Sometimes I am sickened when I'm reminded how deeply racism is embedded in a country that is supposed to be a democracy equally serving all of its residents. And that's saying something, because generally I don't care about other people at all.
This article from today's ynet reveals a clear incident of violent racism within its own culture, all the while attempting to dress it up as justified violence.
Four Border Guard officers were lightly injured Friday after being run over by a Palestinian driving a pickup truck in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz. The driver was shot, and quickly died of his wounds. His body was later snatched from the hospital and he was buried at a cemetery near the Temple Mount.
There are just so many things wrong with this one little paragraph. Firstly, the officers were "lightly injured" after being "run over." Really? I feel like one or the other of those phrases might be misleading. Normally people aren't just lightly injured when they are run over. So I'm thinking that most likely they weren't run over. Probably a car passed by them rather quickly and gave them quite a fright. Secondly, the driver "was shot, and quickly died of his wounds." A little trigger-happy are we? I might give the border guards the benefit of the doubt if I didn't already know that if a Jewish citizen had committed the same crime, he would absolutely not be shot at. Lastly, his body was "snatched" in order to be buried. A little misrepresentation-happy are we? Not only are these fiendish Palestinians driving too fast, they are stealing and burying their family members in accordance with their religious beliefs. Where will it end????
Let's move on:
After the incident, the assailant attempted to escape by foot and was shot by a Border Guard force stationed in the area. He was critically wounded and died shortly afterwards. Police suspect the incident was nationalistically motivated....The company commander began chasing the assailant, who tried to flee the scene. According to the police, he was shot after failing to obey the police's call to stop.
So he was shot in the back while running away. Because the police officer probably yelled "stop" in a language he may or may not have understood. I'm not an expert but usually in situations like this, lethal force is only authorized if the suspect presents imminent danger to someone else's life. But I don't know, maybe running away, even though he had left his "weapon" (ie his car) behind, might have seemed like it presents an imminent threat. And then, "police suspect the incident was nationalistically motivated." What does that even mean? How on earth did they come to that conclusion? Absolutely no evidence whatsoever has been presented for such a claim. Whatever. It doesn't matter. The "assailant" was Palestinian and his "victims" were Israeli, so naturally it was a terror attack. Obviously.
We have DWB in the U.S.- driving while black. Here in Israel, I guess its DWA- driving while Arab.
And the end of the story reveals that
Another passenger who was in the car with him was apparently injured by stones hurled at the road earlier and was evacuated to the Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital. The police are looking into his version that the driver who run over the officers was trying to evacuate him to receive medical treatment.
So in reality, he might have just been rushing his friend to the hospital and in his haste was not driving very carefully. Maybe. But now his life has been ended, so what difference does it make.
Finally, I would like the point out that the article includes a photo of the bulldozer from the "bulldozer attack" of two years ago. As if it is related in any way.
The first intifada started when a car accident was at first thought to be an intentional act of violent racism, by the way.
Alright already. Now that the flurry (no, blizzard? Sandstorm? World-ending hurricane?) of rumors has ended I can finally report on the Flotilla Fiasco without reporting the same likely untrue information that everyone else was.
But seriously though. As soon as this thing happened, every news outlet and blog in the world was foaming at the mouth to get some information, any information about it. People were reprinting the most ridiculous things, subjects were branching off into whole other emotionally-motivated subjects. Like the whole Helen Thomas thing. Just wait 'til I get to that.
The Build-Up
So, first of all, we knew the ships were coming weeks in advance. The activists had made it clear they were coming, despite Israel's warnings. Both sides fueled the media hype by upping the ante, throughout the voyage. Israel was accused of trying to sabotage the ships (Israel is accused of trying to sabotage the ships every time an aid group sails to Gaza), and Israeli spokespeople (including Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman) went on about how the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief (henceforth, IHH), who had provided much of the support for the operation, was secretly a terrorist organization and a front for Al-Qaeda. When asked for proof of this by savvy bloggers, Israel backpeddled a bit (as they will be forced to do throughout this debacle), saying that IHH supports Hamas and is "sympathetic to al-Qaeda" (source).
From the very beginning, the flotilla group made much better use of media, especially new media, tweeting and blogging and facebooking and youtubing away. Israel has attempted to match this threat in the media war by posting videos on the official IDF youtube page, but it was too little, too late. In my opinion, any formal entity, no matter how media-savvy its members are, cannot possibly match the pitch and intensity of an informal entity, whose members are not bound by any hierarchy, security concerns, or accountability. There has been in more recent days talk about an international enquiry into where the fault lies for this whole thing (the details I will get to, keep your pants on) but even if such an enquiry were to determine that Israel's use of force was justified and that the activists were at fault, who would shoulder the blame? It would be dispersed, symbolically, among everyone present. The Turkish government would have a little egg on its face (nothing compared to what Israel is currently wearing) but it would be a bit like when a mob starts a stampede on Black Friday because everyone's kid wants that toy and the store won't open its doors yet and it's 5am and everyone is tired and annoyed. Somebody started shoving first, all right, but we'll never know who it was.
So basically, before the confrontation even happened, everyone in the world knew Israel was going to end up looking bad, not least of all, Israel itself. FM Lieberman said on May 28, days before the action, that the whole thing was, "an attempt at violent propaganda against Israel."
In the Morning
On Monday, May 31, I woke to headlines about the "Flotilla Massacre." 10 people "at least" were dead, many more injured. Perusal of stories showed that Israeli "commandos" had slid down ropes from helicopters and opened fire on the unarmed activists. I simply put my head in my hands and sighed. I knew that, no matter what further information came to light on this issue, Israel had shot itself in the foot with this idiotic maneuver. In fact, it might not just have been the foot. Israel may have shot itself in the liver and will slowly and painfully bleed to death. We'll see. Threats have been made, but have proved to be most likely empty. But I have yet to get to that.
The headlines that day were mostly speculative. How many were dead? Who were they? Of what nationality? Who started the fighting? What would the international reaction be? And of course, where are all the images? In today's world, when everyone has at least a cellphone camera, and the people on the boat had already demonstrated their prowess for media technology, the curious question was why haven't we seen anything?
We found out later Israel was making serious attempts to control what information got to the press. It had cut communications on the Mavi Marmara just as Al-Jazeera correspondent Jamal Elshayyal was finishing a broadcast. He reported that two people had been killed and there were still sounds of live fire.
All cameras (or, we found out later, almost all) were confiscated from the activists as part of their intake at the Ashdod holding facility, and no media was allowed to speak to them. Prior to the Mavi Marmara's arrival, Israel had invited several journalists to observe the operation (codenamed Operation Sea Breeze) from Israeli vessels. However, these journalists were not allowed to share their observations due to a gag order.
The press was dying for information, as was I. I called my contacts, who provided me with almost no additional information. I called an activist friend of mine in Ramallah and when he picked up the phone, still sounding groggy, I said right away, "Do you know anything?" "About what?" he responded. "Are you kidding me?" "Well I just woke up. Why? Did something happen?" "Jesus look at the news." He turned on his tv and flipped through the channels. "There's nothing...nope...I don't see anything." I apprised him of the situation and he promised to get back to me if he had more information. The next day, there was a "demonstration" in Ramallah, wherein a dozen or less activists held signs like "Pirates of the Mediterranean" and spoke to reporters about freeing Gaza. The reporters were tenfold more numerous than the demonstrators, which shows how desperate the press was to get anything, anything at all, to show.
The Light Shines On
Over the next fews days, videos galore came to light, along with commentaries about their validity. There was edited video, audio, and still photographs. Journalists on various sides of the issue cricitized anyone on the other side who had obviously edited the information, claiming it was a coverup.
A video emerged of Israeli soldiers on the deck of the Mavi Marmara, with rifles in hand. It looked like the sun had just come up. This contradicted the army's earlier claim that they had not had rifles at all, but also contradicted the activits' claim that they had begun shooting from the air, which was they became violent in return. So why are these Israeli soldiers standing calmly on the ship with rifles in hand, and nobody is fighting them?
There was audio clip of an Israeli seaman requesting by radio that the Mavi Marmara reroute to Ashdod, the nearest Israeli port, instead of attempting to reach Gaza. Someone from the other side responded, "Shut up, go back to Aushwitz." But then blogger Max Blumenthal pointed out that this clip was clearly edited and in fact included a photo from another video clip where nothing of the kind was said. Both clips were published on youtube by the IDF press office. When the IDF was pressed about the discrepancy, they responded that they did in fact edit the clip, but only for clarity. They also admitted that as it was recorded from an open line, anybody, on any ship, could have said it.
Reuters even got heat for publishing edited photos taken by the activists aboard the ship. In the original photos, you can see an activist holding a knife and standing over two injured soldiers, pool of blood and everything. Reuters edited the photo so that it included only one injured soldier (the least bloody of the two), no knife, and no blood pool.
The IDF also uploaded several videos of the activists attacking the soldiers. The activists' responses were usually that they had the right to defend the ship. The issue that the raid happened in international waters also featured prominently.
The Videos
The Interviews
After people began to be released (ie deported) from the temporary holding facility in Ashdod, interviews trickled out to the rest of the world.
Here is a clip with several interviews of different passengers, but unfortunately I am unable to embed it.
There were of course a gazillion more interviews, but all the ones I'm currently finding are either with people who were on other ships (where the violence was minimal and nobody was killed) or are total nutjobs and not worth listening to.
What I Think
Basically, what I can piece together from what I've seen and read, is that the Israeli navy first attempted to board the Mavi Marmara from the sea, but was rebuked by the passengers throwing things and spraying water. The soldiers then boarded the ship from the air, sliding down ropes from helicopters. Eyewitnesses and video footage agree that the activists attacked the soldiers immediately when they reached the deck of the ship. At least three were taken inside the ship ("taken hostage" say Israel's supporters, "taken into protective custody" say the activists). The next round of soldiers who came down from the helicopters was larger and they came down shooting live ammunition.
What is amazing here is that all of the 9 people reported dead were Turkish nationals, one with dual U.S. citizenship. Let's say for fun that the soldiers were told before the operation that they were to put the hurt on the Turks aboard the ship. Even in such a case, how would they have known which people were Turkish, especially in such a melee? What seems more likely to me is that, in an effort to save themselves and their fellow soldiers, they shot at whoever was being the most violent. While its true that Israel's claims that the IHH are a secret terrorist organization lack evidence, I can think of few reasons that only Turks were killed in the raid. There were a dozen nationalities on that ship. In this interview, a witness aboard the ship said, when asked how the Israelis boarded the ship, "The main boarding of the ship was by the helicopters and by sea, but the first attempt of the helicopter attack, or descent- the Turkish Resistance, I can say, grabbed four Israeli army and took them down."
Now, as to my opinion on where the fault lies. Firstly, there was no need for Israel to board the ship in the first place. Whether or not I think the siege on Gaza is right or the flotilla is right is not the issue. If Israel wanted to divert the ship to Ashdod using peaceful means, it could have. The propellor could have been disabled and the ship towed to Ashdod, without the soldiers ever boarding the Mavi Marmara, and thus avoiding the whole disgraceful nightmare. There was some jibber-jabber from the government press office that this type of ship is too big for such a maneuver, but my government contacts (who remain anonymous for obvious reasons) tell me that is completely untrue. Furthermore, the general consensus regarding why such a poor decision was made is that military minds only know how to design military solutions- a nod to Israel's current Minister of Defense- Ehud Barak- former general and Army Chief of Staff.
On the other side of the coin, let's take into account the actions of the Mavi Marmara's activists. They do not deny that they attacked the soldiers, saying it was their right to defend the ship. But what if they had just sat down? The same result would have been reached- that their ship would have been rerouted to Ashdod, their cargo unloaded for inspection, and themselves deported to their countries of origin- only nobody would have died. But maybe that wasn't preferable to them. Several media reports remarked that some of the Muslim activists were preparing for martyrdom.
One woman in this clip says, "We are now waiting for one of two good things- either to achieve martyrdom, or to reach Gaza." Another interviewee in this clip said, when asked if he had been subject to torture during his detainment, "No, unfortunately not." The one Turkish-American national who was killed kept a diary aboard the ship, the last words of which were reportedly, "Only a short time left before martydrom."
The Rachel Corrie
On Saturday, June 5, the Rachel Corrie (named after slain Gaza activist) was boarded by the Israeli navy. This time the activists did sit down, the soldiers met with the captain, and the activists agree to comply.
The passengers disembarked at Ashdod without incident.
This group was led by Mairead McGuire, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. The Israeli coverage of this event included a full-page photo on the front page of Yediot Ahronot of an Israeli soldier offering McGuire his hand to help her disembark, which she took graciously. The caption was, "This is what a real peace activist looks like."
Fallout
In line with the amount of attention paid to the "Go back to Aushwitz" comment was a similar yet, really if you think about it, completely irrelevant incident. Helen Thomas had been a White House correspondent for Hearst news for 57 years, I do believe the longest term ever for this job. On May 27, as the flotilla was very publicly on its way to Gaza, someone asked Thomas to comment on Israel. She said, "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine." And to the question, "Where should they go?" she answered, "Go home...to Poland, Germany."
Much, unfortunately, was made of this statement. Clearly it was in bad taste, but because of the timing, it was somehow used to confirm that exhausted line of Israel's reasoning that says everyone is against them. Ten days later Thomas hastily retired.
Naturally there was also a huge media mess regarding Israel's ties with Turkey. They had, before this incident, had a very good relationship, although it had declined slightly in the last few year as PM Erdogan began re-Islamizing the state and distancing himself from Israel. Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel after the flotilla raid and proceeded to make vague threats that it then retracted. Ergodan reportedly threatened to personally accompany a new aid flotilla that would be escorted by the Turkish Navy. Turkey's foreign minister later retracted that statement.
Iran's Ahmedinejad also threatened to send an aid convey with a military escort but denied Israel the conundrum of whether to kill him by stating he would not personally be aboard the ship. No more has been heard about this threat.
Numerous concerts have been cancelled, for example the Klaxons, Gorillaz, and the Pixies.
Finally, I leave you with this:
(For the record, I find it distasteful and unhelpful, but it provides a comment on the issue.)
Lots of interesting things are going on over here, news-wise, but your favorite snarkist is neck-deep in finals over here in the holy land and I just don't have time to report on it. But, however, even so, and although...I do find this particular Haaretz article to be important based simply on how it makes me feel inside. It is one of several articles in the Israeli press of late that has speculated on whether there will be a summer war with Lebanon and whether Israel's military is ready for such a war.
The piece says, in part:
Hezbollah tries not to carry out openly military activities in the border area, and in all of south Lebanon for that matter, but reports of heightened activities have recently spiked. A former intelligence officer told Haaretz that lately he and other Galilee farmers have seen plainclothes Hezbollah personnel traveling along the border and photographing Israeli positions.
They are sometimes accompanied by individuals who do not appear to be Lebanese, as well as interpreters, who appear to be Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers and who have by now integrated into every command level in Hezbollah.
Several questions detract from the sheer unpleasantness this extract suggests: How do you know they're Hezbollah if they are in plainclothes? How do individuals appear to not be Lebanese? How do people appear to be interpreters? And finally, how do people appear to be Iranian Revolutionary Guards? If these questions could please be answered to my satisfaction, I could continue on with my goosebump fest, thankyouverymuch.
The world has known suspected for many years that Israel has nuclear weapons, but Israel's "ambiguous" policy toward announcing that fact means they will never confirm or deny this fact suspicion. But as Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Haaretz, and others are reporting today, another nail has just been hammered into ambiguity's coffin.
Writer Sasha Polakaw-Suransky broke the story wide open yesterday when he finally announced the results of his extensive research into Israel's nuclear activities. Basically what happened is he discovered documents that strongly suggest that Israel offered to sell nuclear weapons to South Africa in 1975. The problem with the airtightness of the case is that the signature of Shimon Peres, current Israeli president and former defense minister, is on a secrecy agreement with South Africa, which was signed four days after a meeting between Peres and the South African defense minister. In the minutes of the meeting, typed and preserved by South Africa, nuclear weapons exchanges were discussed. So naturally, Peres is spinning the story by saying, correctly, that his signature is not on any document suggesting Israel has nuclear weapons or plans to proliferate them.
Polakaw-Suransky says about this, "he is speaking as a politician and someone predictably weasling his way out of a situation."
Yossi Melman, Israeli journalist, jumps on board the denial train and says that if Israel does currently have nukes, it didn't obtain them until 1979 and therefore couldn't have sold them to SA in 1975 even if they wanted to. He did however confirm that Israel traded tritium to SA in exchange for uranium.
In the above interview on Al Jazeera, the interviewer says to Melman, "Israel is not really in a position to cast dispersions on other peoples' nuclear ambitions. For instance, Iran."
Melman has that look on his face your kids get when you know they're doing something they're not supposed to do and you ask them what they're doing anyway and they respond, "Nooooooothiiiiing." You can tell he's thinking goddammit I should have known he was going to say that. So he takes a few moments to stutter and responds, "Well, that's not the same case. Israel has never admitted that it has nuclear weapons. It has never threatened to use nuclear weapons."
Wait. Am I...isn't that exactly the same case? Has Iran admitted it has nuclear weapons? Did I miss that announcement?
There are two main points of newsworthiness about this story. The first is obviously the evidence pointing toward Israel having nukes. The second is Israel's clear cooperation with Apartheid-era South Africa, which is unseemly and certainly doesn't help the image of today's Israel since its critics are constantly comparing Israel's policies toward Arabs to apartheid. However, as usual, only the Israeli press included the word "apartheid" in headlines about the event. Which is typical. Jewish guilt or whatever. I don't know.
I think it's time for a recap of this whole attempted Times Square bombing thing. The quick run-down goes like this: at first, nobody knew who did it, probably an amateur they thought, since the explosive device was made of fireworks and stuff. Also, this blog called Revolution Muslim had made veiled threats against the creators of South Park for including Mohammed, dressed in a bear suit, in their last episode. And the Viacom offices are in Times Square. Then the police apparently realized it was this guy Faisal Shahzad, below:
But they didn't want to make an arrest yet so they put him under surveillance and put him on the no fly list. He ditched his surveillance and was able to board a flight to Dubai, despite the no fly list. But upon a final manifest check, the airline was like, "Mmmmm, this guy isn't supposed to be on here. Let's call whoever we're supposed to call." Video of that whole process below:
PS, my fav part of this video: It's not like you just pick up the phone and call the guest house at the terror training camp and say, "Hello, was Mr. Shahzad there recently?"
Then the police came and took Shahzad away. They had him in custody and claimed he was singing like a bird, which didn't seem too plausible to me, but later there were stories on the news about how Pakistani officials had taken his family in Pakistan into custody, and I was like, oh I see. See in Pakistan they don't have pesky human rights laws and stuff.
So Shahzad apparently admitted he was part of the Pakistani Taliban and it was under their guidance that he planted the bomb. Which failed, I don't know if I mentioned that. Yeah, the bomb just didn't go off. It failed.
Anyway, meanwhile, the head of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, created a youtube channel seemingly for the sole purpose of uploading two youtube videos praising Shahzad's attempt and promising further attacks on U.S. soil. Oh, and he also wanted to mention that he's not dead, as was previously thought.
That video is here. For some reason I'm not able to embed it, but here's a screenshot:
It's really worth watching. Seriously, it's like a trailer for an action film. Drama! Action! Suspense! Subtitles!
All this happened a week ago and then yesterday, I guess after they followed up on the leads Shahzad and his family gave them, the U.S. government announced it was sure the Pakistani Taliban was responsible for the failed Times Square bombing attempt.
Unmanned drones just went to town in Waziristan. Which is here, on Pakistan's Northern border with Afghanistan.
And by "went to town" I mean they shot two missiles and killed ten people. There was also a similar unmanned drone attack in the same region earlier in the week, according to the above article, but I could find no specific information about that. I don't know yet who was killed in this drone attack and how involved they were in the Times Square thing, but rest assured I will lean on my sources until I get that information. Who are my sources, you ask? I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.
So let's review: in the span of a week's time, U.S. officials evacuated Times Square, neutralized a bomb, tracked down the bomber, arrested him, had his family ten thousand miles away arrested, convinced him to tell all, followed up on that, and then bombed the people who helped him make and plant the bomb.
Situation handled.
Doesn't this whole thing read like an action movie treatment?
So apparently the ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokul volcano will reach Israel by tonight.
How is "Eyjafjallajokul" even a word? You could put together any sequence of 15 letters and it would be equally as recognizable and easy to read (and by that I mean not at all) as "Eyjafjallajokul." Like, why not Ashjayecloudyajouyomommafnson?
Hanyway, my point is that things are windy and dusty over here and I don't like it one bit.
Remember back when everyone was mad at Netanyahu? That was because just as Joe Biden was in Israel trying to get peace talks started, Israel announced it was going to build a whole bunch of new settlement housing in East Jerusalem, in a neighborhood called Ramat Shlomo.
As part of the newest round of proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Israel annouced yesterday that it would not build the approved Ramat Shlomo neighborhood for at least two years. There, are you happy now?
Israel had pledged not to build in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of East Jerusalem for two years and that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas vowed that he would work against incitement of any sort.
Just two days after resuming peace talks with Israel, the Palestinian Authority has reported to the United States what it termed the first violation of negotiation terms, a senior Palestinian official said Monday.
Yasser Abed Rabbo said the construction of 14 housing units for Jewish settlers in an East Jerusalem neighbourhood, as reported by the Israeli Peace Now pressure group, violated the terms of new talks.
About the first round of talks, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said:
Erekat said that during their meeting, Abbas gave Mitchell a letter outlining the Palestinian Authority's position on proximity talks and the issues it wants to discuss. Abbas would head the Palestinian negotiating team himself, Erekat said, adding that the Palestinians view the talks as aimed at "The end of the occupation and creation of a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel along the 1967 borders."
And Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak echoed his sentiments at a separate event:
"Without an agreement, we will be subject to international isolation, and we will suffer a fate similar to that of Belfast or Bosnia, or a gradual transition from a paradigm of two states for two peoples to one of one state for two peoples, and some people will try to label us as similar to South Africa. That's why we must act," Barak said. If both sides are willing to make brave decisions, he said, "it will be possible to get to direct negotiations and a breakthrough toward an agreement."
So it looks like Barak is super duper ready to make a two-state solution with the Palestinians, but clearly the rest of the government is not on board. Ah, well, no matter. I'm sure Netanyahu and Lieberman and all those guys will enjoy being a Jewish minority in, oh, 20 years.
Yesterday, the Jewish Agency for Israel officially announced its new strategy for recruiting jews to live in Israel, which basically consists of spending more money on PR. The official press release quoted in the Ynet article doesn't say this, of course, but I was at an event sponsored by Masa on Tuesday night, which preceded the official announcement in New York by only a few hours. The Masa event, held in Jerusalem, was designed to strengthen the jewish disaspora's connection with Israel and included speeches by chairman of the Jewish Agency Natan Shransky, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Basically, Sharansky said the major question in approving the new strategy was, "Why should Israel have to pay for spoiled American kids to come visit?" I'm paraphrasing, clearly. But thankfully, Sharansky says, Netanyahu approved funding for this purpose.
The plan calls for building Jewish identity of Jews around the world and in Israel by forging a strong connection to Israel, Jewish heritage and people. The plan also introduces recommendations for new initiatives of social activism in Israel, and calls for directly engaging young Israelis on issues of Jewish identity.
I have uploaded Sharansky's speech and included it below, but I have had some internet problems which prevent me from uploading Netanyahu's speech so far. But stay tuned, it's coming.
PS I apologize for the terrible video quality here, I don't know what was up with my camera. Maybe it decided on its own that it would be best for my readers not to see Sharansky's face in focus.
By the way, the book I've been talking about forever is finally out. It is an anthology about the occupation, with stories from some amazing writers, including me. There are forewords by Cindy Sheehan and Amira Hass.
So buy it here and savor that righteous indignation to your liberal heart's content.
In an interview with Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq Alawsat, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas hints that he was making more headway with Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni than he is with Obama and Mitchell and that in reality, Obama insisting on a settlement freeze puts Abbas in an awkward position. He can't very well publicly say that a settlement freeze is not necessary in order to continue negotiations, but he tells Asharq Alawsat's journalists that in previous negotiations with Olmert, he was prepared to ignore the issue, at least temporarily.
And that's not all. This article is filled with fascinating tidbits about the insides of such a complicated negotiation. Here are some important parts and my take on them.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] Would it have been possible to reach an agreement with Olmert alone? [President Abbas] I believe it would have been possible that I go up a little, and he comes down a little. It was possible to find a solution. He said that he would give me 100 percent. [Asharq Al-Awsat] This is important and fundamental? [President Abbas] He said 100 percent. He would take from this side, and I would take from that side. He presented maps to me. The maps included that he would take the settlements blocs (in the West Bank) in exchange for territories in the north, west, and south of the West Bank, in addition to territories to the east of Gaza.
So basically this is a territory swap he's talking about. Israel gets to keep the settlements they've built already and Palestine gets land that is not currently being used by anyone.
Wait. Not used by anyone? Don't we mean used by Palestinian residents of Israel? No.
[President Abbas] In a distant region (from the triangle region), because I explained from the beginning that I would not accept anyone (from the Palestinians of Israel). We were doing well. God is my witness, he was all right; he said to me: You will not find anyone other than me; and I said to him: But you will find someone other than me.
I guess Palestine has enough people. This brings a whole new angle to the argument about the Right of Return.
[President Abbas] Obama laid down the condition of halting the settlements completely. What could I say to him? Should I say this is too much? Moreover, halting the settlements is the second article of the Road Map, and it is something I want. At the end they blame me, and they say that the condition of halting the settlements was not on offer during the negotiations with Olmert. Bear in mind that at every meeting with Olmert the issue of the settlements was discussed.
And regarding Abbas' repeated threats to step down as president and his newest announcement that he will not seek re-election:
[Asharq Al-Awsat] Is not this decision tantamount to running away from the battle? [President Abbas] Is the issue merely one of clinging to the chair? The chair does not matter to me. [Asharq Al-Awsat] This is despite the fact that there is no alternative to you at this stage? [President Abbas] It is wrong to say that there is no alternative. How can you say that there are 8 million Palestinians, but there is no alternative? (Erekat [chief Palestinian negotiator with Israel]: I believe that the president did not say I do not want to be a candidate because he was scheming, maneuvering, or fed up). [Asharq Al-Awsat] Or he might be sulking as he used to sulk in the past? [President Abbas] No it is not sulking.
Hilarious. In what other situation would you find a journalist accusing a president of sulking during a private interview?
Moving along, Abbas says that Iran is standing in the way of a reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas (the former rules the West Bank and that latter is in charge of the Gaza strip).
[President Abbas] Brother, they saw the Egyptian document before we saw it, they agreed to it, and then we signed, but they refused to sign. Why, because there are regional sides that do not want this. [Asharq Al-Awsat] What are these sides? [President Abbas] Iran is the first one. This is indisputable.
And here Abbas idealizes a bit. I think the situations he refers to have improved in the past several years, but naturally he is overemphasizing his success at reform.
[Asharq Al-Awsat] What can a Palestinian State offer? [President Abbas] It can offer a democratic state that has equality and transparency. I challenge anyone to say that there was a single case of corruption in the Palestinian Authority in the past two or three years. I mean a single case of corruption. [Asharq Al-Awsat] Does this include political detentions? [President Abbas] Or a single political detention. [Asharq Al-Awsat] Does this mean that all the detentions are not political? [President Abbas] The detentions are carried out in cases of weapons, security, money smuggling, or money laundering. I challenge anyone to prove otherwise. [Asharq Al-Awsat] What about the issue of women? [President Abbas] Women are equal to men. On every occasion we emphasize the need to advance women. The proof of this is that the Legislative Council has allocated a quota for women, whether the others like it or not; one of every three members of the Legislative Councils has to be a woman. This also applies to the local councils.
There is much too much in this interview for me to paraphrase everything, so I urge you to read the whole thing if you have an interest.
"There is no truth in the publications that Israel intends to deport Gazans residing in the West Bank," Brigadier-General Eitan Dangot, the coordinator of government activities in the Palestinian territories, told top Fatah official Hussein a-Sheikh during a phone conversation.
So instead of this order applying to Palestinians, it actually applies to everyone else:
A-Sheik added that "Dangot said that Israel would not enable tourists who enter Israel with a visa to enter the Palestinian territories."
So instead of physically forcing Palestinians to leave, they will just put a stranglehold on their economy and force them to leave that way. That's much better. Phew!
Well this is not at all like the holocaust. Nope, not at all. Gaza is a ghetto There have been no ghettos created for any special class of citizens, dissidents are arrested and tortured everyone is free to protest, and at least Israel hasn't yet resorted to mass deportations of the undesirable portion of the population. Oh no wait. Yes they have.
A new military order aimed at preventing infiltration will come into force this week, enabling the deportation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, or their indictment on charges carrying prison terms of up to seven years.
What this means is that, first and foremost, Palestinians whose ID cards show addresses in the Gaza strip will be deported. Even if they were born in the West Bank. Even if their spouses and children were born in the West Bank. Secondly, foreign-born spouses of West Bank residents will be subject to deportation. To where, I don't know. Palestinians with Gaza addresses on their ID cards may face deportation to the strip, but many Palestinians who were born and raised in the West Bank still do not have Palestinian residency cards, and are citizens of no country.
Amira Hass of Haaretz writes, "The new order defines anyone who enters the West Bank illegally as an infiltrator, as well as "a person who is present in the area and does not lawfully hold a permit." What that means is that, even if you enter Israel legally and decide you want to spend some time hanging with your second cousin, or your former coworker, or whomever in the West Bank, you have to obtain a permit from the local Israeli military commander. Even if the area you want to stay in is completely under Palestinian control. And what do you suppose are the chances of actually being granted a permit to chill with your people?
Furthermore, the order is so vague as to allow the local military commander to interpret as he sees fit:
The order's language is both general and ambiguous, stipulating that the term infiltrator will also be applied to Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, citizens of countries with which Israel has friendly ties (such as the United States) and Israeli citizens, whether Arab or Jewish. All this depends on the judgment of Israel Defense Forces commanders in the field.
As part of my ongoing efforts to find out "what really happened" during, or to cause, episodes of violence in this beautiful land that is my temporary home, I search several newspapers for the same story to see what differs, and what is common.
This weekend, there were two separate incidents near the city of Nablus, in the West Bank, wherein four teenagers were killed by the Israeli army, two in each incident. These facts are not in dispute, according to my sources. What is in dispute is what caused the soldiers to kill the boys, and how exactly they were killed.
Regarding one incident, Israeli sources claim two of the boys tried to attack the soldiers, who were stationed at a checkpoint, with a pitchfork. Regarding the second incident, Arab sources called the event a peaceful demonstration while Israeli sources called it an "illegal riot." Are there legal riots? Not be a smartmouth, but seriously. Israeli sources claim that only rubber-coated bullets were fired, and that therefore their deaths were tragic accidents. Arab sources (and the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem) claim the soldiers fired live rounds, which struck the boys in the head and abdomen, respectively.
I would like to offer now a sampling of media reports on the incident, first from Israeli news, and then from Arab news (Qatar-owned Al-Jazeera and Saudi-owned Asharq Alawsat).
The IDF on Monday set up a committee of experts tasked with investigating the death of two Palestinian teenagers during riots that erupted near the West Bank city of Nablus on Saturday. The Palestinians claim that Israeli soldiers used live fire, resulting in the death of two people, while the IDF contends that soldiers fired rubber-bullets, in accordance with army protocol.
The committee, consisting of military physicians and forensic experts who were appointed by the army, will be tasked with looking into the discrepancy between the two versions with the use of eyewitness accounts and evidence gathered at the scene. The experts will also examine X-ray images of the Palestinians' bodies provided by a hospital in Nablus and the testimonies of IDF soldiers. At this point, the army said, the cause of death cannot be determined.
Mohammed Qadus (16) and Osayed Qadus (19) were killed during clashes in the West Bank village of Burin. The IDF said that during the incident dozens of Palestinians threw stones soldiers, who responded with crowd dispersal means.
The IDF reports – according to which one of the Palestinians tried to attack the soldiers with a pitchfork or hoe – were shown to be inaccurate. The two Palestinians were indeed in possession of farming tools. However, they were reportedly left on the ground beside them. As the two were asked what they were doing in the area and asked to hand over their details, the company commander reportedly heard one of them mutter something that sounded like a prayer. According to the debriefing, he then attacked the soldier with a broken piece of glass that he allegedly picked up from the ground.
The company commander turned around and fired two or three rounds at the Palestinian. The company commander then noticed that the other Palestinian man started moving in a threatening manner with a syringe he held in his hand. The soldier then fired two more bullets.
Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib called for an independent investigation into the killing of 19-year-old cousins Mohammed Qawariq and Saleh Qawariq on Sunday, who were shot by Israel Defense Forces troops who they attempted to stab with a pitchfork. The soldiers were not harmed in the incident.
Khatib cited witness accounts that the two had been shot only after being arrested, while Mahmoud al-Aloul, a senior figure in the Fatah party led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the youth had been killed in "cold blood".
Oseyd Abd al-Nasser Kadus was hit in the midriff by a rubber-coated bullet and was taken to the hospital in Nablus, where he had been listed in critical condition.
Another youth, Ibrahim Abd al-Khader Kadus, 16, died Saturday after being hit in the heart by a rubber-coated bullet fired by IDF troops.
The two were wounded clash after IDF soldiers tried to prevent clashes between Israeli settlers and Palestinians near the village of Iraq Burin, south of Nablus. Villagers own land that borders the nearby settlement of Bracha.
The Palestinians maintain that the two teenagers were hit by live ammunition and that the soldiers prevented Palestinian medical staff from evacuating them. The two teenagers were subsequently rushed to the hospital in private cars.
A teenager was killed and another gravely wounded as Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened Saturday afternoon fire at them in the West Bank village of Iraq Burin south of Nablus.
The IOF entered the Iraq Burin and the neighboring Burin village, following a settlers attack on the two villages. As Israeli soldiers opened fire toward citizens they gravely injured Mohamed Kadus, 16, and Aceed Jamal, but Mohamed died in hospital.
This came after Israeli occupation soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians Sunday at an army check post near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. An occupation spokeswoman claimed that both men tried to stab a soldier. "Two Palestinians were killed after attempting to stab a soldier on patrol near Awarta, southeast of Nablus. Other soldiers opened fire at the attackers, killing them," the spokeswoman told AFP.
A 19-year-old Palestinian also died on Sunday of wounds sustained one day earlier when Israeli occupation forces opened fire on demonstrators south of Nablus. Oseyd Abd al-Nasser Kadus was hit in the midriff by a rubber-coated bullet and was taken to the hospital in Nablus, where he had been listed in critical condition. Another youth, Ibrahim Abd al-Khader Kadus, 16, died Saturday after being hit in the heart by a rubber-coated bullet fired by occupation troops.
Palestinians maintain that the two teenagers were hit by live ammunition and that the soldiers prevented Palestinian medical staff from evacuating them. The two teenagers were subsequently rushed to the hospital in private cars.
The two martyrs were wounded when Israeli soldiers opened fire at Palestinian demonstrators who were defending their families and properties from settler gangs attacking their village.
Osaid al-Kaddous, 17, was fatally wounded in a confrontation between Israeli forces and Palestinian youths, who had been throwing stones, in the Palestinian village of Iraq Burin, near Nablus. Mohammed Ibrahim, 16, was killed there Saturday.
Due to be buried later Sunday, they were the first Palestinians to die in recent weeks of protests in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Kaddous had been struck in the head by what a Palestinian medic who treated him said was a live bullet.
The Israeli army has denied live ammunition was used.
Do note that this paragraph:
The Palestinians maintain that the two teenagers were hit by live ammunition and that the soldiers prevented Palestinian medical staff from evacuating them. The two teenagers were subsequently rushed to the hospital in private cars.
was exactly the same, word for word, in the Haaretz article and the Al-Jazeera article. In my humble opinion, it seems that it is much less risky for an Israeli journalist to question and be critical of his or her government than it is for an Arab journalist. The wrath with which Al-Jazeera reports on developments in Palestine fades to a flicker when comment is made about the Qatari government, and is once again fanned when journalists criticize the rival Saudi government. But here in Israel, even mainstream publications echo the sentiments of their Arab peers and question the legitimacy of the Israeli military's official line until it is confirmed with facts.
Israel's critics accuse it of being an ethnocracy madquerading as a democracy, which is true, with Arab Israeli's rights dwindling as we speak. But one could make the argument, and indeed I intend to, that Israel's Arabs are treated more fairly than Arabs' Arabs. Were protesters not killed in Iran after Ahmedinejad was "reelected"? (And yes I know they are not Arab, don't split hairs with me). Have Egyptian journalists not been abducted, beaten, and disappeared for criticizing their leaders? Have Saudi TV producers not been fired and replaced simply for discussing the pros and cons of Western lifestyles?
I will continue this argument in my own head and possibly on the blog at a future date.
Couple days ago I wrote that some people think the third intifada could be starting soon. There have been outbreaks of violence, demonstrations, and vandalism throughout Jerusalem and the West Bank lately, but luckily Jerusalem's Chief of Police says there's no problem.
Police Commissioner David Cohen on Tuesday toured Jerusalem's Old City after clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, and said he did not believe the recent violence would not spark a third intifada.
And in a not-really-funny but yes-really-funny way, this paragraph made me laugh a little:
Palestinians hurled stones at police and burned tires and trash bins in several areas of East Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank during the 1967 Six-Day War.
"Burned tires and trash bins in several areas of East Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank..." the first time I read that, I thought it meant Israel had captured the tires and trash bins in 1967. I was like, "wow, that's a long time to be holding onto those. Maybe they are really planning to give them back eventually."
Meanwhile, the West Bank closure I mentioned previously is still in effect. And as a parting thought, I include this paragraph about why this whole mess started in the first place:
Sporadic violence has erupted in recent weeks in Jerusalem after Israel decided to include West Bank religious sites in a Jewish national heritage plan stoked Palestinian anger.
I love continuity. Really, it's my favorite thing when something I wrote about yesterday connects to something happening today. Well, ok, this didn't happen today, but I found out about it today. So with that said, I'd like to introduce Mr. Mosab Hassan Yousef. He is a Palestinian, born and raised in the West Bank, the son of a Hamas leader currently serving a prison term in Israel, and a voluntary spy for Shabak, Israel's intelligence service.
The news about this 32-year-old recent addition to California's population first broke on Israeli newspaper Haaretz- the writer, Avi Issacharoff, was given exclusive access to the now, we have to assume, on-the-lam Yousef. The story almost immediately bloomed into an international intrigue story. The same day as the Haaretz article came out, February 24, BBC picked up the story, adding some tidbits of their own. For example, the reaction from Hamas:
Earlier, senior Hamas leader Ismail Radwan condemned Haaretz's report as "baseless slander" aimed at the elder Yousef.
"The Palestinian people have great confidence in Hamas and its struggle and they will not be fooled by this slander and these lies of the Israeli occupation," he told AFP news agency.
Yousef became known over a year ago for outing himself as a converted Christian, and now he is outing himself again- this time as a spy for Israel- in a new book to be released soon, called Son of Hamas.
Some interesting tidbits from the Haaretz article:
Yousef was considered the Shin Bet's most reliable source in the Hamas leadership, earning himself the nickname "the Green Prince" - using the color of the Islamist group's flag, and "prince" because of his pedigree as the son of one of the movement's founders.
During the second intifada, intelligence Yousef supplied led to the arrests of a number of high-ranking Palestinian figures responsible for planning deadly suicide bombings. These included Ibrahim Hamid (a Hamas military commander in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouti (founder of the Fatah-linked Tanzim militia) and Abdullah Barghouti (a Hamas bomb-maker with no close relation to the Fatah figure). Yousef was also responsible for thwarting Israel's plan to assassinate his father.
Especially touching were his statements about Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier still held in Gaza.
"I wish I were in Gaza now," Yousef said by phone from California, "I would put on an army uniform and join Israel's special forces in order to liberate Gilad Shalit. If I were there, I could help. We wasted so many years with investigations and arrests to capture the very terrorists that they now want to release in return for Shalit. That must not be done."
Yousef's former Shabak handler expressed his admiration for him.
Loai makes no secret of his admiration for his former source. "The amazing thing is that none of his actions were done for money," he says. "He did things he believed in. He wanted to save lives. His grasp of intelligence matters was just as good as ours - the ideas, the insights. One insight of his was worth 1,000 hours of thought by top experts."
He also says Hamas is a greater threat to the Palestinian people than Israel is.
I tell you with certainty that the Israelis care about the Palestinians far more than the Hamas or Fatah leadership does."
Lastly, check out this video which I am unfortunately unable to embed. It's an interview with Yousef on BBC Arabic where he talks about how Muhammad is a false prophet and Islam is a fundamentally flawed religion.
Things are getting hot over here. I've been reading lately some interesting opinion columns from local writers who think the third intifada is about to start, and if things keep going as they have been, that may well happen.
Firstly, Israel sealed off the West Bank beginning on Thursday and plan to keep it that way until at least Wednesday. What that means is that some Palestinians who are usually allowed to cross the checkpoints in order to pray at Al-Aqsa mosque will not be allowed to do so until the closure is over. Women are allowed to cross as usual but only men over 50 will be allowed during the closure.
This Ynet article describes five incidents of violence this week, which is not alltogether out of the ordinary, but one of those incidents was at the Old City's Damascus Gate, which is not usually a site of tension.
Recently there was also an incident of stone throwing and other tomfoolery at Al-Aqsa. The closure is a result of Israeli intelligence getting information that such an event was going to happen again this past weekend.
The decision was based on police intelligence received on a group of Arab youths planning to enter Temple Mount and causing disturbances. Accordingly, the Jerusalem District Police and Border Guard will deploy in force around the Temple Mount complex and the alleys of Jerusalem's Old City.
Speaking of Israeli intelligence, this other article brags about the intelligentsia's ability to preempt bad stuff.
The IDF emphasized that Udda's arrest illustrates the freedom the military enjoys in the West Bank and the precise intelligence hold it has which enables such arrests. "Anti-terror activity is constantly ongoing. We take action against anyone involved in terror now and against elements that were involved in terror in the past and have yet to be brought to justice. This is the approach that guides us, and will continue to guide us," an IDF source said.
This was in reference to the arrest of Maher Udda, a Hamas big fish that they consider the last man they were seeking in connection with the second intifada's terror attacks.
Remember last week when I described how Netanyahu inserted his foot fully into his mouth with that whole Biden thing? Well, now clean-up is happening.
Firstly, yesterday, Bibi was apparently trying to explain that he handled the situation with Biden:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he thought his apology to Joe Biden over the ill-timed announcement of east Jerusalem construction was sufficient and believed the matter was closed.
This he says the same day he was "harshly reprimanded" on the phone by Sec. State Clinton. She expressed this sentiment herself:
In an interview with CNN, Friday Secretary of State Clinton said the move was "insulting" to the US.
"We have to make clear to our Israeli friends and partner that the two-state solution which we support, which the prime minister himself said he supports, requires confidence-building measures on both sides," she said.
And then today, when Netanyahu sees that everyone is still talking about it, he tries again:
"We opened the newspapers today and read all kinds of commentaries and estimates about the crisis with the United States. I suggest that we avoid getting carried away and calm down."
But the fact that he, himself, called it a "crisis" belies his message. In any case, the more interesting question to some will be whether Netanyahu really didn't know that the Interior Ministry would make the announcement on the same day as Biden's visit. My sources say no, that in fact, Israel really is that disorganized. But Netanyahu intends to remedy that:
Netanyahu on Saturday decided to form a committee comprising senior officials in the aims of preventing such mishaps.
The new committee will be responsible for establishing procedural guidelines to prevent the reoccurrence of similar incidents in the future.
Basically, everyone is mad at Netanyahu. Also, the word "crisis" was used exactly seven times in this one article.
According to this AP article Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu really put his foot in it yesterday. VP Joe Biden showed up in Israel to try to re-start the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and what does Israel do? Announce its plans to build 1,600 new housing units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo.
The announcement was made just before Biden was scheduled to arrive to a planned dinner with Netanyahu. Meanwhile, Biden was on the phone with Washington asking just what he was supposed to do with this steaming pile of dung that had previously resembled a peace prospect. This caused him to be over an hour late to the dinner, a blunder which was perceived as an insult to Netanyahu, on top of the fact that he publicly condemned the move.
Israel's opposition party, Kadima, is reportedly planning a no-confidence vote to oust Netanyahu, which is not as far-fetched as it sounds. Israeli prime ministers who rub the U.S. the wrong way have suffered the same fate before. In fact, one of the reasons Bibi did not win re-election after his first term as prime minister is that he failed to please Clinton. And even Rabin, who would later be America's darling because of Oslo, stepped down partially due to the fact that he and Carter had bad chemistry.
According to this AP story today, America's human rights activists are saying, "Ooops, my bad. Go on with what you were doing. Don't mind me."
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan – A man freed from Guantanamo more than two years ago after he claimed he only wanted to go home and help his family is now a senior commander running Taliban resistance to the U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, two senior Afghan intelligence officials say.
Abdul Qayyum is also seen as a leading candidate to be the next No. 2 in the Afghan Taliban hierarchy, said the officials, interviewed last week by The Associated Press.
So now we can spend hundreds of millions of dollars in technology and manpower, not to mention the collateral damage of all his fine work, to find him somewhere in a cave or village in Afghanistan. But we could have just kept him in Gitmo. But he seemed so nice
And Qayyum is not nearly the only one who managed to slip through Gitmo's fingers, "U.S. intelligence asserts that 20 percent of suspects released from the Guantanamo Bay prison have returned to the fight and the number has been steadily increasing."
This guy could be the next #2 in the Taliban hierarchy and "From his houses in Quetta he appoints the (Taliban) governors, the district governors," Sharifuddin said. "Nothing happens in these provinces without his approval." Yet we thought he was just a nice rural boy who wanted to go home and help his family.
I cannot resist posting this piece from the MEMRI blog (the organization I am currently interning for under founder Yigal Carmon).
In an unfortunate result of translation, Pakistani diplomat Akbar Zeb will not become the next Pakistani ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Zeb’s credentials seem in order: He is the former ambassador to the United States, India and South Africa. He held the post of High Commissioner Designate of Pakistan to Canada and is the former director general of Pakistan's Foreign Ministry.
But despite Mr. Zeb’s impressive career, the 55-year-old diplomat’s name proved to be the immovable hurdle. When translated into Arabic, Akbar Zeb means “Biggest Dick.” In a region that stresses modesty, particularly in public, this could not stand.
This is nothing but a cry for help, just as this was.
"Hamas will keep rejecting the occupation and refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the Zionist entity. Priority will remain building and developing the resistance," said Meshal, who lives in Syria along with other Hamas leaders in exile.
The "Zionist entity." Does he have any idea how out of touch that makes him sound? This is a sci-fi series that has outlived its potential. If the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were a reality TV show, this would be the part where the contestants are urged to crawl through a tunnel of worms to win a phone call home.
If sounding like C-3P0 was the way to win hearts and minds, Meshal would have this thing handled.
Abbas has said repeatedly he will not resume negotiations without a complete Israeli settlement freeze in the West Bank and east Jerusalem - areas claimed by the Palestinians for a future state. The Obama administration initially demanded such a freeze as well, but relented when Netanyahu resisted.
Netanyahu instead agreed to a 10-month slowdown in West Bank construction. But Netanyahu insists he will not relinquish any part of Jerusalem. The Palestinians seek the city's eastern sector as their future capital.
If we boil this whole thing down to a fictional conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his counterpart Mahmoud Abbas, you get this: Abbas:[folds arms across chest and turns his back] Netanyahu:Come on, talk to me. Please. Abbas: No. You're just going to keep building more settlements and taking all our land. You're trying to force us into bantustans. Netanyahu: [gasps] I would never do that to you. Now, come on, turn around and talk to me. Abbas:[turns around] Well ok. Hey, what's that sound [settlement building resumes behind him]? Netanyahu: What sound? I don't hear any sound. [settlement builder gives Netanyahu the thumbs up that he's done] Nevermind, I think we're all done here. Abbas: [turns around and screams like Homer Simpson.]
This is Netanyahu's "realities on the ground" expansion plan.
My Dear Reader, I haven't written in many months, much to the chagrin of my biggest supporters (mom, et al). So if you're reading this, it means you either know me personally and have been warned I would begin writing again, or you have just stumbled upon this blog for the first time. Welcome, I say, to the latter. Welcome back, to the former. And I also must issue a warning: this blog may be hazardous to your political correctness. Side effects of reading this blog include uttering tasteless jokes, racist jokes, and offending friends and acquaintances in general. I am not a humanitarian, I am not a peacemaker, I can only barely be called a journalist. But along with a lack of human compassion comes a lack of emotional involvement in the affairs of the Israeli and Palestinian governments. I mock them both equally, where mocking is called for.
I also sometimes mock fellow bloggers and journalists.
Now, I will begin my update with a summation of the situation as of the last time I wrote, which was in August, and any developments since then.
Obama had been in office half a year and everyone was eager to see what his big plan was to solve Middle Eastern Conflict. Obama appointed George Mitchell as his special envoy to this end and after conferring with the region's leaders for five minutes or so came up with this totally original and incredibly detailed plan:
President Barack Obama's new Mideast envoy called Wednesday for an end to Hamas weapons smuggling and a reopening of Gaza's borders, seeking to strengthen the shaky cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants thrown into turmoil by new violence.
This reads like Mitchell thinks he's the magic peace fairy and he can just ask what each side wants and then POOF there it is. [The link to that article has since died, super sorry about that, but the quote is accurate.]
And then yesterday, this gem appeared in Ha'aretz, "Obama: U.S. expectations for Middle East peace too high." Obama is quoted as saying:
I think it is absolutely true that what we did this year didn't produce the kind of breakthrough that we wanted and if we had anticipated some of these political problems on both sides earlier, we might not have raised expectations as high.
Reading this article, I was shocked not only by the way Obama is willing to level with journalists, but also with his seemingly clear and realistic grasp on the situation. He summed up the key current issues as such:
Both sides ... have found that the political environment, the nature of their coalitions, or the divisions within their societies were such that it was very hard for them to start engaging in a meaningful conversation.
And I think that we overestimated our ability to persuade them to do so when their politics ran contrary to that. From Abbas' perspective, he's got Hamas looking over his shoulder and I think an environment generally within the Arab world that feels impatient with any process.
And on the Israeli front, although the Israelis I think after a lot of time showed a willingness to make some modifications in their policies, still found it very hard to move with any bold gestures.
Gilad Shalit is still held in captivity somewhere in Gaza. The Israeli soldier was taken in a cross border raid over three years ago and his imprisonment has played a key role in negotiations since that time. On August 12 of last year, this article revealed that Hamas was confident Israel would finally yield to its demands.
Mohammed al-Ghoul, the Hamas minister for prisoners' affairs, said "the Israeli occupation will soon surrender to the conditions that we have outlined for the release of Gilad Shalit."
According to al-Ghoul, Israel will release the Palestinian prisoners whose names appear on a list Hamas has passed to Egyptian officials. The list includes a number of prisoners serving life sentences, as well as women, children, and some elderly inmates.
First of all, al-Ghoul? Is that really someone you want to designate as any kind of representative to the western world? And secondly, that list has passed back and forth between Israel's and Hamas' hands so many times it probably carries swine flu, AIDS, and mad cow. The numbers of prisoners on the list has reportedly fluctuated wildly between 150 and 1,000 names. First Israel wouldn't release prisoners serving terms for murder, and then they would, but only certain ones, but Hamas wasn't happy with those certain ones, and so on. There are so many cooks in the kitchen on both sides that no matter the disposition of The List, it will never pass final muster. Sure enough, just one day later, a different Hamas rep was saying something else.
Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal said there is no real progress in talks for the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, despite recent reports to the contrary.
In an interview to Qatari newspaper al-Watan, that will be published in full on Sunday, with parts of it published on the Hamas website Thursday, Mashaal said mediation efforts in the matter were ongoing, but that no real progress has been made. He said this was due to "the manner in which the Zionist enemy's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is handling the matter.'
And most recently, any mention of progress in the swap has halted except for this item from January 19:
Mohammed Nazal told the Lebanese daily A-Sapir that the deal has been delayed thus far due to Israel's refusal to heed Hamas' demand to see top militants Marwan Bargouthi and Ahmed Sadat freed.
So basically at this point, Hamas is mainly concerned with these final two guys, but they're biggies. This is the first I've heard of this Ahmed Sadat dude, but Bargouthi is a Palestinian "freedom fighter" who is so popular it's basically assumed that if he's released, he'll win the Hamas presidency. He's considered to be the leader of both the first and second intifadas but strongly supported the peace process, including the Oslo accords. He's basically the Nelson Mandela of Palestine. Further research (meaning I can use google) has revealed that this Sadat guy is pretty popular too but he doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist and was in opposition to the Oslo process. He was Secretary-General of the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) beginning in 2001 after the previous secretary was assassinated. The PFLP is basically Fatah's armed wing that they keep all hush-hush like when you have a retarded child that you keep in the basement just to feed annoying salesmen and Jehovah's Witnesses. Anyway, Sadat was accused of planning the assassination of Israel's tourism minister, who was the founder of right wing party Moledet and advocated the forced transfer of Israel's Arabs to neighboring countries.
So...what was my point? Oh yeah, transferring prisoners between Israel and Palestine is complicated.
Good god this update is exhausting. One more item.
Operation Price Tag is still in full swing. It was way back in October of 2008 that I first wrote about this lovely little grassroots movement wherein Israeli settlers damage Palestinian cemeteries, farms, and livestock, injure Palestinian children on their walks to school, and injure and sometimes kill Palestinians and/or Israeli soldiers who try to stop them in an attempt to curb opposition to the Israeli expansion project. How it works is, every time the Israeli governments clamps down and actually follows its own laws regarding the disposition of West Bank land, settlers in the area do some sort of damage that is designed to remind Palestinians and Israelis alike that there is a price tag to their opposition. I found the latest incarnation of this movement on Ha'aretz yesterday and here is the gist:
Recent violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, has been linked by some activists to the Israeli government's decision to impose a temporary, partial freeze on building in the enclaves.
Through a strategy known as the "price tag", the settlers have targeted Palestinians and their property whenever the Israeli government is seen moving, or thinking of moving against the settlements, which are deemed illegal by world powers.
Israeli police this month arrested four settlers on suspicion of involvement in an arson attack last month on a mosque near Nablus. Carpets and holy books were burnt in that attack.
These backlashes typically follow the evacuation of an illegal West Bank settlement by Israeli officials. Meanwhile, the freeze continues in name only as concrete foundations continue to be poured throughout areas planned for West Bank settlement.
And that's all kids. My snarky mockery will continue unabated as I'm in-country for a stay now.
