Jonathan Freedland
Wednesday January 24, 2007
The Guardian
The Israeli novelist Amos Oz once said Israelis and Palestinians were like patients who know exactly what painful surgery they need to undergo and are ready to face it. The trouble is, their surgeons are cowards. That’s certainly how it seems now. The two peoples have come, without enthusiasm, to a realisation of what will have to be done, what will have to be sacrificed, to live alongside the other. Polls show large majorities on both sides ready to back a peace deal on the now-traditional lines: two states, one for each nation. A recent survey had 72% of Palestinians wanting their leaders to sign a peace treaty with Israel. Meanwhile, assorted members of Israel’s cabinet have been tripping over each other to offer their own peace plans - recognition that there’s a hunger among Israelis to escape the status quo.
Yet the two leaders - the surgeons - are frozen. Tonight Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, will address the Herzliya security conference, an occasion that has come to be associated with high political drama ever since Ariel Sharon used it to announce his planned disengagement from Gaza. Yet few among Israel’s punditocracy expect any such thunderbolt from Olmert. Ever since his core unilateralism strategy was discredited last summer by what Israelis call the second Lebanon war - which seemed to prove that unilateral pullouts from once-occupied territory only bring trouble - Olmert has been without an agenda, let alone a vision.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, is a byword for weakness. With next to no powerbase, even in his own Fatah movement, he has seen a virtual civil war erupt between his men and Hamas, which a year ago won a majority in the Palestinian parliament. More than 60 Palestinians have been killed by Palestinians. Before he can even think about reconciling with Israel, Abbas has to reconcile Fatah and Hamas.
Continue reading ‘The transformation of the IRA shows why Israel should talk to Hamas’
Former US President Jimmy Carter’s book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict evokes debate, even after months it was first published.
Jimmy Carter was greeted with applause and a few dozen demonstrators on Tuesday as he spoke at a historically Jewish college where he acknowledged that his new book on the Middle East has “caused great concern in the Jewish community.”
He also said the book has prompted discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The uproar over “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” has been going on for several months and recently prompted 14 members of an advisory board at the former president’s international-affairs think tank, the Carter Center, to resign in protest over the book.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner received a standing ovation at the beginning and end of his remarks at Brandeis University, where the terms of his appearance had been a focus of controversy after Carter declined to debate Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, a critic of his book.
Carter gave a brief address to Brandeis University students and faculty, and later responded to 15 questions selected in advance. He responded to criticism of his book and discussed his efforts as president for peace in the Middle East.
“With my use of apartheid, I realize this has caused great concern in the Jewish community. The title makes it clear,” Carter said.
“I can certainly see now it would provoke some harsh feelings. I chose that title knowing that it would be provocative, but in the long run it has precipitated discussion and there has been a lot of positive discussion.”
I have always been attracted to Boston, not because of TV series like Boston High or Family Matters, but because I feel that the city looks very beautiful and exotic. After all, you are talking about a historical place, where the founding fathers of the United States began their revolution with the Boston Tea Party, destroying the tea that came imported from England. So of course Boston has a very exotic feel for me and I would really love to move to Boston. Checking out the prices of real estate, I think that Boston Condos have a good price, it is affordable and easy to rent or purchase. I should really consider this seriously as I will be getting married soon and I can’t stay here forever.
Ali Jarbawi
The current US administration’s Middle East policy has been a tremendous failure. Not only has the promised “new Middle East” not seen the light of day but, Iraq, the country Washington had designated as the fulcrum of democratic change in the region, has instead become a chaotic battleground costing thousands of Iraqi and tens of American lives every month.
With Iraq a swamp dragging down the American administration, an always complicated region is becoming ever harder to handle for the US. By developing its nuclear technology, Iran is bluntly challenging Washington. Syria is exerting varying degrees of influence in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. The Lebanese government, which is supported by the West, is facing a serious internal stand-off with Hizballah. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is accepted in the West, now has to contend with a government formed by Hamas that the West shuns.
The Israeli government, meanwhile, is creaking from its defeat in Lebanon last year and corruption accusations. Even moderate Arab countries that rely on US support are complaining of the ineptitude of the present administration in adapting its policies to the complications of the region.
The bi-partisan Baker-Hamilton commission, which was formed to investigate the administration’s Middle East policies, was damning in its assessment. Contrary to the prevailing ” wisdom” of the administration, the report affirmed the interrelatedness of the region’s conflicts and problems and fingered the resolution of the Arab-Israel conflict as central.
While US President George W. Bush does not intend to follow the report’s recommendations, he could not ignore it completely either. So when announcing his “new” Iraq policy, a policy at odds with the Baker-Hamilton findings, he also sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a tour of the region to garner Arab support.
Continue reading ‘Nothing new from Rice’
A criminal state will churn out criminals.
A Florida court approved on Tuesday the plea bargain according to which Israel underworld kingpin Zeev Rosenstein will be convicted of conspiring to commit a crime and serve 12 years in an Israel prison.
Tel Aviv District Police’s central unit had tried to put its hands on Rosenstein for some 20 years, and the mobster was eventually detained following a joint investigation by Israel Police and American law enforcement agencies over suspicions that he attempted to distribute a million Ecstasy tablets.
The affair that ended with Rosenstein’s capture began in July 2001 when two Israeli citizens, David Roash and Yisrael Ashkenazi, were arrested in New York for possession of a million Ecstasy tablets (worth an estimated USD 40 million) and a large sum of money. During the interrogation the two said they had been sent by Rosenstein and his associates to distribute the drugs.