UK cuts Israel weapons contracts because of actions during Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza thi
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- Written by BBC News BBC News
- Published: 13 July 2009 13 July 2009
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The UK has revoked five export licences for equipment to the Israeli navy because of actions during Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza this year.
The British Foreign office said the exports would now contravene its criteria for arms sales, but denied that it had imposed a partial embargo.
The UK says it does not sell weapons which might be used for internal repression or external aggression.
Israel says its troops complied fully with international law during missions.
The 22-day operation which ended on 18 January has been widely condemned as disproportionate by critics.
The British government has been challenged by human rights groups and members of the UK parliament over concerns raised by Amnesty International that British-made equipment was used illegally in Gaza.
Amnesty says both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during the conflict.
In April, the British government issued a statement saying it had not contravened its own guidelines, which it described as "stringent", but said it was was reviewing existing licences.
On Monday, the Foreign Office said in a statement that it had conducted the review, and found "in a small number of cases Israeli action in Cast Lead would result in the export of those goods now contravening the… criteria".
An unnamed Israeli official said five of 35 contracts for naval equipment had been cancelled.
Media reports quoted Israeli officials as saying these all related to the Saar 4.5 gunboat.
'Not bothered'
In April, the British Foreign Office said there were "credible reports" that the vessels had been used in a "naval fire support role" during Operation Cast Lead.
Palestinians killed during Israeli military offensive in Gaza, 27 Dec to 18 Jan - Palestinian claims followed by Israelis claims:
Sources: Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Israeli Defence Intelligence Research Dept
The British Foreign Office said future decisions would "take into account what has happened in the recent conflict".
"We do not grant export licences where there is a clear risk that arms will be used for external aggression or internal repression," it said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israeli public radio: "We've had many embargoes in the past... We can manage. This shouldn't bother us."
Palestinian rights groups say about 1,400 Palestinians died during the operation.
Thirteen Israelis died during the conflict, nine of them were soldiers serving in Gaza.
Israel said its operation aimed to reduce rocket fire from Gaza aimed at its southern towns.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8147377.stm
Published: 2009/07/13 12:43:50 GMT
© BBC MMIX
Christians Must Resist Extremism
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- Written by Linda Nielsen, Printed in Christian News Northwest Linda Nielsen, Printed in Christian News Northwest
- Published: 12 July 2009 12 July 2009
- Hits: 2224 2224
I and three
fellow Christians attending the event were unpleasantly surprised by the
disturbing experience which follows: At the entry we were all required to
submit to a military style, 'checkpoint', an experience all too familiar over
the past 60 years to millions of Palestinian's daily. Individually we were
searched by one of three imposing figures who appeared to be Israeli
Mossad wearing American flags on their uniform sleeves. After we finally
gained entry there were a dozen tables promoting material and publications
like, “War Footing”, pressing for war on Iran. There was a heavy presence of
security guards who appeared to be CIA agents. It became apparent with 'security' clad
agents outnumbering ticket holders that maybe I should be concerned about what
kind of personal risk might be involved in attending this event.
At a table
titled 'OutPost', the man I spoke with seemed to be in agreement with most
tables promoting their goods: Their collective viewpoint is
that they are at war with Islam, as justified by the Jewish man who explained
to me that the battle was not unlike a 'family feud', that he along
with Christians who subscribe to strict adherence to Old
Testament scriptures, would one day soon usher in
"Armageddon".
Curiously, New Hope Christian Church agreed to support this
extreme view at the exclusion of any counterpoint supporting justice for
indigenous Palestinians, many of them Christians who had lived
on this land for over 2000 years. Many await their Right to Return holding onto
land deeds and rusty house keys to the doors of
the homes they were forcibly expelled from. Those not killed are densely
concentrated into Israeli guarded refugee camps
nearby their legally deeded homes, farms and villages. They live in these camps
to this day under military occupation. An exodus of millions of
refugees have been sent on an Israeli made Palestinian
Diaspora, (scattering around the world), that is more than 60 years
old now, by no action of their own.
One of many
groups who work to avoid violence is Friends of Sabeel-North America,
"Voice of the Palestinian Christians";
an international peace movement initiated by
Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land who seek a just peace based on two
states - Palestine and Israel - as defined by international law and existing United Nations resolutions. www.fosna.org
For any
group of people to forcibly take land and homes from others is against both
God's law and man's law. Unfortunately such was the case in 1948 Palestine, and
Israel has not been punished for this premeditated crime. Americans, and especially American
Christians, must stop our government from supporting the ongoing Israeli land
confiscations. www.IfAmericansKnew.org
Frank
Schaeffer’s, ‘Crazy for God”, is another Christian who worries that this type
of aggressive hostility promoted at events like “Night to Honor Israel” has too
great a potential for creating the by product of, "Domestic
terrorists in the name of God". We must resist extreme ideologies that do
not enable us to extend Christ’s teachings of love and reconciliation.
Please join
with Christians & Jews who believe that only from justice comes true
peace as we work together toward a long awaited justice for Palestinians around
the world.
EU Foreign Policy chief Solana to UN: Accept Palestinian state even if Israel does not
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- Written by Reuters Reuters
- Published: 12 July 2009 12 July 2009
- Hits: 3481 3481
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Saturday called for the United Nations Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state by a certain deadline even if an agreement is not reached between Israel and the Palestinians.
Solana made the comments on Saturday at a lecture in London. The Palestinians have said they will not revive peace talks unless there is a halt to Israel's settlement activities in the West Bank.
"After a fixed deadline, a UN Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the two-state solution," Solana said, adding this should include border parameters, refugees, control over the city of Jerusalem and security arrangements.
"It would accept the Palestinian state as a full member of the UN, and set a calendar for implementation. It would mandate the resolution of other remaining territorial disputes and legitimize the end of claims," Solana went on.
Advocating a return to Israel's borders before the 1967 Six-Day War with Egypt, Syria and Jordan in which it took the West Bank and other territories, Solana said mediators should set a timetable for a peace agreement.
"If the parties are not able to stick to it (the timetable), then a solution backed by the international community should be put on the table," he said.
The EU, along with the United States, Russia and the United Nations, is part of the Quartet of Middle East Negotiators.
Stolen Beauty: CODEPINK call to boycott Ahava Dead Sea beauty products
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- Written by CODEPINK CODEPINK
- Published: 10 July 2009 10 July 2009
- Hits: 11877 11877
We are writing to ask you to join us in boycotting products from Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories. After watching Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza this past winter, after witnessing the misery caused in Gaza by the continuing blockade, reading about the home demolitions in East Jerusalem, and the land appropriations and violent repression in the West Bank, we at CODEPINK Women for Peace decided that we needed to find a way to join the International Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement for Palestine in order to pressure the Israeli government to comply with international law.
Read more: Stolen Beauty: CODEPINK call to boycott Ahava Dead Sea beauty products
Senator Wyden's The Israel Project attacks opposition to settlements.
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- Written by Douglas M. Bloomfield Douglas M. Bloomfield
- Published: 09 July 2009 09 July 2009
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The Israel Project (TIP): Change the policy, or change the subject?
http://www.njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/070909/opedChangePolicy.html
Douglas M. Bloomfield
by Douglas M. Bloomfield
July 9, 2009
If you can’t convince ’em, accuse ’em. That’s the advice from The Israel Project (TIP) for pro-Israel activists answering questions about settlements. Rather than try to defend Israeli settlements, change the subject. If that doesn’t work, try accusing those who advocate removing Jewish settlements of promoting “a kind of ethnic cleansing to move all Jews” from the West Bank.
TIP calls that “the best settlement argument” in its 2009 Global Language Dictionary, a manual on how to talk to journalists and opinion molders about the Arab-Israeli conflict. I received a copy of the settlements chapter over the electronic transom, but the 140-page document is closely held and not for the public or the press to see. Look for more to begin leaking out soon.
“The single toughest issue” to defend among Americans generally and American Jews in particular is settlements, says the manual, and “hostility towards them and towards Israeli policy that appears to encourage settlement activity.”
The Obama administration is pressing a very reluctant Israeli government to freeze all settlement construction.
Instead of defending settlements, go on the attack, advises TIP, a Washington-based group that seeks to enhance Israel’s image among journalists and policy makers.
According to Ori Nir of Americans for Peace Now, former Amb. Zalman Shoval, a close advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a Washington appearance last month that no Israeli government should be expected to engage in ethnic cleansing against its own citizens, i.e., settlers.
Similarly, TIP says the “best argument” for settlements is this: Since Arabs citizens of Israel “enjoy equal rights,” telling Jews they can’t live in the Palestinian state “is a racist idea.” (Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said this week that Jews would be welcome to live in the Palestinian state and enjoy the same rights Israeli Arabs enjoy in Israel.)
Until Israeli policy changes, TIP suggests deflecting critics by mentioning Israel’s “willingness to negotiate” and stressing how “Israel has already sacrificed in the name of peace” and got terrorists’ missiles in return.
It falls back on the old and disproven argument that “the settlements are necessary for the security of Israel.” That may have been true decades ago, but not in this missile age.
And dovish groups believe exactly the opposite — that the settlements are a security liability. “American Jews increasingly realize that settlements undermine Israel’s ability to survive, long term, as a democratic Jewish state and that they undermine America’s national security interest in a stable, peaceful Middle East,” said Nir.
Yehuda Ben Meir, a former Knesset member from the pro-settler National Religious Party who served in Menachem Begin’s government, called Netanyahu’s insistence on expanding settlement construction “harmful to Israel’s security and national interests.”
Begin agreed to a three-month settlement freeze in 1978 to give peace negotiations a chance, and he was no less a Zionist than Netanyahu, Ben Meir said. A six-month freeze today will do “no harm” to Israel and will give the Arabs a chance to “adopt genuine moves toward normalization.”
The Obama administration is trying to turn a settlement freeze into a thaw in Arab attitudes toward Israel through a package of reciprocal confidence-building measures. The advantage for Israel is clear: if the Arabs come through and begin normalization, there is something to build on at the peace table. But if the Arabs respond — as Washington Post columnist David Ignatius predicts — with demands for more concessions, Israel can thaw the settlement freeze, and responsibility for the lost opportunity will clearly be on the Arab side.
The Netanyahu government’s opposition to the freeze is more political than security-minded. Yet despite a letter from half of Netanyahu’s Likud Knesset faction opposing a freeze (and Palestinian statehood), it is unlikely they or other right-wing partners would bring down the government over the issue and lose their fiefdoms and access to the taxpayers’ cookie jar. Netanyahu, on the other hand, by supporting the two-state solution and the settlement freeze, would have a good chance of forming a centrist coalition and healing any rift with Washington.
The TIP manual concedes, “Public opinion is hostile to the settlements — even among supporters of Israel.”
That is evident on Capitol Hill as well as in the Jewish community. Right-wing groups and political partisans are trying to whip up opposition to the administration’s policies — including some virulent personal attacks on Obama reminiscent of last year’s smear campaign — but it isn’t working. A Gallup poll in May showed the President enjoys a 79 percent approval rating among American Jews.
Netanyahu, whose popularity here doesn’t compare, is smart enough to know he’d lose in a head-to-head confrontation with Obama.
“The government cannot stand against the entire world for long without the support of American Jewry, and when the Israeli people itself is divided. The government must demonstrate national responsibility, and the sooner the better,” said Ben Meir.
Douglas M. Bloomfield is the president of Bloomfield Associates Inc., a Washington lobbying and consulting firm. He spent nine years as the legislative director and chief lobbyist for AIPAC.