October 13, 2009

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NOTE: due to Thursday's ATFP Gala, the ATFP world news roundup will resume on Monday, October 19.

The Palestine Investment Fund launches a $220 million housing project in the occupied territories. Israel is considering restricting travel by senior officials fearing arrest as a consequence of the Goldstone report. Hamas claims that it always supported the report and that the organization is "praised" in it. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon supports moves by Pres. Abbas to reopen debate on the report in the UN Human Rights Council. US reportedly tells Egypt that Palestinian reconciliation would undermine negotiations with Israel. Kadima leader Tzipi Livni accuses Prime Minister Netanyahu of "humiliating" the Palestinians, while Netanyahu says combating the Goldstone report is Israel's main priority. An Israeli pornographer uses sex to "promote coexistence." An Israeli embassy spokesman says that J Street "could impair Israel's interests." ATFP President Ziad Asali says Netanyahu's commitment to peace will be tested in coming months.

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Palestinians launch $220 million housing project

The Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) on Monday announced the establishment of the Palestinian territories' most ambitious real estate project to date, with initial capital of $220 million.

The goal is to create 30,000 new housing units in the next five to 10 years, PIF Chairman Mohammad Mustafa said.

"We want to see projects on the hilltops other than (Jewish) settlements," Mustafa told reporters.

"The aim is to participate in building Palestine in the coming period, to create jobs and economic opportunities."

Israelis may stay home to avoid arrest in Europe

Israel is seriously considering restricting travel to Europe by its senior officials and military officers, fearing they might be arrested in the wake of a disputed U.N. report that accuses the Jewish state of targeting civilians in its Gaza war earlier this year.

Gaza government: We backed Goldstone from the start

The Hamas-backed government in the Gaza Strip on Monday denied President Mahmoud Abbas’ allegations that the government did not support the Goldstone report on war crimes.

Government spokesperson Taher An-Nunu said in a statement, “Goldstone met with the government and its ministers more than once, and he also met with the Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, which led him to praise our government in his report clearly, openly and in public.”

UN chief backs Abbas decision to debate Goldstone report

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon supports a Palestinian proposal to reopen debate in the Human Rights Council on the Goldstone Commission's report on the Gaza war, his spokeswoman Michele Montas said on Monday.

She said Ban assured Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on the matter during a telephone conversation on Sunday.

Israeli officials across the board have condemned the 575-page report which accuses Israel of war crimes during the wintertime offensive. The report also accused Hamas of actions amounting to war crimes by firing rockets at civilians in southern Israel.

U.S. to Egypt: Fatah-Hamas deal undermines Israel-PA talks

The United States sent a message to Egypt stating it does not support the proposed reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas as it would undermine negotiations with Israel, Haaretz has learned.

George Mitchell, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, met on Saturday night in Cairo with the chief of Egyptian intelligence, Gen. Omar Suleiman, and told him the United States would not support an agreement not aligned with the principles of the Quartet.

Israel sees court rulings on Palestinian land as mere 'recommendations'

So what if the Supreme Court rules? In Israel those decisions are just recommendations, especially if they deal with Palestinian land. In most enlightened democratic countries, saying that decisions of the courts obligate the state authorities is like stating that the sun rises in the east. But that may not be so for Israel.

Students refuse to enlist due to 'occupation'

Dozens of students signed this year's high school seniors' letter, which has traditionally attempted to challenge Israel's mandatory army service policy. Similar letters have circulated every few years since 1979, all calling on teens to object to IDF service.

Livni accuses Netanyahu of 'humiliating Palestinians'

Opposition Chairwoman Tzipi Livni on Monday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being responsible for the uproar created by the United Nations report into the Israeli operation in Gaza. She hinted that Israel was the one who revealed that the Palestinians had deferred a Human Rights Council vote on the report, because the prime minister "had to boast of his performance."

Livni, who spoke during the opening ceremony of the Knesset's winter session, was interrupted several times by Likud Knesset members.

Netanyahu: Our leaders won't be prosecuted in Hague

The Knesset opened its winter session Monday, amid its members' promise for a stormy winter. The Knesset's factions are set to spend the next several months debating settlement freeze, the forming of a biometric database, a reform in the Israel Land Administration, a controversial budget cut and a referendum bill, to name a few.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dedicated most of his speech to a harsh attack on a United Nations report on the Israeli operation in Gaza, which accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes in Gaza.

Abbas seeks vote on Gaza report

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has called for a session of the UN Human Rights Council to vote on a report accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza.

Mr Abbas has faced a week of angry criticism after the Palestinian Authority backed deferring the vote until March.

On Sunday he said there had not been enough support for the vote.

Hamas's leader in Damascus called the issue a "scandal" that would harm Palestinian unity efforts.

Jerusalem Diary: Monday 12 October

People who work to bring Jews and Arabs together often neither seek nor gain glory.

The projects grind on, in the shadows, on the margins, with little reward.

But Avi Levy's self-proclaimed work on co-existence is not just handsomely rewarded, it also could not be more out there.

Mr Levy, 49, is a pornographer. Eight years ago, along with some business partners, he set up the website Parpar 1 - literally butterfly in Hebrew, but also slang for swinger.

In a saturated market, he believes he has identified a niche: Israeli men and women having "real sex", as he describes it.

The 'no peace now' camp

It was a good example for bad timing: just shortly before the news broke that President Obama had been awarded the Nobel peace prize, Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, made headlines when he declared in an interview on Israeli radio that in his coming meeting with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, he would explain that "there was no chance of reaching a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians for many years". Lieberman will probably be suspected by many of doing his best to make sure he is proven right – after all, he never had the reputation of a peacemonger.

Israeli Embassy: J Street could ‘impair Israel’s interests’

An Israeli Embassy spokesman said J Street supports policies that could "impair Israel's interests."

Yoni Peled told the Jerusalem Post that the embassy has "communicated to J Street its views on the peace process and on the best way to ensure Israel's security."

The embassy told the left-wing pro-Israel organization that "while recognizing the need for a free and open debate on these issues, it is important to stress concern over certain policies that could impair Israel's interests," Peled said, according to the Post.

Leadership failure betrays the Palestinians

Who would be George Mitchell? As the US peace envoy wearily boarded a plane for Washington after yet another fruitless round of shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East, two of the key players in the process were hurling abuse at each other between the West Bank and Damascus. If the scenario were not so tragic, it would be a farce. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas ,and the Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, traded insults in separate televised speeches, leaving Mr Mitchell looking like a travelling salesman trying in vain to sell hair-restorer to two bald men fighting over a comb.

The Erdogan-Obama road map for peace

Eyebrows were raised at the 64th session of the UN General Assembly in September, when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rose to the podium and talked about the controversial report of South African judge Robert Goldstone.

The UN-mandated report, released only days earlier, accuses Israel of war crimes in Gaza during the 2008-2009 crisis and possible crimes against humanity.

The return of 1948

The United Nations conference commemorating the 60th anniversary of UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) could not come at a better moment. The restitution of lands occupied in 1967 will obviously continue to be indispensable to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it is the legacy of the 1948 war that both parties to the conflict have now put at the centre of the debate.

New negotiations will test Netanyahu's commitment

Yasser Arafat was enticed to attend a meeting with Ehud Barak at Camp David during the summer of 2000 with the promise that he would not be blamed if it turned out to be a failure. It did, and he was. Last month the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was invited to attend a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York without any such promise. He was not blamed and the meeting was not a failure.

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