i/p roundup: Olmert's confidant, "withdraw from most of West Bank" UPDATE

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Friday July 27, 2007 · 10:07 AM PDT

2007/07/27 · 10:07

I continue with optimism:

One of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's closest confidants said Friday that Israel should withdraw from "most" of the West Bank in a negotiated deal with the Palestinians and that a previous plan for a major unilateral pullback was no longer viable.

Vice-premier Haim Ramon, one of the politicians closest to Olmert, told Israel Radio that he favored reducing the Israeli presence in the West Bank to the "large settlement blocs" and that NATO forces could replace Israeli troops in the areas evacuated.

"In my eyes, the occupation of the territories threatens our very existence, our legitimacy and our international standing," Ramon said in the radio interview.

http://news.yahoo.com/...

mattes

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Tuesday July 24, 2007 · 8:54 AM PDT

2007/07/24 · 08:54

"If they won’t make this pledge to you, do not support them," Carter urged. "This is it: ‘If elected president I will do everything possible to promote negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians to achieve peace and security for Israel and a secure and contiguous state for the Palestinians.’ If they won’t tell you that, don’t support them," the former president said to enthusiastic applause.

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What will final bring peace to the Middle East?

Better guns, bombs, or missile defense?

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Hamas confronting Islamic Jihad rocket launchers

mattes

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Sunday July 22, 2007 · 1:18 PM PDT

2007/07/22 · 13:18

Hamas members foil attack on IDF forces

Palestinian sources report members of Hamas' security force arrested Islamic Jihad member as he attempted to plant explosive device near border fence

Members of Hamas' special security force arrested an armed member of the al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad's military wing, as he attempted to place an explosive device near the border fence in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday evening.

Israel has no immediate plans to re-invade Gaza, seems Hamas is being given more time.

mattes

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Friday July 20, 2007 · 12:09 PM PDT

2007/07/20 · 12:09

Every day the Knesset has the option of passing laws that will advance Israel as a democratic Jewish state or turn it into a racist Jewish state. There is a very thin line between the two. This week, the line was crossed. If the Knesset legal counselor did not consider the bill entitled "the Jewish National Fund Law" as sufficiently racist to keep it off the agenda, it is hard to imagine what legislation she will consider racist.

Who is Haaretz you ask? It is one of Israel's most liberal newspapers. And they are fighting for their country, too. Are they self-hating? No....I say they are life affirming.

mattes

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Tuesday July 10, 2007 · 11:25 AM PDT

2007/07/10 · 11:25

The Israeli court continues to delay the building of the Wall on Palestinian land. And now some companies benefiting financially are told to stop providing aid:

Dutch gov't warns company to stop work on W. Bank fence

The Dutch foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, recently warned a construction company from the Rotterdam area to terminate its involvement in work on the separation fence in the West Bank.

"I expect Riwal to stop providing cranes for the wall. I hope this will be the last we hear of it," Verhagen said in a media statement late last month, adding that "the government will keep a close watch" on the company's actions.

The Dutch foreign ministry called the company's work on the barrier "undesirable," citing the 2004 ruling by the Hague-based International Court of Justice that the fence was illegal.

http://www.haaretz.com/...

mattes

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Sunday July 08, 2007 · 10:36 AM PDT

2007/07/08 · 10:36

What a surprise! senior lawyers who wrote the interim Palestinian constitution say President Mahmoud Abbas exceeded his powers in appointing an emergency government to replace a Hamas-led cabinet without parliamentary approval.

Washington, which imposed the boycott when Haniyeh took office in March 2006, embraced as "legitimate" the cabinet Abbas appointed after Hamas routed his Fatah forces in the Gaza Strip on June 14. The European Union also "emphatically" backed Abbas's actions as "in keeping with the Palestinian Basic Law".

Israel has 40 members of Palestine parliament in jail...

mattes

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Friday July 06, 2007 · 11:32 AM PDT

2007/07/06 · 11:32

Israel's biggest challenge, the fight over land:

The day after he entered the Defense Ministry, Barak gave the order that structures, mobile homes and shipping containers erected in the West Bank without permits not be permitted to see the light of day. He said he would not allow the existence of "disputed buildings," like the Jewish settlers' compound in Hebron that was established and populated right under the nose of the Israel Defense Forces. The ignorance, whether intentional or the result of negligence, of the new enterprise dragged the security establishment and attorney general into legal proceedings, whose outcome is unknown.

mattes

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Thursday July 05, 2007 · 8:40 AM PDT

2007/07/05 · 08:40

By an offensive in gaza:

7 Palestinians killed, 2 IDF soldiers hurt in Gaza

Israel Defense Forces tanks and infantry crossed into the central Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing seven Palestinian militants, including six from the Islamist Hamas group that controls the coastal territory. Three of the militants were killed in an Israel Air Force strike that followed a gunbattle on the ground.
snip

Palestinian medics said 13 people, including children, were wounded. A Hamas cameraman who was injured by what witnesses said was a tank shell was seen later being shot in the legs from afar as he lay on the ground.

Film on CNN shows young unarmed men running and being shot.

mattes

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Wednesday July 04, 2007 · 10:24 AM PDT

2007/07/04 · 10:24

Two dogmas have ruled Israeli policies for decades: "Always deal with only one Arab nation, and avoid meeting together with all of them," and "Never allow for a permanent international peace conference because it might push us into corners from which we cannot escape." The result has been a "wait-and-see" strategy that assumes that time is on our side.

But "wait and see" is no longer an option.
http://www.haaretz.com/...

Olmert and Company will not meet with the Arab League because they will not agree to the Saudis conditions to include Hamas. Yet Hamas says: "give us a try".

mattes

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Tuesday July 03, 2007 · 7:02 PM PDT

2007/07/03 · 19:02

For over a week, Hamas leadership has tried to get British journalist Alan Johnston released.

And he has now been freed.

The 45-year-old Briton was taken into the care of officials from the Hamas movement, which seized full control of Gaza three weeks ago.

"He is sitting with his colleagues from the BBC office in Gaza," one witness said. "He is talking to them and he looks fine and well".

One source involved in the effort to free Johnston said the journalist may join Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh for a news conference before being taken to British diplomats for a journey home that would involve him leaving the Gaza Strip for Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/...

mattes

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Monday July 02, 2007 · 8:11 PM PDT

2007/07/02 · 20:11

Maybe Congress is listening to world opinion.

Leahy did score one achievement, which should not be be counted as a part of the story I was just telling. This achievement is an amendment that will prevent Israel from buying cluster bombs with American aid money. The bill approved by the Appropriations Committee includes a measure, sponsored by Leahy and Feinstein, that would restrict the sale or transfer of cluster bombs. No military funds will be used for such bombs unless "the cluster bombs have a failure rate of one percent or less; and the sale or transfer agreement specifies that the cluster bombs will be used only against clearly defined military targets and not where civilians are known to be present." The Lebanon war is the reason for the passage of this amendment in the Senate committee this year.

mattes

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Wednesday June 27, 2007 · 11:48 AM PDT

2007/06/27 · 11:48

I wish I was a better writer. This subject is so important. And the minute-by-minute decisions our politicians make influences so many millions of people, for good or for a potentially unbearable and caustic life. If I believe in one thing, is that all the facts have to come out and be debated before a plan is implemented.

After the unexpected takeover by Hamas in Gaza, Hamas began confronting the clan responsible for kidnapping a British journalist. And this week helped reopen the negotiations of releasing the Israeli soldier Shalit.

At first I thought if Hamas really wanted to bring law and order to Gaza, stop the qassam rockets, get Hamas politicians out of IDF custody, and begin to lead as they were elected to do by the people of Palestine, they should show good faith by working to release Shalit. Israel has acted first, and wants to release 250 Palestinians to show their "good will", but only to Fatah, furthering destroying the Unity Government.

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