Israeli and Palestinian Perspectives on Annapolis

[These perspectives of the upcoming conference are provided by moderate Israeli/Palestinians who are advocates of a two state solution . . . Editor]

Brit Tzedek asked two of our allies, Naomi Chazan, professor of Political Science and former Member of Knesset with the Meretz party in Israel, and Rafi Dajani, the Executive Director of the American Task Force on Palestine, to answer several questions about the upcoming Annapolis peace conference, tentatively scheduled for November 27.

Read more: Israeli and Palestinian Perspectives on Annapolis

Afghan civilian deaths alarm UN

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed alarm at the number of civilian casualties caused by international forces in Afghanistan.

Speaking at the end of a six-day visit to the country, Louise Arbour said the casualties were eroding public trust.

She also called for greater safeguards in the way Nato-led forces transferred their detainees into Afghan custody.

Earlier, Oxfam said half of the 1,200 civilian deaths this year were caused by international and Afghan troops.

Read more: Afghan civilian deaths alarm UN

The Middle East has had a secretive nuclear power in its midst for years

When will the US and the UK tell the truth about Israeli weapons? Iran isn't starting an atomic arms race, it's joining one . . .

George Bush and Gordon Brown are right: there should be no nuclear weapons in the Middle East. The risk of a nuclear conflagration could be greater there than anywhere else. Any nation developing them should expect a firm diplomatic response. So when will they impose sanctions on Israel?

Read more: The Middle East has had a secretive nuclear power in its midst for years

UN aid chief attacks new Israeli checkpoint plan

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees launched a scathing attack today on a new Israeli plan for a system of checkpoint terminals across the occupied West Bank.

{josquote}"An insidious new regime to limit freedom of movement is threatening to further stifle economic activity and smother social interaction between villages and towns in the West Bank"{/josquote}
Karen AbuZayd, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said Israeli authorities had told them of plans to install six specially built terminals to check people and cargo, including aid deliveries.

She said it would hamper the agency's work and dramatically raise costs.

"An insidious new regime to limit freedom of movement is threatening to further stifle economic activity and smother social interaction between villages and towns in the West Bank," AbuZayd said today at a meeting of UNRWA donors in Amman, Jordan.


Read more: UN aid chief attacks new Israeli checkpoint plan

Israel 'will halt new settlement' before peace summit

[The settlement projects are so ingrained in Israeli behavior, including deep levels of support from within the government to support new illegal settlement outposts and illegal settlement expansion, that you need to suspend disbelief and add a lot of quotation marks around the words "settlement freeze." - editor ] 

Israel will announce a freeze in West Bank settlement construction prior to peace talks with the Palestinians in the US, it was reported today.

But the moratorium would probably exclude large settlement blocs that Israel wants to retain in a final peace agreement, the Israeli paper Haaretz said.

The Palestinians are demanding that all of the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 six-day war, be included in a future state.

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, sent top officials to Washington yesterday to work out exactly what the settlement freeze would entail, Haaretz reported.

Read more: Israel 'will halt new settlement' before peace summit

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