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Israeli security forces evicted two Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem early Sunday after the families lost a long legal battle to remain in the contested properties, furthering a plan for Jewish settlement in the predominantly Arab area.
The move, days after senior American officials visited Jerusalem to press for a settlement freeze, prompted sharp international criticism.
George J. Mitchell likes to remind people that he labored for 700 days before reaching the Good Friday accord that brought peace to Northern Ireland. So the fact that Mr. Mitchell has shuttled back and forth to the Middle East for the last 190 days without any breakthroughs, he said, does not mean that President Obama’s push for peace there is stalled.
Since the historic 1979 Camp David Accords with Israel, Egypt has used its regional clout to broker peace in the Middle East – and curry favor with the West.
With ties to both Israel and Hamas, Cairo sees a natural role for itself in helping to bring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a just solution. But its neutrality, motives, and, more recently, its political influence, have been challenged by other countries, calling into question its effectiveness as a peacemaker.
Israeli police recommended Sunday that the state indict Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on charges of bribery, fraud, money laundering, witness harassment and obstruction of justice.
A spokesman for the Justice Ministry said the file now moves to the state prosecutor's office and then to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, who would have to approve the recommendation before Lieberman could be formally indicted. That process could take weeks or even months. If the foreign minister is indicted, he will have to resign, according to Israeli law.
Israel and America are having one of those periodic marital spats they have had over the years, replete with “I-am-not-taking-any-more-of-your-guff” outbursts by Obama officials at American Jewish leaders, and, yes — it wouldn’t be a real Israel-U.S. dust-up without it — Israeli accusations that Jewish Obama aides are “self-hating Jews,” working out their identity crises by working over Israel. Having been to this play before, and knowing both families, I’d like to offer some free marriage counseling.
Benjamin Netanyahu has a problem. The Obama administration is insisting on a settlements freeze and the Israeli prime minister, who is resisting such demands, is not getting the support he might have expected from the American pro-Israel community. Usually, when an American president makes any sort of demand on Jerusalem, pro-Israel (primarily Jewish) organizations compel Congress to pressure the president to cease and desist. It usually works, but not this time.
At Garden's grocery store in Ramallah, Dalia al-Khatib hands out fliers and showcases Palestinian goods for Intajuna ("Our Products"), one of many campaigns asking Palestinians to avoid Israeli products.
But across town, an all-Palestinian crew of labourers heads home after a day of work on the nearby Jewish settlement of Adam, like some 30,000 other Palestinians who help build settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The US has led international condemnation of Israel after it evicted nine Palestinian families living in two houses in occupied East Jerusalem.
Washington said the action was not in keeping with Israel's obligations under the so-called "road map" to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Jewish settlers moved into the houses almost immediately.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it, a move not recognised by the world community.
The removal of the 53 people was also condemned by the United Nations, the Palestinians and the UK government.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal was absolutely right when he rejected US calls on his country and other like-minded Arab states to improve relations with Israel as a way to help restart Middle East peace talks.
“The question is not what the Arab world will offer… The question really is: What will Israel give in exchange for this comprehensive offer?” Prince Saud said at a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after talks in Washington on Friday.
As if they needed another reason to wage political battle, the two leading Palestinian political groups, Fatah and Hamas, are now locked in a tug-of-war around whether Hamas will allow Fatah members in Gaza to travel to Bethlehem to attend their party’s sixth congress next Tuesday. Hamas accuses Fatah of imprisoning Hamas members unjustly, and wants them released before it allows Fatah members to go to Bethlehem.
The United States and the United Nations sharply condemned the eviction of two Palestinian families from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and their replacement with Jewish families on Sunday.
Diplomats from the U.S. Embassy sent a protest letter to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, stressing the move went against the spirit of the road map. The diplomats said a high-level protest will be communicated to Israel later on Monday.
How did this happen to Avigdor Lieberman, perhaps the most careful man in the history of Israeli politics - to reach the point where the police are recommending that serious charges be brought against him? Human error is to blame. A group of documents that Lieberman forgot at a certain office reached the attorney general and eventually led to the unequivocal police recommendation.
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) is calling for a fundamental change in relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel, urging the founding of a "true partnership" between the two sectors, based on mutual respect, absolute equality and the addressing of "the special needs and unique character of each of the sides."
The 2009 Democracy Index, published by the Israel Democracy Institute on Sunday, reveals marked differences between the immigrant population from the former Soviet Union and the general population in Israel.
The IDI's 2009 Democracy Index was handed to President Shimon Peres Monday. The survey was carried out in March 2009 on a sample representative of the adult population in Israel of 1,191 respondents. The respondents were interviewed in three languages: Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian. The sampling error is 2.8%.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold an important meeting with US Mideast envoy George Mitchell at the end of the month, sources said.
Top sources in Jerusalem confirmed to Ynet that Netanyahu will meet with Mitchell in London, as part of the prime minister's European tour in which he will also meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Organizations who devote all or part of their efforts towards protecting Palestinian human and legal rights on Sunday delivered a strong protest to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu against "the aggressive efforts of the government of Israel to hurt Breaking the Silence."
On July 15, Breaking the Silence, an organization comprising former IDF soldiers, published a report including testimonies by 30 soldiers who provided alleged examples of the army's illegal use of Palestinian civilians in combat situations, wanton destruction of homes and buildings and careless use of weapons.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman sat on a couch in the foyer just outside of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office mid-Sunday afternoon, apparently waiting for a meeting.
The sight of the foreign minister waiting in the hall was uncharacteristic. People usually wait for Lieberman, not the other way around. It led one reporter, being ushered into another part of the building for a briefing on the morning's cabinet meeting, to guess: "It must be related to the indictment."
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/8203
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/8203
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/8203
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] http://www.acpus.org/donate_online
[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/world/middleeast/03israel.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast&pagewanted=print
[7] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/world/middleeast/03diplo.html?scp=3&sq=George%20Mitchell&st=cse
[8] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/02/AR2009080201407_pf.html
[9] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/opinion/02friedman.html?_r=1&em
[10] http://www.israelpolicyforum.org/commentary/netanyahu-seeking-salvation
[11] http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-41505020090803
[12] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8180743.stm
[13] http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=18878
[14] http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=104847
[15] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1104779.html
[16] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1104884.html
[17] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3756355,00.html
[18] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3756357,00.html
[19] http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249223905482&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
[20] http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249223905476&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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