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POPS Secret memo shows Israel knew Settlements were illegal The argument that the settlements are illegal, stated in successive UN resolutions, and by the International Court of Justice advisory opinion condemning the separation barrier in 2004, is reinforced by such an authoritative source. It strengthens the political case in any "final status" negotiations on borders with the Palestinians for genuinely equitable land swaps of Israeli territory to a future Palestinian state if Israel is to retain settlement blocks.
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POPSOh well, so much for peace If anyone thought the next US President might offer change you can believe in, they were obviously sucked in by a lot of empty rhetoric.
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POPSUri Avnery: 1948 At the time, the Jews constituted only a third of the population. The hundreds of Arab villages throughout the country dominated the main arteries that were crucial to our survival. We suffered heavy casualties in our efforts to open them, especially the road to Jerusalem. We honestly felt that we were "the few against the many". Our side was preparing for the massive attack of the Arab armies and we could not possibly leave a large hostile population at our rear. This military necessity was, of course, intertwined with the more or less conscious desire to create a homogeneous Jewish territory. ccording to the UN resolution, the "Jewish state" was to include more than half of Palestine (as it existed in 1947 under the British Mandate). In this territory, more than 40% of the population was Arab. In the second half of the war, after the advance of the Arab armies was halted, a deliberate policy of expelling the Arabs became a war aim on its own.
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POPSPalestine/Israel: Water and international law - Things could get worse The United Nations' General Assembly reaffirmed in several resolutions that the Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1949) is applicable to the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem, and again and again condemned Israel's policies and practices against the population in the occupied territories. Very startling, the chutzpah with which Israel withstands the imminence of being classified as a rogue state.
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POPSBradley Burston, Haaretz.com: I want the Palestinians to win "I and the majority of the Palestinian people are ready for a historic agreement based on international decisions that will allow a Palestinian and Israeli state to coexist, side by side, in peace and stability." Jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti Source: Ha'aretz, 08 April 2008 Bradley Burston is Senior Editor of Haaretz.com, the Israeli newspaper's online English language edition. __________________________________ See also Kore7 's clip Bradley Burston: Ten Ways to Make Sure That Peace Stays Dead .
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POPS Middle-East Anaylsis Daniel Pipes Report by Daniel Pipes January 17, 2008 Jerusalem Post George W. Bush's policies toward the Middle East and Islam will loom large when historians judge his presidency. On the occasion of his concluding his 8-day, 6-country trip to the Middle East and entering his final year in office, I offer some provisional assessments. At a time when George W. Bush arouses such intense vituperation among his critics, someone who wishes him well, like myself, criticizes reluctantly. But criticize one must; to pretend all is well, or to remain loyal to the person despite his record, does no one a favor. A frank recognition of shortcomings must precede their repair.
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POPSA Plan to End the Crisis With Iran Just so nobody can say I only criticize Bush, I offer here a plan to immediately end the crisis with Iran. Ahmadinejad is an aggressive, anti-Western president who is isolating Iran, much to the chagrin of the Iranians. The economy is weak, and it is getting harder for people to make a living, which is causing unrest. On the other hand, his predecessor Khatami was a progressive, who wanted relations with the west, and had a good record on the economy. I suggest that we use these factors in to our advantage in the following plan: (see comments bellow.)
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POPSPalestine: how a battle for land became religious Article is brief and needs reading in its entirety to consider its overview of how a minority of religionists have turned a secular struggle into a religious one, a trend which is not completed but, the author feels, becoming increasingly dangerous.
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POPSAbbas: Now is the moment of truth for Palestinian statehood I certainly agree that 'now is the time' if they have any genuine wish for a *state* and peace. Now whether Jerusalem would be their capital...that's another matter. Arafat threw away this opportunity. And even now, I doubt that it will ever happen; but if it were to happen...well, how serious are they? I don't believe, for a minute, that Hamas or Hezbollah would allow Abbas to make any real progress. Arabs in Israel/Palestine....what do you really want? Choose.
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POPSPalestine, Israel: Core Issues The coming Annapolis Conference does not make for exciting news at breakfast. However, the beginnings of agreeing a realistic agenda of the core issues is historically significant. Although there are few grounds for optimism that Annapolis will result in immediate progress, at least it is a first step, one marked by the Israeli desire to see the involvement of neighbouring states. Who knows? One day we may yet see a rising consensus towards a one-state solution, a joint Israel-Palestine nation. Maybe.
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POPS"How the New York Times Misreports Conflict in the Middle East,”
“The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” Fourth Geneva Convention. Article 49(6) of the Convention. These nineteen words — which would easily fit into any news article or editorial in the Times — prohibit, and thus outlaw, Israel’s settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. To my knowledge, the Times almost never, if ever, mentions the Fourth Geneva Convention in the context of Israel’s settlements in Palestinian territory. Bronner in effect confirmed this. Every relevant international authority—the International Committee of the Red Cross, the UN General Assembly, the UN Security Council, the International Court of Justice, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, in addition to virtually every UN member state (except Israel)—has affirmed that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. The NYT ignores the
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POPSBush: For Israel a Friend or Foe? In the 2000 Presidential Debates, Bush was asked what he thought about the Israeli-Palestenian conflict, and what he would do to help resolve it, and he responded kurtly "America is a Friend of Israel." Nothing more. Apparently he felt no further depth of reflection was necessary. Seven years later and I still remember the moment very clearly. He was wrong then, not just in strategy but in statement. America has not been a friend to Israel, or if it has, it has been the worst kind of friend possible: the kind of friend always pushing you to do the things you know are bad for you, but want to anyway. Funny how those kind of friends always seem to stay clean of the trouble they get you into.
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POPSJerusalem plans new building in East, provoking Palestinians Deliberate provocation?? Here's more: "Jerusalem is one of the most volatile flashpoints in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel insists the city is its undivided capital, although some officials have signaled a willingness to cede control of outlying Arab neighborhoods." "It has also built its major settlement blocs on West Bank land just outside east Jerusalem, and says it intends to hold on to it in any final peace deal." "Many Palestinians fear Jerusalem will never be split between them and the Israelis, making peace impossible." After 40 years of construction, the Jewish population of east Jerusalem is now 190,000, narrowing the gap with the Arab population of 240,000, according to government statistics."
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POPSRoad Map to Nowhere: Israel/Palestine Since 2003 Go to the source for a very insightful view of how and why the relationship between Israel and Palestine has deteriorated to the nightmarish state it is in today and what needs to be done to alleviate it before it is too late. Here's a bit more that needs to be heeded: "There is no place on earth that hasn’t at one time or another “belonged” to a different people than its current inhabitants, and no place other than Palestine where it even occurs to anyone to argue that the passage of two thousand years is irrelevant to judging current land rights. Far worse, by blinding the Israelis—and their equally unseeing supporters among diaspora Jews, especially in the United States—to the reality of the conflict, these childish arguments have had devastating consequences for the Israelis and the Palestinians alike."
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POPSGideon Levy on Israeli Supreme Court rulings More: Despite the public uproar, a Palestinian's chance of winning compensation from the state for crimes against him remains close to zero. Maria Aman, whose mother, brother and grandmother were killed in a failed assassination attempt in Gaza, can only dream of compensation. She and her family were after all harmed in the context of "an act of warfare," which the High Court of Justice has now sanctioned. It is permissible to launch missiles at cars in the heart of crowded cities, but it is not necessary to compensate the innocent, inevitable victims.
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POPSTen Ways to Make Sure That Peace Stays Dead Too many people on each side see the other as wholly culpable. Too many people on each side see themselves as wholly innocent, wholly victimized, ill-served by the well-meaning, abandoned by former allies, betrayed by the media, misunderstood by people who should know better, forgotten by the world. Too many people on each side see only the suffering that has been caused them. Too many people have learned to wall themselves off from the suffering that they have caused.
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POPSPalestine Mr. Mossberg's idea is wonderfully hopeful but naive. What is missing from this idea is a recognition and reconciliation of the racist colonial legacy that has driven Israel's development as a state, and which subjected Palestinians to live in a severed patchwork of enclaves.
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POPSActivists say settlers sabotaged efforts to assist Palestinians I believe that conflict over natural resources (namely water) is one aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is my understanding that many of the settlements are built over aquafiers and that is a concern with proposals to annex those parts of the West Bank that have already been "settled" while leaving the rest to a future Palestinian state. Don't quote me on this however.
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POPSIsraeli General Speaks Out Retired Israeli Brigadier General Ilan Paz gave an interview with Haaretz where he candidly expressed his views about the occupation. * He implies that the witholding of funds from the Palestinian Authority has only increased chaos in the Occupied Territories, increased the burden on Israel (which is held responsible for the OT), and increased the power of militants. * I read him as saying that a two-state settlement based on the 1967 borders (with no right of return) is necessary to create a stable, calm situation, but the settlers in the West Bank pose huge obstacles to this. In order for it to be worth taking on the settlers, Israel needs guarantees from the Palestinians and the international community. * Thus, Israel needs to do more to strengthen the hands of moderates like Abbas and Fatah, which it hasn't been doing lately. Read the whole thing. Via Daniel Levy at TPM Cafe.
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