April 25, 2012

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: An Israeli court orders the release of Palestinian protest leader Bassem al-Tamimi. IDF Chief of Staff Gantz says Iran's leaders are rational actors and will respond to international pressure not to build a nuclear weapon. New Kadima leader Mofaz warns that without peace with the Palestinians, Israel is bound to become a binational, and not a Jewish, state. The natural gas dispute between Israel and Egypt reflects significant changes in their relationship since the overthrow of former Pres. Mubarak. The National looks at the political implications of the controversy. While Israeli officials have been downplaying the dispute, the Israeli media sees it as extremely ominous. The United States says Israel's recognition of “unauthorized” outposts is “unhelpful” and that the US doesn't "accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity.” UNSG Ban also says he is “deeply troubled” by increased settlement activity, including outposts. Israel's navy arrests Gaza fishermen. Airports in Scandinavia are prohibiting Israeli airlines' security procedures based on profiling. Conditions for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are reportedly deteriorating. COMMENTARY: Paul Krugman says "the narrow-minded policies of the current [Israeli] government are basically a gradual, long-run form of national suicide." Avraham Burg says Israel needs a constitution. Doron Rosenblum says Israeli hasbara can't hide the ugliness of the effects of some of its policies. Bradley Burston says the best way to celebrate this Israeli Independence Day is to buy Palestinian products. CNN interviews PM Netanyahu. The Jerusalem Post interviews Pres. Peres. The Forward reviews a new novel illustrating the complexities of identity for Palestinian citizens of Israel. Leah Koenig explains why she had good reasons for opposing a boycott of all Israeli products at her New York food co-op. Osama Al Sharif asks if it's too late to save Arab East Jerusalem. Daniel Levy says it's actually Benny Morris, not the Palestinians, who clings to absolutist rejectionism.

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Israel Releases Palestinian Protest Leader

JERUSALEM — Activists say an Israeli military court has ordered the release of a prominent Palestinian protest leader.

The European Union and rights group Amnesty International had condemned the detention of Bassem al-Tamimi because he was charged based on evidence obtained through confessions extracted by interrogating children.

Activist Jonathan Pollak says Al-Tamimi was freed late Tuesday evening. He had been held since March 2011 on charges of inciting youths to throw rocks at Israeli soldiers and organizing demonstrations against Israeli activities in the West Bank.

IDF Chief to Haaretz: I do not believe Iran will decide to develop nuclear weapons

"If Iran goes nuclear it will have negative dimensions for the world, for the region, for the freedom of action Iran will permit itself," Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz told Haaretz in an Independence Day interview.

Israeli Opposition Chief Fears Binational State

JERUSALEM — Israel's new parliamentary opposition leader said Tuesday that the Jewish state faces the danger of being replaced by a binational Jewish-Arab entity if it fails to separate itself from the Palestinians.

Former military chief Shaul Mofaz won leadership of the centrist Kadima Party last month.

"The threat of us losing the Jewish majority and Israel becoming a binational state is the biggest threat to Israel, and time is working against us," he told Israel Radio. "The threat of a binational state that we are bequeathing to our children really keeps me awake at night."

Gas Deal Dispute Reflects Change in Israel-Egypt Relations

CAIRO — The decorum of diplomacy has devolved into embarrassing headlines and testy one-liners in the increasingly strained relations between Egypt and Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Egypt's Sinai peninsula had become a "kind of Wild West" overrun by militants, terrorists and arms smugglers. Over the weekend, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman had suggested massing more Israeli troops along the border with Egypt.

Was Egypt’s Decision to Shut Down Gas Pipe to Israel Politics or Business?

CAIRO / JERUSALEM // The Egyptian government's abrupt announcement on Sunday that it was ending its natural gas supply to Israel has left many analysts and businessmen wondering whether the decision was politics or business.

Government officials on both sides tried to play down the decision yesterday, pointing to violations of contracts on either side of East Mediterranean Gas Company, the intermediary that manages the Egypt-Israel pipeline.

Israel Media Fear Canceled Gas Deal Harbinger of Things to Come

Following reports that the Egyptian company responsible for exporting natural gas to Israel decided to cut off shipments, both Israeli and Egyptian officials have rushed to downplay the crisis, saying the move resulted from commercial considerations, not political ones.

But despite these efforts, Israeli media fear the unilateral move represents a step toward Egypt deciding to shelve the two nations’ bilateral peace accord in place since 1979.

US: Outposts Not Helpful to Peace

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- The United States said Tuesday it was concerned by Israel's decision to sanction three settler outposts in the West Bank, as world powers warned of the negative impact on the peace process with Palestinians.

An Israeli governmental committee earlier authorized the three outposts -- Bruchin, Sansana and Rechelim -- which were built on land Israel declared "state-owned" in the West Bank, an area it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians want as part of a future state.

UN Chief “Deeply Troubled” by new West Bank Outposts

UNITED NATIONS, April 24 (Reuters) - U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that he was "deeply troubled" by Israel's decision to grant legal status to three settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, describing the activity as illegal under international law.

The three outposts - Bruchin, Sansana and Rechelim - were built on land Israel declared "state-owned" in the West Bank, an area it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians want as part of a future state.

Israel Detains Gaza Fishermen

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces on Tuesday detained fishermen working off the coast of the Gaza Strip.

Local official Mahfouth al-Kabareeti told Ma'an that Israeli naval forces detained Nader Yousef Abu Simaan, 22, and his brother Hasan at sea and confiscated their equipment. The brothers, from al-Shati refugee camp, were fishing within the area designated by Israel, he added.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said forces detained fishermen from Gaza because they deviated from the designated fishing area.

Airports in Scandinavia Ban Israeli Screening Methods

Israeli airlines cannot operate in Scandinavia due to the countries' refusal to allow profiling to be employed in security checks.

Palestinians’ situation declining

BEIRUT: The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Shahed) announced in its annual report Tuesday that the situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon is getting worse by the year, as their rights diminish in number and value daily.

According to the report, “the [poor] housing conditions in camps have not been addressed, and there is no local or international initiative on the horizon to improve them.” It described the camps as “a breeding ground for disease, home collapses, and a well of social problems.”

The Crisis of Zionism

Something I’ve been meaning to do — and still don’t have the time to do properly — is say something about Peter Beinart’s brave book The Crisis of Zionism.

The second Israeli democracy

If I were prime minister I would feel very uneasy these days. Something is wrong, I would tell myself on Independence Day, the day of national spiritual stocktaking. Having no other choice, I would close myself off from the world and think. I would conclude that the first State of Israel was fading on my watch.

What Israeli hasbara won't hide

When the Israeli universe was still young and full of hope, the cartoonist Dosh drew the iconic figure that reflected the collective self-perception: Srulik, a naive boy in a kova tembel (that sort of blue or khaki sailor cap with the brim turned down, sometimes still sighted on kibbutzim and in kindergartens ) whose intentions are pure and whose hands are clean. Were we called upon to update that icon today, possibly a great many Israelis would still cling to the self-image of an innocent child in a hostile world.

This Israel Independence Day, I’m buying Palestinian

On this anniversary of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, you’re likely to encounter no end of negativity - grousing from the boiling blood extremists, grumbling from heartbroken moderates, resignation from those whose dreams have been dashed and trashed and ground into sand, year after soul-crushing year. Not a small group. A group which often includes me.

But not this year. Not me. This year, for Israel Independence Day, I’m buying Palestinian.

OutFront exclusive: Erin Burnett interviews Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu

In an exclusive interview Tuesday night on CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat down with Erin Burnett to talk about Israel, the United States and the threat of terror around the world. Netanyahu insisted on Monday that Egypt's decision to cancel a natural gas deal with Israel did not indicate any sort of diplomatic tensions between the two countries, but rather a business disagreement between companies.

'Now's the time for peace with the Palestinians'

Israel has never faced a better opportunity to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians than it has today under the leadership of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, President Shimon Peres told The Jerusalem Post in a pre-Independence Day interview on Tuesday.

“I think the Palestinian window is still open,” Peres said. “Everybody makes mistakes in his sayings and doings, but President Abbas is constant in his announced position – for peace, against terror, and for a two-state solution. I think we have never had a wider basis to conclude peace than under his leadership.”

Portraying Inner Conflict of Israeli-Arabs

Sayed Kashua has built an impressive career exposing the porous and impenetrable, farcical and tragic demarcations between Israel’s Jews and Arabs. Readers of his weekend column for Haaretz may recall a caustic fable titled “Cinderella (Herzl Disappears at Midnight)” in which the hapless protagonist bears the burden of the answered prayer of a hitherto childless woman who “begged God for a son, even if he was born half Arab.” As an adult, Herzl Haliwa’s nocturnal metamorphosis causes endless angst.

Boycotting Israel and My Olive Tapenade

n March, the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn made history, or at least the national media, when its members voted down a proposal to ban Israeli-made products in political protest of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians. Park Slope’s is not the first food cooperative to discuss such a boycott, nor the first to vote it down. But because it is among the oldest and largest member-run co-ops in the country (founded in 1973, the membership now tops 16,000 people), news outlets from The New York Times to The Associated Press covered the story.

Is it late to save East Jerusalem?

In the frustrating pursuit of Palestinian-Israeli peace settlement, based on the concept of a two-state solution, one particular issue emerges as the most cumbersome and, in the view of most Israelis, non negotiable. It is the fate of Arab East Jerusalem, occupied along with the rest of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

A Second Response to Benny Morris

There is a certain redundancy to arguing with Benny Morris. The case he makes is easily debunked but the position he represents on rejectionism needs to be taken seriously, given the role that this narrative plays in perpetuating the conflict and the human misery for Palestinians, and not infrequently for Israelis. This piece will focus on that deeper narrative. But first, a little pushback, as Morris can’t be given a free pass on his deceptions.

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