SWI NEWS: 10-05-2010
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010PA: US is working on 3-month freeze extension to save talks
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH AND RUTH EGLASH 10/05/2010 20:54The Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday that it had won the backing of Egypt, Jordan and several other Arab countries for its refusal to return to the negotiating table unless Israel extended the moratorium on settlement construction.
The announcement was made following a meeting in Cairo between PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
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A senior PA official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that the US administration was now talking about the possibility of extending the moratorium by an additional three months to avoid the collapse of the peace talks.
“This is not a bad proposal,” the official said. “But it remains to be seen if the Americans are able to exert pressure on Netanyahu to stop the construction in the settlements.”
Abbas’s talks in Cairo come ahead of a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Libya on Friday to discuss the future of the peace talks in light of the resumption of construction in the settlements.
The meeting is being held at the request of the PA leadership, which has announced that it won’t return to the negotiating table with Israel unless the settlement freeze is extended.
“There is full agreement between the Palestinian Authority and Egypt with regard to the issue of settlement construction,” said Nabil Abu Rudaineh, a spokesman for Abbas, following the Cairo meeting. “There has to be a comprehensive freeze of settlement construction so as to give peace efforts a chance.”
Nabil Sha’ath, a member of the PA negotiating team, said that the Palestinians can’t resume talks with Israel under the motto of land for peace “while the land is being stolen and settlements are growing.” He added that Israel alone would be held responsible for the destruction of the peace process.
“No US-sponsored peace process would have credibility when the Americans can’t force Israel to fulfill one of the principal obligations – to stop settlement construction,” Sha’ath said.
“We in Egypt are invested with our utmost efforts in ensuring that the direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians will not collapse because of the settlements,” Mubarak said after the meeting with Abbas. He added that Egypt hoped “this opportunity to establish peace will not be missed as were many opportunities in the past.”
Meanwhile, Jordan’s King Abdullah II told Netanyahu by telephone on Tuesday to halt all building in the settlements.
“Any unilateral steps that threaten peace must be stopped, especially building in settlements,” Abdullah told Netanyahu, according to a statement released by his palace. “The region is at a critical point that requires significant effort to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of two states for two peoples, an opportunity that must not be missed for the benefit of future generations.”
Abdullah met in Amman earlier Tuesday with Minister of Welfare and Social Services Isaac Herzog and stressed the need to take advantage of the historic opportunity afforded by the current talks. According to Herzog, the king said that all efforts must be made to ensure that the direct talks continue, something that will necessitate courage and a great deal of responsibility on the part of the leaders.
“We completely understand the size of this challenge and how it could eventually change the face of the Middle East, and the obligation on all the sides to take immediate, courageous steps for peace,” Herzog told the king. “We must advance direct negotiations for the sake of peace and improve relations between the states and residents of the Middle East in general. This requires that the leaders make maximum efforts and take responsibility.”
This was Herzog’s second trip to Amman in a little over a month, having met Jordanian Prime Minister Samir Rifaay at the end of August.
A spokeswoman for Herzog said that the minister had a long history of relations with Jordan’s royal family, starting many years ago with his uncle Ya’acov Herzog and former foreign minister Abba Eban, who worked with King Abdullah’s father, King Hussein, during the 1960s and 1970s.
The crisis surrounding the peace talks coincides with reports about a possible reconciliation between Abbas’s Fatah faction and Hamas.
Representatives of the two rival parties are scheduled to hold a second round of talks on October 20 to discuss ways of ending their dispute and forming a unity government.
The first meeting was held in the Syrian capital of Damascus two weeks ago. It was the first meeting of its kind between Hamas and Fatah since the beginning of the year.
Spokesmen for the two sides said they were optimistic regarding the prospects of reaching a deal that would end their power struggle and the split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Izat Risheq, a senior Hamas official in Syria, said the upcoming meeting would focus on solving security-related issues, including the release of hundreds of Hamas detainees from PA jails in the West Bank.
But despite the optimism expressed by both sides, Hamas and Fatah leaders continued to attack each other through the media.
Ahmed Bahr, a top Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, called on Fatah to “take a brave decision and fire the unconstitutional government of Salam Fayyad.” Bahr also called for bringing Fayyad to trial for allegedly perpetrating “dangerous crimes” against the Palestinians and their cause.
In a move that has further intensified tensions between Hamas and Fatah, a PA military court in the West Bank sentenced two Hamas supporters to prison.
Ala Hisham Abu Diab was sentenced to 20 years in prison with hard labor while Abdel Fatah Hassan was given 12 years. The latter’s wife, Mirvat, was sentenced to one year in prison.
All three were indicted for their role in the death of three PA policemen during a violent confrontation with Hamas gunmen in Kalkilya in June 2009. The three were also found guilty of “conspiring against the Palestinian Authority and possessing unlicensed weapons.” In response, Hamas said that the verdicts contradicted the talk about a possible reconciliation with Fatah.
Hamas legislator Salah Bardaweel condemned the court ruling, saying that judges who “receive their salaries from the Zionists can’t be called Palestinian.” He said that the verdict was in the context of the PA’s ongoing security clampdown on Hamas supporters in the West Bank.
The families of the three defendants denied the charges and said their only “crime” was that they had provided shelter to Hamas gunmen who engaged in a firefight with PA security forces.
Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.
US expresses concern to Beirut over Ahmadinejad visit
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND HERB KEINON 10/05/2010 22:38The US has expressed concern to the Lebanese government over Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's scheduled upcoming visit to Lebanon, US State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley said, AFP reported Tuesday.
Crowley said that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman last month, telling him that Iran, through Hizbullah, threatens Lebanon's sovereignty.
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On Monday, diplomatic officials in Jerusalem said that Lebanon, not Israel, would be the party to suffer most from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s scheduled visit next week to southern Lebanon.
“Lebanon is the primary victim, and if it wants to stop slipping into the jaws of the Iranian crocodile, it – and the moderate Arab world – should raise a strong voice and say this provocateur is not welcome,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy said.
Ahmadinejad is expected to visit battlegrounds of the Second Lebanon War in southern Lebanon, including Bint Jbail and Maroun a-Ras next Wednesday and Thursday, and reportedly wants to go to the border with Israel and throw rocks at IDF soldiers.
Iran Extends Ties with Lebanon and Egypt
by Elad Benari
The Islamic Republic of Iran is strengthening its ties with its area neighbors, particularly Lebanon and Egypt.
According to a report on Monday in Iranian media, Lebanon’s and Iran’s energy ministers have reached an agreement over oil and gas exploration efforts in Lebanese economic waters, according to which Iran will be involved in the search for gas and oil close to the border with Israel.
The two countries will set up a joint project to look for oil and gas in Lebanese economic waters, using Iran’s engineering experience.
The cooperation between the two countries was announced after Israel discovered two sources of natural gas on its territory. In January of 2009, Houston-based Noble Energy company announced the discovery of a huge deposit of natural gas under the Mediterranean Sea near Haifa. At the time, it was estimated that the Tamar drilling site held enough gas to allow Israel to be self-sufficient in energy for two decades, but in June it was published that there is likely even more gas on the site than originally thought.
A second giant field near the Haifa coast, the Leviathan, was reported in August to have a potential of 4 billion barrels of “black gold.”
Though Lebanon has claimed that both the Leviathan and Tamar fields belong to it, reports from Iran now indicate that Lebanon intends to look for gas in its own waters in the hope of finding reserves, rather than take action over its claims.
Through this project, Iran could deepen its involvement in the region and strengthen Lebanon's dependence on Tehran. Iranian oil minister Masoud Mirkazemi confirmed the reports to the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network and added that a meeting would take place soon among Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to discuss the possibility of purchasing gas from the Islamic Republic.
Meanwhile, it appears as though ties are also warming up between Iran and Egypt. The two countries announced that direct flights between Cairo and Tehran would resume for the first time since 1980. 28 weekly flights would resume between the two capitals, though it is currently not known when this will begin.
Iranian media said that the move could be a prelude to the resumption of formal ties between Iran and Egypt.
The two countries have been at odds since 1979’s Islamic Revolution in Iran, when Egypt gave asylum to the deposed Shah of Iran.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
Israeli educator fired after pushing creationism
Tuesday, October 05, 2010 Ryan Jones
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Dr. Gabi Avital, the chief scientist of Israel’s Education Ministry, was fired on Monday after reiterating his position that evolution is just a theory, and that it should be taught alongside creationism as the two most widely held beliefs regarding how our world originated.
In an interview with Israel’s Ma’ariv newspaper last month, Avital insisted that “the conditions were not accidental. Darwin was a great scientist, but he took his theory in dangerous directions, and we need to teach the flaws of that theory, too.”
Speaking to Israel National News a day after being fired, Avital insisted the education of Israel’s young people is incomplete because it does not take into account the “numerous studies that refute the science of evolution” and show that a human being is not just a “substance without a soul.”
Shortly after being appointed to the post of chief scientist in December 2009, Avital advocated for adding creationism to the school curriculum.
The office of Education Minister Gideon Saar (Likud) issued a statement on Monday claiming that Avital had been hired on a trial basis, and that his trial period had simply expired without a decision to keep him on in the position of chief scientists.
But Avital told Israel National News that there was no question that Saar decided not to keep him because of the Ma’ariv interview. “Apparently, he did not like it.”
Being a scientist who also believes strongly in the Bible, Avital was regularly attacked by the liberal Israeli media from the moment he was hired by the Education Ministry.
The most vicious attacks came from the radical left-wing newspaper Ha’aretz, which in addition to his views on evolution, faulted Avital for saying global warming is a farce used by liberal environmentalists to advance their political agendas.
Avital has maintained that industry and technology have had only a very minor effect on the global temperatures and the climate in general, and that the “green” agenda is more about economic interests.
Avital noted the ludicrous message that his firing sends - that a chief scientist, a recognized expert, cannot and should not be heard if his findings and views oppose those of the established mainstream.
Tourism Ministry Introduces 'iSrael'
JERUSALEM, Israel - Israel's Tourism Ministry launched 'iSrael,' a new iPhone application, to help visitors with iPhones access information on tourist sites, accommodations and events taking place during their visit.
The three main categories - sites, tracks and accommodations - can be operated from the user's location, which uses GPS to locate the phone and then provides information from there.
The other option is by region, which provides a wide variety of information on locations throughout the country.
Tourists can access data on areas that interest them, such as holy sites, national parks, historical sites, and archaeological sites, among others.
The application provides such information as address and map of the area, a description and photo of the site, hours of operation, etc.
There's information on hiking and bicycle tours, bus and jeep tours and tours that include maps and places of interest along the way.
For hotels and other overnight accommodations, the program provides contact information, kashrut status (kosher food), and accommodations for children and even for pets.
The Tourism Ministry plans to expand the information and make the program adaptable for other devices.
Users will also be able to upload in real time to Facebook and Twitter.
For more information on the iSrael application, visit the Tourism Ministry website.
The Jerusalem Post contributed to this report
