 A new and insidious form of the courtroom jihad. Why is a group that is considered a terrorist organization in Britain able to operate so freely in that country? "Hamas helping British lawyers target Israel," by Con Coughlin in the Telegraph, December 21
Activists from Hamas, the Palestinian group, have been helping British lawyers bring war crimes prosecutions against Israeli officials in London. The group, considered a terrorist organisation in Britain, is believed to have provided information which helped sympathisers secure an arrest warrant against Tzipi Livni, Israel's former Foreign Minister at Westminster Magistrates Court earlier this month. Mrs Livni, who was a cabinet minister during last year's Israeli military offensive in Gaza, was forced to cancel a trip to London last week. A major diplomatic incident was averted only after Mrs Livni, who is now Israel's opposition leader, was alerted to the warrant and pulled out of a speaking engagement at the last minute. It has now emerged that a committee set up by the Hamas government was providing information to help pro-Palestinian lawyers investigating alleged war crimes. Diya al-Madhun, the judge who heads the committee, said: "We provide documents, reports and evidence of crimes to all international bodies aiding the Palestinian people in bringing Israeli civilian and military leaders to trial and issuing warrants for their arrest. "We have provided a group of independent lawyers in Britain with documents, information and evidence concerning war crimes committed by Israeli political and military leaders, including Livni." He added however that the foreign lawyers acted independently and were not hired by the Islamist Palestinian group. Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation by Britain, Israel, the US and the EU, but it is seen by its supporters as a legitimate resistance movement.... With thanks to JihadWatch 
 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown telephoned Opposition Chairwoman Tzipi Livni on Wednesday and told her he strongly opposes the arrest warrant issued against her by a British court earlier this week. According to a statement issued by the Kadima leader, Brown said that Livni was "most welcome" in Britain at any time and that he planned to work to change the current legal situation. Livni clarified that there was a need to immediately repair the situation created, not for herself, "but for each and every decision maker, commander and soldier in Israel and worldwide, who are forced to fight terror." Livni addressed the issue during her meeting Wednesday with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Vyagaudas Usackas. "Israel is dealing today with a matter which must bother every democracy in the world, and especially the NATO members – the phenomenon of abusing legal systems and filing lawsuits against Israeli officials and IDF soldiers," she said. "This is not a new phenomenon of the past few days, and in many aspects this is not a personal lawsuit against me or against the State of Israel, but a lawsuit against every democratic country fighting terror. Those terrorists must be sued, not the people fighting against them. This is a challenge shared by the entire free world, not just Israel or Britain." On Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband met with Israeli Ambassador to the UK Ron Prosor, and said the British government would act with expediency to change the insufferable situation caused by the issuing of a warrant for the Opposition leader's arrest. Miliband spoke with both Livni and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and said he and British Ministry of Public Security officials were "shocked" to learn of the warrant. Relaying a message via the British Embassy in Israel, Miliband stressed that London sees Jerusalem as "a strategic partner and a close friend of the UK. We are determined to protect and develop these ties. Israeli leaders – like leaders from other countries - must be able to visit and have a proper dialogue with the British Government. "The procedure by which arrest warrants can be sought and issued without any prior knowledge or advice by a prosecutor is an unusual feature of the system in England and Wales. The Government is looking urgently at ways in which the UK system might be changed in order to avoid this sort of situation arising again," he said. The Guardian newspaper reported Monday that a warrant for Livni's arrest had been issued by a British court, but was rescinded once it was discovered that she was not in the country. The warrant was issued following a complaint that the former foreign minister had been responsible for war crimes during the Israeli operation in Gaza about a year ago. Livni was scheduled to travel to the UK on Sunday but canceled her trip at the last minute. The Guardian reported that the Westminster Magistrate's Court issued the warrant at the request of pro-Palestinian activists, but it was later withdrawn. The attorneys who appealed for the warrant had apparently not been informed of Livni's cancellation. YNet
 ISRAEL claims political and military leaders are being "harassed" by anti-Israeli groups who are using the international legal system to seek arrest warrants for war crimes over the Gaza conflict. The latest incident came yesterday after a court in London reportedly issued an arrest warrant against Israel's foreign minister during the Gaza war, Tzipi Livni, now opposition leader. Ms Livni's office denied her planned trip to London was cancelled because of any legal threat, citing her inability to secure a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown because of his schedule. But it appears the court issued the warrant believing she would be in Britain for the trip. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told The Australian there had been a great deal of confusion whether the arrest warrant had been issued. He said the Israeli embassy in London confirmed reports that one had been issued. The details of the warrant were unclear. "What the law allows, the law allows. But if it allows for people to harass foreign leaders, then there is a problem, and they should be able to find a way to stop this." The British Foreign Office issued a statement saying: "The UK is determined to do all it can to promote peace in the Middle East and to be a strategic partner of Israel. "To do this, Israel's leaders need to be able to come to the UK for talks with the British government. We are looking urgently at the implications of this case." British reports said it was the second time in months that lawyers had gone to a magistrates court in London after a warrant for the arrest of an Israeli politician.
The Guardian reported yesterday that in September the court was asked to issue a warrant for the arrest of Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak under the 1988 Criminal Justice Act, which gives courts in England and Wales universal jurisdiction in war crimes cases. It said Mr Barak, attending a meeting at the British Labour Party conference in Brighton at the time, avoided arrest when the Foreign Office told the court he was a serving minister who would be meeting his British counterparts, which gave him immunity. Ministers hoping for private visits to Britain now asked the Israeli embassy in London to arrange meetings with British officials to ensure legal protection. But the newspaper said Ms Livni, no longer a minister, could not enjoy such immunity nor could Ehud Olmert, then prime minister and now a private citizen. Israeli media said the legal situation may deter Israeli politicians from travelling to Britain. Ms Livni's office said she was "proud" of the decisions she made during the Gaza war and would "continue presenting her view everywhere around the world". The Australian
 Madonna came to Israel for two concerts at Tel Aviv's Park Hayarkon, but she will also find time to meet with both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Tzipi Livni. The queen of pop arrived with her children at 1 a.m. on Sunday. She is staying in Tel Aviv ahead of her performances on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Late Sunday, she headed to Jerusalem's Old City, where she toured an ancient tunnel near the Western Wall. The 51-year-old pop star arrived in a black Mercedes van and was escorted into the tunnel by police. She made no comment to reporters and was whisked away about a half hour later. The promoters of Madonna's shows have kept her schedule under wraps to prevent paparazzi from bothering her during her Kotel visit, and a tour of the graves of Talmudic sages in Safed. She was also set to attend a Kabbalah Center event, and make other personal visits. But the meetings with the politicians were leaked to the press. She will meet with Livni at an unidentified restaurant on Monday night and with Netanyahu on Friday, apparently at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem. According to one account, Madonna made a personal request to meet with Livni, and when Netanyahu heard about it, he insisted on meeting with her too. Another version is that she wanted to meet with both of them from the beginning. Read more here,,,,, Source: JPost
JERUSALEM
Incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tuesday that "extremist Islam is trying to bring us down through terrorism from north and south" as his Cabinet prepared to take office. Netanyahu and his Cabinet were sworn in later in the day, after the Israeli parliament confirmed his new government in a 69-45 vote. The prime minister offered an olive branch of sorts to Palestinians but did not hold out the promise of their own state. "In order for there to be peace, our Palestinian allies and partners also have to fight terrorism," he said. "They must bring up their children in the spirit of tolerance and peace. In the last two decades, six heads of government in Israel have failed to achieve a peace settlement, but they were not at fault. I say to the leaders of the Palestinian Authority: If you really want peace, then peace can be achieved. "We don't want to control another people," Netanyahu said of Israel's military control of Palestinian territory, which dates to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. "We don't want to control the Palestinians. In a final a settlement, the Palestinians will have all the rights to rule themselves except those which threaten Israel's ability to protect itself." A senior Palestinian official immediately responded that Israel must end its "occupation" of Palestinian land if it wants peace. "I hope that Mr. Netanyahu will openly accept the two-state solution, negotiation on all core issues without exception, and stop the settlement activity, including natural growth, so we can have a partner in peace-making," said Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu described Israel's neighbors as "moderate," but, like Israel, threatened by radical Islam. "Israel strives to achieve full peace with the Arab and Islamic world, and this is entirely the case today as the Arab and Islamic world -- which is moderate -- faces extremist Islam," he said. Netanyahu, leader of the center-right Likud Party, will lead a mostly right-leaning coalition that includes the hardline Yisrael Beytenu Party and the center-left Labor Party. His Cabinet is the largest in Israeli history, with 30 ministers and deputy ministers. Opposition leader Tzipi Livni ridiculed the size of the government. "The Israeli public is a skinny person who today has had the swollen, overweight government placed on its head. It has ministers for nothing with all sorts of ridiculous titles," said Livni, the Kadima Party leader and former foreign minister who refused to join the Netanyahu coalition. Source: CNN
 John Lyons, Middle East Correspondent February 19
A STOCKPILE of unexploded bombs being kept in a Hamas-controlled police compound in Gaza City has been stolen, raising serious concerns about how the explosives may be used.
The BBC revealed last night that the 11 unexploded Israeli bombs that were to be disposed of by the United Nations were found to have gone missing when UN officials arrived to inspect them last Sunday.
The report said that on February 2, the UN team had been given access to a storage site in Gaza City where more than 7000kg of explosives were being housed.
The explosives included aircraft bombs and white phosphorus shells that had been fired by Israel during the 22-day war in Gaza but did not explode on impact. The report said Israel had accused Hamas of taking the stockpile.
UN spokesman Richard Miron said the UN "obviously wants to track down this ordnance for its safe disposal".
He would not comment when asked whether the UN took any responsibility for the disappearance by not having placed its own full-time guards on the stockpile.
"The UN was endeavouring to dispose of this material," Mr Miron said. Three 2000-pound bombs and eight 500-pound bombs were part of the stockpile.
The UN Mines Action Team had been in Gaza since the war ended.
One source in Gaza told The Australian that although the bombs had not exploded, they were still dangerous if somebody placed a charge on them.
"Then basically you have IEDs," he said, a reference to improvised explosion devices that are often buried in roads in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan and detonated when military or other vehicles drove over them.
Talks were continuing between Hamas and UN officials for the recovery of the material.
The source, who asked not to be named, said those running the police compound had been nervous about housing such a large amount of explosives, given that several police stations had been bombed during the Gaza offensive. He said the UN had been waiting for Israeli approval before moving them to a safe site and detonating them -- such approval was necessary because if the Israelis had seen from aerial surveillance a large amount of explosives being moved, they might have thought they were part of a Hamas operation and attacked. The UN had been awaiting approval when the bombs were stolen.
Meanwhile, Israeli President Shimon Peres was set last night to receive official results of last week's election.
He is then expected to spend two days speaking to leaders of the major parties and various factions in Israeli politics before deciding on whom he believes has the greatest chance of forming a stable coalition government. In last week's election, the centrist party Kadima, led by Tzipi Livni, won 28 seats in the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, while the right-wing Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, won 27.
However, the Right-bloc of parties, including Likud and the religious party Shas, won more than the Centre-Left bloc.
Mr Peres is expected to opt for Mr Netanyahu, who appears to have locked in the support of smaller parties. Source: The Australian
 February 17
TZIPI Livni, who is bidding to become Israel's next prime minister, says the Jewish state has no option but to continue with internationally-backed peace talks with the Palestinians.
"We have to continue with the peace plan launched at Annapolis," Livni told a conference of US Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Monday.
"If we don't continue with the plan, we will not be able to count on the support of the international community against Iran, Hezbollah (Lebanon's Shi'ite militia) or Hamas (the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip)," said Livni, who as foreign minister has been at the forefront of the negotiations.
Direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were relaunched after a seven-year hiatus at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November 2007 with the US aim of securing a deal before the end of George W Bush's presidency in January this year.
The plan is backed by the so-called Middle East diplomatic quartet comprising Russia, the European Union, the United Nations and the United States.
Negotiations were to have focused on core issues such as the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a future Palestinian state and the fate of Palestinian refugees, but little progress has been made.
The process has now stalled completely as Livni and her hawkish right-wing rival Benjamin Netanyahu, the two front-runners after a parliamentary election on February 10, bid separately to form a workable governing coalition.
"The majority of Israelis understand that if Israel wants to remain an independent Jewish state, in the end the territory will have to be divided," Livni said.
"We can carry out negotiations while still fighting against terrorism."
The Annapolis peace process envisages separate Palestinian and Jewish states co-existing peacefully side by side.
Livni repeated her views later in an interview with Channel 2 television.
"My government will make progress in the peace process," she said.
"I will not be associated with freezing this process, and I am ready if necessary to join the opposition."
Livni's centrist Kadima party has called for a power-sharing deal with Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party amid furious haggling in the wake of the tight parliamentary election.
Although Kadima won 28 seats in last week's general election, one more than the Likud, Netanyahu is widely tipped to become the next prime minister.
Under Israeli law, the person charged with trying to form a new government is not necessarily the leader of the largest party but the one with the best chances of cobbling together a coalition capable of securing a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
Livni's Kadima party said on Sunday that if Livni is not prime minister, it would rather consider going into opposition.
Netanyahu has indicated that Middle East peace talks should focus on improving Palestinian daily life before negotiations on core issues can begin.
When he became Israel's youngest premier in 1996, Netanyahu put the brakes on the peace process with the Palestinians, in part by authorising a major expansion of Jewish settlements. Source: The Australian
 A high-level Iranian cleric has called for the shooting of the Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in a speech before worshippers, it was reported Saturday.
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said during Friday prayers that he wanted someone to shoot Livni.
"Every time the picture of this woman is shown, I really wish that somebody would expend a bullet on her," he said according to a recording of the sermon obtained by the Associated Press.
A copy of the speech was also translated and published by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a Middle Eastern press monitoring service.
Jannati is the head of the powerful hardline Iranian Council of Guardians which ensures the government remains true to the principles of the Islamic revolution.
He was hand-picked by Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for the position and is seen by the reformist camp as one of the biggest opponents of democratic reforms in Iran. His council disqualified thousands of reformist candidates during parliamentary elections.
Jannati also criticized US President-elect Barack Obama during his sermon.
"The world is on a slope of collapse. One is shocked when a president (Obama) sits, smiles and says 'my concern is to find a dog for my daughter.' Shame on you and those who voted for you," he said.
Source: Jerusalem Post
January 17, 2009
ISRAEL is poised to call a unilateral halt to its 22-day-old offensive on Gaza after winning pledges from the US and Egypt.
The US and Egypt have agreed to help prevent arms smuggling into the Hamas-run enclave.
A senior government official said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet is expected to vote in favour of a proposal at a meeting Saturday night under which Israel would silence its guns even without a reciprocal agreement from the Palestinian group which has controlled Gaza since mid-2007.
Under the terms of the proposal, Israeli troops would remain inside the territory for an unspecified period, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity
The Jewish state expected Hamas to halt its attacks as well, the official said, but warned that "if it decides to open fire, we will not hesitate to respond and resume our offensive."
The security cabinet meeting comes amid intense international pressure on Israel to call a halt to the war which has killed more than 1,100 Palestinians, with the UN General Assembly on Friday demanding an immediate and durable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
"The (Israeli) security cabinet is expected to vote in favour of a unilateral ceasefire at (Saturday's) meeting following the signing of the memorandum in Washington and significant progress made in Cairo," the government official said.
The breakthrough came after Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni signed an agreement in Washington with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice under which the United States would assist in preventing smuggling into Gaza, and a top envoy returned from talks with officials in Cairo.
"Olmert was satisfied with the results of the talks in Cairo, which answered Israel's basic requirements for a thorough answer to Israel's demands to halt rocket fire and an agreement on coordination between Israel and Egypt on the opening of the crossings" in Gaza, added the official.
However, although Olmert is in favour of the ceasefire, its approval is not certain as the security cabinet has shown previous divisions over the conduct of the war which was designed to put an end to rockets fired from Gaza.
Even as the stage was being set for a possible end to the Israeli offensive, in which at least 1,188 Palestinians have been killed, including 410 children, the military was staging a fresh wave of deadly strikes on the territory.
At least 55 Palestinians were killed on Friday, including at least 10 people who died when a tank shell slammed into their house in Gaza City during a funeral wake, according to Palestinian medics.
In the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the territory, three daughters and a niece of a Palestinian doctor working in Israel were killed in an Israeli air strike.
"They were girls, only girls. I want to know why they have they killed them. Who gave the order to fire?" the children's sobbing father Ezzedine Abu Eish said on Israeli television.
Palestinian militants meanwhile fired over 20 rockets and mortar rounds into southern Israel on Friday, wounding five people, the Israeli military said. Over 700 such projectiles have been fired since the start of the war.
Khaled Meshaal, the exiled head of Hamas's politburo, on Friday told Arab leaders meeting in Doha that the Islamist movement would not accept any ceasefire that did not provide for a full Israeli pullout and the opening of Gaza's borders, including into Egypt.
His deputy Mussa Abu Marzuk later told Al-Jazeera television that Hamas would not make any decisions regarding a unilateral Israel ceasefire until its delegation held a fresh round of talks with Cairo on Saturday.
Clamping down on the porous Gaza-Egypt border, where hundreds of underground tunnels form Hamas's main rear supply route, has been a key Israeli demand for ending the offensive that has also wounded around 5,285 people.
After signing the deal in Washington, Livni told Israeli television that smuggling weapons into Gaza was tantamount to firing at Israel.
"They continue doing this, Israel has the right to respond," she said.
Rice said she hoped the agreement, under which the United States and Israel will step up efforts to stamp out arms smuggling to Gaza, would advance efforts to secure a ceasefire.
She said she hoped for a "ceasefire very, very soon" but could not promise one would be sealed in time for January 20, when President George W. Bush hands the White House over to his successor, Barack Obama.
"We're working ... on as quick a timeline as we possibly can in support of the Egyptian mediation," she said.
The war in Gaza has drawn worldwide protests and raised fears of a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished territory of 1.5 million people, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade for 18 months. Source: The Australian
 WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (AP) - (Kyodo)
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Friday signed a deal intended to halt Hamas militants' arms smuggling into Gaza in a bid to realize a cease-fire there.
The memorandum of understanding "provides a series of the steps that the U.S. and Israel will take to stem the flow of weapons and explosives into Gaza," Rice said. "The MOU we sign today is...a vital component for the cessation of hostilities," Livni added.
The signing of the deal in Washington came as Israel's offensive against Hamas continued, with Israeli airstrikes pounding the northern and southern sections of Gaza.
The deal, seen as a vital element in a broad international push to end the violence in Gaza, calls for curbing the smuggling of weapons into Gaza by boosting intelligence cooperation and border monitoring.
The Palestinian death toll from the Israeli air-and-ground offensive launched on Dec. 27 has increased to at least 1,138 and there were more than 5,100 wounded, Reuters news agency reported. Source: Breitbart
 "Israel is waging a struggle, but this struggle is not Israel's alone. Israel is standing on the frontlines of the Western world’s war against terror, and we expect support for doing the right thing and fighting the war of the entire free world.
"It is true: the pictures broadcast on television all over the world are provoking harsh public opinion against Israel. Unfortunately, some of the world’s decision makers are swayed by public opinion and the media, even though they know what is true and what is not, and how they would act in a similar situation."
- Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni's recent speech before the Israeli Knesset AS ISRAELIS WHO NEVER THOUGHT THEY WOULD FACE TERRORIST ROCKETS TRY TO HIDE FROM FALLING ORDNANCE, their elected officials are attempting to avoid a more structurally catastrophic obstacle: pressure from the "international community." Overnight, the Olmert government wisely rejected a 48-hour "humanitarian truce" hammered out by French President Nicholas Sarkozy and his foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, on behalf of the 27 member nations of the European Union, in consultation with foreign ministers continent-wide. Sarkozy and Kouchner plan to spend the day haranguing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni to accept a two-day standoff under the pretext of allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza, with the spoken desire to make the ceasefire "lasting." The very concept has been described as "a diplomatic victory" for Hamas, with negotiations threatening to elevate Hamastan to the standing of an international quasi-state in its own right. Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
 Michael B. Oren | December 30, 2008
CNN International's coverage of the weekend's fighting in Gaza concluded with a rush of images: mangled civilians writhing in the rubble, primitive hospitals overflowing with the wounded, fireballs mushrooming between apartment complexes, the funeral of a Palestinian child.
Missing from the montage, however, was even a fleeting glimpse of the tens of thousands of Israelis who spent last night and much of last week in bomb shelters; of the house in Netivot, where a man was killed by a Grad missile; or indeed any of the hundreds of rockets, mortar shells, and other projectiles fired by Hamas since the breakdown of the so-called ceasefire.
This was CNN at its unprincipled worst, grossly skewering its coverage of a complex event and deceiving its viewers.
Yet Israel should not have been surprised.
Over the past few weeks, as the tahdiyah ("period of calm" in Arabic, the term similarly preferred by the Hebrew press) unwound and finally dissipated, Israel's policy has been to refrain from responding militarily to Hamas rocket fire.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni went to Egypt and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared on al-Arabiya TV to bear the message that Israel did not want war with Hamas; instead, Israel was committed to renewing the tahdiyah. The purpose was to build up a moral case for retaliating against a recalcitrant Hamas and limiting the international fallout that invariably follows any Israeli attempt at self-defence.
But the tactic has never really worked and failed this time as well. Within minutes of the first Israeli air strike, the Arabs were screaming "massacre" and the media had all but forgotten the serial assaults that provoked it.
The press once again attached the word "disproportionate" and the term "continuing cycle of violence" to describe a supremely justified and largely surgical (the targets were exclusively military, the victims overwhelmingly Hamas gunmen) operation.
At the time of writing, the UN Security Council is meeting and will no doubt find Israel and Hamas equally guilty for disrupting the ceasefire and demand its immediate restoration.
One wonders why Israel even bothers. Instead of undermining the Zionist ethos of defending Jewish lives at all costs irrespective of bad publicity and perilously broadcasting weakness to its enemies, perhaps Israel should simply declare that the slightest violation of the ceasefire - a single Qassam - will precipitate an immediate and disproportionate response.
Since it's going to be condemned for it anyway, why shouldn't Israel smash Hamas promptly and massively and reap the benefits in terms of self-respect, deterrence, and a respite for its embattled citizens?
The confusion surrounding Israel's tactics in the Gaza - Israeli tank and infantry forces are now gathering for a possible ground incursion - is indicative of a deeper bewilderment.
The Government is purportedly divided over the operation's goals, with Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak in favour of toppling Hamas, while Olmert prefers to revive the tahdiyah.
Nobody seems to know how long Israel's operation will last or the criteria for deeming it successful. No Israeli leader, whether from Kadima, Labor or Likud, has articulated a clear vision for Israel's relationship with the obstreperous Strip.
Here, too, there is nothing original. In 1949, at the end of Israel's war of independence, Israeli forces surrounded Gaza in an attempt to conquer it and annex it to the nascent Jewish state. Frustrated in that gambit, Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion secretly sought to purchase Gaza from the Egyptians in the early 1950s, and then, during the 1956 Suez crisis, Israel briefly occupied the Strip.
Israeli soldiers in 1967 received unequivocal orders not to enter Gaza, but they did so anyway, and remained there for the next 20 years until prime minister Menachem Begin tried to convince the Egyptian leadership to take control of Gaza, fruitlessly.
Israel proceeded to build settlements in the Strip, but not enough to stake a firm territorial claim. It installed a Palestine Liberation Organisation administration there, but later disavowed it as corrupt and terror-ridden. It initially coddled and finally combated Hamas.
Finally, in 2005, prime minister Ariel Sharon, former champion of the Gaza settlements, uprooted all 21 of them and their 8100 inhabitants.
Once renowned for his brutal suppression of Gaza terrorists, Sharon also ignored the 1000 Qassam rockets that flew on the heels of Israel's withdrawal. Hamas was consequently empowered and eventually took over the Strip, creating the Hobbesian conditions that Israel faces today.
Olmert began his term with a boom - a war in Lebanon in 2006 - and is now leaving with a bang - the 2008 war in Gaza. Today, however, Olmert is more experienced, more sombre, less cocky. He now plays the role of the responsible adult.
Nevertheless, this latest round of fighting provides Israel with an opportunity to end its painful chronicle of indecision on Gaza and to embark on a lucid and realisable policy.
Can Israel co-exist with a Hamas-dominated Gaza? What are the alternatives (the re-introduction of Egyptian forces, for example) to a renewed Israeli occupation of the area? To what degree will the international community accept a zero-tolerance approach to rocket attacks against Israel, and, more crucially, will the incoming US administration of Barack Obama publicly endorse that stance?
These and other questions might be answered in the coming days if Israel, withstanding the media backlash, dares to ask them.
Michael B.Oren is a professor at the school of foreign service at Georgetown University. He is author of Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present. Source: The Australian
By MARK LAVIE
JERUSALEM — Israel moved closer to invading Gaza, saying Thursday it had wrapped up preparations for a broad offensive after Palestinian militants fired about 100 rockets and mortar shells across the border in two days.
Israel's foreign minister brushed off a call for restraint from Egypt's president, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made a direct appeal to Gaza's people to pressure their leaders to stop the barrages. But the attacks showed no signs of ending. By nightfall, three rockets and 15 mortar shells had exploded in Israel.
Olmert issued his appeal in a rare interview with the Arabic language satellite channel al-Arabiya, saying Israel would not hesitate to respond with force if the attacks continued.
"I am telling them now, it may be the last minute, I'm telling them stop it. We are stronger," he said.
Thursday's rocket fire was far less than the barrage of 80 rockets the previous day, and there were no reports of injuries. But Israeli leaders said the continued fire — the most intense since Egypt brokered a cease-fire last June — was unacceptable.
One of the mortar shells landed at Israel's passenger crossing with Gaza just as a group of Palestinian Christians was going through on their way to the West Bank town of Bethlehem for Christmas celebrations, the military said. Another rocket exploded after nightfall in an industrial park south of the coastal city of Ashkelon, police said.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak invited Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to Cairo to discuss the possibility of renewing the truce, which expired Friday. But by the time Livni arrived, she was in no mood to discuss a cease-fire, and she dismissed Mubarak's pleas for restraint.
"Enough is enough," she said afterward. "When there's shooting, there's a response. Any state would react that way."
In Israel, Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that "whoever harms the citizens and soldiers of Israel will pay a heavy price."
He did not elaborate. But defense officials, speaking on condition on anonymity because they were discussing classified information, said the Israeli operation would likely begin with surgical airstrikes against rocket launchers and continue with a land invasion. Harsh weather conditions are hampering visibility and complicating air force missions, so the operation won't be launched until the skies clear, they added.
Another complication is national elections set for Feb. 10. Both Barak and Livni are running for prime minister, and they are under heavy pressure from opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu to act. Netanyahu, who advocates tough action against Palestinian militants, is the front-runner in the election, according to opinion polls.
Despite the tough talk, Israel has been reluctant to embark on an offensive liable to exact heavy casualties on both sides. Gaza's militants operate in crowded civilian areas, and past invasions have not halted the barrages.
The barrages have caused no casualties over the past two days, but there has been property damage, and tens of thousands of Israelis near Gaza have been instructed to stay indoors. TV newscasts have been showing panic-stricken children.
Israel left Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year occupation, but still controls its border crossings, blockaded for months in an effort to pressure militants to halt their fire. Islamic Hamas militants seized control of Gaza in June 2007, after routing security forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Despite the rocket fire, Israel's Defense Ministry said late Thursday that it would open two cargo crossings Friday to allow a limited amount of vital supplies to enter. Israel's policy is to avoid a humanitarian crisis there, while keeping up the pressure.
In the West Bank, Abbas visited Hebron, the area's largest city, for the first time since he took office in 2005. Israeli forces control a section in the middle of the city to protect about 500 Jewish settlers living in several enclaves. Hebron is home to about 170,000 Palestinians.
Abbas demanded that the settlers get out. "Hebron is ours, and they have to leave if they want peace," he said.
Also Thursday, an Israeli military court sentenced the leader of a Palestinian group to 30 years in prison for participating in anti-Israel attacks.
Ahmed Saadat is the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP took responsibility for killing Israeli Cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi at a Jerusalem hotel in 2001. Saadat was acquitted of planning the assassination, but sentenced for other attacks, the military said.
In neighboring Lebanon, meanwhile, Lebanese army officers said troops discovered seven rockets set up with timers that were on the verge of firing near the border with Israel. They said troops were dismantling the Katyusha rockets.
They would not say if the rockets were directed toward Israel. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of military rules.
The militant group Hezbollah has a large rocket arsenal, but has rarely used them against Israel since their 2006 war. Last year, a previously unknown militant Islamic group fired two rockets into Israel. Source: Associated Press
 Dec 22, 2008 22:25 By HAVIV RETTIG GUR
Though Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has formally announced a boycott of the April 2009 Durban Review Conference in Geneva, Israel is hard at work assisting its defenders who plan to attend.
On Monday, the World Union of Jewish Students formed a special task force of 60 students from around the world who will travel to Geneva for the conference to participate in the NGO summit expected to take place there and, if necessary, to defend Israel from expected attacks from anti-Israel groups.
The 2001 World Conference against Racism that took place in Durban, South Africa, saw virulent anti-Israel rhetoric and demonstrations, both inside and outside the various summit meetings, particularly in the NGO conference that took place alongside the diplomatic one.
Israel's declared boycott applies to the summit of states in Geneva. The as-yet unconfirmed NGO summit, in which WUJS participants will take part, is a parallel arena that Israeli officials do not want to abandon to the country's detractors.
"We plan to participate inside the conference to try to influence the draft [declarations] being created," said Tamar Shchory, chair of WUJS.
"Our message: The conference is also on important issues such as human rights and xenophobia. It should be dealing seriously with these issues and not be 80 percent obsessed with Israel," she said.
If the NGO summit turns ugly, she added, "then we have an advantage as students - we can be less formal about the process. The street will become an important center of activity."
The WUJS activists spent Monday in a seminar at the Foreign Ministry, to prepare for dealing with the challenges posed by Durban II, as the review conference is known.
While Israel is urging other states to boycott the official review conference, which will be a summit of diplomats, it is withholding judgment on the NGO conference.
The NGO element will only be formally announced in January, and many Jewish NGOs are planning dramatic events in support of Israel, whether or not Israeli diplomats want them there.
"The Foreign Ministry is not asking [Jewish and pro-Israel] NGOs not to go," said a senior ministry official. "We don't yet know what the conference will look like. We're not sure what organizations will be there, or the size and importance of the conference."
According to the official, the NGO summit is a key part of Durban II's potential for imploding into an anti-Israel hatefest.
"In 2001, it was the NGO summit that saw the catastrophic demonization of Israel. There are indications this conference is taking a similar direction, but the planning process is still under way."
Of the ministry's training seminar for the WUJS student-advocates, the official remarked that it was in Israel's interest "that the NGOs that choose to go to Geneva are able to prevent or contest the demonization of Israel."
The WUJS project is being funded partly by a European Jewish umbrella group and partly by the Israeli government.
A majority of the funding comes from the European Jewish Fund, whose chairman Moshe Kantor has set his sights on the Durban Review Conference, while additional funding came from the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, the World Zionist Organization, the World Jewish Congress and the Jewish Agency. Source: Jerusalem Post
 October 28, 2008
Tzipi Livni gambles on peace ahead of politics
TZIPI Livni's call for a snap election after her failure to hold Israel's fractious coalition government together is a setback for the Middle East. Seemingly on the cusp of becoming Israel's second female prime minster after Golda Meir, Ms Livni refused to concede to the demands being made by the ultra-orthodox Shas party in return for political support. By the recent standards of Israeli politics, it was a courageous decision, even though it plunges the region into even more uncertainly.
Ms Livni's failure to form a government removes any chance that US President George W. Bush will leave office with his legacy enhanced by at least the outline of a peace deal with the Palestinians. And it could leave his successor with a poisoned chalice. Opinion polls favour the right-wing Likud party led by Benjamin Netanyahu to form the next coalition government. The election of Mr Netanyahu, who is adamantly opposed to Palestinian statehood, could delay the peace process indefinitely and lead to an increase in violence by the hardline Jewish settlers and militants among the Palestinians.
A staunch secularist who believes the best chance for the survival of the Jewish state is for Israel to get out of much of the occupied territories and the West Bank, Ms Livni was considered the best hope of advancing the peace process with the Palestinians. But instead of building on the progress being made on several fronts, including the ceasefire deal with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the normalisation of relations with Syria, Israeli politics is likely to remain in the doldrums until elections are called in February.
Ms Livni used her clean image to win the Kadima party primary vote after Ehud Olmert was forced to resign over a corruption scandal, but getting enough parties to come on board to form a government eluded her. Israeli commentators criticised her for failing to live up to her promise of standing for a "different kind of politics". But the blame does not rest entirely with her. Israel is burdened by a fractious political system in which small parties backed by narrow interest groups demand huge concessions as the price of offering political support. When Shas demanded an exorbitant increase in support for child welfare payments and an undertaking that an undivided Jerusalem ruled by Israel was not negotiable, Ms Livni called the party's bluff.
Much will depend on whether Israeli voters see Ms Livni's failure to form a government as a sign she lacks the experience needed for an assignment as tough as Israel's next prime minister, or as someone who refuses to compromise on matters of principle. Ms Livni's best hope is that the vast majority of secular Israelis, who are tired of seeing government policy held hostage by fanatical groups, will put their trust in her rather than opt for the failed approach of Mr Netanyahu and his hardline supporters.
Source: The Australian
Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:11pm EDT
By Adam Entous
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian rammed his car into a group of Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem on Monday, hours after Foreign Minster Tzipi Livni agreed to try to form a new government that can avert an election and forge a peace deal.
The man, who neighbors said lived in Jerusalem, was shot dead after injuring 15 of the soldiers and four others, under the walls of the Old City on a road that marks the dividing "Green Line" between Arab East Jerusalem and the Jewish west.
Police described it as a "terrorist" attack, the third of its kind using vehicles against Israelis in the city since July. There was no immediately credible claim of responsibility.
It highlighted the security problems Livni faces as she seeks to build a workable government following the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over a corruption scandal.
It is far from certain she will succeed in building a new coalition and failure may well mean a parliamentary election, which polls indicate would favor the right-wing opposition.
Two of those hurt were in a serious condition, medics said.
A police spokesman said a soldier and then a policeman fired at the driver. He lay dead in the road by his black BMW car.
"It was a terror attack," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, adding that a soldier and a policeman shot the driver.
The soldiers were on a late-night educational tour of the city ahead of next week's celebration of the Jewish New Year.
Dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered nearby. Some chanted "Death to Arabs". Police fired tear gas to disperse them.
Twice in July, Palestinian construction workers using earthmoving equipment attacked Israelis in Jerusalem, in one case killing three. Both were shot dead.
JERUSALEM DISPUTE
In both those incidents, the drivers were Palestinians with Israeli identity documents giving them free access to Israel and Jerusalem. Residents in the Arab east of the city identified the man killed on Monday as a neighbor with similar documents.
The earlier incidents, as well as a shooting attack in March in which eight Jewish seminary students were killed, prompted calls in Israel for restrictions on Palestinians living on the Israeli side of the barrier Israel is building around the West Bank.
Those areas, in East Jerusalem and neighboring parts of the West Bank, were annexed by Israel to Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally, following their occupation by Israeli forces in the Six Day War of 1967.
The future status of Jerusalem, where both Israelis and Palestinians want to have their capitals, is a key issue in U.S.-sponsored negotiations that Livni and Olmert have been conducting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
After President Shimon Peres invited her to form a new government, Livni called on her right-wing opponents to join a unity coalition that would embrace the political spectrum.
There was no indication, however, that Benjamin Netanyahu, the former premier who leads the opposition Likud party, would drop his demand for an early parliamentary election instead -- an election which opinion polls suggest he could win with ease.
Livni was elected last week to succeed Olmert as leader of the centrist Kadima party, after he said he would quit to fight accusations of corruption over which he could be indicted.
The 50-year-old commercial lawyer and one-time agent of the Mossad spy agency, faces a daunting struggle to build a workable parliamentary majority from among the 13 parties represented in the Knesset. Until she does, Olmert will remain as caretaker.
"My priorities are to try and form a national unity government and maintain the present coalition," she told a news conference after meeting Peres on Monday evening. "Otherwise I will lead the Knesset to new elections as soon as possible."
If Livni cannot win parliamentary approval within six weeks, an election is the likely outcome. If she succeeds, she will be Israel's first woman leader since Golda Meir in the 1970s.
Livni has been in consultations across the spectrum, notably with Labor party leader Ehud Barak, whose leftist party is the second biggest in the outgoing government, and with the Jewish religious parties which always play a key role in coalitions.
The political uncertainty has dimmed even further prospects of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, which the United States had hoped Olmert and Abbas could achieve this year before President George W. Bush leaves office.
(Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Joseph Nasr and Douglas Hamilton, writing by Alastair Macdonald) Source: Reuters
ISRAELI Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's bid to replace outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has received an early boost with a poll showing she would lead the centre-right Kadima party to an election win over arch-rivals Likud. The poll conducted for an Israeli newspaper showed the ambitious 49-year-old would be the only Kadima candidate who could roll hard-right Likud stalwart Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be aiming for a second term as Israeli leader when a general election is called some time late this year. Mr Netanyahu has dominated media polling since January, on the back of Mr Olmert's ailing premiership and his hardline stance against Iran, as well as opposing peace talks with Syria and refusing to cede East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Mr Olmert's decision to resign as Prime Minister after the primary nominations for the Kadima leadership in September is seen as an invigorating tonic to the Israeli political scene. However, Palestinian leaders yesterday also decried it as a mortal blow to the peace process. Several Palestinian leaders, among them chief negotiator with Israel Saeb Erekat and President Mahmoud Abbas said Mr Olmert no longer had a mandate to strike a deal with the Palestinian Authority. They also said that only Ms Livni among his mooted replacements had the political impetus and commitment to pick up the reins of the peace process. Before Mr Olmert's surprise announcement on Wednesday, Ms Livni had continued to lay down her credentials as a leader by revealing for the first time her past as a Mossad officer in the early 1980s. "I served in Mossad from 1980 to 1984 and worked overseas in several postings with them," she said. "But when I got married, I quickly found service like that wasn't compatible with married life." National security credentials are considered essential to holding high public office in Israel and Ms Livni's remarks follow strategic media leaks several months ago that briefly outlined her past as an intelligence officer. The Weekend Australian has learned through independent sources that Ms Livni served mainly in Paris with a Mossad support unit, which took care of the organisation's assets and ran its safehouses. "She was tasked with doing things like turning up to safe houses, turning the lights on and off, doing the dishes and generally making sure that the neighbours thought all was normal in the apartment next door," said a former intelligence official familiar with the Foreign Minister's past. "She also played a support role in operations against Palestinians in Paris, but was never a trigger person." Ms Livni is close to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and has reaffirmed in the past few days that she is keen to drive the peace process with the Palestinians if she is elected leader. "We have made efforts this year to reach an agreement with the Palestinians and we will continue to do so," she said. "I am here now as Israel's Foreign Minister and I can promise you that I also intend to represent Israel's interests in future." Source: The Australian
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A new and insidious form of the courtroom jihad. Why is a group that is considered a terrorist organization in Britain able to operate so freely in that country? 
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