U.S VETOES U.N RESOLUTION ON ISRAEL ILLIGAL SETTLEMENT
UNITED NATION - The US has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israeli settlements as "illegal" and called for an immediate halt to all settlement building. All 14 other Security Council members voted in favour of the resolution, which was backed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), on Friday.
Mark Lyall Grant, the British ambassador to the UN, speaking on behalf of his country, France and Germany, condemned Israeli settlements in the West Bank. "They are illegal under international law," he said.- He added that the European Union's three biggest nations hope that an independent state of Palestine will join the UN as a new member state by September 2011.
- The veto by the administration of Barack Obama, the US president, is certain to anger Arab countries and Palestinian supporters around the world.
- An abstention would have angered the Israelis, the closest ally of Washington in the region, as well as Democratic and Republican supporters of Israel in the US Congress.
- The UN says it opposes settlements in principal, but says that the UN Security Council is not the appropriate venue for resolving the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, told council members that the veto "should not be misunderstood to mean we support settlement activity".- "While we agree with our fellow council members and indeed with the wider world about the folly and illegitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity, we think it unwise for this council to attempt to resolve the core issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians," she said.
Palestinians said the veto is counterproductive to the peace process and will help Israel maintain illegal buildings."The American veto does not serve the peace process and encourages Israel to continue settlements, and to escape the obligations of the peace process," said Nabil Abu Rdainah, a close aide to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.
ISRAELI NEW SETTLEMENT ACTION AN INSULT TO U.S
WASHINGTON – Israel's announcement of plans to build 1,600 settler homes in east Jerusalem was not only an "insult" to the United States but "destructive" of the Middle East peace process, a top White House official said Sunday.
"This was an affront, it was an insult but most importantly it undermined this very fragile effort to bring peace to that region," said David Axelrod, one of President Barack Obama's closest advisers.
Source: AFP
"This was an affront, it was an insult but most importantly it undermined this very fragile effort to bring peace to that region," said David Axelrod, one of President Barack Obama's closest advisers.
- Israel's announcement of plans to build the 1,600 housing units in mostly Arab east Jerusalem came March 10 during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden that had aimed to encourage the first indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks since Israel's 2008-2009 offensive in Gaza.
- Axelrod's comments were further evidence of the Obama administration's growing frustration with conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
- Biden himself condemned the east Jerusalem building plan in a sharp statement issued in Jerusalem and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Netanyahu directly in a 43-minute phone call that the announcement sent a "deeply negative" signal about Israel's approach to relations with Washington.
- Axelrod said both Biden's and Clinton's words reflected Obama's thinking, and he said he believed Netanyahu had received the message.
- However, Israel's prime minister tried to play down a serious diplomatic dispute with the United States on Sunday, urging calm after another stern rebuke from Washington over plans to build 1,600 new apartments for Jews in contested east Jerusalem.
- Reflecting the high tension, Israel deployed hundreds of security forces around Jerusalem's Old City, the scene of clashes with Palestinian protesters in recent days. The Israeli military also extended an order barring most Palestinians from entering Israel from the West Bank.
- Israel's already strained relationship with the U.S. hit a new low last week when it announced the construction plans during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden. The timing of the announcement deeply embarrassed the Obama administration and put plans for indirect peace talks with the Palestinians in jeopardy.
- The U.S. responded with repeated condemnations, including a lecture from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton over the weekend. A senior White House official added another stinging rebuke on Sunday.
- Netanyahu has been trying to dispel the impression that relations with the U.S. have degenerated into a crisis. His attempt Sunday to ease concerns were his first public comments since the feud erupted.
2 STATES NO SOLUTION FOR PALESTINE
Hamas rejects the two state solution but says it could still be a part of a national unity government should a Palestinian state be established based on 1967 borders.Speaking in Damascus on Saturday, the movement's political leader, Khalid Mashaal (photo), said that Hamas does not view the two-state solution as a viable means to end the conflict with Israel.
Mashaal also warned acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas (photo) against forming a new government without Hamas. He made the comments after an aide to Abbas said the Fatah leader might soon task his prime minister Salaam Fayyad to form a new cabinet.Fayyad had stepped down in March to clear the way for the Egyptian-mediated reconciliation process with Hamas, which will continue on May 16.
The 53-year-old Hamas-leader described such a 'unilateral' decision by Abbas as a move that would 'undermine' the reconciliation talks.
Mashaal, who has been the chairman of Hamas' Political Bureau for over a decade, was reinstated following internal leadership elections late last month.
Courtesy: Press TV
DON'T TURN GAZA INTO APOCALYPTIC WASTELAND
The Israel Lobby howls at the Secretary of State for insisting that Israel allow aid into Gaza, says Ari Berman,Washington DC-based writer for The Nation magazine.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, rightly, is trying to make sure that Israel doesn't turn Gaza into an even bleaker post-apocalyptic wasteland
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, rightly, is trying to make sure that Israel doesn't turn Gaza into an even bleaker post-apocalyptic wastelandIn an interview on Friday with Voice of America, Clinton said she would emphasize her country's commitment to a two-state solution.
Clinton said the administration wanted to help Israel and the Palestinian Authority work toward a permanent agreement leading to an independent, sustainable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
She said the United States sought internal Palestinian reconciliation, but any national unity government would have to maintain the conditions of the Quartet: recognizing Israel, abiding by previous agreements and forsaking violence.
Traveling to both regions for the first time as America's top diplomat, the former first lady could put the best foot forward of the fledgling administration of President Barack Obama, who has vowed a new spirit of global cooperation.
At the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where Clinton will attend Monday a donors conference aimed at rebuilding the Gaza Strip.
She will have to respond to the worries of European leaders who want Washington to pressure Israel to improve aid distribution to the Palestinian enclave, which has been beset by Israeli blockades.
The United States is reportedly mulling a 900-million-dollar aid package to rebuild Gaza but Clinton said Friday the aid would depend on how well the Palestinians meet the conditions of the diplomatic quartet of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
"I will be announcing a commitment to a significant aid package, but it will only be spent if we determine that our goals can be furthered rather than undermined or subverted," she told Voice of America radio.
Courtesy: Middle Rast Online, HAARETZ and Google
Traveling to both regions for the first time as America's top diplomat, the former first lady could put the best foot forward of the fledgling administration of President Barack Obama, who has vowed a new spirit of global cooperation.
At the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where Clinton will attend Monday a donors conference aimed at rebuilding the Gaza Strip.She will have to respond to the worries of European leaders who want Washington to pressure Israel to improve aid distribution to the Palestinian enclave, which has been beset by Israeli blockades.
The United States is reportedly mulling a 900-million-dollar aid package to rebuild Gaza but Clinton said Friday the aid would depend on how well the Palestinians meet the conditions of the diplomatic quartet of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
"I will be announcing a commitment to a significant aid package, but it will only be spent if we determine that our goals can be furthered rather than undermined or subverted," she told Voice of America radio.
Courtesy: Middle Rast Online, HAARETZ and Google
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
