NOVANEWS
Nazi’s conducts fatal tests on inmates’
A member of the Palestinian Fatah party says Palestinian prisoners have fallen victim to fatal illnesses due to experiments carried out on them in Israeli jails.
Abbas Zaki, a member of Fatah’s central committee, says 1,500 Palestinian prisoners developed cancer after being experimented on by Israeli doctors in detention centers.
Zaki said an international effort is underway to file a lawsuit against Tel Aviv over the abusive treatment of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
Palestinian officials are calling for an international investigation into the chemical substances used on Palestinians in such cases.
Issa Qaraqe, the Palestinian Authority’s minister in charge of prisoner affairs, said that at least one Palestinian inmate dies in Israel jails each month as a result of torture or chemical experiments.
There are currently more than 11,000 Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israeli jails.
France ‘will recognize’ Palestinian state
After Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, France has now declared that it will recognize a free and independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
France has declared that it will recognize a free and independent Palestinian state based on borders before the 1967 war, becoming the first European nation to do so.
Bernard Valero, a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Paris agrees with the formation of a Palestinian state based on the exchange of land between Israel and the Palestinians.
Valero also expressed hope that peace talks between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel will resume.
During the past week, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have all sent letters to acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas, declaring that they recognize a free and independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
Human rights activists and international bodies are meanwhile vying for the United Nations membership for the Palestinian state.
The activists believe that Palestine already meets the required criteria for joining the world body.
Israel has protested the recent recognitions, claiming that the move is against the spirit of the Mideast talks.
Tel Aviv accuses the Latin American nations of ignoring the 2003 Middle East roadmap for peace, which said that a Palestinian state could be established through dialogue, but not through unilateral measures.
This is while the international community widely backs Palestinian demands for a state in most of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem), all territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
The recent developments come only weeks after Tel Aviv announced that it would not halt its plan for constructing over 1,300 new settler units in East al-Quds and a further 800 units in the northern occupied West Bank.
Israel’s decision has been condemned by the PA, the European Union, the United States and Russia.
In clear defiance to international criticism, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also stated that it considers al-Quds its capital.
The resumption of the illegal construction work has put a halt to direct talks between Israel and the PA, which began in early September after a 20-month break.
The Palestinians say that the settlement activities are being carried out to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East al-Quds as its future capital.
Zio=Nazi army bulldozes West Bank village
Palestinians watch an Israeli excavator destroying a Palestinian house in a village in the West Bank. (file photo)
Israeli military bulldozers have leveled a school and forced dozens of families living in tents near the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) to evacuate.
The Israeli bulldozers entered the village of Tana early on Wednesday, razing the structures. A Red Cross facility was also severely damaged in the demolition activity, witnesses told Press TV.
The Red Cross building reportedly provided service to the impoverished residents of the village.
The Palestinian Authority refused to condemn the demolitions. Israeli authorities said the structures had been built without the required permits.
Palestinians argue that their efforts to construct a free and independent Palestinian state will prove fruitless as long as Tel Aviv continues its destruction plans.
Figures from the Israeli non-governmental organization, Bimkom, reveal that nearly 95 percent of applications lodged by Palestinians for building permits are denied.
The Israeli non-profit organization also noted that Israel’s Civil Administration only grants some 12 permits a year.
Israel has demolished 995 Palestinian homes and displaced 5,783 persons, including 3,109 children, in occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem) since the start of 2000, according to the Palestinian Information Center.
UAE urges lifting anti-Iran sanctions
UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has called for the lifting of the UN Security Council sanctions imposed against Iran over the country’s nuclear program.
“We want the Security Council to go back and end the sanctions on Iran, but we want Iran to help in this as well,” UAE Foreign Minister Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said on Tuesday at the annual (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council summit.
The UN Security Council adopted the fourth round of sanctions against Tehran in June following an intense US campaign claiming that Iran’s nuclear program may have potential military applications.
Iran has described the sanctions as illegal, insisting that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which it is a signatory, gives it the right to pursue peaceful nuclear technology.
“Diplomacy is the way forward,” The Wall Street Journal quoted the UAE foreign minister as saying.
In a statement at the end of the Abu Dhabi summit on Tuesday, (P)GCC member states announced they were keen on forging closer ties with Tehran.
They also welcomed “strategic” talks between Iran and the P5+1 in Geneva.
Iran and the P5+1 — Britain, China, France, Russia and the US plus Germany — wrapped up the two-day multifaceted talks in the Swiss city of Geneva on Tuesday.
The comprehensive talks were held between Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili and EU Foreign Affairs chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the P5+1, after the West expressed willingness to return to the negotiating table.
The two sides have agreed to hold the next round of talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul in late January.
In their statement, the (P)GCC also stressed that all regional countries are entitled to use peaceful nuclear energy in line with the NPT and the regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency .
WJC, ADL slam S. American recognition of ‘Palestine’
Lauder says comments could derail peace process; Foxman: Actions taken by Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay undermine bridge-building.
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) and Anti-Defamation League (ADL) have epressed concern over recent announcements made by Latin American countries that they recognize a Palestinian state in statements released by the organizations on Tuesday.
“The WJC calls on the United States and other members of the Quartet – Russia, the EU and the United Nations – to unequivocally denounce such moves and to restate their firm commitment to resolving the Middle East conflict solely through bi-lateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority,” said a statement released Tuesday by the WJC.
Ronald S. Lauder, President of the WJC stated: “We find these announcements made by Brazil, Argentina, and other Latin American countries to be troubling. Palestinian-Israeli peace making is a delicate process and is meant to be directly negotiated between the parties as mandated by United Nations resolutions.”
“Premature announcements by other countries regarding the recognition of any Palestinian statehood do not, as some might think, contribute to peace between Israel and her neighbors, but rather undermine the negotiations and risk derailing a fragile peace process and triggering regional instability,” Lauder added.
The ADL expressed similar sentiments, saying Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay were “aiding and abetting a cynical manipulation by the Palestinian Authority as it willfully pursues a policy designed to bypass a negotiated resolution of the conflict with Israel.”
Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL’s National Director, said in a statement that “The actions taken by Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay to recognize an independent Palestinian state at this time undermine bridge-building and the possibility of future bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.”
“Instead of persuading the Palestinians to re-engage with Israel, this can only result in prolonging the decades-long absence of peace. A Palestinian state with defined borders will come only as a result of bilateral negotiations with Israel, when both parties will commit to end the conflict and be ready to make sacrifices and compromises for peace,” Foxman added.
“We urge the United States and others to speak out against the irresponsible attempts by the Palestinian Authority to evade negotiations with Israel and those who are enabling them.”
Palestinians question U.S. ability to forge Middle East peace
Top Abbas aide Abed Rabbo: How can the U.S. make Israel accept a fair peace solution when it couldn’t even make Israel limit its settlement activities?
A top Palestinian official on Wednesday questioned Washington’s ability to forge Middle East peace after a new breakdown in American attempts to revive negotiations.
The U.S. failure to persuade Israel to renew a limited freeze on construction in West Bank Jewish settlements, announced late Tuesday, was the latest setback for the Obama administration in its quest to broker a peace deal by next September. That goal, a top priority of the president, appears increasingly in doubt.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the Palestinians were assessing their options before responding to the American announcement. While accusing the Israelis of being intransigent, he also voiced disappointment with the Americans.
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PLO Executive Committee Secretary Yasser Abed Rabbo. |
Photo by: Eyal Toueg |
“We will assess if the U.S. would be able … to achieve success in its upcoming efforts,” Abed Rabbo told the Voice of Palestine radio station.
“The one who couldn’t make Israel limit its settlement activities in order to conduct serious negotiations, how can he be able to make Israel accept a fair solution,” he added. “This is the big question now.”
Abbas is expected in Cairo on Thursday for consultations with Arab leaders. Among the Palestinians’ options are finding a new formula for peace talks or taking unilateral action, such as rallying international recognition for a Palestinian state in the absence of a peace deal.
The Israelis and Palestinians launched the latest round of peace talks on Sept. 2 at a White House ceremony, where they committed themselves to reaching a deal within a year.
But weeks later, the talks broke down after an earlier, 10-month Israeli slowdown on settlement construction expired. The Palestinians say there is no point in negotiating if Israel continues to build homes for its citizens in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — captured territories that the Palestinians claim for a future independent state.
The Americans have been negotiating with Israel for weeks on the terms of a renewed settlement freeze in hopes of drawing the Palestinians back to the talks.
Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced after a trip to the U.S. that he was close to an agreement in which he would slow settlement construction for three months in exchange for a package of American security and diplomatic assurances.
However, the sides were unable to wrap up the deal, in part because of uncertainty what would happen after the three months.
The Americans had hoped the freeze would allow the sides to work out a deal on their future borders. Such an arrangement could make the settlement issue irrelevant, since Israel could resume construction in territories it expects to keep while halting building in areas given to the Palestinians.
In radio interviews Wednesday, a series of top aides to Netanyahu insisted the Palestinians were to blame by being inflexible on the settlement issue. They insisted that Netanyahu is committed to peace.
“He doesn’t enter negotiations just to negotiate,” said Ron Dermer, a top adviser to the prime minister. “But he has red lines.”
Will WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, now arrested, take the ‘nuclear’ option?
WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange has threatened to release ‘key parts’ of secret US documents if anything happened to him or WikiLeaks.
Now that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested, will he unleash his “thermonuclear device?”
He appeared to hint at the option last week, when he threatened that “key parts” of secret US government cables would be released if anything happened to him or WikiLeaks.
The “thermonuclear device,” so named by Mr. Assange’s lawyer, is believed to refer to a mysterious 1.4 GB file labeled “insurance” that was uploaded onto the WikiLeaks website in late July, just after the website published 77,000 Afghan war documents.
RELATED: WikiLeaks: Five more of the strangest stories to emerge
The file, believed to include the more than 251,000 US State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks, is seen as an insurance policy for the embattled WikiLeaks in case of potential attacks on its founder or its website before the full trove is made available to the public.
“… this is, I think, what they believe to be a thermonuclear device effectively in the electronic age,” Mr. Assange’s lawyer, Mark Stephens, said Sunday during an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
The encrypted file has since been downloaded by tens of thousands of supporters, according to The Sunday Times, though the 256-digit code believed to unlock it has not yet been released. The Times added that the cache was suspected to include unredacted documents on BP and the US-run Guantánamo Bay detention facility.
Assange appeared to refer to the file on Dec. 3 during a Q&A with the public on the Guardian’s website, but characterized it only as including the State Department cables.
“The Cable Gate archive has been spread, along with significant material from the US and other countries to over 100,000 people in encrypted form,” he said in the online forum. “If something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically. Further, the Cable Gate archives is in the hands of multiple news organizations.”
“Cable Gate” is the title of WikiLeaks’ largest leak yet, though fewer than 1,000 of the more than 251,000 cables have been released to the public since the leak began on Nov. 28.
The latest release of cables has brought increased pressure on Assange from the US and Swedish governments, culminating this morning with his arrest at a London police station on accusations of rape, unlawful coercion, and sexual molestation in Sweden.
Will WikiLeaks now release the key to open the insurance file? Not yet. The Associated Press reports that a WikiLeaks spokesman said the file will be “used only if ‘grave matters’ take place involving WikiLeaks staff.”
Could someone crack the encryption code and review or even publish the file on their own? Unlikely. Nigel Smart, professor of cryptology at Bristol University, told The Sunday Times that even powerful military computers would be unable to crack the encryption. “This isn’t something that can be broken with a modern computer. You need the key to open it,” he said.
The US Department of Defense is reportedly aware of the “insurance” file but has been unable to establish its contents. If anyone can crack the code, it would be the US National Security Agency, according to James Bamford, who has written two books on the NSA.
“This is the kind of thing that they are geared for, since this is the type of thing a terrorist organization might have – a website that has damaging information on it,” Mr. Bamford told the Associated Press in August soon after the insurance file appeared. “They would want to break into it, see what’s there and then try to destroy it.”
But secret-code expert Bruce Schneier, author of the blog “Schneier on Security,” has suggested that it could be no more than a bluff from Assange.
“It’s either 1.4 Gig of embarrassing secret documents, or 1.4 Gig of random data bluffing. There’s no way to know.”
Zio=Nazi regime helps ex-wife of American spy Jonathan Pollard move to the country
(AP) An Israeli official said Tuesday that the first wife of Jonathan Pollard, an American imprisoned 25 years ago for spying on behalf of Israel, has moved to Israel with the government’s help.
Elad Sonn, a spokesman for Israel’s immigration ministry, said Anne Pollard appealed to the Israeli consulate in New York last week for aid. Sonn says she landed in Israel on Monday with her father.
Anne Pollard was arrested in 1985 and found guilty of being an accomplice to her then-husband. He pleaded guilty to passing secrets to Israel and is serving a life sentence.
Israel TV reported she was homeless and in poor health.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said that she was in trouble, and “we are prepared to help any Israeli citizen in trouble.” Israeli officials said she would get financial and medical assistance.
After arriving in Israel, Anne Pollard told reporters, “I’m overwhelmed, I’m so happy to be here, I missed Israel so much and there’s no place like home.” She lived in Israel for a few years in the 1990s.
Israel has long called for Jonathan Pollard’s release, and his ex-wife agreed. “Twenty-five long years, and it’s time, and I’m very, very very hopeful that the U.S. government will release him now.”
Jonathan and Anne Pollard divorced in 1990. He remarried in 1993 while in prison.
Nigeria: Charges filed against former US vice president Dick Cheney in Halliburton case
(AP) Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency on Tuesday charged former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney over a bribery scheme involving oil services firm Halliburton Co. during time he served as its top official, a spokesman said.
The charges stem from a case involving as much as $180 million allegedly paid in bribes to Nigerian officials, said Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Halliburton and other firms allegedly paid the bribes to win a contract to build a $6 billion liquefied natural gas plant in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta, he said.
Terrence O’Donnell, a lawyer representing Cheney, denied the allegations.
“The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission investigated that joint venture extensively and found no suggestion of any impropriety by Dick Cheney in his role of CEO of Halliburton,” O’Donnell’s said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. “Any suggestion of misconduct on his part, made now, years later, is entirely baseless.”
The Halliburton case involves its former subsidiary KBR, a major engineering and construction services firm based in Houston. In February 2009, KBR Inc. pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to authorizing and paying bribes from 1995 to 2004 for the plant contracts in Nigeria.
KBR, which split from Halliburton in 2007, agreed to pay more than $400 million in fines in the plea deal.
Halliburton spokeswoman Tara Mullee Agard said the company had not seen the new charges Tuesday, but insisted the company had nothing to do with the project.
Babafemi said Halliburton, its Nigerian subsidiary, Halliburton CEO David J. Lesar, former KBR CEO Albert “Jack” Stanley and current KBR CEO William Utt all face similar charges in the case. The spokesman said each charge in the 16-count indictment carried as much as three years in prison.
Heather L. Browne, a KBR spokeswoman, said in a statement that Utt joined the firm in 2006, two years after prosecutors say the bribery case concluded.
“The actions of the Nigerian government suggest that its officials are wildly and wrongly asserting blame in this matter,” Browne’s statement read. “KBR will continue to vigorously defend itself and its executives, if necessary, in this matter.”
Stanley pleaded guilty in 2008 to federal bribery charges for his role in the scheme. He is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on Jan. 19.
Nigeria, a major oil supplier to the U.S., long has been considered by analysts and watchdog groups as having one of the world’s most corrupt governments. Federal prosecutors in the U.S. have filed a series of charges over the construction of the Bonny Island liquefied natural gas plant under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. That law makes it unlawful for companies doing work in the U.S. to bribe foreign government officials or company executives to secure or retain business.
Cheney resigned as Halliburton’s CEO in 2000 to run as former President George W. Bush’s vice president. Babafemi declined to comment when asked how likely it was that Cheney would be extradited to Nigeria over the charges.
“We are following the laws of the land. We want to follow the laws and see where it will go,” the spokesman said. “We’re very convinced by the time the trial commences, we’d make application for appropriate court orders to be issued.”
There could be political calculations at play in the new charges. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan faces a coming primary election in the nation’s ruling party against former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Critics have tried to connect Abubakar to this bribery case in the past and the charges come as the election looms. Abubakar has denied any involvement.
Top rabbis move to forbid renting homes to Arabs, say ‘racism originated in the Torah’
Dozens of Zio=Nazi’s municipal chief rabbis signed on to the ruling, which comes just months after the chief rabbi of Safed initiated a call urging Jews to refrain from renting or selling apartments to non-Jews.
A number of leading rabbis who signed on to a religious ruling to forbid renting homes to gentiles – a move particularly aimed against Arabs – defended their decision on Tuesday with the declaration that the land of Israel belongs to the Jews.
Dozens of Israel’s municipal chief rabbis signed on to the ruling, which comes just months after the chief rabbi of Safed initiated a call urging Jews to refrain from renting or selling apartments to non-Jews.
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The Arab neighborhood of Dahiyat al-Salam. |
Photo by: Olivier Fitoussi |
Signatories include the chief rabbis of Ramat Hasharon, Ashdod, Kiryat Gat, Rishon Letzion, Carmiel, Gadera, Afula, Nahariya, Herzliya, Nahariya and Pardes Hannah, among a number of other cities.
“We don’t need to help Arabs set down roots in Israel,” Rabbi Shlomo Aviner of the Beit El settlement, said on Tuesday. Aviner explained that he supported the move for two reasons: one, a Jew looking for an apartment should get preference over a gentile; and two, to keep the growing Arab population from settling too deeply.
“Racism originated in the Torah,” said Rabbi Yosef Scheinen, who heads the Ashdod Yeshiva. “The land of Israel is designated for the people of Israel. This is what the Holy One Blessed Be He intended and that is what the [sage] Rashi interpreted.”
He added that he did not see the move as racist so much as segregationist. “The world is so big and the State of Israel is small, that God intended it for the people of Israel and the whole world covets it. That is the injustice.”
Upon news of the religious ruling, Meretz faction whip Ilan Ghilon immediately asked the attorney general to dismiss each of the rabbis who had signed their names.
“We are witnessing an epidemic of racism and xenophobia and we must act firmly,” he said.
Deputy Knesset chairman MK Ahmed Tibi decried the letter as a “mass crime [committed] by a group of racist rabbis who should be given intensive course in Jewish history.”
The entire group should be tried for “incitement to racism,” added Tibi, “Muslim clerics have recently been tried or fired from their jobs for much less but the rabbis are able to pursue their unruly behavior without concern.
Haifa Mayor Yonah Yahav termed the ruling the “real desecration of God’s name. It is bringing hatred against those with whom we have chosen to live our lives.”
Nazareth Mayor Ramiz Jaraisy also decried the moving, declaring that “whoever thinks it damages one side is mistaken. We are all children of the land. Both nations must search for common ground and not bring about escalation.”
In their ruling, the rabbis called on the religious community to voice support Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, who could face trial for incitement against Arabs for initiating the move against renting to gentiles.
Minority Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman has also asked Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman to begin the process of suspending Eliyahu immediately from his post as municipal rabbi.
Politicos from the national religious sector believe that the mass of prominent figures who signed on to the ruling – all of whose salaries are paid by public funds – will send a message to the attorney general to take Eliyahu’s position seriously.
The rabbis’ letter prompted by Eliyahu, which was first published months ago and reprinted in October, urges Jewish owners of apartments to reconsider renting their properties to Arabs since it would deflate the value of their homes as well as those in the neighborhood.
“Their way of life is different than that of Jews,” the letter stated. “Among [the gentiles] are those who are bitter and hateful toward us and who meddle into our lives to the point where they are a danger.”
The rabbis also urge neighbors of anyone renting or selling property to Arabs to caution that person. After delivering the warning, the neighbor is then encouraged to issue notices to the general public and inform the community.
“The neighbors and acquaintances [of a Jew who sells or rents to an Arab] must distance themselves from the Jew, refrain from doing business with him, deny him the right to read from the Torah, and similarly [ostracize] him until he goes back on this harmful deed,” the letter reads.
Barak: U.S. put settlement freeze talks on hold due to WikiLeaks
Knesset committee members say defense minister’s explanation that Obama administration was dealing with other issues is just an excuse to cover up Israel’s bad foreign policy.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday that contacts with the United States over a renewed moratorium on West Bank construction had been frozen in the wake of the WikiLeaks crisis and the tensions between North and South Korea.
“We have not reached understanding with the United States on how to resume the construction freeze,” Barak told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “The negotiations with the Palestinians are of utmost priority for Israel and we must aspire to make them happen.”
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Palestinian man works at a construction site in a West Bank settlement on Monday, September 27, 2010. |
Photo by: AP |
Barak said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had reached a gentlemen’s agreement in their discussions over trading a freeze for certain American guarantees, adding that a deal was not yet “closed” and that the approval of Congress was still needed.
The defense minister’s explanation was met with some incredulity by committee members, who accused him of making excuses for Israel’s problematic foreign policy.
The Obama administration had proposed that Israel take on a new three-month moratorium on settlement construction after a 10-month slowdown expired in September, causing peace talks to stall.
To entice the Israelis to sign on to the deal, the U.S. has proposed a package of incentives including a gift of 20 next-generation stealth fighter planes and U.S. pledges to veto anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations, Israeli officials have said.
Netanyahu has yet to commit to a renewal, saying he is waiting for written U.S. assurances. Palestinians say they will not return to negotiations without a total freeze that includes both East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Zio=Nazi regime to Turkey: Admit IDF raid on Gaza flotilla had no malicious intent
Request is part of the latest Israeli-Turkish discussions aimed at ending their diplomatic crisis, which focus on an Israeli apology in exchange for return of Turkish envoy to Tel Aviv.
The discussions between Israeli and Turkish officials in Geneva are continuing, and a senior Israeli official has said that the focus of the deliberations is the particular wording of the Israeli apology for the IDF raid on the Gaza-bound ship the Mavi Marmara, which killed nine Turkish citizens.
“We are looking for wording that would clarify that during the overtaking of the Gaza flotilla, Israel did not act out of malice,” said the Israeli official.
Israel’s representative on the UN panel investigating the Gaza-bound flotilla incident, Yosef Ciechanover, met for the second time on Monday with senior Turkish diplomat Feridun Sinirlioglu.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. |
Photo by: Archive |
The discussions centered around a formula that would have Israel apologize for the incident and arrange for compensation for the dead and injured Turkish citizens, and in exchange Turkey would return its ambassador to Tel Aviv and announce the “normalization” of ties between Israel and Turkey.
An Israeli source close to the talks said that the discussions are at a particularly sensitive place at the moment, wherein the two sides need to present their ideas to prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Recep Tayyip Erdogan to receive further instructions.
Israeli officials fear that Netanyahu will find it hard to pass such an agreement before his cabinet, in light of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s reservations regarding an Israeli apology for the Gaza flotilla raid.
Moreover, it is also still unclear whether Erdogan will agree to the draft of understandings. As part of the agreement, Israel wants Turkey to stop carrying out anti-Israeli activities in various international forums regarding the Gaza flotilla. It is uncertain whether Erdogan will agree to this request.
If the two sides do reach an agreement, it would most probably turn the United Nations committee investigating the events of the Gaza flotilla to superfluous.
The senior Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the issue, stated that the fact that the government of Turkey sent firefighting aircraft to the Carmel fire was what encouraged Prime Minister Netanyahu to initiate discussions over ending the diplomatic rift between the two countries.
“An opportunity presented itself to improve the relations,” the senior official stated. “Prime Minister Netanyahu sees the improvement of relations with Turkey as having great importance, but he is determined to ensure that Israeli soldiers and officers will not be exposed to lawsuits and indictments around the world.”
Racist Lieberman’s aides: Apologizing to Turkey means surrendering to terror
Officials close to the foreign minister slam Netanyahu’s push for an agreement with Turkey that would end the diplomatic crisis between the two countries.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have entered a spat Tuesday over Israel’s recent contacts with Turkey which aim to end the diplomatic crisis between the two countries.
Lieberman’s aides slammed Netanyahu’s endeavor with Turkey in which Israel is expected to apologize for the events of the Gaza flotilla. “Apologizing to Turkey means surrendering to terror,” they said.
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Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset in 2009. |
Photo by: Archive / Tess Scheflan |
Officials close to Lieberman completely rejected the proposal that Israel apologize to Turkey for the Gaza flotilla in exchange for “normalizing” their ties, and demanded that Turkey apologize to Israel instead.
“Israel needs to demand that Turkey apologize and that Turkey compensate Israel for the aid it gave the group of terrorists and the IHH organization who organized the Gaza flotilla, an organization that even European countries define as a terrorist group.”
This harsh criticism of Netanyahu on the part of Lieberman’s aides has brought the tensions between the two ministers to an unprecedented peak. Lieberman’s opposition to Israel’s contacts with Turkey could thwart them, or on the other hand bring about a serious coalition crisis.
Netanyahu’s office refused to respond to the comments made by Lieberman’s aides.
Meanwhile, the discussions between Israeli and Turkish officials in Geneva are continuing, and a senior Israeli official has said that the focus of the deliberations is the particular wording of the Israeli apology for the IDF raid on the Gaza-bound ship the Mavi Marmara, which killed nine Turkish citizens.
“We are looking for wording that would clarify that during the overtaking of the Gaza flotilla, Israel did not act out of malice,” said the Israeli official.
An Israeli source close to the talks said that the discussions are at a particularly sensitive place at the moment, wherein the two sides need to present their ideas to prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Recep Tayyip Erdogan to receive further instructions.
Zio=Nazi gestapo resumes use of prohibited tear gas canisters
The canisters, which are used to disperse demonstrations in the West Bank, have been responsible for serious injuries and at least one death
Israel Defense Forces soldiers recently resumed the use of prohibited tear gas canisters to disperse demonstrations in the West Bank.
These tear gas grenades, which are in effect 40 mm rounds with a range of 250 meters, were responsible for numerous serious injuries and at least one death. In March 2009, the U.S. peace activist Tristan Anderson was hit in the head by one of these canisters while demonstrating against the West Bank separation barrier in Na’alin. Anderson was critically injured and was hospitalized in a minimally responsive state for several months after the incident. He has recovered some physical and mental functions. In April 2009, Bassam Abu Rahma, of Bil’in, died immediately after being hit in the chest by a tear gas grenade. The incident is still under IDF investigation.
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Emily Henochowicz being rushed away for treatment after she was hit in the eye with a tear gas canister during a demonstration in May. |
Photo by: Daniel Bar-On |
