Three days this week to kill the peace process

November 27, 2012 2 Comments

This week, in the space of three days, the chances of a two-state peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians have drifted apart to an extent that may well prove unredeemable. Last night (Tuesday 27th), the Likud party primaries in Israel moved the party firmly in a right-ward (ie non-two-state) direction, epitomised by the long-awaited electoral success of Moshe Feiglin. Feiglin, a settler who carries a support base within Likud of 12-15,000, is firmly on the religious right in Israeli politics and wants to offer an alterative to Oslo and the two-state solution. Feiglin is just one of the candidates on the right of the party to have taken Likud even more right-wing than they already were as the nations main right-wing party!

Meanwhile, in New York, PA chief Mahmoud Abbas is preparing to speak to the General Assembly of the UN on Thursday and ask for Observer status for a Palestinian state that doesn’t exist! He already has at least 150 of the available 193 votes committed to him, so acceptance of his nonsensical application is assured.

So what do these two events mean for peace? Read more of this post

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And when you’ve got your “casus belli”…..

November 15, 2012 1 Comment

PSC anti-Israel rally near Israeli embassy
(courtesy of @ LaurenBoothUK)

There’s no way Israel will lose militarily in the current clashes with Hamas terrorists in Gaza but in the propaganda war, with the world’s media, governments and pro-Palestinian organisations steeped in unjustified prejudice against the Jewish state, it is a different matter.

Israel’s Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and UK Ambassador Daniel Taub, having learned from previous public relations debacles, were quick off the mark to register plus points. Netanyahu today told a press conference that he had explained Israel’s position with American President Barack Obama, United Nations General-Secretary Bank ki-Moon, European Union Foreign Minister Dame Katherine Ashton, French President Francois Hollande, and Quartet Representative Tony Blair, and they had sympathised with his decision to counter the four-day non-stop missile barrage from Gaza.He said the destruction of Hamas’s missile stockpiles had sent a clear message that Israel will not tolerate indiscriminate rocket attacks on its civilian population.

Taub, commenting on Israel’s aerial strikes, told the BBC: “What we did succeed in doing is taking out the vast majority of Hamas’s arsenal and that has to be a step in the right direction.” He warned that Israel could send ground forces into Gaza “in order to ensure peace and quiet for the citizens of southern Israel? Doing nothing is simply not an option. We have to recognise that restraint is a means and not an end.” Taub’s latter comment was a veiled reference to US President Obama and UK Foreign Secretary William Hague who have urged both sides to show restraint.

With the Palestine Solidarity Campaign predicting an attendance of 900 at their “To counter Israel’s killing spree in Gaza” protest tonight (Thursday, November 15) outside the Israeli Embassy, London, Britain’s Zionist Federation (ZF) issued an emergency notice to encourage supporters to join a counter demonstration. A ZF media release stated: “Following a relentless barrage of rocket attacks into Southern Israel, Israel has launched Operation Pillar of Cloud to defend itself. From 2005 until Operation Cast Lead 5,000 rockets were fired into Israel. In this calendar year alone 800 rockets were fired into Israel. More than 125 rockets and mortars have fallen on Israel since Saturday afternoon. The duty of any government is to ensure the security of its inhabitants and this is why Israel will target those who seek their destruction.” Read more of this post

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Peace Talks or No Peace Talks – We’ve Been Here Before, I Think!

April 18, 2012 1 Comment

“Palestinians hand Netanyahu letter, Fayyad absent” – I think this was the Reuters headline, but whoever composed it had it retweeted solid for over two hours this evening (and possibly for the rest of the night) on the “Twitsphere” (or is it “Tweetiverse”?).

So Mahmoud Abbas is sending Bibi love-letters and Fayyad is jealous – no, I don’t think so somehow. But we do know, because the letter was conveniently “leaked” earlier today, that much of the content is the same old same old. Just a week ago, the Quartet (see here) encouraged both the Israelis and the Palestinians to sit down again without preconditions (something Bibi has said so often that maybe we should believe him) – and now the long-awaited letter is sent, containing the same old preconditions (settlements, Jerusalem, ’67 borders, return of refugees…). The Daily Beast summarised the alleged contents of Abbas’ letter to Netanyahu here.

This time, the threat if these preconditions are ignored is that the PLO will return to the UN and seek recognition for a state from the General Assembly; something they would almost certainly get but which would mean little in reality from the point of view of seeing a real nation state come into being. What it would do is give the PA some leverage in using UN agencies and bodies in their ongoing political campaigns against Israel.

You may have missed it, but the PA suffered a setback Read more of this post

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