Obama Calls for Swift Move Toward Mideast Peace Talks

IHT

By HELENE COOPER

Published: May 28, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Obama called on Israelis and Palestinians on Thursday to move swiftly toward peace talks, as his administration embarked on its first public dispute with Israel.

Speaking to reporters at the White House after talks with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, Mr. Obama said that the absence of peace between Israelis and Palestinians was clogging up other critical issues in the Middle East.

Israel Removes Illegal Settler Outpost in West Bank

NYT

By ISABEL KERSHNER

Published: May 21, 2009

JERUSALEM — Israeli police and security forces on Thursday dismantled a small Jewish outpost in the West Bank in what many here saw as a gesture by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to President Obama three days after their meeting in Washington.

No arrests were made at the illegal outpost, where at least four families lived in a couple of concrete structures and several temporary shacks. Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said the timing of the action was not significant. Another small West Bank outpost was removed about two months ago, he said.

But it was the first time Israel’s new right-leaning government had removed a settlement, and settler leaders and others saw it as a political message.

“It seems that this was done in order to throw a bone to the United States president,” Avi Roeh, the chairman of the local settler council, told Israel Radio.

Pressing for a renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Obama administration has made clear that it expects Israel to carry out a total settlement freeze and remove illegal outposts in the West Bank, according to Israel’s commitments under a 2003 peace plan known as the road map.

The outpost, Maoz Esther, which is in the Ramallah region. Hours after it was dismantled, a resident, Daniel Landesberg, 19, said he had already set about rebuilding his demolished home.

Speaking by telephone, he said the move was “a signal” from Mr. Netanyahu to Mr. Obama that Israel would do whatever he asked.

Israeli government officials say they want to remove the outposts by agreement with the settlers in order to avoid confrontation. Long months of talks under the previous government, however, did not yield tangible results.

Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, met with settler leaders on Wednesday and told them that the illegal outposts were damaging Israel’s international relations and their own cause. He said the outposts would be removed “if not through dialogue, then through swift and aggressive enforcement.”

On Thursday, Mr. Barak said the evacuation of Maoz Esther was “not connected with the Americans or American pressure,” and that it was carried out according to routine orders. More than a hundred outposts are dotted around the West Bank, alongside dozens of established Jewish settlements authorized by Israel but widely considered abroad a violation of international law.

Yariv Oppenheimer of Peace Now, an Israeli advocacy group that opposes Jewish settlement in the West Bank, said that the outpost evacuated on Thursday was not a significant one, and that the action was “more about P.R.” after the Washington meeting. Mr. Oppenheimer added that the same outpost has been evacuated at least twice before.

Rina Castelnuovo contributed reporting from Maoz Esther, West Bank.

World Watches for U.S. Shift on Mideast

May 17, 2009

By HELENE COOPER

WASHINGTON — Five weeks ago, President Obama stood before the Turkish legislature in Ankara and said many Americans had Muslims in their families or had lived in a Muslim-majority country. “I know,” he said, “because I am one of them.”

But will that exposure lead Mr. Obama to take a different tack from his predecessors in his dealings with Israel?

Leon Panetta’s mission to stop Israel bombing Iranian nuclear plant

Times

James Hider in Jerusalem

America’s spy chief was sent on a secret mission to Israel to warn its leaders not to launch a surprise attack on Iran without notifying the US Administration.

Netanyahu ‘ready for peace talks’

BBC NEWS

12 April 2009

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has told Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas he intends to resume talks and co-operation to promote peace.

It was their first contact since Mr Netanyahu took office on 31 March.

Mr Abbas initiated the telephone call, which Mr Netanyahu’s office described as “friendly and warm”.

The new Israeli leader has not publicly endorsed the creation of a fully independent Palestinian state – a fundamental demand of the Palestinians.

An Israeli statement said that during his conversation with Mr Abbas, Mr Netanyahu “recalled their past co-operation and conversations, and how he intended to resume this in the future in order to advance peace”.

Mr Netanyahu leads a right-leaning coalition, which combines the centre-right, centre-left and far-right parties.

Avigdor Lieberman, who leads the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, is foreign minister and Labour veteran Ehud Barak defence minister.

Speaking before he was sworn into office, Mr Netanyahu said his government would strive to reach an agreement with the Palestinians and would work towards peace.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7995849.stm

Our system is ill

Yedioth Aharonoth

4 April 2009

Failure to appoint full-time health minister symptom of ailing political system
Emmanuel Rosen

If we need one clear, sharp and painful example of the serious malady maligning Israeli politics, we can look at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s blatant disregard for the need to appoint a full-time health minister.

We can talk for hours and write thousands of words about politicians who are detached from the people and their needs, about the cynicism, about broken promises, and about clinging to power – but we can simply tell the whole story in one sentence: In a state where the healthcare system is ill, and where if you have no money for private medicine you must rely on mercy from above, in such country the PM appoints 30 ministers and invents ministries that do not even exist for them, yet he does not see fit to appoint even one of them to the ministry that pertains to the lives of all of us.

Netanyahu’s 2nd chance

Yedioth Aharonoth

Obama may find new Israeli PM a willing partner for sustainable peace
Alon Ben-Meir
function setDbLinkCategory(url) {eval(unescape(url));}The new Israeli government led by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu has raised many conflicting feelings among those concerned about the fate of the Arab-Israeli peace process. Will Netanyahu scuttle the little progress that was made under his predecessor Olmert, or will he engage the Palestinians anew?

Ed ora, al lavoro

Israele.net

Israele ha un nuovo governo, il più affollato della sua storia con 30 ministri e sette vice ministri: un fatto inquietante, arrogante ma del tutto prevedibile.

Cómo se gestó el giro a la derecha en Israel

AMNON KAPELIUK, El Pais

Cómo es posible que la derecha siga ganando terreno en Israel, en detrimento de la izquierda? ¿Cómo se ha logrado formar la coalición gubernamental del trío Netanyahu-Barak-Lieberman? En las elecciones legislativas de febrero, el partido Kadima (de centro derecha), presidido por Tzipi Livni, obtuvo los mejores resultados, con 28 diputados. A primera vista, el presidente Simón Peres debía confiarle a ella la tarea de formar gobierno. Sin embargo, al contar los resultados de Kadima y Likud (derecha nacionalista y anexionista), que sacó 27 diputados, se dio cuenta de que Livni contaba con el apoyo de menos de la mitad de los 120 escaños de la nueva Knesset.

Not as far-right as it might have been

Mar 26th 2009 | JERUSALEM
From The Economist print edition
Long accouchement, broad baby

IT TOOK six weeks of haggling, but Binyamin Netanyahu at last looks set to lead a not-entirely-right-wing government. The man who made it possible is the outgoing-and now incoming-minister of defence, Ehud Barak. It was he who made Ehud Olmert, embroiled in corruption investigations, announce his intention, last September, to step down as prime minister. In the ensuing election, last month, Mr Barak’s Labour Party was savagely diminished, coming fourth with only 13 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Since then, behind a façade of public assurances about how determined Labour was to stay out of a government of the hard right, Mr Barak has negotiated secretly with Mr Netanyahu to allow his reduced and riven party to stay in, as a pivotal partner in the new coalition.