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Dec. 16, 2014
Daily summary- Sunday, January 26, 2014
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Main News
Newspaper: PLO currently examine options after negotiations
Palestinian sources said the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat today that the PLO is considering all options and paths to follow after nine months of negotiations with Israel.The sources said that the last meeting of the Palestinian leadership has an in-depth discussion on the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations sponsored by US Secretary of State John Kerry. The sources added that the meeting came just days after the last meeting of Fateh Central Committee, and discussed assurances given by Kerry to the parties, particularly the Palestinians, promising them to have an independent State at the end.(http://safa.ps/details/news/121288/%D8%B5%D8%AD%D9%8A%D9%81%D8%A9%D9%85%D8%AA%D9%81-%D8%AA%D8%A8%D8%AD%D8%AB-%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%8B-%D8%AE%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%B6%D8%A7%D8%AA.html)
Pigs’ heads and threat letters sent to the Israeli Embassy in Rome
Boxes containing pigs’ heads were sent to the Israeli Embassy, and to the synagogue in Rome, local media reported today yesterday. Rome Mayor Ignacio Marino said in a Tweet: “those who insultthe Jewish community insult Rome. We reject this explicit intimidating act”.Police seized the boxes sent to the Embassy after other pigs’ headers were sent to the synagogue and to the Jewish Museum of Rome.(http://www.wattan.tv/ar/news/84848.html)
Livni threatens President Abbas in paying the price
Israeli Justice Minister and head of the Israel’s negotiation team Tzipi Livni, threatened Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in paying the price if he insists on his position refusing to recognize Israel as a Jewish State, in addition to hispositions that are unacceptable to Israelis.Livni who was interviewedatthe weekly program "meet the press", aired on channel 2 yesterday evening , expressed her hope to reach an agreement with the Palestinians during the remaining three months of negotiations.(Al-Quds)
Haaretz: Kerry intends to put forward a framework agreement to the Israelis and the Palestinians as a basis for subsequent negotiations!
Foreign Minister John Kerry announced he intends to put forward a framework agreement to the Israeli and Palestinian sides within few weeks. Kerry said the agreement will include principles for resolving all outstanding substantive issues between the parties, and will constitute as a basis for the next stages of the negotiations.According to Israeli daily Haaretz yesterday, Kerry made this statement during a meeting with Israeli and Palestinian businessmen on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's on Friday.Haaretz quoted an Israeli businessman who participated in the meeting as saying that “Minister Kerry showed a great deal of determination to achieve progress in the negotiations."(http://www.amad.ps/ar/?Action=Details&ID=12706)
Kerry: Israelis are right they will not withdraw unless they are definite the West Bank will not become a new Gaza
US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the Israeli army's withdrawal from the territory of a Palestinian State is conditional on Israel being convinced that the West Bank will not turn into a second Gaza, noting that Jerusalem will embody the aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians. Kerry said "Jerusalem is the crucible of the three monotheistic religions, will be known not as a cause of constant struggle, but as a Golden City for peace and unity, which embodies the aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike."Kerry noted that "one of the biggest challenges to reaching this agreement is security, Palestinians must know that at the end of the day, the land will be free of Israeli forces, occupation will end, but Israelis are right they will not withdraw unless they know that the West Bank Gaza will not become a new Gaza, and no one can blame any Israeli leader because they felt concerned about this reality."(Al-Ayyam)
Settlers attacked farmers in Hebron and filmed their victims
Israeli forces arrested at dawn yesterday, a citizen at the container military checkpoint south of Jerusalem, and summoned three civilians from the village of Deir Samet, southwest of Hebron, to attend intelligence headquarters. While settlers from Karmy El settlement attacked and beat citizens and shepherdsin the village of Um Al-Khier east of Yatta. Coordinator of the popular resistance committees for resisting the wall and settlement south of Hebron Rateb Jbour, that settlers attacked the village and beat a number of citizens, including Haj Suleiman Alhezalin (65 years old) and his wife MalehaAlhezalin (57 years old). According to eyewitnesses the settlers attacked the citizens under protection of the Israeli occupation forces and police forces and the so-called civil administration. (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
Jihad aims to move armed operations, including suicide attacks to Israel and the West Bank
Islamic Jihad movement in Gaza targeted by Israeli army since it intensified rocket launches seeksto move the battle to the West Bank and Israel including suicide attacks. The movement expressed its support for maintaining the truce in place since the end of the Israeli operation, which took place between 14 to 16 November, in the Gaza Strip.(Al-Ayyam)
Palestinians from inside the green line demonstrate in Ramallah against the siege of Al-Yarmouk
Dozens of Palestinians from indie the green line demonstrated yesterday in Ramallah in protesting the siege of the Palestinian refugee camp Al-Yarmouk in Syria, demanding the exit of armed groups from the camp and entering the necessary assistance and aid to the trapped population.The demonstration was attended by leaders from inside the green line. The demonstrators were prevented from reaching Al-Moqata’ah by the Palestinian security forces. (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
Three Palestinians injured of occupation fire east of Gaza
Local medical sources said three Palestinians were injured of the occupation troops shooting yesterdayeast of Gaza City.The sources said to Xinhua News Agency that the Israeli forces stationed near the fence separating the Gaza Strip and Israel, opened fire at Palestinian houses in Al-Shojaeya neighborhood injuring three people.(Al-Ayyam)
Poll: 87% of Israelis believe that the political negotiations will end without an agreement
Israeli channel 7 reported a poll conducted by "Milord Brown" in Israel, showing that 87% of Israelis believe thatnegotiations will not end with reaching an agreement.The poll also showed that 77% of Israelis believe that Israel insists that Palestinians recognize it as a Jewish State in return 17% do not think so.The poll also showed that 63%t of Israelis opposes giving up east Jerusalem as part of a political agreement, while 26% expressed no opposition. With regards to the role of the US Secretary of state John Kerry in the talks, 38% of Israelis believe that Kerry is biased to the Palestinian side while only 2% said that Kerry is biased to Israel, as the survey showed that 27% thought that Kerryis not biased.(http://arabic.pnn.ps/index.php/israel/79515-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B9-87%D9%AA-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%8A%D8%B9%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%B6%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%AA%D9%87%D9%8A-%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%86-%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%82)
UNRWA workers' strike threatens with an environmental catastrophe in the camps
Pikes of accumulated waste is in every corner of refugee camps in the West Bank, spreading its smells everywhere in the camps, while the UNRWA workers’ strike continue for more than 50 days now, which threatens in an environmental disaster. In this context, the Ministry of Health warned accumulation of waste in populated areas, because of its impact on the environment in general, and the health of citizens in particular.(Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
Washington: the US framework document is not an American plan, but the results of the negotiations
State Department said in a statement issued yesterday by Deputy Mary Harvey that the framework agreement that the US Administration is developing is not a US plan, but the fruit of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, and it reflectswhat happened during the negotiations. Harvey added, in what looked like an answer to Netanyahu’s statement describing the framework agreement as a pure American plan, “Negotiations produce progress but it is not easy and there is more work to be done.” (Al-Ayyam)
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Headlines
** Today, the sixth anniversary of the martyrdom of Al-Hakim (George Habash) (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
** The memory of the January revolution…bloody violence and demonstrations supporting Al-Sisi (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
** The doctors' Union stops its protest actions after reaching an agreement with the Government (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
** The Geneva negotiations start with Homs and movesslowly to the political aspect (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
** Family of martyr Ahmad Abd Al-Jawwad receive his body on Tuesday (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
** 29 killed and 167 wounded in clashes between the brotherhoodand Egyptian police and citizens celebrating the memory of the January revolution in large concentrations appeared as electoral festivals for Al-Sisi (Al-Ayyam)
** Iraq: 28 people killed in attacks and military operations in Anbar (Al-Ayyam)
** Tripoli: five employees of the Egyptian Embassy kidnapped in 24 hours (Al-Ayyam)
** Syrian regime air force strikes Damascus and Aleppo (Al-Ayyam)
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Front Page Photos
Al- Quds:Cairo – young Egyptians supporters of the Brotherhood throw stones at police.
Al-Ayyam:1) Cairo – thousands of Egyptians celebrate in Tahrir square, 2) Settlers attack citizens in Um Al-Khier yesterday.
Al Hayat Al Jadida:1) Cairo – Egyptians at Tahrir square raising the Egyptian flags, 2) George Habash, 3) settlers with soldiers take pictures of an old man after being attack by them, 4) demonstration in solidarity with Al-Yarmouk in Ramallah.
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Voice of Palestine Interviews
** Abdulhadi Hantash, settlement official in southern West Bank, on settlers attacking citizens in Um Al-Khier.
As we said in previous occasions, there is vicious settlement campaign in southern West Bank in general, and in the Hebron district particularly, in addition to attacks by settlers against citizens and their property in a daily basis, these attacks are protected by the occupation. Yesterday there were a number of attacks against citizens and their property, these areas are always targeted by settlers and farmers suffer from settlers’ attacks for years. Also, a number of attacks happened in Um Al-khier village, an area that was confiscated lately and a new outpost was established in the land. This land belong to Al-Hazalin family who is targeted since they live near the fence of Karmy El settlement, and they are trying to do everything to make these families leave the area.
Q: What about coordination with other popular committees?
I said more than once that coordination between these committees is important in all Palestinian lands to confront these attacks, but seems like there are some committees who are not willing to cooperate and weakens all of us.
** Walid Assaf, Minister of Agriculture, on planting olive trees in Sinjil, where settlers uprooted olive trees.
Q: you planted trees in Sinjil but attacks continue, do you have strategic plan to deal with this issue and end these attacks?
First of all this is apolitical issue not an agricultural issue, settlers attacks are political attacks supported by the occupation army, aiming at taking control of Palestinians land as part of bigger settlement plan to Judaize the land, and end the two state solution. This is also the strategic goal in building the wall and establishing more settlements. So we are talking about organized and systematic attacks by settlers and the occupation army and other occupation authorities, there different roles each play its role. We try to help our people on its steadfastness, and part of it is our program supporting farmers and providing tress for planting.
Q: What you are talking about is very important, but settlers can uproot these trees again, isn’t there a way to protect these lands from settlers’ attacks, for example with regards to the popular committees and protection committees?
As I said before, this a political issue, it is not our issue as the agriculture Ministry, what we do is only try to help and support.
Q: will the ministry plan all uprooted trees?
Yes, and we will continue to support farmers.
** Saleh Ra’fat, member of the PLO Executive Committee, on steps taken by the PLO to put forward option after the negotiations.
Q: can you tell us more about this plan?
The Executive Committee meeting discussed the daily actions taken by the Netanyahu government, especially in Jerusalem, the daily tenders for settlement constructions and his statements considering the West Bank as the Jewish homeland. In addition to the US Secretary of State’s proposals that are not responsive to international legitimacy resolutions and the Palestinian peoples aspirations but with the Israeli demands. Hence the Executive Committee decided to ask the political committee to meet and decide on ways forward. The political committee met and decided on approaching immediately to international organization. Of course there are some priorities without going into details, and approach the Security Council and the general assembly to deal with land confiscation and settlement tenders and demolition actions. The committee will also recommend holding a conference on the Arab Israeli conflict, the president was in Moscow and discussed the Russian role in solving the conflict, as you know a conference was supposed to be held in Russia after Annapolis but it was canceled because of the American position which was against such a conference.
Q: Livni’s statements yesterday threatened the President if insisting on his position he will pay the price, are you aware of the danger and what the occupation might do?
Of course, we hear these statements from all ministers of the right wing government in Israel, we know what Sharon said when he threatened Arafat, and they did it. We are aware all of these dangers, and we keep on consulting with the international community to warn the Israeli government from doing any act in this regard.
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More Headlines
Israel allows entry of 1000 tons of construction materials to Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon instructed to enter 1000 tons of construction materials for UN projects to repair what was damaged in the Gaza Strip during the snow storm, according Yediot Ahronot website.The website said that Ya’alon agreed and allowed the coordinator of activities in the Palestinian territories, Eitan Dinkot, to enter construction materials for UN projects in the Gaza Strip.(http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=668165)
Settlers attack a child in Hebron
Settlers attacked last night the child Yazan Ziedan Al-Sharbaty (13 years old) at Shuhada Street in Hebron. The child’s father told “Wafa”, that settlers from Biet Hadasa settlement, established on lands belonging to citizens, attacked the child and beat him while heading to a near store, resulting in injuries in his body. The father added that Israeli soldiers arrested him and his son, following the attack and took them to a police station "Kiryat Arba" settlement, and detained them for five hours, then they were accused of attempting to attack settlers and soldiers. The father said that the two were released only after signing a pledge to return to court if asked to do so. (http://www.wattan.tv/ar/news/84853.html)
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Arab Press
Israel’s politics of fear
By URI AVNERY
During the last hundred years, Russia has undergone huge changes. At the beginning, it was ruled by the Czar, in an absolute monarchy with some democratic decorations, a “tyranny mitigated by inefficiency.”
After the downfall of the Czar, a liberal and equally inefficient regime ruled for a few months, when it was overthrown by the Bolshevik revolution.
The “dictatorship of the proletariat” lasted for some 73 years, which means that three generations passed through the Soviet education system. That should have been enough to absorb the values of internationalism, socialism and human dignity, as taught by Karl Marx.
The Soviet system imploded in 1991, leaving few political traces behind. After a few years of liberal anarchy under Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin took over. He has proved himself to be an able statesman, making Russia into a world power again. He has also instituted a new autocratic system, clamping down on democracy and human rights. When we view these events, spanning a century, we are obliged to conclude that after undergoing all these dramatic upheavals Russia is politically more or less where it started. The difference between the realm of Czar Nicholas II and President Putin is minimal. The national aspirations, the general outlook, the regime and the status of human rights are more or less the same.
What does that teach us? For me it means that there is something like a national character, which does not change easily, if at all. Revolutions, wars, disasters come and go, and the basic character of a people remains as it was.
Let us take another example, closer to us geographically: Turkey. Mustafa Kemal was a fascinating person. People who met him when, as an officer in the Ottoman army, he was serving in Palestine, described him as an interesting character and a heavy drinker. He was born in Thessaloniki in Greece, a town, which was mostly Jewish at the time, and took part in the revolution of the Young Turk movement, which aimed at the renovation of the Ottoman Empire, which had become the “sick man of Europe.”
After the Turkish defeat in World War I, Kemal set out to create a new Turkey. His reforms were very far-reaching. Among others, he abolished the Ottoman Empire and the ancient Muslim Caliphate, changed the script of the Turkish language from Arabic to Latin, pushed religion out of politics, turned the army into “the guardian of the (secular) republic,” forbade men and women to wear traditional dress like the fez and the hijab. His ambition was to turn Turkey into a modern European country.
In 1934, when the surname law was adopted, the Parliament gave him the name “Atatürk” (Father of Turks). The people adore him to this day. His picture hangs in all government offices. Yet now we witness the reversal of most of his reforms.
Turkey is today ruled by an Islamic party, voted in by the people and Islam is making a major comeback. After staging several coups, the army has been pushed out of politics. The present leadership is accused by some of neo-Ottoman policies. Does this mean that Turkey is returning to where it was a hundred years ago?
One can cite examples from all over the world. Some 220 years after the mother of all modern revolutions, the Great French Revolution, the frivolous adventures of the present French president are being compared to those of the Bourbon kings. Nothing much has remained from the times of the austere Charles de Gaulle, neither morally nor politically.
Italy has still not attained political stability, after the intermezzo of the clownish Silvio Berlusconi. A much-reduced Great Britain still thinks and behaves like the empire in its heyday, striving to get away from the Europe of the Frogs and the Wogs. And so forth.
I like to quote (again) Elias Canetti, the Nobel Prize-winning writer claimed by Bulgaria, England and Switzerland, not to mention the Jews. In one of his works he claims that every nation has its own character, like a human being. He even undertook to describe the character of major nations by symbols: the British are like a sea captain, the Germans are like a forest of tall, straight oaks, the Jews are formed by the exodus from Egypt and the wandering in the desert. He sees these characteristics as constant.
Professional historians may laugh at such dilettantism. However, I believe that the injection of some literary insights into history is all for the better. It deepens the understanding.
All this leads me to the Jewish-Israeli metamorphosis.
Israel was literally created by the Zionist movement. This was one of the most revolutionary of revolutions, if not the most far-reaching of all. It did not aspire to the change of a regime, like Mandela in South Africa. Nor to a profound change of society, like the Communist movements. Nor to a cultural change, like that of Atatürk. Zionism wanted to achieve all that, and much more.
It wanted to take a dispersed religious-ethnic community, born in ancient times and turn it into a modern nation. To cause them to adopt a new language — a dead language that was brought to life again, a task no other people ever succeeded in accomplishing. To do all this in a foreign country inhabited by another people.
Of all revolutionary movements of the 20th century, Zionism was the most successful and enduring. Communism. Fascism and dozens of others came and went. Zionism endures. But is Israeli society really Zionist, as it claims loudly and repeatedly?
Zionism was basically a rebellion against the Jewish existence in the Diaspora. In the religious sphere, it was a reformation more profound than that of Martin Luther.
All prominent Jewish Rabbis, both Hasidic as anti-Hasidic, condemned Zionism as a heresy. The People of Israel were united by their absolute obedience to God’s 613 commandments, not by any “national” bonds. God had strictly forbidden any mass return to the Land of Israel, since He had exiled the Jews for their sinful behavior. The Jewish Diaspora was thus decreed by God and had to remain, until He changes His mind.
And here came the Zionists, mostly atheists, and wanted to bring the Jews to the Land of Israel without God’s permission, indeed abolishing God altogether. They built a secular society. They held abysmal contempt for the Diaspora, especially for the Orthodox “ghetto Jews.” Their founding father, Theodor Herzl, held that after the foundation of the Jewish State, no one outside it would be considered a Jew anymore. Other Zionists were not quite so radical, but certainly thought along these lines. When I was young, many of us went even further. We disclaimed the idea of a Jewish State, and spoke instead of a Hebrew State, connected only loosely with Diaspora Jewry, creating a new Hebrew civilization closely connected with the Arab world around us. An Asian nation not identified with Europe and the West. So where are we now?
Israel is re-Judaizing itself at a rapid pace. The Jewish religion is making a huge comeback. Very soon, religious children of various communities will be the majority in Israeli Jewish schools.
Organized Orthodox religion has made immense inroads. The official Israeli definition of a Jew is exclusively religious. All matters of personal status, like marriage and divorce, are ruled by the Rabbinate. So is the menu of most restaurants. Public transport, on land and in the air, is halted on the Shabbat. Non-Orthodox Jewish religious denominations, like the “Reformists” and the “Conservatives,” are practically banned.
In a scandal that is rocking Israel at the moment, revolving around a Kabbalistic rabbi, it appears that this miraculous person has amassed a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars by selling blessings and amulets. He is but one of many such rabbis who are surrounded by tycoons, Cabinet ministers, senior gangsters and senior police officers. Herzl, who promised to “keep the rabbis in their synagogues and the professional army in their barracks” is surely turning in his grave on Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl.
One of the basic convictions of Diaspora Jewry was that “the whole world is against us.” Jews have been persecuted throughout the ages in many countries, up to the Holocaust. In the Seder ceremony on Passover eve, which unites all the Jews around the world, the holy text says, “in every generation they arise to annihilate us.”
The official aim of Zionism was to turn us into “a people like all peoples.” Do a normal people believe that everybody is out to annihilate it at all times?
It is a basic conviction of almost every Jewish Israeli that “the whole world is against us” — which is also a jolly popular song. The US is concluding an agreement with Iran? Europe turns against the settlements? Russia helps Bashar Assad? Anti-Semites all.
Does this mean that in Israel, the self-proclaimed Jewish State, all the old Jewish attitudes, suspicions, fears and myths are coming to the fore again? That the revolutionary Zionist concepts are disappearing? That nothing much has changed in the Jewish outlook?
As the French say: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”(http://www.arabnews.com/news/514696)
Is grass-roots activism a viable alternative to Israeli-Palestinian peace process?
By Khaled Diab
In a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday, US secretary of state John Kerry sounded a doubtful note on the “intractable” Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but emphasized that the US is committed to finding a solution. Mr. Kerry’s determination seems to reflect his conviction that Israel can be brought to make peace with the Arab world.
Earlier this month, Mr. Kerry commended Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas for having “demonstrated courageous and determined leadership”. But in the real world, Palestinians are in open mutiny against Mr. Abbas, settlement building is continuing apace and senior Israeli officials are urging the government to reject any proposals put forward by the “messianic and obsessive” Mr. Kerry, as Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon described him.
And it is unclear just how Mr. Kerry intends to breathe life back into the failed Oslo framework, especially as the race to the two-state solution was lost many years ago and Washington shows no signs of bringing anything new to the table. This has left peace activists contemplating “peace how” more than “peace now”.
“Despite all Kerry’s efforts, I am not optimistic at all,” said Nancy Sadiq, the director of Panorama, a Palestinian pro-democracy and peace NGO in Ramallah. “I guess Netanyahu and Abbas are playing a game of political poker and they’re waiting to see who will blink first. And Kerry has no Plan B.”
Ms. Sadiq co-organized a recent annual conference – which took place in Beit Sahour near Bethlehem – of the Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum, an umbrella group of around 100 pro-peace organizations. The mood struck me as being similarly dour. Gathered at the forum were Palestinians and Israelis from all walks of life and backgrounds, from seculars whose national background could not be determined easily to Muslim men in beards and women in headscarves, as well as Jewish men in kippas and women in wigs or headscarves.
This reflects the fact that, despite growing mutual hostility and rejection, not to mention the huge contraction of the active peace camp, a broad cross-section of both societies still mobilizes for peace. As one speaker put it, “peace is too dear to be left to politicians”.
Though the conference met under the banner of a “Palestinian state now”, one overriding focus was to plan a course of action in the likely event that negotiations broke down.
“We are the peace police. We are the peace firefighters,” emphasized Yossi Beilin, the co-architect of the embattled and defunct Oslo process and the grassroots Geneva peace initiative, whose collapse, as the late Ariel Sharon admitted, was part of the motivation behind Israel’s Gaza disengagement, which many leftist Israelis supported.
And preparing for a breakdown, rather than a breakthrough, seemed to be the order of the day. “There is a fear that talks will fail which will make the work of peace NGOs very difficult,” one Palestinian participant said, echoing the general sentiment.
Some participants suggested that both societies needed to focus on laying the psychological groundwork for resolution through promoting peace education and a deeper commitment to mutual non-violence.
“I wish that there was room for grassroots activities for peace, separate and joint, but it seems that the time is not yet ripe for that,” veteran Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin told me. “While a majority of Israelis and Palestinians want peace, a majority on both sides, roughly the same size, does not believe that it is possible,” he said, “because each believes that there is no partner for peace on the other side.”
Personally, I think the problem runs much deeper and relates to the political infantilisation of the public. Efforts to bring about a resolution to the conflict have largely been top-down and from the outside-in, sidelining the actual parties who will have to implement and live with any agreement – the people themselves.
In addition, the two populations have been kept artificially apart, creating fear and distrust, while no leaders of the stature of the late Nelson Mandela or FW de Klerk have emerged. These factors create ideal conditions for extremists to have their way and to reinforce the downwardly spiraling status quo.
For that reason, I do not share Mr. Baskin’s optimism that Mr. Kerry can bring about a framework agreement, and if he does, it will likely fall apart under the combined fire of extremists, fear and hatred.
In my view, the only sustainable way forward is to launch a true people’s peace process in which a bi-national conversation and negotiations involving all segments of both societies is launched to bring all the issues out clearly in the open.
In addition, anyone should be free to suggest actions and any proposals that garner enough support should be voted on by the Israeli and Palestinian publics. Any measure for which the majority on both sides vote should be implemented immediately. This will help build traction and a virtuous circle of gradual change, rather than the all-or-nothing game currently in play.
“You know what I would like to see?” Ms. Sadiq asks. “The grassroots on both sides gathering in their masses until the white smoke of peace rises from the chimney of conflict.”(http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/is-grass-roots-activism-a-viable-alternative-to-israeli-palestinian-peace-process)
Asserting hegemony through business deals
By Musa Keilani
In case the news leaks prove to be true, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas might have swallowed the bait dangled to him by Moscow, to sign a $1 billion natural gas deal, using the Palestinian offshore fields in the Mediterranean and a smaller land field near Ramallah.
Such a deal has its repercussions, one of which is to distance Ramallah from the American framework plan and from State Secretary John Kerry’s intensive pressure on Israel to evacuate all settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories except for five, to be considered as part of the proposed land swap between Israelis and Palestinians.
Such a stand by Abbas will be welcomed by settlers, since they know that the only power that can effectively execute a “land for peace” deal is the United States under the current Democratic Obama administration.
In case the American negotiation partner is alienated or frustrated, a tangible peace formula will disappear for decades.
Russia, with so many political cards up its sleeve, tries to send the message to Washington that Moscow is still a regional and international player, even though the Soviet Union disappeared as a great superpower.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s message to Washington is that no deals can be concluded without Moscow nodding approval.
The US and Britain used Arab oil to impose their hegemony on world markets; Moscow is now using the same stratagem: use its control of Arab natural gas fields to enhance its presence in the world markets.
An oil contract was signed last December between Syria and Russia for oil exploration, with exclusive concessions to Moscow, similar to the 30 billion cubic meters of Palestinian natural gas to be produced by the famous Gazprom gas exporting and exploration company.
This Russian deal with the Palestinians comes simultaneously with the offer to Iran to buy half a million barrels of oil daily as part of a $1.5 billion contract.
The Palestinian president might be justified in his reaction to turn to the Russians, as a result of his frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and despair at not being able to honor his commitments to his people: end the Israeli occupation, establish a sovereign democratic state, or have his people enjoy freedom and have their rights respected.
One hopes that Abbas will wait for four months to see what Kerry’s peace framework will lead to before committing himself to sign with Moscow a political deal covered in economic wrappings.
Similar deals with the same wrapping were concluded with Saddam Hussein of Iraq, and Muammar Qadhafi of Libya, but led, surprisingly, to a different end.
The tragic component in the whole political scene is that for such mistakes, only the man in the street pays the price, through loss of family, suffering, death, be it in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Yemen or Palestine.(http://jordantimes.com/asserting-hegemony-through-business-deals)
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Opinions
An urgent solution to the disastrous crisis with UNRWA must be found
Al-Quds Editorial
Refugees in the camps face a tragic situation in all aspects and at all levels after UNRWA workers' strike entered itsfifty fifth day, to demand their labor, union and living rights,and the intransigence of the UNRWA administration in responding to the demands.
Different services were cut and more than 160,000 students are not attending schools for a long period of almost two months, camp’s field are filled with waste, health and humanitarian conditions worsened and the non-payment of the salaries of employees worsen the conditions and makes this a collective punishment for workers and their families.
Some 28 workers also began with a hunger strike several days ago to protest the Agency's management behavior, two of these at least were transferred to a hospital in Hebron for treatment after their health condition worsened, leading the strike issue interacting internationally where Philip Ginnks who represents more than 20 million workers and 900 Trade Union sent a letter to Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi denouncingthe Agency’s behavior and the way it treats the strike, expressing his understanding and support for the striking workers' demands.
According to labor Minister Ahmed Majdalani, the Palestinian Government provided an initiative to solve the crisis responding to the demands of the strikers, calls for ending to strike and starting negotiations and dialogue between all parties concerned to resolve all issues in dispute.Majdalani criticized the intransigent attitude rejecting any response to the strikers' demands and the tendency to escalate the situation instead of finding a way out of it.
The strike in all its ramifications should not and cannot continue, urgent solutions must be found since it affects hundreds of thousands of people, and the future of the tens of thousands of students.
And the daily humanitarian suffering no one can agree to,since it is a disaster by all standards and concepts, the agency’sadministration hold major responsibility if not all responsibility.
The United Nations itself and all international institutions should move aggressively to stop this tragedy, what refugees suffered from before the strike is enough, being refugees in their own homeland is enough. The PNA must move faster and wider to help in finding a way out of this crisis.(Al-Quds)
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