Submitted by admin on Fri, 2007-03-23 08:00. ::
Shimon Peres spoke against the continued presence of Israelis in Hebron. The Israeli vice premier said Tuesday that he would prefer to see settlers living in Kiryat Arba rather than in Hebron, which today is overwhelmingly Palestinian. "I want to remind you that we built Kiryat Arba because the idea at the time was that instead of having a Jewish community within an Arab community, it would be better to have a Jewish community alongside an Arab community," Peres told Israel’s Army Radio. He was speaking a day after settlers took over a Hebron building they said had been bought legally, a claim disputed by Palestinians. Peres called for the case to be dealt with lawfully, but also criticized as "abnormal and outrageous" the instances where Hebron settlers have abused their Palestinian neighbors. Asked if he would like to see the Hebron settlers removed, Peres said, "I don’t want to stir up this subject now. The time will come and we will find the proper solution. The current situation is unbearable and it is absolutely clear to me that we must find a solution, and a quick one, and at this stage to uphold the law." There had been an uninterrupted Jewish presence in Hebron for centuries until the community was evacuated after a bloody Arab pogrom in 1929. The modern community was established after the city again came into Israeli hands following the 1967 Six-Day War. The first plot of land that Abraham bought in the Promised Land, according to the Torah, Hebron is considered the holiest city for the Jewish people after Jerusalem.
Hooters will open a branch in Israel. The Israeli franchise-holder for the American restaurant chain, which features top-heavy waitresses in skimpy uniforms, said this week he planned to open a Tel Aviv branch this summer. As many as four branches could follow in various cities. Trying to stay abreast of local conditions, the Tel Aviv Hooters is not expected to serve kosher food and will be located away from large religious communities.
Syria acknowledged it had recently held secret talks with Israel on a resumption of peace negotiations. President Bashar Assad confirmed in a newspaper interview this week that when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was in power, there had been unofficial and indirect contacts between Jerusalem and Damascus. Syrian officials had denied such talks when they were first reported by Ha’aretz in January. "Various figures visited Israel and came to Syria and conveyed to us the Israeli points of view, but there was nothing serious on the ground," Assad told the Saudi daily Al-Jazeera. Assad voiced hope for a peace deal but noted the unpopularity of Israel’s current prime minister, Ehud Olmert. "The present Israeli government, in particular, is the weakest government in the history of Israel," he said. "Perhaps we have lost hope in the Israeli government or in the U.S. administration for the next two years, but I cannot lose hope entirely." Israel is skeptical about Syria’s recent peace overtures, given its sponsorship of Palestinian and Lebanese terrorists.
Israel plans to create an international film center at the Dead Sea. Vice Premier Shimon Peres, whose portfolio includes regional cooperation efforts, announced this week that the new cultural center would open in Kibbutz Ein Gedi with a view to encouraging joint Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian film projects. The first stage of construction is expected to be complete by the end of 2008, with an initial government investment of $250,000. Slated to administer the center is veteran Israeli film director Amos Gitai.
Israeli director Amos Gitai is making a film about the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza. "Disengagement," starring French actress Juliette Binoche, began filming this week in southern Israel. Binoche told reporters that she plays a woman whose daughter is among some 8,000 settlers evacuated from Gaza by the Sharon government in a move billed as breaking the diplomatic deadlock with the Palestinians. As the summer 2005 pullout remains sensitive given the political ascendancy of Hamas in the Palestinian arena, "Disengagement" is being shot on a closed set to avoid provoking right-wingers who were opposed to the pullout.
Israel decided not to rebroadcast a documentary on the Six-Day War that was misinterpreted as describing the killing of Egyptian captives. The Israel Broadcasting Authority’s board of directors this week ruled that "Spirit of Shaked" would not be aired again, as is customary for most original programming on state-run Channel One television. After the documentary was aired last month, Egyptian media reported, incorrectly, that it contained admissions by Israeli war veterans that they had killed 250 Egyptian prisoners of war. That caused major diplomatic tensions between Cairo and Jerusalem, despite the denials of top Israeli officials. Some Israeli journalists protested the decision to shelve "Spirit of Shaked," alleging censorship.
Israeli war veterans accused Egyptian forces of murdering Israeli troops who were taken prisoner. The statements Sunday by three former Israeli captives to Yediot Achronot came in response to Egyptian ire at an Israeli documentary on the Six-Day War in which Egypt suggested that some of its soldiers were massacred after surrendering to Israel. Ram Doron, chairman of the ex-POW lobby Erim Balaila, said he had many accounts of Israeli prisoners who were tortured and killed in Egyptian captivity. "If we make a reckoning between us and the Egyptians, there will be no comparison," he said. Giora Rom, a former Israeli fighter pilot who was shot down over Egypt in 1969, accused Cairo of double standards. "What bothers me about their criticism is that the whole time they did not publish anything about what they did to the hostages," he said. "They murdered many captives. Don’t focus on those who remained alive but on those who were murdered."
The brother of embattled Israeli President Moshe Katsav is embroiled in his own sex scandal. Lior Katsav was questioned by police Tuesday on suspicion of molestation. The complaint was lodged by a female foreign worker who said Katsav touched her intimately, against her will, two years ago. He has denied wrongdoing. President Katsav was forced to step down temporarily after Israeli prosecutors said they would indict him for rape. He has insisted on his innocence.
The Palestinian Authority prime minister received his first Western dignitary. Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas hosted Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johansen in Gaza City on Monday in what was widely seen as the first sign that the international isolation of the Palestinian Authority was ending. "We hope that all the European countries, and even other countries, will support this unity government," Johansen said, referring to the coalition Hamas formed with the more moderate Fatah faction over the weekend. Russia and China had been the only major powers to engage in diplomacy with Hamas officials.
Israel shunned a Norwegian dignitary who met with the Palestinian Authority prime minister. Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johansen was scheduled to meet with the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on Tuesday, but the event was called off. Israeli officials said the decision was made after Johansen traveled to Gaza on Monday to meet Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, becoming the first Western dignitary to engage directly with the Islamist terrorist group since it formed a coalition government with the more moderate Fatah movement.
The conflict last summer in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah was a war, an Israeli committee decided. The Ministerial Committee for Symbols and Ceremonies arrived at the definition Monday. The Jewish state never officially declared war, and the 34 days of fighting were referred to since in other terms, a fact political sources attributed to Finance Ministry concerns about the fiscal burdens that would entail in terms of compensation payouts to northern communities. However, following complaints from parents of fallen Israeli soldiers, committee Chairman Yaakov Edrey proposed that the fighting be called a war and given a name. The Committee for Symbols and Ceremonies plans to coordinate the choice of a name with a separate committee established by Defense Minister Amir Peretz.
Israelis are split over whether to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority coalition government, a poll found. According to the survey in Monday’s Yediot Achronot, 40 percent of Israelis agree with their government’s decision to continue boycotting the Palestinian Authority until its dominant faction Hamas recognizes the Jewish state and renounces terrorism. An almost equal number, 39 percent, call for new talks with the Palestinian Authority, though 17 percent said the contacts should be limited to Cabinet ministers from the moderate Fatah faction. The poll had 517 respondents and a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.
The World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Israel launched an Internet campaign against Iran’s president. In a release Monday, the groups cited Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s calls for Israel’s destruction and Holocaust denial, including an international Holocaust denial conference he held in December. "The words of the Iranian president are provocative and we must not ignore them," said Shlomo Molla, head of the Department for Zionist Institutes in the World Zionist Organization, who initiated the campaign. The campaign, carried out by Arad Communications, will appear on various Web sites with a call to send protest letters by e-mail to the Iranian Foreign Office.
Israel’s Cabinet voted to continue its boycott of the Palestinian Authority government. In its Sunday meeting, 19 ministers voted to maintain the boycott and two abstained - Yuli Tamir and Raleb Majadele of Labor. Prime Minster Ehud Olmert had called to keep the boycott earlier in the meeting. "Israel expects the international community to continue to impose sanctions on the Palestinian government until it accepts the three conditions set by the Quartet," he said. Those conditions are recognizing Israel, renouncing violence and accepting past peace deals. The P.A. unity government was established Saturday, the result of a deal made between Fatah and Hamas after bloody internecine fighting. Israel called on Western nations to continue an aid embargo until the government accepts the Quartet’s conditions, but Olmert said he would stay in contact with P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.
More than one in four Israeli Arabs are Holocaust deniers, a survey found. According to the Haifa University poll released Sunday, 28 percent of Israeli Arabs say they do not believe the Nazi genocide took place. Israeli commentators said the findings reflected growing resentment of the Zionist establishment by Israeli Arabs, especially in light of the diplomatic deadlock on the Palestinian front. According to the poll, the incidence of Holocaust denial is especially high - 33 percent - among Israeli Arabs of school age even though the syllabus of Arab schools in Israel include mandatory classes on 20th century European history, including World War II. The poll had 721 Israeli Arab respondents and a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
The only Arab member of Israel’s Cabinet said he refuses to sing the national anthem. Galeb Majadle said Sunday that he feels alienated by the Zionist sentiment of "Hatikvah," which includes a line about the "Jewish soul" yearning for Jerusalem. "The anthem was written for Zionist Jews," Majadle told Israel Radio. "I am neither Zionist nor a Jew. I am a proud Arab and Muslim." But he said that he does allow Israel’s flag to be hung on the wall of his office, albeit alongside a plaque with Koranic verses. Majadle’s statement came amid mounting tensions between the Jewish majority and Arab minority in Israel over demands by representatives of the latter for the country’s Zionist framework to be abandoned.
The Palestinian Authority unity government took office. The Hamas-Fatah coalition was sworn in Saturday in a joint parliamentary session in Gaza City and Ramallah. P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the more moderate Fatah, gave a conciliatory speech but his new partner in power, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of the hard-line Hamas, spoke in favor of further "resistance" against Israel. Jerusalem ruled out talks with the new government given its refusal to accept year-old peacemaking conditions set by the Quartet of foreign mediators. But there were signs that some Western powers were wavering. Washington voiced alarm at the P.A. platform, yet U.S. officials said they may talk to its new finance minister, Salam Fayyad, who is not a Hamas member. France invited P.A. Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr, another political independent, to visit Paris. One Western country immediately recognized the new P.A. government - Norway.
An Israeli Cabinet minister urged Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to attend the upcoming Arab League summit. Housing and Construction Minister Meir Sheetrit said Olmert should fly to Riyadh for the summit at month’s end, where Saudi Arabia is expected to reissue its proposal for a comprehensive Israeli-Arab peace deal. "I recommend that the prime minister go all the way with the move," Sheetrit told Israel’s Army Radio. "If I were in his shoes, I would arrange a visit for myself to the Arab League meeting and speak with them openly. As long as no confidence is created between us, there will be no peace." Olmert has voiced interest recently in the Saudi proposal in which Israel would quit all territory it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War and accept a "right of return" for Palestinian refugees, receiving recognition from the Arab world in return. But Israel has reservations about several points in the proposal.
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