An Israeli Snub to "Very Valuable" Turkey?

Israel and Syria: Can Turkey Be a Mediator?

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Maybe it's because Israeli leaders had a busy day on Thursday --- debating Palestine, considering the economy, getting their hair done --- but I can't help thinking that this may be a snub. At Turkey's Republic Day reception in Israel, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, the Industry, Trade and Labor Minister, was the only Israeli politician to be found. President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon all declined their invitations.

Asked whether this was a form of protest, a spokesman for Peres said she had nothing to add. Lieberman's spokesman stated only that the Foreign Minister would not attend and did not give any detail. A spokesman for Netanyahu said the prime minister had other obligations Thursday night. A spokeswoman for Ayalon said on Wednesday that he was not able to attend due to "scheduling problems".

Ben-Eliezer did speak at the reception on the "very valuable" Israeli-Turkish relationship and said that it was a "great privilege to be here to today with good friends and to commemorate the 86th Republic Day of Turkey". Then he added, "Both [Israel and Turkey] cooperate strategically - we must make the utmost of efforts to put the train of our friendship back on track."

Israel-Palestine: Peres "Hamas Used Children as Human Shields"

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On Monday, Israeli President Shimon Peres told schoolchildren at Kibbutz Cabri, in northern Israel, that, unlike Hamas, Israel protects its children and does not send them in front of its military forces:

In the media they say that more children are killed on the Palestinian side, and that children are not killed on ours.

And I say this is right. We know how to give security to our children, defend the children, not use them as human shields and not send them out in front of us.

The question isn't only a question of price; we are up against an organization that has no rules, has no laws, and is impossible to trust - an organization which uses children as shields.

Israel: Clinton Arrives on Saturday for Talks

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The US Government said yesterday that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will make her first official visit to Israel on Saturday following her meeting with Arab leaders in Morocco. President Obama's envoy George Mitchell will bein Israel for preparatory discussions from Thursday.

Clinton is expected to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and President Shimon Peres on Sunday.

Israel-Palestine: Space for a US-Brokered Solution Narrows

Bring It On: Israel Counter-attacks UN over Gaza Enquiry
Palestine: Suffering Life at Israeli Checkpoints

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Is there any space left for the US as the "honest broker" of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks?

On Tuesday night, President Obama declared, on the eve of Israeli President Shimon Peres's Facing Tomorrow Conference in Jerusalem, that Israeli-US relations were "more than a strategic alliance." In a speech full of praises on Peres, he added:

Our moment in history is filled with challenges that test our will and invite pessimism. We can choose to defer action, to sustain a dangerous status quo, or we can meet the challenges of our time head-on. Like you, I believe now is the time to act.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhQaubxx6Rw[/youtube]

Obama's speech was undercut, however, by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Ostensibly, he was calling for "peace", by putting the burden upon Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas:

Now it is your turn to say the truth about peace, the need for it and the true way to achieve it. What is important is to do it publicly, not just behind closed doors; to say the truth about peace publicly, to our people and to the Palestinian people.

The problem is that Netanyahu's demands comes in the context of a series of Israeli conditions on the talks, including the dispute over expansion of settlements and Tel Aviv's insistence on addressing of specific economic and security issues rather than the general recognition of a Palestinian state. So PA negotiator Saeb Erekat, who happened to be in Washington, pointedly said, "There's no agreement" and accused Israel of feigning interest in negotiations while claiming the Palestinians were preventing progress.

Israeli representatives were unable to reach common ground with Palestinians over three demands put by the latter: the start of the negotiations would be accompanied by a statement saying the goal was to reach an agreement within two years; the goal would the establishment of a Palestinian state with permanent borders based on an Israeli withdrawal; and there would a complete halt to construction of settlements, including in East Jerusalem. Late Tuesday, Israeli sources stated that negotiations failed.

Still the US persists. On Wednesday, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice told Israelis to "relaunch Middle East talks now" At Peres's conference, she said: "As President Peres always reminds us, being serious about peace means taking risks for peace. Being serious about peace means understanding that tomorrow need not look like yesterday."

That is enough for now, it appears, to keep the idea of a negotiation alive. After the message of the Obama Administration, One Israeli official said, "There appears to be a meeting of the minds and hopefully the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue will be able to re-start in the near future." Another explained under the prospective deal, on which Palestinians have not yet commented, the negotiations could be held on the basis of two UN Security Council resolutions, 242 and 338, from the 1960s and 1970s.

The resolutions call for "withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict"; however, each party interprets this in its own way. For Palestinians, it obliges Israelis to withdraw unconditionally to pre-1967 borders, whereas Israel interprets this as a partial withdrawal.

So far from making Washington's task easier, the border issue may bring talks to a critical stage. Unless Israel is willing to drop its step-by-step approach in favour of a grand resolution, or conversely the Palestinians are willing to compromise on a de facto Israeli occupation while other issues are considered, there will be a stalemate, if not a dramatic collapse. Saed Erekat's words, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepared her detailed report on talks to Obama, laid the foundation for blame rather than agreement, "The report would identify the spoiler in the talks."

Bring It On: Israel Counter-attacks UN over Gaza Enquiry

Palestine: Suffering Life at Israeli Checkpoints

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Under the terms of the Goldstone Report on the Gaza War, now approved by the UN Human Rights Council, Israel and Hamas are required to conduct internal enquiries into the conduct of their military forces.

Fat chance.

On Tuesday, Israel's President Shimon Peres told CNN that the Goldstone Report "one-sided" and "unfair".





Peres' statement was mere prelude to the full Israeli resistance. In fact, for resistance, insert "counter-attack". On Tuesday, the Israeli Cabinet and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, promising a lengthy battle to "delegitimize" the findings of the United Nations commission, established a committee to deal with the prospect of "legal proceedings abroad against the state of Israel or its citizens."

Even Defense Minister Ehud Barak, seen as the moderate amongst senior Israeli ministers, refused to discuss the possibility of a Governmental investigation: "There is no need for a committee of inquiry. The Israeli military knows to examine itself better than anyone else."

Meanwhile Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman chose a diversionary strategy of undermining the Israel-Palestine peace process. He told his European Union counterpart Javier Solana:

The policy of subversion carried out by the Palestinian Authority against the State of Israel, which follows decisions at the Fatah conference in August in which there were calls for the resumption of the armed struggle, raises serious questions about the real aims of the Palestinians. The question now is whether the Palestinians want to establish a state, or to destroy the state of Israel.