 |
   |
|
In this mailing:
Palestinians' New Enemy: Tzipi Livni
by Khaled Abu
Toameh
January 27, 2014 at 5:00 am
  Be the first of your
friends to like this.
The Palestinians were first unhappy
with Kerry, whom they accused of being biased in favor of Israel. Now they
are angry with Livni for daring to criticize Abbas. In the end, Israel and
the U.S. will be blamed for the failure of the peace process. This is exactly
what happened after the botched Camp David summit in 2000. A few weeks later,
the Second Intifada erupted.
The Palestinians have now turned against Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi
Livni, who also heads the Israeli team to the peace talks with the
Palestinian Authority [PA].Livni is probably the most dovish member of the Israeli cabinet. Yet her moderate views and support for the two-state solution have not made her immune to a new campaign against her by the Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority leadership is now saying that Livni is no longer fit to negotiate with the Palestinians and must be replaced. In other words, any Israeli negotiator who does not accept all Palestinian demands should be excluded from the US-sponsored peace talks.
Livni's statement has been misinterpreted by Palestinians as a personal "threat" against Abbas. Of course, Livni never made such a threat in her statement and was merely warning against the repercussions of Abbas's positions on the peace process and his people. But the PA leadership often interprets Israeli criticism of Abbas as a threat to eliminate him. This is a way of telling the Palestinians that Abbas, like his predecessor Yasser Arafat, is facing threats from Israel for refusing to make concessions on Palestinian rights. The Palestinian Authority is preparing Palestinians for the possibility that the talks with Israel could end in failure, and that Abbas may be face the same fate as Arafat -- isolated and boycotted by Israel and the international community. The goal is to make Abbas appear in the eyes of his people as a "martyr" who paid a heavy price for standing up to Israel and the US. Less than 24 hours after Livni made her statement, several PA officials and organizations responded by accusing her of "incitement." Mahmoud al-Aloul, member of the Fatah Central Committee, said in response to Livni's remark: "If the Israelis think that threats and pressure on President Mahmoud Abbas would drive him to make concessions on Palestinian rights they are deluding themselves. The threats made by the officials of the occupation government are directed against Abbas's life, but they won't affect his positions." PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki condemned Livni's "threat" against Abbas and said he would bring them to the attention of the international community. "We are studying the threats and their implication," Malki told reporters. "We will distribute Livni's statements to all foreign ministers and the international community. We can't remain silent towards these threats. This is a clear threat to Abbas in person and it must be taken seriously." Abbas Zaki, another senior Fatah official, claimed that Livni's "threats" are designed to distract attention from Israel's refusal to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians. "The threats show that the Israelis are not mature for peace," he added. The radical Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of the PLO groups, accused Livni of "political audacity." The group said that Livni's demand that Abbas recognize Israel as a Jewish state was completely unacceptable and reflected "despicable arrogance." Abbas's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, announced that "Livni's statements make her unacceptable for negotiations.... She has joined those voices in the Israeli government that are trying to destroy prospects for peace. This is a very dangerous statement." The attacks on Livni correspond with a campaign that is already being waged by Palestinians against U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Over the past few weeks, many Palestinians representing various Palestinian groups have been waging protests against Kerry's ongoing efforts to reach a deal between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Kerry is being accused of endorsing the Israeli point of view, especially on security, settlements, Jerusalem and the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees to their former homes inside Israel. This Palestinian escalation of rhetoric does not bode well for the future of the peace talks. The Palestinians were first unhappy with Kerry, whom they accused of being biased in favor of Israel. Now they are angry with Livni for daring to criticize Abbas. In the end, Israel and the U.S. will be blamed for the failure of the peace process. This is exactly what happened after the botched Camp David summit in 2000, when Arafat held Israel and the U.S. fully responsible for the failure of the peace process. A few weeks later, the Second Intifada erupted. The same scenario is likely to repeat itself unless the Palestinian Authority leadership stops putting all the blame on others.
Related Topics: Khaled Abu
Toameh
Israel: "A Matter of Our Own Long-Term Interests"
by Christine
Williams
January 27, 2014 at 3:00 am
Be the first of your
friends to like this.
While Canada continues to crack down
on terrorist-supporting entities, the current U.S. Administration has been
busy tightening its relations with the "unindicted co-conspirator,"
the Islamic Society of North America [ISNA], praising it as a "pillar of
the American Muslim community," and entering into collaborative
consultations with it before U.S. President Barack Obama left for Israel last
March.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the first Canadian leader ever to
address Knesset , stated some key
points in his passionate support for Israel. He stressed values shared by
Israel and Canada -- those of freedom, democracy and an intolerance for
terrorism and terrorist links -- values which Canada, since its outspoken
refusal to attend the patently racist United Nations' Durban Conferences
(purportedly against racism) of 2011 and 2013, has overwhelmingly, and
singly, demonstrated world leadership in advancing.Harper said: "Canada finds it deplorable that some in the international community still question the legitimacy of the existence of the State of Israel. Our view that Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state is absolute and non-negotiable." And: "Criticism of Israeli government policy is not in and of itself necessarily anti-Semitic. But what else can we call criticism that selectively condemns only the Jewish state and effectively denies its right to exist, to defend itself while systematically ignoring or excusing the violence and oppression all around it?"
While on the subject of dodging issues, let us return to Abbas' PhD for a moment. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Yisrael Beytenu party spoke at a meeting of a newly founded Knesset Lobby to Combat Anti-Semitism last summer about the significance of Abbas' PhD dissertation denying the Holocaust. "There cannot be true peace or a diplomatic process," he stated, "with someone who denies the Holocaust." He also announced that he had a copy of Abbas's dissertation sitting on the bookshelf in his office; and that he did "not recall that any of those who welcomed the peace process reminded Abbas of his denial of the Holocaust, which he continues to do in media interviews," and that "modern anti-Semitism today is in the Palestinian Authority." "You should see the PA's textbooks." Lieberman continued, "that do not teach the next generation -- the so-called generation of peace -- about the Holocaust. These are our so-called partners for peace..." Canada has shown admirable resolve in standing up for principle on the global stage, both on Israel and regarding terrorism -- far more so than its American counterpart. In fall 2012, while in New York during the opening of a new session of the UN, Harper personally intervened to pressure Abbas to drop his bid for upgraded status at the United Nations. He was described as having "a short, brusque meeting with Abbas , in which he was quoted as saying: "If you keep doing what you're doing… there will be consequences," referring to Ottawa's pledge of $300 million in aid over five years to the PA, starting in 2008, and whether or not it might be renewed. In 2010, when Canada failed to win a seat on the United Nations Security Council, many experts -- including Paul Heinbecker, Canada's former Ambassador to the UN -- put the blame on Canada's unrelenting support for Israel. In dissociating itself from terrorism and terrorist entities, the current U.S. Administration has shown far less resolve than Canada at best, and encouragement for terrorism at worst, as in Obama's befriending the Islamic Society of North America [ISNA], a Muslim Brotherhood entity which he went so far as to seek advice from when he visited the Middle East last March. For some background: Steven Emerson, an expert in national security, terrorism, and "Islamic extremism," published an article in the Investigative Project on Terrorism entitled: "ISNA Admits Hamas Ties". Hamas, which rules Gaza, is a terrorist organization that calls for Israel's obliteration. U.S. federal prosecutors have named ISNA, among three prominent Islamic organizations in the U.S., as participants in an alleged criminal conspiracy to financially support Hamas. ISNA was listed as one of the "unindicted co-conspirators" in the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) case, in which HLF founders were convicted of funneling more than $12 million to Hamas. During that trial, ISNA and the North American Islamic Trust were also listed as "entities who are and/or were members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. ISNA's branch in Canada found itself in hot water, too, when four months ago the Canada Revenue Agency [CRA] stripped it of its charitable status over terror funding, following an audit of its books that pointed to evidence that linked the organization to Pakistani terrorist groups. The CRA issued a press release that stated, "The Government of Canada has made it clear that it will not tolerate the abuse of the registration system for charities to provide any means of support to terrorism." Meanwhile a federal court has just backed up former immigration minister Jason Kenney, by stating that he acted reasonably in cutting federal funding to the Canadian Arab Federation for supporting terrorist organizations. While Canada continues to crack down on terrorist-supporting entities, the current U.S. Administration has been busy tightening its relations with the "unindicted co-conspirator," ISNA, praising it as a "pillar of the American Muslim Community", and entering into consultative collaborations with it before U.S. President Barack Obama left for Israel last March. Obama met with ISNA President Imam Mohamed Magid and other Muslim and Arab American leaders to discuss issues "that will pertain to his upcoming trip to Palestine, Jordan and Israel." In addition to the consultations on his Middle East trip, Obama also had "an extensive 90-minute conversation... about his plans for immigration reform," according to the ISNA website. Just four months before the Obama-ISNA collaboration, rockets from Gaza were pounding Israel, prompting Canada to issue a formal statement: "We fundamentally believe that Israel has the right to defend itself and its citizens from terrorist threats.... Far too often, the Jewish people find themselves on the front lines in the struggle against terrorism, the great struggle of our generation. Just last weekend, more than 100 rockets rained down on civilians in southern Israel from positions in the Gaza Strip.... Canada condemns the terrorist group Hamas and stands with Israel as it deals with regional threats to peace and security." One hopes that the world will take notice of Canada and its courageous prime minister standing for truth and justice in the face of massive opposition, and heed the significance of Harper's words: "Support today for the Jewish State of Israel is more than a moral imperative.... it is also a matter of strategic importance, also a matter of our own, long-term interests."
Related Topics: Israel
| Christine
Williams
|
||||||||||||
|
To subscribe to the this mailing list, go to http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/list_subscribe.php |
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment