In terms of the peace process, the challenge is especially
daunting because both a robust U.S. role and Palestinian unity are
viewed as essential to progress.
"The American priority today is restoring American
credibility. The point is restoring the credibility that what the U.S.
does actually has an impact," said Robert Malley, a former high-level
Mideast adviser to Pres. Bill Clinton, now with the International
Crisis Group (ICG).
"We have to recognise the collective failure of our approach -
U.S., Israeli, Palestinian, Arab - towards the question of Hamas and
the question of Gaza," said Malley, insisting that didn't necessarily
entail engagement with Hamas but rather "a more nuanced pragmatic
position".
Speaking at the forum last week on how the U.S. administration
should handle the Middle East, Malley said that Gaza reconstruction -
"a massive effort to help the people of Gaza" - could be a way to
accomplish that ahead of what Washington pledged will be a strong,
renewed U.S. focus on the peace process.
-
-
- Netanyahu govt to impose fines on mayors of cities that … 13
- Resume builders: Be a broken record on Iran, cheer authoritarians … 26
- UN Committee: Israeli system ‘tantamount to apartheid’ 0
- Slater on Beinart 25
- And we live on… 4
- US official — we went to Israel first 14
- Israel lobby’s favorite senator tries to erase Palestinian refugee status … 38
- Israel takes 30 dunams of land near Salfit ‘for security … 4
-
- BDS victory: South Africa strips Ahava’s ‘made in Israel’ label 714
- Video: Israeli mob demands all African refugees be deported from … 479
- Day after pogroms, Likud MK calls for internment camp for … 436
- ‘This is not fair play’: Mahmoud Sarsak’s family demands his … 399
- March of the Flags 349
- Neocons in Washington Post: Military strike on Iran would ‘calm … 327
- Nabi Saleh’s Bassem Tamimi convicted by Israeli courts based on … 294
- Israel lobby’s favorite senator tries to erase Palestinian refugee status … 236
-
- The Messiah’s Donkey: Settlers fire on Palestinian villagers as the … 237
- Aharon Appelfeld’s rage at the German language (and Arendt’s need … 156
- US to differentiate between ‘personally displaced’ Palestinian refugees and their … 145
- March of the Flags 127
- Affirming a Judaism and Jewish identity without Zionism 119
- Feeling the hate in Long Island 97
- Israeli judge to issue verdict in Rachel Corrie case 94
- WaPo’s Walter Pincus says US is ‘going above and beyond … 87
-
Recent Comments
click link to see last 100 comments- Slater on Beinart (25)
- Citizen: Eagleton, eh? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T erry_Eagleton Enough said?
- Affirming a Judaism and Jewish identity without Zionism (119)
- Hostage: Thanks, Hostage. The State Department’s evaluation is consistent with Israeli attitudes to Jerusalem Well...
- Resume builders: Be a broken record on Iran, cheer authoritarians in Gulf (26)
- Avi_G.: Sumud, Well, here’s the thing, the shortened version –when used — should be...
- US to differentiate between ‘personally displaced’ Palestinian refugees and their descendants (145)
- Israel lobby’s favorite senator tries to erase Palestinian refugee status for millions (38)
- Shmuel: All Peoples are invented. That’s a truism. The real questions are what does the term mean in a given...
- Netanyahu govt to impose fines on mayors of cities that employ migrant workers (13)
- upsidedownism: “the place of infiltrators is in the countries that they came from,” Will Avigdor Lieberman and...
- Djinn: On the issue of other nations betraying the refugee conventions they signed up to voluntarily I agree with...
- American Zionist responses to Tel Aviv riots– largely indifferent, but some outrage (46)
- Slater on Beinart (25)
Our Writers
- Philip Weiss
- Adam Horowitz
- Kate
- Today in Palestine
- Annie Robbins
- Pamela Olson
- Eleanor Kilroy
- Alex Kane
Blogroll
Obama could have sent clear positive signals if he had agreed to direct USA
humanitarian aid to Gaza, including to reconstruction of basic institutional structures and maintenance, to be followed up by
authorizing Mitchell to blend such aid with at least discreet, indirect talks
with HAMAS. So far, nada; as Phil concudes, at this juncture Obama is stuck in the same Bush mud, though he's singing songs rather than
rattling sabers.
Obama is merely being faithful to the law and not dealing with a terrist organization.
That particular mud is called "war crimes," by the way.
chris berel, you mean like the Stern Gang, Irgun? PLO? IRA?
I don't see Obama dealing with the Stern Gang. Please link the information showing when Obama dealt with the Stern Gang.
chris berel, we deal with israel which by definition is a terrorist organization. get lost.
But Jim, if I get lost, who will show you how screwed up your little brain has become?
By definition, you qualify as a moron, yet you are allowed your say.
No the US doesn't deal with terrorists – it just employs their offspring:
From Wikipedia:
Emanuel's first name, Rahm (רם) means "high" or "lofty" in Hebrew, and is the namesake of one Rahamim (surname unknown), which means "mercy" in Hebrew, killed in the 1940s fighting for the Zionist group Lehi. The surname Emanuel (עמנואל), adopted by the family in honor of his father's brother Emanuel Auerbach, killed in Jerusalem during a skirmish with Arabs, means God is with us. Sources conflict as to whether the family changed its name from Auerbach in 1933 or 1938.
I understand that the US dealt with
- Yizhak Shamir (Irgun and Lehi (Stern Gang)
who ordered the killing of Count Folke Bernadotte
quoted as saying: "neither Jewish ethics nor Jewish tradition can disqualify terrorism as a means of combat
- Menachem Begin (Irgun) responsible for the bombing of the King David Hotel and the massacre at Deir Yassin
Zahhar: We are working to reach honorable agreement for our people
CAIRO, (PIC)– Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, a senior political leader of Hamas in Gaza, has confirmed Sunday that his Movement was doing everything to reach an honorable agreement that would lead to halting all forms of Israeli aggression, and would allow the Palestinians to live in dignity.
In an interview with the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel in the Egyptian capital Cairo, Zahhar underlined that Hamas wasn’t and it won't be at any time a card in anyone's hand in the region.
He also said that Hamas doesn’t work for any axis against another axis in the region, explaining that Hamas is working to liberate the occupied Palestinian lands from the Israeli occupation.
Talking on Hamas-Egypt relationship, Zahhar stressed that it wasn’t in the interest of Egypt and Hamas to have tense rapport, adding that anyone who wants to portray Hamas as a national threat to Egypt is absolutely wrong.
In this regard, Zahhar called on the Egyptian government not to deal with Hamas as if it was part of an axis not in good ties with Egypt, or being part of an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which is the main opposition party in Egypt.
He said that Egypt should learn from the Syrian experience that supports Hamas desbite the unhealthy relationship between the Syrian government and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood movement.
Hamas had underscored a long time ago that it is a liberation movement that doesn’t interfere in any country's internal affairs, and that it's main and only enemy is the Israeli occupation in Palestine.
Hence, Zahhar elaborated, Hamas is interested in reaching calm in the Gaza Strip free of conditions that are detrimental to the legal rights of the Palestinian people, highlighting that Hamas Movement supports the PLO in structure but not in political programs, many articles of which were deleted for the sake of Israel and the USA.
"We are working to reach an honorable calm agreement that would lead to complete ceasefire that would enable the Palestinian people to live in dignity and rebuild what the Israeli war on Gaza had destroyed", Zahhar pointed out.
Zahhar: We are working to reach honorable agreement for our people
What a load of cobblers. Why 'reconstruct' Gaza? So that Israel can level it again? The entire USA is living in a pathetic dream-world, utterly detached from what is obvious to the 'rest-of-the-world' (you remember them – 'the little people').
Obama is very aware that mainstream media will turn on his economic reform and recovery program like a pack of hyenas if he does not placate Israel Lobby.
His priority is American economic crisis and welfare of american people. I read the hostile press that he is encountering today and I believe that these are just warning shots for him to toe the line.
A bit like a restaurant owner that has been overhead that he MIGHT, MAYBE consider NOT paying protection money, who wakes up next day having every second window of his restaurant and his home neatly broken by identical size bricks.
He is taking his message on the tour of the country. What he is doing is clearly NOT relying on mainstream media.
So the article were not removed because they had no business there, they were removed to hide intent.
And we should deal with these terrorists?
Syria aids Hamas because the Syrian dictatorship needs something to keep the people from revolt. Focusing hatred on the Jews works every time.
Focusing on what organized Jewry does, rather than its propaganda,
is the best medicine for the world, including the Jewish portion of it.
This principle also applies to the USA, that is, focusing on what the US government does in the world, rather than its propaganda, is the best medicine for the world, including the USA.