Israel Counterpoint: To Weaken Hamas, Open Gaza's Gates (Haas)

Do you really want to weaken Hamas? Surprise it. Go back and open Gaza's gates - to ordinary human movement, not just to cherries, shavers and a handful of pious Muslims who manage to wend their way past the Egyptian bureaucracy. Open the Erez checkpoint. Then you'll see how Gazans yearn for life. 

Let young people study outside the Gaza Strip. Despite the exasperating presence of Israel's foreign rule, in the Palestinian enclaves in the West Bank those young people will encounter a form of diversity that is becoming extinct in Gaza. They will discover that such diversity is better than the monolithic reality imposed by Israel's siege and messianic politics. Allow female pupils and female teachers to tour their land and see that the world is more complicated than brainwashing television programs and competitions to obtain relief packages. Consider this: Diplomats report that most Hamas summer camps in Gaza have been closed; most children preferred camps operated by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

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Israel: Settlements Flat Out, Netanyahu's Jewish State, and the "Partnership to Peace"

The building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank in the last three weeks, since the 10-month moratorium on construction ended, has been more than four times faster than in the last two years. Still, the building of 544 homes "has [had] no real effect on the map of a possible (peace) agreement", according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said on the 15th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin:

You were skeptical and careful, respectful and thoughtful, and you were determined to continue down a road leading to peace. I am a partner to your approach that we must always continue pushing for peace.

In the 15 years that passed, fundamental Islam has strengthened. It won the elections in Gaza, took over southern Lebanon, and has threatened the United States.

So, while persisting for peace, one has to recognise who is behind the threat of this "fundamental Islam". Netanyahu continued:

We do not want to take away from the Palestinian the right to self definition. We want the Jewish state to be recognized and protected. Our insistence on security is not an excuse.

We left Lebanon and now Iran is touching the fence. We left Gaza and now Iran is touching that fence. We cannot let this happen a third time… There is no doubt that Rabin, as a man of security, would have agreed to this insistence. 

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Israel-Palestine: Netanyahu Rejects Obama's Plan A --- No Plan B Before Mid-November (Rozen)

Behind the scenes, the Obama administration is still absorbing the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has to date rejected a proposed American compromise package that would have offered various security and other assurances to Israel in exchange for a 60-day renewal of a partial West Bank settlement freeze that expired last month. 

The American team is said to be frustrated and upset at Netanyahu’s dismissal to date of the package, which was drafted by the NSC’s Dennis Ross in close consultation with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Israeli negotiator Yitzhak Molho. 

“They’re really upset,” one Washington Middle East hand in close contact with administration officials said Tuesday. “At the end of the day, they made this incredibly good faith effort to keep Bibi at the table.” And Bibi proved as yet unwilling to budge."

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Israel-Palestine Summary: Reactions to Netanyahu's Extension of Settlements

With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approving plans to build 238 new homes in East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank, French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s initiative for direct Israel-Palestine talks has fallen through. The planned peace summit, due to be held Friday, is indefinitely postponed. "We are looking for a new date that works for everybody, although there is nothing firm scheduled yet," an Israeli government official told Reuters.

Washington and Paris said that they were “disappointed” by the decision. In response, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said: “We have already said in the past that there is no longer a settlement freeze in Jerusalem. Regarding the relationship with the United States, they received notification of the plan [for the new homes] before we announced it.”

Moroccan King Mohammed VI wrote Israeli President Shimon Peres, was supposed to represent Israel in World Economic Forum, that their meeting was impossible at the moment. So Peres has canceled his trip.

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Israel-Palestine: Direct Talks in Paris Postponed

A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office says this Thursday's summit in Paris with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been postponed: "Following consultations, the parties concerned have agreed to decide on another date." 

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said on Saturday, "The continuation by Israel of settlement activity ruins all peace efforts, be they those of President Barack Obama or those of President Nicolas Sarkozy." He added that the Palestinian Authority had "not received an official invitation, giving a date, for such a meeting".

On Friday, Netanyahu approved plans to build 238 new homes in east Jerusalem, provoking anger from the Palestinian Authority and criticism from both the US and France.

On another front, Netanyahu confirmed that talks with Hamas, through a German mediator, for the release of detained US soldier Gilad Shalit have resumed. 

Shalit has been held by Hamas since a cross-border raid in 2006.

Israel-Palestine: Netanyahu Approves New Homes in East Jerusalem (Haaretz)

Amidst Israel-Palestine talks and the tension of the issue of Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Haaretz reports:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved tenders for the construction of 240 new housing units in areas of Jerusalem across the Green Line, Israeli media sources reported on Friday.

The Housing and Construction Ministry, along with the Israel Lands Administration, released its list of 3,500 newly approved tenders set for construction across the country.

The list includes residential buildings in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Pisgat Ze'ev and Ramot. While both neighborhoods are technically set in the northern part of the city, they are considered East Jerusalem due to their location east of the Green Line.

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Israel Analysis: Understanding Netanyahu's Rhetoric of "Our Good Jewish State, Their Threat"

Let's go back to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech in the Knesset on Monday, looking beyond his offer of an extended freeze on Jewish settlements in the West Bank in return for the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state by the Palestinian Authority.

For Netanyahu,  the word "nation" is defined not merely through ethnicity but also through a broader conception which includes religion. In that conception, Israel is "the best nation-state" in terms of individual and minority rights. So, given that Israel is the best, there is no possibility that a "Jewish state" will fail to support the framework of democracy.

Returning his vision to the negotiating table, Netanyahu accused Palestinians of wasting time during the moratorium on settlement construction, carrying out their hidden agenda by teaching their children that there is no Jewish state. However, Israel extends its hand once more:

There is no doubt that such a move by the Palestinian Authority [acknowledging the Jewish state] would serve as a trust-building step, one thatwould open up a new horizon of hope and trust among broad sections of the Israeli public who, in light of the events of the past decade, have lost their confidence in the Palestinian’s desire to end the conflict.

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Israel-Palestine: Netanyahu's Deal --- A Settlement Freeze in Exchange for a "Jewish State"

As Israel's Knesset reconvened after a three-month break, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered this proposal to the Palestinians: Israel is ready to extend the moratorium on settlement expansion in return for Palestinian recognition of Israel as a "Jewish state". 

The Palestinian response was clear: "the issue of the Jewishness of the state has nothing to do with the matter."

And the Americans? From thousands of miles away, they could only give a general, somewhat tangled response: "U.S. policy has been consistent. Both President Obama and Secretary Clinton are committed to Israel’s democracy as a Jewish state," a State Department official told Haaretz.

Prime Minister Netanyahu, less than 72 hours after his Cabinet mandated a loyalty oath for non-Jews who want to be Israeli citizens, both plays to his domestic gallery and puts the onus back on the Palestinian Authority. The prime issue is no longer Jewish settlements; instead, it is this challenge: you want limits on our expansion in the West Bank, then you must declare, "We Accept Israel as a Jewish State."

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Israel's Man on a Mission: Foreign Minister Lieberman vs. Europeans

On Sunday, President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak welcomed French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos.

The Europeans asked Israeli decision-makers to make their mark in history by achieving a two-state solution through direct talks. Kouchner told Peres, "We're optimistic. It takes time, it always takes time in this region, but this is a delicate moment where we can make an effort and make progress in direct talks and in peace."

Moratinos added, "We are optimistic in light of what happened in the last month, despite the difficulties and concerns of the two sides, but both sides sent a clear and strong message to the international community that they want to keep up the momentum, keep an open door to direct talks, and they are ready to move on to significant matters."

Then a more dramatic moment came. In a separate meeting, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman gave a response to the Ministers that was similar to Barak's in substance but far different in tone. Lieberman explicitly accused the European Union of "appeasing" Iran and other radicals and of leaving its ally alone as they did before the beginning of the Second World War. "We have no intention of becoming 2010's Czechoslovakia and will insist on Israel's vital interests," said Lieberman.

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"Welcome to the Jewish Republic of Israel" (Levy)

Remember this day. It's the day Israel changes its character. As a result, it can also change its name to the Jewish Republic of Israel, like the Islamic Republic of Iran. Granted, the loyalty oath bill that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to have passed purportedly only deals with new citizens who are not Jewish, but it affects the fate of all of us.

For decades, we have futilely dealt with the question of who is a Jew. Now the question of what is Jewish will not go away. What is the "state of the Jewish nation"? Does it belong more to Jews in the Diaspora than to its Arab citizens? Will they decide its fate and will this be called a democracy? Will the ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta sect, which opposes the state's existence, along with hundreds of thousands of Jews who have avoided coming do whatever they want with it? What is Jewish? Jewish holidays? Kosher dietary laws? The increased grip of the religious establishment, as if there is not enough of it now to distort democracy? Swearing an oath to a Jewish state will decide its fate. It is liable to turn the country into a theocracy like Saudi Arabia.

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