From the New Yorker

Seymour Hersh

When the Israelis’ controversial twenty-two-day military campaign in Gaza ended, on January 18th, it also seemed to end the promising peace talks between Israel and Syria. The two countries had been engaged for almost a year in negotiations through intermediaries in Istanbul. Many complicated technical matters had been resolved, and there were agreements in principle on the normalization of diplomatic relations. The consensus, as an ambassador now serving in Tel Aviv put it, was that the two sides had been “a lot closer than you might think.”

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The hard yards have been made harder for Obama by the past attitude of Bushit (school report card: bully, does not try, bashes everybody then blames others — F minus)...

From ABC

The new Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, says Israel will not be bound by commitments made by the last government at a United States-sponsored peace conference.

Mr Liebermann says the conference in Annapolis in 2007 which pushed for an independent Palestinian state has no "validity".

"Israel never ratified Annapolis," he said at a handover ceremony at the Israeli foreign ministry.

"Not the government of Israel, nor the Israeli Parliament."

The outgoing foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, was not amused and the diplomats present were clearly uncomfortable with the statement.

Netanyahu said: “You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying …..

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200903u/netanyahu

Outrage over Israeli It Ain't Half Hot Mum-style show

Critics condemn London show featuring Israeli Defence Force dance troupe as 'ghoulish and retrograde'

 Haroon Siddique
 guardian.co.uk, Monday 20 April 2009

An Israeli Defence Force song-and-dance troupe is to perform in London at a show to commemorate the founding of Israel, provoking anger among groups that campaign for the rights of Palestinians.

The IDF group was likened by the event organisers, the Zionist Federation, to the troupe portrayed in the 1970s BBC comedy It Ain't Half Hot Mum – but not everyone sees the funny side.

Human rights groups accused the IDF of committing war crimes during the three-week invasion of the Gaza Strip, which began in December – allegations denied by the Israeli government – and the army is the subject of a UN investigation.

"This is akin to singing and dancing on the graves of the 400 Palestinian children that the IDF was responsible for killing in January," said Chris Doyle, the director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding.

"We should not be permitting a dance troupe from an army currently under a UN investigation for possible war crimes to be coming to the United Kingdom. It is sick."

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Meanwhile:

Amnesty International
Press Release
23 April 2009

The Israeli army should make public the full details of the findings of its probe into some of its attacks during the 22-day Gaza military offensive, Amnesty International said today in reaction to the army’s conclusion that its forces had committed no violations and only rare mistakes, some of which may have resulted in the killing of Palestinian civilians.

A briefing paper distributed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to journalists yesterday, which states that “All findings are to be used as background information to be attributed to the reporter only”, lacks crucial details. It mostly repeatsf claims made by the army and the authorities many times since the early days of Operation Cast Lead, but without providing the necessary evidence to back up the allegations. Amnesty International sets out below its initial reactions to the limited number of specific incidents addressed in the army’s briefing paper.

There is a strikingly large gap between the “very small number” of mistakes referred to in the IDF’s briefing paper and the killing by Israeli forces of some 300 Palestinian children and hundreds of other unarmed civilians. The army briefing does not even attempt to explain the overwhelming majority of civilian deaths nor the massive destruction caused to civilian buildings in Gaza.

Demolitions build Jerusalem tension

Five young children cling to their mother. All of them are crying. This morning, without warning, Israeli bulldozers came to destroy their home in Jabal Mukabar area of East Jerusalem.

Speaking amongst the mangled remains of her house, Samia Ihdaidoon says she was still sleeping when Israel's police arrived.

"They came pounding on the doors and climbed in through the bedroom window as if it was a raid. They said I had five minutes to put on my scarf and collect our valuables, then I had to get out. It's a shock for the children. Look at their faces. I'm in despair."

Israel says the Ihdaidoon's house was demolished because it was built illegally.

Angry neighbours congregate in the rubble.
   
"We're not going to leave. Why should I leave for the Israelis? This is our land. Even if we have to put up a tent and live in it."

Osama Zahaika told us Israel makes it almost impossible for Palestinians to get building permits in East Jerusalem.

"As a Palestinian I know why they do it. Israel doesn't want us here. My house, most of the Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem are illegal. Not granting us construction permission, demolishing our houses. It's a form of quiet transfer," Mr Zahaika says.

"People like to talk of human rights. Where are human rights here? If you destroy a family home in winter, it's cold. In summer, it's hot. At the same time Israelis can build and live in East Jerusalem without being disturbed. Is it one rule for us, one rule for the Jews, the Israelis?"

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For their water Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are completely depended on scarce resources controlled by Israel.

This has led to "systematic and severe constraints on Palestinian development of water resources", says the report.

But the Palestinian Authority (PA) too gets part of the blame. It is struggling to establish even a basic water infrastructure and management, concludes the report.

Water supplies continue to "operate in a very inefficient emergency mode, with far reaching economic, social and environmental consequences".

'Grossly misleading'

The mismanagement is made worse by movement and access restrictions which Palestinians live under. As a result Israelis have about four times as much water available to them as people in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israeli officials said the report was "grossly misleading" as Israel had a much more developed industrial sector which could skew the assessment.

But in Gaza 150,000 Palestinians have no access to tap water at all, a report in the Palestine Telegraph says.

According to the local utility provider, several wells have been destroyed during the Israeli offensive earlier this year.

Since then only three out of 80 trucks with spare parts and pipes for the water system have been allowed to enter Gaza.

As a result the severe damages to two wastewater treatment plants could not be repaired and continue to affect water quality.

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I ask you. Would you be able to manage the water supply efficiently when you do not have pipes, wells or water?  When your infrastructure has been bombed to smithereens... You could be the worst or the best manager in the world you still would not have anything to manage... apart from a few leaky rusty water trucks. See toon at top.

Israel's secret plan for West Bank expansion

Palestinians condemn 'extremely dangerous' scheme to grow settlement

By Ben Lynfield in Jerusalem

Israel has taken a step towards expanding the largest settlement in the West Bank, a move Palestinians warn will leave their future state unviable and further isolate its future capital, East Jerusalem

The Israeli Peace Now group, which monitors settlement growth, said it had obtained plans drawn up by experts that the interior ministry had commissioned which call for expanding the sprawling Maale Adumim settlement near Jerusalem southward by 1200 hectares, placing what is now the separate smaller settlement of Kedar within Maale Adumim's boundaries.

The expansion is on a highly sensitive piece of real estate that both sides see as holding the key to whether the Palestinians will have a viable state with their own corridor between the north and south parts of the West Bank.

Israeli plans also call for expanding Maale Adumim northward in an area known as E1, but US opposition has thus far stopped Israel from building residential buildings there, although a police headquarters has been established.

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From the New York Times

JERUSALEM — The United Nations is calling on Israel to freeze all pending demolition orders against Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem in a new report that reflects growing international concern over developments in the contested city. The report also urges Israel to provide solutions to the housing crisis there.

Scores of Palestinian-owned structures are demolished every year by the Israeli authorities on the grounds that they were built without the required permits. But many Palestinians say Israel limits construction to push them out of East Jerusalem, which they claim as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

The report states that only 13 percent of East Jerusalem land is currently zoned by the Israeli authorities for Palestinian construction, and much of that is already built up, severely restricting the possibility of obtaining a permit. More than a third of East Jerusalem, meanwhile, has been expropriated for Israeli construction since 1967, according to the report, while 22 percent is zoned for green areas and public infrastructure and 30 percent remains “unplanned.”

Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war and then annexed it, after expanding the boundaries of the city into the West Bank. Israel claims sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, but the annexation has never been recognized by the United Nations or its member states.

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