Welcome to Team Shalom Fry'd Daze. Fry'd Daze is a long running series dedicated to dialogue in the Middle East. Currently we are in our second year. These diaries are not intended to be a flame forum, but rather something where community members can meet and exchange ideas about I/P and/or issues that concern the Middle East.
Generally, these diaries take the form of four to five news articles and short commentary selected by the diarist. These stories however, are just a platform to get discussion going. The diaries from now on will publish under the banner of the Team Shalom
What is Team Shalom:
"Team Shalom is Team Peace. We are a group of Kossacks supporting a fair, pragmatic, and realistic resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the two-state solution. We support Israel's continued existence as a Jewish and democratic state, with it existing alongside Palestine, a Palestinian and democratic state, as friends and neighbors. We believe this is the only way forward and the only way to achieve an enduring peace. This is the view endorsed by the overwhelming majority of the world's nations, including the Quartet, which consists of the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations."
So please participate. The only thing we ask is that you keep comments respectful, reality based and please no use of Anti-Semetic or Anti-Arab memes. Enjoy!
For our first story we have Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad updates U.S. on plan for Palestinian statehood in 2011
Fayyad stressed to Gates the importance of meeting the September deadline set in what he called the "Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State" program, a statement issued by the premier's office said.
According to this two year program, by the end of August the Palestinians would have completed building their state institutions and enforced security on the ground, to allow them to establish their independent state.
Fayyad told Gates that Israeli restrictions are obstructing Palestinian efforts to build their state institutions. He also said that Israel's settlement expansion and military incursions into Palestinian Authority-run cities in the West Bank caused problems.
In a related story: In Russia, Abbas asks Israel for 'peace, not war'
UFA, Russia (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that he hopes officials will take the Middle East Quartet meeting in April as an opportunity to push forward the peace process.
Speaking from the Republic of Bashkortostan alongside his counterpart there, the president said "Palestinians are determined to achieve peace through negotiations," and that he hoped Israelis shared the sentiment.
President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad who earlier both condemned the Itamar massacre and the Terrorist Bombing in Jerusalem are continuing their international efforts (which I think will be successful this time around) to change the dynamics of this conflict. But as they go around supporting Peace, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and some (not all of their allies in Hamas) are ramping up the conflict in Gaza and are firing once again at Israeli civilian targets and at the same time Israeli retaliatory raids are also being stepped up. Haaretz is reporting that: Hamas calls on UN to halt Israel's strikes on Gaza
Tensions along the Israel-Gaza border have been extremely tense over the course of the past week, with an increase in both rocket fire from Gaza and retaliatory air strikes by Israel on the Strip.
In the most recent exchange, the Israel Air Force bombed an arms depot in northern Gaza, which according to Palestinian sources, belong to the military wing of Hamas.
The attack was carried out around 8:30 P.M. Thursday local time, after two rockets and several mortars fired from Gaza landed deep into Israel earlier in the day.
In a separate report carried by Israeli media, contacts from Hamas and Israel are supposedly meeting with a third party in order to bring about a reduction in tensions between the sides. The report, which cannot be confirmed, came from the London based pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.
In other news... It has been a tumultuous week for Liberal Zionists. Jeremy Ben-Ami head of J Street (a Liberal Pro-Israel Zionist organization) went to Israel to talk to the Knesset regarding it's status as a "Pro-Israel" organization. Surprisingly, (in the diarists mind) they were met rejection from the Israeli Government and outright hostility from the Israeli Right Wing. In a time when Israel is becoming much more isolated internationally and facing what is going to be a defining time for the State to turn on it's Liberal American supporters is strange. Both Carlo Strenger in his column Israel’s problem is the settlements, not J Street and Brad Burston's in his piece: The new self-hating Jew rightly see that NOW is a time for people to unite and not fight against one another. BUT, those on the Israeli Right seem to want to have their own definition of what is welcome in their little club, and if you are not part of it they are willing even to turn on their own people.
Ok, in other news: At least 20 killed in protests in Syria
Syrian security forces opened fire in protesters in the town of Sanamein, killing 20 people, a witness told Al Jazeera television on Friday.
"There are more than 20 martyrs… they [security forces] opened fire haphazardly, the witness said.
Sanamein is 50 kilometers north of Deraa, the hub of the protests that came to a head earlier this week after police detained more than a dozen schoolchildren for writing graffiti against the government.
Soldiers shot at demonstrators in the restive southern city of Daraa Friday after crowds set fire to a bronze statue of the country's late president, Hafez Assad, a resident told The Associated Press.
With the exception of Daily Kos diarist unspeakable I have not seen a ton of news on the Pro-Democracy movement in Syria which is facing harsh repression at the hands of the Assad government. Though there is now this on CNN: In Syrian flashpoint town, more deaths reported
In the Jordan Valley there was this incident between a Soldier and a Palestinian: Palestinian shot after attacking soldier
A Palestinian man was shot Friday morning after he attacked an IDF soldier who was waiting at a hitchhiking post along Highway 90 in the Jordan Valley.
According to an initial investigation, the Palestinian came up from behind and hit the soldier over the head with a rock. A traffic police officer who happened to drive by the hitchhiking post and witnessed the incident shot the Palestinian in the leg.
The Palestinian, who apparently tried to steal the soldier's rifle, sustained moderate gunshot wounds in the incident. The soldier, who was waiting at the hitchiking post alone for a ride home, suffered light injuries.
The soldier and the 20-year-old Palestinian, a resident of the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank, were both airlifted to Haddasah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem
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Finally in Maan this editorial: Hamas should rethink charter - Ramzy Baroud
Now there is a ton here that I personally have issues with, but, this piece is not written for my perspective, it is written for a Palestinian perspective. Here are the last two paragraphs:
This time of people marching for change, freedom and democracy in the region should provide the perfect opportunity for Palestinians to break away from political exclusivity and the localization of their struggle for freedom. Hamas should now re-think its charter of 1988, which was once an almost impulsive rally cry, and which will always be used in the interests of those seeking to discount Hamas’ credibility. The language of the charter might have served a purpose in the past, but it fails to live up to the of the expectations of a people who wish for unity and to see past the confines of Oslo, its ‘peace process’ and its wealth-amassing elites. Post-Oslo Palestinian leaderships require new language, new ideas, new approaches, and most certainly a brand new vision and strategy.
There must be a break with the past. All hurdles need to be removed in order for the natural flow of history to resume. This is the most opportune time for Hamas to revisit and amend its charter, and to resume the process of change and self-correction which it began many years ago. The political landscape in Palestine will certainly experience serious changes in coming months and years. Genuine Palestinian leaderships must anticipate and accommodate a new era. It is what the people want, and what history repeatedly shows.
Again while I can't agree with much of this article I did think it was important to point out something is part of the political landscape and a movement that is changing Palestinian thought.
Anyway, enjoy. Shabbat Shalom to all and please participate as you will.
Shalom - vb1