Atlantic Sentinel

Tag: Palestinians

  • Israel Expands Gaza Operations, Fear of New War

    The latest flareup of violence between Israel and Islamist militants in the Gaza Strip escalated on Thursday when the Israeli Air Force pounded Hamas facilities with missiles and Palestinian militants launched rockets into Israel, reaching as far as Tel Aviv.

    The conflict has all the makings of a renewed confrontation similar to the three week Israeli operation in Gaza four years ago, when some 1,400 Palestinians and thirteen Israelis were killed before a ceasefire could be reached.

    Thus far, the Israeli operation, code named Operation Pillar of Defense, has not reached the level of intensity that defined the last war with Hamas. But it should be noted that the operation is only in its third day and casualties will likely go up on both sides of the border. (more…)

  • Israel Expands Airstrikes Against Gaza Militants

    Israeli Defense Forces on Wednesday launched the most extensive aerial bombardment against suspected militant facilities in the Gaza Strip in four years’ time before heavy rocket fire from the Palestinian territory killed three Israelis on Thursday.

    The Israeli-Gaza border has seen this kind of violence before. Hardly a month goes by without a rocket being fired from the coastal strip into a southern Israeli community. When such an attack occurs, the Israeli air force tends to respond immediately with a precision airstrike on a rocket launching post or ammunitions facility used by Palestinian terrorist groups. This has strategy has served Israel well in recent years — military infrastructure was destroyed and rocket fire would usually decrease for a while.

    But the routine has become increasingly untenable. Rather than the rocket fire dying down, militant groups based in Gaza have begun to increase their operations after Israel hit their positions in the territory. (more…)

  • Abbas Suggests No “Right of Return” for Palestinians

    Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas put himself in a pot of hot water last weekend when he seemed to suggest, live on Israeli television, that Palestinian refugees should forget about returning to their original homes in Israeli territory if they wanted to establish an independent, sovereign Palestinian state.

    Abbas used his personal life to drill home the point, saying that he has accepted the fact he cannot permanently return to the childhood home from which he was expelled in Israel’s 1948 war of independence.

    The right of return, in which refugees and their descendants, estimated at five to six million, can reclaim their homes in Israel proper, is seen by many Palestinians as the most sensitive aspect of their entire conflict with Israel. For decades, Palestinian negotiators have insisted that those who were driven out of their homes during the 1948 war be allowed to reclaim their property, despite the fact that those houses now reside in the internationally-recognized state of Israel. Many families still have keys to their homes: a symbolic touch that illustrates just how important the right of return is to the millions of Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and neighboring Arab countries.

    Israel, however, has never seriously considered the Palestinians’ demand for the right of return. The influx of millions of Palestinians into what is now Israel would compromise the Jewish character of the state. Thus, much like settlement building in the West Bank and the final status of Jerusalem, the right of return has been among the most complicated issues of the peace process. (more…)

  • Palestinians’ United Nations Push Could Backfire

    Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has made it clear that he will formally push for an enhancement of Palestinian status at the United Nations sometime in November. What is also clear is that Abbas’ effort, unlike his attempt at the Security Council last year to gain full member state status, is almost certain to succeed. With the General Assembly traditionally dedicated to the Palestinian cause and with no American veto of the measure impossible, the resolution will pass by a simple majority vote.

    What is less certain, however, is how Israel and United States will react in the event that the Palestinians achieve their goal. A successful vote in the General Assembly would give the Palestinians the right to join a number of multilateral organizations for the first time, including the International Criminal Court, where Palestinian representatives could plausibly charge Israel for war crimes. For a country that has long used the concept of national security to justify its occupation of the West Bank and its embargo of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian membership of the court would serve as a legal headache for the state of Israel.

    All of this begs the question: what measures will Israel take to counter, or punish, Abbas’ United Nations campaign? The United States presumably would support Israel in any countermeasure that is deemed reasonable. Obama Administration officials have argued that a unilateral Palestinian move at the United Nations would hurt the chances for a negotiated, final status peace agreement.

    Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies are already combing through a list of options that they can take once the Palestinians acquire their “nonmember state” upgrade.

    One option under consideration, withholding tax revenue that is collected on behalf of Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, has been used by the Israelis in the past when disputes arose over the peace process. A large chunk of the Palestinian Authority’s revenue comes from the taxes and customs duties that the Israelis collect and transfer to Ramallah. A decision to withhold those transfers could lead to the worsening of a financial cash crisis that economists ay is the worst in the Palestinian Authority’s eighteen year history.

    Another option being mulled by Israeli policymakers is a total boycott on talking, dealing with and communicating with Mahmoud Abbas as long as he remains president. The Israelis used a similar policy with respect to the late Yasser Arafat when they no longer believed that he was interested in formulating a lasting peace. This policy would pack a major punch but also be incredibly rash. Washington would be likely to oppose it, seeing Abbas as the best hope for dialogue that the Israelis have had in a long time.

    The Obama Administration may also decide to make its displeasure known by ratcheting up its own pressure. As was hinted by American officials during Abbas’ Security Council plan last year, donations and funding to the Palestinians could be put in jeopardy. The United States are the single largest financial contributor to Abbas’ West Bank government. Washington provides (PDF) close to $500 million in aid this year alone.

    That funding could be threatened thanks to American legislation already on the books which mandates Congress and the White House to cut off funding for the Palestinians if their government acquires “the same standing as member states or full membership as a state in the United Nations or any specialized agency […] outside an agreement negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians.”

    Depending on how the law is interpreted, an attempt by the Palestinian Authority to increase its United Nations representation from an “observer entity” to a “nonmember state” could possibly meet the criteria of an American aid block.

    So while Abbas will receive the support he needs to attain more prestige at the United Nations, he will confront some very uncomfortable, if not painful, reprisals after the vote ends. With his government facing a terrible fiscal crisis, the Palestinian leader may well have to justify to his people why a greater voice in New York is more important to their cause than an administration that can pay its bills.

  • Qatari Emir Expands Regional Influence With Gaza Visit

    The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, made history on Monday by becoming the first head of state to visit the Gaza Strip since Hamas took control of the coastal territory in 2007.

    For the past five years, Gaza has been a virtual no man’s land in the eyes of much of the world, including some of the very same Arab states that consider the cause of Palestinian freedom a moral one of their own. The Qatari leader has broken that impasse to the delight of senior Hamas officials and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are struggling to make do in any area with no natural resources and decrepit public infrastructure.

    Before Sheikh Hamad was scheduled to enter the strip, officials in the Hamas movement made sure that the visit would be a memorable one. Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ prime minister, personally greeted the emir as he crossed into Gaza from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. The monarch received a red carpet welcome with an honor guard at his side. Qatari flags were slapped to road signs, electrical cables, telephone polls and along the territory’s major roads to show just how much the sheikh’s trip was appreciated among the Palestinian public.

    The official purpose of Sheikh Hamad’s foray into Gaza was to inaugurate $400 million dollars worth of Qatari donations to improve the territory’s dismal economic situation. The money will reportedly be used to build a housing complex that will consist of some 1,000 apartments, improve upon two major highways that are riddled with potholes, break ground on a new medical facility and to refurbish schools that have been damaged.

    The visit is also symptomatic of what Qatar, a small but wealthy country with rich natural resource potential, has become: a powerful and influential player in the diplomatic world. (more…)

  • In Gaza, Hamas Finds Itself Aligned with Israel

    In a major blow to Palestinian militant groups operating in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli air force launched a precision strike against two senior terrorist leaders in the area last weekend. The men were reportedly traveling on a motorcycle along a road in the north of Gaza when an Israeli drone locked in on their location and launched a missile in their direction.

    The strike is a significant one for Israel. The men were not only involved in terrorist activities but were former leaders of two Salafi jihadist organizations that were dedicated to expanding the extremist ideology of the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

    There is nothing uncommon about the Israel Defense Force directly engaging terrorist sanctuaries in Gaza. The seaside enclave is known to host a number of militant groups, apart from Hamas, that frequently plan and execute rocket attacks on Israeli communities close to the area. The rockets usually fall in open areas so casualties and physical damage are limited, if not nonexistent.

    The Israeli government, however, sees these attacks as a serious threat to its citizens. Targeting rocket launching sites aimed at Israel and neutralizing small groups of suspected terrorists through the air has been its usual response to mortar strikes that hit Israeli communities. (more…)

  • Palestinians Hint at Possibility of Renewed Talks

    There are many reasons why serious, substantive peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians have been stalled for four years but one of the most difficult stumbling blocks between the two sides has been the settlements issue. As the settlement population has risen in the West Bank over the past few years, Palestinian officials have been reluctant to meet with Israeli diplomats, believing that the discussions will not result in anything concrete. The Israelis, on the other hand, have consistently argued that the growth of settlements should not be an impediment to successful talks. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pointed the finger at Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas as the man holding up the process.

    The same man may now break the impasse. The Associated Press and The Jerusalem Post both report this week that Abbas may be rethinking his original position. After a meeting with European diplomats about Palestine’s effort to acclaim nonmember state status at the United Nations, Abbas seemed to suggest that he was willing to rejoin the peace effort after the United Nations has a vote on the bid, which is scheduled for November. (more…)

  • Abbas to Push Membership Case at General Assembly

    For most countries, the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly is both a chance to represent their citizens on a global stage and an opportunity to hold discussions about some of the world’s most urgent international security issues. Speeches are made, applause is heard, delegates meet behind the scenes and documents are drawn up. But for the Palestinians, the General Assembly is the best chance they have in a year to press their case for enhanced membership in the organization.

    Since an attempt to attain full state status in the Security Council failed last year, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is reportedly lowering his sights on the General Assembly, where the Palestinians have overwhelming support for their position in their dispute with the Israelis.

    For Abbas, whose government has been strapped for cash and is just now recuperating from a series of protests in the West Bank over high prices, a push to improve the Palestinians’ status in the United Nations to “nonmember observer state” is his way of staying relevant.

    Will a successful Palestinian bid in the General Assembly do anything to alleviate the problems that have plagued the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for so long? For the most part, probably not. (more…)

  • Romney Offends Palestinians with “Culture” Remark

    The multiday trip was designed to be a smooth and easy way for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, to burnish his foreign policy credentials.

    Countless presidents have made a similar journey for a similar objective. In 2008, Barack Obama swept through Europe to demonstrate his popularity and competency to American voters in front of a foreign audience. Romney, a man who has not had to deal with foreign policy issues in past jobs, had the same thing in mind last week when he traveled to Britain, Israel and Poland, three strong American allies, to shake hands with dignitaries and shore up his support overseas.

    That trip, however, has been anything but easy for Romney and his campaign. A series of off the cuff remarks got the former governor in trouble in London when he openly questioned whether the British government and its people were ready to host the summer Olympic Games. The comment sparked an array of complaints and denunciations from British parliamentarians and Prime Minister David Cameron himself. The British press was especially hard on Romney, equating his concerns to a cheap shot at the nation’s ability to appreciate its month in the limelight. (more…)

  • Hamas Refused to Participate in Latest Gaza Violence

    In some of the most intense cross-border fighting since Israeli troops last entered the Gaza Strip en masse over three years ago, dozens of rockets were lobbed by Palestinian militants into Israel, with the Jewish state carrying out airstrikes on suspected terrorist facilities.

    Over a span of four days, Israel hit rocket squads and weapon depots in the strip with near pinpoint accuracy. Small bands of militants retaliated with a torrent of rocket fire against communities in the south of Israel.

    Remarkably, not a single Israeli civilian was killed even as one hundred and fifty crude missiles were launched from the coastal enclave.

    Israel’s newly installed “Iron Dome” defense system intercepted many of the missiles before they hit the ground with a nearly 90 percent success rate. Only a few projectiles hit populated areas. One landed in a schoolyard that wasn’t not occupied at the time.

    The fighting once again resembling a game of tit for tat that was only suspended as a result of Egyptian mediation. Although a ceasefire is now in place, the violence could easily resume if a single unauthorized mortar is launched by a small team. (more…)

  • Fatah, Hamas Agree to Hold Palestinian Elections

    There is not much to celebrate in terms of Palestinian politics these days but one ray of sunshine has emerged over the past week that gives the Palestinians a semblance of hope: preliminary discussion of a Fatah-Hamas reconciliation bid.

    Palestine’s two most powerful parties have been at each other’s throats since the Hamas leadership decided to expand their claws into Palestinian politics. Hamas’ first foray in elections proved to be an extremely successful one and a shock to policymakers in Israel and the United States. After a legislative vote that was deemed free and fair by the United Nations, Hamas candidates swept the elections against a Fatah party that Palestinians had grown sick and tired of after lost hopes and complaints of corruption.

    Since, Fatah and Hamas have plotted behind the scenes to make life as difficult as possible for one another. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah colleagues remain suspicious of Hamas’ motives, who have yet to officially abandon their original platform of armed resistance against Israel. (more…)

  • Palestinian UNESCO Bid Challenges US Engagement

    It has been over a month since Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas stepped on to a podium in front of the General Assembly, held up his pledging document amid an echoing applause and submitted his request for full recognition of statehood to the United Nations.

    Back in September, the statehood campaign was a bombshell. Recognition would not change daily life all that much for millions of Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers would still control 40 percent of West Bank land and Israeli settlement construction would most likely proceed in villages claimed by Palestinians for a future state. But despite the practicalities, the measure, even if it is doomed to failed, could still be a win for the Palestinian Authority in the world of public opinion.

    Abbas’ statehood document is now stuck in the Security Council. It still has to schedule a vote on the request. But the president’s diplomatic team is not sitting on their hands and waiting for a decision. Instead, Palestine has submitted similar requests to smaller UN associations. And from the looks of one overwhelming vote, it appears that the Palestinian strategy is working for the time being.

    By a lopsided 107-14 tally, delegates of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization voted in favor of admitting Ramallah into its ranks on Monday.

    For the United States and Israel, UNESCO’s decision could be seen from a mile away. Yet the mere fact that the international body approved the Palestinian referendum by such a wide margin must have gotten under their skin.

    From a purely tactical point of view, Palestine’s admission to the UN’s cultural organization hardly affects Washington’s foreign policy goals in any meaningful way. On the contrary, an additional member to the UNESCO ranks only confirms how vital global educational and cultural exchanges between people are — objectives that the United States holds dear.

    The problem, at least from a diplomatic perspective, is that Ramallah’s newfound home will add to the tension that the Obama Administration is already feeling with its partners in the UN on a number of issues, including Syria and the war in Afghanistan. Thanks to a law passed in the early 1990s mandating that the United States cut funding for any UN agency that admits the Palestinian Authority as a member state, President Barack Obama is faced with the uncomfortable decision of making good on that law. $80 million that would have otherwise gone to UNESCO this year has been put on hold, with tens of millions more in jeopardy if the original legislation is not amended.

    The big worry now is that once the Palestinians officially join the UNESCO club, President Abbas will apply the same strategy to other UN agencies. The International Atomic Energy Agency, responsible for monitoring nuclear compliance around the world, could be the next stop for Abbas and his team. Or maybe the World Food Programme, the institution tirelessly trying to ameliorate the famine in the Horn of Africa and churning out food deliveries for millions of hungry families. If they do, the Americans run the risk of being compelled to disengage from these multilateral organization.

    The State Department has already warned that there could be “considerable potential damage if this move is replicated in other UN organizations.” Especially as tension between Iran and Israel is mounting, Congress may not be prepared to change the law however to allow the United States to remain an active contributor to the international community.

  • Congress Considers Cutting Aid to Palestinians

    With Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority returning home after submitting their arguments for statehood at the United Nations General Assembly, the Obama Administration is facing calls from Israel’s supporters in Congress to consider cutting off financial assistance to the Palestinians.

    The position in Washington, peddled by both the White House and legislators, is that international recognition of a Palestinian state will not, in fact, result in what that the Palestinian people have been hoping for since the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967.

    The lives of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza — which have improved over the past few years thanks to a concerted and noble state building effort by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad — will still be the same, with or without United Nations support. Security checkpoints will still be present and movement between the West Bank and East Jerusalem will still be monitored heavily by the Israeli military. Therefore, as far as the United States are concerned, the Palestinian Authority should not waste its time appealing to the United Nations Security Council and instead resort to direct negotiations.

    The viewpoint of the United States Congress, shared by Democrat and Republican, has been more extreme than the White House’s.

    As the branch of the United States government that controls the purse strings, the Congress had threatened to reevaluate its financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority if it decided to seek recognition of statehood at the United Nations.

    The House of Representatives was explicit this summer in its denunciation of Abbas’ UN campaign, voting against it by an astounding 407-6 margin.

    The Senate Appropriations Committee got into the game late but followed the House version up with a measure that would not only cut Palestinian funds but reserve open the option of shuttering the Palestinian office in Washington. A few months earlier, 29 senators wrote to President Barack Obama calling for a complete cutoff of American aid if the Palestinian Authority allowed Hamas — which the United States, Israel and much of Europe designate as a terrorist organization — to join a national unity government.

    The Israeli ambassador to the United States has gone further, saying that bilateral relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority would be completely null and void if a state of Palestine is granted by the international community. As he put, “We have a lot of agreements with the Palestinian Authority, we have no agreements with a government of Palestine.”

    The question is whether the Palestinians will buckle to any of these threats. From news coming out of Ramallah, the resounding answer would seem to be no. Abbas has made clear to President Obama, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Europeans that nothing but a last-minute peace plan would be too late for him to reconsider the bid. A final diplomatic push by two senior White House officials last week only succeeded in convincing Abbas that Washington’s positions are inherently wedded to Netanyahu’s peace agenda.

    So, with the vote pending, will Israel and the United States actually decide to cut off all financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority? The $550 million in aid that the United States hands over to Abbas has added a significant lump of cash to Palestine’s statehood goals over the past two years. Prime Minister Fayyad, who took the lead in building the foundations for a state, has done wonders with the money. The Palestinian Security Forces are an increasingly professional bunch, cracking down on crime in their area of control and cooperating with the Israeli army on issues of mutual concern, including terrorism and Hamas. Economic growth has climbed in the West Bank, with the territory escaping the current economic recession and exceeding the growth of most other Arab states. Palestinian small business is thriving — though it could do a whole lot better if Palestinian products could be exported without restriction. The lawlessness and militia prone territory that was once a way of life has diminished to near nonexistence.

    Taking this assistance and using it as a form of punishment may be ill advised. Palestinian lives are not the only ones that would suffer without sustained donor support. The security of Israel, which has depended heavily on a cooperative Palestinian security establishment and an efficient public services sector, runs the risk of being jeopardized. Setting the clock of West Bank stability back to the criminality and lawlessness of the Arafat era is a lose-lose scenario for all involved in the region.

    Holding tax receipts that are destined to go to the Palestinian Authority — a measure that Israel has hinted it would use if Abbas’ statehood bid is successful — would do just that, compounding the Palestinian administration’s already burdening set of administrative problems. If the PA is struggling to pay its workers now, imagine the frustration that government employees will feel once the aid spigot is turned off.

    The problem could perhaps be managed if Arab states were able to increase their own contributions in the event of a Western cash retreat. But considering the Gulf’s poor record of maintaining its current commitments, striking that balance is more of a hope than a practicality.

    While the West Bank economy has grown, it has done so partly thanks to donor assistance from the United States, Europe, and the Arab world. Withdrawing that money would severely hurt Palestine’s progress, and according to the World Bank (PDF), threaten the economic growth and public administration improvements that have been made since the statehood plan was developed. Donor contributions to the Palestinian Authority have already been far lower than expected over the past year, which has had the unfortunate affect of contracting annual Palestinian growth from the projected 9 percent to 7 percent. Aggravating that situation further would be detrimental and, as the World Bank put it, “may undermine the promise of these institution building achievements.”

    Israel wants a secure West Bank to its east and a secure Gaza Strip to its west. Palestinians want a termination of the occupation and the status of a normal nation. Palestinian growth helps both of these causes. Withdrawing aid out of spite would hurt everyone’s interests and make the United States an active partner in the suppression of Palestinian self-determination — just as millions of Arabs are recapturing self-determination themselves.

  • A Ray of Hope for the Palestinians

    This Friday, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas will submit a formal request at the United Nations for recognition of statehood along the lines of the pre-1967 borders.

    The Palestinians lost faith in direct negotiations with Israel a long time ago. After President Barack Obama’s one year time frame for a peace settlement collapsed this time last year, Abbas appears to have come to the realization that the only way for his people to edge closer to statehood is by drawing the entire international community into the process. Call it a unilateral move or a callous breach of the Oslo Accords — arguments that the Israelis have been peddling for the past couple of months — what the UN drive cannot be called is a strategic mistake. If anything, it will isolate the Israelis and the United States with most of the world endorsing Abbas’ proposal.

    After hinting in press conferences and briefings that the United States would veto a Palestinian request for statehood at the Security Council, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland finally stated unequivocally last week that Washington’s power in the council will be used to block the effort. “It should not come as a shock to anyone that the United States oppose a move in New York by the Palestinians to try to establish a state that can only be achieved through negotiations,” she said. “So, yes, if something comes to a vote in the UN Security Council, the United States will veto.” (more…)

  • France Calls for Middle East Peace Conference

    At a time when a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is ever deeper into the abyss, the French government, under the direction of Foreign Minister Alain Juppé, has taken the initiative by announcing a plan to bring the Israelis and Palestinians together for a last ditch negotiating effort. While the date of the conference has not yet been released, Mr Juppé stated that the mediation efforts would be conducted sometime this summer.

    The French announcement comes as something of a surprise, given the polarizing atmosphere surrounding the dispute, which only widened with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to endorse President Barack Obama’s Middle East peace plan. That plan called for a near full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian territory, with mutually agreed upon land swaps to account for large Israeli settlement communities near the pre-1967 borders.

    Obama’s position, which is both pragmatic and foresees a fair solution to the conflict, has been American policy for the past two decades. Netanyahu, however, rejected the principles of his proposal last month in front of the United States Congress, which gave him multiple standing ovations for his toughness. The Obama Administration, whose last attempt to forge a successful peace accord broke down after a measly three weeks last September, has essentially run out of options. And with Obama’s reelection bid to kick off next year, it is almost a given that the White House will avoid pressuring the Israelis to make any more concessions. (more…)