November 6, 2012

Central committee member Amal Hamad waited at the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing for two hours before she was turned back, Fatah said on Monday.

Russia FM: Hamas can play vital role in advancing Palestinian issue

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that the Palestinian issue must remain a top priority and should not be neglected as a result of the upheavals of the Arab Spring.

Speaking after a meeting with the deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, Moussa Abu Marzouk, in Cairo, Lavrov clarified that Moscow thinks Hamas can play an important role in advancing the Palestinian issue.

"We believe the Palestinian issue cannot be solved without Palestinian unity, and the same goes for solving the entire Middle East conflict."

Court addresses fumes, moving Palestinians

The High Court of Justice on Monday held another hearing in which settlers say Palestinians around Wadi Ara are harming them with the fumes created through coal production, while the Palestinians say that the settlers are just trying to force them off their land.

Avigdor Lieberman's New Role Raises Worries

Washington D.C. — Pro-Israel activists who have long depicted Israel’s firebrand foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, as a marginal figure are now pondering how to explain his enhanced role to American politicians and others following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to merge his party with Lieberman’s and effectively make Lieberman his chief deputy.

Palestinian statehood doesn’t threaten Israel — but stalled peace process might, internal Foreign Ministry report says

The Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations does not delegitimize Israel, Jerusalem’s demand for recognition as a Jewish state does nothing for the country’s legitimacy, and the stalled peace process harms Israeli interests. All these assertions, which read like the talking points of a European government or a pro-Palestinian NGO, are found in a report written by a senior official in the Foreign Ministry, of Israel.

A Memo to the US President

Dear Mr. President: congratulations on winning today's election. The third debate with your esteemed opponent reflected a broad consensus on foreign policy. Both of you therefore appeared well-positioned to make any necessary course corrections, but the job is yours.
 
US Middle East policy needs to be tweaked rather than overhauled. On most pressing issues, current policies reflect a reasonable balance between American values and interests, and the really existing options and politically plausible positions for any administration.
 

Mitt Romney Deserves the Arab-American Vote

The coming presidential election presents a consequential choice for American voters. Many Americans are concerned with the direction their country is heading. Arab Americans are no different. As a community we are well integrated into American political life and an important voting constituency in many areas of the country. Our vote matters, as do the concerns and insight of our community matter this election season. In September 2012, the Arab American Institute released a poll on how the community will vote.

Barack Obama Understands the Arab-American Community and its Concerns

On November 6th, I will enthusiastically cast my vote to reelect Barack Obama as President of the United States. I will do so without hesitation despite the disappointment that I and many in my community feel with the lack of change or progress made during the past four years on many issues about which we care deeply.

What A Romney Win Means For Israel

Most American Jews will vote tomorrow for reasons other than Israel but few will vote indifferent to it.  So let’s be clear what a Romney administration, reaching into the foreseeable future, really means.

Abbas tries to put Palestinian issue back on Israeli political agenda

JERUSALEM, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian National Authority ( PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas over the weekend gave an interview to Israeli TV Channel 2, in which he touched on a number of issues that are central to Israeli-Palestinian relations, including the 1967 lines, the Palestinian refugees' right to return, and the Palestinian uprising.

An open letter to Netanyahu: It's time to speak to Abbas

What are you waiting for, Benjamin Netanyahu?

Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, said in an interview on Israeli television that he is willing to return to Safed, his hometown, as a tourist. Implicit in his words is the most explicit renunciation of the "right of return" that an Arab leader is capable of uttering at this time, before the start of negotiations. So, why are you waiting?

Encountering Peace: The leader and the leaderless

What Palestinian Authority chairman had to say to the people of Israel in his interview on Channel 2 on Friday night, I heard months ago in private meetings with him, following which I wrote detailed reports and analysis for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Just to recap his main points for any who may have missed the interview:

1. As long as he is chairman of the PA, there will be no third intifada and no return to violence.

Can Bibi Make Nice?

Regardless of who is sworn in as president next January 20, Israeli-American relations are headed for a period of profound uncertainty. We’ve been so focused on debating whether and how Barack Obama gets along with Israel that we’ve completely overlooked a more important question: Can Benjamin Netanyahu can get along with the United States?

Rabin’s Assassination Marked The End of an Era

Seventeen years after the murder of [late Prime Minister] Yitzak Rabin, of blessed memory, the tears have dried, and so has the conversation. Enough time has passed, and naturally, the event has passed from the dark expanses of trauma to the junkyard of history. When people discuss the murder, they no longer focus on the incitement that preceded it, nor on the actions of Rabin the man, the soldier, the leader — but rather the results and the implications that we continued to live daily. The inquiries are purposeful: What happened to us since then? Where are we going?

'Kahane For Kids'

Last week, some four hundred followers—around 300 men, 100 women—marked Rabbi Meir Kahane's death in a dilapidated wedding hall in a poor religious neighborhood in Jerusalem. The lighting was poor, the food was cheap, but the guests were hardcore. Bentzi Gupstein, a graduate of the Kach movement and Kiryat Arba settler, announced that they picked the place it was where Kahane always held his public events. It is, he claimed, the only place in Jerusalem “where they never let Arabs in.”

Speaking power to truth in Gaza and the West Bank

Article Author(s): 

Philippe Assouline

Article Author(s): 

Daniel Putterman

Media Outlet: 

The Times of Israel

Article Type: 

Editorial

Date: 

November 4, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/speaking-power-to-truth-in-gaza-and-the-west-bank... [29]

Artists move us beyond dogmas. Think of the role of music in the anti-war movement of the 1960s. Think of the impact that “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” or “The Diary of Anne Frank” had on public consciousness. Art is the vanguard of progress.

The Palestinian Guy Fawkes

Article Author(s): 

Michael Koplow

Media Outlet: 

The Atlantic

Article Type: 

Opinion

Date: 

November 5, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/11/the-palestinian-guy-faw... [30]

Today is Guy Fawkes Day, which commemorates the plot by a group of English Catholics to blow up the Houses of Parliament and King James I along with it. The plot was disrupted on November 5, 1605, when Fawkes was discovered with the cache of gunpowder underneath Westminster. Ever since, Fawkes has been associated with the Gunpowder Treason and fated to be burned in effigy by English schoolchildren every November 5.

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