Tag: israel/palestine

ANALYSIS / Why isn’t Netanyahu backing two-state solution? – Haaretz – Israel News:

“Netanyahu says he doesn’t want to rule over the Palestinians, and has no interest in Nablus, Tul Karm or Jenin; they should govern their own lives, as long as they don’t threaten Israeli security, he says. Netanyahu seeks to deny the Palestinians four rights of any sovereign state: control of its airspace; control of its electromagnetic spectrum; the right to maintain an army and to sign military alliances; and, most importantly, control of the border crossings where arms and terrorists could pass. Netanyahu believes Israel must retain all of these.

Netanyahu’s model is based on the work of Stanford University political science professor Stephen Krasner, who was director of policy planning in the State Department under Condoleezza Rice. Krasner developed a ‘restricted sovereignty’ model for problematic state structures.

Netanyahu also has a tactical reason for objecting to a Palestinian state: He believes that this must come through negotiations, rather than being something conceded by Israel in advance. He considers the Annapolis process that outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Livni conducted with the Palestinian Authority’s Mahmoud Abbas and Ahmed Qureia to be a joke. In his opinion, Israel must not offer a near-total withdrawal from the West Bank in advance, which he believes would achieve nothing and only encourage the Palestinians to demand more.

Netanyahu believes Israel must insist on retaining 50 percent of the West Bank – the open areas in the Jordan Valley and the Judean Desert that are vital as a security zone. In light of statements the outgoing government has made to the Palestinians, Netanyahu’s position is a joke meant to kill the negotiations before they even begin. “

I am tempted to make a bitter comment on this, but will refrain.

tabsir.net » Lithographica Arabica 6: Rev. Wood’s Bible Animals, 3.

En mars dernier lors d’une énième incursion dans la bande de Gaza, l’armée israélienne avait fouillé les maisons puis avait continuer son chemin, vers Jabaliya. La famille Abed Rabbo (d’où le nom du lieu), occupait l’ensemble des petits immeubles qui se trouvaient là. Quand l’offensive a commencé, les Abed Rabbo étaient sur leurs gardes, mais pas plus inquiets que ça. Ce qui peut sembler étrange pour qui ne vit pas le quotidien de ces Palestiniens, soumis au bon vouloir des Israéliens. En mars dernier, par exemple, ils avaient fait une incursion dans la bande de Gaza en passant par le hameau. Ils s’étaient contentés d’une fouille des habitations et avaient passé leur chemin. « C’est pourquoi tout le monde pensait que ça allait être la même chose cette fois-ci », explique Khaled, 30 ans. Lui se trouvait avec sa famille au rez-de-chaussée d’un immeuble dans lequel vivaient 27 personnes. Le 7 janvier, en milieu de matinée, les Israéliens sont arrivés. Ils ont installés un poste militaire. Les chars se sont mis en position derrière des buttes de sable alors que par hauts-parleurs ils intimaient l’ordre aux gens de sortir.

« Comme nous habitions au rez-de-chaussée, nous sommes sortis les premiers », raconte Khaled, la voix tremblante. « J’étais avec ma femme, nos trois filles et ma mère. J’avais un drapeau blanc. Sur le char, il y avait deux soldats. L’un mangeait des chips, l’autre du chocolat. On est resté comme ça pendant plus de 5 minutes, alignés. Personne ne nous disait rien. On ne savait pas quoi faire. Soudain un soldat est sorti du char. Il était roux et portait les papillotes des religieux. Il a tiré sur ma petite fille de 2 ans, Amal. Ses intestins sont sortis de son ventre. Puis il a visé en rafale celle de 7 ans, Sohad. Ma femme s’est évanouie. Il a tiré sur ma mère ». Summum du vice chez ce soldat, il n’a pas tué Khaled. Une ambulance se trouvait à proximité. « Ils ont fait descendre le chauffeur puis ont écrasé le véhicule avec un char », soutient Khaled Abed Rabbo. Les deux petites filles, Amal et Sohad, sont mortes. La troisième est grièvement blessée. Avec son frère et sa femme, Khaled les emmène, ainsi que la mère. Ils prennent la route non sans essuyer les tirs de snipers embusqués dans les maisons qui jouaient à leur faire peur en visant à côté. « Au rond-point, un homme a voulu nous aider avec sa carriole. Il s’appelait Hadnan Mekbel. Les Israéliens l’ont tué ainsi que son cheval. » Khaled sort son portable et montre ses filles dans un linceul. La troisième est dans un hôpital en Belgique. Elle est tétraplégique. Sa femme est dans un état de choc psychologique permanent Khaled ne peut pas oublier. Il revient tous les jours devant sa maison détruite. « C’est toute ma vie, mes souvenirs. Je vois mes enfants jouer autour de moi », dit-il. « C’était la maison du bonheur ».

Quick summary if you don’t speak French: Abed Rabbo’s family had dealt with Israeli soldiers before, in March 2008 during a brief Israeli incursion. Nothing had happened then, and they just expected a search of their house this time around. The Israelis made him and his family line up and wait as tanks lined up across them. Then a red-haired soldier sporting Haredim long locks came out of a tank, shot his 2-year old daughter Amal (“her guts spilled out of her stomach”) and then his 7-year-old daughter Sohad. They then destroyed a nearby ambulance, and when they found a man with a horse cart to help them, the man and his horse was shot. According to Rabbo, he and his wife (who is still under shock) were left alive and their daughters targeted and kept from medical care on purpose, to teach them a lesson. His third daughter was also shot (and will probably be disabled for life) and is receiving medical care in Belgium.

For a decade now there has been rising concern in Israel in the growing strength of the religious right among the armed forces, especially the transition from para-military youth movements to the IDF some young religious Israelis make, especially if they are from lower-income groups.

From the comments, more testimonies here.

Obama is surrounded by Jewish advisers who are very familiar with Israeli tricks and stalling tactics, especially when it comes to the settlements (have we mentioned “natural growth” yet?), but they would still want the new president to adopt the tradition of the “special relationship” with the Jewish state. Obama, however, has also been exposed to the school of thought, existing in both the administration and the American think tanks, that argues that the excessive closeness between the U.S. and Israel undermines America’s strategic interests in the Arab world.

Brent Scowcroft, one of the shapers of foreign policy under President George H.W. Bush, and according to Time magazine, a strong influence on Obama, has called for a fundamental restructuring of American policy in the Middle East. Scowcroft, who was the boss of the current (and incoming) defense secretary Robert Gates, and a friend of the new national security adviser, James Jones, is proposing that the “special relationship” be adjusted to a “natural relationship.” Perhaps such a change would be able to transform celebratory ceremonies into dry agreements.

Two important points here: first Clintonism (i.e. Nobel-seeking) is not the answer, second that the US-Israel relationship is so warped as to be against American, Middle Eastern and world interests. And against the interests of peace-seeking Israelis, although there seems to be few of those in the political elite there. (And incidentally this is the fundamental point made by Walt-Mearsheimer.)

[From Akiva Eldar / As Obama is sworn in, Israelis and Palestinians are thinking ‘no we can’t’ – Haaretz – Israel News]

NEARLY SEVENTY YEARS ago, in the course of World War II, a heinous crime was committed in the city of Leningrad. For more than a thousand days, a gang of extremists called “the Red Army” held the millions of the town’s inhabitants hostage and provoked retaliation from the German Wehrmacht from inside the population centers. The Germans had no alternative but to bomb and shell the population and to impose a total blockade, which caused the death of hundreds of thousands.
Some time before that, a similar crime was committed in England. The Churchill gang hid among the population of London, misusing the millions of citizens as a human shield. The Germans were compelled to send their Luftwaffe and reluctantly reduce the city to ruins. They called it the Blitz.
This is the description that would now appear in the history books – if the Germans had won the war.
Absurd? No more than the daily descriptions in our media, which are being repeated ad nauseam: the Hamas terrorists use the inhabitants of Gaza as “hostages” and exploit the women and children as “human shields”, they leave us no alternative but to carry out massive bombardments, in which, to our deep sorrow, thousands of women, children and unarmed men are killed and injured.

[From How Many Divisions? – Gush Shalom – Israeli Peace Bloc]

[PS Remember, unfortunately these views of Gush Shalom represent about 2% of the Israeli Jewish view, unfortunately.]