Mission & Justice

Isabel Kershner; 13/4/10

A recently amended military order that allows Israel to remove people from the occupied West Bank if it does not recognise their legal status could lead to the expulsion of thousands of Palestinians, Israeli human rights groups warn. The amendment – to a 1969 order on dealings with those judged to be West Bank infiltrators – was signed by military officials in October and is to take effect today. In the original document, issued two years after Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war, ”infiltrator” was defined as a person who entered the area illegally from a neighbouring Arab country.

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1/4/10

Almost exactly 43 years since Israel occupied, through force, East Jerusalem and promptly, and illegally, annexed that half of the city to start a settlement programme, also illegal, that is only ever accelerating, the US has reportedly asked Israel for a four-month settlement construction freeze. Now, of course, there are ways of looking at it. First of all, the request may turn out to be media speculation. It may be a trial balloon. But if it isn’t, on the one hand, this is more than any other US administration has ever asked Israel to do. That is a good thing. It shows that Washington wants Israel to suffer some consequences for its brash behaviour. It shows that maybe the realisation is dawning in Washington, ever so slowly, that in fact, the real obstacle to a fair, just and peaceful resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not Hamas, not Yasser Arafat, not stone-throwing children, not intransigent refugees, but Israel, its insatiable appetite for land and its inability to understand its own history and place in the region. But that is putting a very positive spin on developments.

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Eugene Rogan; 31/3/10

The colony issue is an old source of tension between America and Israel. For US President Barack Obama it has emerged as the greatest obstacle to his goal of resolving Israeli-Palestinian differences through meaningful negotiations. As the Obama administration ponders a new Middle East peace plan, it needs a new direction on colonies that both Israelis and Palestinians can live with. The international community is agreed that a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict lies in a two-state land-for-peace settlement on the basis of the pre-1967 boundaries. Yet a fallacy persists, that somehow these two states should be ethnically pure: that Israel should be uniquely Jewish, and Palestine uniquely Arab. The truth is that the population of Israel and the Occupied Territories is highly intermixed. There are 1.2 million Palestinians of Israeli citizenship — nearly 20 per cent of the population of Israel. And there are nearly 400,000 Israeli citizens living in colonies in occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank. When at some future date Israel and the Palestinian National Authority agree to a peace deal, there is no reason to expect this trend to reverse. Peace should accelerate exchanges of goods and people in the region.

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John Lyons, 27/5/10

The Mayflower Hotel is a grand old building in one of the best parts of Washington, and Benjamin Netanyahu had one of its grandest suites. So why would the Israeli Prime Minister not hold meetings in the suite during his visit this week? The Israeli media said he feared the Americans had bugged the room, so his key talks were held in the “secure room” of the Israeli embassy. How did it come to Israel wondering if its closest ally had planted bugging devices to spy on its leader? Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said: “The last time something like this happened was 12 years ago. The PM’s name back then was Benjamin Netanyahu as well. The US President was called Bill Clinton.

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Paul McGeough; 29/3/10

There was nothing casual in General David Petraeus’s session with the Committee on Senate Armed Services. Far from being off-the-top-of-the-head responses to senators’ questions, Petraeus, the commander of the US Central Command, brought a considered 12,000-word document, in which he framed the Israel-Palestine conflict as a “root cause of instability” and an “obstacle to peace” that played into the hands of Iran and al-Qaeda. Petraeus ditched a cornerstone of neoconservative dogma by charging that perceived US favouritism for Israel fomented anti-American sentiment across the region. “The enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbours present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests,” he said. “Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of US participation with governments and peoples in [my area of responsibility”.

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John Lyons, 25/3/10

Israel is attempting to come up with a formal set of words that the Obama administration says it requires to ensure the resumption of Middle East peace talks. After three days of meetings, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left Washington to return home last night while key Israeli advisers stayed on in the US to work on a formal declaration with US negotiators. Mr Netanyahu held two meetings with President Barack Obama, which ended without a deal. The US is asking Israel to stop building Jewish housing in disputed East Jerusalem, while Mr Netanyahu rejects limits to any Jewish development there. Another Jewish housing project in East Jerusalem was revealed yesterday.

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22/3/10

Israel has agreed to hold off on building plans in east Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised the US his government will delay new building plans in east Jerusalem and free Palestinian prisoners to defuse the worst feud with Washington in decades, Israeli cabinet ministers say. Four ministers confirmed reports last night that Mr Netanyahu had bowed to the US on the eve of a trip to Washington. He agreed also to ease Israel’s blockade of Gaza and discuss all major issues dividing Israel and the Palestinians in US-mediated negotiations. It would be the first time the blockade has been relaxed since the 22-day Gaza war ended in January last year.

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