Obama wacht op antwoord Netanjahoe op vredesplan VS

Het wordt tijd dat Israel zelf met een duidelijk plan komt, een plan dat tegemoet komt aan de ideeën van Obama en waarin Israels 'rode lijnen' duidelijk zijn. Netanjahoe zal waarschijnlijk begin volgende week in een toespraak al op enkele zaken ingaan, maar wat nodig is is een helder plan.

 

RP

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Obama is waiting for Netanyahu

http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/06/obama-is-waiting-for-netanyahu.html

 

During the waiting period prior to the Six day war, a hit song was "Nasser is waiting for Rabin." A privately issued plan should be replied to in private.

 

 

'Obama awaiting PM's reply on new plan'

Jun. 9, 2009
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

The US has formulated a 2-year plan for cementing a two-state agreement between Israel and the Palestinians and is now waiting for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to convey Israel's reply to the plan, the London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported Tuesday.

According to the report, the new plan was presented to Netanyahu during his visit to Washington in May. The prime minister was reportedly given six weeks to provide his response to the initiative, starting from Obama's address Cairo address last week.

The plan was also presented to Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit during their visit to the US, the report said.

According to the report, the Egyptian leadership is taking the initiative seriously, but is assessing that Palestinian divisiveness could impede its implementation. The Egyptian leadership has therefore decided to make Palestinian reconciliation a top priority, the report said, and has tasked Suleiman with expediting the unity talks.

The Jerusalem Post could not confirm the report.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was also reportedly informed of the plan and has sent a delegation to Egypt, headed by negotiator Ahmed Qurei. Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal was also summoned to Cairo ahead of the reconciliation talks, the report said.

A senior Egyptian official was quoted as saying that Suleiman would meet Mahsaal and the rest of the Hamas delegation in Cairo.

"Suleiman asked the Hamas delegation to come to Cairo as part of the efforts that Egypt is pursuing in order to bring an end to inter-Palestinian division, with the goal being to ready the way for the diplomatic process," the Egyptian official was quoted as saying. "Egypt will keep up its consultations and contacts with the Palestinian organizations and faction in the near future in a manner that will facilitate the signing of a final agreement that will bring inter-Palestinian reconciliation on July 7."

Obama's plan has also reportedly prompted the forum of Arab prime ministers to set an urgent meeting for June 17, in which the Arab world will debate Egypt's efforts to reconcile the disparate forces among the Palestinians.

 

Hamas plant terreuraanvallen op PA in Westoever

Hamas zal alles doen om eventuele vredesbesprekingen tussen Israel en de Palestijnse Autoriteit te laten mislukken en de PA te verzwakken. Zij heeft er daarbij geen problemen mee om haar Palestijnse broeders de dood in te jagen door midden van zelfmoordaanslagen. Vreemd dat sommigen die het voor de Palestijnen opnemen Hamas een legitieme verzetsbeweging noemen.

 

RP

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PA: Hamas West Bank terror plot exposed
Officials say member of Islamist group admitted to receiving 1.5 million euros to establish infrastructure aimed at undermining Abbas' regime

 

Ali Waked - YNET

Published: 06.09.09, 00:44
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3728366,00.html

 

The Palestinian Authority said it has exposed a plot by Hamas to carry out a string of terror attacks against the Authority's officials and institutions in the West Bank city of Nablus and the surrounding area.

PA officials said Monday evening that a Hamas member who was recently detained admitted to receiving 1.5 million euros from the Islamist group's leadership in Gaza in order to establish infrastructure aimed of undermining President Mahmoud Abbas' regime. He said that among the targets were headquarters of the Palestinian security services in Nablus.

According to a Palestinian security source, the Hamas member, Wajia Abu Aidi, led officers from the Preventive Security Service to the stashed money, which he had hidden underneath the bathtub in his home.

The source told Ynet that the money was earmarked for Hamas' military activities in Nablus.

Over the past few months the PA has increased its efforts to thwart Hamas' activity in the West Bank, mainly by blocking the transfer of funds from Gaza.

The PA fears that in case the reconciliation talks with Hamas fail and the peace negotiations with Israel are resumed, Hamas will try to destabilize the West Bank with a series of terror attacks, mainly against PA officials and bodies the Islamist group accuses of "persecuting" its members in the West Bank.

De nederzettingen kloof tussen Israel en de VS

 

De Washington Post hoopt op een compromis tussen de VS en Israel over de nederzettingen. Wanneer Netanjahoe bereid is tot serieuze concessies en een tweestatenoplossing accepteert, moet de regering-Obama niet vasthouden een een totale bouwstop in de nederzettingen. Hopelijk deelt Obama de nuchtere kijk van de Washington Post.

 

RP

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The Settlement Rift
President Obama has delivered a necessary shock to Israel's right-wing government. Will he now compromise?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/06/AR2009060601796_pf.html

Sunday, June 7, 2009

 

IN THE WEEKS before President Obama's Cairo address to the Muslim world, his administration opened a striking public breach with the Israeli government of Binyamin Netanyahu. Even aside from any possible usefulness for courting Arab opinion, this was probably necessary. Mr. Netanyahu, who has refused to publicly support Palestinian statehood and insisted that Israeli settlement expansion will continue, was in need of a wake-up call. So the president has said repeatedly that he expects Israel to start moving toward a two-state solution, and he and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have bluntly insisted that all Israeli settlement activity stop. The medicine has had its effect: Israeli media are full of talk of the "crisis" between Washington and Jerusalem and of the fateful choice that Mr. Netanyahu must make between good relations with Washington and the hard-line ideology of his Likud party.

The question is whether the administration will allow Mr. Netanyahu the room to side with Mr. Obama, should he choose to do so. According to some officials in his government, there is much the Israeli leader may be willing to do to mend the rift. What he almost certainly will not do, however, is abandon the position of previous Israeli governments -- accepted in practice by both the Bush and Clinton administrations -- that some "natural growth" must be allowed in existing settlements.

Mr. Obama's Middle East envoy, George J. Mitchell, first called for an end to "natural growth" in 2001, when he headed a Middle East commission. Ms. Clinton publicly committed the Obama administration to the demand in a recent interview with al-Jazeera, saying "we want to see a stop to settlement construction, additions, natural growth -- any kind of settlement activity." There are some good reasons for this position: Previous Israeli governments have violated their own rules about the limits of "natural growth"; they have also failed to fulfill repeated promises to dismantle those settlements that Israel itself has deemed illegal.

The problem is that no Israeli government -- not Mr. Netanyahu's, not even one led by the current opposition -- is likely to agree to a total construction ban. By insisting on one, the administration risks bogging itself down in a major dispute with its ally, while giving Arab governments and Palestinians a ready excuse not to make their own concessions. Meanwhile, the practical need for a total settlement freeze is debatable. Palestinian negotiators have already conceded that many of the towns will be annexed to Israel in any final deal; so did former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

A good compromise is achievable. Mr. Netanyahu should publicly acknowledge that the peace process will lead to Palestinian statehood, and should adopt a series of measures curtailing settlements. He should quickly dismantle those deemed illegal, end all government subsidies, prohibit the territorial expansion of all settlements, stop new construction in those outside Israel's West Bank fence and agree to a monitoring mechanism that will prevent cheating. Mr. Obama can reasonably accept that as a freeze, while not requiring that not a single brick be laid in any of the more than 120 West Bank communities. Then he can turn to the equally important task of pressing Palestinian leaders and Arab states for measures that match Israel's actions.

 

Drie mislukte plannen om Israel van de kaart te vegen

 

Een bewijs van de grote Palestijnse steun voor deze plannen is dat men bijna unaniem tegen erkenning van Israel als Joodse staat is, tegen het opgeven van het 'recht' op terugkeer van alle vluchtelingen en hun nakomelingen, en iedere Joodse binding met het land en met Jeruzalem blijft ontkennen. Als de Palestijnen oprecht voor een tweestatenoplossing zouden zijn, waarom dan niet, zoals Israelische voorvechters van vrede zoals Amos Oz, erkennen dat twee volken en nationale bewegingen tegenover elkaar staan, en zij beide een legitieme claim op het land hebben? Ik heb dat zelden uit de mond van een Palestijn gehoord.

 

RP

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Three Failed Plans to Wipe Israel Off the Map that keep the conflict going

By Barry Rubin

There are now no less than three main plans for wiping Israel off the map.

1. Conquest. This is the old PLO strategy and continues to be the Hamas strategy. In addition, it is endorsed less overtly by a large group—arguably a majority—in Fatah, the party that controls the Palestinian Authority.

Israel will be militarily defeated, perhaps with some assistance from internal collapse, and replaced by a Palestinian Arab Islamic (Fatah version) or Palestinian Arab Islamist state.

2. Two-Stages. This was officially adopted by the PLO and Fatah. It is an alternative vision that appeals to many in those two groups but is rejected by Hamas.

A Palestinian state will be created on as much territory as possible and then used as a base for conquering the rest . A diplomatic deal can only be made to obtain such a state, however, if its terms do not foreclose the possibility of the second stage being implemented. The demand that virtually all Palestinians who wish to do so can go and live in Israel is a supplement to ensure that phase one turns into phase 2. In 2000, Yasir Arafat either rejected this in preference to Plan Number 1 or at least deemed the terms offered insufficient to make the second stage easy or possible.

3. Binational state (also known as the one-state solution). This is supported by some in PLO and Fatah, partly because it has more appeal to naïve or other Westerners. It is rejected by Hamas.

A binational state will be created. (Note the irony that this totally betrays the idea of the Palestinian movement being a nationalist one seeking its own state.) Despite assurances, it will be unworkable and beset by violence. But since Israel's strength would be dismantled and millions of Palestinian Arabs would migrate onto its territory, there would be a relatively brief—but very bloody—transition to an Arab victory and the reconstitution of the state as an Arab Muslim Palestine.

 

Continued at:  Three Failed Plans to Wipe Israel Off the Map that keep the conflict going

 

 

Berichten dat Israel katholieke fondsen confisceerde foutief

Joodse humor:

 

Reports that Israel seized Catholic funds wrong

http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/06/reports-that-israel-seized-catholic.html

 

But reports that the Catholic church seized Jewish funds for centuries are regrettably correct.

 

______________

 

Reports that Israel seized Catholic funds wrong

June 9, 2009

 

 

ROME (JTA) -- Israel will not seize funds of Catholic institutions in the country, as Italian and Catholic media previously reported.

 

A statement Tuesday by the Israeli embassy to the Holy See said that "the seizure of funds from the Ministry of Education destined for some educational institutions of the Catholic Church in Israel will not be made, and that the situation remains unchanged."

 

Reports that Israel would seize assets of some Catholic institutions to pressure the Vatican to pay disputed taxes were published by Catholic and Italian media on Monday.

 

Italian media Tuesday quoted Israeli sources as saying the reports were the result of "a technical error" and a "misunderstanding."

 

 

Analyse verkiezingsuitslag Libanon

 

Een analyse van de verkiezingsuitslag in Libanon. Het artikel is een beetje inside, maar geeft voor de kenner wel meer informatie dan de standaardberichtjes erover.

 

Zie ook:

"Libanon zal het laatste land zijn dat vrede sluit met Israel"

Geen verkiezingszege voor bewapend Hezbollah in Libanon

Palestijnse vluchtelingen in Libanon

Hezbollah achtergronden

 

Wouter

_____________________

 

A good thing happened in Lebanese elections - Maybe

http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/06/good-thing-happened-in-lebanese.html

 

Good Mews from Lebanon - for a change. It's not great news, because Hezbollah still gets to vote with AK-47s, but at least the pro-West, moderate coalition maintained, and perhaps expanded, its majority. Michel Aoun's courting of Hezbollah cost him seats. Likewise, Walid Jumblatt, once stalwart in defense of Lebanese independence, shocked his audience of party faithful by declaring, in the last days of the election, that they would have to bow to the "inevitable" and accept Hezbollah hegemony. He too lost votes. A key thing novices have to know about Lebanese politics is this: "Everyone" supposedly knows that March 8 or M8 is the pro-Syria and pro-Hezbollah alliance, while March 14, or M14 is the pro-West, anti-Syrian bloc that coelesced around Saad Hariri, son of the popular Rafiq Hariri who was assassinated either by Syria or the Hezbollah. Because "everybody" supposedly knows it, Lebanese never mention it, so almost nobody who doesn't follow the issues closely can tell what they are talking about and what all these dates are about.   Tony Badran has the story. But what he is not saying is that the Lebanese election law still seems to discriminate against the Shi'a, who are probably a majority (Lebanon has not had a census in a long time) and in favor of the Christian minority, many of whom have fled abroad. Another thing to keep in mind is that Hezbollah has a way of reduing the parliamentary majority of the government - it seems to murder MPs it doesn't like. Someday murders them, at any rate.

 

____________________________________

 

Mapping Out the Election Results

http://beirut2bayside.blogspot.com/2009/06/mapping-out-election-results.html

Tony Badran

 

 

Let's run through what seems to be the final result of the election. It seems, with the preliminary results, that the March 14 coalition and its independent allies have won 71 seats, adding one seat to their current total, despite what March 8 thought would be an electoral law advantageous to them (the 1960 law adopted in the now-defunct Doha Accord). This puts to rest the myth that in 2005, M14 won because of its alliance with Hezbollah and the gerrymandering of the electoral law of 2000. M14's victory is clear. It ran unified lists and wherever M14 won, the lists won in total without any breaches.

Who are the winners and losers?

Obviously, M14 as a coalition emerges victorious. The independents add a couple to the total number but M14 still maintains a majority on its own. It's a decisive majority trashing once and for all Bashar Assad's "imaginary majority" and "transient few" snide remarks.

Hariri reemerges with the biggest bloc and thus keeps his position as head of the parliamentary majority. The Future Movement sailed through in the north, Beirut, the Western Bekaa and Zahle, and swept two seats in Sidon. The Lebanese Forces performed very strongly in Koura and Batroun, with M14 sweeping both, and eliminating Aoun's son-in-law Gebran Bassil in what is a major symbolic victory.

Walid Jumblat sacrificed from his share for the sake of the M14 alliance, and he emerges with a slightly diminished bloc as a result.

On the other side, Michel Aoun took a hit with the loss of his son-in-law, and saw his huge margin in Keserwen dwindle down drastically to about 2,000 votes, with Mansour al-Bone and his list performing ably.

Furthermore, this was done with Aoun's preferred electoral law, which he had been bragging about since the Doha Accord saying that he "forced" it on the other parties, and that it would "liberate" the Christian vote, especially in places like Ashrafiyeh, and that he would expand his bloc to over 30 MPs. Well, his list was demolished in Beirut 1 (Ashrafiyeh), where M14 swept all five seats.

Also, his allies in Zahle (Elie Skaff and the "Popular Bloc") got smashed, with M14 performing very strongly there.

Nevertheless, Aoun scored big in districts with large Hezbollah votes, namely Baabda and Jbeil. While a victory in Jbeil was expected, the sweep in Baabda is a net win. Aoun also maintained his sweep in Keserwen, despite a dramatically narrower edge. He also did well in the Metn, winning 6 (in alliance with the Armenaian Tashnag party) out of 8, with Michel Murr and Sami Gemayel getting the other two. As such, Aoun will still claim he is the strongest in the Maronite heartland. Nevertheless, the win is very obviously a lot shakier than the "tsunami" of 2005, and nothing made it clearer than his son-in-law's big loss in Batroun. Batroun, whose citizens lost an Army pilot, shot down in his helicopter by Aoun's Hezbollah's allies, threw out the Aounists completely.

In effect, the Christian vote, as always, is still split. Aoun and his allies (Frangieh, Tashnag) will still have the largest Christian bloc (the seats in Jezzine will not be counted because they were never in play for M14, and they were gifts from Hezbollah -- and, incidentally, a setback for Berri).

The Tashnag Party, which huffed and puffed (and was puffed up by Western journos) mightily before the elections, ends up with a dud, getting only two seats (keeping the seat in Metn, and gaining a seat in Beirut 2). The other Armenian seats (Zahle, Beirut 1) went to M14.

Similarly, Michel Murr didn't pull off the kind of performance many thought he would, keeping only his seat in the Metn. He fielded a candidate in Baabda (Gharios) who lost. His companion in the Metn, Sarkis Sarkis, also lost.

Similarly, the so-called centrist bloc that was touted before the elections, comes out decidedly smaller than even initially thought. The bloc was supposed to be affiliated with the President, Suleiman, with candidates close to him, or effectively putting themselves in his corner, not breaking through: Nazim Khoury in Jbeil, al-Bone and Farid Haykal Khazen in Keserwen, Edmond Gharios (and even perhaps Pierre Daccache) in Baabda, and even Murr himself. Although there are others who did make it (people like Robert Ghanem, etc. can still support the President), the bloc as initially conceived did not quite materialize.

This balance of power will now be transferred to the battle over the cabinet formation. M14 has a clear victory, and so will pick the Prime Minister. The battle, however, will be over the heresy of the "veto third" -- which has no existence in the constitution or the Taef Accord. Hariri has been consistently rejecting its continuation in the future cabinet, and he got support today from Jumblat as well, who called it a "fallacy." M14 will agree to a national unity government, though its principled position now is that it rejects the "veto third" formula. They are making plenty of noise about giving a boost to Suleiman, and how that will materialize remains to be seen. M8 is almost certainly going to reject it and will cite the relatively weak performance of the so-called independents/centrists as support for their position. This is a potential looming crisis on the horizon, as I argued in my pre-election briefing, especially since Hezbollah and the March 8 groups have shown themselves to be anti-democratic and violent forces who wouldn't hesitate to paralyze the country and ultimately attack people in their homes to get what they want.

Let's see how this plays out.

 

 

Hamas vrouwen planden zelfmoordaanslag tegen Fatah politie

Hamas probeert nu ook zelfmoordaanslagen tegen de Palestijnse Autoriteit op de Westbank te plegen.

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Last update - 12:56 09/06/2009       
Three Hamas women arrested for plotting suicide attack against Fatah
By The Associated Press
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1091561.html

 

 

Palestinian Authority security forces have arrested three Palestinian women who were allegedly planning a suicide attack targeting their own policemen in the West Bank.

 

Palestinian official Jamal Muheisen said Tuesday the women are members of Hamas, the Islamic group that has a long-running feud with the Western-backed Fatah government in the West Bank.

 

Muheisen said the women were arrested Sunday on their way to the town of Qalqiliya, where four police officers and four Hamas militants were been killed in recent clashes.

 

He added that one woman was carrying an explosive belt and confessed she intended to blow herself up in a police compound.

 

 

"Libanon zal het laatste land zijn dat vrede sluit met Israel"

Libanon zal de laatste Arabische staat zijn om vrede met Israel te sluiten, aldus Sa'ad Hariri, de leider van het gematigde blok dat zondag de verkiezingen won. Hij is een bondgenoot van Fuad Siniora, de huidige minister president, en zal hem waarschijnlijk opvolgen.

 

RP

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

The Jerusalem Post
Jun 9, 2009 22:24 | Updated Jun 9, 2009 22:44
Hariri rules out peace talks with Israel
By AP AND JPOST STAFF
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1244371055387&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Lebanon will not conduct an independent peace track with Israel, and may not even join the Arab peace initiative, should it become the basis for regional negotiations, Sa'ad Hariri, the billionaire businessman who is the favorite to lead Lebanon's government following Sunday's elections, said on Tuesday.

"We will follow after the Arab initiative," he told CNN. "You see, the Arab initiative includes many countries for the peace process, and Lebanon will come as we see fit."

Earlier, when the interviewer reminded Hariri about comments made by pundits suggesting that Lebanon would be the last country to make peace with Israel, the coalition leader readily agreed with the view.

"[Other people don't say that,] I say that," he told the station.

Legislative allies said Tuesday that Hariri, the 39-year-old moderate leader of the largest parliamentary bloc in the winning coalition, is expected to replace his ally Fuad Saniora, after his pro-Western coalition fended off a serious challenge from Iranian-backed Hizbullah in weekend elections.

Hariri's alliance dealt a major setback to Hizbullah and its Syrian and Iranian backers in Sunday's vote, gaining 68 seats to the opposing group's 57. The other three seats in the 128-member parliament went to independents.

Fears of Iran gaining more influence in the Arab country swayed Christian swing voters away from the coalition led by the Shi'ite group and helped deliver the election victory to the US-aligned camp. Analysts and voters said Tuesday that President Barack Obama's outreach to the Muslim world also helped blunt the appeal of the group.

 

Hooggerechtshof Israel buigt zich over vrijstelling dienstplicht voor ultra-orthodoxen

 

De vrijstelling van dienstplicht in de IDF van de ultra-orthodoxen is velen in Israel een doorn in het oog, en zij schendt het non-discriminatie beginsel zoals dat in de Basic Laws is vastgelegd. Bovendien komt de verdediging van het land zo te rusten op de schouders van een steeds kleinere groep, want de ultra-orthodoxen vormen vanwege hun demografische groei een steeds groter percentage van de Israelische bevolking.

RP
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Court hears petition against Haredi IDF exemption

Jun. 7, 2009
Dan Izenberg , THE JERUSALEM POST

 

The High Court of Justice on Sunday heard five petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Tal Law, which enables yeshiva students to perform truncated military service or a year of public service and then join the work force without being drafted.

Because of the complexity of the issues involved, the petition was heard before a panel of nine justices and a ruling is expected to take several months.

The Tal Law was originally approved in 2002 as a transitional law for five years. Its aim was to pave the way for haredi men to enter the workforce after making some sort of contribution to the state. The underlying assumption was that a certain percentage of haredi men would leave full-time yeshiva study for work, if the threat of being drafted into the army for a lengthy period were removed.

Two years ago, after the High Court had rejected petitions against it, the Knesset extended the law for another five years. Once again, several petitions were filed against it.

"There are two classes of citizens," said 70-year-old attorney Yehuda Ressler, who has been fighting against massive draft exemptions for yeshiva students in court for almost 40 years. "There is discrimination between one person's blood and another's.

"Why doesn't the government conscript haredim from this day forward as it does secular Israelis? It is a cancer in the nation," he said. "We can't live with this."

In the decision to reject the earlier petitions, the court had agreed with them that the Tal Law was discriminatory and hence violated the Basic Law: Human Freedom and Liberty.

Although it had been passed for good reasons, as an attempt to integrate the haredim into Israeli society, it had failed the test of proportionality because of the meager results achieved. But the court was willing to give the law more time.

On Sunday, the state's representative, Avi Licht, argued that the law had made great progress since then. An authority had been established to assist haredim find work in public service. Within one year, the number who had left yeshivot and were performing public service had jumped from 70 to 700, he said.

He also said that there had been major changes in haredi society. Rabbinical leaders understood that not everyone could belong to the "community of learners" and that haredi men would have to work to support themselves.

At this point, Justice Ayala Procaccia asked Licht to explain why, if the haredi leadership had come to understand this, it had forced through a law permitting them not to learn the secular "core curriculum" in the yeshivot ketanot, which are attended by high-school age boys. These core studies teach students skills that are meant to help them find a place in the modern world.

"On what basis do you expect the Tal Law to succeed and a process of change to take place in the haredi community, when we see that no such change is going to take place in the haredi educational system?" asked Procaccia. "Such changes don't happen by themselves."

Licht replied that the fact was that within one year, the number of haredim performing public service had increased tremendously.

"We cannot ignore this," he said.

Licht added that there will always be some yeshiva students who will continue to study full-time.

"The question is whether the arrangements provided by the law will reduce the gap," he said.

Licht predicted that beginning in 2012, about 2,000 yeshiva students would do public service and a few hundred would join the army each year.

He maintained that the number of haredim in the age cohort which reached draft age each year was about 4,500. Licht said that a total of about 6,000 yeshiva students ask for draft deferments, but many of them are enrolled in religious-Zionist yeshivas and seek to defer their service only by a year or two.

Eliad Shraga, who represented the Movement for Quality Government, said the number of haredim currently in the army or public service was a drop in the bucket. He said that as opposed to these figures, there were roughly 56,000 haredim of military conscription age who were studying in yeshivot and renewed their deferments each year.

This figure, he added, did not include tens of thousands of young haredim who had not served in the army and were still of draftable age but had married and had enough children to no longer be draftable. These students had to be taken into account when comparing the number of haredim serving in the army or in public service with those who do not serve at all.

Shraga also argued that the right to equality was not the only constitutional right that was violated by the Tal Law. Since the burden of military service was shared by fewer citizens than would be if the haredim also served, the danger to those who did serve increased. This situation violated their right to life.

Other rights that were violated by the law included the right to property, intellectual development and quality of life, Shraga argued.

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This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1244371030725&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

 

Geen verkiezingszege voor bewapend Hezbollah in Libanon

Gelukkig hebben de pro-Westerse partijen de Libanese verkiezingen gewonnen, maar Hezbollah houdt haar zetelaantal. Het is vreemd dat zij enerzijds zegt de uitslag en de democratie te respecteren, en anderzijds zegt dat haar wapens niet ter discussie staan. In een functionerende democratie en rechtsstaat hebben leger en politie het alleenrecht op wapens en het gebruik van geweld, en zij staan onder bevel van de democratisch gekozen regering, die weer is gebonden aan de grondwet. In Libanon is men nog lang niet zo ver, maar deze uitslag is een positief teken. De kans is echter reëel dat Hezbollah, net als vorig jaar, met geweld een beslissende stem in de regering zal afdwingen.
Haar wapens zijn niet alleen bedoeld om tegen Israel te vechten, rotzooi in Egypte te trappen en Hamas te helpen, maar ook om haar invloed en macht in Libanon te vergroten.

RP

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The Jerusalem Post
Jun 8, 2009 2:49 | Updated Jun 8, 2009 18:51
Hizbullah: Our weapons are off limits
By AP AND JPOST.COM STAFF
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1244371035563&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah on Monday accepted the results the Lebanese parliamentary elections in which the guerrilla group and it allies were defeated by the Western-backed coalition.

"We accept these results...with sportsmanship and in a democratic way and we accept that the ruling camp has achieved the parliamentary majority," Nasrallah said in a televised address, adding that opposition leaders would meet soon to agree on a joint stance over the naming of a new prime minister and the formation of a new government.

Earlier Monday, the group warned that its weapons arsenal was not up for debate.

"The majority must commit not to question our role as a resistance party, the legitimacy of our weapons arsenal and the fact that Israel is an enemy state," senior Hizbullah member Mohamed Ra'ad told AFP.

The election result, dealt a stunning setback to the Iranian-backed group, and setting the stage for renewed political deadlock in the volatile nation.

The winners celebrated in the streets, setting off fireworks and driving around in motorcades honking hours before the official results were even announced.

Sunday's parliamentary vote was an early test of US President Barack Obama's efforts to forge Middle East peace. A win by Hizbullah would have boosted the influence of its backers Iran and Syria and risked pushing one of the region's most unsettled countries into international isolation and possibly more conflict with Israel.

Obama on Monday congratulated the Lebanese people for a peaceful national election held with "courage" and a "commitment to democracy." "Once more, the people of Lebanon have demonstrated to the world their courage and the strength of their commitment to democracy," the Obama statement said, without a direct reference to Hizbullah's defeat.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said on television that he "presents this victory to Lebanon," after stations projected his coalition was winning. "It is an exceptional day for democracy in Lebanon."

The interior minister announced the final results from all 26 districts at a news conference. The tally showed the winning coalition with 68 seats versus 57 for the Hizbullah-led alliance. Three seats went to independents. The seat allocation is almost unchanged from the outgoing legislature, ensuring that the same disputes will continue to roil the political scene.

Hizbullah retained its 11 seats. That would almost replicate the deadlock that existed in the outgoing parliament, in which the pro-Western bloc had 70 seats and an alliance of Hizbullah and other Shi'ite and Christian factions had 58.

OTV, the television station of one of Hizbullah's key Christian allies, former army chief Michel Aoun, conceded that the party's candidates who challenged pro-Western competitors in several Christian districts had been defeated, preventing a victory for the Hizbullah-led coalition.

The battle in Christian districts was the decisive factor. Lebanese generally vote along sectarian and family loyalties, with seats for Sunnis and Shi'ites in the half-Christian, half-Muslim, 128-member parliament already locked up even before the voting started.

Christians in the pro-Western coalition warned that the heavily armed Hizbullah would bring the influence of Shiite Iran to Lebanon. The Maronite Catholic Church made a last-minute appeal, warning that Lebanon as a state and its Arab identity were threatened, a clear reference to Hizbullah and its Persian backer, Iran.

Sunnis were also driven to vote for the pro-Western coalition to get back at Shiite Hizbullah gunmen for seizing the streets a year ago in Beirut from pro-government supporters.

 

Turnout nationwide was about 52.3 percent, said the government, an increase over the 2005 figure of 45.8 percent.

Boosted by its 2006 war with Israel, Hizbullah and its allies provoked a political crisis in 2007-2008 with demands for a voice in the government. They staged protests and installed an encampment in downtown Beirut that paralyzed the commercial heart of the Lebanese capital. The showdown culminated in street battles that brought the country to the edge of another civil war.

An agreement to end the violent confrontation gave Hizbullah veto power over major government decisions.

This time around, the pro-Western coalition vowed not to give Hizbullah and its allies a blocking minority in the new government if they won, maintaining that the arrangement paralyzed decision-making. Hizbullah and its allies have countered that sharing power ensured peace. A failure by the parties to agree on how to share power could set the stage for another round of confrontation that could again inflame sectarian tensions.

Vier dode militanten uit Gazastrook bij infiltratiepoging en aanval op IDF patrouille

Dit zal in veel media weer als Israelische agressie worden beschreven en antizionisten zullen zeggen dat Hamas het recht heeft dit met raketten op Israelische burgers te beantwoorden. Het is inderdaad waarlijk misdadig om te verhinderen dat gewapende strijders van Hamas Israel binnen dringen om een Israelische plaats aan de grens met Gaza aan te vallen.

 

RP

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

Last update - 10:38 08/06/2009       
Four Gaza militants killed as IDF thwarts terror attack
By Anshel Pfeffer and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, and Reuters
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1091197.html

 

 

At least four Palestinian militants were killed on Monday after a group of gunmen tried to cross into Israel near the Karni crossing in the Gaza Strip.

 

Just after 6 A.M. at least ten militants, some on horseback, opened fire on an Israel Defense Forces patrol on the Israeli side of the fence, which returned fire. There were no injuries reported among the IDF troops.

 

An IDF source said that the group was planning to launch an attack on an Israeli community bordering the Strip. Residents said the Palestinian militants fired anti-tank weapons and set off explosives against the patrol.
 
No group took initial responsibility for the attack, the first of its kind to reportedly involve horses. Israel closed the crossings into Gaza following the attempted attack.

 

The incident is one of the bloodiest clashes between Gaza militants and IDF troops since Operation Cast Lead against Hamas almost five months ago.

 

Gaza blockade talks

 

Israeli security officials were expected to meet this week to discuss easing the blockade of the Gaza Strip, following U.S. President Barack Obama's recent criticism of the "continuing humanitarian crisis" there.

 

So far, Israel has made do with weak promises to reconsider its policy, but Obama's Cairo speech Thursday - in which he said the blockade devastates Palestinian families and does not serve Israel's security interests - may push Jerusalem to take action.

 

The Defense Ministry department responsible for coordinating government activities in the territories began assessing the closure two weeks ago to determine whether to advocate any changes.

 

The top Israel Defense Forces officers involved in the assessment are due to explain their positions to Defense Minister Ehud Barak this week. The matter is slated to be discussed by the cabinet at a later stage.

 

Although Israel has reduced the amount and type of goods entering Gaza, Palestinians are still receiving medicine and medical equipment, gas and food. However, Israel still bans "dual-use" goods - those it classifies as potentially enabling terror activities - such as construction materials.

 

Some 100 trucks bearing goods such as medicine and food enter Gaza daily, down from about 130 during the second half of 2008, when Hamas' declared lull in violence was in effect. But Human Rights Watch, one of several aid groups urging eased restrictions, says the current number remains far below the 475 trucks that entered Gaza daily prior to Hamas' takeover in June 2007.

 

Specifically, the trucks contain medication and medical equipment as well as non-luxury food items, including meat, dairy products, fruit and vegetables, and humanitarian aid. Just Sunday, 75 trucks entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, some 420,000 tons of diesel fuel were brought to the Gaza power station and 75 tons of cooking gas entered the Strip through the Nahal Oz crossing.

 

At the Erez crossing, an American-Israeli feminist delegation and left-wing activists dressed like clowns held a rally Sunday to protest the ban on toys entering Gaza.

 

Israel vergoedt schade Palestijnen door kolonisten in Hebron veroorzaakt

 

Kunnen ze die schade niet verhalen op de kolonisten in Hebron?

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

Israel to pay 50 Hebron Palestinians for damage
Yaakov Lappin , THE JERUSALEM POST

Jun. 7, 2009
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1244371030877&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

 

 

In an unprecedented move, the Defense Ministry has granted 50 Palestinian families from Hebron NIS 250,000, taken from taxpayers' money, as compensation for damages to their property by settler activists in December 2008.

The damages occurred after police cleared the Beit Hashalom structure, which was claimed by settlers in the city. The evacuation set off a succession of revenge attacks on Palestinians by far-Right activists.

"After the disturbances in the Jabari neighborhood of Hebron, Civil Administration commander Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai toured the area and decided to take the unusual step of creating a mechanism to compensate Palestinians for property damaged," said a source from the Home Front Command, which initiated the idea.

"A committee was set up allowing Palestinians in Hebron to directly submit their claims for compensation to the Civil Administration. Appraisers were sent to the addresses of the claimants to estimate the cost of the damage," he added.

"This was an ad-hoc committee designed to deal with only this issue," the Civil Administration source said, adding that "it was created because of the scope of the damage."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak then complied with Mordechai's request to approve all of the requests for compensation.

 

 

Hamas bouwt gedoneerde ambulances om tot militaire voertuigen

 

De Palestijnse krant Al-Hayat Al-Jadida meldt dat volgens het Palestijnse ministerie van gezondheid Hamas 46 ambulances heeft geconfisceerd, de medische spullen eruit gehaald en zwart geverfd, om ze als militaire voertuigen te gebruiken. De ambulances waren door Arabische staten gedoneerd aan de Gazastrook na Israels offensief in januari.

 

RP

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

Bulletin - June 8, 2009

Palestinian Media Watch
Hamas converts 46 ambulances to military vehicles, misusing humanitarian aid
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

 

PMW has documented the repeated use of foreign funding by both the PA and Hamas for terror and glorification of terror. The following is another case of well intended humanitarian assistance given to Palestinians that is appropriated for military or terror purposes:

"The [Palestinian] Health Ministry stated yesterday that Hamas militias had raided 46 ambulances, donated by Arab states during the recent aggression on the Gaza Strip, of the medical equipment that they contained... and used them as military vehicles to arrest civilians, after painting [the ambulances] black.

The Ministry's director of public relations and information, Dr. Omar Nasr... said that the medical equipment removed from the ambulances was expensive. He demanded that the Hamas militias declare, courageously and openly, what had become of the thousands of tons of medical equipment which had been brought into the Gaza Strip as assistance for the Palestinian people, and which had passed at its [Hamas's] orders to private warehouses and its own medical centers, and was later sold to the helpless citizen..."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 20, 2009]

_________________

 

Palestinian Media Watch:
p:+972 2 625 4140 e: pmw@pmw.org.il
f: +972 2 624 2803 w: www.pmw.org.il

Hongaarse fascisten marcheren Europees parlement binnen

 

"Jobbik", de extreemrechtse nationalistische partij in Hongarije, heeft met 14.77% van de stemmen drie zetels gewonnen in het Europese parlement. Behalve openlijk antisemitisch is de partij ook vijandig naar de Roma-minderheid. Ze marcheren al met uniformen en vlaggen, alleen de geweren ontbreken nog.

 

Wouter

________________



Last update - 16:52 07/06/2009
'Hungarian Jews should stick to playing with their circumcised tails'
By Yehuda Lahav
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1090959.html

 

 

The last day of voting was underway on Sunday for the European Parliament election, and in Hungary, the conservative right-wing party Fidesz was expected to win by a solid lead.

 

However, the real question in this election was whether or not the extreme rightist party Jobbik would gain the necessary 5 percent of the vote to achieve representation in the EU parliament.

 

Topping the Jobbik list is Christina Morvay, who sparked controversy several days ago when she responded to criticism in a letter saying "I would be glad if the so-called proud Hungarian Jews would go back to playing with their tiny little circumcised tail rather than vilifying me."

 

This statement and the spirit in which it was written were widely condemned by a host of professors at the university where Morvay is a lecturer. Former Hungarian foreign minister Dr. Géza Jeszenszky said that with this statement, Morvay "removed herself from public life" and that her comments were inappropriate for a public figure and for a woman in general.

 

The spokesman for the Fidesz party Robert Repassi described Morvay as "inconceivable and anti-Semitic," and voiced hope that she would issue an apology. The apology never came.

 

Director of the Alliance of Hungarian Jewish Communities Gustav Zoltai remarked that comments such as Morvay's should rule out anyone who aspires to be a representative in the European parliament, adding that "she'd be better off not advertising her vast experience with what she calls 'tiny little circumcised tails'."

 

Even though Morvay's statement drew extensive criticism and general condemnation, experts say that Jobbik's chances of achieving representation are relatively good, perhaps thanks to the party's "wild" outspoken style which may appeal to the more primitive elements within Hungarian society.

 

 

Israel en Hillary Clinton oneens over eerdere afspraken nederzettingengroei

 

Obama also reiterated the importance of a two-state solution and making progress toward that goal, referring to "the need for all of us to redouble our efforts to bring about two states, Israel and a Palestinian state, that are living side by side in peace and security."

He added, "I think the moment is now for us to act on what we all know to be the truth, which is that each side is going to have to make some difficult compromises."

 

Wat ik me afvraag gezien bovenstaande, is waarom beperkte bouw in bestaande nederzettingen voor natuurlijke groei tot het centrale thema is verworden, en al die andere heikele punten zoals de status van Jeruzalem, de Palestijnse vluchtelingen en erkenning van Israel als Joodse staat, genegeerd worden.

 

RP

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

Israel rejects Clinton claim of no agreement on settlements
Jun. 7, 2009
HILARY LEILA KRIEGER and HERB KEINON , THE JERUSALEM POST

 

 

Just after US President Barack Obama's landmark address in Cairo, and just before US Mideast envoy George Mitchell returns to the region on Tuesday, the dispute between Washington and Jerusalem over settlement construction ratcheted up a notch.

 

Israeli officials rejected on Saturday a statement by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dismissing Israeli assertions that the Bush administration had agreed to allow some construction in the settlements to allow for natural growth.

 

"There is no memorialization of any informal and oral agreements. If they did occur, which, of course, people say they did, they did not become part of the official position of the United States government," Clinton told reporters on Friday, in a news conference with her Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu, at the State Department.

 

Recently, Israeli officials, buttressed by some former Bush administration appointees, have maintained that Jerusalem retained tacit US approval to build in already existing settlements, so long as new settlements were not created, the lines of the settlements' boundaries did not expand and no government aid was given to these residents.

 

Some Israeli officials are contending that the US is backtracking on previous understandings which were vital to Israel supporting both the Gaza disengagement, and the road map, a three-stage process leading towards a Palestinian state which called for a halt to settlement construction, including for natural growth.

 

Clinton said that despite reports of such understandings, which were outlined by former deputy national security adviser Elliott Abrams in The Washington Post in April, "There are contrary documents that suggest that they were not to be viewed as in any way contradicting the obligations that Israel undertook pursuant to the road map. And those obligations are very clear."

 

In response, a senior government official reiterated Jerusalem's position that understandings "were reached between the Israel and American government concerning settlements, and on the basis of those understanding Israel accepted the road map and disengaged from the Gaza Strip. Those understandings have been confirmed publicly by leading officials of the Bush administration."

 

Clinton and other State Department officials have also repeatedly refused to endorse a written document in 2004 from then US president George W. Bush to former prime minister Ariel Sharon, in which he acknowledged that it was not realistic to expect Israel to pull back completely to the June 1967 lines, something Israel interpreted as US support for its holding on to the large settlement blocs close to the Green Line.

 

Israel officials have long maintained that construction in these specific settlement blocs should not be subject to the same restraints imposed on other settlements, which are mostly located outside of the security fence and often near Palestinian population centers.

 

When the subject of whether the US felt bound by the Bush letter was raised with State Department Assistant Secretary Philip Crowley on Wednesday, he referred to Israeli and Palestinian obligations under the road map.

 

Asked whether this meant the US was not bound by the letter, he replied, "I would suggest that you keep focusing on the road map."

 

Despite the differences, a senior administration official told The Jerusalem Post shortly after Obama's speech in Cairo Thursday that "there's a professional, constructive dialogue on this issue," and that "we have differences, but believe we can find an arrangement that works."

 

The settlement issue is expected to be a primary focus of Mitchell's discussions here this week.

 

The settlements issue has become a major flash point between the US and Israeli governments, as Obama and his top deputies have frequently and publicly repeated the demand that settlement construction stop, despite the political complications that creates for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his coalition.

 

Obama himself attempted to defuse some of the tension during his European trip this weekend, however, pointing out that his demands have been long-standing US policy.

 

He also stressed that he is not only making demands of Israel.

 

"I've discussed the importance of a cessation of settlement construction," he said in France Saturday, "but I also want to reemphasize, because that's gotten more attention than what I've also said, which is the Palestinians have to renounce violence, end incitement, improve their governance capacity so that Israelis can be confident that the Palestinians can follow through on any commitments they make across the table."

 

The day before, in Germany, he also emphasized his call for the Arab states to take decisive action.

 

"The Arab states have to be a part of this process. It's not sufficient just to point at the Palestinian problem and then say we are not going to engage, we're not going to take responsibility," he said.

 

"They are going to have to step up as well because the Arab states not only are important politically, they're also important economically. And to the extent that they put their shoulder behind the wheel, that can move the process forward in a significant way."

 

He referred to them making economic and diplomatic moves towards Israel as the process gains momentum.

 

Obama also reiterated the importance of a two-state solution and making progress toward that goal, referring to "the need for all of us to redouble our efforts to bring about two states, Israel and a Palestinian state, that are living side by side in peace and security."

 

He added, "I think the moment is now for us to act on what we all know to be the truth, which is that each side is going to have to make some difficult compromises."

 

In a joint press conference with Obama in France on Saturday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy joined the US president in calling on Israel to stop settlement construction.

 

On Iran, the two presidents again mutually called for the Islamic Republic not to develop a nuclear weapons program.

 

Obama said there must be "tough diplomacy" with Teheran on the nuclear issue. Sarkozy said he worried about "insane statements" by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

 

Meanwhile, Obama on Friday delayed for another six months moving the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, in what has become a bureaucratic ritual since Congress passed a law in 1995 requiring the move.

 

An escape clause in the Jerusalem Embassy Act allows the president to delay the move every six months if he determines it contrary to US security interests.

 

"US policy on Jerusalem has not changed; Jerusalem is a final-status issue to be resolved in peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians," a White House official said Friday.

 

 

AP contributed to this report.
_______

 

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1244035012765&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

 

Obama stelt verhuizing Amerikaanse ambassade naar Jeruzalem uit

 

Ook de als zeer pro-Israel bekend staande Bush junior heeft de Amerikaanse ambassade niet naar Jeruzalem verplaatst. Zo eenzijdig pro-Israel was dus zelfs Bush niet in alle opzichten.

 

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

Jerusalem: We have not given up our 14 year hope: That the US will abide by its own laws

Last update - 03:40 06/06/2009       
Obama postpones U.S. embassy move from T.A. to Jerusalem
By Haaretz Service

 

 

United States President Barack Obama on Friday postponed moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by an additional six months, Israel Radio reported.

 

A senior White House official said that U.S. policy regarding the status of Jerusalem remains unchanged, and that it is a final-status issue to be resolved within the framework of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

 

The U.S. Congress approved the transfer of the embassy 14 years ago.
 
Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that all of Jerusalem would always remain under Israeli sovereignty. Netanyahu said he had made the same declaration during his visit to Washington last month when he met with Obama.

 

"The new U.S. administration informs us with intolerably ease that we have to give up Jerusalem," the premier said during a May ceremony marking Jerusalem Day.

 

"With all due respect, the U.S. president sees the American interest and does not know that Jerusalem is not a territorial issue, but a much deeper one - 'the hope of two thousand years/the land of Zion and Jerusalem,'" he said, quoting Israel's national anthem.

 

 

Palestijnse vluchtelingen in Libanon

 

Van alle Palestijnse vluchtelingen buiten Gaza, zijn die in Libanon er het slechtst aan toe. Ze leven voor een groot deel in aparte kampen, kunnen geen Libanees staatsburger worden, mogen allerlei beroepen niet uitoefenen en zijn daarom grotendeels afhankelijk van de hulp van UNRWA. Voor de duidelijkheid: dit stuk is niet vanuit een 'zionistisch perspectief', maar vanuit Libanees oogpunt geschreven.

Palestinians in Lebanon are also banned from seeking state healthcare, owning property and even bringing in building materials into the refugee camps.

Het is vreemd dat we hier zelden over horen, terwijl Israel continu door allerlei mensenrechtenactivisten en politici de maat wordt genomen omdat Palestijnen in Gaza bijvoorbeeld geen bouwmateriaal mogen invoeren. Beste Gretta, Van Agt, Von der Dunk & co, als je je zo druk maakt om de onderdrukking van de Palestijnen, waarom horen we jullie hier dan nooit over?

In 1976, Lebanese Christian militiamen overran the Tal al-Zaatar refugee camp in East Beirut and massacred or expelled all of its residents.

Wat men vergeet erbij te vermelden is dat dat gebeurde met Syrische goedkeuring en waarschijnlijk iets meer dan alleen goedkeuring....

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


Lebanon's Palestinian refugees

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/05/2009527115531294628.html
By Omar al-Issawi, Al Jazeera

 

 

In 1948 hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from or forced to flee their homeland in the wake of the creation of the state of Israel.

While some were forced out by armed Israeli militias - perhaps the most notorious being the Irgun and Stern gangs - others fled in the belief Arab armies would defeat those Jewish forces fighting for independence and that they would then be able to return home.

There are thousands of Palestinian refugees across the globe, many of whom settled in neighbouring Arab countries including Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Not to mention those Palestinians classed as refugees within the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

 

However, of all the Palestinian refugees in the Arab world, it is those who have taken shelter in Lebanon who have suffered the most.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) the international body set up to ensure the welfare of Palestinian refugees, the highest percentage of Palestinian refugees who are living in abject poverty reside in Lebanon.

 

There are about 400,000 officially registered Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, or approximately 10 per cent of the population. Just under half of the refugees continue to live in camps.

 

The issue of "naturalisation" of Palestinian refugees has often been used as a political card in Lebanon, a small country built on a delicate confessional balance.
Due to the sensitivity of the issue, there has been no official census in Lebanon since 1932 that could determine the number of Christians and Muslims of various sects.
Mostly Sunni Muslims, the Palestinian refugees are seen as a potential boon to Lebanese Muslim political aspirations, especially Sunni ones.

 

Civil war

 

And indeed, when the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was based in Lebanon between 1972 and 1982, it threw its lot behind the Muslim-dominated leftist forces that were engaged in civil war against the Christian-led right.

 

However, the PLO, under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, resolutely rejected the idea of Lebanon becoming a state for the dispossessed Palestinians.

While those Palestinians resident in Syria and Jordan, for example, do not enjoy the benefits of full citizenship, they do have access to education, healthcare and employment.

 

Conversely, Lebanon stands accused of not being the gracious host to the Palestinians that Arab tradition dictates.

 

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Palestinian refugee camps were under stringent Lebanese security control. For instance, travel from one camp to another was restricted and even reading newspapers in public was banned.

 

Today, Palestinians in Lebanon continue to suffer from draconian measures which the Lebanese state claims are there to prevent them from becoming permanent guests.

 

As recently as 2005, Palestinian refugees were banned from taking up employment in 70 professions. Today, the number of restricted professions stands at 20 and includes senior medical, legal and engineering careers.

 

Massacres

 

While these restrictions were recently eased, applicants must have a valid work permit and membership of the appropriate professional representative body. Both are beyond the financial means of most Palestinian refugees.

 

A major bone of contention for Lebanese nationals has been the fact that armed Palestinian groups continue to thrive in the refugee camps.

 

Many Lebanese believe the presence of armed Palestinians on Lebanese soil is a potential flashpoint and point to the clashes at the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in Northern Lebanon as a case in point.

 

Between May and September of 2007, Nahr al-Bared was the scene of a brutal conflict between the radical Fatah al-Islam group and the Lebanese army.
 
However, Nahr al-Bared was an exception to the rule, with the major refugee camps such as Ain al-Helweh falling under a shared sphere of influence among Fatah, Hamas and other Palestinian groups with strong grassroots support.

 

Indeed, the Palestinians themselves point out that their own security fears and a history of violence - including wholesale massacres - perpetrated in the camps is a major reason why Palestinians continue to bear arms.

 

In 1976, Lebanese Christian militiamen overran the Tal al-Zaatar refugee camp in East Beirut and massacred or expelled all of its residents.

 

Six years later, Israeli forces facilitated the entry of Lebanese Christian militiamen into the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in West Beirut. That massacre claimed the lives of about 800 residents of the camps.

 

Camps War

 

Between 1985 and 1989, Lebanon was the scene of what became known as the Camps War, when Pro-Syrian militiamen from Amal, a Lebanese Shia movement, and anti-Arafat factions laid siege to Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut and the South.

 

Palestinian refugees suffered grim atrocities, and according to journalist Robert Fisk, the Camps War was worse than the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
 
Today, on the eve of parliamentary elections, Palestinians in Lebanon are conveniently forgotten.

 

The battle lines have been drawn and they are along strictly Lebanese lines, with each political faction hurling accusations at each other and bringing into play the regional and international influences of Washington, Tel Aviv, Tehran and Damascus.

But many analysts point out that Lebanon ignores the plight of the Palestinians on its territory at its own peril.

 

Walk into Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, Ain al-Helweh, at midday and you are struck by the number of school age children in the streets, many going to and from their UNRWA schools as they cannot attend state schools.

 

Palestinians in Lebanon are also banned from seeking state healthcare, owning property and even bringing in building materials into the refugee camps.
However, the future of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon will be among the first items on the agenda of Lebanon's new parliament.

 

The Sabra Shatila Foundation, after consultation with human rights organisations including International Lawyers Sans Frontieres and members of Lebanon's legislature, will table a draft law in parliament which promises, in the words of the foundation, to: "erase, in one vote, decades of illegal and immoral treatment of more than 10 per cent of Lebanon's population".

 

The draft text reads: "Be it enacted by the Chamber of Deputies ... that all Palestinian refugees in Lebanon shall immediately acquire, receive and enjoy the full faith and credit of all civil rights possessed by Lebanese citizens except citizenship or naturalisation."

 

The alternative can only mean that Lebanon's refugee camps will be a hotbed for further frustration and disappointment for their residents, and could well prove to be a fertile breeding ground for future extremism.

 

 

PA troepen treden bruter op dan IDF bij huiszoekingen

Soms is de haat tussen Hamas en Fatah groter dan die tegen Israel. Het is niet de eerste keer dat de Palestijnen klagen dat Hamas/Fatah ze nog barbaarser behandelt dan Israeli's. Ik kan mij overigens niet voorstellen dat Israelische soldaten eerst toestemming vragen voordat ze het huis van een gezochte terrorist binnengaan, zoals deze moeder van een onlangs door Israel gedode Hamas terrorist beweert, dus wellicht is dit vooral bedoeld als belediging aan het adres van Fatah.

 

RP

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

 

'IDF troops more polite than PA police'
Khaled Abu Toameh , THE JERUSALEM POST

Jun. 6, 2009
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1244035010760&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

 

IDF soldiers who raid the homes of Palestinians are more polite than the Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank, the mother of a top Hamas terrorist who was killed by Israel said over the weekend.

The mother was speaking shortly after security forces loyal to PA President Mahmoud Abbas stormed her family's house in the village of Rafat in the West Bank.

Her son, Yihye Ayyash, nicknamed The Engineer, was responsible for a spate of suicide bombings in the 1990s that killed more than 100 Israelis and wounded hundreds others.

The mother said that about 30 Palestinian security officers participated in the raid early Friday.

"They behaved in a shameful way," she said. "When the Jews come, they ask for permission and cry out before they enter a house." She said that Abbas's security forces acted in a "barbaric" manner and did not take into account that women and children were sleeping inside the house.

The Palestinian policemen did not even knock on the door, she added. "They raided the house and started searching for weapons," she said. "They left behind a lot of damage. Even a copy of the Koran was not spared."

The raid on Ayyash's home came amid increased tensions between Hamas and Fatah in the West Bank. PA policemen killed four Hamas gunmen in Kalkilya in two separate incidents last week. Four policemen were also killed in the clashes.

Over the weekend, Abbas's forces arrested another six Hamas supporters in different parts of the West Bank, sources close to the Islamic movement said.

The sources said that the arrests bring to approximately 700 the number of Hamas-affiliated detainees who are currently being held in PA prisons in the West Bank.

The PA security forces have also banned the families of the four Hamas men who were killed in Kalkilya from mourning them in public, the sources said. They added that PA policemen prevented mourners from heading to the dead men's homes to offer their condolences to the families.

The wives of the owners of the houses where the Hamas men were hiding remain in custody.

Amal al-Basha, whose husband Abdel Nasser was killed in the first clash between the Hamas gunmen and PA policemen, is accused of hurling a hand grenade at the security forces, killing three policemen. She was seriously injured in the raid.

The second woman is the wife of Abdel Fattah Shraim. She and her husband are being interrogated on suspicion of providing shelter to the two Hamas terrorists who were shot and killed by PA policemen when they were discovered hiding in the family's basement.

Meanwhile, Hamas published photos and names of PA policemen and security commanders who allegedly took part in the elimination of the four Hamas men in Kalkilya.

Hamas called on its supporters in the West Bank to kill the policemen and their officers because of their role in the killings and for being "collaborators" with Israel and the US.

Hamas's list included Husam Sheikh Hamed, a senior officer with the PA's Preventive Security Service, who is said to have personally led the attacks on the two Hamas cells.

Egyptische psycholoog op Hamas TV: "De Joden verdienden hun vernietiging door Hitler"

 

Obama's woorden hebben blijkbaar niet op iedereen indruk gemaakt; hij heeft nog een hoop werk te verrichten in de Arabische landen. Vrijdag zei Gretta Duisenberg dat Hamas Israel helemaal niet wil vernietigen, en geen terrroristische organisatie is maar vrede wil sluiten. Hieronder wat vredelievende woorden die onlangs op Hamas TV waren te horen.

 

"I always ask myself: Why did Hitler annihilate the Zionists or the Jews? By character, they definitely deserve this. This is why they suffered this massacre or annihilation, and so, they adopt the [Nazi] character, and project it onto the Palestinian people."
 

RP

-----------

MEMRITV  No. 2128| June 5, 2009
Egyptian Psychologist Dr. Wafa Musa: The Jews Deserved Their Annihilation by Hitler


Following are excerpts from a Hamas TV women's show, which aired on May 14, 2009:

To view this clip, visit www.memritv.org/clip/en/2128.htm

Egyptian psychologist Dr. Wafa Musa: The terrorist psychology of the Jews derives only from their love of money. The only god or religion of the Jews is money - not the Jewish religion or the dream of the so-called Greater Israel. This is a lie they tell themselves.
[...]
I always ask myself: Why did Hitler annihilate the Zionists or the Jews? By character, they definitely deserve this. This is why they suffered this massacre or annihilation, and so, they adopt the [Nazi] character, and project it onto the Palestinian people.
[...]
Kifah Al-Ramali, Gaza Islamic University: The killing of Palestinian women, and women in general, by the Jews is not a random thing. Rather, it is their ideology, which is taught to their children in their curricula. It is mentioned in the books of the Torah. I will present some short samples, although their books are full of this. For instance, the greatest Jewish scholar, on whom they completely rely, Maimonides, wrote in his book that the Jews have the right to rape non-believing women. By non-believing, he meant non-Jewish.
[...]
Mother of quintuplets born in Gaza: The first I named Isma'il Haniya, and the second Khaled Mash'al. The third is Mahmoud Al-Zahar. And the girls are Fatima Al-Najjar and Maryam Farahat. God has given me this grace, which I consider a miracle. No matter how many martyrs we lose, we will continue to give birth to Palestinian heroes, who will grow to be fighters, Allah willing. I hope I will raise them well, Allah willing, that they will serve as a role model for the people, and that they will be well-educated. I hope that they will be... I present them as a gift to the country and to Islam. They are afraid that we will bear children, who will grow to be fighters. This is what they fear.

________________

 

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Palestijnse Autoriteit bijt Obama's hand

 

De onder controle van de Palestijnse Autoriteit staande krant Al-Hayad al-Jadida schreef over Obama:

 

"We do not expect the new American president to express hostility towards Israel or to demand that it dismantle settlements... He will remain hostage to the American imperialist interests, which are in tandem with [those of] the Israeli occupation...."

 

Dat is nogal vijandig na de verzoenende en zelfs nogal pro-Palestijnse speech van Obama in Cairo. Het heeft, aldus Barry Rubin, alles te maken met het radikalisme van veel leiders in de Palestijnse Autoriteit. Hij is dan ook erg pessimistisch:

 

"These are all factors that ensure there will be no comprehensive peace agreement and that Obama's policy will fail. He should only learn--and remember--that this outcome is going to be the PA's fault."

 

Los van wiens schuld dat zou zijn, laten we hopen dat Rubin geen gelijk krijgt, en Obama wel succes zal hebben. Daarvoor zal hij echter beide partijen onder druk moeten zetten en zijn ogen niet moeten sluiten voor het feit dat de Palestijnse Autoriteit vooralsnog Israel niet erkent en ieder compromis van de hand wijst.

 

RP

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The Palestinian Authority Bites Obama's Hand

http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2009/06/palestinian-authority-bites-obamas-hand.html

 

 

MEMRI is publishing a round-up of articles and cartoons in the Arabic-speaking world about President Barack Obama's Cairo speech. Roughly they fall into three categories: Obama is great and this marks a real change; we must await actions to accompany these fine words; and it is all a trick and conspiracy to fool Muslims.

A number of Saudi and Egyptian newspapers are positive, but those in a number of other countries fall into the second (suspicious) or third (rejectionist) categories.

What is most surprising--at least for U.S. policymakers--comes from the Palestinian Authority's (PA) official newspaper, Al-Hayad al-Jadida, written by its veteran editor, Hafez al-Barghouti. Presumably, he would not write something like this if the PA wanted a different response. According to the MEMRI translation he said:

"We do not expect the new American president to express hostility towards Israel or to demand that it dismantle settlements... He will remain hostage to the American imperialist interests, which are in tandem with [those of] the Israeli occupation...."

This is pretty hostile coming right after the most pro-Palestinian speech ever made by a U.S. president and the visit of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas to Washington, not to mention the fact that the PA is the largest beneficiary per capita of U.S. funds in history and faces no U.S. pressure to live up to its obligations.

Yet it is par for the PA's course. Gratitude is not in the PA's playbook. As shown in the Abbas visit to Washington, President Obama and his administration is likely to experience the PA's lack of cooperation with its effort to create quickly a Palestinian state. Already, for example, Abbas put two preconditions on any negotiations with Israel: stopping all construction on existing settlements and promising the PA a state in advance of any PA compromises or clear picture of what such a diplomatic solution would include.

In addition, violating U.S. law, the PA is still using aid from American taxpayer money to pay for institutions it names in honor of terrorists who murdered Israeli civilians.

This is because the PA is less eager for a state than Obama is, an element of the situation that many in the administration totally fail to comprehend. It is also due to the fact that Fatah, the PA's ruling party, is still quite radical. A large majority of its leaders still view as their goal Israel's complete destruction while the organization--including Abbas himself--are more eager for a deal with the radical Islamist Hamas than with Israel.

These are all factors that ensure there will be no comprehensive peace agreement and that Obama's policy will fail. He should only learn--and remember--that this outcome is going to be the PA's fault.