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JPost Middle East- Analysis: Why has the West Bank been quiet? January 6, 2009
- Lebanon doubts Hizbullah will open second front January 6, 2009
- UNSC to meet on Gaza resolution January 6, 2009
- Hamas opens hospital for gunmen January 6, 2009
- Sarkozy urges Assad to press for truce January 6, 2009
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- Rice says US supports Mubarak proposal on Gaza January 7, 2009
- Saddam wouldn't have allowed Israel's Gaza raid, says aide January 7, 2009
- UK voices support for Egyptian ceasefire initiative January 7, 2009
- France, Turkey willing to give monitors for Gaza January 7, 2009
- US says supports Egyptian initiative on Gaza January 7, 2009
- Haaretz.com - News
- Abbas says supports Egyptian ceasefire proposal January 7, 2009Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday he supports a proposal by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for an immediate truce between ...
- Olmert to set up 'humanitarian corridor' for Gaza StripIsrael will set up a "humanitarian corridor" to counter a crisis caused by its offensive in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office ...
- IDF shell kills 30 in Gaza UN school; Israel mulls appeal over Hamas fire from UN facilitiesIsrael is considering submitting a complaint to the United Nations of Hamas' use of the world body's facilities for terror purposes, after 30 people were killed when an Israeli army artillery shell struck a UN school in Gaza. Israeli troops say that they were fired on from the building. ...
- French TV claims photos from 2005 showed damage from Israel's Gaza operation January 6, 2009French public television network France 2 on Tuesday revealed they had aired photographs that allegedly showed destruction caused by the Israel Air Force during Operation Cast Lead, which were in fact taken during a different incident in 2005, one in which Gaza civilians were killed by an explosion caused by militants in the Strip. ...
- Obama breaks silence on Gaza, calls civilian deaths 'a deep concern' January 6, 2009Barack Obama, who takes over as U.S. president from George W. Bush on January 20, broke his silence about the violence in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, calling the loss of civilian lives in Gaza and in Israel a "source of deep concern for me." ...
- Abbas says supports Egyptian ceasefire proposal January 7, 2009
World must hold Israel accountable
Fayyad says settlement construction has accelerated since peace talks resumed last year, disappointed with EU decision to upgrade ties with Israel
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad says the world must do more to hold Israel accountable, particularly on settlement expansion.
Fayyad said Saturday that without such involvement “we are not really going to get the desired result of ending this conflict any time soon.”
Fayyad noted that settlement construction has accelerated since peace talks resumed last year.
He says the Palestinians are trying to live up to their commitments and that Israel should be asked to do the same.
A US-backed plan requires Israel to halt settlement building.
The prime minister says he’s disappointed by a recent EU decision to push ahead with upgrading ties with Israel. Fayyad says he’ll keep trying to link an upgrade to halting settlement expansion.
Iran calls for Israel’s destruction
Esfandyar Rahim Mashaei, who caused a stir recently by saying Iran is friend to Israel, decides to reiterate President Ahmadinejad’s calls for obliteration of Zionism. ‘Corrupt Zionist regime harming Islamic world, all of humanity,’ he says
Iranian Vice President Esfandyar Rahim Mashaei believes the destruction of Israel should become an international goal and a global demand, the state-owned IRNA reported Tuesday.
The agency quoted Mashaei, who several months ago called his country “a friend of Israel”, as blaming the “Zionist regime” for the world’s ills.Mashaei, currently in Mecca for the hajj pilgrimage, met with Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir and told him, “The corrupt and criminal Zionist regime is harming not only the Arab and Islamic world, but humanity in its entirety.”
He added that “in order to save humanity from its different crises, there is no other way other than the limiting of Zionist influence on human society, because the root and origin of most of the world’s current crises are related to Zionism.”
Mashaei, currently cultural heritage and tourism organization chief of Iran, caused a commotion recently when he said during a tourism convention that “no nation in the world is our enemy. Iran is currently a friend of the people of the US and Israel.”
The surprising remark caused over 200 of the country’s parliament members to issue a statement of condemnation. “Mr. Mashaei has no right to say these shameful things and he is not in a position to take on such a responsibility,” the statement said.
“Mashaei must not realize that he is calling them a nation, while they are the ones occupying the homes of millions of Palestinians.”
In this light, Mashaei’s new statement can be seen as an informal retraction of his earlier, more controversial speech. His cry to eliminate Israel is in line with the many earlier statements made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mashaei is considered a close affiliate of Ahamadinejad, and earlier this year his daughter married the president’s son. Though many called to have him dismissed from the government following his previous statement regarding Israel, Mashaei appears to have reinstated his claim to office with his latest remarks
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Israel nearing wide-scale Gaza op
Following mortar attack on IDF base which left eight soldiers injured, deputy defense minister says ‘their provocations don’t leave us with much choice’. Likud MK Erdan suggests moving Palestinian prisoners to unfortified detention facility in Gaza vicinity
Published: 11.29.08, 13:13 / Israel News
Israel is nearing a wide-scale operation in the Gaza Strip, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said Saturday, several hours after eight Israel Defense Forces soldiers were injured in a mortar shell attack on the Nahal Oz base in southern Israel.
“There’s no doubt we’re getting closer to a wide-scale operation in Gaza, but it will be different from what took place in the past,” Vilnai said during an event in the southern city of Beersheba.
“The truce is important to us and to them, as we control the crossings and the other side is afraid of the IDF’s strength. But we must find the right time for an operation. Their provocations are not leaving us with much choice.”
The deputy defense minister rejected the possibility of evacuating the soldiers from the Nahal Oz base following the mortar attack, as the army did with the Zikim base last week. “We won’t vacate every place,” he said.
Addressing the negotiations with the Palestinians, Vilnai said, “Hamas is not a partner for a dialogue as long as it does not recognize us. The only vision we are facing at the moment is Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas), but the tragedy is that he’s getting weaker.
“We must know that the only solution is reaching an understanding with the Palestinians. We must work with every element on the Palestinian side we can talk to, but in Gaza there’s no one to talk to and the only language there is military power.”
As for the Islamic terror and the combined terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the deputy minister said, “This is a troublesome phenomenon. India is the biggest democracy in the world. The problem is Islamic terror which hits the entire world, and we are not just talking about the conflict between Jews and Palestinians.
“The extreme religious terror must worry the entire free world. They want to damage all the signs of democracy we know.”
Referring to Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s statement that Hizbullah has missiles which could reach Beersheba, Vilnai noted that he believes the Lebanese organization has missiles which could even reach the Negev desert town of Mitzpe Ramon.
As for the Labor Party’s deterioration in recent public opinion polls, he said, “Barak asked me to head the election campaign and I agreed. The most talented person to lead the State of Israel is Barak. The only one similar to him is (Likud Chairman) Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I don’t see the political map without Labor. We won’t disappear, and gaining less than 10 Knesset seats would be a disaster for us.”
MK Erdan: Time for creative solutions
Likud Knesset members also addressed the Nahal Oz mortar attack Saturday. MK Gilad Erdan even came up with an original solution, saying the defense minister must set up a temporary detention facility in the Gaza vicinity and jail Hamas and Islamic Jihad prisoners there.
Erdan demanded that the new facility won’t be fortified. “It’s time for Israel to initiate creative solutions and prove to the world that it’s determined to do anything in order to stop the terror and rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
“If they don’t work to stop the fire, they should take into account that the rockets may hurt their men as well. When the government fails to fortify the south’s residents, there’s no reason to protect terrorists jailed in Israel,” he added.
MK Yuval Steinitz blamed the government for the deterioration in the security situation in southern Israel.
“The Olmert-Livni government’s security failure in the face of Gaza turns pale compared to the Second Lebanon War failure,” he said. “We missed the opportunity to stop the Hizbullah missile and terror threat in the north, but in the south we enabled the formation of Hizbullah 2 in the heart of the Negev.
“The government we’ll build after the elections will have to give Gaza an in-depth treatment which will halt the ongoing security deterioration in the south,” he said.
Israel will not fight back!
Israel will not fight back after 11 Palestinian missiles, 6 Grad rockets injure 23 civilians
Grad rocket in Ashkelon
Prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak and chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi decided at a special conference Friday evening, Nov. 14 to refrain from responding to the Palestinians’ 10-day missile blitz from Gaza. The ministers met after 6 Grad rockets hit Ashkelon and 11 missiles battered Sderot during the day. One of the 23 casualties was an 82-year old woman wounded by flying shrapnel in Sderot; the rest shock victims.
The assault damaged homes and parked vehicles, forcing tens of thousands of inhabitants in the towns and villages around the Gaza Strip to spend hours in shelters or under cover. Fifteen kilometers from Gaza, Ashkelon town hall opened the public bomb shelters, while the city of Ashdod to the north ordered the shelters prepared.
In the morning, an Israeli air strike hit one of the missiles teams in northern Gaza, injuring four Palestinians, but the missile assault continued regardless.
Thursday night, the Palestinians fired five missiles, including two Grad rockets, against Ashkelon, Sderot, Netivot and Or Haner.
Cabinet ministers and oppositions lawmakers alike call for comprehensive military action to halt the blitz which is again disrupting the lives of almost half a million distressed citizens.
Abbas rejects Olmert proposal
Palestinian Authority slams offer that would see Israel hand over 92.7% of West Bank and all of Gaza as ‘not serious’
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected an Israeli peace proposal because it does not provide for a contiguous Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, Abbas’ office said on Tuesday.
Nabil Abu Rudeina, who is also a spokesman for the Palestinian leader, said the proposal did not fall in line with requirements of the Road Map and the Annapolis understandings that the borders of the future Palestinian state should correspond with Israel’s pre-1967 borders.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with ‘Abbas last week as part of an ongoing series of meetings to push forward the peace process.
Abu Rudeina was responding to a report in the Israeli daily Haaretz on Tuesday that said Israel had made the proposal, which included land compensation and an offer of a corridor that would connect the Gaza Strip with the West Bank. This corridor would allow free passage of Palestinians between the two areas without security checks.
Under the deal, Israel would maintain large blocs of Jewish communities in post-1967 territories.
Under Olmert’s offer, Israel would keep 7 percent of the West Bank, while the Palestinians would receive territory equivalent to 5.5 percent of West Bank. Israel views the passage between Gaza and the West Bank as compensating for this difference: Though it would officially remain in Israeli hands, it would connect the two halves of the Palestinian state - a connection the Palestinians did not enjoy before 1967, when the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian control and the West Bank was part of Jordan.
Mahmoud Abbas
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