Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumBreakthrough made in Gaza truce talks
Keep hope alive.An important breakthrough has emerged in indirect Palestinian-Israeli negotiations on a durable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a source in Islamic Hamas movement said on Monday.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that the new development might lead to the announcement of a ceasefire deal within the next few hours.
According to the source, intensive contacts are being made between Egypt, which mediates the negotiations, and Hamas leaders in Qatar. "The announcement will be declared by the Egyptian foreign ministry," the source said.
The source did not elaborate, but added that the deal goes in line with the Palestinians' demands which were presented recently to Egypt after the collapse of the last round of talks.
http://www.china.org.cn/world/2014-08/25/content_33326747.htm
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bemildred
(90,061 posts)RAMALLAH, West Bank — Aides to the Palestinian president said Sunday that he will soon appeal to the international community to set a deadline for Israel to end its occupation of lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war and make way for an independent Palestinian state.
President Mahmoud Abbas was expected to unveil his proposal as part of a "day after" plan following the current war in the Gaza Strip, likely at a meeting of the Palestinian leadership on Tuesday, said the aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not yet been made public.
Abbas is plotting his move even as the fighting continues to rage. Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warned Sunday that the 7-week-old military campaign in Gaza would stretch into September — despite growing anger among residents in southern Israel over the military's inability to halt rocket and mortar fire out of the Palestinian territory following the death of a 4-year-old Israeli boy over the weekend.
In new fighting Sunday, the Israeli air force flattened a seven-floor office building and severely damaged a shopping center in southern Gaza, signaling a new escalation.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2014/aug/24/palestinian-president-prepares-new-un-appeal/
bemildred
(90,061 posts)At the Ashkelon factory of Israeli mattress manufacturer Polyron, the sirens set off by militant rocket fire from the Gaza Strip just 8 kilometers (5 miles) to the south are taking a toll.
“Instead of doing 100 mattresses, you do 50 or 60, having to run five or six times a day to the bomb shelter,” said marketing executive Alon Zimmerman. As a result, sales in July plunged by a third from the same month in 2013, a shortfall Zimmerman estimates will take a year to make up.
While businesses close to Gaza have been hurt worst by Israel’s seven-week battle with Hamas and other Palestinian militants groups, the fighting has also deterred tourists and dented consumer spending nationwide. An indicator gauging sentiment among corporate purchasing managers showed economic activity contracted in July for the second month.
Unlike previous conflicts with Hamas or Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, Israel entered the fighting in Gaza with an economy already losing momentum: growth slowed in the second quarter as exports slumped due to a strong shekel. The central bank has already cut its benchmark interest rate to a five-year low, leaving policy makers with less leverage to spur growth and tame the currency. All 20 economists in a Bloomberg survey forecast the bank will hold the rate at 0.5 percent today.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-24/gaza-war-risks-pushing-slowing-israeli-economy-into-contraction.html
shaayecanaan
(6,068 posts)The Israeli parliament's Finance Committee approved the transfer of NIS 3.8 billion ($1.1 billion) to the Israeli Defence Ministry following calls over the past month for raising the defence and security budgets, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported.
Palestine Online news website cites a statement issued by Israel's Finance Ministry on Wednesday, 13 August saying that the additional money allocated to the military's budget was taken from funds that had been allocated for public and safety services like transportation, water development and distribution, and earthquake preparations.
The news website also reported that the Finance Ministry would immediately transfer NIS 1 billion ($3.3 million) to the Defence Ministry, while the remaining funds would be pumped into the military budget in the coming years.
The Knesset's Finance Committee approved an increase in Israel's security and military budgets after having rejected an earlier budget request by Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon several months ago. Haaretz reported that the committee debate was heated, with one MK being forcefully removed, but due to the current Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, the funds were eventually approved by a margin of three votes.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/13488-knesset-approves-transfer-of-11-billion-to-israeli-military
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)Ya’alon said that though last year he believed budget cuts were necessary in order to deal with the country’s economic crisis, he has recently found that Israel was financially stable and thinks there is no reason to risk the country’s security by cutting back on IDF funding, Israel Radio reported.
Ya’alon’s remarks were apparently given as a reply to accusations that he had managed the IDF’s budget in a wasteful manner over the past three years.
On Tuesday, former IDF chief of staff Shaul Mofaz claimed Ya’alon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the entire security cabinet were all responsible for the IDF’s current financial state, as they had failed to agree upon a multi-year budget plan, Israel Radio reported.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/yaalon-cuts-may-leave-idf-without-crucial-defense-system/#ixzz3BOQdgWMs
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Such a coincidence.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Senior Palestinian officials believe that Israel and Palestinian factions are likely to agree to a cease-fire in Gaza in a matter of hours. Both sides have yet to make an official statement.
The deaths of a mother and her four children in an air strike on Sunday marked the 89th Gazan family to be wiped out in Operation Protective Edge, Gazan officials said Sunday, as the Air Force continued its escalation in the face of another day of 100-plus rocket and mortar shell attacks from Gaza on Israeli border communities.
Ahead of a cabinet meeting at the Israel Defense Forces headquarters in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation in Gaza would continue until its goals were reached. “I call on the inhabitants of Gaza to vacate immediately every site from which Hamas is carrying out terrorist activity. Every one of these places is a target for us,” he said.
The ramping up of Israeli air attacks alongside Hamas’ concentrated assaults on the Gazan border communities came as four-year-old Daniel Tragerman, killed by a mortar shell on Friday in his Kibbutz Nahal Oz home, was laid to rest. He was the fourth Israeli civilian killed in the war; 64 soldiers have been killed.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.612288
bemildred
(90,061 posts)THE hostilities in Gaza between Israel and Hamas persist and the diplomatic war at the United Nations continues, also without resolution. While there is no shortage of opinions on the way forward, the most obvious solution is strikingly absent — the need to disarm and isolate Hamas, the radical Palestinian Islamist group.
Since Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, Hamas has dragged us into three rounds of major assaults, and more than 14,800 rockets have been fired into Israel by the group or its proxies. The discovery of dozens of tunnels packed with explosives, tranquilizers and handcuffs that end at the doorsteps of Israeli communities should be enough to convince anyone that Hamas has no interest in bringing quiet to Gaza or residing alongside Israel in peace.
It says a great deal that Hamas’s former Arab backers, which historically have included Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia, long ago abandoned the terrorist group. Only a few nations still stand by Hamas. Among the most prominent is the tiny Persian Gulf emirate Qatar.
In recent years, the sheikhs of Doha, Qatar’s capital, have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza. Every one of Hamas’s tunnels and rockets might as well have had a sign that read “Made possible through a kind donation from the emir of Qatar.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/25/opinion/qatar-club-med-for-terrorists.html
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Israel has not launched a full-court diplomatic campaign against Qatar for aiding and abetting terrorism because of concern that the closeness of US-Qatar ties would render such a campaign futile, according to a senior diplomatic official.
The official's comments came a day after the New York Times published an op-ed piece by Israel's ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor calling Qatar the “Club Med for Terrorists.”
“In recent years, the sheikhs of Doha, Qatar’s capital, have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza,” Prosor wrote. “Every one of Hamas’s tunnels and rockets might as well have had a sign that read ‘Made possible through a kind donation from the emir of Qatar’.”
Even though that is the case, and even as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continues to raise Qatar's negative role in private meetings with US Congressman and world leaders, the senior diplomatic official said that there is no concerted campaign that has been accompanied by directives to Israel's representatives abroad to underline Qatar's singularly negative role in supporting terrorism and in the Gaza crisis.
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Qatars-ties-with-US-deterring-Israel-from-all-out-diplomatic-offensive-official-says-372262
bemildred
(90,061 posts)And Kerry going for the Qatar/Turkey cease-fire plan a while back. And Qatar just brokered the release of that Reporter held for two years. I think those facts explain why Prosor took out after Qatar now, and the fact that Gaza has become so expensive already for Bibi, and he has to end it soon.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)GAZA, Aug 25 (Bernama) -- Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza Strip has prevented around half a million school children in the coastal enclave from attending school, Xinhua news agency reports.
Minister of Education Khawla Shakhshir in the unity government said that "as soon as the Israel's war ends, school will start".
The United Nations for Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza on Sunday carried out symbolic activities reflecting what would normally be the opening of the new school year at several of its schools.
The bell rang early Sunday morning as hundreds of Palestinian children stood in lines for morning assembly.
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v7/wn/newsworld.php?id=1063040
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal threatened on Sunday that his group will not only continue attacking Israel from Gaza, but will also launch attacks from Judea and Samaria as well.
In an interview with Iranian media, Mashaal claimed that Gaza has been under attack for fifty days but was able to disrupt the plans of the "Zionists".
He further claimed that the Palestinian Arab side had offered a ceasefire but Israel made verbal maneuvers in order to avoid agreeing to it.
Mashaal reiterated the Palestinian side's conditions for a ceasefire, including the lifting of the blockade, full opening of border crossings, construction of a seaport and airport, transfer of funds to and from Gaza, the passage of goods and people between Gaza and Judea and Samaria, releasing Palestinian Arabs who were released in the Shalit deal and re-arrested, and for Israel not to interfere with the operations of the national unity government between Hamas and Fatah.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/184378
intaglio
(8,170 posts)shaayecanaan
(6,068 posts)Saying senior Palestinians. Officials pointing to permanent cease fire within hours
bemildred
(90,061 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)In the aftermath of the latest Gaza conflict, long-time missile defense critic Theodore Postol has repeated his assertions that the Rafael Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system is ineffective, missing 95 percent or more of its targets, contrary to Israeli claims that “the 84 percent success rate achieved in the Gaza war of 2012 has improved to 90 percent in the current conflict.” Despite the fact that the rockets have indisputably caused little damage on the ground, Postol accuses the Israeli government of “extended deception.”
Postol’s most recent piece can be found here. The core of his argument is that the Tamir interceptor missile will not destroy the warhead of an incoming rocket except in a narrowly defined engagement geometry:
Postol cites photography of contrails from Iron Dome intercepts that, he says, shows that “most of the system's interceptors have either been chasing Hamas rockets from behind or engaging those rockets from the side.” Therefore, he argues, the system cannot work, and he credits better warning rather than active defense with Israel’s low casualties.
http://aviationweek.com/blog/iron-dome-are-critics-target
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Strategically speaking, the Iron Dome antimissile shield, precisely because of its effectiveness, has been disastrous for Israel: It has saved Hamas from destruction and it has helped to seriously undermine Israel's image as a civilized state in the eyes of many in the West.
During the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, Iron Dome has efficiently protected Israel from massive damage and casualties. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the other terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip had launched 2,648 rockets against Israel, and that was before a temporary cease-fire was broken last week. Most fell in empty fields. The 600-odd rockets that had accurately targeted towns and villages were almost all successfully intercepted by Iron Dome's Tamir missiles - a nearly 90 percent success rate, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
The civilian death toll in Israel consisted of only two citizens and a Thai guest worker. Had there been no Iron Dome, dozens, perhaps hundreds, of civilians would have been killed; buildings would have fallen. Civilian Israel would have ground to a halt.
No Israeli government could withstand the public pressure that this would have unleashed: The government would have been forced to quickly launch a massive ground invasion of Gaza, which would have been the only way to bring the rocket barrage to a halt. As it is, the Israeli air campaign and a limited ground invasion have failed to halt the rockets.
http://www.islandpacket.com/2014/08/25/3275042_israel-and-the-us-may-want-to.html?rh=1
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)reputation. Not saying he is necessarily correct, but he is not known as a tool for the MIC, that
I am aware of anyway.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Nevertheless, none of the proponents of the system can be expected to be candid in their assessments either.
Postol's argument is certainly subject to dispute, but I've seen no direct refutation of it either.
Benny's argument about costs is more interesting, to me, that Hamas/Hezbollah can backrupt the Israeli government by firing cheap rockets, a point I think we discussed before.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)Come on now.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Last edited Mon Aug 25, 2014, 10:38 AM - Edit history (1)
I notice it all the time, the fondness for plays on words in headlines. People don't even seem to notice it much.
shaayecanaan
(6,068 posts)he only counts it as a success if the warhead is destroyed, which is very narrow. If a rocket is grounded before it reaches its target, it is arguably still successful in some sense.
There is also some commercial rivalry here, as others have pointed out.
But the claimed success rates (90%) are ridiculously high, and there is no doubt that other matters have contributed to the low casualties from rockets this time around.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)GAZA, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES—Fighting between Israel and Gaza militants raged on Monday despite claims of new cease-fire efforts as hundreds of Israelis living in communities near the coastal strip were fleeing their homes following a deadly mortar attack over the weekend.
The Israeli Defence Ministry said it is helping anxious Israelis leave homes close to the war zone in what is effectively the government’s first large-scale voluntary evacuation effort in the nearly eight weeks of fighting.
There has so far been no end in sight to the war, which has already killed more than 2,100 Palestinians since the fighting erupted on July 8. On the Israeli side, 68 people have been killed, all but four of them soldiers. At least seven Palestinians were reported killed in new airstrikes Monday, and at least 60 rockets were fired from Gaza onto Israel.
The latest escalation in the conflict erupted last week after a six-day temporary truce collapsed. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said there were new efforts underway Monday to reach an extended cease-fire agreement, but neither side seemed to be easing its attacks.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/08/25/gaza_fighting_claims_7_as_israelis_flee_mortar_attacks.html
bemildred
(90,061 posts)The Bank of Israel unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate for a second straight month to a record, in an attempt to boost an economy hit by slowing exports and the seven-week war in Gaza.
The shekel weakened and stocks in Tel Aviv climbed after the Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Karnit Flug, reduced the rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 0.25 percent. All 21 economists in a Bloomberg survey had expected the panel to keep the rate unchanged after last month’s surprise reduction.
Businesses close to Gaza have been most affected by Israel’s war with Hamas and other Palestinian militants groups. The fighting has also deterred tourists and dented consumer spending. Unlike previous conflicts with Hamas or Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, Israel entered the fighting in Gaza with an economy already losing momentum: Growth slowed in the second quarter as exports slumped due to a strong shekel.
While available data isn’t enough to assess the effect of the conflict on economic output, the fighting “occurs against the background of a slowdown in growth of the economy, and an environment of low economic growth worldwide,” the bank said in its statement announcing the rate decision.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-25/bank-of-israel-unexpectedly-cuts-interest-rate-for-second-month.html
bemildred
(90,061 posts)State-owned Israel Electric Corp. has informed the Palestinian Authority that it will halt work on building new substations in the West Bank unless it is paid for work that has already been completed, IEC said on Sunday.
The four substations in Tarkumiye, Jenin, Ramallah and Nablus are due to link up with the existing distribution network.
IEC said that it is owed millions of dollars for the work that has already been completed. The utility has given the Palestinian Authority until Thursday to transfer the payment.
The latest demand is separate from the legal battle IEC is conducting against the Palestinian Authority and the Jerusalem District Electric Company, or JDECO, for non-payment of electricity supplies. IEC has taken the Palestinian Authority and JDECO to court to recover $400 million it is owed for electricity supplies.
http://www.platts.com/latest-news/electric-power/jerusalem/israel-electric-demands-payment-for-infrastructure-21120174
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Tehran will "accelerate" arming Palestinians in retaliation for Israel deploying a spy drone over Iran, which was shot down, a military commander said today.
Iran, which does not recognise the existence of Israel, has confirmed it supplied Palestinian fighters from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad with the technology for the rockets being fired relentlessly into Israel from Gaza since July 8.
"We will accelerate the arming of the West Bank and we reserve the right to give any response," said General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, commander of aerial forces of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, in a statement on their official website sepahnews.com.
Last month, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the Islamic world to arm Palestinians to allow them to counter what he called Israel's "genocide" in Gaza.
http://www.outlookindia.com/news/article/Will-Arm-Palestinians-for-Israel-Deploying-Drone-Over-Us-Iran/857004
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Over the decades, I’ve done quite a bit of work as a translator from various languages, and sometimes when I get home from work, I just can’t stop. Yesterday, for example, I saw an ad in The Hollywood Reporter. It was in English, but its meaning was not immediately obvious at all, and so I felt an overwhelming impulse to translate it.
The ad featured a statement that former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir had made in the 1950s about “the Arabs,” but the ad (which leaves out the words “the Arabs”) suggests that “her haunting words” are “as current as today’s headlines. She could have been talking about Hamas.” The quotation, as it appears in the ad, is as follows: “We can forgive [them] for killing our children. We cannot forgive them from forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with [them] when they love their children more than they hate us…”
My quick personal translation of this would be, “When we kill the children of Arabs, the Arabs made us do it. They hate us so much, they are so angry, that they do things that enrage us and make us kill children. If they were decent people who loved their children, they would set aside their hatred and stop provoking us, and we would then stop killing the children.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/wallace-shawn-gaza-anger-palestinians-727193?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thr%2Fnews+%28The+Hollywood+Reporter+-+Top+Stories%29
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)of the tragic history of the Palestinian people. And yet the fact is, that in my own lifetime (I was born in 1943) — the Palestinian people have been expelled from their land and subjected to unceasing and unjustifiable torment, including a brutal occupation and, in Gaza, a regime in which an entire population has been placed on a starvation diet.
Anyone who learns more about what has happened can’t help but realize that the anger of the Palestinians cannot be ended by killing their children. That is a fantasy. Human beings simply aren’t made that way.
+1.
Off topic, My Dinner with Andre was awesome.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)But I was born and raised in LA, and I can testify that movie people are often narcissistic, ignorant, and dumb.
The Golda Meir quote is offensive and racist and I do not understand why they keep trotting it out like it was deep philosophy, rather than a dishonest avoidance of responsibility for ones own acts. The wife-beaters argument in all it's glory is what it is. "She made me do it."
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)playing the victim. Oh my God..a rocket, ok..we then must kill indiscriminately thousands..it goes
on and on..sickening.
The film is unusual, My Dinner with..and the gentleman actor pulls off by pulling out
his great skills as an actor where a conversation is the essence of the film.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)But then American Exceptionalism is a similarly unrealistic excuse for doing whatever one pleases.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)even, uh..peaceful coexistence if we did.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)The carnage in Gaza continues after the latest collapse of ceasefire talks and over four weeks of asymmetrical bombardment by Israel. With the death of over two thousand Palestinians, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands more, the complicity of the American government has been exposed to the world as never before. Yet the mantra repeated ad nauseum by the U.S. government and media alike remains the same: Israel has a right to defend itself.
The moral perversity of the U.S. position is stunning. How can the U.S. government ask Israel to be more careful about civilian lives while simultaneously arming and then rearming the IDF so it can more effectively inflict such devastation on an imprisoned and occupied people?
The U.S. could act to stop the senseless slaughter but it won’t. Instead, it’s cheerleading. Members of Congress are mindlessly parroting Israeli talking points without a thought given to the Palestinian perspective or to preserving human life. Brimming with righteousness, they argue for turning Israel loose –Sen. Rand Paul in particular – and invoke Israel’s right to self-defense, despite the fact that, as the occupying power, Israel has an obligation to protect the Palestinians it rules, not massacre them.
http://www.salon.com/2014/08/25/pink_floyds_roger_waters_why_moral_perversity_of_u_s_position_in_gaza_is_stunning/
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Ambassador Lars Faaborg-Andersen, head of delegation of the European Union to Israel, is no stranger to the region. Speaking to The Media Line’s Felice Friedson, Ambassador Faaborg-Andersen said in the mid-1970s following his high school graduation he spent time in Kibbutz Neot Mordechai in northern Israel. A time of unrest, the future envoy even experienced mortar-fire from Lebanon.
Faaborg-Andersen was also Middle East director from 2000 to 2003 during the Second Intifada and was involved in the formulation of the “Roadmap peace plan” which, he said, “I still think is very relevant parameter for finding a way to the two-state solution.”
Faaborg-Anderson told The Media Line that upon his return many years later, “you see the huge transformation that this society has been through and cause for admiration that the dominant agricultural country has been turned into a high tech innovation state.”
TML: The European Union has taken an active role in the Cairo talks offering proactive measures in the search for a solution to the Gaza crisis. What is the EU in position to do?
http://themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=40684
bemildred
(90,061 posts)War Crimes by Israeli, US Leaders in Gaza
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG), Center for Constitutional Rights, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Arab Lawyers Union, and American Association of Jurists (Asociacion Americana de Juristas) sent a letter on Friday, August 22 to Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), urging her to initiate an investigation of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli leaders and aided and abetted by US officials in Gaza. Under the Rome Statute, the ICC has the power to hold individuals criminally accountable for the most serious of crimes.
“In light of the extreme gravity of the situation in the occupied Gaza Strip, in particular the large number of civilian casualties and large scale destruction of civilian property, including schools, mosques and hospitals, and the ongoing incitement to genocide perpetrated by Israeli political figures and leaders, the [NLG] and endorsing organizations strongly urge the Office of the Prosecutor to use its power under Article 15 of the Rome Statute to initiate a preliminary investigation” of crimes within the ICC’s jurisdiction.
“[Under the Rome Statute, an] individual can be convicted of a war crime, genocide or a crime against humanity . . . if he or she ‘aids, abets or otherwise assists’ in the commission or attempted commission of the crime, ‘including providing the means for its commission’,” the letter reads. “By transferring financial assistance, weapons and other military aid to Israel, members of the US Congress, President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have aided and abetted the commission of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity by Israeli officials and commanders in Gaza.”
The letter states that on July 20, 2014, in the midst of criminal behavior, Israel requested, and the US Defense Department then authorized, the transfer to Israel of ammunition from the War Reserve Stockpile Ammunition. And in August 2014, Congress overwhelmingly approved, and Obama signed, a $225 million payment for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/25780-national-lawyers-guild-other-legal-organizations-urge-international-criminal-court-to-investigate-war-crimes-by-israeli-us-leaders-in-gaza
bemildred
(90,061 posts)DW: With Israeli air strikes on Gaza intensifying in the last days and Israeli officials hinting at a possible ground operation to follow, do you think you will be able to start your mission anytime soon?
William Schabas: The work of the commission involves more than a mission on the ground. The work will involve analyzing documents, statements, reports and so on. We can do this without actually going into the territory. It's not clear at all whether we are going to be able to have access to the ground anyway because we have to get the authorization from those states that control the borders of Gaza, Israel and Egypt. Even if the military situation calms down so you can have a secure visit we still require that permission. One of the options we have is to hold visits and meet with people in the region, perhaps in Cairo or Amman, Jordan where we would be in a position to do that. So if this is what we have to do it wouldn't be the first time a mission or commission of the United Nations of this nature was not able to have access to the territory it was covering.
http://www.dw.de/this-is-not-going-to-sit-on-the-shelf/a-17877782?maca=en-rss-en-world-4025-rdf
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Former New York judge Mary McGowan Davis was appointed on Monday to a UN commission probing Israel's Gaza offensive and the actions of Islamist militant group Hamas, the world body's Geneva-based Human Rights Council said.
http://www.thelocal.ch/20140825/new-york-judge-named-to-un-gaza-probe
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)One flash from the past:
Op-Ed Columnist
The Goldstone Chronicles
By ROGER COHEN
Published: April 7, 2011
LONDON — We have a new verb, “to Goldstone.” Its meaning: To make a finding, and then partially retract it for uncertain motive. Etymology: the strange actions of a respected South African Jewish jurist under intense pressure from Israel, the U.S. Congress and world Jewish groups.
snip* McGowan Davis is in fact deeply critical of those Israeli investigations — their tardiness, leniency, lack of transparency and flawed structure. Her report — stymied by lack of access to Israel, Gaza or the West Bank — contains no new information I can see that might buttress a change of heart.
On the core issue of intentionality, it declares: “There is no indication that Israel has opened investigations into the actions of those who designed, planned, ordered and oversaw Operation Cast Lead.”
It says Israel has not adequately answered the Goldstone Report’s allegations about the “design and implementation of the Gaza operations” or its “objectives and targets.” Victims on both sides, McGowan Davis argues, can expect “no genuine accountability and no justice.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/opinion/08iht-edcohen08.html?_r=0
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Might even be true, but perhaps she has good reason for her bias, which is the proper question for an investigation. Investigations are not about making sure all the investigatees are happy with the outcome, but about finding out what was done and by whom.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)authority..would make no sense to me to attempt to condemn her.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Maybe better to avoid having the same folks from the last probe?
bemildred
(90,061 posts)The State of Israel will not sanction the organized evacuation of the Gaza Belt region, Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) insisted Monday night, despite the rocket fire pelting the communities near Gaza on a minute-by-minute basis.
"Just because someone says to himself, 'I do not want my children in the line of fire, I will get into the car and drive to where it's safe,' does not mean we will evacuate these communities," Lapid said, in an interview with Walla!.
"It's his right and we'll help him find alternative arrangements, but Israel will not forsake entire communities, we will not see here an organized abandonment of settlements and we will not give this victory for Hamas," he continued.
"Because then, where will it end? Will we evacuate Ashkelon? And then Ashdod? The State of Israel does not run off and evacuate communities due to terrorist organizations firing on their residents," declared Lapid.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/184406
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)doesn't leaving the residents of Southern Israeli communities in place knowing they are endangered from 'Hamas terror rockets' make them.....oh never mind
bemildred
(90,061 posts)If this guy is denying it, somebody else is talking about it.
And that is a confession that they see no way to stop the rockets by force.
And that indicates that they are still capable of learning from experience.
As to your observation, yes, everybody is cannon fodder to serve the propaganda war. Appearances is what matters. Now we must be terrified, then we must be unconcerned and determined. Or vice versa as the needs of the day require.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)JERUSALEM (AP) -- Tens of thousands of Israelis have fled their homes in communities along the border with the Gaza Strip, reflecting growing fear and frustration as the war with Hamas drags on with no end in sight.
With the school year fast approaching, the government began offering assistance to residents Monday in the first large-scale voluntary evacuation in nearly eight weeks of fighting.
Officials estimate that 70 percent of the 40,000 inhabitants of the farming communities along the Gaza border have left, including hundreds on Monday.
Fields that once yielded vegetables and flowers are barren and pockmarked by Palestinian mortar shells. Streets are empty and most homes eerily silent.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_PALESTINIANS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-08-25-14-22-33
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)for me to copy..not sure what the tech glitch is all about.
American-Teen denied access to Israel's airport:
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/08/palestinian-american-israels.html
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Dina Shehadeh, 17, was about to begin her senior year of high school in Ohio where she was born and raised. But two weeks ago, after spending the summer with her extended family in the West Bank, she was separated from her mother and detained inside of Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv. Israeli security then told Dina that she was not allowed to leave the country—at least not through the airport.
While detained on the night of June 13, 2014 when she was scheduled to fly on El Al flight 1, Dina learned to her surprise that Israeli security no longer considered her an American citizen with American travel privileges. The Palestinian identification card her family filed for her the year before, a registry requirement for children of West Bank Palestinian ID holders, erases her rights as a U.S. citizen.
“We put aside the American passport for this matter and they are only Palestinian,” said the Israeli Ministry of Interior office at Ben Gurion Airport to Mondoweiss. As of her 16th birthday, Dina now needs a special permit from the army to enter the airport. “Otherwise he can leave through Gaza for Egypt, and Jordan from Allenby [a West Bank land crossing].”
Israel’s policy of limiting travel through Ben-Gurion for Palestinian-Americans has recently come under fire when last April Israel made a bid for a U.S. visa waiver program. To be eligible, the U.S. State Department said Israel needed to reduce the number of deportations and travel bans imposed on Palestinian-Americans. In April spokesperson Jen Psaki said at a press briefing Israel needed to ease up, “The Department of Homeland Security and State remain concerned with the unequal treatment that Palestinian-Americans and other Americans of Middle Eastern origin experience at Israel’s border and checkpoints, and reciprocity is the most basic condition.” However, no changes have been announced.
See link in previous post.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)JERUSALEM — With no clear resolution in sight to the battle between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, who has been largely sidelined as his popularity sank during the conflict, is making a new play to reassert his role and cast himself as the leader of all Palestinians.
Mr. Abbas plans to present an initiative Tuesday to the Palestinian leadership that, several people close to him said, would bypass American-brokered negotiations with Israel that have failed for many years to produce a Palestinian state. Instead he will call for an international conference or United Nations resolution demanding a deadline to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. As leverage, Mr. Abbas would finally join the International Criminal Court and other institutions where he has long threatened to pursue Israeli violations, these people said.
Egypt, Israel and the United States have all said for weeks that strengthening Mr. Abbas and reinstating his security forces on Gaza’s borders was a goal of cease-fire negotiations in Cairo, but Hamas, the Islamist faction that dominates Gaza, has yet to accede to these and other conditions. Now, Mr. Abbas’s allies said they hoped to seize on the Gaza crisis and diplomatic stalemate to press for a fresh approach to the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict – and to show the public that he is at the helm.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/26/world/middleeast/abbas-seen-as-ready-to-seek-mideast-pact-on-his-own.html
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)The IDF strikes two Gaza mosques and rocket launchers situated near a school and a health clinic.
By Gili Cohen
Hamas militants captured during the fighting in Gaza have admitted under interrogation that the organization uses mosques for its military activity and that tunnels have been built near kindergartens and clinics, the Shin Bet said on Monday.
The agency has documented dozens of the interrogations on its website, citing the questioned men by name.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.612455
bemildred
(90,061 posts)What to do about Gaza and Hamas? How can Israel avoid a war of attrition with Hamas endlessly firing rockets and Israel being forced to respond? Many Israelis want the Jewish state to reoccupy Gaza. The truth is that Israel should have never dismantled the Jewish communities there in the first place. My children were some of the last to plant trees in Gush Katif on Tu Bishvat, Jewish Arbor Day, in 2005. The Jewish communities in Gaza were a civilizing influence on a strip of land that would later succumb to the barbarism and tyranny of Hamas. I remember eating the luscious green peppers and apples that Jewish settlers grew right out of the sand dunes in Gaza green houses. What a change from the infiltration tunnels and murderous rockets which are the only exports of Gaza today.
But that ship has sailed. A military occupation without the support of local Jewish settlements will be challenging.
Then there is the idea of the Palestinian Authority taking control.
Forget it.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/NO-HOLDS-BARRED-Rwandan-troops-are-the-solution-for-Gaza-372304
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)He closes up as winner for the no holds barred guys, thus far anyway....thanks!.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)Hope I am right.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Maybe today will be a better day.
On edit: Report: Hamas, Islamic Jihad accept Egyptian ceasefire draft
Cairo-based Hamas official tells Al-Hayat wording of new Egyptian document is acceptable, but details are still being discussed.
Roi Kais
Published: 08.26.14, 09:39 / Israel News
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4563989,00.html
sabbat hunter
(6,829 posts)methods were used for the interrogations. If torture was used, then yes, confessions, etc are often dubious.
But it is fairly par for the course for Hamas to use mosques, schools, etc as rocket launch sites, storing of weapons, etc.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)Channel 2 reports survey showing nearly 50-point slide in PM’s approval rating over past month
http://www.timesofisrael.com/massive-drop-in-support-for-netanyahu-poll/
bemildred
(90,061 posts)---
Netanyahu doesn't want to escalate the conflict, or re-occupy the Gaza Strip — but he's loathe to make a sweeping deal with Hamas that could legitimize the group or give it the breathing room needed to rebuild its terror infrastructure.
The result is a war of attrition that accepts a de facto baseline of instability and makes Netanyahu appear unwilling to commit to a long-term strategic course.
This only underscores the difficult position Hamas's policies put the Israeli prime minister in. During the opening weeks of the escalation, Netanyahu effectively cut his right flank out of the decision-making process, firing a hardline deputy defense minister and staving off critics like Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who openly called for the re-occupation of the Gaza Strip.
It seemed as if Netanyahu had achieved Israel's battlefield objectives without entering into a ceasefire that rewarded Hamas for its intransigence or turning the Israeli public against him.
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-netanyahus-popularity-has-cratered-2014-8
oberliner
(58,724 posts)If so, who is the next great hope?
bemildred
(90,061 posts)She has been a loyal ally of Bibi through this, from what I can tell, but it's not something I follow or understand well. And how it will shake out when "quiet" returns is anybodies guess. I do think the succession struggle is starting up, the wish to be the one to succeed Bibi is arising in certain hearts.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Egyptian sources told Ma'an on Monday that Cairo was awaiting an Israeli response on an Egyptian proposal to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The proposal includes opening the Rafah crossing, expanding the fishing area to six miles and opening Gaza’s trade crossings to allow reconstructing the enclave.
The sources added that Egypt presented the ceasefire proposal to Israel on Monday and that Israel promised to respond. Israeli officials showed "initial acceptance," one source said.
“The Palestinian factions agreed to the proposal and Egypt is expected to announce the acceptance of both parties to the ceasefire proposal tonight,” one of the sources said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=723279
bemildred
(90,061 posts)JERUSALEM — After 49 days of war, the armies of Israel and Hamas appear to have run out of new ideas, but not bombs. They are now slugging it out in a lopsided war of attrition.
As rumors fly that another cease-fire could be imminent, Hamas and Israel are groping for a diplomatic solution that could allow both to declare victory — or in the case of Hamas, at least not an obvious loss.
Without a permanent truce, a war of attrition could drag on for weeks or longer. Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Sunday, “if the leaders of Hamas think they can wear us down, they are wrong.”
As the conflict enters its eighth week, the populations on both sides are less angry than exhausted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/israel-hamas-appear-to-have-run-out-of-ideas-but-not-bombs/2014/08/25/45ebce88-1c14-47a5-a8b3-78b54735f992_story.html
bemildred
(90,061 posts)According to the Palestinian News Network (PNN), the sources added that the ceasefire agreement will include the opening of the Rafah crossing, at the border between Gaza and Egypt, to allow the entry and exit of goods and people through Gaza.
Also to be included in the deal is the expansion of Gaza's fishing zone to 12 nautical miles.
The source has also confirmed that Israel has not agreed to the truce, so far, and that it continues to attack targets in the Gaza Strip.
---
Ma'an sources add that Egypt presented the ceasefire proposal to Israel, on Monday, and that Israel promised to respond. Israeli officials showed "initial acceptance," one source reportedly said.
http://www.imemc.org/article/68954
bemildred
(90,061 posts)UNITED NATIONS, Aug 25 (Reuters) - The United States has prepared its own draft outline for a U.N. resolution demanding a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and is now working with European powers and Jordan on a joint text, diplomats said on Monday.
News of accelerated diplomacy on the sidelines of the U.N. Security Council came as Israeli air strikes killed at least nine Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and militants kept up cross-border rocket fire while Israel moved to cushion its economy against a war now in its seventh week.
U.S. officials and diplomats from other U.N. member states said that Washington had presented a small group of countries with its own draft elements for a Security Council resolution after Jordan offered one last month and Britain, France and Germany wrote another ceasefire proposal last week.
"The U.S. has come up with its own draft," said one U.N. diplomat, who declined to be named. "It's quite different from the two others. Now they're working to combine the drafts and come up with a common text."
http://www.trust.org/item/20140825205059-o8rs3/
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)By Gili Cohen
The U.S. arms shipment to Israel that Washington halted two weeks ago will soon go forward, an Israeli official said Monday.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.612424
Perhaps a prelude to a kiss, or not.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Response to bemildred (Original post)
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