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THE OBAMA administration appears near to a diplomatic achievement it expected long ago: the relaunch of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. It will be a modest start -- not a big conference or a convocation to Camp David but "proximity talks," in which envoy George J. Mitchell will shuttle between the two camps. This is, in one sense, a step backward for Israeli-Palestinian relations, since the two sides have been talking directly to each other, off and on, since 1991. But Mr.
For much of the past year as he has shuttled dozens of times to the Middle East and Europe quietly trying to persuade Israelis and Palestinians back to the peace table, U.S. Special Envoy George Mitchell has borne the brunt of criticism of both those offended by the Obama administration’s early pressure on Israel to halt new settlements on the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and others disappointed that Obama failed to follow through when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to stop the new construction as a precondition for negotiations.
Calling Washington’s ties to Israel “unshakable,” Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. opened talks with Israeli leaders on Tuesday, part of a concerted American effort to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and keep Israel focused on sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program rather than unilateral military action.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. spoke in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
Vice President Biden arrived in Israel on Monday to boost U.S. efforts to mediate talks between Israelis and Palestinians amid criticism that the Obama administration has set back the peace process.
The Tomb of the Patriarchs -- a site revered by Jews, Muslims and Christians as the burial place of their common forefather, Abraham -- needed bathrooms and a new roof over an outdoor prayer area. To the spokesman for Hebron's Jewish settler community, that should not have been grounds for international scandal.
"In any normal country, people would take a site like that and turn it into a nationally recognized monument," David Wilder said.
The Palestinian government in Ramallah condemned Israel's authorization on Monday of dozens of new housing units for a settlement near Bethlehem just hours before US envoy George Mitchell arrived in the region.
The Israeli government will allow the building of 112 new homes in the illegal West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit settlement, in spite of a declared halt to settlement expansion in November, Israeli media reported on Monday.
Israel will allow UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and a senior European Union (EU) official to enter Gaza, said a statement of Israeli Foreign Ministry, in an attempt to ease the international pressure on the Jewish State for besieging Gaza.
It is the first time Israel has permitted international officials to cross Israeli border to enter Gaza since the operation Cast Lead in December 2008, according to local daily Ha' aretz.
Palestinian opposition factions on Monday rejected the resumption of the U.S.-sponsored indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), saying the talks will be a great failure and will never succeed.
The left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( PFLP) accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of "exclusivity in the decision-making, mainly those related to major Palestinian issues," adding talks can never be renewed while Israel continues its settlement activities and rejects the peace principles.
Several children in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan were arrested and taken from their homes in handcuffs in the middle of the night over the past few months, as part of a police crackdown on suspected stone-throwers, several teenage residents told B'Tselem and Haaretz.
Haaretz and B'Tselem, the Israel Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, collected testimonies from several teens that suggest the police are treating them violently and violating their rights.
Bowing to international pressure, the Interior Ministry has announced it will resume granting work permits to foreigners working in most international non governmental organizations in the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.
As Haaretz reported about six weeks ago, the Interior Ministry stopped issuing work permits to non governmental organization workers as of September 2009 and told them they would have to make do with tourist visas, which do not permit employment.
At this time, senior Palestinian figures no longer want the VIP cards issued by Israel to about 300 elected officials and heads of Palestinian security arms. These cards enable them, among other perks, to stay in their air-conditioned Mercedes and quickly pass through IDF roadblocks in the West Bank, while their people watch on angrily and enviously.
Deputy Jerusalem Mayor David Hadari (Habayit Hayehudi) is weighing the possibility of opening up an office in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in an effort to “assist neighborhood residents,” he told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
Hadari said he would tour the area on Tuesday to explore logistical and financial aspects of setting up an office in one of the homes where Jewish families currently live.
“I’m going to Sheikh Jarrah first of all, to strengthen the Jewish residents there,” Hadari told the Post. “I want to see if there is any way I can help them.
"To leave my children, I would die. I couldn't do it," says Lana Khatib.
Five years ago, Israel's controversial citizenship law marred her first year of marriage and still looms large over everything from supermarket shopping to her fears the family might face the prospect of separation.
Adnan, who is three, and one-year-old Yosra squabble over their toys.
Born and raised in Israel, they are too young to understand that their parents both consider themselves Palestinian, but their father Taiseer is an Israeli citizen while their mother is from the occupied West Bank.
Despite all the diplomatic disquiet over Israeli policy towards the Palestinians, actions speak far louder than words when it comes to Israel's international status. In May, the country seems set to be ushered into the OECD, following years of campaigning from successive Israeli governments. Such a move would be another step in welcoming Israel in from the cold, and demonstrates certain states' willingness to overlook Israel's questionable behaviour as an occupier in favour of enhanced fiscal and political ties.
Pundits and politicians have taken recently to comparing Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to Israel's founding father, David Ben-Gurion.
No less a figure than President Shimon Peres, one of Ben-Gurion's foremost disciples, is the latest Israeli leader to offer the accolade.
The reason is simple: Like Ben-Gurion, Fayyad is building institutions of statehood.
Israel has been told that its accession to an exclusive club of the world’s most developed economies is all but assured when the 30 member states meet in May.
But a draft report of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), seen by The National, concedes that Israel has breached one of the organisation’s key requirements on providing accurate and transparent data on its economic activity.
On the eve of his highly anticipated trip to the Middle East, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden emphasized in an interview with Al-Hayat the need for “bold steps” from Palestinians and Israelis to make progress on the Peace Process, and promised a “sustained and active” American role in the upcoming proximity negotiations. Mr. Biden talked about the lack of trust for the Iranian leadership and expected from China, a member of the P5+1, to “fulfill its responsibilities” on the issue of sanctions.
If last Friday's incident at the Al Haram Al Sharif compound means anything it is this: Israel's right-wing government is out of control and is bent on executing a malicious scheme to undermine Palestinian rights.
On Saturday night over 3,000 Palestinian, Israeli and foreign peace activists, waving Palestinian flags and shouting "Free Sheikh Jarrah", gathered in the East Jerusalem suburb in support of Palestinians threatened with home demolitions and evictions.
Progressive members of the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, called for the removal of illegal Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem and for the rights of Palestinian residents to be respected.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/11473
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/11473
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/11473
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] http://www.acpus.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1
[6] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/08/AR2010030803612.html
[7] http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34098.html
[8] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/world/middleeast/10biden.html?ref=middleeast
[9] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/08/AR2010030801989.html
[10] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/07/AR2010030702702.html
[11] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=267131
[12] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-03/09/c_13202535.htm
[13] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-03/09/c_13202511.htm
[14] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1155105.html
[15] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1155099.html
[16] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3859607,00.html
[17] http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=170503
[18] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8552816.stm
[19] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/09/israel-policy-economic-oecd
[20] http://jta.org/news/article/2010/03/08/1010980/salam-fayyad-the-palestinian-with-a-plan-for-statehood
[21] http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100308/FOREIGN/703079958/1135
[22] http://www.daralhayat.com/portalarticlendah/117203
[23] http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/the-perils-of-a-new-intifada-1.593353
[24] http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50600
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