Peres: UN Gaza Report Makes Mockery of History
HAARETZ: President Shimon Peres said Wednesday that the Goldstone report, which accuses Israel of committing war crimes during its military offensive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip earlier this year, "makes a mockery of history."

The president issued a stinging rebuke to the report, which was commissioned by the United Nations and authored by Richard Goldstone, a South African war crimes prosecutor who investigated Israeli and Palestinian conduct during Operation Cast Lead.

Though the report accuses both Israel and Hamas of carrying out war crimes during the three-week campaign in Gaza, it focuses primarily on Israel's actions during the fighting.

Over the course of the hostilities, which erupted on 27 December 2008 and lasted three weeks, human-rights groups say approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians, along with Israeli fatalities of three civilians and 10 soldiers.

Israel says it launched the offensive in response to persistent Palestinian rocket fire against towns and communities in the western Negev.

"The report in practice grants legitimacy to terrorism, premeditated shooting and killing while ignoring the duty and the right of a state to defend itself, something which is explicitly stated in the UN charter," Peres said.

"The Hamas terror organization is the one that launched the war, and it also committed other horrific crimes," the president said. "Hamas has employed terrorism for years against Israeli children. It has detonated explosive devices in the heart of Israeli cities, harmed civilians, launched over 12,000 missiles and mortar shells aimed at innocent civilians with one clear goal in mind - to kill."

"Israel evacuated its soldiers and citizens from Gaza, opened its crossings, and aided in the rehabilitation of the Strip," Peres added. "After the Israeli evacuation, Gaza was overrun by force by a murderous, illegitimate terrorist organization - Hamas - which launched a mutiny against the legitimate Palestinian Authority."

"Instead of building Gaza and worrying about the welfare of its residents, Hamas built offensive tunnels against Israel and brutally used Palestinian children and civilians in order to conceal terrorists and hide weapons," Peres said.

The president said criticism against Israel's actions fails to offer effective alternatives that can stifle rocket fire against the country's outlying towns. >>> Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service | Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Israel Tells Nationals: Leave Sinai Immediately
HAARETZ: Counterterrorism unit warning of planned attacks during the upcoming Jewish holiday period.

Israel on Tuesday issued a travel warning for its nationals visting the Sinai peninsula in Egypt, advising them to leave the area immediately.

The warning came from the government's counterterrorism unit. The unit warned Israelis of planned attacks during the upcoming Jewish holiday period, which begins with Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), at sundown on September 18.

The announcement mentioned tensions along the northern border of Sinai with the Gaza Strip, as well as recent threats from Hezbollah to strike at Israelis. >>> Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent | Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Words Aren’t Enough
YNET NEWS: Obama has failed to sweep Israelis, Arabs because his message has remained vague

WASHINGTON – Barak [sic] Obama has been unable to sweep public opinion in Israel, and not because he did not bother to travel to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem or directly address the people. He has failed because his message is vague and it does not enable Israelis to understand what his next steps are, and how exactly we will be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Obama was elected US president mostly because he knew how to produce what the American public so direly needed: Hope. Yet among Middle East residents, Obama has been unable to produce hope, because he has not presented an orderly plan accompanied by a timetable. Obama said that the two-state vision is the solution. President Bush also said it before him, yet for eight years nothing happened.

Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, boasts that he spent his summer vacations on the beach in Tel Aviv. Yet even he cannot explain to his boss the essence of Israeliness: When you push Israelis into a corner, their response is reflected by two constitutive statements: "I won't be a sucker" on the one hand, and "I'll show you who's the boss" on the other hand.

When Obama pressured Israel and demanded that it curb settlement construction without indicating what the other side needs to do, he failed to move Israelis to his side; not even the ones who support his policy and automatically applaud any peace plan. The more he presses, the more assertive they'll become, while also showing him they won't be the neighborhood's sucker.

This Israeli disdain can easily turn into willingness to face a challenge, even if the price is heavy: Israelis only want to know there's a reason to do it.

Meanwhile, Obama also failed to give hope to the Palestinians and to Arab residents of east Jerusalem: He did not present a message that would prompt people to rally around it, such as what the Palestinian state will look like, what will its relationship with Israel be like, what will security guarantees be like, and what will Mideastern residents gain by backing Obama. >>> Orly Azoulay | August 04, 2009

Pope Underlines Support for a Palestinian State
Pope Benedict XVI with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (front row, 2nd L) and Israel's President Shimon Peres (front row, 2nd R) at a welcoming ceremony at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport Monday. Photo courtesy of The New York Times

THE NEW YORK TIMES: JERUSALEM — On the fourth day of his first trip to the Middle East as pope, Benedict XVI arrived Monday in Israel and immediately called for a solution to the conflict that would yield a “homeland of their own” for both Palestinians and Israelis.

While he did not use the word “state,” he made clear in a brief speech that he was underscoring the Vatican’s previous support for the creation of a Palestinian state, albeit with a stronger resonance imparted by the setting and timing of his remarks within minutes of arriving in Israel.

“The eyes of the world are upon the peoples of this region as they struggle to achieve a just and lasting solution to conflicts that have caused so much suffering,” he told Israeli leaders who met him at the airport in Tel Aviv when he arrived from Jordan.

“The hopes of countless men, women and children for a more secure and stable future depend on the outcome of negotiations for peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” he said. >>> By Rachel Donadio | Monday, May 11, 2009

Bush Demands End to Israeli ‘Occupation’
THE TELEGRAPH: George W Bush today called for the end to the Israeli "occupation" of the Palestinian territories, in language that marks a hardening of his stance towards one of the United States' closest allies.

Speaking after meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on his tour of the Middle East, the US president urged both sides to makes sacrifices to bring about peace.

"There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967," Mr Bush told reporters.

"Now is the time to make difficult choices. 

"The agreement must establish a Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people." Bush demands end to Israeli ‘occupation’ >>> By Tim Butcher

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Bush on state of roadmap

YNET NEWS:
Bush: End IDF occupation of Arab land

YNET NEWS:
Rightists flood King David hotel with faxes in protest of Bush visit

YNET NEWS:
Rightists: Bush and Olmert bringing Holocaust upon us: 200 right-wing activists gather in Jerusalem to protest US president's visit, one detained. 'How would the American public react if Bush were to say after his inauguration that the US must cede Seattle and Manhattan?' SOS Israel head asks. 'A traitor,' demonstrators shout back By Efrat Weiss

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Bush’s Mideast Pipe Dream
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The American president came to the Middle East in an attempt to deliver peace. Instead, George W. Bush's visit to the Holy Land has only deepened the divide between the Israelis and Palestinians.

US President George W. Bush is an optimist. That's why he's visiting the Middle East this week in order to speed up the peace process that he started in Annapolis (more...) at the end of 2007.

He wants to use the 12 months left to him in the White House to solve the 60-year-old Middle East conflict, he says, and he gushes bravely about a two-state solution -- with Israel and Palestine living in harmony, side by side.

But during his visit, which ends Friday, he has achieved exactly the opposite. Instead of bridging the divide between the Israelis and the Palestinians, he has made it wider. Neither has he accelerated the peace process. Instead, he has merely managed to make it more difficult. On the red carpet that was laid out for him in the Holy Land, he has managed to bury the Palestinian state before it was even born.

Take, for example, what Bush said at a joint press conference with President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Thursday: The US president promised the Palestinians their own state within a year. He said he was convinced that a peace accord would be signed before the end of his term in January 2009.

Speaking at Abbas' side, Bush said that he was confident that "with proper help, the state of Palestine will emerge." Sources close to the negotiations said that Bush had offered to visit the region again if this was required to give the peace process fresh impetus. And the White House also announced on Thursday that Bush had named Lt. Gen. William Fraser as his envoy to monitor the Israeli-Palestinian "road map" peace plan.

But Bush has expectations that cannot be fulfilled in the madness of the Middle East; in fact, they just come across as naïve. He appears to assume that some kind of inner compulsion to find a harmonious solution to conflicts must exist -- a view that is not supported by history. Bush’s Mideast Pipe Dream >>> By Pierre Heumann

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)