SWI NEWS: Monday, April 26, 2010 12 Iyar, 5770
Sunday, April 25th, 2010By KHALED ABU TOAMEH AND TOVAH LAZAROFF
25/04/2010 04:17
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday said he strongly opposes the idea of a Palestinian state with temporary borders or a “one-state solution,” saying the Palestinians remained committed to the two-state solution.
Abbas’s remarks came a day after he met in his Ramallah office with US special envoy George Mitchell, who briefed him on his talks with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem earlier in the day.
Mitchell arrived in Israel on Thursday amid high hopes of a breakthrough that would launch proximity talks between Israel and the PA.
Outside of meetings on Friday with Netanyahu and Abbas, Mitchell spoke with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and President Shimon Peres. He is scheduled to hold a second meeting with Netanyahu on Sunday before he flies back to Washington.
But already on Friday night, US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said, “Are we expecting a breakthrough through this visit? Probably not.”
Chief PA Negotiator Saeb Erekat said after the Abbas-Mitchell meeting that it was premature to talk about the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in the coming days. He said that Mitchell would pursue his efforts to reach an agreement that would allow the two sides to return to the negotiating table.
A PA official in Ramallah said that Mitchell did not bring anything new.
“We keep hearing the same things again and again,” the official said. “Our position is clear. There will be no resumption of the talks until the settlement construction stops, not only in the West Bank but also in east Jerusalem.”
The prime minister has adamantly refused to stop construction in Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem.
In an interview with ABC early in the week, he said that such a notion was a “non-starter.” On Thursday night, hours after Mitchell arrived in Israel, Netanyahu told Channel 2 this was a “red line” he did not intend to cross.
Still, Barak, who himself heads to Washington on Sunday for a weeklong visit to the US, told Channel 1 on Friday evening that he hoped proximity talks could be launched within two weeks.
Direct talks with the Palestinians were broken off at the end of 2008, during Operation Cast Lead, and were not resumed when Netanyahu took office in March 2009, despite his repeated calls for the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table.
In early March, Mitchell had secured a Palestinian agreement to start proximity talks. But the Palestinians changed their minds after an Interior Ministry committee advanced a plan to build 1,600 Jewish homes in northeast Jerusalem’s Ramat Shlomo neighborhood.
It is expected that before he would agree to hold proximity talks, Abbas would seek the approval of the Arab League, which is set to meet on May 1. He is not expected to press for such approval until Israel cedes to his demand to halt construction.
According to media reports, Netanyahu has offered the Palestinians other incentives to agree to proximity talks, such as releasing Palestinian security prisoners and removing IDF road blocks in the West Bank.
The Jerusalem Post had also reported that Israel had a plan to withdraw to where the IDF was deployed in the West Bank before the outbreak of the second intifada in late 2000. In addition, it was reported that Netanyahu offered Abbas a state with temporary borders on anywhere from 50 to 80 percent of the West Bank.
A diplomatic source, however, denied that Israel had made such a proposal.
The source added that the idea of a “temporary state” was included in the road map and in addition had been part of diplomatic discourse for a decade.
Addressing the Fatah Revolutionary Council in Ramallah, Abbas said of the idea of a state with temporary borders, “Please forget about it.” He said that his idea was first mentioned in the road map, but only as an option. He claimed that while the Palestinians have abided by all terms of the road map, “Israel has not fulfilled any of its commitments.”
The Fatah Revolutionary Council began a series of meetings aimed at supporting Palestinian “popular resistance” and voicing solidarity with “martyrs and prisoners” in Israeli prisons.
Abbas called on Israel to halt all settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem so as to pave the way for the launching of “real negotiations” over final-status issues under US, Arab and international auspices. He expressed his belief that an agreement could then be achieved within two years.
Abbas likened Israel’s “occupation” to the “apartheid regime” in South Africa and said there was a need for a “brave” Israeli leadership to change the situation.
The PA president also denied that the Palestinians had set conditions for resuming peace talks with Israel. He said that previous agreements between the two sides prohibited unilateral actions that could prejudice the outcome of the final-status negotiations. Abbas also renewed his call for reconciliation between his Fatah faction and Hamas. He urged the Islamist movement to accept the latest Egyptian proposal for ending the Fatah-Hamas dispute.
Addressing Hamas, he declared: “Let’s arrive at the moment of truth. Let’s reach understandings, because if the difference is over one point here and one point there, then you are not serious.”
Abbas called on US President Barack Obama to impose a Middle East peace deal. In an unusually blunt appeal, Abbas said that if Obama believes Palestinian statehood is a vital US interest, then the American leader must take forceful steps to bring it about.
“Since you, Mr. President, and you, the members of the American administration, believe in this, it is your duty to call for the steps in order to reach the solution and impose the solution – impose it,” Abbas said in a speech to leaders of his Fatah movement.
“But don’t tell me it’s a vital national strategic American interest... and then not do anything,” he said.
Barak told Channel 1 on Friday that Israel should come up with its own peace plan.
Before his meeting with Mitchell, Netanyahu said that he looked forward to working with Obama and Mitchell to advance peace.
Relations between the US and Israel have been strained since the Ramat Shlomo announcement in the midst of a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.
On Friday, Netanyahu and Mitchell were careful to shake hands warmly in front of the cameras.
Mitchell quoted from Obama’s statement to Israel on Independence Day, in which he said, “We continue to share a strong unbreakable bond of friendship between our two nations. Anchored by the United States’ enduring commitment to Israel’s security, Israel remains our important partner and key strategic ally in the Middle East.
Near-Lynch Sheds Light on Why Police Don't Get Involved
by Maayana Miskin
A near-lynch in Jerusalem last week led police to admit that they have a policy of not getting involved when Arabs attack Jewish motorists, a victim says. Baruch Heller, whose car was smashed by Arabs as he left the Kotel (Western Wall), spoke to Arutz Sheva's Hebrew news service about the attack, and what it taught him about police policy.
Heller travels to the Kotel via the majority-Arab neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber on a regular basis, and has seen masked Arab men in the street before, apparently looking for Jewish drivers. In the past, he has been mistaken for Arab, he said, and so has not been attacked.
Last week, he and a friend were driving between Jabel Mukaber and the adjacent neighborhood Mei Shiloach (Silwan). They passed a Border Police vehicle, and immediately afterward, drove straight into an Arab riot.
"It was a part of the road where there's no way to turn around, and right there, I saw thirty or forty masked men surrounding us. I took my kippah off immediately. I opened the window and yelled at them in Arabic to let us through,” he recalled.
The men began to yell at him and hit the car with metal rods, he said. “They did think we were Arabs, but they were annoyed that we were arguing with them,” he explained. Finally, the two managed to turn around and drive back.
Police won't get involved
When they returned to the Border Police jeep “they saw the car had been hit. We thought they would rush over to see if anyone was injured, but they did nothing. They said they had orders not to intervene, and if we wanted to file a complaint, we should go to the 'Oz' station,” Heller said.
When they reached the police station, officers showed more concern. “The soldiers there rushed toward us, they wanted to hear details – but then someone came and presented himself as the commanding officer and asked us to show him the car, asked about the Border police officers we'd met... asked all sorts of random questions,” he said.
The explanation
While at the station, Heller said, he managed to get an officer to explain why police stand to the side while Arabs attack Jewish motorists. Arabs attack cars in order to force police to enter their neighborhoods, so they can attack them, the officer explained.
For that reason, he said, police have been ordered not to be drawn into areas where there is frequent trouble.
Police may fear that clashes with Arabs would lead to casualties among the Arab rioters. In the past, violent riots in which Arabs were injured have led to inquiries into police behavior, such as the Or Commission that investigated police officers following Arab deaths in the October 2000 riots.
Heller and his friend have filed a complaint with police over the incident. In addition, they have written to the Jerusalem city council and to officials responsible for Arab neighborhoods in particular, explaining the problems they encountered when dealing with the police, and expressing hope that policy will change in the future. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Orlev: Arab MKs Who Visited Libya Can't Serve in Next Term
by Gil Ronen
MK Zevulun Orlev (Jewish Home) said Sunday that six Arab MKs who visited Libya have disqualified themselves from running for the Knesset again.
Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi hosted six Arab members of the Israeli Knesset and forty other Arab public figures from Israel Sunday. He spoke before them for more than an hour inside a giant Bedouin tent in the city of Sirat.
MK Orlev noted that a law which he had initiated, and that was passed in the previous Knesset, determines that a candidate for Knesset who illegally visited an enemy state in the seven years preceding the election will be seen as having supported armed struggle against Israel and disqualified from running.
Libya an enemy?
Orlev said that he checked with the Defense Ministry and Ministry of Interior and confirmed that Libya is on the list of enemy states, and that the MKs did not receive permission to travel to Libya. The MKs who traveled to Libya include Ahmed Tibi and Taleb A-Sana of Raam-Taal and Muhammad Barakeh of Hadash..
Orlev sent a letter to Judge Ayala Procaccia, the Chairwoman of the Central Elections Committee for elections to the 19th Knesset, and asked that the committee meet soon to decide that the participating MKs and the parties that they represent are disqualified from running for another term.
MK David Rotem (Israel Our Home), Chairman of the Knesset's Constitution Law and Justice Committee, said in a discussion of the MKs' trip earlier in the day that Libya is not formally considered an enemy state. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
By JPOST.COM STAFF
25/04/2010 19:51
Jerusalem Police on Sunday cleared for publication details of a kidnapping and multi-million dollar ransom attempt on a prominent Jerusalem businesswoman and her housekeeper, which began in the capital two weeks ago, and ended days later outside an apartment in Petah Tikva.
According to police, the affair began on April 11, when three men from the Tel Aviv area knocked on the door at the woman’s residence in the luxury David’s Village complex in the capital’s Mamilla quarter.
One of the men, carrying a handgun, identified himself as a security guard and asked the woman to open the door.
When she did, all three men pushed their way into the apartment and ordered both the businesswoman and her housekeeper to pack clothes for “an extended stay.”
“If you don’t come easily, there is another way,” one of the kidnappers threatened the women at gunpoint, police said.
Neither of the women’s names have been cleared for publication by police.
While the women packed, the kidnappers took their cellphones and then began rummaging through the apartment, stealing two personal computers, expensive jewelry and a valuable hand-painted Chinese egg.
The kidnappers then loaded the two women into a Suzuki van and drove to Petah Tikva.
The following day, police received complaints from the housekeeper’s family and the businesswoman’s personal assistant regarding the pair’s disappearance.
The callers both told police they feared the women were in danger, and police began to put together a special investigation team comprised of Jerusalem and Central district detectives, and officers from the special investigations unit and a special intelligence unit.
“The police opened an investigation, and after reviewing security camera footage, ascertained that in fact, the three men, one of them armed, had entered the building on the 11th ,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. “The investigation then obviously took on a much more serious tone.”
A fax was received by the businesswoman’s accountant in Luxembourg, demanding that she transfer $3.5 million to a bank account in Sofia, Bulgaria. The fax was written in the businesswoman’s handwriting and had her signature on it.
Investigators employed a number of tactics to locate the women, including cellular location technology, which led police to a building on Zohar Street in Petah Tikva.
Detectives and SWAT team members surrounded the building. Officers refrained from entering the building immediately, out of fear for the safety of the women and their forces, as the kidnappers were considered to be armed and dangerous.
On April 13, police spotted one of the suspects leaving the apartment building with the two women, getting into the van and driving off. Police later ascertained that the suspects, wary of a police raid, wanted to move the women to another location.
Detectives followed the van, pulling it over at the Shimshon junction, where the women were rescued and the driver, 45-year-old Petah Tikva resident Michael Yuroslavsky, was subdued and arrested.
Meanwhile, detectives and SWAT officers raided the apartment, where they turned up dozens of automatic weapons, including handguns and rifles, ammunition magazines, commando knives, silencers, handcuffs, legcuffs, ski masks, bullet-proof vests, night vision goggles, telescopic weapon sights, a slew of counterfeit passports, Israeli IDs, army IDs and make-up kits – presumably to be used for disguises in the suspects’ getaway.
Investigators continued tracking down the suspects, and with assistance from Petah Tikva Police, arrested Robert Abayev, a 38-year-old Bat Yam resident, as he was leaving a house on his way to the apartment where the hostages had been held.
After questioning the two suspects, who admitted to their roles in the kidnapping, police determined that they had secured the women with duct tape in the apartment and held them at gunpoint.
As the two were being questioned, a third suspect, Anton Nati Petrokov, was arrested in Bat Yam with his girlfriend. Inside Petrokov’s apartment, police found the two stolen computers and the Chinese egg, along with two packed suitcases, which police said contained clothes for Petrokov and his girlfriend, who were planning to fly to an undisclosed European location.
“This was a fairly complicated police operation,” Rosenfeld said. “All in all it took police 48 hours from the time they received word of the possible kidnapping on April 12, to the time the women were freed and the suspects arrested.”
On Sunday, all of the suspects had their remands extended in Jerusalem District Court for 10 days. In addition to kidnapping, the suspects are being charged with robbery and attempted murder. Police expect to make additional arrests in the case.
Ex-foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati
Scud ground missiles
