"Our plan [involving both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas ] does not involve negotiations with Israel or recognizing it," Zahar said. "It will be impossible for an interim government to take part in the peace process with Israel." more by Mahmoud Zahar - 1 hour ago - Jerusalem Post
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Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Sounds like Karthoum in 1967: no, no, no. i.e, No to peace
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Israeli researchers find way to reverse aging process
Scientists find key to reversing the aging process |
http://www.israel21c.org/201104189006/briefs/scientists-find-key-to-reversing-the-aging-process
Israeli researchers claim they have discovered a way to reverse the aging process by removing B lymphocytes - a kind of white blood cell in vertebrate immune systems - from old mice and forcing the production of young cells to replace them. Our immune systems get weaker with age, which explains why elderly people suffer an increase in illnesses, and a decrease in their ability to respond to vaccination. The B lymphocytes, which decline dramatically as we age, have a major impact on the functioning of the immune system, and are responsible for antibody protection.
Using old mice, the researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, showed that active removal of the B cells changes the body's cellular homeostasis and generates conditions of chronic deficiency in these cells.
To overcome this, the body reactivates the bone marrow, forcing it to produce B cells at a similar rate to young mice. When they studied this, the researchers found the new B cells replaced the old cells that were removed and led to up to 400% improvement in the ability of the treated mice to respond to vaccinations.
"We have succeeded in showing that it is possible to turn back the aging process," lead researcher, Prof. Doron Melamed of the Technion's Rappaport Faculty of Medicine told The Jerusalem Post.
"This paper shows - for the first time - that physiological aging is a regulated process that can be reversed," Melamed told the Post. "It also presents a novel approach for rejuvenating the immune system and for enhancing the efficacy of vaccination among the elderly population."
The scientists published their findings in the scientific journal, Blood, earlier this year.
Palestinians set fire to Jewish holy site, again, after murder of Jewish worshipper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh-6wVnLdSM
Friday, April 22, 2011
Iran Divestment bill signed into law by Gov. Branstad on April 20, 2011
The Iran Divestment bill was signed into law on April 20, 2011 by Gov. Branstad. The law restricts direct investment of state funds in companies that provide power production-related services, mineral extraction activities, oil-related activities or military equipment to the government of Iran.
Iowa is now one of twenty -four states having similar legislation.
Americans are concerned, in general, with the Iranian regime's apparent quest to attain nuclear weapons.
As indicated, below, present nuclear negotiation with Iran continue to end unsatisfactorily, according to the European Union.
Nuclear negotiations with Iran end in failure
January 23, 2011|By Julia Damianova, Los Angeles Times [excerpts]
Led by Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, the diplomats were trying to revive an offer by the United States, France and Russia for a swap of some of Iran's low-enriched uranium stockpile for fuel for the Iranian reactor that produces isotopes for medical purposes.
Ashton said any expectations that Iran would respond positively to the ideas Western diplomats brought to the table were crushed.
"We had hoped to have a detailed and constructive discussion of those ideas," she told reporters in Istanbul. "But it became clear that the Iranian side was not ready for this unless we agree to preconditions related to enrichment and sanctions.
"Both these preconditions are not the way to proceed," she said.
Before the start of the talks, Western diplomats said that Iran needed to come forward with concrete measures to convince the West that its nuclear program was indeed for peaceful purposes.
In 2009, the U.S. and its allies tried to persuade Iran to ship some of its low-enriched uranium stockpile out of the country in exchange for fuel. The West saw the deal as a confidence-building measure and a way to remove material that, if enriched further, could be used for nuclear weapons.
After initially agreeing, Iran backed away from the offer and has since started to enrich uranium further.
Western diplomats warned before the meeting that if the talks failed, new sanctions could follow.
Iowa is now one of twenty -four states having similar legislation.
Americans are concerned, in general, with the Iranian regime's apparent quest to attain nuclear weapons.
As indicated, below, present nuclear negotiation with Iran continue to end unsatisfactorily, according to the European Union.
Nuclear negotiations with Iran end in failure
January 23, 2011|By Julia Damianova, Los Angeles Times [excerpts]
Led by Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, the diplomats were trying to revive an offer by the United States, France and Russia for a swap of some of Iran's low-enriched uranium stockpile for fuel for the Iranian reactor that produces isotopes for medical purposes.
Ashton said any expectations that Iran would respond positively to the ideas Western diplomats brought to the table were crushed.
"We had hoped to have a detailed and constructive discussion of those ideas," she told reporters in Istanbul. "But it became clear that the Iranian side was not ready for this unless we agree to preconditions related to enrichment and sanctions.
"Both these preconditions are not the way to proceed," she said.
Before the start of the talks, Western diplomats said that Iran needed to come forward with concrete measures to convince the West that its nuclear program was indeed for peaceful purposes.
In 2009, the U.S. and its allies tried to persuade Iran to ship some of its low-enriched uranium stockpile out of the country in exchange for fuel. The West saw the deal as a confidence-building measure and a way to remove material that, if enriched further, could be used for nuclear weapons.
After initially agreeing, Iran backed away from the offer and has since started to enrich uranium further.
Western diplomats warned before the meeting that if the talks failed, new sanctions could follow.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Block Statehood Bid Aggressively, Groups Urge U.S.
Block Statehood Bid Aggressively, Groups Urge U.S.
AJC’s David Harris: More needed from U.S.
Push by community to get administration to say it won’t support Palestinian state without direct negotiations.
Monday, April 18, 2011 James D. Besser Washington Correspondent, NY Jewish Week
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/national/block_statehood_bid_aggressively_groups_urge_us
As if it didn’t already have its hands full with upheavals across the Arab world, hot wars in Afghanistan and Libya, and budget chaos at home, the Obama administration is facing another growing pressure: Jewish groups pushing it to aggressively block the Palestinian push for United Nations endorsement of a unilaterally declared state in September.
Whether the UN drive is just a ploy to force bigger concessions from the Jewish state or a path that Palestinian leaders believe will lead to statehood, the accelerating campaign is a major diplomatic danger for Israel — a “diplomatic-political tsunami,” as Defense Minister Ehud Barak called it last month. And the UN juggernaut poses complex challenges for a U.S. administration that risks joining Israel in international isolation.
“It’s a huge dilemma for the administration, because it could put them in the position of having to oppose a Palestinian statehood resolution supported by 200-plus states,” said Edward Walker, a former U.S. ambassador in Tel Aviv. “The way it looks now, we would be the only nation opposed. The administration better start thinking now about how it’s going to handle it.”
Critics like Shoshana Bryen, senior director for security policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), say a distracted, confused administration isn’t doing nearly enough to avert the threat.
“The United States does have leverage — we’re training the Palestinian army, and we’re still giving them huge amounts of aid,” she said, adding that Washington must be more explicit about saying it will never support a Palestinian state created without direct negotiations — and to use all its diplomatic muscle to convince the European Union and the Middle East “Quartet” to do the same.
“The problem is, right now they don’t want to do that,” she said.
One policy change may be in the works. There have been hints of a possible new U.S. peace plan, or at least a major address by President Barack Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In Israel, press reports indicate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a major Israeli initiative, to be unveiled during his visit to Washington next month for the AIPAC policy conference, as a way of derailing the Palestinian strategy, or at least keeping some European nations from signing on.
Rumors continue to circulate about a possible Israeli military pullout from substantial portions of the West Bank — while leaving settlements in place — or recognition of some kind of provisional Palestinian state in significantly less of the West Bank than Israel offered in the past.
But few observers expect the Palestinians to accept any such proposal — nor, for that matter, do they expect that an international community that has grown increasingly distrustful of Netanyahu will be receptive.
“At this stage, when a two-state solution is hanging by a thread, nobody is going to agree to any temporary, inadequate, less-than-a-state solution,” said Judith Kipper, director of Middle East programs at the Institute of World Affairs.
Kipper argued that going the UN route is a reasonable strategy for the Palestinians.
“Being the weakest of the weak, unable to do anything unless Israel is willing to give up real estate, it’s a way to bring world attention to the issue, to show people that they’re still there,” she said.
But writing in last Friday’s Washington Post, Aaron David Miller, a longtime U.S. diplomat working on Middle East peace issues, wrote that the idea of seeking recognition at the UN “takes dumb to a new level” and predicted dire consequences.
“Yet another resolution won’t deliver Palestinians a state or even bring them closer to one,” Miller wrote. “The result will be the opposite of what the Palestinians want: forcing the United States to oppose Palestinians’ efforts, energizing Congress to restrict much-needed assistance to Palestinian institution-building, and probably prompting Israel to do very real (and dumb) things on the ground.”
Even if the Palestinians succeed in winning overwhelming General Assembly recognition of statehood based on the 1967 borders, “it would have virtually no practical significance; it wouldn’t mean that the IDF would pull out of the West Bank or that Israelis living across the Green Line would have to pack up and move,” said Martin Raffel, assistant director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and director of an inter-agency task force fighting the delegitimization of Israel.
But such a partial Palestinian victory at the UN “would have diplomatic significance,” Raffel said. “It would continue boosting Palestinian claims without benefit of negotiations. The fear is that it would undermine, not improve, the prospects for peace.”
And even a simple General Assembly vote acknowledging Palestinian statehood could prompt the Netanyahu government to take unilateral steps of its own.
Unilateral statehood declarations are nothing new for the Palestinians; Yasir Arafat did it in 1988 and threatened it in the late 1990s, with almost no impact on the position of the Palestinians.
European and U.S. policy has consistently asserted that only direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians can produce the kind of state the Palestinians say they want.
But conditions are a little different this time around.
A UN report published last week concluded that the Palestinian Authority has succeeded in creating many of the preconditions for genuine statehood in areas like governance, education, health, infrastructure and human rights, but also that the Gaza-West Bank split is a major impediment.
Israel’s international standing is nearing an all-time low, and a distracted Obama administration that came to office promising quick action on the Israeli-Palestinian front but launched its diplomacy with a series of blunders has left even important allies frustrated and willing to look at other solutions — including the UN route.
Adding to the impetus for the Palestinians: the upheavals of the “Arab Spring.” Protesters who risked their lives — and sometimes lost them — fighting dictatorships in Egypt, Syria and Libya, among others, have prompted more to ask the question: why not change for the Palestinians?
That same regional wave of change has imparted a new sense of urgency to Palestinian leaders. “Confusion and turbulence in their world has persuaded them they will have no reliable Arab support for a negotiated settlement,” Miller, now a scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington, told The Jewish Week.
“[Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak is gone; the Jordanians are under tremendous stress and pressure. The Palestinians are not going to get now what they might have gotten in another universe — at least some Arab support for flexibility at the negotiating table.”
That turbulence “will only validate the notion the Palestinians have to seek refuge in the one area where they actually have support, and where that support has been reliable: the UN,” he said.
But in the end that support “is not particularly relevant because it ignores the interests of the two parties that can turn virtual Palestinian statehood into real statehood: Washington and Jerusalem,” Miller said.
That leaves the Obama administration with a big policy problem: how to thwart a Palestinian strategy that is gaining support from critical U.S. allies but which most analysts here believe can only make the situation worse — and how to do it with an Israeli partner who is unwilling or politically unable to offer new concessions to lure the Palestinians back to the peace table.
Miller said that one option the administration may be considering is a dramatic speech by Obama or Clinton laying out U.S. positions on a settlement and possibly offering bridging proposals as a way of “parking” the problem until conditions are more favorable.
“They may see that the best strategy now is to try to cordon off this problem — just as President [George W.] Bush gave his ‘Palestinian statehood’ speech in 2002, which was an attempt to ‘park’ the Israeli-Palestinian issue until the Iraq war was over. When you don’t have a policy, the pressure goes up to give a speech,” Miller said.
Jewish leaders generally want more from the administration as the September target for UN action nears.
“The U.S. is absolutely critical to the equation,” said David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee. “Our belief is that Washington needs to persuade the Palestinian Authority that we will do everything we possibly can on the diplomatic front to convey our opposition to this unilateral approach. Ramallah has to grasp the essential point that there is total determination in Washington to oppose this move.”
Pressure needs to be intensified both on the PA and on the European Union nations that have signaled support for the Palestinian move, or at least a willingness to consider it, he said.
“The key goal has to be to ensure that all 27 nations of the EU say yes to a two-state solution but no to a path that avoids direct talks and ultimately leads to a dead end,” Harris said.
Is the administration doing enough?
“It’s beginning to,” Harris told The Jewish Week. “But at the moment this administration is grappling with so many high-priority issues that September may seem like a long way off.”
Netanyahu can help when he comes to Washington in May for the AIPAC policy conference.
“The more the prime minister can offer, in terms of vision and methodology, the more the Americans and Europeans have to work with,” Harris said.
AJC’s David Harris: More needed from U.S.
Push by community to get administration to say it won’t support Palestinian state without direct negotiations.
Monday, April 18, 2011 James D. Besser Washington Correspondent, NY Jewish Week
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/national/block_statehood_bid_aggressively_groups_urge_us
As if it didn’t already have its hands full with upheavals across the Arab world, hot wars in Afghanistan and Libya, and budget chaos at home, the Obama administration is facing another growing pressure: Jewish groups pushing it to aggressively block the Palestinian push for United Nations endorsement of a unilaterally declared state in September.
Whether the UN drive is just a ploy to force bigger concessions from the Jewish state or a path that Palestinian leaders believe will lead to statehood, the accelerating campaign is a major diplomatic danger for Israel — a “diplomatic-political tsunami,” as Defense Minister Ehud Barak called it last month. And the UN juggernaut poses complex challenges for a U.S. administration that risks joining Israel in international isolation.
“It’s a huge dilemma for the administration, because it could put them in the position of having to oppose a Palestinian statehood resolution supported by 200-plus states,” said Edward Walker, a former U.S. ambassador in Tel Aviv. “The way it looks now, we would be the only nation opposed. The administration better start thinking now about how it’s going to handle it.”
Critics like Shoshana Bryen, senior director for security policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), say a distracted, confused administration isn’t doing nearly enough to avert the threat.
“The United States does have leverage — we’re training the Palestinian army, and we’re still giving them huge amounts of aid,” she said, adding that Washington must be more explicit about saying it will never support a Palestinian state created without direct negotiations — and to use all its diplomatic muscle to convince the European Union and the Middle East “Quartet” to do the same.
“The problem is, right now they don’t want to do that,” she said.
One policy change may be in the works. There have been hints of a possible new U.S. peace plan, or at least a major address by President Barack Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In Israel, press reports indicate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a major Israeli initiative, to be unveiled during his visit to Washington next month for the AIPAC policy conference, as a way of derailing the Palestinian strategy, or at least keeping some European nations from signing on.
Rumors continue to circulate about a possible Israeli military pullout from substantial portions of the West Bank — while leaving settlements in place — or recognition of some kind of provisional Palestinian state in significantly less of the West Bank than Israel offered in the past.
But few observers expect the Palestinians to accept any such proposal — nor, for that matter, do they expect that an international community that has grown increasingly distrustful of Netanyahu will be receptive.
“At this stage, when a two-state solution is hanging by a thread, nobody is going to agree to any temporary, inadequate, less-than-a-state solution,” said Judith Kipper, director of Middle East programs at the Institute of World Affairs.
Kipper argued that going the UN route is a reasonable strategy for the Palestinians.
“Being the weakest of the weak, unable to do anything unless Israel is willing to give up real estate, it’s a way to bring world attention to the issue, to show people that they’re still there,” she said.
But writing in last Friday’s Washington Post, Aaron David Miller, a longtime U.S. diplomat working on Middle East peace issues, wrote that the idea of seeking recognition at the UN “takes dumb to a new level” and predicted dire consequences.
“Yet another resolution won’t deliver Palestinians a state or even bring them closer to one,” Miller wrote. “The result will be the opposite of what the Palestinians want: forcing the United States to oppose Palestinians’ efforts, energizing Congress to restrict much-needed assistance to Palestinian institution-building, and probably prompting Israel to do very real (and dumb) things on the ground.”
Even if the Palestinians succeed in winning overwhelming General Assembly recognition of statehood based on the 1967 borders, “it would have virtually no practical significance; it wouldn’t mean that the IDF would pull out of the West Bank or that Israelis living across the Green Line would have to pack up and move,” said Martin Raffel, assistant director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and director of an inter-agency task force fighting the delegitimization of Israel.
But such a partial Palestinian victory at the UN “would have diplomatic significance,” Raffel said. “It would continue boosting Palestinian claims without benefit of negotiations. The fear is that it would undermine, not improve, the prospects for peace.”
And even a simple General Assembly vote acknowledging Palestinian statehood could prompt the Netanyahu government to take unilateral steps of its own.
Unilateral statehood declarations are nothing new for the Palestinians; Yasir Arafat did it in 1988 and threatened it in the late 1990s, with almost no impact on the position of the Palestinians.
European and U.S. policy has consistently asserted that only direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians can produce the kind of state the Palestinians say they want.
But conditions are a little different this time around.
A UN report published last week concluded that the Palestinian Authority has succeeded in creating many of the preconditions for genuine statehood in areas like governance, education, health, infrastructure and human rights, but also that the Gaza-West Bank split is a major impediment.
Israel’s international standing is nearing an all-time low, and a distracted Obama administration that came to office promising quick action on the Israeli-Palestinian front but launched its diplomacy with a series of blunders has left even important allies frustrated and willing to look at other solutions — including the UN route.
Adding to the impetus for the Palestinians: the upheavals of the “Arab Spring.” Protesters who risked their lives — and sometimes lost them — fighting dictatorships in Egypt, Syria and Libya, among others, have prompted more to ask the question: why not change for the Palestinians?
That same regional wave of change has imparted a new sense of urgency to Palestinian leaders. “Confusion and turbulence in their world has persuaded them they will have no reliable Arab support for a negotiated settlement,” Miller, now a scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington, told The Jewish Week.
“[Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak is gone; the Jordanians are under tremendous stress and pressure. The Palestinians are not going to get now what they might have gotten in another universe — at least some Arab support for flexibility at the negotiating table.”
That turbulence “will only validate the notion the Palestinians have to seek refuge in the one area where they actually have support, and where that support has been reliable: the UN,” he said.
But in the end that support “is not particularly relevant because it ignores the interests of the two parties that can turn virtual Palestinian statehood into real statehood: Washington and Jerusalem,” Miller said.
That leaves the Obama administration with a big policy problem: how to thwart a Palestinian strategy that is gaining support from critical U.S. allies but which most analysts here believe can only make the situation worse — and how to do it with an Israeli partner who is unwilling or politically unable to offer new concessions to lure the Palestinians back to the peace table.
Miller said that one option the administration may be considering is a dramatic speech by Obama or Clinton laying out U.S. positions on a settlement and possibly offering bridging proposals as a way of “parking” the problem until conditions are more favorable.
“They may see that the best strategy now is to try to cordon off this problem — just as President [George W.] Bush gave his ‘Palestinian statehood’ speech in 2002, which was an attempt to ‘park’ the Israeli-Palestinian issue until the Iraq war was over. When you don’t have a policy, the pressure goes up to give a speech,” Miller said.
Jewish leaders generally want more from the administration as the September target for UN action nears.
“The U.S. is absolutely critical to the equation,” said David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee. “Our belief is that Washington needs to persuade the Palestinian Authority that we will do everything we possibly can on the diplomatic front to convey our opposition to this unilateral approach. Ramallah has to grasp the essential point that there is total determination in Washington to oppose this move.”
Pressure needs to be intensified both on the PA and on the European Union nations that have signaled support for the Palestinian move, or at least a willingness to consider it, he said.
“The key goal has to be to ensure that all 27 nations of the EU say yes to a two-state solution but no to a path that avoids direct talks and ultimately leads to a dead end,” Harris said.
Is the administration doing enough?
“It’s beginning to,” Harris told The Jewish Week. “But at the moment this administration is grappling with so many high-priority issues that September may seem like a long way off.”
Netanyahu can help when he comes to Washington in May for the AIPAC policy conference.
“The more the prime minister can offer, in terms of vision and methodology, the more the Americans and Europeans have to work with,” Harris said.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Daniel Wipliech, the Israeli teen who was critically injured in the Palestinian terrorist antitank missile attack on a school bus, died of his wounds. http://sns.mx/8hc9y2
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Friday, April 8, 2011
Debka: 60 projectiles from Gaza hit Israel today
[excerpt] More than 60 Hamas and Jihad Islami mortar shells and missiles hit Israeli towns, villages and farms on the Israeli side of the Gaza border Friday April 8 and injured a civilian. This heightened Israeli fury over Hamas's attack on a school bus Thursday, April 7, using a sophisticated Cornet anti-tank missile for the first time. A 16-year old boy was critically wounded. This attack was followed by 50 Palestinian rockets and mortar rounds, a blitz which had not abated by Friday night despite constant Israeli counteraction.
debkafile discloses a less obvious motive behind the mounting violence: Hamas is trying to establish new rules for the conflict on advice and directives coming from its Lebanese ally, Hizballah, to step up its barrage on Israel by 25 percent. The IDF is forced to respond to the resulting escalation in kind.
Our intelligence sources report that Hamas was advised by Hizballah to blitz Israel into relinquishing the 500-meter deep security strip the IDF established inside the Gaza border when Palestinian fire on Israel continued after it was temporarily reduced by the 2009 Cast Lead operation.
Hizballah leaders are telling Hamas they should be able to bring their forward and firing positions right up to the Israeli border, a convenience enjoyed by HIzballah on the Lebanese-Israeli frontier ever since 2000 when Israel quit southern Lebanon.
The IDF is fighting to hold on to this buffer zone to keep Palestinian terrorists back from breaching the border for direct attacks in Israel. The soldiers keep Palestinian gunmen from accessing this strip of land and impose restrictions on Gazan farmers seeking to till their fields in a strip which covers 15 percent of the enclave's arable land. (Farmers of the Eshkol district on the other side of the border are regularly targeted for attack.)
Hamas is threatening to raise the cross-border violence until Israeli troops pull back to the border. Its anti-tank missile attack on the school bus Thursday was the opening shot of its battle for the buffer zone.
The IDF's tactics for countering Hamas aggression remain unchanged, except in scale: In the last 48 hours, Israeli helicopters, mortars, tanks and naval units have been pounding the Gaza Strip while Hamas releases barrages of dozens of missile and mortar attacks on villages and towns - practically without pause. Israeli civilians were told to stay close to bomb shelters in the days to come. Schools, road traffic, public transport and businesses will function intermittently.
Israeli military planners are still playing the familiar tit-for-tat game which never in the past stopped the aggression from Gaza. Nevertheless, debkafile's military sources point to some notable differences in the current round.
The IDF importantly demonstrated it is fully capable of launching another major military campaign in the Gaza Strip. The broad scale of its land, sea and air reprisals since Thursday, April 7, was intended to remind Hamas and its allies, especially the Iranian-backed Jihad Islami, of the devastation wrought the enclave they rule by Israel's 2009 Cast Lead operation.
Source:
http://debka.com/article/20831/
Merkel: Germany will not recognize any unilaterally-declared Palestinian state.
Deutsche Welle, Germany 7 April 2011
Chancellor Angela Merkel has promised Israel Germany will not recognize any unilaterally-declared Palestinian state. Merkel spoke after meeting Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the peace process.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany would never recognize any Palestinian state if it were declared without Israel's acceptance. After talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Berlin on Thursday, Merkel said she supported a two-state solution, with Israel and a Palestinian state coexisting side by side. However, she added that this could only be acceptable to Germany if Israel itself recognized Palestinian independence. Palestinian officials have said they might declare statehood in September.
"When it comes to the question of recognizing a Palestinian state, I repeat again that Germany is working for there to be a two-state solution," said Merkel.
"Unilateral recognitions therefore definitely do not contribute to achieving this aim... This is our stance now and it will be our stance in September."
"There needs to be mutual recognition, otherwise it is not a two-state solution."
Plan to seek UN recognition of borders
The Palestinians have pledged to seek UN recognition of an independent state within borders established in 1967 - with east Jerusalem as its capital, despite Israel pressing ahead with controversial plans to build Jewish homes there. Netanyahu is on a diplomatic tour aimed at convincing western allies not to acknowledge the state.
Germany currently holds a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
Merkel, who referred to some "controversy" during the meeting, said that the talks had been "very friendly and very direct."
She added that restoring momentum back to the stalled Middle East peace process was "more pressing than ever."
Merkel's office has denied that the chancellor and Israeli prime minister had fallen out in a highly-charged telephone conversation in February, with Merkel accusing Netanyahu of failing to make progress on peace.
Jewish Federation is moving to The Caspe Terrace!
As of April 14, 2011, the offices of the Jewish Federation will be moving to The Caspe Terrace.
Our new address will be:
Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines
33158 Ute Avenue
Waukee, IA 50263-7538
Our new phone number, operative at some point, will be: 515 987-0899
Contact: jcrc@dmjfed.org
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Tactics of Hamas
"Immediately after the [Israeli school] bus was hit, militants in Gaza fired at least seven mortar rounds at the area, complicating efforts to evacuate the teenager and the bus driver, an AFP correspondent said.
By early evening, the army said at least 45 mortar rounds and rockets had slammed into southern Israel, one of which scored a direct hit on a house."
From Agence France-Presse http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/restofasia/Israel-pounds-Gaza-kills-3-after-missile-hits-bus/Article1-682513.aspx
----------
From Hamas. http://qassam.ps/news-4391-Al_Qassam_declares_responsibility_for_Kfar_Saad_operation.html
Gaza-Ezzedeen Al Qassam Briades (E.Q.B) the military wing of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas declared in a military communiqué released on Thursday April 7, 201l the full responsibility for the operation of targeting Israeli bus traveling in the nearby Israeli settlement of Kfar Sa'ad east of Gaza Strip.
The operation left two Israeli settlers injured, one of them was in a critical condition and evacuated by the Israeli medical crews to Soroka hospital.-----------------------------------
Note: To Hamas.... all Israel is a settlement. And all Israelis are 'settlers.' //Mark jcrc@dmjfed.org
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
JCPA welcomes Goldstone's ' reconsideration of his Report'
Statement from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, April 04, 2011:
JCPA Welcomes Reconsideration of Goldstone Conclusions
JCPA Welcomes Judge Goldstone’s Reconsideration of Report
The following is a statement from JCPA Chair Dr. Conrad Giles and JCPA President Rabbi Steve Gutow in response to last Friday’s Washington Post op-ed by Judge Richard Goldstone:
“We welcome Judge Goldstone’s disavowal of the 2009 UN Human Rights Council-sponsored Commission Report bearing his name. That Report examined Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza and the events leading up to it, including the firing by Hamas and other terrorist groups of thousands of rockets into Israeli population centers over a period of many years. His op-ed piece in the Washington Post underscores that Israel acted as we would expect any democracy to act, even when confronted with a ruthless adversary that targets Israeli civilians and uses its own civilians as human shields -- with an unwavering commitment to the rule of law and respect for life. Faced with insufficient evidence, Goldstone’s Report jumped to the conclusion that Israel had targeted civilians in the 2008-2009 confrontation with Hamas. Now, with additional information brought to the fore, Goldstone acknowledges that Israel, unlike Hamas, seeks to minimize civilian casualties. In fact, it was the Israeli Defense Force’s own in-depth investigations in the wake of Cast Lead that provided the clarity and perspective lacking in the Report, and prompted Judge Goldstone’s reconsideration of his previous conclusions. We hope that many of the people and groups that reflexively criticized Israel on the basis of the Report, will now join with Judge Goldstone in setting the record straight.”
Contact: contactus@thejcpa.org
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Peres meets with Obama, 4.5/11
Source: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4052715,00.html
WASHINGTON - President Shimon Peres met privately with US President Barack Obama on Tuesday and discussed with him recent developments in the Middle East, stalled peace talks with the Palestinians, the Iranian nuclear program and spy Jonathan Pollard. The two leaders later had lunch together.
Peres "has been a friend and partner with the United States for many administrations," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters ahead of the meeting.
After the meeting Peres told reporters his raised the Iranian issue during his meeting with Obama. He said Iran symbolizes the corruption of universal moral values. Peres noted that the US president reiterated his commitment to Israel's security which is at the top of the American administration's priorities.
Peres also mentioned that he asked Obama to pardon Jonathan Pollard ahead of Passover. He noted the president listened but that he didn't expect him to give an answer on the spot. The two also discussed the issue of Gilad Shalit.
Peres and Obama (Photo: EPA)
He added that Obama told him he was against the attempts to de-legitimize the State of Israel and that he is in favor of reigniting direct talks with the Palestinians.
Obama told reporters the two had an extensive discussion about unrest sweeping the Middle East and share a belief that it represents both a challenge and an opportunity. Obama said it's "more urgent than ever that we try to seize the opportunity to create a peaceful solution" between the Palestinians and Israelis.
In the three days preceding his departure to the US, Peres has been briefed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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On Monday, Peres
Monday, April 4, 2011
Ross: US opposed to Palestinian UN statehood declaration
Dennis Ross tells #ADL: US firmly opposed to PA seeking UN statehood declaration http://bit.ly/fwjRLA
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Horovitz on Goldstone's repudiation of his Gaza Report
Soft-headed Goldstone now senses the whole process was biased to condemn Israel from the start. This is a tragedy because those who were convinced by the Report that Israelis/Jews were monsters -- Nazis -- will not easily rid themselves of such images. --Mark
Goldstone the belated penitent
By DAVID HOROVITZ
04/02/2011 http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=214866
By DAVID HOROVITZ
04/02/2011 http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=214866
"By alleging, unfoundedly, that we were an immoral enemy, the sanctimonious judge put all [Israeli] lives at greater risk."
Friday, April 1, 2011
Why Facebook took down the 3rd Intifada page
Why Facebook took down the '3rd Intifada' page, calling on people to launch a Third Palestinian intifada against Israel.
Richard Allen, Facebook’s director of policy for Europe, the Middle East and Asia:
“Our reviewers felt that the content of the Page began as a call for peaceful protest, even though the term Intifada has been associated with violence in the past. In addition, the administrators initially removed comments that promoted violence. Under these conditions a Page of this nature would normally be permitted to remain on Facebook.
“However, after the publicity of the Page more comments deteriorated to direct calls for violence. Eventually, the administrators also participated in these calls .After administrators of the page received repeated warnings about posts that violated our policies, we removed the Page yesterday.”
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