TASEK PAUH blogspot

Israel could buy Palestinian gas

UK energy firm BG Group has confirmed it is in talks to agree a contract to supply Palestinian gas to Israel.

BG discovered the Gaza Marine field, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority, off the coast of the Gaza Strip in 2000.

Any deal would represent a landmark in Middle Eastern relations, but BG said it would first require agreement between both governments.

Israel has previously vowed never to buy gas from its neighbour.

Lengthy negotiations

"We have been in negotiation with Israel for many, many months," said a BG spokeswoman.

Gaza Strip : The gas field is located off the coast of the Gaza Strip

"Most importantly, we need a bilateral agreement between both governments to get the go-ahead on this. We are working on that."

BG, previously part of British Gas, is seeking a 15-year contract.

According to press reports, BG is hoping to sign a $4bn (£2bn) deal that would see the Palestinian Authority receive $1bn in royalties.

Under the proposals, BG would transport gas from the Gaza Marine field through an undersea pipeline to the Israeli port of Ashkelon.

The field contains one trillion cubic feet of gas, and could reportedly supply 10% of Israel's annual needs.

If the project gets the go-ahead it would be a major boost to the economies in the Palestinian controlled territories.

Ongoing violence, especially in the Gaza Strip, has seen much economic activity grind to a halt, leaving the territories heavily reliant upon financial aid from overseas. Published by BBC on May 23, 2007.

Labels: Israel, Luar Negeri, Palestin

Israel urges world to shun Palestinian unity government

March 18 - After several months of fierce battles between members and supporters of Hamas, and the former ruling party Fatah, that claimed the lives of over 140, Palestinians announced yesterday installing a new government, hoping the new coalition will manage end the international aid cut that was prompted by Hamas victory last year.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on the international community to join Israel in shunning the new government, calling its platform "very problematic."

"We will not be able to pursue contacts with the government or its members," Olmert told the cabinet. "We expect that the international community will not be misled by the creation of the coalition government."

The new government was approved by a 83 to 3 to vote, with forty-one of the legislature's 132 members, most of them Hamas members held in Israeli jails, not participating in the vote.

And after the Parliament historic session, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swore in the new 25-member Cabinet.

On the other hand, the United States reacted with caution to the new Palestinian alliance, which replaced the anti-Israel government led by the Islamic Hamas, which has persistently refused to recognise Israel.

Washington criticised the initial policy speech by PM Ismail Haniya, describing it as disappointing.

In his speech, Mr Haniya said: "The government affirms that resistance in all its forms, including popular resistance to occupation, is a legitimate right of the Palestinian people.

"Our people have the right to defend themselves from continuous Israeli aggression."

In response to the news, Norway announced its recognition to the new gov. and said it would lift aid embargo, whereas Britain and the UN stopped short at explicitly promising that the aid would be lifted, saying that money would start flowing again only if the new alliance managed to control anti-Israel attacks.

Analysts however warned that there’s a possibility that the new Hamas-Fatah alliance would quickly fail over ideological differences as well as long-standing enmities between the two parties.

Syria praised and pledged full support to the new government.

"Damascus demands the lifting of the embargo imposed on the Palestinian people," by the West, a statement in state news agency Sana read.

Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad warned that the new alliance won’t survive for long unless the international community ended its aid boycott and increased assistance.

"We do face a very serious and crippling financial crisis," he said. "Without the help of the international community, it is not going to be possible for us to sustain our operations." - AJP and agencies

Labels: Israel, Luar Negeri, Palestin

March 11 -Israeli policemen on Saturday killed a Palestinian young man after cruelly beating him in occupied Jerusalem, local sources said.

They identified the youth as Wael Karawi, 32, who was beaten to death this afternoon at the hands of Israeli policemen who focused their beatings on his head and other sensitive areas of his body.

The sources said that Karawi engaged the policemen in a heated debate before they started beating him with batons and only left him when he fainted.

The medical sources underlined that Karawi was killed on the spot after the brutal battering. See more pictures at kudusyolu.com

Labels: Israel, Luar Negeri, Palestin, Ummah

March 6 - Four Israelis have been taken to hospital after two rockets fired from Gaza landed near the Gaza Strip's northern borders.

Picture - Al-Quds Brigades, of the Islamic Jihad movement, claim responsibility for rocket attack [AP]

Walid al-Umari, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Palestine, said the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, had claimed responsibility for firing the rockets on Tuesday.

The Israeli army said that two rockets were fired on Tuesday morning from Gaza and landed near the city of Askalan.

Israeli sources had recently urged authorities to launch strikes on resistance forces in the Gaza Strip if they continued to fire rockets at Israeli targets, al-Umari said.

The attacks came shortly before Israel's high court delayed the release of the first official report on the state's conduct during the Lebanon war, giving a respite to Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister. alJazeera more..

Labels: Israel, Luar Negeri, Palestin

Would Israel attack Iran? Depends on who you ask

Occupied Jerusalem (Reuters) March 5 - Israel has long been the wild card in debates on the Iranian nuclear programme - a country that while formally outside negotiations, has lobbying clout given its strategic fears and penchant for pre-emptive strikes.

But Israeli officials, once quick to project military menace in the face of what Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has called an "existential threat", are increasingly taking a softer public line on how to meet Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

It appears that many Israelis have grudgingly decided that Iran is too tough an enemy for their armed forces to take on alone -and that the international community senses this too.

"The last thing Israel is interested in is an escalation or some military action against Iran," said Avigdor Lieberman, the usually ultra-hawkish Israeli strategic affairs minister.

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who suggested a year ago that Israel consider attacking Iran in a mission akin to its 1981 air strike on Iraq's atomic reactor, is now redirecting his rhetoric to calls for crippling Western sanctions on Tehran.

"There's no question that if stiffer measures are needed, it's better that the United States lead the way," Netanyahu told foreign reporters last month.

Pre-emptive strikes

Like its US ally, Israel refuses to rule out pre-emptive strikes as a last-ditch means of curbing a nuclear programme that Iran insists is peaceful. But unlike with Iraq under Saddam Hussain, Iran's nuclear facilities may be too distant, numerous and fortified for Israel to tackle.

The sense of tactical limitation was reinforced, throughout the region and beyond, by last year's inconclusive Israeli war against Hezbollah fighters.

"It is becoming increasingly clear that Israel has no viable military option on Iran, and is pinning its hopes on some sort of solution by the Americans," said Alon Ben-David, Israel analyst for Jane's Defence Weekly.

"But there are also a growing number of Israelis who think the country will just have to live with a nuclear-armed Iran," he said.

Resigning itself to an Iranian bomb could spell a major credibility crisis for Israel, which was founded on the promise of preventing a 'second Holocaust' and, to that end, is believed to have procured the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has fuelled fears of a catastrophic regional conflict by denying the Nazi genocide took place and urging that the Jewish state be "wiped off the map", though Tehran officials said this did not constitute a threat.

The tension is especially felt in war-wary Europe, which has robust trade ties with Iran. There have been recent European proposals for accommodating Iran by allowing it limited uranium enrichment, something anathema to the United States and Israel.

"The possibility of a preventive Israeli strike helps to concentrate European thinking on options for resolving the impending crisis before it would get to that stage," said Mark Fitzpatrick, senior fellow for nuclear non-proliferation at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies.

At least one European leader, French President Jacques Chirac, has already spoken of a nuclear-armed Iran as a possible fait accompli.

In a late-January interview that he later tried to retract, Chirac said Iran would not attempt a nuclear attack on Israel for fear that Tehran would be 'razed' in response.

Labels: Iran, Israel, Luar Negeri

Russia is working to draft a joint stand within the quartet committee to lift the siege, he elaborated and added that Russia expressed clear backing to the Hamas and Fatah agreement in Makkah.

Mishaal, in a meeting with the Palestinian community in Moscow, said that Hamas and Fatah have agreed on reforming the PLO in its capacity as the sole representative of the Palestinian people in the international arena.

He explained that the main elements of the Makkah agreement revolved around breaking the siege and securing international cooperation with the new unity government that is currently being formed.

The Hamas leader stressed that the Palestinian people refuse pressures from any party whatsoever, adding, "We believe that all pressures and dictates target one goal mainly to push our people into civil war". kudusyolu

Labels: Israel, Luar Negeri, Palestin

Labels: Berita, Iran, Israel, Luar Negeri

Labels: Berita, Israel, Luar Negeri, Palestin

Israel denies plan to attack Iran

Occupied Jerusalem, February 24 - Israel on Saturday denied a report that it has asked the United States for permission to fly its bombers over Iraq to attack Iran's nuclear plants.

Britain's The Daily Telegraph quoted an unnamed Israeli official as saying that negotiations were taking place with the US-led coalition in Iraq.

"One of the last issues we have to sort out is how we actually get to the targets in Iran. The only way to do this is to fly through US-controlled airspace in Iraq," the Israeli official told the newspaper, adding that the effort is "unprecedented” in Israel's history.

Deputy Defence Miniter Ephraim Sneh denied the report. "There has never been such a request, it is obvious," he told public radio.

He said it was the machination of "international sources who wish to dodge dealing directly with Iran and invent reports that we allegedly want to attack Iraq in order to relieve themselves from the responsibility."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had called for Israel to be wiped off the map. Iran's nuclear aims and increasing influence over the Middle East have also stirred unease in the region and the West. Agencies

Labels: Berita, Iran, Israel, Luar Negeri, U.S.

Israel kills Palestinian fighter

February 21 - Undercover Israeli forces have killed an Islamic Jihad commander in the occupied West Bank.

The group identified the deceased as its commander in the northern West Bank.

Medical sources said that Mahmoud Abu Obeid, 25, the leader of the armed wing of Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank city of Jenin was killed by Israeli special forces on Wednesday.

(Picture left - Palestinians carry the body of Abu Obeid)

He was shot dead in Jenin by special forces dressed up as Palestinians, witnesses said.

The unit ambushed his car at a roundabout before firing into the car, the sources added.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Abu Obeid's death comes one day after Israeli police arrested an Islamic Jihad operative from Jenin at a flat in a Tel Aviv suburb on suspicion of preparing a suicide bombing.

Islamic Jihad last carried out a suicide attack in Israel on January 29, when three people were killed in the Red Sea resort of Eilat. Agencies

Labels: Israel, Luar Negeri, Palestin

Israel ups policing at al-Aqsa site

Israeli police have deployed in force on a planned day of Palestinian protest against controversial work near Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque.

To guard against possible unrest, 3,000 policemen and border guards fanned out around Jerusalem's Old City, as Israel tightened restrictions on those attending prayers on Friday.

Mohammed Hussein, the Palestinian mufti, and Raed Salah, the head of Israel's Islamic Movement, have urged people to mobilise against continuing Israeli excavations that Muslims say endanger the al-Aqsa mosque compound site.

Only Muslim men aged over 50 and in possession of Israeli identity cards are being allowed to attend Friday prayers at the mosque, although there are no restrictions on women. Communal Friday prayers are a religious obligation for Muslim men.

Al Jazeera's Barnaby Philips said men who had been prevented from entering the mosque were praying outside on the street and that at least three people had been arrested.

Illegal demonstration

A Jerusalem court has banned Salah from coming within 150m of the Old City walls for two months, after finding him guilty of participating in an illegal demonstration against the work and assaulting a police officer.

Salah vowed to ignore the Israeli court's order.

"I have the right to enter al-Aqsa," Salah told Al Jazeera. "We have the right to protect the al-Aqsa mosque and confront the Israeli occupation.

"I hope that 10,000 of our people will head towards al-Aqsa mosque today [Friday]."

Israel's increased police presence comes after 15 police and at least 20 Palestinians were wounded in clashes at the al-Aqsa compound on a similar day of protest against the Israeli works last Friday. Agencies

Labels: al-Aqsa, Israel, Luar Negeri, Palestin

Occupied Jerusalem, February 12 - Israel may suspend contracts with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas if his new unity government with Hamas does not meet international demands, Israeli officials said on Monday.

The unity deal and Israel’s response could hinder US efforts to revive long delayed peace talks as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans a three-way summit with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Occupied Jerusalem on February 19.

Israeli officials said any suspension may only be temporary. Top advisers to Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and other ministers were to meet later on Monday to consider the options. Agencies

Labels: Berita, Israel, Luar Negeri, Palestin

AlJazeera, February 8 - Israel's prime minister is reported to have rejected a call from his defence minister to halt excavation work near Jerusalem's most important holy site, an Israeli newspaper reports.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli leader, said he would allow the dig near the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem to continue after the appeal from Amir Peretz.

"A thorough examination of the matter would reveal that nothing about the work under way will harm anyone, and there is no truth in the contentions against the work," the Ha'aretz newspaper quoted Olmert's office as saying.

Arab states have said the work could damage al-Aqsa's foundations.

For years the Islamic Movement has waged a campaign to "save" al-Aqsa, the main mosque in a compound in Israeli-occupied and annexed east Jerusalem.

The compound is known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount.

The mosque is the third holiest site in Islam.

The Israeli defence ministry did not immediately comment on Thursday's report and Olmert's office was not available for a response.

Ceasefire threatened

Tensions have flared between Israel and the Palestinians over the Israeli excavation, which started on Tuesday.

Palestinians said a ceasefire in Gaza with Israel could unravel if the work continued.

Ha'aretz said Peretz wrote to Olmert on Wednesday calling for the immediate stop to the work, citing security concerns.

The Fatah faction of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said any damage caused to the mosque by the dig work would "lead to a termination" of a November ceasefire deal operating in Gaza, and spark a "volcano of anger".

Israel say the excavations are part of a search for ancient artefacts beneath the compound but would not harm the sacred site in Jerusalem's walled Old City.

"I turn to Olmert to think anew," Sheikh Abdallah Nimr Darwish, head of Israel's Islamic Movement, told Israel Radio.

"Whoever wants to speak about peace does not excavate anywhere in the area around the holy al-Aqsa mosque," Darwish said, referring to Olmert's planned February 19 peace talks with Abbas and Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state. Agencies

Labels: al-Aqsa, Berita, Israel, Luar Negeri, Palestin

Al Jazeera, February 7 - Israeli police have arrested Raed Salah, the Arab head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, in Jerusalem's old city, officials said on Wednesday.

Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said: "Sheikh Raed Salah was arrested with six other activists after a dispute with police officers."

"These activists entered the old city by Dung gate and refused to obey police instructions to leave the area."

An Islamic Movement spokesman confirmed that Salah and six other members had been detained, saying that they had been "beaten" by policemen.

Salah went to the old city to protest against excavations being conducted by Israeli authorities for a second day ahead of public works, close to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

The excavations have sparked a wave of Muslim protests.

Limited access

Israeli police on Wednesday continued to limit access to the compound - the third holiest site in Islam - to Muslim men over the age of 45 with Israeli identity cards and Muslim women.

Muslim protesters fear that Israeli excavations will damage key Islamic sites [AFP]

(Picture left - Raed Salah has led Muslim attempts to halt Israeli excavations near the Al-Aqsa compound - EPA)

David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem, reported that there were up to 2,000 Israeli policemen securing the site.

Israel says the work is necessary but the timing of the excavations has generated anger and there are "accusations of extraordinary arrogance on the Israeli side" for not consulting with Muslim or Arab leaders, Chater said.

The excavation will continue for eight months.

Palestinian armed groups have warned continuing the work could threaten the Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire.

Arab anger

Chater said: "It could unite the whole of the Arab world against the Israelis and undermine the peace process."

The Islamic Movement has for years waged a campaign to "save" Al-Aqsa, the main mosque on the compound in Israeli-occupied and annexed east Jerusalem.

In July 2005, Salah was released after more than two years in an Israeli prison on charges of terrorism.

He and four other Arab Israelis were arrested in May 2003, accused of belonging to a "terrorist organisation" and funding the Palestinian group Hamas.

The Islamic Movement always denied the accusations and accused the authorities of waging a political campaign against the group. Al Jazeera and Agencies

Labels: Berita, Israel, Luar Negeri, Palestin

KudusYolu, 05 February 2007 - The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas Movement, on Sunday warned that any harm done to the holy Aqsa Mosque at the hands of Israel would be met with an unprecedented reprisal.

The armed wing, in a communiqué, said that it was closely monitoring events in occupied Jerusalem, and threatened "cruel" retaliatory strikes to any crime against the holy site.

"The Aqsa Mosque is a red line and any attempt to cross that line would lead to the Zionists' destruction", it warned, adding that Israel should not forget past lessons whenever they attempted to desecrate or tamper with the holy shrine.

The Qassam Brigades, meanwhile, said that the ongoing judaization of occupied Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque was the last warning to the Muslims before the total destruction of the Aqsa at the hands of "Zionist Jews".

It added that Israel was actually proceeding in its bit by bit destruction of the site amidst "horrific silence on the part of leaders of Arab and Islamic countries".

The armed wing called on the Muslim Ummah to shoulder its responsibility towards the third holiest shrine in Islam, and addressed what it called a "final appeal" to the entire world before the "big catastrophe takes place" and thence "regret would be of no use because the entire region would be on fire". © Copyright palestine-info.co.uk

Labels: al-Aqsa, Israel, Luar Negeri, Palestin, Ummah

Ramallah, Occupied Palestine, February 5 - While severe fighting continues between Fatah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel will start constructing a bridge At Al Aqsa Mosque this week.

The director of the cartographic department in the society for Arab Studies, Khalil Toufakji, has warned of an ethnic cleansing operation against some 24,000 Palestinians in the old city of Jerusalem.

Toufakji added that Israel has built "the Jewish neighborhood" in the city, which contains around 70 settlement units.

Speaking in a press conference in Ramallah on Saturday, Toufakji spoke about the holy city, "and the dangers it faces in the shadow of the Israeli government policy of Judaizing the city".

He added that "anyone who is watching the Israeli strategy in the city will find that it has reached a dangerous stage, and is now in the last steps of its demographic Judaization."

Operating on the demographic level, the policy aims to reduce the number of Palestinian citizens in the city, so the Israelis will form a significant majority in the future.

Toufakji drew attention to the tunnels and bridges which Israel is currently constructing. The Israeli authorities are attempting to build a link between the Western wall complex by opening a tunnel from Magharbah Gate. It is understood that this tunnel will be opened on Sunday.

Toufakji declared "there is nothing left of the Magharbah neighborhood… the goal of all these excavations is an attempt to find the temple although there isn't proven sign of its existence in the place."

Toufakji criticized the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic neglect of Jerusalem saying "as all parties are ignoring the issue of Jerusalem… we speak on every occasion about the dangers facing the city but we do nothing".

He also mentioned the change in the Israeli prime minister's convergence plans, stating that "there will be streets for Jews only, and other streets for Palestinians."

Mohammed Mar'i is a freelance Palestinian journalist based in Ramallah, Occupied Palestine. He can be reached at mmaree63@gmail.com - AJP and Agencies

Labels: Berita, Israel, Luar Negeri, Palestin, Ummah

AlJazeera, January 29 - Suicide bomber has killed three people in Israel's southern resort town of Eilat, emergency services say.

The bomber blew himself up on Monday, killing three other people and wounding more, in a cafe-bakery in the Red Sea holiday town near the Jordanian and Egyptian borders.

Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the police, said: "Three people and the bomber were killed."

A police officer in Eilat said on army radio: "This was a suicide bombing and the bomber is one of the dead. He apparently entered with a bag or an explosives belt and blew himself up inside the shop."

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said: "We will study this incident ... and we will draw the conclusions in order to direct our security officials to continue their battle without respite against the terrorists and their commanders."

Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's Jerusalem correspondent, said: "Israel as a whole has been put on a high state of alert now."

Bruno Stein, Eilat's police commander, said the police believe there could be more bombers in the town.

He said: "Our assumption is that it's not one bomber, and there might be more bombers in Eilat right now."

Claims of responsibility

Islamic Jihad, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and a previously unknown group calling itself the Army of Believers each said they carried out the attack.

Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad leader, said the attack was "a natural response to the continued crimes by the Zionist enemy".

Spokesmen from Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed joint responsibility for the attack.

In a phone call to AFP offices in Gaza, the spokesmen named the suicide bomber as Mohammed Faisal al-Siksek, a twenty-one-year-old from the Al-Shujaiyah neighbourhood of Gaza City. The group had earlier said that he was from the West Bank.

The Jihad spokesman said al-Siksek belonged to the Islamist group but neither organisation specified how the bomber had managed to get from the Gaza Strip to Eilat, access to which is strictly controlled by Israel.

Islamic Jihad is not one of the Palestinian actors subject to a Gaza ceasefire agreed upon in November between Israel and some Palestinian groups.

The group has demanded that any truce also cover the occupied West Bank.

New offshoot

Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, said: "Eyes are mainly looking towards the Islamic Jihad and a new offshoot of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

"Senior Islamic Jihad movement figures have been killed or detained in the past few weeks, and so Islamic Jihad in particular has threatened [a] response.

"[Palestinians] are expecting reprisals from Israel. So far we know that a ceasefire of sorts has been in place in the Gaza Strip between Palestinians and Israelis ... As for the West Bank, no such ceasefire exists.

"Some Palestinian groups may say that if the attacker came from the West Bank he would have been under no obligation to observe a ceasefire. Reprisals may come in Gaza, in the form of targeted assassinations [against Palestinian activists]."

Ismail Radwan, a Hamas spokesman, said the attack was a "natural response to the occupier's crimes against our people", although Hamas itself, which formed a Palestinian government last March, has not claimed a suicide bombing within Israel for nearly two years.

The attack is the first suicide bombing in Israel since last April when a suicide bomber killed 10 people in Tel Aviv. Al Jazeera and Agencies

Labels: Berita, Israel, Luar Negeri, Palestin

Jan. 22, 2007
alJazeera.com, Philippe Khan

The former first lady and Democratic senator from New York Sen. Hillary Clinton jumped into the fray as a 2008 presidential candidate with the words “I'm in” posted on her Web site.

She seemed confident.

In her statement, Clinton bluntly said “I'm in to win”.

In her first public appearance since joining the 2008 White House race, Clinton said she seeks to become U.S. President because she was “worried about the future of our country.”

“I'm worried about the future of our country, and I want to help put it back on the right course so that we can work together to meet the challenges that confront us at home and abroad,” she said.

“I am best-positioned to be able to do that, and that's why I'm running,” Clinton added.

Does this mean that the American public is heading into a pleasant time? Does this mean that world’s heading into a pleasant time in case Clinton became the new President of the United States?

And would having Clinton as the President of the country whose foreign policy played a key role in creating the world’s current political struggles and military conflicts, mean any change in that policy, that focuses mainly on what serves the Israeli interest?

The fact of the matter is that Clinton wouldn’t be less faithful to Israel than the current President George W. Bush.

“Israel: Beacon of What Democracy Should be”

In December 2005, Senator Hillary Clinton, in her keynote address to a 700-strong crowd of students, faculty, and friends of Yeshiva University, at its 81st annual Hanukkah dinner, spoke of her high-profile trip a month earlier to Israel, and the fight the United States and Israel share against terrorism.

“I just returned from a trip to Israel. It was my second trip as senator, my first as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. My husband and I were there to memorialize a dear friend, someone whom I greatly admired, former Prime Minister [Yitzhak] Rabin. And my trip focused on shared security challenges that Israel and United States face. . . . The United States and Israel share deep and lasting bonds. . . . They are bonds forged in a common struggle for human rights, democracy, and freedom . . . There is no doubt that these strong bonds and values will remain as the lodestar of our relationship with our fellow democracy and ally. And Israel is not only our ally; it is a beacon of what democracy can and should mean. . . . If the people of the Middle East are not sure what democracy means, let them look to Israel.”

So-called Security Barrier

Clinton had also supported Israel’s enormous Separation Barrier, and when she visited Jerusalem, she claimed the wall, built on confiscated Palestinian land, was not against the Palestinian people.

She did so despite the wall's devastating effect on Palestinian life- In her same speech at the Hanukkah dinner, Clinton said about the wall:

“The first priority of any government is to protect and ensure the safety of its citizens. And that is why I have been a strong supporter of Israel’s right to build a security barrier to try to keep those who would do harm to Israel out of Israel. I’ve taken the International Court of Justice to task for questioning Israel’s right to build the security barrier. On this trip, I wanted to see it with my own eyes. I went to Gilo, a Jerusalem neighborhood, and was briefed by Colonel Danny Tirza, who has overseen construction of the fence. He explained how before the construction commenced, residents of Gilo would come under fire. He left a very vivid image in my mind as he talked about how in the kitchens . . . facing the territory leading to Bethlehem, people would come and open the refrigerator to get something to eat or drink during a television break and get fired upon. He told me in great detail how hard the Israelis had worked to avoid constructing the fence. How when the shots began coming into Gilo, this colonel and others called their counterparts in Bethlehem and said, ‘We’re being fired upon. Find the people who are doing this and stop them.’ But it did not stop. His description of the necessity for the fence and its effectiveness left me with an even greater appreciation for [its] importance and rationale.”

What Clinton doesn't know is that Gilo is an illegal subdivision, an occupied Palestinian territory.

Gilo, located on the southern edge of Jerusalem overlooking Bethlehem, housing about 28,000 Israelis, was illegally (according to international law) established three decades ago, on about 700 acres of land confiscated from Palestinian ownership. It is just inside the expanded municipal limits of Jerusalem -- boundaries that Israel redrew when it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.

Clinton also supports Israel’s claims about Iran and the alleged nuclear threat it poses.

“Iranian threat”

Although Clinton knows quite well that Israel possess a massive arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction, she’s been quoted as saying:

“In addition, I held a series of meetings with Israeli officials, including the prime minister and the foreign minister and the head of the [Israeli Defense Force] to discuss such challenges we confront. In each of these meetings, we talked at length about the dire threat posed by the potential of a nuclear-armed Iran, not only to Israel, but also to Europe and Russia.”

“War on terror”

"Israelis have long had to make sacrifices in order to protect themselves. And we have to understand the significance of those sacrifices. Too many young soldiers have been lost protecting the lives and livelihood of Israel’s citizens, protecting the only democracy in the region. If Americans did not understand it before 9-11, it is abundantly clear now that we must stand beside Israel and make it clear we guarantee Israel’s security," Clinton had been quoted as saying.

"In defeating terror, Israel’s cause is our cause. The evil of terrorism, a burden long suffered by Israelis, threatens to rip apart the fabric of the Middle East. And our effort fighting terrorism there is akin to our effort fighting terrorism everywhere."

Gaza withdrawal

When Clinton visited Israel in November 2005, following a meeting with the former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, she began her campaign for president by praising the Israeli as a "courageous" man who had taken "an incredibly difficult" step by withdrawing troops and settlements from Gaza.

(A new study by an Israeli human rights organization called Gisha challenges the claim that Israel doesn’t occupy Gaza Strip any more.)

Clinton praised the alleged withdrawal of Israeli settlers and soldiers from Gaza Strip, saying it was intended as "a means of demonstrating that Sharon is committed to trying to get back into a process" with the Palestinians.

What’s been mentioned above is not a personal opinion.

Following the announcement of Clinton’s bid for presidency, Knesset Member Silvan Shalom stated that she is a “true friend of Israel,” citing her strong support to Israel in various struggles, including the Jewish State’s right to build the so-called Security Barrier despite the fact that international court in The Hague ruled that it should be removed.

Labels: Berita, Israel, Luar Negeri, Palestin, U.S.

After his remarks calling the killing of two million Jews in the Second World War a” myth” and calling for Israel to be “wiped of the map” sparked international outcry last year, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a new verbal attack against the Jewish State, this time predicting it will collapse soon and warning its allies face the "boiling wrath" of the people if they continue to support Israel.

In a speech in the southern province of Khuzestan, President Nejad was quoted by the Iranian media as saying:

"I'm sure that soon we will observe the collapse of the 'Zionist' regime (Israel)," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

The Iranian President also reiterated his denial of the Holocaust saying it "was fabricated by the West in order to reach its goals," state television quoted him as saying.

The renewed assault on Israel by the Iranian President came as tens of thousands marched through Tehran in an annual pro-Palestinian protest.

"This regime (Israel) will be gone, definitely," Ahmadinejad told the protestors.

"You (Israel supporters) should know that any government that stands by the Zionist regime from now on will not see any result but the hatred of the people," he added.

"The wrath of the region's people is boiling."

"Efforts to stabilise this fraudulent regime have completely failed, thank God ... This regime has lost the rationale of its existence," the president said.

Ahmadinejad said that his warning as an "ultimatum" for Israel-supporting powers. "You should not complain that we did not give a warning. We are saying this explicitly now."

"If a hurricane starts be rest assured that the dimensions of this hurricane will not be limited to the geographic borders of Palestine," he added. "This regime (Israel) will take its supporters to the bottom of the swamp."

"The best solution is for you to take all the components of the regime and take it away," Ahmadinejad said.

Nejad has reportedly told delegates at an international conference questioning the Holocaust and held in Tehran last month that Israel's days were numbered:

"Just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not exist, so will the 'Zionist' regime soon be wiped out."

But the political turmoil that hit Israel following the slap it received from Hezbollah and the sinking approval ratings of the Israeli Premier could be another reason that would lead to its end.

Israel’s defeat, despite the U.S. support, in last summer war in Lebanon, prompted many political experts and analysts suggest that the war came just to prove the failed approach of the Israeli government, now led by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Days after Lebanon’s war, which ended last August, young Israeli reservists began calling on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Chief of Staff Dan Halutz to resign, saying they have failed to achieve the goals the government had declared when the battle between the Israeli army and Hezbollah fighters first broke out; i.e. the return of the soldiers captured by Hezbollah, the disarmament of the Lebanese resistance group and its removal from Israel's borders.

"I don't want to be famous or to be a politician. I just want those who are responsible for these failures to go home," said Zvigenbaum to the many reporters who had gathered to cover a march organised to protest against the Israeli government’s failure, following August ceasefire.

Reservists set up tents in front of Olmert's office and called on others to join them. Protests continued for weeks.

Late in August, a survey carried out by Israel’s daily Yedioth Ahronoth found that the government had become a lame duck. Sixty three percent of Israelis believe Olmert failed in the war and should resign, according to the survey. Seventy four percent of those polled said the same about Amir Peretz. Only 19 percent said the government should remain intact.

Following the release of the survey results, many Knesset members demanded appointing a state commission of inquiry, similar to those hired following the 1973 Yom Kippur War and again after the first war in Lebanon in 1983. But the Israeli Prime Minister refused.

"We don't have the luxury of spending years on investigations that have nothing to do with learning lessons and preparing for the future," Olmert claimed, naming three investigating committees he intended to hire.

State inquiries are headed by a Supreme Court judge and nominated by the president of the Supreme Court, whereas the government inquiries like those Olmert launched give the premier a lot of control over the appointees and their work.

"I call it the escape committee," said Member of Parliament Effi Eitam. "It was summoned to help the politicians escape from their responsibilities. It is meant to blame the army, whereas it is clear that you can't investigate the army without checking the orders it got from the state level."

"I want to make one thing clear: The responsibility for the decision to go to war is entirely mine," Olmert said, in an attempt to ease public anger.

"Olmert does not mean what he says," wrote Uzi Benziman, a leading political analyst for the Israel daily Haaretz. "When he declares that responsibility for the war is entirely his, he is pulling the wool over our eyes. His statements are meaningless if they are not accompanied by a practical conclusion," wrote Benziman, calling for Olmert's resignation.

Israel was also rocked by a series of scandals in 2006, with the president locked in a sex scandal, the justice minister quitting over a stolen kiss, the PM charged over a property deal and the country's top general under fire for stock trading.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki referred to the sex scandal that has left Iranian-born Israeli President Moshe Katsav facing possible indictment for rape, saying such "ethical deviation" showed Israel was collapsing.

"The Zionist regime is filled with moral corruption and ethical deviation in its highest ranks. Therefore this regime internally, and regionally from the outside, is cracking and is falling apart."

Labels: Ahmadinejad, Berita, Iran, Israel, Luar Negeri