U.S. May Drop Key Condition for Talks With Iran

NEW YORK TIMES

14 April 2009

By DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration and its European allies are preparing proposals that would shift strategy toward Iran by dropping a longstanding American insistence that Tehran rapidly shut down nuclear facilities during the early phases of negotiations over its atomic program, according to officials involved in the discussions.

The proposals, exchanged in confidential strategy sessions with European allies, would press Tehran to open up its nuclear program gradually to wide-ranging inspection. But the proposals would also allow Iran to continue enriching uranium for some period during the talks. That would be a sharp break from the approach taken by the Bush administration, which had demanded that Iran halt its enrichment activities, at least briefly to initiate negotiations.

The proposals under consideration would go somewhat beyond President Obama’s promise, during the presidential campaign, to open negotiations with Iran “without preconditions.” Officials involved in the discussion said they were being fashioned to draw Iran into nuclear talks that it had so far shunned.

What to speak with Hamas about

 By Shlomo Avineri

Recently, more and more voices have been heard saying that the only way to reach an Israeli-Palestinian accord is by talking to Hamas. These voices are not only in Europe but also in the United States. New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, for example, and Brent Sowcroft, who was national security adviser to the first president Bush, have said that without a dialogue with Hamas there will be no peace between Israel and the Palestinians. And if Israel refuses to do so, the Europeans or the Americans should begin a dialogue with Hamas. Similar statements can also be heard in the margins of Israeli politics. I believe they are right, but not for the reasons they cite. The question is what to talk to Hamas about.

Lieberman’s paradoxical strength

HA’ARETZ

The era of panic has begun: Avigdor Lieberman is foreign minister. All the flaws, failures, successes and the peace the Netanyahu government might forge hinge on that obstacle named Lieberman. His coarse pinky will set the universe in motion, shatter hopes and inflict a catastrophe. Alas, the finger resting on the red button belongs to Ivan the Terrible. Tomorrow the attack on the Aswan Dam will commence, and the day after Iran. And the world? It will look on with terror and amazement when faced with the new Genghis Khan.

Israeli Minister Dismisses Peace Effort

NEW YORK TIMES

01 April 2009

By ISABEL KERSHNER

JERUSALEM — In a blunt and belligerent speech on his first day as Israel’s new foreign minister, the hawkish nationalist Avigdor Lieberman, declared Wednesday that “those who want peace should prepare for war” and that Israel was not obligated by understandings on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reached at an American-sponsored peace conference in 2007.

“Those who think that through concessions they will gain respect and peace are wrong,” Mr. Lieberman said during a handover ceremony at the Foreign Ministry. “It is the other way around; it will lead to more wars.”

His predecessor in the post of foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, a centrist, led Israel’s negotiating team with the Palestinians in a year of intensive talks after the 2007 conference, held in Annapolis, Md.

The aim of the Annapolis process, as it became known, was to agree on the framework for a Palestinian state alongside Israel by the end of 2008, a goal that was not achieved.

Israeli Parliament Approves Netanyahu as Prime Minister

WASHINGTON POST

JERUSALEM, March 31 — Israel’s parliament on Tuesday approved Binyamin Netanyahu as prime minister, ushering in a government at odds with international expectations that Israel should pursue negotiations that would lead to an independent Palestinian state.

Netanyahu’s government — a coalition that includes nationalist, ultra-Orthodox and social democratic factions, as well as his own Likud party — says it represents an electorate that has soured on peace talks with the Palestinians, grown weary over rocket fire from Islamist groups in the Gaza Strip, and become increasingly worried about Iranian influence and nuclear technology.

Le président israélien tente de rassurer les Européens sur le gouvernement Nétanyahou

LE MONDE

Le président israélien Shimon Pérès a cherché dimanche à rassurer l’Union européenne et la communauté internationale en affirmant que le prochain gouvernement dirigé par Benjamin Nétanyahou poursuivrait le processus de paix avec les Palestiniens. “Le nouveau gouvernement est lié par les décisions du précédent gouvernement. Il y aura une continuité et la poursuite des négociations pour le processus de paix”, a affirmé M. Pérès à la veille d’une visite en République Tchèque, qui assure la présidence tournante de l’Union Européenne (UE).

Ce voyage intervient alors que le prochain gouvernement de M. Nétanyahou, auquel s’est rallié le chef du parti travailliste Ehoud Barak, le ministre de la défense sortant, doit en principe être présenté au parlement mardi, selon une porte-parole de M. Pérès. Le séjour du chef de l’Etat israélien a dû être écourté en raison de la “traditionnelle photo de tous les ministres prévue en principe mercredi chez le président”, a précisé cette porte-parole.

Netanyahu faces test as cabinet takes office

THE NATIONAL

TEL AVIV // As Benjamin Netanyahu presents to Israel’s parliament today a new government dominated by opponents to Palestinian statehood, he will be challenged with trying to avert a diplomatic crisis amid international concerns that his cabinet would hinder progress on a two-state solution.

Mr Netanyahu, the head of the right-wing Likud party who served as prime minister from 1996-1999, will preside over a coalition of mostly nationalist and religious parties that altogether include 69 members of Israel’s 120-member parliament.
Mr Netanyahu’s second chance at the premiership is bound to be anything but easy.

‘Netanyahu refused to nix two state solution’

Mar. 28, 2009
Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST

Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu refused the demands of two coalition partners to insert a clause against a Palestinian state in the coalition agreement, sources close to Netanyahu told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday night.

They added that there is no great substantive gap between Netanyahu and the international community regarding the issue.

Obama and Israeli leader make video appeals to Iran

IHT

By Alan Cowell

Friday, March 20, 2009

Invoking art, history and “the common humanity that binds us,” President Barack Obama offered a “new day” in America’s relationship with Iran, using a videotaped message released on the Internet to make an unusual appeal directly to Iranians for a shift away from decades of confrontation.

The Israeli president, Shimon Peres, issued an audio statement on Friday appealing to “the noble Iranian people on behalf of the ancient Jewish people.”

Both messages suggested that there was a place for Iran as an equal in the international community. Obama warned Iran’s leaders that their country’s access to what he called its “rightful place in the community of nations” would not be advanced by threats or by “terror or arms, but rather through peaceful actions.”

After Gaza, Israel Grapples With Crisis of Isolation

NEW YORK TIMES

19 March 2009

By ETHAN BRONNER

JERUSALEM — Israel, whose founding idea was branded as racism by the United Nations General Assembly in 1975 and which faced an Arab boycott for decades, is no stranger to isolation. But in the weeks since its Gaza war, and as it prepares to inaugurate a hawkish right-wing government, it is facing its worst diplomatic crisis in two decades.

Examples abound. Its sports teams have met hostility and violent protests in Sweden, Spain and Turkey. Mauritania has closed Israel’s embassy.

Relations with Turkey, an important Muslim ally, have suffered severely. A group of top international judges and human rights investigators recently called for an inquiry into Israel’s actions in Gaza. “Israel Apartheid Week” drew participants in 54 cities around the world this month, twice the number of last year, according to its organizers. And even in the American Jewish community, albeit in its liberal wing, there is a chill.

The issue has not gone unnoticed here, but it has generated two distinct and somewhat contradictory reactions. On one hand, there is real concern. Global opinion surveys are being closely examined and the Foreign Ministry has been granted an extra $2 million to improve Israel’s image through cultural and information diplomacy.