German paper: Israel releases Palestine funds to seal submarine purchase

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that the World on Sunday (Welt am Sonntag) claims that Israel freed funds collected for Palestine as a concession to complete the purchase of a German submarine.

The newspaper report claims that aides of the chancellor informed opposition leaders in confidence that Israel had made the concession. The submarine sale was approved last Wednesday. On the same day the Israeli prime minister announced that 100 million dollars in revenues collected for the Palestinians had been released to the Palestinian Authority.

Israel punished Palestine for joining UNESCO by freezing the funds. The submarine sale has been held up for a year as Germany tried to extract political concessions from Israel.Chancellor Merkel has tried to get Netanyahu to restart the Palestinian peace process. Obviously she was unable to do that! For more see this article

Netanyahu cancels trip to U.S. nuclear meeting

Perhaps talk of Israel's nuclear weapons might be embarrassing but he is sending his deputy in his place so the matter can still come up. Perhaps Netanyahu just is in a sour mood since the U.S. and others have been quite critical of construction projects in East Jerusalem. Maybe he deliberated wants to register a snub of the meeting. This is from HuffingtonPost.

Netanyahu Cancels Trip To Washington For Obama's Nuclear Summit
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JERUSALEM (AP)-- Israel's Prime Minister called off his trip to Washington next week to attend a conference on the spread of nuclear weapons, officials in his office said, fearing Israel would be singled out over its own nuclear program.

Benjamin Netanyahu had said he would attend the conference to underline the dangers of terrorists acquiring nuclear weapons, but suddenly called off the trip less than two days after he announced he would take part.

Officials in his office said early Friday that Netanyahu reversed himself because some nations planned to use the conference to target Israel over its barely concealed nuclear weapons program. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement has been made.

In Washington, National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer confirmed that Israel had informed the U.S. that Netanyahu would be staying home, sending his deputy, Dan Meridor, instead.

The Israeli officials did not name the states thought to be planning to single out Israel, which has not signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. Muslim nations -- including Egypt, which has a peace treaty with Israel -- have often complained about Israel's nuclear program.

Israel has not admitted to possessing nuclear weapons, preferring a policy it calls "ambiguity." Based on evidence, international experts have estimated that Israel has dozens, possibly hundreds, of nuclear bombs.

The most detailed evidence emerged in 1986, when a former technician at Israel's main nuclear facility leaked pictures and information to the London Sunday Times. The technician, Mordechai Vanunu, was captured and served an 18-year prison sentence in Israel.

Juan Cole: Netanyahu Humiliates Obama

Meanwhile many in the US chastise Obama for being unfriendly to Israel! It is simply amazing to behold how many just dutifully line up to spout the Israeli line. As Drone points out the Israeli's seem to deliberately try to offend the U.S. and when challenged have refused to back down on building in East Jerusalem. For the Israeli their annexation of territory is simply an accomplished fact and the remained of the world which denies its legality should simply wake up and smell the coffee! This is from countercurrents.

Netanyahu Humiliates Obama

By Juan Cole

24 March, 2010
Juancole.com

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sets the tone for Israeli policy-- one that is earning him few friends in the West. Three embarrassments broke for him on Tuesday. First, yet another housing expansion in East Jerusalem was announced while he was meeting President Obama. Then, the cover story of Israeli troops accused of firing live ammunition at Palestinian protesters began to unravel. Then British Foreign Minister David Miliband unceremoniously tossed the Mossad London station chief out of the country for counterfeiting British passports, to be used in an Israeli assassination of a Palestinian in Dubai recently. Netanyahu personally ordered that hit, and is responsible for the forging of real peoples' passports and their use to commit a murder. Netanyahu is the one behind these acts of arrogance, and they are emblematic of his mean brand of politics.

The far rightwing government of Binyamin Netanyahu humiliates American officials every time it meets with them. Netanyahu met Obama in Washington on Tuesday, and like clockwork Israel embarrassed Obama by announcing that same day it was going ahead with a building project (funded by an American millionaire) in East Jerusalem that the Obama administration had strictly told the Israelis to halt. What I don't understand is why the Palestinians cannot sue over this issue in American courts. If the administration's stance is that East Jerusalem does not belong to Israel, and the US is signatory to the Fourth Geneva Convention, then why couldn't Palestinians with standing sue in the US when their property is usurped by an American millionaire?

Israel will investigate the shooting deaths of two Palestinian youth who were protesting (not rioting as AP puts it) against Israeli theft of water from the village well. Israeli troops claimed they were using rubber bullets, but Palestinians charge it was actually live ammunition.

Haaretz Editorial: Save the Peace: Jordan Israel Relations in Crisis

Articles such as this are simply missing from most of the western mainstream press. In the US no doubt such an article would be immediately jumped upon by the watchdogs of the Israel lobby. Criticism of Israel is left to Israeli media! Only in Israel, a pity!


Save the peace

By Haaretz Editorial








The diplomatic stalemate and the provocations by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in East Jerusalem harm not only the chance for peace in the future but also past fruits of peace. Fifteen years after the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan was signed, the two countries are now deep in a crisis the government is doing nothing to resolve.

As Barak Ravid reported yesterday in Haaretz, there is almost a complete lack of communication between Netanyahu and King Abdullah II. The situation is no better on the lower echelons: the Jordanians are boycotting Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and hold few meetings with senior Israeli officials. Joint economic projects between the two countries are also on hold. Ties, if they exist at all, are only related to sensitive security issues and water.

Jordan is more concerned than ever about increased Israeli pressure on the Palestinians in the West Bank, which could undermine internal stability in the Hashemite Kingdom. King Abdullah is therefore worried about the absence of talks between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as Israeli activities aimed at increasing the number of Jews living in East Jerusalem - where Jordan was promised special status at Islamic holy sites according to the peace agreement.
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The Jordanians do not trust Netanyahu, and hold his conduct during his first term as prime minister against him, when he ordered the assassination of senior Hamas official Khaled Meshal on their soil.

As opposed to Turkey, whose prime minister openly attacked Israel, Jordan prefers to handle the crisis discretely and has made do with diplomatic protests. But quiet on the media front does not mean the seriousness of the situation may be dismissed or ignored.

Israel has always considered strong ties with Jordan as having supreme strategic importance. Sacrificing these ties for the sake of the Netanyahu government's harmful actions in East Jerusalem demonstrates a severe deficiency in the management of foreign and security policy.

The prime minister must realize the diplomatic price Israel is paying for his attempts to placate the right, stop provocations like the "planting of the university center in Ariel" of which he so proudly spoke yesterday, and place rehabilitating relations with Jordan at a higher priority level.

His bureau's comment - that Netanyahu would be happy to meet with the king "whenever the need arises" - shows dangerous indifference in light of the erosion of Israel's status in the region, and gratuitous arrogance toward a country whose friendship is essential.

Netanyahu and head of Mossad at odds on Iran

I suppose Netanyahu must take the moral highground while the head of Mossad takes the realistic low ground! Apparently being frank has not made Dagan any friends among the politicians. He in effect concedes that Ahmadinejad won and downplays any effect of cheating.



This is from Fox News.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the Iranian regime's repressive nature has been "unmasked" by the turmoil over the country's disputed election last week.
He spoke as the official death toll in Iran rose to at least 17, as protesters continued to march in the streets and clash with regime forces.
"You see a regime that represses its own people and spreads terror far and wide," Netanyahu said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It is a regime whose real nature has been unmasked and it's been unmasked by an incredible act of courage by Iran's citizens. ... You see the Iranian lack of democracy at work."
Israel considers the Iranian regime, with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president and hard-line clerics at the top, as a monumental threat. Ahmadinejad, known for his bellicose rhetoric, has called for the destruction of Israel and is suspected of pursuing nuclear weapons technology.
Netanyahu declined to predict where the protests would lead, but said they represent a "fundamental" event for the country.
"I cannot tell you how this thing will end up. I think something very deep and very fundamental is going on," Netanyahu said. "There is an expression of the deep desire amid the people of Iran for freedom. ... This is what is going on."
Though President Obama has come under criticism in the United States for not being more forceful in his support for the protesters, Netanyahu said he would not "second guess" the American president.
"I know President Obama wants the people of Iran to be free," he said.

This is from presstv.


In Israel, Mossad head talks about Iran election
Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:21:36 GMT
Head of Mossad Meir Dagan says that a Mousavi win in Iran's presidential election would have spelled bigger problems for Israel. Speaking to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of Knesset (Israeli parliament) on Tuesday, the chief of Israel's national intelligence agency said, "The world and we already know [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad." "If the reformist candidate [Mir-Hossein] Mousavi had won, Israel would have had a more serious problem, because it would need to explain to the world the danger of the Iranian threat, since Mousavi is perceived in the international arena as a moderate element," he added. "It is important to remember that he is the one who began Iran's nuclear program when he was prime minister." The Zionist spy-master, meanwhile, predicted that the street protests in Iran over the disputed election results would die out soon. "Election fraud in Iran is no different than what happens in liberal states during elections," he told committee, Haaretz reported. "The struggle over the election results in Iran is internal and is unconnected to its strategic aspirations, including its nuclear program."

Showdown looming over Israeli Settlements

Netanyahu is between a rock and a hard place. He may want to accomodate US demands but then he would face so much opposition at home that his very government might be in danger of falling. He would rather accomodate his own constitutency to some extent even at the cost of US ire. The Israel lobby is very powerful in the US and if Obama punished Israel to any extent there would be a huge outcry from the lobby, in the press, and in the blogosphere. Obama is unlikely to get anywhere in the mideast peace process given the present situation in Israel. The media has gone silent on what is happening between Hamas and Fatah.


- Antiwar.com Original - http://original.antiwar.com -
Showdown Looming Over Israeli Settlements
Posted By Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler On May 25, 2009 @ 9:00 pm In Uncategorized
JERUSALEM - A showdown over Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank is looming between Israel and the United States barely a week after the encounter at the White House between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What’s becoming increasingly clear is that the May 18 encounter was no friendly getting-to-know-you meeting between a new president and a new prime minister of the Middle East’s most enduring alliance.
IPS has learned from sources in Netanyahu’s Washington entourage that following the White House meeting, the Israeli PM confided his "unease" to wealthy U.S. conservative supporters about the direction in which the Obama administration is headed.
Since his return home, the Israeli leader has been putting on a brave face, sometimes even bordering on bravado. He was, however, clearly shaken. Not so much from any dramatically new specific policy moves that were laid out by the U.S. – what resonates with Netanyahu is what President Obama had to say about halting settlements and what that portends for the U.S. Middle East policy-in-the-making.
The concern expressed itself again at Sunday’s weekly meeting of the Israeli government. Netanyahu opened the meeting by sharing with his colleagues the Obama demand for a total freeze on all settlement activity, including no new homes in existing settlements to accommodate what Israel calls "natural population growth."
Netanyahu dug in his heels, although he tried to couch the impending set-to in a mild manner. No new settlements would be built, he told his cabinet colleagues, but settlement expansion should go on, for all the U.S. objections: "Not to address the question of natural growth is simply not fair," the prime minister said.
A close Netanyahu political ally, Transport Minister Yisrael Katz, added: "There is one thing to which we just cannot agree – that the government agenda will look like a witch-hunt against the settlers and the drying up of the settlements."
And Defense Minister Ehud Barak lined up behind Netanyahu: "It’s not conceivable that anyone seriously intends that a family with two children who have bought a small apartment will be told that an order has come from the U.S. that they may not add two extra rooms when the family grows – that’s illogical," Barak said.
The Israeli position is most unlikely to satisfy the U.S. Netanyahu seems fully aware that this could be just the beginning of a major row with Washington. He thus appears to be preparing to parry the comprehensive U.S. "no" on settlements by backing the intention of the Israeli defense establishment finally to move on so-called illegal settlements (small outposts that were established on the fringes of government-approved settlements in order to expand Israeli control over Palestinian territory).
The day Netanyahu came back, the army pulled down one such wildcat settlement, but within hours the settlers had rebuilt the outpost. Now, though, the Defense Ministry confirms that a comprehensive plan is being drawn up to dismantle 23 mini-settlements created since 2001 without government approval.
Israeli Public Radio quoted sources in the prime minister’s office as confirming that Netanyahu would "stand firm behind" Defense Minister Ehud Barak if he concludes that a showdown with the "illegal" settlers is required. This, even at the risk of an improbable showdown with his own nationalist coalition: "We are first and foremost obliged to respect the law," Netanyahu insisted at Sunday’s cabinet meeting.
Obama urged the ending of settlement building in order to lay the ground for a resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians. But Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said there is no point in meeting Netanyahu unless he stops settlement construction and agrees to open talks on Palestinian independence.
Over the years, successive Israeli governments have sanctioned 121 settlements, with the settlers themselves putting up an additional 100 or so small outposts since the early 1990s. The overall settler population is around 280,000.
It’s becoming clear that the approach of the administration is now widely accepted in the U.S. Congress, traditionally a stronghold of support for Israel.
A five-person congressional delegation from the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia said after meeting Israeli officials in Jerusalem on Sunday that they were "skeptical" about the Netanyahu government’s ability to help the U.S. move the peace process with the Palestinians forward. The committee voiced specific concern about Israel’s insistence on "natural growth" in existing settlements.
The heat that Netanyahu took during his tête-à-tête with Obama has clearly left its mark. He’s even going so far as to try to build on an informal agreement reached on settlement construction between his predecessor Ehud Olmert and the Bush administration prior to the 2007 Annapolis conference at which the U.S., Israel, and the Palestinians mapped out possible directions on how to proceed toward peace.
"The understandings Olmert reached, especially on the right to ‘natural growth,’ contain clauses that can certainly form a basis for understandings with the Obama administration," said one official in the prime minister’s office.
"Is there still a need for clarification?" asked a critic of Netanyahu, former government minister and peace activist Yossi Sarid. In his newspaper column "Peace Diplomacy," Sarid asked rhetorically, "Though he pretends not to understand, have the disputes not been clarified to Benjamin Netanyahu’s satisfaction? From all roofs in Washington – the White House, the State Department, and Congress – birds sing out U.S. policy. The diplomatic picture could not be clearer. We don’t really need a detailed peace plan, because it’s already here on the table."
Sarid continues: "It’s not simply an American plan, but a global plan acceptable to everyone but this Israeli government. Netanyahu alone continues his rearguard battle, dragging on and on this epic Israeli tragedy. Only one issue remains unclear – can Obama succeed where his predecessors have failed? Can he stand his ground where American power has faltered for decades?"
(Inter Press Service)
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