Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Abdullah II exhorts Israel to vaccinate Palestinians

2021-01-30

Jordan’s King Abdullah II stated on Thursday that Israel not providing vaccines to Palestinians in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip was counterproductive for the Jewish state, AFP reported.

“The Israelis have had a very successful rollout of the vaccine, however the Palestinians have not,” Abdullah told the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“You cannot vaccinate one part of your society and not the other and think that you are going to be safe,” he said via videoconference. “That is the number one lesson that COVID-19 taught us,” adding that the novel coronavirus “does not care about borders, the rich or the poor or whoever.”

“We have got to look at the practicalities and the challenges that are ahead of us, to be able to communicate with each other and realize that we are one world, one small village,” he said.

Your country could vaccinate the Paleos, your Highness...

Israel, that has already administered 4.6 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine since the start of the pandemic, has been criticized for not directly providing vaccines to the Palestinians living under PA auspices, a move that would appear to violate the principle of PA self-governance set up under the 1993 and 1995 Oslo Accords.

The PA itself has made contradictory statements blasting Israel for not providing vaccines while at the same time insisting that it plans to purchase the vaccines on its own. It has signed contracts for vaccines, including from Russia, but none have arrived.

PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki told the UNSC on Tuesday that “the occupying power has not provided any vaccine to the Palestinian people under occupation to this day, insisting that it is under no obligation to do so.”

That's unclear -- who is under 'no obligation' here? If the PA wants to be treated as a state then start acting like one, and take care of your citizens yourselves.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Palestinians outraged over ICC report into war crimes

2019-12-06

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Paleostinian officials expressed "great concern" on Thursday over a report by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor that includes a warning that Paleostinian stipends to attackers and their families could constitute a war crime.
*snort*
Paleostinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riad Malki said the prosecutor’s office’s report was "based on misleading narratives of a political nature ... rather than an objective and accurate description of the relevant facts."

The Paleostinians have long sought redress with international bodies such as the ICC for what they consider Israeli crimes. President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....
’s government appeared to have been caught off guard by the language of the criticism found in the report.

The Paleostinians have long paid stipends to the families of people killed or imprisoned as a result of fighting with Israel. The Paleostinians say these payments are a national duty to families affected by decades of violence. But Israel argues the fund encourages violence by paying the families of attackers.

Earlier this year, Israel withheld millions of dollars in tax revenues it collected on behalf of the Paleostinian Authority equal to the sum of the Paleostinian stipends.

Abbas has repeatedly said he will not halt the payments, which totaled approximately $330 million - around 7 percent of the Paleostinian Authority’s $5 billion budget - in 2018.

Thursday’s report, released in the Hague, highlighted possible crimes by both Israel and the Paleostinians that are under investigation, including Israel’s use of sometimes deadly force against protesters along the Israel-Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
border fence, and Paleostinian bully boy rocket fire and use of human shields in Gaza.

At the Paleostinians’ request, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda opened a preliminary investigation in 2015 into alleged violations of international law following the 2014 war between Israel and Paleostinian forces of Evil in the Gaza Strip.

Thursday’s report said the prosecutor "believes that it is time to take the necessary steps to bring the preliminary examination to a conclusion."

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel Prepares to Build More Settlements

2016-12-28

The NYT frames it as Israel "Defying UN", but I think it's expressed a little differently in Jerusalem...

Undeterred by a resounding defeat at the United Nations, Israel’s government said Monday that it would move ahead with thousands of new homes in East Jerusalem and warned nations against further action, declaring that Israel does not “turn the other cheek.”

Just a few days after the United Nations Security Council voted to condemn Israeli settlements,

...and let's all remember how it happened that the UN now believes it is illegal for a Jew to live in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem...

Jerusalem’s municipal government signaled that it would not back down: The city intends to approve 600 housing units in the predominantly Palestinian eastern section of town on Wednesday in what a top official called a first installment on 5,600 new homes.

The 'predominantly Palestinian' section used to be the Jewish quarter -- back before 1948 when Jews lived there...

The defiant posture reflected a bristling anger among Israel’s pro-settlement political leaders, who not only ~~correctly~~ blamed ~~Barack Obama~~ the United States for failing to block the Council resolution, but also claimed to have secret intelligence showing that President Obama’s team had orchestrated it. American officials strongly denied the claim, but the sides seem poised for ~~four~~ more weeks of conflict until Mr. Obama hands over the presidency to Donald J. Trump.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lashed out at Security Council countries by curbing diplomatic contacts, recalling envoys, cutting off aid and summoning the American ambassador for a scolding. He canceled a planned visit this week by Ukraine’s prime minister even as he expressed concern on Monday that Mr. Obama was planning more action at the United Nations before his term ends next month.

The prime minister defended his retaliation. “Israel is a country with national pride, and we do not turn the other cheek,” he said.

Certainly not in that part of the world; it's an open invitation to having your eye gouged out...

“This is a responsible, measured and vigorous response, the natural response of a healthy people that is making it clear to the nations of the world that what was done at the U.N. is unacceptable to us.”

The Security Council resolution that passed Friday condemned Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a “flagrant violation under international law” and an obstacle to peace. The Council approved it 14 to 0, with the United States abstaining instead of using its unilateral veto, as it has in the past.

Let's remember the other 14, including France and Britain...

Mr. Trump publicly pressed for a veto of the resolution and has chosen a settlement advocate as his administration’s ambassador to Israel. He turned to Twitter on Monday night to air complaints that the United Nations “is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.”

Palestinian leaders made clear that they would use the resolution in international bodies to press their case against Israel. With the imprimatur of a United Nations finding of illegality, they said, they will campaign to require that other countries not just label products made in the settlements, but ban them.

“Now we can talk about the boycott of all settlements, the companies that work with them, et cetera, and actually take legal action against them if they continue to work with them,” Riad Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, was quoted as saying by the Palestinian news media.

Which is what Barack has wanted -- he doesn't have to lift a finger, he lets everyone else stir the pot and create problems.

He outlined other steps the Palestinians could now take, using the resolution to press the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israeli leaders, file lawsuits on behalf of specific Palestinians displaced by settlements and urge the international authorities to determine whether Israel is violating the Geneva Conventions.

“We are looking to devise a comprehensive vision, and hopefully 2017 will be the year when the Israeli occupation ends,” Mr. Malki said.

Israeli officials said such pronouncements showed that the resolution actually undermined chances for a negotiated settlement because the Palestinians now have less incentive to come to the table. By declaring Israeli settlements illegal, they said, the United Nations essentially took away the one chip that Israel had to trade, meaning land.

I seem to recall another tenet of international law: when you kick the other's ass seven times (four wars and three intifadas) you're pretty much allowed to take all the other guy's shit away from him.

“The Palestinians are waging a diplomatic and legal war against Israel. That’s the strategy,” Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, said in a phone interview. “Their strategy is not to negotiate an agreement with Israel because a deal is give and take. They want take and take.”

The Palestinians want a one-state solution from the Jordan to the Sea. They want the Jews dead, converted or expelled, preferably dead. There is no give on any of that, and so there is no give on anything.

Israel’s settlement project, once a scattering of houses across the so-called Green Line marking the borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, has grown substantially over the years. In 2009, the year Mr. Obama took office, 297,000 people lived in West Bank settlements and 193,737 in East Jerusalem. That increased to 386,000 in the West Bank by the end of last year and 208,000 in East Jerusalem by the end of 2014, according to Peace Now, a group that opposes settlements.

The Israelis should go for broke now: make it a million.

Israeli officials note that when Mr. Netanyahu acquiesced to a 10-month settlement freeze sought by Mr. Obama in 2009, the Palestinians still did not agree to negotiate until just before time ran out. But the addition of more than 100,000 settlers during Mr. Obama’s tenure convinced him that it was time to change his approach at the United Nations, aides said.

By being a weasel...

The 618 housing units to be granted building permits in East Jerusalem on Wednesday have been in the works for a while, and the planning committee meeting agenda was set before the United Nations acted. But the committee chairman said he was determined to go forward with units totaling 5,600.

“I won’t get worked up over the U.N. or any other organization that might try to dictate to us what to do in Jerusalem,” Deputy Mayor Meir Turgeman, the planning committee chairman, told the newspaper Israel Hayom. “I hope that the government and the new administration in the United States will give us momentum to continue.”

Although he did not specify which projects he had in mind, Ir Amim, a private group tracking settlements in East Jerusalem, said he was probably referring to projects in Gilo and Givat Hamatos. Betty Herschman, the group’s director of international relations and advocacy, said it was “defiance demonstrated after Trump’s election, now reinforced by the U.N. resolution.”

Anat Ben Nun, the director of development and external relations for Peace Now, said such construction was problematic. “Netanyahu’s attempt to avenge the U.N.S.C. resolution through approval of plans beyond the Green Line will only harm Israelis and Palestinians by making it more difficult to arrive at a two-state solution,” she said.

Israeli leaders said they had no reason to stop building. The Security Council resolution “was absurd and totally removed from reality,” said Oded Revivi, chief foreign envoy for the Yesha Council, which represents West Bank settlers. “Israeli building policies are set in Jerusalem, not New York.”

For the fourth day, Israeli officials accused Mr. Obama’s team of ambushing them at the United Nations. While the White House denied it, Israeli officials pointed to a meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and his New Zealand counterpart a month before the Council vote discussing a resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. New Zealand was a sponsor of Friday’s measure.

Mr. Dermer, the ambassador, said Israel had other, nonpublic information proving the Obama administration’s involvement but provided no evidence and would not elaborate beyond saying it would be provided to Mr. Trump’s team when he takes office.

“They not only did not get up and stop it, they were behind it from the beginning,” Mr. Dermer said. “This is why the prime minister is so angry. We’re going to stand up against it.”

The fury of Mr. Netanyahu’s response has generated debate at home. Mitchell Barak, a political consultant, said the political left considered the resolution “an epic foreign policy and diplomatic debacle” by Mr. Netanyahu.

But to his base, the Security Council action confirmed what they believed all along, that Mr. Obama is inherently anti-Israel, and so the prime minister comes across as a champion beset by enemies. “For them,” Mr. Barak said, “Netanyahu emerges from this unscathed, as the lone wolf in a lion’s den of hatred.”

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Palestinians call for revenge as second Duma victim dies

2015-08-09

[JPOST] The Paleostinian Authority pledged to pursue Israel diplomatically and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, called for a violent response to the death Saturday of Sa'ad Dawabsha, from burns he sustained in the terrorist attack on his home in the West Bank village of Duma on July 31.

Sa'ad, 31, is the second victim of the attack, which also claimed the life of his son, 18-month-old Ali, a toddler who was burned alive in his crib when the house was torched before dawn, allegedly by Jewish terrorists.

Hundreds of mourners filled the roads of Duma on Saturday during Sa'ad's funeral. Once the procession was over, Paleostinians burned tires on the road leading into the village, prompting the army to close it temporarily, according to the IDF. Following the funeral, several dozen Paleostinians threw rocks at IDF soldiers.

The soldiers did not respond.

The PA government renewed its call seeking international protection for Paleostinians in the face of recurring settler attacks. PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki said on Saturday the "heinous crime" against the Dawabsha family would not go unpunished.

The Times of Israel adds:

Fatah and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, flags flew at the funeral. Israeli security officials said Hamas was pushing hard for an intensification of terror attacks on Israeli targets in the West Bank and inside Israel. Israel's Channel 2 quoted West Bank Hamas leader Hassan Yusef declaring Saturday that the time had come for "a third Intifada." The TV report said Saad Dawabsha was a Hamas supporter.

Israel has boosted its military deployment in the West Bank since the Molotov cocktailing attack. In the wake of Saad's funeral Saturday, dozens of Paleostinians threw stones at IDF soldiers and lit tires on fire near Duma. Military forces responded with riot-dispersal means. Forces remained on alert for further festivities.

Palestinians clash with police in East Jerusalem throw rocks at Egged bus

Just the usual Saturday night fun in Jerusalem, nothing to do with West Bank problems.

[Ynet] Dozens of young Paleostinians blocked a street and set fires at the entrance to Isawiya in East Jerusalem Saturday night while threw stones at Israeli border police. The rioters were repelled deeper into the neighborhood.

Stones were also thrown at an Israeli bus belonging to the Egged company on its way to Ma'ale Adumim. No injuries were reported, but damaged was caused to a window on the bus.

Security forces began searches for suspects.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Palestinians Holding Up Gaza War Probe, Says ICC

2014-09-14

[IsraelTimes] The Paleostinian Authority has yet to approve an

International Criminal Court
... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
investigation into the fighting in the Gazoo Strip this summer, according to an ICC document obtained by Al Jazeera.

Without the PA officially granting the ICC jurisdiction, no investigation in Gazoo can move forward.

In an August 14 letter from ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's office to the French attorney for PA Justice Minister Saleem al-Saqqa and General Prosecutor Ismail Jabr, Bensouda said she "did not receive a positive confirmation" that documents accepting ICC jurisdiction were done so on behalf of the PA's top leadership, the only figures who can authorize an investigation.

"Accordingly," she writes, "there is no legal basis for my Office to consider and/or treat the 30 July 2014 communication as emanating from a representative of Paleostine endowed with the required full powers to seize the Court's jurisdiction..."

On July 25, Al-Saqqa and Jabr had submitted a letter to the ICC through their lawyer requesting an investigation, but only a head of government, head of state, or foreign minister -- not the justice minister or general prosecutor-- has the authority to grant the ICC jurisdiction for an investigation.

In early August, Riad Malki, the PA foreign minister, met with ICC officials in the Hague, and said Paleostinians should do everything in their power to enable the ICC to investigate.

On August 29, however, Bensouda wrote in the Guardian that the Paleostinians had yet to grant the ICC jurisdiction to investigate alleged war crimes in its territory.

Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
has debated for months whether to join the court, a step that would transform his relations with Israel from tense to openly hostile and could also strain his ties with the United States.

Turning to the International Criminal Court became an option for Abbas in 2012, after the UN General Assembly recognized "Paleostine" in the West Bank, Gazoo and East Jerusalem, lands captured by Israel in 1967, as a non-member observer state. The upgrade to a state opened the door to requesting the court's jurisdiction in Paleostine.

In August, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, signed a pledge to back any Paleostinian bid to join the ICC, two bigwigs in the group said Saturday.

The decision by Hamas to sign a document in support of a court bid removes a major obstacle, though it's not clear if Abbas now will go ahead. A hesitant Abbas has said he would not make any decision without the written backing of all Paleostinian factions. In July, he obtained such support from all factions in the Paleostine Liberation Organization.

Since the start of the Gazoo war, Abbas has come under growing domestic pressure to pave the way for a possible war crimes investigation of Israel. Last month, he told senior PLO officials and leaders of smaller political groups he would only go ahead if Hamas supports the bid.

If Abbas were to turn to the court, Hamas could be investigated for indiscriminate rocket fire at Israel since 2000. Israel could come under scrutiny for its actions in the current Gazoo war as well as decades of settlement building on war-won lands the Paleostinians seek for a state.

Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said previously that Hamas was not concerned about becoming a target of a war crimes investigation.

"We are under occupation, under daily attack and our fighters are defending their people," he said in a phone interview from Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates...
. "These rockets are meant to stop Israeli attacks and it is well known that Israel initiated this war and previous wars."

However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
it is not clear if such arguments would hold up in court. After the last major round of Israel-Hamas fighting more than five years ago, a UN fact-finding team said both Israel and Hamas violated the rules of war by targeting civilians -- Hamas by firing rockets at Israel. That report's author, Richard Goldstone, later retracted his assertion that Israel had intentionally targeted civilians.

The 50-day Gazoo war between Israel and Hamas-led murderous Moslems ended on August 26 after killing more than 2,100 Paleostinians, most of them civilians, according to Gazoo-based medical sources.

Israel has said that as many as 1,000 killed were fighters and contends that Hamas is largely responsible for civilian casualties due to its tactics of firing from populated areas and using human shields.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

300 Gazans Riot At Border Fence, Try To Break Through Into Israel

2012-11-24

Man rubbed out, 19 maimed by Israeli gunfire near Gazoo border, Ma'an news agency reports; army says troops fired towards legs of rioters attempting to cross into Israel

A Paleostinian man was rubbed out and 19 were maimed by IDF gunfire in Khan Younis on Friday, the Paleostinian Ma'an News Agency reported, citing medical officials in Gazoo.

Witnesses told Ma'an the incident occurred along Gazoo's border fence with Israel shortly before Friday prayers.

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said that some 300 Paleostinians approached the border fence in the south of the Strip on Friday morning and began rioting.

"IDF forces made efforts to disperse the rioters, and when they refused to leave warning shots were fired," the army said. "Several rioters damaged the fence and attempted to cross into Israel's territory."

According to the statement, troops fired towards the legs of the rioters who attempted to cross the border. One man who managed to enter Israel was incarcerated
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
ad was later returned to Gazoo.

According to Ma'an, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, front man Sami Abu Zuhri
...a senior front man for Hamas. Zuhri gained notoriety in 2006 when he dropped his money belt containing somewhere between 640,000 and 900,000 euros, which was confiscated by Paleostinian security and customs officials at a routine border crossing from Egypt to Gazoo. The news brought competing Hamas and Fatah forces to the crossing checkpoint for an epic face-making and hollering contest...
accused Israel of violating the Egypt-mediated truce and said the group would complain to Cairo. "We will contact the Egyptian mediator to discuss the incident," he was quoted as saying.

Paleostinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki denounced the reported killing later Friday as well. Speaking at a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi, he called the incident "a clear violation of the agreement and should not be repeated."

Four Paleostinians were reportedly injured by IDF fire on Thurday.

The ceasefire between Israel and Gazoo groups took hold on Wednesday evening after eight days of cross-border fighting.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Palestinians seek UN protection after Hebron clashes

2008-12-06

(AKI) - The Palestinian Authority's acting Foreign Minister said he will ask the United Nations Security Council to send international peacekeeping troops to the West Bank. "We will ask the (UN) Security Council to send an armed force to protect our Palestinian people, particularly in Hebron," said Foreign Minister Riad Malki in a media conference in the Palestinian city of Ramallah on Friday.

"Help! Help! We're being oppressed!"

Moreover, Malki also said he would ask the Security Council to demand the removal of Israeli settlers from the West Bank city of Hebron.

Following the forced evacuation on Thursday of hardline settlers from Hebron's 'house of contention' or 'house of peace' as the settlers call it, Israeli rioters ran amok. They began desecrating Muslim graves, throwing stones, setting Palestinian cars, homes and fields on fire and in one case, firing live ammunition.

Malki also said that 30 Palestinians were injured in the violence, five with gunshot wounds. After the violence, more than 500 Israeli police and border policemen were deployed to Hebron and the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba.

Also on Friday, the UN's envoy to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the PA, applauded the eviction of the Hebron settlers by Israel but condemned settler violence against Palestinians.

"I condemn the ensuing violence and attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians and the destruction and desecration of Palestinian property," said Robert Serry. "As the occupying power, the Government of Israel is under obligation to protect Palestinian civilians, property and holy sites,' the UN representative to the Palestinian areas."

Do the Paleos have any obligation to protect Israeli civilians, property and holy sites?

"Actions of extremists continue to pose a threat to the peace process, and further underline the need for action to fulfil Roadmap commitments," concluded Serry, referring the stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

About 500 settlers live in enclaves in central Hebron in an area under Israeli military control. The town also has around 170,000 Palestinian inhabitants. The settlers have vowed to avenge the forceful evacuation.

"We will choose the timing and the hour to respond," an activist told Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth. "In the game between cat and mouse, the mouse, who is smaller and more nimble, always wins and knows every tunnel and hole," said the settler.

Some religious Israeli settlers consider the West Bank part of the biblical land of Israel and thus claim a God-given right to own the land. However, the settlers claim they lawfully purchased the 'house of contention' from a Palestinian and Hebron resident named Faiz Rajabi.

Rajabi says the building belongs to him and denied having sold it to the settlers. "Thank God, the building has returned to its owners and I hope they will not come back," Rajabi said, quoted by Arab TV network Al-Jazeera.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Obama Visits West Bank; Bagel to be Named

2008-07-23

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants Barack Obama to take away one message from their meeting Wednesday - he should focus immediately on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if elected, or any ~~apaprent, vaperous, vacous~~ gains made in peace talks could vanish.

Obama, the presumptive Democratic candidate, made time in his jam-packed Mideast schedule for what is to be a 45-minute meeting with Abbas. During a stop in Jordan on Tuesday, Obama suggested that he was open to the Palestinians' request, saying that he'd do his best to bring Israelis and Palestinians together, "starting from the minute I'm sworn into office." However, he also cautioned that it is "unrealistic to expect that a U.S. president alone can suddenly snap his fingers and bring about peace in this region."

The candidate's visit in the West Bank generated some goodwill here, particularly since his Republican rival, John McCain, did not visit the Palestinians in a Mideast trip earlier in the summer. A Ramallah baker said he's named a bagel after Obama, to thank him for not ignoring the Palestinians.
Bagel O'Bama?
Like people elsewhere in the region, Palestinians are fascinated with the U.S. campaign. The success of a black candidate may also have helped improve the tarnished U.S. image in the eyes of some. Wael Hamad, a 35-year-old mechanic from Ramallah, said he expected Obama, who is black, to be more understanding of Palestinian suffering because of the hardships suffered by blacks in the United States.

However, deep skepticism about U.S. policy prevailed. Most Palestinians believe the U.S. is so irrevocably biased toward Israel that it will make little difference whether Obama or McCain is elected U.S. president, said pollster Jamil Rabbah. "The American interest has always been with Israel, not with us," said 22-year-old college student Mohammed Hatem. "We have seen a lot of (U.S.) leaders who say they are going to work to get the Palestinian people an independent state, and they end up serving Israel."

Obama deepened those fears in a speech to American Jewish leaders in June when he said Jerusalem must remain Israel's undivided capital - even though no U.S. government has recognized Israel's 1967 annexation of east Jerusalem, the sector claimed by the Palestinians as their future capital.

Obama later ~~changed his mind, speaking to a different audience~~ clarified that he believes the future of Jerusalem is to be determined in negotiations - Washington's longstanding policy. The fate of the city is currently on the table in U.S.-backed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Kadoura Fares, a legislator in Abbas' Fatah movement, said Obama's slip-up on such a key issue caused serious damage. "His correction was not enough," Fares added. "He should have said he recognizes the Palestinian right to freedom."

The Islamic militant Hamas group, which rules the Gaza Strip, said Obama was not welcome and criticized Abbas, a bitter rival, for receiving him. "Obama wants to go to the White House through Tel Aviv, at the expense of the Palestinians," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman.
It's all about meeeee!
Abbas aides insist the Palestinian leader's meeting with Obama offers an important opportunity. Abbas will list ~~the same old~~ Palestinian grievances, including Israel's continued settlement construction and refusal to ease restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank, Foreign Minister Riad Malki said.

Abbas will also tell Obama that, if elected president, he must not waste time and must immediately turn his attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said Saeb Erekat, an Abbas adviser.

Abdullah Abdullah, a former Palestinian deputy foreign minister, said he thinks Obama's visit to Ramallah is a positive sign. "It means that if elected president, the Mideast file will be on his (Obama's) desk from day one," Abdullah said hopefully.

President Bush, like President Bill Clinton before him, had largely stayed clear of the messy Mideast conflict during their first years in office.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Palestinians: We nabbed suicide bomber

2008-01-01

Palestinian security forces in the West Bank recently arrested a Hamas cell that planned a suicide attack in Israel, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Monday. A videotape showing a suicide bomber detailing his intentions to blow up an Israeli target was also seized, Malki said at a news conference.

The announcement came a week before US President George W. Bush visits the region to promote peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinians are eager to prove that they are fulfilling their obligation to the road map plan to crack down on terrorists as a precondition for final-status negotiations with Israel. "We confiscated huge amounts of mercury in Nablus," Malki told reporters. "This mercury is used for explosives and especially in preparing detonators," he said. Malki refused to elaborate or answer reporters' questions about the incident. He did not show the videotape to reporters or release the name of the alleged bomber.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel delays transfer of armored vehicles to Palestinians

2007-12-04

JERUSALEM - Israel has held up the transfer of 25 Russian armored vehicles to Palestinian police in the West Bank, because the Palestinians want to have them mounted with machine guns, Israeli and Palestinian officials said Monday. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert approved the shipment two weeks ago over the objections of his own security forces, in an effort to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of last weeks U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference.

Oh good lord, Olmert really has a death wish, and he's going to take his country with him ...

But the Israeli security officials said Monday that the shipment has been delayed because the Palestinians want to equip the vehicles with guns. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki confirmed that Israel was holding up the deal. 'Israel says it will not allow these carriers to come in because they have been designed to be used with machine guns on top, Malki said. Now we are trying to fix this issue with Israel.

I'm waiting for what I'm sure will be a very creative explanation ...

Israeli Cabinet Minister Zeev Boim said Israel did not yet trust the strength of Palestinian forces, fearing that their equipment and weapons could fall into the hands of Islamic Hamas militants. We do need to strengthen Abbas security forces, Boim said. But its way too early for them to have APCs with mounts for heavy weapons.

No, reeeeaaallly?

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Palestinian Authority dismantles dozens of Hamas charities in West Bank

2007-12-04

The Fatah-led Palestinian Authority has dismantled dozens of charities run by the rival Hamas group and frozen their accounts, pressing forward with a crackdown on the Islamic militant group, an official said Monday.

The move deepened the bitter rivalry between the Palestinian rivals since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June. PA President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah has systematically targeted Hamas power bases in his West Bank stronghold since the Gaza takeover.

Government spokesman Riad Malki described the 92 charity committees as a "financial empire" for Hamas. He said the committees were quietly shuttered two weeks ago. There was no explanation for the delay in announcing the move. The committees are formed by prominent local and religious leaders under the supervision of the Ministry of Religious Affairs. The committees collect money and distribute it to the poor, usually during religious holidays. Muslims will celebrate their holy day of Eid al-Adha in late December.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

PA official denies PA has agreed to disband terror groups

2007-11-10

Palestinian Authority Information Minister Riad Malki denied late Friday reports circulated by an Israeli sources that Palestinian negotiators had agreed in a meeting with Israeli representatives ahead of the planned Annapolis peace parley to disarm and disband all terror groups operating in the PA.

According to Israel Radio, Malki spoke in an interview to the American Arabic-language Radio Sawa.

Israeli sources reported Thursday that Palestinian negotiators accepted Israeli security demands. These assert that progress following the conference will depend on the Palestinians fulfilling obligations set down in the first stage of the road map peace plan - namely the disarming and disbanding of all terror groups.

The breakthrough was reportedly achieved during a late-night meeting between chief Israeli and Palestinian negotiators Tzipi Livni and Ahmed Qurei.

In response to the reports of progress in the talks, a member of the Palestinian negotiating team who claimed he had attended the said meeting between Qurei and Livni, told Israel radio that the "breakthrough" was being trumpeted for more than it was worth. "I did not sense that there was any progress in the talks with the Israeli side," the negotiator said. He then laughed and further retorted, "What's new about the principle stating that the implementation of commitments depends upon [the Palestinians] fighting terror? Indeed, it appears in the road map, and we of course agreed to the road map."

Link

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