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Four years after Hezbollah exposed Israel's vulnerability to short- and medium-range rockets, Israeli defense officials finished testing on Monday what is supposed to be the answer.
Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system is designed to intercept salvos of primitive rockets from Gaza and Lebanon, drastically reducing the ability of Hamas and Hezbollah to hit Israeli population centers. It's also a blow to Iran, which supports both militant groups, and could use them as proxies in a broader conflict against Israel.
The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health appealed Wednesday to Israel to deliver seven oxygen machines donated by a Norwegian development agency that were seized by Israeli officials en route to hospitals in the West Bank and Gaza.
Heath Minister Fathi Abu Moghli delivered a second letter of appeal to donor countries and organizations, calling for "urgent intervention" for the medical supplies to be delivered to hospitals in the occupied Palestinian territories.
A new Israeli report on the 2008-2009 war in the Gaza Strip says that Israel's army is taking steps to reduce the number of civilian casualties in future wars and will restrict the use of white phosphorous.
The 37-page report, which was posted on the Israeli Foreign Ministry's website, was delivered to the office of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday in compliance with a General Assembly resolution, U.N. officials said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told his Fatah movement he wants a more specific U.S. commitment on the borders of a future Palestinian state before agreeing to direct talks with Israel, an adviser said Wednesday.
Abbas told Fatah leaders in a closed-door meeting late Tuesday that President Barack Obama's assurances so far aren't clear enough.
Obama has urged Abbas to resume direct talks that broke off in December 2008.
Some of the hundreds of Gaza factories idled by Israel's blockade are cranking up rusty machines to can tomatoes, mix concrete and press pills again now that Israel is allowing in raw materials for the first time in three years.
But Israel's recent easing of the closure appears unlikely to get Gaza's battered economy back on its feet.
Palestinian officials on Tuesday warned of the Israeli government's decision to expand the implementation of the Israeli law of seizing the "absentee property" in Jerusalem.
They told Xinhua in separate interviews that the Israeli law aims at escalating the Israeli measures against the Palestinians in the holy city "in order to seize their properties and push them towards the permanent emigration from the city."
A Palestinian official on Tuesday denied reports that President Mahmoud Abbas had sent a secret document to the U.S. administration stating the Palestinian view of a final solution with Israel.
"The Palestinian side did not offer any secret papers different than our known and declared position," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
The IDF's Civil Administration destroyed a Palestinian village Monday morning that had earlier been cleared out when its water supply was cut off.
The IDF demolished about 55 structures in the West Bank village of Farasiya, including tents, tin shacks, plastic and straw huts, clay ovens, sheep pens and bathrooms. These structures served the 120 farmers, hired workers and their families who lived in the Jordan Valley village.
The Civil Administration said they had declared the area a live fire zone and posted eviction orders for 10 families in tents on June 27.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the European Union's foreign policy chief that he is ready to take a political risk to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, but only if he does not have to take a security risk, sources say.
During talks with Catherine Ashton, Netanyahu reiterated that he seeks to move forward quickly if direct negotiations with the Palestinians begin. He believes it would be possible to reach an agreement with the Palestinians within a year. A deal would then be implemented gradually over a number of years.
A talk given by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Andrew J. Shapiro at the Brookings Saban Center for Middle East Policy in Washington D.C. last weekend did not gain sufficient attention in Israel. Most of the Israeli newspapers focused on his argument that more American aid, which would fund the manufacture of missile defense systems, would help Israel make "tough" decisions in the peace negotiations with the Palestinians. (In other words – the financial assistance and defense systems would minimize the risk posed by rocket attacks thus facilitating future Israeli territorial withdrawals.)
The Israeli Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University released the 2010 Peace Index on Wednesday, revealing Israelis' positions on peace talks, captive soldier Gilad Schalit, US President Barack Obama and other current events and issues.
Israel's outgoing ambassador to the United Nations said Monday that the most significant threat to the Jewish state is not Iran, but efforts to delegitimize Israel and its leaders.
"Israel is the most isolated, lonely country in the world," Gabriela Shalev told reporters in Washington at a luncheon sponsored by the Israel project.
The Political-Security Cabinet convened Wednesday to discuss Israel's blockade policy in the Gaza Strip. It was stated during the meeting that Israel had transferred NIS 50 million ($12.96 million) to Gaza banks for the payment of salaries on Monday and that an additional NIS 50 million will be transferred in the coming days.
Banks in the Gaza Strip have suffered a cash shortage following an increase in trade stemming from blockade easements.
A Palestinian man who masqueraded as a Jew to have sex with a Jewish woman has been convicted of rape "by deception" and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The unusual case underscores the racial tensions between Israel's Jewish and Arab communities, where intimate relations between the two are often regarded as taboo.
US President Barack Obama has been issuing contradictory statements about the prospect for peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
Once the US president assures Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that he is committed to the creation of an independent Palestinian state, then, after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he says the prospects for peace in the region appear slim.
Some time before that, Obama had acknowledged that the search for peace in the Middle East is tantamount to walking among land-mines.
ead of the Administration and Justice parliamentary committee, MP Robert Ghanem, said work permits will preserve the refugee status of Palestinians in Lebanon.
The West Bekaa MP spoke to reporters on Monday after chairing a meeting for the committee at the Parliament.
Ghanem said the committee amended article 59 of the Labor Law by which Palestinians registered in the Interior Ministry and the Political Affairs and Refugees Directory would have to file for a work permit in order to gain access to various professions.
I just came back from an inspiring event on Capitol Hill, in which young Israeli and Palestinian peace activists told their stories and urged Americans to get involved to make Middle East peace a reality.
It was the first annual congressional forum of the Middle East program of New Story Leadership, a Washington-based organization that brings young adults to Washington for internships and leadership training. Participants eventually return to Israel, the West Bank or Gaza, and, hopefully, continue taking action toward peace and reconciliation.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/14195
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/14195
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/14195
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] https://www.americantaskforce.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1
[6] http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0720/Israel-s-Iron-Dome-missile-defense-system-not-a-silver-bullet
[7] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=301280
[8] http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N20108548.htm
[9] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/abbas-specific-us-assurances-on-borders-needed-814350.html
[10] http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/with-blockades-easing-some-gaza-factories-revive-814401.html?viewAsSinglePage=true
[11] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-07/20/c_13406955.htm
[12] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-07/20/c_13406666.htm
[13] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-destroys-west-bank-village-after-declaring-it-military-zone-1.303098
[14] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/netanyahu-i-m-willing-to-take-political-risks-for-peace-1.303106
[15] http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/mess-report/mess-report-what-exactly-did-netanyahu-promise-obama-1.303154
[16] http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=182102
[17] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/19/envoy-israel-threatened-by-efforts-to-delegitimize/?page=1
[18] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3922992,00.html
[19] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/arab-who-posed-as-a-jew-jailed-for-rape-by-deception-2031252.html
[20] http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=28507
[21] http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=117237#axzz0uJGw7qXe
[22] http://peacenow.org/entries/post_11
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