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For those wondering why it has been so hard for the United States and Israel to get past their dispute over Jewish housing, consider the disconnect on display this week in Washington.
On Tuesday, Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, made the rounds at the State Department and the Pentagon, warmly welcomed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. At a White House meeting with the national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones Jr., President Obama dropped by, lingering for 40 minutes.
As has become ritual in this Palestinian village for the last five years, every Friday several hundred demonstrators march toward Israel's security fence - and toward a confrontation with soldiers stationed on the other side.
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) called on Gaza residents and particularly the poor to attend a series of peaceful rallies demanding change to the recent tax laws enforced by the Hamas government.
Marking a further rise in tensions over the issue and a clear alignment of leftist parties against what Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) officials called "harsh" means of tax collection and an arbitrary mandate for collection, the protests are expected to take place Friday.
Palestinian police accused Egyptian security forces of killing four smugglers from the Gaza Strip and injuring three others on Wednesday by blowing up their cross-border tunnel.
Under pressure from Israel and the United States, Egypt has tried to stem the secret passages from its Sinai peninsula, which have allowed Palestinians in Gaza to import weapons and commercial goods in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade.
Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian who approached the Gaza Strip border on Wednesday to demonstrate against a no-go buffer zone imposed there by Israel, witnesses and hospital officials said.
They said the 20-year-old was shot as he and scores of other protesters planted Palestinian flags in the ground near the border fence, east of Gaza City. Some threw stones, drawing gunfire from an Israeli patrol on the far side of the fence.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Wednesday accused the Israeli government of supporting Jewish settlers to confiscate Palestinian-owned land.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release that the Israeli authorities "prevent farmers and shepherds in Tubas district in northern West Bank from reaching their farms."
"The Israeli authorities allow hundreds of armed settlers to erect tents in the area where Palestinian shepherds usually feed their sheep," said the ministry.
Far-rightists from the West Bank settlement of Yizthar on Thursday marched through a neighboring Palestinian village and attacked local homes, to avenge a series of arrests by Israel Police earlier in the day.
The group stormed through Hawara to show their anger at the "police crusade against the settlers" after 11 residents of their community were detained, settler spokesman Avraham Binyamin.
The Palestinian Authority is urging Palestinians to stop using the Israeli cellular companies Pelephone, Orange, Cellcom and Mirs.
But PA Communications Minister Mashhour Abu Daqqa told a press conference in Ramallah yesterday that this is not political boycott. Rather, he said, it is an attempt to regulate the PA's cellular communications market.
Abu Daqqa told reporters that the Israeli companies operate in PA-controlled areas without a license, in violation of Palestinian law and the Oslo Accords. Moreover, he said, the companies do not pay any taxes to the Palestinian Authority.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai has been officially invited to visit the White House.
The decision is apparently the result of the US Administration's desire to forge closer ties with the minister they perceive to be behind the east Jerusalem construction turmoil during Vice President Joe Biden's visit in Israel.
During Biden's visit last month, the Interior Ministry approved the construction of 1,800 housing units in east Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood.
Residents of Silwan's al-Bustan neighborhood in east Jerusalem presented an alternative plan to regulate illegal construction, in an attempt to thwart the razing of their houses.
The alternative plan, unveiled during a Wednesday press conference, has already passed all technical requirements and was issued a zoning file at the municipality three weeks ago.
Finally, there’s a Middle East peace process under way, and both sides appear anxious to make progress.
No, not the one between Israel and the Palestinians. I’m talking about making peace between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government. After months of acrimony, accusations and attack ads, both sides, feeling battered and bruised, say they’re ready.
We make a point of judging everybody on their deeds, not their words – everybody but ourselves.
When we say every Israeli wants peace, when two out of three Israelis consistently tell pollsters they’d give up settlements for peace, when our Likud prime minister tells the world he now accepts the two-state solution, we say: You hear that? Listen to our words. What further proof does anyone need of our peaceful intentions?
But then there’s this little matter of deeds, of what Israel actually does. On the ground. And our deeds tell a somewhat different story than our words.
Israel’s alarm at the deterioration in its relations with the US is palpable. In Jerusalem recently, even a liberal commentator told me: “Barack Obama is a disaster for Israel. I don’t think the general public realise just how much of a disaster he is.” Government officials are more careful – but only a bit. Danny Ayalon, the deputy Israeli foreign minister, says that it would be a “grave mistake” for America to present its own Middle East peace plan, an idea that the US president’s people are known to be considering.
The Obama administration is projecting a new attitude when it comes to Israel, and is selling it hard: unbreakable, unshakeable bond going forward, whatever happens.
Jewish leaders have kicked the tires and they're buying -- although anxious still at what happens when the rubber hits the road.
Frustration regarding efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has generated much discussion lately about whether the Obama administration should present its own peace plan to the parties. Such a move is a tempting alternative to the lack of obvious progress toward direct negotiations, and it would certainly shake things up. As the idea of a U.S. plan gains currency, however, it is important to consider the implications of such an announcement.
Will proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority soon begin? While both Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Abbas have said they hope so, the matter is no longer in the hands of the Palestinians but in those of the Arab League foreign ministers--who meet May 1.
Why has the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accepted an invitation to come to Washington next month to discuss ways to overcome the hurdle placed by Israel before Palestinian-Israeli negotiations can resume?
The impression here is that the US and Palestinian positions are not far apart on the steps that ought to be adopted by the hawkish government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before serious peace negotiations can begin.
In an article titled "The false religion of Mideast peace", published this week in Foreign Policy, Aaron David Miller argued that it is not possible to achieve peace between Arabs/Palestinians and Israelis.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/12796
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/12796
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/12796
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] https://www.americantaskforce.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1
[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/world/middleeast/29diplo.html?ref=middleeast
[7] http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0428/Borrowing-from-Gandhi-Palestinian-passive-resistance-gains-followers
[8] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=280405
[9] http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE63R2Q1.htm
[10] http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE63R2LF.htm
[11] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-04/29/c_13271506.htm
[12] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1166210.html
[13] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1166109.html
[14] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3882351,00.html
[15] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3882229,00.html
[16] http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=174183
[17] http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=174190
[18] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/310bdc10-5163-11df-bed9-00144feab49a.html
[19] http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/04/27/2394533/obama-spreads-the-love-keeping-jewish-leaders-happy-for-now
[20] http://middleeastprogress.org/2010/04/flexibility-and-perseverance-required/
[21] http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/who-speaks-palestinians
[22] http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/israel-cannot-keep-stalling-peace-efforts-1.619431
[23] http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=26103
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