Israel to build in East Jerusalem
- Details
- Written by Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem, The Guardian Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem, The Guardian
- Published: 04 December 2007 04 December 2007
- Hits: 5361 5361
Israel's housing ministry said yesterday it plans to build 307 new homes in a settlement in East Jerusalem, drawing swift condemnation from Palestinian officials.
Tenders were published for housing units in Har Homa, a settlement to the south-east of the city on land captured by Israel in the 1967 war and later annexed. East Jerusalem is now home to around 200,000 Jewish settlers. Most of the international community does not recognise Israel's annexation of the east of the city.
The announcement comes days after the peace conference at Annapolis in the US intended to restart long-stalled negotiations on an agreement to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Palestinian officials said yesterday the tenders were in breach of the US road map for peace, which leaders from both sides agreed at Annapolis would again be the basis of talks.
A new book riles the AIPAC crowd, but makes it to the bestseller list anyway.
- Details
- Written by Scott McConnell, The American Conservative Scott McConnell, The American Conservative
- Published: 04 December 2007 04 December 2007
- Hits: 5027 5027
One prism through which to gauge the impact of John Mearsheimer and
Stephen Walt’s The Israel Lobby and American Foreign Policy is a
September incident involving Barack Obama. His campaign had placed
small ads in various spots around the Internet, designed to drive
readers to its website. One turned up on Amazon’s page for the Walt and
Mearsheimer book. A vigilant watchdog at the New York Sun spotted it
and contacted the campaign: Did Obama support Walt and Mearsheimer?
The answer came within hours. The ad was withdrawn. Its placement was
“unintentional.” The senator, his campaign made clear, understood that
key arguments of the book were “wrong,” but had definitely not read the
work himself. In short, Walt and Mearsheimer had reached a pinnacle of
notoriety.
Though The Israel Lobby was on the way to best-sellerdom and has become
perhaps the most discussed policy book of the year, the presidential
candidate touted as the most fresh-thinking and intellectually curious
in the race hastened to make clear he had not been corrupted by the
toxic text.
The episode illustrates one of the book’s central arguments: the Israel
lobby is powerful, and American politicians fear its wrath. Any
Democrat running for president—drawing on a donor stream that is
heavily Jewish, very interested in Israel, and perceived as
hawkish—would have reacted as Obama did.
Read more: A new book riles the AIPAC crowd, but makes it to the bestseller list anyway.
Iraqis 'left to rot' in Lebanon
- Details
- Written by BBC News BBC News
- Published: 04 December 2007 04 December 2007
- Hits: 5336 5336
New York-based Human Rights Watch says hundreds of Iraqi refugees face the prospect of "rotting in jail" unless they agree to return home.
About 50,000 Iraqis are thought to have fled violence and instability in Iraq to the relative safety of Lebanon.
HRW says at least 500 Iraqi refugees are in jail in Lebanon and 150 were expelled in the first half of 2007.
Its report Rot Here or Die There: Bleak Choices for Iraqi Refugees in Lebanon urges the authorities to ease restrictions on Iraqis and grant them temporary legal status.
"By giving Iraqi refugees no option but to stay in jail indefinitely or return to Iraq, Lebanon is violating the bedrock principle of international law," said HRW refugee policy director Bill Frelick.
Israel 'lax on demolition orders'
- Details
- Written by BBC News BBC News
- Published: 04 December 2007 04 December 2007
- Hits: 5416 5416
Israel has carried out only 3% of its own demolition orders in Jewish
settlements in the West Bank, Israeli anti-settlement campaigners say.{josquote}The decision to construct now is a provocation -Yariv Oppenheimer, Peace Now{/josquote}
In the past 10 years, nearly 3,500 demolition orders were issued but
just over 100 were observed, the Peace Now group says, citing
government figures.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has asked the US to block Israeli plans for 300 new homes in east Jerusalem.
Like Iraq, US Intel on Iran Faulty
- Details
- Written by TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
- Published: 03 December 2007 03 December 2007
- Hits: 5209 5209
In a bombshell intelligence assessment, the United States has backed away from its once-ironclad assertion that Tehran is intent on building nuclear bombs.
Where there once was certainty, there now is doubt. ``We do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons,'' the new estimate said Monday.
Compare that with what then-National Intelligence Director John Negroponte told Congress on Jan. 1. ``Our assessment is that Tehran is determined to develop nuclear weapons.''