March 11, 2010

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

The New York Times calls Israel's new settlement announcement, "a slap in the face to Washington." VP Biden's trip is entirely overshadowed by the development. The LA Times says a two-state agreement is still the only way to achieve peace. PLO officials say proximity talks will be on hold until the settlement expansion is canceled, and Arab states may have withdrawn their support. Pres. Abbas says Arabs must intervene. Hamas frees a British journalist in Gaza. A 35-year-old woman becomes governor of a key district in the West Bank. Ha'aretz says Israel is planning 50,000 new settlement units in Occupied East Jerusalem, more construction bids are issued in the West Bank, and a commentary says the US can no longer turn a blind eye. Large percentages of Israelis say they don't want equality for Arabs. A British witness recounts the killing of an American activist by Israeli forces. The Independent says Israel may get away with its latest behavior. Michael Young looks at four years in Gaza following Hamas' parliamentary victory. The National says Israel has damaged prospects for peace. Daoud Kuttab analyzes the settlement issue.

---

---

[5]

---

Diplomacy 102

Vice President Joseph Biden Jr. used rare and decidedly undiplomatic language on Tuesday to upbraid Israel after it announced plans to build 1,600 new housing units in a Jewish neighborhood of East Jerusalem. “I condemn the decision. ...,” he said in a statement.

The Obama administration is understandably furious. Mr. Biden was in Israel working to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The word came after he had spent the day vowing the United States’ “absolute, total and unvarnished commitment to Israel’s security.”

Biden's rebuke on new housing comes as Israel seeks to reaffirm U.S. relations

Two years ago, Israel announced plans to build new homes in east Jerusalem just as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was preparing to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, prompting Rice's spokesman to characterize the move as "not helpful."

Biden tells Palestinians U.S. won't be deterred

Vice President Joe Biden told Palestinians on Wednesday that the United States intends to push ahead with its Mideast peacemaking effort, despite a diplomatic blow-up this week over Israel's plans to build 1,600 housing units in disputed East Jerusalem.

Biden met in the West Bank with the Palestinian Authority president and prime minister, emphasizing U.S. determination to act as the intermediary in new talks between Israelis and Palestinians. The vice president reiterated his criticism of Israel's housing announcement, and declared that Palestinians deserve a "viable" state.

Staying true to 'two-state'

For the better part of two decades, most Israelis and Palestinians and most of their elected leaders have embraced the "two-state solution" to their bloody conflict -- a negotiated separation into side-by-side states of Israel and Palestine. Over time, however, the two sides have moved further from that goal, pulled in opposite directions by extremists. Now, as Vice President Biden and U.S. envoy George J. Mitchell attempt to start "proximity" talks, in which the two sides will negotiate without meeting face to face, we're concerned: Is time running out for a two-state solution?

Erekat says settlement move cancelled talks

Indirect talks with Israel will cease to go forward unless Israeli plans to construct 1,600 homes in East Jerusalem are axed, chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said Thursday.

The statement followed one by Arab League chief Amr Moussa, who announced Wednesday that "The Palestinian president decided he will not enter into those negotiations now ... the Palestinian side is not ready to negotiate under the present circumstances."

Moussa later told reporters that "The talks have already stopped."

Abbas: Arabs must intervene in peace debacle

President Mahmoud Abbas called on Arab representative bodies "to act swiftly, and to take steps... commensurate with this deadly work," referring to Israel's announced plans to build 1,600 new settlement homes in Jerusalem.

Abbas' remarks were in a Palestinian Authority Information Ministry statement released Wednesday, slamming Israel's announcement, calling the move is part of Israel's "entrenched system of extremism."

Hamas frees British journalist in Gaza

A British journalist left the Gaza Strip on Thursday after nearly four weeks in a Hamas-run Palestinian jail facing accusations of spying for Israel.

Paul Martin, a London-based freelance film-maker and writer, said as he left the enclave for Israel: "My release today is a great victory for freedom of the media, freedom of the press, to be able to follow the difficult stories in war zones."

Hamas insisted on branding him a spy for Israel but said it had decided to deport rather than prosecute Martin, who is in his 50s and also holds South African citizenship.

Women in charge in West Bank's key district

At 35, Leila Ghanem is the first woman to become a Palestinian governor, the latest in a group of trailblazing women leaders who are slowly winning acceptance in this traditional society.

Israel planning 50,000 housing units in East Jerusalem

Some 50,000 new housing units in Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the Green Line are in various stages of planning and approval, planning officials told Haaretz. They said Jerusalem's construction plans for the next few years, even decades, are expected to focus on East Jerusalem.

Biden to Israelis: Mideast status quo unsustainable

United States Vice President Joe Biden warned Israelis in a direct address from Tel Aviv on Thursday that the status quo in the Middle East was not sustainable, and vowed that the United States would do everything in its power to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

He also urged both Israelis and the Palestinians look toward direct negotiations to end the long-standing conflict.

The U.S. will no longer turn a blind eye to Israeli settlements

Even Mahmoud Abbas would have been hard put to dream up a greater victory for Palestinian diplomacy than the one handed to him Tuesday on a silver platter by the Israeli Interior Ministry. The condemnations have been pouring in since the plan to build 1,600 homes in Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood was announced. Not only from U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, but from the United Nations, the European Union and world leaders, all of them slamming the decision.

Construction bids issued in West Bank settlement

On the backdrop of the US-prompted construction moratorium imposed on West Bank settlements and the recent embarrassment over construction in east Jerusalem during US Vice President Joe Biden's visit, the Elkana Local Council issued a tender on Thursday for the building of new residential neighborhoods in the West Bank settlement.

According to the council-issued tenders, proposals are sought by entrepreneurs interested in erecting new residential neighborhoods. The local council will leave arranging all the necessary political and planning permits up to whoever makes the winning bid.

Poll: 46% of high-schoolers don't want equality for Arabs

Racism and refusal to evacuate alongside support for a democratic system of government – these are the jumbled sentiment of Israel's high school students, according to a recent poll.

They support a democratic form of government, but more than half of them believe that Arabs should not be allowed to vote in Knesset elections. One out of every six students would not want to study in the same class with an Ethiopian or an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, and 21% of them think that "Death to Arabs" is a legitimate expression.

'I saw Israeli bulldozer kill Rachel Corrie'

The final moments of Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist crushed to death beneath a pile of earth and rubble in the path of an advancing Israeli army bulldozer, were described to an Israeli court by an eyewitness yesterday.

The parents of the 23-year-old, who was killed by the bulldozer in March 2003, were present to hear the harrowing account on the first day of hearings in a civil lawsuit they have brought against the state of Israel. The country has never acknowledged culpability over Ms Corrie's death.

Israel shows what it really thinks

Israel apologised for the embarrassment it had caused its most important ally by announcing it would build 1,600 new homes in disputed East Jerusalem at the very moment the US vice-president, Joe Biden, was in the country for a visit. But no apology – nor the implausible explanation that the announcement was a "procedural" matter of which Benjamin Netanyahu had not been informed in advance – can obscure the truth that this episode has revealed.

What has Gaza gained since Hamas won four years ago?

As Israel and the Palestinian Authority prepare to resume indirect talks, through American mediation, some are insisting that the Islamist movement Hamas must be brought into the process. Hamas, the argument goes, is capable of obstructing progress in negotiations, so that only by engaging the group can the United States and the international community avoid such an outcome. The rationale is naive.

Israel provokes and damages push for peace

During the Middle Ages, intellectuals endlessly debated the question: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? To this we add a contemporary version: How often will Israel kick Washington in the teeth before it says “Enough!”

Our question, of course, is occasioned by the visit of the US vice president, Joe Biden, to Jerusalem and Ramallah this week. Mr Biden was dispatched by the White House to assure Israelis of America’s commitment to their security.

The problem with illegal settlements

The embarrassment the US vice president faced this week when, during his visit to Israel, the creation of a new settlement was announced should not have surprised him. The list of Israeli slaps in the face of US officials is endless.

The situation has become such that many believe calls for a freeze of settlement activities should stop because they resulted in a frenzy to build even more Jewish settlements.

---

---