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1. Netanyahu to PA: Sit Down and Talk Already!
by Hillel Fendel
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu explained succinctly on Sunday why
the negotiations with the PA have gone nowhere. He answered a question
during the joint press conference he held with visiting Chilean
President Sebastián Piñera.
The questioner asked about the lack of direct negotiations between
Israel and the PA, implying that Israel could do more to get them going.
Netanyahu answered as follows:
Well, we've been calling for direct negotiations from day one of this government.
On day one, we called for direct negotiations.
On day two, I made a speech in Bar Ilan University calling for two states for two peoples.
On day three, we removed about 400 checkpoints, earth barriers, and
other things to facilitate the growth of the Palestinian economy.
On day four, we agreed to a ten-month moratorium on new construction in
the settlements, something that no government did for 18 years before
that.
On day five, we agreed to an extension of that moratorium by three months.
Unfortunately, everything that we did, these five things, were met with
no response by the Palestinian Authority. They just placed
preconditions and terms, every way to avoid sitting down and discussing
peace. They tried to go around the peace negotiations.
I'll tell you why: It's because peace is hard. It's been hard for me.
It will be hard. You have to make concessions and you have to look at
the people in the eye and tell them not everything that we'd hoped for
would be possible; there have to be compromises on both sides.
But whereas Israel and I have been willing to move on this road, I've
not seen the parallel [Palestinian] willingness to do the same. Because
they’re relying on a Pavlovian reflex of the international community.
Basically they say: We don't have to negotiate, we can sit back, we
can teach our children to idolize mass killers – they named a public
square in Ramallah ten minutes from here, for a terrorist who murdered
400 innocent Israelis. They can do that and get away with it.
Well, they can only get away with it if you let them get away with
it. If you tell them clearly, as I think Chileand a few other countries
have said: No, come to negotiate, you can't avoid a negation. Come and
talk peace. Talk peace to your own people, not only to foreign
diplomats or foreign journalists. Talk peace to the Palestinian
people.
Tell them they'll have to give up [hoping for Israel’s destruction].
Tell them Israelis here to stay. Tell them there's going to be a Jewish
state next to a Palestinian state forever. Tell them that Israel will
not be swamped by the offspring of Palestinian refugees, because we
accepted the offspring of Jewish refugees here, and we've made a life
for them, you will make a life for them there.
Tell them that there will be genuine demilitarization of the
Palestinian area, so that what we saw in Lebanon, where we walked out
and Iran walked in doesn't happen again. So that what we saw in Gaza,
when we walked out and Iran walked in, doesn't happen again. So that it
doesn't happen a third time.
A demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes a Jewish state –
that is the solution. But we cannot get to the solution; we cannot get
to the end of the negotiations if we don't get to the beginning of the
negotiation.
Israel is prepared to begin this negotiation. Israelis prepared to
end this negotiation. Therefore the question should be addressed not to
me, not to the Prime Minister of Israel. It should be addressed
squarely to the Palestinian President and to the Palestinian
government. You have another opportunity. Next time you're there, ask
them this question.
2. Arab Worker Loses Arm in Jerusalem Pipe Bomb Blast
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
A small pipe bomb hidden in a garbage bag exploded and blew off the arm
of a Jerusalem Arab garbage worker Sunday. A second worker was treated
for shock.
Police are investigating, but they assess that terrorists were behind
the blast, which took place at the southern edge of Hevron Road, leading
to Bethlehem. The workers were collecting garbage to be transported to a
waste facility.
The worker, identified as 21-year-old Iyad Bashir, was rushed to Hadassah Hospital.
Although police have not speculated who was behind the terrorist
attack, the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency quoted "local sources" as
sayng that “extremist” Jews were behind the blast as part of a “price
tag” policy in response to last week’s violent police raid at Gilad Farm (Havat Gilad).
3. Qaddafi Acted against Rebels ‘Just Like Israel against Al-Qaeda’
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The world according to Muammar Qaddafi:
Libyan rebels are like "Al-Qaeda in Gaza. It’s the same thing here! We
have small armed groups who are fighting us,” he told
France24 television in an interview.
The eccentric dictator, at war with rebels who are trying to end his
41-year-old regime, compared his assault against opposition forces with
Israel’s Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist
campaign two years ago. “Even the Israelis in Gaza, when they moved
into the Gaza strip, they moved in with tanks to fight such extremists,”
he said.
Qaddafi has charged
that former prisoners at the American prison at Guantanamo Bay actually
were part of Al-Qaeda cells that have fostered unrest in Libya by
placing drugs in coffee drunk by youth.
He claimed in his interview that no more than 200 people have been
killed in clashes with rebels. Most observers have placed the death toll
in the thousands, many of whom were massacred by Qaddafi’s soldier and
paid mercenaries.
Although U.S. President Barack Obama has joined world leaders in
demanding that he step down, Qaddafi insisted, “Libya has very good
relations with the United States, with the European Union and with
African countries, and Libya plays a crucial role in regional and world
peace.”
As he spoke, loyalist manned tanks, helicopters and warplanes to attack
rebels, who until Sunday were threatening Qaddafi’s stronghold in the
capital of Tripoli.
The battle is shaping up to be a drawn-out affair, with Qaddafi’s
well-armed and well-trained military pitted against massive but
unorganized opposition forces.
4. Crane Operator Refuses Eviction Job
by Maayana Miskin
Police thought they were prepared to evict Jews from their homes in the
small town of Pnei Adam, north of Jerusalem. But they forgot one
crucial detail – the moral values of the crane operator, who refused to
cooperate even in the face of threats and financial loss.
The incident in question took place several days ago. The IDF Civil
Administration and Border Police officers arrived in Pnei Adam with
plans to forcibly evict Jews from a caravan.
A crane was ordered, and arrived at the scene ready to start work.
However, when the operator spoke to residents of the town and realized
he had been sent to destroy someone's home, he unequivocally refused the
job.
“He said he was not going to cooperate with a crime like that,”
recalled Avraham Reizman of Pnei Adam, who spoke to Arutz Sheva's
Hebrew-language news service. “He called his boss and got permission to
go back to the office.”
The crane operator remained steadfast in his refusal, even as officers
warned him that not only would he lose a day's work if he left, but
would also be fined. “Obviously, he lost a day of work, and nobody paid
him for that,” Reizman said.
In the future, Reizman declared, he plans to recommend the crane
operator's employer, the Y.A. Gueta company in Tirat Yehudah, to
residents of Judea and Samaria who need the services they offer.
Unfortunately, he added, the caravan's destruction was only postponed.
“The Civil Administration was not stopped, they brought an Arab worker
who seemed happy to carry out the task,” he said.
5. Egyptian Security Forces Attack Protesters with Swords
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Plainclothes security forces in Egypt slashed protesters with swords
and attacked them with firebombs the past three days as the provisional military government faces the same demands that brought about Hosni Mubarak’s downfall.
Brutal and deadly attacks on protesters have been similar to those of Mubarak’s police force against demonstrators last month.
The revival of the uprising
for political freedom was violently squashed after opposition crowds
broke into a dozen government security offices across the country and
confiscated secret documents. “We found transcribed phone calls between
university professors, political activists, opposition figures" and
evidence of torture, one protester told the BBC.
Witnesses said that plain clothes men from the secret police
establishment, which protesters want, dismantled, responded with knives,
swords and firebombs
The military government is likely to withstand the protest because it
has cleansed itself of prominent pro-Mubarak officials. Responding to
demands for reform, the provisional government removed a key minister,
on trial for corruption, and replaced Ahmed Aboul-Gheit as Foreign
Minister, a position he has held since 2004, who was prominent in the
Mubarak regime.
6. Palin Says 'No!' on Cutting US Aid to Israel
by Gil Ronen
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin came out strongly in favor of
continued U.S. foreign aid to Israel in a Sunday interview with Judge
Jeanine Pirro on Foxnews.
"You know I'm sure that there's some waste and fraud in our foreign aid
we need to find efficiencies and not give to any regime that would
seek to harm Americans in any sense of the word 'harm,'" Palin said, "I
don't support that kind of foreign aid at all. but when it comes to
Israel - NO... I stand strong with Israel and unapologetically I say
that America should keep this strong democratic ally that we have there
in the Middle East and allow for protections around Israel."
"Think of what this state Israel has gone through, and what they have
suffered through and what they have triumphed over," she said. "It is
really telling about their tenacity and their character and it's just
one reason, that character, as to why it is that we want them as our
friend."
In a confident, articulate appearance and what some see as one of her
best interviews to date, Palin was also asked why the Obama
Administration was so hesitant to call the shooting of the US airmen in
Germany an act of terror. Carefully, she said: "Our president's world
view certainly seems a bit different than, I believe, most Americans
because... I think if you ask most Americans on the street if someone
was hell bent on killing one of our military personnel yelling Allah
Akbar and had terrorist ties and you can't see that clearly as a
terrorist, then we've got some things quite askew in our
Administration."
Regarding the situation in Libya, where dictator Muammar Qaddafi is
fighting to retain control, Palin came out in favor of a US-imposed
no-fly zone there.
"Yes, 41 years of Qaddafi, he's got to go," she stated. "I think what
was unfortunate there in Libya was that it took our Administration so
long to finally have any full-throated support for ousting Qaddafi. We
finally saw the writing on the wall. But what we should have done,
instead of being hesitant that perhaps he would harm the American
citizens who are over there, we should have told him through strong
verb[i]age, we should have said "Qaddafi, if you touch a hair on one
American citizen's head, we're going to hit you, we're going to hit you
hard and you're not going to be left standing. Instead we were kind of
hesitant, kind of dithering, vacillating on our position it seemed and
that leads to a kind of perception of weakness around the globe. I wish
that we would have been stronger there with our language about Libya and
now actions have to follow the language that President Obama finally
did articulate."
Judge Pirro asked Palin why she thought Obama was so slow about taking
sides against Qaddafi when he was relatively quick about choosing sides
against Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. Palin replied with a question:
"Why was he so hesitant back with the Green movement in Iran, when
freedom fighters wanted to oust Ahmadinejad and our president didn't
really want to participate there, with the language at least that should
have showed the support for ousting a dictator, ousting an oppressor?"
"It's tough to pinpoint why it is that President Obama (...) would seek
to oust at least a quasi-ally in Mubarak who had been by our side for
those 30 years... quick to oust him but quite hesitant on Qaddafi, on
Ahmadinejad... that scares me."
7. US Rep. Bachmann Takes Spotlight from Palin: Obama a Gangster
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
U.S. Republicans may have to choose between two women – Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann – for their presidential candidate in 2012.
Minnesota Congresswoman Bachmann, the GOP House of Representatives
leader of the Tea Party movement, repeated her charges Sunday that U.S.
President Barack Obama is running a “gangster government.” She did not
withdraw her comments that his polices are "anti-American."
Rep. Bachmann previously has expressed deep respect for the Torah and
said last year, “I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the
United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United
States . . . that as a nation, we have been blessed because of our
relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse
that comes into play.”
She volunteered on a kibbutz after high school. She is not Jewish and
has stated, “I am a Christian, but I consider my heritage Jewish,
because it is the foundation, the roots of my faith as a Christian.”
The Congresswoman has paid more official visits to Israel than to any
other country, but the focus of her speeches has been the American
economy and "ObamaCare." Speaking on Meet the Press Sunday, Rep.
Bachmann declined to state when she will decide one way or the other if
she will run for the Republican presidential nomination.
She emphasized her charges that President Obama’s Health Care reform
law “hid” from Congress expenditures of $105 billion over the next eight
years. Interviewer David Gregory did not ask her about foreign policy
issues, except for the Libyan rebels' war against dictator Muammar
Qaddafi. She said that the United States must be very careful before
entering another foreign confrontation.
Directing her attention towards President Obama, she said, "I don't
take back my statement [that Obama is running a] gangster government… I
think that there have been actions that have been taken by this
government that I think are corrupt, thoroughly corrupt.”
Asked by Gregory if she regrets once having called the president
“anti-American,” she answered, "I said I had very serious concerns about
the president's views. And I think the president's actions in the last
two years speak for themselves."
Rep Bachmann, like former Alaska Governor and vice presidential
candidate Sarah Palin, is becoming a “love her or hate” political
personality, who has been alternately called an extremist and the answer
to the financial problems in the United States.
Terry Branstad, governor of Iowa, where she was born, said he would
support both women for president. “If Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann
participate, this could break all records and could get to be really,
really wide open and very interesting,” he said last week.
8. MKs Visit Hamas Prisoners, Don't Like What They See
by Maayana Miskin
On Sunday, members of the Knesset Lobby for kidnapped Israeli
soldier Gilad Shalit traveled to the high-security Ofer prison near
Jerusalem, which holds many terrorists. MKs Shaul Mofaz (Kadima), Miri
Regev (Likud), and Eitan Cabel (Labor) were unpleasantly surprised to
discover that Hamas terrorists continue to enjoy good conditions in
Israeli prisons.
The Hamas prisoners have "VIP conditions," Regev told the
Hebrew-language daily Maariv. “Their life in jail is really good. Their
families visit every two weeks. They have a prison canteen, and Hamas
gives each of them 350 shekels to spend each month.”
The three called to strip Hamas terrorists of their privileges, and
treat them the way Hamas treats Shalit – with the exception of those
basic rights outlined in international law, which, they said, Israel
should continue to grant its prisoners despite Hamas' refusal to do the
same.
“If we hit at their soft underbelly, their visits with their families
and children, only then might Hamas improve Shalit's conditions,” Regev
said.
Hamas Meets to Dicuss Shalit Options
A group of senior Hamas leaders has left Gaza to tour the Arab world
and meet with the terrorist group's foreign leaders, according to the
Bethlehem-based Maan news. The Gaza delegation is led by Mahmoud A-Zahar
and Khalil Alhaya.
Sources in Gaza told Maan that one of the topics Hamas' leaders will
discuss is the issue of Gilad Shalit. German mediators are reportedly
working to push forward negotiations for Shalit's release. Hamas has
demanded that Israel free more than 1,000 imprisoned terrorists,
including many who were involved in committing murder.
Hamas leaders claimed this week that some progress had been made in negotiations.
The Hamas delegates had planned to hold meetings in Damascus one month
ago. However, its trip was delayed due to popular uprisings in the Arab
world.
In Damascus, A-Zahar and Alhaya will meet with Hamas' politburo leader,
Khaled Mashal. The delegates also plan to travel to Sudan.
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