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Israeli–Palestinian Conflict; stories and news
Topic Started: Mon Jul 14, 2014 11:18 pm (416 Views)
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Israeli–Palestinian conflict

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing struggle between Israelis and Palestinians that began in the mid-20th century. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is sometimes also used in reference to the earlier sectarian conflict in Mandatory Palestine, between the Zionist yishuv and the Arab population under British rule. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict has formed the core part of the wider Arab–Israeli conflict. It has been widely referred to as the world's "most intractable conflict".

Despite a long-term peace process and the general reconciliation of Israel with Egypt and Jordan, Israelis and Palestinians have failed to reach a final peace agreement. The remaining key issues are: mutual recognition, borders, security, water rights, control of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, Palestinian freedom of movement, and resolving Palestinian claims of a right of return for their refugees. The violence of the conflict, in a region rich in sites of historic, cultural and religious interest worldwide, has been the object of numerous international conferences dealing with historic rights, security issues and human rights, and has been a factor hampering tourism in and general access to, areas that are hotly contested.

Many attempts have been made to broker a two-state solution, involving the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel (after Israel's establishment in 1948). In 2007, a majority of both Israelis and Palestinians, according to a number of polls, preferred the two-state solution over any other solution as a means of resolving the conflict. Moreover, a considerable majority of the Jewish public sees the Palestinians' demand for an independent state as just, and thinks Israel can agree to the establishment of such a state. A majority of Palestinians and Israelis view the West Bank and Gaza Strip have expressed a preference for a two-state solution. Mutual distrust and significant disagreements are deep over basic issues, as is the reciprocal scepticism about the other side's commitment to upholding obligations in an eventual agreement.

Within Israeli and Palestinian society, the conflict generates a wide variety of views and opinions. This highlights the deep divisions which exist not only between Israelis and Palestinians, but also within each society. A hallmark of the conflict has been the level of violence witnessed for virtually its entire duration. Fighting has been conducted by regular armies, paramilitary groups, terror cells, and individuals. Casualties have not been restricted to the military, with a large number of fatalities in civilian population on both sides. There are prominent international actors involved in the conflict.

The two parties engaged in direct negotiation are the Israeli government, currently led by Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), currently headed by Mahmoud Abbas. The official negotiations are mediated by an international contingent known as the Quartet on the Middle East (the Quartet) represented by a special envoy that consists of the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations. The Arab League is another important actor, which has proposed an alternative peace plan. Egypt, a founding member of the Arab League, has historically been a key participant.

Since 2006, the Palestinian side has been fractured by conflict between the two major factions: Fatah, the traditionally dominant party, and its later electoral challenger, Hamas. After Hamas's electoral victory in 2006 the US, EU, and Israel refused to recognize its government and much of the funding to the Palestinian National Authority was suspended. A year later, following Hamas' seizure of power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, the territory officially recognized as the State of Palestine (former Palestinian National Authority – the Palestinian interim governing body) is split between Fatah in the West Bank, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The division of governance between the parties has effectively resulted in the collapse of bipartisan governance of the Palestinian National Authority (PA). The latest round of peace negotiations began in July 2013 and are currently ongoing.

Posted Image
Land in the lighter shade represents territory within the borders of Israel at the conclusion of the 1948 war. This land is internationally recognized as belonging to Israel. (Wikipedia photo)

Background

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict has its roots in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the birth of major nationalist movements among the Jews and among the Arabs, both geared towards attaining sovereignty for their people in the Middle East. The collision between those two forces in southern Levant and the emergence of Palestinian nationalism in the 1920s eventually escalated into the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 1947, and expanded into the wider Arab-Israeli conflict later on.

With the outcome of the First World War, the relations between Zionism and the Arab national movement seemed to be potentially friendly, and the Faisal–Weizmann Agreement created a framework for both aspirations to coexist on former Ottoman Empire's territories. However, with the defeat and dissolution of the Arab Kingdom of Syria in July 1920 following the Franco-Syrian War, a crisis fell upon the Damascus-based Arab national movement. The return of several hard-line Palestinian Arab nationalists, under the emerging leadership of Haj Amin al-Husseini, from Damascus to Mandatory Palestine marked the beginning of Palestinian Arab nationalist struggle towards establishment of a national home for Arabs of Palestine. Amin al-Husseini, the architect of the Palestinian Arab national movement, immediately marked Jewish national movement and Jewish immigration to Palestine as the sole enemy to his cause, initiating large-scale riots against the Jews as early as 1920 in Jerusalem and in 1921 in Jaffa. Among the results of the violence was the establishment of Jewish paramilitary force of Haganah. In 1929, a series of violent anti-Jewish riots was initiated by the Arab leadership. The riots resulted in massive Jewish casualties in Hebron and Safed, and the evacuation of Jews from Hebron and Gaza.

In the early 1930s, the Arab national struggle in Palestine had drawn many Arab nationalist militants from across the Middle East, most notably Sheikh Izaddin al-Qassam from Syria, who established the Black Hand militant group and had prepared the grounds for the 1936 Arab revolt. Following, the death of al-Qassam at the hands of the British in late 1935, the tensions erupted in 1936 into the Arab general strike and general boycott. The strike soon deteriorated into violence and the bloody revolt against the British and the Jews. In the first wave of organized violence, lasting until early 1937, much of the Arab gangs were defeated by the British and a forced expulsion of much of the Arab leadership was performed. The revolt led to the establishment of the Peel Commission towards partitioning of Palestine, though was subsequently rejected by the Palestinian Arabs. The two main Jewish leaders, Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion, accepted the recommendations but some secondary Jewish leaders did not like it.

The renewed violence, which had sporadically lasted until the beginning of WWII, ended with around 5,000 casualties, mostly from the Arab side. With the eruption of World War II, the situation in Mandatory Palestine calmed down. It allowed a shift towards a more moderate stance among Palestinian Arabs, under the leadership of the Nashashibi clan and even the establishment of the Jewish–Arab Palestine Regiment under British command, fighting Germans in North Africa. The more radical exiled faction of al-Husseini however tended to cooperation with Nazi Germany, and participated in the establishment of pro-Nazi propaganda machine throughout the Arab world. Defeat of Arab nationalists in Iraq and subsequent relocation of al-Husseini to Nazi-occupied Europe tied his hands regarding field operations in Palestine, though he regularly demanded the Italians and the Germans to bomb Tel Aviv. By the end of World War II, a crisis over the fate of the Holocaust survivors from Europe led to renewed tensions between the Yishuv and the Palestinian Arab leadership. Immigration quotas were established by the British, while on the other hand illegal immigration and Zionist insurgency against the British was increasing.

On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted Resolution 181(II) recommending the adoption and implementation of a plan to partition Palestine into an Arab state, a Jewish state and the City of Jerusalem. On the next day, Palestine was already swept by violence, with Arab and Jewish militias executing attacks. For four months, under continuous Arab provocation and attack, the Yishuv was usually on the defensive while occasionally retaliating. The Arab League supported the Arab struggle by forming the volunteer based Arab Liberation Army, supporting the Palestinian Arab Army of the Holy War, under the leadership of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni and Hasan Salama. On the Jewish side, the civil war was managed by the major underground militias – the Haganah, Irgun and Lehi, strengthened by numerous Jewish veterans of World War II and foreign volunteers. By spring 1948, it was already clear that the Arab forces were nearing a total collapse, while Yishuv forces gained more and more territory, creating a large scale refugee problem of Palestinian Arabs. Popular support for the Palestinian Arabs throughout the Arab world led to sporadic violence against Jewish communities of Middle East and North Africa, creating an opposite refugee wave.


History

Following the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948, the Arab League decided to intervene on behalf of Palestinian Arabs, marching their forces into former British Palestine, beginning the main phase of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The overall fighting, leading to around 15,000 casualties, resulted in cease fire and armistice agreements of 1949, with Israel holding much of the former Mandate territory, Jordan occupying and later annexing the West Bank and Egypt taking over the Gaza Strip, where the All-Palestine Government was declared by the Arab League on 22 September 1948.

Through the 1950s, Jordan and Egypt supported the Palestinian Fedayeen militants' cross-border attacks into Israel, while Israel carried out reprisal operations in the host countries. The 1956 Suez Crisis resulted in a short-term Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and exile of the All-Palestine Government, which was later restored with Israeli withdrawal. The All-Palestine Government was completely abandoned by Egypt in 1959 and was officially merged into the United Arab Republic, to the detriment of the Palestinian national movement. Gaza Strip then was put under the authority of Egyptian military administrator, making it a de-facto military occupation. In 1964, however, a new organization, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), was established by Yasser Arafat. It immediately won the support of most Arab League governments and was granted a seat in the Arab League.

The 1967 Six Day War exerted a significant effect upon Palestinian nationalism, as Israel gained authority of the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt. Consequently, the PLO was unable to establish any control on the ground and established its headquarters in Jordan, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and supported the Jordanian army during the War of Attrition, most notably the Battle of Karameh. However, the Palestinian base in Jordan collapsed with the Jordanian-Palestinian civil war in 1970. The PLO defeat by the Jordanians caused most of the Palestinian militants to relocate to South Lebanon, where they soon took over large areas, creating the so-called "Fatahland".

Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon peaked in the early 1970s, as Lebanon was used as a base to launch attacks on northern Israel and airplane hijacking campaigns worldwide, which drew Israeli retaliation. During the Lebanese Civil War, Palestinian militants continued to launch attacks against Israel while also battling opponents within Lebanon. In 1978, the Coastal Road massacre led to the Israeli full-scale invasion known as Operation Litani. Israeli forces, however, quickly withdrew from Lebanon, and the attacks against Israel resumed. In 1982, following an assassination attempt on one of its diplomats by Palestinians, the Israeli government decided to take sides in the Lebanese Civil War and the 1982 Lebanon War commenced. The initial results for Israel were successful. Most Palestinian militants were defeated within several weeks, Beirut was captured, and the PLO headquarters were evacuated to Tunisia in June by Yasser Arafat's decision. However, Israeli intervention in the civil war also led to unforeseen results, including small-scale conflict between Israel and Syria. By 1985, Israel withdrew to a 10 km occupied strip of South Lebanon, while the low-intensity conflict with Shia militants escalated. Those Iranian-supported Shia groups gradually consolidated into Hizbullah and Amal, operated against Israel, and allied with the remnants of Palestinian organizations to launch attacks on Galilee through the late 1980s. By the 1990s, Palestinian organizations in Lebanon were largely inactive.

The first Palestinian uprising began in 1987 as a response to escalating attacks and the endless occupation. By the early 1990s, international efforts to settle the conflict had begun, in light of the success of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1982. Eventually, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process led to the Oslo Accords of 1993, allowing the PLO to relocate from Tunisia and take ground in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, establishing the Palestinian National Authority. The peace process also had significant opposition among radical Islamic elements of Palestinian society, such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who immediately initiated a campaign of attacks targeting Israelis. Following hundreds of casualties and a wave of radical anti-government propaganda, Israeli Prime-Minister Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli fanatic who objected to the policy of the government. This struck a serious blow to the peace process, from which the newly elected government of Israel in 1996 backed off.

Following several years of unsuccessful negotiations, the conflict re-erupted as the Second Intifada on September 2000. The violence, escalating into an open conflict between the Palestinian Authority security forces and the IDF, lasted until 2004/2005 and led to nearly 6,000 fatalities. Following the uprising, Israeli Prime-Minister Sharon decided upon the Gaza disengagement plan, implemented in 2005, removing Israeli settlers, though not releasing the territory from Israeli occupation. One year later the Hamas party took power in Palestinian elections, while Israel responded it would not continue any peace negotiations as long as Hamas is taking part in the Palestinian government. Clashes between Israel and Hamas in 2006 led Israel to impose a naval blockade on the Gaza Strip, and cooperation with Egypt allowed a ground blockade of the Egyptian border. After internal Palestinian political struggle between Fatah and Hamas erupted into the Battle of Gaza (2007), Hamas took full control of the area. The tensions between Israel and Hamas, who won increasing financial and political support of Iran, escalated until late 2008, when Israel launched operation Cast Lead (the Gaza War). By February 2009, a cease-fire was signed with international mediation between the parties, though small and sporadic eruptions of violence continued.

In 2011, a Palestinian Authority attempt to gain UN membership as a fully sovereign state failed. In Hamas-controlled Gaza, sporadic rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli air raids still take place. In November 2012, the representation of Palestine in UN was upgraded to a non-member observer State, and mission title was changed from "Palestine (represented by PLO)" to State of Palestine.

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict


Arab–Israeli conflict
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab%E2%80%93Israeli_conflict

1948 Arab-Israeli War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Arab-Israeli_War

Six-Day War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Day_War

Oslo Accords of 1993
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Accords

Second Intifada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Intifada

Taba Summi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taba_Summit

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Wikipedia photo
Edited by Flipzi, Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:28 am.
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The Truth on Israel Palestine Conflict

a must-see video



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc8EjQEpZ3s

History on Israel Palestine Conflict - News Update-Israelis in the towns and villages that have been getting struck by hundreds of rockets fired from Palestinians in Gaza said Sunday they are wary of cease-fire talks if they don't end the terror people have been living with for years.

Published on Nov 18, 2012
shroudofturinnews's channel

http://shroudofturinnews.com/israel-palestine-conflict-reasons-to-seek-the-truth
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Israeli security concerns

Throughout the conflict, Palestinian violence has been a concern for Israelis. Israel, along with the United States and the European Union, refer to the violence against Israeli civilians and military forces by Palestinian militants as terrorism. The motivations behind Palestinian violence against Israeli civilians are multiplex, and not all violent Palestinian groups agree with each other on specifics, however a common motive is to eliminate the Jewish state and replace it with a Palestinian Arab state. The most prominent Islamist groups, such as Hamas, view the Israeli–Palestinian conflict as a religious jihad.

Suicide bombing is used as a tactic among Palestinian organizations like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and certain suicide attacks have received support among Palestinians as high as 84%. In Israel, Palestinian suicide bombers have targeted civilian buses, restaurants, shopping malls, hotels and marketplaces. From 1993–2003, 303 Palestinian suicide bombers attacked Israel.

The Israeli government initiated the construction of a security barrier following scores of suicide bombings and terrorist attacks in July 2003. Israel's coalition government approved the security barrier in the northern part of the green-line between Israel and the West Bank. Since the erection of the fence, terrorist acts have declined by more than 90%.

Since 2001, the threat of Qassam rockets fired from the Palestinian Territories into Israel is also of great concern for Israeli defense officials. In 2006—the year following Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip—the Israeli government recorded 1,726 such launches, more than four times the total rockets fired in 2005. As of January 2009, over 8,600 rockets had been launched, causing widespread psychological trauma and disruption of daily life. Over 500 rockets and mortars hit Israel in January–September 2010 and over 1,947 rockets hit Israel in January–November 2012.

According to a study conducted by University of Haifa, one in five Israelis have lost a relative or friend in a Palestinian terrorist attack.

There is significant debate within Israel about how to deal with the country's security concerns. Options have included military action (including targeted killings and house demolitions of terrorist operatives), diplomacy, unilateral gestures toward peace, and increased security measures such as checkpoints, roadblocks and security barriers. The legality and the wisdom of all of the above tactics have been called into question by various commentators.

Since mid-June 2007, Israel's primary means of dealing with security concerns in the West Bank has been to cooperate with and permit United States-sponsored training, equipping, and funding of the Palestinian Authority's security forces, which with Israeli help have largely succeeded in quelling West Bank supporters of Hamas.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict
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Palestinian violence against other Palestinians

Fighting among rival Palestinian and Arab movements has played a crucial role in shaping Israel's security policy towards Palestinian militants, as well as in the Palestinian leadership's own policies. As early as the 1930s revolts in Palestine, Arab forces fought each other while also skirmishing with Zionist and British forces, and internal conflicts continue to the present day. During the Lebanese Civil War, Palestinian baathists broke from the Palestine Liberation Organization and allied with the Shia Amal Movement, fighting a bloody civil war that killed thousands of Palestinians.

In the First Intifada, more than a thousand Palestinians were killed in a campaign initiated by the Palestine Liberation Organization to crack down on suspected Israeli security service informers and collaborators. The Palestinian Authority was strongly criticized for its treatment of alleged collaborators, rights groups complaining that those labeled collaborators were denied fair trials. According to a report released by the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, less than 45 percent of those killed were actually guilty of informing for Israel.

The policies towards suspected collaborators contravene agreements signed by the Palestinian leadership. Article XVI(2) of the Oslo II Agreement states:

"Palestinians who have maintained contact with the Israeli authorities will not be subjected to acts of harassment, violence, retribution, or prosecution."

The provision was designed to prevent Palestinian leaders from imposing retribution on fellow Palestinians who had worked on behalf of Israel during the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In the Gaza Strip, Hamas officials have killed and tortured thousands of Fatah members and other Palestinians who oppose their rule. During the Battle of Gaza, more than 150 Palestinians died over a four-day period. The violence among Palestinians was described as a civil war by some commentators. By 2007, more than 600 Palestinian people had died during the struggle between Hamas and Fatah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict
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Israeli settlements in the West Bank

In 2005, Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, a proposal put forward by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was enacted. All residents of Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip were evacuated, and all residential buildings were demolished.

Various mediators and various proposed agreements have shown some degree of openness to Israel retaining some fraction of the settlements which currently exist in the West Bank; this openness is based on a variety of considerations, such as, the desire to find real compromise between Israeli and Palestinian territorial claims.

Israel's position that it needs to retain some West Bank land and settlements as a buffer in case of future aggression, and Israel's position that some settlements are legitimate, as they took shape when there was no operative diplomatic arrangement, and thus they did not violate any agreement.

Former US President George W. Bush has stated that he does not expect Israel to return entirely to the 1949 armistice lines because of "new realities on the ground." One of the main compromise plans put forth by the Clinton Administration would have allowed Israel to keep some settlements in the West Bank, especially those which were in large blocs near the pre-1967 borders of Israel. In return, Palestinians would have received some concessions of land in other parts of the country. The current US administration views a complete freeze of construction in settlements on the West Bank as a critical step toward peace. In May and June 2009, President Barack Obama said, "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements," and the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, stated that the President "wants to see a stop to settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not ‘natural growth’ exceptions.” However, Obama has since declared that the United States will no longer press Israel to stop West Bank settlement construction as a precondition for continued peace-process negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

Full story http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict
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My suggested solution

Solution is global effort to force Palestine to regain sanity in its governance and work for preserving peace in the region.

Hamas should be driven out of Palestine govt because of their extremist ideology unless they renounce violence.

Then put the moderate party in the Palestine govt.

Help Palestine control these warmongers.

Help Palestine gain economic freedom.

Solve the border disputes.
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Inside Gaza

Video: Crime & Punishment in the Gaza Strip



Published on Jul 10, 2012
We finally got a rare glimpse of the embattled Gaza Strip and a chance to see what life was like under the rule of Hamas. In 2007 we tried and failed to get into Gaza through the Israeli-controlled Erez Crossing. Back then the rival Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah were engaged in a bloody war for control of this tiny strip of land. Hamas won. When the post-Mubarak government of Egypt decided to start letting small numbers of folks into Gaza through their Rafah Crossing, we knew we could finally enter the region.

Hosted by Suroosh Alvi | Originally released in 2011 on http://vice.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWJFC98jPrQ

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Israel launches ground operation in Gaza

AFP, July 17, 2014:

Jerusalem (AFP) – Israel launched a ground operation in Gaza late Thursday on the 10th day of an offensive to stamp out rocket attacks from the Palestinian enclave, the army said.

“Following 10 days of Hamas attacks by land, air and sea, and after repeated rejections of offers to deescalate the situation, the Israel Defence Forces (army) has initiated a ground operation within the Gaza Strip,” it said in a statement.

The army said the aim of the operation is to protect Israeli lives and crush Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

“The IDF’s objective as defined by the Israeli government is to establish a reality in which Israeli residents can live in safety and security without continued indiscriminate terror, while striking a significant blow to Hamas’s terror infrastructure,” the statement said.

Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on July 8 to stamp out rocket attacks from Gaza and the army said the new operation will include ground and air assaults.

“This stage of operation ‘Protective Edge’, led by the IDF’s Southern Command, will include close coordination between IDF units including infantry, armoured corps, engineer corps, artillery, and intelligence combined with aerial and naval support,” it said.

“This effort will also be supported by the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) and other intelligence organisations,” the army added.

“In the face of Hamas’ tactics to leverage civilian casualties in pursuit of its terrorist goals, the IDF will continue in its unprecedented efforts to limit civilian harm,” it said.

At least 240 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes since July 8, many of them children, medics in Gaza said, with a NGO based in the coastal enclave saying 80 percent of the deaths are civilians.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/07/israel-launches-ground-operation-against-hamas-in-gaza
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A handout picture released by the Palestinian president's office (PPO) shows Palestinian leader Abbas (R) meeting with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius ahead of a meeting in Cairo on July 18, 2014 (photo credit: AFP/ PPO / Thaer Ghanem)

Abbas asks France to lobby Hamas allies for truce

Palestinian leader urges Qatar and Turkey to pressure Gaza-based terror group into accepting ceasefire with Israel

BY AFP July 18, 2014, 9:53 pm

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reached out for French help Friday to lobby Hamas’s regional allies to influence it into accepting a truce with Israel, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said

Egypt-mediated talks to end the escalating Gaza Strip war have faltered, with Hamas insisting on a comprehensive ceasefire that would end the Israeli blockade of the coastal enclave, Palestinian officials said.


Abbas asked France to lobby Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey to pressure the group into accepting the truce, Fabius told reporters after meeting the Palestinian leader in Cairo.

He said he had called his Qatari counterpart after Abbas’s request and added he would also contact Ankara.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, who overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood from power last year, has sought to isolate Hamas allies and initially demanded that the group unconditionally accept a truce to end the 11-day war, as Israel already had.

The truce stipulated a ceasefire first, followed by easing restrictions on border crossings and negotiations later.

Cairo has worked instead to bolster the role of Abbas — its ally based in the West Bank and rival to Hamas — in reaching a deal to end the conflict which has killed at least 274 Palestinians since July 8. Hamas has fired some 1,500 rockets at Israel and attempted tunnel and sea infiltrations.

Egypt has also rejected demands by Hamas to involve Turkey and Qatar — both regional rivals to Egypt’s new government — in the process, Palestinian officials said.

“We demand a complete agreement and the end of the siege. The [Egyptians] respond that Israel can’t accept this,” said a senior Hamas official.

Abbas met Fabius at Cairo airport before leaving for Turkey.

“He (Abbas) asked me to contact the Turks and Qataris with whom we have good relations, because they themselves can exert a particular influence on Hamas,” Fabius said.

“There can be influences that I hope can let Hamas accept the ceasefire that it has refused,” Fabius said.

Later he told reporters that he called Qatari Foreign Minister Khaled al- Attiyah.

“He said that in his view, Hamas hopes for there to be negotiation points before a ceasefire, especially relating to the blockade,” Fabius said.

It was unclear how receptive Turkey would be to such lobbying.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan again attacked Sissi on Friday, branding him a “tyrant” and suggesting he was unfit to mediate a ceasefire.

The senior Hamas official said the group, who rejected an initial Egypt-proposed truce they said ignored their demands, will not back down even as Israel launched a ground incursion into Gaza overnight on Thursday.

Hamas also insists that Israel release Palestinian prisoners it had freed during the Shalit exchanged deal but rearrested in a recent West Bank operation, and lift its siege of Gaza, Ahmed told AFP.

Egypt’s foreign ministry has condemned the ground incursion but also lashed out at Hamas, saying the Islamist terror movement could have saved dozens of lives had it accepted Cairo’s proposal.

Egypt, which has a peace treaty with Israel, shares borders with both the Jewish state and Gaza.

Israel has blockaded the coastal strip since Gaza terrorists kidnapped an Israeli soldier in 2006, and Hamas later expelled Abbas’s Fatah party from the enclave in a week of bloody clashes.

Abbas and Hamas have agreed on a unity government of technocrats to end their seven-year split, but the deal has faltered over funding and power-sharing disputes.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-asks-france-to-lobby-hamas-allies-for-truce/
Edited by Flipzi, Wed Aug 6, 2014 1:13 am.
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Obama approves $225 million in Iron Dome funding

Defense system has intercepted hundreds of rockets fired by Hamas toward residential neighborhoods in past month

BY REBECCA SHIMONI STOIL AND AP August 5, 2014, 1:35 am 25


WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama signed a bill granting an additional $225 million in funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.

The defense system has been highly effective in the current round of violence between Israel and Hamas, intercepting hundreds of rockets headed toward major population centers in Israel. Israeli officials say it has a success rate as high as 90 percent.

The US has provided hundreds of millions of dollars for Iron Dome in the past. The new package is intended to replenish Israel’s capabilities.

Congress approved the money last week before lawmakers left for their annual summer break. Obama signed the bill late Monday in the Oval Office with a handful of photographers present.

During a marathon session devoted largely to passing immigration legislation, the House of Representatives had voted late Friday night by a landslide majority to provide the funding.

“Israel is our friend and Israel’s enemies are our enemies,” House Speaker John Boeher tweeted shortly after the measure passed its final legislative hurdle by a vote of 395-8. Four Republicans and four Democrats voted against the funding, and an additional 29 did not vote.

No debate was held on the bill, which had passed the Senate earlier Friday with unanimous consent.

Israel requested the additional $225 million for the partially US-funded project, which is credited with saving dozens, possibly hundreds, of lives. The Iron Dome has intercepted hundreds of rockets during Operation Protective Edge, but is notable for its high operating costs which have heretofore largely been covered by the US.

After Israel requested more aid for the missile defense system, the Department of Defense approved the request.

Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL) said shortly after the resolution’s passage that the additional funding “is crucial to the defense of Israeli citizens from Hamas terrorism” as well as “a testament to the United States’ long standing and deep friendship with Israel.”

Iron Dome intercepts over the course of Operation Protective Edge have likely cost Israel tens of millions of dollars.

For much of the past week, it seemed as though the additional funding would be tied up in partisan bickering, but on Friday, senators agreed to support a standalone bill that did not tie the funding to other budgetary allocations.

A number of organizations which had pushed Congress to approve the additional funding before it left for a month-long recess greeted the bill’s passage with enthusiasm.

The American Jewish Committee expressed “heartfelt appreciation to the United States Congress for approving additional funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.”

“Iron Dome has been a genuine life-saver for Israelis enduring round-the- clock barrages of Hamas rockets and missiles from Gaza,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris in a statement late Friday evening. “Thankfully, Congress, in the spirit of its long support for the U.S.-Israel relationship, recognizes the essence of the ruthless Hamas threat to Israelis of all ages. And Israel’s experience with this system will also no doubt prove invaluable to the U.S. and other democratic countries that may face the threat of violence from both state and non-state actors.”

Shortly after the resolution’s passage, AIPAC circulated an email to supporters suggesting that they launch a letter writing campaign to thank members of Congress individually for their support of Iron Dome.

Read more: Obama approves $225 million in Iron Dome funding | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/obama-approves-225-million-in-iron-dome-funding/#ixzz39XTMwic9
Follow us: @timesofisrael on Twitter | timesofisrael on Facebook
Edited by Flipzi, Wed Aug 6, 2014 1:17 am.
Alfred Alexander L. Marasigan
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http://z6.invisionfree.com/flipzi

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