Israel 02 (Jan 10 - Dec 24)

[winston]

Ultra-Orthodox Jews make rare visit to Gaza

Sabbath in Gaza: Ultra-Orthodox Jews make rare visit to show support for Palestinians

A small group of ultra-Orthodox Jews were preparing Friday to celebrate the Jewish Sabbath in Gaza, in an unlikely show of support for Palestinians in the Hamas-run coastal territory.

Bearded and wearing black hats and coats, the four members of a tiny Jewish group vehemently opposed to Israel's existence were a rare sight in the poverty-stricken Palestinian territory.

Members of the Neturei Karta group have expressed support for the Iranian regime and for others who oppose the Jewish state, which they believe was established in violation of Jewish law. They made a similar visit to Gaza earlier this year.

"It's crucial that the people of Gaza understand the terrible tragedy here is not in the name of Judaism," said one of the men, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss of New York City, as the four prepared to observe the Sabbath at a Gaza City hotel.

Gaza is still recovering from Israel's devastating military offensive a year ago, which was aimed at halting rocket fire from the territory. Thirteen Israelis and almost 1,400 Gazans were killed in the three-week war.

The four men are American and Canadian citizens. Israel bans its citizens from visiting the blockaded territory. Weiss and his comrades entered Gaza through a border crossing with Egypt.

Neturei Karta, Aramaic for "Guardians of the City," was founded seven decades ago in Jerusalem by Jews who opposed the drive to establish the state of Israel, believing only the Messiah could do that.

Considered marginal even among ultra-Orthodox Jews, the group's size is estimated at between a few hundred to a few thousand people.

Source: AP News

[winston]

Israel: Palestinians to blame for impasse in talks

Israel blames Palestinians on talks impasse, criticizing suggestion to cut loan guarantees

AMY TEIBEL

Israel was up in arms Sunday after Washington's special envoy to the Mideast suggested the U.S. might impose sanctions on Israel to press it to make concessions in negotiations with the Palestinians.

Talks broke down a year ago and have not resumed because the Palestinians insist that Israel first halt all construction on disputed lands they want for a future state. Israel says the Palestinians should return to the negotiating table without conditions.

Envoy George Mitchell was asked in a television interview last week what sort of pressure could be applied to Israel.

"Under American law, the United States can withhold support on loan guarantees to Israel," Mitchell told PBS interviewer Charlie Rose, noting that the previous Bush administration had done so in the past.

But he quickly added that he preferred persuasion to sanctions.

Under the Bush administration, Israel received billions of dollars in guarantees, which are U.S.-backed loans with favorable interest rates. In 2003, the U.S. whittled down the guarantees after Israel built part of its separation barrier inside the West Bank rather than completely along it on the Israeli side.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office issued a statement in response to Mitchell's comments, pinning the blame for the negotiations logjam on the Palestinians.

"Everyone realizes that the Palestinian Authority refuses to renew peace talks, while Israel took significant steps to advance the process," the statement said.

In late November, Netanyahu announced that construction in Jewish West Bank settlements would slow down for 10 months, but not cease. He said building in east Jerusalem would proceed without restrictions.

Israel captured east Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan in 1967. The Palestinians and the international community consider Israeli construction in both areas to be settlement activity, and do not recognize Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem.

The Palestinians so far have rebuffed U.S. pressure to abandon their demand for a total construction freeze in both areas. They also want talks to resume where they left off under Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, who proposed sharing Jerusalem and ceding wide swaths of the West Bank to a future Palestinian state.

Israel says it has no preconditions for talks and is willing to immediately discuss all outstanding issues. But Netanyahu has said repeatedly that Israel does not intend to share Jerusalem, whose eastern sector the Palestinians claim for a future capital. And historically he has opposed giving up all the West Bank land the Palestinians claim.

( So what's to discuss ? )

The Palestinians say such positions offer little common ground for talks to succeed.

On Friday, the Obama administration laid out a major shift in its Mideast peace strategy, suggesting both sides move past this impasse by tackling defining borders for a Palestinian state and the status of Jerusalem.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that dealing with those matters first would eliminate Palestinian concerns about continued construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The Palestinians' immediate response was to hold fast to their demand for a complete construction freeze: If Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas retreats now from his demand for a complete settlement freeze, that could further hurt his standing among Palestinians who are increasingly skeptical about peace efforts.

However, if the new U.S. strategy will include support for holding the talks based on pre-1967 war borders, Abbas could present that as a major achievement.

Greater clarity is expected after Mitchell visits Israel and the Palestinian territories later this month. He plans to visit Paris and Brussels first to build support for the approach from European officials.

Source: AP News

[winston]

Israeli minister visits Abu Dhabi for first time

Israeli minister visits Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi for the first time

BARBARA SURK
AP News

Jan 17, 2010 05:41 EST

Israel for the first time sent a Cabinet minister to meetings in the United Arab Emirates, a Persian Gulf country that has no diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.

National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau told The Associated Press on Sunday he did not meet with any Emirati officials while attending a conference of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), based in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi. The agency's activities are open to Israel because it is a member state.

Landau said the Israeli delegation entered the country after "special arrangements" were made. "They had to do it since they committed themselves to making it possible for all member states, with or without relations, to participate in the agency's activities," Landau said in a phone interview from Abu Dhabi.

Last year the UAE denied entry to Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer to an international tournament in Dubai. The UAE officials said Peer was denied a visa because of anti-Israel sentiments in the Gulf state following last year's three-week war between Israel and Islamic militants in Gaza.

The tournament was fined a record $300,000 for refusing Peer the entry. Last week the UAE authorities sent a written assurance to the World Tennis Association that all players who will qualify for the 2010 championships will be allowed into the country and welcome to play in Dubai.

On Sunday, an official with the UAE's Foreign Ministry told The Associated Press that allowing Israel Cabinet minister to participate in the agency's activities was "part of obligations in hosting (the agency) in the UAE."

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. He added, that Israel's participation in the international event in the oil-rich Abu Dhabi will have "no implications or indications for bilateral links between the UAE and any other party."

Israel only has diplomatic relations with two Arab countries, Egypt and Jordan.

Last year, Mauritania and Qatar suspended contacts with Israel to protest the Gaza bloodshed. Mauritania, an Arab League member, had full diplomatic relations with Israel. Qatar, an energy-rich Gulf state had maintained low-level relations with the Jewish state by hosting an Israeli trade office in the capital Doha since 1996.

IRENA was established a year ago with a mission to promote sustainable use of al forms of renewable energy. In June, Abu Dhabi was selected as the agency's headquarters.

It's the first ever international organization based in the UAE.

Source: AP News

[winston]

Israeli defense minister in Turkey

Israeli defense minister in Turkey amid diplomatic row

IAN DEITCH
AP News

Jan 17, 2010 05:25 EST

Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak met Turkey's foreign minister on Sunday to try to repair ties between the allies that have been further strained this week by a diplomatic row in which Israel was forced to apologize for its treatment of the Turkish ambassador.

Barak is the first Israeli official to visit Turkey since the diplomatic feud that erupted Monday after Israel's deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, summoned Turkish Ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol to complain about a TV show. The ambassador was forced to sit on a low sofa without a handshake, while Ayalon explained to local TV stations that the humiliation was intentional. Outraged, Turkey threatened to recall the ambassador, forcing Ayalon to apologize.

The quarrel was the latest in a series of disputes between allies who had built strong military and economic ties over the past 15 years.

The visit was scheduled before the row, but is being closely watched for efforts to control the damage to the relationship that has also been hurt by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's frequent outbursts of fury over what he considers Israel's aggressive treatment of Palestinians.

Hours before Barak's departure, Ayalon said the Turkish ambassador could be expelled if Turkish TV dramas continue to depict Israeli security forces as brutal. Ayalon had called in the ambassador to reprimand him over a TV program that showed Israeli agents kidnapping children and shooting old men. It was the second such program to be aired on Turkish television in recent months.

Barak on Sunday met with Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to discuss the latest crisis. He is also scheduled to meet Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul later Sunday.

Barak and his fellow Labor Party member, Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, have significantly warmer relations with Turkey than Ayalon and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's ultra-nationalist party.

Upon his arrival in Turkey, Barak was greeted warmly at the airport by a Turkish admiral. His first stop was at the mausoleum of modern and secular Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, whom Barak praised as an inspiration in making the region "one of peace and security."

Although there are ongoing military cooperation projects between Turkey and Israel, such as the purchase from Israel of Israeli-made Heron unmanned aircraft that the military hopes to use to monitor Kurdish rebel hideouts, the level of cooperation has decreased.

Barak was expected to discuss the US$190 million (euro131 million) deal for the Herons, which was signed several years ago, but which has been held up due to a malfunction in a camera system manufactured for the drones by a Turkish subcontractor.

__

Associated Press Writers Suzan Fraser and Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara contributed to this report.

Source: AP News

[winston]

New Israeli demand complicates US peace mission

Netanyahu's demand to keep troops in Jordan Valley complicates latest US peace mission

AMY TEIBEL
AP News

Washington's Middle East envoy faced a new obstacle Thursday as he launched his latest attempt to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks: Israel wants to keep troops on the West Bank's border with Jordan even if a deal is reached.

Palestinians rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's demand, made just before U.S. envoy George Mitchell arrived in Israel on Wednesday. Mitchell has been laboring without success for a year to get both sides back to the negotiating table, and Netanyahu's new demand made his mission even more formidable.

Netanyahu said Israel must maintain a presence "on the eastern side of a prospective Palestinian state" to keep militants from using the territory to launch rockets at Israel's heartland.

The eastern side of such a state would be the part of the Jordan Valley that lies in the West Bank.

Saeb Erekat, a confidant of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called the demand "absolutely unacceptable."

"The borders of the state of Palestine will be Jordan," Erekat told Israel Radio. "The Jordan Valley is ours, is Palestine. Why do they insist on being on our territory?"

The Palestinians have refused to sit down with Israel until it stops all construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, saying it is eating up lands they claim for their future state. Israel, which captured both areas in 1967, has slowed settlement construction in the West Bank, but has applied no restrictions in east Jerusalem, which Netanyahu hopes to retain.

Israel also says negotiations should begin immediately with no conditions, but the Palestinians accuse Israel of heaping plenty of conditions of its own, including the demilitarization of a future Palestinian state, the retention of east Jerusalem and now, a military presence along Jordan's border.

To stake out these positions "and then tell us, come negotiate: Negotiate on what, Mr. Netanyahu? You left nothing to negotiate," Erekat fumed.

The hard-line Israeli leader heads a coalition largely opposed to the sweeping territorial concessions that would be necessary to clinch a peace deal with the Palestinians. He himself had long refused to endorse the concept of Palestinian statehood, doing so only in June under intense U.S. pressure.

Mitchell is to meet with Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials on Thursday, and with Palestinian officials in the West Bank on Friday.

Erekat, meanwhile, denied that Abbas has floated the idea of having the U.S. try to close a deal on the final borders of a Palestinian state on their behalf.

Abbas aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, have told The Associated Press that the Palestinian president made such a proposal in recent meetings with Egyptian officials, as a way of getting around the current deadlock.

On Thursday, Erekat said Abbas has asked the U.S. to state clear terms for future talks, but not to negotiate on the Palestinians' behalf.

"We never asked the U.S. to close the deal for us," he said.

Source: AP News

[winston]

Bunch of idiots.

US peace envoy meeting with Israeli prime minister

US peace envoy meeting with Israeli leader after effort to relaunch talks fails

Staff
AP News

Jan 24, 2010 01:49 EST

Washington's special envoy to the Mideast pressed ahead Sunday with his efforts to get Israel and the Palestinians talking peace again, going back to Israel's prime minister after the Palestinians refused to return to the negotiating table.

The U.S. official, George Mitchell, has been trying for a year to rekindle talks, but his mission has stalled over Israeli settlement construction. Last week, President Barack Obama acknowledged he underestimated the domestic political forces at play in the region and overreached in expecting a quick breakthrough in Mideast peacemaking.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is standing firm by his demand that Israel freeze all construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem before he resumes talks, which broke off more than a year ago.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to slow construction in the West Bank, but has not halted it totally or imposed any limitations on building in east Jerusalem.

Israel annexed that sector of the city, home to sacred Jewish, Muslim and Christian sites, shortly after capturing it and the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. The international community does not recognize the annexation and the Palestinians claim east Jerusalem for their future capital.

Mitchell arrived in the region late last week in yet another attempt to break the logjam and met separately with Netanyahu and Abbas. Early Sunday, he met with Netanyahu again; it wasn't immediately clear if Mitchell would hold another meeting with Abbas in Jordan as planned.

The Israeli leader heads a coalition largely opposed to the sweeping territorial concessions that would be necessary to clinch a peace deal with the Palestinians. He himself had long refused to endorse the concept of Palestinian statehood, doing so only in June under intense U.S. pressure.

The Palestinians are afraid that Washington's inability to get Israel to even temporarily freeze settlement construction augurs ill for any Israeli concessions on tougher issues like partitioning Jerusalem.

Abbas is also worried his already battered standing among the Palestinian people would suffer further if he resumes talks without at least a settlement freeze. The Palestinian leader is locked in a fierce rivalry with Islamic Hamas militants who overran the Gaza Strip in 2007 and believe only violence, not negotiations, will pressure Israel to yield war-won land.

Source: AP News

[winston]

Hamas: Israel assassinated operative in Dubai

Palestinian Hamas accuses Israel of assassinating veteran operative in Dubai

ALBERT AJI
AP News

Jan 29, 2010 06:49 EST

Hamas claimed on Friday that Israeli agents assassinated one of the Palestinian militant group's veteran operatives in a killing allegedly carried out last week in Dubai, and vowed to retaliate.

The militant group identified its slain figure as Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing that has been responsible for hundreds of deadly attacks and suicide bombings targeting Israelis since the 1980s. It said he was 50 years old.

Hamas blamed Israel for the slaying but gave no details on the alleged Israeli involvement. Israel's government had no immediate comment.

Izzat Rashaq, a top member of Hamas' exiled leadership in Damascus, told The Associated Press that details have not been released to avoid compromising an ongoing investigation, and that Hamas' delayed announcement was linked to an attempt to "reach the Israeli agents who implemented this operation."

Talal Nassar, an official in Hamas' media office in Damascus, said al-Mabhouh had been "poisoned and electrocuted in his hotel room in Dubai." He did not elaborate.

Al-Mabhouh lived in Syria and was passing through Dubai when he was killed late Jan. 19 or early Jan. 20, Rashaq said. Originally from the Gaza Strip, al-Mabhouh was married and had four children, he said.

"We in Hamas hold the Zionist enemy responsible for the criminal assassination of our brother, and we pledge to God and to the blood of the martyrs and to our people to continue his path of jihad and martyrdom," read the statement on Hamas' Palestinian Information Center Web site. The group pledged to "retaliate for this Zionist crime at the appropriate time and place."

Al-Mabhouh was buried later Friday at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, near Damascus. More than 2,000 Palestinians attended the funeral, many carrying Palestinian flags and portraits of Hamas leaders.

Al-Mabhouh's coffin was wrapped in a green Hamas flag and a large portrait of him was placed at the entrance to the mosque with the words: "Your fingerprints are everywhere ... we promise to continue in your path."

The Hamas statement said al-Mabhouh was involved in the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989 and that he was still playing a "continuous role in supporting his brothers in the resistance inside the occupied homeland" at the time of his death.

In Dubai, officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Hamas rules Gaza but has leaders and operatives based in Syria, and elsewhere. The group's members abroad have been targeted in the past. The leader of its Damascus-based politburo, Khaled Mashaal, survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Amman, Jordan, in 1997. Last month, two Hamas men were killed in a mysterious late-night blast in Beirut. Hamas said at the time that Israel was an obvious suspect but stopped short of openly accusing Israel of the killings.

Israel is suspected of being behind the assassination of a senior military commander from the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah in Damascus in 2008. The Mossad, Israel's intelligence arm abroad, never openly discusses its operations and Israel's government typically does not comment on incidents in which the Mossad's involvement is suspected.

Dubai has for years been known as a low-risk hideaway for disgraced politicians and deposed foreign leaders but that image was shattered last March, when Chechnya's Sulim Yamadayev — a former rebel in the republic's long conflict with Russia who switched sides but then fell out with the territory's pro-Moscow leader — was shot dead in a Dubai underground parking lot.

The Emirates backs Hamas rival, the West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but does not list the militant group as a terrorist organization. Emirati officials have several times met with Hamas representatives in the capital Abu Dhabi.

____

Associated Press Writers Matti Friedman in Jerusalem, Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, Zeina Karam in Beirut and Barbara Surk in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Source: AP News

[winston]

Israelis disciplined in Gaza artillery fire

Israeli military disciplines 2 officers over use of artillery fire

AMY TEIBEL
AP News

Feb 01, 2010 06:03 EST

The Israeli military said Monday it has reprimanded two high-ranking officers for approving the firing of artillery shells toward a U.N. compound during the Gaza Strip war last year — the first admission of any high-level wrongdoing during the offensive.

Israel announced the punishment in a document submitted to the United Nations last Friday in response to a U.N. report that has accused Israel's military of committing war crimes. Israel is trying to stave off the report's central threat of launching war crimes proceedings if it does not carry out an independent investigation into the military's conduct during the fighting.

The artillery attack, which took place while more than 700 Palestinian civilians were taking refuge, set ablaze a warehouse that services more than 1 million Gazans and destroyed thousands of pounds (kilograms) of food and other aid. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was visiting the region at the time, and three people were wounded, according to U.N. officials.

Israel has said militants opened fire on Israeli troops from the compound — a charge the U.N. disputes. Nonetheless, the Israeli report said, a brigadier general and a colonel "exceeded their authority in a manner that jeopardized the lives of others" by authorizing the firing of artillery shells in the area.

Military officials denied a Haaretz newspaper report that the officers were reprimanded for firing white phosphorous shells, a highly incendiary munition. White phosphorus can be used legally in some battlefield situations, but its use in built-up areas of Gaza has drawn war crimes allegations. The U.N. report has said it was improperly used in this attack.

"The most important thing that I want to emphasize is we have absolutely nothing to hide," said military spokesman Capt. Barak Raz.

The military would not identify the reprimanded officers. But Israeli newspapers and radio stations identified them as Gaza division commander Brig. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg and Col. Ilan Malka, then-commander of the elite Givati brigade. Disciplinary action could compromise their chances for promotion.

Israel launched the war to end years of Palestinian rocket attacks on its southern communities. More than 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 900 civilians, were killed, along with 13 Israelis. Large areas of Gaza were devastated and remain desolate because an ongoing Israeli and Egyptian blockade has prevented rebuilding.

The U.N. report, authored by veteran war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, has accused Israel of using disproportionate force and deliberately targeting civilians. It also accused Hamas of firing rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians.

Both sides reject the charges. They have until Friday to respond, but have signaled they would not meet the central demand of allowing credible, independent probes.

The Israeli military has conducted more than 140 inquiries into alleged violations of international law in connection with the war. Thirty-seven criminal investigations were launched, resulting in one minor conviction so far. Twenty-nine cases remain open, the military said.

Israel has said its current investigative process is sufficient, but critics have questioned the ability of the military to credibly investigate itself.

Israel-Palestinian peace talks broke down during the fighting, and U.S.-backed efforts to relaunch them have failed. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded Israel first declare a total freeze of construction on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state.

On Monday, the Palestinians signaled they're willing to scale back their demands for an Israeli settlement freeze, from six months to three months.

Abbas believes that once negotiations begin, they can lead to an agreement quickly, said Saeb Erekat, a senior Abbas aide. "He wants a freeze during the talks, and he said we don't need more than three months," Erekat said.

Israel has agreed to slow down construction in the West Bank for 10 months, but not in east Jerusalem, the disputed section of the city claimed by the Palestinians for their future capital. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Monday that Israel would go no further.

To break the impasse, the U.S. has proposed that U.S. envoy George Mitchell shuttle between the two sides to try to forge a deal. Mitchell has told Abbas he believes such talks could be concluded within two years, according to Erekat.

Abbas is considering the idea, and expects to get more details in a meeting with U.S. diplomats in the West Bank this week, Erekat said.

>--------

Karin Laub in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.

Source: AP News

[winston]

Israel warns Syria it would lose future war

Israel warns Syria to end provocation, says Arab neighbor would lose in future conflict

Israel is warning Syria not to attack the Jewish state and says the Syrian president's regime would collapse in case of a future conflict.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's made the warning at a lecture at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv on Thursday.

His comments came a day after Syria's foreign minister accused Israel of warmongering. Syrian President Bashar Assad has also accused Israel of not being ready for peace.

Lieberman warned Assad: "In the next war, not only will you lose but you and your family will lose power."

Several rounds of indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel ended without a breakthrough in 2008.

Syria demands the return of Golan Heights — the strategic plateau Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war — as the price of any deal.

Source: AP News

[winston]

A Defensive Buildup in the Gulf By George Friedman

The Israelis want Iran's nuclear program destroyed, but they do not want to be the ones to try to do it. Only the United States has the force needed to carry out the strike conventionally. But like the Bush administration, the Obama administration is not confident in its ability to remove the Iranian program surgically.

As Iran does not threaten the United States, the United States therefore is in no hurry to initiate combat. And so the United States has launched a public relations campaign about defensive measures, hoping to affect Iranian calculations while remaining content to let the game play itself out.

Israel's option is to respond to the United States with its intent to go nuclear, something Washington does not want in a region where U.S. troops are fighting in countries on either side of Iran. Israel might calculate that its announcement would force the United States to pre-empt an Israeli nuclear strike with conventional strikes. But the American response to Israel cannot be predicted. It is therefore dangerous for a small regional power to try to corner a global power.

With the adoption of a defensive posture, we have now seen the U.S. response to the February deadline. This response closes off no U.S. options (the United States can always shift its strategy when intelligence indicates), it increases the Arabian Peninsula's dependence on the United States, and it possibly causes Iran to recalculate its position. Israel, meanwhile, finds itself in a box, because the United States calculates that Israel will not chance a conventional strike and fears a nuclear strike on Iran as much as the United States does.

In the end, Obama has followed the Bush strategy on Iran — make vague threats, try to build a coalition, hold Israel off with vague promises, protect the Arabian Peninsula, and wait — to the letter. But along with this announcement, we would expect to begin to see a series of articles on the offensive deployment of U.S. forces, as good defensive posture requires a strong offensive option.

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