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President Obama's meeting with Shimon Peres this afternoon marked a first step in the new administration's relationship with Israel. But it comes at a time when the two governments disagree sharply over what constitutes the biggest long-term threat to the Jewish state and how best to achieve peace in the region.
Vice President Joe Biden called on Israeli officials Tuesday to work harder for creation of a Palestinian state and to halt growth of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Biden, speaking at a conference sponsored by an influential pro-Israel lobby, said the Obama administration was committed to a new direction in Middle East peace efforts because "the status quo of the last decade has not served the interests of the United States, or Israel, very well."
SYMBOLIC gestures are the tools of any leader’s trade, but nowhere do they spell the difference between life and death quite like the Middle East. For example, the visit in 2000 by Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli prime minister, to Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the site of two Islamic shrines, helped set off the second intifada.
The number of Palestinians forced to provide information before being let out of Gaza for medical treatment is rising, an Israeli group has reported.
In the first three months of 2009 more than 400 patients were interrogated, Physicians for Human Rights says.
They say Israeli security services are involved in a systematic attempt to recruit Palestinians as collaborators.
Israeli officials say they are carrying out security checks to ensure those entering Israel do not commit attacks.
The Obama administration and international negotiators are drafting a new strategy for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and expect to unveil it within six weeks, said international Mideast envoy Tony Blair.
The plan is being devised by the Obama administration, with input from others, the former British prime minister told Palestinian reporters.
Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. John Kerry pledged to confront Iran and protect Israel, but called on the Jewish state to freeze settlements.
In their addresses Tuesday on the closing day of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference, both said President Obama was committed to removing Iran’s nuclear threat.
Biden said Israel, the Palestinians and others in the region needed to take demonstrable steps toward peace.
“Show me!” he shouted.
The vice president spelled out steps that needed to be taken by the various parties.
“This relationship matters to me,” one partner says.
“Show me,” says the other.
Such conversations, as any couple can attest, usually don't augur the happiest of chats.
If this year’s AIPAC policy conference stopped well short of a full-blown spat between the pro-Israel lobby and the Obama administration, it was because each side was listening to the other: Obama officials listened to Israeli fears about the Iranian nuclear threat, and AIPAC and Israel's prime minister listened to the U.S. administration’s insistence on the inevitability of Palestinian statehood.
A solid majority of Jewish Israelis worry that President Barack Obama's outreach to the Arab and Muslim world will come at their expense, a new poll showed Monday.
Israelis also strongly back stopping Iran's nuclear program, even if Israel has to attack Iran without American approval, according to the survey.
In the wake of a UN report that blasts Israel for damaging UN buildings and killing staff during its three-week invasion of Gaza, the secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, said yesterday he will seek reparations.
Speaking with journalists following the publication of a report by the UN’s Board of Inquiry, Mr Ban held back from criticising Israel, but said the world body was seeking cash compensation for damage sustained.
The US-Israeli relationship today is like a bunch of oranges, apples and bananas thrown into a blender to make a fruit smoothie. Action is the name of the game, but outcomes are not clear.
Arab states are revising elements of a 2002 peace plan to encourage Israel to agree to the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state, the London-based paper Al-Quds al-Arabi reported Wednesday.
The countries are making the amendments at United States President Barack Obama's request, the paper said. Some of the changes deal with a controversial "right of return" for Palestinian refugees to Israel or a future state of Palestine.
The Palestinian Authority is concerned that dozens of families from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan may be evicted from their homes in the near future.
Concerns arose following the Justice Ministry's demand to stop the process of issuing building permits in the area, under the claim that the families do not own the land they live on.
The issue was raised about two weeks ago, during a Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Committee hearing aimed at settling a dispute over a Silwan resident's building permits.
US Vice President Joseph Biden said Tuesday that Israel must accept a two-state solution with the Palestinians, urging Jerusalem to stop settlement growth.
"Israel has to work toward a two-state solution," Biden told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee annual conference. "You're not going to like my saying this, but not build more settlements, dismantle existing outposts and allow the Palestinians freedom of movement."
As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for his meeting in Washington with U.S. President Barack Obama, the White House is sending tough messages to Israel about its expectations. In his speech at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said this was a moment of truth for Israel. The United States is committed to the principle of two states for two peoples, he said, and this is the only solution, so all the parties must meet their obligations, no matter how difficult.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/6871
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/6871
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/6871
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] http://www.americantaskforce.org/gala_2009
[6] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/05/AR2009050501494.html
[7] http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-us-mideast6-2009may06,0,6986104.story
[8] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/opinion/06allen.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
[9] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/05/AR2009050503453.html
[10] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8032508.stm
[11] http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=16631
[12] http://forward.com/articles/105608/
[13] http://jta.org/news/article/2009/05/05/1004936/aipac-and-the-obama-administration-having-the-relationships-talk
[14] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/obama-outreach-to-muslims-worries-israelis-1678810.html
[15] http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090506/FOREIGN/705059797/1002
[16] http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=101670
[17] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1083477.html
[18] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1083471.html
[19] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3711743,00.html
[20] http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710872135&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
[21] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1083371.html
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