Abbas, Mashaal to meet Sunday to discuss Gaza truce
Showing posts with label Mahmoud Abbas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mahmoud Abbas. Show all posts
Abbas: I won’t allow a new intifada
TUNIS, (PIC)– De facto Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said that he would not allow the outbreak of a new intifada (uprising) against Israeli occupation.
It's Bad Enough When Israel Kiddnapps You , but Your Own People
THE WEST BANK, (PIC)– The armed militia of Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank continued the frenzied arrest campaign against the Palestinian resistance activists in the West bank as they kidnapped six Islamic Jihad activists in different parts of the region, local sources revealed.Taha: Abbas is confused
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| GAZA, (PIC)-- Ayman Taha, a Hamas leader, has described Fatah leader and de facto Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas as confused after his last statement that he was thinking of dissolving the Palestinian Authority. Taha told the PIC on Saturday night that Hamas had warned of the seriousness of going ahead in the settlement project since its very start. "We did not adopt this position from nowhere but rather from the enemy's clear stands mainly that it did not want to give anything but only wanted to ensure its security, recognition and normalization with the Arab world". He said that Hamas was adamant on its call for withdrawing from the negotiations and on for adopting a unanimous national program that would be based on resistance after the clear failure of the settlement project. As long as Abbas is acknowledging that there is no real Palestinian authority then why doesn't he adopt practical steps and boost the internal Palestinian front, stop prosecuting resistance fighters and release all those detained, Taha elaborated. Abbas had told the Fatah-controlled Palestine TV in Ramallah on Friday that he might dissolve the PA in the event no "peace agreement with Israel" was reached. He said that if Israel did not freeze settlement activity for three months as proposed by the USA then he would ask Washington and the UN to recognize a Palestinian state and if this was not materialized then he would consider dissolving the PA. |
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!
Wikileaks: Israel Assessed Abbas as Weak, Unpopular
-- JERUSALEM (AFP) --Senior Israeli defense and political figures described President Mahmoud Abbas as weak, unpopular and unlikely to survive politically past 2011, leaked US diplomatic cables showed on Monday.
In meetings with US representatives, Israeli officials ranging from then-opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, to senior defense official Amos Gilad expressed doubt about Abbas's political longevity.
"It was widely agreed that President Abbas is currently in a weakened political state, and Israeli officials generally cast a dour assessment of Abbas's future," said one cable, recounting details of a 2009 meeting between US assistant defense secretary Alexander Vershbow and Israeli defense officials.
"In one exchange, Amos Gilad stated his opinion that Abbas will not survive politically past the year 2011," the cable said.
Gilad, a senior policy official at the defense ministry, added that the "government of Israel has little faith in the Palestinian negotiating team."
The cables are part of a massive release of US embassy dispatches by whistleblower website WikiLeaks, which has so far published just several hundred of the reported quarter million US diplomatic cables it has obtained.
The files show Israel's long-standing assessment of Abbas as a weak figurehead unable to stand up to his political rivals, militant group Hamas.
In 2007, then-opposition leader and current Prime Minister Netanyahu told US lawmaker Gary Ackerman that Abbas was a "nice man who means well," but that Israeli and US efforts would be better focused on undermining Hamas.
"Without elaborating, Netanyahu said it would be easier to weaken Hamas than to strengthen Abbas," the cable from the US embassy in Tel Aviv said.
And in June 2007, Mossad director Meir Dagan told then-US homeland security advisor Frances Townsend that Abbas's Fatah party was so deeply unpopular that Israel was essentially propping up his regime.
"Only Israeli military operations against Hamas in the West Bank prevent them from expanding control beyond Gaza, lamented Dagan, without which Fatah would fall within one month and Abbas would join his 'mysteriously wealthy' son in Qatar," the cable said.
"Although he expressed his personal faith in Salam Fayyad, Dagan said that the Palestinian prime minister had no power base. Fatah as a party would have to completely reorganise itself in order to regain credibility, argued Dagan, but instead they have turned once again to the 'old guard.'"
On Monday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat criticized the reports of Dagan's remarks, saying the comments were "attempts to discredit the president, which raise a big question mark over the level of trust between us and them."
In meetings with US representatives, Israeli officials ranging from then-opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, to senior defense official Amos Gilad expressed doubt about Abbas's political longevity.
"It was widely agreed that President Abbas is currently in a weakened political state, and Israeli officials generally cast a dour assessment of Abbas's future," said one cable, recounting details of a 2009 meeting between US assistant defense secretary Alexander Vershbow and Israeli defense officials.
"In one exchange, Amos Gilad stated his opinion that Abbas will not survive politically past the year 2011," the cable said.
Gilad, a senior policy official at the defense ministry, added that the "government of Israel has little faith in the Palestinian negotiating team."
The cables are part of a massive release of US embassy dispatches by whistleblower website WikiLeaks, which has so far published just several hundred of the reported quarter million US diplomatic cables it has obtained.
The files show Israel's long-standing assessment of Abbas as a weak figurehead unable to stand up to his political rivals, militant group Hamas.
In 2007, then-opposition leader and current Prime Minister Netanyahu told US lawmaker Gary Ackerman that Abbas was a "nice man who means well," but that Israeli and US efforts would be better focused on undermining Hamas.
"Without elaborating, Netanyahu said it would be easier to weaken Hamas than to strengthen Abbas," the cable from the US embassy in Tel Aviv said.
And in June 2007, Mossad director Meir Dagan told then-US homeland security advisor Frances Townsend that Abbas's Fatah party was so deeply unpopular that Israel was essentially propping up his regime.
"Only Israeli military operations against Hamas in the West Bank prevent them from expanding control beyond Gaza, lamented Dagan, without which Fatah would fall within one month and Abbas would join his 'mysteriously wealthy' son in Qatar," the cable said.
"Although he expressed his personal faith in Salam Fayyad, Dagan said that the Palestinian prime minister had no power base. Fatah as a party would have to completely reorganise itself in order to regain credibility, argued Dagan, but instead they have turned once again to the 'old guard.'"
On Monday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat criticized the reports of Dagan's remarks, saying the comments were "attempts to discredit the president, which raise a big question mark over the level of trust between us and them."
WikiLeaks exposé: Israel tried to coordinate Gaza war with Abbas
In diplomatic cable documenting 2009 meeting, Defense Minister Barak says Egypt, PA refuse to take over Gaza in case of Hamas defeat.
By Barak Ravid "Haaretz" -- - Israel tried to coordinate the Gaza war with the Palestinian Authority, classified diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks said on Sunday, adding that both the PA and Egypt refused to take control of the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.
The whistle-blowing website obtained some 250,000 diplomatic cables between the U.S. and its allies, which Washington had urged the site not to publish.
In a June 2009 meeting between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and a U.S. congressional delegation, Barak claimed that the Israeli government "had consulted with Egypt and Fatah prior to Operation Cast Lead, asking if they were willing to assume control of Gaza once Israel defeated Hamas."
"Not surprisingly," Barak said in the meeting, Israel "received negative answers from both."
While similar reports of such attempts to link the PA and Egypt to Israel's war with Hamas had already surfaced in the past, the cable released by WikiLeaks on Sunday represents the first documented proof of such a move.
In the document, Barak also expressed his feeling that "the Palestinian Authority is weak and lacks self-confidence, and that Gen. Dayton's training helps bolster confidence."
The meeting which the cable documents took place just days before U.S. President Barack Obama's Cairo speech, and a few weeks after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first visit to the United States, a visit which revealed the deep differences between Obama and himself.
The cable also refers to what Barak describes as the debate within the Israeli cabinet in regards to a "development of a response to President Obama's upcoming speech in Cairo."
By Barak Ravid "Haaretz" -- - Israel tried to coordinate the Gaza war with the Palestinian Authority, classified diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks said on Sunday, adding that both the PA and Egypt refused to take control of the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.
The whistle-blowing website obtained some 250,000 diplomatic cables between the U.S. and its allies, which Washington had urged the site not to publish.
In a June 2009 meeting between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and a U.S. congressional delegation, Barak claimed that the Israeli government "had consulted with Egypt and Fatah prior to Operation Cast Lead, asking if they were willing to assume control of Gaza once Israel defeated Hamas."
"Not surprisingly," Barak said in the meeting, Israel "received negative answers from both."
While similar reports of such attempts to link the PA and Egypt to Israel's war with Hamas had already surfaced in the past, the cable released by WikiLeaks on Sunday represents the first documented proof of such a move.
In the document, Barak also expressed his feeling that "the Palestinian Authority is weak and lacks self-confidence, and that Gen. Dayton's training helps bolster confidence."
The meeting which the cable documents took place just days before U.S. President Barack Obama's Cairo speech, and a few weeks after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first visit to the United States, a visit which revealed the deep differences between Obama and himself.
The cable also refers to what Barak describes as the debate within the Israeli cabinet in regards to a "development of a response to President Obama's upcoming speech in Cairo."
Mahmoud Abbas Caves In: Recognizes the US as a Jewish State
1. In a major breakthrough engineered by the great man of change and hope and who has blocked access to all documents that tell us anything about him, Israeli Vice President for American Affairs (IVPAA), Barrack Hussein Obama, the Israeli Vice President for Palestinian Affairs (IVPPA), Mahmoud Abbas, has made a major compromise. In a press conference in Herzeliyya, Abbas has offered Netanyahu a huge concession. Both the House and Senate in the US are ready to vote on it as soon as Netanyahu gives the go ahead, the bill having been drafted by AIPAC, as usual. Abbas’ statement is included in the photo- op image below. (Click on image for full size)
(photo courtesy of Skulz Fontaine)- Peace is just busting out all over.2. You know, Abbas just may be on to something. All you investigative journalists who read this blog, and you FBI guys too, want might to pay attention to what ever the hell is going on in the East Ramapo Central School District. It’s quite a tangled web, but it looks like a bunch of Orthodox Jews (in other words fundamentalist extremists like the ones who are stealing land from Palestinians left, right and center) are pulling a West Bank on a bunch of poor blacks and Latinos.
Now I know that everyone is all worried about Shari’ah law and that we are all mourning for the boring, dull and apparently quite smart Juan Williams, who got fired from a boring, dull and quite smart network so he can work full time for people who do things for which people like Julius Streicher were hanged at Nuremberg, I know you all are just weeping for Juan and all that shit.
But how about coming on a trip on the wings of the tuyuur here at Mantiq al-Tayr and we’ll get a bird’s eye view of a microcosm of these formerly great United States?
Trevor Brookins, who says he is an investigative reporter, writes the following about the East Ramapo Central School District in Rockland County, New York. The district has lots of minorities and also a Jewish community. (Note to Shas party members, the red highlights are mine.)
Over the past decade this Jewish community has utilized its political prerogative and gained a majority of seats on the school board to then authorize more and more funds and services to be allocated to the Yeshivas. Ignore for a moment that these Yeshivas are somehow classified as public schools and therefore receive tax funds while operating in a private manner in that they do not admit non-Jewish children.
Say it ain’t so, Shlomo. The school board is being run by a bunch of Orthodox Jews and the Jewish schools get tax dollars and don’t admit non-Jewish kids? Who’d a thunk it? But it gets better. Much better.
Mr. Brookins continues:
There are still two major problems that continue to grow in significance. First, there is the steady reallocation of funds from schools with an inclusive student population (heterogeneous ethnically and religiously) to schools that are exclusively Jewish; second, there is the steady decrease in the amount of non-Jewish students and families in the district which makes the dissolution of the district more and more a possibility.
Not surprisingly, we get a nice picture of this community in the Forward. Although the majority population is not Jewish, 6 of the 8 elected members of the school board are Orthodox Jews. The school board Chairman whose name is, and I am not making this up, Nathan Rothschild, defends what’s going on. The Forward reports:
The president of the school board, an Orthodox Jew from Monsey named Nathan Rothschild, who is seen by some observers as playing a mediating role between the Orthodox and non-Orthodox members of the board, said that Orthodox board members have an interest in providing a good education to the public school students. But he also made clear that he saw himself as a representative of the “private school community.”
And it looks like the Orthodox are being well represented:
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“Rothschild pointed to three factors that led to the Orthodox community’s ultimate push for a school board majority: population growth, a state law that reimbursed school districts for busing private school students and changing attitudes within the Orthodox community toward the needs of the developmentally disabled. In 2005, representatives of the Orthodox community took the school board majority for the first time.“
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Looks like access to state funding for private education was just too appealing. But it gets better. The Orthodox-dominated board decided it just had to close one of the schools attended by those useless goyim. And then, surprise surprise, the school board sells the property to Congregation Yeshiva Avir Yaakov for under market value. Pretty cool huh? Oh wait, turns out not only has someone filed suit and blocked the sale, it also turns out that for some mysterious reason the school board was not aware that it owed 3 million dollars to the State of New York for improvements to the property it was selling to the Yeshiva. No doubt this is a coincidence. It’s all right there in the Forward article.
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Oh, I almost forgot to mention that the town of Ramapo loves Israel. It even has a sister city in Israel called Beit Shemesh. This is nice, especially since Israelis seem to like to live in Ramapo such as these sixteen families of Israelis who are living there illegally who got the boot over the summer. The article points out that Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, who seems to be a complete shill, is closely supported by the two Rabbis who run the Yeshiva that settled these families against the orders of a court injunction. In fact, this article here shows even more attempts at creating “housing” disguised as living for religious students. People in Ramapo are pissed.
In fact, it turns out that two “laws” are being used by the Yeshivas to set up more and more “housing” for Jews coming there from G-d knows where. Christopher St. Lawrence seems to be all for it. Wonder why.
The Preserve Ramapo people are careful how they go about fighting the destruction of their community. Here they show how St. Lawrence caved to “religious developers“. Wonder what religion? Actually it does get named in the article, but the Preserve folks are very hesitant to mention it. Wonder why?
Could you imagine if Muslims were pulling this shit? Palin, Angle, Beck the whole lot of zio-assholes would be screaming “Shakira law” at the top of their zionist-bullshit-filled lungs.
This whole mess deserves some real in-depth investigative journalism.
There is so much here that needs exploring. I bet the roots of all this run pretty deep. I guess Mahmoud Abbas was correct in calling for a halt of continued Israeli settlement construction in the US.
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3. I’ve never liked Juan Williams. As far as I can tell he’s never had an original thought his whole life. But given all the zionist bullshit that is fed Americans by the very media in which he believes and of which he is apart, I don’t think he should have been fired from his job with National Patrician Radio. Most Americans are now afraid of Muslims, and with Williams now joining the enemy of the people full time he can make big bucks giving that bunch of zionist agents more credibility. For that, I loathe him.
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4. Danielle Crittenden, who should be writing for Moron.Com, gets ripped a whole new asshole by the Anonymous Arabist for what she says about Muslims in this piece. It’s a good read. And no, Ms. Crittendon should not be fired. Maybe she should take a job with Fox News though.
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5. Okay, I need something to put me, and I hope you, in a good mood. One day, when I get my own radio show on the Rense network, the song in the video below is going to be used for my bumper music. (First I’ll need to be fired by Alex Jones for talking about Israel and by RBN for talking about the USS Liberty, but I digress.)
Now I just love the facial expressions of all the dudes in this video, but especially those of the skinny guitarist who is playing between Booker T and the drummer. He just looks like he’s doing the one thing he loves most, and I enjoy that. I believe he is Steven Cropper and that he is also the lead guitarist in the much later video of the same song which I’ve linked to further below. BTW, according to the comments for the first video, when the video pans back to the dudes standing behind the stage, those dudes are Credence Clearwater Revival.
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I present to you Booker T and the MG’s with “Time is Tight.” If this song doesn’t make you feel good, you must be living in a Yeshiva in Ramapo.
And here’s Booker T and the MG’s, oh, just a few years later. More power to them.
October 25, 2010 by /mantiqaltayr.
Fatah, Hamas agree to resume talks
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal (R) and acting Palestinian Authority (PA) Chief Mahmoud Abbas.
Press TV - The Hamas and Fatah movements have agreed to hold the second round of talks in a bid to iron out their disagreements on inter-Palestinian reconciliation.
The Fatah-Hamas negotiations "might be held in Damascus following indirect contacts with the Syrians to overcome a dispute with (acting Palestinian Authority Chief) Mahmoud Abbas," Xinhua quoted senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad on Sunday.
The Fatah official further pointed out that the summit is expected to be held next week.
The negotiations would focus on an Egyptian plan that was introduced to the two factions last year to put an end to the current political brawls and duels in the Palestinian territories.
The leaders of the two main political factions in the Palestinian territories had previously agreed to hold their second meeting in the Syrian capital on 20th October. But the scheduled timing was delayed due to Hamas' rejection of Fatah's request to hold the negotiations in another Arab country.
Meanwhile, Salah Bardaweel, a Hamas lawmaker in the Gaza Strip, brushed aside speculations that the recognition of Israel's existence on the part of Hamas movement would resolve the conflict and pave the way for reconciliation.
“Fatah leaders should not waste their time searching for similarities in the political platforms of Hamas and Fatah,” Bardaweel said.
Earlier this month, Abbas and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad traded barbs during the recent Arab summit in Libya, wherein the PA chief was accused of acquiescing to Israel and US demands to return to the negotiating table with Israel.
PLO Urges Abbas To Quit Peace Talks
Influential Palestinian leaders urge President Abbas to quit direct talks with Israel, owing to settlement construction."Al Jazeera" - -An influential Palestinian body has urged the Palestinian president to quit direct talks with Israel, saying there should be no further peace talks as long as Israel continued settlement construction in the occupied territories.
Reading from a statement on Saturday, Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee, said Israel's failure to extend a 10-month partial freeze in settlement construction in the West Bank has made the negotiations "devoid of any meaning."
The Israeli government bore "full responsibility for the current impasse in the peace process" and "the collapse of negotiations," Rabbo continued.
The PLO statement, which comes just days before an Arab League committee meets on the issue, exerts more pressure on the Palestinian president to disengage from the direct talks--a decision he said he would make after the Arab League consultations.
Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, has repeatedly threatened to walk out of the US-sponsored talks if the moratorium is not extended. The direct talks were relaunched a month ago with a declared goal of a two state solution within a year.
Abbas has said he would not make a final decision on the talks until after meeting Arab foreign ministers in Libya on Friday, giving US mediators another few days to try to strike a compromise.
'Foiling efforts'
In order to continue the talks, the PLO committee demanded that Israel make similar concessions.
"The resumption of negotiations requires tangible steps from Israel and the international community beginning with a halt of settlement activity," the PLO statement said.
"We have alternatives [to the negotiations] which we will announce soon," it said after holding a special meeting attended by Abbas and members of his Fatah movement's Central Committee. It did not provide further details.
"The Palestinian leadership holds the Israeli government responsible for foiling the international efforts and the peace process in the region because it is determined to combine negotiations with settlements," it added.
The PLO, a Fatah-dominated umbrella group headed by Abbas that includes most Palestinian factions but not Hamas, is the Palestinians' sole internationally recognised representative.
Fatah, meanwhile, appeared to have adopted an even harder line on the negotiations, with one member of the Central Committee suggesting the international community reconsider Israel's existence.
"The ball is now in the court of the international community to stop the unilateral aggression on Palestinian lands on which a Palestinian state must be established," Jibril Rajub, a leading member of the Fatah movement, said.
"If the world cannot do that, then it should re-examine the legitimacy of the continued existence of the state of Israel, which was established with an international birth certificate."
The Arab League follow-up committee on the peace talks will meet to form its own position on Friday in the Libyan city of Sirte, officials in Cairo said, after the meeting was postponed twice.
Settlement activity
Abbas - who previously secured the endorsement of a group of Arab foreign ministers for launching indirect peace talks and then again for upgrading to direct talks - plans to announce his position after the meeting.
"We want the Arab follow-up committee to support the Palestinian position on the negotiations," Rabbo told the AFP news agency after Saturday's meeting.
"But we have taken a decision on the negotiations and we will bear the consequences."
A Palestinian official, meanwhile, said on condition of anonymity that Abbas would ask for Arab and international assistance in bringing the settlements issue before the UN Security Council.
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, allowed the restrictions to end despite international pressure, but has said he will restrain settlement construction and repeatedly urged the Palestinians to continue the talks.
George Mitchell, the US special envoy for the peace process, held meetings with both sides last week before heading for meetings with Arab leaders in a bid to keep the peace talks alive.
He arrived in Cairo on Saturday after holding talks in Qatar.
The Palestinians have long viewed the presence of some 500,000 Israelis in more than 120 settlements scattered across the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem as a major obstacle to the establishment of a viable state.
The international community considers all settlements illegal.
Reading from a statement on Saturday, Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee, said Israel's failure to extend a 10-month partial freeze in settlement construction in the West Bank has made the negotiations "devoid of any meaning."
The Israeli government bore "full responsibility for the current impasse in the peace process" and "the collapse of negotiations," Rabbo continued.
The PLO statement, which comes just days before an Arab League committee meets on the issue, exerts more pressure on the Palestinian president to disengage from the direct talks--a decision he said he would make after the Arab League consultations.
Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, has repeatedly threatened to walk out of the US-sponsored talks if the moratorium is not extended. The direct talks were relaunched a month ago with a declared goal of a two state solution within a year.
Abbas has said he would not make a final decision on the talks until after meeting Arab foreign ministers in Libya on Friday, giving US mediators another few days to try to strike a compromise.
'Foiling efforts'
In order to continue the talks, the PLO committee demanded that Israel make similar concessions.
"The resumption of negotiations requires tangible steps from Israel and the international community beginning with a halt of settlement activity," the PLO statement said.
"We have alternatives [to the negotiations] which we will announce soon," it said after holding a special meeting attended by Abbas and members of his Fatah movement's Central Committee. It did not provide further details.
"The Palestinian leadership holds the Israeli government responsible for foiling the international efforts and the peace process in the region because it is determined to combine negotiations with settlements," it added.
The PLO, a Fatah-dominated umbrella group headed by Abbas that includes most Palestinian factions but not Hamas, is the Palestinians' sole internationally recognised representative.
Fatah, meanwhile, appeared to have adopted an even harder line on the negotiations, with one member of the Central Committee suggesting the international community reconsider Israel's existence.
"The ball is now in the court of the international community to stop the unilateral aggression on Palestinian lands on which a Palestinian state must be established," Jibril Rajub, a leading member of the Fatah movement, said.
"If the world cannot do that, then it should re-examine the legitimacy of the continued existence of the state of Israel, which was established with an international birth certificate."
The Arab League follow-up committee on the peace talks will meet to form its own position on Friday in the Libyan city of Sirte, officials in Cairo said, after the meeting was postponed twice.
Settlement activity
Abbas - who previously secured the endorsement of a group of Arab foreign ministers for launching indirect peace talks and then again for upgrading to direct talks - plans to announce his position after the meeting.
"We want the Arab follow-up committee to support the Palestinian position on the negotiations," Rabbo told the AFP news agency after Saturday's meeting.
"But we have taken a decision on the negotiations and we will bear the consequences."
A Palestinian official, meanwhile, said on condition of anonymity that Abbas would ask for Arab and international assistance in bringing the settlements issue before the UN Security Council.
Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, allowed the restrictions to end despite international pressure, but has said he will restrain settlement construction and repeatedly urged the Palestinians to continue the talks.
George Mitchell, the US special envoy for the peace process, held meetings with both sides last week before heading for meetings with Arab leaders in a bid to keep the peace talks alive.
He arrived in Cairo on Saturday after holding talks in Qatar.
The Palestinians have long viewed the presence of some 500,000 Israelis in more than 120 settlements scattered across the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem as a major obstacle to the establishment of a viable state.
The international community considers all settlements illegal.
Abbas proves He Is A Sellout to Gaza - Question is - will he sell out Palestine?
 | ABBAS GUILTY OF TREASON |
Unbelievable .... Unforgiveable!
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is opposed to lifting
the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip because this would bolster Hamas ....
Abbas to Obama: I'm against lifting the Gaza naval blockade
The Palestinian president reportedly told Obama that lifting the naval blockade of Gaza would bolster Hamas, a move that shouldn't be done at this stage.
By Barak Ravid
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is opposed to lifting the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip because this would bolster Hamas, according to what he told United States President Barack Obama during their meeting at the White House Wednesday. Egypt also supports this position.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once more put off announcing the creation of a committee of inquiry into the naval commando raid on the Gaza Strip flotilla, and the matter will not be brought before the cabinet for a vote this morning.
 | Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and U.S. President Barack Obama |
| Photo by: Archive |
Netanyahu and his advisers had hoped to announce the establishment of a committee of inquiry as early as yesterday evening for a vote in the cabinet today. Nonetheless, the Prime Minister's Bureau said yesterday evening that the conditions have not matured for such an announcement "due to political reasons."
Talks have been held with the U.S. administration and several European countries to rally support for the mandate of the committee of inquiry and approval of its makeup. The Americans have rejected - a number of times - Israel's proposals and asked that a retired Supreme Court justice head the probe. The issue was resolved when Justice Yaakov Tirkel was proposed for the post.
The Americans have also been busy with the issue of sanctions against Iran at the United Nations Security Council and also with the visit to the U.S. capital by Abbas and so exchanges with Netanyahu's bureau on the committee of inquiry were delayed.
Apparently, there is another cause for delay involving exchanges between the Americans, Israel and European countries concerning the proposed foreign observers on the committee of inquiry and their authority. One of the foreign observers on the committee will be a senior American jurist. Washington has made it clear that the administration would like at least two European observers to be involved in order to strengthen the legitimacy of the Israeli panel.
The issue of the Gaza flotilla and lifting the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip was the main topic of discussion between Obama and Abbas last Wednesday night.
European diplomats updated by the White House on the talks said that Abbas had stressed to Obama the need of opening the border crossings into the Gaza Strip and the easing of the siege, but only in ways that do not bolster Hamas.
One of the points that Abbas raised is that the naval blockade imposed by Israel on the Strip should not be lifted at this stage. The European diplomats said Egypt has made it clear to Israel, the U.S and the European Union that it is also opposes the lifting of the naval blockade because of the difficulty in inspecting the ships that would enter and leave the Gaza port.
Abbas told Obama that actions easing the blockage should be done with care and undertaken gradually so it will not be construed as a victory for Hamas. The Palestinian leader also stressed that the population in the Gaza Strip must be supported, and that pressure should be brought to bear on Israel to allow more goods, humanitarian assistance and building materials for reconstruction. Abbas, however, said this added aid can be done by opening land crossings and other steps that do not include the lifting of the naval blockade.
On Friday, Netanyahu met with Quartet representative Tony Blair in his office. This was the third meeting between the two during the last eight days, and centered on ways of easing the blockade on the Strip.
Senior Israeli officials and European diplomats say there is agreement that policy on the blockade should be altered, but this should be done carefully and discretely.
"There is agreement that no major declarations should be made so Hamas will not to be allowed to score points," a source familiar with the talks with Blair said.
Sounds Like A Give Away to Me!
When Abbas told Jewish Leaders he would never deny Jews their right to the land of Israel, How much land and what land is he talking about. Don't forget some of these wacko's consider Israel to go all the way to Iraq. Let's not forget that Hamas is the democratically elected party in Palestine and what about the will of Palestinians.
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According to participants of two-hour roundtable discussion, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told U.S. Jewish leaders on Wednesday that he would never deny Jews their right to “the land of Israel.”
Some 30 Jewish leaders from organizations such as AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations took part in the Washington meeting, which focused mainly on the indirect peace talks and violent incitements.
"I am sure some people don't agree with him but the fact that everybody showed up was pretty encouraging," one of the participants told Israeli daily Haaretz.
Abbas said during the discussion that he had in the past proposed creating a trilateral commission to monitor and punish incitement, but that Israel did not agree to it.
When asked what he could offer Israelis to show that he was serious about peace initiatives, Abbas reminded the participants that he had addressed the Israeli public in an interview on Channel 10. "Why wouldn't Bibi go to Palestinian TV and do the same?" said the Palestinian president.
"I would never deny [the] Jewish right to the land of Israel," Abbas then declared.
Later on Wednesday, Abbas told Charlie Rose in an interview on PBS that Israel must agree to ceding East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital as a necessary precondition for any peace settlement.
"East Jerusalem is occupied territory. The entire world recognizes that including the United States of America," Abbas told Rose. "We cannot accept any solution that excludes East Jerusalem."
During that interview, Abbas also lauded Barack Obama's administration and its efforts to bring forth a two-state solution. "This is the first time we hear from a U.S. administration talking about that the solution of a two-state solution is in the vital interest of the United States," said Abbas.
"The two-state solution is no longer only a Palestinian interest or an Israeli interest or a Middle East interest, but it is also an American interest."
Abbas's militia kidnap seven people including journalist
The source added that Salahat was kidnapped at Al-Jesser crossing by Abbas’s militias who also confiscated his ID card and travel documents as he was leaving for Jordan without providing any reason for his detention.
These militias had already kidnapped Salahat on March 28 upon his arrival in the occupied Palestinian lands against the backdrop of articles he wrote criticizing the PA and the current inter-Palestinian division.
In a separate incident, Abbas’s militias kidnapped six Palestinian citizens affiliated with Hamas in the districts of Nablus and Al-Khalil, according to a statement issued by Hamas on Tuesday.
For its part, informed sources reported that the unconstitutional government in Ramallah transferred the preachers and imams of the main mosques in Tulkarem to other places in order to limit their influence and reduce the number of worshipers who frequent these mosques.
Mahmoud Abbas Not being Good For His Israeli & U.S Masters?
Mossad ex-chief: Time to overthrow AbbasFormer Israeli spy chief Efraim Halevy berated the Palestinian Authority (PA) and President Mahmoud Abbas during an interview with Army Radio on Tuesday.
"The PA is useless and nothing but students of Israel and the US. As soon as the US and Israel stop funding the PA it will fade away. Abbas and his PA should know that and know to behave modestly with their threats against Israel," Halevy said during the program Good Morning Israel, hosted by Ghazi Burqai.
“Abbas is unnecessary and it is time to overthrow him. Israel has to find alternatives.”
Halevy, who also heads the Strategic Research Unit at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, added that the alternative to the PA would be Hamas, asserting that Israel had begun "opening lines [of communication], putting in plain words that Hamas is better than Abbas, his government and his authority."
Moreover, Halevy admonished Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan, accusing him of investing millions of dollars in Libya, adding that the PA had failed to abort security attacks against Israel and that, in fact, Shabak had been the force behind apprehending them.
The interview with the Mossad chief came after an interview with chief PLO negotiator Saeb Ereket in Qatar, in which Israel’s recent decision to continue settlement expansion in Jabal Zaytoun in East Jerusalem was discussed.
Erekat had explained that the PA condemns and rejects Israel's settlement policy and that Abbas would not resume negotiations until there is a complete standstill on construction.
In Todays Terror Watch A "Terrorist" Was Found Visiting The West Bank
A Palestinian man heckles Middle East envoy Tony Blair, calling him a "terrorist" during tour of a West Bank mosque before being subdued by bodyguards loyal to the sellout Abbas.
The former British prime minister was told what it is while visiting the ancient Ibraheemi Mosque, a location sacred to both Muslims and Jews, during an official trip to the West Bank city of Hebron.
Blair afterwards played down the incident as untypical of local feelings. This is a reaction that is very typical of most western leaders who kiss the ass of Israel and support the daily occupation of Palestinians giving Israel what they want while personally filling their own pockets and the pockets of their buddies while people in the country they serve suffer in hard times while Israel still receives millions for their crimes against the Palestinians.
The former British prime minister was told what it is while visiting the ancient Ibraheemi Mosque, a location sacred to both Muslims and Jews, during an official trip to the West Bank city of Hebron.
Blair afterwards played down the incident as untypical of local feelings. This is a reaction that is very typical of most western leaders who kiss the ass of Israel and support the daily occupation of Palestinians giving Israel what they want while personally filling their own pockets and the pockets of their buddies while people in the country they serve suffer in hard times while Israel still receives millions for their crimes against the Palestinians.
A Video Tape of Abbas Asking Barak to continue the war on Gaza?
Batoul Wehbe
Abbas Pressured to Quit over Report, Threatened with a Video Tape?
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is facing unusually harsh criticism from within Fatah and other Palestinian groups for his decision last week to withdraw a draft document requesting the United Nations Human Rights Council pursue the adoption of the Goldstone report which could have led to the prosecution of Israel for war crimes during its aggression in Gaza.Senior Hamas member Mahmoud al-Zahar has demanded that the Palestinian president resign for supporting the postponement of the UN vote. Al-Zahar told Al Jazeera that Abbas was guilty of “a very big crime against the Palestinian people” over the Palestinian Authority’s support to defer endorsing the report, which was highly critical of Israel’s conduct during the Gaza war.
“He is encouraging the Israeli military leaders to attack Gaza, to kill Hamas, and to kill people because they voted for Hamas; to postpone a very important report concerning the Israelis committing crimes against human beings,” al-Zahar said on Monday. “He should resign and he should seek a fair trial. He is not representing any of the Palestinian people.”
Hundreds of people in the West Bank city of Ramallah protested against the Palestinian Authority’s decision to support a delay to a UN vote on whether to endorse the findings of the report, which was authored by Richard Goldstone, a former South African judge. Protesters gathered on Monday waving placards saying the delay “insults the blood of the martyrs and wounds our people”.
Protests were also held in Jerusalem, where pro-Palestinian activists demanded an apology from Abbas. “If the government had anything to do with the decision we want it to resign,” Muhammad Jadallah, the head of the Coalition for Jerusalem, said.
Thirty-two Palestinian groups in Europe also called on Abbas to immediately step down from office. In a statement, the groups said “the step to delay the endorsement was not less dangerous than the atrocities committed by the Israeli occupation in Gaza”. During the three-week Gaza war, more than 1,400 Palestinians – one-third of them women and children – were killed.
Israel, meanwhile, has changed its diplomatic policy on the report, which it had vocally rejected as “biased”. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has instructed Israeli spokesmen not to comment on the report.
The adoption of the report by the 49-member UN Human Rights Council was seen as a key step towards eventually bringing war crimes charges against Israeli leaders at the International Criminal Court (ICC). The 575-page report blamed both the Israeli military and the Palestinian fighters for war crimes during Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip between December and January, but was more critical of Israeli troops for “targeting and terrorizing civilians”.
But the council on Friday deferred endorsement of the report until March, as requested by sponsors of the resolution, acting on behalf of the Palestinians. Sources have said that Abbas bowed to US pressure on the resolution, but the Palestinian president on Sunday dismissed the criticism.
FATAH ALSO ANGERED
Human rights organizations and Palestinian political factions – including the president’s own Fatah movement – had been escalating their expressions of anger and condemnation about their leadership’s decision to support the withdrawal. And many questions were being asked about how the crisis would affect ongoing efforts to reach national reconciliation.
Hamas, which has de facto control of Gaza and is the main political rival to Abbas’s Fatah faction, has appeared to rule out reconciliation under the present circumstances. Egypt has invited Hamas and Fatah to Cairo for negotiations on October 26 towards the formation of a national unity government, but al-Zahar said that the PA’s position on the Goldstone report made such a meeting futile.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh accused Abbas of personally instructing his representative in Geneva to revoke the representative’s demand that the Goldstone Report be adopted, and accused him of “betrayal” of his people. Haniyeh said that this was typical of the PA and that Palestinian unity talks would not succeed unless there was change in Ramallah.
There has been strong dissension within Fatah over the delay as well, with an unnamed official saying “the consent to defer the vote had cost us dear. We’ll need years to fix this mistake”.
“A VIDEO CAUSED REPORT’S WITHDRAWAL”
The Palestinian Shahab agency quoted well-informed US sources as saying that a video was behind the Palestinian Authority’s decision to withdraw support for Goldstone report. The agency said that a meeting was held in Washington in recent days between the representatives of the Palestinian Authority and Israeli delegation on the Gaza report. The sources pointed out that the PA representatives strongly rejected the Israeli request to defer the report and insisted on their position, until the Israeli Colonel Eli Avraham presented a video file displaying a dialogue which took place between Abbas and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in the presence of the former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
According to the same source, Abbas appeared in the video as trying to persuade Barak to continue the war on Gaza, while Barak seemed reluctant to the enthusiastic support from Abbas and Livni to continue the war.
The source pointed out that Avraham also introduced to the PA delegation a telephone conversation between the Israeli Chiefs of Staff office director Dov Weisglass and Tayeb Abdel Rahim, secretary general of the Palestinian presidency. Abdel Rahim was quoted as telling Weisglass that “conditions are ripe and ready for the Israeli army to enter Jabalia and Shatea camps”, adding that the downfall of the camps will end the rule of the Islamic Resistance (Hamas) in Gaza Strip.
According to the tape record, Weisglass told Tayeb Abdel Rahim that this will cause the killing of thousands of civilians. Abdul Rahim replied that “they all elected Hamas, they have chosen their own destiny, not us.” So, Israel blackmailed the PA with the video and tape in order to win against the Goldstone report.
Israeli Maariv newspaper had previously quoted the Israeli occupation Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi as saying that the Palestinian Authority represented by its president, went to war with Israel in Gaza. Ashkenazi sent a letter to the Israeli Attorney, in which he revealed that the Abbas maintained unprecedented cooperation with the Israeli occupation army during the Gaza war
Abbas Pressured to Quit over Report, Threatened with a Video Tape?
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is facing unusually harsh criticism from within Fatah and other Palestinian groups for his decision last week to withdraw a draft document requesting the United Nations Human Rights Council pursue the adoption of the Goldstone report which could have led to the prosecution of Israel for war crimes during its aggression in Gaza.Senior Hamas member Mahmoud al-Zahar has demanded that the Palestinian president resign for supporting the postponement of the UN vote. Al-Zahar told Al Jazeera that Abbas was guilty of “a very big crime against the Palestinian people” over the Palestinian Authority’s support to defer endorsing the report, which was highly critical of Israel’s conduct during the Gaza war.
“He is encouraging the Israeli military leaders to attack Gaza, to kill Hamas, and to kill people because they voted for Hamas; to postpone a very important report concerning the Israelis committing crimes against human beings,” al-Zahar said on Monday. “He should resign and he should seek a fair trial. He is not representing any of the Palestinian people.”
Hundreds of people in the West Bank city of Ramallah protested against the Palestinian Authority’s decision to support a delay to a UN vote on whether to endorse the findings of the report, which was authored by Richard Goldstone, a former South African judge. Protesters gathered on Monday waving placards saying the delay “insults the blood of the martyrs and wounds our people”.
Protests were also held in Jerusalem, where pro-Palestinian activists demanded an apology from Abbas. “If the government had anything to do with the decision we want it to resign,” Muhammad Jadallah, the head of the Coalition for Jerusalem, said.
Thirty-two Palestinian groups in Europe also called on Abbas to immediately step down from office. In a statement, the groups said “the step to delay the endorsement was not less dangerous than the atrocities committed by the Israeli occupation in Gaza”. During the three-week Gaza war, more than 1,400 Palestinians – one-third of them women and children – were killed.
Israel, meanwhile, has changed its diplomatic policy on the report, which it had vocally rejected as “biased”. The Israeli Foreign Ministry has instructed Israeli spokesmen not to comment on the report.
The adoption of the report by the 49-member UN Human Rights Council was seen as a key step towards eventually bringing war crimes charges against Israeli leaders at the International Criminal Court (ICC). The 575-page report blamed both the Israeli military and the Palestinian fighters for war crimes during Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip between December and January, but was more critical of Israeli troops for “targeting and terrorizing civilians”.
But the council on Friday deferred endorsement of the report until March, as requested by sponsors of the resolution, acting on behalf of the Palestinians. Sources have said that Abbas bowed to US pressure on the resolution, but the Palestinian president on Sunday dismissed the criticism.
FATAH ALSO ANGERED
Human rights organizations and Palestinian political factions – including the president’s own Fatah movement – had been escalating their expressions of anger and condemnation about their leadership’s decision to support the withdrawal. And many questions were being asked about how the crisis would affect ongoing efforts to reach national reconciliation.
Hamas, which has de facto control of Gaza and is the main political rival to Abbas’s Fatah faction, has appeared to rule out reconciliation under the present circumstances. Egypt has invited Hamas and Fatah to Cairo for negotiations on October 26 towards the formation of a national unity government, but al-Zahar said that the PA’s position on the Goldstone report made such a meeting futile.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh accused Abbas of personally instructing his representative in Geneva to revoke the representative’s demand that the Goldstone Report be adopted, and accused him of “betrayal” of his people. Haniyeh said that this was typical of the PA and that Palestinian unity talks would not succeed unless there was change in Ramallah.
There has been strong dissension within Fatah over the delay as well, with an unnamed official saying “the consent to defer the vote had cost us dear. We’ll need years to fix this mistake”.
“A VIDEO CAUSED REPORT’S WITHDRAWAL”
The Palestinian Shahab agency quoted well-informed US sources as saying that a video was behind the Palestinian Authority’s decision to withdraw support for Goldstone report. The agency said that a meeting was held in Washington in recent days between the representatives of the Palestinian Authority and Israeli delegation on the Gaza report. The sources pointed out that the PA representatives strongly rejected the Israeli request to defer the report and insisted on their position, until the Israeli Colonel Eli Avraham presented a video file displaying a dialogue which took place between Abbas and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in the presence of the former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
According to the same source, Abbas appeared in the video as trying to persuade Barak to continue the war on Gaza, while Barak seemed reluctant to the enthusiastic support from Abbas and Livni to continue the war.
The source pointed out that Avraham also introduced to the PA delegation a telephone conversation between the Israeli Chiefs of Staff office director Dov Weisglass and Tayeb Abdel Rahim, secretary general of the Palestinian presidency. Abdel Rahim was quoted as telling Weisglass that “conditions are ripe and ready for the Israeli army to enter Jabalia and Shatea camps”, adding that the downfall of the camps will end the rule of the Islamic Resistance (Hamas) in Gaza Strip.
According to the tape record, Weisglass told Tayeb Abdel Rahim that this will cause the killing of thousands of civilians. Abdul Rahim replied that “they all elected Hamas, they have chosen their own destiny, not us.” So, Israel blackmailed the PA with the video and tape in order to win against the Goldstone report.
Israeli Maariv newspaper had previously quoted the Israeli occupation Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi as saying that the Palestinian Authority represented by its president, went to war with Israel in Gaza. Ashkenazi sent a letter to the Israeli Attorney, in which he revealed that the Abbas maintained unprecedented cooperation with the Israeli occupation army during the Gaza war
Hamas: Abbas can't investigate himself
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered an investigation into why his own government delayed international action on a United Nations report calling for investigations on alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip.Reacting to this decision, the ruling Hamas movement in Gaza said the investigation was not enough. Party spokesperson Ismail Radwan said since Abbas is himself the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), he cannot investigate the PLO’s actions.
“We do not need to form a national investigating committee but to form a committee to bring to account those responsible [for the decision,]" Radwan said.
There was an outpouring of public anger at Abbas and his leadership when the PLO mission to the UN in Geneva dropped its endorsement of Justice Richard Goldstone’s report in the UN Human Rights Council last week. The PLO’s move, reportedly under US pressure, led the Council to delay action on Gaza until March 2010.
The secretary of the PLO Executive Committee, Yasser Abed Rabbo said in a statement, “after deliberations among President Abbas and members of the Executive Committee of the PLO, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, President Abbas issued a decree to form a committee to find the reasons behind postponement of the debate on Goldstone’s report at the UN Human Rights Council.
“The mission of the committee will be specifying the responsibilities concerning this issue and to submit a report to PLO Executive Committee within two weeks,” the statement added.
National consensus against deferral
In Gaza, the leaders of nationalist and Islamic political factions held a meeting to discuss the deferral of action on the UN’s report on Gaza. After the meeting, Islamic Jihad leader Muhammad Al-Hindi said that the factions agreed there needed to be an independent investigation into how the decision was made.
Al-Hindi said the factions also agreed to hold a “popular conference” in Gaza on Monday to give voice to what he said was a “national consensus” against “this dangerous precedent.”
“Those convening [the meeting] reject all of the naïve, misleading, contradictory justifications that were mentioned to excuse the postponement decision.”
Al-Hindi also said the groups praised the PLO itself for opposing the deferral and seeking an independent investigation.
Gaza-based Fatah leader Abdullah Abu Samhadana said his movement is part of a national consensus that rejects the decision to postpone action on the Goldstone report.
The PLO’s apparent capitulation in the Human Rights Council was widely denounced by the political factions, civil society organizations and the families of the victims of Israel’s three-week assault on Gaza last winter.
The latest official to condemn the PLO’s actions in the Human Rights Council was Salim Zanoun, the speaker of the Palestinian National Council (PNC). In a statement issued on Sunday afternoon, he said he was “shocked” at the decision to delay action on the report.
Zanoun said he supported calls for an investigation to find out who was responsible for the Geneva move.
According to the news agency AFP, Palestinian Authority Minister of National Economy Bassem Khoury tendered his resignation over the PA's involvement in the deferral of the Goldstone report. In an interview with Ma’an however, he refused to confirm or deny this report.
Also on Saturday, a coalition of 16 Palestinian human rights and legal organizations condemned the PA and PLO leadership in a news conference in Gaza.
“As human rights organizations we strongly condemn the Palestinian leaderships’ decision to defer the proposal endorsing all the recommendations of the Fact Finding Mission, and the pressure exerted by certain members of the international community,” the organizations said in a statement read at the news conference.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” the groups said.
“We do not need to form a national investigating committee but to form a committee to bring to account those responsible [for the decision,]" Radwan said.
There was an outpouring of public anger at Abbas and his leadership when the PLO mission to the UN in Geneva dropped its endorsement of Justice Richard Goldstone’s report in the UN Human Rights Council last week. The PLO’s move, reportedly under US pressure, led the Council to delay action on Gaza until March 2010.
The secretary of the PLO Executive Committee, Yasser Abed Rabbo said in a statement, “after deliberations among President Abbas and members of the Executive Committee of the PLO, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, President Abbas issued a decree to form a committee to find the reasons behind postponement of the debate on Goldstone’s report at the UN Human Rights Council.
“The mission of the committee will be specifying the responsibilities concerning this issue and to submit a report to PLO Executive Committee within two weeks,” the statement added.
National consensus against deferral
In Gaza, the leaders of nationalist and Islamic political factions held a meeting to discuss the deferral of action on the UN’s report on Gaza. After the meeting, Islamic Jihad leader Muhammad Al-Hindi said that the factions agreed there needed to be an independent investigation into how the decision was made.
Al-Hindi said the factions also agreed to hold a “popular conference” in Gaza on Monday to give voice to what he said was a “national consensus” against “this dangerous precedent.”
“Those convening [the meeting] reject all of the naïve, misleading, contradictory justifications that were mentioned to excuse the postponement decision.”
Al-Hindi also said the groups praised the PLO itself for opposing the deferral and seeking an independent investigation.
Gaza-based Fatah leader Abdullah Abu Samhadana said his movement is part of a national consensus that rejects the decision to postpone action on the Goldstone report.
The PLO’s apparent capitulation in the Human Rights Council was widely denounced by the political factions, civil society organizations and the families of the victims of Israel’s three-week assault on Gaza last winter.
The latest official to condemn the PLO’s actions in the Human Rights Council was Salim Zanoun, the speaker of the Palestinian National Council (PNC). In a statement issued on Sunday afternoon, he said he was “shocked” at the decision to delay action on the report.
Zanoun said he supported calls for an investigation to find out who was responsible for the Geneva move.
According to the news agency AFP, Palestinian Authority Minister of National Economy Bassem Khoury tendered his resignation over the PA's involvement in the deferral of the Goldstone report. In an interview with Ma’an however, he refused to confirm or deny this report.
Also on Saturday, a coalition of 16 Palestinian human rights and legal organizations condemned the PA and PLO leadership in a news conference in Gaza.
“As human rights organizations we strongly condemn the Palestinian leaderships’ decision to defer the proposal endorsing all the recommendations of the Fact Finding Mission, and the pressure exerted by certain members of the international community,” the organizations said in a statement read at the news conference.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” the groups said.
Abbas helps Israel bury its crimes in Gaza
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada
Just when it seemed that the Ramallah Palestinian Authority (PA) and its leader Mahmoud Abbas could not sink any lower in their complicity with Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the murderous blockade of Gaza, Ramallah has dealt a further stunning blow to the Palestinian people.
The Abbas delegation to the United Nations in Geneva (officially representing the moribund Palestine Liberation Organization) abandoned a resolution requesting the Human Rights Council to forward Judge Richard Goldstone's report on war crimes in Gaza to the UN Security Council for further action. Although the PA acted under US pressure, there are strong indications that the commercial interests of Palestinian and Gulf businessmen closely linked to Abbas also played a part.
The 575-page Goldstone report documents evidence of shocking Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity during last winter's assault on the Gaza Strip which killed 1,400 Palestinians, the vast majority noncombatants and hundreds of them children. The report also accuses the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas of war crimes for firing rockets into Israel that killed three civilians.
Goldstone's report was hailed by Palestinians and supporters of the rule of law worldwide as a watershed; it called for suspects to be held accountable before international courts if Israel failed to prosecute them. Israel has no history, ever, of holding its political and military leaders judicially accountable for war crimes against the Palestinians.
Israel was rightly terrified of the report, mobilizing all its diplomatic and political resources to discredit it. In recent days, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that if the report were acted on, it would "strike a severe blow to the war against terrorism," and "strike a fatal blow to the peace process, because Israel will no longer be able to take additional steps and take risks for peace if its right to self-defense is denied."
Unsurprisingly, an early ally in the Israeli campaign for impunity was the Obama Administration, whose UN ambassador, Susan Rice, expressed "very serious concerns" about the report and trashed Goldstone's mandate as "unbalanced, one-sided and basically unacceptable." (Rice was acting true to her word; in April she told the newspaper Politico that one of the main reasons the Obama Administration decided to join the UN Human Rights Council was to fight what she called "the anti-Israel crap.")
Goldstone, whose daughter has publicly described her father as a Zionist who loves Israel, is a former judge of the South African Supreme Court, and a highly respected international jurist. He was the chief prosecutor at UN war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
That the Goldstone report was a severe blow to Israel's ability to commit future war crimes with impunity is not in doubt; this week bolstered by the report, lawyers in the UK asked a court to issue an arrest warrant for visiting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. That action did not succeed, but Israel's government has taken extraordinary measures in recent months to try to shield its officials from prosecution, fearing that successful arrests are just a matter of time. Along with the growing international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions, the fear of ending up in The Hague seems to be the only thing that causes the Israeli government and society to reconsider their destructive path.
One would think, then, that the self-described representatives of the Palestinian people would not casually throw away this weapon. And yet, according to Abbas ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi, the Ramallah PA shelved its effort at the request of the Americans because "We don't want to create an obstacle for them."
Khraishi's excuse that the resolution is merely being deferred until the spring does not pass muster. Unless action is taken now, the Goldstone report will be buried by then and evidence of Israel's crimes -- necessary for prosecutions -- may be harder to collect.
This latest surrender comes less than two weeks after Abbas appeared at a summit in New York with US President Barack Obama and Netanyahu despite Obama abandoning his demand that Israel halt construction of Jewish-only settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Also under US pressure, the PA abandoned its pledge not to resume negotiations unless settlement-building stopped, and agreed to take part in US-mediated "peace talks" with Israel in Washington this week. Israel, meanwhile, announced plans for the largest ever West Bank settlement since 1967.
What makes this even more galling, is the real possibility that the PA is helping Israel wash its hands of the blood it spilled in Gaza for something as base as the financial gain of businessmen closely linked to Abbas.
The Independent (UK) reported on 1 October:
"Shalom Kital, an aide to defense minister Ehud Barak, said today that Israel will not release a share of the radio spectrum that has long been sought by the Palestinian Authority to enable the launch of a second mobile telecommunications company unless the PA drops its efforts to put Israeli soldiers and officers in the dock over the Israeli operation." ("Palestinians cry 'blackmail' over Israel phone service threat," The Independent, 1 October).
Kital added that it was a "condition" that the PA specifically drop its efforts to advance the Goldstone report. The phone company, Wataniya, was described last April by Reuters as an "Abbas-backed company" which is a joint venture between Qatari and Kuwaiti investors and the Palestinian Investment Fund with which one of Abbas' sons is closely involved. Moreover, Reuters revealed that the start-up company apparently had no shortage of capital due to the Gulf investors receiving millions of dollars of "US aid in the form of loan guarantees meant for Palestinian farmers and other small to mid-sized businesses" (See "US aid goes to Abbas-backed Palestinian phone venture," Reuters, 24 April 2009).
Just a day before the Abbas delegation pulled its resolution in Geneva, Nabil Shaath, the PA "foreign minister" denounced the Israeli threat over Wataniya as "blackmail" and vowed that the Palestinians would never back down.
The PA's betrayal of the Palestinian people over the Goldstone report, as well as its continued "security coordination" with Israel to suppress resistance and political activity in the West Bank, should banish all doubt that it is an active arm of the Israeli occupation doing tangible and escalating harm to the Palestinian people and their just cause.
Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.
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| Representing the moribund Palestine Liberation Organization, the executive committee of which seen here, Mahmoud Abbas has abandoned a resolution to hold Israel accountable for its alleged war crimes in Gaza. (MaanImages/POOL/Omar Rashidi) |
Just when it seemed that the Ramallah Palestinian Authority (PA) and its leader Mahmoud Abbas could not sink any lower in their complicity with Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the murderous blockade of Gaza, Ramallah has dealt a further stunning blow to the Palestinian people.
The Abbas delegation to the United Nations in Geneva (officially representing the moribund Palestine Liberation Organization) abandoned a resolution requesting the Human Rights Council to forward Judge Richard Goldstone's report on war crimes in Gaza to the UN Security Council for further action. Although the PA acted under US pressure, there are strong indications that the commercial interests of Palestinian and Gulf businessmen closely linked to Abbas also played a part.
The 575-page Goldstone report documents evidence of shocking Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity during last winter's assault on the Gaza Strip which killed 1,400 Palestinians, the vast majority noncombatants and hundreds of them children. The report also accuses the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas of war crimes for firing rockets into Israel that killed three civilians.
Goldstone's report was hailed by Palestinians and supporters of the rule of law worldwide as a watershed; it called for suspects to be held accountable before international courts if Israel failed to prosecute them. Israel has no history, ever, of holding its political and military leaders judicially accountable for war crimes against the Palestinians.
Israel was rightly terrified of the report, mobilizing all its diplomatic and political resources to discredit it. In recent days, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that if the report were acted on, it would "strike a severe blow to the war against terrorism," and "strike a fatal blow to the peace process, because Israel will no longer be able to take additional steps and take risks for peace if its right to self-defense is denied."
Unsurprisingly, an early ally in the Israeli campaign for impunity was the Obama Administration, whose UN ambassador, Susan Rice, expressed "very serious concerns" about the report and trashed Goldstone's mandate as "unbalanced, one-sided and basically unacceptable." (Rice was acting true to her word; in April she told the newspaper Politico that one of the main reasons the Obama Administration decided to join the UN Human Rights Council was to fight what she called "the anti-Israel crap.")
Goldstone, whose daughter has publicly described her father as a Zionist who loves Israel, is a former judge of the South African Supreme Court, and a highly respected international jurist. He was the chief prosecutor at UN war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
That the Goldstone report was a severe blow to Israel's ability to commit future war crimes with impunity is not in doubt; this week bolstered by the report, lawyers in the UK asked a court to issue an arrest warrant for visiting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. That action did not succeed, but Israel's government has taken extraordinary measures in recent months to try to shield its officials from prosecution, fearing that successful arrests are just a matter of time. Along with the growing international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions, the fear of ending up in The Hague seems to be the only thing that causes the Israeli government and society to reconsider their destructive path.
One would think, then, that the self-described representatives of the Palestinian people would not casually throw away this weapon. And yet, according to Abbas ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi, the Ramallah PA shelved its effort at the request of the Americans because "We don't want to create an obstacle for them."
Khraishi's excuse that the resolution is merely being deferred until the spring does not pass muster. Unless action is taken now, the Goldstone report will be buried by then and evidence of Israel's crimes -- necessary for prosecutions -- may be harder to collect.
This latest surrender comes less than two weeks after Abbas appeared at a summit in New York with US President Barack Obama and Netanyahu despite Obama abandoning his demand that Israel halt construction of Jewish-only settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Also under US pressure, the PA abandoned its pledge not to resume negotiations unless settlement-building stopped, and agreed to take part in US-mediated "peace talks" with Israel in Washington this week. Israel, meanwhile, announced plans for the largest ever West Bank settlement since 1967.
What makes this even more galling, is the real possibility that the PA is helping Israel wash its hands of the blood it spilled in Gaza for something as base as the financial gain of businessmen closely linked to Abbas.
The Independent (UK) reported on 1 October:
"Shalom Kital, an aide to defense minister Ehud Barak, said today that Israel will not release a share of the radio spectrum that has long been sought by the Palestinian Authority to enable the launch of a second mobile telecommunications company unless the PA drops its efforts to put Israeli soldiers and officers in the dock over the Israeli operation." ("Palestinians cry 'blackmail' over Israel phone service threat," The Independent, 1 October).
Kital added that it was a "condition" that the PA specifically drop its efforts to advance the Goldstone report. The phone company, Wataniya, was described last April by Reuters as an "Abbas-backed company" which is a joint venture between Qatari and Kuwaiti investors and the Palestinian Investment Fund with which one of Abbas' sons is closely involved. Moreover, Reuters revealed that the start-up company apparently had no shortage of capital due to the Gulf investors receiving millions of dollars of "US aid in the form of loan guarantees meant for Palestinian farmers and other small to mid-sized businesses" (See "US aid goes to Abbas-backed Palestinian phone venture," Reuters, 24 April 2009).
Just a day before the Abbas delegation pulled its resolution in Geneva, Nabil Shaath, the PA "foreign minister" denounced the Israeli threat over Wataniya as "blackmail" and vowed that the Palestinians would never back down.
The PA's betrayal of the Palestinian people over the Goldstone report, as well as its continued "security coordination" with Israel to suppress resistance and political activity in the West Bank, should banish all doubt that it is an active arm of the Israeli occupation doing tangible and escalating harm to the Palestinian people and their just cause.
Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.
'Abbas played role in Arafat assassination plot'
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Yasser Arafat died on November 11, 2004. |
A senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) says the 'assassination' of the late Authority Chief Yasser Arafat was the result of an Israeli-Palestinian plot.
Farouk Qaddumi, head of PLO's political department, claimed in the Jordanian capital that the acting head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas had played a part in an Israeli plot to kill the former head of the PLO, ISNA reported.
Qaddumi unveiled a document that showed the details an Israeli-Palestinian meeting which was held to discuss the killing of Arafat and some senior Hamas leaders.
According to the document, Abbas, a prime minister under Yasser Arafat, and senior Fatah leader Mohammad Dahlan had attended the meeting, which had also brought together a US delegation and former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Qaddumi claimed Arafat himself had sent him a copy of the document.
Qaddumi said, after being informed about the plot, he urged Arafat to leave the Palestinian territories as soon as possible.
But Arafat preferred to confront the plot, he said.
Farouk Qaddumi, head of PLO's political department, claimed in the Jordanian capital that the acting head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas had played a part in an Israeli plot to kill the former head of the PLO, ISNA reported.
Qaddumi unveiled a document that showed the details an Israeli-Palestinian meeting which was held to discuss the killing of Arafat and some senior Hamas leaders.
According to the document, Abbas, a prime minister under Yasser Arafat, and senior Fatah leader Mohammad Dahlan had attended the meeting, which had also brought together a US delegation and former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Qaddumi claimed Arafat himself had sent him a copy of the document.
Qaddumi said, after being informed about the plot, he urged Arafat to leave the Palestinian territories as soon as possible.
But Arafat preferred to confront the plot, he said.
This is a compliment to Affif Safieh to be fired by Abbas?
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Afif Safieh is the most skilled and effective Palestinian diplomat having served in London and Washington prior to his Moscow assignment. The Authority and the President should be thankful for having such a talent in the service of Palestine and the Palestinian people and not treat Ambassador Safieh so shabbily.
Afif Safieh is the most skilled and effective Palestinian diplomat having served in London and Washington prior to his Moscow assignment. The Authority and the President should be thankful for having such a talent in the service of Palestine and the Palestinian people and not treat Ambassador Safieh so shabbily.
During his tenure in Washington he vividly demonstrated what an Arab Ambassador can do to raise awareness and garner public support for our cause. He was by far the most effective Arab ambassador in Washington I have seen in over 40 years.
We have to let the President, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs know that the loss of Afif's service is a huge setback to the Palestinians effort to have the world hear and understand our story.
Finally, what was the sin committed by the Palestinian Ambassador for attending a rally in Moscow denouncing the brutal and criminal Israeli attack against the Palestinian population of Gaza irrespective of who organized this rally? Is it a crime nowadays to defend the rights of ALL Palestinians when they are subjected to such horrors? Abu Mazen should have fired Safieh had he NOT attended.
Safieh's dismissal for attending the rally speaks volumes about other considerations and motives.
It also put all Palestinian diplomats on edge and created a lot of uncertainties about what they can do and what is taboo according to President Abbas. This action also installs the security officers in Palestinian embassies as spies as well as judges and jury with Abbas unilaterally pulling the trigger before asking hardly any questions. What was the reaction of Safieh's immediate supervisor, the Foreign Minister, to this action which effectively sidelined him.
Basem
Abbas fires ambassador to Moscow for attending Hamas's rally on Gaza
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MOSCOW, (PIC)-- The veteran Palestinian diplomat Afif Safia, who serves as Palestine ambassador in Moscow was "arbitrarily" fired from his post by former PA chief and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas for attending a rally organized by Hamas Movement on Gaza tragedy, the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper revealed Thursday. According to the paper, Safia protested the decision and sent an official protest petition to Abbas, explaining that in his capacity as the Palestinian ambassador in Russia, he attended the rally which focused on the brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip that left 1500 Palestinians dead, 6000 wounded, and tens of thousands of families homeless. He was quoted as saying that he would serve Palestine at any time and in any place, although he prefers to remain at his current post as ambassador. The security officer in the PA embassy in Moscow sent a report to Ramallah, criticizing and accusing Safia of publicly praising Hamas, which was immediately reacted upon by the Ramallah authority and ordered Safia out of his post, the paper added. In his speech during the Hamas-organized rally, Safia stressed that the great sacrifices of the Palestinian people in Gaza Strip and the victory they achieved on the Israeli occupation army requires different approach and performance on the part of Ramallah authority. |