February 12, 2008
Calls Intensify For Gaza Invasion
Angry Israelis are pressing for retaliation against Palestinian militants in Gaza, even as the repercussions of the humiliating 2006 war with Hezbollah are still being felt.
Dozens of residents from Sderot, an Israeli town that sees a near-daily barrage of rocket attacks from Gaza, traveled to Jerusalem over the weekend to protest perceived government inaction. Israeli Cabinet members, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, have joined the cries for harsher tactics against Gaza militants, particularly after two brothers, ages 8 and 19, were seriously injured while fleeing rocket fire with their family.
Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit advised the military to give one Gaza neighborhood a day to empty out, and then to destroy it, BBC News reports. The Israeli army has yet to make a significant military incursion into Gaza, despite its nearly complete isolation from the friendlier regime in the West Bank and the world community.
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February 04, 2008
Suicide Bombing Comes In Time Of Weakness For Olmert
The first suicide bombing that Israel has seen in more than a year killed a 20-year-old woman and injured 11 others, and comes at a particularly delicate time in renewed Mideast peace negotiations.
The attack was claimed by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the unofficial terrorist wing of the Fatah Party, and took place at a shopping center in the southern town of Dimona. A second bomber was shot and killed by police before he could detonate explosives strapped to his body.
"Monday's terror attack gives us a painful reminder that we must be vigilant and maintain our readiness in all areas," said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "We are waging a war on terror. It is continuing without bounds and we will get to everyone involved in terror activity."
According to BBC News, an al-Aqsa spokesman hinted that the breach along the Gaza-Egypt border made the bombing mission possible. Gaza militants blew up the border two weeks ago amid an Israeli-enforced blockade that made travel to purchase goods and visit family members nearly impossible.
Egyptian security forces finally sealed the last remaining breach on Sunday, but not without violent exchanges with some lagging Palestinians. Officials haven't yet confirmed whether the Dimona bombers entered Israel via Egypt, but the bombing has already led to calls for suspending peace negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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January 23, 2008
Gazans Pour Into Egypt
UPDATED.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians entered Egypt today, after bombers destroyed a seven-mile stretch of wall separating the country from a Gaza Strip border town. Israel has been stopping the flow of supplies into the area in response to continued rocket attacks from militants, and many Palestinians in Rafah and other Gaza cities have gone without adequate food, electricity and medicine from Israel for five days.
The U.N. Security Council convened an emergency session yesterday, one day after Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "to express concern about the situation," Bloomberg News reports. The U.N. has been much more critical of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians than the U.S. or its Western allies.
About a million and a half Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip, which is currently controlled by the militant group Hamas. Although Hamas didn't take responsibility for knocking down the wall, the group expressed tacit approval for its destruction by controlling traffic across the border and not making a move to prevent people from moving back and forth. Egypt had previously refused to open the Rafah crossing, but after the wall was destroyed, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he had ordered the military not to stop the Palestinians immediately.
"I told them to let them come in and eat and buy food and then return them later as long as they were not carrying weapons," he told reporters in Cairo.
Gunmen began assaulting the metal wall before dawn this morning -- not long after Israel had begun re-supplying Gaza's power plant with fuel last night in an effort to avert a humanitarian crisis.
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November 27, 2007
Mideast Summit: 'We Are Ready'
UPDATED.
Reading a joint statement issued by the international participants of the Annapolis conference on Israeli-Palestinian relations, President Bush heralded what is widely seen as a last-ditch attempt to broker a lasting peace between the two Mideast parties.
"We express our determination to bring an end to bloodshed, suffering and decades of conflict between our peoples; to usher in a new era of peace, based on freedom, security, justice, dignity, respect and mutual recognition; to propagate a culture of peace and nonviolence; to confront terrorism and incitement, whether committed by Palestinians or Israelis," Bush said before representatives of the U.N., EU, G-8 and nearly every major Arab League nation. "In furtherance of the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security, we agree to immediately launch good-faith bilateral negotiations in order to conclude a peace treaty, resolving all outstanding issues, including all core issues without exception."
Seated on stage to the president's side were Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the two leaders who will do the heavy lifting in the negotiations. The joint statement was, as expected, a declaration of support from the world community of the two-state solution advocated by both parties as well as the United States. The statement also included a recommitment to the 2003 road map established by the Quartet -- the U.S., EU, U.N. and Russia -- shepherding the peace process.
But Bush also clarified the role the U.S. will play during the coming stretch of talks. While Washington won't exactly be in the thick of negotiations, it will be overseeing and assessing Israel's and the PLO's progress on the road map requirements. Exactly how much of a taskmaster the U.S. is in the process will probably be determined by the depth of involvement by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the mastermind behind the new push for a two-state solution.
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November 26, 2007
Mideast Summit: Can They Do It?
No doubt that helping forge an independent Palestinian state at peace with Israel would be the jewel in President Bush's pretty beat-up crown come 2009, hence his commitment to the Herculean task of getting the two parties to strike an accord before he leaves office. Analysts of the region are largely of two minds on whether Bush and his go-to on the issue, Condoleezza Rice, can get it done.
Some have come to believe that the Bush administration, so heavily mired in Iraq, completely gave up on Mideast negotiations after the road map fell apart in 2003. "The Bush administration has hung a 'Closed for the Season' sign on serious Arab-Israeli diplomacy," Aaron David Miller declared in April. "The Rice initiative is almost certainly way too little, way too late."
As the Boston Globe reported today, that skepticism persists. But Miller, for one, hasn't written tomorrow's Annapolis summit off.
Both sides badly want an end to the bloody and costly conflict, and for the first time maybe ever, the Palestinians are being represented by a man the West views as an honest broker, President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinians and Israelis are still about as far apart as they ever were on their demands, yet the ground seems especially fertile for compromise -- the essential and long-missing component for these negotiations.
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November 13, 2007
Violence Mars Uneasy Approach To Mideast Talks
Overnight raids in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip netted hundreds of Fatah activists in the area after days of clashes between the two Palestinian factions. A Fatah spokesman said 400 activists were rounded up; a Hamas official disputed that figure and said it had been fewer than 50.
The clashes began yesterday, after about 200,000 people marched at a Gaza rally to commemorate the third anniversary of the death of former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Palestinian factions have splintered since the longtime leader's death disrupted the uneasy status quo between the Fatah leader's more moderate party and the radical Hamas.
The rally was the largest since Hamas took over Gaza in June. Seven people have been killed and more than 50 injured in the clashes, according to Fatah representative Hazem Abu Shanab.
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October 29, 2007
Olmert Says Prostate Cancer Won't Impact Work
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced today that he will undergo surgery sometime in the next few months for a cancerous tumor in his prostate. During a surprise news conference, Olmert told reporters that the tumor was "microscopic" and he would not need radiation or chemotherapy to treat it, emphasizing that it would not affect his work and he would not step down from his position.
He also reminded the public that he was under no obligation to disclose private health matters, but he felt Israelis "had a right to know." Olmert took over as prime minister in January 2006, after his predecessor, Ariel Sharon, suffered a debilitating stroke.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, a Kuwaiti newspaper quoted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as saying that Olmert's government is holding talks with Hamas, and the faction should "pluck up the courage and admit it." The Israeli government also tightened restrictions on the fuel supply flowing into the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip this weekend in response to recent rocket attacks.
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October 15, 2007
Rice: Palestinian Statehood Now
In a sign that the Bush administration views a two-state Mideast solution as a critical accomplishment before the clock winds down to 2009, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that now was the time for the Palestinians to achieve statehood.
"Frankly, it's time for the establishment of a Palestinian state," Rice said today during a visit to the West Bank.
Rice appeared to indicate that she had grown weary of the negotiations process, which has been fraught with leadership changes and other stops and starts since President Bush rejuvenated Washington's role there in 2003.
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July 16, 2007
Bush Issues Ultimatum, Of Sorts, To Hamas
President Bush today presented Hamas with a choice: Abide by the Quartet provisions, or get left out of a future independent Palestinian state.
"We're showing the Palestinian people that a commitment to peace leads to the generous support of the United States," Bush said after announcing Washington was sending $190 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority.
Implicit in Bush's remarks was that not a drop of aid would be delivered to the Gaza Strip unless the Hamas-run government there meets the conditions laid out by the Washington-drawn "road map." Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the West, has repeatedly said it has no intention of ever renouncing violence and recognizing Israel -- two of the road map's conditions for Palestinian statehood.
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July 05, 2007
Johnston Release A Promising Start For Hamas
Hamas' role in securing the release of BBC reporter Alan Johnston in Gaza won't change the U.S. and EU boycott of its government, but could open a path toward better standing in the world community.
The Palestinian political party, which advocates the destruction of Israel, has been cut off from sorely needed international aid since violently seizing control of the Gaza Strip three weeks ago. Hamas' pledges to restore peace and prosperity to Gazans are meaningless, Israel and the West have said, so long as the Quartet conditions of recognizing Israel and renouncing violence are not met.
Still, the British government has expressed gratitude for the pivotal part Hamas played in Johnston's release. While sure to carefully avoid anything that smacks of quid pro quo with the Gaza government, it's difficult to see how Hamas won't be rewarded in some way, even if only with goodwill, a currency Hamas badly needs right now.
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June 19, 2007
Refugees Amass On Israeli Border
The breakup of the Fatah-Hamas unity government has created a potentially critical refugee crisis, as hundreds of people attempt to flee the Gaza Strip in fear of reprisals by militant Hamas, which now controls the territory. AP is reporting that 600 people are trapped in the Erez Tunnel at the Israeli border, hoping to pass through Israel to the West Bank.
Hamas promised amnesty for Fatah fighters, but according to one of the men hoping to escape at Erez, "They forgave people before, and later killed them. There's no way we'll go back."
Israeli officials have so far refused entry to most of the refugees, arguing that many of them may be terrorists and that their danger in Gaza is overstated. One Israeli officer told Israel Radio, "We don't think that all of them there are threatened.... There is a clear conflict between security needs and humanitarian considerations."
But at his news conference with President Bush at the White House today, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert differed somewhat with this assessment.
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