastructure in the heart of civilian areas, it minimized the effect by arguing that Hamas did not force people to stay in their homes so civilians could flee attacks.

In other words, Amnesty adjusted its version of the facts to suit its a priori assumptions that Israel was the main party responsible for civilian deaths.

In fact, in a complicated situation, Israel did all it could to avoid civilian casualties. The main violator of human rights was Hamas; its eight-year rocketing of Israeli civilians and its deliberate placing of its military in civilian buildings, homes, schools, hospitals and mosques were major violations of international law. One would barely know this from the Amnesty "investigation."

Kenneth Jacobson
Deputy National Director
Anti-Defamation League
New York, July 5, 2009

 

Al 15 maanden nauwelijks vooruitgang aan veiligheidsbarriere Westoever

 
Het lijkt nog de vraag of de veiligheidsbarriere ooit af zal worden gebouwd. Het is een duur project, en het Israelische Hooggerechtshof heeft herhaaldelijk wijziging van delen van de route afgedwongen, ook van stukken die er al stonden. De urgentie lijkt ook minder nu er nog maar zelden aanslagen op Israelisch grondgebied lukken. Dat komt door een combinatie van de bijna 60% van de barriere die af is, de checkpoints, en het optreden van de PA veiligheidsdiensten tegen terroristen van Hamas en co.
 
Door het lagere veiligheidsbelang zal de rechter waarschijnlijk ook bezwaarmakers tegen de 'muur' sneller in het gelijk stellen. De terreurdreiging wordt de laatste 3 jaar gedomineerd door raketaanvallen, waartegen een muur of hek niet helpt.
 
Wouter
_______________

Security wall barely built in 15 months
Tovah Lazaroff , THE JERUSALEM POST
 
Almost no progress has been made toward completing the West Bank security barrier in the past 15 months, according to numbers provided to The Jerusalem Post by the Defense Ministry on Wednesday.

To date, around 490 km. of the planned 805-km. barrier have been finished, according to Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror.

This is the same figure he gave the Post in February 2008, just after a suicide bomber came through a gap in the structure and killed a woman in Dimona while wounding 40 other people.

Dror spoke with the Post a day before the fifth anniversary of the International Court of Justice in The Hague's advisory opinion saying that construction of the barrier in the West Bank was illegal.

On Wednesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay called on Israel to "dismantle the wall" and "make reparations for all damage suffered by all persons affected by the wall's construction."

Since the nonbinding court ruling, Israel has continued to say that the structure saves lives and that it has a right to build it in the West Bank to protect its citizens against terror attacks.

In practice, in the past two years, work on the barrier has slowed to a trickle.

While work crews continue to complete mostly constructed sections, or to redo sections of the route based on High Court of Justice rulings, the number of fully completed sections has not increased in 15 months.

In two years, the length of the barrier has increased by only about 40 km.

Although the Defense Ministry had initially said it would complete the fence by 2010, Dror told the Post it was now looking to finish 500 km., 62 percent of it, by 2010.

He would not make any projections as to when the entire barrier, which was begun in 2002, would be finished.

Dror added that the focus at this juncture was on completing the barrier in the Jerusalem area. He said 100 km. of the overall barrier route had been held up by court cases and that work had not yet begun on another 200 km.

He blamed both the High Court and budget problems for the delays in completing the fence in the areas of Ma'aleh Adumim, Gush Etzion, the Ariel and Kedumim fingers, as well as the South Hebron Hills.

A spokesman for Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the project remained a high priority for Barak, but he had no explanation as to why work had slowed down.

The United Nations, left-wing groups that monitor the barrier, as well as the head of security for the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, all told the Post there was little overall progress toward completing the structure.

At a Jerusalem press conference, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released a report in which it said the overall length of the barrier route was 709 km., of which only 413 km., or 58.3%, was completed. It added that another 73 km. was under construction.

The UN said at the briefing that its issue was not with the fence but with the route, of which 85% is in the West Bank and only 15% along the pre-1967 armistice line. It, too, called on Israel to abide by the Hague ruling and construct the barrier along the Green Line.

Once the barrier is completed, the UN report said, 35,000 Palestinians holding West Bank ID cards in 34 communities will be located between the barrier and the Green Line. The barrier would surround approximately 125,000 Palestinians on three sides and 26,000 Palestinians would be surrounded by it on four sides.

It added that the barrier has made life very difficult for the Palestinians by dividing families, and cutting off access to medical care, schools and farm lands.

Pillay, in a statement Wednesday, said, "The wall is but one element of the wider system of severe restrictions on the freedom of movement imposed by the Israeli authorities on Palestinian residents of the West Bank."

According to Oxfam International, which also issued a report on Wednesday, the overall route would divide the West Bank into three parts and up to 22 smaller isolated enclaves, jeopardizing the viability of a future Palestinian state.

The route as it was planned in June 2008 passed through 171 West Bank localities, affecting 712,313 Palestinians, according to Oxfam.

It said that 49,291 dunams (4,929.1 hectares) of land had been confiscated for the barrier and 27,841 people had been displaced.

Oxfam did acknowledge steps the government has taken to try to ease the obstacles posed by the fence. To help farmers access their land, 70 agricultural gates were created in the barrier, though farmers still had a hard time getting to their fields, Oxfam said.

The government has also spent NIS 2 billion to construct an alternative system of roads, underpasses and tunnels to facilitate Palestinian travel around the barrier.

Speaking at a Foreign Ministry press conference in Jerusalem, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon denied that the security barrier obstructed Palestinian movement.

He noted that in spite of the barrier, 1.2 million tourists visited the Palestinian territories in the West Bank in the past year and that the area's GNP had grown by between 5% and 7%.
 
AP contributed to this report.

Palestijnen boycotten Netanjahoe's plan voor 'economische vrede'

 
Voor vrede zijn twee partijen nodig, dat geldt ook voor 'economische vrede'. Het is niet verbazend dat de Palestijnen wantrouwig staan tegenover de economische vredesplannen van Netanjahoe, die worden gezien als een zoethoudertje om de politieke onderhandelingen op de lange baan te kunnen schuiven. In zijn verkiezingscampagne bracht Netanjahoe het zelf zo, en de PA heeft hem op zijn woord genomen, zo blijkt.
 
Wouter
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Palestinians reject Netanyahu's 'economic peace' plan
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
Last update - 08:40 09/07/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1098858.html

 
Prior to the elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented his program for "economic peace," which he said would improved the quality of life for Palestinians in the West Bank. However, 100 days after having formed his coalition government, there is no practical progress on economic projects.

The main reason for this is the refusal of senior Palestinian Authority officials to cooperate with Netanyahu and Vice Premier Silvan Shalom, who has been assigned the task of promoting the "economic peace" initiative.

The ministerial committee handling the matter met again Wednesday, deciding to open the Allenby Bridge to traffic 24 hours a day to encourage Palestinian imports and exports to Jordan.

Shalom also presented a list of projects that had been delayed for years due to various bureaucratic difficulties. These include an industrial zone in Bethlehem, (funded by France), as well as one near Jenin (funded by Germany) and another near Jericho (paid for by Japan). Netanyahu had instructed all ministries to further his "economic peace" efforts by getting rid of red tape.

Palestinians block progress

The committee also discussed the PA's role in blocking progress. In essence, its senior officials are boycotting their Israeli counterparts.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas refuses to meet Netanyahu, and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will not meet with Silvan Shalom, while Palestinian officials are not permitted to meet their Israeli counterparts.

"Israel wants to promote economic peace, and I am calling for increased cooperation from the Palestinians," Shalom said during the meeting.

According to a senior political source, all contacts on economic issues with Palestinian officials are carried out through the Quartet's special envoy, Tony Blair. Even though the former British prime minister is pressing the Palestinians to meet with the Israelis, he has been unsuccessful.

"The Palestinians are concerned that if they cooperate on economic peace, Israel will be able to avoid the political process," the source said.

The Palestinian refusal to meet senior Israeli officials resulted in the cancellation of a joint conference scheduled to take place in Tokyo on the Jericho industrial zone.

It was to be attended by senior Japanese, Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian officials, but the Palestinians announced that at this stage they would not participate, saying this stemmed from the lack of progress on the peace process with Israel.
 

VS steun voor Israel niet gebonden aan conservatieve politiek

 
Je hoeft niet voor de republikeinen te zijn en voor de nederzettingen om Israel te steunen, aldus Alan Dershowitz, die door apologeten van de Palestijnen onterecht als een havik en conservatief wordt neergezet. Steun voor Israel gaat prima met progressieve politiek samen.
 
RP
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Published in: The Jerusalem Post Blog July 9, 2009
 

Melanie Phillips has written a critique of me because I remain a Democrat and continue to support President Barack Obama, despite his recent statements regarding expansion of Israeli settlements and other matters relating to the Middle East conflict. Other conservative supporters of Israel have joined her in attacking me as well. See e.g., Jonathan Tobin. This is how she put it:

"But just like the majority of American Jews, getting on for 80 per cent of whom voted for Obama, he is a Democrat supporter who is incapable of acknowledging the truth about this President. For most American Jews, the horror of even entertaining the hypothetical possibility that they might ever in a million years have to vote for a Republican is so great they simply cannot see what is staring them in the face -- that this Democratic President is lethal for both Israel and the free world."

She accuses me of being "blind" and says "he doesn't get it",

Oh, I get it alright. I just fundamentally disagree with her approach, especially when it comes to the United States.

Phillips, for all her good work in Great Britain on behalf of Israel, has absolutely no understanding of American politics. She would turn Israel into a wedge issue, in which Republicans were seen as the supporters of Israel and Democrats as its enemy. This is precisely what has happened, with disastrous results, throughout much of Europe. In most European countries, the left-wing political parties are anti-Israel, often virulently so. The right-wing political parties are generally more supportive of Israel, though not nearly as supportive as they should be in many instances. Because young people tend to be more liberal than their elders, support for Israel throughout Europe, has also become a generational wedge issue, with younger people opposing Israel far more than older people.

This is precisely the situation American supporters of Israel want to avoid. We do not want to replicate the horrible situation that currently exists in Phillips' Great Britain. We want Israel to remain a bipartisan issue and an issue that does not divide generations. During the Bush administration, Republican support for Israel - which they linked to their failed Iraq policy - alienated many younger and more liberal voters who despised Bush, Cheney and their policies.

Among the reasons that I supported Obama, having first supported Hillary Clinton, is because I believed, and continue to believe, that a young, extremely popular African American President who supports Israel, even if he disagrees with its policies regarding settlement expansion, would be far more influential with mainstream Americans and with people throughout the world than an old conservative republican, who also supported Israel. That is why I gave, and continued to give, President Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt in his dealings with Israel. I take him at his word that he seeks to bring about peace, by means of a two state solution pursuant to which all the Arab states recognize Israel's right to thrive as a Jewish democracy, while agreeing that any Palestinian state must be demilitarized and incapable of waging war or terrorist attacks against Israel.

I also take him at his word when he says that the United States will not accept a nuclear-armed Iran, and I believe that he has a better chance of achieving that goal through diplomacy - including sanctions if necessary - than would a tough talking and non-negotiating Republican administration.

I believe that although a military attack on Iran could have disastrous and far reaching consequences, a nuclear armed Iran would have far graver consequences. I do not know whether the Obama administration would, as a last resort, use military force to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Nor do I know whether a Republican administration would have engaged in military action against Iran, especially in light of its failed war in Iraq. Neither do I know whether the Obama administration would try to prevent Israel from defending its civilians against an Iranian nuclear bomb by preventively attacking its nuclear facilities, as Israel did to Iraq in 1981. In a recent statement Vice President Biden strongly suggested that he believes that Israel should have the right to take military action to protect its citizens, if all other options fail. I believe that Dennis Ross holds similar views. The Bush administration, on the other hand, refused to supply Israel with weapons necessary to implement a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, and according to press reports, it was reluctant to give Israel the green light to attack on its own.

No one knows precisely what any administration would do under varying and unpredictable scenarios. As I have previously written, I would strongly oppose a United States policy of learning to live with an Iranian nuclear bomb, regardless of which administration supported such a dangerous approach.

Recall that it was the Bush administration that for the first time announced its support for a Palestinian state - a position with which I agree, so long as it is completely demilitarized and incapable of aggression against Israel. Recall as well that it was the Bush administration that insisted on a freeze on Israel settlements in the West Bank - a position with which I also agree, subject to humanitarian and pragmatic considerations. (This should come as no surprise to anyone who has read my writings, since I have opposed Israel's civilian settlement policy since 1973. You can strongly support Israel's right to defend itself without supporting its settlement policy.)

Let me say as well that there were parts of President Obama's Cairo speech with which I disagreed, but there have also been parts of Republican speeches with which I have disagreed. I judge administrations by their actions more than by their words, though I wish President Obama had chosen some of his words more carefully.

The major difference between Melanie Phillips and me is that I want Jews to remain Democrats - if they support, as I do, liberal principles such as a women's right to choose abortion, the rights of gays and lesbians to equal justice, and other progressive policies. I also strongly support the separation of church and state, a constitutional principle that has allowed American Jews to be first class citizens and to reach greater heights in this wonderful country than they ever have achieved in Europe or anywhere else in the world except for Israel. Republicans, in general, seek to lower the wall of separation which would endanger the status of Jews in this country.

I also want Jews who disagree with my liberal politics to remain Republicans, if they choose, and to exercise influence within the Republican Party. I want all supporters of Israel, whether they are Democrats or Republicans to pressure their party and their government to protect Israel's security and defend its right to continue to thrive as a Jewish democracy.

It was clear to all perceptive Americans that Obama was going to win this past election in a landslide victory. The vast majority of Jews were on the winning side, and that is good for Israel. Recall the Republican Secretary of State James Baker's infamous remark: "F...the Jews. They don't vote for us anyway." Recall as well that among Israel's most virulent opponents are right wingers such as Pat Buchanan and Robert Novak.

Let me conclude by saying that because American Jews voted Democrat by and large and because the Democrats won, we have far more influence with this administration than we would if the majority of American Jews followed Melanie Phillips advice and voted Republican. When it comes to American politics, it is she who truly "doesn't get it." She should not be trying to influence the voting patterns of American Jews. We have done quite well, thank you, in maintaining widespread American support for Israel, because we understand the dynamics of the American political system.

Instead, she should be trying to change the terrible situation in Great Britain, where support for Israel has never been lower - in part because support for Israel has become a liberal versus conservative wedge issue. I wish there were more liberal supporters of Israel in Great Britain as there are among liberal political figures in the United States. So please stop lecturing us from your perch in Great Britain on who to vote for in the United States. We apparently "get it" over here a lot better than you do over there! The reality is we each have our problems and they must be addressed somewhat differently in different places.

So I will continue to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt, but if he does anything to weaken Israel's security, I will do everything in my power to change his attitude and to use whatever influence we have in Congress and among the public to make sure that American never weakens its commitment to Israel's security. That is my line in the sand - not the settlements.