Skip to main content

Home/ Socialism and the End of the American Dream/ Group items tagged Palestine-Unity-Government

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Paul Merrell

Israel decries US 'knife in back' over Palestinian govt - Yahoo News - 0 views

news.yahoo.com/alestinian-govt-210018880.html

war & peace Israel Palestine Kerry Obama Netanyahu negotiations

shared by Paul Merrell on 05 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Washington's support for a new Palestinian government backed by Israel's Islamist foe Hamas, has left the Jewish state feeling betrayed, triggering a new crisis with its closest ally. Several Israeli ministers expressed public anger on Tuesday after the US State Department said it was willing to work with the new Palestinian unity government put together by the West Bank leadership and Gaza's Hamas rulers. Technocratic in nature, the new government was sworn in on Monday in front of president Mahmud Abbas, with Washington offering its backing several hours later.
  • Speaking to reporters on Monday, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the new cabinet would be judged "by its actions.""At this point, it appears that president Abbas has formed an interim technocratic government that does not include ministers affiliated with Hamas," she said. "With what we know now, we will work with this government."
  • The US endorsement was viewed as a major blow for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had on Sunday urged the international community not to rush into recognising the new government, which he said would only "strengthen terror."
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • "Unfortunately, American naivety has broken all records," said Communications Minister Gilad Erdan, a cabinet hardliner who is close to Netanyahu."Collaborating with Hamas, which is defined as a terror organisation in the United States, is simply unthinkable. "US capitulation to Palestinian tactics badly damages the chance of ever returning to negotiations and will cause Israel to take unilateral steps to defend its citizens from the government of terror which Abu Mazen (Abbas) has set up." Public radio said Netanyahu was feeling "betrayed and deceived," particularly as he had assured his security cabinet that US Secretary of State John Kerry had promised him Washington would not recognise the new government immediately.
  • "And it wasn't immediate -- it was five hours later that this recognition took place," the radio noted ironically. A senior political official quoted by the Israel Hayom freesheet, widely regarded as Netanyahu's mouthpiece, said the US move was "like a knife in the back." - 'Answer with annexation' - Israeli commentators said the Palestinians had chalked up a "major success" in driving a new wedge between Israel and its US ally.
  • With the peace process in tatters, hardliners within Netanyahu's rightwing coalition have been pushing for Israel to take unilateral steps such as the annexation of the main Jewish settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank.
  • The security cabinet agreed on Monday to set up a team to examine the annexation option, but Yediot Aharonot commentator Shimon Shiffer said the move was a sop to Bennett and other hardliners rather than a serious policy change.
  • Paul Merrell on 05 Jun 14
     
    What's remarkable here is that Obama has apparently ratcheted down his fear of the Israel Lobby. But it's not as though Mr. Netanyahu was not warned that the world would see Israel as responsible if it blew up the Kerry-brokered negotiation between Israel and Palestine. Israel did blow it up by not delivering the last shipment of Palestinian prisoners required by the pre-negotiation agreement, attempting to gain further concessions using their release as leverage.  Palestine responded by joining a large number of U.N. treaty organizations and was thus recognized by most nations on the planet as a nation: a critically important move, because it is recognition by other nations as a nation that qualifies Palestine as a full-fledged U.N. member rather than an observer state, an application Palestine can now make at the time of its choosing. That is also important because Palestine is now positioned to join the Rome Convention that created the International Criminal Court, providing Palestine with legal standing to file war crime charges against high Israeli officials that would then obligate the Court to investigate. Palestine is holding back on that move, using it as bargaining leverage on the world stage.   Palestine also responded by forming a coalition "unity" government with Hamas, the political party that nominally rules the Gaza strip, the world's largest open-air concentration camp. At Israel's request, the U.S. had several years ago designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. But that was a purely political move. It seems that the political situation has changed. Obama is pivoting out of the Mideast as he performs his ballyhooed "pivot to Asia," which is actually a pivot to contain Russia that isn't working and a pivot to subjugate Africa and its huge store of untapped natural resources, including lots of oil. Blocking China's economic deals in Africa with military force seems to be the current top concern in the White House. Israel was already a pari
Paul Merrell

Hamas Rejects Fateh's Demand for Gaza Rule | nsnbc international - 0 views

nsnbc.me/...ts-fatehs-demand-for-gaza-rule

war & peace Palestine Hamas Fateh unity-government

shared by Paul Merrell on 30 Jul 15 - No Cached
  • Hamas officials on Wednesday rejected demands by Fateh leadership to hand over rule of the Gaza Strip and called for an “uprising” against Palestinian Authority security forces.
  • Fateh leader Azzam al-Ahmad had said on Sunday that Hamas “foiled” efforts towards a unity government, and that the group must hand over rule of the Gaza Strip as a condition for forming the new government. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that the Fateh leader’s comments created tension and were “untrue,” blaming the failure to form a unity government on Fateh’s “factionalism.” He added that Fateh’s calls to reform the unity government were a media maneuver, reiterating his movement’s willingness to form the government based on national consensus. The unity government formed in June 2014 repeatedly failed to overcome divisive issues between Hamas and Fateh, and the PLO appointed a committee last month to lead negotiations for reforming the government. The consultations have yielded little consensus thus far and received criticism by non-Fateh factions, who convened earlier this month to condemn recent PA arrests as hindering the negotiation process.
  • More than 20 years on, however, Hamas and other factions continue to accuse the PA of acting on Israel’s behalf through security cooperation. On July 7, Hamas accused the PA of having detained more than 200 of its members in the West Bank, in a sweep that MP Khalil al-Haya charged was aimed solely at “assisting the occupier” against anti-Israeli militants. Hamas leader Abd al-Rahman Shadid said at the time that many of those detained were left with signs of torture, and that the arrest campaign was part of an organized project aiming to “eradicate the movement.”
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • This sentiment continued Wednesday when deputies of the Hamas movement renewed calls for a “revolt” against the PA over its sweeping arrests of alleged anti-Israeli militants. The deputies, in an act of defiance, held a meeting in the parliament building in Gaza City that has not convened officially since 2007 when Hamas expelled PA security forces after a week of deadly clashes. They called for “an uprising and a revolt against the political arrests” carried out by the PA in the West Bank and for Palestinian factions to adopt “a firm stand against the Authority’s crimes against the resistance and its members.” The deputies condemned the PA’s security cooperation with Israel under the 1993 Oslo accords as amounting to “high treason” that served “Zionist security” interests. Coordination in security operations as laid out in the Oslo Accords planned for a gradual power transfer in the occupied West Bank from Israeli forces to the PA over the course of five years.
  • Related article: Hamas Military Wing Offers Thousands Combat Training
  • Paul Merrell on 30 Jul 15
     
    In the only Palestine Occupied Territory-wide election Hamas beat Fateh hands down. But Hamas was classed as a terrorist organization by Israel and the U.S. So Fateh formed the Palestine Authority government, and ruled the West Bank, while Hamas ejected Fateh from Gaza and ruled there since. The PA as a party to the Oslo Accords became the puppet of Israel and the U.S., providing security services to Israel in the West Bank. There have been sporadic efforts to establish a Unity Government but no joy yet. A unity government formed in early 2014 was abruptly ended by Israel's invasion of Gaza. 
Paul Merrell

Israel cancels peace talks meeting after unity deal announced | Maan News Agency - 0 views

www.maannews.net/...ViewDetails.aspx

war & peace Palestine Israel negotiations U.S.-foreign-policy

shared by Paul Merrell on 24 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a planned session of peace talks with Palestinian negotiators on Wednesday after news of a unity deal between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Hamas was announced."Israel has canceled a negotiations meeting that was expected to be held this evening," a statement released by the prime minister's office on Wednesday said, without further explanation, according to Reuters.The cancellation comes hours after top Palestinian political leaders from the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Hamas announced a reconciliation deal after more than seven years of political division.Israeli officials lambasted the deal, with economy minister and chairman of the "Jewish Home" party Naftali Bennett saying: "The Palestinian Authority has become the world's largest terror organization; we have entered a new political era in the Mideast," according to Israeli newspaper the Jerusalem Post.
  • Bennett added that just as the US does not talk with al-Qaeda, Israel should not negotiate with the Palestinian Authority, who he called "killers."The unity deal authorized the Palestinian president to set a date for new elections and signaled a potentially historic reconciliation between the two major Palestinian political factions, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas-ruled government in the Gaza Strip.Earlier, Palestinian officials announced that they had agreed to form a unity government within five weeks that will be headed by either President Mahmoud Abbas or former Deputy Prime Minister of the 2006 unity government Nasser al-Din al-Shaer, who is a member of Hamas.The parties also agreed that both Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the occupied West Bank would release prisoners detained for their political affiliation.
  • The unity deal comes amid a major impasse in ongoing US-backed peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, which were re-activated in July.Israel has announced plans to build thousands of settlement homes across the occupied West Bank since the start of talks, angering the Palestinians.In late March, meanwhile, Israel refused to release the final round of Palestinian veteran prisoners that it had promised to release as part of a trust-building measure, participating the current crisis.
  • Paul Merrell on 24 Apr 14
     
    A true complication for the Obama Administration and Israeli government, if the Palestinian unity deal sticks. At Israel's urging, the U.S. formally designated Hamas as a Terrorist Organization™ shortly after it won a valid election to lead government in the Gaza Strip, imposing sanctions and criminal penalties on any person or legal entity that aids Hamas. With Gaza and the West Bank organized under a single government that includes Hamas, Obama may have to decide whether to end the Hamas terrorist designation or abandon attempts to broker a settlement of the Israel-Palestine question.  
Paul Merrell

Palestinian Unity Government Pulls Up Stakes | nsnbc international - 0 views

nsnbc.me/...ity-government-pulls-up-stakes

war & peace Palestine-Unity-Government dissolution

shared by Paul Merrell on 18 Jun 15 - No Cached
  • The Palestinian unity government formed last year in a bid to heal rifts between Hamas and president Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party resigned on Wednesday, an official said. According to AFP, an aide to president Mahmoud Abbas said that prime minister Rami Hamdallah “handed his resignation to Abbas and Abbas ordered him to form a new government.”
  • Discussions to form a new government would include consultations with the various Palestinian factions, including Hamas, he said.
  • Officials have said the planned dissolution of the government, made up of technocrats, had been under discussion for several months because of the cabinet’s inability to operate in the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip. Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have condemned the unilateral dissolution of the government, a decision they say they were not consulted over. “No one told us anything about any decision to change and no one consulted with us about any change in the unity government. Fateh acted on its own in all regards,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP Wednesday. Khalid al-Batsh, a senior leader in Islamic Jihad, also condemned the “unilateral” move to dissolve the unity government. Before the official resignation, a PLO official said, “The government will continue to function until we have a new one. “I think what’s coming now is the formation of a government with politicians, not a government of technocrats.” Senior Hamas official Ziad al-Zaza meanwhile struck a conciliatory note, calling on Abbas “to form a unity government with all national and Islamic factions to face Israeli occupation.”
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The move comes at a critical time, with Hamas sources reporting the group is holding separate, indirect talks with Israel on ways to firm up an informal ceasefire agreement that took hold last August, ending the 50-day war in Gaza. It was not clear whether Abbas’s move to dissolve the government was linked to those talks, but the PLO official said he believed that they played a role. “If you end up having a different kind of status for Gaza, then basically the idea of a Palestinian state completely disappears,” the official said. Another high-ranking Hamas official said he believed Abbas decided to act after receiving word of the indirect contacts.
Paul Merrell

Netanyahu's Coalition of the Unwilling « LobeLog - 0 views

www.lobelog.com/hus-coalition-of-the-unwilling

Israel coalition Netanyahu Obama Palestine U.S.-foreign-policy EU

shared by Paul Merrell on 08 May 15 - No Cached
  • After Benjamin Netanyahu’s surprising victory in Israel’s national elections in March, he took until the last possible minute to complete the process of forming the government for his fourth term as Israel’s prime minister. For all the time he invested, despite making it just under the wire, Netanyahu ended up with a fragile, ultra-right-wing coalition and more work ahead of him to bring in at least one more party. The government Netanyahu presented to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin was a bare majority of 61 seats out of the 120-seat Knesset. There are no fig leafs in this coalition, no Tzipi Livni or Ehud Barak for Netanyahu to send to talk fruitlessly with the Palestinians. One might think this would make the coalition more stable, since it consists entirely of the right wing. In this, one would be wrong.
  • Netanyahu is, in fact, desperate to add another party to the coalition because there is so much tension in the current majority, most visibly between Netanyahu’s Likud party and Naftali Bennett’s HaBayit HaYehudi. Likud leaders, including Netanyahu, feel that Bennett essentially held the coalition hostage to his demands. They are quite right about that, but the gambit paid off handsomely for Bennett. HaBayit HaYehudi holds a mere eight seats in the Knesset. Yet Bennett and his party will get four ministries, the deputy defense minister post, as well as the chairs of two key Knesset committees dealing with Israel’s legal system. That is what you get when you play hardball with Netanyahu, a man who likes to talk tough but who is a political creature first and foremost and quickly backs off from a high-stakes fight he is not sure he can win. As things stand, this coalition might not last the year. That is why, after Avigdor Lieberman quit his post as foreign minister and took his greatly diminished party into the opposition, Netanyahu left the post open by keeping that portfolio for himself. In reality, Netanyahu has been the foreign minister all along, so it is not an added burden for him.
  • On the day that Netanyahu was supposed to present his government, he was still eight seats short of a majority. Luckily for Bennett, that was the exact number of seats he controlled and he let Netanyahu know just how lucky he was. Bennett played a game of chicken with Netanyahu, pushing for more and more power within the government and knowing that Bibi was going to have a hard time saying no to anything. Bennett won, and the spoils were vast. The far-right HaBayit HaYehudi party now controls the ministries of education, agriculture, justice, and diaspora affairs. The position of deputy defense minister will also be theirs. It is even worse than it sounds. With the ministry of agriculture comes control over the World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Division, which funds the expansion of settlements. Uri Ariel, perhaps the most extreme pro-settler member of the Knesset, will have that portfolio.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Shaked is certain to work hard to undermine Israel’s fragile legal system. She will also be heading the powerful Ministerial Committee for Legislation and the Judicial Appointments Committee, giving her even more leverage to eliminate a legal system that she sees as a bastion of the left. Moreover, she is very likely to be minister of justice when the next attorney general is appointed. Uri Ariel can be equally certain to press hard for as much settlement expansion—all over the West Bank and, especially, in East Jerusalem—as the available shekels and the defense minister, who will still be Moshe Ya’alon, will allow. I would rather not even think about what Bennett, the new minister of education, is going to do to the minds of Israeli students. Academia is also thought of as a bastion of the left in Israel, and the climate for free thought in Israeli institutions is certainly threatened now.
  • A Question of Longevity The real question about all of this is how long it will last. An ultra-right government like this one is not going to get along well with the Obama administration or most of Europe, although the Republican-led Congress is likely to fall in love with it. Some may hope that this will be a case of things getting so bad that political pressure for improvement must come. Sadly, such is not the history of Israel or of this conflict. Netanyahu will be spending the next few months trying to woo Isaac Herzog into the government, and this is what the whole game comes down to. If Herzog joins and creates a national unity government of 85 seats, this government will survive. The Labor Party, which makes up most of the Zionist Union, is unlikely to provide much of a counter to the right-wing majority. Much more likely is that, as has happened in the past, many of Labor’s Knesset members and other leaders will bolt the party rather than serve as a fig leaf for such a far-right government.
  • If Herzog does not join the government, this fourth Netanyahu government will not outlast Barack Obama’s presidency, and might not even come close. The right wing does not play well together, and it will take nothing more than a few well-timed votes of no-confidence to take down this government even if none of the parties bolts. Even that scenario, however, offers little hope. The last elections were hailed as a comeback for Labor, but the center and left still cannot form a coalition without the Joint List (a coalition of mostly Arab parties), and that remains anathema in Israeli politics. In fact, little changed in the left-right balance in the last elections, and that is showing no signs of turning around. It has never been clearer that positive change in Israel is going to require some sort of meaningful action by the United States and/or Europe. If that does not come, and it does not seem to be on the horizon, disaster looms.
  • Paul Merrell on 08 May 15
     
    The dust settles quickly in Israel. Already -- -- A bill is moving through the Knesset and is expected to pass, permanently annexing the entire Jordan Valley and the Syrian Golan Heights.   --  The Israeli military is conducting large-scale maneuvers in the West Bank. Palestinians are seeing it as prelude to a mass eviction of Palestinians from the Jordan Valley.   -- A large section of East Jerusalem has been walled off with an iron gate, prelude to annexation and expulsion of its Palestinian residents. -- Netanyahu is so desperate for posts to offer another party in the national government that he has introduced legislation in the Knesset which would suspend, until the next government is formed, the limit on the number of cabinet ministers and deputy ministers and to allow ministers without portfolio. The centrist Yesh Atid party has served notice of intent to sue to block the legislation.  
Paul Merrell

How Netanyahu provoked this war with Gaza | +972 Magazine - 0 views

972mag.com/...93200

war & peace Palestine Israel Hamas

shared by Paul Merrell on 10 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • On Monday of last week, June 30, Reuters ran a story that began:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas on Monday of involvement, for the first time since a Gaza war in [November] 2012, in rocket attacks on Israel and threatened to step up military action to stop the strikes. So even by Israel’s own reckoning, Hamas had not fired any rockets in the year-and-a-half since “Operation Pillar of Defense” ended in a ceasefire. (Hamas denied firing even those mentioned by Netanyahu last week; it wasn’t until Monday of this week that it acknowledged launching any rockets at Israel since the 2012 ceasefire.) So how did we get from there to here, here being Operation Protective Edge, which officially began Tuesday with 20 Gazans dead, both militants and civilians, scores of others badly  wounded and much destruction, alongside about 150 rockets flying all over Israel (but no serious injuries or property damage by Wednesday afternoon)? We got here because Benjamin Netanyahu brought us here. He’s being credited in Israel for showing great restraint in the days leading up to the big op, answering Gaza’s rockets with nothing more than warning shots and offering “quiet for quiet.” But in fact it was his antagonism toward all Palestinians – toward Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority no less than toward Hamas – that started and steadily provoked the chain reaction that led to the current misery.
  • And nobody knows this, or should know it, better than the Obama administration, which is now standing up for Israel’s “right to defend itself.” It was Netanyahu and his government that killed the peace talks with Abbas that were shepherded by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry; the Americans won’t exactly spell this out on-the-record, but they will off-the record. So a week before those negotiations’ April 29 deadline, Abbas, seeing he wasn’t getting anywhere playing ball with Israel and the United States, decided to shore things up at home, to end the split between the West Bank and Gaza, and he signed the Fatah-Hamas unity deal – with himself as president and Fatah clearly the senior partner. The world – even Washington – welcomed the deal, if warily so, saying unity between the West Bank and Gaza was a good thing for the peace process, and holding out the hope that the deal would compel Hamas to moderate its political stance. Netanyahu, however, saw red. Warning that the unity government would “strengthen terror,” he broke off talks with Abbas and tried to convince the West to refuse to recognize the emerging new Palestinian government – but he failed. He didn’t stop trying, though. At a time when Hamas was seen to be weak, broke, throttled by the new-old Egyptian regime, unpopular with Gazans, and acting as Israel’s cop in the Strip by not only holding its own fire but curbing that of Islamic Jihad and others, Netanyahu became obsessed with Hamas – and obsessed with tying it around Abbas’ neck. Netanyahu’s purpose, clearly enough, was to shift the blame for the failure of the U.S.-sponsored peace talks from himself and his government to Abbas and the Palestinians.
  • But Netanyahu used the kidnappings to go after Hamas in the West Bank. The target, as one Israeli security official said, was “anything green.” The army raided, destroyed, confiscated and arrested anybody and anything having to do with Hamas, killed some Palestinian protesters and rearrested some 60 Hamasniks who had been freed in the Gilad Shalit deal, throwing them back in prison. Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israel had already escalated matters on June 11, the day before the kidnappings, by killing not only a wanted man riding on a bicycle, but a 10-year-old child riding with him. Between that, the kidnappings a day later and the crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank that immediately followed, Gaza and Israel started going at it pretty fierce – with all the casualties and destruction, once again, on Gaza’s side only.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • But it wasn’t working. Then on June 12 something fell into Netanyahu’s lap which he certainly would have prevented if he’d been able to, but which he also did not hesitate exploiting to the hilt politically: the kidnapping in the West Bank of Gilad Sha’ar and Naftali Fraenkel, both 16, and Eyal Yifrah, 19. Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the kidnapping. He said he had proof. To this day, neither he nor any other Israeli official has come forward with a shred of proof. Meanwhile, it is now widely assumed that the Hamas leadership did not give the order for the kidnapping, that it was instead carried out at the behest of a renegade, Hamas-linked, Hebron clan with a long history of blowing up Hamas’ ceasefires with Israel by killing Israelis. Besides, it made no sense for Hamas leaders to order up such a spectacular crime – not after signing an agreement with Abbas, and not when they were so badly on the ropes.
  • And that was basically it. Netanyahu had given orders to smash up the West Bank and Gaza over the kidnapping of three Israeli boys that, as monstrous as it was, apparently had nothing to do with the Hamas leadership. Thus, he opened an account with Israel’s enemies, who would wish for an opportunity to close it. On June 30, the bodies of the three kidnapped Israeli boys were found in the West Bank. “Hamas is responsible, Hamas will pay,” Netanayhu intoned. That payment was delayed by the burning alive of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 15, which set off riots in East Jerusalem and Israel’s “Arab Triangle,” and which put Israel on the defensive. It probably encouraged the armed groups in Gaza to step up their rocketing of Israel, while Netanyahu kept Israel’s in check. Then on Sunday, as many as nine Hamas men were killed in a Gazan tunnel that Israel bombed, saying it was going to be used for a terror attack. The next day nearly 100 rockets were fired at Israel. This time Hamas took responsibility for launching some of the rockets – a week after Netanyahu, for the first time since November 2012, accused it of breaking the ceasefire. And the day after that, “Operation Protective Edge” officially began. By Wednesday afternoon, there were 35 dead and many maimed in Gaza, Israelis were ducking rockets, and no one can say when or how it will end, or what further horrors lie in store.
  • Netanyahu could have avoided the whole thing. He could have chosen not to shoot up the West Bank and Gaza and arrest dozens of previously freed Hamasniks (along with hundreds of other Palestinians) over what was very likely a rogue kidnapping. Before that, he could have chosen not to stonewall Abbas for nine months of peace negotiations, and then there wouldn’t have even been a unity government with Hamas that freaked him out so badly – a reaction that was, of course, Netanyahu’s choice as well. But Israel’s prime minister is and always has been at war with the Palestinians – diplomatically, militarily and every other way; against Abbas, Hamas and all the rest – and this is what has guided his actions, and this is what provoked Hamas into going to war against Israel.
Paul Merrell

Abbas threatens to end Hamas unity deal - Middle East - Al Jazeera English - 0 views

www.aljazeera.com/...h-hamas-20149794312283293.html

war & peace Israel Palestine Gaza PA Hamas Abbas

shared by Paul Merrell on 22 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to break off a unity agreement with Hamas if the movement does not allow the government to operate properly in the Gaza Strip. Speaking in Cairo ahead of an Arab League foreign ministers' meeting, the Palestinian president accused Hamas of running a shadow government and said he wanted a single authority and a single system of rule. "We will not accept the situation with Hamas continuing as it is at the moment," Abbas said on arrival in the Egyptian capital late on Saturday, in remarks published by official Palestinian news agency WAFA. "We won't accept a partnership with them if the situation continues like this in Gaza where there is a shadow government ... running the territory. "The national consensus government cannot do anything on the ground," he charged.  His comments came nearly two weeks after a ceasefire ended a deadly 50-day confrontation with Israel in Gaza. Abbas also accused Hamas of undertaking executions without trial.  Hamas denounced his allegations as baseless.
  • Under the terms of the reconciliation deal earlier this year, the factions agreed to form an interim consensus government and end seven years of rival administrations in the West Bank and Gaza. The deal sought to end years of rivalry between Hamas and Fatah.
  • The new cabinet, which is based in Ramallah, took office on June 2, with Gaza's Hamas government officially stepping down the same day. Hamas is however the de facto power in Gaza. Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas leader in exile, said Palestinians should steer away from triggering problems in the media. "I call on Abbas, Fatah, Hamas and all Palestinian factions and forces, including independent figures, to meet at the earliest, and come to an agreement in order to conclude our unity and the way forward ... one voice, one decision, one authority and one goal."
  • Paul Merrell on 22 Sep 14
     
    Abbas has been taking potshots at Hamas because the Hamas leader beat him 70-30 percent in a recent poll of Palestinians. Abbas' term in office expired more than two years ago but he has not called new elections. He is largely the hand-maiden of Israel and the U.S. His endless delays in filing war crime charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court is continuing to cost his popularity.
Paul Merrell

Text - S.Res.498 - 113th Congress (2013-2014): A resolution expressing the sense of the... - 0 views

beta.congress.gov/...text

Israel Gaza Palestine Hamas Palestinian-Authority unity-government U.S.-foreign-policy legislation

shared by Paul Merrell on 21 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Resolved, That the Senate--
  • (4) calls on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to dissolve the unity governing arrangement with Hamas and condemn the attacks on Israel.
  • Paul Merrell on 21 Jul 14
     
    Passed the Senate by unanimous consent. Point 4 is the entire reason for Israel's assault on Gaza, to break the PLO-Hamas unity government of the Palestinian State. 
Paul Merrell

Hillary Clinton, With Little Notice, Vows to Embrace an Extremist Agenda on Israel - 0 views

theintercept.com/...-an-extremist-agenda-on-israel

Auction 2016 Greenwald Hillary Israel-lobby

shared by Paul Merrell on 20 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • Photo: Alex Brandon/APFormer President Bill Clinton on Monday met in secret (no press allowed) with roughly 100 leaders of South Florida’s Jewish community, and, as the Times of Israel reports, “He vowed that, if elected, Hillary Clinton would make it one of her top priorities to strengthen the U.S.-Israel alliance.” He also “stressed the close bond that he and his wife have with the State of Israel.” It may be tempting to dismiss this as standard, vapid Clintonian politicking: adeptly telling everyone what they want to hear and making them believe it. After all, is it even physically possible to “strengthen the U.S.-Israel alliance” beyond what it already entails: billions of dollars in American taxpayer money transferred every year, sophisticated weapons fed to Israel as it bombs its defenseless neighbors, blindly loyal diplomatic support and protection for everything it does? But Bill Clinton’s vow of even greater support for Israel is completely consistent with what Hillary Clinton herself has been telling American Jewish audiences for months. In November, she published an op-ed in The Forward in which she vowed to strengthen relations not only with Israel, but also with its extremist prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
  • Her comments on Israel have similarly contained implicit criticisms of Obama’s foreign policy: namely, that he has created or at least allowed too much animosity with Netanyahu. In her Forward op-ed, she wrote that the Israeli prime minister’s “upcoming visit to Washington is an opportunity to reaffirm the unbreakable bonds of friendship and unity between the people and governments of the United States and Israel.” She pointedly added: “The alliance between our two nations transcends politics. It is and should always be a commitment that unites us, not a wedge that divides us.” And in case her message is unclear, she added this campaign promise: “I would also invite the Israeli prime minister to the White House in my first month in office.” Last month, Clinton wrote an even more extreme op-ed in the Jewish Journal, one that made even clearer that she intends to change Obama’s policy to make it even more “pro-Israel.” It begins: “In this time of terrorism and turmoil, the alliance between the United States and Israel is more important than ever. To meet the many challenges we face, we have to take our relationship to the next level.”
  • “With every passing year, we must tie the bonds tighter,” she wrote. Tie those bonds tighter. Thus: As part of this effort, we need to ensure that Israel continues to maintain its qualitative military edge. The United States should further bolster Israeli air defenses and help develop better tunnel detection technology to prevent arms smuggling and kidnapping. We should also expand high-level U.S.-Israel strategic consultations. As always, there is not a word about the oppression and brutality imposed on Palestinians as part of Israel’s decadeslong occupation. She does not even acknowledge, let alone express opposition to, Israel’s repeated, civilian-slaughtering bombing of the open-air prison in Gaza. That’s because for Clinton — like the progressive establishment that supports her — the suffering and violence imposed on Palestinians literally do not exist. None of this is mentioned, even in passing, in the endless parade of pro-Clinton articles pouring forth from progressive media outlets.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Clinton partisans — being Clinton partisans — would, if they ever did deign to address Israel/Palestine, undoubtedly justify Clinton’s hawkishness on the ground of political necessity: that she could never win if she did not demonstrate steadfast devotion to the Israeli government. But for all his foreign policy excesses, including on Israel, Obama has proven that a national politician can be at least mildly more adversarial to Israeli leaders and still retain support. And notably, there is at least one politician who rejects the view that one must cling to standard pro-Israel orthodoxy in order to win; just yesterday, Donald Trump vowed “neutrality” on Israel/Palestine. As I noted a couple of weeks ago, Clinton advocates are understandably desperate to manufacture the most trivial controversies because the alternative is to defend her candidacy based on her prior actions and current beliefs (that tactic was actually pioneered by then-Clinton operative Dick Morris, who had his client turn the 1996 election into a discussion of profound topics such as school uniforms). If you were a pro-Clinton progressive, would you want to defend her continuous vows to “strengthen” U.S. support for the Netanyahu government and ensure that every year “we must tie the bonds tighter”?
  • Paul Merrell on 20 Feb 16
     
    Glen Greenwald (a Jew) tackles Hillary's promise to increase support for Israel's right-wing government, at the expense of Palestinian liberty. With friends like Israel, who needs enemies?
Paul Merrell

The Peninsula Qatar - UAE 'offered to fund Israel's Gaza offensive' - 0 views

thepeninsulaqatar.com/...o-fund-israel-s-gaza-offensive

war & peace Gaza-assault Israel UAE must-read false-flag

shared by Paul Merrell on 23 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • DOHA: The UAE knew in advance of Israel’s plans for an offensive in Gaza and even offered to fund the operation provided the militant Palestinian outfit Hamas was eliminated in the process, Israel’s Channel 2 claimed in a recent report, according to local Arabic daily Al Sharq. The daily says in a report published today that Israel’s leading national TV station (Channel 2 in Hebrew) disclosed details of secret parleys between the UAE’s foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and his Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Lieberman, in Paris at the end of last month. Both leaders met on the sly in Paris on the sidelines of a meeting of a meeting of foreign ministers from the GCC states and Jordan with US Secretary of State John Kerry. Israel’s foreign minister was also in the city.  The meeting was to discuss the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue.
  • Al Sharq said the UAE was aware of Israeli’s planned military action in Gaza beforehand and Al Nahyan, at his meeting with Lieberman, expressed his country’s keenness to fund Israeli’s Gaza offensive provided the Hamas movement was annihilated since it had close links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
  • Paul Merrell on 23 Jul 14
     
    Note the phrase "at the end of last month." I.e., the assault on Gaza was planned *before* rockets started flying from Gaza to Israel. This gives further credence to the evidence that the murder of three Israeli settler teens was a false flag operation by Israel intended to inflame the Israeli public, "justifying" Israel's arrests of some 600 Hamas figures in the West Bank and former Palestinian prisoners previously released pursuant to cease-fire agreements. As I recall, eight Hamas members were also killed. Then, to set the blaze, a Palestinian youth was burned alive by three Israeli settlers, and Hamas responded with rockets. And that was the end of the PLO/Hamas "unity government" of Palestine, Israel's real goal in this mess.  
Paul Merrell

Secret Israeli Report Sees Rift With Europe Growing - J.J. Goldberg - Forward.com - 0 views

blogs.forward.com/...t-sees-rift-with-europe-growin

war & peace Israel Europe leaked-docs

shared by Paul Merrell on 21 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • A classified Israeli foreign ministry document, leaked to the daily Yediot Ahronot, warns that 2015 will see Israel’s standing on the world stage steadily deteriorating. It predicts “worsening drift in Europe toward Palestinian positions, more parliaments recognizing the State of Palestine, fear of sanctions and labeling merchandise [to separate settlement products from tariff-free Israel-proper products] and no certainty that the United States will continue after Israel’s March elections to protect Israel with its veto.” The document is said to be a summary of an interministerial assessment roundtable convened by foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, and is signed by foreign ministry deputy director-general Gilead Cohen. It was circulated to Israel’s ambassadors around the world, Yediot reported. In addition to labeling settlement products and parliamentary votes to recognize Palestine, the foreign ministry document warns of European nations halting the supply of replacement parts for Israeli equipment and demanding compensation for damage caused by Israel to European projects in the territories.
  • “The Europeans are creating a clear link between political and economic relations, and in this context it should be remembered that Europe is Israel’s main trading partner.” European diplomats and politicians increasingly view Israel as responsible for the failure of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, claiming that Israel sets unreasonable conditions for a peace agreement in order to continue deepening its hold on the West Bank.
  • The tensions surrounding Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Paris this week are an outgrowth of that growing gulf of suspicion. As Haaretz diplomatic correspondents Barak Ravid and Asher Schechter both reported, French president Francois Hollande initially asked Netanyahu not to come to Paris for the Sunday solidarity rally, because he wanted to avoid injecting the divisive Israeli-Palestinian issue into the rally’s theme of national and Europe-wide unity and solidarity. Once Netanyahu announced that he was coming, Hollande made clear to him that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas would be invited as well. Netanyahu has said repeatedly since last week’s Paris attacks, in his initial sympathy statement and again in his remarks Monday at the site of the kosher supermarket attack, that the terror plaguing Europe is the same as the terror Israel faces. He said he hoped Europe would “wake up in time” to the terrorist threat. He continued: “Israel supports Europe in its fight against terrorism and it’s time Europe supported Israel in the same fight.” His comments have caused resentment in France. Like most of Europe, French leaders regard Israel’s conflict with Arab terrorists as fundamentally different from the jihadist terrorism spreading from Syria to the European continent. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is seen as a territorial dispute, albeit with religious overtones where Hamas is concerned, while Al Qaeda and ISIS are seen as essentially nihilistic movements that seek to undermine Western civilization.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • As for “waking up” to the terrorist threat, French observers note that they are carrying the fight against Al Qaeda in Mali on their own, had one of the largest NATO troop contingents fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan and maintain what’s considered one of the best counter-terrorism intelligence operations in the West. In effect, Netanyahu’s call for Europe to “wake up” and “support Israel” in its struggle against terrorism is seen as a demand that Europe acquiesce in his effort to entrench Israeli presence in the territories, rather than withdrawing and permitting a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 lines.
  • Paul Merrell on 21 Jan 15
     
    " ... no certainty that the United States will continue after Israel's March elections to protect Israel with its veto." That would seem to indicate that the Obama Administration is doing some very tough talking to Israeli government officials behind the scenes. But I doubt that Obama would have the U.S. abstain or vote in favor of a Security Council Resolution condemning Israel unless it was on a matter that would inflicit little actual pain on the Israeli government. In that scenario, Kerry could claim plausibly that the U.S. abstention or vote in favor was a "message" to Israeli gobvernment to get serious about making the two-state solution happen. But I have to admit it would warm my heart to see a Security Council Resolution adopted authorizing the use of force to break the Gaza siege and to push Israeli troops and its settlers back to the 1967 borders.  
Paul Merrell

Hamas officials reactivate separate parliament in Gaza | Maan News Agency - 0 views

www.maannews.net/...ViewDetails.aspx

war & peace Israel Gaza Hamas Palestine unity-government

shared by Paul Merrell on 16 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • Hamas-affiliated parliament members in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday reactivated the coastal enclave's parliament, which had been suspended since a unity deal between Fatah and Hamas was agreed upon in April.The convening of the session, which was attended exclusively by Hamas legislators, represents a major eruption of tensions within the Palestinian coalition government and presents yet another hurdle for officials trying to hold the agreement together.Deputy speaker of the Gaza parliament Ahmad Bahar delivered a speech at the beginning of the session in which he warned of a possible "blowup" in the Gaza Strip as a result of the delay in reconstruction, the ongoing crippling Israeli siege, and the Palestinian Authority's failure to pay monthly salaries to civil servants employed under the former Hamas government."A blowup is at a distance of two-bows length or less if the international community does not take action to end the suffering of the people of Gaza," he said.
Paul Merrell

Ex-envoy to US warns: There's no Iron Dome against Abbas's moves | The Times of Israel - 0 views

www.timesofisrael.com/iron-dome-against-abbass-moves

war & peace Palestine Israel ICC

shared by Paul Merrell on 10 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • ASHINGTON — Hours after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas convened a crisis meeting of the Palestinian leadership to get ready to apply for membership in the International Criminal Court, former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren warned that Abbas’s moves to penalize Israel through international organizations were a “strategic threat” for Israel. In contrast, he said Wednesday, continuing rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip was a tactical threat that Israel could confront
  • Oren cautioned that while Hamas’s rocket fire against Israelis was a “tactical threat” that Israel could confront with weapons technology, Abbas’s plans to upgrade the Palestinian Authority’s international status in order to initiate punitive actions against Israel was a “strategic threat” that Israel was challenged to counter. The former ambassador noted that despite the continued rocket fire against Israeli targets, Washington has maintained a seemingly paradoxical policy of condemning Hamas rocket fire and defending Israel’s right to defend itself, while at the same time “there has been no indication whatsoever that the US or other members of the Quartet are willing to review or reassess their participation in the [Palestinian] unity government.”
  • “We have an Iron Dome to protect against rockets, but we have no Iron Dome for this,” cautioned Oren. “The danger of sanctions and embargoes is a real one.” Abbas’s actions, including his threats to seek ICC membership so that he could prosecute Israel though the international legal body, were part of a strategy that Oren warned was not designed “to get a better two-state solution.”
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • At the same time, US support for Abbas’s technocratic government, formed this spring as part of a unity agreement with Hamas, has remained steady. On Tuesday, Philip Gordon, a special assistant to US President Barack Obama and the White House coordinator for the Middle East, warned that Jerusalem “should not take for granted the opportunity to negotiate” with Abbas, who has proven to be a “reliable partner.” But Abbas’s stance, said Oren, “doesn’t resonate with segments of Israeli population who see Abbas refusing to condemn rocket fire but accusing Israel of committing war crimes.” With tens of thousands of reservists massing at the border with Gaza, Oren said that a ground operation against the Hamas-held territory “would be in Hamas’s interest.” Their influence has declined markedly over the past year, he explained, noting that the Islamist group has recently lost support from key backers in Syria and Iran as well as with the fall of the Morsi government in Egypt.
  • “The economy in Gaza is abysmal,” Oren said, arguing that Hamas believes that if it can drag Israel into a ground operation it will come out with the upper hand and Israel will face heavy casualties as well as international criticism and even prosecution for war crimes.
  • Paul Merrell on 10 Jul 14
     
    It's a huge strategic threat precisely because Israel's leaders are go clearly guilty of war crimes against the Palestinians on a massive scale since the time Israel was established in 1948. 
Paul Merrell

Ministry Of Health: 129 Palestinians Injured By Israeli Army Fire, Tuesday | nsnbc inte... - 0 views

nsnbc.me/...d-by-israeli-army-fire-tuesday

war & peace Israel Palestine

shared by Paul Merrell on 07 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • The Palestinian Ministry of Health (MOH) in the occupied West Bank has reported that at least 129 Palestinians have been injured by Israeli army fire and gas bombs in different parts of the West Bank, Tuesday, and that the soldiers deliberately targeted medics and journalists.
  • In a press release, the MOH said fifty wounded Palestinians were transferred to the Palestine Medical Center in Ramallah; two of them suffered serious injuries after being shot with live Israeli rounds, while the rest suffered mild-to-moderate wounds. It added that eleven Palestinians were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets in Bethlehem. Seven more Palestinians were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets, while many residents suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation. in the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Furthermore, 45 Palestinians were injured in Nablus, and 16 in Jenin, both in the northern part of the West Bank, suffered mild-to-moderate injuries.
  • Media sources in Jenin said two were shot with live rounds, and dozens suffered the effects of teargas inhalation, during clashes near the al-Jalama roadblock, north of Jenin. The soldiers also invaded a pottery store near the roadblock, and kidnapped the owner after assaulting him. Head of the Emergency Unity of the Red Crescent in Jenin Mahmoud Sa’adi said the soldiers also fired live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets and gas bombs on protesters, who peacefully marched against the escalating Israeli violations, wounding two children, identified as Ahmad Abdul-Rahim and Mohammad Omran Sabah, in their legs. The two were moved to a hospital, while many Palestinians received treatment for the effects of tear gas inhalation. He also said that the soldiers attacked medics, and deliberately opened fire on a Red Crescent Ambulance, near Ramallah, smashing its windshield. In the Hebron district, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, soldiers wounded many Palestinians, especially on the main junction leading to Kharsa village, and the Halhoul Bridge, during clashes that took place in the two areas.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The soldiers also fired gas bombs at many homes, causing families to suffer the effects of tear gas inhalation. Two young men were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets in Bab az-Zawiya, in the center of Hebron city. Medical sources said two young men, 19 and 22 years of age, have been moved to the Hebron Governmental Hospital, suffering moderate injuries after being shot with rubber-coated steel bullets.
  • Paul Merrell on 07 Oct 15
     
    Israelis have been seriously escalating their violence against Palestinians over the alst couple of months. In East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Israeli mobs accompanied and protected by soldiers have declared open season on Palestinians. It's pouring gasoline on a fire that was already lit decades ago. But there is no longer any moderating influence in Israeli government. Watch for things to blow sky-high again soon. 
Paul Merrell

Hamas backs Palestinian push for ICC Gaza war crimes probe | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...gaza-icc-idUSKBN0GN09320140823

war & peace Israel Palestine Gaza ICC war-crimes

shared by Paul Merrell on 25 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • (Reuters) - Hamas leaders said on Saturday they had given their consent for the Palestinians to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), a move that could open up both Israel and the militant group to war crime probes over the fighting in Gaza. Moussa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas leader based in Cairo, said he had signed a document Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says all factions must endorse before he proceeds with the ICC push.If the Palestinians were to sign the ICC's founding treaty, the Rome Statute, the court would have jurisdiction over crimes committed in the Palestinian territories.An investigation could then examine events as far back as mid-2002, when the ICC opened with a mandate to try individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.Explaining the Islamist group's decision to sign, Hamas official Mushir al-Masri told Reuters: "There is nothing to fear, the Palestinian factions are leading legitimate resistance in keeping with all international laws and standards.""We are in a state of self-defence," he added.
  • At a news conference in Cairo earlier on Saturday, Abbas said he had asked all factions to join the ICC bid, adding: "There will be results for them joining." There was no immediate comment from Israel, which is also not an ICC member. It says Hamas has committed war crimes by both firing thousands of rockets indiscriminately at Israeli towns and cities and by using Gazans as human shields.A statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not directly address the Hamas move, but it quoted the Israeli leader as telling U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Hamas was guilty of such crimes.
  • Palestinian health officials say 2,078 people, most of them civilians, have been killed by Israel since it launched its offensive, which is intended to end the militants' rocket fire.The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) said on Saturday at least 480 Palestinian children had been reported killed.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Malki says the Palestinian Authority's current U.N. status, upgraded to "non-member state" from "entity" by a vote of the General Assembly in 2012, qualified it to become an ICC member and a decision on whether to apply could happen very soon.As neither Israel nor the Palestinians are ICC members, the court currently lacks jurisdiction over Gaza. This could be granted by a U.N. Security Council resolution, but Israel's main ally, the United States, would probably veto any such proposal.Membership of the ICC opens countries to investigations both on their behalf and against them. Several powers, including the United States, have declined to ratify the ICC founding treaty, citing the possibility of politically motivated prosecutions.The ICC is a court of last resort, meaning that it will only intervene when a country is found to be unwilling or unable to carry out its own investigation.
  • Paul Merrell on 25 Aug 14
     
    Not a decision to go to the ICC, but the latest in a consistent dribble of information indicating that the Palestinian state is working toward doing so.  The slow pace of the public indications hint that they are intended to increase Palestinian leverage in negotiations. To me the questions of whether Abbas would actually make such a complaint and if he did so whether ICC would proceed with a prosecution are far from settled.  Almost certainly, such a complaint would end negotiations and U.S. subsidy of the Palestinian government's expenses. Abbas has previously shown no sign of being more than a U.S.-Israeli puppet. And the U.S. and Israel are applying stiff pressure on the ICC not to take the case if it arrives there, including a U.S. threat to cease its funding contributions to the ICC. On the other hand, if Abbas wishes to preserve his unity government with Hamas and thus have standing to speak for the entirety of the Palestinian population, he *must* be perceived  in Gaza as either delivering or fighting hard for very substantial easing of Israel's blockade of Gaza. A complaint to the ICC would be perceived as fighting hard, as having abandoned his commitment to resolution purely via negotiation.   So there is a lot of pressure on Abbas to do something more than negotiate unsuccessfully. And the U.S. and Israel leadership surely realize that.
Paul Merrell

Netanyahu Promises More Settler Homes in Jerusalem If Elected | nsnbc international - 0 views

nsnbc.me/...-homes-in-jerusalem-if-elected

war & peace Israel Palestine Jerusalem Netanyahu

shared by Paul Merrell on 17 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday that, if reelected, he will build thousands of settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem to prevent future concessions to Palestinians. Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s general election on a whistle-stop tour of Har Homa, a contentious settlement neighborhood of annexed East Jerusalem, the PM vowed that he would never allow Palestinians to establish a capital in the city’s eastern sector.
  • “I won’t let that happen. My friends and I in Likud will preserve the unity of Jerusalem,” he said of his ruling right-wing party, according to AFP, vowing to prevent any future division of the city by building thousands of new settler homes. “We will continue to build in Jerusalem, we will add thousands of housing units, and in the face of all the (international) pressure, we will persist and continue to develop our eternal capital,” he added. During the 2013 negotiations, Israeli officials announced, and, eventually, carried out in full force, plans to build thousands of additional homes in illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank, while continuing to further seize lands, demolish homes and agricultural resources and, thus, leaving scores of Palestinian families severely disenfranchised and without so much as a roof over their heads to shelter them from inclement weather. Gazans were already surviving on a mere 8 hours per day of electricity when the Palestinian negotiating team finally resigned in protest, in mid-November. Israel, soon after, made quite clear its position on securing peace with Palestinians when Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, during a meeting with young Likud Party supporters, boasted: “I was threatened in Washington: ‘not one brick’ [of settlement construction] … after five years, we built a little more than one brick…”
  • Asked about “peace talks with the Palestinians”, the PM reportedly replied, according to +972 online Israeli magazine: “about the – what?” to which his audience responded with a round of chuckling. Critics of Israel’s aggressively right-wing regime assert that such peace negotiations are simply used as a front for continued settlement expansion and military occupation, noting that settlement activity clearly increases during negotiations, while daily acts of violence against Palestinians, by both Israeli civilians and soldiers alike, remains as of yet unchallenged by the powers that be. Israel seized East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community. Israel refers to both halves of the city as its “united, undivided capital” and does not see construction in the eastern sector as settlement building. Successive Israeli leaders have vowed that Jerusalem will never again be divided — in war or peace.
  • Paul Merrell on 17 Mar 15
     
    Israel's election is in the morning, although it will take a bit longer to learn who will become the Prime Minister. (Much depends on which party gets the nod from the Israeli President to try to form a ruling coalition; then it takes time tio form one.)  But this campaign promise deserves more credibility than most campaign promises in the U.S.: It's a promiose to do more of what Netanyahu has been doing since he came to power.  Multiple U.N. Security Council regulations have demanded that Israel return to its pre-1967 borders. And the U.N. General Council Resolution that is Israel's claim to legitimacy (although further action that never happened was required to become effective never happened) specifically provided that its allocation of territory to the Israeli government was conditioned on the existing rights of Palestinian within that territory be preserved. Moreover, Israel took Jerusalem (and other lands) during its 1967 Six-Day War. Under the 4th Geneva Convention, Israel was required to withdraw from all occupied territories and to permit all refugees to return to their homes "immediately upon cessation of hostilities." So Obama's campaign promise is a promise to commit a war crime and crime against humanity.  The truly disgusting parts are that: [i] the majority of Israeli Jews support that position; and [ii] the U.S. government even though it routinely calls the eviction of Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank to construct Israeli homes and settlements "illegal", routinely vetoes U.N. Security Council resolutions to bring Israel into compliance with the older S.C. resolutions and international law.   
Paul Merrell

In Gaza, a funeral for the two-state solution? | Al Jazeera America - 0 views

america.aljazeera.com/...gaza-two-state.html

war & peace Palestine Gaza Israel 2-state-solution

shared by Paul Merrell on 17 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Israel’s leaders vowed last week that Operation Protective Edge would deal Hamas a lethal blow. Instead, it has achieved the opposite effect. The continued pounding of Gaza by Israeli warplanes looking to cripple Hamas's ability to launch rockets against Israeli population centers — which has also destroyed large segments of Gaza’s fragile civilian infrastructure and claimed close to 200 lives — has breathed new life into the Islamist movement by restoring its preferred role at the forefront of Palestinian resistance to Israel. In doing so, however, Israel may simply have entrenched the status quo for the long term.  Hamas made clear in statements at the outset of the current exchange of fire that while it was ready to escalate if Israel did, it preferred to avoid a renewed military confrontation with Israel at the present momen
  • But far from removing the totality of Hamas’s rocket-launching capability, Operation Protective Edge has renewed Hamas’ claim to be the premier group resisting Israel. (The Palestinian Authority security forces had been widely derided in the West Bank for standing by — and even suppressing protests — during Israel’s recent crackdown there that killed at least five Palestinians.) Whatever else it has achieved, Israel’s offensive appears to have blocked the creation of a Palestinian unity government that would restore the PA in Gaza. Instead, it has restored the familiar division of the Palestinian Authority polity between Hamas control in Gaza and Fatah control of the West Bank.
1 - 17 of 17
Showing 20▼ items per page