Israel // Current

Hundreds Of Palestinian Children In Jail

With more than 300 Palestinian children being held in Israeli prisons, human rights... more

The_Global_Report
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Israel Clamps Down On Protest Villages

The Israeli Defense Force is barring Israelis and foreigners from two West Bank... more

The_Global_Report
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Democrat Meek criticizes Obama administration’s ‘undiplomatic language’ to Israel

Democratic U.S. Rep. and Senate candidate Kendrick Meek criticized the Obama... more

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Hillary Clinton affirms US support for Israel after row

"She said the two nations had a "close, unshakeable bond" but made... more

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Volunteering 101: How to become a Jewish community organizer and other volunteer opportunities

If you or some one you know is thinking about taking a semester, a year, or even a... more

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Obama's Hot Air Against Israel

At most, the newly announced housing plan shows Israel doesn't want to give up all of E. J'lem as part of a peace agreement. Not exactly news.

The area in question is not some new settlement but a neighborhood about five blocks from the pre-1967 border. The people who live there have the highest birth rate in the country and thus desperately need new apartments.

Israel has announced since 1993, when the Oslo Agreement was signed, that it would continue building on existing settlements. The PLO accepted this framework and during the next 16 years the issue of construction on settlements never had any effect on the negotiations.

In January 2009, the PA stopped negotiations because Hamas attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip and Israel defended itself. Of course, Hamas is also the PA’s enemy and the PA would be delighted if Israel destroyed that group. But for public relations purposes, the PA had to pretend inter-Palestinian solidarity.

A few weeks later, the new US president, Barack Obama, demanded that all construction on settlements stop. Israel eventually agreed but announced it would keep building in east Jerusalem. The US accepted that arrangement and even praised Israel’s policy as a major concession.

But the PA still refused to return to negotiations. Was it because the construction offended it so deeply? No, it’s because Fatah’s radical leaders don’t want to make a peace deal since they believe they can win total victory and destroy Israel. At the same time, the more moderate ones are too weak to make a deal because of Hamas and their own radicals.

IN SEPTEMBER 2009, Obama announced that within two months there would be full and final peace negotiations in Washington. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said yes; PA leader Mahmoud Abbas said no. Finally, after more than six additional months of effort, the PA deigned to talk, but only indirectly. Wait a minute! Supposedly, Israel doesn’t want a deal and the Palestinians are desperate for one since, in Obama’s words, their situation is “intolerable.” So why is reality the other way around? There must be something wrong with that explanation.

Why aren’t Western countries and media saying that the PA’s refusal to negotiate for 15 months shows that it doesn’t want peace? After all, according to the commonly held view of the conflict, it should be demanding immediate direct negotiations to reach a comprehensive peace and a Palestinian state.

Instead, however, Abbas seized the opportunity of the apartment-building announcement to declare he wouldn’t talk. Is he indignant? Is he upset? Does he feel betrayed? No, he’s delighted to have an excuse to do what he wants – not negotiate with Israel.At most, the newly announced housing plan shows Israel doesn't want to give up... more

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Israel's Problem is America's problem and it's About Time We Take Charge

The Petraeus briefing: Biden’s embarrassment is not the whole story

Posted By Mark Perry Saturday, March 13, 2010 - 11:05 PM

On Jan. 16, two days after a killer earthquake hit Haiti, a team of senior military officers from the U.S. Central Command (responsible for overseeing American security interests in the Middle East), arrived at the Pentagon to brief Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The team had been dispatched by CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus to underline his growing worries at the lack of progress in resolving the issue. The 33-slide, 45-minute PowerPoint briefing stunned Mullen. The briefers reported that there was a growing perception among Arab leaders that the U.S. was incapable of standing up to Israel, that CENTCOM's mostly Arab constituency was losing faith in American promises, that Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing U.S. standing in the region, and that Mitchell himself was (as a senior Pentagon officer later bluntly described it) "too old, too slow ... and too late."

The January Mullen briefing was unprecedented. No previous CENTCOM commander had ever expressed himself on what is essentially a political issue; which is why the briefers were careful to tell Mullen that their conclusions followed from a December 2009 tour of the region where, on Petraeus's instructions, they spoke to senior Arab leaders. "Everywhere they went, the message was pretty humbling," a Pentagon officer familiar with the briefing says. "America was not only viewed as weak, but its military posture in the region was eroding." But Petraeus wasn't finished: two days after the Mullen briefing, Petraeus sent a paper to the White House requesting that the West Bank and Gaza (which, with Israel, is a part of the European Command -- or EUCOM), be made a part of his area of operations. Petraeus's reason was straightforward: with U.S. troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military had to be perceived by Arab leaders as engaged in the region's most troublesome conflict.

[UPDATE: A senior military officer denied Sunday that Petraeus sent a paper to the White House.

"CENTCOM did have a team brief the CJCS on concerns revolving around the Palestinian issue, and CENTCOM did propose a UCP change, but to CJCS, not to the WH," the officer said via email. "GEN Petraeus was not certain what might have been conveyed to the WH (if anything) from that brief to CJCS."

(UCP means "unified combatant command," like CENTCOM; CJCS refers to Mullen; and WH is the White House.)]

The Mullen briefing and Petraeus's request hit the White House like a bombshell. While Petraeus's request that CENTCOM be expanded to include the Palestinians was denied ("it was dead on arrival," a Pentagon officer confirms), the Obama administration decided it would redouble its efforts -- pressing Israel once again on the settlements issue, sending Mitchell on a visit to a number of Arab capitals and dispatching Mullen for a carefully arranged meeting with the chief of the Israeli General Staff, Lt. General Gabi Ashkenazi. While the American press speculated that Mullen's trip focused on Iran, the JCS Chairman actually carried a blunt, and tough, message on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: that Israel had to see its conflict with the Palestinians "in a larger, regional, context" -- as having a direct impact on America's status in the region. Certainly, it was thought, Israel would get the message.

Israel didn't. When Vice President Joe Biden was embarrassed by an Israeli announcement that the Netanyahu government was building 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem, the administration reacted. But no one was more outraged than Biden who, according to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, engaged in a private, and angry, exchange with the Israeli Prime Minister. Not surprisingly, what Biden told Netanyahu reflected the importance the administration attached to Petraeus's Mullen briefing: "This is starting to get dangerous for us," Biden reportedly told Netanyahu. "What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace." Yedioth Ahronoth went on to report: "The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim world perceived a connection between Israel's actions and US policy, any decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops fighting against Islamic terrorism." The message couldn't be plainer: Israel's intransigence could cost American lives.

There are important and powerful lobbies in America: the NRA, the American Medical Association, the lawyers -- and the Israeli lobby. But no lobby is as important, or as powerful, as the U.S. military. While commentators and pundits might reflect that Joe Biden's trip to Israel has forever shifted America's relationship with its erstwhile ally in the region, the real break came in January, when David Petraeus sent a briefing team to the Pentagon with a stark warning: America's relationship with Israel is important, but not as important as the lives of America's soldiers. Maybe Israel gets the message now.

Mark Perry's newest book is Talking To Terrorists

[UPDATE 2--from Mark Perry: A senior military officer told Foreign Policy by email that one minor detail in my report, "The Petraeus Briefing" was incorrect: a request from General Petraeus for the Palestinian occupied territories (but, as I made clear, not Israel itself), be brought within CENTCOM's region of operation was sent to JCS Chairman Mullen - and not directly to the White House. My information was based on conversations with CENTCOM officials, who believed they were giving me correct information. It is significant that the correction was made, not because it is an important detail, but because it is was inconsequential to the overall narrative. In effect, the U.S. military has clearly said there was nothing in this report that could be denied.]The Petraeus briefing: Biden’s embarrassment is not the whole story Posted By... more

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Are Israel and the US about to break up?

News about Israel today is dominated by headlines pointing to the "greatest rift... more

afitzgerald
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6 days ago
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172 comments

Does Israel real want to give up settlement increases in exchange for peace with Palestine?

Question of the week

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South Florida Sun-Sentinel Op-Ed: Anti-Israel bias has no place at the UN | Kendrick Meek

Kendrick Meek's latest op-ed

KendrickMeek
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Isreal Angry At US

listen up isreal, we're the reason you're even there, shut up and do what... more

diode
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Israel extends West Bank closure

Israel has extended a lockdown on the occupied West Bank and restricted access to the... more

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Solar Mythology - Origins of Religious Belief

The study of solar mythology (astro-theology) indicates that savior myths,... more

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7 days ago
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Dubai: Israeli Premier Faces Arrest

The head of Dubai’s police force is planning to seek the arrest of... more

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8 days ago
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Report: Syria, Iran, Hezbollah Form War Council

A three-party meeting between Syrian president Bashar al Assad, Iranian president... more

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8 days ago
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Pilar "the leftist," Speaks Out

When you choose a side, are you denying the bigger picture?

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Biden speaks at Tel Aviv University

Joe Biden sends a message of support for Israel and reminds Israel of his desire to... more

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9 days ago
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Israel to build more homes in East Jerusalem, amidst Biden visit

Israel announces the construction of 1,600 new homes in east Jerusalem, as US... more

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11 days ago
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'They Need to Be Liberated From Their God'

The 'Son of Hamas' author on his conversion to Christianity, spying for Israel, and shaming his family.
'I absolutely know that in anybody's eyes I was a traitor," says Mosab Hassan Yousef. "To my family, to my nation, to my God. I crossed all the red lines in my society. I didn't leave one that I didn't cross."

Now 32, Mosab is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founder and leader of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Throughout the last decade, from the second Intifada to the current stalemate, he worked alongside his father in the West Bank. During that time the younger Mr. Yousef also secretly embraced Christianity. And as he reveals in his book "Son of Hamas," out this week, he became one of the top spies for Israel's internal security arm, the Shin Bet.

The news of this double conversion has sent ripples through the Middle East. One of Mr. Yousef's handlers at the Shin Bet confirmed his account to the Israeli daily Haaretz. Hamas—already reeling from the assassination of a senior military chief in Dubai in January—calls his claims Zionist propaganda. From the Israeli prison he has occupied since 2005, Sheikh Yousef on Monday issued a statement that he and his family "have completely disowned the man who was our oldest son and who is called Mosab."

For the past two years, Mosab Yousef has lived near San Diego, where he's kept a low profile out of concern for his security. The U.S. is currently weighing his application for political asylum, and until his confession to espionage and the publicity blitz that accompanied it this week, only knew him as the son of a terrorist who sometimes attends evangelical churches in California. The book is intended to launch a new life in America.

Mr. Yousef, whose large, engaging eyes sit prominently on an oval face, says he was confused for many years himself, and realizes many people will be as well. His family has been shamed and old friends refuse to believe him. The book, a Le Carréesque thriller wrapped in a spiritual coming-of-age story, is an attempt to answer what he says "is impossible to imagine"—"how I ended up working for my enemies who hurt me, who hurt my dad, who hurt my people."

"There is a logical explanation," he continues in fairly fluent English. "Simply my enemies of yesterday became my friends. And the friends of yesterday became really my enemies."The 'Son of Hamas' author on his conversion to Christianity, spying for... more

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12 days ago
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More March NYC Jewish culture events

Another chance to see the film "A Matter of Size", discussion on the concept... more

davidfcooper
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12 days ago
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tagged w/ Israel

Hundreds Of Palestinian Children In Jail

Israel Clamps Down On Protest Villages

Democrat Meek criticizes Obama administration’s ‘undiplomatic language’ to Israel

Hillary Clinton affirms US support for Israel after row

Volunteering 101: How to become a Jewish community organizer and other volunteer opportunities

Obama's Hot Air Against Israel

Israel's Problem is America's problem and it's About Time We Take Charge

Are Israel and the US about to break up?

Does Israel real want to give up settlement increases in exchange for peace with Palestine?

South Florida Sun-Sentinel Op-Ed: Anti-Israel bias has no place at the UN | Kendrick Meek

Isreal Angry At US

Israel extends West Bank closure

Solar Mythology - Origins of Religious Belief

Dubai: Israeli Premier Faces Arrest

Report: Syria, Iran, Hezbollah Form War Council

Pilar "the leftist," Speaks Out

Biden speaks at Tel Aviv University

Israel to build more homes in East Jerusalem, amidst Biden visit

'They Need to Be Liberated From Their God'

More March NYC Jewish culture events

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