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Over the last few weeks, we witnessed three speeches by three leaders at three universities: United States President Barack Obama and his speech at Cairo University, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and his speech at Bar Ilan University, and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and his speech at al-Quds University.
I have been reading newspaper accounts over the past few days about a conference in Ramallah entitled "Experiences of unifying and activating the left in Palestine and the world." I recall the memory of a young woman from the cold and distant north who asked me during the Beirut civil war thirty years ago what was preventing the unification of two large leftist organizations. I instantly responded: stupidity.
He swept to power with the support of 78% of American Jews. But has Barack Obama become the bane of Israeli Jews?
A gulf between American and Israeli Jews was evident even before Obama moved into the White House. Just a third of Israelis would have endorsed him had they been allowed to vote, polling indicated, while almost half would have chosen John McCain.
The promotion of Middle East adviser Dennis Ross to a senior White House position may open the door to a more positive tone by the United States toward the Israeli government, experts believe.
Amnesty International on Thursday accused Israel and Hamas of having committed “serious and extensive” violations during Israel’s assault in the Gaza Strip and urged the international community to boost its support for a United Nations inquiry into the alleged war crimes.
In its 119-page report, the London-based human rights group also called on Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, to fully co-operate with the UN probe headed by Richard Goldstone, an ex-chief prosecutor at the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Israeli soldiers shot and wounded four Palestinian youths on Wednesday while firing at protesters throwing stones at Israeli civilian vehicles, an Israeli military spokesman and medics said.
Two of the wounded were in serious condition in an Israeli hospital, and two others were listed as moderate in a Palestinian hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus, an Israeli military source and Palestinian medical officials said.
A Palestinian official said all those who were shot were boys younger than 16. The Israeli spokesman had no details on their identities.
Amnesty International said today that Israel inflicted “wanton destruction” in the Gaza Strip in attacks that often targeted Palestinian civilians during an offensive in December and January in the Hamas-run enclave.
The London-based rights group, in a 117-page report on the 22 days of fighting, also criticised movement Hamas for rocket attacks on Israel, which it called “war crimes”.
Bethlehem - Ma’an - Palestinian caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was in Washington this week meeting with high-level officials in an effort to push the American administration to act on its request that Israel halt settlement construction.
Fayyad met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, National Security Advisor General James Jones, as well as Congressional leaders.
The U.S. administration has not been successful in securing commitments from Arab countries to take steps toward normalizing relations with Israel, a senior source in Jerusalem said Wednesday.
The source said U.S. President Barack Obama's recent meeting with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia did not produce a commitment to encourage the other Arab states to begin normalization.
"In such a situation, the Americans can't continue demanding gestures only from Israel, such as the demand that Israel freeze settlement construction," the source said.
The repeated demands by Barack Obama and the Europeans for a freeze on settlement construction reveals that Benjamin Netanyahu's promise - that Israel will neither build new settlements nor expropriate land for the benefit of the settlements - is nothing more than an effort to throw sand in the public's eyes.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded on Thursday that Israeli settlement building in the West Bank stop, saying it endangered efforts to achieve a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
"I think it is now important to get commitments from all sides and that includes the issue of settlement building," Merkel said in a speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament.
"I am convinced that there must be a stop to this. Otherwise we will not come to the two-state solution that is urgently needed."
The Palestinian Authority has intelligence indicating Hamas is planning to attack its officials, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday. Abbas' statement follows the announcement made earlier this week by the PA, in which it confirmed that members of a Hamas cell were arrested, and later confessed to plotting to carry out attacks against Palestinian Authority officials and institutions before July 7th – the date Fatah and Hamas are expected to sign a reconciliation agreement.
One of these days, an American president will tell us: One state. After three more premiership terms, during which Netanyahu will return to power time and again in the wake of resounding failures, President Eduardo S. Gonzales will arrive here from Washington. The son of Cuban immigrants, Gonzales will stand up on top of the Masada, and with Elie Wiesel and China’s president by his side declare his unequivocal support for one state. Yet Bibi, boasting great experience and shaking because of his age, concerns, and anxiety, will insist: Only two states.
On May 1 and 16, 2003, during discussions of Israel’s reservations in respect to the Road Map initiative, it was agreed that there will be no construction at Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, with the exception of existing communities. These words were uttered, agreed upon, and documented in the records of the talks kept at the Prime Minister’s Office. I’m sure that an efficient search will reveal the parallel American records.
Israel would lose nothing, and potentially gain everything, by agreeing to a temporary moratorium on construction in the settlements for a short period of time, Congressman Robert Wexler, a close political ally of US President Barack Obama and a stalwart Israel supporter, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
Wexler, on his third visit to Israel since December, met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, a day after Defense Minister Ehud Barak and US Middle East envoy George Mitchell met in New York and decided that the discussion over settlement construction would continue.
Settlers leaders on Wednesday promised to lobby against any concessions that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu might consider making to the Americans on the issue of settlement construction, when he meets with US Mideast envoy George Mitchell in the next few weeks.
"We have two weeks to work with," said Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. He added that the council was seeking a meeting with Netanyahu.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/7796
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/7796
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/7796
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] http://www.acpus.org/donate_online
[6] http://www.americantaskforce.org
[7] http://www.americantaskforce.org/
[8] http://forward.com/articles/108796/
[9] http://forward.com/articles/108792/
[10] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4dd41d0a-6670-11de-a034-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
[11] http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSL1335862
[12] http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090702/FOREIGN/707029998/1002
[13] http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38976
[14] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097224.html
[15] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097241.html
[16] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3740370,00.html
[17] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3740121,00.html
[18] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3739891,00.html
[19] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3740136,00.html
[20] http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443695869&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
[21] http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443696726&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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