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Israeli-Palestinian Conflict


News and perspectives and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Retired Israeli Generals Support Obama sticky icon

The Jewish Council for Education & Research has officially endorsed Obama. They have created a short film expressing why Obama is better for Israel. In this short film, many of the most respected military and intelligence experts in Israel discuss the impact of the Bush/McCain foreign policy on Israel, the need for the United States to engage directly with Iran, and their personal feelings about Sen. Barack Obama. Produced by ReviseFilms and presented by the Jewish Council for Education and Research (JCER).

Retired Generals of the Israeli Defense Forces and high-ranking Mossad officials on Barack Obama... from www.JCER.info on Vimeo.

According to a recent article in the Jerusalem Post several Israeli generals interviewed in this video claim they were misled about the purpose of the interview and the nature of the report, believing that they were being interviewed more generally about how the next U.S. President must approach the conflict and not asked specifically whether or not they endorsed Barack Obama. Read the Jerusalem Post article.

Video: Israelis for Obama

Political video featuring several prominent Israelis who support Obama, including Moshe Ivgy, an Israeli actor; Amos Schocken, publisher of Haaretz; and Itai Anghel, Senior Correspondant for FACT, Israel's equivalent of "60 Minutes."

No Eid with the siege

Ramadan al-Hour's four children have not seen their father for the past year. Ranging in age from five years to four months old, Amal, Aya, Sulaf and Walid live with their mother in the town of Kufr Qassem inside Israel. Israeli authorities have prevented al-Hour's wife and children from entering Gaza. Rami Almeghari reports from Gaza.

Gaza turmoil

James M. Wall, Christian Century, discusses White House Middle East policy chief Elliott Abrams'alleged plan, contained within a leaked 16-page document, to "arm and train Fatah loyalists" so that they might "topple the Hamas government" (tonykaron.com).

He concludes that "The realities of U.S. military funding of Fatah and U.S. training of Fatah troops leave little doubt that the U.S. is once again choosing sides in another country's internal conflict, and once again displaying the arrogance that led to disasters in Vietnam, El Salvador, Guatemala and Iraq."

Accept the Saudi Initiative

JERUSALEM - Four years after it was first presented, the Arab Peace Initiative is finally coming to centre stage. Rumours of behind the scenes meetings and negotiations on the Initiative between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Saudi national security advisor Prince Bandar bin Sultan have been strengthened by reports that the Saudi prince is trying to modify the Initiative so that it will be more acceptable to Israel.

by Gershon Baskin

In the heart of Palestinian consensus

TEL AVIV - Forty years after the Six-Day War, the Palestinian attitude that has become consolidated toward the State of Israel is quite clear: It is possible and necessary to achieve an agreement for coexistence with Israel on the basis of the 1967 borders. Israelis who think it is possible to reach an accord with the Palestinians that includes annexation of settlement blocs in the West Bank or leaves East Jerusalem under Israeli jurisdiction are deluding themselves. In all the decades that have passed since occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, not a single Palestinian voice has been heard that agrees to less than that. Of course, there have been those who demanded more, and even today some want to destroy Israel entirely, but no Palestinian will agree to allow Israel to annex even one meter beyond the boundaries of the Green Line.

by Danny Rubinstein

Bush won't get much help in Iraq unless he earns it in Palestine

Daily Star Editorial | date: 2007-01-25

BEIRUT - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's emphasis on the "road map" as a route to Middle East peace and the Quartet as a vehicle to get there betray a fundamental misunderstanding of how Palestinian-Israeli negotiations broke down and why they have remained in stasis. The "road map" envisions a series of preparatory steps and delays a final status agreement until the final stage. But all of the foundations for a workable peace pact have already been laid through decades of negotiations, including those that took place during the administration of her boss's predecessor, Bill Clinton, who sought a deal until the very last weeks of his presidency. While Clinton's effort established that an American president could summon the stamina for an exhaustive peace process, he too fell short of securing ironclad commitments from the Israelis and Palestinians.