Gaza rocket kills one in Israel

Jika Roket dari Gaza menyerang Israel si Penjajah, Perampok tanah Muslim maka Sekjen PBB berkata “All such acts of terror and violence against civilians are totally unacceptable and contrary to international law”

Tapi jika Israel membunuhi, memperkosa, membantai, menggusur rumah muslim, atau membom dengan nuklir, merampas hak orang muslim, menembaki wanita hamil dan anak-anak serta orang tua renta maka Sekjen PBB diam seribu mulut.

Berikut berita yang diturunkan oleh Middle-East Online.

First Published 2010-03-18

A short visit

Gaza rocket kills one in Israel

Attack, claimed by Ansar al-Sunna Brigade, comes just as EU foreign policy chief is visiting Gaza Strip.

By Patrick Moser – JERUSALEM

A flurry of Middle East diplomacy was marred on Thursday as a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip killed a civilian in Israel as the EU foreign policy chief was visiting the Palestinian enclave.

A Thai agricultural worker was killed when the rocket slammed into a kibbutz just a few kilometres (couple of miles) from the Gaza border.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack. "All such acts of terror and violence against civilians are totally unacceptable and contrary to international law," his office said.

The attack, claimed by the Al-Qaeda-inspired Ansar al-Sunna Brigade, came just as EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was visiting the impoverished coastal strip which is still struggling with the aftermath of the 22-day offensive Israel launched in December 2008 in a bid to halt rocket fire.

"I’m extremely shocked by the rocket attack … and the tragic loss of life," Ashton told journalists. "We need to move forward to get the peace process to move toward a successful resolution."

Ashton was to fly later on Thursday to Moscow for a meeting of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet also attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the UN chief.

Ban himself also plans to visit the Middle East, including Gaza, over the weekend amid mounting tension in the region as well as between Israel and the United States.

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who brokered a now troubled deal for indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians on a previous visit, is due back in the region on Sunday, a senior Palestinian official said.

The trip, initially scheduled for last Tuesday, was postponed amid a major row between Washington and the Jewish state over Israel’s announcement of 1,600 new homes for settlers in annexed mainly Arab east Jerusalem.

Washington was all the more angered as the announcement was made while Vice President Joe Biden was in Jerusalem promoting the talks, but President Barack Obama has insisted there is no crisis.

"We and the Israeli people have a special bond that’s not going to go away," he said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday night.

He called on both Israelis and Palestinians to "take steps to make sure that we can rebuild trust."

Hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet held a late night session on Wednesday to discuss its answer to the US administration’s criticism amid concern that delaying the keenly awaited response would further exacerbate the rift between the two allies.

But the prospects for a swift resumption of peace negotiations, halted when Israel launched its devastating Gaza offensive in December 2008, appeared dim.

The thorny issue of settlement construction, which has long been a major hurdle in peace efforts, was certain to come up at the Quartet meeting on Friday.

The diplomatic activity comes at a time of heightened religious and political tension that saw several days of clashes between Palestinians and police in east Jerusalem.

An already charged atmosphere intensified over the opening this week of a rebuilt 17th century synagogue in the Jewish quarter of the OldCity, a few hundred metres (yards) from the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

The Ansar al-Sunna Brigade said Thursday’s rocket attack was "an answer to Zionist aggression against the Al-Aqsa mosque and holy sites and our people in Jerusalem."

On Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman sharply criticised international demands for a freeze of Jewish settlement construction in east Jerusalem, which Israel seized and annexed in 1967 in a move never recognised by the international community.

But Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas insisted Israel must abide by its "obligations" and "freeze settlement activity in all Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem."

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37905

Obama says no crisis in US-Israeli relations

First Published 2010-03-18

Did AIPAC have its way at the end?

US President says friends ‘disagree sometimes’ as he reiterates ‘special bond’ with Israel.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Wednesday denied a crisis was rocking US-Israeli relations, as one of the worst rows in years between the allies rumbled on over new expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. .

Obama’s first public comments on the showdown came as his administration awaited a response from hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Washington’s sharp complaints over the episode.

The president was asked in an interview with Fox News if there was a "crisis" in US-Israeli relations after the announcement on 1,600 new settler units in Palestinian East Jerusalem embarrassed Vice President Joe Biden during a visit to the Jewish state.

"No," Obama answered. "We and the Israeli people have a special bond that’s not going to go away.

"But friends are going to disagree sometimes… there is a disagreement in terms of how we can move this peace process forward."

Obama noted that the Israeli announcement was the work of the Interior Ministry in Israel and that Netanyahu had apologized.

And he called on both Israelis and Palestinians to "take steps to make sure that we can rebuild trust."

Obama also promised to seek "aggressive" international sanctions against Iran..

"It is one of our highest priorities to make sure that Iran doesn’t possess a nuclear weapon," Obama told Fox News Channel in an interview.

"That is why I have worked so hard to mobilize the international community successfully, to isolate Iran," he added.

Obama vowed that no options were being taken off the table, an apparent reference to last ditch military action if diplomacy failed, but vowed to keep pushing a peaceful solution to the crisis.

"It is a hard problem but it is a problem that we need to solve because if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, than you can potentially see a nuclear arms race throughout the Middle East."

The New York Times meanwhile reported that the White House was considering proposing a US plan to form the basis of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations as US officials questioned the commitment of Netanyahu’s government to peace talks.

Should Obama present his own proposal, complete with territorial maps, it would likely not take place until his special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, had engaged in several months of US-brokered indirect "proximity" talks between the two sides, the Times said.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meanwhile headed to Moscow, for a meeting of the international Quartet on Middle East peace talks, without holding an expected telephone call with Netanyahu.

"We’re still looking forward to a response. It hasn’t happened yet. There hasn’t been a call yet," Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, told reporters after Clinton’s departure.

With nightfall in Jerusalem and Clinton flying to Moscow on her US Air Force plane, which has good phone connections, there was no sign the call would happen Wednesday despite officials’ earlier insistence otherwise.

Netanyahu did speak overnight, however, with Vice President Biden, the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem said.

A White House aide would only say that the call was part of "ongoing negotiations."

In a previous call last week, Clinton told Netanyahu that Israel’s treatment of Biden sent a "deeply negative signal," just as Washington had persuaded Palestinians to join indirect "proximity" peace talks.

She said Tuesday Washington was engaged in "very active consultation" with the Israelis over steps that would demonstrate the requisite commitment getting peace talks on again.

Earlier, the Israeli government showed no sign of backing down on the wider issue of illegal Jewish settlements, even if it welcomed US assurances that its bond with the United States was safe following the row.

Extremist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said demands for a halt to building settlements were "unreasonable."

Mitchell decided to cancel a planned trip to meet Israeli and Palestinian officials until after Clinton joins her Quartet partners Russia, the United Nations and the European Union in Moscow on Thursday.

Netanyahu is due to visit the United States next week to speak at a meeting of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby.

On Sunday AIPAC warned that recent US administration remarks about bilateral ties with Israel were "of serious concern," and urged the White House to ease tensions.

"AIPAC calls on the administration to take immediate steps to defuse the tension with the Jewish State," it said.

AIPAC also warned that "the escalated rhetoric of recent days" was distracting from "the urgent issue" of Iran’s nuclear program.

"The administration should make a conscious effort to move away from public demands and unilateral deadlines directed at Israel, with whom the United States shares basic, fundamental, and strategic interests," AIPAC added.

Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Micheal Oren, said Thursday that Israel and the United States "enjoy a deep and multi-layered friendship," but recent tension between them is "unfortunate".

"Though we may disagree with the White House at certain stages of the peace process, we must never allow such differences to obscure the purpose we share or to raise doubts about the unbreakable bonds between us," he wrote.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37899