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1. Left-Wing Campaign: PA Wants Peace
by Hillel Fendel
A new left-wing public relations campaign seeks to persuade the Israeli public that the Palestinian Authority truly wants peace – despite all indications to the contrary.
The aggressive initiative includes quotes from leading PA spokesmen, billboards, and widespread media coverage. The objective is to imbue the Israeli public with the sense that the ball is in its court, and that the PA leadership is truly ready to make peace.
Rejection of Offers, Culture of Hate
This, despite the PA’s refusal in recent years to accept generous proposals proffered by ex-Prime Ministers Barak and Olmert that included some 98% of Judea and Samaria.
The campaign also does not mention what some have called the “Palestinian Culture of Hate,” which includes the naming of educational camps, sports tournaments, streets and more in memory of terrorists who have murdered dozens of Israelis.
Poll of PA Opinions
Furthermore, a survey carried out by a PA organization this month finds that the Arab public is, in fact, not quite ready for peace. 86.3% of those polled - 3,001 Arab residents in the Palestinian Authority - see violence for the purpose of achieving a Palestinian state as anywhere between “essential” and “tolerable.”
Specifically, over 55% view violence as either essential or desirable, nearly 31% see it as either acceptable or tolerable, and only 13.7% say it is unacceptable.
In addition, 75% of those polled say the demilitarization of a future PA state is “unacceptable,” and over 84% say it is “essential” that all of Jerusalem, including the areas that have been Israel’s capital since 1948, must be part of a future PA state.
The survey was conducted this month by “Arab World for Research & Development,” based in Ramallah and Gaza.
PA Doublespeak
Yet another phenomenon that the new initiative will have to overcome if it wants to persuade Israelis that the PA wants peace is the duplicity of the PA leaders. Commentator Daniel Pipes writes that Salam Fayyad, known as the PA’s prime minister, announced in English in Aspen, Colorado last year that Jews are welcome to live in a future state of Palestine where they “will enjoy [full] rights and certainly [not less] than Israeli Arabs enjoy now in the State of Israel.”
However, a few days earlier, chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat said just the opposite in Arabic: “Nobody should agree to Israeli settlers remaining in the Palestinian [state]... Some say that we will [be willing to] grant the settlers citizenship. We reject [this idea] out of hand.”
2. Abbas: Israel to Blame if Talks Fail
by Elad Benari
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that if upcoming direct talks between Israel and the PA will fail, Israel would be to blame if it continues to build in Judea and Samaria.
In a televised speech, Abbas said: "Israel alone will bear the responsibility of threatening these negotiations with collapse and failure if it continues settlement expansion in all its forms in all the Palestinian lands occupied since 1967."
Abbas added: "I hope that we find a partner in Israel that will be able to make decisions and take a responsible stance on ending the occupation. That way we can achieve true security for both peoples, Israeli and Palestinian."
The 10-month freeze announced by Israel on construction in Judea and Samaria is scheduled to end on September 26. The PA has threatened to pull out of the talks unless Israel extends the freeze. Last week, PA chief negotiator Saeb Erakat warned that Israel must choose between "settlements or peace" when direct negotiations resume, reported AFP.
Although both US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Quarter said that the direct talks, scheduled to begin this Thursday in Washington, will be held without preconditions including discussions on the extension of the freeze, US State Department Spokesman Philip Crowley has said that the building freeze will indeed be discussed during the direct talks.
"The issue of settlements, the issue of the moratorium... has been a topic of discussion and will be a topic of discussion when the leaders meet with Secretary Clinton on September 2," said Crowley.
Meanwhile, Arab League chief Amr Moussa said during an interview with Reuters on Sunday that he is not optimistic that the direct talks will be successful.
"We are hoping that talks will succeed but we are all very pessimistic about the viability of the peace process because of the past experience. The only reason (for the hope in the success of the talks) is the sincerity of President Obama and his wish to achieve something good in his presidency," said Moussa.
At the same time pressure continues on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from within his government to discontinue the building freeze after September 26. The Jewish Home / New NRP said Sunday that it will leave the coalition if the freeze is extended. Netanyahu on his part has made it clear that there is no change in the government decision regarding the freeze, and hinted that construction would be renewed at the date that was set for this. MK Dan Meridor has proposed resuming construction only in the “settlement blocs” that Israel intends to keep in any future peace deal. Netanyahu, however, emphasized that Meridor's position is his personal one and does not reflect the view of the government.
3. Jewish Home Threatens to Bolt Gov't if Freeze Goes On
by Gil Ronen
The Jewish Home / New NRP will bolt the coalition if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu extends the 10-month building freeze, MK Zevulun Orlev told party activists in Be'er Sheva Sunday. He said the party will not stay in the government if the freeze on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria is continued, even the extension is carried out in an undeclared manner.
Orlev called upon Knesset members from Likud, Shas and Israel Our Home to join this decision, on the assumption that “Netanyahu will not want to lose his coalition.”
Netanyahu made clear Sunday morning in a meeting pf Likud ministers that there is no change in the government decision regarding the freeze, and hinted that construction would be renewed at the date that was set for this.
Netanyahu said that Minister Dan Meridor's position, that the freeze should be extended and that construction should only be allowed in the “settlement blocs,” is Meridor's personal one and does not reflect the view of the government.
4. Report: Israel Plans to Strike in Syria
by Elad Benari
The Alrai daily newspaper in Kuwait reported on Saturday that Israel is planning to attack Hizbullah weapons storage and production facilities in Syria. According to unnamed Western sources who were quoted in the report, the IDF has strengthened its troop presence in the Golan Heights and Galilee panhandle. European sources told the paper that Israel had sent unmanned aerial vehicles over Syria and Lebanon, which they see as a sign that a military operation in the area is in the works.
In September of 2007, Israel attacked and destroyed a nuclear reactor in Syria. The site of the bombing was an installation meant to produce plutonium, and was partially funded by North Korea. The CIA had said that Israel bombed the reactor before it attained its planned capacity to manufacture plutonium for nuclear weapons.
Syria did not respond to the 2007 Israeli attack. However, Alrai also cited sources who said that this time Syria would respond forcefully and quickly should it be attacked by Israel. The paper reported that the Syrian Army has deployed anti-aircraft missiles along the Israeli border and in other key strategic areas in the country, and is ready to respond to an attack.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese army claimed on Friday that Israel has begun to use hot air balloons above Lebanon’s skies. The balloons, said the Lebanese army, are equipped with camera and transmission capabilities.
Arab media reported that these hot air balloons had been spotted on Thursday over Baalbek, the villages of Nahla and Younin and the east Lebanon mountain ridge. The Lebanese army said in a statement that Israel’s use of these balloons is “a new violation of Lebanese sovereignty.”
The reports regarding Syria and Lebanon come during a relatively tense time. On August 3, Lebanese soldiers opened fire on IDF soldiers while they were carrying out routine maintenance near the Israeli border with Lebanon. Lt.-Col. (res.) Dov Harari was killed during the exchange of fire.The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), who conducted an investigation into the incident, said that the attack by the Lebanese soldiers was unprovoked by the IDF. UNIFIL said that although Lebanon has claimed that the Israeli soldiers had crossed the border into Lebanese territory, evidence found that the IDF troops had remained on the Israeli side of the international “blue line” border set by the United Nations.
5. 57 Towns Set to Build on Sept. 27
by Hillel Fendel
An investigation has found that the default situation is that construction can resume with a bang on Sept. 27 in no fewer than 57 Jewish towns in Yesha.
As the construction freeze issue comes to a boil with the resumption of direct talks between Israel and the PA this week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu finds himself under heavy pressure from various quarters. On the one hand, he and most of his Cabinet have said repeatedly that the ten-month freeze on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria will end on Sep. 26 as originally stipulated.
A public-relations campaign is underway reminding the ministers and Netanyahu of their promises, demanding that life in Judea and Samaria not continue to be frozen at the whim of the Palestinian Authority.
The freeze was imposed solely in order to get the Palestinian Authority to agree to direct talks with Israel. However, as Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman put it last week, “For [nine] months we have been waiting for the Palestinians to please come to the negotiations. They come at the last month – that’s their problem.”
On the other hand, PA chairman Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) has threatened outright that if the freeze is not extended, he will immediately quit the talks. The Obama Administration, too, has made it subtly clear that it would like Netanyahu to extend the freeze.
Netanyahu’s options in this situation are limited. He can announce a continuation of the freeze, leading to a domestic political crisis and charges that he has once again caved in on Israeli interests in the face of pressure. Alternatively, he can announce that construction will resume only in areas of large settlement blocs such as Ariel, Gush Etzion and Maaleh Adumim. This will also not gain him friends in the nationalist camp, and could lead to the collapse of his government.
He might also do nothing and allow the freeze to lapse, leading to a possible international crisis.
And a final option is to allow the freeze to lapse, but to prevent construction by refusing to issue permits. This, however, will not have the expected results – because in fact, construction in no fewer than 57 communities can resume automatically the minute the freeze ends, because all necessary permits have already been procured.
In fact, the only way to stop construction in these towns is by issuing an official extension to the freeze (option 1 above) – with harmful political and other ramifications for Netanyahu.
An Army Radio report has found that locations where construction can resume by default on Sept. 27 include: Beit El, Itamar, Beit Haggai, Dolev, Vered Yericho, Mitzpeh Yericho, Naaleh, N’veh Tzuf, Talmon, Tapuach, Migdalim, Michmash, Peduel, Keduim, Kalya, Shavei Shomron, Shadmot Mecholah, Bat Ayin, Tekoa, Kfar Adumim, Kfar Etzion, N’veh Daniel, Rosh Tzurim, and many others.
6. Train from Ramallah to Gaza? Erdan Says Not Yet
by Maayana Miskin
Minister for Environmental Protection Gilad Erdan spoke to Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language news service on Sunday and responded to reports of a planned train line from Ramallah to Gaza. The daily paper Yisrael Hayom had reported on the planned line, which would also pass through Ben-Gurion Airport.
The report was extremely premature, Erdan said. While there was talk of a train line, the project will not actually be built unless there is peace between Israel and Arabs in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, he explained.
The train line was proposed as part of an exchange allowing Israel to annex land east of the 1949 armistice line for its own train line, he clarified. Israel needs land east of the line, which has not been officially annexed to Israel to date, in order to build tracks in the Mevaseret and Latrun areas near Jerusalem.
Erdan also discussed the planned PA Arab city of Rawabi, currently under construction in Samaria. Erdan has insisted that the PA construction be held to reasonable standards of environmental safety.
“We can't make demands of Jews when it comes to environmental protections, but then when it comes to a Palestinian project like the train or like Rawabi allow everything to be done carelessly,” he said. “We can't make extreme demands of Jews in Judea and Samaria while the government helps a project like this [Rawabi] that does major environmental damage.”
“Pollution has no borders, and will eventually reach all of us,” Erdan said.
PA planners are currently building apartments in Rawabi for the upper class, but have yet to plan a sewage system, streets, or water lines, he said. If sewage from the city is not properly dealt with, it will run down into the Israeli water system, he noted.
Erdan demanded a report on the environmental impact of the Rawabi project, and recently received one, which his office is reviewing. He noted that Israel still has the power to halt the project if the PA refuses to curb pollution at the site, saying, “The territory may be under Palestinian control, but the access roads, the water, and all the rest is under Israeli authority.”
Regarding Israeli negotiations with the PA, Erdan said he is pessimistic. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas rejected what former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had to offer, he pointed out, and Netanyahu is planning to offer less. “If Abu Mazen objected then, there's no reason for him to agree now,” he concluded.
7. Five Actors Withdraw from Ariel Boycott
by Maayana Miskin
Five actors have withdrawn from a left-wing boycott of the theater soon to open in the Samaria city of Ariel. A few dozen artists and actors said they would not perform in the theater, which is east of the 1949 armistice line, saying performances should be held strictly “within the Green Line.”
The boycott declaration caused an uproar, and was denounced by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during Sunday's cabinet meeting.
On Sunday evening, actors and actresses Dror Keren, Irit Kaplan, Alon Dahan, Ola Shor-Selectar and Micha Selectar said that they had been mistaken in signing the letter, and that they do not rule out performing in Ariel.
Dahan said that he and Kaplan had originally agreed to the boycott, and had simply changed their minds. After reading editorials on the artists' boycott, the two decided that the critics were right, and that refusing to perform in Samaria was not the way to go.
Kaplan said that despite her personal political views she felt she did not have the right to refuse to perform in Ariel, since the theater she works for, the Cameri, is a public institution.
Keren said he had decided that boycotts are “juvenile.” While he rejected calls to separate politics and art, he said that it is “not my job to punish anyone” via a boycott.
Ola Shor-Selectar said that she and her husband had been misled as to the purpose of the letter. The two believed they were signing a call to hold deliberations on the question of whether or not to perform in Ariel, she said. She said that she was surprised to see their names on a document calling for a boycott.
While she defines her political views as decidedly leftist, Shor-Selectar said she is not prepared to call for a boycott without at least debating the matter first. In addition, she, like Kaplan, said she did not have the right to tell the public theater company she works for where to perform or not to perform.
Culture Minister Limor Livnat criticized the boycotting actors on Sunday in an interview with Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language news service. “How can dozens of artists working in publicly funded theaters decide that they are boycotting part of the public?” Livnat said. “That can't be. I hope it won't happen at all, but if it does happen, it should happen only if they are working independently.”
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