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Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, broke away Monday from the left-leaning Labor Party he had led and formed a smaller centrist faction that will stay in the governing coalition under a new name. The surprise move shook up Israeli politics but was expected to have little impact on its policies.
The factors that led to the popular upheaval in Tunisia set off alarm bells throughout the Arab world, and the Palestinian Authority was no different.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad spent more than two hours on Sunday talking to 40 Palestinian journalists at his Ramallah office about the economic situation and living conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Facing growing calls from within his party to withdraw from Israel's government over the peace process deadlock, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak instead bolted from the Labor Party to form a breakaway parliamentary faction that would preserve his alliance with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday reaffirmed Moscow's commitment to an independent Palestinian state.
"We have supported the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital since the last century, and we still support it," Medvedev said, during his first official visit to Palestine.
The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat first issued a declaration of independence at a meeting in Algiers in November 1988, with the former Soviet Union quick to express support for it.
The city council on Monday approved the building of another 122 Israeli settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem, a councilor said, a move likely to bring fresh censure from the international community.
Elisha Peleg, head of the conservative Likud group on the city council, told AFP its planning and construction committee had given the green light for construction of 90 housing units in Talpiot East and another 32 in Pisgat Zeev.
The Palestinians expect to submit their request for a U.N. Security Council condemnation of Israeli settlements this week and will not be deterred by a U.S. appeal to abandon the idea, senior officials said Monday.
In recent weeks, the Palestinians have prepared a draft that would have the Security Council declare settlements illegal and demand a halt of their construction. During this time, Palestinian diplomats have tried to win support for the proposed resolution.
A Palestinian militant from Islamic Hamas movement was killed Tuesday when a tunnel under Gaza's southern border with Egypt collapsed.
Hamas said that the 23-year-old member was inside the smuggling tunnel, but refused to give details what kind of work he was doing.
The tunnels are often used to bring in materials that Israel prevents from entering Gaza through commercial crossings, including construction materials and fuel.
Before Israel eased its Gaza blockade in June 2010, the tunnels had been the key lifeline of the 1.5 million inhabitants of the coastal enclave.
Egypt's Ahramonline website removed a news item about a gunman's shooting from its website half an hour after it was published. A security source told Xinhua the shooting might not have happened.
The website said in its deleted news that a masked gunman opened fire at a police station in Giza's Haram district on Tuesday, and killed a policeman.
Israeli officials fear that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will announce on Tuesday during a visit to Jericho that Russia recognizes a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.
Medvedev is to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The Russian president's planned visit to Israel was canceled due to the Foreign Ministry strike.
On November 29, 2011 the UN General Assembly decided by a large majority to recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. This scenario, despite American efforts (as of now) to prevent it, is becoming increasingly real.
It is even possible that the vote at the UN will take place earlier, and it is not impossible that it will include elements that are problematic for Israel, such as the return of refugees and decisions regarding Jerusalem and the timetable for implementation.
Future historians will debate how Israel’s leadership could have been so blind. They will wonder how it was possible that Israel - for 43 years - didn’t realize what David Ben-Gurion saw a few weeks after the Six-Day War: that the occupation of the West Bank was a catastrophe for Israel.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak chose to escape Monday's political drama by visiting the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday morning.
"We have embarked on a new road, but Nablus is not the place to discuss these things. I came here to pat the soldiers on the shoulder and shake hands with the commanders," Barak said when asked about his decision to split from the Labor Party and establish a new faction.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to speed up the dialogue with the United States in a bid to renew the regional peace process, state officials said Monday night.
According to one of the sources, "(Defense Minister Ehud) Barak's departure (from the Labor Party) will make it possible to clarify to the Palestinians that the chance for moving up the elections is far smaller than it was before."
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak says he is resigning as head of the Labour party to form his own faction.
Mr Barak is heading a breakaway group - Independence - which includes four other Labour MPs, reports say.
Correspondents say the move strengthens Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition, as it allows Mr Barak's party to remain in government.
Labour is due to vote on whether to quit the coalition over Mr Netanyahu's handling of the Mid-East peace process.
From the age of 14 until making aliya at 22 I was an activist and leader in the Zionist youth movement Young Judaea. Aliya, as we were taught and as we imparted to many others who we inspired to follow in our footsteps, was not simply a change of address. “Moving up” to Israel had to involve a qualitative change of life based on the most important of values – tikkun olam, repairing the world, or more specifically, making our world a better place. These are the most fundamental principles on which I have become the person that I am today.
Israel's defence minister, Ehud Barak, abruptly quit as leader of the Labour Party yesterday, plunging the party into disarray and casting a shadow over prospects for peace.
The announcement prompted the resignation of three Labour ministers from the government, robbing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hawkish coalition of its more moderate voices. Mr Netanyahu is left with a slender majority to govern, but he is now potentially more vulnerable to pressure from the far-right members of his coalition.
The Russian president, on a rare visit to the West Bank, has reaffirmed Moscow's recognition of an independent Palestinian state.
Dmitry Medvedev said Russia had recognised the state in 1988 and his country's position remained unchanged.
The Russian premier's visit seeks to revive a collapsed peace process.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is seeking the country's support for a tougher stance towards Jewish settlements at the UN Security Council.
In a small village between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, I joined a remarkable group of women and children for lunch last weekend, a noisy and cheerful crowd enjoying plates of chicken, fish, rice and salad. All of them were breaking the law.
The party consisted of around 20 mostly middle-aged Israeli women, slightly fewer and younger Palestinian women and a handful of the latter's children.
John Ging, the high-profile director of the UN relief agency in Gaza, is to quit his current post to take up a senior UN job in New York.
Ging, 45, who has worked in Gaza since 2006, has been an enthusiastic and effective advocate for the rights of the Gazan population and a vocal critic of Israeli government policy.
He has been the target of assassination attempts and death threats in Gaza, and Islamist opponents have attacked projects he has promoted.
Snap quiz: Which was the first country to recognise Israel at the United Nations? No, not the United States, nor any other western country. It was, in fact, the Soviet Union.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/17086
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/17086
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/17086
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] https://www.americantaskforce.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1
[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/world/middleeast/18israel.html?ref=middleeast?_r=1
[7] http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/01/west-bank-factors-to-tunisian-upheaval-alarmed-palestinian-authority.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BabylonBeyond+%28Babylon+%26+Beyond+Blog%29
[8] http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/0117/Israel-s-Barak-breaks-from-Labor-Party-fortifying-bond-with-Netanyahu
[9] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=352039
[10] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=351993
[11] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/palestinians-to-turn-to-security-council-this-week-1190454.html
[12] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-01/18/c_13696525.htm
[13] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-01/18/c_13696468.htm
[14] http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-concerned-russia-will-recognize-palestinian-state-1.337748
[15] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/before-the-un-makes-a-decision-for-us-1.337661
[16] http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/strenger-than-fiction/israel-s-right-have-eyes-but-do-not-see-have-ears-but-do-not-hear-1.336224
[17] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4015381,00.html
[18] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4015182,00.html
[19] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12204321
[20] http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=204047
[21] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/peace-process-under-threat-as-barak-goes-to-war-with-his-party-2186987.html
[22] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12212907
[23] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/view-from-jerusalem-with-harriet-sherwood/2011/jan/17/israel-s-disobedient-women-illegal-trips
[24] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/17/un-gaza-john-ging-unrwa
[25] http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/news-comment/israel-finds-no-rebuttal-to-russian-immigrant-rhetoric?pageCount=0
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