April 9, 2012

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal says the group intends to capture more Israeli soldiers to win the release of additional Palestinian prisoners. Israel bans German author Günter Grass from entering the country for criticizing its policies. Hamas executes three Palestinians in Gaza. Militants again attack Egypt's gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan. Pres. Abbas says he will seek non-member observer state status for Palestine at the UN if talks with Israel do not resume. PLO official Hanan Ashrawi says she is concerned at recent threats to free speech among Palestinians. A Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank accuses Israeli police of beating him and covering up the evidence. The JTA profiles the political rise and fall of former Kadima leader Tzipi Livni. The World Bank earmarks $55 million for Palestinian development this year. The Israeli military says it's ready for a major invasion of Lebanon in the case of any new conflict with Hezbollah. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood again promises not to tamper with the peace treaty with Israel. COMMENTARY: Ha'aretz says Israel has reacted with hysteria over Günter Grass. Salman Masalha says letting Israeli ex-pats vote from abroad is political manipulation. Anshel Pfeffer looks at Israeli and American policies towards Iran. Harriet Sherwood says PM Netanyahu's relentless support for settlers bodes ill for the peace process. Robert O. Freedman says China is split over continuing its present Middle East policies. Talal Okal says Sinai has been out of control for a long time, and Yoram Meital says the area provides challenges and opportunities for Israel. Richard Stearns says this was another dark Easter for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

---

---

[5]

---

Hamas chief vows to kidnap more Israeli soldiers

DOHA, Qatar — The leader of the Islamist militant group Hamas has vowed to kidnap more Israeli soldiers to pressure the Jewish state to release Palestinian prisoners.

The comments from Khaled Mashaal come after the deal Hamas struck last year with Israel to swap an Israeli soldier held by Hamas for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including many jailed for helping carry out bombings.

Israel Bars German Laureate Grass Over Poem

JERUSALEM — Israel’s interior minister declared Günter Grass, one of Germany’s best-known authors, unwelcome in Israel on Sunday, barring him from entering the country for a poem that accused Israel of being a threat to world peace.

Hamas Executes 3 Palestinians in Gaza

GAZA — The Islamic group Hamas that controls Gaza executed three Palestinians on Saturday, one who was convicted of collaborating with Israel and two others who had been found guilty of murder, according to a statement from the Hamas Interior Ministry.

The statement said the three men were hanged at a security site in Gaza City. It did not give any details about their identities.

Militants attack Egypt’s gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan

EL-ARISH, Egypt — Militants on Monday blew up a gas pipeline in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula that transports fuel to neighboring Israel and Jordan, a senior Egyptian security official said.

The attack was the 14th on the pipeline since last year’s popular uprising that ousted Egypt’s longtime leader Hosni Mubarak. Previous bombings of the pipeline have been blamed on Islamist militants who have stepped up their activity in Sinai, taking advantage of a security vacuum caused by a thin police presence in the post-Mubarak era.

Abbas to pursue statehood at UN assembly if no talks

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday he will ask the UN General Assembly to recognize Palestinian statehood if Israel does not respond to his demands for the resumption of negotiations.

After Palestine's inconclusive bid for recognition by the United Nations Security Council in September 2011, officials in recent months revised their opposition to a lesser upgrade with the larger assembly.

Ashrawi 'concerned by assaults on free expression'

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- Senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi expressed concern on Sunday about recent assaults on free speech.

"Freedom of expression and access to information is enshrined in the basic principles of the Palestinian Basic Law ... it is unacceptable to detain journalists, bloggers or Palestinian activists," the official, who is also head of the PLO Department of Culture and Media, said in a statement.

Palestinian accuses Israel Police of beating him, hiding evidence

A 26-year-old Palestinian man from Jenin was severely beaten by Israeli police officers in Daliat al-Carmel two weeks ago and dumped at a checkpoint, according to a complaint he filed with the internal affairs unit. Police say they believe the man was in Israel illegally.

The internal affairs unit is investigating the man’s allegations, but said it could not divulge details of the investigation.

Doctors removed Rami Washahi’s spleen to curtail his abdominal bleeding, and he was hospitalized for four days, Washahi said.

Tzipi Livni’s fall followed a meteoric political rise

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Tzipi Livni's resounding fall in the leadership vote for Kadima, Israel's largest political party, was as dramatic as her rise to political power.

World Bank earmarks $55 million for Palestinians

The World Bank says they've earmarked $55 million for Palestinian development this year.

Mariam Sherman, country director for the West Bank and Gaza, said Saturday the money will be used to assist businesses, help graduates and support Palestinian government institutions.

But Sherman says for real growth to happen, Israel's system of restrictions on movement of Palestinian people and goods needs to be eased.

The World Bank says Israel should also share tax information and make other changes.

Israel says ready for Hezbollah attack

JERUSALEM, April 8 (UPI) -- Israeli military officers say the country's armed forces are preparing for a mass incursion into Lebanon if war breaks out with Hezbollah again.

Based on intelligence gathered by the military, the air force could take out targets such as training bases and rocket launching pads in a matter of days. However, officers say a ground offensive would be necessary due to Hezbollah's underground command posts and camouflaged launching pads.

Muslim Brotherhood: We will not put Egypt-Israel peace treaty to referendum

A member of parliament for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party said on Friday that the movement would not put Egypt's peace treaty with Israel to a national referendum vote.

"We will not put the Camp David accords, or any other agreement Egypt has signed to a national referendum," said member of parliament Abd Al-Maujood Al-Dardiri.

Israel has reacted with hysteria over Gunter Grass

Author Gunter Grass sees the State of Israel as a threat to world peace. He believes Israel is armed with nuclear weapons, and is threatening Iran as the Islamic Republic looks to obtain a nuclear arsenal.

After the poem he published to this effect in the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung last week drew extensive criticism, he asked to distinguish between the state and its government. It's not Israel that worries him, he said, but the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Letting Israeli expats vote is political manipulation

The Knesset elections are drawing near and associated issues are in the air. It is not only primaries, opinion polls and new parties that have sprung up like mushrooms after the summer social protests. Legislation is also being promoted about who has the right to vote.

Have Netanyahu and Obama agreed on the outcome of negotiations with Iran?

In two of his Pesach interviews, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined in unprecedented detail the diplomatic outcome with Iran that Israel could live with. Maariv's interviewers asked him specifically what would satisfy him in next week's P5+1 talks with the Iranians to which he answered –

Binyamin Netanyahu's support for settlers bodes ill for peace prospects

On its own, it seemed like an encouraging omen to anyone alarmed by the increasing entrenchment of Jewish settlers on the West Bank. Israeli security forces last week forcibly evacuated hardliners from a Palestinian house in the volatile city of Hebron, to the fury of the settlers and their backers.

Hours earlier, Binyamin Netanyahu had intervened to halt the eviction; now he said the rule of law must prevail. Had the prime minister had a change of heart? Did the Hebron drama signal a new tough approach against radical settlers and their supporters inside Netanyahu's cabinet?

Chinese Divided Over Middle East

In recent years, China’s foreign policy has turned more assertive than it has been in decades. When it comes to the Middle East, it has expressed this aggressiveness mostly through the veto power it wields in the United Nations Security Council, protecting Iran, for example, from tough sanctions over its nuclear program. With regard to the Syrian uprising, the Chinese, along with the Russians, have prevented the international body from sanctioning the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for its bloody repression of its own population.

A country of walls: an interview with Talal Okal

BI: What do the conditions in the Sinai peninsula have to do with you and others in the Gaza Strip?

Okal: The border that separates Sinai in Egypt and the Gaza Strip is the only border that is open for our use. The town of Rafah [where the main crossing is located] is actually split across the border between the two sides and many of Egyptian Rafah's residents are relatives of those who live on the Gaza side of the town. The connections there are extensive. Moreover, the tunnel network operating out of Gaza opens onto the Sinai.

Challenges and opportunities

Developments in the Sinai Peninsula during the past year clearly reflect dramatic changes in Egypt and highlight the delicate situation at the Israeli-Gazan-Egyptian border junction.

A dark Easter for Palestinian Christians

Each year during Holy week, Christians around the world anticipate what come call the “Old Faithful” of miracles.

At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — built over the traditional site that encompasses Jesus’ tomb and the place of his crucifixion — the archbishop enters the tomb after being inspected by Jewish authorities to ensure he has no means of lighting a fire. After saying prayers and worshiping the risen Christ, the candles miraculously alight.

---

---