On Thursday, U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell spoke with Abbas and urged him not to walk away from indirect peace negotiations with Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he believes indirect talks with the Palestinian Authority will continue as planned early next week despite the crisis. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley added:
I don’t think that that report that’s been circulating for the last 24 hours is accurate,” Crowley said. “As far as I know, we are still moving forward. We have not heard from the Palestinians that they have pulled out.
Before US Vice President Joe Biden left for Jordan, he said in Tel Aviv University the US was interested in “putting everything back on the rails.” However, the Palestinian Authority’s chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat said that the PA would start the indirect talks “if Mitchell informs us that the Israeli plan has been canceled.
Following Biden’s golden statement in Tel Aviv University, saying that the US has no other friend like Israel, in an interview with Haaretz, Shas chairman and Interior Minister Eli Yishai who authorized 1,600 housing units in East Jerusalem emphasized the “unique relationship” with Washington. He said:
Our relationship with the Americans is above all else. It is an alliance that has survived complicated periods, and I had no intention of harming those ties, or to challenge the American administration, or to present obstacles to this important visit by the Vice President.
On Friday, with anticipation of renewed Jerusalem riots in response to a recent government decision to expand settlements in East Jerusalem, Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered Israeli Defense Forces to impose a general closure on the West Bank, preventing Palestinians from entering Israel. The West Bank will be sealed off for 48 hours.
Responding to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration that he was prepared to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad immediately and without preconditions, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told the pan-Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat that Israel must first declare its intention to withdraw to the 1967 borders before any Syrian-Israeli talks can take place.
The Syrian foreign minister said that there is no point in “putting the cart before the horse” and that “Israel must withdraw from the occupied territories before Syria and Israel can meet”.
Despite the exchange of threats between Damascus and West Jerusalem last month and the trilateral meeting of Hezbollah’s Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Assad in Syria on 25 February, Israel’s training exercise “Firestones 12″, which took place in northern Israel last week, conspicuously omitted simulations of war with Syria. Instead, the Israel Defense Forces fought mock battles in preparation for clashes with Hezbollah in Lebanon or Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The army also cancelled emergency call-up drills for large numbers of regular forces and reserves, fearing Syria might mistake such a move as mobilization for war.
But in line with Haaretz’s Gideon Levy’s article “Israel Does Not Want Peace,” it can be said that Israel seeks no talks to resolve the problem; instead, it suspends this possibility while never missing any chance of upholding Damascus’s hostility. At the end of the day, Syria is bound to play the “bad guy” for Israeli officials, isn’t it?
Netanyahu’s Iran Speech: Speaking to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday depicted Iran as a runaway train and the international community as a rail car waiting on the edge. “There is a technological clock and a diplomatic clock. The technological clock is like a runaway train and the international community like a car that is about to decouple.”
On the diplomatic clock, Netanyahu mentioned the Israeli delegation in China and described a “wide range of mutual interests” between Beijing and Israel. Netanyahu stated that he was not successful in obtaining Moscow’s consent to tougher sanctions on Tehran but said he witnessed “more understanding there regarding the dangers the Iranian nuclear program poses to us, to regional peace and world stability”.
Obama Administration’s Next Message to be in Israel: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is due in Israel on March 8, for a three-day visit that will also include the Palestinian Authority. An Israeli political source has told Haaretz that Biden would like “to make a speech that is important and significant for Israeli-American relations”. The aims of this high-level visit to Israel are to ensure that Israel’s response will be restricted with the diplomatic track and to give a strong “alliance” message to Israelis as President Obama gave in Turkey and Egypt last year.
Netanyahu announced on Sunday that the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem (all in the West Bank) would both be added to the list of national heritage sites that the government plans to promote. He said that the rightist religious party Shas persuaded him add the two sites to the list and added:
Our existence depends not only on the IDF or our economic resilience – it is anchored in…the national sentiment that we will bestow upon the coming generations and in our ability to justify our connection to the land.
Following an unproductive Russia visit, a high-ranking Israeli delegation is to leave at the end of the month for Beijing. Both officials will not only talk about the increasing financial cooperation between two countries but also the request for sanctions on Tehran. Haaretz underlines that Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman have not visited China and held no significant talks with Chinese officials on the Iranian issue but have always held meetings with the rest of the 5+1 camp (Russia, USA, Germany, UK, France).
With two Israeli army officers, “disciplined” for firing artillery shells towards a densely-populated area near a UN compound, still not facing a criminal investigation by the Israeli Defense Forces, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon confirmed on Thursday that he had received a full internal report from the Israelis.
This document completely expresses Israel’s commitment to conduct an honest internal probe according to the standards of international law. Despite the difficult conditions of fighting against Hamas terror, Israel has stringently abided by international norms and will continue to do in the future – though our foremost obligation is to protect our citizens.
However, The Independent of London reported a confession from a high-ranking Israeli official who talked to Israel’s Yedhiot Ahronot. The officer said that the Israeli army went beyond its previous rules of engagement, concerning the protection of civilian lives, to minimise military casualties during the Operation Cast Lead. The senior commander said:
Means and intentions is a definition that suits an arrest operation in the Judaea and Samaria [West Bank] area… We need to be very careful because the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] was already burnt in the second Lebanon war from the wrong terminology. The concept of means and intentions is taken from different circumstances. Here [in Cast Lead] we were not talking about another regular counter-terrorist operation. There is a clear difference.
According to the newspaper, a more junior officer who served during the operation described the new policy as one of “literally zero risk to the soldiers” as a part of the policy to avoid the heavy military casualties of the 2006 Lebanon war.
Last week, Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon met with Britain’s Attorney-General Baroness Scotland of Asthal to discuss how British law may affect Israeli officials visiting the United Kingdom. Ayalon called the current situation “insufferable”: ”This will make it difficult for the two countries to maintain a normal relationship.”
The meeting follows the revelations that a delegation of Israel Defense Forces officers canceled a planned visit to the UK after the British hosts failed to guarantee that arrest warrants would not be issued.
Baroness Scotland said that she is aware of how much Israel is heeding an urgent solution and of the very same attention British are currently showing to solve the problem. However, Ayalon continued:
If the British law remains unchanged, this would undermine the good relations between the two countries who share common values and interests. The British must bear in mind that these visits serve both countries.
Israeli Defense Forces, commanded by the government of Ehud Olmert, started Operation Cast Lead on 27 December 2008. The operation took the lives of 1,400 Palestinians, including many civilians, and of 13 Israelis.
The officially-stated aim was to halt rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip. “For the first time in years, the children of southern Israel can grow up without the constant fear of an incoming rocket and running to the nearest bomb shelter,” Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev asserted on Sunday. So, the mission was “accomplished“ since there was no rockets coming over children in playgrounds.
Was it?
In a televised speech, the Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh said, “Gaza was victorious. Yes, Gaza was victorious with its steadfastness, its firmness and strength of faith.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the US. He was supposed to meet President Barack Obama, but last-minute rescheduling by the White House is now seen as an indication of “strained relations”.
On Monday, Netanyahu spoke at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, portraying Israel as “a small yet great Jewish state”. That fits Netanyahu’s emphasis on security, with “small” Israel surrounded by enemies, and the rejection of a Palestinian state with a military and a continued blockade of Gaza. It leads to Israel’s concern that Mahmoud Abbas will not be seeking re-election as President of the West Bank and its headlining of the “existential threat” of Iran.
Netanyahu thanked Obama and the US Congress for opposing the Goldstone Report on Gaza. He also made clear, however, that small Israel cannot withstand an influx of refugees (i.e., the “right of return” demanded since 1948 by Palestinians) and preconditions restricting Israeli settlements. So “small” Israel and the “big” US remain deadlocked on a way forward in talks over Palestine.
On Thursday, U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell spoke with Abbas and urged him not to walk away from indirect peace negotiations with Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he believes indirect talks with the Palestinian Authority will continue as planned early next week despite the crisis. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley added:
Last week, Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon met with Britain’s Attorney-General Baroness Scotland of Asthal to discuss how British law may affect Israeli officials visiting the United Kingdom. Ayalon called the current situation 
Israeli Defense Forces, commanded by the government of Ehud Olmert, started Operation Cast Lead on 27 December 2008. The operation took the lives of 1,400 Palestinians, including many civilians, and of 13 Israelis.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the US. He was supposed to meet President Barack Obama, but last-minute rescheduling by the White House is now seen as an indication of “strained relations”.
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