Tonight’s 7 items begin with 2 that are disgusting, but in keeping with the times here. In the first Richard Silverstein furnishes more details about the shutting down of the radio station than were available to me this morning. The 2nd is from Machsom [checkpoint] Watch, and details how soldiers harassed, also sexually, women who went to monitor checkpoints. That’s what Israel is becoming—it closes down speech that dares to talk about peace and justice and living in harmony with one’s neighbors. On the other side, it’s soldiers are not becoming anything that they weren’t . The distaste some of them have of being monitored (and especially by women ) encourages them to do things that they would not want done (I presume) to their mothers or daughters or sisters.
Items 3 and 4 are about the ultra-Orthodoxzation of the Israeli military. Of course if more combat soldiers come from ultra-Orthodox schools, and if they remain longer in the military than their secular counterparts, and if more become officers, well, then, it stands to reason that they will have the final word. And it’s not only in the army. Parents complain that in kindergartens ultra-Orthodox precepts are gaining sway (see the article in item 7, ‘Today in Palestine ’). Pretty soon most teachers will be from the ultra-Orthodox, and principals, too. In short, it looks as if Israel is going in the direction of becoming a land ruled by religious law (Halacha) and fascism.
In item 5 Yossi Sarid tackles the case of the MDs, who have been on strike on and off for 8 months. One thing that he does not mention, nor is it much talked about even though the strike continues to be a major news item, is how this will impact on young people who had thought of going into the medical profession. I would suppose that in light of how the government and courts have been dealing with the doctors and residents, that many who had wanted to become MDs will either do so abroad, where they will also remain to work, or will go into another field. In short, Israel will not have the doctors it needs, even though there has been talk of bringing some from India and other countries to replace those now leaving. Take heed. Don’t come to Israel if you have health problems!
Item 6 is brief, reporting that Fatah and Hamas have ‘reached an understanding.’
Item 7 is ‘Today in Palestine .’ I must admit that as I went through it this evening I could hardly take it. What a life Palestinians have! What terrible things they have to deal with! Shame on Israel . Shame! But it’s not only Israel . In one of the reports in ‘Today in Palestine ’ the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations complains that Israel ’s settlements are international failure—in other words, they exist because governments of other countries have done nothing to stop their continued construction. Of course that can be said about the occupation itself. Disgusting.
All for Peace Radio’s comment on its silencing by the Israeli police
Israeli police have just succeeding in murdering peace (Hebrew)– or at least the voice of peace that Israelis and Palestinians can hear on the radio. Police summoned the Radio Kol HaShalom (“All for Peace” Radio, which is a play on Kol HaShalom, Abie Natan’s radio station which was called “Voice of Peace”) station director to a three-hour interrogation under warning (anything he said could be used to build a criminal case against him), during which they demanded that he sign a statement agreeing to cease broadcasts to Israel (not I presume to Palestinians, though it would be hard to beam a signal that reached one but not the other). They also demanded that he call the station and direct the radio engineer to take the station off the air. If he refused, he was told that police would raid the station and do it themselves. Presumably, they’d confiscate the radio equipment which had taken months and months to arrive from abroad due to delays imposed by, you guessed it, the Israeli police, who didn’t want the station to go on air to begin with.
The blog post I linked to notes that staff of the station met a number of times during the seven years it was on air with officials of the ministry of communication, including the minister Eli Attias. Not once did any civilian official complain about the station or threaten to take it off the air. Now, all of a sudden, the ministry has decided that the “law” must be upheld. It should be noted that the station has sought a license from Israel for years to broadcast and the government has never approved one. This conveniently has allowed the authorities to do precisely what they did. This is freedom of expression and a free press, Israel-style.
The station has been off-air since November 17th. It had broadcast a mix of talk shows, interviews, and pop music. I’ve listened to and been interviewed by the station and it wasn’t incendiary or politically radical at all. It had a feel-good self-help orientation and attempted to promote fairly innocuous values of brotherhood and tolerance without engaging in political advocacy. It did, however, explicitly endorse a two-state solution. Apparently, that isn’t a political program endorsed by the Israeli police.
The station also endorsed freedom of speech and democratic values for both societies. Apparently free speech and democracy are also threatening to the government censors otherwise known as the police.
Among the issues the station addressed was women’s rights and sexual violence, a criticism the pro-Israel crowd loves to point up as a “deficiency” of “Arab culture.” The police never stopped to think that All for Peace might actually encourage Palestinians to believe that Israelis want peace. Or perhaps that’s what threatened them because the police don’t believe in peace, but rather prefer constant tension and conflict. After all, this would mean a career of full employment and high budgets for them.
In Palestine , All for Peace broadcasts legally and the PA has never had a problem with its programming. One can presume though that if an East Jerusalem kindergarten can be shuttered by the police because its founders are alleged terrorists, that pop music that could be heard by both Israelis and Palestinians would be considered equally subversive.
The Israeli blog reporting this story closed with this passage:
It seems that during these days in which the Israeli Knesset is beset by a wave of anti-democratic legislation, the authorities saw fit to stop the broadcast of the sole station which enabled, in an open studio, deliberations on behalf of democracy.
All for Peace Radio was a small media fry in the Israeli pond. It was no Channel 10 or Haaretz. But it was the canary in the coal mine. As went All for Peace so will go Channel 10. Bibi Netanyahu prefers to control the media to the extent he can. That is why all he may need to do is silence these media outlets for the others to get the message if they cross they line they’ll be punished as well.
The station will continue to fight for its right to broadcast and appeal the decision. The next time you hear Abe Foxman and Alan Dershowitz crowing about Israeli democracy, remember posts like this. . . .
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2. Jordan Valley and Tapuach Junction Checkpoints, Thursday 3.11.2011
Observers: Yifat D. and Daphne B.
Translated by Tal Haran
Summary – we experienced violence including sexual assault against us at Hamra Checkpoint, witnessed long waiting lines at Tapuach Junction Checkpoint, Gochia Gate was not opened.
11:50 – Tapuach Junction Checkpoint
Border Patrolmen stop vehicles traveling in both directions, do not inspect IDs or anything else, only ask “Everything okay?” as if to check people’s accent. Traffic is heavy at this time so this suffices to create jams in all directions, especially for cars traveling south to Ramallah. Dozens of vehicles crowd at the roundabout and far beyond the line (far out of our field of vision). The soldiers try to get rid of us, we stand quietly on the sidewalk and refuse to leave. When we finally are about to leave, 2 army jeeps block my car in the rear. I maneuver and manage to bypass them. One of the soldiers stands in front of us and does not enable us to drive on. I ask the commander whether we’re detained, he answers we’re not and tells his soldier to move aside. We left.
12:30 Maale Efrayim Checkpoint – unmanned.
12:45 Hamra Checkpoint – As soon as we arrive, 3 soldiers leap at us and require us to leave “their” checkpoint and stand at the junction, about 100 meters away. We had not yet made it to our usual observation position and stop by the water tanker, about 20 meters from the checkpoint itself. The sergeant, very outspoken and violent, yells at his soldiers to freeze the checkpoint. When we say this is against the law, he yells at us, “I am the law!! I do what I fucking please”, and keeps repeating his mantra “I’ m a killer man!!” All the soldiers – more than 10, with one woman soldier hanging on in the back – join him and crowd us in, threateningly. The sergeant grabs my notebook and refuses to hand it back to me. He and his soldiers begin to leaf through it and read. Since we keep Palestinians’ phone and ID numbers in it, I was very concerned, but Yifat entered the group and forcefully grabbed the notebook. A back and forth pulling and shoving began, until the notebook was freed, torn and battered, but in our hands. Again the soldiers closed in on us. I tried to take a photo of this very menacing sight, but a Military Policeman grabbed my camera and while holding it overhead, came close to me and clung to my body with his. I asked him not to touch me and he continued to press against me, chest to chest, belly to belly. Exceedingly unpleasant. This enabled Yifat to approach him from behind and grab the camera. The soldier laughed and continued to press his body against mine until, after a few minutes, he managed to push me back.
The entire incident lasted no more than 10 minutes. During that time I called Zaharan, the DCO officer, and asked him to summon police immediately. All this time the checkpoint was closed down, and as this was an hour of heavy traffic, there were waiting lines accumulating in all directions: eastwards towards the Jiftlik, to the northeast towards the settlements of Bekaot and Roi, and westwards to Nablus . Many Palestinian workers were standing in line to cross the checkpoint into the hills of the West Bank. A lieutenant arrived in an army jeep, summoned by Zaharan, later I found out he was the company commander of the shift at the checkpoint. As usual, the officer back up his soldiers and demanded of us to move away – “My instructions are to close the checkpoint as long as you stand here”. We walked down to the junction so that the checkpoint would be reopened (to Palestinian traffic). Before the soldiers opened it, one of them, an Arabic speaker, approached the Palestinian workers waiting for the pedestrian passage to open and said something to them. The Palestinians murmured something (“See? They too want you to get out of here!”). After the soldiers moved away, one of the Palestinians approached us and said they had no choice, but they are very glad of our presence, and that we should come early in the morning.
Later, Palestinians coming through from the direction of Nablus said that the soldiers had told them to tell us to go away. They asked us who we were and what we were doing there, and when we explained, they explained their appreciation and thanked us for coming.
The soldiers opened the checkpoint and then the police arrived.
The company commander told the policeman that we had entered the soldiers’ shack and photographed weapons (a total lie!!). I asked the policeman (Shlomo Ne’emani) to look at the photos inside my camera, and he refused. I asked to lodge a complaint and at first the policeman – very hostile to us – told us to drive to the Efrayim police station and do it there. After telling him that in the past we lodged complaints in situ, and that we want to identify the assailants in his presence (he refused to take down their names), he sent me to the police car where I lodged my complaint with another policeman, Nabil Tuba, who was not hostile and simply to the point, although he too first refused to quote me that the soldiers had been violent, or that they had sexually assaulted me. “What did that soldier do to you? That’s not violent…” said the policeman. He wrote down my report only when I insisted. He also agreed to look at all the photos in my camera and realized there was nothing there recording any weapons or the soldiers’ shack or even of the soldiers themselves (because they had been standing too close to me and pushed me, so everything came out one big blur).
Incidentally, of the little we saw, when the checkpoint was not closed, passage was swift and there were no further delays.
13:50 Tyassir Checkpoint
Upon our arrival 3-4 cars were allowed through in each direction. We stood far away, but talk with drivers waiting in line indicated that lately people have been delayed for an hour and a half at this checkpoint. Today too passage was slow and even passengers traveling from the Jordan Valley into the West Bank hills, area A, had to hand over their IDs for inspection.
15:00 Gochia Gate remained unopened until 15:15, nor did any Palestinians arrive to use it.
17:30 Maale Efrayim Checkpoint was unmanned at this time.
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3. Haaretz
Friday, November 18, 2011
The ultra-Orthodox are changing the face of the IDF
The former IDF rabbi was right about the reservist generals who have protested what they see as extremist religious trends within the army: This isn’t the army they used to know.
The 19 reservist major generals who signed the letter to Chief of Staff Benny Gantz on Monday, warning of extremist religious trends in the Israel Defense Forces, “were in the army long ago,” Rabbi Avichai Rontzki declared this week. Brig. Gen. (res. ) Rontzki, who was chief army rabbi until a year and a half ago, claimed that the veteran officers don’t know what the IDF is like anymore. “Things are different nowadays,” he explained.
The signatories, who were prompted to protest by events – such as male soldiers boycotting official ceremonies where women were singing, and the ousting of female staff officers from combat units – are indeed detached from the reality of being in the army today. Much has changed since people like Ori Orr, Menachem Einan and Yeshayahu Gavish were among the top brass.
Orr says he never encountered religious soldiers boycotting events featuring female singers. He certainly never imagined stories such as these, culled randomly from the media this week: about the IDF gradually adopting stricter (kasher lemehadrin ) dietary standards (from the army’s weekly Bamahane ); about Rabbi Eli Sadan, head of the pre-military academy in Eli, lecturing about the “dedication and courage” of Baruch Goldstein and Yigal Amir (Yedioth Ahronoth ); and about the IDF Education Corps’ directive that soldiers not attend the annual memorial rally for Yitzhak Rabin (Haaretz ).
When it comes to relations between religious and secular soldiers, it seems that indeed, this is no longer the army we used to know. As if we blinked and the army changed.
The IDF’s policy with respect to kosher food, drafted by the first IDF rabbi, Rabbi Shlomo Goren in the 1950s, was based on the lowest common denominator that could be found between religious and secular soldiers: Each side sacrificed something, but the army’s dining halls were open to all. Yet now this situation isn’t good enough for the IDF’s 3,000 ultra-Orthodox soldiers, and a growing group of Haredi-Zionist soldiers won’t accept it either. The army’s rabbinate is currently leaning toward accepting these ultra-Orthodox soldiers’ demands and toughening kashrut rules, which will require larger budgets.
Of course, the growing number of religious soldiers and officers forces the army to make adjustments; now it has to face an array of issues that did not have to be addressed in the past. Yet some of these changes, particularly those involving women, stem from power struggles between rabbis not affiliated with the army, who compete to make stricter demands of their students in uniform.
November 2011 data from the IDF Manpower Directorate, compiled yesterday, shows that the national-religious school system sends more graduates to combat units than any other educational system. National-religious graduates make up an even larger percentage of combat officers. At time when many secular youths, including those who choose combat units, are content to serve their mandatory three years before returning to civilian life, religious soldiers are being educated to stay in uniform beyond the minimum. Thus, 42 percent of cadets in the most recent infantry officer training course were religious (nine cadets in this course stood trial for boycotting the contentious ceremony with women singers ).
Rabbi Sadan’s influence on these soldiers is considerable; some say he has the impact and stature of a major general. In 1988, Sadan established the religious pre-army academy Bnei David in the settlement of Eli – today the country’s largest and most important such institution, many of whose graduates go on to command battalions.
Sadan’s lecture on Rabin memorial day makes for troubling reading (the text appears in full on the academy’s website ). Rabin, Sadan claimed, was “the biggest leadership and political failure in Israel ‘s history.” He left no legacy, the rabbi added, and the whole personality cult that has sprung up around him is misbegotten. After the obligatory denunciation of the assassination, Sadan said he is “amazed by the dedication and courage” of Rabin’s assassin, Amir, and of “the extraordinary heroism” of Goldstein, who knew he would die after his shooting massacre at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. The damage they caused “will take generations to repair,” he added.
Kahane lives
It seems that declarations by the late radical Rabbi Meir Kahane’s students a decade ago are now part of the religious mainstream. Some of its leaders are now taking off their masks: For example, Sadan, who for years preached patriotism to the state , and adamantly opposed violating orders, has taken up a fiery manner of expression that he avoided in the past (he says the quotations regarding Rabin were taken out of the lesson’s broader context ).
“An ill wind has been blowing through our public,” said a senior religious officer this week. Another officer expressed consternation that nobody denounced Sadan’s remarks. The truth, however, is that there is little chance that anyone in the IDF General Staff would dare to take on Sadan, whose academy produces outstanding officers.
“The army is capitulating to the religious, and that started before the withdrawal from Gaza ,” stated a third officer. “The [disengagement’s] blow to the religious public was quickly compensated by rabbis’ gains on day-to-day matters. The officers were told that this is a very sensitive time, and it’s not prudent to argue with rabbis. Somehow, only one side has shown flexibility over the past several years.”
For example, why does the IDF allow Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, head of the Elon Moreh Yeshiva – who calls on soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate settlements – to spend Sabbaths with hesder students (who serve in a combined religious study-army framework ) on Givati infantry bases?
Meanwhile, the army is imposing controversial and dubious restrictions upon its soldiers. One was the Education Corp’s sweeping ban on soldiers from taking part in the annual memorial service for Rabin. The IDF called the rally, which was not sponsored by a state body, a political event. This is the same Educational Corps that was defeated in recent years in its power struggles vis-a-vis the chief rabbinate of the army, spearheaded by Rontzki.
A strongly worded report compiled by the State Comptroller’s Office, slated for release in April, will discuss problems related to the power of the IDF rabbinate vis-a-vis the Education Corps in full. When the draft report was passed on to the various units the comptroller had examined, claims immediately arose that he had a vendetta against the rabbinate (as has become nearly routine, these claims were accompanied by hints of a complex conspiracy led by Haaretz ).
Anyone who believed these issues would disappear after Rontzki left the army was mistaken. His successor as IDF chief rabbi, Brig. Gen. Rafi Peretz, has a reputation in the General Staff as a moderate and a compromiser. Yet Peretz is being forced to bow in some cases to civilian rabbis, including Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, who has shown sudden vigilance on religious matters in the IDF and demanded that religious soldiers boycott events with women singers.
Despite the pressures on it, a committee appointed by Gantz and headed by Manpower Directorate commander Maj. Gen. Orna Barbivai, is expected to conclude that the army’s standing orders should remain in effect: Soldiers cannot leave official ceremonies even if women are singing there. With regard to other kinds of events, commanders are expected to use discretion.
Speaking before the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday, Gantz expressed himself strongly: “I am worried about Iran and Syria , but also by the matter of the army and society … the chief rabbis told me they do not stand up and leave when a woman sings at a state ceremony. There is no ban on women singing in the IDF, and commanders’ supreme authority on this issue cannot be undermined.”
Prof. Yedidia Stern, a religious man who is a lawyer and also vice president of the Israel Democracy Institute, told Haaretz that, “what is needed is a multi-faceted policy of setting limits while allowing commanders to be flexible. The army needs to set red lines that cannot be transgressed. Religion is imperialist by nature. It has tremendous energy, but it retreats when facing a resolute policy. On the other hand, the carrot needs to be used along with the stick: After setting limits, the army should go the extra mile on behalf of religious soldiers, and allow prudent officers the freedom to deal with specific issues.”
TEL AVIV — On Sept. 5th, nine military cadets of the Israel Defense Force officer training school, all Orthodox Jews, walked out of an official event marking operation Cast Lead. A group of soldier-singers had taken the stage, but when a woman started her solo, the nine cadets stormed out. Four of them refused to come back to the hall, despite being warned that they were breaching an order, and two days later were expelled from the school.
Oded Balilty/Associated PressTheir objection? That Orthodox Judaism forbids a man from hearing a woman sing. These soldiers adhere to the strict interpretation of the expression “Kol B’Isha Erva.” This might translate as, “the voice of a woman is like nakedness.” Or as, “the voice of a woman is like her vagina.”
The rabbinical debate over the meaning of this Talmudic expression is old and complex, and the variations in its interpretation are many. For some Orthodox Jews, though, it is a clear command: thou shalt not hear a woman sing.
What’s less clear is how far the Israeli military should go to help them obey it. Israel ’s draft is mandatory. Every 18-year-old boy and girl is obliged to serve (barring exceptions too complicated to explain here). Eager to make military service possible for both the religious and the secular, the Israeli military has tried to accommodate the sometimes quirky demands of Jewish religiosity. It adheres to all Jewish dietary laws of kashrut. Commanders have to make time for observant soldiers to pray. And the Jewish Shabbat is a day of rest: security-related operations continue but all military exercises and maneuvers come to a halt.
These measures seemed sufficient for a while , but three recent trends are now calling the system into question.
The first is a shift among the Orthodox. Orthodox Israelis have traditionally been divided into two main groups : the so-called ultra-Orthodox, who are more pious and want little to do with Zionism or the state , and the Orthodox-Zionists, zealot Zionists who try to balance religion and modern life by mixing with the general public while still adhering to religious rules. But in recent years, the religious Zionists have become less amenable to compromising for the sake of keeping the peace with secular society. They have become much more like the ultra-Orthodox, except that they retain their Zionist zeal.
The military, meanwhile, has grown more dependent on religious soldiers. According to one report, the number of observant infantry officers has risen from 2.5 percent in 1990 to more than 31 percent in 2007. The figure is probably even higher today. According to another report, the percentage of graduates from religious schools who serve as majors in combat units has risen from 6.9 percent to 20 percent between 1994 and 2009. For both political and religious reasons, the Orthodox-Zionists are more motivated to serve on the frontlines than any other group. The military needs them, and so it needs them to feel wanted, accommodated and appreciated.
Then add to that the uncompromising (and, of course, justified) demand of women to be treated equally. Since 1995, after Israel ’s Supreme Court found that the 23-year-old officer Alice Miller should be allowed to take entry tests to join the air force flight-training course, women’s participation in all branches of the Israeli military has increased.
Hence “the problem” of shirat nashim: of orthodox men being forced to endure the singing of women. And it’ s a problem that many reporters and opinion writers here have been quick to describe by way of a villain. Some have denounced as uncompromising the Orthodox men who squirm at a woman’s singing — or, for that matter, at the idea of serving with one in a crowded tank. Some have denounced the liberals for putting the right to sing over the strength of the military. Some have denounced the rigid rabbis for failing to accommodate the rest of society. Some have denounced the military for not putting the Orthodox soldiers in their place. Some have denounced the ever-denounceable politicians for letting the Orthodox gain too much power in Israeli life overall.
The truth, though, is that there is no simple way to balance these competing rights. Religious soldiers can’t be made to violate their faith. The military can’t be made to alienate its most motivated group of soldiers. And I can’t educate my daughter to serve in a military that would excise women from the public sphere to accommodate the radical demands of the super pious.
And so for now, the only compromise that seems possible is one that would require abandoning a principle all Israelis grew up to appreciate : the value of togetherness.
—
Shmuel Rosner , an editor and columnist based in Tel Aviv, is senior political editor for The Jewish Journal.
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5. Haaretz
Friday, November 18, 2011
No method in the madness of Israel ‘s government
Patients may be dying, human rights activists may be terrorized, but the people of Israel live.
Tags : Israel Supreme Court Benjamin Netanyahu Knesset
There is in our society no comprehensive system, in the full sense of the term : The political system is separated from the health system; the cabinet and the Knesset are separate planets. Any alien who would happen to visit here would draw the conclusion that health matters are handled not by the health system, but rather by the Supreme Court. Patients might be dying, but the people of Israel lives. The hospitals are collapsing, but the government coalition is alive and kicking – and that’s what counts. For Benjamin Netanyahu, having a single Yaakov Litzman [deputy Min. of Health] in hand is worth more than hundreds of men and women physicians who have gone out on a limb, even if the deputy health minister doesn’t have a clue as to what the striking doctors want, as he admitted Wednesday in a radio interview.
This week, even the High Court of Justice scolded the government for its handling of the doctors’ debacle. The Finance Ministry was of the belief that the crisis had dissipated, that the protesting medical residents had grown weary, even fallen asleep during their long, exhausting hospital shifts. Suddenly, they are arising anew, impatiently throwing off their scrubs and heading home. Their stethoscopes have turned into something that strangles them; they are able neither to do their work or to resign.
The masterminds who stirred the ill winds against the residents are now absorbing the stormy wrath of the senior physicians. In fact, the forte of Netanyahu and Yuval Steinitz seems to be fanning major fires instead of stamping out small, freshly lit ones.
For its part, the Health Ministry continues to pour fuel on the fire, in a sordid effort to turn hospital directors into stool pigeons. The policy holds that if top docs want to quit, they should be shown the door immediately and never be seen again – and that if the younger physicians resume their protests, bring us their names, and they won’t ever return either.
Israel presumably can live without all of these talented, dedicated individuals, but it would collapse were a deputy minister or ministry director general to step down: That would be a fatal calamity in terms of the state’s future. Nonetheless, perhaps the time has come to make a decision: Either the Litzmans will suffer immediate injury, or the casualties will have to be the professionals who know how to cure the suffering.
That’s the method: Anyone who doesn’t blindly heed orders is to be terrorized. The terrorized include outraged activists from human rights organizations and masses of workers. Not far off is the day when one of these crazed Knesset members will sponsor a bill that would literally enchain citizens to their places of work and staple workers’ tongues to the roofs of their mouths. That is a proposal the coalition can be expected to support, even while Benny Begin and Dan Meridor will say it isn’t a very nice thing to do.
I keep scratching my head, trying to understand the real reason for the government’s indifference. How are we to explain this callousness? All sorts of unpleasant thoughts come to mind: Is it possible, I ask myself, that Netanyahu came to the conclusion that neither he himself nor his party have many supporters among the physicians, and that anyway, given the growing alienation in that sector, that number is dwindling. Can this be the explanation?
The government itself is ill; it refuses treatment, and it endangers us all. In order to mitigate our suffering, there is no choice now but to expand the circle of dissent.
Emergency measures are needed to bring the system back to health. Rambam Medical Center , Ichilov Hospital and Sheba Medical Center should assume the unruly posture of those in the Ashdod harbor, the Likud party’s traditional port of call. Senior physicians and younger ones, men and women, have now grasped that discussion and negotiations do not lead to much; indeed, such methods also will not lead the ailing senior citizen in the hospital corridor toward the ward for proper treatment.
I should think that the government would be wise to make haste, overcome all that has been said and done, and solve this crisis, before it reaches its crescendo. Soon someone here will be needed to care for all those wounded in the war that was promised us this week in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. The government will tend to the dead on its own.
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6. Haaretz
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Abbas and Mashaal in Cairo Photo: AP
Report: Fatah, Hamas reach understandings
Palestinian official claims breakthrough achieved on reconciliation agreement; says ‘sides agree that next government will be based in Gaza .’ Hamas PM Haniyeh, Fatah PM Fayyad unlikely to seek reelection
A Palestinian source said that preliminary meetings between Hamas and Fatah officials have led to mutual understandings between the sides, the Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam reported on Saturday.
According to the source, the understandings will be officially published after a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal, scheduled to take place in Egypt next week.
The two are slated to discuss the implementation of the inter-Palestinian reconciliation agreement, as well as the parliamentary and presidential elections.
Meanwhile, Ahmed Youssef, the former political adviser of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, noted that the two sides have agreed that the next Palestinian government will be based in Gaza , adding that the next prime minister may also be a resident of the Strip.
Reconciliation celebrations in Gaza (Archive photo: EPA)
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad commented on the tension between the factions, writing in his Facebook page that he will not force himself upon the Palestinian people.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported Saturday that neither Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh nor Fatah PM Fayyad will seek the premiership in the next Palestinian elections.
“Ismail Haniyeh and Salam Fayyad were causes of disagreement in the previous stage, and so both will be exempted,” Youssef said.
“Fayyad was subjected to an unjust defamation campaign, and part of it came from Fatah. He just added another element to his accomplishments when he willingly said he would not impose himself,” he added.
Fayyad has called on the Palestinian factions to reach an agreement over the appointment of a new prime minister. Hamas fiercely objects to having Fayyad serve in the transition government.
Last month, Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad said that hs faction has reached an agreement with Hamas to hold the parliamentary elections in the upcoming month of May.
If the step materializes, it will mark the end of a four-year-long feud between the Palestinian factions.
