September 6, 2012

Three French investigating magistrates will travel to Ramallah in the West Bank to exhume the remains of the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat so they can take tissue samples to determine what killed him.

Amid some boos, Democrats return Jerusalem-as-capital language to party platform

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (JTA) -- At President Obama's behest, and to boos from some delegates, Democrats on Wednesday night inserted a few lines into their party platform affirming Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Two of the lines had appeared in the 2008 party platform but had been dropped for some reason when this year’s platform was released Monday night; no one could quite explain the omission.

Study: Gap grows between Israeli Arabs, Palestinians

Palestinians in the West Bank and Israeli Arabs show increasing signs of wanting to keep their distance from each other, and maintain different narratives about the history of the conflict, according to a new study conducted by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers.

Among some of the findings that researchers found most remarkable, 60 percent of Israeli Arabs surveyed said they would not want their daughter to marry someone from the West Bank, while 41% of West Bankers had the same attitude to their daughter marrying an Arab with Israeli citizenship.

It's not normal

It is difficult to persuade a person who feels happy that he is in fact depressed and despondent. Why should he believe it? With regard to everything about the occupation, the citizens of Israel feel fine. They brush off arguments about the effect it has on morals, about the demographic problem, the economic damage and the undermining of our international relations. Their apathy does not stem only from "proof" that Israel must not budge from the position in which it is entrenched, because of the failure of the diplomatic process and changes in the Arab world.

More signs signaling Israel will not be attacking Iran soon

If anyone needed further proof that Benjamin Netanyahu has buckled under the pressure and will probably not be giving the order to attack Iran in the next few months, at least not before the U.S. elections, the latest reported IDF appointments seem to supply it.

Everything is reversible

The past few months have seen the formation of a strange alliance between some settler representatives and leading leftist figures, which is based on the lack of faith in the "two states for two peoples" paradigm.

The PA’s electricity tab

We Israelis love to grumble but on occasion, our gripes aren’t irrational. The spate of price hikes that recently hit us from all directions may be unavoidable due to factors outside anyone’s direct control but they hurt nonetheless. Electricity charges offer a cogent case in point.

Is Netanyahu planning an October surprise?

As the Republicans and Democrats held their conventions and the presidential election moved into the home stretch, the rhetoric and pressure coming out of Israel for an attack on Iran intensified like the winds of Hurricane Isaac. It’s difficult to tell how much is aimed at keeping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and how much at preventing Barack Obama’s reelection.

Hamas seeks to enter the world of diplomacy

Gaza Asharq Al-Awsat – For the first time since the 2007 division between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, following the bloody confrontation between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority [PA] and Hamas’s subsequent takeover of the Gaza Strip, the Hamas government is seeking to appoint diplomats. This is a move that many believe is an indication that Hamas intends to announce an independent state in the Gaza Strip.

Rebuked by US, Israel scrambles to climb down from war rhetoric

STUNNED by a rebuke from the United States’ top general, Israel is preparing a climb-down strategy in its war of words over Iran’s nuclear program, aware that its room for maneuver is shrinking rapidly.

US-Israeli Relations in Crisis? No!

First, there was "a crisis." [27] Then, there was "the worst crisis in US-Israel relations ever." Now, a mere 36 hours later, the "crisis recedes. [28]"

DNC adds Jerusalem to platform

Update: The Democratic National Committee on Wednesday added an amendment to its 2012 platform saying Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel. The language, almost identical to that in the DNC 2008 platform, was added after its omission came under criticism from some Republican groups.

“President Obama personally intervened to strengthen the language,” a Democratic aide involved in the process told Al-Monitor Wednesday.

Hurricane "Jerusalem" Hits the DNC

Jerusalem always comes up during U.S. political campaign season, and this year is no different. In July, GOP candidate Mitt Romney came to Jerusalem, where he skillfully bobbed and wove his way around the issue, expressing fidelity to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but stopping short of promising to move the U.S. embassy there the moment he becomes President. Now, apparently, it’s the Democrats' turn.

Democratic platform drafters defend Israel section

Article Author(s): 

Josh Rogin

Media Outlet: 

Foreign Policy

Article Type: 

Blog

Date: 

September 5, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/09/05/democratic_platform_drafters_... [31]

CHARLOTTE - Changes between the 2008 Democratic Party platform's language on Israel and the 2012 version were due to a deliberate effort to refocus the platform toward President Barack Obama's policies, two officials directly involved in its drafting process told The Cable.

Leading pro-Israel groups such as AIPAC were heavily involved in the platform-drafting process, saw final language of the draft platform, and told platform drafters they were satisfied with it, both officials said.

Jerusalem omission's silly significance

Article Author(s): 

Aaron David Miller

Media Outlet: 

CNN

Article Type: 

Opinion

Date: 

September 5, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/05/opinion/miller-jerusalem-democrats-platform/index.... [32]

(CNN) -- The flip-flop over the non-mention, and now inclusion, in the Democratic platform of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel reflects just how silly and sensitive matters can become in an election year.

---

PRINT ALL [1]EMAIL TO A FRIEND [2]DOWNLOAD TO PDF [3]RSS [4]

---