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An Israeli official says the government will decide next month whether to give final approval for 1,500 new housing units in Jewish enclaves in disputed east Jerusalem.
Roi Lachmanovich's announcement Tuesday draws new spotlight on the controversial issue. An approval would further distance prospects for restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Israeli construction in east Jerusalem is contentious because Palestinians want the area for their future capital. Israel annexed the territory after capturing it in 1967.
Almost unnoticed amid the flood of news from the Middle East, fighting has resumed across Israel's border with Gaza. Hamas launched mortar bombs and rockets, and there was a suicide attack in Jerusalem, the first in four years. Israel responded with airstrikes.
And if that sounds old hat, argues Aaron David Miller in Foreign Policy magazine, that's because it is. Miller argues that events in the Arab world have moved the Israeli-Palestinian issue firmly to the backburner.
The deputy mayor of Awarta and two of his brothers were detained along with dozens of others Tuesday morning by Israeli forces. Officials say the detained men are being given DNA tests and questioned by soldiers.
The detentions come as the investigation into the murders of five Israeli settlers - including two children and an infant - enters its third week. More than 40 had been detained from the village in the first week of the investigation, and foreign workers in the settlement were said to have been questioned.
President Mahmoud Abbas asked the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization to convene the body's Constitution Committee, government news agency WAFA reported.
He advised the committee that it should draw up amendments to the PLO charter by the end of September.
The committee was first convened in 2005, after unity talks between 13 Palestinian factions in Cairo led to an agreement which paved the way for legislative elections in 2006.
Several Israeli military tanks crossed the border into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning near the Kissufim military post north of Khan Younis.
Witnesses northeast of the town of Qarara, close to where the military action was reported, said three tanks and four bulldozers were operating inside the coastal enclave.
Gunfire was reported, but no injuries, and onlookers said the bulldozers began leveling agricultural areas around the Kissufim military base.
Israel passed a law on Monday that eases the process of revoking citizenship in a step denounced as a move to threaten primarily its Arab minority.
The amendment to a so-called "Citizenship Law" was the latest in a list of parliamentary measures taken this past month that civil rights activists denounce as undemocratic but Israeli rightists see as essential to the Jewish state's defence.
An Israeli official says Israel is considering annexing major West Bank settlement blocs if the Palestinians unilaterally seek world recognition of a state.
The official said Tuesday that Israel can respond to unilateral Palestinian action with one-sided acts of its own.
Annexation of settlements is one option. He says others could include restricting water supplies beyond agreed-upon amounts and restricting Palestinian use of Israeli ports for business purposes.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity on Tuesday because no final decisions have been made.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is making a heavy push for reconciliation with Hamas and is willing to give up hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid if that's what it takes to forge a Palestinian unity deal, a top aide said Monday.
The comments were the latest sign that Abbas is giving up on stalled peace talks with Israel and prefers to pursue unity with Gaza's Hamas rulers as he makes a push toward independence.
"Of course we need the American money. But if they use it as a way of pressuring us, we are ready to relinquish that aid," said Azzam Ahmed, an Abbas aide.
Damascus-based Palestinian political groups denied on Monday accusations that some Palestinians were behind recent unrest in Syria.
In a statement, the groups warned of "attempts of division between Syria and the Palestinian factions."
Khaled Abdul Majeed, secretary of the national follow-up committee and the Palestinian forces coalition, said in the statement that "Syria will overcome the current crisis and will be able to foil external attempts to undermine its national stability. "
The Israeli army arrested 16 Palestinians in overnight raids, most of them in the southern city of Hebron, security sources said on Monday.
An Israeli army spokesperson told the Israel Radio that the detainees were wanted by the security and intelligence services.
Such detention raids have been taking place almost on daily basis since the beginning of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000.
Meanwhile, an Israeli settler hit a Palestinian schoolgirl with his car in the West Bank on Monday, said security sources.
Dozens of Palestinians were arrested and given DNA tests in the West Bank town of Awarta in connection to the recent murder of five family members in the nearby settlement of Itamar, Ma'an News Agency reported on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, suspected terrorists entered the West Bank settlement of Itamar and murdered Udi and Ruth Fogel, along with three of their young children, including their three-month-old baby, before fleeing the scene.
Ma'an reported that among those arrested was the deputy mayor of Awarta and two of his brothers.
Israel informed the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council last week, as well as several other prominent European Union countries, that if the Palestinian Authority persists in its efforts to gain recognition in September as a state within the 1967 borders, Israel would respond with a series of unilateral steps of its own.
Two weeks ago, after the link Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made between the murder in Itamar and Palestinian incitement publications, I reported about a study analyzing the weekly Torah-portion pamphlets distributed in their thousands in Israeli synagogues. The researchers found that the brochures, many of which receive funding from the Education Ministry, use scripture to incite against the Palestinians. The Jews are depicted as the sons of light, while the Muslims are the sons of darkness, murderers, evildoers and bloodthirsty.
Yoram Cohen, who was named next director of the Shin Bet security service on Monday, wrote that Israel did not take advantage of its military superiority to destroyed Hamas' military capabilities during Operation Cast Lead.
During his time as a research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Cohen published a paper in which he contended that during the war in Gaza the IDF "undoubtedly could have destroyed Hamas' capabilities" had it employed all of its military force.
Nearly half of Israel's Jewish population believes the "price tag" activities executed by extreme rightists against Palestinians are justified to a certain extent, according to a survey conducted for Ynet and the Gesher educational organization.
The poll was carried out by the Panels research institute following the massacre of five family members in the settlement of Itamar, among 504 respondents who constitute a national representative sample of the adult Jewish population in Israel. The sampling error stands at 4.4%.
Palestine is becoming a reality, whether we like it or not. The Palestinian Authority may not be increasing its sovereignty over a single centimeter of land, but the awareness of the emergence of the State of Palestine is spreading all over the world. The government of Israel might believe it has a veto over this process; it may believe it can prevent Palestine from becoming more than a “virtual” state, but it cannot.
The battle to prevent Palestinian statehood has been lost, and Israel had better come to terms with this emerging reality.
Early in the Korean War, frustrated that the Soviet Union’s repeated use of its UN Security Council veto was thwarting council action to protect South Korea, the United States initiated what became known as the UN General Assembly’s “Uniting for Peace” resolution.
I’m going to make a prediction here that, unfortunately, I’m sure is going to come true. Any good analyst should be able to see this, yet few will, until it happens within the next two years: The Egyptian revolution will make another Israel-Hamas war inevitable, with a lot more of an international mess.
And I’ll go a step further: An incompetent and mistaken US policy makes such a conflict even more certain.
Why?
After another week of breathtaking demonstrations from Jordan to Yemen heralding dramatic revolutionary change, in occupied Palestine things appear much the same. The repetitions of bombing, air attacks on civilians, muted international protests, and dubious gestures towards a bankrupted peace process: all lend an air of futility and hopelessness to the trajectory of Palestinian freedom.
Israel has shown yet again its true, intransigent, position on peace with the Palestinians by rejecting a national unity government comprising both Fateh, the Palestinian party ruling in the West Bank, and Hamas, the Islamic movement in control of Gaza Strip.
The past ten days of revolution in the Arab world have been marked by four dramatic developments that could be relevant to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its solution. Saudi Arabia led a Gulf Cooperation Council expeditionary force into Bahrain. A coalition of mainly western countries led an armed intervention in Libya upon the request of the Arab League. In Egypt, a referendum overwhelmingly approved a series of constitutional amendments that were supported by the Muslim Brotherhood and the army but opposed by the youth coalition that led the revolution.
An interview with Samir Abdullah
bitterlemons: How do you see changes in the Arab world, particularly in Egypt, affecting the Palestinian-Israeli peace process?
Abdullah: I strongly believe that what is good for the Arab people is good for the Palestinian people. So, if these changes lead to real democracies and an end to an era of bad governance and corruption, this definitely will reflect positively on the Palestinian people and on their drive for statehood and independence. This is in the medium and long run.
Instead of searching for ways to revive the peace process with Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been busy seeking permission from Hamas to visit the Gaza Strip.
However those who think that Hamas would one day agree to cede control over the Gaza Strip are living in an illusion. It would be better for Abbas if he invested his energies in reviving the peace process instead of courting Hamas.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/18211
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/18211
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/18211
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] https://www.americantaskforce.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1
[6] http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gHUSxmVS58CFsXehsJpJrhnOSKXA?docId=6387864
[7] http://www.npr.org/2011/03/28/134927139/op-ed-israeli-palestinian-conflict-on-back-burner
[8] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=373340
[9] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=373078
[10] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=373354
[11] http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/israel-eases-steps-to-revoke-citizenship/
[12] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/israel-considering-annexing-west-bank-settlements-1354839.html
[13] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/abbas-would-give-up-us-aid-for-palestinian-1355144.html
[14] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-03/29/c_13802179.htm
[15] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-03/28/c_13801949.htm
[16] http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-dozens-of-palestinians-arrested-in-connection-to-itamar-murders-1.352578
[17] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-threatens-unilateral-steps-if-un-recognizes-palestinian-state-1.352423
[18] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/how-can-israel-change-muslim-extremists-attitude-toward-israel-1.352464
[19] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4049267,00.html
[20] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4048459,00.html
[21] http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=214199
[22] http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=213752
[23] http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=214073
[24] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/29/single-demand-unite-palestinian-people
[25] http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=35931
[26] http://www.bitterlemons.org/inside.php?id=46
[27] http://www.bitterlemons.org/inside.php?id=49
[28] http://www.hudson-ny.org/1999/abbas-running-after-hamas
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