My Views on News

Obama Administration rebukes Israel for designating holy sites as Israeli national heritage sites

munaeem | 26 February, 2010 02:26

The Obama administration has expressed displeasure over designating holy sites in West Bank and Bethlehem as Israeli national heritage sites. The Administration terms this move as provocative and unhelpful.
The US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said:

We have asked both parties to refrain from provocative and unilateral actions that undermine efforts to resume negotiations to end the conflict.

In my opinion, the U.S. should sternly tell Israel to halt the settlement growth. I also urge Palestinian not to resort to violence. This is will give Israeli government a excuse not to come to negotiating table.
Original Post at : Munaeem.ca 

Obama Administration rebukes Israel for designating holy sites as Israeli national heritage sites

munaeem | 26 February, 2010 02:19

The Obama administration has expressed displeasure over designating holy sites in West Bank and Bethlehem as Israeli national heritage sites. The Administration terms this move as provocative and unhelpful.

The US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said:

We have asked both parties to refrain from provocative and unilateral actions that undermine efforts to resume negotiations to end the conflict.

In my opinion, the U.S. should sternly tell Israel to halt the settlement growth. I also urge Palestinian not to resort to violence. This is will give Israeli government a excuse not to come to negotiating table.
 
Original Post at : Munaeem.ca 

Obama Administration rebukes Israel for designating holy sites as Israeli national heritage sites

munaeem | 26 February, 2010 02:19

The Obama administration has expressed displeasure over designating holy sites in West Bank and Bethlehem as Israeli national heritage sites. The Administration terms this move as provocative and unhelpful.

The US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said:

We have asked both parties to refrain from provocative and unilateral actions that undermine efforts to resume negotiations to end the conflict.

In my opinion, the U.S. should sternly tell Israel to halt the settlement growth. I also urge Palestinian not to resort to violence. This is will give Israeli government a excuse not to come to negotiating table.
 
Original Post at : Munaeem.ca 

Obama Administration rebukes Israel for designating holy sites as Israeli national heritage sites

munaeem | 26 February, 2010 02:19

The Obama administration has expressed displeasure over designating holy sites in West Bank and Bethlehem as Israeli national heritage sites. The Administration terms this move as provocative and unhelpful.

The US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said:

We have asked both parties to refrain from provocative and unilateral actions that undermine efforts to resume negotiations to end the conflict.

In my opinion, the U.S. should sternly tell Israel to halt the settlement growth. I also urge Palestinian not to resort to violence. This is will give Israeli government a excuse not to come to negotiating table.
 
Original Post at : Munaeem.ca 

Obama Administration rebukes Israel for designating holy sites as Israeli national heritage sites

munaeem | 26 February, 2010 02:19

The Obama administration has expressed displeasure over designating holy sites in West Bank and Bethlehem as Israeli national heritage sites. The Administration terms this move as provocative and unhelpful.

The US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said:

We have asked both parties to refrain from provocative and unilateral actions that undermine efforts to resume negotiations to end the conflict.

In my opinion, the U.S. should sternly tell Israel to halt the settlement growth. I also urge Palestinian not to resort to violence. This is will give Israeli government a excuse not to come to negotiating table.
 
Original Post at : Munaeem.ca 

Commentary:Israel seizes land for settlement expansion

munaeem | 16 February, 2009 21:46

News reports say that Israel has taken control of 423 acres of West Bank land. It is said that Israeli government wants to expand West Bank Israel settlement Efrat.

I condemn the Israel government’s action. It will only create tension in the middle and put pressure on the New American administration.

In my opinion, the only way to stop Israel’s expansion to boycott American people and its products. Take out all  the Arab money from the American banks and shift it to Asia and Europe.

The question is: Can Arab people and government do this?

Can Obama solve the middle probelms?

munaeem | 14 February, 2009 06:45

People in the Middle East think that Obama can solve their woes of the Arab people specially Palestinian.  In my opinion, they are sadly mistaken. Israel is America’s trusted ally. They will not ditch him.

Americans administrations have been making promises since Harry Truman’s days to solve the middle problem. However, they never did any to solve the problems facing the Arabs.

It is wrong to put all the blame on Israel. Arabs are responsible for the Middle East problem.  Israel is a reality. Muslim cannot destroy it by their rhetoric. They cannot destroy it by forces. Israel can retaliate with ferocity.

Arabs should make an agreement with Israel to bring in the region. They must redress  the concerns of the Jewish state.

Iranian students enlist their names to fight against

munaeem | 06 January, 2009 07:03

News reports say that more than 70,000 students have enlisted their names to fight against Israel. This was reported by Iranian State News Agency.

According to the student leader Esmaeil Ahmadi, these students want to fight Israel in support of Hamas. It appears that students started their drive to attract volunteers after the fatwa their supreme leader. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that people would become martyrs if they die defending Gaza.

The reports say the students have requested Iranian government to tell relevant authorities to help them go to Gaza.

The atrocities committed by Israel forces will compel students in other Muslim countries to strike at western interests in their countries.

 

OIC should form an army to attack Israel

munaeem | 05 January, 2009 06:14

Pakistan has expressed grave concern of the destruction of Palestine lives and properties and has demand cessation of attacks against unarmed and innocent Palestinian.

I urge government of Pakistan to use their diplomatic influence to stop Israeli brutalities. Issuance of customary statements will not stop Israel aggression. OIC members will have to send an army to drive Israelis from Gaza because security council resolutions have failed to persuade Israel in the past stop its aggressions.

Visit my bog 'Blog Critic'

US Senators support Israel’s aggression

munaeem | 04 January, 2009 20:24

US senators from both sides they support Israel group operation against Hamas. They say that Israel is justified in taking against Hamas.

Their partisan stance has shocked me. I know Hamas has provided Israel the pretext to attack. But Israel is targeting civilians. The stance and behavior adopted by American administration and lawmakers would increase the in the Middle East. Israeli atrocities are generating anger in the Muslim world. Americans will bear the brunt the follies of their leaders.

Source : Blog Critic

Israeli attacks would fuel radicalization

munaeem | 30 December, 2008 08:47

The statements from the Whitehouse national security adviser Gordon Johndroe and President elect Obama have shocked the International community. They said that Israel would continue attacks until Hamas changed its behavior.

Mr. Gordon Johndroe said:

“They are working on decreasing the number of Israeli citizens who are vulnerable ... so they are going to continue to deal at this time with the Hamas terrorist threat.”

It is wrong to assume that Israel can stop rockets this way. It will only radicalize the situation and increase support for Hamas.

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband expressed the same opinion while talking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He said such attacks would fuel radicalization.

Israel is using force disproportionately. It is wrong to punish Palestinian people for the crimes committed by few misguided Islamic militants.

Stop Israeli offensive

munaeem | 29 December, 2008 12:17

The silence of the United Nations and Western powers at the destruction of Palestinian lives and infrastructure by Israel security forces has shocked me. Israel's Gaza offensive is generating anger against the western powers and the United States.

Some people say that Israel is doing all this at the backing of the US. Israel wants to corner Hamas to allow Abbas’s forces to take over the Gaza strip.

The silence of western powers over the Israeli offensive will create more militants in the Islamic world. The US and European powers should force Israel to end the offensive and lift economic restrictions imposed on Palestinians.

Source: www.munaeem.org

Football & Sports Memorabilia

munaeem | 08 July, 2008 01:42

Are you a football fan and looking for authentic signed autographed football memorabilia?

I will tell you about an honest and reliable dealer who sells authentic signed football memorabilia. If you browse through his football autographs collections, you will find a cherished piece of autographed memorabilia of your favorite footballer. The dealer's name is memorabilia4u.com. All these items have been obtained personally by the owner of the memorabilia4u.com. Some of these items have been collected from the celebrities by agents acting on memorabilia4u.com's behalf. The owner gives his personal guarantee that football autographs are genuine. You will also find a wide selection of Boxing Autographs and Golf Autographs at memorabilia4u.com.

 

Memorabilia4u.com is a Registered Dealer of the Universal Autograph Collectors Club and approved dealer of AFTAL(Autograph Fair Trade Association Limited). The dealerships of these bodies mean Memorabilia4u.com is a trusted dealer.

Selection

The website also offers a wide selection of actors autographs, actresses autographs, popular music autographs, R&B,Rap, Hip Hop, Soul, Jazz and rock music autographs

Customer Service

The customer service is very good. You can contact Memorabilia4u.com anytime. The owner has given his Mobile (07984 21 35 880) for contact.

Ordering Process

The ordering process is very simple and secure. Just click on the item you want to buy , you will be prompted to fill in your billing address and shipping address and taken to the payment screen. They accept VISA, VISA Delta, VISA Electron UK Debit, MasterCard, UK Maestro and Solo cards.

Return Policy

The owner will return the money if you are not satisfied with the item.

The Bottom Line

The site is easy to navigate and products have been categorized so users can find items easily.

Israel and Hamas playing games

munaeem | 07 July, 2008 07:01

News reports say that Israeli authorities have re-opened the Erez, Sufa and Nahal Oz crossings.  Israel had closed these crossings following last week's rocket attack on southern Israel.

Some Israeli analysts believe that Israel should not have opened the crossings because it would lift pressure from Hamas.

My analysis tells me that IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is not longer alive. Israel knows it. But they are using him as a pretext to attack Palestinian territories. Hamas also knows that it cannot produce soldier Gilad Shalit. It always looks for some kind of  excuses to get out of the peace process.

In my opinion, the only way to bring peace in this trouble is to bring in UN forces and clear the areas of the Islamic and Palestinian terrorists to keep Palestinian people under perpetual misery for their interests.

Bolton: Israel will strike Iran if Obama is elected

munaeem | 24 June, 2008 14:09

Former US Ambassador John Bolton has made a prediction that Israel would attack Iran after the November presidential election but before George W Bush's successor is sworn in.

He says that Arab states would support Israel's action.

In my opinion, Mr. Bolton's should desist from making such statements. It would only increase tension in the Middle East. It also increase the economic woes of American people who are already suffering because of rising oil prices.

Senator Barack Obama supports Israel

munaeem | 07 June, 2008 08:01

Senator Barack Obama ‘s comment about Jerusalem has generated a generated a storm of controversy in the Middle East and the U.S. He said that Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.

His aides are trying to explain his remarks to allay Arab anger. However, it is clear from his statement that if he is elected, he would favor Israel.

Carter meets Hamas leader Khaled Mashal

munaeem | 19 April, 2008 13:42

Former US president has met the Hamas leader Khaled Mashal despite opposition from the Bush administration and the Israel. The meeting took place under tight security in the Syrian capital Damascus where reporters were not allowed.

 

Mr. Carter is on a tour of the Middle East for finding solutions of Israel-Palestinian conflict. He has also met the Syrian President Bashar-ul-Asad. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. I think that the opposition is unjustified. No solution can be found without taking on board all stakeholders in the conflict.

 

Hamas has public support and it cannot be ignored if a solution is to be found. I think that Hamas should be engaged in talks and Mr. Carter has made a right move by meeting its leader.

Russia to hold ME peace conference

munaeem | 19 April, 2008 13:38

The Russians are trying to increase their influence in the Middle East. Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas has visited Moscow and has called for a Middle East peace conference in Russia. He has said that the Moscow conference should be held as soon as possible in order speed up the slow peace talks with Israel.

 

I think that the Russian influence will provide a counterbalance in the Middle East. The Russians are acting in order to claim their lost power. They are now beginning to assert themselves in world affairs and I think that in the coming days the Russian influence in the region will increase all the more.

 

Despite this, I think that the Arab Israel conflict will not be solved even there is absence of sincere efforts on the part of big powers. The people of Palestine must also act to bring peace in the region. It must be realized that Israel is a reality which cannot be obliterated.  

Commentary: Israel says removed 50 W.Bank dirt roadblocks

munaeem | 03 April, 2008 14:41

Israel had promised on Sunday that it would remove roadblocks and ease travel restrictions on Palestinian businessmen.

Today, Israel said that it had dismantled 50 roadblocks, but declined to give their location. Palestinian security source said that Israel removed only three dirt-mound obstacles, near the cities of Ramallah, Jericho and Tulkarm.

Secretary should ask Israel sternly why it procrastinate to implements things they promise. If Israel continue to behave that way , it will hinder peace efforts in the region.

There is no doubt Arab disunity has embolden Israel. However, sooner or later Arab dictators will be toppled and then Israel will fend for its survival. The situation in Egypt will soon go out of Mubarak’s hand and Muslim hardliners will come to power there. This will be nightmare for Israel.

Source:  

Hizbullah for destruction of Israel

munaeem | 23 February, 2008 04:10

According to news report the Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrullah has vowed for the destruction of Israel and has also said that it was destined to disappear.

I think that Israel is a hard reality which the leaders of the Arab World must realize. They must also realize that they lack the power to undo Israel. Israel has unmatched firepower and has the open backing of the United States. It is a wishful thinking that Israel is destined to disappear. I do not see any such thing even in the remote future.

It would be better to find out ways of peaceful co-existance. I do not mean to say that I support Israel in whatever it is doing. I want the Muslim world to be united. Unity is their only option for survival in the present world.

In Academic Circles, Criticism Of Israel Is Increasingly Off-Limits

munaeem | 28 October, 2007 20:57

via CBS News:

Meet Professor Nadia Abu El-Haj, a notorious Barnard College professor now up for tenure who:

# claims the ancient Israelite kingdoms are a "pure political fabrication,"

# denies the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 CE and instead blames its destruction on the Jews,

# does not speak or read Hebrew yet had the temerity to publish a book on Israeli archaeology that demanded such expertise,

# is so ignorant of her topic that she quotes one archaeologist on how a dig might have damaged the ancient palaces of Solomon - oblivious to the fact that those palaces, if they existed, were far from the site in question.

None of these charges are true. You could look it up. I did, in El-Haj's book “Facts on the Ground,” about which these charges are made. The statements for which a network of right-wing critics assail her book are not there.

I asked Paula Stern, the Barnard alum who has organized an online petition demanding that El-Haj be denied tenure, how she squared her petition's charges with El-Haj's book. "The petition takes pieces of criticisms from experts. It may not be quoted 100 percent accurate," she admitted. Still, more than 2,500 people, including many Barnard and Columbia alumni, have signed on to its claims. Tellingly, Stern, who now lives in the West Bank, voiced astonishment at being asked to justify her charges in terms of what El-Haj's book actually says. "I've spoken to many newspapers," she said. "No one has done what you've done."

I looked that up, too. In the key media venues, at least, Stern was right; and not just with regard to her target. In case after case, a network of right-wing activists has started an online furor based on a mélange of distorted or provably false charges against someone involved in Middle East studies. They supported these charges with quotes yanked out of context or entirely made up and wielded a broad brush of guilt by association. Right-wing media megaphoned the charges, stoking the furor. And mainstream media ultimately noticed and responded, often focusing their stories on the furor rather than the facts.

Under pressure from these assaults, some academic institutions buckle and a professor's career is derailed; in other cases it is permanently stained. More insidious, even when tenure puts an academic beyond the reach of his or her assailants, more vulnerable junior faculty and grad students take note. "There certainly is a sense among faculty and grad students that they're being watched, monitored," said Zachary Lockman, president of the Middle East Studies Association. "People are always looking over their shoulder, feeling that whatever they say - in accurate or, more likely, distorted form - can end up on a website. It definitely has a chilling effect."

This is the modus operandi of the New McCarthyism. It targets a new enemy for our era: Muslims, Arabs and others in the Middle East field who are identified as stepping over an unstated line in criticizing Israel, as radical Islamists, as just plain radical or as in some way sympathetic to terrorists. Its purveyors include Campus Watch, run by Arab studies scholar Daniel Pipes; the David Project, supported by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation; and David Horowitz's FrontPage Magazine (in October Horowitz organized an "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" on campuses across the nation).

Their efforts often appear to be linked. As first noted by blogger Richard Silverstein, the earliest web attack on El-Haj's book was posted simultaneously by Campus Watch and FrontPage, in October 2005. Alexander Joffe, identified as a professor at SUNY, Purchase, published a harshly negative review of the book in The Journal of Near Eastern Studies that same month. The prestigious journal did not note - and was not informed - that he was then-director of Campus Watch. Soon after, he became research director for the David Project. Less prominent researchers like Stern, the online PipeLine News and writers such as Beila Rabinowitz and William Mayer provide raw material to the more well-known portals, such as Pipes and Horowitz. Pipes's and Horowitz's material is, in turn, picked up by key conservative papers like the New York Post and New York Sun.

There is an undeniable security threat, but as in the 1950s the New McCarthyites use it as a base for demagogy. Their distinguishing feature is not concern about this threat but cynical indifference to the truth or decency of their charges. Take the case of Debbie Almontaser, the New York City public high school principal forced to resign in August as head of a new Arabic/English secondary school. The furor revolved around her attempt in an interview with the Post to explain the meaning of, rather than simply condemn, T-shirts bearing the words Intifada NYC. This provoked a firestorm. United Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten, a key supporter of Almontaser's school, condemned her in a letter to the Post. The next day Almontaser resigned - a move publicly welcomed by Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Almontaser has since stated she was told to resign or the school, which she founded, would be closed.

In its obscuring, anodyne postmortem on the affair, the New York Times vaguely described Almontaser as a victim of the city's "treacherous ethnic and ideological political currents" rather than of specific charges that were demonstrably false - like Pipes's widely publicized claim, based on a truncated quotation, that she denied Muslims or Arabs were involved in the 9/11 attacks. The Times report on El-Haj adopted a similar hands-off stance, simply quoting supporters and attackers. It did not once compare the activists' charges with what El-Haj actually said in her book.

As it happens, Almontaser's forced resignation was the city Education Department's second dive in the face of pressure from the New McCarthyites. Three years ago it dismissed Professor Rashid Khalidi, the esteemed director of Columbia's Middle East Institute, from lecturing teachers enrolled in professional development courses. The dismissal came in response to a Sun article claiming Khalidi had denounced Israel as "a 'racist' state with an 'apartheid system.'" Khalidi denied the quote fragments as they were used in the story. "I do not think Zionism is racist," he told the Forward. "When we talk about some of the contemporary laws, there are policies that I consider racist and discriminatory." Asked if the department had verified Khalidi's purported remarks before dismissing him, a department spokesman avoided answering Times columnist Joyce Purnick.

Khalidi still has his day job, as does - so far - a nontenured Columbia colleague, Joseph Massad, who according to a special school investigative committee was falsely accused several years ago of discriminating against Jewish and Israeli students. The same cannot be said for Norman Finkelstein, who was terminated at Chicago's DePaul University in September after the school's president - in a rare departure from standard procedure - rejected the overwhelming tenure approval Finkelstein had received at both the departmental and college levels. Finkelstein's scholarly work has accused Jewish groups of exploiting the Holocaust and Israel of egregious human rights violations. He had incurred the special wrath of Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, whose book defending Israel Finkelstein had devoted an entire book to savaging. Dershowitz, in turn, tried unsuccessfully to prevent the University of California Press from publishing Finkelstein's book, and sent Finkelstein's tenure committees a dossier that he said documented his "most egregious academic sins, and especially his outright lies, misquotations, and distortions." Clearly, the tenure committees were not impressed by Dershowitz's claims. DePaul president Dennis Holtschneider, for his part, denied that Dershowitz's intervention affected his decision.

Beshara Doumani, a University of California history professor, has mapped the systemic strategy of the New McCarthyism, highlighting that more than just its targets are new. First and foremost, private advocacy groups, not Congressional committees, are by and large today's means of pressuring academic administrations - at least, so far. These groups often retain important ties to government figures. But they are most focused on organizing alumni and students, with an eye toward generating public outrage and eventually government and donor pressure.

"I'm worried about untenured professors trying to get tenure," said Doumani, co-chair of the Middle East Studies Association's Committee on Academic Freedom. "I'm worried about entire departments saying, 'We need people in Middle East positions, but we're not going to hire certain kinds of people. It involves too much headache, too much risk.' How do you quantify that? You can't. But it's going around. I can tell you, it's a real issue."

By Larry Cohler-Esses

Commentary : Peres blasts U.S. school for hosting Iran leader

munaeem | 26 September, 2007 10:18

Israeli President Shimon Peres on Tuesday lambasted Columbia University in New York for hosting Iran's president. He compared the event to attempts to engage Adolf Hitler in dialogue before World War Two.

Instead of lecturing others to correct their behaviors, Israelis should learn to behave themselves. There is no doubt that Ahmadinejad is a "petty and cruel dictator". But Israelis are oppressor, occupier and tyrant too.

They ignored all UN resolutions. They are oppressing Palestinian people. They are denying them their legitimate rights.

This conflict's too tricky for ham-handed Bush team

munaeem | 26 July, 2007 04:12

via Seatle Times :

After four years mucking up Iraq, President George W. Bush is calling an American-led "international meeting" on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

Please, Mr. President, let it be, bad as it is. Go fishing, send Dick Cheney hunting, whatever. Don't blunder again in a region in which you and your neoconservative advisers have zero credibility.

The much-abused Israelis and Palestinians deserve an honest broker.

Events in the region have deteriorated since Israel's victory in the 1967 war resulted in control and eventually occupation of those lands left to Palestinians after creation of the state of Israel.

Reporting from the West Bank in 1982 for King Broadcasting, I concluded a 30-minute documentary: "The occupation has taken the land, diverted the water, and filled village life with tension and conflict. Palestinian boys leave to become guer-rillas, for there is little reason to stay under the guns and in the prisons of occupation. This is an occupation financed and forgotten by Americans. But while it continues, there will be no peace, on the land or in the souls of the people."

Shortly after the documentary aired, Israel invaded Lebanon and drove the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) into exile. Two Islamic organizations — Hamas and Hezbollah — emerged in the chaos, and now dominate the Palestinian cause. Palestinians were overwhelmingly secular in 1982 — the only PLO element with religious overtones was a Christian militia. Gradually, Palestinians turned to Islamists because nothing else worked.

With the exception of the Oslo agreements in 1993, events have gone downhill in the past 25 years, directly related to the building of permanent Israeli settlements (now 271) in Palestinian territory. Jerusalem is ringed by fortresslike settlements, a 30-foot wall is sealing off the West Bank, and a network of roads exclusively for Israeli settlers carves the West Bank into a series of isolated and impoverished enclaves.

Some 400,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.5 million West Bank Palestinians, but control more than 40 percent of the land. Israeli soldiers protect them, staff some 500 roadblocks and checkpoints, and control much of West Bank life.

These "facts on the ground" must be addressed along with the violence from both sides if any progress is to be made. The policy of the Bush administration has been to turn a blind eye to expansion of Israeli settlements while condemning Palestinian violence. Our Cheney-driven policy is black-or-white, us-or-them, good-or-evil, in a region where everything comes in shades of gray.

We have not helped our cause by promoting democratic elections in Palestinian territories and then refusing to accept the overwhelming victory of Hamas in a free and fair election. Just as our invasion created al-Qaida in Iraq, isolating and demon-izing Hamas may create a branch in Gaza.

Israel "gave" Gaza to the Palestinians in 2005, an overcrowded slum with no jobs and with borders sealed off by Israel. No one wanted Gaza — it has no religious significance — and its predictable implosion gave Israel an excuse not to yield on the West Bank.

Politics have failed on both sides. Israel's vibrant and democratic politics have been captured by right-wing religious zealots and sometimes-violent settlers. Among Palestinians, the Fatah government has been ineffectual and corrupt, and educated secular professionals have emigrated to find a better life, leaving a gap that has been filled by violence. Ordinary people on both sides want peace and support a two-state future.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas holds the shredded cloth of secularism, but is increasingly unpopular. Hopes for reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah remain, but lack a leader.

Israel is releasing some Fatah prisoners, but not Marwan Barghouti, perhaps the only Palestinian with the street credibility to unite Palestinians. Israel says Barghouti "has blood on his hands." Indeed. No major player in the dispute has clean hands. In 2006, according to B'tselem, an Israeli human-rights group, Israeli forces killed 660 Palestinians; Palestinians killed 23 Israelis.

My dictionary defines terrorism: "The use of violence or threats to intimidate or coerce." There is terrorism on all sides. Palestinians carry suicide bombs and lob mortar rounds into Israel. Israeli soldiers raid Palestinian neighborhoods and shell from the air. One terrorist wears a robe, the other a uniform.

Earlier this month, departing British Prime Minister Tony Blair was named a special envoy to the Middle East. Better to give Blair a chance rather than turn this vital area over to the tender mercies of Bush, Cheney and the neocons. They need to make a genuine effort to get Syria and Iran to help extricate us from Iraq, not look for one more place to intervene.

Floyd J. McKay, a journalism professor emeritus at Western Washington University, is a regular contributor to Times editorial pages. E-mail him at floydmckay@yahoo.com

 

 

Israel to release prisoners this week, says Olmert

munaeem | 16 July, 2007 20:41

    Ron Bousso
AFP

July 16, 2007

PROMISE: Israel's PM Ehud Olmert (L) meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem July 16. Olmert met Abbas Monday and promised to speed the release of 250 prisoners in a bid to shore up his West Bank administration against rival Hamas Islamists.
(REUTERS)

JERUSALEM --  Israel plans to release 250 Palestinian prisoners by the end of the week, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as the two leaders met in Jerusalem Monday.

The pair held discussions for an hour in the presence of aides and then for nearly an hour one-on-one, in their second meeting since fighters loyal to Abbas were overrun in Gaza by Islamist Hamas a month ago.

The prisoners, the vast majority of them from Abbas' Fatah party, are slated to be released Friday following Israel's pledge to free them as a goodwill gesture to Abbas, a senior Israeli official quoted Olmert as saying.

"The ministerial committee will convene tomorrow to go over the list of 250 prisoners, which has been drawn up by the Israeli security services, and once it is approved, the prisoners will be released Friday unless there are legal steps taken against the release," the official said.

But while welcoming the release, the Palestinians said that the freeing of 250 prisoners out of the more than 11,000 currently held in Israeli jails was not enough.

"The president demanded that political leaders be included among them," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters in Ramallah after the encounter, the sixth official meeting since Olmert took office in May 2006.

The prisoners include 11 minors, with the rest adults who have at least a year left to serve in their sentence, and all will have to sign a "commitment not to be involved in terror," the official said.

The prisoner release was one of a series of moves undertaken by Israel to boost Abbas since the Gaza takeover by Hamas, a group pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state.

Olmert insisted that Abbas, who has ruled out dialogue with Hamas in the wake of the bloody Gaza takeover, not re-engage with the Islamists, saying that this "means blowing up the current peace efforts."

Other recent Israeli steps have also included a pledge to take off wanted lists nearly 190 militants who had promised not to wage anti-Israel attacks and allowing veteran Palestinian nationalist leader Nayef Hawatmeh to enter the West Bank for the first time in 40 years.

Israel has also unblocked part of Palestinian custom duties that it has withheld for more than a year after Hamas came to power.

The Palestinians, however, have insisted that talks between the two sides focus on long-term issues, like borders, instead of gestures.

"The president wants his meetings with the Israeli prime minister to focus on political negotiations, the Arab initiative" and steps toward establishing the Palestinians' long-promised state, Erekat said.

Ahead of the meeting, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad warned Israel that it had to be willing to discuss substantive issues with the Palestinians if the stalled Middle East peace process were to move ahead.

"To give confidence to the Palestinians in the peace process, you have to deal with long-term and short-term issues at the same time," the respected economist said in an interview with the Ha'aretz newspaper, excerpts of which were published Monday.

Fayyad said that although recent gestures by Israel were important, it would be a "pathological" mistake to focus talks on these issues exclusively.

Monday's meeting came ahead of an expected statement by US President George W. Bush, in which he is due to outline new economic and diplomatic support for Abbas and the Fayyad government.

"And he's going to talk about what we can do to support President Abbas, Prime Minister Fayyad in their efforts to build now a democratic and effective Palestinian state," National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley said Sunday.

 via metimes.com

East Jerusalem: no state in sight

munaeem | 19 May, 2007 04:25

Written by Stuart Reigeluth, Al-Ahram Weekly   
May 18, 2007 at 06:01 AM

Israel forges ahead with the Judaisation of East Jerusalem

The chances of a Palestinian state are fast diminishing, as Israel forges ahead with the Judaisation of East Jerusalem

Another Jewish settlement is being built. It is called Nev Tzion/ Manthar Al-Thahabi (the Golden View) because it overlooks Jerusalem and the Dome of the Rock. The settlement is located in the middle of the Arab neighbourhood of Jabal Mukabir. On the back of Israeli buses, advertisements claim that the prices for apartments at Nev Tzion have reached $200,000, providing a bargain for European and American Jews who might possibly desire a vacation home in the Holy Land, the "Eternal Capital of Israel", as the former Israeli prime minister, Menachem Begin (who also annexed the Golan Heights in 1981) once called Jerusalem.

As a result of the Six-Day June 1967 War, Israel conquered East Jerusalem from Jordan, the barb wire separating east and west Jerusalem was torn down and the city was "reunited".

Meanwhile, a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) leaked to the media, has separately accused Israel of reshaping Jerusalem to further its own interests, in violation of international law.

According to the report, Israeli policy has far reaching humanitarian consequences for Palestinians living under occupation in east Jerusalem.

The confidential report transmitted to Israel on February 2007 showed Israel's "general disregard" for its obligations under international humanitarian law and the law of military occupation in particular.

Yet, Israel rejected the report, "we reject the premise of the report, East Jerusalem is not occupied land, it is part of Israel," said Israeli foreign Minister spokesman Mark Regev.

Furthermore, according to the authors of a new book, Separate and Unequal, Israel's Judaisation and discriminatory policy towards East Jerusalem has become a "d e facto " one. The authors, Amir Cheshin, Bill Hutman and Avi Melamed, go to great lengths to describe how, since 1967, the Arab population has fared badly under the supposed "re-unification" of Jerusalem. Treated as an "ethnic minority" with lesser political rights and social privileges, Arabs in East Jerusalem are also subject to inferior quality social services such as water, postal services, electricity and garbage collection. The first Palestinian Intifada exacerbated the divisions between the east and west, while the second reinforced and militarised Palestinian frustration, following decades of Israeli mistreatment.

Relying on their experiences as advisers to the successive Israeli mayors of Jerusalem -- Kolleck from Labour and Olmert from Likud, it is worth quoting the insightful comments of the three authors.

"Do not believe the propaganda -- the rosy picture Israel tries to show the world, of life in Jerusalem since the 1967 reunification. Israel has treated the Palestinians of Jerusalem terribly. As a matter of policy, it has forced many of them from their homes and stripped them of their land, all the while lying to them and deceiving them and the world about its honorable intentions. And what makes all this so much more inexcusable is that there was no reason for it." (p.251)

Published in 1999 by Harvard University Press and presenting The Inside Story of Israeli Rule in East Jerusalem, as the subtitle attests, the repercussions continue to be felt today. East Jerusalem is now an Arab enclave within a consolidating ring of Jewish settlements. These stretch from the settlement growth of Pisgat Ze'ev and Nev Yaco in northern Jerusalem, to the eastern Jerusalem E1 settlement activity in and around Ma'ale Adumim. The southern Jerusalem settlements of Gilo and Har Homa also extend to the pockets of new Jewish settlements in the Arab neighbourhoods of Jabal Mukabir and Ras al-Amoud. East Jerusalem is thus completely surrounded and isolated from the rest of the Palestinian territories. The consolidation of "Greater Jerusalem" is also effectively cutting the West Bank in two, destroying the possibility for a territorially contiguous Palestinian state.

Plans to consolidate "Greater Jerusalem" are nothing new, however. Ma'ale Adumim was established in 1975, and the E1 expansion and expropriation plan was conceived by Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. Sharon continually supported settlement activity, and, not surprisingly, the near completion of his "security fence" is inclusive of "Greater Jerusalem". The Israeli wall cuts through the Arab neighbourhood of Ras Al-Amoud and through Jabal Mukabir, and then deeply into the West Bank.

The inclusion of the Jewish settlements within Greater Jerusalem could resolve the perceived demographic problem posed by the Arab population, with its higher birthrate. Israel will be able to maintain its claim to be both Jewish and democratic. In the case of final settlement negotiations, this inclusion scenario would satisfy the Clinton parameters which state that what is Jewish will be Israeli, and what remains Arab, will be Palestinian. The Clinton parameters also call for an Israeli withdrawal from around 90 per cent of the West Bank, along with land swaps for the remaining settlements.

However, the consolidation of a Greater Jerusalem as the capital for Israel will further complicate final status negotiations, and could render the two-state solution obsolete. The current course of settlement activity makes it difficult to envision how East Jerusalem could become the Palestinian capital. Where precisely in East Jerusalem could a Palestinian capital be situated? One can envision a possible token Palestinian Authority office at the now empty Orient House, where the quasi- headquarters of the PLO once were; but even flying a symbolic Palestinian flag above the entrance seems so far-fetched that it would be laughable. The other possibility would be a symbolic religious capital on the Haram Al-Sharif, which is also highly improbable. High levels of Israeli creativity and Palestinian imagination will be required to determine where the location of a Palestinian capital would be in Jerusalem.

Ideally, Tel Aviv and Ramallah would be the political capitals of Israel and Palestine, and Jerusalem would become a corpus separatum, as the UN proposed in 1947. But this is unacceptable to Israel, which claims that it is entitled to a holy city, Jerusalem being the only one pertaining to Israel, whereas Al-Quds (Jerusalem) remains third in line for the Arab Muslim world, after Medina and Mecca.

With no Palestinian state in sight, and with Arab East Jerusalem incorporated, with all its limitations, into Israel, one is compelled to ask again: will Palestine remain a symbol or will it become a reality? As Israeli "facts on the ground" consolidate, that reality is rapidly vanishing. Will what remains of Palestine then be incorporated, as East Jerusalem has been, into Israel? If so, a bi-national Israel/Palestine could then become a possibility. But then, due to the demographic balance, Israel would no longer be able to claim that it is both Jewish and democratic. Is this scenario really in Israel's national interest?

Settlements have overwhelmed Jerusalem, making the Dome of the Rock but an insignificant speck in the prospect of the city.

Source: Al-Ahram Weekly

 
A service provided by Al Bawaba