Dear friends,
As you probably know, about 10 days ago over 250 missiles fired from Gaza have exploded in southern Israel communities. Israeli citizens - men, women and children - are living in horrible fear of more attacks...
United with Israel initiated an emergency campaign to build bomb shelters in southern Israel. Thanks to your support, we will be delivering 2 above-ground portable bomb shelters in the Ashkelon area on Monday April 2. Please follow our Facebook page and website to see the results of your generosity.
While this was a great start, MANY MORE of these shelters are needed. We must appeal to you once again - to please help protect the residents of southern Israeli towns.
HELP US BUILD MORE BOMB SHELTERS IN ISRAEL
http://unitedwithisrael.org/build-shelters
Imagine hearing a frightening siren blaring "Code Red, Code Red" and having just 15 seconds to run for cover. Imagine never being able to walk beyond a short distance of the nearest shelter. And in many areas there are simply no shelters that are near.
Can you imagine the fear and terror of a rocket whistling down, not knowing whether it will land a mile away or directly on your head? Or the sudden shock when you feel the impact and the sense the relief that you're still alive but the fear that your friends and family may not be so lucky.
Imagine if you were a little child and had to live with this EVERY DAY...
PLEASE HELP US BUILD BOMB SHELTERS IN ISRAEL TODAY!
http://unitedwithisrael.org/build-shelters
Over 12,000 Kassam Rockets have been fired into southern Israel in the last 10 years - and OVER 250 IN THE LAST 2 WEEKS. These missiles deliberately target Israeli civilians, causing chaos, destruction and death. An entire generation of children has been traumatized by the terror of ongoing rocket attacks.
Nearly one million Israeli residents are within striking range of Gaza. There is an immediate and dire need to protect Israeli citizens from missile attacks. Many more bomb shelters are needed.
HELP PROTECT THE CITIZENS OF ISRAEL TODAY!
http://unitedwithisrael.org/build-shelters
Above-ground portable shelters need to be deployed in vulnerable Israeli communities. These shelters can be moved to where they are needed most. They will provide safety for Israeli citizens as they go about their daily lives. They are built to prevent the penetration of bullets, shrapnel and missile fragments and can withstand direct hits. While building underground shelters can take months, these pre-form units take only a few weeks to build and can be delivered and deployed immediately.
Although these shelters cannot provide Israeli communities with peace, they provide both safety and peace of mind.
We ask you to please forward this email to your family and friends. They too, deserve the opportunity to help protect the citizens of Israel. May God bless you for your kindness and generosity.
HELP BUILD MORE BOMB SHELTERS IN ISRAEL TODAY!
http://unitedwithisrael.org/build-shelters
We thank you for support and for standing united with the People, Country and Land of Israel.
With Blessings from Israel,
The 'United with Israel' Family
CLICK BELOW TO PROTECT THE CITIZENS OF ISRAEL BY BUILDING MORE BOMB SHELTERS
http://unitedwithisrael.org/build-shelters
Showing posts with label gaza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gaza. Show all posts
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Netanyahu to UNHRC: You should ashamed
Netanyahu to UNHRC: You should ashamed
By REUTERS
03/19/2012 21:01
By REUTERS
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu blasted the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for facilitating an event featuring a Hamas politician Monday, just hours after four French Jews were gunned down in Toulouse.
“He represents an organization that indiscriminately targets children and grown-ups, and women and men. Innocents — is their special favorite target,” Netanyahu told the Likud faction in the Knesset.
“They kills Jews anywhere – that’s their constitution – kill Jews wherever you find them – that is what they do,” Netanyahu said.
He added that this particular parliamentarian had also condemned the United States for its targeted killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2010.
“I have one thing to say to the UN Human Rights Council: What do you have to do with human rights? You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
Council spokesman Rolando Gomez confirmed that Hamas parliamentarian Ismail al-Ashqar from Gaza had spoken at an NGO event in the building that was organized by the Ma’arij Foundation for Peace and Development.
The event was listed on the UNHRC web-site along with other NGO meetings.
It is one some 200 such events held in connection with the council’s 19th session, he said.
Such NGO meetings “are held in parallel to the HRC’s main session, they are not official HRC meetings,” Gomez said.
“The HRC has no responsibility what-so-ever regarding the issues discussed, the comments made and the participants [who are] invited,” Gomez said.
He noted that these speakers are not automatically granted access to the council’s official session. They can only address the council if they are invited to do so by an UN accredited NGO or state.
“As Mr. Ashqar was not accredited by an NGO or state, he did not participate in any official meetings of the Human Rights Council,” Gomez said.
Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the UN Service in Geneva added that access to UN grounds during the council session was granted based on security considerations, such as possible physical threats.
“As with other requests, UNOG security conducts the assessment based on available information and takes appropriate measures,” she said.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Aharon Leshno-Yaar said he had been concerned that the Ma’arij Foundation would ask Ashqar to address the council, which on Monday debated five resolutions on Israel and the Palestinians.
He wrote a letter to UN officials in Geneva expressing his concern and asked that Ashqar not be allowed to enter the council chamber.
“I think it was made clear to him and to those that had invited him that this was not going to happen,” he said.
According to UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer the Ma’arij Foundation event did not draw that many participants. UN Watch posted a copy of the speech on its web site.
Ashqar spoke against Israel’s arrest of Hamas parliamentarians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, many of whom remain in jail.
“As you know, kidnapping parliamentarians is an anti-democratic and political crime,” he said.
“I am not representing Hamas, but the Palestinian people. Innovative illegal procedures for violating human rights are normal for Israel. What cannot be accepted is the fact that the international community does nothing about this,” Ashqar said.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN in New York Ron Prosor issued a statement protesting Ashqar’s speech.
“Inviting a Hamas terrorist to lecture to the world about human rights is like asking Charles Manson to run the murder investigation unit at the NYPD,” he said.
“Hamas is an internationally recognized terrorist organization that fires rockets at civilians, tortures political opponents, subjugates women and uses children as suicide bombers,” Prosor said.
“He represents an organization that indiscriminately targets children and grown-ups, and women and men. Innocents — is their special favorite target,” Netanyahu told the Likud faction in the Knesset.
“They kills Jews anywhere – that’s their constitution – kill Jews wherever you find them – that is what they do,” Netanyahu said.
He added that this particular parliamentarian had also condemned the United States for its targeted killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2010.
“I have one thing to say to the UN Human Rights Council: What do you have to do with human rights? You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
Council spokesman Rolando Gomez confirmed that Hamas parliamentarian Ismail al-Ashqar from Gaza had spoken at an NGO event in the building that was organized by the Ma’arij Foundation for Peace and Development.
The event was listed on the UNHRC web-site along with other NGO meetings.
It is one some 200 such events held in connection with the council’s 19th session, he said.
Such NGO meetings “are held in parallel to the HRC’s main session, they are not official HRC meetings,” Gomez said.
“The HRC has no responsibility what-so-ever regarding the issues discussed, the comments made and the participants [who are] invited,” Gomez said.
He noted that these speakers are not automatically granted access to the council’s official session. They can only address the council if they are invited to do so by an UN accredited NGO or state.
“As Mr. Ashqar was not accredited by an NGO or state, he did not participate in any official meetings of the Human Rights Council,” Gomez said.
Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the UN Service in Geneva added that access to UN grounds during the council session was granted based on security considerations, such as possible physical threats.
“As with other requests, UNOG security conducts the assessment based on available information and takes appropriate measures,” she said.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Aharon Leshno-Yaar said he had been concerned that the Ma’arij Foundation would ask Ashqar to address the council, which on Monday debated five resolutions on Israel and the Palestinians.
He wrote a letter to UN officials in Geneva expressing his concern and asked that Ashqar not be allowed to enter the council chamber.
“I think it was made clear to him and to those that had invited him that this was not going to happen,” he said.
According to UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer the Ma’arij Foundation event did not draw that many participants. UN Watch posted a copy of the speech on its web site.
Ashqar spoke against Israel’s arrest of Hamas parliamentarians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, many of whom remain in jail.
“As you know, kidnapping parliamentarians is an anti-democratic and political crime,” he said.
“I am not representing Hamas, but the Palestinian people. Innovative illegal procedures for violating human rights are normal for Israel. What cannot be accepted is the fact that the international community does nothing about this,” Ashqar said.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN in New York Ron Prosor issued a statement protesting Ashqar’s speech.
“Inviting a Hamas terrorist to lecture to the world about human rights is like asking Charles Manson to run the murder investigation unit at the NYPD,” he said.
“Hamas is an internationally recognized terrorist organization that fires rockets at civilians, tortures political opponents, subjugates women and uses children as suicide bombers,” Prosor said.
Israel, the West Bank and Gaza
Travel Warning
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Israel, the West Bank and Gaza
March 19, 2012
The Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the risks of traveling to Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, and about threats to themselves and to U.S. interests in those locations. The Department of State urges U.S. citizens to remain mindful of security factors when planning travel to Israel and the West Bank and to avoid all travel to the Gaza Strip. This replaces the Travel Warning issued June 22, 2011, to update information on the general security environment.
The Gaza Strip and Southern Israel
The Department of State strongly urges U.S. citizens to avoid all travel to the Gaza Strip, which is under the control of Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization. American citizens in Gaza are advised to depart immediately. The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt allows for some passenger travel, though coordination with local authorities -- which could take days or weeks to process -- is reportedly required. Travelers who enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing from Egypt must also exit through the Rafah crossing. The Israeli authorities do not permit such travelers to exit through the Erez crossing into Israel except in situations of extreme humanitarian need. Travelers entering the Gaza Strip may not be able to depart at a time of their choosing. Delays of days or weeks are common. U.S. citizens should be aware that as a consequence of a longstanding prohibition on travel by U.S. citizen employees of the U.S. Government into the Gaza Strip, the ability of consular staff to offer timely assistance to U.S. citizens there is extremely limited, including the provision of routine consular services.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strictly controls the crossing points between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The security environment within Gaza, including its border with Egypt and its seacoast, is dangerous and volatile. U.S. citizens are advised against traveling to Gaza by any means, including via sea. Previous attempts to enter Gaza by sea have been stopped by Israeli naval vessels and resulted in the injury, death, arrest, and deportation of U.S. citizens. U.S. citizens participating in any effort to reach Gaza by sea should understand that they may face arrest, prosecution, deportation and the confiscation of their personal items by the Government of Israel. The Government of Israel has announced its intention to seek ten-year travel bans to Israel for anyone participating in an attempt to enter Gaza by sea. On May 31, 2010, nine people were killed, including one U.S. citizen, in such an attempt. The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem are not able to provide consular assistance in Gaza or on the high seas or coastal waters.
Small clashes continue to occur along the boundary of the Gaza Strip. Rockets and mortars are still fired into Israel from Gaza, and Israel continues to conduct military operations inside Gaza, including airstrikes. Israel has also declared an exclusion zone inside Gaza along its boundary with Israel and has taken lethal measures against individuals who enter it.
In the past, some rockets have traveled more than 40 km (24 miles) from Gaza and landed as far north as Yavne and Gadera and as far east as Beersheva. As a result of possible military operations by the Government of Israel in Gaza and the ever-present risk of rocket and mortar attacks into Israel from Gaza, U.S. government personnel travelling in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip boundary, to include the city of Sderot, must make prior notification to the Embassy's Regional Security Office. U.S. citizens in the area should be aware of the risks and should take note of announcements by the Government of Israel's office of Homefront Command.
Israeli authorities have also maintained a heightened state of alert along Israel's border with Egypt since an August 18, 2011, terrorist attack that killed eight and injured nearly 40 along Route 12 north of Eilat. As a result of the heightened threat in the area, U.S. government personnel must notify the Regional Security Office if they plan to travel south of Be'er Sheva.
The West Bank
The Department of State urges U.S. citizens to exercise caution when traveling to the West Bank. Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces are now deployed in all major cities and other limited areas within the West Bank. As a result, violence in recent years has decreased markedly throughout the West Bank. Nonetheless, demonstrations and violent incidents can occur without warning. Vehicles have also been the target of rocks, Molotov cocktails, and gunfire on West Bank roads. The IDF continues to carry out security operations in the West Bank. Israeli security operations, including incursions in Palestinian population centers, can occur at any time and lead to disturbances and violence. U.S. citizens can be caught in the middle of potentially dangerous situations. Some U.S. citizens involved in demonstrations in the West Bank have sustained serious injuries in confrontations with Israeli security forces. The Department of State recommends that U.S. citizens, for their own safety, avoid demonstrations.
During periods of unrest, the Israeli Government sometimes closes off access to the West Bank and those areas may be placed under curfew. All persons in areas under curfew should remain indoors to avoid risking arrest or injury. U.S. citizens have been killed, seriously injured, or detained and deported as a result of encounters with Israeli operations in the West Bank. Travel restrictions may be imposed by the Government of Israel with little or no warning. Strict measures have frequently been imposed following terrorist actions, and the movement of Palestinian-Americans, both those with and without residency status in the West Bank or Gaza, has been severely impeded. Security conditions in the West Bank can hinder the ability of consular staff to offer timely assistance to U.S. citizens.
Jerusalem
The Department of State urges U.S. citizens to remain vigilant while traveling throughout Jerusalem, including in commercial and downtown areas of West Jerusalem. Spontaneous or planned protests within the Old City are possible, especially after Friday prayers. Some of these protests have led to violent clashes. Travelers should exercise caution at religious sites on holy days, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Isolated street protests and demonstrations can also occur in areas of East Jerusalem, including around Salah Ed-Din Street, Damascus Gate, Silwan, and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. U.S. Government employees are prohibited from entering the Old City on Fridays during the month of Ramadan due to overall congestion and security-related access restrictions. U.S. citizen employees of the U.S. Embassy and Consulate General and their families are prohibited from using public transportation networks, including buses and light rail services, and their associated terminals.
Travel Restrictions for U.S. Government Personnel
Personal travel in the West Bank for U.S. government personnel and their families is allowed in the areas described below. They may travel to Bethlehem from 6:00 a.m. to 11 p.m.; to Jericho; and transit through the West Bank using only Routes 1 and 90 to reach the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge or the Dead Sea coast near Ein Gedi and Masada. They may also travel north on Route 90 from the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge to the Sea of Galilee during daylight hours. Personal travel is also permitted to Qumran off Route 90 by the Dead Sea and all areas south of Highway 1 and east of route 90 in the Dead Sea area.
U.S. Government personnel and family members are permitted both official and personal travel on Route 443 between Modi'in and Jerusalem. All other personal travel in the West Bank, unless specifically authorized for mission-approved purposes, is prohibited.
General Safety and Security
Israeli authorities remain concerned about the continuing threat of terrorist attacks. U.S. citizens are cautioned that a greater danger may exist around restaurants, businesses, and other places associated with U.S. interests and/or located near U.S. official buildings, such as the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem. U.S. citizens are also urged to exercise a high degree of caution and to use common sense when patronizing restaurants, nightclubs, cafes, malls, places of worship, and theaters, especially during peak hours. Large crowds and public gatherings have been targeted by terrorists in the past and should be avoided to the extent practicable. U.S. Government personnel have been directed to avoid protests and demonstrations and urged to maintain a high level of vigilance and situational awareness at all times. U.S. citizens should take into consideration that public buses and their respective terminals are off-limits to U.S. Government personnel.
Since December 2009, two U.S. citizens have been murdered in separate incidents while walking in the woods in the Beit Shemesh area near Jerusalem. Israeli authorities characterized the murders as terrorist attacks.
A bomb blast near the Central Bus Terminal in Jerusalem on March 23, 2011, injured several U.S. citizens.
There are live land mines in many areas of the Golan Heights, so visitors should walk only on established roads or trails. Near the northern border of Israel, rocket attacks from Lebanese territory can and have occurred without warning.
A terrorist attack on two commercial buses and two private vehicles on Route 12 north of Eilat killed eight and injured nearly 40 on August 18, 2011.
Entry/Exit Difficulties
U.S. citizens planning to travel to Israel or the West Bank should read carefully the detailed information concerning entry and exit difficulties in the Country Specific Information sheet. U.S. citizens in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip are strongly encouraged to enroll with the Consular Sections of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv or the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem through the State Department's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). Occasional warden messages issued by the Embassy and the Consulate General are e-mailed to registered U.S. citizens and are posted on State Department websites to highlight time-sensitive security concerns.
Security-related delays are not unusual for travelers carrying audio-visual or data storage/processing equipment, and some have had their laptop computers and other electronic equipment confiscated at Ben Gurion Airport. While most items are returned prior to the traveler's departure, some equipment has been retained by the authorities for lengthy periods and has reportedly been damaged, destroyed, lost or never returned. U.S. citizens who have had personal property damaged due to security procedures at Ben Gurion may contact the Commissioner for Public Complaints at the airport for redress by fax to 972-3-9752387. In such circumstances, travelers should have no expectation of privacy for any data stored on such devices.
The Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy should be contacted for information and assistance in the following areas: Israel, the Golan Heights, and ports of entry at Ben Gurion Airport, Haifa Port, the northern (Jordan River) and southern (Arava) border crossings connecting Israel and Jordan, and the border crossings between Israel and Egypt. The Consular Section of the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem should be contacted for information and assistance in the following areas: Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Allenby Bridge crossing connecting the West Bank and Jordan.
The Consulate General in Jerusalem may be contacted at (972) (2) 630-4000 and the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv at (972) (3) 519-7575 Monday through Friday during business hours. After hours for emergencies between 4:30 p.m. 8:00 a.m. local time Monday through Friday and on weekends, the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem may be contacted at (972) (2) 622-7250, and the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv at (972) (3) 519-7551.
Current information on travel and security in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip may be obtained from the Department of State by calling 1-888-407-4747 within the United States and Canada, or, from overseas, 1-202-501-4444. For additional and more in-depth information about specific aspects of travel to these areas, U.S. citizens should consult: the Country Specific Information for Israel, the West Bank and Gaza; and the Worldwide Caution. These along with other Travel Warnings, Travel Alerts and Country Specific Information are available on the Department's Internet website. Up-to-date information on security conditions can also be accessed at http://usembassy-israel.org.il or http://jerusalem.usconsulate.gov. Follow us on Twitter and the Bureau of Consular Affairs page on facebook as well. You can also download our free Smart Traveler iPhone App to have travel information at your fingertips.Sunday, March 18, 2012
'Broad Israeli-PA cooperation continues despite tensions'
'Broad Israeli-PA cooperation continues despite tensions'
By Ammar Awad/Reuters
03/18/2012 18:36
By Ammar Awad/Reuters
Nearly 200,000 West Bank Palestinian patients and those accompanying them were granted permits in 2011 for medical treatment in Israel, a 13 percent increase from 2010, according to a Foreign Ministry report.
The report, entitled "Measures Taken by Israel in Support of Developing the Palestinian Economy and Socio-Economic Structure," will be submitted Wednesday to the Palestinian donors' conference meeting in Brussels.
In addition, according to the report, some 21,500 Palestinian children from the West Bank were treated in Israeli hospitals last year, a 171% increase from the year before.
The 44-page report documents areas of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation in a number of health, economic, and security spheres.
For instance, despite the stymied political process and the tense relationship between the government and the Palestinian Authority, in 2011 some 764 joint security meetings were held, a 5% increase over the year before.
The donors' conference, formally know as the Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC), will be chaired by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and presided over by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store.
The AHLC was established in 1993 during the Oslo process heydays, and is the principal policy level coordinating mechanism for international aid to the Palestinians.
According to the report, "maintaining security and preventing terrorism is critical in order to promote stability and economic development on the ground." Despite improved security coordination and "relative calm," 2011 saw a 10% rise in overall terrorist incidents coming from the West Bank, and also an increase in the number of Israelis killed in terrorist attacks from eight people in 2010, to 10 in 2011.
By contrast, in 2002, at the height of the second intifada, some 452 Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks.
According to the report, the Israel Security Agency "noted that during 2011, Hamas has been trying to rehabilitate its military infrastructure in the West Bank in order to carry out attacks against Israeli targets. The Hamas leadership abroad has provided funding, guidance and training for the establishment of terrorist infrastructure. Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been involved as well, attempting to move weaponry into the West Bank and providing funding for terrorist activities."
Not all the security cooperation, however, dealt with terrorism, and according to the report three study days - in cooperation with the EU - were held between Israeli and Palestinian police dealing with routine police work, such as evidence gathering and dealing with drug trafficking. Meetings were also held between the head of the Israeli police unit combating auto theft, and the investigations department in the Palestinian police dealing with "chop shops" where stolen cars are disassembled and their parts resold.
In the economic sphere the report pointed out that after three years of rapid economic growth in the West Bank, there was a slowdown in the first three quarters of 2011. Unemployment there runs at 17 %, with that rate at 20% among those with academic degrees.
By contrast, in the Gaza Strip the real GDP climbed by 25.8% in the first three quarters of 2011, due in large part to the Israel's policy of easing up on what is allowed in and out of Gaza.
The PA is also facing a fiscal crisis caused to a large extent - but not exclusively - by a shortfall in donor aid.
"The fiscal crisis is especially acute because much of the West Bank economy still depends on the public sector and on construction projects, both still heavily financed by foreign aid," the report stated. "It also serves as an alarming warning sign for the stability of the Palestinian economy."
Calling into question the PA's fiscal management, and its readiness for statehood, the report said that there were "deviations in the Palestinian 2011 budget," as the Palestinians spent more on development expenditures than was available.
"The public finance management system's role in the current crisis may undermine its track record as a system that meets the requirements of a well-functioning state," the report stated.
According to the report, the number of Palestinians employed in Israel and by Israeli employers in the West Bank continues to rise.
In 20111 some 31,414 Palestinians worked in Israel. This, however, is just a small percentage of the number that used to work in Israel before various waves of terrorism. For instance, until a wave of Palestinian knife attacks on Israel in early 1993, an estimated 140,000 Palestinian day laborers worked inside the Green Line.
The tax that Israel collects at the ports and then transfers to the PA reached NIS 5 billion this year, an increase of almost 6% from the year before. This is money that generally makes headlines when it is held up by Israel, as was done in November when Jerusalem delayed the transfer of these funds after the PA won membership into UNESCO.
According to the report, Israeli purchases from the PA constituted about 90 percent of all Palestinian exports. Overall trade with the PA (goods and services) totaled $4.3 billion, with Israel buying $815 million from the PA, and selling $3.49 billion.
The report, entitled "Measures Taken by Israel in Support of Developing the Palestinian Economy and Socio-Economic Structure," will be submitted Wednesday to the Palestinian donors' conference meeting in Brussels.
In addition, according to the report, some 21,500 Palestinian children from the West Bank were treated in Israeli hospitals last year, a 171% increase from the year before.
The 44-page report documents areas of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation in a number of health, economic, and security spheres.
For instance, despite the stymied political process and the tense relationship between the government and the Palestinian Authority, in 2011 some 764 joint security meetings were held, a 5% increase over the year before.
The donors' conference, formally know as the Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC), will be chaired by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and presided over by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store.
The AHLC was established in 1993 during the Oslo process heydays, and is the principal policy level coordinating mechanism for international aid to the Palestinians.
According to the report, "maintaining security and preventing terrorism is critical in order to promote stability and economic development on the ground." Despite improved security coordination and "relative calm," 2011 saw a 10% rise in overall terrorist incidents coming from the West Bank, and also an increase in the number of Israelis killed in terrorist attacks from eight people in 2010, to 10 in 2011.
By contrast, in 2002, at the height of the second intifada, some 452 Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks.
According to the report, the Israel Security Agency "noted that during 2011, Hamas has been trying to rehabilitate its military infrastructure in the West Bank in order to carry out attacks against Israeli targets. The Hamas leadership abroad has provided funding, guidance and training for the establishment of terrorist infrastructure. Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been involved as well, attempting to move weaponry into the West Bank and providing funding for terrorist activities."
Not all the security cooperation, however, dealt with terrorism, and according to the report three study days - in cooperation with the EU - were held between Israeli and Palestinian police dealing with routine police work, such as evidence gathering and dealing with drug trafficking. Meetings were also held between the head of the Israeli police unit combating auto theft, and the investigations department in the Palestinian police dealing with "chop shops" where stolen cars are disassembled and their parts resold.
In the economic sphere the report pointed out that after three years of rapid economic growth in the West Bank, there was a slowdown in the first three quarters of 2011. Unemployment there runs at 17 %, with that rate at 20% among those with academic degrees.
By contrast, in the Gaza Strip the real GDP climbed by 25.8% in the first three quarters of 2011, due in large part to the Israel's policy of easing up on what is allowed in and out of Gaza.
The PA is also facing a fiscal crisis caused to a large extent - but not exclusively - by a shortfall in donor aid.
"The fiscal crisis is especially acute because much of the West Bank economy still depends on the public sector and on construction projects, both still heavily financed by foreign aid," the report stated. "It also serves as an alarming warning sign for the stability of the Palestinian economy."
Calling into question the PA's fiscal management, and its readiness for statehood, the report said that there were "deviations in the Palestinian 2011 budget," as the Palestinians spent more on development expenditures than was available.
"The public finance management system's role in the current crisis may undermine its track record as a system that meets the requirements of a well-functioning state," the report stated.
According to the report, the number of Palestinians employed in Israel and by Israeli employers in the West Bank continues to rise.
In 20111 some 31,414 Palestinians worked in Israel. This, however, is just a small percentage of the number that used to work in Israel before various waves of terrorism. For instance, until a wave of Palestinian knife attacks on Israel in early 1993, an estimated 140,000 Palestinian day laborers worked inside the Green Line.
The tax that Israel collects at the ports and then transfers to the PA reached NIS 5 billion this year, an increase of almost 6% from the year before. This is money that generally makes headlines when it is held up by Israel, as was done in November when Jerusalem delayed the transfer of these funds after the PA won membership into UNESCO.
According to the report, Israeli purchases from the PA constituted about 90 percent of all Palestinian exports. Overall trade with the PA (goods and services) totaled $4.3 billion, with Israel buying $815 million from the PA, and selling $3.49 billion.
Egypt, Hamas spar over Gaza electricity crisis
Egypt, Hamas spar over Gaza electricity crisis
![Electric lines [illustrative photo]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u1mmJged6mZFrNk9tK4mqk_Rdk6O8RvHX7cb2y2CY9me2Gg9M8zKKlDE7_Q9CuPAjrbvSvXsKqVRD2RuzeZ-seCQiwX2ldYGZnoqN-KCgZyghxsdwlsFHF7C8_Nw=s0-d "Electric lines [illustrative photo]")
By Thinkstock/Imagebank
03/18/2012 17:36
By Thinkstock/Imagebank
Hamas and Egypt traded allegations Sunday over which party was responsible for the electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The crisis began a few weeks ago when Egypt cut off fuel supplies for electricity production in the Gaza Strip, shutting down the only power plant and enforcing 18-hour blackouts per day.
The fuel shortage has also resulted in severe shortage of gas for cooking and heating, forcing Palestinians to rely on wood fires as an alternative.
Hamas officials accused Egypt of "political extortion" because of insistence on supplying fuel to the Gaza Strip through Israel.
Until recently, fuel had been smuggled into the Gaza Strip through cross-border underground tunnels from Egypt.
Last month, the Hamas government announced that it had paid Egypt $2 million for fuel, but that the Egyptians did not fulfill their promise to resume supplies.
Under a deal reached between the two sides recently, the Hamas government was supposed to purchase fuel from Egypt.
According to the agreement, the Gaza Strip's electricity grid would be connected to Egypt and the Palestinian power opulent would start using gas instead of diesel.
Yusef Rizka, political advisor to the Hamas prime minister, accused Egypt of using the fuel crisis for "political extortion."
He said that Egypt's insistence of supplying fuel to the Gaza Strip only through Israel was designed to "force Hamas to succumb."
Rizka said that the Egyptian demand was both "illegal and arbitrary."
Egypt's General Intelligence Service was playing a major role in creating the crisis, he charged. He said that Egypt's refusal to supple fuel to the Gaza Strip despite receiving a downpayment of $2 million "raises many questions" as to the Egyptian's true intentions.
Mohammed Asqoul, secretary-general of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, openly blamed the Egyptian intelligence service of being behind the electricity crisis.
He said that the Egyptian demand to supply fuel through Israel was "completely unacceptable" to Palestinians for political, technical and administrative reasons.
Asqoul called on the Egyptian government and parliament to put pressure on their intelligence service to allow the fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, where there is no Israeli presence.
In response to the Hamas allegations, a spokesman for the Egyptian government said that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were not naive and that they know that the Hamas government is responsible for the electricity crisis.
He said that although Egypt was suffering from a shortage of fuel supplies, it was nevertheless working hard to help solve the crisis in the Gaza Strip by upgrading and rehabilitating the Palestinian power plant.
The Egyptian spokesman called on Hamas to stop exploiting the crisis and suffering of Palestinians and to protect them from "mafias" that were involved in smuggling fuel through underground tunnels, a fact which, he added, led to a rise in the price of diesel.
The crisis began a few weeks ago when Egypt cut off fuel supplies for electricity production in the Gaza Strip, shutting down the only power plant and enforcing 18-hour blackouts per day.
The fuel shortage has also resulted in severe shortage of gas for cooking and heating, forcing Palestinians to rely on wood fires as an alternative.
Hamas officials accused Egypt of "political extortion" because of insistence on supplying fuel to the Gaza Strip through Israel.
Until recently, fuel had been smuggled into the Gaza Strip through cross-border underground tunnels from Egypt.
Last month, the Hamas government announced that it had paid Egypt $2 million for fuel, but that the Egyptians did not fulfill their promise to resume supplies.
Under a deal reached between the two sides recently, the Hamas government was supposed to purchase fuel from Egypt.
According to the agreement, the Gaza Strip's electricity grid would be connected to Egypt and the Palestinian power opulent would start using gas instead of diesel.
Yusef Rizka, political advisor to the Hamas prime minister, accused Egypt of using the fuel crisis for "political extortion."
He said that Egypt's insistence of supplying fuel to the Gaza Strip only through Israel was designed to "force Hamas to succumb."
Rizka said that the Egyptian demand was both "illegal and arbitrary."
Egypt's General Intelligence Service was playing a major role in creating the crisis, he charged. He said that Egypt's refusal to supple fuel to the Gaza Strip despite receiving a downpayment of $2 million "raises many questions" as to the Egyptian's true intentions.
Mohammed Asqoul, secretary-general of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, openly blamed the Egyptian intelligence service of being behind the electricity crisis.
He said that the Egyptian demand to supply fuel through Israel was "completely unacceptable" to Palestinians for political, technical and administrative reasons.
Asqoul called on the Egyptian government and parliament to put pressure on their intelligence service to allow the fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, where there is no Israeli presence.
In response to the Hamas allegations, a spokesman for the Egyptian government said that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were not naive and that they know that the Hamas government is responsible for the electricity crisis.
He said that although Egypt was suffering from a shortage of fuel supplies, it was nevertheless working hard to help solve the crisis in the Gaza Strip by upgrading and rehabilitating the Palestinian power plant.
The Egyptian spokesman called on Hamas to stop exploiting the crisis and suffering of Palestinians and to protect them from "mafias" that were involved in smuggling fuel through underground tunnels, a fact which, he added, led to a rise in the price of diesel.
New radar systems introduced to secure Gaza border
New radar systems introduced to secure Gaza border
Number of attempted and successful border infiltrations have dropped significantly since introduction of new systems Date: 18/03/2012, 11:24 AM Author: Florit Shoihet
The unique qualities of the new radars, “Baron” and “Baroness”, are thanks to a revolutionary new scanning technology. The radars are equipped with a wide view scanner, allowing them to view an entire area without rotating like traditional radars, eliminating blind spots. The new radar can scan an entire section of the border, tracking multiple targets simultaneously without rotating and leaving an area vulnerable. The radar is also sensitive to objects moving at low speeds, able to pick up lizards and trees waving in the breeze.
The radar, made by Elta Systems, is based on technology that allows it to both detect and track targets while continuously monitoring the area at the same time - offering an unprecedented level of control. The “Baron” and “Baroness” radars will be deployed around the Gaza Strip. Differences between the two models include range and angle of detection. Their primary use will be to detect hazards approaching the border fence, locating targets both on foot and in vehicles and continuing to track their progress.
An additional advantage to the new systems is their exceptionally high resolution. These improvements will allow for an accurate assessment of terrorists approaching the border.
Officials from the Southern Command have stated that since the new system’s integration it has been placed along the border and has been dramatically proving its usefulness. According to the Southern Command, since the deployment of the radars, both attempted and successful border penetrations have dropped 70-80%. In addition, the radar provides excellent coverage of operational areas, assisting troops in the field. Officers involved with the new system have said it is a system “that has proven itself.”
The radar, made by Elta Systems, is based on technology that allows it to both detect and track targets while continuously monitoring the area at the same time - offering an unprecedented level of control. The “Baron” and “Baroness” radars will be deployed around the Gaza Strip. Differences between the two models include range and angle of detection. Their primary use will be to detect hazards approaching the border fence, locating targets both on foot and in vehicles and continuing to track their progress.
An additional advantage to the new systems is their exceptionally high resolution. These improvements will allow for an accurate assessment of terrorists approaching the border.
Officials from the Southern Command have stated that since the new system’s integration it has been placed along the border and has been dramatically proving its usefulness. According to the Southern Command, since the deployment of the radars, both attempted and successful border penetrations have dropped 70-80%. In addition, the radar provides excellent coverage of operational areas, assisting troops in the field. Officers involved with the new system have said it is a system “that has proven itself.”
Op-Ed: MUST READ: Israeli Sovereignty over Judea and Samaria
Op-Ed: MUST READ: Israeli Sovereignty over Judea and Samaria
Published: Sunday, March 18, 2012 9:37 AM
Part I: Yesha is ours. Important summary of facts and law in support of Israel's lawful exercise of sovereignty over East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
Wallace Edward Brand, JD
At least three nation-states, the UK, the US and Canada allow evidence of legislative purpose to be admitted to show the meaning of a statute that is ambiguous.
What follows is a necessary minimum of that evidence to show the purpose of the Balfour Declaration that was adopted by the WWI Allies at San Remo that established the International Law provided by that Agreement and the British Mandate for Palestine.
It is widely accepted, but not correct, that the West Bank belongs to the local Arabs in Palestine who in 1964, at the suggestion of the Soviet dezinformatsia, decided to call themselves "Palestinians.” [1]
These "invented people" [2] also pretend they had long had a passion for self government. [3] The full extent of Israel’s claim of sovereignty has not recently been stated. At most, it is said by the Israeli government that no one has sovereignty over the West Bank, but that Israel has the better claim. [4]
A better view is that the Jews obtained a beneficial interest in sovereignty over all of Palestine in the 1922 enactment of the British Mandate for Palestine, that entrusted exclusive political or national rights in Palestine to Britain in trust for the benefit of the Jews that later matured into a legal interest on the abandonment of the trusteeship by Britain and the attainment of the Jews of a majority population.
The trusts or guardianships were to be called "mandates”.
It was in 1919 that Jan Smuts submitted a memorandum to the League, which later became Article 22. The Council of Ten drafted for the League of Nations as Part I of the Treaty of Versailles [5], an Article 22 providing for trusts and guardianships for the areas in The Middle East and North Africa captured by the WWI Allies from the Ottoman Empire. This concept was later applied to other areas. Article 22's first two paragraphs provided a reasonably clear showing that a mandate was based on the longstanding British legal concepts of trusts and guardianships.
In 1917, in advance of the end of WWI, the British had drafted and published a policy for the disposition of the captured Ottoman lands in Palestine. [6] Britain and France were at that time following the “secret’ Sykes-Picot Agreement in their disposition of Ottoman Lands. But in recognition of the historic association of the Jews with Palestine, the Balfour Declaration, a British Policy approved it its Cabinet, provided for exclusive political or national rights in Palestine to be granted to the Jews.
The 1920 agreement of the WWI Allies at San Remo, on the terms of the Mandate turned what had been only a British Policy approved by the Cabinet, into International Law. Under Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant, the rights were to be provided in trust, [7].
We know this because the Balfour policy had been attacked as antidemocratic, as giving sovereignty to the Jewish people who constituted only 60,000 of the total population of 600,000 in Palestine as of 1917.
In Jerusalem, the Jews had had a plurality of the population since 1845 and a majority since 1863, but in all of Palestine, in 1917 they constituted only 10% of the population. Even US President Woodrow Wilson was advancing that argument that award of sovereignty to a minority population was inconsistent with his 14 points that provided, among other things, for majority control.
To counter this argument, which they conceded was a good one, Arnold Toynbee and James Namier in the British Foreign Office, in a memorandum of September 19, 1917 [8] said the problem of control by a minority was "imaginary" because they predicted that the grant would be placed in trust and would not vest sovereignty in the Jews until the Jews fit to govern it on modern European state.
In my view these included attainment of a majority population, defined boundaries, unified control over all within the boundaries, etc.. Providing a National Home for Jews in Palestine with the British running the government until the Jews could attain a majority status based on favored immigration from the Jews in the Diaspora would be a temporary measure and not antidemocratic. [9]
The statement of the purpose of the British Mandate for Palestine in its Preamble and Article 2 is entirely consistent with this view although not express. [10]
What was the National Home, a reconstituted state? No, it was a place for the Jewish people to feel at home while the immigration was going on that would ultimately give the Jews a majority of the population and a reconstituted state. So that the staff of the British Mandatory Power, will know how to do that: Article 4 provides for the Zionist Organization to advise the mandate government staff. Part of Article 6 requires the staff of the Mandatory Power for The Administration of Palestine, to facilitate immigration of Jews. The Mandate does NOT provide that immigration of any other peoples is to be facilitated. (emphasis added) Article 5 provides that none of the land is to be ceded to a foreign power.
Who were the beneficiaries of the trust? Only the Jews, both those already in Palestine and many more scattered worldwide in the Diaspora since the time of the Roman Empire conquest of Palestine.
Howard Grief, who has provided the seminal work on the legal foundations of Israel under International Law, says one can conclude this because they are the only people mentioned to be dealt with specially. [11]The non-Jews are referred to only to ensure their civil and religious rights are to be protected.
Because Article 22 of the League Covenant defined the relationship of Britain and the Jews as trustee and guardian with Jews in effect being beneficiaries and ward the Mandate essentially provided for a Jewish National Home that would be supervised by the British until its ward was capable of exercising sovereignty, including helping it attain a majority of population it needed to do that. It was charged with facilitating such immigration.
All this purpose was not expressed very clearly in the Mandate, likely to avoid stirring up the Arabs in time of war that might bleed off troops to maintain stability in Palestine. But the Arabs did understand that this was the case.
After the war, the Arabs were told by Winston Churchill that the request for self government by the inhabitants of Palestine would be denied until such time as the Jews had attained a majority of the population. They made that understanding clear in their arguments against Partition in the UNSCOP hearings in 1947. [12]
The Arabs argued in 1947 "It was clear from the beginning that if Palestine were to be turned into a Jewish national home, this would involve the indefinite denial of self-government until such time as the Jews were strong enough to take over the government; that pending such time, Palestine would have to be subjected to a foreign administration [of England] which had no basis in the consent of the population and of which the policy would be determined, not by consideration of the welfare of the population, but by the desire to assist in the settlement of an alien group; and that to make such a settlement possible the country would have to be cut off from the surrounding Arab lands by artificial frontiers, would be given a separate system of law, administration, finance, tariffs, and education and would thus inevitably lose some if not all of the Arab character."
But that is what the grantors had in mind and the Arabs knew it when they argued against Partition in 1947. [13] They had learned after WWI from Winston Churchill this was their intention.
"As the first Arab delegation to England stated in the course of its correspondence with Mr. Churchill, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, 'we are to understand ...that self-government will be granted as soon as the Jewish people in Palestine are sufficiently able through numbers and powers to benefit to the full by it, and not before.' "[14]
Prior to the publishing of the British Mandate the French attached a "proce’s verbal" in French shown only in the French Version. [15] This was their agreement only on their stated understanding that the Mandate would not eliminate any existing rights of the non-Jews in Palestine. The League had no objection to the process verbal.
The Mandate expressly preserved existing civil and religious rights of the non-Jews. It could not preserve their political rights because they had never had any. The preservation of their civil rights only protected their individual political rights, ie. their electoral rights. It did not protect their collective political rights or national rights, the right of sovereignty and political self-determination.
The Arabs in Palestine had always been ruled from afar. So the Mandate carried out the “process verbal”
Why, in 1917, did Britain establish a policy that gave a preference to the Jews? There were several reasons.
1. Britain's Prime Minister at the time of the Balfour Declaration was David Lloyd-George. Later, in 1923, he was the author of an article "The Jews and Palestine" [16] In it he revealed his view that the Arabs under Ottoman Rule had turned Palestine, the Biblical land of milk and honey into a malarial wasteland. He believed it could be remedied under a reconstituted Jewish State.
2. There was considerable sympathy among many Christian Evangelicals in England who thought the Jews should be restored to Palestine to flee from the pogroms of Russia and Poland. This sympathy did not extend to receiving them in England. British workmen had complained that Jews were flooding in to England and taking their jobs and working for less. This led to the Aliens Act of 1909 restricting Jewish immigration into England.
But the British recognized that the oppression of the Jews in Russia and Poland was very bad and they needed some place to go. [17]
3. Chaim Weismann, an ardent Zionist and also a good chemist, had helped Britain in the war by developing an inexpensive method of manufacturing acetone used in cordite for munitions and had given it to the British. It was a great help to the British war effort. [18]
4. And England, according to Winston Churchill, also desired to win over the Jews in Russia, many of them in the Bolshevik government, so that they might influence the new Marxist government to remain in battle with the Germans and Ottomans in WWI on the side of the Allies. He thought that the Balfour Declaration could sway them in British favor. [19]
There came a time after WWII that the British decided their effort to be trustee was simply costing it too much. They tried to obtain some funding from the United States, but the United States declined to do so. Britain finally decided to abandon its trusteeship and guardianship in 1948.
On the abandonment of its trusteeship by Britain in 1948, political rights that were the "trust res" (the thing put in trust) devolved to the Jews as beneficiaries or wards of the trust and vested in them the political rights permitting them to exercise sovereignty. These rights had survived the demise of the League of Nations by virtue of Article 80 of the UN Charter. [20] It should be expressly noted that the Jews did not receive these rights from the Partition Resolution.
By that time the Jewish population had increased significantly. In 1947 the UN General Assembly had recommended that the Jews give up some of its rights in an attempt to avoid violence that had been threatened by the Arabs if the Jews were to reconstitute their state in Palestine. The Jews agreed to give up some of the land over which they were to have political rights, but the Arabs rejected the recommendation and commenced a war.
It was by the Arabs starting a war that led to a Jewish population majority. Some 600,000 to 700,000 Arabs fled the country before even seeing an Israeli soldier. The wealthy left first, at the first foreshadowing of war. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Mahmoud Abbas wrote this in the official organ of the PLO, “Filanstin”, most of the rest left at the request of the Arab Higher Committee that wanted to get them out of the way of the Arab armies in the surrounding states. [21]
Many left because of a false report that the Irgun had committed a massacre of Arabs at Deir Yassin, that the Haganah, their political enemies did not dispute. A BBC program based on an interview of an Arab radio commentator at the time revealed he had been pushed into designating a hard fought battle as a massacre so as to provide an excuse for the invasion of surrounding armies. [22]
Many Arabs local to Palestine left; some remained.
But those that left could not go back because the Arab Armies did not prevail
In 1948 Israel declared Independence and vindicated its claim by force of arms against the assault of other Arab states surrounding it. It established an orderly unified stable control of its territory except for Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem which had been invaded and occupied by the Arab Legion in the East. This British supplied and led organization became the Army of Jordan. [23] In the South, the Egyptian Army was able to maintain its occupation of the Gaza Strip.
In 1920 the Ottoman Empire in Article 95 of the Treaty of Sevres,had ceded its sovereignty in Palestine, which had been undisputed for 400 years, to a Mandatory Power in trust for a National Homeland for the Jews. [24] The Sevres Treaty was never ratified by the Turks who were concerned over Turkey’s boundaries in Europe and in adjacent areas in Asia, not in the Middle East and North. But these issues were finally settled in 1923 in the Treaty of Lausanne that left the agreements in the Middle East unchanged.
The trustee selected by the League of Nations at San Remo was Great Britain; the US had been another possibiility. Sovereignty, i.e. political rights, over the other 99% of the lands captured from the Ottomans in the Middle East was allocated to Arab and Muslim majorities in some 20 areas such as Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq but as in the case of Palestine, in mandates of guardianship as the inhabitants had had no prior experience in self rule.
While it was expected in 1920 that the Jewish Homeland would eventually become a state when immigration gave the Jews a majority of the population, at the time the Jews were incapable of exercising sovereignty although the "Jewish Agency" was exercising administrative authority of wide scope.
End Notes
1. Brand, Soviet Russia, The Creators of the PLO and the Palestinian People, http://www.think-israel.org/brand.russiatheenemy.html
2. Newt Gingrich, Campaign speech, 2012 Republican Primary
3. Brand, Was there a Palestine Arab National Movement at the End of the Ottoman Period? http://www.think-israel.org/brand.palnationalism.html
[4] Danny Ayalon, Israel's current Deputy Foreign Minister, The Truth About the West Bank /News/News.aspx/145836
[5] See the original documents in the Avalon Project at Yale University. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/versailles_menu.asp
[6]The Balfour Declaration Text http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/E210CA73E38D9E1D052565FA00705C61
[7] See the first two paragraphs of Article 22
[8] Mueller, Editor, Churchill as a Peacemaker, Feith, p. 224 n. 36 citing Sir Martin Gilbert, Exile and Return, p. 111-12
[9] Charles Hill, Trial of a Thousand Years, World Order and Islamism
[10] San Remo Convention Text of the Mandate
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/San_Remo_Convention
[11] Howard Grief, The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law, p. 36
[12] The Future of Palestine" by Musa Alami with a foreword by Mr. Alami. Hermon Press, Beirut, London (1970)
[13] Id
[14] Id
[15] Salomon Benzsimra, Jewish People’s Rights to the Land of Israel, n. 68 See below
[16] David Lloyd George, The Jews and Palestine, http://einshalom.com/archives/210
[17] Ronald Sanders, The High Walls of Jerusalem, A history of the Balfour Declaration and the Birth of the British Mandate for Palestine. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York (1983) p. 90-94
[18] High Walls at 189
[19] Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill and the Jews,Gilbert reveals the beliefs that moved the British government to issue the Declaration: “The War Cabinet hoped that, inspired by the promise of a national home in Palestine, Russian Jews would encourage Russia—then in the throes of revolution—to stay in the war,. . . http://www.inconvenienthistory.com/archive/2011/volume_3/number_1/churchill_international_jews_and_the_holocaust.php
[20]http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/un/unchart.htm#art80
[21] Abu Mazen Charges that the Arab States Are the Cause of the Palestinian Refugee Problem (Wall Street Journal; June 5, 2003)
[22]http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_independence_war_diryassin.php
[23] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Legion
[24] http://athena.hri.org/docs/sevres/part3.html
What follows is a necessary minimum of that evidence to show the purpose of the Balfour Declaration that was adopted by the WWI Allies at San Remo that established the International Law provided by that Agreement and the British Mandate for Palestine.
It is widely accepted, but not correct, that the West Bank belongs to the local Arabs in Palestine who in 1964, at the suggestion of the Soviet dezinformatsia, decided to call themselves "Palestinians.” [1]
These "invented people" [2] also pretend they had long had a passion for self government. [3] The full extent of Israel’s claim of sovereignty has not recently been stated. At most, it is said by the Israeli government that no one has sovereignty over the West Bank, but that Israel has the better claim. [4]
A better view is that the Jews obtained a beneficial interest in sovereignty over all of Palestine in the 1922 enactment of the British Mandate for Palestine, that entrusted exclusive political or national rights in Palestine to Britain in trust for the benefit of the Jews that later matured into a legal interest on the abandonment of the trusteeship by Britain and the attainment of the Jews of a majority population.
The trusts or guardianships were to be called "mandates”.
It was in 1919 that Jan Smuts submitted a memorandum to the League, which later became Article 22. The Council of Ten drafted for the League of Nations as Part I of the Treaty of Versailles [5], an Article 22 providing for trusts and guardianships for the areas in The Middle East and North Africa captured by the WWI Allies from the Ottoman Empire. This concept was later applied to other areas. Article 22's first two paragraphs provided a reasonably clear showing that a mandate was based on the longstanding British legal concepts of trusts and guardianships.
In 1917, in advance of the end of WWI, the British had drafted and published a policy for the disposition of the captured Ottoman lands in Palestine. [6] Britain and France were at that time following the “secret’ Sykes-Picot Agreement in their disposition of Ottoman Lands. But in recognition of the historic association of the Jews with Palestine, the Balfour Declaration, a British Policy approved it its Cabinet, provided for exclusive political or national rights in Palestine to be granted to the Jews.
The 1920 agreement of the WWI Allies at San Remo, on the terms of the Mandate turned what had been only a British Policy approved by the Cabinet, into International Law. Under Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant, the rights were to be provided in trust, [7].
We know this because the Balfour policy had been attacked as antidemocratic, as giving sovereignty to the Jewish people who constituted only 60,000 of the total population of 600,000 in Palestine as of 1917.
In Jerusalem, the Jews had had a plurality of the population since 1845 and a majority since 1863, but in all of Palestine, in 1917 they constituted only 10% of the population. Even US President Woodrow Wilson was advancing that argument that award of sovereignty to a minority population was inconsistent with his 14 points that provided, among other things, for majority control.
To counter this argument, which they conceded was a good one, Arnold Toynbee and James Namier in the British Foreign Office, in a memorandum of September 19, 1917 [8] said the problem of control by a minority was "imaginary" because they predicted that the grant would be placed in trust and would not vest sovereignty in the Jews until the Jews fit to govern it on modern European state.
In my view these included attainment of a majority population, defined boundaries, unified control over all within the boundaries, etc.. Providing a National Home for Jews in Palestine with the British running the government until the Jews could attain a majority status based on favored immigration from the Jews in the Diaspora would be a temporary measure and not antidemocratic. [9]
The statement of the purpose of the British Mandate for Palestine in its Preamble and Article 2 is entirely consistent with this view although not express. [10]
What was the National Home, a reconstituted state? No, it was a place for the Jewish people to feel at home while the immigration was going on that would ultimately give the Jews a majority of the population and a reconstituted state. So that the staff of the British Mandatory Power, will know how to do that: Article 4 provides for the Zionist Organization to advise the mandate government staff. Part of Article 6 requires the staff of the Mandatory Power for The Administration of Palestine, to facilitate immigration of Jews. The Mandate does NOT provide that immigration of any other peoples is to be facilitated. (emphasis added) Article 5 provides that none of the land is to be ceded to a foreign power.
Who were the beneficiaries of the trust? Only the Jews, both those already in Palestine and many more scattered worldwide in the Diaspora since the time of the Roman Empire conquest of Palestine.
Howard Grief, who has provided the seminal work on the legal foundations of Israel under International Law, says one can conclude this because they are the only people mentioned to be dealt with specially. [11]The non-Jews are referred to only to ensure their civil and religious rights are to be protected.
Because Article 22 of the League Covenant defined the relationship of Britain and the Jews as trustee and guardian with Jews in effect being beneficiaries and ward the Mandate essentially provided for a Jewish National Home that would be supervised by the British until its ward was capable of exercising sovereignty, including helping it attain a majority of population it needed to do that. It was charged with facilitating such immigration.
All this purpose was not expressed very clearly in the Mandate, likely to avoid stirring up the Arabs in time of war that might bleed off troops to maintain stability in Palestine. But the Arabs did understand that this was the case.
After the war, the Arabs were told by Winston Churchill that the request for self government by the inhabitants of Palestine would be denied until such time as the Jews had attained a majority of the population. They made that understanding clear in their arguments against Partition in the UNSCOP hearings in 1947. [12]
The Arabs argued in 1947 "It was clear from the beginning that if Palestine were to be turned into a Jewish national home, this would involve the indefinite denial of self-government until such time as the Jews were strong enough to take over the government; that pending such time, Palestine would have to be subjected to a foreign administration [of England] which had no basis in the consent of the population and of which the policy would be determined, not by consideration of the welfare of the population, but by the desire to assist in the settlement of an alien group; and that to make such a settlement possible the country would have to be cut off from the surrounding Arab lands by artificial frontiers, would be given a separate system of law, administration, finance, tariffs, and education and would thus inevitably lose some if not all of the Arab character."
But that is what the grantors had in mind and the Arabs knew it when they argued against Partition in 1947. [13] They had learned after WWI from Winston Churchill this was their intention.
"As the first Arab delegation to England stated in the course of its correspondence with Mr. Churchill, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, 'we are to understand ...that self-government will be granted as soon as the Jewish people in Palestine are sufficiently able through numbers and powers to benefit to the full by it, and not before.' "[14]
Prior to the publishing of the British Mandate the French attached a "proce’s verbal" in French shown only in the French Version. [15] This was their agreement only on their stated understanding that the Mandate would not eliminate any existing rights of the non-Jews in Palestine. The League had no objection to the process verbal.
The Mandate expressly preserved existing civil and religious rights of the non-Jews. It could not preserve their political rights because they had never had any. The preservation of their civil rights only protected their individual political rights, ie. their electoral rights. It did not protect their collective political rights or national rights, the right of sovereignty and political self-determination.
The Arabs in Palestine had always been ruled from afar. So the Mandate carried out the “process verbal”
Why, in 1917, did Britain establish a policy that gave a preference to the Jews? There were several reasons.
1. Britain's Prime Minister at the time of the Balfour Declaration was David Lloyd-George. Later, in 1923, he was the author of an article "The Jews and Palestine" [16] In it he revealed his view that the Arabs under Ottoman Rule had turned Palestine, the Biblical land of milk and honey into a malarial wasteland. He believed it could be remedied under a reconstituted Jewish State.
2. There was considerable sympathy among many Christian Evangelicals in England who thought the Jews should be restored to Palestine to flee from the pogroms of Russia and Poland. This sympathy did not extend to receiving them in England. British workmen had complained that Jews were flooding in to England and taking their jobs and working for less. This led to the Aliens Act of 1909 restricting Jewish immigration into England.
But the British recognized that the oppression of the Jews in Russia and Poland was very bad and they needed some place to go. [17]
3. Chaim Weismann, an ardent Zionist and also a good chemist, had helped Britain in the war by developing an inexpensive method of manufacturing acetone used in cordite for munitions and had given it to the British. It was a great help to the British war effort. [18]
4. And England, according to Winston Churchill, also desired to win over the Jews in Russia, many of them in the Bolshevik government, so that they might influence the new Marxist government to remain in battle with the Germans and Ottomans in WWI on the side of the Allies. He thought that the Balfour Declaration could sway them in British favor. [19]
There came a time after WWII that the British decided their effort to be trustee was simply costing it too much. They tried to obtain some funding from the United States, but the United States declined to do so. Britain finally decided to abandon its trusteeship and guardianship in 1948.
On the abandonment of its trusteeship by Britain in 1948, political rights that were the "trust res" (the thing put in trust) devolved to the Jews as beneficiaries or wards of the trust and vested in them the political rights permitting them to exercise sovereignty. These rights had survived the demise of the League of Nations by virtue of Article 80 of the UN Charter. [20] It should be expressly noted that the Jews did not receive these rights from the Partition Resolution.
By that time the Jewish population had increased significantly. In 1947 the UN General Assembly had recommended that the Jews give up some of its rights in an attempt to avoid violence that had been threatened by the Arabs if the Jews were to reconstitute their state in Palestine. The Jews agreed to give up some of the land over which they were to have political rights, but the Arabs rejected the recommendation and commenced a war.
It was by the Arabs starting a war that led to a Jewish population majority. Some 600,000 to 700,000 Arabs fled the country before even seeing an Israeli soldier. The wealthy left first, at the first foreshadowing of war. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Mahmoud Abbas wrote this in the official organ of the PLO, “Filanstin”, most of the rest left at the request of the Arab Higher Committee that wanted to get them out of the way of the Arab armies in the surrounding states. [21]
Many left because of a false report that the Irgun had committed a massacre of Arabs at Deir Yassin, that the Haganah, their political enemies did not dispute. A BBC program based on an interview of an Arab radio commentator at the time revealed he had been pushed into designating a hard fought battle as a massacre so as to provide an excuse for the invasion of surrounding armies. [22]
Many Arabs local to Palestine left; some remained.
But those that left could not go back because the Arab Armies did not prevail
In 1948 Israel declared Independence and vindicated its claim by force of arms against the assault of other Arab states surrounding it. It established an orderly unified stable control of its territory except for Judea, Samaria, and East Jerusalem which had been invaded and occupied by the Arab Legion in the East. This British supplied and led organization became the Army of Jordan. [23] In the South, the Egyptian Army was able to maintain its occupation of the Gaza Strip.
In 1920 the Ottoman Empire in Article 95 of the Treaty of Sevres,had ceded its sovereignty in Palestine, which had been undisputed for 400 years, to a Mandatory Power in trust for a National Homeland for the Jews. [24] The Sevres Treaty was never ratified by the Turks who were concerned over Turkey’s boundaries in Europe and in adjacent areas in Asia, not in the Middle East and North. But these issues were finally settled in 1923 in the Treaty of Lausanne that left the agreements in the Middle East unchanged.
The trustee selected by the League of Nations at San Remo was Great Britain; the US had been another possibiility. Sovereignty, i.e. political rights, over the other 99% of the lands captured from the Ottomans in the Middle East was allocated to Arab and Muslim majorities in some 20 areas such as Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq but as in the case of Palestine, in mandates of guardianship as the inhabitants had had no prior experience in self rule.
While it was expected in 1920 that the Jewish Homeland would eventually become a state when immigration gave the Jews a majority of the population, at the time the Jews were incapable of exercising sovereignty although the "Jewish Agency" was exercising administrative authority of wide scope.
End Notes
1. Brand, Soviet Russia, The Creators of the PLO and the Palestinian People, http://www.think-israel.org/brand.russiatheenemy.html
2. Newt Gingrich, Campaign speech, 2012 Republican Primary
3. Brand, Was there a Palestine Arab National Movement at the End of the Ottoman Period? http://www.think-israel.org/brand.palnationalism.html
[4] Danny Ayalon, Israel's current Deputy Foreign Minister, The Truth About the West Bank /News/News.aspx/145836
[5] See the original documents in the Avalon Project at Yale University. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/versailles_menu.asp
[6]The Balfour Declaration Text http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/E210CA73E38D9E1D052565FA00705C61
[7] See the first two paragraphs of Article 22
[8] Mueller, Editor, Churchill as a Peacemaker, Feith, p. 224 n. 36 citing Sir Martin Gilbert, Exile and Return, p. 111-12
[9] Charles Hill, Trial of a Thousand Years, World Order and Islamism
[10] San Remo Convention Text of the Mandate
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/San_Remo_Convention
[11] Howard Grief, The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law, p. 36
[12] The Future of Palestine" by Musa Alami with a foreword by Mr. Alami. Hermon Press, Beirut, London (1970)
[13] Id
[14] Id
[15] Salomon Benzsimra, Jewish People’s Rights to the Land of Israel, n. 68 See below
[16] David Lloyd George, The Jews and Palestine, http://einshalom.com/archives/210
[17] Ronald Sanders, The High Walls of Jerusalem, A history of the Balfour Declaration and the Birth of the British Mandate for Palestine. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York (1983) p. 90-94
[18] High Walls at 189
[19] Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill and the Jews,Gilbert reveals the beliefs that moved the British government to issue the Declaration: “The War Cabinet hoped that, inspired by the promise of a national home in Palestine, Russian Jews would encourage Russia—then in the throes of revolution—to stay in the war,. . . http://www.inconvenienthistory.com/archive/2011/volume_3/number_1/churchill_international_jews_and_the_holocaust.php
[20]http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/un/unchart.htm#art80
[21] Abu Mazen Charges that the Arab States Are the Cause of the Palestinian Refugee Problem (Wall Street Journal; June 5, 2003)
[22]http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_independence_war_diryassin.php
[23] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Legion
[24] http://athena.hri.org/docs/sevres/part3.html
Qurei calls for reconsidering one-state solution
Qurei calls for reconsidering one-state solution
03/17/2012 19:46
Former Palestinian Authority prime minister Ahmed Qurei, who was one of the architects of the Oslo Accords, Saturday called on Palestinians to consider a one-state solution for Palestinians and Israelis instead of a two-state solution.
Voicing frustration and disappointment with the peace process, Qurei, who played a major role in secret and public negotiations with Israel over the past two decades, said that the "one-state solution, despite the endless problems it embraces, is one of the solutions that we should be contemplating through an internal dialogue."
He said that the Palestinians should be talking publicly about the one-state solution, putting it on the table as an option and throwing in the face of Israel as "burning embers."
Qurei's call for a one-state solution came in an article he published Saturday in the pan-Arab London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper.
Voicing frustration and disappointment with the peace process, Qurei, who played a major role in secret and public negotiations with Israel over the past two decades, said that the "one-state solution, despite the endless problems it embraces, is one of the solutions that we should be contemplating through an internal dialogue."
He said that the Palestinians should be talking publicly about the one-state solution, putting it on the table as an option and throwing in the face of Israel as "burning embers."
Qurei's call for a one-state solution came in an article he published Saturday in the pan-Arab London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper.
Students in South return to school amid lull in rockets
Students in South return to school amid lull in rockets
03/18/2012 09:02
Some 200,000 students in the South were going back to school on Sunday morning after a relatively quiet weekend which saw a single rocket fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.
Local authorities in the South and the Education Ministry on Saturday night consulted with the Homefront Command and made the decision to resume studies in Beersheba, Ashdod, Kiryat Malachi, Kiryat Gat, Gan Yavne and other southern towns after students stayed home last week amid more than 200 rockets fired from Gaza.
The Egyptian brokered cease-fire between Israel and terror groups in Gaza appeared to be holding despite the rocket fired at the Eshkol Regional Council area on Friday night. No injuries or damage were reported in the attack.
Local authorities in the South and the Education Ministry on Saturday night consulted with the Homefront Command and made the decision to resume studies in Beersheba, Ashdod, Kiryat Malachi, Kiryat Gat, Gan Yavne and other southern towns after students stayed home last week amid more than 200 rockets fired from Gaza.
The Egyptian brokered cease-fire between Israel and terror groups in Gaza appeared to be holding despite the rocket fired at the Eshkol Regional Council area on Friday night. No injuries or damage were reported in the attack.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Scud Missile Launch Pads in Lebanon
Scud Missile Launch Pads in Lebanon
Hezbollah has prepared
areas for the missiles they received from Syria. The portable launchers remain
concealed so that Israel cannot detect them
A special unit is responsible for operating the Scud missiles, which is part of Hezbollah’s “launch organization.” Three years ago, Hezbollah established a special unit for operating the long-range rockets that the organization received and will apparently continue to receive from Iran.
Hezbollah has already conducted several quick deployment dry runs of the new rockets it received from Iran after the last war. Experts say Hezbollah also prepared “launch sites” prior to the Second Lebanon War, to where the launchers were now transferred, and from which it is easy to aim at Israeli targets.
Since the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the number of these sites has increased, and as already mentioned, such sites have been prepared for launching the Scud missiles. Israel is assessing that the organization also received the new, advanced variant of the Zelzal rocket from Iran, with a range of 400 km that will enable it to hit any target in Israel’s territory.
Fatah accuses Iran of trying to block Palestinian unity
Fatah accuses Iran of trying to block Palestinian unity
By REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl
03/17/2012 18:37
By REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl
Iran is funding some Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip to encourage them to thwart efforts to achieve reconciliation with Fatah, Azzam al-Ahmed, member of the Fatah Central Committee, said Saturday.
Ahmed's charges came in response to the visit of two top Hamas leaders, Mahmoud Zahar and Ismail Haniyeh, to Iran in the past few weeks.
"Iran does not want the Palestinians to end their divisions," Ahmed told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal. "Iran is responsible for foiling attempts to achieve reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah."
Relations between Hamas and Iran were strained recently following the Islamist movement's refusal to support Syrian President Bashar Assad's ruthless crackdown on his opponents.
Relations between the two sides suffered another setback with the signing of the Qatari-brokered reconciliation pact between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.
In a bid to ease the tensions, Zahar and Haniyeh visited Tehran separately in the past few weeks, assuring the Iranian leaders that Hamas has not abandoned the armed struggle against Israel despite the deal with Fatah.
Ahmed admitted in the interview that efforts to implement the reconciliation pact have reached an impasse. He blamed Iran for the "inciting" Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip against rapprochement with Fatah.
"Iran has apparently played a role in inciting Hamas leaders against the reconciliation agreement," he charged. "Iran is playing a negative role with regards to the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation."
The Fatah official added that Iran has provided financial aid to Haniyeh in return for his opposition to the Qatari-brokered deal.
In response, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri denounced the allegations as "trivial." He accused the Fatah official of seeking to escalate tensions with Hamas and reiterated his movement's readiness to implement the reconciliation accord instantly.
Abbas, meanwhile, told a visiting Jordanian parliamentary delegation last Friday that "small obstacles" were preventing the establishment of a Palestinian unity government, as envisaged by the reconciliation pact.
"I don't want to go into details, but there are some small problems facing the formation of a unity government dominated by technocrats," Abbas was quoted as saying. He nevertheless expressed hope that the two sides would be able to overcome the obstacles.
Ahmed's charges came in response to the visit of two top Hamas leaders, Mahmoud Zahar and Ismail Haniyeh, to Iran in the past few weeks.
"Iran does not want the Palestinians to end their divisions," Ahmed told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal. "Iran is responsible for foiling attempts to achieve reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah."
Relations between Hamas and Iran were strained recently following the Islamist movement's refusal to support Syrian President Bashar Assad's ruthless crackdown on his opponents.
Relations between the two sides suffered another setback with the signing of the Qatari-brokered reconciliation pact between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.
In a bid to ease the tensions, Zahar and Haniyeh visited Tehran separately in the past few weeks, assuring the Iranian leaders that Hamas has not abandoned the armed struggle against Israel despite the deal with Fatah.
Ahmed admitted in the interview that efforts to implement the reconciliation pact have reached an impasse. He blamed Iran for the "inciting" Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip against rapprochement with Fatah.
"Iran has apparently played a role in inciting Hamas leaders against the reconciliation agreement," he charged. "Iran is playing a negative role with regards to the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation."
The Fatah official added that Iran has provided financial aid to Haniyeh in return for his opposition to the Qatari-brokered deal.
In response, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri denounced the allegations as "trivial." He accused the Fatah official of seeking to escalate tensions with Hamas and reiterated his movement's readiness to implement the reconciliation accord instantly.
Abbas, meanwhile, told a visiting Jordanian parliamentary delegation last Friday that "small obstacles" were preventing the establishment of a Palestinian unity government, as envisaged by the reconciliation pact.
"I don't want to go into details, but there are some small problems facing the formation of a unity government dominated by technocrats," Abbas was quoted as saying. He nevertheless expressed hope that the two sides would be able to overcome the obstacles.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Flash from Qassam Count
Qassam rocket hits Eshkol
A Qassam rocket exploded in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported. (Ilana Curiel)
|
A Qassam rocket exploded in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported. (Ilana Curiel)
Several injured in Friday West Bank demonstrations
Palestinian lightly hurt when bit by IDF dog during weekly demonstration in village of Kedum; three people, including Israeli woman, hurt in Nabi Saleh protest.
By Nir Hasson and Gili Cohen Tags: IDFWest BankPalestinians
Israeli forces on Friday used a dog against Palestinian protesters in the West Bank village of Kedum. The dog bit the arm of one of the demonstrators for several minutes. Demonstrators said that the dog's military handler was unable to get the dog to release its jaws.
The Palestinian, who was lightly hurt, was detained. The incident occurred shortly after the start of the weekly demonstration in the village when protesters began throwing stones at Israeli forces. The Israeli forces released a dog to disperse a group of demonstrators. The dog jumped on one of them, brought him to the ground, and bit into his arm.
 | Dog bites Palestinian demonstrator during protest in Kedum, March 16, 2012. |
| Photo by: AFP |
According to Jonathan Pollack, an Israeli pro-Palestinian activist, Israeli forces have used dogs in the past, but one has never bit a demonstrator before Friday's incident.
 | Israeli forces walk past burning tires in Kedum, March 16, 2012. |
| Photo by: AFP |
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in response to the incident: "During a violent and illegal disturbance in the village of Kedum, next to the settlement of Kedumim, west of Nablus, around 100 Palestinians gathered, rolled burning tires, and threw stones at security forces, who responded with riot dispersal means. One Palestinian was arrested for physically attacking forces at the location. Another Palestinian who was arrested was bit by a dog belonging to the forces during his arrest. He was treated at the scene by a military doctor and did not require evacuation."
Also on Friday, three demonstrators were hurt in a protest held in Nabi Saleh. One of the wounded was an Israeli woman who suffered a head injury from a rubber bullet. A Palestinian resident of Nabi Saleh was also hurt by a rubber bullet and another Palestinian resident of the village was hurt by a teargas canister.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Iron Dome intercepts rocket fired by Gaza militants at Israeli city
Iron Dome intercepts rocket fired by Gaza militants at Israeli city
Attack comes following hours of relative calm along Israel's border with the coastal enclave; Palestinian groups fired 3 Grad rockets toward Be'er Sheva in the morning hours.
By Gili Cohen Tags: IDFIAFGaza Strip
The Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted a Grad-type Katyusha rocket fired by Gaza militants toward the southern city of Ashdod on Thursday, following hours of relative calm along Israel's border with the coastal enclave.
The attack came after Palestinian militants fired three Grad rockets toward the southern Israeli city of Be'er Sheva on Thursday morning, following strikes by Israel Air Force craft against multiple targets in the Strip overnight.
 | An Israeli missile being launched from the Iron Dome missile system in the city of Ashdod, March 11, 2012. |
| Photo by: AFP |
Earlier Thursday, a Gaza rocket landed near Netivot in southern Israel and shortly afterward, three Grad rockets were fired toward Be'er Sheva. Two of them were intercepted by the Iron Dome system.
Islamic Jihad has denied any involvement in Thursday's rocket fire.
Despite an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire between the sides which went into effect early Tuesday morning, Palestinian militant groups continued to fire rockets sporadically into Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Despite an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire between the sides which went into effect early Tuesday morning, Palestinian militant groups continued to fire rockets sporadically into Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Five cities in southern Israel - Be'er Sheva, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Kiryat Malakhi and Gan Yavneh - decided to cancel school on Thursday.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
To the President Obama
Dear President Obama,
In recent years we often felt for my efforts in defense of Israel. This commitment continues unabated forever. We know that the best friend of Israel is the United States of America, land of freedom and courage. And we love freedom, and Courage, like all the Israelis. For this reason we ask you to confirm its commitment made during the AIPAC with President Shimon Peres. The United States of America and throughout the Western world must support Israel in its path for the affirmation of freedom and peace. The Israelis say their commitment and need peace for nearly four thousand years, facing all the enemies that history has imposed on them by the Egyptians to the Iranians.
For this reason we ask you to intervent officially.
הנשיא אובמה היקר,
בשנים האחרונות אנו לעתים קרובות חש על מאמצי ההגנה של ישראל. מחויבות זו ממשיכה ללא הפוגה לנצח. אנו יודעים כי חברו הטוב ביותר של ישראל הוא ארצות הברית של אמריקה, ארץ החופש ואומץ. ואנחנו אוהבים חופש, אומץ, כמו כל הישראלים. מסיבה זו אנו מבקשים ממך לאשר את מחויבותה עשה במהלך איפא"ק עם נשיא המדינה שמעון פרס.ארצות הברית של אמריקה ברחבי העולם המערבי צריך לתמוך בישראל בדרכה לאישור של חירות ושלום. הישראלים אומרים את מחויבותם ואת הצורך בשלום במשך כמעט 4,000 שנים, מול כל האויבים, כי ההיסטוריה המוטלות עליהם על ידי המצרים לאיראנים.
מסיבה זו אנו מבקשים ממך להתערב באופן רשמי.
In recent years we often felt for my efforts in defense of Israel. This commitment continues unabated forever. We know that the best friend of Israel is the United States of America, land of freedom and courage. And we love freedom, and Courage, like all the Israelis. For this reason we ask you to confirm its commitment made during the AIPAC with President Shimon Peres. The United States of America and throughout the Western world must support Israel in its path for the affirmation of freedom and peace. The Israelis say their commitment and need peace for nearly four thousand years, facing all the enemies that history has imposed on them by the Egyptians to the Iranians.
For this reason we ask you to intervent officially.
הנשיא אובמה היקר,
בשנים האחרונות אנו לעתים קרובות חש על מאמצי ההגנה של ישראל. מחויבות זו ממשיכה ללא הפוגה לנצח. אנו יודעים כי חברו הטוב ביותר של ישראל הוא ארצות הברית של אמריקה, ארץ החופש ואומץ. ואנחנו אוהבים חופש, אומץ, כמו כל הישראלים. מסיבה זו אנו מבקשים ממך לאשר את מחויבותה עשה במהלך איפא"ק עם נשיא המדינה שמעון פרס.ארצות הברית של אמריקה ברחבי העולם המערבי צריך לתמוך בישראל בדרכה לאישור של חירות ושלום. הישראלים אומרים את מחויבותם ואת הצורך בשלום במשך כמעט 4,000 שנים, מול כל האויבים, כי ההיסטוריה המוטלות עליהם על ידי המצרים לאיראנים.
מסיבה זו אנו מבקשים ממך להתערב באופן רשמי.
Iran threatens N. Israel with bombardment from Lebanon
Iran threatens N. Israel with bombardment from
Lebanon
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report March 14, 2012, 10:29 PM (GMT+02:00)
Tehran has begun capitalizing on its allies” two perceived victories: Bashar
Assad’s success in seizing Idlib from rebel hands and the Palestinian Jihad
Islami’s triumphal missile assault from Gaza.
The Iranians are now moving forward with plans to match the Palestinian assault on southern Israeli with an offensive on the north from Lebanon. This is reported by debkafile’s exclusive sources in the wake of a visit paid by high-ranking Iranian and Hizballah officials Wednesday morning, March 14, to the Lebanese-Israeli border region opposite Metulah, Israel’s northernmost town at the tip of the Galilee Panhandle.
The Iranian group, led by Ali Akbar Javanfekr, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s spokesman, arrived in a heavily guarded convoy at the Fatma outpost opposite Metulah for its rendezvous with Hizballah military intelligence officers.
Once there, they kept moving around near the Lebanese-Israeli border fence. At times, they came up close and examined the Israel Defense Forces’ ongoing work for fortifying the border fence and upgrading it from a boundary marker to a military barrier able to withstand terrorist incursions into the Galilee panhandle.
The Iranian visitor, Javanfekr, commented in the hearing of our sources: “The Zionists can build any wall they like, whether of concrete, iron or plastic, but we and Hizballah will knock it down, like Israel itself.”
He pitched his voice loudly enough to carry across the border.
His words were taken by top Israeli commanders as a blunt threat of a missile offensive on similar lines to the Gaza confrontation – only this time instead of Jihad Islami in Gaza, Hizballah would be entrusted with shooting missiles from Lebanon.
Word of this threat spurred Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to sharpen his tone in his speech to the Knesset later Wednesday and declare, “We shall strike Iran even if our American friends object.”
He was further irked by a decision by US President Barack Obama and visiting British premier David Cameron, reported by debkafile’s Washington sources, to intensify their efforts for holding Israel back from striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Netanyahu therefore stressed once again that Israel would decide for itself the best way to pre-empt a nuclear Iran.
No sooner were his comments broadcast, when Washington announced that Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Andrew Shapiro would be traveling to Israel forthwith. He will no doubt try and clarify how far Netanyahu really means to go.
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report March 14, 2012, 10:29 PM (GMT+02:00)
Ali Akbar Javanfekr, Ahmadinejad's
spokesman
The Iranians are now moving forward with plans to match the Palestinian assault on southern Israeli with an offensive on the north from Lebanon. This is reported by debkafile’s exclusive sources in the wake of a visit paid by high-ranking Iranian and Hizballah officials Wednesday morning, March 14, to the Lebanese-Israeli border region opposite Metulah, Israel’s northernmost town at the tip of the Galilee Panhandle.
The Iranian group, led by Ali Akbar Javanfekr, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s spokesman, arrived in a heavily guarded convoy at the Fatma outpost opposite Metulah for its rendezvous with Hizballah military intelligence officers.
Once there, they kept moving around near the Lebanese-Israeli border fence. At times, they came up close and examined the Israel Defense Forces’ ongoing work for fortifying the border fence and upgrading it from a boundary marker to a military barrier able to withstand terrorist incursions into the Galilee panhandle.
The Iranian visitor, Javanfekr, commented in the hearing of our sources: “The Zionists can build any wall they like, whether of concrete, iron or plastic, but we and Hizballah will knock it down, like Israel itself.”
He pitched his voice loudly enough to carry across the border.
His words were taken by top Israeli commanders as a blunt threat of a missile offensive on similar lines to the Gaza confrontation – only this time instead of Jihad Islami in Gaza, Hizballah would be entrusted with shooting missiles from Lebanon.
Word of this threat spurred Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to sharpen his tone in his speech to the Knesset later Wednesday and declare, “We shall strike Iran even if our American friends object.”
He was further irked by a decision by US President Barack Obama and visiting British premier David Cameron, reported by debkafile’s Washington sources, to intensify their efforts for holding Israel back from striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Netanyahu therefore stressed once again that Israel would decide for itself the best way to pre-empt a nuclear Iran.
No sooner were his comments broadcast, when Washington announced that Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Andrew Shapiro would be traveling to Israel forthwith. He will no doubt try and clarify how far Netanyahu really means to go.
Report: Iran officials told Assad to focus on Israel to divert attention from Syria crisis
Emails said to have been intercepted by Syria opposition and released by the Guardian show advisers indicated Syrian President should verbally attack Israel, center on Palestinian cause in a planned speech.
By HaaretzTags: SyriaBashar AssadArab SpringPalestiniansJerusalem
Syrian President Bashar Assad was advised by Iranian officials to divert attention toward Israel and the Palestinian cause in an effort to deflect criticism of his brutal crackdown, emails said to have been intercepted by Syrian opposition and released by the U.K.'s the Guardian indicated on Wednesday.
According to the Guardian, the messages were said to have been intercepted by the opposition's Supreme Council of the Revolution between June of 2011 and February 2012, and include missives from Assad's private account as well as that belonging to his wife, Asma.
 | Syria President Bashar Assad and Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. |
| Photo by: AP |
One email sent in December 31 indicated that Assad's aides advised the Syrian president on the contents on an upcoming speech following "consultations with a good number of people in addition to the media and political adviser for the Iranian ambassador."
In the composed memorandum, Assad was advised to stress the issue of Muslim identity through the use of Koran quotes, as well as centering on what the email called "Syria's principles," which included: "Resistance"; "Hostility to Israel, the first enemy of the Muslims"; and "Protection of Palestinian people's rights (real prayers should be in the direction of Jerusalem)."
"Maybe here the president can reiterate his stance by condemning forcefully the recent Israeli practices and policies to Judaise Al-Quds (Jerusalem)," the email added, saying that Assad should use "powerful and violent" language in his opposition to Israel.
"Here the subject of Israel comes up and it becomes necessary to put stress on the particular merits of the president by linking the foreign pressures on Syria, which differs in its toughness and content to other countries in crisis, with the geographical proximity to Israel and the position of the people and the regime towards Israel," the memo stated.
Culminating the email's section on Israel, the adviser said Assad should make "a clear distinction between the west's ambitions and people's demands and that the west and Israel are exploiting part of the Syrian people without their knowledge to break Syria, but the president has a great confidence in the patriotism of the entire Syrian people."
The emails released by the Guardian also indicated that the Syria leader received advice from noted Lebanese businessman Hussein Mortada, known for his links to the Iran. In one message, Mortada advised Assad to stop blaming al-Qaida for opposition attacks
"It is not out of our interest to say that al-Qaida organization is behind the operation because this claim will [indemnify] the U.S. administration and Syrian opposition," Mortada was quoted as saying, adding "I have received contacts from Iran and Hezbollah in my role as director of many Iranian-Lebanese channels and they directed me to not mention that al-Qaida is behind the operation. It is a blatant tactical media mistake."
Another correspondence of note was between Assad's wife Asma and the daughter of the emir of Qatar, Hamid bin Khalifa al-Thani, in which the Qatari noblewoman both advised Assad to step down as well as indicated that Qatar may be able to present the Syrian leader's family with asylum.
"My father regards President Bashar as a friend, despite the current tensions – he always gave him genuine advice," she was cited by the Guardian as writing, saying that the "opportunity for real change and development was lost a long time ago. Nevertheless, one opportunity closes, others open up – and I hope it's not too late for reflection and coming out of the state of denial."
A later email seemed more direct, saying that: "Just been following the latest developments in Syria … in all honesty – looking at the tide of history and the escalation of recent events – we've seen two results – leaders stepping down and getting political asylum or leaders being brutally attacked. I honestly think this is a good opportunity to leave and re-start a normal life."
"I only pray that you will convince the president to take this an opportunity to exit without having to face charges. The region needs to stabilise, but not more than you need peace of mind. I am sure you have many places to turn to, including Doha."
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