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Editor's Picks
The Economist looks at recent legislation concerning Jewish refugees from
their April edition. (1) The Associated Press reports on a Fatah victory in
Hebron (3). Tony Blair calls on Israel to work to improve Palestinian
lives(4)as Daniel Levy discusses checkpoints (6). Former President Jimmy
Carter speaks out against conditions in Gaza in a Daily Star Op-Ed (9).
1. Let There Be Justice For All
In
The Economist
(United Kingdom)
April 10, 2008 http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11021245&fs ONE of the thorniest questions in an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, if it ever happens, will be what recompense to give the 4.5m Palestinian refugees and their descendants, of whom only a tiny minority, if any, are likely to be allowed to return to what is now Israel. But now a coalition of Jewish organisations has managed to get a no less thorny problem onto the agenda: compensation for Jews who fled the Arab world. Some 850,000 Jews were living in Arab countries by the early 20th century but began leaving as Arab attitudes to them soured in the wake of Jewish immigration to Palestine and the later creation of Israel. Often they fled after being attacked or stripped of their property and citizenship. Around 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced out of Israel at the state's birth. But while most of the Palestinians have remained stateless, living in refugee camps scattered around the Arab world, the Jews all ended up as citizens of Israel and other countries in Europe an <>
2. Arabs Say Racism On Rise As Israel Turns 60
By Mohammed Assadi
In The Associated Press May 8, 2008 http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/9/worldupdates/2008-05-08 Salwa Abu Jaber believes her story shows Israel discriminating against its Arab citizens, 60 years after the state was established as a haven for Jews. The 32-year-old mother of four from northern Israel said her five-year-old daughter has never seen her father, who lives in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Separated from the man for five years, she says she has been forced to divorce him. Thousands of families have been similarly split by a 2003 ban on Palestinians in the West Bank from reuniting with their families inside Israel, imposed citing security reasons after the Palestinian uprising or intifada began in 2000. "In practical terms, Israel forced the divorce on us," Abu Jaber said. "We could not continue to live like this any longer. If this is not racism, then what is it?" This week, as Israel celebrates the anniversary of its foundation, its supreme court has said it found merit in the position of numerous petitions filed <>
3. Fatah Wins Key W. Bank Student Election
In
The Associated Press
May 8, 2008 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&ci Hebron University officials say Fatah has won student council elections in a former Hamas stronghold. Fatah activists loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas won 21 seats Wednesday, compared to 20 for Hamas. Fatah supporters honked car horns and fired guns in the air when the results were announced. Islamists controlled the university's student council since 1986. University elections are an important gauge of opinion. Since the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza last year, Fatah has been trying to prevent a repeat in the West Bank. Hebron is traditionally a Hamas stronghold. Last month, Fatah also retook the student council of Bir Zeit, the West Bank's most prestigious university. <> Read entire article
4. Middle East Peace Process Needs To Move Faster, Blair
In
Kuwait News Agency (kuna)
(Kuwait)
May 8, 2008 http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=190630 Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday the Middle East peace process needs to move faster if there is to be any chance of an agreement this year.
5. Israel's Half A Step Forward
By George S. Hishmeh
In Middle East Times (Pan Arab) May 8, 2008 http://www.metimes.com/Politics/2008/05/08/israels_half_a_step_forward/2539 The May cover of The Atlantic magazine, a respected monthly, was daring. The headline was unbelievable for an American publication: "Is Israel Finished?" The Star of David was larger than the characters on the cover which was adorned by the four colors of the Palestinian flag –– red, white, black and green. The author is Jeffrey Goldberg, who admits that he as "a young Zionist in the late 1980s ... was drawn to the idea that Israel represented the most sublime and encompassing expression of Jewishness," and so he moved there and joined the Israeli army. The article leads off with the rift between the discredited and beleaguered Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and a grieving novelist, David Grossman, whose son was killed in the ill-considered Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006. But the author says the rift in fact "mirrors the division confounding Israel," especially whether it can "overcome its paralysis to make the har <>
6. Israel At 60
By Daniel Levy
In Prospectsforpeace.com (Afghanistan), Blog May 8, 2008 http://www.prospectsforpeace.com/ I don’t often, or ever really, write about my own relationship to Israel or how I ended up there, but I’ll make an exception for the 60th anniversary. It happened for me at the time of the ‘good’ Iraq war, you remember – the one whose ambitions were limited to ensuring continued access to Kuwaiti oil – not the contemporary Iraq tri-fecta effort – own the oil, change the regime, and transform the region. So there I was in January of 1991, working in London as the political officer of the Union of Jewish Students, arguing Israel's case on campus (and attempting to do so from within as liberal a discourse as could be summoned for the occasion), while Tel Aviv came under scud missile attack from Iraq. I signed up for one of the Jewish community's solidarity missions and went off to Israel to receive my obligatory gas mask and, well, kill time in between the curfews and sir <>
7. Bush Plans No Peace Talks On Mideast Trip
In
United Press International (UPI)
May 8, 2008 http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/05/08/bush_plans_no_peace_talks_ The White House says now isn't the time for a peace conference between U.S. President George Bush and leaders of Israel and the Palestinians.
8. For Some Palestinians, One State With Israel Is Better Than None
By Richard Boudreaux And Ashraf Khali
In The Los Angeles Times , Opinion May 8, 2008 http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-fg-onestate8-2008may08,0,3307944.sto Frustrated by years of on-and-off peace talks with Israel, Palestinians are losing hope for an independent homeland, and some are proposing a radically different cause: a shared state with equal rights for Palestinians and Jews.
9. Politics Aside, A Human Rights Crime Is Happening In Gaza
By Jimmy Carter
In The Daily Star (Lebanon), Opinion May 8, 2008 http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id
The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where 1.5 million human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world by sea, air, or land. An entire population is being brutally punished. This gross mistreatment of the Palestinians in Gaza was escalated dramatically by Israel, with United States backing, after political candidates representing Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Authority Parliament in 2006. The election was unanimously judged to be honest and fair by all international observers, including a joint team I led from the Carter Center and the National Democratic Institute. Israel and the US refused to accept the right of Palestinians to form a unity government with Hamas and Fatah and now, after internal strife, Hamas alone controls Gaza. Forty-one of the 43 victorious Hamas candidates who <>
10. Mideast Change Is Coming, And May Not Be Pretty
By Rami Khouri
In The Daily Star (Lebanon), Opinion May 8, 2008 http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id The convergence of six trends in the Middle East - the changing realities of food, energy, water, population, urbanization and security-dominated politics - is likely to create conditions that will be politically challenging, if not destabilizing, in many countries in the years ahead. The confluence of these trends is very similar to what happened in the region in the mid to late 1970s, when the current Islamist wave of social identity and confrontational politics was initiated. Things will be much more difficult this time around, and the consequences could be much worse, especially in view of the ripple effect of the war in Iraq, Iran's growing influence, the continued stalemate in Palestine and the weakening of some Arab governments. It is difficult to predict exactly what will happen in the years ahead, but the stressful factors propelling change <>
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"Celebrating that does not mean that you don't recognize that there were consequences for the people of the region from that founding [of Israel], and we're still trying to deal with those consequences," she said. "And the fact that the president has talked about the need to found a Palestinian state, and has been talking about that since he became President, practically, says that he recognizes that the Palestinians also deserve to live in their own state and become a vibrant democracy."
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Full Text ATFP/APN Viewpoints on Post Annapolis MEI January, 2008 FMEP president Ambassador Philip Wilcox moderated a dialogue between ATFP president Dr. Ziad Asali and APN spokesperson Ori Nir under the auspices of the Middle East Institute on the post Annapolis period. |
| American
Task Force on Palestine - 815 Connecticut Ave., Suite 200, Washington
DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-887-0177 incoming@americantaskforce.org |