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Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, authorized plans for 455 new housing units in Jewish settlements in the West Bank on Monday, in a move aimed at placating Israel’s pro-settlement camp before an expected construction freeze demanded by the Arab world and the United States.
But the details released by Mr. Barak’s office on Monday seemed to satisfy nobody, enraging not only the Palestinians, but also Israelis on the right and the left. The White House denounced the planned approvals last week, when news first emerged of Israel’s intention to grant them.
During the past 16 months I have visited the Middle East four times and met with leaders in Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza. I was in Damascus when President Obama made his historic speech in Cairo, which raised high hopes among the more-optimistic Israelis and Palestinians, who recognize that his insistence on a total freeze of settlement expansion is the key to any acceptable peace agreement or any positive responses toward Israel from Arab nations.
In an op-ed on Sunday ["The Elders' View of the Middle East"], former president Jimmy Carter, speaking on behalf of a self-appointed group of "Elders," described a rapacious Israel facing long-suffering, blameless Palestinians, who are contemplating a "nonviolent civil rights struggle" in which "their examples would be Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela."
Before dawn, a crackling sound breaks up the cool, still air, as boots tread over rocks on a 7-km (4-mile)-long path that leads hundreds of illegal Palestinian workers into Israel each day.
None holds an Israeli work permit and as the laborers make their way from the occupied West Bank, they risk a dangerous run-in with Israeli paramilitary border police.
The small Arab village of Beit Iksa , nestled among foothills and surrounded by Jewish settlements, opens out to a dark panorama of Jerusalem studded by twinkling street lights.
Israel approved the building of more than 450 new homes in Jewish settlements on Monday, just weeks before possible Israeli-Palestinian talks on the sidelines of the annual United Nations gathering in New York.
The Netanyahu government in Israel has approved the building of 455 new homes for settlers in the West Bank - in defiance of Mr Obama's call for a complete settlement freeze.
One former US diplomat with extensive experience of the Middle East calls it "a huge slap in the face" for the Obama administration.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to have it both ways.
He wants to appease the settler lobby by allowing new construction, and to appease the Americans by finalising an agreement on a temporary freeze.
But he is in danger of satisfying no-one.
Military rabbis are becoming more powerful. Trained in warfare as well as religion, new army regulations mean they are now part of a military elite.
They graduate from officer's school and operate closely with military commanders. One of their main duties is to boost soldiers' morale and drive, even on the front line.
This has caused quite some controversy in Israel. Should military motivation come from men of God, or from a belief in the state of Israel and keeping it safe?
The military rabbis rose to prominence during Israel's invasion of Gaza earlier this year.
Palestinian political figures warned on Monday that if the United States and Europe fail to urge Israel to halt settlement, repression would prevail among the Palestinians, and "it would be an incitement for a popular uprising against Israel."
Ghassan Daghlas, a senior Palestinian National Authority (PNA) official in charge of the Israeli settlement file in northern West Bank, said the current Palestinian status concerning the settlement expansion is like "fire under ashes."
Egypt will open the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip for two consecutive days on 15 and 16 September Egyptian security sources said Tuesday.
The source explained that the crossing for patients, foreign visa holders, and students would be able to leave the Gaza Strip to Egypt, while all Gazans stranded at the Egyptian side of the terminal will be able to return to Gaza. Egyptian authorities said they would consider keeping the crossing open for an additional day or two so all those eligible to cross would be able to do so.
On college campuses in the United States and the United Kingdom, and increasingly among grassroots activists in the West generally, the cause of ending the Israeli occupation and securing independence for a Palestinian state is being abandoned in favor of a much more far-reaching goal of replacing Israel with a single, democratic state for all Israelis and Palestinians, including all of the refugees. Until now, this rhetoric has been largely unchallenged from a pro-Palestinian perspective, which has probably been a significant factor in its appeal.
The project of juadizing the city of Jerusalem is continuing at a steady pace and arduous efforts are being made in this regard. Forty years after the Al Aqsa fire that was masterminded by Israeli terrorists, crimes are still being carried out against residents of that city.
At the West Bank city of Ariel's adventure park, whose construction Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved, nothing special was going on yesterday. Children were trying out the climbing wall and the mayor was walking around, proud as a groom on his wedding day. The facility was actually only approved yesterday, but has been in existence for a year and a half before receiving construction permits. In fact, a demolition order was issued against it.
National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau on Monday lashed out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan for a partial construction freeze in the West Bank, deeming the Palestinians "occupiers" and declaring any bounds on settlements a "violation of human rights."
Right-wing lawmakers on Monday joined the crowds celebrating the establishment of a new neighborhood in the E-1 corridor connecting Jerusalem to its settlement suburbs. The ceremony was also attended by Supreme Court Judge Eliyakim Rubinstein and Information Minister Yuli Edelstein.
Almost seven years after he was introduced to Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, initiated the establishment of the Sela disengagement administration to aid evacuees from Gaza and northern Samaria, and became one of the central figures behind the scenes in carrying out the plan - the head of the National Security Council at the time of the 2005 disengagement, Maj. Gen (res.) Giora Eiland, is convinced that Israel is incapable of evacuating settlements on the West Bank.
Palestinian newspaper Al Manar reported Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the capital of an Arab country which does not have diplomatic ties with Israel.
Israeli journalists who were scheduled to meet Netanyahu on Monday inquired as to the change in his schedule. Later on in the evening, his office said he had visited a security facility in central Israel with National Security Adviser Uzi Arad and the PM's Military Secretary Maj. Gen. Meir Kalifi.
Some two weeks after going public with his ambitious plans of establishing a de facto Palestinian State within two years, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of Monday said he was baffled as to Israel's displeasure and silence over his plans.
In an interview to Newsweek, Fayyad said he did not understand why Jerusalem was so unwelcoming of his initiative, and said the Israelis were missing the point.
"If you look at all the variables around us, we really don't have control over most of them," he told Newsweek.
"This is our answer to the international community's demand that Israel halt construction in the West Bank," Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) said Monday during a groundbreaking ceremony for a new residential neighborhood in E1, a sprawl of land connecting Jerusalem to Maaleh Adumim.
The US is opposed to any construction in the area, claiming that it hinders peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
The Right will not bring down Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government, and Israel Beiteinu will not leave the coalition in the face of the anticipated six-month moratorium on new construction in the West Bank, Foreign Minister and Israel Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/8732
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/8732
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/8732
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] http://www.americantaskforce.org/gala_2009
[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/world/middleeast/08mideast.html?ref=middleeast
[7] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/04/AR2009090402968.html
[8] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/07/AR2009090702067.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
[9] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/08/AR2009090800723.html
[10] http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0907/p06s04-wome.html
[11] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8242387.stm
[12] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8232340.stm
[13] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-09/07/content_12011859.htm
[14] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=224329
[15] http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=106239
[16] http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=18041
[17] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1113073.html
[18] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1112932.html
[19] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1112876.html
[20] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3773829,00.html
[21] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3773487,00.html
[22] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3773440,00.html
[23] http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1251804518098
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