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The news  19-25 April 2004

Arafat assassination?


‘Sharon's latest threat to strike at Arafat came at a convenient time for all involved. It is convenient for Sharon, who must present a hard line ahead of the Likud referendum; It is convenient for Arafat, who loves the role of victim; and it is also convenient for the U.S., which wants to show that it can restrain the 'neighborhood bully' wrote Aluf Benn. In an earlier interview, Arafat was still clinging to his traditional two-state peace position.

Blair condemned the Rantissi assassination, thus opening a rare public rift with Washington.

withdrawal?


US attempts to involve European and Arab states in Israel’s withdrawal plan were stymied by resentment at Bush ‘selling out to Sharon’.

Arab regimes were angry at the way Bush had undermined their position. Resentment at the Bush deal with Sharon, and at US conduct in Iraq was undermining broader US plans for the region.

US attempts to placate Arab and European hostility led to Israeli fears that Bush was backpedalling on his assurances to Sharon.

Meanwhile the Palestinians were assessing the implications of their weakened situation, and different factions were jockeying for position in a post-withdrawal Gaza.

In the Boston Globe, Thomas Oliphant exposed the claim that Sharon’s plan for Gaza amounts to ‘withdrawal’.

Rami Khouri, executive editor of the Beirut ‘Daily Star’, gave a balanced view of the Bush-Sharon agreement, pointing out the divergent implications of the different levels at which it can be read.

Meron Benvenisti predicted that Sharon’s plan would ultimately be seen as a single-state Bantustan project.

Akiva Eldar reported on PA negotiations on a Gaza cease-fire with Hamas. The idea was also backed in a message from imprisoned Palestinian activist Marwan Barghouti.

In a little-reported move, the IDF Chief implied that the new head of Hamas would not be assassinated as long as Hamas discontinued killings.

under occupation

As this report from the village of Biddu shows, Bush’s endorsement of Sharon’s plan has emboldened Israel to greater use of force against non-violent protesters. An inquiry was announced after Border Police at the Biddu demonstration used a 13 year-old Palestinian boy as a human shield.

An IDF incursion into Beit Hanoun, Gaza, took a mounting toll of children.

In Jerusalem the IDF held up an ambulance with a seriously ill cardio-vascular patient inside, for a total of two and a half hours.

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics issued a report on the total number of settlers in the West Bank and Gaza.

inside Israel

Mordecai Vanunu was released from prison after 18 years - but fears for his safety remained. Amnesty International insisted no further restrictions should be imposed on him. Uri Avnery had an intriguing insight into the background of the case.

Bret Stephens, in the Jerusalem Post, gave the mainstream Israeli reaction: one of surprise that the world was shocked by Israel’s treatment of Vanunu. Daniel Ellsberg by contrast called Vanunu‘the preeminent hero of the nuclear era’.

Israel’s Education Minister proclaimed a personal boycott of Ben Gurion University in protest against a critical article by a member of its staff, and followed this up with a call for the academic to be sacked.

Amira Hass contrasts the racist discrimination against Palestinians in Israel with the position of diaspora Jews in Israel and abroad.

Akiva Eldar exposed Israel Labour’s doormat relationship to Sharon.

More Jews are now moving from Israel to Russia than in the opposite direction.


and also...


The recently discovered diaries of a US diplomat reveal how President Truman threatened to break with Israel over the question of Palestinian refugees

Nadia Hijab of the Palestine Centre in Washington, outlines an original approach to the future tactics and strategy for the Palestinians.

From Tunis, Farouk Khaddoumi, the hard-line PLO ‘foreign affairs’ spokesman, claimed that the PLO’s Charter was never amended.

In the Tunisian island of Jerba, Jews and Muslims continue to live together in harmony.

Three Jerusalem women - one Jewish, one Muslim, one Christian - are touring the US explaining their work for peace.

The New York Times carried a profile of US-Palestinian academic Dr Rashid Khalidi, the target of recent academic witch-hunts.

George Monbiot described how US policy in the Middle East is being driven by Christian fundamentalists.

Senator John Kerry boasted of his full support for Israel.

past news round-ups

2002

 

 

 

 


 

 

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