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Peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are at a complete standstill, with relations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reaching a newfound low. And yet, contacts have been held behind the scenes in the last two weeks between officials from both Jerusalem and Ramallah, over the missive Abbas plans to send Netanyahu in the coming days.
If Israel is not prepared to return to the negotiating table, the Palestinian Authority will file a complaint with international bodies, PA President Mahmoud Abbas declared Monday.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu overruled the planned eviction on Tuesday of Jewish settlers from a building in an occupied West Bank city that is flashpoint of tensions with Palestinians.
Some 20 settlers moved into the Hebron building last Thursday at night, seeking to expand a settlement of some 500 families in the heart of the ancient city.
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Israel's Jerusalem Mayor plans to establish a new Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem, according to news reports Tuesday.
Around 200 new homes are planned for the area, which lies between Abu Dis and Jabal al-Mukkabir, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
The settlement, referred to as Kidmat Zion, will be built on land purchased by Irving Moskowitz, a Florida businessman and patron of Jewish settlers.
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Hamas on Monday accused the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority of detaining 79 members in the West Bank during March.
Some 32 former prisoners of Israel were among those detained by PA forces, as well as 14 university students, Hamas said in a statement.
Another 50 Hamas affiliates were summoned by PA intelligence services last month, the party added.
The Ramallah-based PA also fired a teacher and a doctor over their affiliation to Hamas, the statement said.
GAZA, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Islamic Hamas movement on Monday held Israel responsible for the death of three children from central Gaza Strip, who were burned to death on Sunday night, when a candle ignited their room as they were sleeping amid a severe crisis of electricity and fuel in the coastal enclave.
Ismail Haneya, the deposed premier of Hamas rule in the enclave, who participated in the funeral of the three children from the town of Deir el-Ballah, told reporters that Israel, which keeps a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip, is responsible in the first place for the tragedy.
The High Court of Justice ruled Monday that a prominent Palestinian family could not claim ownership of a landmark and now derelict building in east Jerusalem - paving the way for a Jewish settlement project.
The Husseini family said the Shepherd Hotel, now partially demolished, is a symbol of the Palestinian rights to their land and to east Jerusalem, and criticized the court ruling.
The Shepherd Hotel was built in the 1930s and served as the home of Jerusalem grand mufti Haj Amin Husseini, who fought the British and Zionists.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it has begun distributing emergency fuel supplies to hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
The 150,000 litres (33,000 gallons) of diesel would help 13 public hospitals maintain essential health services for the next 10 days, the ICRC said.
Immediate action had to be taken to prevent further deterioration of the fuel and electricity crisis, it added.
Gaza's only power plant closed eight days ago because of a lack of fuel.
In the UK, Big Brother is known for turning fame-hungry contestants – the Nadias, Chantelles and Jade Goodys of this world – into instant celebrities. Though normally no more high-brow, Israel's equivalent has this year achieved a surprising twist, by making a superstar out of "Palestine sympathiser" Saar Szekely.
Israeli security officials have estimated the number of casualties in Israel as a result of a military conflict with Iran would be fewer than 300.
An assessment presented to the security cabinet last weekend anticipates three weeks of rocket and missile attacks from Lebanon and Syria, as well as probably Iran and – to a limited extent – Gaza, according to reports in the Israeli media.
The projected death toll, although significant in a country with a population of 7.8m, is lower than earlier estimates.
For the first time, the poems of Mahmoud Darwish, widely considered the Palestinian national poet, will be taught in Arab schools in Israel. High-placed officials in charge of education in the sector have recently instructed the school principals to adopt a new literature curriculum including, in addition to Darwish's poetry, works from Knesset Member and ex-mayor of Nazareth Tawfiq Ziad and poet Samih Al-Qasem.
Many books have been written on the Israeli-Palestinian struggle — by reporters, elected officials, diplomats, novelists, poets, human rights workers, Nobel laureates and ordinary citizens. But Peter Beinart’s “The Crisis of Zionism” stands out not least for the avalanche of attention it has received even before publication. It is also unusual because it offers little in the way of personal reporting on the Israelis or the Palestinians themselves.
Of course Shaul Mofaz won, and Tzipi Livni lost. But there was much more to the Kadima primary race than that. It was the "two-state solution," at the forefront of Israeli political discourse for a number of years, that lost. It was the offer of more concessions to the Palestinians, whose most prominent advocate was former Kadima chairwoman, MK Tzipi Livni, that went down in defeat.
In Ra'anan Alexandrowicz's documentary film "The Law in These Parts," former Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar is presented as the person who removed, with one decision, the legal obstacle to settlement on Jordanian lands. In doing so, Shamgar created a situation in which no peaceful solution to the conflict with the Palestinians is visible on the horizon. Shamgar does not come out of it looking good. Moreover, he doesn't quite remember the crucial decision.
The hypocrisy was mind-boggling. The same week that the Palestinian Authority announced the introduction of a new award to honor press freedom, it launched a crackdown on Palestinian journalists to intimidate them and stifle their voices.
My interest in peace work began to grow after I returned from the war in Southern Lebanon in the summer of 2006. I was drafted as a military reservist in the IDF and was, at the grand age of 38, one of the older people to participate in the combat.
From Israel's Ramla prison south of Tel Aviv, Hana Shalabi moved on Sunday to the relative freedom of Gaza. Her negotiated release came, not by coincidence, after a 44-day hunger strike. The case provides a new example of how effectively Palestinians can use the moral high ground.
In 1985, I published a book called The Tragedy of Zionism. It argued that the Zionist movement had been a good, largely secular and cultural revolution that had run its course, that is, with the founding of Israel and the consolidation of the national Hebrew culture; but that the residual institutions and theories of that revolution—rashly kept alive by Israel’s leaders, who feared the fight with the orthodox Jewish parties over a constitution—had grown to be a burden on, even a threat to, Israel’s democratic life.
"If, God forbid, a war with Iran breaks out, it will be a nightmare. And we will all be in it, including the Persian Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia. No one will remain unscathed. We have to do everything we can to urge the international community to assume responsibility and take action to stop the Iranians … The State of Israel keeps all options open.
Benny Begin, a member of Prime Minister Netanuyahu's inner cabinet, recently dismissed the idea of the creation of a viable Palestinian state, claiming it would be an unbearable security threat to Israel.
He added that Netanuyahu's 2009 Bar-Ilan speech, which seemingly endorsed the two-state goal, was aimed exclusively at foreign audiences but that Palestinian statehood "was not brought up for discussion in the government, nor will it be discussed." "This is not the government's position," he stated bluntly. All the evidence suggests he's correct.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/24141
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/24141
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/24141
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] https://www.americantaskforce.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1
[6] http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/diplomania/israeli-palestinian-officials-hold-secret-meeting-amid-stall-in-peace-talks-1.422352
[7] http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=264526
[8] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=473540
[9] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=473526
[10] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=473425
[11] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-04/03/c_131504676.htm
[12] http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=264510
[13] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17590139
[14] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/02/israeli-big-brother-thoughtful-debate
[15] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iran-blog/2012/apr/03/israel-few-casualties-war-with-iran
[16] http://www.al-monitor.com/cms/contents/articles/culture/2012/04/arab-poets-and-writers-in-the-ar.html
[17] http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-the-crisis-of-zionism-by-peter-beinart/2012/03/30/gIQAlQ3rlS_story.html
[18] http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/mofaz-s-kadima-win-signals-end-of-the-land-for-peace-era-1.422261
[19] http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/israelis-can-t-resist-following-the-the-occupation-s-pied-piper-1.422260
[20] http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/Article.aspx?id=264544
[21] http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=264536
[22] http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/editorial/hunger-strikers-score-a-victory-for-palestinians
[23] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/02/real-life-not-counterlife.html
[24] http://www.al-monitor.com/cms/contents/articles/politics/2012/03/bad-dreams-coming-true.html
[25] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/02/safer-side-by-side-why-israel-needs-palestine.html
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