30 mai 2009
German FM urges Israel to end all settlement construction
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has demanded that Israel put an end to all settlement building in the Palestinian territories, in a newspaper interview published Saturday. It is "not acceptable" to found new settlements or expand existing ones in East Jerusalem or the West Bank, Steinmeier said in a joint interview with the German Press Agency dpa and German daily Sueddeutsche. Both the German and U.S. governments agreed on this point, the foreign minister added. Steinmeier called for new efforts in the Middle East peace process, and said the European Union and U.S. President Barack Obama's administration needed to "speak with one voice." Steinmeier's appeal echoes recent calls from Washington for Israel to put an end to all settlement building in the areas it captured during the 1967 Six-Day War. The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused the demand for a complete freeze in settlement activity, and has not agreed to a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinian territories. Within German diplomatic circles, the settlement activities are seen as undermining an increasingly precarious two-state solution. EU foreign ministers are meeting June 15 to agree on a new joint position on Mideast developments. Steinmeier said he was in favor of involving the entire region, including countries such as Syria and Lebanon, in resolution efforts. "Regionally embedding talks between Palestinians and Israelis is crucial to the chances of success," the foreign minister said. "Failure cannot be an option," Steinmeier added.(09,29)
29 mai 2009
UN Gaza war probe to start next week
A team of independent experts mandated to probe alleged war crimes in Israel and Gaza will leave for the Middle East over the weekend, UN spokesman Rolando Gomez said Friday. He said that the mission, led by veteran prosecutor Richard Goldstone, was expected to begin its work next week. Speaking in Geneva, Gomez told reporters that Goldstone had repeatedly asked the Israeli government to cooperate with his mission. He was unable to say whether Goldstone has received a response. Israel has previously described the probe as "intrinsically flawed" because it was ordered by the 47-member UN Human Rights Council, which has an anti-Israeli track record. Goldstone has said he wants his team to examine both sides of the January conflict. (20.52)
Jordanian MPs: 'Cut Jordan-Israel ties over Eldad bill'
Some 15 Jordanian parliamentarians called for Amman to sever diplomatic ties with Israel on Friday, according to a report from the German news agency DPA. The lawmakers were speaking in protest of a proposal National Union MK Arye Eldad made in the Knesset last week that Palestinians be given Jordanian citizenship. "The voting on the proposal by the Israeli Knesset proves that the Zionist mentality of the ruling politicians in Israel does not believe in peace and has no respect for the peace treaties and UN resolution," the pro-government National Democratic Bloc said in a statement cited by the DPA report. Jordan's response, the MPs said, should be "the dismissal of the Israeli ambassador and withdrawal of the Jordanian envoy" from Israel. Last Tuesday, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh summoned Israel's ambassador, also in protest of Eldad's proposal. According to the official Petra news agency, Nasser Judeh issued a strong protest to the ambassador "over a debate in the Knesset on a motion on a so-called two states for the two people on the two banks of the Jordan River." Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said that the envoy, Yaakov Rosen, explained that this was a proposal by an opposition MK member and did not represent the government or its positions, JPost reported. (20,51)
Palestinian negotiator: We are encouraged by Obama-Abbas meet
The Palestinians' top negotiator on Friday said he was "encouraged" following President Mahmoud Abbas' White House meeting on Thursday with U.S. President Barack Obama. "Palestinians are encouraged by the commitment President Obama and his administration have shown to Middle East peace," Saeb Erakat said in a statement early Friday. In his meeting with Abbas Thursday, Obama had called for a complete freeze of Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank. Obama also said he shared Abbas' feelings that "time was of the essence" and pledged to do "everything I can" to "jump-start" the peace process with Israel. "Resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is central to regional stability and peace," Erekat said. "The establishment of a viable Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security with Israel, and a just resolution to the Palestinian refugee issue in accordance with UN Resolution 194, will create a more secure and stable Middle East," Erekat added. The Middle East peace process, he warned, would not survive another round of failed negotiations. "The peace process lives on borrowed time," warned the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) negotiations department, who is also a top official in Abbas' Fatah party. "Israel's failure to implement its obligations under existing agreements has eroded its credibility, while Israel's continued settlement activities are undermining the very viability of the two-state solution," Erakat said. Israel has refused the U.S. and Palestinian demand for a complete freeze in settlement activity, pledging not to build new settlements but vowing to continue construction in existing ones to accommodate for "natural growth." The Netanyahu government has also adopted a policy according to which the Iranian nuclear threat should be given more urgency than the Palestinian issue, while the Obama administration has adopted an opposing view, arguing that progress in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations would help build a moderate Arab coalition against Iran. (18,56)
Obama: We must get Israel-Palestinian peace moves 'back on track'
United States President Barack Obama met Thursday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the White House, and said that both Israel and the Palestinians must work to get the peace process "back on track." "I am confident that we can move this process forward," Obama said after meeting with Abbas. The president said that means both sides must meet the obligations that they have already committed to - an element of the peace effort that has proved elusive for years. "We can't continue with the drift, with the increased fear and resentment on both sides, the sense of hopelessness around the situation that we've seen for many years now," Obama told reporters with Abbas seated at his side. "We need to get this thing back on track." Hoping to revive stalled peace efforts, Obama held White House talks with Abbas ten days after hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains at odds with the U.S. over settlements and Palestinian statehood. Obama made clear that he would continue to push Netanyahu, who has expressed his resistance to call for a total freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank. Asked about the Israeli position on the two-state solution, Obama said he is confident that, if Israel looks at its long-term interests, it will realize a two-state solution is in the interest of the Israelis and Palestinians alike. "I'm a strong believer in a two-state solution," he said. "I think that we don't have a moment to lose," Obama said, "but I also don't make decisions based on just the conversation that we had last week because obviously Prime Minister Netanyahu has to work through these issues in his own government, in his own coalition, just as President Abbas has a whole host of issues that he has to deal with." Obama said he would discuss his proposal for the Mideast peace process in some fashion during his speech from Cairo next week, because not to do so would be "inappropriate." He said he also plans to deliver a broader message about improving the sense of understanding between Americans and Muslims around the world, in part by talking about the importance of Muslim Americans in American society. The president commended Abbas for working toward a unity government, but remained insistent that the new government adhere to the principles laid out by the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers the U.S., Russia, United Nations and the European Union. He declined to specificy a time frame for a Palestinian state, saying he didn't want to set an "artificial time table," but added that he shares Abbas' feelings that "time is of the essence." His Mideast envoy George Mitchell is working to "jump start" the process, he said. Abbas is working to repackage the 2002 Saudi Arabian plan that calls for Israel to give up land seized in the 1967 Six-Day War in exchange for normalized relations with the Arab world. Abbas gave Obama a document that would keep intact that requirement and also offer a way to monitor a required Israeli freeze on all settlement activity, a timetable for Israeli withdrawal and a realization of a two-state solution. "The main purpose of presenting this document to President Obama is to help him in finding a mechanism to implement the Arab peace initiative," Abbas told the Associated Press. Asked about his impression of the meeting with Obama, Abbas said: "It was a serious and open meeting and President Obama seems determined on what he has said to us and to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu about the necessity of implementing the road map, and we have agreed to continue our communications." "I believe that if the Israelis would withdraw from all occupied Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese land, the Arab world will be ready to have normal relationships with the state of Israel," said Abbas. When asked how the U.S. would intervene in the peace process, if Israel keeps declining to accept the two-state solution and to freeze the settlements, Obama answered: "If Israel keeps declining to accept the two-state solution and to freeze the settlements... Well, I think it's important not to assume the worst, but to assume the best." Obama said he told Abbas the Palestinians must find a way to halt the incitement of anti-Israeli sentiments that are sometimes expressed in schools, mosques and public arenas. "All those things are impediments to peace," Obama said. More than 120 settlements dot the West Bank, and Palestinian officials say their growth makes it increasingly impossible to realize an independent state. More than 280,000 Israelis live in the settlements, in addition to more than 2 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. An additional 180,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem, where the Palestinians hope to establish their capital. Netanyahu's government on Thursday spurned U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's blunt assertion that all settlement activity must stop, including the "natural growth" of existing enclaves that Netanyahu has vowed to continue. "Normal life in those communities must be allowed to continue," said spokesman Mark Regev, noting Israel has already agreed not to build new settlements and to remove some unauthorized settler outposts. Regev said the fate of the settlements would be determined in peace negotiations with the Palestinians. (08,19)
28 mai 2009
Ahmadinejad: 'Iran ups uranium enrichment capacity'
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country has boosted its capacity to enrich uranium, another sign of anti-Western defiance by the leader seeking re-election in a vote next month. Ahmadinejad said last month that Iran had 7,000 centrifuges at its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz in central Iran. The figure marked a significant boost from the 6,000 centrifuges announced in February. In his latest comments, reported by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency on Thursday, he did not give a specific new figure. "Now we have more than 7,000 centrifuges and the West dare not threaten us," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying on a small radio station late Wednesday. Ahmadinejad has made Iran's expanding nuclear program one of the centerpieces of his campaign for the June 12 elections and has struck an increasingly harsh tone against the United States and other countries calling for Iran to halt it uranium enrichment. Iran's leaders say they will never give up nuclear technology and insist they seek only energy-producing reactors. The United States, Israel and other nations worry that Iran's enrichment facilities could eventually produce material for nuclear warheads. There is broad consensus among Iranian voters on the nation's rights for a nuclear program. But Ahmadinejad's three challengers - a fellow hard-liner and two moderates - have questioned his uncompromising stances against the West and their offers of economic incentives in exchange for suspending uranium enrichment. The centrifuges spin at supersonic speeds to remove impurities from uranium gas, which then goes through other steps to become nuclear fuel or, at higher enrichment levels, nuclear weapons material. Earlier this year, Iran said it was using an upgraded centrifuge that produces enriched uranium at about double the rate of its original systems. Currently, Iran is only capable of slowly producing enriched uranium for reactors. But Iranian officials have said their long-term goal is for more than 50,000 centrifuges, which would give it the ability to produce high-grade nuclear material in a start-to-finish cycle of just weeks. (22,50)
Abbas to urge Obama: Push pan-Arab peace plan
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will be pushing United States President Barack Obama on Thursday to facilitate peace with Israel through a larger solution to the Middle East conflict. Top Palestinian officials traveling with Abbas said the Palestinian leader was working to repackage a 2002 Saudi plan that called for exchange of Arab land conquered by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War for normalized relations with Arab countries. Obama's meeting with Abbas is the third of four key sessions the administration had planned as the president tries to reinvigorate the push for Middle East peace, an accord that has eluded American leaders, the Israelis and their Arab neighbors for more than a half century. Obama has made brokering peace in that region a top priority but has found the new leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a recalcitrant partner. Netanyahu was in Washington last week. Jordan's King Abdullah II opened the round of visits by Middle East leaders on April 21. Talks with President Hosni Mubarak, originally scheduled for Tuesday, were postponed after the unexpected death of the Egyptian leader's grandson. The two leaders now plan to meet June 4 in Cairo, where Obama plans to deliver a major speech to the Muslim world. On his way to Egypt, Obama plans to meet next Wednesday in Saudi Arabia with King Abdullah. Netanyahu so far has refused to acknowledge past Israeli commitments to an independent Palestinian state. Beyond that he has given no positive response to Obama's demand that Israel stop building or expanding settlements on land that Palestinians claim as part of a future state of their own. Apparently realizing the difficulties he faces on a bilateral basis with Israel, Abbas will be trying to sell - with the help of Jordan's Abdullah, Egypt's Mubarak and Saudi Arabia's Abdullah - a more ambitious peace plan that would include benefits to Israel and the larger Arab world. Obama has appeared open to that approach, one that experts believe can be expanded and built upon given the growing fear of Iran that is shared by Israel and the Arabs. Arab diplomats said earlier this month that the U.S. had asked the 22-member Arab League to amend the 2002 Saudi initiative so that it would be more palatable to Israel. "What we are discussing today is a combined approach of bringing together Arabs, Europeans and the United States as a team to create the circumstances over the next several months that allow Israelis and Palestinians to sit at the table, but also with Lebanese, Syrians and Arab nations," Jordan's Abdullah said at the time during a conference in Berlin. All that suggests that Abbas would get a sympathetic hearing from Obama, with some exceptions. The Palestinian leader is very weak politically, having lost control of the Gaza Strip in a violent takeover by the militant Hamas organization. Abbas also has been unable to remove or diminish the number of Israeli checkpoints that badly interrupt life for Palestinians in the West Bank, a fact that hurts his standing in the territory he still controls. He has made progress, with the help of U.S. trainers, in improving his own security forces against militants in the West Bank still bent on Israel's destruction. The Israelis want to see far more improvement. Corruption is rampant. What's more, the Saudi plan, no matter how it is repackaged, still would require that Israel give back land that it has held for more than 40 years. Netanyahu seems disinclined to do that in return for a peace with the Palestinians, and Israel has not bitten on the larger Arab deal in the seven years it has been on the table, despite the promise of a larger peace throughout the Arab world. (22,48)
Hamas gives fighters total freedom to avenge death of militant
After Israeli commandos killed a senior Hamas militant in the West Bank on Thursday, Hamas' military wing spokesman said that "fighters in the West Bank have total freedom to retaliate for this heinous crime." Abu Obeida, the spokesman of the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said that the Hamas military wing was considering its options in regard to retaliation within the West Bank, asserting that "the blood of the dead will not have spilled for nothing." "Any target on Palestinian soil is a legitimate one," he said, having also accused the Palestinian Authority in contributing to the killing, according to channel 10 news. "The home of the shahid was under the surveillance of the Palestinian Authority's security apparatus, and this proves a traitorous cooperation with the occupation. This security apparatus allows the occupation to do as it wants in the West Bank, and to pursue fighters," channel 10 quoted Abu Obeida as saying. He stressed the fact that the Hamas fighters were given complete freedom to retaliate at any time or place they deemed appropriate, stressing that Israeli attempts to harm the organization will not diminish their will power one iota. Abed al-Majid Dudin, 45, who was killed earlier Thursday, was the head of the Palestinian Islamist group's armed wing in the area around the West Bank city of Hebron. The Israeli troops, from a joint contingent of Israel Defense Forces and Israel Police special forces, found Dudin in a village southeast of Hebron. They surrounded a house in which he had barricaded himself and called on him to come out. Dudin opened fire on the troops, after which they shot and killed him. The soldiers also arrested one of the militant's subordinates, Ahmad a-Fatah Hasin, a 45-year-old Hamas operative. He barricaded himself in his home, according to the Palestinian report, and was later killed after engaging in a brief gunfight with the troops. None of the soldiers was hurt in the incident. Dudin was believed to have been one of the planners of a 1995 bus bombing in Jerusalem, in which four people were killed, and a bus bombing in Ramat Gan in the same year, in which six people were killed. Dudin spent a number of years in a Palestinian jail in Jericho, but was later released after the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000. Brig. Gen. Noam Tivon, commander of the IDF forces in the West Bank, praised the successful joint operation. "We will reach every terrorist who killed Israeli citizens. We will continue to fight terror and defend the citizens of Israel," Tivon said. (22,46)
Israeli Arab committee slams 'racist, fascist' bills
The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee has scheduled an emergency meeting on Saturday in light of recent law proposals submitted by right wing Knesset members, in particular a bill proposing to outlaw the marking of the Nakba, or catastrophe, on Israel's Independence Day. The Nakba is observed by Israeli Arabs and Palestinians who mourn the dispersal of hundreds of thousands of Arabs who were forced to leave their homes during the 1948 War of Independence. Palestinian refugees around the world and Israel's Arab citizens mark the Nakba on May 15, the day after the British mandate over Palestine ended in 1948. Nakba Day is often observed by the Arab population in Israel with marches through destroyed villages. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's ultranationalist party Yisrael Beiteinu has proposed legislation for a ban on the practice and a jail term of up to three years for violators. Just this last Wednesday, the Knesset plenum gave initial approval to a bill that would make it a crime to publicly deny Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, punishable by a sentence of up to a year in prison. The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee voiced its harshest criticism over the recent spate of bills it described as "racist and fascist proposals aimed against the Arab public in Israel, and there is no doubt that these proposals must be dealt with." A third bill that will likely be brought before the ministerial legislative committee on Sunday for a vote is a proposal to require anyone seeking Israeli citizenship to take an oath of loyalty to Israel, renouncing loyalty to all other nations. This bill, proposed by Yisrael Beiteinu's MK David Rotem, requires that "those seeking citizenship will be required to declare commitment to be loyal to the state of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state, to its symbols and its values and to serve the state as required in military service or an alternative service." MK Rotem wrote in the explanation accompanying the bill that "during recent years, it has emerged that citizens of the state of Israel are not loyal to the state, its symbols or values, and they avoid serving in the military. This bill aims to link loyalty to the state, its symbols and values, and mandatory military service, to being a citizen of Israel." More bills in the same spirit are in the works, including a proposed amendment to a basic law that would add to the current oath taken by Knesset members the words "as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state, and to its symbols and values." A similar amendment seeks to add these words to the oath taken by ministers as well. (22,45)
Israel rebuffs U.S. call for total settlement freeze
Israel will press ahead with housing construction in its West Bank settlements despite a surprisingly blunt demand from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that all such building stop, an Israeli official said Thursday. The Israeli position could set the stage for a showdown with the U.S. on the day President Barack Obama meets his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, at the White House. Abbas has said the freeze of the Israeli settlements will top his agenda in the talks. Israel contests that new construction must take place to accommodate for expanding families inside the existing settlements, which the U.S. and much of the world consider an obstacle to peace because they are built on land the Palestinians claim for a future state. When asked to respond to Clinton's call for a total settlement freeze, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said that normal life in those communities must be allowed to continue. Pressed on whether the phrase normal life meant some construction will take place in existing settlements, Regev said it did. He noted that Israel has pledged to build no new settlements and to remove unauthorized Jewish outposts in the West Bank. "The fate of existing settlements will be determined in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians," he said. Regev's remarks echoed those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has said Israel will continue to allow natural growth in the settlements - a vague term that refers to construction in existing settlements to accommodate growing families. The new U.S. administration has been noticeably more explicit in its criticism of Israeli settlement policy than its predecessor. The two countries each have new leaders with strikingly different approaches to Israeli-Palestinian relations, with Netanyahu refusing to endorse Palestinian independence, a notion supported by Obama, his predecessor and the previous Israeli government. Clinton said Wednesday the U.S. wants a halt to all settlement construction - including their natural growth. In remarks to reporters in Washington, Clinton said Obama told Netanyahu last week when the two met at the White House that the U.S. sees stopping settlements as key to a peace deal that would see a Palestinian state created alongside Israel. "He wants to see a stop to settlements - not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions," Clinton said. "We think it is in the best interests [of the peace process] that settlement expansion cease. That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly. ... And we intend to press that point." The remarks by Regev on Thursday also indicated that after Clinton explicitly defined natural growth as unacceptable, Israel now appears to be using the term normal life for the same phenomenon. Earler Wednesday, an Israeli official said that the American administration shows no signs of backing down from its demands that Israel totally freeze settlement growth in the West Bank and open the Gaza border terminals to allow the rebuilding of the Strip. These conclusions were drawn from talks held in London on Tuesday by Intelligence and Atomic Energy Minister Dan Meridor and advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with American diplomats, led by U.S. special envoy George Mitchell. According to the official, the Israeli side claimed in the talks that construction in settlements must be allowed to continue, due to natural growth. They suggested construction be limited to the existing outlines of the settlements, and to define in advance areas in which such construction will be authorized. They also said the demand of Israel to completely freeze the settlement construction was out of order, as the Palestinians have failed to fulfill their part in the first phase of the road map, in particular in combating terrorism. The American side did not agree to the Israeli suggestions, and in addition to the settlement issue, repeatedly brought up the matter of opening the Gaza terminals to aid and construction materials necessary for rebuilding the Strip. The same Jerusalem official also said Netanyahu was interested in reestablishing the ministerial committee on illegal outposts, to speed up negotiations with the settlers and allow for the dismantling of 22 outposts constructed after March 2001. (22,38)