Tag: israel/palestine

MERIP on Israel’s convergence plan

Some interesting stuff worth remembering about Hamas in MERIP’s look at the convergence on the Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Hizbullah conflicts:

Frozen out of official negotiations, Hamas could only carry out public diplomacy. The movement sent up a number of trial balloons soon after its election in the form of comments to the press, op-eds in the Guardian and Washington Post, and on- and off-the-record remarks to international organizations. In February, Hamas politburo head Khalid Mashaal described the PA’s foundation in the Oslo accords as “a reality,” and said that “we do not oppose” the 2002 Arab League initiative offering Israel “full normalization” of relations in return for a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and a “just and agreed” solution to the refugee problem. Previously, Hamas had vehemently denounced both the Oslo agreements and the Arab initiative. But the US and Israel were not interested in pursuing what sort of avenues this newfound flexibility might open. Instead, the US and Israel boxed Hamas — and themselves — into a corner with stringent demands that were impossible for Hamas to accept.

Continue reading MERIP on Israel’s convergence plan

Another week of bombing

Washington is giving another week to Israel to bomb Lebanon, and Condi would then fly down there to establish an international buffer zone.

In the meantime, at least 55 Lebanese died today, the highest daily toll so far.

The US’ stance on this will be remembered for a long time in the region — there will be a price to pay for backing Israel’s use of collective punishment.

Update: Congress (the most corrupt parliament among Western democracies) runs after the money, as it always does, and backs Israel.

Israel’s first conscientious objector

Sergeant Itzik Shabbat is a courageous and moral person:

“I know people will attack me and ask how could I not take part in this war when Qassams are falling on my hometown and Katyushas on the towns in the north,” he told Haaretz. “In my opinion, only this type of opposition that I’ve chosen will put an end to the madness that is going on now and will shatter the false feeling that the entire home front supports this unnecessary war that is based on deceptive considerations.”

He added: “Someone has to be the first to break the silence and it will be me. It is a shame that my order was signed by another Sderot resident, Defense Minister Amir Peretz.”

Hopefully more will follow.

Is Human Rights Watch racist?

OK, I know a few of the people who work at the Middle East section of Human Rights Watch, and a lot of the people who work with them. I have tremendous respect for the work they do detailing abuses in Arab countries and helping train local rights activists. I know that they are frequently under pressure to be careful about their coverage of Israel because a lot of their funding comes from pro-Israel American Jews. But this possibly tops it all. If you go to their home page, you see two stories. Here is the first paragraph of the first one:

Israel: Investigate Attack on Civilians in Lebanon

IDF Must Take Precautions to Protect Civilians Fleeing Areas at Risk

(Beirut, July 17, 2006) – The Israel Defense Forces should provide details about a bombing on Saturday that killed 16 people in a convoy of civilians fleeing a Lebanese village near Israel’s border, Human Rights Watch said today. Under international humanitarian law, all parties to an armed conflict must take all feasible precautions to protect civilians fleeing areas at risk.

And here is the first paragraph of the second:

Lebanon: Hezbollah Rocket Attacks on Haifa Designed to Kill Civilians

Anti-personnel Ball Bearings Meant to Harm “Soft” Targets

(New York, July 18, 2006) – Hezbollah’s attacks in Israel on Sunday and Monday were at best indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas, at worst the deliberate targeting of civilians. Either way, they were serious violations of international humanitarian law and probable war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today.

No mention of deliberate targeting of civilians by Israel, although it is clearly doing that (and quite successfully.) Obviously its weapons do not hurt “soft targets” — except, oh wait, the Lebanese government says they’re using phosphorus bombs and vacuum bombs (thermobaric bombs, possibly the most lethal conventional weapons around). Perhaps this should be investigated? After all there have been many reports of people having phosphorus burns now.’

Earlier HRW had issued a call to avoid hitting civilians in both countries. But now that this has happened, a little even-handedness might be in order.

Al Jazeera journo shot in Israel

This just in:

Al Jazeera Crew Member Shot during Live Report

Doha, Qatar – July 19th 2006: Today, while an Al Jazeera crew was covering live the Israeli attack on Nablus in the West Bank, an Israeli military vehicle suddenly sped up towards Al Jazeera’s reporter, Jivara Al Budeiri, in an apparent attempt to interrupt the report. Al Jazeera’s technician Wael Tantous who was also part of her crew was subsequently shot and immediately rushed to hospital.

Since the start of the current war on Lebanon Al Jazeera crews have consistently been targeted by the Israeli authorities resulting in a constant hindrance and obstruction of their work.

Al Jazeera again emphatically expresses its strong denunciation and condemnation of this behaviour and reiterates its right to carry on its coverage with impartiality, objectivity and balance.

It’s a press release from Al Jazeera, will follow up with anything else I see.

Bush-Blair overheard

Can’t find the video clip online (don’t have time anyway at internet cafés) but I just saw the overheard conversation between Bush and Blair on TV. Look for it, it kind of says it all and the stories about it really don’t give the full flavor.

Bush curses in unscripted Mideast comments

By JULIE MASON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

ST. PETERSBURG – President Bush inadvertently dropped the facade of carefully scripted summit diplomacy today when his lunchtime conversation with other world leaders was picked up by Russian television.

“The irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this (expletive) and it’s over,” Bush told British Prime Minister Tony Blair during lunch today, unaware their microphones were on.

The exchange, broadcast by Russian host television as the Group of Eight world leaders gathered for a closed session on their last day here, revealed a more candid side of the polite, often bland diplomacy officials show publicly.

Before Blair leaned over and snapped off the microphones, he and Bush discussed the Middle East, made small talk about travel plans, Diet Coke, and upcoming remarks the leaders would be making as the session came to a close.

“I’m just going to make it up,” Bush said. “I’m not going to talk too damn long like the rest of them. Some of these guys talk too long.”

The other thing that came out of this is that “Condi” is going “out there.”

Update: This isn’t the best recording, but here’s the BBC’s footage + interview.

G8 uselessness

Let’s be clear about what was decided at the G8 summit:

President Jacques Chirac of France characterized the statement issued here as a call for a cease-fire — a word the Bush administration has sidestepped at every turn over the last few days. The host of the summit meeting, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, told reporters that “we do get the impression that the aims of Israel go beyond just recovering their kidnapped soldiers.’’

Talking to reporters here on Sunday evening, R. Nicholas Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs, acknowledged that the statement does not present any specific order for steps to solve the crisis; rather, he said, it presumes that Israel will stand down only after Hezbollah and Hamas stop shelling Israeli towns and release captured soldiers.

That’s right — absolutely nothing.

Oy vey indeed

Some good stuff in this Laura Rozen interview with Marc Perry, the director of the Conflicts Forum, which supports dialogue with Islamists — I’ve mentioned them before. Most notably, he shoots down this notion that what’s happening is the result of a sinister Syrian-Iranian plan:

We’ve been hearing the theory that the timing of Hezbollah’s Tuesday kidnapping of the two Israeli Defense Force soldiers was planned well in advance and with coordination from Tehran or Damascus. Can you speak to that?

Oy vey. There are a lot of people in Washington trying to walk that story back right now, because it’s not true.

Hezbollah and Israel stand along this border every day observing each other through binoculars and waiting for an opportunity to kill each other. They are at war. They have been for 25 years, no one ever declared a cease-fire between them. … They stand on the border every day and just wait for an opportunity. And on Tuesday morning there were two Humvees full of Israeli soldiers, not under observation from the Israeli side, not under covering fire, sitting out there all alone. The Hezbollah militia commander just couldn’t believe it — so he went and got them.

The Israeli captain in charge of that unit knew he had really screwed up, so he sent an armored personnel carrier to go get them in hot pursuit, and Hezbollah led them right through a minefield.

Now if you’re sitting in Tehran or Damascus or Beirut, and you are part of the terrorist Politburo so to speak, you have a choice. With your head sunk in your hands, thinking “Oh my God,” you can either give [the kidnapped soldiers] back and say “Oops, sorry, wrong time” or you can say, “Hey, this is war.”

It is absolutely ridiculous to believe that the Hezbollah commander on the ground said Tuesday morning, “Go get two Israeli soldiers, would you please?”

And my other favorite passage:

Some are proposing that the Lebanese government send its army into southern Lebanon. What do you think of that idea?

It’s a really great idea. The Lebanese army can’t collect the garbage in Beirut. Neither can the Syrian army. Southern Lebanon is Hezbollah land. … Hezbollah is the second or third most competent military force in the region, after Israel and Iran. It could probably defeat a good sized Egyptian battalion.

Ah, poor Egyptians.