April 18, 2012

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: Palestinian officials deliver a letter to PM Netanyahu reiterating several points, including the demand for settlement freeze. Neither side expresses much hope negotiations will resume. Deputy FM Ayalon warns of “falling into the trap of a good atmosphere” in international negotiations with Iran. UNIFIL says the continued Israeli occupation of part of a Lebanese village has “political reasons.” Israel tightens restrictions on Palestinian prisoners in retaliation for their mass hunger strike. The Iraqi Kurdish leadership is downgrading its ties to Israel. Israeli settlers and Palestinians clash in Hebron. An Israeli court evicts a Palestinian family from their home in occupied East Jerusalem in favor of settlers. Mitt Romney's ascendancy in the Republican Party is likely to cool its rhetoric on Middle East issues. A major Palestinian film festival is planned for London later this year. COMMENTARY: Hassan Bin Talal says the US shouldn't de-prioritize Middle East foreign policy. Ha'aretz says Netanyahu should stop "hiding behind" Holocaust analogies. Zvi Bar'el says other countries would be entitled to issue travel warnings to Israel given attacks on foreigners by soldiers. Beth Miller explains what it feels like to be a Jew working for human rights in the occupied territories. Sophie Claudet interviews Mustafa Barghouthi. Nahman Shay says Israel badly overreacted to the "flytilla." Shlomo Brom says Israel's 2002 “Operation Defensive Shield” offensive in the occupied Palestinian territories was badly planned and had far-reaching negative political consequences. Benny Morris says Daniel Levy is wrong, and that Arabs are, indeed, “barbarians.” Amira Hass says Israel seems determined to keep the Jordan Valley free of Palestinians.

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Palestinians Restate Demands to Netanyahu

JERUSALEM — President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Tuesday, reiterating that for peace talks to resume, Israel must stop settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and accept the 1967 borders as a basis for a two-state solution.

Palestinians Deliver Letter from Abbas to Israel’s Netanyahu

JERUSALEM — A much-anticipated letter written by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was delivered here Tuesday, but both sides expressed little hope that it would resuscitate peace talks that have been stalled since 2010.

The contents of the letter were not made public, but drafts had been widely circulated. Palestinian leaders had depicted it as a salvo of frustration from a leader who believes that Israeli actions have caused the Palestinian Authority to lose its clout.

Israeli Official Voices Doubts on Iran Nuke Talks

JERUSALEM — Israel's deputy foreign minister says the nuclear talks between Iran and Western powers in Istanbul last week may have been a stalling tactic by Tehran.

Danny Ayalon, of the hawkish Israel Beitenu Party, is cautioning against "falling into the trap of a good atmosphere."

He says the lapse of nearly a year and a half since a previous summit failed was "wasted" time.

Ayalon is urging the international community to tighten sanctions on Tehran immediately, rather than wait until July as planned. He spoke to reporters Wednesday in Jerusalem.

UNIFIL Commander: Isreali Occupation in Ghajar for Political Reasons

BEIRUT, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFL) commander Maj.Gen. Paolo Serra said Wednesday that the continued Israeli occupation of the Lebanese side of the border village of Ghajar has political reasons.

In remarks published in al-Joumhouria newspaper, General Serra said, "the problem of Ghajar is political more than military."

But he added that it is the subject of continued discussions by UNIFIL with the Israeli side.

Israel Cracks Down on Hunger-Striking Prisoners

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The PA Ministry of Detainee Affairs said Wednesday that Israel has tightened procedures against prisoners on a mass hunger-strike launched a day earlier.

The ministry said in a statement that Israel's prison administration put detainees in solitary confinement without electricity. Prisoners in Ashkelon jail said detainees were threatened with transfer to a new section, and banned family visits.

Iraqi Kurds Cool Ties to Israel

Washington — A decades-long relationship between Israel and Iraq’s Kurds, maintained mainly in the shadows, faces new challenges as the two sides are split over the growing nuclear threat posed by Iran.

Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish Region Government, visited Washington recently. Notably, he did not meet with Jewish officials, nor did he touch on issues relating to Israel. Ties between the Iraqi Kurds and Israel have cooled as Israel pushes for support in its fight against Iran over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.

Settlers, Palestinians Clash in Hebron

Palestinians threw stones at two Israeli teenage girls who were walking towards Givat Ha'avot neighborhood in the West Bank city of Hebron.

One of the teens suffered a fracture to her hand and was treated at a local medical center.

According to Palestinian sources, shortly after the incident, which took place on Tuesday night, a group of settlers arrived at several Palestinian homes in Hebron, called their owners out and confronted them about the incident.

Arab Family Evicted in Jerusalem, Jews Move in

An Arab family was evicted from their home in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina on Wednesday morning, and 10 Jewish activists with the right-wing Israel Land Fund moved into the house, prompting left-wing activists to dub the issue "the new Sheikh Jarrah." The eviction is first step toward creating a new Jewish complex of 50 apartments in the predominantly Arab neighborhood.

According to Israel Land Fund director Aryeh King, a Jewish buyer 35 years ago purchased two buildings, each with two apartments. The properties also belonged to Jewish residents prior to 1948, he said.

Romney’s Triumph Smooths Sharp Edges of GOP Middle East Policy Rhetoric

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The Republican primaries are effectively over, and gone with them is the sharp-edged rhetoric and departures from past U.S. policy on the Middle East.

Gone is Rick Santorum’s pledge to strike Iran and his suggestion that West Bank Palestinians should be referred to as Israelis. Gone is Newt Gingrich’s suggestion that the United States is engaged in a “long struggle with radical Islamists” and reference to the Palestinians as an “invented” people.

Palestinian Filmmakers Embrace Complexities for the Big Screen

The moveable feast that is Palestinian cinema returns to Britain next week for the latest London Palestine Film Festival. Launched in 1998, the festival hub will once again be the towering concrete battlements of the Barbican Arts Centre, with satellite events scattered across the capital's cinemas and colleges. The 2012 programme features more than 50 works including dramas, documentaries, shorts, video art installations and rare gems from the archives - plus a topical new strand called "Beyond Palestine" focusing on Syria and the western Sahara.

U.S. can't abandon the Middle East

Early this year, the Pentagon's strategic review signaled a shift in priorities for U.S. foreign policy, suggesting that more attention would be paid to the Asia-Pacific region. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke of this as a "pivot" toward Asia, signaling what for many analysts and ordinary Americans has been a long-overdue transition away from Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East in general.

But there's a problem with that. The act of pivoting involves turning your back, and the United States should not turn its back on the Middle East.

Netanyahu must stop hiding behind Holocaust warnings

Holocaust Remembrance Day will be marked beginning this evening by official ceremonies and speeches. As time passes, and despite the dwindling number of survivors, the Holocaust appears to be occupying a more and more prominent place in the life of the State of Israel.

World nations should issue a travel warning to Israel

The skilled attack by Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner on a blond Danish peace activist in a kaffiyeh was spectacular. The senior officer's two agitated arms grasped the M-16 rifle as if it was an indivisible part of his body, and with an instinctive movement that might be expected from someone whose life was being threatened, landed it in the face of the person who dared to look him in the eye.

Being a Jew in Palestine

The first people I told were Safa and Imad. Good friends, they lived near me in the Aida Refugee Camp and invited me for lunch every Friday. I knew they were religious Muslims. Imad had told me that Israeli soldiers had killed his brother during the second intifada. But the topic of religion and politics was on the table, and now seemed like a good time.

A Champion of Non-violence on Palestine's Tactics

With a huge, open-ended hunger strike planned for April 17, in which all Palestinian prisoners will follow the example of Khader Adnan —who was released after a 66-day strike earlier this year—questions about the Palestinian non-violence movement have become pertinent again. Among the reasons that led Palestinian militant groups to renounce large-scale violence, one could cite the wall that Israel started building in 2002 around the West Bank to thwart suicide bombings, or Israel’s massive assault on Gaza in December 2008-January 2009 to stop rocket attacks.

Israel Fighting the Wrong War, Overreacts to Activist 'Flightilla'

At the end of the day, it was clear that a mountain had been made out of a molehill. Of the 1,200 activists who were supposed to land in Israel, only several dozen arrived. A few were arrested and a couple released, and the event came to a close. A sigh of relief by government officials — including those within the police and the Interior Ministry, which dealt with the affair — silently brought an end to what had seemed to be a major attack on Israel’s air space and entry point. But to what end?

Restoring IDF freedom of action

Operation Defensive Shield began on March 29 and ended on April 10, 2002. It was the first large-scale operation initiated by Israel since the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000 that engaged a large part of the West Bank controlled by the Palestinian Authority. It was a turning point in Israel's struggle to stop the bloodshed caused by this intifada.

A Response to Daniel Levy

The number of distortions and misrepresentations in Daniel Levy's piece (April 16, "Of Herrings and Elephants: Benny Morris and 'Palestinian Rejectionism'") is mind-boggling (and saddening) and reflects poorly on the honesty and integrity of the "peaceniks" who he may, in some way, represent.

IDF will go on keeping the Jordan Valley Palestinian-free

The only excessive stupidity of which deputy brigade commander Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner can be accused is hitting a young blond man in front of a camera. Other commanders and their subordinates will learn the lesson. They'll check for any subversive cameras before going on to do what is unexceptional in the Wild East. They will beat up Palestinians, in the main, as well as anti-occupation activists - by rifle butt, by boot or simply by fist.

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