Editorial: 1/7/09; (4 Items)
A couple of months ago, Israel’s controversial, very right-wing foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, was in London for talks with the British government as part of a four-nation European trip. It was his first visit abroad as foreign minister and it would have been interesting to have been a fly on the wall when he met British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, if only to have seen the body language. All the reports point to a cold get-together. Miliband who, only a couple of days earlier in Washington, had been effusive in his praise of President Barack Obama’s Middle East peace plans, calling them a once-in-a-generation opportunity to end the intractable Palestinian-Israeli conflict, is said to have been unhappy at having to meet Lieberman, who had virtually invited himself to London. The fact that there was almost no press coverage of the visit certainly implies that. It was the same during his visits to Paris, Rome and Berlin. No photo calls, no joint press conferences. None of the foreign ministers wanted to be seen near Lieberman. We cannot blame them.
See: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=124182&d=1&m=7&y=2009
How settlers defy Obama
Seth Freedman; 1/7/09
t first glance, the dusty dunes of the south Hebron hills appear splendidly frozen in time. Small encampments of nomadic farmers are dotted across the landscape, sparse groves of olive and fruit trees surrounding the ramshackle tents huddled together in their midst. Flocks of sheep and goats graze on the scrubby foliage under the watchful eye of teenaged shepherds; the silence of the plains is breathtaking, the only noise an occasional cautionary bark from the villagers’ ever-vigilant guard dogs. But the glorious isolation in which the rural communities seem to dwell is an illusory facade. A closer look at the way their camps are arranged reveals the true picture of modern life on the land they’ve tended for generations. Soldiers stand guard in pairs at strategic spots on the hillside, enforcing the no-entry zones surrounding the rash of settlements spread across the region, the mini-towns growing bigger by the month, swallowing up more and more of the Palestinians’ land in the zero-sum game eternally stacked in the settlers’ favor.
See: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=124183&d=1&m=7&y=2009
Time for a freeze
Yehuda Ben Meir; 1/7/09
The insistence of the Israeli government on expanding residential construction in West Bank settlements is not only superfluous and a product of internal political considerations, it is also harmful to Israel’s security and national interests. There is a strong and decisive president in the White House who is determined to promote a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and has placed this goal very high on his agenda. It’s true that many of his predecessors tried to follow this path, even investing tremendous effort in it, and failed; in effect the United States has been involved in attempts to solve the Israeli-Arab conflict for 40 years, in vain. But the fact that all efforts to date have been futile does not mean this will be the case this time. Rabbis on the extreme right believe that if they curse President Barack Obama, compare him to Pharoah and sing “Vehi She’amda” ["The promise God made to our forefathers" - a passage from the Passover Haggadah referring to those who tried to destroy the Jews and failed], the nightmare will go away. Israelis are entitled to expect a more serious and responsible approach from their government.
See: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1096967.html
PA: Israel planning to expropriate another 2% of West Bank land
Avi Issacharoff & Amos Harel; 1/7/09
The Palestinian Authority this week accused Israel of planning to declare another 2 percent of the West Bank state land, thus effectively expropriating it. But the defense establishment rejected this claim, saying the land in question had been under the Dead Sea until the shrinkage of that body of water uncovered it and the goal of the declaration is to prevent the land from being taken over by private or commercial entities. It is not clear which claim is correct.
See; http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1096955.html