July 9, 2010

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

PM Netanyahu vows to “take risks," and says peace is possible within one year if direct talks begin, but Palestinians call this a “ploy.” Roger Cohen looks at the deterioration in Israel-Turkey relations. The UN says the West Bank separation barrier is still harming Palestinians and the Guardian profiles an affected village. A leader of protests against the wall remains incarcerated by Israel. Palestinians expect to face US pressure. Pres. Obama urges Israelis to seize the opportunity for peace. Netanyahu indicates he will not extend the settlement moratorium. About 4 million Palestinians are estimated to be living in the occupied territories. A Fatah leader says there has been no progress in proximity talks. Zeev Sternhell says Israel is losing its moral compass. Israelis expect “confidence building measures” to be enacted shortly. A study suggests a link between trauma and violence in Gaza. The Jerusalem Post welcomes Obama's outreach to Israelis. Zuheir Kseibati says Netanyahu made progress with Obama. George Hishmeh says Obama and Netanyahu should read a new book by Susan Abulhawa. Hussein Ibish looks at the ongoing tensions lurking beneath the smiles at the Obama-Netanyahu meeting.

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Israel Vows to ‘Take Risks’ in Talks With Palestinians

Declaring that he intended to “confound the critics and the skeptics,” an upbeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told an audience of foreign policy experts in New York on Thursday that he was ready to begin direct peace talks with the Palestinians “next week” or even sooner. “Just get on with it,” he said.

The Israel-Turkey Imbroglio

NEW YORK — Here’s an intriguing nugget, given Turkey’s recent decision to close its airspace to Israeli military planes: When Israel attacked a covert Syrian nuclear reactor on Sept. 6, 2007, its bombers overflew Turkey.

A former senior U.S. official who was intimately involved in handling the fallout from the raid told me Turkish officials raised the issue with Israel, were invited to discuss the matter, but in the end let it drop.

Those were different times, before Turkish-Israeli ties entered their current poisonous phase.

ISRAEL: Six years later, UN says barrier is still a big problem

Six years ago, on July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague gave an advisory opinion on Israel's construction of a part-concrete, part-fence barrier running along its borders with the West Bank. The court stated that in addition to being "contrary to international law," the construction of the barrier does not justify Israel's security objectives.

Palestinians brace for US pressure after Netanyahu's White House visit

It's an axiom of Arab-Israeli peacemaking that the new rapport between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would leave Palestinians in an awkward spot.

After the Obama administration pushed Mr. Netanyahu over the past year to rein in West Bank settlements, there are signals in the wake of Netanyahu's White House visit on Tuesday that US pressure could shift to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Bil'in leader remains in jail after term ends

Bethlehem - Ma'an - Bil'in protest leader Adeeb Abu Rahma is being held in Israeli custody until the prosecution's appeal against him is heard, despite having served his term in full, a statement read Friday.

Abu Rahma, a taxi driver and organizer of the weekly anti wall protests in the central West Bank village of Bil'in near Ramallah, was sentenced to 12 months, a further 12 months of suspended sentence, and ordered to pay a fine on Thursday, in the first of a series of trials against Palestinian protest organizers.

Obama urges Israel to seize chance for peace

JERUSALEM, July 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said in a rare interview with an Israeli television station he thought it may be possible to achieve a Middle East peace deal in the next few years and urged Israel to seize the chance.

"We probably won't have a better opportunity than we have right now. And that has to be seized," Obama told Channel 2 television in remarks broadcast on Thursday, two days after his talks at the White House with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu signals no extension of settlement freeze

NEW YORK, July 8 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled on Thursday he would not extend beyond September a 10-month moratorium on new housing starts in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

"I think we've done enough. Let's get on with the talks," he said, when asked in an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations whether he would extend the limited freeze he put in place to coax the Palestinians into peace negotiations.

About 4 mln Palestinians live in West Bank, Gaza Strip: report

RAMALLAH, July 8 (Xinhua) -- The number of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is estimated at 4.05 million, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said Thursday.

About 2.51 million of the population lives in the West Bank and 1.54 million in the Gaza Strip, PCBS said in a report issued ahead of the World Population Day which falls on July 11, adding there are 2.06 million males and 1.99 million females.

The city of Hebron is the highest populated area in the West Bank, as the report said some 600,000 people live there.

Fatah leader says no progress in proximity talks

A senior Fatah leader said here on Thursday that the Israeli-Palestinians proximity talks did not yield any progress that meets previously set conditions.

The meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Tuesday did not provide any good signs, Nabil Shaath, a Fatah Central Committee member, told reporters in Cairo after meeting with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.

Netanyahu: Mideast deal possible in year if direct peace talks start

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Thursday that if direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority begin, it would be possible to reach a peace deal within a year.

In his speech to the prestigious foreign-policy think tank, Netanyahu stressed that he did not return to the post of prime minister in order to do nothing and said he was willing to make unprecedented concessions.

A society falling apart

Among the regimes in the Western world, Israel stands out with certain characteristics that generally do not indicate a strong democratic system. Its parliament is paralyzed, the opposition is nonexistent, and contempt for the law is becoming more pronounced. This not only refers to the unrest caused by the ultra-Orthodox, but also to something much more dangerous, the unrest caused by the settlers.

Goodwill moves likely upon PM’s return

The Defense Ministry is drafting a comprehensive list of confidence-building measures that it anticipates it will be asked to implement after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu returns to Israel on Friday from his meeting with US President Barack Obama, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Study: Trauma influences Gazan terror

An international study of Gazan teens has found that those who most supported terrorism have at least one family member who was wounded or killed by IDF action against terrorism.

The team, led by human aggression expert Prof. Jeff Victoroff at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, said that the most militant and aggressive youth are more closely linked to “past trauma and perceived political injustice, rather than to aggression.”

Analysis: Finally, presidential empathy

Watching Barack Obama work his charismatic magic on Channel 2 interviewer Yonit Levy on Thursday night, and through her on the Israeli public, one was quickly reminded afresh of how it was that this remarkable politician defied immensely improbable odds to become president.

Palestinians face being walled by Israeli security barrier

Sixty-three-year-old Ahmed Bargouth sits in the shade of a walnut tree and contemplates the view before him.

Across the valley is Jerusalem's zoo, which his grandchildren have never been able to visit, although they have watched animals through binoculars.

Palestinians say Israeli PM’s call for direct talks is just a ploy

From Ramallah to Gaza, Palestinian reactions to the announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to Washington that Israel wants to move immediately to direct negotiations may best be described as a collective shrug of the shoulders.

There is “nothing new” in any of the statements that have come out of Washington, said Ghassan Khatib, head of the Palestinian government’s media office in Ramallah.

The Summit of Misleading

One cannot deny Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s success in clearing his page with American President Barack Obama, assuming it was darkened not due to the killing of the Turks on the Freedom Flotilla, but also due to the embarrassment caused to the White House and the besieging of its efforts to revive the Palestinian negotiations track with an endless series of settlement projects.

Netanyahu and Obama should do some reading

It was my intention while cruising the Danube River — which is disappointingly muddy and not blue as Mozart claimed — for two weeks last month aboard a comfortable Viking boat with my wife that my attention would be mainly focused on the Fifa World Cup and the beautiful countryside and its rich history.

What's lurking beneath the smiles at the Obama-Netanyahu lovefest?

It finally had to happen, after several abortive efforts. A high-level US-Israel diplomatic lovefest occurred at the White House between Pres. Obama and PM Netanyahu on Tuesday. As both governments had a strong vested interest in making the event successful, it was all smiles, firm handshakes and affirmations of undying friendship. The word of the day was “excellent,” a term repeated ad nauseum by both leaders.

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