Hamas leader Mash'al to meet with Jimmy Carter in mid-April, Palestinian sources say Date: 08 / 04 / 2008
Bethlehem – Ma'an – A plan is coalescing to arrange a meeting between exiled senior Hamas leader Khalid Mash'al and former US President Jimmy Carter in Damascus on 18 April, Palestinian sources told the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat on Tuesday.According to Al-Hayat, Carter's aides will arrive in Syria soon to make arrangements for the meeting.If the meeting is held, Carter will become the highest-ranking American official ever to publicly meet with Hamas leaders. Hamas officials did meet with representatives of President Bill Clinton's administration in the 1990s.During the proposed meeting, Carter will be presented as the chair of the Carter Center, rather than as a former US president. A Hamas official said that that the meeting would show that Hamas is a power that can't be ignored in addressing the Palestinian question. [Hat tip/ israellycool.com]
Victims of April 1948 Hadassah massacre to be memorialized [aggregated from solomonia.com]
What, you've heard of Sabra and Shatila, Deir Yassin, but not this? It's just one of many such incidents...
A street will be named in memory of Dr. Haim Yassky, the director-general of the Hadassah Medical Organization who led an ill-fated supply convoy to Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus 60 years ago.
In April 1948, the medical convoy was attacked by Arabs and 80 people - 79 Jews and a British soldier - were killed. Memorial events will be held on Wednesday.
The massacre - announced by the Arab League and instigated and planned in part by the Grand Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini, aiming for the ethnic cleansing of the Jews of Jerusalem and Palestine - included ambushes, sniper fire and shelling, and was accompanied by a blockade of Jerusalem that resulted in near starvation, and invasion by armies of the Arab states.
In the convoy massacre, 80 people - mostly civilians, including doctors and nurses - were murdered while trying to bring medical supplies and personnel to Hadassah Hospital, which had been cut off. The massacre was a gross violation of international military conventions and human rights. According to documents in the hands of Hadassah, British mandatory personnel cooperated and participated in it. No one was ever prosecuted, and British collaborators were never investigated...
Iran Starts to Install 6,000 Advanced Centrifuges - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday Iran had started to install 6,000 advanced centrifuges in its underground Natanz uranium enrichment facility. (Reuters)
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Monday, April 7, 2008
Faith in Israel: John Deere buys Israeli company, Plastro
Avi Shauly / Globes - February 10, 2008
John Deere & Company has signed a contract to acquire Plastro Irrigation Systems Ltd. from Kibbutz Gvat at a company value of NIS 265 million. The kibbutz owns 75.1% of the company through Gvat Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperative Business Ltd. Under the initial agreement from July 2007, John Deere will extend a loan to Plastro. Plastro will use the loan to buy back all its securities held by the public and delist the company from the TASE. John Deere is paying NIS 13.60 per share for Plastro, which closed at NIS 12.92 on Thursday. John Deere has undertaken to keep Plastro open and employ Kibbutz Gvat members at the company for 15 years. Each kibbutz member will sign a personal job contract with John Deere. Kibbutz Gvat will cease receiving management fees for Plastro in exchange for an annual payment of $1.3 million over ten years for a non-competition agreement. (hat tip/ Allan Ross)
Residents of an Israeli-Arab village painted their mosque blue and white in honor of the Jewish state's 60th anniversary.
Breaking with many Israeli Arabs who have declared they will boycott next month's celebrations, residents of A-Taibe in the Gilboa region have painted the dome of their mosque in the national colors.
"We are citizens of the State of Israel," village elder Hisham Zouabi, explained to the daily newspaper Ma'ariv. "For us religion encourages us to bring nations together. The goal is simple: coexistence. A Jew who comes here should not feel that the place is hostile but like home."
A-Taibe has approximately 2,000 residents and reports excellent relations with nearby Jewish communities. (JTA)
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Olmert and Abbas met Menday afternoon. I'm looking for independent confirmation, however, if, as Debka.com speculates, Fatah and Hamas have reached an agreement, which would impact on how the PA will relate to negotiations with Israel. The report is at http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5170
Hagee: We don't tell Israelis what to do Christian Zionist rebuffs Reform rabbi's criticism over statements urging retention of W. Bank territory.
Avi Shauly / Globes - February 10, 2008
John Deere & Company has signed a contract to acquire Plastro Irrigation Systems Ltd. from Kibbutz Gvat at a company value of NIS 265 million. The kibbutz owns 75.1% of the company through Gvat Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperative Business Ltd. Under the initial agreement from July 2007, John Deere will extend a loan to Plastro. Plastro will use the loan to buy back all its securities held by the public and delist the company from the TASE. John Deere is paying NIS 13.60 per share for Plastro, which closed at NIS 12.92 on Thursday. John Deere has undertaken to keep Plastro open and employ Kibbutz Gvat members at the company for 15 years. Each kibbutz member will sign a personal job contract with John Deere. Kibbutz Gvat will cease receiving management fees for Plastro in exchange for an annual payment of $1.3 million over ten years for a non-competition agreement. (hat tip/ Allan Ross)
Residents of an Israeli-Arab village painted their mosque blue and white in honor of the Jewish state's 60th anniversary.
Breaking with many Israeli Arabs who have declared they will boycott next month's celebrations, residents of A-Taibe in the Gilboa region have painted the dome of their mosque in the national colors.
"We are citizens of the State of Israel," village elder Hisham Zouabi, explained to the daily newspaper Ma'ariv. "For us religion encourages us to bring nations together. The goal is simple: coexistence. A Jew who comes here should not feel that the place is hostile but like home."
A-Taibe has approximately 2,000 residents and reports excellent relations with nearby Jewish communities. (JTA)
--------
Olmert and Abbas met Menday afternoon. I'm looking for independent confirmation, however, if, as Debka.com speculates, Fatah and Hamas have reached an agreement, which would impact on how the PA will relate to negotiations with Israel. The report is at http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5170
Hagee: We don't tell Israelis what to do Christian Zionist rebuffs Reform rabbi's criticism over statements urging retention of W. Bank territory.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Perceptive blogger on the "Truce"
You can't beat Meryl Yourish for covering the matzav. Here's her synopsis for today:
Meanwhile, in more truce news Posted on April 2nd, 2008 at 7:00 am by Meryl Yourish.
Let’s take a look at how the “truce” is going, shall we?
Mortars: Check.
Two residents of the western Negev neighborhood of Netiv Ha’asara were lightly wounded Tuesday morning by mortar fire from the Gaza Strip. The two were taken to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon for further treatment. One of the shells hit a house that had been damaged by a previous mortar attack several months ago.
Earlier, five mortar shells fired from northern Gaza landed near the perimeter fence in the Kissufim area. There were no reports of wounded or damage.
Planning terror attacks: Check.
Meanwhile, the IDF announced that in a joint operation with the Shin Ben (Israel Security Agency) on February 25, Muhamad Kassem, a Hamas operative who was planning an attack on IDF soldiers, was arrested.
Firebombing Israeli civilians: Check.
An Israeli vehicle was damaged Tuesday night when it was struck by a Molotov cocktail thrown by Palestinians southwest of Bethlehem.
Fighting terrorists in Gaza: Check.
Two Hamas gunmen were killed Tuesday morning during exchanges of fire with IDF forces who conducted a pre-dawn raid near the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza City, Palestinian sources reported.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops shot the two Palestinian militants, who were later identified as Abdullah el-Luch and Yehia Burak, as the army conducted a ground assault against what she called ‘terror infrastructure’ in the Hamas-controlled territory.
Anti-Israel stories from the AP: Check. Check. Check. Aaaand: Check.
AP stories covering the [bad stuff:] mortars, firebombings, shootings, and stabbings occurring during the “truce”: Zero.
Meanwhile, in more truce news Posted on April 2nd, 2008 at 7:00 am by Meryl Yourish.
Let’s take a look at how the “truce” is going, shall we?
Mortars: Check.
Two residents of the western Negev neighborhood of Netiv Ha’asara were lightly wounded Tuesday morning by mortar fire from the Gaza Strip. The two were taken to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon for further treatment. One of the shells hit a house that had been damaged by a previous mortar attack several months ago.
Earlier, five mortar shells fired from northern Gaza landed near the perimeter fence in the Kissufim area. There were no reports of wounded or damage.
Planning terror attacks: Check.
Meanwhile, the IDF announced that in a joint operation with the Shin Ben (Israel Security Agency) on February 25, Muhamad Kassem, a Hamas operative who was planning an attack on IDF soldiers, was arrested.
Firebombing Israeli civilians: Check.
An Israeli vehicle was damaged Tuesday night when it was struck by a Molotov cocktail thrown by Palestinians southwest of Bethlehem.
Fighting terrorists in Gaza: Check.
Two Hamas gunmen were killed Tuesday morning during exchanges of fire with IDF forces who conducted a pre-dawn raid near the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza City, Palestinian sources reported.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops shot the two Palestinian militants, who were later identified as Abdullah el-Luch and Yehia Burak, as the army conducted a ground assault against what she called ‘terror infrastructure’ in the Hamas-controlled territory.
Anti-Israel stories from the AP: Check. Check. Check. Aaaand: Check.
AP stories covering the [bad stuff:] mortars, firebombings, shootings, and stabbings occurring during the “truce”: Zero.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
A new dynamic?
Anti-Israel rhetoric of Sabeel questioned by some Jewish peace activists
From CAMERA.org
Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center has proven particularly adept at enlisting American and Israeli Jews in its campaign to demonize Israel. ...There are signs, however, that some Jewish peace activists are starting to wonder about [Sabeel's] agenda and rhetoric.
For example, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, a long time critic of Israel who spoke at Old South Church in Boston on October 28, 2008, after the church hosted a controversial Sabeel event in its building. During his presentation, Rabbi Waskow challenged Sabeel’s support for the Palestinian right of return, which he explained would undermine Israel’s existence as a Jewish State – which, in other venues, Rev. Dr. Ateek has refused to accept.
Whether Sabeel understands it or not, that attacks the sense of Israelis and Jews elsewhere in the world of what it means to have a two-state solution altogether. As people have said, “What’s the point of having two Palestinian states alongside each other?
So, if there is to be a state which in fact has a special relationship to Jewish history and to the Jewish people and to an attempt to generate out of Jewish values what statehood means then it isn’t going to be a state flooded with and whose majority ends up being people who don’t share those values.
Rabbi Waskow then challenged Sabeel’s use of deicide imagery and called on Christians to do the same.
Then there's another aspect of Sabeel's view of the world which I think is even more scary to many, many, many Jews and that is something I understand very well coming out of a Christian view of liberation theology. I have both taught and met with and so on leaders of Christian liberation theology in Latin America and when Latin American Christian liberation theologians and folks appeal to the history of what became Christianity under the thumb of the Roman empire and talk about the crucifixion of Jesus by the roman empire ... and from their view point of course the resurrection of the Christ as teaching of what it means to transcend imperial power, in the Latin American context it's clear that the empire you're talking about is America and it makes sense.
I understand that to Sabeel to talk about the crucifixion of Jesus seems on the surface like that’s the same thing, but when you are doing it in the context of a Jewish state, when you're doing it in the context of 2000 years of Jewish suffering from the Christian dogma of deicide that the Jews killed God and the violence that has been visited on the Jewish community by people upholding that theology, to hear that strikes a nerve that has 2000 years of pain behind it and that has to be heard.
The pain has to be heard. And if Jews can't explain it to Sabeel because it will look like and maybe it is self-defensive for me even to say it, then I think that Christians have to try to say it that there needs to be in that situation there needs to be a different metaphor a different language a different way of drawing on Christian liberation theology.
From CAMERA.org
Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center has proven particularly adept at enlisting American and Israeli Jews in its campaign to demonize Israel. ...There are signs, however, that some Jewish peace activists are starting to wonder about [Sabeel's] agenda and rhetoric.
For example, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, a long time critic of Israel who spoke at Old South Church in Boston on October 28, 2008, after the church hosted a controversial Sabeel event in its building. During his presentation, Rabbi Waskow challenged Sabeel’s support for the Palestinian right of return, which he explained would undermine Israel’s existence as a Jewish State – which, in other venues, Rev. Dr. Ateek has refused to accept.
Whether Sabeel understands it or not, that attacks the sense of Israelis and Jews elsewhere in the world of what it means to have a two-state solution altogether. As people have said, “What’s the point of having two Palestinian states alongside each other?
So, if there is to be a state which in fact has a special relationship to Jewish history and to the Jewish people and to an attempt to generate out of Jewish values what statehood means then it isn’t going to be a state flooded with and whose majority ends up being people who don’t share those values.
Rabbi Waskow then challenged Sabeel’s use of deicide imagery and called on Christians to do the same.
Then there's another aspect of Sabeel's view of the world which I think is even more scary to many, many, many Jews and that is something I understand very well coming out of a Christian view of liberation theology. I have both taught and met with and so on leaders of Christian liberation theology in Latin America and when Latin American Christian liberation theologians and folks appeal to the history of what became Christianity under the thumb of the Roman empire and talk about the crucifixion of Jesus by the roman empire ... and from their view point of course the resurrection of the Christ as teaching of what it means to transcend imperial power, in the Latin American context it's clear that the empire you're talking about is America and it makes sense.
I understand that to Sabeel to talk about the crucifixion of Jesus seems on the surface like that’s the same thing, but when you are doing it in the context of a Jewish state, when you're doing it in the context of 2000 years of Jewish suffering from the Christian dogma of deicide that the Jews killed God and the violence that has been visited on the Jewish community by people upholding that theology, to hear that strikes a nerve that has 2000 years of pain behind it and that has to be heard.
The pain has to be heard. And if Jews can't explain it to Sabeel because it will look like and maybe it is self-defensive for me even to say it, then I think that Christians have to try to say it that there needs to be in that situation there needs to be a different metaphor a different language a different way of drawing on Christian liberation theology.
Monday, March 31, 2008
How to read the AP
aggregated from www.Israellycool.com
AP cutline accompanying a picture. "The body of a Palestinian is seen, following a knife incident in the West Bank settlement of Shilo, near Nablus, Monday, March 31, 2008. In West Bank violence Monday, a Palestinian who tried to stab Israeli hitchhikers near a Jewish settlement was shot and killed by an armed Israeli civilian, Israeli police said. One of the hitchhikers opened fire after the Palestinian pulled a knife, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, calling the shooting self-defense." (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
Israellycool translates key parts of the caption:
Knife “incident” = terror attack perpetrated with a knife
“West Bank violence” = terror attack perpetrated by a palestinian
“Pulled a knife” = pulled out a knife to kill
And the cherry on top is the last part of the caption when Muheisen mentions the police spokesman “calling the shooting self-defense.” As if it was something else.
AP cutline accompanying a picture. "The body of a Palestinian is seen, following a knife incident in the West Bank settlement of Shilo, near Nablus, Monday, March 31, 2008. In West Bank violence Monday, a Palestinian who tried to stab Israeli hitchhikers near a Jewish settlement was shot and killed by an armed Israeli civilian, Israeli police said. One of the hitchhikers opened fire after the Palestinian pulled a knife, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, calling the shooting self-defense." (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
Israellycool translates key parts of the caption:
Knife “incident” = terror attack perpetrated with a knife
“West Bank violence” = terror attack perpetrated by a palestinian
“Pulled a knife” = pulled out a knife to kill
And the cherry on top is the last part of the caption when Muheisen mentions the police spokesman “calling the shooting self-defense.” As if it was something else.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Unilateral concessions made for Sec. State Rice.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that the U.S. would be following up on Israel's activities in the West Bank to verify if it was implementing its promises to ease access and movement for the Palestinian population.
Palestinians claim to hit Kiryat Gat, 30 km from Gaza, with missile. (See Google's automatic translation from Arabic.) H/t Elder of Zion
Kissinger: U.S. public still committed to Israel. "The partnership is changing because the conditions are changing," Kissinger told The Jerusalem Post over the weekend. "In the early years it was a question of states interacting with each other, and now it is part of a whole global situation." But these changes, Kissinger said, had not weakened America's conviction that support for Israel is in the American national interest. "I think the relationship remains essential," said Kissinger. "I think there is a fundamental conviction that the security of Israel is in the American national interest. That has not changed."
US peace advisor Miller's book published. Miller disagrees with Mearsheimer/Walt; advocates pressuring Israel
[Aaron David Miller worked for 6 U.S. Secretaries of State on Israeli-Arab negotiations before leaving the State Department in 2003. His book, "The Much Too Promised Land," has just been published.]
At a lecture in Washington this past week coinciding with the publication of his book, Miller went so far as to take Walt and Mearsheimer to task for quoting him in support of their argument that pro-Israel minions had hijacked America's Middle East policy.
Miller describes an "unshakable" American bond with Israel based on common values, cultural identification and shared strategic perspectives post September 11 which has been nurtured rather than created by pro-Israel groups like AIPAC and Christians United for Israel. "There's no conspiracy here," he said. ..
Miller describes an "unshakable" American bond with Israel based on common values, cultural identification and shared strategic perspectives post September 11 which has been nurtured rather than created by pro-Israel groups like AIPAC and Christians United for Israel. "There's no conspiracy here," he said. ..
He argued that [Israel's] trust [ in the U.S. administrations] actually allows America to pressure Israel more effectively to make the concessions essential to a peace deal and urged the US to take advantage of that position.
Israel facing genocidal terror, argue medical researchers
Over the past few years, Richter and Tulchinsky have concluded that the terror groups headed by Hamas are waging a campaign of "genocidal terror" against Israel and that their actions meet the criteria established by the UN in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. ...
According to Richter and Tulchinsky, the overwhelmingly disproportionate criticism of Israel by the UN, international human rights organizations and the media constitute "an upscale variant of classical anti-Semitism. This trend seems to apply different standards to the value of life of Israelis and Palestinians and attributes the problems of the latter exclusively to the barriers, curfews and checkpoints and not to failures of the Palestinian leadership in taking charge of its own society."
Friday, March 28, 2008
Which way toward peace?
Speculations on the endgame [aggregated from jpundit.blogspot.com Jewish Current Issues]
[a leading Zionist think tank, the Re’ut Institute's], President Gidi Grinstein believes that if and when Israel and the Palestinian Authority sign a formal peace plan, the potential for major violence would be heightened, not diminished. . .
But David Makovsky, a Mideast expert who is senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, cautions against putting the brakes on the current peace talks. . . . His concern is that if the talks were to end . . . Hamas would take over the West Bank, paving the way for untold bloodshed and a one-state solution. . . .
A Shelf Agreement in Our Time
David M. Weinberg, Director of Public Affairs for the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, has published an extraordinarily perceptive analysis of the current “peace process” -- BESA Perspective Paper No. 40, “Shelve the Shelf Agreement.”
Here is [part of] the Executive Summary:
The newfangled "shelf agreement" concept which now serves as the basis for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians is unworkable. The concept has no foundation in negotiation theory, especially in the history of Arab-Israeli negotiations.
It incautiously assumes best case scenarios regarding the Palestinians which have no basis in reality; when in fact a durable "final status" agreement must anticipate all worst case scenarios. .... A performance-based peace process remains the only sustainable model towards a durable final settlement.
[H]ow can Israel, for example, sign a sustainable endgame shelf agreement with workable border crossing arrangements if it does not know the character or capabilities of the future Palestinian entity – and all it can do is assume the "nice" qualities of such?
...To simply assume – as the current negotiations do – that the planned Palestinian state will have outstanding, professional, loyal and determined anti-terror fighting convictions, is to flirt with folly. ...
Israel is seeking to will into existence a "moderate, stable, capable and democratic" Palestinian government – that does not yet have a foothold even in the in West Bank, not to mention Gaza. "
Tomorrow Rice travels to Israel for her 14th trip since October 2006 to push Israel into a final status agreement with an entity unable to fulfill even the agreements it has already made.
[a leading Zionist think tank, the Re’ut Institute's], President Gidi Grinstein believes that if and when Israel and the Palestinian Authority sign a formal peace plan, the potential for major violence would be heightened, not diminished. . .
But David Makovsky, a Mideast expert who is senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, cautions against putting the brakes on the current peace talks. . . . His concern is that if the talks were to end . . . Hamas would take over the West Bank, paving the way for untold bloodshed and a one-state solution. . . .
A Shelf Agreement in Our Time
David M. Weinberg, Director of Public Affairs for the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, has published an extraordinarily perceptive analysis of the current “peace process” -- BESA Perspective Paper No. 40, “Shelve the Shelf Agreement.”
Here is [part of] the Executive Summary:
The newfangled "shelf agreement" concept which now serves as the basis for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians is unworkable. The concept has no foundation in negotiation theory, especially in the history of Arab-Israeli negotiations.
It incautiously assumes best case scenarios regarding the Palestinians which have no basis in reality; when in fact a durable "final status" agreement must anticipate all worst case scenarios. .... A performance-based peace process remains the only sustainable model towards a durable final settlement.
[H]ow can Israel, for example, sign a sustainable endgame shelf agreement with workable border crossing arrangements if it does not know the character or capabilities of the future Palestinian entity – and all it can do is assume the "nice" qualities of such?
...To simply assume – as the current negotiations do – that the planned Palestinian state will have outstanding, professional, loyal and determined anti-terror fighting convictions, is to flirt with folly. ...
Israel is seeking to will into existence a "moderate, stable, capable and democratic" Palestinian government – that does not yet have a foothold even in the in West Bank, not to mention Gaza. "
Tomorrow Rice travels to Israel for her 14th trip since October 2006 to push Israel into a final status agreement with an entity unable to fulfill even the agreements it has already made.
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