Jun 28, 2011

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: Israel reverses its warning it would ban foreign journalists who board the next Gaza flotilla. Israeli lobbying stalls the boats in Greece. Hamas blames Fatah for a delay in unity talks. PLO officials say they are optimistic about a UN statehood bid. FM Lieberman says flotilla activists seek “blood,” but organizers dismiss the claims. Israel says it’s preparing for an outbreak of violence in September. Israel bans teaching Palestinian prisoners. The US is funding a study of Israeli and Palestinian textbooks. Experts say Israel far outstrips Arab states in technology. COMMENTARY: Walter Rodgers says Israel and Evangelicals need to understand that the book of Genesis is not a policy guide. Ma’an says Palestinian leaders should be clear about their national liberation policy. Moshe Arens says Egypt should now be responsible for Gaza. Akiva Eldar says PM Netanyahu is playing with fire by relying on a US veto at the UN. Gershon Baskin says whatever happens in September, the two-state solution must be preserved. The Arab News says the world should support Palestinian statehood in September. Yossi Alpher says Israel is mishandling the Gilad Shalit issue. Ghassan Khatib says the prisoner issue generally is crucial to peace. Hussein Ibish says Palestinian nonviolent resistance will be a crucial component to national liberation.

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Israel Rescinds Its Warning to Gaza-Bound Journalists

Israel on Monday set aside a warning it issued the previous day that foreign journalists aboard a flotilla planning to challenge its naval blockade of Gaza risked being barred from the country for up to a decade and having their equipment impounded.

Intense Israeli lobbying stalls Gaza flotilla

International activists from a dozen countries are trying to break Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip, just a little over a year after a Gaza-bound aid flotilla ended in a fatal confrontation with Israeli naval commandos.

The participants should have already set sail. But the US boat at least is being held up in Athens on what activists say are spurious charges amid a broader Israeli push to thwart a repeat of last year's events.

Hamas' Zahar says Fatah to blame for talks delay

Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar has reportedly blamed Fatah for the delay in reconciliation talks, confirming reports that talks reached a dead end.

"After we signed the agreement, Fatah on the ground worked against it," Al-Zahar told the Jordanian newspaper Al-Dustur on Tuesday.

He added that Fatah were linking the whole reconciliation process to the position of prime minster, an approach which was damaging unity efforts.

Sha'ath: PA optimistic about UN statehood bid

The Palestinian leadership is to step up efforts to consolidate a UN statehood bid this September, Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Sha'ath told local media in Ramallah on Tuesday.

Sha'ath, who is also commissioner for external relations in the Fatah movement, said that the Palestinian Authority has decided to set up a committee to manage all matters related to preparations for the September UN bid.

Flotilla activists seek "blood" -Israeli FM

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday participants in an aid flotilla planning to challenge an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip were seeking "confrontation and blood".

Pro-Palestinian activists have said around a dozen ships carrying aid to Gaza, territory controlled by Hamas Islamists, could depart from European ports in the coming days.

A year ago, nine Turkish activists, including a dual U.S.-Turkish national, were killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers who raided a Gaza-bound convoy in the eastern Mediterranean.

Israel preparing for September West Bank violence

Israel's military is making intensive preparations for an outbreak violence in the West Bank over a U.N. vote in September on recognizing a Palestinian state, Israeli military officials said Monday.

Palestinians, meanwhile, pushed ahead with their drive. Palestinian officials are fanning out around the world to raise support for their initiative. They hope to change the minds of U.S. leaders, who appear poised to veto a resolution in the U.N. Security Council to admit Palestine as a full member of the United Nations.

Gaza flotilla organizer: We have no intention of attacking IDF soldiers

The organizer of the Gaza-bound flotilla dismissed Tuesday Israeli allegations that extremists aboard the ships plan to harm Israeli soldiers who would be dispatched to stop them.

Dror Feiler says the hundreds of people planning to sail soon in a bid to break Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory have signed a declaration of nonviolence.

Feiler told Army Radio on Tuesday that if Israel has information about specific suspects, it should pass it along to flotilla's organizers.

Palestinian Inmates Put Down Their Textbooks

Weeks before Israeli Prime Minster Binyamin Netanyahu declared he was putting an end to college-level studies by Palestinian prisoners, the inmates had already stopped making notations in textbooks on Islamic history and studying for final examinations in international relations.

But both the students and their teachers are angry and perplexed by the decisions.

U.S. Funding Rigorous Study of Palestinian and Israeli Textbook Incitement

In an effort to settle one of the longest-running disputes in the Middle East peace process, American, Israeli and Palestinian researchers are conducting what purports to be the first scientific study of incitement in Palestinian and Israeli textbooks.

Israel trumps the Arab world

There is no doubt that Israel is superior to all Arab countries in the sphere of Information Technology, a comparative study between Arab nations and Israel on ‘Scientific Research and Patent Rights Compared’ conducted by Dr Khalid Said Rubaia, a Palestinian researcher at American Arab University in Palestine, says.

Israel spends 4.7 percent of its total GDP on scientific research, which is the highest in the world. However, Arab states are spending 0.2 percent of their total incomes and Asian Arab countries around 0.5 percent of their incomes on research, said
the report.

A message for Israel and Evangelicals: Genesis isn’t a policy guide

I recently passed a local evangelical church here in rural New England with a sign that read: “We Love You Israel. Hold God’s Land.”

What does Fayyad's ultimatum mean?

Prime Minister in Ramallah Salam Fayyad said in Bil'in on Friday that Israel "should either give Palestinians freedom or the right to vote."

Does this mean the two-state solution is history?

For economic, security, and social considerations the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank alone is not possible.

The West Bank has no geographic contiguity with the Gaza Strip, and the capital Jerusalem has been encircled with a 15-meter cement wall.

Egypt should now be responsible for Gaza

It may well turn out that one of the positive outcomes of the mass disturbances against the Mubarak government in Tahrir Square will be the change in the policy of the new government in Cairo toward the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu playing with fire in bid to win EU backing against Palestinian state

After the Palestinian Authority leadership announced its (final? ) decision on Sunday to ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state in the June 1967 borders, it appears United States President Barack Obama will have to grapple with a challenging dilemma. The formulation of the resolution that is emerging from Ramallah will be a "cut and paste" job of lines from the president's speech on May 19, in which he presented the formula of the 1967 lines with mutually agreed border adjustments. The White House will have to decide whether to order U.S.

A guide to September

The PLO leadership has made its decision.

In September it will ask the United Nations to recognize the State of Palestine in the pre-June 4, 1967 borders and grant it membership. After submitting an official letter to the secretary-general in which they will request to become a member state of the UN, the representatives of Palestine will declare that they will adhere to the UN Charter and that they are a peace-loving state.

All eyes on UN

The Palestinian decision to approach the United Nations seeking formal approval for their state appears to have set cat among the pigeons. Although Israel and its powerful backers in the United States initially dismissed the Palestinian move with contempt, there’s increasing signs of nervousness, if not panic, over the possible fallout of such a proposal getting the go-ahead by the world body.

Faulty strategic calculations

If I were Gilad Shalit's father, I would do everything he is doing, and more if possible, to persuade the Netanyahu government to meet Hamas' demands for a prisoner exchange and obtain Gilad's release. If I were Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, I would refuse the deal for fear of the consequences of releasing so many truly vile terrorists back into society.

Let the suffering end

Palestinians, especially prisoners' families, are following with a great deal of interest (and sometimes jealousy) the relatively successful public relations and media campaign by family and friends to obtain the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

When hearing the sincere expressions and words of his family, especially his father and mother, many Palestinians can easily identify with them. They wonder, though, whether his mother understands that in the same instant, thousands of Palestinian mothers are having the same feelings.

Nonviolence, a Palestinian path to liberation

At the end of last week in the West Bank village of Bilin, an important principle was decisively demonstrated: Palestinian nonviolence can achieve real results in resisting the Israeli occupation.

After almost a decade, Bilin protests against Israel’s gruesome West Bank separation barrier has finally produced a substantial rerouting of the wall, giving villagers access to a significant portion of their confiscated land. The greater part remains seized or inaccessible, and protesters vow that their struggle is far from over.

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