zaterdag 17 november 2007

Verdreven Joden hebben eigendomsakten van Arabisch land

Organisaties van gevluchte Joden uit Arabische landen roepen Israël geregeld op om de Joodse vluchtelingen op de agenda te zetten in vredesbesprekingen, iets waar Israël zeer terughoudend in is. Waarom dat is heb ik nog niet kunnen achterhalen, maar het heeft er wellicht mee te maken dat men zich niet graag met vluchtelingen associëert. Israël en het Zionisme namen juist afscheid van de Jood als slachtoffer, als zielig, berooid en afhankelijk van de goedheid van anderen.
 
Het volgende is interessant:

Haddad said that the key to resolving the issue rested with the Arab League, which in the 1950s passed a resolution stating that no Arab government would grant citizenship to Palestinian refugees, keeping them in limbo for over half a century.

Stel je voor dat de EU een wet aannam om onder geen enkele voorwaarde, zeg, Ruwandese vluchtelingen staatsburgerschap te geven, or Irakese, of Kosovaarse vluchtelingen? Racisme van de bovenste plank, zullen alle mensenrechtenorganisaties roepen, maar niemand spreekt de Arabische Liga ooit aan op dit absurde en racistische besluit.
 
Extra vreemd is natuurlijk dat juist de Palestijnse vluchtelingen hun Arabische broeders zijn, waarmee zij zeggen zich zo solidair te voelen. Er is uiteraard maar één reden voor deze resolutie: de vluchtelingen moeten de vluchtelingenstatus behouden zodat de wens tot terugkeer levend blijft en zij een permanente aanklacht vormen tegen Israël. Deze resolutie is een van de vele dingen die de Arabische Liga deed en doet om Israël te vernietigen.
 
Ratna
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Jerusalem Post / Updated Nov 16, 2007 11:12

The government needs to bring up the issue of hundreds of thousands of Jews who left their homes in Arab countries following the establishment of the State of Israel as part of any future peace agreement with the Palestinians, the president of the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries said Thursday.

About 850,000 Jews fled Arab countries after Israel's founding in 1948, leaving behind assets valued today at more than $300 billion, said Heskel M. Haddad.

He added that the New York-based organization has decades-old property deeds of Jews from Arab countries on a total area of 100,000 sq.km. - which is five times the size of the State of Israel.

Most of the properties are located in Iraq, Egypt and Morocco, Haddad said.

The Baghdad-born Haddad fled Iraq in 1951, and, after a brief stop in Israel, made his way to the United States where he went on to become a prominent New York optometrist.

In an interview, he said that it was imperative for Israel to bring up the issue of the Jews who fled Arab countries at any future peace talks - including those scheduled to take place in Annapolis in the coming weeks - since no Palestinian leader would sign a peace treaty without resolving the issue of Palestinian refugees.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians - with estimates ranging from 400,000 to 750,000 - left Israeli-controlled territory in 1948 and 1949, and they, along with their millions of descendants, make up one of the prickliest issues to be dealt with by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators as part of any resolution to the conflict.

Haddad said that the key to resolving the issue rested with the Arab League, which in the 1950s passed a resolution stating that no Arab government would grant citizenship to Palestinian refugees, keeping them in limbo for over half a century.

At the same time, the Arab League urged Arab governments to facilitate the exit of Jews from Arab countries, a resolution which was carried out with a series of punitive measures and discriminatory decrees making it untenable for the Jews to stay in the countries.

"No Jews from Arab countries would give up their property and home and come to Israel out of Zionism," Haddad said.

He said that the Israeli government was "myopic" not to utilize this little-known information, which he said should be part of a package financial solution to solving the issue of Palestinian refugees.

An Israeli ministerial committee on claims for Jewish property in Arab countries, which is currently headed by the Pensioners Minister Rafi Eitan, has been virtually dormant since it was established four years ago.

Palestijnse leider erkent geen Joodse staat naast een Arabisch-islamitische staat

"Historic Palestine will be divided into two states -- Israel and Palestine," he told reporters in the West Bank political capital of Ramallah.

"We do not discuss the character of one or the other. That's all I have to say on the matter," Abbas said at a joint news conference with visiting Ukraine President Victor Yushchenko.

Als beide staten zelf het karakter van hun staat mogen bepalen (wie zou dat anders moeten doen?), waarom is het dan zo moeilijk even te zeggen dat je er geen problemen mee hebt als Israël kiest voor een Joodse staat? Zolang ze de rechten van niet-Joodse burgers maar eerbiedigen. Overigens zal de Palestijnse staat zeer waarschijnlijk een Arabisch en islamitisch karakter krijgen, in navolging van de Palestijnse grondwet:

CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF PALESTINE
Third Draft, 7 March 2003, revised in March 25,2003
www.jmcc.org/documents/palestineconstitution-eng.pdf
....
Article (5)
Arabic and Islam are the official Palestinian language and religion. Christianity and all other monotheistic religions shall be equally revered and respected. The Constitution guarantees equality in rights and duties to all citizens irrespective of their religious belief.

Het probleem met een Joodse staat heeft dus niet te maken met een principiëel standpunt over de verhouding tussen staat en religie, nog afgezien van het feit dat met een Joodse staat een staat wordt bedoeld waar de Joden als volk zelfbeschikking hebben. Dit is het probleem:

But Israel's demand has already been rejected by the Palestinians as unacceptable because it would mean them effectively renouncing the right of return for refugees ousted when the state of Israel was created in 1948.

Men heeft meermaals toegegeven dat dit 'recht op terugkeer' tot doel heeft Israëls karakter te veranderen. 60 Jaar geleden stelde de VN voor het mandaatgebied Palestina te delen in een Joodse en een Arabische staat. Dit voorstel is door de Palestijnen en de Arabische wereld unaniem afgewezen.
 
Hoeveel verder zijn we anno 2007?

Ratna
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Agence France Presse / Friday, November 16, 2007

Palestinian leader refuses to be drawn on 'Jewish Israel'
Published: November 15, 2007
http://www.metimes.com/Politics/2007/11/15/palestinian_leader_refuses_to_be_drawn_on_jewish_israel/afp/

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday refused to be drawn on a demand by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that Palestinians recognise the Jewish nature of Israel.

"Historic Palestine will be divided into two states -- Israel and Palestine," he told reporters in the West Bank political capital of Ramallah.

"We do not discuss the character of one or the other. That's all I have to say on the matter," Abbas said at a joint news conference with visiting Ukraine President Victor Yushchenko.

On Wednesday during talks with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Olmert said that "the starting point for negotiations with the Palestinians following the Annapolis meeting will be recognition of the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people."

Israel and the Palestinians are expected to enter into US-sponsored talks at Annapolis in Maryland before the end of November in a bid to kickstart the dormant Middle East peace process.

"The prime minister made it clear that from Israel's point-of-view. this issue is not subject to either negotiations or discussion," Olmert's office said.

But Israel's demand has already been rejected by the Palestinians as unacceptable because it would mean them effectively renouncing the right of return for refugees ousted when the state of Israel was created in 1948.

The fate of those refugees and their descendants -- estimated at 4.5 million people -- is a key issue in the search for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israel refuses to countenance talk of their return, saying this would threaten its very existence and make the country's six million Jews a minority.

There are 1.3 million Arab-Israeli citizens, 20 percent of the population, who are descended from the 160,000 Palestinians who stayed when Israel was proclaimed 59 years ago.


© 2007 Agence France-Presse

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Nieuwe Palestijnse politieke partij?

Een nieuwe Palestijnse partij?
 
Ik heb mij er al vaker over verbaasd dat er geen serieuze alternatieven voor Fatah en Hamas zijn, aangezien Fatah door en door corrupt is en alom wordt geassocieerd met een politieke elite die zijn eigen zakken wil vullen en ver van het volk staat, en Hamas de beweging is die er een bijzonder genoegen in schepte bussen met Israëlische kinderen op te blazen (met alle wraakacties vandien), en tegenwoordig graag op aanhangers van Fatah schiet.
 
De meeste Palestijnen - zo zeggen velen en ook ik ben geneigd dat te geloven - willen vooral vrede en brood op de plank. De vraag is echter, waarom ze dan zulke slechte leiders hebben? Of de miljardair Munib al-Masri hier verandering in kan brengen valt te bezien. Ikzelf kan mij niet geheel van het vooroordeel ontdoen dat miljardairs de wereld toch door wat andere ogen bekijken dan normale mensen, en ook ietwat andere behoeftes hebben, al is vrede natuurlijk goed voor arm en rijk. Maar misschien dat zijn initiatief ook anderen inspireert om de huidige machthebbers uit te dagen, al is dit met name in de Gazastrook waarschijnlijk niet zonder risico.

Ratna
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Palestinian billionaire setting up political movement to challenge Fatah, Hamas
By Mohammed Daraghmeh
ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 15, 2007
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20071115-1311-palestinians-politics.html

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Hundreds of Palestinian business people and professionals, led by an influential billionaire, launched a new political movement Thursday, reflecting growing disillusionment with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.

Fatah dominated Palestinian politics for decades, but failed to reform or clean up its corrupt image, even after a painful loss to Hamas in parliament elections two years ago.

Billionaire businessman Munib al-Masri, 73, inaugurated his "Palestine Forum" with meetings in Ramallah and Gaza, linked by video conference. Supporters said he would convert the new group into a political party and field candidates in the next Palestinian election. No date for an election has been set.

Fatah and Hamas have been locked in a bitter struggle since the 2006 election swept Fatah from power. In June, Hamas forces overran Gaza, prompting Abbas to dismiss the Hamas-led government and appoint his own, which, in effect, rules only the West Bank.

Recent polls have shown that about a third of the people have no faith in either party. Al-Masri said he plans to step into that breech, emphasizing the economy, education and welfare programs for the needy as well as reuniting the West Bank and Gaza.

"My concern about the fate of my people has driven me to form a national democratic body that cares about people," al-Masri told The Associated Press. "The situation is very difficult, the national cause is deteriorating and people are frustrated."

The U.S.-educated al-Masri runs an investment company that controls the telecommunications sector and has holdings in industry, agriculture, tourism and in banks. His leadership appeals to the West Bank's elite and middle class, trying to protect their investments and businesses in a chaotic political situation.

Since Abbas formed his new government, the West has resumed aid to his regime, but the situation remains critical, with overall unemployment of about 30 percent and more than half the people under the poverty line.

At the same time, Israel sealed the borders of Hamas-ruled Gaza, deepening poverty there. Hamas, which rejects the existence of Israel, is listed as a terror group by Israel, Europe and the United States.

Fatah favors peace with Israel.

The 2006 election reflected frustration with Fatah for corruption, nepotism and ineffective rule as much as support for Hamas. Members of the Palestine Forum said if Fatah does not reform itself, the new group is poised to replace it.

Palestinian public opinion expert Jamil Rabah said that is a distinct possibility. The people "are closer to Fatah," supporting a peaceful solution to the conflict with Israel, so "if Fatah doesn't reform itself, people would see the Forum as an alternative."


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vrijdag 16 november 2007

Video Mohammed Al Dura in rechtszaal getoond

Gisteren werd dan eindelijk het ruwe filmmateriaal van de dood van het Palestijnse jongetje Mohammed Al Dura getoond in de rechtszaal. Al Dura kwam om in het begin van de tweede intifada, volgens de Palestijnse cameraman was hij in koelen bloede door Israëlische soldaten doodgeschoten terwijl hij in de armen van zijn vader lag. Dit werd echter betwist, aangezien zijn dood niet te zien was, en volgens het IDF het leger hem vanuit hun positie niet had kunnen raken. Een onderzoek van de IDF leidde niet tot een duidelijke conclusie, maar het is zeer verdacht dat France 2, dat de beelden uitzond, altijd heeft geweigerd de volledige film van 27 minuten vrij te geven. Onlangs besloot een rechter dat France 2 alsnog de volledige beelden moet tonen, hetgeen gisteren gebeurde. Vreemd genoeg is nog steeds niet alles getoond, er mist nog 9 minuten. Helaas brachten de gisteren getoonde beelden volgens onderstaande blog nog steeds geen duidelijkheid:
 
We can definitely say that nobody can say who was shooting at who. Charles Enderlin said in court that the Palestinians started shooting first, but in the end, there's no way we can say what happened that day. You can't tell who did what. The assertion from Charles Enderlin, that the Israeli army killed the boy, is totally wrong. The least he could've said was that the boy was killed--but we don't know by who.
 
 
Waarom zetten ze dat materiaal niet gewoon op YouTube? Laat iedereen zelf maar oordelen. Wat is er zo vreselijk geheimzinnig aan het materiaal, dat maar een beperkt aantal mensen het gisteren in de rechtszaal mocht bekijken? De dood van Al Dura heeft indertijd een groot aantal mensen 'geinspireerd' tot het plannen van aanslagen, hij werd genoemd in een video boodschap van Osama Bin Laden en in het boek van Arjan Erkel over Samir A.. Er zijn postzegels gemaakt met Al Dura en straten naar hem vernoemd. Hij is het symbool van Palestijnse onschuld en Israëlische agressie geworden. We hebben er recht op het materiaal te zien op grond waarvan France 2 hierover berichtte. Het is belangrijk erachter te komen of er is gemanipuleerd. Als dit daadwerkelijk het geval is, kan France 2 voor onaangename verrassingen komen te staan. En dat wil men natuurlijk koste wat het kost voorkomen.
 
 
Ratna
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Wednesday, November 14 2007

Dura Discredited

 

Dura

HonestReporting together with Take-A-Pen covered this afternoon's hearing in France where raw footage of the Mohammed Dura was publicly screened for the first time. HonestReporting/Take-A-Pen's Alain Benjamin, who saw the video in court, discussed by phone the proceedings with MediaBackspin editor Pesach Benson.

What did the raw footage show?

We can definitely say that nobody can say who was shooting at who. Charles Enderlin said in court that the Palestinians started shooting first, but in the end, there's no way we can say what happened that day. You can't tell who did what. The assertion from Charles Enderlin, that the Israeli army killed the boy, is totally wrong. The least he could've said was that the boy was killed--but we don't know by who.

There was a dispute over how much footage was to be screened. Was the full video shown?

Charles Enderlin submitted 18 minutes of footage. The judge, without any prompting from Philippe's lawyers, asked what happened to the 27 minutes. Enderlin said on record in court that he had to manipulate some footage that was not relevant to that day. He said he transferred the footage onto DVD for the court. That was amazing.

France_2_2So she asked if anyone in attendance had seen the full footage. Luc Rosenzweig was there, stood up , and said he saw a tape that was more than 20 minutes long. Richard Landes also stood up. He saw the footage at Enderlin's office. He said the timer he saw was at least 21 minutes long. The judge basically let that issue rest, but there was serious doubt hanging over the room that the footage was tampered or doctored.

After the hearing ended, how did people react to what they saw?

Not one person believed that the version of France 2 was right. Some people maintained that the footage was staged. Others think the footage was real. Clearly, nobody believed that anybody died.

Does the footage vindicate Karsenty?

Everyone was going, "Wow" and talking about whether he'll take action against France 2 for trying to swindle the court. He can wait for the verdict, or sue France 2 for tampering with the tape. He has quite a few options. Clearly, the judge wasn't convinced by France 2's version. The judge's verdict is to be given on February 27.

How did the France 2 people react after the hearing?

France 2 left immediately. They just ran out and left. They didn't want to speak to anyone.

Some people were concerned that reviving the footage would harm Israel's image.

There's absolutely no reason to be concerned for that now.

Karsenty

How was the media turnout?

Very large. There were four or five TV crews, 30 journalists from TV, radio and print. Only a third of the journalists and public could get in to the courtroom to see the footage. The whole thing was delayed because of the crowd. They came from all over. At one point, I saw Philippe being interviewed by Kuwaiti TV.

What's the most important lesson to take from today?

One guy stood his ground for four years. It's a lesson in perseverance.

Israel should take a cue from this trying to pursue the truth rather than put what they can under the carpet quickly. If Israel's P.R. people had pursued all these different things that showed this wasn't Israel's fault, things would've turned out differently.

The other lesson sheds a light on a process very wide spread in the region. People don't realize that Palestinians get their jobs as journalists because they're sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. They're out to push an agenda. It's up to the news services to disclose that they're using local TV personnel to capture breaking news.

 

Stay tuned for Alain's video coverage outside the courthouse.

.

__,_._,___

donderdag 15 november 2007

Israëlische maatregelen om vertrouwen te wekken bij de Palestijnen

Onderstaande maatregelen en projecten zijn natuurlijk mooi en laten zien dat er, ja, echt waar, ook weleens positieve dingen gebeuren en dat er op verschillende gebieden wordt samengewerkt. Sommige maatregelen zijn al eerder genomen en worden nu nog eens genoemd zodat het er allemaal bij elkaar extra fraai uitziet, en sommige dingen klinken wellicht mooier dan ze zijn: hoeveel roadblocks en checkpoints zijn er in totaal, en hoeveel zijn er wellicht ook weer bijgekomen?
 
Wat telt, is of het voor Palestijnen makkelijker is geworden om van A naar B te reizen. Het belastinggeld dat Israël voor de Palestijnse Autoriteit int was ingehouden omdat Hamas het anders zou gebruiken om terroristische activiteiten te financieren en een nieuwe Executive Force op te bouwen (die Fatah uit de Gazastrook heeft gegooid). Nu Hamas niet meer in de officiële Palestijnse regering zit, is het niet meer dan logisch dat Israël het geld alsnog uitbetaalt. De regering overschat haar verdiensten een beetje met de volgende verklaring:

It is Israel's hope that these measure, and others that will be taken in the near future, will help create and support an atmosphere conducive to progress in the renewed peace-making process - both in the negotiating room and in Palestinian public sentiment.

Het is uiteraard goed te zien dat Israël daadwerkelijk maatregelen heeft getroffen om de Palestijnen tegemoet te komen. Om een tegenwicht te bieden tegen de vele negatieve zaken zijn helaas drastischere maatregelen nodig, maatregelen die in de huidige omstandigheden helaas niet zonder risico zijn, al zou een paar buitenposten ontruimen geen probleem mogen zijn.
Men zou vooral ook excessen harder aan moeten pakken: kolonisten die Palestijnen met stenen bekogelen en verhinderen dat ze kunnen oogsten, soldaten die Palestijnen in elkaar slaan bij de checkpoints, grenspolitie die hun handen wel erg los hebben zitten.


Ratna
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MFA Newsletter Wednesday, 14 November, 2007

Behind the Headlines: Israeli Confidence Building Measures towards the Palestinians

Israel believes that the new Palestinian Government provides a renewed opportunity to move forward in the peace process toward the realization of the two-state vision. It is in this spirit that Israel has recently taken practical steps to assist the Palestinian government in creating a better environment for progress.
Israel believes that the new Palestinian Government - established after the takeover of Gaza by Hamas terrorists in June 2007 - provides a renewed opportunity to move forward in the peace process toward the realization of the two-state vision. It is in this spirit that Israel has recently taken practical steps to assist the Palestinian government, led by President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, in creating a better environment for progress. The following is a brief list of some of the confidence building measure recently taken by Israel towards this end:

1. Releasing Withheld Tax and Customs Revenues - About 1 Billion NIS (approx. $250 million) have already been transferred to the PA, and the remainder of the revenues, another 1 Billion NIS, will be transferred by the end of the year. Israel and the PA have established a mutually acceptable mechanism for transferring and monitoring these funds, to prevent their use by terrorist organizations.

2. Promoting Palestinian Development:

- Promotion of Sewage Project with World Bank in Gaza, now underway in Beit Lahia, and serving the Northern Gaza strip

- MASHAV Projects - More than 230 Palestinian Trainees in such fields as Public Health, Small Business, Agriculture, Import/Export,  Educational Planning and Empowerment of Women and Youth

3. Security-related Measures:

- Easing of Movement - 25 roadblocks and checkpoints were removed in the West Bank

- Amnesty of Wanted Terrorists - About 170 wanted Fatah terrorists were offered amnesty in exchange for renunciation of terrorism and surrendering of weapons.

- Prisoner Release - About 350 prisoners were released in two phases (20 July and 1 October) with a third phase now being contemplated.

- Provisions for PA Security Forces - Israel recently consented to the transfer of supplies and equipment to the PA Security Forces, above and beyond that called for in the Israel-Palestinian agreements.

- Palestinian Security Force Deployment - PA security forces, with Israel's consent, have just been redeployed in Nablus (the largest West Bank city), and other cities are being considered for further redeployments.

4. Re-convening the Bilateral Committees established in the Oslo Accords, in order to address the ongoing needs of the Palestinian Authority:

- Health, Tourism and Agriculture Committees already working

- Legal Committee and Joint Economic Committee (established by the Paris Accord) to begin working soon

5. Expanding Economic Cooperation:

- Meetings of Business Community Leaders - Lately Israel has facilitated and supported several meetings between Israeli and Palestinian business community which have taken place under various non-governmental auspices. For example, the Israeli Manufactures Association has conducted a high level forum with Palestinian counterparts, and the Portland Fund has initiated the establishment of an Israeli-Palestinian Chamber of Commerce.

- Promotion of Economic Projects with International Partners - Turkey's Industrial Zone Project in Tarqumieh and Japan's 'Corridor of Peace' Project in Jericho are two such projects

It is Israel's hope that these measure, and others that will be taken in the near future, will help create and support an atmosphere conducive to progress in the renewed peace-making process - both in the negotiating room and in Palestinian public sentiment.


--------------------------------------------
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website:
www.imra.org.il

Hamas waarschuwt tegen opgeven recht op terugkeer in Annapolis

De verklaringen op de website van de Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades, de gewapende tak van Hamas, lezen een beetje als vroegere communistische propaganda: 'de kapitalistische vijand heeft besloten de glorieuze helden van het arbeidersparadijs....' De vele taalfouten in onderstaand stuk geven het extra charme.

Het zou overigens mooi zijn als onderstaand bericht waar is, en de Palestijnen bereid zijn tot een compromis wat betreft het 'recht op terugkeer' van de vluchtelingen.

Voor de duidelijkheid: OPT betekent Occupied Palestinian Territories. 'OPT in 1948' verwijst naar Israël.
 
Ratna
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Annapolis is a death admission to right of return
2007-11-14  Website of Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades - the armed branch of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

www alqassam ps/english/?action=showdetail&fid=708


There are serious concerns that the next autumn conference will lead to issue a formal death admission to the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their occupied lands in 1948 and with a Palestinian ratification.

These facts beside the closed meetings between Zionist Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, confirmed  the Zionist rejection to the right of return:

The Zionist successive governments insisted that the Palestinians and the Arabs must give up on the right of return, as a precondition for entering into political negotiations. The "Israelis"  consider  the Palestinian land a  State for them only and the Palestinians have nothing but to under the Zionist control.

The occupation wants to escape from the political and moral responsibilities, which were stated by international laws. The occupation command fears of disruption of the demographic factor in the entity, population number inside OPT, and derive from racism principles.

The Zionist newspapers talked about the intentions of the Zionist Prime Minister and his team to make Mahmoud Abbas and his negotiating team to make further waivers on the Palestinian rights through asking him more commitments, as a condition for accepting the principle of negotiation in the International Conference.

According to the «Haaretz» newspaper, Olmert insisted that any document can be reached between the parties must be guarded by a pledged of the American administration support that, no Jewish state will recognize the right of Palestinian refugees to return to land they were kicked out from in 1948, refusing to withdraw to the borders of the fourth of June of 1967, and joining the Zionist settlements in the West Bank "to Zionist entity.

The same newspaper appeared that Mahmoud Abbas gave up the right of return for Palestinian refugees, by his demanding the Zionist entity to recognize its responsibility for the suffering of the Palestinian refugees and just compensate them. Clearly, the word compensate (financial or other) satisfied the Zionist government, which rejects the return of Palestinian refugees to the occupied territory in 1948.

When Nabil Amr was asked about the revolving talk around what Olmert said that Abbas Fayyad expressed to him that they convinced that the OPT in 1948 are a "national home for the Jews", Amr simply said that there is mutual recognition between the PLO and the Zionist entity.

When he was asked that Abbas and Fayyad recognition may lead to the write-off the right of return to the Palestinian refugees and confining the "return" to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. in a vague language said, "We are committed to the Arab position of the right of return, which stated in the Arab Peace Initiative, which provides fair and greed resolution to the refugee issue", without clarifying what that kind of solutions, and without emphasizing on the contrary (the possibility of the return to the OPT in 1948).


--------------------------------------------
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website:
www.imra.org.il

woensdag 14 november 2007

Israël gaat bevriezing nederzettingen aankondigen (?)

According to the Israeli government sources, the Americans asked Israel whether it preferred to announce a settlement freeze or outpost evacuations. "Of the two, a settlement freeze is easier than evacuating the outposts, because this only involves a declaration, not a confrontation with settlers in the field," explained one.

Dat klinkt niet erg hoopgevend. Kolonisten zullen zeker proberen onder deze 'freeze' uit te komen door tijdelijke huisvesting te creëren wanneer nieuwe huizen nodig zijn vanwege de bevolkingsgroei. Als Israël niet bereid is de confrontatie met de kolonisten aan te gaan en het ze slechts om een 'verklaring' te doen is, zal niemand dit serieus nemen, zowel de kolonisten als de VS en de Arabische staten.
 
Maar wacht even, het gaat wellicht slechts om een 'freeze'  'prior to the Annapolis conference', die over twee weken plaatsvindt als ik mij niet vergis. Dat schiet dus lekker op. Het feit dat men probeert om Amerikaanse toestemming te krijgen om een paar grote blokken hiervan uit te zonderen, suggereert echter weer dat het wel om een langduriger bouwstop gaat. Dit vind ik overigens een redelijke eis; zelfs volgens het Geneefse Akkoord zou Israël enkele blokken mogen houden, mits dit gebied gecompenseerd wordt. Berekend is, dat meer dan de helft van de kolonisten geconcentreerd zijn binnen 5% van de Westoever. De situatie is veranderd sinds 1967, en de Palestijnen hebben zelf tot in de jaren '90 geweigerd Israëls grenzen te erkennen. 100% Terugdraaiing van de feiten is niet reëel noch redelijk.

Het werd me overigens niet geheel duidelijk of Israël nou ook nog buitenposten gaat ontruimen. Het bovenstaande suggereert van niet, maar elders wordt beweerd van wel. Al met al blijft er vooral veel onduidelijk, wat wellicht ook de bedoeling is.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa had put a settlement freeze at the top of the list of gestures that the league was demanding of Israel before the conference.

En waar is de Israëlische lijst van eisen? Die is er niet, niet aan de Arabische staten tenminste, terwijl zij toch ook wel wat goodwill gestures zouden kunnen maken, zoals het verminderen van de antisemitische propaganda, het opheffen van de nog steeds gedeeltelijke Arabische boycot van Israël, afschaffen van het verbod op het kopen van grond door Joden en het feit dat ze zelfs niet binnen mogen in bijvoorbeeld Saoedi-Arabië, en natuurlijk de absurde regel dat je met een Israëlische stempel in je paspoort de meeste Arabische staten niet inkomt, om slechts een paar suggesties te doen. Dan hebben we het nog niet over steun voor terroristische organisaties en de grootschalige wapensmokkel van Egypte naar de Gazastrook.

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Israel to announce freeze on settlement building
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent Last update - 03:54 14/11/2007
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/923936.html

Israel will announce a freeze on settlement construction prior to the Annapolis conference, and will also declare its willingness to dismantle illegal West Bank settlement outposts, government sources said Tuesday.

Last night, a group of senior Israeli officials flew to Washington to discuss the components of this freeze with Bush Administration officials. They will also brief the Americans on Israel's security interests in the talks with the Palestinians.

In recent weeks, the United States has been demanding that Israel make significant gestures on settlements and outposts prior to the conference, to compensate for its refusal to discuss the "core issues" of a final-status agreement until after the conference ends. These gestures are meant to make it clear that Israel does not intend to remain in the territories, and understands that its presence there is only temporary.

According to the Israeli government sources, the Americans asked Israel whether it preferred to announce a settlement freeze or outpost evacuations. "Of the two, a settlement freeze is easier than evacuating the outposts, because this only involves a declaration, not a confrontation with settlers in the field," explained one.

The settlement freeze is also meant to help persuade Arab and Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia, to attend the Annapolis conference.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa had put a settlement freeze at the top of the list of gestures that the league was demanding of Israel before the conference.

Domestically, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert intends to prevent these gestures as a mere reconfirmation of the commitments Israel took upon itself when it accepted the road map peace plan. The first phase of the road map, which was adopted by Ariel Sharon's government in 2003, requires Israel to freeze all settlement activity, "including natural growth," and evacuate all outposts set up after March 2001.

Olmert met Tuesday with leaders of the Yesha Council of settlements for the first time since taking office, and told them that "the first stage of the road map speaks of dismantling outposts and freezing settlements, and that's a document that all Israeli governments, including Likud ministers, have accepted." Sharon, who founded the Kadima Party that Olmert now heads, was a member of Likud when Israel accepted the road map.

Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak all consider it vital to reach an understanding with the Americans on what a settlement freeze entails, which is why the delegation flew to Washington last night. Olmert would like the large settlement blocs - Ariel, Ma'aleh Adumim, Gush Etzion and the settlements around Jerusalem - to be exempted from this freeze, as Israel wants to keep these blocs under any future agreement.

U.S. President George Bush seemingly backed Israel's demand to retain the blocs in his April 2004 letter to Sharon, which stated that "in light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949." Nevertheless, without an explicit agreement with Washington to exempt the blocs from the freeze, "we're afraid that Israel would continue to build in the blocs, or implement existing plans; Peace Now would complain; and we'd look like liars and people who don't keep their promises," explained a government source.

As for the outposts, Israel has repeatedly promised to evacuate them, but has never kept this promise. The delegation comprises Olmert's bureau chief, Yoram Turbowicz, and his political advisor, Shalom Turjeman; Foreign Ministry Director General Aharon Abramowitz; and Major General Ido Nehushtan, head of the Israel Defense Forces' Plans and Policy Directorate.


*** Balanced Middle East News ***
MidEastweb
http://www.mideastweb.org

Enquete in Israël: 65% tegen grootschalige terugtrekking, 55% voor afzetten Olmert

Volgens deze enquete denken Israëli's niet erg positief over Olmert (in een eerdere enquete kreeg hij het rapportcijfer 3, dus men lijkt hier nog mild), en hebben ze vooral erg weinig vertrouwen in Abbas.
 
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Most Israelis think Knesset should remove prime minister
Gil Hoffman , THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 13, 2007
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380809918&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
 

A majority of Israelis believe that the Knesset should suspend or topple Prime Minister Ehud Olmert due to the criminal investigations against him, according to a recent poll conducted by Ma'agar Mohot.

The poll was sponsored by the Israel Policy Center for Promoting Parliamentary Democracy and Jewish Values in Israeli Public Life. The Jerusalem-based center is headed by Prof. Yitzhak Klein, who also advises the Knesset Law Committee.

In the poll of more than 1,000 people representing a sample of the Israeli adult population, some 55 percent of respondents said the Knesset should remove Olmert because of the investigations. Israelis were divided on the question on mostly political lines, with Likud supporters overwhelmingly in favor and Kadima and Labor backers against. Among recent immigrants, 78% were in favor of removing Olmert and only 22% were opposed.

A majority (53%) agreed with the statement that the main reason Olmert was seeking an agreement with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was because he was worried about his personal and political future, and not about Israel's national interest. Some 57% of Kadima and Labor supporters disagreed with the statement.

The poll's numbers regarding support for concessions to the Palestinians were bad news for Olmert as well. Some 65% of respondents said that due to the lessons of 2005's disengagement from the Gaza Strip, they opposed a large withdrawal in the West Bank.

Some 61% said they opposed removing IDF soldiers from most of the West Bank and giving control over the territory to the Palestinians.

If Israel did withdraw, some 55% believe the territory would be used to fire rockets at Israelis and 65% believe there is a high or very high chance that Hamas would take control of the area. Some 77% said Abbas lacked the power to prevent attacks from the West Bank.
 

Olmert heeft moeilijke ontmoeting met Yesha Council

Danny Dayan, head of the Yesha Council, left the meeting worried. "We explained the security risk Olmert would be taking by effectively bringing Hamas closer to Kfar Saba and Tel Aviv, we told him we think he doesn't realize that the Israeli society would not be able to stand for another 120,000 people to be driven out of their homes, but the overall feeling is that we definitely have something to worry about."

Het is een goed teken dat de leider van de Yesha Council zich zorgen maakt. Als het aan de Yesha Council ligt, zal Israël nooit een enkele nederzetting ontruimen, en nooit toestaan dat er een Palestijnse staat wordt opgericht, ook al zou Abbas spontaan het Israëlische volkslied gaan zingen. De kolonisten zullen zich moeten voorbereiden op ontruiming van op zijn minst de kleinere nederzettingen, en de regering zal de repatriëring van deze mensen een stuk beter moeten gaan voorbereiden dan destijds met de ontruiming van de Gazastrook.

Intussen dringen vluchtelingenorganisaties er bij Abbas op aan toch vooral geen milimeter toe te geven wat betreft hun rechten. Wanneer zal Abbas de moed hebben om hen te vertellen dat de vluchtelingen zich op 'pijnlijke compromissen' moeten voorbereiden? Bij de vluchtelingen gaat het om een verlangen en droom, een lang gekoesterde en gecultiveerde droom, en een verlangen naar een geidealiseerde en niet meer bestaande situatie, die ze moeten opgeven. Bij de kolonisten gaat het om reëel land en dorpen en gemeenschappen die ze zullen moeten opgeven. Ze hadden, als ze heel eerlijk zijn, wellicht wel kunnen weten dat het er ooit van zal komen, evenals de vluchtelingen als ze heel eerlijk zijn zouden moeten weten dat ze niet naar Israël kunnen terugkeren.
 
Maar droom en werkelijkheid zijn niet altijd zo helder gescheiden. In 1967 werd de droom van Joodse vestiging op de Westelijke Jordaanoever opeens reëel, en door een overwinning waar velen de Hand van God in zagen, maakte een fanatiek soort religieus Zionisme zich van een deel van de bevolking meester. Het wordt tijd dat zij inzien dat toendertijd, hoe begrijpelijk ook, een historische fout is gemaakt, dat die werkelijkheid weer droom moet worden, om plaats te maken voor de vervulling van een nog mooiere droom, namelijk vrede. Voor mijn part mogen ex-vluchtelingen en ex-kolonisten dan stiekem blijven dromen van dat andere land, waar dat andere volk nu zelfbeschikking heeft, zolang zij maar niet op het idee komen er de realiteit voor op zijn kop te gaan zetten. Zoiets als dat sommige mensen stiekem weleens dromen met de vrouw (of man) van hun beste vriend(in) ervan door te gaan.
 
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Olmert ends 'difficult' meeting with Yesha leaders

Yesha Council's first meeting with PM since he took office ends stridently, as Olmert announces some concessions are inevitable. 'We definitely have something to worry about,' says Yesha chief

Efrat Weiss YNET Published: 11.13.07, 18:09 / Israel News
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3471059,00.html

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met Tuesday with the heads of the Yesha Council, for what was described by those attending as a difficult meeting.

This was Olmert's first meeting with members of the Yesha Council since he took office. A source at the Yesha Council told Ynet that the Council felt Olmert had already made up his mind against them and that the Council will meet later Tuesday night to decide on their future actions against the government.

"When it comes to Israel and its lands, I feel as you do. I have no doubt that every grain of sand, from the Jordan River to the sea, is part of Eretz Israel and has a direct link to our heritage and history, but I also know that if we want to ensure Israel's future as a democratic Jewish state, we will have to make some painful concessions," Olmert reportedly told the Council.

The prime minister, Ynet was told, assured Yesha members attending the meeting that both the Americans and the Palestinian knew that some territories "are not open for discussion."

Danny Dayan, head of the Yesha Council, left the meeting worried. "We explained the security risk Olmert would be taking by effectively bringing Hamas closer to Kfar Saba and Tel Aviv, we told him we think he doesn't realize that the Israeli society would not be able to stand for another 120,000 people to be driven out of their homes, but the overall feeling is that we definitely have something to worry about."

Olmert, added Dayan, did not speak directly about evacuating more settlements in the West Bank, but his intentions were clear. "We realize the government wants to freeze all settlement projects in the West Bank. What's next? They have us ask for special permits to have children?"
 
Roni Sofer contributed to this report

Palestina en de misdaad van een Joodse staat te zijn

Bradley Burston van Haaretz is scherp als altijd, maar heeft niet altijd gelijk.
Hij schrijft:

For Palestinians, Hamas was once a pillar of hope and a role model of probity. Now the best that Hamas can boast is that it cannot bring itself to recognize Israel. Even though, in proposing decades-long truces, it has signaled its willingness to sit down with the people it will not recognize, and negotiate with the people it will not recognize, and live alongside the people it will not recognize.

Om zich ondertussen klaar te maken voor een nieuwe ronde tegen het volk dat het niet erkende, en uit Palestina wil verdrijven. Soms moet je geduldig zijn, en je in rust voorbereiden op een betere toekomst. Dat is ook een vorm van discipline, die eigenschap waar Hamas zo om wordt geroemd.

Here's the rub: There was a time when everything that happened, played into hamas' hands. If Israel invaded, or refrained from invading, if it talked peace or made war, Hamas profited. Now those days are over. Time is no longer on Hamas' side. Nor on the side of Fatah.

The world has shown its willingness to let Palestinians suffer indefinitely. The world has shown its impatience with the glorious victories of Palestine, whether that means Qassam-butchering six cows about to give birth in a dairy barn on a Negev kibbutz, or raising an army which spends much of its firepower on fellow Palestinians, as in the memorial rally which left as many as eight dead in Gaza.

Hamas is moreel bankroet, zoveel is zeker, maar was dat vroeger zoveel anders? Regeren in Gaza heeft meer Palestijnen hiervan overtuigd, maar op links georiënteerde westerse journalisten en 'vredesactivisten' heeft dit nog niet veel invloed gehad. De wereld is opvallend mild en geduldig wat betreft de 'glorious victories of Palestine', en men geeft graag die machtige buur van alles de schuld. Israël wordt nog steeds hard bekritiseerd voor de zogenaamde humanitaire crisis in Gaza, plannen om de stroomtoevoer te verminderen na raketaanvallen, het feit dat men grensovergangen die door Hamas worden aangevallen sluit, en geregeld een paar kilometer de Gazastrook intrekt om de terroristen die de raketten afvuren op te jagen. Israël wordt verantwoordelijk gesteld voor de leefomstandigheden van de Gazanen omdat het de grenzen controleert.

Het volgende is abjecte onzin:

The world has shown its willingness to let Palestinians suffer indefinitely.

Als er één volk is dat constant op onze sympathie kan rekenen zijn het de Palestijnen. Geen volk krijgt zoveel financiële steun, zoveel aandacht in de media en geen enkel ander volk heeft een eigen VN vluchtelingenorganisatie. Geen enkel ander volk ook heeft waarnemerstatus bij de VN, een jaarlijke internationale solidariteitsdag en speciaal voor haar opgerichte VN organisaties. De Tibetanen, de Koerden, de Tsjetsjenen en de Darfurianen kunnen hier slechts van dromen.

Welkom op Aarde, Bradley Burston.

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Haaretz / Last update - 18:30 12/11/2007
Palestine, and the crime of being a Jewish state
By Bradley Burston, Haaretz Correspondent
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/923123.html

My heart goes out to the Palestinians. Not only because their entire world has become one of despair, immobility, bloodshed, disillusionment, crumbling infrastructure, crumbling history, crumbling horizons. There's also this:

Their leaders are even worse than ours.

Imagine the most pragmatic, the most moderate, the most persuasive, the most reasonable of their representatives, preparing for the first peace summit in recent memory, by attacking the very idea that Israel should be a Jewish state.

Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization, declared Monday that the Palestinians will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

Erekat was responding Monday to a series of strong statements by Ehud Olmert the day before, in which Olmert said "We won't hold negotiations on our existence as a Jewish state, this is a launching point for all negotiations," adding that "Whoever does not accept this, cannot hold any negotiations with me."

Erekat's response, speaking to Israel Radio, was clearer than one might have expected from a seasoned diplomat. So was the flat tone of rejection.

"No state in the world connects its national identity to a religious identity," he said.

Never mind the fact that the Saudis, sponsors of a peace initiative which the Palestinians hope someday to parlay into an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, are a theocracy of such sectarian dimension that tourists are forbidden from entering the country with bibles, crucifixes, or items bearing the Star of David.

Never mind the fact that leftists the world over can live with the concept of explicitly Muslim states teaching the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and other explicitly anti-Semitic texts, while arguing that the very idea of a Jewish state implies and, in fact, compels racism against non-Jews.

The bottom line is that if Palestinians want a state - an actual state, and not just a fantasy, not just trappings but actual indepence - they are going to have to reconcile themselves to the idea of an overtly Jewish neighbor.

The other paradigm, which has certainly gained currency in this decade, is to overpower Israel militarily, clearing away the foreign Zionist weeds so that a glorious, supremely non-Jewish Palestine may arise for the benefit of believing Muslims everywhere.

It's not going to happen. The world has had its fill of the Palestinians. The Palestinians have had their chance. The Iranians would love to help them, but at this point, even their brother Muslims will not stand for it.

It's not going to happen. The Palestinians are either going to have a state alongside a Jewish state, or that can choose to have no state at all.

Arafat knew this. That is why, in speaking to his own diaspora, he consistently held out hope for a Palestinian Right of Return, a way to overwhelm Israel demographically.

But that is not about to happen either. Arafat knew that as well.

These days, in the inept leadership sweepstakes, the graft and ineptitude and impotence has a new opposite number, the splintered and floundering upper echelons of Hamas. Once the most disciplined, well-run, canny organization in the Palestinian territories, Hamas has begun to misgovern Gaza the way Israel once did.

As Monday's disastrous memorial rally for Yasser Araft showed all too well, Hamas has begun to employ a deadly cocktail of apparent tolerance and spasms of brutality.

For Palestinians, Hamas was once a pillar of hope and a role model of probity. Now the best that Hamas can boast is that it cannot bring itself to recognize Israel. Even though, in proposing decades-long truces, it has signaled its willingness to sit down with the people it will not recognize, and negotiate with the people it will not recognize, and live alongside the people it will not recognize.

Here's the rub: There was a time when everything that happened, played into hamas' hands. If Israel invaded, or refrained from invading, if it talked peace or made war, Hamas profited. Now those days are over. Time is no longer on Hamas' side. Nor on the side of Fatah.

The world has shown its willingness to let Palestinians suffer indefinitely. The world has shown its impatience with the glorious victories of Palestine, whether that means Qassam-butchering six cows about to give birth in a dairy barn on a Negev kibbutz, or raising an army which spends much of its firepower on fellow Palestinians, as in the memorial rally which left as many as eight dead in Gaza.

Most Jewish Israelis have come to accept the idea of a Palestinian state. If Palestinians cannot bring themselves to accept a Jewish Israel, there is always the default option. It may be unfair. It may seem that Palestinian suffering has been much too long in vain. But here it is: For Palestinians to choose not to recognize a Jewish state, is to choose statelessness.

Egypte moet wapensmokkel Hamas stoppen

Volgens de Jerusalem Post zou Egypte zonder al teveel moeite een einde kunnen maken aan de grootschalige wapensmokkel vanuit de Sinai in de Gazastrook. In tegenstelling tot de lange grens tussen Jordanië en de Westelijke Jordaanoever, is de grens tussen Egypte en Gaza slechts 9 km lang. Toch slaagt Jordanië er prima in wapensmokkel te voorkomen.
 
Een einde aan de wapensmokkel zou, hoewel twee jaar te laat, een grootschalige confrontatie tussen Israël en Hamas kunnen voorkomen. Zoals we weer eens hebben gezien deinst Hamas er ook niet voor terug zijn wapens tegen de eigen bevolking in te zetten.


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Egypt and Hamas
THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 11, 2007
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380790579&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

In a letter responding to a request from US senators, MK Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Knesset Subcommittee on Defense Readiness and Combating Terrorism, has done his nation a service by outlining Egypt's complicity in Hamas's weapons and training buildup in Gaza. We are watching the folly of Hizbullah's pre-war build-up in Lebanon repeat itself, this time under the blind eye of a neighboring state that claims to be committed to the peace process.

Steinitz's letter to the senators reveals that, according to Israeli intelligence, Gaza's Hamas overlords are "absorbing, on an annual basis, approximately: 20,000 rifles, 6,000 antitank missiles (mainly RPG's), 100 tons of explosives, and several dozens of Katyusha rockets, as well as shoulder-held anti-aircraft missiles."

Since Hamas's violent expulsion of Fatah from Gaza five months ago, Hamas has been sending "large groups of operatives" for military training in Iran.

Steinitz reports further that "in late September, a group of 100 operatives who completed their exercises in Iran was permitted to cross the border back into Gaza, despite strong Israeli protests."

While Egypt makes a show of finding a smuggling tunnel from time to time, this is "an insult to the intelligence," he states. If Egypt really wanted to stop the smuggling, it would "erect a number of roadblocks along the very few roads that run from mainland Egypt to the Gaza region, in order to intercept heavily loaded trucks carrying hundreds of rifles and missiles from reaching the border," Steinitz writes. "Alternatively, they can declare the border area a closed military zone, with a depth of 2-3 miles into the interior of Sinai, and prevent any movement in it. Since the entire length of the Egyptian-Gaza border is less then 9 miles, the area affected will be equivalent in size to a military air base."

More than two years after Israel's total unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, it is astounding and shameful that the massive flow of weaponry from Egypt to Gaza has increased, rather than been shut down. As Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently said, the necessity of a major IDF ground operation in Gaza is growing daily. This would not be the case if Egypt were carrying out its most basic responsibilities regarding its own borders.

Israel is not asking for the moon, only that Egypt act with the same seriousness that Jordan has for years. Egypt's excuses are "baseless," Steinitz writes, given that "Jordan shares a far longer border with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank." Jordan has succeeded where Egypt has failed because its security forces "block most smuggling to militant Islamic groups in the West Bank well before they reach the border area," he says.

As this newspaper has repeatedly editorialized, the de facto result of Egypt's behavior is little different than that which has justly earned Syria and Iran their rogue status. "The only difference," Steinitz argues, "is that in contrast to those countries, Egypt is still considered an ally of the West, and is heavily supported by the US."

This incongruous situation must end. A bill in the House of Representatives would freeze $200 million of Egypt's $1.3 billion in annual US military assistance, requiring certification that Egypt "detect and destroy the smuggling network... from Egypt to Gaza." The Senate version urges Egypt to do more to stop smuggling but would not halt aid.

It should be clear by now that the Israeli and American refusal to put serious pressure on Egypt to stop the flow of weapons and trained operatives into Gaza is playing with fire and courting the next war. The Mubarak regime has used its ostensible fragility to ward off such pressure for years. But if Mubarak cannot accomplish something so basic as setting up a few roadblocks or securing a small military zone, what is the point of sending his government billions in military aid?

Egypt styles itself as a moderate force, a Western ally in the war against terrorism, and an active proponent and mediator for Arab-Israeli peace. It cannot retain this status while allowing the arming and training of Hamas, which is openly supporting terrorism against Israel and gearing up for the next war.

Egypt must choose, but it will not choose to fulfill its responsibilities absent concrete financial and diplomatic pressure. Whatever risks such pressure might entail, they pale beside the dangers of doing nothing, which we saw so tragically play out in the Second Lebanon War. It is very late, but not too late to cut off the flow of weapons and training to Hamas.

Opiniepeiling onder Palestijnen - JMCC Poll No. 63 - november 2007

Om eerlijk te zijn verbaast het me dat meer dan de helft van de Palestijnen positief is over de toekomst, en bijna 40% optimistisch is wat betreft het vredesproces. Iets meer dan de helft is voor een twee-statenoplossing: "een Palestijnse en een Israëlische staat".
 
Klinkt mooi, maar wat is een 'Israëlische staat'? Is dat een multi-etnische staat waar de Arabieren op nationaal niveau evenveel in te brengen hebben als de Joden, en zij nadat de vluchtelingen zijn teruggekeerd de helft van de bevolking uitmaken? Of is dat een Joodse staat zoals nu, met gelijke rechten voor minderheden en vrijheid van religie? Jammer dat ze dat nooit vragen.

Tweederde meent dat alle vluchtelingen naar Israël moeten kunnen terugkeren, wat de notie versterkt dat men geen Joodse zelfbeschikking erkent, en ruim de helft wil van heel Jeruzalem een islamitische stad maken. Een kwart is bereid West-Jeruzalem aan Israël te laten. De meeste anderen zijn voor een open stad of internationaal toezicht, wat betekent dat nagenoeg niemand bereid is Israëlische rechten in de Oude Stad te erkennen.

Toen Erekat zei dat de Palestijnen Israël niet als Joodse staat zullen erkennen, sprak hij dus namens een meerderheid van de Palestijnen.
 
 
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JMCC Poll No. 63 November 2007 of Palestinians
A public opinion poll conducted by Jerusalem Media & Communications Center
www.jmcc.org/publicpoll/results/2007/no63.pdf
PO Box: 25047
Jerusalem
Tel. 02-2976555
Fax: 02-2976557
Email:
poll@jmcc.org

A random sample of 1200 people over the age of 18 was interviewed face-to-face throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip between 3-6 of November 2007.

Q.1 In general, how optimistic or pessimistic do you feel towards the future?
Do you say that you are: Very Optimistic, Optimistic, Pessimistic, or Very Pessimistic
Very optimistic 7.6  Optimistic 50.1
Pessimistic 25.9  Very Pessimistic 16.2
No answer 0.2

Q.2 How optimistic or pessimistic are you towards reaching a peaceful settlement for the Arab-Israeli conflict? Do you say that you are Very Optimistic, Optimistic, Pessimistic, or Very Pessimistic?
Very optimistic 2.8 Optimistic 36.8
Pessimistic 37.4 Very Pessimistic 21.8
No answer 1.2

Q. 3 Some believe that a two state formula is the favored solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while others believe that historic Palestine cannot be divided into two states, and thus the favored solution is a bi-national state on all of Palestine where Palestinians and Israeli enjoy equal representation and rights, which of these two solutions do you prefer?
Two- state solution: an Israeli state and a Palestinian state 53.0
Bi -national state on all of historic Palestine 23.5
Other solution 0.6 No solution 9.5
One Palestinian state * 8.9  Islamic state * 2.4
No answer/don't know 2.1
* These answers were not included as part of the options read to the interviewee

Q4. Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree; strongly disagree to the peace negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israeli?
Strongly agree 23.6 Somewhat agree 44.3
Somewhat disagree 15.8 Strongly disagree 14.8
I don't know 1.3 No answer 0.2

Q5. Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way President (Abu Mazen) is performing his job as a president of the PNA?
Very satisfied 21.0 Somewhat satisfied 29.3
Somewhat dissatisfied 17.5 Very dissatisfied 30.2
No answer 2.0

Q6. With regards to the negotiations over the issue of the refugees, which of the following solutions do you favor?
Return of all the refugees to their original homes 66.8
Return of all the refugees to the Palestinian state (West Bank and Gaza Strip) 9.7
To compensate the refugees for their properties which they lost and for not returning to their properties and homes 9.0
Return of some refugees to their homes, and return of some others to the Palestinian state and compensate the others 13.3
I don't know 0.8 No answer 0.4

Q7. In your opinion, what is the best solution to finalize the Jerusalem dilemma?
A unified Jerusalem (East and West) as a capital of the state of Israel 1.9
East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state and West Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel. 26.3
A unified open Jerusalem and capital of the two states. 10.6
An international Jerusalem 7.4
A capital of the Muslims 52.9
I don't know 0.4  No answer 0.5

Q8. Do you think that Hamas force is stronger in Gaza than it is in the West Bank or it's force in Gaza is weaker than it's force in the West Bank, or it's equivalent to it's force in the West Bank?
Hamas's force in Gaza is stronger than in the West Bank 79.0
Hamas's force in Gaza is weaker than in the West Bank 5.9
Hamas's force in Gaza is equivalent to it's force in the West Bank 9.9
I don't know 4.5 No answer 0.7

Q9. Do you expect the Gaza incident (Internal Fighting) to repeat in the West Bank as well?
Yes 27.7 No 68.6 I don't know 3.2  No answer 0.5

Q10. Do you expect Hamas to take control over West Bank as it did in Gaza?
Yes 15.7 No 79.6  I don't know 4.0  No answer 0.7

Q11. How would you evaluate the performance of the government of Salam Fayyad in the West Bank at the present time compared with the performance of Hanieh's government in Gaza; would you say that the performance of Fayyad's government is better, similar or worse than the performance of Hanieh's government?
The performance of Fayyad's government is better than the performance of Hanieh's government  43.3
The performance of Fayyad's government is similar to the performance of Hanieh's government 23.6
The performance of Fayyad's government is worse than the performance of Hanieh's government 24.8
I don't know 6.7  No answer 1.6

Q12- Do you expect that all the parties will agree once again to the national unity government through the national dialogue between Fateh and Hamas?
Total West
Yes 50.0 No 44.8 I don't know 3.8 No answer 1.4

Q13. If presidential Elections were to be held today, and the only candidates were Isma'eel Hanieh and Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), to which one will you vote?
Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) 47.1
Isma'eel Hanieh 23.3
Won't vote 27.2  No answer 2.4

Q14. If presidential Elections were to be held today, and the only candidates were Marwan Barghouti and Ismae'el Hanieh to which one will you vote?
Marwan Barghouti 53.1 Ismae'el Hanieh 23.1
Won't vote 21.6 No answer 2.2

Q15. In general, do you think the performance of the current government of Salam Fayyad is better when compared to previous governments? Didn't change, or become worse?
Its performance has become better 37.5
Didn't change 35.6
Its performance has become worse 21.8
I don't know 4.5  No answer 0.6

Q16- Do you think that Fayyad's current government assisted pushing the current PA reform process forward? Backward? Or it didn't have any influence on the current reform process?
It assisted pushing the current PA reform process forward 37.8
It assisted pushing the current PA reform process backward 16.8
It didn't have any influence on the current reform process 40.3
Don't know 4.6 No answer 0.5

Q17- In general, under the current government headed by Fayyad, do you think that the percentage of corruption has increased, decreased, or didn't change?
Increased 23.0 Decreased 35.2 Didn't change 36.8
I don't know 4.5 No answer 0.5

Q18- In general, under the current government headed by Fayyad, do you think the security and internal security conditions have improved, deteriorated or have not changed?
Improved 32.9 deteriorated 27.3 No change 36.7
No answer 3.1

Q19- To what extent do you think Fayyad's government is transparent in handling the financial issues?
To a very high extent 8.6 To a high extent 13.4
To an average extent 28.4
To a low extent 18.3 To a very low extent 20.8
Don't know 9.9 No answer 0.6

Q20- To what degree do you trust that the Palestinian leadership will continue to insist on its negotiating position represented in ending the occupation on all the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem, and the return of the refugees and the establishment of the independent state? Are you very confident, are you confident to some extent, are you not confident to some extent, or are you not confident at all that the Palestinian leadership would cling to its abovementioned constants in the current negotiations?
very confident 22.4 confident to some extent 28.8
not confident to some extent 23.0 not confident at all 22.3
I don't know 2.9 No answer 0.6

Q21- Upon an initiative from the United States, this fall will witness a Palestinian-Israeli peace meeting to be attended by international and Arab parties, to what extent do you expect this meeting to succeed or fail?
succeed large ex 6.4 . succeed to some ext 28.9
fail to some extent 25.6 fail to a large extent 36.4
No answer 2.7

Q22- If the peace meeting to be held this fall fails, what do you expect as a result of this failure, do you expect the renewal of the Intifada, or the intervention of a third party or do you expect matters to remain the same?
renewal of the Intifada 28.0 intervention of a third party 21.7
remain the same 47.0 No answer 3.3

Q23- The Palestinian people have tried a Fatah-majority government and a Hamas-majority government, now there is a government with the majority of its ministers as independent figures, in your opinion and from the past experiences, which is the government that best serves the interests of the Palestinian people?
A Fatah-majority government 32.3 A Hams-majority government 18.3
A government with the majority of its ministers as independent figures 39.0
No answer 10.4

Q24- Do you support or oppose the right of the Arab countries to possess a nuclear program for peaceful and energy purposes?
support 73.3 I oppose 22.8 No answer 3.9

Q25. Which Palestinian Personality do you trust the most?
Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) 18.3 Isma'eel Hanieh 16.3
Marwan Barghouti 14.3  Salam Fayyad 2.3
Mohammed Dahlan 2.3  Mustafa Barghouti 1.8
Ahmad Sa'adat 1.7  Yasser Arafat 1.3
Sa'eb Iriqat 1.2 Khaled Mish'al 1.1
Mahmoud Azzahar 1.1 Others 7.4
Don't trust any one 27.4 No answer 3.5

Q26- Which Political or Religious Palestinian Faction do you trust the most?
Fateh 40.0  Hamas 19.7 PFLP 2.8
Islamic Jihad 2.3 Others 2.5  Other Islamic Factions 1.1
Don't trust any one 26.9 No answer 4.7


--------------------------------------------
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website:
www.imra.org.il

Arabische familie Oost-Jeruzalem neemt dakloos Joods gezin in huis

Dergelijke berichten geven hoop op een vreedzamere toekomst, en op het vermogen van mensen om ondanks het conflict elkaar als mens te blijven zien.
 
Ratna
----------

Last update - 01:05 12/11/2007   

E. J'lem family gives homeless Jewish family shelter after authorities fail to help

By Haaretz staff and Channel 10
Haaretz.com/Channel 10 daily feature for November 11, 2007.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/922719.html
[VIDEO met Engelse ondertiteling]

Ilanit and her four children were evicted from an apartment they had illegally occupied for lack of any other place to stay.

After the family members found themselves and all their belongings out on the street on a cold Jerusalem night, only one person offered assistance.

Khader Ramadan Dabash of East Jerusalem took the five into his home, where they have been living for the last two weeks.

Extremisten de baas in Hamas - IDF oefent voor confrontaties op de Westelijke Jordaanoever

Volgens onderstaand artikel heeft de radikale en gewapende vleugel van Hamas de macht grotendeels in handen, en luistert zij zelfs niet naar de hardliner Meshaal in Syrië, die algemeen als de hoogste leider werd gezien. In hoeverre de gematigde vleugel van Haniyeh, die tegen de coup in de Gazastrook zou zijn en toenadering met Abbas zoekt, werkelijk gematigd is en Israël daar zaken mee zou kunnen doen is natuurlijk nog een andere vraag.

Palestinian sources in the Strip said that the rift within the Hamas leadership is worsening, and the more extreme faction - which includes most of the military wing - has effectively seized control of the organization in Gaza. This faction is led by former foreign minister Mahmoud a-Zahar, head of the military wing Ahmad Jabari, and former interior minister Sa'id Siyam.
It relies on Iranian funding, the sources said, and is conducting a completely independent policy: it no longer listens to either Khaled Meshal, head of the organization's Damascus-based political office, or Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh.
The sources estimated that Haniyeh controls at most 30 percent of Hamas' fighting forces - even among the Executive Force, which is technically subordinate to his government.
Senior IDF officers offered a similar assessment. The military wing, controlled by Jabari, has effectively gained control of Gaza, they said; this faction ignores directives from Meshal and dictates to Haniyeh.

In ieder geval hebben Israël, de Palestijnse Autoriteit en de internationale gemeenschap op dit moment te maken met een gebied dat wordt gecontroleerd door mensen die ook de Westelijke Jordaanoever met geweld willen overnemen, om daarna de rest van Palestina te bevrijden. Voor Joden, christenen, dissidente Palestijnen en andere lastpakken zal in deze staat geen plaats zijn. En dus is het niet zo slecht dat het Israëlische leger een grote oefening gaat houden om op de uitbraak van grootschalige botsingen op de Westelijke Jordaanoever voorbereid te zijn.
 
Ratna
---------

Major IDF drill to simulate large-scale W. Bank clashes
By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents Last update -
03:14 13/11/2007
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/923254.html

The Israel Defense Forces will conduct a major exercise next week simulating a widespread escalation of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank.

However, the only actual escalation on Monday was in internal Palestinian fighting: At least seven people were killed and 55 wounded in exchanges of fire between Hamas forces and Fatah supporters in the Gaza Strip. All of the fatalities were either Fatah members or passersby. Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas blamed Hamas, terming its actions "an abominable crime."

Though the drill will be taking place a week before the Annapolis conference, the timing is apparently coincidental: It was scheduled back in July, when the date of the U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference was not yet known.

The exercise is not an official preparation in case talks at Annapolis fail, though senior IDF officers have been predicting for weeks that the conference has little chance of succeeding. Rather, it simulates a scenario in which terrorist organizations launch a massive wave of attacks prior to the conference in order to ensure its failure. The scenario posits this campaign being accompanied by widespread demonstrations in the West Bank. It also posits the IDF having limited forces with which to respond, due to ongoing tensions on the Syrian and Gazan borders.

Exercise scenarios are often deliberately exaggerated, and do not necessarily reflect what the IDF expects to happen. However, several major exercises in the past have ended up accurately anticipating reality. In June 2006, for instance, an IDF exercise posited the abduction of a soldier to Gaza closely followed by the abduction of other soldiers to Lebanon. Later that month, Gilad Shalit was indeed kidnapped to Gaza, after which Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were kidnapped to Lebanon in July.

Regarding Annapolis itself, the IDF now believes that the parties may be able to formulate a general declaration that would prevent a violent outbreak in the territories after the conference ends.

It has been years since the IDF last conducted a drill of this type, as one planned for July 2006 was canceled due to the Second Lebanon War.

Monday's clashes in Gaza erupted after Hamas policemen tried to disperse a memorial march in Gaza City marking the third anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death. The rally, the largest ever held in the Gaza Strip, attracted more than 200,000 people, who waved pictures of Arafat, yellow Fatah flags, and black and white kaffiyehs as they listened to speeches by several Fatah leaders.

At a certain point, Hamas policemen suddenly opened fire at the crowd, apparently after some of the marchers threw stones at the security forces' offices. According to eyewitnesses, armed Hamas members then began arresting demonstrators.

According to Hamas, one of the three people killed was shot not by Hamas but by one of several Fatah gunmen on nearby roofs. Fatah denied this, saying the man was shot by someone in a passing car while en route to the rally.

Three people were seriously wounded in the clashes, including a Hamas policeman who was shot in the head. Only after several hours did quiet return to Gaza.

Palestinian sources in the Strip said that the rift within the Hamas leadership is worsening, and the more extreme faction - which includes most of the military wing - has effectively seized control of the organization in Gaza. This faction is led by former foreign minister Mahmoud a-Zahar, head of the military wing Ahmad Jabari, and former interior minister Sa'id Siyam. It relies on Iranian funding, the sources said, and is conducting a completely independent policy: it no longer listens to either Khaled Meshal, head of the organization's Damascus-based political office, or Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh.

The sources estimated that Haniyeh controls at most 30 percent of Hamas' fighting forces - even among the Executive Force, which is technically subordinate to his government.

Senior IDF officers offered a similar assessment. The military wing, controlled by Jabari, has effectively gained control of Gaza, they said; this faction ignores directives from Meshal and dictates to Haniyeh.

The extremist faction seeks to reproduce Hamas' takeover of Gaza in the West Bank. Haniyeh's faction, in contrast, believes the takeover of Gaza was a mistake, and has no desire to repeat it in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, the defense establishment has drafted a new proposal for cutting electricity supplies to Gaza in response to rocket fire, after Attorney General Menachem Mazuz vetoed its original proposal. That proposal would have halted electricity to specified areas for specified amounts of time following a rocket launch. The new plan states that instead of deliberate outages, Israel will gradually reduce the voltage it supplies to the strip, meaning that in practice, less electricity will be available for Gaza's needs.

Defense officials claim that the new proposal meets the requirements Mazuz set, which included the need to warn the Palestinians in advance of the planned measures. The proposal will now be submitted to Mazuz for approval.

dinsdag 13 november 2007

"Baghdad Twist": film over Irakese Joden op IDFA festival Amsterdam

Dit structureel onderbelichte aspect van het Midden-Oosten conflict breng ik graag onder de aandacht.

Wouter
________________


BAGHDAD TWIST
Regisseur Joe Balass interviewt zijn moeder Valentine, een joodse Irakese die haar geboorteland ontvluchtte in 1970, toen Joe vier was. Het gesprek is persoonlijk maar weerspiegelt ook de algemene toenmalige situatie van joden in Irak. Na enkele machtswisselingen in Irak in de jaren zestig en met de groeiende weerzin tegen de opkomende macht van Israël kwam het leven van de joodse familie onder druk te staan. De zoon vraagt door, of ze het niet zagen aankomen, of ze niet eerder hadden moeten vluchten. De moeder antwoordt met beschrijvingen van angst en onzekerheid.
http://www.idfa.nl/nl/festival/films-a-z/film.aspx?id=33309
________________
From: Joe Balass
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Subject: Fwd: film on Iraqi Jews at IDFA festival

BAGHDAD TWIST will be playing at the upcoming IDFA festival in Amsterdam. It is a 30 minute documentary about Iraq's once thriving Jewish community. The film is also in competition for the Silver Cub Award.

The film will be screened on:

* zaterdag 24 november 2007      22:00   Munt 10 WP     regular
* woensdag 28 november 2007   19:30   Tuschinski 2     regular
* vrijdag 30 november 2007        11:45   Munt 11            regular

Baghdad Twist
Joe Balass

It could be anywhere. A mid-1960s wedding reception captured on Super-8 film. Narrow ties. Bouffant hairdos. Flickering images of a joyful couple and smiling guests. A band plays and people fill the dance floor to do the latest craze: The Twist.
 
But this is Baghdad. And for the city's Jewish community, it is an evening of joy during a prolonged period of persecution. Within a few years, most of the wedding guests pictured in the film will have fled the city, never to return. Within a decade, the community, which has existed since Babylonian times, will be all but gone.
 
For filmmaker Joe Balass and his mother Valentine, a memory is recalled, shared, constructed, from the fragments that remain.
 
"You were just a little kid. We left the house. You should see it. It's like someone is still living there. The beds, the tables, the furniture, the food in the fridge—everything. You thought it was a game. You were not even four."
 
Baghdad Twist is a visual memoir of one family's life in Iraq before escaping to a new home in Canada in the fall of 1970. Featuring a never-before-seen collection of archival images, home movies and family photographs from Baghdad, the film pulls back the curtain on Iraq's once thriving Jewish community, its perilous final years and its remarkable ability to find solace in the shadow of fear.


Filmography:

Joe Balass:
Parting Words (fiction, 2006)
The Devil in the Holy Water (2002),
On a Very Violet Night in the Apartements Daphne (fiction, 1995),
Nana, George & Me (1997),
http://www.compassproductions.ca

Canada, 2007
colour / black and white, video, 30 min

Credits:
Director: Joe Balass
Screenplay: Joe Balass
Editing: Annie Jean
Sound: David Ballard
Music: Dino Giancola; Janet Lumb
Production: Germaine Ying Gee Wong
Executive Producer: Ravida Din
World Sales: National Film Board of Canada
 

Abbas biedt Israël 'een zee van vrede'

"If peace comes and the occupation comes to an end, Israel will live in a sea of peace," [Abbas] said on Tuesday after meeting his Israeli counterpart, Shimon Peres, in the Turkish capital of Ankara.

Gisteren zei Saeb Erekat, onderhandelaar namens de PLO:

Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization, rejected on Monday the government's demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
In an interview with Israel Radio, Erekat said that "no state in the world connects its national identity to a religious identity."

Hoe Israël dan precies in vrede zal leven na de terugtrekking uit de Westelijke Jordaanoever en de Oude Stad van Jeruzalem, is een beetje onduidelijk. In ieder geval is het geen Israëlische paranoia dat de Palestijnse eis tot recht op terugkeer van de vluchtelingen betekent dat zij Israël niet erkennen. Het is goed dat Erekat dit nu expliciet heeft gezegd.
Een twee statenoplossing betekent bij de Palestijnen een Arabisch-Palestijnse staat, waar geen Joden zullen wonen, en een gemengde, multi-etnische staat waar Joden en Arabieren als gelijkwaardige bevolkingsgroepen leven en evenveel invloed hebben op nationaal niveau.
Zoiets als de Christenen en de Moslims in Libanon, of Walloniërs en Vlamingen in België. Het falen van het eerste is inmiddels duidelijk, en België is hard op weg.
Uiteraard zal Israël nooit toestemmen in het opgeven van het Joodse recht op zelfbeschikking, waar bovenstaande natuurlijk op neer komt. Het is deprimerend dat de Palestijnen na 100 jaar conflict nog steeds niet bereid zijn dit recht te erkennen, want zolang dat het geval is zal er geen vrede komen.

Een democratische staat met een Arabische meerderheid waar de Joden volledig gelijkwaardig zijn, is science fiction. Zonder zelfbeschikking valt er voor de Joden geen vrede en veiligheid te verwachten.

Ratna
----------

Abbas offers Israel 'sea of peace'
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has told Israel it can live in peace if it ends its occupation of Arab lands.
"If peace comes and the occupation comes to an end, Israel will live in a sea of peace," he said on Tuesday after meeting his Israeli counterpart, Shimon Peres, in the Turkish capital of Ankara.

Abbas said his administration was working "with ... full force" to ensure that an upcoming Middle East conference in Annapolis, US, was a success.

The talks in Maryland are an attempt to relaunch peace negotiations between the Israel and the Palestinian administration after they broke down seven years ago.

Talks 'a waste'

Abbas and Peres were in Ankara to establish an industrial park in the West Bank, which will be sponsored by Turkey - a project expected to generate jobs for thousands of Palestinians.

The two leaders are also due to address Turkey's parliament separately, with both leaders becoming the first presidents of Israel and the Palestinians to address the legislature in Ankara.

"Never before has an Israeli president been in [the Turkish parliament] and the fact that this is happening is a signal by Turkey of the neutral platform that it can extend in terms of this highly divided region," Mike Hanna, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Istanbul, said.

Peres on Monday welcomed the participation of all "moderate countries" in the Annapolis conference.

He said "the voice of peace will be stronger and louder" with more participants attending, but he said Syria had not worked towards achieving peace.
Imad Moustapha, Syria's ambassador to the US, last week called the talks a "waste" and a "photo opportunity".

Turkey, Israel's closest ally in the Islamic world, has in the past played the role of mediator between the Jewish state and its Muslim neighbours.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

--------------------------------------------
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website:
www.imra.org.il