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Nov. 22, 2013
Daily summary - Friday, November 22, 2013
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Main News
ORDERS FOR THE CONFISCATION OF THOUSANDS OF DUNAMS OF LAND IN HEBRON; LEVELING OF LAND IN AL KHADER FOR THE BENEFIT OF A SETTLEMENT
Israeli occupation authorities handed orders to residents of Al Deerat east of Yatta yesterday for the confiscation of thousands of dunams of land in order to open a settlement road in the area. According to coordinator for the anti-wall and settlement committee in southern Hebron Rateb Jbour, Israeli authorities distributed a map yesterday to the residents of Deerat which shows the opening of a new settlement road that would divide the village in two. He said the course of the settlement road would lead to the demolition of dozens of houses, which are considered outside of the structural plan. It would also devour thousands of dunams of land from residents of the village.
Moreover, Israeli bulldozers began yesterday to level cultivated land in the Um Rukbah area of Al Khader, south of Bethlehem. According to anti-wall and settlement coordinator there Ahmad Salah, the land leveled so far has reached 10 dunams, belonging to the Salah family. Salah said the aim of the leveling was to expand the settlement of Hatamar, built in the area, and link it to the settlement blocs of Efrat and Kufr Etzion. (Al Ayyam)
BY OVERWHELMING MAJORITY…NEW UN RESOLUTION IN FAVOR OF PALESTINE
The third UN committee (the social, cultural and humanitarian affairs committee) voted on Thursday in favor by an overwhelming majority on a draft resolution entitled “The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.” 165 countries voted in favor while six opposed (Israel, the US, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau) while three abstained (Paraguay, Tonga and Cameron). The resolution reaffirmed the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination in the independent state of Palestine, calling on all states and related agencies along with UN institutions to continue to support the Palestinians and help them gain their right to self-determination as soon as possible. The resolution also stressed on the need to resume and expedite negotiations within the framework of the peace process in the Middle East based on related UN resolutions with a reference of the Madrid Conference, the Arab Peace Initiative and the Quartet brokered roadmap in order to achieve the two-state solution and reach a peaceful, permanent and just solution between the two sides. Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour said the resolution sent a clear message to Israel that its violations of international law must stop and that it must abide by its legal obligations. He also pointed out that the right to self-determination was not a final-status issue but an issue of principle that is non-negotiable and inalienable. (http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=649922)
SOURCES TO MAAN: SHTAYEH WILL NOT RETURN TO THE NEGOTIATIONS; A NEW TEAM HEADED BY EREKAT
Informed sources confirmed to MAAN that member of the Palestinian negotiating team Mohammed Shtayeh was insistent on resigning from the team and would not attend the next session of talks, following his resignation to the President two weeks ago. The sources said that a meeting would be held next week, which included a negotiating delegation under Saeb Erekat and another Palestinian figure instead of Shtayeh. The sources added that President Abbas would re-form the negotiating team while maintaining Erekat as head of the file and would add other people to it.
On this note, Israeli justice minister Tzipi Livni who is also in charge of the negotiating file said yesterday that a new round of talks was expected to take place within days and which included Erekat. She added that President Abbas confirmed with her personally via phone that Erekat would take part in the upcoming negotiations. (http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=649790)
HAMAS’ “AIRSHIP” WORRIES ISRAELI SECURITY
An Israeli army captain expressed concern yesterday within the army about the Izzedin Qassam Brigade’s website, which revealed a new program for collecting information on the movements of the Israeli army through using a camcorder-equipped airship. According to the Israeli website Walla yesterday, the senior officer in the Israeli army’s southern command said that Hamas was preparing to begin a new program for gathering information on the movements of the Israeli army along the border and along Gaza’s coastline. It also said this airship was capable of gathering information from inside Israeli territory. The site said the helium-operated blimp had cameras that photographed Israeli military sites, adding that Hamas was seeking to develop its military capabilities, not only through rockets, tunnels and weapons but also through information-gathering on Israel.(http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=649722)
TAQOA SETTLERS PITCH TENT EAST OF BETHLEHEM
Settlers from Taqoa pitched a tent last night near the entrance to the town of Taqou’ west of Bethlehem. Local sources said dozens of settlers set up a huge tent under the guard of the Israeli army at the western entrance to Taqou’ in protest of what they claimed was their cars being stoned in the area. The sources also said the settlers put chairs and beds inside the tent and raised Israeli flags all around it, adding that Israeli patrols continuously circle the area for protection. Last week, Palestinian activists removed a smaller tent set up by settlers in the same place. (http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=649918)
RAFAH CROSSING CLOSED INDEFINITELY
Director of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt Sami Mitwalee confirmed yesterday that the crossing would be closed indefinitely following three days of operation upon orders from Egyptian authorities. He said the crossing was officially closed last night. A total of 655 Palestinians crossed the crossing yesterday both ways with 328 leaving Gaza to Egypt including students and sick Gazans while 228 crossed from Egypt back into Gaza. Egyptian authorities also allowed the entry of 83 truckloads of construction material from Qatar. (Al Ayyam)
AL QUDS BRIGADES: ISRAEL’S VIOLATIONS COULD END TRUCE AT ANY TIME
The Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad, warned yesterday that truce agreement with Israel could collapse at any moment in light of Israel’s continued violations. Brigades’ spokesperson “Abu Ahmad” said that Israel’s continued army incursions along the eastern border with Gaza and its shelling of resistance sites and facilities could constitute the beginning of the collapse of the truce. He said it was the right of the resistance to confront these incursions with all possible means, calling on all factions to unite “in the trenches of jihad and resistances” and not to get pulled into political squabbles that would undermine the Palestinians’ internal front. (Al Quds)
HAMAS: AL QASSAM WILL FIRE ROCKETS ‘FURTHER THAN TEL AVIV’ IN ANY WAR WITH ISRAEL
Hamas leader and parliamentarian Mushir Al Masri said last night that the movement’s military arm the Izzedin Al Qassam Brigades would “strike farther than Tel Aviv” if Israel wages a new war on the Gaza Strip. Al Masri went on to say that “the occupation will be surprised at the capabilities of the Brigades; they will never have expected it.” He also took aim at collaborators with Israel, saying “There is no future for cowards, collaborators and traitors; there is no future for the occupation of the land of Palestine.” Masri added that the liberation of the land would only come through ‘’resistance and jihad, and not through negotiations and kisses.” (http://samanews.com/ar/index.php?act=post&id=178844)
CONFRONTATIONS AND ARREST OF YOUTHS IN JERUSALEM
Violent confrontations broke out last night in the Ein Al Louza region of Silwan in Jerusalem during which Israeli forces arrested three youths, leading to clashes and fistfights between the residents and Israeli soldiers. The army threw stun grenades and set up checkpoints at the entrance to Wadi Hilweh and Wadi Rababa in Silwan. (Al Quds)
GENERAL UNION OF ARAB JOURNALISTS TO HOLD NEXT MEETING IN PALESTINE
Head of the Palestinian journalists’ syndicate Abdel Nasser Najjar said yesterday that the General Union of Arab Journalists would hold its next meeting for the first time in Ramallah. The decision was taken after a consensus was reached during voting at the union in Kuwait. Najjar said the decision and conference were very important to the Palestinian in that they reaffirm the Arab commitment to supporting the Palestinian cause and Palestinian media. This would be the first meeting held in Palestine since the union was established in 1965 (Al Quds)
ISLAMIC COOPERATION ORGANIZATION CONSIDERS DECISION TO SEVER TIES WITH ANY COUNTRY THAT RECOGNIZES JERUSALEM AS THE CAPITAL OF ISRAEL
Secretary General of the Islamic Cooperation Organization Ekmal Al Deen Ihsan Oglo revealed a recommendation that will be reviewed during the foreign ministers’ meeting of ICO members in Guinea that calls on member states to cut diplomatic ties with any country that recognizes Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem. This includes any country that moves their embassy to the city as well. Oglo said a special ministerial meeting would be held on Jerusalem during the meeting in Guinean capital, Conakry to discuss the legal and international requirements needed to rein in Israeli violations in the holy city. (http://qudsnet.com/news/View/258195/التعاون-الإسلامي-تدرس-قرارا-بقطع-العلاقات-مع-أي-دولة-تعترف-بالقدس-عاصمة-لإسرائيل/)
“MILES OF SMILES” CONVOY REACHES GAZA THROUGH RAFAH
The 23rd Miles of Smiles convoy entered Gaza last night through the Gaza crossing, carrying dozens of Arab and foreign supporters from Algeria, Libya, Jordan, Britain, Sweden and Malaysia. According to Qudsnet, the convoy is led by Palestinian, Isam Yousef and is the first convoy to enter the Strip after the Egyptian president Mursi was isolated and the tunnels were closed. The convoy was met with a group of Hamas officials. (http://qudsnet.com/news/View/258163/وصول-قافلة-أميال-من-الابتسامات-23-الى-غزة-عبر-معبر-رفح/)
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Headlines
*Negotiations between Iran and the West to resume today (Al Quds)
*One Palestinian killed in Syria (Al Quds)
*Palestine’s children…continuous suffering because of the occupation (Al Quds)
*Qaraqe: medical negligence a tool to take lives (Al Quds)
*High court rejects case of Cabinet against teachers’ strike (Al Quds)
*Expired spices caught in Jerusalem (Al Quds)
*UN officials calls for international action to halt humanitarian deterioration in the Gaza Strip (see below) (Al Ayyam)
*12 people injured in car accident in Qalqilya (Al Ayyam)
*Media argument between Al Quds and Qassam Brigades over responsibility for Tel Aviv bus bombing last year (Al Ayyam)
*Israeli forces shoot suspect near border with Egypt (Al Ayyam)
*Israeli government commends alliance with UA after Lieberman hints towards adopting a new approach (Al Ayyam)
*The President grants Abdel Hameed Sayeh, Abdel Fattah Hamoud and Shafeeq Al Hout the star of honor medal posthumously (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*23.7% unemployment in Palestine in third quarter (Al Hayat Al Jadida) (see below)
*Higher follow up committee inside Green line confirms it rejection of military and civilian service (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*Transportation workers hint at strike (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*American official: Israeli conditions on Iranian nuclear file could lead to war (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
*Ashrawi calls for heading to UN without waiting for failure of negotiations (Al Hayat Al Jadida)
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Front Page Photos
Al- Quds:Geneva: General view of hotel where Iranian-Western talks are being held on Tehran’s nuclear program
Al-Ayyam:1) Candle-lit march in Gaza in protest of siege and electricity cuts; 2) Al Sisi kisses head of a relative of a soldier killed in Sinai bombing; 3) Widespread destruction after bomb goes off in coffee shop in Baghdad
Al Hayat Al Jadida:1) Prisoner families at a press conference in Ramallah calling for the release of sick prisoners; 2) UNRWA project buildings in Rafah camp which were halted because of Israel’s ban on entry of construction material
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More Headlines
Children of Palestine…continued suffering because of the occupation
On the occasion of International Children’s Day on November 20, the Palestinian ministry of information released a publication of the condition of Palestinian children, who they said continue to suffer because of the Israeli occupation. Children are 52% of the Palestinian population, said the statement. Since 2000, since the outbreak of the second Intifada, 1,518 children have been killed and over 6,000 injured from Israeli shelling and gunfire. Furthermore, in that same time span, 10,000 children have been arrested by Israeli authorities. An increase in children’s arrests was also noticed since the start of this year until the end of October, with 570 children arrested, 95% of these beaten or harassed during their detention.
The statement also mentioned child labor in the Jordan Valley agricultural settlements. It said that from among 10,000 to 20,000 Palestinian workers in these settlements, 5.5% are children between 13- and 16 years of age and who work seven to eight hours a day. The children make about one-third of the minimum wage of Israeli workers. The statement also said that 85% of children in Jerusalem live under the poverty line. (Al Quds)
Settlers wreak havoc near Ya’abad; set fires on fire
Dozens of settlers from Mabodotan and Harmeesh settlements near the town of Ya’abad southwest of Jenin set fire to tires this morning under the protection of the Israeli army. According to eyewitnesses, around 200 settlers who came in buses protected by the army to the junction between Ya’abad and Kafreet, chanted in Hebrew and raised the Israeli flag. The eyewitnesses said they lit the tires on fire near the Ya’abad bridge and roamed the road between Jenin and Ya’abad passing by Kifreet before leaving. (http://maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=649953)
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Arab Press
AIPAC no match for the 'sleeping giant'
By Pam Bailey
The absolute power of the "pro-Israel" lobby, as manifested most prominently by the US-based organisation known as AIPAC, is often cited as a truism of Western foreign policy.
However, the recent defeat of the Israel-supported push to go to war in Syria, and the US administration's continued backing of a deal with Iran on its nuclear capabilities (which Israel opposes), suggests that the pro-Israel lobby isn't as Goliath-like as perceived.
Michael Koplow, programme director of the Israel Institute, claimed in a recent blog post that "the loud insistence of 'Israel lobby truthers' that AIPAC controls US policy in the Middle East has, more than anything else, enhanced the power of pro-Israel groups by convincing a growing number of people that the mistaken perception is actually true. This in turn leads to government officials believing the hype, and thus you get the ADL and AJC (two AIPAC member organisations) invited to a private briefing at the White House…The bottom line is that Congress… is going to do what public opinion tells it to do."
While Koplow is a bit too glib in his dismissal of AIPAC money and electoral threats, his core premise is correct: When the public finally wakes up and mobilises, the lobby's vaunted power dissipates. And the pro-Israel lobby is slowly losing the battle for public legitimacy.
The lesson of Syria
On its website, during the debate over whether to bomb Syria as punishment for its suspected use of chemical weapons, AIPAC stated: "The civilised world cannot tolerate the use of these barbaric weapons…[T]his is a critical moment when America must also send a forceful message of resolve to Iran and Hezbollah." The organisation went on to insist that the bombing of Syria is a "critical decision" that if not enacted would "greatly endanger our country's security and interests and those of our regional allies".
However, most Americans were staunchly opposed to military intervention in Syria, with a CNN poll showing that even though eight in 10 believed Bashar al-Assad's regime gassed its own people, a strong majority did not support a retaliatory military strike.
Max Fisher, foreign affairs blogger for The Washington Post - not known for its progressive reporting when it comes to Israel, concluded: "It was a rare public test of AIPAC's ability to shape US foreign policy and it flunked."
Unfolding debate on Iran
Some observers argue that the pro-Israel lobby's loss in the Syria debate is limited to that issue, and will have no bearing on the outcome of the P5+1 (United States, Russia, China, France, UK and Germany) negotiations with Iran over its nuclear status.
Israel has made its position chillingly clear. According to The Times of Israel, a member of the national parliament telephoned French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius to warn him that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would attack Iran's nuclear facilities if the P5+1 nations do not stiffen their terms on a deal with Iran. "I know [Netanyahu]," the French MP, Meyer Habib, reportedly told Fabius. "If you don't toughen your positions, Netanyahu will attack Iran... You have to toughen your positions in order to prevent war."
If that isn't blackmail, what is? But will it work?
Public-opinion polls show that more than 75 percent of Americans favour direct diplomatic negotiations with Iran, and although most (58 percent) won't take military action off the table to prevent Iran from deploying a nuclear weapon, 80 percent believe the current threat can be contained without force. Clearly, public opinion - in the US at least - is on the side of dialogue.
For negotiations to be successful and not just an exercise, however, it must offer a "win" for both sides, saving face for all of the many stakeholders involved.
As Daryl G. Kimball and Kelsey Davenport write on the blog for the Arms Control Association, "policymakers in Washington and leaders in Israel who genuinely want to guard against a nuclear-armed Iran should be careful not to insist on ideal but unrealistic demands, such as zero enrichment or the complete dismantlement of Iran's nuclear programme.Such a deal may have been possible in 2005 when Iran had fewer than 300 uranium enrichment centrifuges at one site; but it is not realistic now that Iran has 19,000 installed and 10,000 operating centrifuges at two sites."
The Israeli government should understand the reality of "facts on the ground" - it's the same logic it uses to argue that any state negotiated with the Palestinians must exclude its more than 220 illegal settlements, housing more than 500,000 Israelis. Likewise, the Israeli government has never offered to scale back its own nuclear stockpile, which is widely considered the world's "worst-kept secret".
Despite the intense pressure from Israel, the Obama administration seems to realise that fact. "The American people do not want a march to war," Agence France Presse quoted White House spokesman Jay Carney as acknowledging that new sanctions being mulled on Capitol Hill could embolden hardliners in Iran. "The American people justifiably and understandably prefer a peaceful solution..."
We, as a collective of grassroots activists for peace, must do what we did during the Syria debate - mobilise to convince the broader public, and then Congress, that trying to force Iran into a scenario in which Iran is clearly the "loser" would only end in consequences no one wants: no deal, the possibility of war and - we would add - the collective punishment (through years of sanctions) of the 76 million Iranian people.
Israeli-Palestinian issue
There are chinks as well in the armour of the pro-Israel lobbies in their longest-running war of perceptions - although for the Palestinians living under occupation, progress understandably seems glacial.
To date, Israel has relentlessly continued to create more "facts on the ground" that entrench its expansion into the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while eviscerating any hope of true Palestinian independence. The international community, led by the US, has stood by - expressing little more than "concern".
At the macro level, the public support evident in the struggle against war in Syria and Iran seems to be lacking in the movement for Palestinian self-determination.
Earlier this month, even as US Secretary of State John Kerry shuttled around the world to breathe life into the latest round of talks, the Israeli group Peace Now revealed that Israel was preparing to build nearly 24,000 more homes for illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Yuval Steinitz, Israeli minister for strategic affairs, defiantly declared: "Prime Minster Netanyahu made it very clear that…we will build in the settlements during the negotiation."
However, Kerry responded with a harshness that is surprising for a US administration that - to date- has not been willing to expend any political capital to challenge AIPAC and its allies on this particular front: "I believe that if we do not resolve the issues between Palestinians and Israelis, if we do not find a way to find peace, there will be an increasing isolation of Israel, there will be an increasing campaign of de-legitimisation of Israel that's been taking place on an international basis," Kerry said in a joint Israeli-Palestinian television interview.
Showing that "tough love" can work, Netanyahu uncharacteristically reversed the decision several days later, saying it had created an "unnecessary confrontation" with the international community that threatened to weaken his campaign against Iran's nuclear programme.
Public opinion
The lesson learned: Israel will change its behaviour if it feels there will be implications that matter. The so-called two-state "solution" to the conflict with the Palestinians may no longer be salvageable (in fact, I would argue that it is not). But any hope for a just peace depends on the US and the rest of the international community backing their rhetoric with sanctions, until Israel is forced to face reality and accept Palestinians' rights as being equal to its own.
At the macro level, the public support evident in the struggle against war in Syria and Iran seems to be lacking in the movement for Palestinian self-determination. It's not yet obvious to many Americans that, as General David Petraeus testified in 2010, "Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is jeopardising US standing in the region."
The most recent national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted March 13-17, found that just short of half of American adults sympathised more with Israel, while only 12 percent felt that way about the Palestinians. However, look a little closer and fault lines emerge: In the same survey, although 66 percent of Republicans said they sympathised more with Israel, only 49 percent of independents and 39 percent of Democrats said the same.
Yes, AIPAC is powerful. But so is the public will, when it awakens from its sleep like the under-estimated giant. Our job as peace activists is to continue to sound the wake-up call.(http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/11/aipac-no-match-sleeping-giant-2013111842023230169.html)
Arab Americans excluded from US peace team
by George S. Hishmeh
David Makovsky was unexpectedly, if not surprisingly, appointed as a senior member of the State Department’s Palestinian-Israeli peace team, led by former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk.
The inexplicable failure of the State Department to issue an official announcement about the appointment in the first few days of this week touched off a wide-ranging discussion on the Internet.
Arab Americans were privately shocked that no attempt has yet been made by leading members of the Obama administration to engage Arab Americans, be they politicians, academicians, journalists or members of various think tanks, in this all-important undertaking, while many American Jewish personalities have held several important positions to help tackle this crucial issue that has been troubling all US administrations since the middle of the last century.
Among previous officials are Dennis Ross, Aaron David Miller, Eliot Cohen, Paul Wolfowitz and Gary Schmitt.
Interestingly, Makovsky’s brother, Michael, is the chief executive officer of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, where he is said to have been “a leading proponent of hawkish US policies on Iran”.
The State Department has yet to issue an official announcement that David Makovsky is now a senior member of the Indyk team, which to date reportedly includes eight others.
A former journalist, Makovsky has worked here and in Israel where he was editor of The Jerusalem Post. His most important position lately has been as senior member of The Washington Institute for Near East Report (WINEP), a spin-off the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), considered a core member of the “Israel lobby”, where he worked closely with Denis Ross, a White House staffer during President Barack Obama’s first term.
Noam Sheizof of “+972”, an independent blog, reports that Makovsky’s “signature work in the last couple of years is a set of two-state maps that would allow Israel to annex most West Bank [illegal] settlements, along with ‘fingers’ leading to them at the heart of the [projected] Palestinian state, in exchange for desert land that would be handed to the Palestinians at a 1:1 ratio”.
She adds: “It is very likely that those maps are what got Makovsky into Indyk’s team,” since the Israeli media have recently reported that the American negotiators are preparing to present their own two-state maps.
However, she insists that his maps are a non-starter for any “credible” Palestinian leader.
On the other hand, The Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington-based multi-issue think tank, credits Makovsky, who until his State Department appointment had directed the project on the Middle East peace process at WINEP, with having “charted a relatively moderate course on Israel-Palestine” despite having been previously critical of Palestinian leaders.
It claimed that “Makovsky supports a two-state solution and cautioned against activities that could threaten it, including Israeli settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories”.
William Quandt, a professor at the University of Virginia and staff member of the National Security Council in the 1970s who played a role in negotiating the 1979 Egyptian-Israel Peace Treaty, expressed confidence last Friday that Secretary of State John Kerry will also have an active role in achieving an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty.
He told a large audience at the Washington-based Palestine Centre: “I can’t imagine that Secretary [of State John] Kerry has invested as much time and energy as he has unless he has in the back of his mind that at some point in the near future, the United States will put forward some kind of bridging proposals.”
Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the online popular journal Electronic Intifada, underlined that “for the Palestinians, no deal with Israel is better than a bad deal, because a bad deal would irrevocably cancel Palestinian rights. And now, the only thing protecting Palestinians from a bad deal is Israel’s intransigence”.
Both the Iranian negotiations with the so-called “P5+1” group of nations (United States, Great Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany) over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the lethargic Palestinian-Israel peace talks, coincidentally, face the same deadline: April 2014.
If neither can come to a satisfactory solution, it will be time for some serious arms twisting by the major powers.(http://jordantimes.com/arab-americans-excluded-from-us-peace-team)
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Opinions
Israel’s delirium
Al Khaleej Editorial
It seems as though Israel’s growing isolation because of its policies, which are not popular even with its own allies, has begun to create a kind of political hallucination among its leaders. Their statements indicate their detachment from reality or their political idiocy, which assumes this same stupidity in others. Perhaps one of the freshest examples of this delirium are the statements from Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, who threatened that his country would look for new allies other than the United States.
Israel, which has absolute support from the United States, which has protected it from international sanctions, enabled it to have military superiority by opening up its military arsenals to Israel’s army, has besieged countries and boycotted others just Israel and has drowned it with money at the expense of its own poor citizens – Israel now wants to replace this abundant spring of bounties with another. What kind of political delirium is this? What is even more delusional is Lieberman saying that he would look for a country that “does not need the money of the Islamic and Arab worlds.”
The United States has been the richest country in the world for decades. If it needed this money, why would it give Israel all this power to continue its barbarism? What country could possibly offer Israel what the United States gives it? The United States is the only country that gives Israel unconditional and limitless support. There is no other country like it or any other country that has remained so silent in the face of Israel’s violations. Furthermore, there is no country like the United States that can wield its power over every corner of the earth.
More importantly, most of the support that comes from the United States to Israel is because of the power of the Jewish lobby there. There is nothing like it in any other region of the world. Also, there is not a researcher or political pundit that supports or opposes US policy that does not say the policies of the US towards Israel sometimes go against long-term US interests. What other country could possibly support Israel in its violation that are condemned by the entire world sometimes except of course, by the US?
What other country can assume the place of the United States in terms of its willingness to protect Israel’s continued aggressions and occupation, its committing of massacres? No one, for sure. No matter what Lieberman’s motives were – whether they were to pressure the American administration or to flirt with the Russians or Europeans – his statements will no doubt be the butt of jokes and sarcasm in international political arenas.
Isolation, it seems, oftentimes leads to delirium. (http://www.alkhaleej.ae/studiesandopinions/detailedpage/a314ac27-082c-4244-bc79-cf25268ff4e3)
Israeli governments are the ones that plan and support settlements
Al Quds Editorial
In the past, just like now, consecutive Israeli governments have supported settlements; they are the ones that plan to establish these settlements and expand them. However, in the past, governments tried to cover up or disguise the truth that it is the sponsor and funder of settlement activity. Rather, they attributed most of this activity to right wing groups or organizations, or even left wing or ultra-religious parties.
It seems as though this cover-up and pinning these settlement activities solely on these group and parties no is no longer needed. The world, and those countries that call themselves sponsors of the so-called peace process turn a blind eye to settlement expansion; the United States, during former President George Bush’s term in office even went as far as calling on the Palestinians to take into consideration the ‘demographic facts on the ground” during peace talks. And this was way more than Israel ever dreamed of.
In the seventies, Israeli the Israeli government attributed settlement activity to the extremist Gush Emunim organization. The question is, wasn’t that government able to rein in this organization and prevent it from building settlements back then?
The reality and the truth of the matter is that this organization was nothing more than a smokescreen for Israeli government efforts towards settlements. Government departments and ministries including the ministries of defense, finance and housing which have been in consecutive governments since the Israeli occupation took hold until today, have been planning, building, funding and protecting settlements. The party that announces construction tenders is usually the Israeli housing ministry.
Two days ago, Israeli newspapers uncovered that the so-called “Israel Lands Authority”, which is an Israeli government department that prepares plans for building tens of thousands of settlement housing units in occupied Palestinian territory, decided to fund 2,000 of these housing units.
If some claim that the Israel Lands Authority is not an official Israeli department, the question is: where does this authority get its financial allocations, which it uses to build thousands of housing units in settlements? Furthermore, isn’t the Israeli government the legal caretaker over all public institutions in Israel?
Besides, is the housing and construction ministry a separate entity from the Israeli government?
This ministry published tenders last week for 20,000 housing units in the West Bank. No doubt, these plans were discussed in the Israeli cabinet and their publication was approved before they reached newspapers for printing.
This all confirms that the Israeli government is the planner, executor, funder and protector of the settlement enterprise. The question once again is: how can negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel succeed in light of a fixed policy adopted by consecutive Israeli governments on settlements, which it refuses to abandon for the sake of peace and stability in the region? (Al Quds)
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