Archive for the ‘Israel & Palestine’ Category
Friday, March 19th, 2010
As’ad Abdul Rahman; 19/3/10
Since 1948, Israel has worn various disguises. This became acutely evident with the release of the Goldstone Report, with Israel trying to minimise the damage, leading a battle to sway public opinion of global TV witnesses of the carnage committed against civilians in Gaza.The ensuing diplomatic campaign evolved to contain the negative effects of the report, especially after high-ranking Israeli officials were accused of war crimes. “The Israel Defence Forces is not taking the Goldstone Report lightly,” said army Major General Amir Eshel. “The issue of legitimacy for Israel is very significant, because we are not living in a vacuum … There is no doubt that the state of Israel has a problem, and the Goldstone Report has reflected it more strongly.”Israel has been pathologically focused on any threat against its existence. This obsession has led to a military mindset which feels a continuous need for war, and also explains its fixation on possessing the most advanced deterrent forces.
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Tags: Human Rights, Israel, Terrorism, USA
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Friday, March 19th, 2010
John Lyons; 19/3/10; (4 Items)
Israel’s inner cabinet is trying to formulate a response that will satisfy the Obama administration as a way to restart the Middle East peace process. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held marathon meetings with the six most powerful ministers to come up with a course of action that will satisfy the US, particularly Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In a 43-minute phone call this week between Mrs Clinton and Mr Netanyahu, a fiery Secretary of State demanded that Israel reply to questions following the visit to Israel of US Vice-President Joe Biden. The deliberations with the six ministers – Avigdor Lieberman, Eli Yishai, Ehud Barak, Moshe Yaalon, Dan Meridor and Benny Begin – came as US President Barack Obama denied a crisis, saying: “We and the Israeli people have a special bond that’s not going to go away. But friends are going to disagree sometimes … there is a disagreement in terms of how we can move this peace process forward,” he said, urging Israelis and Palestinians to rebuild trust.
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Tags: Human Rights, Israel, Settlers, Terrorism, USA
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Thursday, March 18th, 2010
Francis Matthew; 18/3/10
The present crisis between the US and Israel bears all the marks of a classic Netanyahu scheme in which he establishes some minor points with a lot of noise to distract attention from the main issue. Unfortunately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is close to succeeding, so the Palestinian leadership need to keep their nerve and focus on the main agenda.Too many people are getting distracted into talking about stopping the building of 1,600 extra houses that Israel has announced, and they are not talking about the main issue which is the removal of the thousands of colonies from all over the West Bank.Netanyahu is thoroughly untrustworthy, and people who remember his first term as prime minister will remember how he managed to run rings around the Palestinians and Americans. He gave no ground at all on important issues as he strung out the peace talks, but he continually floated distractions which he would defend to the bitter end and then give way with a lot of drama and shouting.
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Tags: Human Rights, Isarel, Terrorism, USA
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Thursday, March 18th, 2010
John Lyons, 18/3/10
Hillary Clinton has tried to ease tensions with Israel as the top US commander in the Middle East warned that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was stirring anti-US sentiment in the region. Amid clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters around Jerusalem yesterday, the US Secretary of State said the row between Washington and Israel would not change their “unbreakable bond”. Mrs Clinton rejected reported comments by Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, that relations were the worst for 35 years. “I don’t buy that,” she said. “We have an absolute commitment to Israel’s security. We have a close, unshakeable bond between the US and Israel and between the American and Israeli people.”
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Tags: Human Rights, Isarel, Settlers, Terrorism, USA
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Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
17/3/10
Dozens of Palestinians have clashed with Israeli police in East Jerusalem on a “day of rage” declared in protest at Israel’s consecration of an ancient synagogue in the city. The violence presented another challenge to US efforts to revive Middle East peace talks after Israel touched off a dispute with Washington by announcing plans last week to build 1,600 homes for Jews near East Jerusalem. Palestinians hurled stones at police and burned tyres and trash bins in several areas of East Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank in a 1967 war.
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Tags: Human Rights, Israel, Terrorism, USA
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Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
16/3/10;
Vic Alhadeff rightly says there is no consensus on the Palestinian side to recognise the right of Israel to exist. But perhaps unknowingly he also highlights the problem on the Israeli side. While there is talk of recognising a Palestinian state, there is no real offer of a viable Palestinian state. None of the offers made by Israel highlighted by Mr Alhadeff do that. Until the vast majority of Palestinians recognise Israel’s existence, giving some degree of security to Israelis, and most Israelis acknowledge that Palestinian statehood is a risk to their security worth taking to obtain peace, a settlement will never take place. Adam Bold; Annandale
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Tags: Human Rights, Israel, Settlers, Terrorism, USA
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Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
16/3/10
A US Defence Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to track and kill suspected Islamic militants, reports said yesterday. The official, Michael Furlong, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former CIA and Special Forces members. These people gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of suspected Islamic militants and the location of insurgent camps, a report said. The information was then sent to military units and intelligence officials in Afghanistan and Pakistan for use in strikes. The New York Times report said that while it has been widely reported that the CIA and the military were using unmanned drones to attack al-Qa’ida operatives, some US officials said they were troubled that Mr Furlong seemed to be running an off-the-books spy operation. They were not sure who supervised his work.
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Tags: Afghanistan, Mercenaries, Terrorism, USA
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Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
John Lyons; 16/3/10
The US is turning up the heat on Israel as relations between the two countries continue to deteriorate in the wake of last week’s disastrous visit to Israel by US Vice-President Joe Biden. As Israel’s ambassador to the US Michael Oren was reported as saying this was the worst crisis in relations between the two countries in 35 years, the US was believed to be demanding that Israel overturn the announcement that triggered the crisis – a new development of 1600 apartments in East Jerusalem. Israeli media yesterday carried reports of new conditions the US is set to put to Israel to ensure peace talks with the Palestinian Authority resume. US special envoy George Mitchell returns to Israel this week as US officials continue to condemn Israel. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the announcement of the housing development in Arab-dominated East Jerusalem, made during Mr Biden’s visit to Israel, “an insult” to the US while senior White House official David Axelrod escalated the row yesterday, saying it was “an affront”.
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Tags: Human Rights, Israel, Settlers, Terrorism, USA
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Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
Robert Grenier; 16/3/10; (2 Items)
The announcement last week by Eli Yishai, the Israeli interior minister, of plans to construct an additional 1,600 Israeli homes in East Jerusalem, appears to have generated quite the diplomatic row. Coming as it did just before the start of a dinner offered by Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, in honour of Joe Biden, the US vice-president, the announcement threw the White House official into high dudgeon. The US delegation must have burned up the proverbial phone lines between Israel and the West Wing of the White House, while Biden’s Israeli host was kept waiting some 90 minutes until the vice-president and the Washington crowd could come up with suitable language to express their outrage. “I condemn the decision by the government of Israel,” Biden finally said, using a formulation virtually unknown in past US-Israeli diplomatic exchanges.
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Tags: Human Rights, Settlers, Terrorism, USA Israel
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Monday, March 15th, 2010
15/3/10; (2 Items)
If the use of forged passports in the Mahmoud al-Mahboub assassination had not been publicised, 27 innocent people may have been at best incarcerated or at worst executed for a crime in which they had no involvement when next they travelled abroad. That, Alan Dershowitz, is a big deal. John McCulloch; Cheltenham, Vic
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Tags: Human Rights, Israel, Terrorism, USA
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Monday, March 15th, 2010
Abraham Rabinovich; 15/3/10
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has summoned his inner cabinet to an unusual late-night meeting to order a probe after furious American reaction to the announcement of housing construction in East Jerusalem during US Vice-President Joe Biden’s visit. Mr Netanyahu’s move yesterday came after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lashed out at the housing announcement, calling it “insulting” to Washington. “It was just really a very unfortunate and difficult moment for everyone – the United States, our Vice-President, who had gone to reassert our strong support for Israeli security – and I regret deeply that that occurred and made that known,” Mrs Clinton said. She “made it known” directly to Mr Netanyahu in a 45-minute telephone conversation in which the Prime Minister mostly remained quiet and listened to Mrs Clinton’s scathing criticism. At President Barack Obama’s direction, Mr Biden condemned the announcement. The Israeli ambassador in Washington was summoned to the State Department.
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Tags: Israel, Settlers, Terrorism, UN, USA
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Saturday, March 13th, 2010
Rafael Behr; 13/3/10;
The Invention of the Jewish People; by Shlomo Sand is published by Verso.
Shlomo Sand presses his thumbs together, palms outward, fingers stretching up like the branches of a candelabra. “If you can visualise it …” The air above our table is meant to be the Mediterranean region soon after the birth of Christ. Sand’s hands are rival monotheistic cults. “There are two kinds of Judaism: Christianity and a kind of Judaism that starts to close in on itself because of the success of Christianity.” The hands drift apart. The fingers on the right withdraw into a fist. “The vision that we have of Judaism today came out of this closedness because of fear; because of the conditions imposed on Judaism if it was to continue under Christianity.”
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Tags: History, Human Rights, Israel, Religion
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Friday, March 12th, 2010
John Lyons; 12/3/10
he Middle East peace process was in tatters last night and Israel’s coalition government faced crisis after it announced a huge new housing development in the Arab area of East Jerusalem. Israeli Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon said the Labour Party was considering quitting the coalition government, and Palestinian negotiators said they were pulling out of the US-brokered “proximity talks”. The crisis erupted during the visit of US Vice-President Joe Biden to Israel to support the talks. Mr Simhon said: “Members of the Labour Party have more and more difficulty in taking part in a coalition government that they joined with the purpose of relaunching the peace process with the Palestinians.
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Tags: Australia, Human Rights, Israel, Terrorism, USA
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Thursday, March 11th, 2010
Abraham Rabinovich; 10/3/10
The Obama administration yesterday discarded far-reaching offers made to the Palestinians by former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert as it announced the two parties had agreed to resume peace talks that have been frozen for more than a year. Reports last night said US special envoy for the Middle East, George Mitchell, told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that the understandings reached following the 2007 Annapolis Conference were non-binding in the current round of negotiations. Haaretz reported that Mr Mitchell’s deputy David Hale said the negotiations after Annapolis and the understandings reached would not be binding. Mr Olmert had gone further in offering concessions than previous leaders, proposing an Israeli withdrawal from 94 per cent of the West Bank with the remaining 6 per cent swapped for an equivalent swath of Israeli territory.
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Tags: Human Rights, Israel, Terrorism, USA
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Thursday, March 11th, 2010
John Lyons 11/3/10
US attempts to restart the Middle East peace process were in serious doubt last night after Israel announced 1600 new homes in sensitive East Jerusalem during a visit by US Vice-President Joe Biden. Only hours after Mr Biden said an opportunity to renew peace existed, he issued a statement condemning Israel. The White House, the UN, the Palestinian leadership and large sections of the Israeli media joined his denunciation of Israel’s plan and its timing. The move was even panned by Israel’s Defence Minister, Ehud Barak. “The entourage of Defence Minister Ehud Barak expresses its anger after the unwarranted announcement, which affects peace negotiations with the Palestinians – negotiations of the highest interest for Israel,” a statement said.
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Tags: Human Rights, Israel, Settlers, Terrorism, USA
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Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Stuart Rintoul & John Lyons; 10/3/10
The father of a fourth Australian caught up in the murder of a Hamas leader in Dubai says it was glaringly obvious that the photograph on the passport used by one of the assassins was not his son. Interpol yesterday released the smiling face of the 27th suspect in the January murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, identified as Joshua Aaron Krycer. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said inquiries by the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Passport Office indicated Mr Krycer’s passport was fraudulently duplicated, as were the passports of three other Australians used by the assassins. The real Joshua Krycer is a speech pathologist who left Melbourne three years ago to work in a Jerusalem hospital.
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Tags: Australia, Human Rights, Israel, USA
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