[WCUSP] Fw: newsdigest Digest, Vol 189, Issue 1

[Libby and Mort Frank]

Hi all,

This may be more than you want to read, but skim through when you can -- 
there is loads of information.

Libby

----- Original Message ----- 
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Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 3:59 PM
Subject: newsdigest Digest, Vol 189, Issue 1


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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Telegraph: Israel backs down on visas for Palestinians from
>       US by Harry de Quetteville (Eduardo Gabrieloff)
>    2. Haaretz: Annan pushing for register of damage from West Bank
>       fence by Avi Issacharoff (Eduardo Gabrieloff)
>    3. Washington Post: Golan Heights Land, Lifestyle Lure Settlers:
>       Lebanon War Revives Dispute Over Territory by Scott Wilson
>       (Eduardo Gabrieloff)
>    4. Washington Post: A divided house, and divided lives, in
>       Jerusalem by Luke Baker (Eduardo Gabrieloff)
>    5. Haaretz: Pines-Paz quits government over Lieberman addition
>       by Gideon Alon (Eduardo Gabrieloff)
>    6. Jerusalem Post: Between bread and democracy by Daoud Kuttab
>       (Eduardo Gabrieloff)
>    7. Exicte News: Israel May Expand Offensive in Gaza by Ramit
>       Plushnick-Masti (Eduardo Gabrieloff)
>    8. Independent: Mystery of Israel's secret uranium bomb by
>       Robert Fisk (Eduardo Gabrieloff)
>    9. The Jordan Times: To earn credibility (Eduardo Gabrieloff)
>   10. Haaretz: Why boycott Qatar? (Eduardo Gabrieloff)
>   11. San Francisco Chronicle: A desperate, critical time in Gaza
>       Strip at close of Ramadan by Matthew Kalman (Eduardo Gabrieloff)
>   12. New York Times: Rice's Counselor Gives Advice Others May Not
>       Want to Hear by Helene Cooper and David E. Sanger (Eduardo
Gabrieloff)
>   13. Haaretz: Let's hear it for the Haiders by Akiva Eldar
>       (Eduardo Gabrieloff)
>   14. Haaretz: Lieberman sworn in as minister after winning Knesset
>       approval by Gideon Alon (Eduardo Gabrieloff)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:07:34 -0600
> From: Eduardo Gabrieloff <eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Subject: [BTVS - Newsdigest] Telegraph: Israel backs down on visas for
> Palestinians from US by Harry de Quetteville
> To: Newsdigest <newsdigest at btvshalom.org>
> Message-ID: <C16BB7A6.5817%eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/29/wmid29.xml
> Telegraph
> 10/30/2006
> Israel backs down on visas for Palestinians from US
> Harry de Quetteville
>
> Israel may be forced to reverse a controversial policy of expelling
> Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza after a vigorous protest from
> America.
>
> The U-turn, which marks a rare official dressing-down for Israel from
> Washington, comes after Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state,
raised
> objections to a policy that could have seen tens of thousands of
Palestinian
> foreign passport holders driven from their homes in the Occupied
> Territories.
>
> The territories are home to some 35,000 US citizens of Palestinian
descent,
> many of whom returned during the mid-1990s after the more hopeful times of
> the Oslo peace accord, and have since married and started families.
>
> They have, however, been unable to become permanent residents because
> Israel, which controls access to the territories, has refused to grant
them
> residency.
>
> While most have made do with tourist visas, Israel recently stopped
issuing
> even these, forcing Palestinians with foreign passports to leave
immediately
> or stay illegally and face forcible expulsion.
>
> "American Jews, indeed Jews from anywhere in the world, can come to Israel
> and be granted automatic citizenship. But Palestinians whose families have
> lived here for centuries do not enjoy the same right," said Sam Bahour, a
US
> citizen of Palestinian descent who has led the campaign to reverse the
> policy.
>
> He returned from America to his grandfather's home in the West Bank in the
> 1990s, and had been staying on tourist visas until last month when he was
> issued a final one-month permit and had to prepare to leave.
>
> But after contacting influential American and Israeli friends and starting
> an internet movement to log victims of the policy, Mr Bahour was granted a
> new tourist visa after all.
>
> The fact that Israel's about-turn has been achieved by talks rather than
the
> gun has heartened weary observers of Israeli-Palestine relations.
>
> A vigorous advocacy campaign by Palestinian-Americans in the US, echoing
the
> kind more usually associated with Washington's pro-Israeli groups, is
> credited with getting America to bring pressure on Tel Aviv.
>
> Mr Bahour's success will be welcome news for the likes of Enayeh Samara,
who
> has had to renew her three-month tourist visa 125 times since returning to
> the Palestinian territories.
>
> After a recent trip to Jordan, she was barred from re-entering the West
Bank
> by Israeli guards. She ended up having to return to Chicago, where she now
> speaks to her family in Ramallah daily on the telephone.
>
> "I haven't seen her since May," said her daughter, Samara. "They told her
> she needed a residency permit but she has applied for 31 years and they
> didn't give her one."
>
> At the US consulate in Israel, Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, a spokesman, said
> America was "very concerned" about current Israeli policy. "Lots of
> Palestinian Americans have told us they are facing this problem," she
said.
>
> Mark Regev, from the Israeli foreign ministry, said the refusal to extend
> tourist visas was purely a "bureaucratic" measure.
>
> "There are foreign nationals with no legal status, living here as tourists
> while we turned a blind eye," he said. "A decision was taken that this was
> not a good situation."
>
> But he admitted that Israel had failed to process residency permits, and
> that the new policy had drawn fire from foreign governments.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:19:17 -0600
> From: Eduardo Gabrieloff <eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Subject: [BTVS - Newsdigest] Haaretz: Annan pushing for register of
> damage from West Bank fence by Avi Issacharoff
> To: Newsdigest <newsdigest at btvshalom.org>
> Message-ID: <C16BBA65.581B%eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/780606.html
> Haaretz
> 10/29/2006
> Annan pushing for register of damage from West Bank fence
> Avi Issacharoff
>
> The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has initiated the
> establishment of an office that would be responsible for collecting data
and
> testimonies on damages caused by the separation fence to Palestinians in
the
> West Bank. The decision to push ahead with the creation of a "Register of
> Damage" is based on the 2004 recommendations of the International Court of
> Justice, which were presented to the General Assembly.
>
> In a report released Saturday, Annan said that on the basis of the
decisions
> of the General Assembly, accepting the court's recommendations, a
"Register
> of Damage" would be set up in Vienna, and would be responsible to register
> damages to Palestinian homes, businesses and agricultural holdings caused
by
> the "wall." The documentation will serve for possible future international
> adjudication.
>
> In his report to the UN General Assembly, Annan added that "it would be
> important to understand that the office of the Register of Damage would
not
> be a compensation commission nor a claims-resolution facility, nor would
it
> be a judicial or quasi-judicial body."
>
> The General Assembly will be asked to approve the new office.
>
> Annan quotes from the International Court's recommendations in his report,
> noting that "Israel also has an obligation to compensate, in accordance
with
> the applicable rules of international law, all natural or legal persons
> having suffered any form of material damage as a result of the wall's
> construction."
>
> The Register of Damage is to be overseen by a three-member independent
> board, appointed by the secretary-general, and run by a small secretariat
in
> Vienna, headed by an executive director, also appointed by the UN, the
> report noted.
>
> If such office is created, the Palestinians would need to be informed of
its
> purpose as well as provide the necessary guidance on how to fill in the
> claim forms which "would not entail an evaluation or an assessment of the
> loss or damage claimed."
>
> Professor Yoram Dinstein, an expert on international law, says that even
> though the International court has concluded that Israel must compensate
for
> any damages caused by the separations fence, "the way to receiving
> compensation is far removed."
>
> Dinstein points out that "this is the creation of the basis to claim
> compensation in the future. But in order to pay this compensation, it will
> be necessary for an international forum to force Israel to do so. The
> International Court at The Hague can do so only if Israel accepts the
> authority of its jurisdiction or [if] the Security Council [does]. Israel
> will hope for a U.S. veto there [in the Security Council] to block demands
> for compensation payments."
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:27:40 -0600
> From: Eduardo Gabrieloff <eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Subject: [BTVS - Newsdigest] Washington Post: Golan Heights Land,
> Lifestyle Lure Settlers: Lebanon War Revives Dispute Over Territory by
> Scott Wilson
> To: Newsdigest <newsdigest at btvshalom.org>
> Message-ID: <C16BBC5C.581F%eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/29/AR2006102900
> 926.html
> Washington Post
> Golan Heights Land, Lifestyle Lure Settlers: Lebanon War Revives Dispute
> Over Territory
> Scott Wilson
>
> KATZRIN On the edge of this growing Jewish settlement, which bills itself
as
> "the city of water and wine," Moti Bar is building a stylish microbrewery
> and restaurant in a glass and stone shopping mall that opened a few months
> ago. His venture, all the way down to the imported copper brew tanks, is a
> bet that Israel will remain in the Golan Heights for years to come.
>
> The high-end beer and view of the Sea of Galilee are designed to appeal to
> Israeli yuppies, who are being encouraged more aggressively than ever to
> move to this rugged plateau seized from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.
> Dozens of newly graded home sites stretch westward, and a large industrial
> park called Golantech is emerging a few miles from Bar's pub.
>
> "We're living our life as if we'll be here forever," said Bar, 42, who
> commutes from the nearby community of Kanaf. "And I don't think there is
any
> reason why we should leave."
>
> Israel's summer war with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia that acts
as
> Syria's military proxy, has revived the decades-old contest over the Golan
> Heights. This latest phase is also being shaped by demographic changes
> epitomized by this expanding settlement.
>
> Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 and offered its Arab residents
> citizenship in the Jewish state, something it has not extended to
> Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The annexation was not
> recognized internationally, however, and most of the Arabs here refused
the
> offer as a protest against what they consider an illegal occupation. But
> they do have residency rights that allow them to travel throughout Israel
> and vote in local elections.
>
> Most of the Arabs in Golan are Druze, members of a sect that split from
> Islam centuries ago and has large followings in Lebanon, Syria and Israel.
> Unlike most of the Druze in Israel, those here identify themselves as
Arabs
> and do not serve in the Israeli military. The vast majority consider
> themselves citizens of Syria, although a small percentage support Israel's
> presence here.
>
> For years, the Israeli military discouraged civilian settlement in Golan,
> particularly along the frontier with Syria, for fear the area would emerge
> again as a battlefield. Some small Israeli settlements were established
> there anyway, but in the past 15 years all new growth has occurred within
> existing settlement boundaries rather than in new areas.
>
> The pace has picked up in recent years. Now, for the first time, the
number
> of Jewish settlers in Golan may soon exceed the nearly 20,000 Arab
residents
> whose families remained here after the war. The milestone may have already
> been passed, Arab leaders concede, with 400 Jewish families moving into
> Golan each year.
>
> Since the Lebanon war ended on Aug. 14, settler leaders have launched a
> $250,000 advertising campaign to attract young Israelis with the lure of
> free land and a lifestyle ethic that blends Marlboro Country, Napa Valley
> and the X Games. Their goal is to double the Jewish population in Golan to
> 40,000 within a decade through an appeal that emphasizes cowboy hats over
> skullcaps.
>
> At the same time, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has called for new
> negotiations on Golan, emboldened by Israel's inconclusive fight against
> Hezbollah. For years, the Syrian government has helped arm and fund
> Hezbollah to strengthen its own hand in talks on the region. The Syrian
> army, meanwhile, has maintained quiet along the heavily mined frontier.
>
> In a recent interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, Assad added an
> ominous note to his previous calls for talks, warning that "when the hope
> disappears, then maybe war really is the only solution." In response,
> Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called Golan "an inseparable part of
the
> state of Israel."
>
> "No doubt the steadfastness of the resistance in Lebanon, ending the
legend
> of the undefeatable Israeli army, has strengthened our belief that the end
> of the occupation is closer than ever," said Hail Abu Jabal, 62, a Druze
> political leader in the town of Majdal Shams who spent seven years in
> Israeli prisons for campaigning against Israel's hold on Golan. "But
> expanding these settlements is a mistake, making peace more distant and
> violent confrontation closer."
>
> Rising from the Sea of Galilee to snowcapped Mount Hermon, Golan is a
rocky
> slope of vineyards, cattle ranches, fruit orchards and remnants of
conflict.
> Vast minefields stretch out behind barbed-wire fences, and the overgrown
> remains of Syrian houses, military barracks and mosques line mostly empty
> roads. Trenches and earthworks still score the land where the Israeli army
> has twice fought Syrian forces.
>
> For decades, Israeli military leaders considered Golan an essential
> high-ground buffer against Syrian invasion and peppered the region with
> bases. In recent years, though, some Israeli generals have argued that air
> power has reduced the strategic importance of the heights. It still
remains
> a training ground for the infantry and armored corps.
>
> Perhaps more important, the region provides a third of Israel's drinking
> water.
>
> "Until the war with Lebanon, there was no talk of giving back the Golan
> Heights. Most of the focus was on Israel's real problem, which is with the
> Palestinians," said Eli Malka, 48, the leader of a group of Golan
> settlements that is using government money to fund the ad blitz. "We're
> building, we're growing. And I don't see the prospect of any talks with
> Assad."
>
> Jewish history here is visible in the remains of a 4th-century synagogue,
> among others found in Golan, that has been turned into a tourist site on
the
> edge of this settlement of 7,500 people. But most of the roughly 100
> families moving each year to Katzrin -- the largest of 33 Jewish
communities
> in Golan -- are secular Israelis like Topaz Barkai, a 32-year-old former
> banker who arrived last month.
>
> Barkai's father was killed in Golan during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war while
> her mother was pregnant with her. She was born here, then spent much of
her
> adult life studying and working in Tel Aviv, the cosmopolitan coastal city
> she still visits for professional soccer games and nightclubs. Her new job
> is to persuade friends to move to Golan, with its skiing, water sports,
> cattle ranching and boutique wineries.
>
> "We're trying to make this place younger," Barkai said.
>
> A year and a half ago, the Golan lifestyle drew Einbar Pelter and her
> husband, Tal, an army officer and aspiring vintner. The couple moved with
> their two young children from a town near the seaside city of Netanya to
> Merom Golan, a farming collective founded a month after the 1967 war.
>
> Pelter, a landscaper whose front yard is now a mix of grape vines,
lavender
> and herbs, said the promise of free land, a communal setting and
wilderness
> made them set aside qualms about relocating to an occupied region. Pelter
> Wines now appear on Tel Aviv wine lists.
>
> "Even if it is going to be temporary, we thought it would be worthwhile,"
> said Pelter, 32, who has seen her new neighborhood fill up over the past
> year. "A community that isn't growing has an expiration date on it."
>
> The population of roughly 7,000 Arabs who remained after the 1967 war has
> grown to about 20,000. Most of them refused citizenship. Those who
accepted
> are ostracized to this day in the four insular mountain towns where the
> Druze population is concentrated.
>
> "After almost 60 years, the basic question of whether the Israelis have a
> right to create a Jewish state is being asked again after this war," said
> Taiseer Maray, director of Golan for Development, an Arab-rights
> organization in Majdal Shams. "This shows the stupidity of power. If I
were
> a clever Zionist, the first thing I'd do is seek peace."
>
> In Maray's Israeli travel document, the space beside "Nationality" reads
> "undefined." It is an apt description of a population that gathers Fridays
> at an overlook on the edge of the town to shout to relatives across the
> border with Syria.
>
> The Arabs here are allowed to sell their apples in Syria and study at
> Damascus University. Hundreds of graduates have returned, many of them
> working in summer camps, professional clubs and civic groups, the main
> venues for political organizing.
>
> "The feeling among the people here is that the Syrians could come back any
> day," said Maray, who has not seen his three brothers in Damascus since
the
> 1967 war. "The settlers now talk about breaking down the boundaries
between
> us with jobs and investment."
>
> Arab grievances here center on the preferential treatment Israeli
> settlements receive in allocation of water, which is scarce and expensive
> for many Arab farmers. Meanwhile, civic campaigns for the removal of the
> Israeli military base on a hill in the center of Majdal Shams have been
> ignored.
>
> In recent weeks, a group calling itself the Syrian National Alliance has
> been posting communiques around town calling for a new campaign against
the
> Israeli occupation, including armed operations. "But we really don't know
> who they are," said Ayman Abu Jabal, 40, a former prisoner who works for
> Golan for Development. "So far they have not been very convincing."
>
> Abu Jabal, a distant relative of Hail's, has followed that route before.
As
> a member of the now-defunct Syrian Resistance Movement, he spent 12 years
in
> Israeli jails for blowing up an Israeli military warehouse in 1985. No one
> was injured.
>
> "What we want is for our rights to be the same as theirs," Abu Jabal said.
> "I'm not against the Jew as a person. But we want the occupation to end
and
> for us to live in peace."
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 13:16:45 -0600
> From: Eduardo Gabrieloff <eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Subject: [BTVS - Newsdigest] Washington Post: A divided house, and
> divided lives, in Jerusalem by Luke Baker
> To: Newsdigest <newsdigest at btvshalom.org>
> Message-ID: <C16BABBD.5813%eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103000
> 293.html
> Washington Post
> 10/30/2006
> A divided house, and divided lives, in Jerusalem
> Luke Baker
>
> JERUSALEM (Reuters) - If they look out of their windows, Fawzia al-Kurd
and
> Bryna Segal share the same view from the same house across the rooftops of
> East Jerusalem.
>
> But that's where their shared vision ends.
>
> Kurd, a 54-year-old Palestinian, raised her five children in the house,
> which sits half-way up a hill in Sheikh Jarrah, one of the oldest
> neighborhoods of Arab East Jerusalem.
>
> Segal, a 25-year-old Jewish settler born in Israel to parents from New
York,
> moved in nearly four months ago.
>
> The large home, built of cream-colored Jerusalem stone, has been in Kurd's
> family since 1952, when she says her father-in-law was granted permission
by
> the Jordanian authorities, which then controlled East Jerusalem, to build
> it.
>
> For decades, including the years that followed the 1967 Middle East war,
> when Israeli forces defeated the Jordanian army and captured the West
Bank,
> including East Jerusalem, Kurd and her family lived in the house without
> particular problems.
>
> Then in 1998, hoping to move her eldest son in with her, she renovated
half
> the house to create a separate unit -- a two-bedroom home for her son and
> his family.
>
> Because the work was a renovation rather than an extension, she says the
> Jerusalem municipality told her she did not need a building permit, and so
> the changes went ahead unchecked.
>
> Then the problems began.
>
> Eight years on, the person living next door to Kurd and her husband is
> Segal, with her husband and two young children. A third is on the way.
>
> "It's hard, every day it's so hard," says Kurd, a mild-mannered, religious
> woman who keeps her hair covered with a traditional hijab headdress. "I
> cannot bear it."
>
> For Segal, a simply dressed woman who also keeps her hair covered for
> religious reasons, it's equally odd.
>
> "We don't talk to one another," she says, playing with one of her sons at
a
> playground near the house. "We don't bother them and they don't bother
us."
>
> RISKY RENOVATION
>
> Property disputes are not uncommon in Jerusalem, a city that both
> Palestinians and Israelis want as their capital. But the one between Kurd
> and Segal is notably quirky.
>
> Since 1967, when Israel annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognized
> internationally, the Jewish population in the traditionally Arab area has
> grown rapidly, with wealthy Jewish organizations buying up properties and
> moving settlers in.
>
> There are now estimated to be about 200,000 Jews living in East Jerusalem,
> alongside about 250,000 Palestinians.
>
> As the population balance grows ever closer to even, property disputes
> become more heated.
>
> A few months after Kurd's '998 renovation, it came to the attention of the
> Knesset Yisrael Committee, a Jewish property rights group, that
potentially
> illegal work had been carried out on the house and that ownership of the
> land was disputed.
>
> A court case was filed and it was ultimately determined that settlers
should
> be allowed to live in half of the house, which is built on land that
Knesset
> Yisrael says belonged to Jews before 1948, when the state of Israel was
> founded and Jordan took over the West Bank in the ensuing war.
>
> Lawyers challenged the ruling, but the settlers moved in, with the first
> group taking up residence in 2000. Since then other families have come and
> gone. Segal moved in June, after transferring from a settlement in the
West
> Bank.
>
> "We like living in places that are important," she said when asked why she
> wanted to live in this shared house. "We wanted to be in Jerusalem."
>
> There are now seven Jewish families living cheek-by-jowl with Palestinians
> in the small neighborhood. They are protected 24 hours a day by two armed
> Israeli guards.
>
> Segal and her husband, who is looking for work, pay $300 a month rent for
> their house, which she says is the largest and nicest among the small
> settler bloc in the district. The rent doesn't go to Kurd, but she didn't
> say who it does go to.
>
> $10 MILLION? NO THANKS
>
> While the guards say they have to deal with very few problems, tensions
are
> constantly present between the Jewish and Arab families in the area and
> between Kurd and the Segals.
>
> The Jewish community has installed a small playground for their children,
> which Arab children are not allowed to use, says Segal. The armed guards
> stop them. The Arab children play on grass nearby or in the street.
>
> "I don't want my kids playing with Arab kids, and they don't want to play
> with each other," says Segal.
>
> Kurd, who speaks Hebrew, says she refuses to speak to the Segals. Segal
says
> she has tried to talk but has been rebuffed. "They took my house, why
would
> I speak to them?" says Kurd.
>
> She used to have a doorbell that played a prayer from the Koran, but she
> accuses the Segals of cutting the electricity. Their front doors open just
> inches apart.
>
> An Israeli flag flies above the Segal's side of the house, as they do from
> all the other Jewish houses in the neighborhood. Inside Kurd's home, there
> is a tapestry map of the region showing Palestine before Israel's
founding.
>
> Kurd holds out hope that lawyers will get the settlers evicted. But it's
> also unclear if she does have ownership of the land the house is built on
> since another Arab family can show ownership back to at least 1933.
>
> More court cases are pending.
>
> Kurd says a settler group offered her $10 million to give up her side of
the
> house. She refused.
>
> "What would God think of me if I did such a thing?" she says, sitting on
the
> green sofa in her front room, looking out the window over East Jerusalem,
> the same view the Segals have.
>
> (Additional reporting by Roleen Tafakji)
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 12:55:52 -0600
> From: Eduardo Gabrieloff <eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Subject: [BTVS - Newsdigest] Haaretz: Pines-Paz quits government over
> Lieberman addition by Gideon Alon
> To: Newsdigest <newsdigest at btvshalom.org>
> Message-ID: <C16BA6D8.580B%eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/781278.html
> Haaretz
> 10/30/2006
> Pines-Paz quits government over Lieberman addition
> Gideon Alon
>
> Minister of Culture and Sport Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor) on Monday resigned
> from the government, hours after the cabinet approved by a large majority
> the appointment of Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman as deputy
> prime minister and strategic threats minister.
>
> Speaking at a specially convened press conference at the Culture and Sport
> Ministry in Jerusalem, Pines-Paz said that there had been no other option
> left to him in the wake of the cabinet vote.
>
> "I came to the decision for reasons of conscience," Pines said.
>
> He added that he could not sit in a government with "a party whose
platform
> is full of racist characteristics, and whose leaders' statements harm the
> essence of democracy in the State of Israel."
>
> He said that he had fought as hard as he could against Lieberman's
inclusion
> in the government, and called his inclusion a "severe defect" from a
> political standpoint.
>
> "What is in Lieberman's past that qualifies him? What has he done in his
> life that qualifies him to be a senior minister in defense issues?" Pines
> asked.
>
> "Is this the solution to stabilize the government and other issues? If
> Lieberman is the answer to the government's loss of direction after the
> second Lebanon war, the entire government should resign and let Lieberman
> and his friends - the Likud, National Religious Party and National Union -
> lead the country."
>
> Pines-Paz, the only cabinet member to vote against the inclusion of
> Lieberman, also said that he has "decided to stand for the leadership of
the
> Labor Party in the next elections... to lead the party back into the right
> direction, so that it will present a real alternative to the government"
>
> Pine-Paz' decision drew praise from Arab MKs vehemently opposed to
> Lieberman's inclusion in the coalition.
>
> MK Al-Sana (United Arab List) said that "MK Pines-Paz proved his values
are
> stronger than his [Knesset] seat and that the government has not
sanctified
> all means [of opposition]. There is some hope of sanity."
>
> MK Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al) said he admires Pines-Paz's courage and
> public integrity.
>
> "There is a saint in the 'Sodom' of the government, we need more like
him,"
> he said.
>
> Pines-Paz, who has harshly criticized the inclusion of Yisrael Beiteinu,
was
> absent from the Labor faction meeting earlier Monday.
>
> The Pensioners' Party ministers voted in favor of Lieberman's appointment,
> after they were promised that previous commitments made to them regarding
> government stipends for pensioners would be honored.
>
> The addition of Yisrael Beiteinu was to be brought to a vote in the full
> Knesset plenum later in the day.
>
> Labor ministers called on called on Pines to resign, given the passionate
> opposition he expressed during the Labor Central Committee meeting on
> Sunday.
>
> "Whoever wants to run for the Labor Party leadership, should be brave and
> resign," the ministers said.
>
> Knesset members on the left in general and from the Arab parties in
> particular are expected to challenge Lieberman's appointment. MK Ahmed
Tibi
> called Lieberman a "dangerous politician, clever, fascist and racist. In
> other places people like him would be shunned, and in Israel [Prime
Minister
> Ehud] Olmert is promoting him to deputy prime minister."
>
> In an interview to Haaretz, Tibi called Lieberman the Israeli equivalent
of
> Jean-Marie Le Pen and Joerg Haider.
>
> The three Arab parties have submitted no-confidence motions in the wake of
> Lieberman's expected inclusion in the cabinet.
>
> By law, Lieberman's cabinet appointment requires only a simple majority in
> the Knesset (61 votes). He is expected to receive the votes of all MKs
from
> Kadima (29 votes), Shas (11) and Yisrael Beiteinu (12), as well as most
> Labor Party MKs.
>
> After Lieberman's anticipated approval by the Knesset plenum, he will be
> sworn in as a minister and take up his seat at the cabinet table.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 13:00:18 -0600
> From: Eduardo Gabrieloff <eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Subject: [BTVS - Newsdigest] Jerusalem Post: Between bread and
> democracy by Daoud Kuttab
> To: Newsdigest <newsdigest at btvshalom.org>
> Message-ID: <C16BA7E2.580D%eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
>
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1161811229468&pagename=JPost%2FJP
> Article%2FShowFull
> Jerusalem Post
> 10/29/2006
> Between bread and democracy
> Daoud Kuttab
>
> Former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, finding himself in a bind during
> sensitive negotiations with the Palestinians in 1996, put forth a new
> condition: Israel - reputed to be "the only democracy in the Middle
East" -
> would trade land for peace only when the Palestinians practiced real
> democracy.
>
> Although this demand was a transparent ploy to avoid returning Palestinian
> lands, it was nevertheless music to the ears of Palestinian democrats.
>
> Now, all this talk of democracy even prior to Palestinian independence is
> turning sour as our democratic leader, Mahmoud Abbas, is saying publicly
> that bread is more important than democracy.
>
> While democracy is a system of power sharing and rule of the people by the
> people, without true sovereignty it is meaningless. Without control over
our
> borders, roads, airwaves, water aquifers and customs fees, there is no
> democracy; one can't call a government living under occupation a
democracy.
>
> The American Revolution's slogan "no taxation without representation"
> confirms the simple reality that a representative democracy can't coexist
> under non-representative military rule.
>
> The Oslo Accords - the Palestinian-Israeli Memorandum of Understanding -
> signed on the White House lawn in 1993 promised Palestinians a path toward
> sovereignty. An elected Palestinian parliament and presidency was expected
> to last for a five-year transitional period after which Palestinians
> anticipated that a sovereign independent state would be established.
>
> The assassination of premier Yitzhak Rabin 11 years ago this week by a
> radical Jewish militant, plus a spate of suicide bombings by Palestinian
> Islamic militants, succeeded in torpedoing the Oslo process.
>
> When Republican US President George W. Bush looked at the Middle East -
> especially in the wake of 9/11 - he found in the democratic ploy an area
of
> shared ideology with Israel's right-wing politicians, including Ariel
> Sharon, Netanyahu and Natan Sharansky - the former Soviet Jewish
dissident.
>
> THE DIE was cast. For Americans to sympathize with the Palestinian and
Arab
> aspirations in general, democracy would have to be the prerequisite that
> would facilitate independence and our own pursuit of happiness. For
> Palestinians, adopting democracy was natural, albeit that they were still
> under occupation.
>
> Not that White House really meant that it would actually respect the will
of
> the people. Washington decided, without the peoples of the region knowing
> it, that a proviso would be be attached to this call for democracy: Rule
of
> the people by the people couldn't include popularly elected Islamists.
>
> After the death of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, elections provided a
successful
> and acceptable mechanism to give legitimacy to a new president.
>
> In true democratic fashion, a newly elected civilian president of a
> stateless Palestine began to practice his role, and in true democratic
> fashion called for parliamentary elections.
>
> Elections which take place in a country under foreign occupation cannot
and
> should not be considered genuinely free. Nevertheless, absent progress on
> the peace process and with the international community largely in
agreement
> that Palestinians should negotiate (and not fight) their way out of
> occupation, Palestinians put themselves in a real bind. Despite having
> implemented the American credo of democracy, Palestinians find themselves
> worse off than when the autocratic Arafat was in power.
>
> Abbas, whom the Israelis didn't negotiate with in the crucial year between
> his election and Hamas's victory, is now trying to grapple with two
> opposites. He needs to decide whether to accept the electoral choice of
his
> people - Hamas - or allow them to suffer depravation and starvation due to
> sanctions against the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. Abbas seems to have
> opted for dealing with the deprivation.
>
> He is tempted to fire the elected government (even using undemocratic
> methods) and replacing it with one that is acceptable to the EU, US and
the
> Israelis in order to overcome the Palestinians' dire economic situation.
>
> Many are cursing the day that they embraced the hope of democracy.
>
> Palestinians who belong to the liberal democratic camp are asking
> themselves: How could we have been so stupid as to believe that we could
> have democracy before we gained sovereignty? They are rethinking their
> attitude toward Arafat. Perhaps he was right when he belittled democracy
> before liberation, some are arguing today. Choosing between bread and
> democracy is not a fair choice.
>
> Palestinians of all strata are being asked to make an impossible choice.
> Should undemocratic means be used to dismiss the Hamas-led parliament and
> government just because it is not to the liking of the leaders of Israel,
> America and Europe, and so that the aid spigot for PA salaries will be
> opened and the customs duties collected by Israel will be released?
>
> Alternatively, can Palestinians dream that the democratic process will be
> held as the supreme value irrespective of whomever the people chose? And
> will they have the patience to allow this choice to be changed only in the
> fullness of time?
>
> The writer is director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Kuds
> University in Ramallah.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 7
> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 13:10:02 -0600
> From: Eduardo Gabrieloff <eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Subject: [BTVS - Newsdigest] Exicte News: Israel May Expand Offensive
> in Gaza by Ramit Plushnick-Masti
> To: Newsdigest <newsdigest at btvshalom.org>
> Message-ID: <C16BAA2A.5811%eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> http://apnews.excite.com/article/20061030/D8L31QU81.html
> Exicte News
> 10/30/2006
> Israel May Expand Offensive in Gaza
> Ramit Plushnick-Masti
>
> JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel plans to expand its military offensive in the Gaza
> Strip and will decide soon on the what kind of operation it will conduct,
> Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday.
>
> The military offensive will not lead to an Israeli reoccupation of the
> coastal area it pulled out of last year, Olmert was quoted as telling
> lawmakers at parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Officials
> said the goal of an offensive would be to prevent arms smuggling along the
> porous Egypt-Gaza frontier.
>
> Later, at a Cabinet meeting, Olmert said, "There is no doubt that we have
to
> take steps to reduce the ability of the Palestinians to fire rockets at
> Israel and smuggle in weapons," but no decision has been made on exactly
> what to do, according to a participant in the meeting.
>
> The participant, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not
> authorized to talk to reporters, said Olmert specified that Israeli action
> would "minimize humanitarian problems."
>
> In southern Gaza, meanwhile, Palestinian gunmen kidnapped Roberto Vila, a
> 34-year-old Spanish aid worker, the latest in a string of abductions of
> journalists and other foreigners in the chaotic territory. There was no
> immediate indication of who the kidnappers were or what they wanted.
>
> Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, a spokesman for Fatah, led by President Mahmoud Abbas,
> denounced the abduction. "We are ashamed by such acts," he said, calling
for
> the aid worker's immediate release.
>
> In northern Gaza, Palestinian police said a man was killed and two other
> people wounded when an Israeli tank shell hit a house. The Israeli
military
> had no immediate comment.
>
> Israel has been fighting in Gaza since June, when Hamas militants there
> carried out a cross-border raid, killing two soldiers and capturing a
third.
>
> However, the army has largely avoided acting in the border area with
Egypt -
> going in last week, the first time since its withdrawal last September.
> Recently, Israel said that arms smuggling across the border has increased
> significantly.
>
> Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said any additional military
> operations in Gaza, specifically along the border with Egypt, would be a
> "dangerous escalation."
>
> Olmert also told the parliamentary committee that he would consider
allowing
> Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to beef up his security forces with
> troops stationed in neighboring Jordan.
>
> Palestinian officials said Saturday that Abbas, a moderate, wants to bring
> in the forces ahead of a possible showdown with the rival Hamas militant
> group.
>
> Israel has objected in the past to letting members of the Jordan-based
Badr
> Brigade enter Palestinian areas. But on Monday, Olmert told lawmakers he
> would consider allowing such a move, said Ran Cohen, a member of the
Foreign
> Affairs and Defense Committee.
>
> "If the addition of a military force will not hurt our security, then this
> will be considered favorably," Olmert was quoted as saying. He did not
> mention the Badr force by name.
>
> Clashes have been intensifying in recent weeks between Abbas' Fatah Party
> and forces loyal to Hamas. The violence, concentrated in the Gaza Strip,
has
> left more than a dozen dead and raised fears of a larger conflict.
>
> Israel has boycotted the Hamas-led government since it took office in
March,
> but supports the more moderate Abbas, who was elected separately.
>
> The international community has said it will not lift the sanctions unless
> Hamas recognizes Israel, accepts past peace agreements and renounces
> violence - demands the militant Islamic group has rejected.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 8
> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:15:14 -0600
> From: Eduardo Gabrieloff <eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Subject: [BTVS - Newsdigest] Independent: Mystery of Israel's secret
> uranium bomb by Robert Fisk
> To: Newsdigest <newsdigest at btvshalom.org>
> Message-ID: <C16BB972.5819%eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1935945.ece
> Independent
> 10/28/2006
> Mystery of Israel's secret uranium bomb
> Robert Fisk
>
> Did Israel use a secret new uranium-based weapon in southern Lebanon this
> summer in the 34-day assault that cost more than 1,300 Lebanese lives,
most
> of them civilians?
>
> We know that the Israelis used American "bunker-buster" bombs on
Hizbollah's
> Beirut headquarters. We know that they drenched southern Lebanon with
> cluster bombs in the last 72 hours of the war, leaving tens of thousands
of
> bomblets which are still killing Lebanese civilians every week. And we now
> know - after it first categorically denied using such munitions - that the
> Israeli army also used phosphorous bombs, weapons which are supposed to be
> restricted under the third protocol of the Geneva Conventions, which
neither
> Israel nor the United States have signed.
>
> But scientific evidence gathered from at least two bomb craters in Khiam
and
> At-Tiri, the scene of fierce fighting between Hizbollah guerrillas and
> Israeli troops last July and August, suggests that uranium-based munitions
> may now also be included in Israel's weapons inventory - and were used
> against targets in Lebanon. According to Dr Chris Busby, the British
> Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, two soil
> samples thrown up by Israeli heavy or guided bombs showed "elevated
> radiation signatures". Both have been forwarded for further examination to
> the Harwell laboratory in Oxfordshire for mass spectrometry - used by the
> Ministry of Defence - which has confirmed the concentration of uranium
> isotopes in the samples.
>
> Dr Busby's initial report states that there are two possible reasons for
the
> contamination. "The first is that the weapon was some novel small
> experimental nuclear fission device or other experimental weapon (eg, a
> thermobaric weapon) based on the high temperature of a uranium oxidation
> flash ... The second is that the weapon was a bunker-busting conventional
> uranium penetrator weapon employing enriched uranium rather than depleted
> uranium." A photograph of the explosion of the first bomb shows large
clouds
> of black smoke that might result from burning uranium.
>
> Enriched uranium is produced from natural uranium ore and is used as fuel
> for nuclear reactors. A waste productof the enrichment process is depleted
> uranium, it is an extremely hard metal used in anti-tank missiles for
> penetrating armour. Depleted uranium is less radioactive than natural
> uranium, which is less radioactive than enriched uranium.
>
> Israel has a poor reputation for telling the truth about its use of
weapons
> in Lebanon. In 1982, it denied using phosphorous munitions on civilian
areas
> - until journalists discovered dying and dead civilians whose wounds
caught
> fire when exposed to air.
>
> I saw two dead babies who, when taken from a mortuary drawer in West
Beirut
> during the Israeli siege of the city, suddenly burst back into flames.
> Israel officially denied using phosphorous again in Lebanon during the
> summer - except for "marking" targets - even after civilians were
> photographed in Lebanese hospitals with burn wounds consistent with
> phosphorous munitions.
>
> Then on Sunday, Israel suddenly admitted that it had not been telling the
> truth. Jacob Edery, the Israeli minister in charge of
government-parliament
> relations, confirmed that phosphorous shells were used in direct attacks
> against Hizbollah, adding that "according to international law, the use of
> phosphorous munitions is authorised and the (Israeli) army keeps to the
> rules of international norms".
>
> Asked by The Independent if the Israeli army had been using uranium-based
> munitions in Lebanon this summer, Mark Regev, the Israeli Foreign Ministry
> spokesman, said: "Israel does not use any weaponry which is not authorised
> by international law or international conventions." This, however, begs
more
> questions than it answers. Much international law does not cover modern
> uranium weapons because they were not invented when humanitarian rules
such
> as the Geneva Conventions were drawn up and because Western governments
> still refuse to believe that their use can cause long-term damage to the
> health of thousands of civilians living in the area of the explosions.
>
> American and British forces used hundreds of tons of depleted uranium (DU)
> shells in Iraq in 1991 - their hardened penetrator warheads manufactured
> from the waste products of the nuclear industry - and five years later, a
> plague of cancers emerged across the south of Iraq.
>
> Initial US military assessments warned of grave consequences for public
> health if such weapons were used against armoured vehicles. But the US
> administration and the British government later went out of their way to
> belittle these claims. Yet the cancers continued to spread amid reports
that
> civilians in Bosnia - where DU was also used by Nato aircraft - were
> suffering new forms of cancer. DU shells were again used in the 2003
> Anglo-American invasion of Iraq but it is too early to register any health
> effects.
>
> "When a uranium penetrator hits a hard target, the particles of the
> explosion are very long-lived in the environment," Dr Busby said
yesterday.
> "They spread over long distances. They can be inhaled into the lungs. The
> military really seem to believe that this stuff is not as dangerous as it
> is." Yet why would Israel use such a weapon when its targets - in the case
> of Khiam, for example - were only two miles from the Israeli border? The
> dust ignited by DU munitions can be blown across international borders,
just
> as the chlorine gas used in attacks by both sides in the First World War
> often blew back on its perpetrators.
>
> Chris Bellamy, the professor of military science and doctrine at Cranfield
> University, who has reviewed the Busby report, said: "At worst it's some
> sort of experimental weapon with an enriched uranium component the purpose
> of which we don't yet know. At best - if you can say that - it shows a
> remarkably cavalier attitude to the use of nuclear waste products."
>
> The soil sample from Khiam - site of a notorious torture prison when
Israel
> occupied southern Lebanon between 1978 and 2000, and a frontline Hizbollah
> stronghold in the summer war - was a piece of impacted red earth from an
> explosion; the isotope ratio was 108, indicative of the presence of
enriched
> uranium. "The health effects on local civilian populations following the
use
> of large uranium penetrators and the large amounts of respirable uranium
> oxide particles in the atmosphere," the Busby report says, "are likely to
be
> significant ... we recommend that the area is examined for further traces
of
> these weapons with a view to clean up."
>
> This summer's Lebanon war began after Hizbollah guerrillas crossed the
> Lebanese frontier into Israel, captured two Israeli soldiers and killed
> three others, prompting Israel to unleash a massive bombardment of
Lebanon's
> villages, cities, bridges and civilian infrastructure. Human rights groups
> have said that Israel committed war crimes when it attacked civilians, but
> that Hizbollah was also guilty of such crimes because it fired missiles
into
> Israel which were also filled with ball-bearings, turning their rockets
into
> primitive one-time-only cluster bombs.
>
> Many Lebanese, however, long ago concluded that the latest Lebanon war was
a
> weapons testing ground for the Americans and Iranians, who respectively
> supply Israel and Hizbollah with munitions. Just as Israel used
> hitherto-unproven US missiles in its attacks, so the Iranians were able to
> test-fire a rocket which hit an Israeli corvette off the Lebanese coast,
> killing four Israeli sailors and almost sinking the vessel after it
suffered
> a 15-hour on-board fire.
>
> What the weapons manufacturers make of the latest scientific findings of
> potential uranium weapons use in southern Lebanon is not yet known. Nor is
> their effect on civilians.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 9
> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 13:34:51 -0600
> From: Eduardo Gabrieloff <eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Subject: [BTVS - Newsdigest] The Jordan Times: To earn credibility
> To: Newsdigest <newsdigest at btvshalom.org>
> Message-ID: <C16BAFFB.5815%eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> http://jordantimes.com/sun/opinion/opinion1.htm
> The Jordan Times
> 10/29/2006
> To earn credibility
>
> EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana concluded his visit to Israel and
the
> Palestinian areas by urging a return to the Quartet-sponsored roadmap.
>
> The roadmap plan, he said, lays out a clear vision for a future two-state
> solution, and in order to get there, both sides need to live up to their
> obligations under it.
>
> But as Solana got busy urging the Palestinian side to install a new
> government to replace the one Palestinians voted for, he missed a chance
to
> offer any incentives to Palestinians to trust him that a return to any
> process will yield any progress.
>
> Palestinians, it is clear, do not believe the international community any
> longer, because they see the donor community as trying to blackmail their
> leader, Mahmoud Abbas, into removing his own government.
>
> Whatever the political positions of Hamas, the movement agreed and largely
> adhered to a truce, basically adopting the most important first step of
the
> roadmap, namely an end to violence.
>
> That Hamas, indeed that all Palestinian factions, reserves the right to
> revert to violence in order to resist the illegal Israeli occupation
should
> not be a cause for censure. After all, the international community accepts
> Israel's resorting to violence to maintain its illegal occupation.
>
> And Solana urging Palestinians to change their government is disingenuous
at
> the very least, at a time when the Israeli government is in the process of
> welcoming into its fold a political leader, Avigdor Lieberman, whose
> position on the Palestinians, especially the Palestinians with Israeli
> citizenship, is by international standards as extreme as anything Hamas
> comes up with.
>
> Furthermore, there is nothing clear about the two-state vision of the
> roadmap. For, as long as the end- game is not clearly spelled out by the
> international community, the "vision" of a Palestinian state is a blurred
> one at least. Why should Palestinians agree to anything that offers them
> precisely, well, nothing very clear at all?
>
> Solana would be better off proving that the international community is
> prepared to pressure Israel into making concessions in one field or
another.
> During Solana's visit, Israel announced that while it appreciated the EU's
> efforts at the Gaza-Egypt border, it wants to renegotiate terms there.
>
> The EU must not allow itself to be played by the piper in this way, and
must
> make it clear to Israel that any renegotiation on this issue must be with
> the participation of the Palestinian Authority.
>
> The EU needs to start proving that it is able and willing to stand up to
> Israel, if anything Solana or any other European officials says is going
to
> have any credibility with the Palestinian street.
>
> Sunday, October 29, 2006
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 10
> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:21:21 -0600
> From: Eduardo Gabrieloff <eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Subject: [BTVS - Newsdigest] Haaretz: Why boycott Qatar?
> To: Newsdigest <newsdigest at btvshalom.org>
> Message-ID: <C16BBAE1.581D%eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/781001.html
> Haaretz
> 10/30/2006
> Why boycott Qatar?
>
> Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni made an odd decision. She canceled her
> participation in the UN-sponsored sixth International Conference on New or
> Restored Democracies, which is being held next month in Qatar.
>
> The reason for the cancelation: the participation in the event by
> Palestinian government lawmakers from Hamas.
>
> It is difficult to comprehend what motivated Livni's decision, especially
in
> light of the fact that she will permit senior Foreign Ministry officials
to
> take part in the conference.
>
> Does this mean that the presence of a representative from the Israeli
> Foreign Ministry in the same place as parliamentarians from Hamas does not
> indicate recognition of Hamas, while a minister's participation in the
event
> would translate into recognition of the movement?
>
> Perhaps Israel should declare a boycott of Qatar, the only Arab state that
> is willing to maintain friendly relations with it and to permit an Israeli
> representation to operate in Doha, despite the absence of formal
diplomatic
> ties? Or perhaps the conference should be boycotted because it includes
> representatives from, among others, Iran, Syria and Lebanon?
>
> A significant lack of insight characterizes Livni's decision. She was not
> being asked to speak with the Hamas members or to shake their hands.
> Furthermore, Qatar was the target of great pressure and criticism for
having
> invited her.
>
> The Lebanese foreign minister, among others, decided not to attend the
> conference, but Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani,
> was not deterred - just as he has not been deterred from meeting Israeli
> officials in New York and other locations, and just as he did not refrain
> from an attempt to mediate the conflict with the Palestinians despite the
> low chance of success. By inviting Israel - with the agreement of Qatar's
> leader - the foreign minister sought to reach an additional stage in
> Israel's legitimization that would have tested the other Arab and Islamic
> states that are participating in the event.
>
> Livni apparently decided that Israel was not obligated to respect the
> boldness shown by Qatar's leaders.
>
> In her eyes, the opportunity just to make an appearance in surroundings
that
> are ordinarily out-of-bounds to Israel was less important than enforcing
the
> boycott against Hamas.
>
> The result is not only a diplomatic loss to Israel, but also a total win
to
> Hamas. Its representatives who, like Israel's, are suffering from a dearth
> of invitations to Arab states, now realize that they have veto power over
> any Arab gesture toward Israel. It is sufficient for a Hamas
representative
> to attend a conference for Israel to be left out. The leaders of Hamas
could
> not have predicted such a diplomatic achievement.
>
> Livni's self-righteous declaration that Israel will not go where terror
> organizations have been invited cannot be accepted in this instance.
>
> Representatives of states that are friendly with Israel went to Qatar, and
> the conference is sponsored by the UN, in which Israel is active and which
> is itself bound by certain definitions of terror organizations. Most of
the
> states attending continue to boycott Hamas, for exactly the same reasons
as
> Israel does.
>
> Livni should have taken more time for consideration before making her
> decision.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 11
> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:44:46 -0600
> From: Eduardo Gabrieloff <eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Subject: [BTVS - Newsdigest] San Francisco Chronicle: A desperate,
> critical time in Gaza Strip at close of Ramadan by Matthew Kalman
> To: Newsdigest <newsdigest at btvshalom.org>
> Message-ID: <C16BC05E.5824%eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/10/29/MNGUJM26MS1.DTL
> San Francisco Chronicle
> 10/29/2006
> A desperate, critical time in Gaza Strip at close of Ramadan
> Matthew Kalman
>
> (10-29) 04:00 PST Jerusalem -- It would have been hard last week to
imagine
> a more miserable place to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr than
> the Gaza Strip.
>
> "The feast was marked not by Palestinian children playing with fireworks,
> but the smell of burning tires in the streets and the flashes of bullets
> flying between Fatah and Hamas," Khaled Abu Toameh said in an interview,
of
> the three-day festival marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Toameh,
> Palestinian commentator for the Jerusalem Post, added, "This was a very
sad
> Eid."
>
> More than a year after the historic destruction of Israel's settlements in
> Gaza and nine months after the elections that swept Hamas to power, the
> Palestinian economy is in ruins, rival militias are shooting each other in
> the streets, and Israeli troops are killing Palestinians almost daily as
> they try -- with conspicuous failure -- to end attacks against Israeli
towns
> nearby and to stop arms smuggling from Egypt.
>
> "We are starving. We want a solution, or else there will be a big
explosion
> here," said Imad Abu Sabri, an officer in the Palestinian presidential
guard
> Force 17, who celebrated the Eid festival with hundreds of colleagues by
> blocking streets and burning tires to protest the government's failure to
> pay its employees. "We live in one big prison surrounded by Israel, and we
> are beginning to get at each others' throats inside. Israel is killing
> Palestinians every day, and we are killing each other as well. We are
headed
> toward self-destruction because of the economic crisis."
>
> Naji Hussein, who works at the Palestinian Ministry of Communications, is
> one of approximately 140,000 civil servants whose salaries have not been
> paid for months. Last week, the Hamas-led government handed out $50 in
cash
> to several thousand workers after the Palestinian interior minister hauled
> $2 million through the border crossing from Egypt.
>
> The crisis appears likely to continue as long as Palestinian politics
remain
> logjammed in the standoff between President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and the
> Hamas-dominated government headed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
>
> On-and-off national unity talks have been continuing for months with no
> clear result except increased suffering for ordinary Palestinians.
> Meanwhile, the government is sinking further into debt as donor states
> refuse to provide assistance until Hamas renounces violence and recognizes
> Israel.
>
> "I promised my children to buy them clothes and toys for the Eid, because
I
> was relying on promises we would be paid our salaries before the
festival,"
> Hussein said. "I felt very ashamed of myself because I couldn't fulfill my
> promise. It was even worse when we saw other children playing with new
toys.
> This power struggle between Fatah and Hamas is weighing down on the backs
of
> the poor people."
>
> Rafat Abed, proprietor of a Gaza clothing store, said his sales this year
> were only 20 percent of the normal volume.
>
> "Most families could not even afford to buy a shirt for 15 shekels ($3),"
> Abed said. "My heart hurts to see the tragedy of parents who can't afford
to
> buy their children what they need."
>
> Abed had no doubt who was to blame for the situation.
>
> "Israel and America are responsible for this deterioration. They want to
> punish us because we voted for Hamas. But this is backfiring because it's
> only strengthening Hamas," he said.
>
> "The economic situation in the Gaza strip is catastrophic," said Samira
> Shawwa, a local social worker. "Many families can no longer afford to buy
> food for their children. The international sanctions are destroying the
> fabric of our society. We have regressed 100 years. What's also worrying
are
> all these reports that Israel is planning a big military operation. This
is
> like shooting someone who is already dead."
>
> The World Bank estimates that unemployment in Gaza could be as high as 40
> percent, while the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reports that
45
> percent of Gazans are living below the poverty line. On Saturday,
> Palestinian Authority official Saeb Erekat announced that the
Palestinians'
> gross domestic product was projected to drop 28 percent in 2006 to $2.9
> billion, from $4.04 billion in 2005.
>
> Liz Sime, the director for Gaza and the West Bank for the international
> relief organization CARE, describes the situation as "dire."
>
> "The levels of violence in Gaza are fueled not just by politics, but also
> bleakness of the economic situation," she said.
>
> "We work with around 500 to 600 families directly on what we call 'food
> security' programs, helping people with access to some land to find
> alternative livelihoods. ... Time and again, the land is destroyed by
> missile attacks or tanks. If they manage to get the produce out, it rots
at
> the Karni crossing point -- or sits in the market because no one's got any
> money to buy things.
>
> "We are increasingly doing direct assistance simply to keep food in
mouths,"
> Sime said.
>
> When Israel pulled its troops and settlers out of Gaza last year, leaving
> Palestinians in control of the Gaza Strip, Israeli leaders warned that
they
> would re-invade if the area became a staging post for continued
cross-border
> attacks.
>
> Since then, Palestinian militants from Hamas, Fatah and various smaller
> factions have bombarded nearby Israeli territory with daily rocket
attacks,
> made regular attempts to smuggle explosives and suicide bombers into
Israel,
> and excavated dozens of tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egypt border to smuggle
> guns, rockets and other weaponry into the strip.
>
> For Israel, the capture of Cpl. Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid on
June
> 25 was the final straw. Since then, Israeli troops and tanks have been
> operating almost nonstop inside Gaza, targeting known militants,
destroying
> weapons caches and exposing smuggling tunnels. Last week alone, Israeli
> troops discovered and sealed 13 tunnels linking Gaza to Egypt.
>
> Last Sunday, Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians in a raid on Beit
> Hanoun and also seized more than 10 pounds of weapons-grade TNT being
> smuggled through Karni, the main crossing point between Israel and the
Gaza
> Strip for food and other produce.
>
> Israeli officials say they want to keep Karni -- which serves as a
lifeline
> for the Palestinian economy -- open, but incidents like the one last week
> present a real dilemma.
>
> "This attempt is one of many made by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza
> Strip to exploit the Karni crossing, the lifeline of Palestinians in the
> Gaza Strip, in order to promote terror attacks within Israel and against
> Israeli civilians," an Israeli army spokeswoman said.
>
> The Israeli government is under pressure from residents of the towns being
> besieged by Palestinian rockets to stop the attacks on Israeli civilians
by
> mounting a full-scale invasion of Gaza. But such military action has
proved
> ineffective in the past. Previous Israeli raids and assassinations of
> militant leaders, while failing to end the barrages, increased anti-Israel
> feelings among ordinary Palestinians.
>
> "There is no plan to conquer the Gaza Strip, and there is no plan to
remain
> in the strip. The activities are aimed at providing an answer to the
> immediate threats and the strengthening process taking place here,"
Israeli
> Defense Minister Amir Peretz said during a tour of the border area
Tuesday.
>
> With no political solution or economic respite in sight to resolve
> Palestinian woes, thousands of heavily armed fighters put Gaza at risk of
a
> violent explosion engulfing the entire strip.
>
> Shlomo Brom, a former senior Israeli army officer who is now a researcher
at
> the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said
> Gaza was "on the brink of civil war."
>
> "In the aftermath of the breakdown of talks, both sides are now preparing
> for a decisive showdown," Brom said. "Accelerated arms smuggling through
the
> tunnels along the border with Egypt is not just part of preparations for a
> confrontation with Israel; it also reflects the determination of the
various
> militias to be better prepared for the expected internal clash."
> A violent week
>
> Some of the major clashes in the Gaza Strip just before and during last
> week's Eid al-Fitr holiday, involving both Israeli-Palestinian
> confrontations and intra-Palestinian fighting between the rival Fatah and
> Hamas parties:
>
> Saturday, Oct. 21
>
> -- Palestinians fire four Kassam rockets from Gaza at Sderot and Ashkelon
> inside Israel
>
> -- Israeli forces uncover tunnels near Gaza-Egypt border at Rafah
>
> -- Israeli missiles destroy a house concealing a tunnel entrance in Rafah
>
> -- Palestinians fire an anti-tank missile at Israeli forces
>
> -- Egyptian forces intercept a large arms shipment headed for Gaza
>
> -- Fatah militiamen fire weapons into the air and blockade roads in salary
> protests
>
> Sunday, Oct. 22
>
> -- Palestinian security forces continue protests in Gaza City
>
> -- Hamas man is stabbed and a Fatah militia commander is shot dead in
> Fatah-Hamas clashes
>
> -- Seven Palestinian militiamen are killed in an Israeli strike in Beit
> Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip
>
> -- Israel intercepts about 13 pounds of weapons-grade TNT being smuggled
> through the Karni crossing
>
> Monday
>
> -- Two Kassam rockets hit Sderot
>
> -- Israeli air strike destroys two Kassam rocket launchers in northern
Gaza
>
> -- Islamic Jihad gunmen open fire at Israeli soldiers near Rafah
>
> Tuesday
>
> -- Israeli forces leave the Gaza-Egypt border after discovering and
sealing
> 15 smuggling tunnels in a six-day operation
>
> -- Palestinians fire rockets at Sderot and at Erez border crossing
>
> Wednesday
>
> -- A firefight follows a Fatah bomb attack on an Israeli convoy near the
> Gaza-Egypt border
>
> Thursday
>
> -- Israel closes the Egypt-Gaza terminal crossing at Rafah
>
> -- Israeli troops kill two men and capture another in Abassan, east of
Khan
> Younis, southern Gaza
>
> -- Israeli troops kill one Palestinian in a raid on Beit Hanoun, northern
> Gaza
>
> -- Islamic Jihad militiamen fire three mortar shells at Erez border
crossing
>
> -- Popular Resistance Committee militants fire missiles at Israeli forces
at
> Sufa crossing
>
> -- Hamas militants fire missiles at Israeli armored vehicles in Abassan
>
> -- Fatah militant assassinated in Khan Younis by Palestinian gunmen
>
> Chronicle news services
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 12
> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:48:24 -0600
> From: Eduardo Gabrieloff <eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Subject: [BTVS - Newsdigest] New York Times: Rice's Counselor Gives
> Advice Others May Not Want to Hear by Helene Cooper and David E.
> Sanger
> To: Newsdigest <newsdigest at btvshalom.org>
> Message-ID: <C16BC138.5826%eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/28/world/28zelikow.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
> &oref=login (free registration required)
> New York Times
> 10/28/2006
> Rice's Counselor Gives Advice Others May Not Want to Hear
> Helene Cooper and David E. Sanger
>
>
> WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 -- For the last 18 months, Philip D. Zelikow has
churned
> out confidential memorandums and proposals for his boss and close friend,
> Condoleezza Rice, that often depart sharply from the Bush administration's
> current line.
>
> One described the potential for Iraq to become a "catastrophic failure."
> Another, among several that have come to light in recent weeks, was an
early
> call for changes in a detention policy that many in the State Department
> believed was doing tremendous harm to the United States.
>
> Others have proposed new diplomatic initiatives toward North Korea and the
> Middle East, and one went as far as to call for a reconsideration of the
> phrase "war on terror" because it alienated many Muslims -- an idea that
> quickly fizzled after opposition from the White House.
>
> Such ideas would have found a more natural home under President George H.
W.
> Bush, for whom Mr. Zelikow and Ms. Rice worked on the staff of the
National
> Security Council. They reflect a sense that American influence is
> perishable, and can be damaged by overreaching, as allies and other
partners
> react against decisions made in Washington. They form a kind of foreign
> policy realism that was eclipsed in Mr. Bush's first term, in favor of a
> more ideological, unilateral ethos, but that has made something of a
> comeback in his second term.
>
> Whether Mr. Zelikow, 52, is giving voice to Ms. Rice's private views, or
> simply serving as an in-house contrarian, remains unclear. Some of his
ideas
> have become policy: he had called for the closure of secret prisons run by
> the Central Intelligence Agency a year before the Supreme Court decision
> that prodded the Bush administration to empty them.
>
> The United States offered North Korea a chance to negotiate a permanent
> peace treaty, per Mr. Zelikow's advice, and he, along with Ms. Rice, was
one
> of the backers of the Iran initiative, in which President Bush offered to
> reverse three decades of American policy against direct talks with Tehran
if
> Iran suspended its uranium enrichment.
>
> Neither North Korea nor Iran has bitten on the initiatives, but America's
> allies have applauded them. Mr. Zelikow's assessments of the Iraq war,
first
> disclosed in Bob Woodward's book "State of Denial," were presented to Ms.
> Rice in 2005.
>
> Ms. Rice keeps Mr. Zelikow close at hand, and the fact that his
memorandums
> have surfaced in recent books and news articles suggests, at a minimum,
that
> he and his allies are aggressively lobbying for his ideas. Mr. Zelikow
> (pronounced ZELL-i-ko) is being talked about inside the State Department
as
> an outside shot for the vacant job of deputy secretary of state, but some
> believe that his management style is too combative for the job.
>
> Friends of both officials say that Ms. Rice appears to regard Mr. Zelikow
as
> a kind of intellectual anchor during what has been a turbulent period for
> American foreign policy, in Iraq and beyond.
>
> "He's a very important intellectual resource, even if she may not always
> agree with him," said Brent Scowcroft, the former national security
adviser,
> who has been a mentor to both.
>
> Michael A. McFaul, a political science professor at Stanford University
who
> knows both the secretary of state and Mr. Zelikow, said that "the limited
> results" of the administration's approach had "created space for guys
like"
> Mr. Zelikow.
>
> Mr. Zelikow is hardly a household name, even at the State Department,
where
> his title is counselor to the secretary of state. He has few staffers, no
> line authority, and occupies an office at the very end of the hall on the
> seventh floor, where Ms. Rice and other top officials also have their
> offices. He is a sometimes-geeky intellectual known for fingernails that
are
> bitten down to nubs.
>
> But questions about his role were sharpened last month after Mr. Zelikow
> gave a speech at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in which he
> offered what many believed was an oblique criticism of the decision by Mr.
> Bush and Ms. Rice not to push Israel to return to the negotiating table
with
> the Palestinians. He also said progress in that conflict was essential to
> forming a consensus among the United States, moderate Arabs and Europeans
on
> Iran.
>
> The address may have been an example of what Mr. Zelikow, in two speeches
> last year, called "practical idealism." But it did not go over well. The
> State Department quickly distanced itself from the speech, issuing a
> statement denying any linkage, and Israeli officials, flustered by Mr.
> Zelikow's remarks, said Ms. Rice later assured the Israeli foreign
minister,
> Tzipi Livni, that the United States saw the Iranian and Palestinian issues
> as two separate matters.
>
> Neither Ms. Rice nor Mr. Zelikow would comment for this article.
>
> But friends of both Ms. Rice and Mr. Zelikow say her initial decision to
> appoint Mr. Zelikow to the counselor post last year reflects her openness
to
> views at odds with the more ideological approach that has been dominant
> under President Bush.
>
> Ms. Rice had to expend a substantial amount of her own political capital
to
> get the White House to support her choice, friends say, given Mr.
Zelikow's
> previous job as staff director of the 9/11 Commission, where he played a
> major role in writing the report that took both the Clinton and Bush
> administrations to task for failing to act with sufficient seriousness
> against the threat from Al Qaeda.
>
> But Ms. Rice arrived at the State Department insistent that she would
> surround herself with her own people, friends say. Vice President Dick
> Cheney wanted her to appoint his former deputy national security adviser,
> Eric S. Edelman, as her political director; she balked and instead chose
R.
> Nicholas Burns, a friend who had worked for her at the security council
> during the administration of the first President Bush. Likewise, in
choosing
> Mr. Zelikow as her counselor, she eschewed Elliott L. Abrams, a darling of
> neoconservatives and the pro-Israel lobby.
>
> Mr. Zelikow and Ms. Rice co-authored a book about Germany's reunification,
> "Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft" (Harvard
> University Press, 1995). It is not exactly light reading, but at its core
it
> is a study in realpolitik, examining -- and admiring -- the tempered,
> carefully managed American response to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
>
> It is a book that Mr. Zelikow could write again today, but one that Ms.
Rice
> could not, friends and associates of both say. Ms. Rice herself has said
> that she went through something of a transformation after the Sept. 11,
> 2001, attacks, in which she moved away from the classical realism of her
own
> roots and Mr. Zelikow's, and closer to the neoconservatives who dominated
> policy discussions in the first term. Ms. Rice has told friends that
> President Bush has had a major impact on her thinking in terms of
> reintroducing values-based politics and ideology.
>
> An example of the distance between Mr. Zelikow and his boss emerged this
> summer, at the start of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. The position
adopted
> by Ms. Rice -- that Israel be permitted to continue its bombardment of
> Hezbollah despite the mounting civilian death toll in Lebanon -- satisfied
> conservatives in the administration, including Mr. Cheney, who were
pushing
> for strong American support of Israel.
>
> That support also included the decision by the administration to heed
> Israel's desire that America not push it to resolve the Palestinian
conflict
> until the Palestinian Authority improved security and cracked down on
> attacks by groups considered to be terrorist entities by Israel and the
> United States.
>
> But in his speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Mr.
> Zelikow implicitly acknowledged that that stance does not win America any
> friends in the Muslim world, and thwarts other American foreign policy
> objectives.
>
> Joseph Nye, the former dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
> and one of Mr. Zelikow's friends, said, "If you look at the distance where
> the administration went away from the realism of the 2000 campaign, Philip
> never went on that kind of excursion."
>
> Mr. Zelikow sat out the first Bush term, running the Miller Center of
Public
> Affairs at the University of Virginia. But Ms. Rice turned to him for key
> tasks, and he drafted much of the 2002 "National Security Strategy of the
> United States," the document that fundamentally reordered American
national
> security doctrine after the Sept. 11 attacks.
>
> He became the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, from where he
> pressured Ms. Rice to turn over highly classified intelligence estimates
and
> testify in front of the commission. Officials who worked with him marveled
> at his industry and precision, but described him as far more opinionated
> than his gather-the-numbers approach might first suggest. Staffers on the
> commission said other colleagues were assigned the task of smoothing over
> the bruised egos of those who had crossed Mr. Zelikow.
>
> The position of counselor to the secretary of state, a post that over the
> years has been filled by some of Washington's brightest diplomatic lights,
> allows Mr. Zelikow to fly under the radar, and Ms. Rice has used that
> flexibility from the beginning of her term, when he was sent off to Iraq
to
> provide an outsider's assessment of what had gone wrong.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 13
> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 13:06:38 -0600
> From: Eduardo Gabrieloff <eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Subject: [BTVS - Newsdigest] Haaretz: Let's hear it for the Haiders by
> Akiva Eldar
> To: Newsdigest <newsdigest at btvshalom.org>
> Message-ID: <C16BA95E.580F%eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/780996.html
> Haaretz
> 10/30/2006
> Let's hear it for the Haiders
> Akiva Eldar
>
> The prevalent comparison between Avigdor Lieberman and Joerg Haider does
an
> injustice to the Austrian nationalist whose party joined the government in
> the winter of 2000. Haider is far from being a righteous man, but even in
> his most fascist days, he never called on Austria to rid itself of
citizens
> who'd been living in the country for generations. Also, Haider never
> suggested standing up legislators representing these citizens in front of
a
> firing squad. Natan Meron, at the time Israel's ambassador to Austria,
noted
> that once the leader of the Freedom Party joined politics, he never
uttered
> a single anti-Semitic statement. Meron emphasized that the leader of the
> Freedom Party "does not threaten the Jews."
>
> With the entry of his party into the coalition, Haider signed a
declaration
> promising to abide by the European principles of democracy and human
rights,
> and to protect the rights of minorities. Prior to that, he apologized to
the
> Jewish people for his statements that downplayed the Nazi horrors.
>
> What about Lieberman, then? Has he accepted the article in the
government's
> basic guidelines that includes the commitment to "respect the civil rights
> of minorities and not accept any expression of racism in the country"?
>
> Has anyone heard a word of qualification from the leader of Yisrael
Beitenu
> about his party's political ideals, on the eve of joining the government?
>
> He has not apologized to Israeli Arabs, nor disavowed his statements of
> incitement against Arab MKs. Even after having reached agreement with Ehud
> Olmert about his inclusion in the government, Lieberman has stuck to his
> obscene views. The day after the deal, he proudly announced to the press
> that he had "explained" to Javier Solana, the European Union foreign
policy
> chief, that his plans "are more humane and detailed than any other plan on
> offer in Israel."
>
> There is also no comparison between the response of the Austrian people to
> the inclusion of the Freedom Party in the coalition, and the tranquility
> with which the majority of the Israeli public has received Lieberman's
> appointment as deputy prime minister in charge of the most sensitive
> strategic issue. It is important to note that Haider himself stayed out of
> the government. In Israel, "peacemakers" like Amir Peretz, Ephraim Sneh,
> Eitan Cabel and Yitzhak Herzog went out of their way in their efforts to
> convince members of their party's central committee to allow them to bring
> into their home an extreme nationalist.
>
> Shimon Peres, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, warned Austria at the time
> that the inclusion of Haider in the coalition will "ostracize it from the
> family of nations." Matan Vilnai, then minister of science, culture and
> sport, threatened to boycott the Austrian national soccer team. In
response
> to the Freedom Party's inclusion of him in the coalition, then-prime
> minister Ehud Barak declared that Haider was persona non grata in Israel.
> Jewish organizations the world over competed over the intensity of their
> criticism of the Austrian government.
>
> The growth of extremist parties on the right in Europe is worrying to
> Israel, and justifiably so. The rising popularity of nationalists such as
> Jean-Marie Le Pen in France, Vadim Tudor in Romania, Anto Djapic in
Croatia
> and Christophe Blocher in Switzerland is disconcerting to world Jewry, and
> so it should be. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has barred Marine Le Pen, a
> member of the European Parliament and deputy in her father's National
Front
> party, from entering the country. What will we say if European Union
> countries announce that the deputy prime minister is an unwanted
personality
> in Europe?
>
> The silence of the leadership of mainstream Jewry in the world, in view of
> the legitimization of a person such as Lieberman, undermines the moral
high
> ground they hold in the struggle against Israel-haters throughout the
world.
> If a Jewish politician who aspires to transfer an Arab minority across the
> border can sit in an Israeli cabinet, why should an anti-Semite not sit in
> an Austrian government? Let's hear it for the Haiders.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 14
> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:41:26 -0600
> From: Eduardo Gabrieloff <eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Subject: [BTVS - Newsdigest] Haaretz: Lieberman sworn in as minister
> after winning Knesset approval by Gideon Alon
> To: Newsdigest <newsdigest at btvshalom.org>
> Message-ID: <C16BBF96.5821%eduardo at btvshalom.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/781278.html
> Haaretz
> 10/30/2006
> Lieberman sworn in as minister after winning Knesset approval
> Gideon Alon
>
> Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman was sworn in as a cabinet
> minister Monday evening, after the Knesset plenum voted 61-38 in favor of
> his inclusion in the government.
>
> He becomes deputy prime minister and minister for strategic threats,
> primarily how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions.
>
> Earlier Monday, Minister of Culture and Sport Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor)
> resigned from the government, hours after the cabinet approved by a large
> majority the appointment of Lieberman.
>
> Pines-Paz absented himself from the plenum vote.
>
> Speaking at a specially convened press conference at the Culture and Sport
> Ministry in Jerusalem, Pines-Paz said that there had been no other option
> left to him in the wake of the cabinet vote on Lieberman.
>
> "I came to the decision for reasons of conscience," Pines said.
>
> He added that he could not sit in a government with "a party whose
platform
> is full of racist characteristics, and whose leaders' statements harm the
> essence of democracy in the State of Israel."
>
> He said that he had fought as hard as he could against Lieberman's
inclusion
> in the government, and called his inclusion a "severe defect" from a
> political standpoint.
>
> "What is in Lieberman's past that qualifies him? What has he done in his
> life that qualifies him to be a senior minister in defense issues?" he
> asked.
>
> "Is this the solution to stabilize the government and other issues? If
> Lieberman is the answer to the government's loss of direction after the
> second Lebanon war, the entire government should resign and let Lieberman
> and his friends - the Likud, National Religious Party and National Union -
> lead the country."
>
> Pines-Paz, the only cabinet member to vote against the inclusion of
> Lieberman, also announced that he has "decided to stand for the leadership
> of the Labor Party in the next elections... to lead the party back into
the
> right direction, so that it will present a real alternative to the
> government"
>
> Pine-Paz' decision drew praise from Arab MKs vehemently opposed to
> Lieberman's inclusion in the coalition.
>
> MK Al-Sana (United Arab List) said that "MK Pines-Paz proved his values
are
> stronger than his [Knesset] seat and that the government has not
sanctified
> all means [of opposition]. There is some hope of sanity."
>
> MK Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al) said he admires Pines-Paz's courage and
> public integrity.
>
> "There is a saint in the 'Sodom' of the government, we need more like
him,"
> he said.
>
> Nabil Sha'ath, an adviser to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas,
> called Lieberman's entry into the government an "ugly message and ugly
> symbol of the direction this Israeli government is taking."
>
> With Yisrael Beiteinu's 11 lawmakers on board, Olmert's government will
> control 78 of 120 Knesset seats, an overwhelming majority.
>
> Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that Lieberman's inclusion in the
> government would not cause any policy changes.
>
> "I think it is important that we act in the diplomatic arena," Olmert told
> MKs in his Kadima Party. "This includes the Palestinian issue first and
> foremost."
>
> Pines-Paz, who has harshly criticized the inclusion of Yisrael Beiteinu,
was
> also absent from the Labor faction meeting earlier Monday.
>
> The Pensioners' Party ministers voted in favor of Lieberman's appointment,
> after they were promised that previous commitments made to them regarding
> government stipends for pensioners would be honored.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
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