Isrælske reprimand of Obama Viewer gap in the Middle East (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – isrælske prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly told President Barack Obama Friday his vision for how to achieve Middle East peace was unrealistic, exposing a deep rift could doom any U.S. bid to revive peace talks.

In an unusually strong rebuke to Isræls closest allies insisted Netanyahu Israel would never pull back to the 1967 borders--which would mean major concessions occupied land--that Obama had said should serve as a basis for negotiations on the establishment of a Palestinian State.

"Peace based on illusions will down to the end of the Cretaceous rocks of the Middle East reality," said a round of Netanyahu as Obama listened carefully beside him in the Oval Office after they met for talks.

Netanyahu insisted that Israel was willing to make compromises for peace, but made clear he had major differences with Washington over how to move long-stand in the peace process.

Netanyahu's opposition raises the question of how difficult Obama will press for concessions he is unlikely to get, and whether the vision U.S. leader established on Thursday to resolve the conflict in decades old will ever get off the ground.

Despite assurances of friendship, both leaders appeared this week's events also to herald tense months ahead for U.S.-isrælske relations, even as the Arab world must pass through the Centre of the political tumult and Palestinians prepare a unilateral bid this fall's General Assembly to seek recognition for the State.

For journalists after the meeting, Obama said he reiterated to Netanyahu peace "principles" he offered on Thursday in a policy speech on the Middle East upheaval.

Goal, he said, "must be a secure isrælske State, a Jewish State living side by side in peace and security with a coherent, efficient and effective Palestinian State.

Obama on Thursday embraced a long-sought goal of the Palestinians: the State they seek in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip should largely be drawn along the lines that existed before the 1967 war, Israel captured these areas and East Jerusalem.

Netanyahu, who heads the right-leaning Coalition, reacted with what amounted to a history lecture on vulnerability to attack Israel faced with the old borders. "We cannot go back to these irresponsible lines," he said.

Picking a fight with Israel could be politically risky for Obama at home as he seeks re-election in 2012.

CRISIS IN THE RELATIONSHIP

Brewing crisis in U.S.-isrælske relationships dimmed even further prospects for resuming peace talks that collapsed late last year when the Palestinians walked away in a dispute over the isrælske settlements building in the West Bank.

Obama and Netanyahu, meanwhile, appears to have reached a stalemate after two and a half years of rocky relations. Obama White House was enraged when Netanyahu refused a U.S. demand to stop building Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Some isrælerne have never felt very comfortable with Obama, unnerved by his early attempts to reach out to Iran and his support for the popular Arab revolutions which has alarmed Israel.

In a pointed comment clearly aimed at Obama new approach to the long-standing conflict, Netanyahu said: "the only peace that will endure is, is based on the reality on the Kindle facts".

Netanyahu, isrælske officials said, was determined to push back hard because the reference to the 1967 borders was a red flag that will attract more international pressure on Israel for concessions. A senior isrælske official said Netanyahu felt he had to speak bluntly that he would be "heard around the world."

"There is a feeling of Washington does not understand the reality does not understand what we are facing," official on board the aircraft under Netanyahu to Washington, told journalists.

Nevertheless, Obama first statement of his position on the contested issue of boundaries helps ease doubts in the Arab world about his obligation to act as an impartial broker and increase its outreach to the region. Another unsuccessful peace efforts, however, could fuel further frustration.

In line with Netanyahu's position reflected Obama opposition to the Palestinian plan to search's recognition of the State in September, in the absence of renewed peace talks.

The Democratic President is quickly come under fire from Republican critics who accuse him of betraying Israel, the closest U.S. allies in the region. Pushing Netanyahu could offend the U.S. supporters of Israel, as Obama seeks re-election.

Obama can get a chilly reception in a speech to an influential quietly lobbying group on Sunday. Netanyahu is expected to be celebrated when he deals with the same audience on Monday and then Congress Tuesday.

POINTERS TO COMPROMISE

Obama, in his speech on Thursday, laid down its clearest markers yet on the compromises he believes that Israel and the Palestinians must do in order to resolve a conflict that has long been seen as a source of Middle East tensions.

But he is not a formal U.S. peace plan or timetable for an agreement he once promised to clinch in September.

In Thursday's speech, Obama said: "we believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps" soil. While this has long been the private view in Washington, Obama went further than U.S. officials have in recent times.

Agreed swaps would allow Israel to keep the settlements in the West Bank in exchange for giving the Palestinians other than agricultural land.

Go in the negotiations, Netanyahu said, he wanted to hear Obama reaffirms commitments to Israel in 2004 by then-President George w. Bush suggests that it can keep some large settlement blocks as a part of any peace Pact.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Friday that Obama had said something that "contrary to these letters."

Obama on Thursday also delivered a message to the Palestinians, they should answer "some very difficult questions" about a lot of reconciliation with Hamas, Islamic groups to run Gaza and the United States, regard as terrorist groups.

(Additional reporting by Alister Bull, Patricia Zengerle, Jeff Mason, Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Ori Lewis and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Paul Simao)

 

Isrælske gunfire kills Gaza teen: doctors (AFP)

GAZA city, Palestinian territories (AFP) – isrælske troops shot dead Palestinian teenager in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, when he approached the border fence with Israel, Palestinian doctors said.

17-year-old boy's body was found near El-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, they said.

A isrælske army spokesman said earlier that the soldiers had opened fire and hit a suspected near the border.

On Friday, were two young Gazans wounded as isrælske troops opened fire on a protest near the border fence.

In the West Bank, meanwhile, masked gunmen shot dead a Palestinian suspected of "collaboration" with Israel, Palestinian security sources and bebøre in Beit Dajan village near Nablus said.

The man had recently been released from prison in the West Bank isrælsk-occupied after serving time on levy of Israel with fitted with information.

The isrælske army and Shin Beth internal security services dependent often Palestinian informants to gather information about the wanted militant.

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Hamas carries out isrælske collaborator in Gaza (AFP)

GAZA city, Palestinian territories (AFP) – Gaza Hamas rulers on Wednesday executed a Palestinian convicted of collaboration with Israel, the Interior Ministry said, in what was the first of the implementation for one year.

The man was referred to as only a.s., was executed by firing squad after being convicted on April 19, Hamas-Run Ministry said.

"This morning we executed A.S., which was condemned for collaboration with Israel," it said, adding that the death penalty was carried out in accordance with the law and after approval from the authorities in Gaza.

"He was sentenced to death by firing squad on 19. April by a military court in Gaza City, "said the statement, without giving further information about the details of his conviction.

The last time the Gaza Hamas rulers made a death sentence against Palestinians accused of collaboration was in April 2010, when the two men executed by firing squad--in what was the first of the implementation since the Islamists took power in 2007.

A month later, say three more people were executed on charges not related to cooperation, human rights groups.

Palestinian legislation all punishable by death is cooperation with Israel, murder and drug trafficking.

By law, all execution of orders must be approved by the Palestinian President before they can be implemented, but Hamas no longer recognises the legitimacy of Mahmud Abbas, whose four-year term ended in 2009.

In recent months, Hamas arrested several alleged collaborators and warned it would prosecute any "a traitor" working for the Jewish State.

March 30, a Gaza Military Court sentenced a man to death and sentenced another to 15 years of forced labour for collaborating with Israel. Both sentences are subject to appeal.

Isrælske security forces routinely use Palestinian informers to thwart militant attacks and assist in the murder of top militant.

 

A new isrælske team?

By George S. Hishmeh – Washington, D.C.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took the right step in condemning heavy-handedly massacre last week of a five-Member isrælske family members, including two children and an infant, are living in an illegal isrælske settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. No one in his right eye would not abhor this callous event, if the perpetrators are still unknown.

"A man is not capable of something like," Abbas told Israel Radio. "Scenes such as these – murder of infants and children and woman slaughtered – cause any person with humanity to hurt and to cry."
But what has been appalling was the official isrælske response. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that his Government would build 500 new homes in retaliation for three other isrælsk-occupied settlements in the West Bank without having to find out whether the Assailants were Palestinians. This step was condemned by Palestinians, it is recalled that, since the Isræls existence in 1948, many Palestinians have been massacred by the isrælerne-the most infamous was on Deir Yassin, a small town close to Jerusalem, in 1948 and the Lebanese refugee camp of Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982. No isrælske official had ever expressed regret at these bloody events. But meeting that Netanyahu's calls for Abbas reiterated its earlier condemnation for isrælske audiences.

In addition, Awarta, the closest Palestinian village to the isrælske settlements, Triton, is placed under curfew by the isrælske military — in four days at the time of writing, and was declared a closed military zone. The situation in the village has been described as "deteriorating" and some Palestinian landsbybebørne have complained that some of their household possessions have been damaged during the aggressive isrælske searches. Tritons Thai workers have been rounded up, while some European members of the International solidarity movement, which is fine with Palestinian village to accord was not permitted to leave.

The isrælske prime minister and his right-wing supporters was reported doing everything they can to take advantage of this terrible event. Nehemia Shtraster, writing in Haaretz, the isrælske newspaper, said that Netanyahu "rushed to move it to the political arena," promising "' we must build our land ' thus reveals his true thoughts."

According to Shtraster, "Netanyahu, after all. never believed in the two-State solution despite the speech Bar-Ilan (University) for Him, the whole of the (Palestinian) land belongs to us, and two-governmental shibboleth is thought only to buy a little sympathy from u.s. President Obama.

Netanyahu's real plan, he continued, is "' to annex as much of the open (Palestinian) territories as possible," as he said some years ago – somewhere around the 50 percent mark, while you hold down the Jordan Valley as a safety-belt in the East. In the small, unconnected territory, which is still he would be prepared to give the Palestinians autonomy, which would be called a "State".

The Palestinian Authority said the isrælske action was "unacceptable" and the Foreign Ministry added more to the punch by declaring that "continued isrælske settlements are illegitimate and run counter to efforts to resume direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

About Netanyahu can get away with his plans seem doubtful at this point, even if he is planning a major American address in the next few weeks, thanks to its Congressional supporters on Capitol Hill. Defense minister Ehud Barak has already warned that Israel could face a "diplomatic tsunami", it should pursue this discredited course and meanwhile isrælske President Shimon Peres appeared eager to pull the rug out from under his feet in his attempts to meet President Obama map to kick start peace talks.

What escapes the isrælske triumvirate – Peres, Netanyahu and Barack-is the comprehensive political scene in the Arab world, particularly in Egypt, where new Egyptian foreign minister, Nabil Elaraby, is an essential addition to the Cairo Government since his vision of the Palestinian-isrælske conflict is much appreciated by the Palestinians and other Arabs. The Palestinians movements also apparently steps towards reconciliation klassifikationssyn of their authorisation of marches in Ramallah and Gaza where tens of thousands of Palestinians appealed for reconciliation.

If all of this comes out in life, as expected, can isrælerne feel forced to change their leadership and bring a new reasonable teams can come to terms with their Arab neighbours. A step in this direction will be well received across the world.

-George s. Hishmeh is a Washington-based columnist. Contact him at: Hishmehg@aol.com.

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Thirteen Gazans hit by isrælske fire (AFP)

GAZA city, Palestinian territories (AFP) – a isrælie tank wounded eleven Palestinians, two critically, when it opened fire on a group of militant to the East of Gaza City on Wednesday, an emergency services spokesman said.

"Eleven Palestinians were injured in the tank shell in an area east of Gaza City. Two of them are in critical condition, "told Adham Abu Selmiya of Hamas-Run rescue service AFP, said they had taken to the city's Shifa hospital.

Three of the injured were militant from Al day of Quds Brigade, the armed wing of the radical Islamic Jihad movement, a statement from the group said.

"Three of our fighters were injured while fired two mortar-shells against isrælske tanks operating in (Gaza) edge," said the statement.

The isrælske army said troops opened fire after coming under attack.

"This morning an Israel Army force was employed with a regular patrol along the border between Gaza when an explosive device was been detonated near the force and a mortar shell fired at it," said a military spokeswoman.

"The strength spotted more terrorists and opened fire on them, identify a hit," she said, adding that the militant had placed 12 bombs along the border fence in the last two months.

After the event, All day of Quds Brigade said it fired three mortars in Israel, targeting Kibbutz Nahal Oz, East of Gaza City. The military confirmed mortars had fallen in the region, without causing damage.

Israel public radio said one of mortars hit a football field.

In a separate incident was another two moderate Palestinians wounded by gunfire isrælske by the collecting gravel North of the town of Beit Lahiya, near the border, he said.

Three Gazans shot dead by the isrælske Army (AFP)

GAZA city, Palestinian territories (AFP) – three Palestinians were shot dead by isrælske troops early on Thursday in an area near Gaza's northern border with Israel, said officials on both sides.

Adham Abu Selmiya, a spokesman for Hamas-Run emergency services, said the men died after being hit by a tank shell and machine gun fire in an area known as Al-Waha, close to the coast and the northern border with Israel.

Abu Selmiya said three were fishermen and identified them as Jihad Khalaf, 20 Talaat, al-Awagh, 25 and Ashraf al-Kteifan, 29.

The isrælske army confirmed shooting down three men near the border, with a spokesman says troops had "opened fire on a number of Palestinians who tried to plant an explosive device near the fence."

They had identified three powerful people, he said.

Increased tensions on the Gaza border have expressed concern about a new isrælske invasion of the coastal enclave, like the devastating 22 day offensive which began at the end of December 2008, kill 1400 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, and 13 Isræles, 10 of them soldiers.

But Gaza has been relatively quiet over the past 10 days, with a lower than normal number of rockets fired into southern Israel, military sources said.

West Bank field trip to isrælske kids stirs anger (AP)

JERUSALEM – at a time when the peace negotiations with the Palestinians is stalled over Jewish settlements, The Isræls  Government plans to send school field trips to a disputed holy site in one of the West Bank most volatile flash points.

Education Minister Gideon Saar says visit to Hebron, traditional burial site biblical Patriarch Abraham and home to some of Isræls most radical settlers, is part of a plan to make aware isrælske young people with their cultural heritage.

"It is a place of emotional, religious and historical power," said Saar, a leading member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, Israel Radio on Wednesday. "It is the place where our ancestors are buried and it is a part of our history. Who objects to this, in my opinion, try to stop us from our roots. "

Both Palestinian and isrælske critics call it an exercise in indoctrination that will ignore the thousands of dispossessed Palestinians living in the vicinity.

"Palestinian children in Hebron is forbidden to go on the street (leading to the Tomb complex) and visit the area — but isrælske school children can? It's incitement against Palestinians, "said Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist in Hebron.

"Children are visiting will hear views ... the Jewish extremists," Amro said. "It will break down the social partners more."

It will be the first time the Ministry sponsors trips to Hebron, a city bristling with excitement, because it is the only place in the West Bank in which settlers living in the heart of a Palestinian city.

Set to begin next year on an experimental basis, is the latest in a series of steps by Saar, which critics say has politicized education curriculum with a nationalist bent. The Saarland has pushed for field trips to the section in Jerusalem of both Israel and the Palestinians claimed — and have ordered textbooks to isrælske Arab schoolchildren remove references to the Palestinians calls "disaster" of their displacement as a result of the Isræls creation.

Hebron is sacred for both Muslims and Jews tradition holder is the place where their shared Patriarch, Abraham or Ibrahim to Muslims, purchased a burial plot. The site is known to Jews as Cave of bishops and Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque. School children will visit the Web site.

Israel conquered the city when it seized in West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967 Middle East war. For trønde Jews, it was a recovery of a biblical birthright. Today more than 600 Jews live in fortified enclaves tekstombrydningsfunktionen 170 000 Palestinians in Hebron.

Under the agreements signed in the 1990s, the partially autonomous Palestinian Government in the West Bank controls 80 percent of the city and Israel controls the rest, including the holy site.

This arrangement has transformed Palestinian city centre to a ghost town, with wide streets of Palestinian stores nøglehullet — some of the army order under a Palestinian uprising, others because of restrictions on Palestinian movement.

The plan comes at a time when Israel under fire internationally for refusing to stop building settlements on land Palestinians want to a future State. Palestinians refuse to resume negotiations until the building stops.

Palestinian spokesman Ghassan Khatib called field trip plan "another provocative steps that generate more tensions."

Hebron has a history of violence. In 1929 Arabs killed 67 Jews in a rampage seared still into isrælske sind. When Israel was established in 1948, no Jews live in Hebron.

In 1994, an American-born Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein in the cave, entered spaces, serves as a mosque and shot dead 29 Palestinian trønde survivors before him and beat him overwhelmed to death.

Field trips are not meant "to impose a certain political perspective," said Saar.

Asked about school children learn about how the Palestinians live in Hebron, Saar replied, "objective is mostly historical Tours." He did not say, what qualities would participate.

Hebron settlers welcomed the planned visit. David Wilder, a Community spokesperson, said they "have very clearly the importance of this Web site for the Jewish people."

Amnon Rubinstein, a former Education Minister Isrælske Dovish, deplored the idea.

Speech at Israel Radio he said visitors "only the part which is Holy unto the Jews and not see the political and ethical price we have paid."

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