Middle East Inside Line: Lieberman-Netanyahu Tension, Syria's "Greatest Hope", Restrictions on Gaza, & Much More

Lieberman-Netanyahu Tension Rises Again: Another problem between Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has broken out. Lieberman has appointed Meiron Reuven, a relatively little-known diplomat, as Israel's Acting Ambassador to the United Nations without Netanyahu's consent.

Sources close to Netanyahu said deterioration has been perceptible for weeks and the Prime Minister intends to ask Lieberman to explain his actions.

Syria Criticised but Aligned with Turkey: On Friday, Human Rights Watch said that Syria's President Bashar Assad failed to bring reforms on behalf of democracy following the Damascus Spring, a short period during which Assad allowed political groups to have small gatherings when he came to power in 2000.

Gaza Latest: European Union Calls on Israel to Open Border Crossings
Israel: Government Budget Cuts Defense and Welfare

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said:

Whether President Assad wanted to be a reformer but was hampered by an entrenched old guard or has been just another Arab ruler unwilling to listen to criticism, the outcome for Syria's people is the same: no freedom, no rights.

A day later, Assad told Turkish journalists that Ankara is most qualified to serve as mediator between Israel and Syria. Assad that Israel's raid on the Turkish-funded Freedom Flotilla was a “terrorist act” and called Turkey "Syria's greatest hope":

The position of mediator in the indirect talks belongs to Turkey. We are completely confident in Ankara’s ability to successfully carry out this duty.

Restrictions on Movement in Gaza: Following President  Obama's praise of Israel for easing restrictions on goods coming in and going out of Gaza, Israel's judiciary has rejected the application of lawyer Fatma Sharif to leave Gaza to undertake a masters programme on human rights at Birzeit University in the West Bank.

Justices Miriam Naor, Hanan Melce,r and Isaac Amit declared:

We are not convinced that under the present political and security situation, the personal circumstances [of the petitioner] justify intervention in the decision of the respondent [the Defense Minister].

More Flotillas and Land Convoys on the Way?: According to Israel's Channel 2, the organiser of the Flotilla Freedom, IHH, announced on Saturday that the group will not only continue efforts to bring supplies to Gaza but "land convoys will head for Gaza" as well.

Turkish Hackers on Mission: Haaretz reports that an Israeli blogger, Erez Wolf, has discovered from a Turkish online forum that tens of thousands of e-mail addresses, passwords, and personal details of Israeli web surfers are in the hands of Turkish hackers.

Comments

[Catherine]

More on the HRW report detailing Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad's human rights failures (it's no wonder Iran and Syria are such bosom buddies):

The period of relative tolerance in the immediate aftermath of his [Assad's] rise to power was not long-lived. Soon enough, Syrian prisons and detention centers once again filled up with activists, journalists and human rights advocates in a sweeping crackdown that continued throughout the decade.
Read on: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/07/syria-.html" rel="nofollow">http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2...

[Catherine]

Here's an interesting twist on the French and Belgian "burqa ban" stories many of us have been following in Europe:

Who knew right-wing Western politicians and the Syrian government had something in common? The niqab, a face-covering veil worn by some Muslim women, has been quietly outlawed in public schools by Syrian authorities in an effort to protect the nation's nominal secularism.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/07/syria-government-bans-niqab-in-public-schools.html" rel="nofollow">http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2...

[Catherine]

Jaffa's Arab haven of coexistence resists influx of Israeli hardliners

Jaffa is one of the few areas of Israel where Muslims and Jews have coexisted, albeit often uneasily, for decades. But the determination of an organisation of national-religious Jews to build a 20-apartment development, exclusively for subscribers to a rigidly Zionist ideology, is threatening to destabilise the delicate balance in this troubled area of Israel's main city, Tel Aviv.

This week the high court in Jerusalem is set to rule on a case brought by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel claiming that the project discriminates against Arabs and non-religious Jews. The organisation behind the development, Bemuna, says it merely wants to create a religious community free from non-Jewish and secular influences.

The activists fear the newcomers intend to impose their observances on the neighbourhood – such as a prohibition on driving cars on the Jewish sabbath. They blame the state of Israel for leasing the land to Bemuna in the full knowledge that it planned to build housing barred to locals.
More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/jaffa-arab-tel-aviv-settlers" rel="nofollow">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/jaf...

[aliyenidunya]

Catherine,

Thank you for your contribution. I am working on these links now :) It is very kind of you.