Lots of sirens now.

I'm in the Emek Refaim area of Jerusalem.

Nothing on the radio yet. But sirens from every direction.

Big bang outside 15 seconds ago.

Now a siren.

security fence in Jerusalem (report).

These days when I see on a website or hear on the radio that the IAF has hit a Hamas operative in Gaza, I'm never sure if there's been a new hit or if they're still talking about the last one.

Interesting article about

Huwaida Arraf is a co-founder of the group of pro-Palestinian volunteers called the International Solidarity Movement. From the ISM Central blog:

Huwaida Arraf today sent an email that can be said to constitute the ISM's official reaction to last Tuesday's bus bombing in Jerusalem.

Let's try to step inside her mind and see things "the ISM way" - if we dare:

Friends,

After the August 19 bus bombing in Jerusalem, the ISM received a number of emails asking if the ISM was going to make a statement and we received some of the usual, "why isn't the ISM riding Israeli busses?" comments. One email suggested that if we don't speak out against this bombing, we are "party to it".

These are good questions. The messages on the ISM mailing list agonize daily over Palestinian suffering (both real and otherwise) but made no mention at all of the Jerusalem bombing. The ISM's "actions" interfere with the IDF's operations against terrorists, which leaves the impression that the internationals tacitly support such actions. So I look forward to hear Arraf's responses to these questions even as she sneers at them.

Again our response is that we are working to stop all violence in the region, not by issuing statements, but by working to end the root cause of the violence against Israelis and Palestinians - the ongoing, brutal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and lives ......

Hmm. "Blaming it on The Occupation". But she's supposed to make a ritual condemnation first .. You know, like, "We condemn these attacks, but ..."

In the few short weeks after the hudna was announced on June 29, 2003, up until August 9, 10 days before the bus bombing in Jerusalem, the Israeli military killed 10 Palestinians, 5 of them children, wounded 348 Palestinians, 65 of them children, arrested 435 Palestinians, damaged or completely demolished/destroyed 211 Palestinian homes, and uprooted or destroyed over 10,050 Palestinian fruit and olive trees. This is not to mention the vehicles and businesses damaged and/or destroyed, the thousands of dunams of Palestinian land confiscated or isolated from its owners, the number of new settlement structures that were built, the bypass roads created, the Israeli military outposts erected, the continued work on the apartheid wall, the continued denial of access to Palestinians to their land, and the ongoing daily abuse at checkpoints

CBBTFTP = "Can''t be bothered to fisk that part....

We are not going to issue statements.

She said that already, but OK.

We stand against the killing of all civilians and are saddened for the families of the victims of that bus bombing.

If Arraf had said "We stand against the killing of civilians under all circumstances", I would understand her to be expressing an objection (and taking a moral stand) against the Islamikazes. But she's taking pains to say that she's not "making a statement", so I can only understand her to be saying that the ISM opposes killing civilians "in principle" - the same way that she's for peace on earth.

At the same time we're frustrated with the politics of governments and the complacency that is allowing this to continue. Without a check on the Israeli government and military, this will continue. There can be no hudna or "road map" without restraints put on the Israeli military and government.

I thought you just said that you guys weren't going to issue statements. To me this sure sounds like a statement to the effect that the ISM thinks that the suicide bombings should continue until "The Occupation" ends.

Zeev Schiff writes that there is consensus in the Israeli security establishment not to return to a "truce" that does not include direct Palestinian action against terrorist infrastructure (deja vu)

Additionally, the Shin-Bet (internal security) regards the latest actions of Gaza security head Mohammed Dahlan as a familiar public relations exercise, while the IDF sees some significance in his arresting arms dealers and taking action against Qassam missile launchings - though there have been no steps taken to dismantle weapons workshops or arrest suspected Islamikazes.

Well, one accomplishment of the hudna is that Hamas managed to improve the range of the Qassam missiles that they fire from Gaza. Previously they could only hit Sderot - now the thankfully inaccurate projectiles can reach Ashkelon (report)

New blog: ISM Central

Haaretz news flashes says: "IDF sources say military operation in West Bank cities will last three to four weeks".

If the IDF operations are serious enough, the PA might opt for another hudna afterward.

The late Ismail Abu Shanab answered called-in questions at IslamOnline in May.

I notice that MSNBC and Reuters are calling him a moderate. Israel says he was involved in the planning of Tuesday's bombing.

This article addresses the question of to what extent the PA is capable of cracking down on the "factions" (as they call them). Many think that Mohammed Dahlan is strong enough to do a lot in Gaza, elsewhere the PA/Abu Mazen is less strong but can still take action if Arafat were to approve.

The IAF killed Hamas leader Abu Shanab in Gaza(report). Ynet says that the 2 others killed were apparently his bodyguards Abu el-Omrein and Muamad Ravoud.

This article claims that Abu Mazen has threatened to resign if Arafat doesn't approve a plan to crack down on the various Islamikaze groups.

On Tuesday the IDF captured an Islamic Jihad cell on its way to Haifa, where they had apparently prearranged a hidden explosives belt. (report)

The responses I've seen around the web to yesterday's bus bombing are remarkably sensible for the most part.

But this report by the official Palestinian Authority news agency confirms Amos Harel's assessment that the PA really perceives itself as free of any responsibility to control the terrorists. And Helena Cobban - best known for her error-filled mega-fiskable columns in the Christian Science Monitor and her sycophantic history of the PLO - manages to calmly mention the bombing (and misuse the word "intentionality") in the middle of a ramble about "international humanitarian law".

I don't think that Charles Johnson has linked to Cobban's blog yet (but I'm sure he will soon).

Moods right now: anger and nausea

T. and I were in our car at a red light on King David Rd., just below Yafo Rd., when the sirens started. We knew there had been a terror attack after about the 3rd or 4th emergency vehicle passed by. The bombing had been several minutes drive ahead of us - the ambulances were evacuating the victims.

18 dead at the moment, scores injured, lots of children (Jpost, Haaretz). Israel Radio said that Abu Mazen met with members of Islamic Jihad after the attack and asked them to "continue the hudna". But this is it for the hudna because Israel isn't going to soak it up this time.

At a news conference in Beirut, Palestinian Authority External Affairs Minister Nabil Shaath asserted that the US-sponsored roadmap plan guaranteed the millions of descendents of 1948 Palestinian refugees a right to settle in pre-1967 Israel (report).

It sounds like Shaath was making this claim so as to gain support for the PA's roadmap stance from hardline Palestinians in Lebanon. But when Palestinians blame Israel for not meeting its"roadmap" obligations, remember that they likely have in mind things like prisoner releases, the security fence, or accepting refugees - as distinct from the committments that are actually in the roadmap.

The consensus in the weekend Israeli newspapers was that the hudna is not likely to last much longer.

More: The updated version of the article above also quotes PA Information Minister from an interview on Israeli Army Radio this morning. Amr said that the PA does not seek to change the Jewish character of Israel and that a pragmatic solution to the refugee issue will be found. In my opinion there's no reason to think that this moderate view is much more than flattery. Plenty of Israeli leftists have presented to the Israeli public the claim that the Palestinian leadership is secretly moderate - only to have been thoroughly humiliated afterward. The most notable example is the unrepentant Yossi Beilin (see here).

Daniel Zamir (John Zorn's Israeli saxophone protege) has a new ensemble called "Talmaists in Action" (whatever that means). Zamir is now a Habad hasid, so it's unusual that he would choose to perform at Hagada Hasmalit (The Left Bank), which is an arts center run by (and in the headquarters of) the Israeli Communist Party.

Thanks to Ernzy for some thoughtful feedback:

#1

Is it not at least somewhat rational to correlate the Hamas bombing with the killing of the Hamas activists last week? The IDF is feeding the same line they did after the bombing following the attempted Rantisi asassination. That the bombings were planned in advance and were not a result of the asassinations.

ernzy
  
#2

To Ernzy,

"somewhat rational"? The answer to your question is "yes".

But Israel has mostly sat idly while the PA (in open breach of their "roadmap" commitments" blah blah) permits Hamas etc. to pursue rearming/regrouping/missile testing in many places.

If after several weeks of doing nothing the IDF determined that one facility in Nablus must be eliminated, who is "responsible" for the breaking of the "hudna"?

It's a bit surreal that we're discussing it in terms of "who started it?". ie. since attacks on civilians are supposed to be crimes against humanity etc.

Also I think it's pretty well established that the post-Rantisi bombing was planned in advance.

Tal G.
  
  
#5

I was not referring to previous attacks. All attacks against civilians are despicable IMO.

Tal, I think it is a bit disingenuous to say the IDF has "done nothing" or "sat idly" until last week. It is well documented that about as many people have been arrested as were let go in the prisoner releases.

And while it is plainly stipulated in the roadmap that the PA disassemble the "terrorist infrastructure" we all know that a full assault against Hamas et. al will do more damage to Palestinian society and in effect Israeli society than benefit it. Speaking of which, the roadmap also clearly states that Israel cease form all settlement building immediately which it has not .. so let's be fair about this. Both sides, for a change, are doing as little as possible while demanding the world from the other side.

ernzy


  
#6
Aug 12 2003, 03:50 pm

>Tal, I think it is a bit disingenuous to say the IDF has "done nothing" or "sat idly" until last week. It is well documented that about as many
>people have been arrested as were let go in the prisoner releases.

The arrests were AFAIK not attempts to seriously damage the infrastructure of the "militant groups" (I can use sneer quotes myself). In at least some instances the arrests were to prevent planned attacks (and hence strengthened the "hudna").

>And while it is plainly stipulated in the roadmap that the PA disassemble the "terrorist infrastructure" we all know that a full assault against

>Hamas et. al will do more damage to Palestinian society and in effect Israeli society than benefit it.

That's the view more associated with the Clinton/EU approach to things than the "Bush speech July[?] 2002" approach. Those (like yourself) who keep saying "withdrawal first, peace later" need to address the quite justifiable question of the average Israeli:: "when is 'later'?"

The usual or implied answer to this question is always "after there's peace", which is a kind of circular answer. To mention "taking risks for peace" reminds Israelis of Clinton (and Arafat). The view that national rights are unconditional is popular only when applied to Palestinians. Noone advocates regional destabilization as a necessary price for Kurdish, Chechen, or Kashmir national rights.

> Speaking of which, the roadmap also
>clearly states that Israel cease form all settlement building immediately which it has not .. so let's be fair about this.

I've talked about the outposts issue below. Is there still any construction or expansion of Efrat, Ariel etc. going on? I don't think so. Granted that the decision to build 22 units inside the existing perimeter of a Gaza settlement (don't remember which one) was defended by a tortured reading of the "roadmap" clause. But the Palestinians (and hence the world) are much more concerned about prisoner releases and the security fence.

>Both sides, for a change, are doing as little as possible while demanding the world from the other side.

I disagree. Very significant Israeli actions include: IDF withdrawals from Gaza and Bethlehem, transfer of tax revenue, limitation of operations against "militant" infrastructure. Significant Palestinian actions include a serious reduction in the amount of anti-Israel incitement in the media.

Tal G

Today's bombings probably do not indicate the end of the hudna and the roadmap. Like the Oslo process, these things have a life of their own.

If things work according to the established pattern:

1. Israel will be widely blamed for provoking today's Islamikaze attacks
2. There will be intense pressure on Israel not to respond to the attacks combined with familiar calls on the PA to take action against Fatah, et. al. The latter will be ignored.
3. There will be another plan, with a name of its own, intended to resurrect and strengthen the hudna and roadmap

2 Israelis dead in 2 suicide bombings (jpost, haaretz).

A prisoner release was halted in the middle. The bus just turned around.

Police says that 10 suicide bombings have been prevented in recent weeks.

I'm just waiting for the international blah-blahs to claim that the hudna would have gone on forever if only the IDF hadn't acted against a Hamas bomb-factory in Nablus.

The bombings (and the apparent end of the "ceasefire") was not big news in my office. I didn't here about them until a couple of hours after.

This article from WaPo is the first that I've seen that describes what is really meant by "settlement outposts":

Outposts generally begin as a dirt road to a single cargo container, cell phone antenna or water tower. Then houses are erected, but infrastructure typically remains rudimentary for the first residents. It is only when such additions as a community center, nursery school, playground area or paved roads emerge that an outpost begins to take on the characteristics of a settlement, though some settlement opponents consider any outpost with people living in it to be a settlement.

The "homes" are generally portable trailers. The one "outpost" that I've seen was on a hill just outside of Efrat and had about half a dozen trailers from what I remember. The first time I saw it there was a dirt road. About a year later it had been paved.

When the IDF takes the outposts down, it's not difficult for the settlers to put them back up on a different hilltop. That's the reason I personally don't appreciate why the outposts are such a major political issue ...

So how many of the 105 outposts that are said to currently exist actually have what WaPo quite reasonably considers "characteristics of a settlement"?

Huwaida Arraf responds to accusations that the International Solidarity Movement has used violence and cooperated with terrorists. Her central point is the bit about how "Palestinians are resistors, so they can't be terrorists. ... the IDF are terrorists" (and note she is addressing an Israeli audience). The rest of her self-righteous posturing can't conceal her lack of objection towards what most people would term terrorist groups, or her support for destructive behavior.

Interesting article by Zeev Schiff on the attempts to get Egypt and Jordan to return their ambassadors to Israel.

Did he really say this?

Neither Israel nor the Palestinians can carry out all the terms of the road map peace plan, due to political constraints on both sides, Interior Minister Avraham Poraz told the Foreign Press Association yesterday.

The IDF shot and killed a Palestinian who was planting a bomb roadside near Tulkarm (report). Here's the official Palestinian news agency report on the incident, which neglects to mention the bit about the bomb, and makes it sound like the IDF just shot him at random.

The PA also claims that Fatah's gunning down of an Israeli family driving near Bethlehem on Sunday was its "reaction" to a supposed Israeli police killing of a Palestinian taxi driver earlier in the day - though the Israeli and foreign media have absolutely no mention of any such incident.

When ISM-types talk about all the supposed Israeli atrocities and then can't name a single specific incident, it's probably because they've been hearing a lot of this kind of stuff.

More: The fellow who was shot near Tulkarm was a longstanding member of the Tanzim named Nihad Qassem (report).

Translation of the Israel Prisons Service webpage that links to the list of Palestinian prisoners whose release is scheduled:

PRISONS SERVICE
A Security Organization with a Social Purpose

Notice regarding release of Palestinian prisoners who are residents of the Judea/Samaria [ie. West Bank] and Gaza regions

In the process of the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority the government has decided to release Palestinian prisoners and administrative detainees. Below is the list of those who are marked for release.

The list includes the name of the prisoner, ID number, sentence, chapter under which he was sentenced, court case number, name of the court, and date that he would be released were it not for the reduced sentence. Additionally, the list contains the names of administrative detainees who are marked for release.

It is to be emphasized that this list does not include any prisoner or detainee with "blood on his hands" and that release of prisoners and detainees is conditional upon their signing a form of obligation not to return to violent activity in the future.

[phone numbers for further information]

Attorney Hayim Shmuelivitz
"Tat-gunder"
Legal adviser to the Prisons Service

Haaretz bulletins says that there was a gunfight between the IDF and the PA near the Egyptian border in Gaza. Earlier 4 anti-tank missiles were fired on an IDF position there. Also, Palestinians opened fire on the IDF near Ramallah.

Aaargh...

The Guardian ("Palestinians condemn Israel's prisoner release list"):

The figure includes 183 inmates convicted of activities ranging from stone-throwing to membership of "terrorist organisations", and 139 "administrative detainees" held, without charge, on security grounds

In truth, the list (Hebrew link) includes plenty of people charged with owning and distributing bombs and weapons (eg. "#137 Marzuk Awud Mahmoud Abu Naim - possession of a bomb, contact man for placing a bomb", "#166 Wadia Mahmad Hasin Kabaja - Firing a gun at a person", etc.).

Not to suggest that the rest of the Guardian article is any less vile.

Why should Israel release these dangerous people? Certainly it doesn't work as a "confidence-building measure" or indication of good will....

Israel has released the names of the latest set of prisoners that it is releasing. Who are they?

Reuters says:

Israel has said it will not release those involved in attacks on Israelis, although it has agreed to free 210 Islamic militants who were involved in political activity.

"political activity"?!? According to the Associated Press :

Israel has agreed to free only a few hundred, and has said it will not release prisoners directly involved in violent attacks.

The majority of those being released were convicted of stone throwing, membership in an illegal organization or harboring fugitives...

Note those two words "the majority"...

Haaretz, unlike the AP and Reuters, may have actually looked at the list (provided in Hebrew HTML and Excel for families of victims who wish to appeal the releases):

Despite the ministerial committee's decision that no prisoner with "blood on his hands" would be released, some of those slated to be freed on Wednesday were convicted of participating in attempted terror attacks, shooting attacks, planting explosives devices and throwing grenades or Molotov cocktails.

Abroad there seems to be hudna-euphoria. Apparently in the IDF also, but I don't think there's a palpable sense of hudna on the Israeli street. One factor that's keeping the terrorists in check is the imminent prisoner releases (which they don't want to endanger).

Meanwhile, in addition to yesterday's shooting of a family by Fatah, two Israeli teenagers are missing, and a third claims he was almost kidnapped.

Why does the media refer to the hudna as a "unilateral ceasefire" (eg. here). It's a bilateral truce agreement between the PA and the bloodthirsty jihadis; and it includes a tacit agreement from Israel to refrain from operations against the leaders of Jihad/Hamas/Al-Aqsa Brigades.

This is quite remarkable: Gil Shterzer has determined that the much-hyped joint Israeli-Palestinian "grassroots" peace initiative promoted by Sari Nusseibeh and Ami Ayalon is apparently being described differently to Palestinians than it is to Israelis. Specifically: points that make it acceptable to Israelis (Israel is a Jewish state, no mass influx from refugee camps into pre-1967 Israel) are omitted from the Palestinian version.

Moreover, the Palestinian version of the Statement of Principles removes the clause that declares an end to the conflict.

Good article on the conflicting establishment opinions that Israelis are hearing regarding whether the current "lull" in violence (and thus the roadmap) is likely to continue. A Hebrew article Hamas' recruiting and the new Kassam missile they're trying to build.

The Council of Europe has passed a resolution calling for the residents of Palestinian refugee camps to be settled in their current locations and in Europe (rather than in their grandparents' villages in Israel)

Also, the French Doctors Without Frontiers has stated that suicide bombings are planned and oganized and are not sporadic acts of despair, and criticizes the PA for creating "a climate of immunity". (report)

In a Jpost op-ed, two spokesmen from the International Solidarity Movement write:

Opponents of ISM claim that the movement's goal is to impede the army's job in stopping terrorism and even act as an accomplice to terrorist activities. Does anyone honestly believe that thousands

thousands ?!?

of volunteers from Tel Aviv to New York City, many Jewish,

"from Seattle to San Francisco" would be more accurate

would spend their vacations

ie. leave their insular campuses

to come and spread terrorism?

Well, yes .....

More precisely: to spread terrorism while all dressed up in the garb of naive self-righteousness and being economical with the truth...

More: Good article from a while back by an initially somewhat sympathetic Israeli who tagged along with them.

A Fatah cell has been apprehended while planning a suicide bombing in Netanya (report). With the IDF withdrawing and the border becoming more porous - it's going to be easier for these people to get in. And of course the PA refuses to take action against them.

People here seem to be more interested in the Hamas/Jihad prisoner release business than in Abu Mazen's visit to Washington. A fellow on a call-in radio show expressed what is probably the most common sentiment: After the IDF has spent the past 15 months successfully dismantling the terrorist infrastructure, why are we releasing all these people who will no doubt build it up again?

A Jpost reader quotes from a BBC brochure promoting a classical music program:

The orchestra was founded "... when President Clinton was bringing Israel, under Prime Minister Barak, and Palestine, under President Arafat, to near-agreement and there seemed to be the possibility of an end-of-millennium settlement. But when Ariel Sharon came to power and the intifada re-erupted, all optimism fell away."

The BBC's description of the end of Oslo is preposterous, which is why it's always just asserted and never argued for.

Apparently someone at the Beeb could not abide the prospect of describing an ensemble that includes both Arabs and Israelis without making some kind of sneer gesture.

Afif Barghouti was severely beaten by the PA and then claimed he had been detained and beaten at an IDF checkpoint. Interesting report on the incident and the ensuing IDF investigation here.

Evelyn Gordon provides the bigger picture on the survey of Palestinian refugee camp residents here.

Another good article by Mark Lilla on the EU and Israel here.

It's nice to see people around the world asking intelligent questions about the situation here. Too bad that Arnon Regular gives mostly non-descript answers.

Over my 10 day visit in the US I was asked several times if I thought that the "roadmap" would finally lead somewhere. Actually people usually asked if it would finally lead to peace, or other phrasings much less cynical than mine. I confess being surprised that it has "held" as long as it has. I do think that no matter what Israel does - ie. withdraw from Bethlehem/Gaza, free murderers, endanger citizens by removing roadblocks, freeze the security fence etc. - noone will be particularly appreciative and the Palestinians will continue to demand more and receive international backing.

T. and I happened to share a gondola in the Rocky Mountains with a woman who had been a nurse in a Gaza hospital from 1968-1970. She said that she thought that "something" had to be done for the people in the refugee camps there before there could be peace, since they were (and apparently are) so without hope. But that results, of course, from what they have been taught to hope for - ie. settling in pre-1967 Israel - and their refusal to be resettled.

Here's a good summary of the situation regarding the intractability of the "refugee" issue (via William Sjostrom).

I don't put much stock in the survey that claims that most residents of refugee camps in outside the West Bank/Gaza aren't interested in settling in Israel.

Norwegian blogger Bjorn Staerk has some good posts on PM Sharon's visit there (here and here).

Seeing the pictures of Sharon's meetings next to Tony Blair reminded me of how unphotogenic our PM is.

Talisker is good scotch. But " the sharp tang of seaweed but also an explosive blast of salt and pepper" ?!?

Fit and working again Back from vacation in the US. More blogging soon.

Abu Mazen and the PA have said unambiguiously that they will not take any action against Fatah's al-Aqsa brigade, Hamas etc. This article describes the PA's earnest attempts to get the US to finance their alternative approach: bribing the terrorist groups and enlisting their members in the PA security organizations.

In an interview for with the Lebanese newspaper al-Nahar, PA official Abu Ala criticized Bush's description of Israel as a "Jewish state" at Aqaba and casually stated that the Camp David talks failed because of the refugee issue (report). The linked article also summarizes an account by the Saudi ambassador to the US according to which the Saudis pressured Arafat to accept the Clinton peace plan in 2001 ("you won't get anything better").

This article interviews family members of Israeli Arabs who have died in Palestinian suicide bombings.

Fatah is one of the groups that supposedly announced a 3 month ceasefire of sorts (report). Fatah also claimed responsibility for today's fatal shooting of a Bezeq technician who entered the Israeli Arab town of Baka Al-Gharbiya to repair a phone line (report)

The Israeli media pretty consistently describes the topic of the current Hamas-PA discussions using the same Arabic word as Hamas itself: hudna. Using the term hudna maintains the allusion to Muhammed's tactical truce with the Quraish tribe that he eventually violated.

On Army Radio this AM a PA "coordination committee" official named Soufiyan Abuzaida was asked whether the PA would take actions against terrorist activity by Hamas etc. Abuzaida's response (paraphrased) was "once there's a ceasefire [he didn't say hudna], why would there be any need for action against Hamas". And what exactly does the PA want in the context of an IDF withdrawal from Gaza? Not just withdrawal from the Arab areas: "If the IDF is maintain its checkpoints around the settlements what kind of withdrawal is that?"

Given a podium to appeal to an Israeli audience, the PA responds to what Israelis see as the basic questions with derision and sarcasm.

Moledet or Gush Shalom? Received a wacko postcard in the mailbox today. Ostensibly from an organization called "Lions of Jerusalem" that seeks to maintain Jerusalem's Jewish majority, it calls on people to report on Arab residences available for sale, Arabs living in Jewish neighborhoods, and for other ideas to get Jews in and Arabs out. A PO. Box is provided.

The card is made out to look like it's from a far-right wing group like Herut or Moledet, but it praises the Likud gov't (which the far right would never do) and uses leftist rhetoric about zoning and "home demolitions". So it's more likely from some left-wing group (like Gush Shalom) who want to collect some extremist remarks for a smear campaign.

This article makes the long overdue evaluation of the IDF's conduct of urban warfare in Jenin with reference to similar circumstances faced by NATO and UN troops in Kosovo and Somalia.

The Egyptian paper Al-Ahram was tremendously offended when Bush referred to Israel as a "Jewish State".

"Oslo Lives": A fisking Unlike some similar writings from others, this Jpost op-ed by German parliamentarian Friedbert Pflueger actually precedes each of his EU platitudes with a mild attempt to address the concerns and beliefs that most Israelis have regarding the current conflict:

Was it a mistake for Joschka Fischer to visit him in April 2003, thus bolstering his position in the midst of an internal Palestinian power struggle? This may well be the case. But there is also an argument in favor of Fischer's meeting with Arafat namely, that Arafat's engagement, as pater patriae, remains an essential part of the peace process.

Assuming that Pflueger maintains some awareness of the situation here, he can't really believe that Arafat "remains an essential part of the peace process". More likely that Fischer was seeking either to placate German Muslims and Arab nations; or to demonstrate that Europe doesn't simply follow Washington's diplomatic steps.

In any case, there must be greater transparency within the Palestinian executive branch. In the first months of 2002 the Israeli army discovered documents in Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah indicating that EU funds had been misappropriated to sponsor terrorist-related activities. Two journalists from the German weekly Die Zeit traced the flow of EU funds to the radical movements in a remarkable dossier ("Arafat bombs, Europe pays," June 6, 2002).

At that point the European Union should have suspended direct payments to the PA.

Although it is still important that we provide assistance, particularly humanitarian aid, to Palestine, transparancy is critical and examples of the detrimental impact of this type of support are many.

One particularly problematic example is Palestinian schoolbooks. These educational materials, partially funded by the EU, continue to preach hatred. In these texts the state of Israel does not even exist, nor do Israeli towns appear on their maps.

Rectifying the EU approach to Palestinian rejectionism and extremism requires a real policy shift, not a call for "greater transparency". Pflueger speaks like a true bureaucrat. Can Europeans really wonder why Israel abhors the idea of "international monitors" who would respond to Palestinian shootings and Kassam rocket firings with (at best) appeals for more bureaucracy?

In truth, Pflueger probably intends these paragraphs as a prelude to what he thinks the real problem is:

Israel's settlement policy is one of the biggest barriers to developing mutual trust and creating an atmosphere in which negotiations can take place. The destruction of Palestinian homes to make room for additional settler housing must be halted. The Israeli government must take action on, and be willing to consider difficult solutions to, the settlement question. Furthermore, Jerusalem should grant the Palestinians their own state. Palestinians must also regain the right to earn their living in Israel.

So there you go: the settlements are the issue - not Palestinian (and Arab) rejectionism.

And notwithstanding Pflueger's sympathetic warmup, Israel must withdraw from the West Bank/Gaza (without conditions it seems) to create a Palestinian state and maintain open borders. Why not make an attempt to convince skeptical Israelis how this could possibly work as long as the Palestinian Authority "combats" terrorist groups by offering to share power with them?

What is Pflueger's remark about the "destruction of Palestinian homes to make room for additional settler housing" referring to? Is he talking about the IDF's punitive destruction of the homes of suicide bombers? Is he talking about the separation of Palestinian farmers from their land by the security fence? Conceivably he could mean this (to my knowledge unparalleled) IDF action in Hebron, but more likely he gets too much of his information from pro-Palestinian prevaricators.

Mainstream Fatah (not Hamas) has claimed responsibility for shooting 2 Israeli women a short while ago (report).

Word on the street is that one of the victims of Wednesday's bombing is the wife of a neighborhood shopkeeper.

It seems that Sharon has thrown off the gloves against Hamas in the wake of the bombing and the PA's promise not to act against them. Some people on Channel 2 news were talking along these lines, and said that this approach has tacit support from the US - in the sense that Sharon would not be continuing the Gaza operations otherwise. But the weekend papers say differently.

This Hebrew-only page describes a conference being held at Tel Aviv U. entitled "The Camp David Summit, 2000: What went wrong? - Lessons for the Future".

Co-sponsored by Sari Nusseibeh's al-Quds University and a TAU institute affiliated with the Peres Center for Peace, the conference (as detailed in Jpost) appears to almost exclusively feature people who were and still are Oslo supporters (eg. Yossi Beilin, Robert Malley, Martin Indyk, Ron Pundak and others). As one would expect from these types, the seminar topics focus on "the process" and "methodological aspects", though there's one session titled "Substantive Issues".

Also included on the roster are PA Security Minister Mohammed Dahlan and uber-spokesliar Saeb Erekat. The Oslo skeptics on the roster include Likud MK Yuval Steinitz and former PM Ehud Barak (if he can be called a skeptic now). Also on the agenda is a message from one "President Clinton".

Latest is 15 killed on the bus.

Latest word is 10 dead in the bus bombing. Haaretz news flashes says a IAF helicopter missile hit a car of Hamas guys in Gaza.

How did anyone think it was possible to proceed with the "roadmap" when Abu Mazen's approach to these people is to offer them jobs in the PA security apparatus?

30 casualties, including some dead, in a bus bombing downtown around 20 minutes ago (Jpost, Haaretz)

The bombing was on the #14, which runs down Emek Refaim (the central throughfare in my neighborhood). I hope that none of my friends were on the bus.

I'm certain that the international blah-blahs will say this is a consequence of Israel's attempted hit on Hamas leader Rantisi yesterday. But that's nonsense since an attack like this can't be planned overnight. Earlier today I heard that 10 suicide attacks had been foiled since Abu Mazen's Aqaba declaration. The international blah-blahs don't notice them at all, just like they don't notice Kassam rockets fired on Sderot and barely noticed the 2 Fatah/Hamas attacks on the IDF that immediately followed the supposed ceasefire declaration.

I had spent the afternoon (working) in a quiet cafe downtown near the Eastern end of Yafo Rd (the bombing was at the Western end of Yafo). I got into a taxi in front of the Mashbir dept. store around 17:30. My spouse T. called a few minutes after I got home and told me about the attack. T. didn't sound concerned as she knows that I generally don't ride the buses.

The bombing happened at the bus stop in front of the "Clal building" - which is an unattractive mall + office tower that's adjacent to the Mahane Yehuda market. It houses the gov't unemployment office and Macabi health services.

So far no sign that the Palestinian "roadmap" commitments are anything other than a sham .... "Five Israelis and five Palestinians were killed Sunday in two Palestinian-initiated attacks on Israeli targets" (report). A friend of Harry's was moderately injured in one of the attacks.

Tonite at the Israel Festival, Daniel Zamir played an outstanding concert with his NYC group Satlah and a 5-piece saxophone section. Zamir, a fresh-faced 24 yr. old, has swapped the Bat-Ayin look that he had on his latest CD for Habad hasidic garb.

John Zorn cancelled his appearance at the last minute, and his composition Cobra was perfomed last night without him. It's not obvious to me that it would have made much difference had Zorn himself done the prompting. His replacement was a skinny guy in black jeans and black tshirt who jumped around very energetically. The music didn't do much for me, but the crowd (who looked like they all came from Tel Aviv) were mostly appreciative.

Masters of the Obvious Barry Rubin explains why the "roadmap" seems to be a non-starter.

Abu Mazen is said to be resisting pressure to acknowledge Israel as a "Jewish state" (report).

This Hamas "ceasefire" business is a bunch of nonsense. I would write more about this if I were less busy or if I thought most of my readers didn't see it as obvious.

The strange weather (heatwave + duststorm + unseasonal rainfall) and traffic jams made me and T. sit out the Jerusalem Day stuff tonight. The anniversary (acc. to the Hebrew calendar) of the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967 is celebrated particularly by teenagers - eg. the large group that paraded down Emek Refaim this afternoon with Israeli flags. Lots of people go to visit the old city and the Western Wall (where prayers have been conducted for centuries or maybe millenia except for the period of 48-67).

This article describes a talk on European anti-semitism by the always insightful Prof. Mark Lilla, who says that Europeans currently have severe difficulty now with the notions of particularism and the nation-state - and with the Jews who stick adhere to these supposedly antiquated ideas.

Mr. Lilla said: "Even sympathy for Palestinians has an oddly apolitical quality in Europe." Proposed solutions are little more sophisticated than imagining, as Mr. Lilla put it, "Hans Blix zipping around Palestine in his little truck."

This article describes some misreporting by the NYTimes regarding the contents of the "roadmap".

For auction: Menahem Begin's Knesset identification badge.

This AM I was in a coffee shop where a TV displayed UK Sky News with the sound turned down. An image from yesterday's bombing in Afula appeared with a red banner at the bottom of the screen that said "Road to Peace".

This would be more amusing if it weren't so on the mark (via Gil who explains it all)

Islamikaze killed 6 people about an hr ago on a bus in French Hilll (report). A second one killed only himself

Plate Irani is blogging from Iran in English.

This is supposedly the text of an internal memo calling for a post-Jayson-Blair "open forum" meeting at the NY Times.

Evelyn Gordon fisks Reporters sans Frontieres here.

Security services are discussing the outlawing the northern branch of the Islamic movement following indications that they have provided funds and tactical hitchhikes to Hamas (article).

Reading this transcript makes it apparent that the Channel 2 interview with Colin Powell would have been painful to watch. Powell sticks to diplomacy-speak and avoids addressing what Israelis really want to know: eg. why does the US think (rather than just hope) that the PA's conduct will be meaningfully different with Abu Mazen at the helm?

Mitzna has quit as Labor party leader (Jpost, Haaretz). The party will probably continue to flounder aimlessly.

There's a few reasons for the light blogging of late: one is my endeavours to find employment. The woman who I check in with once a week to get my unemployment benefits has been acting quite grumpy ever since the gov't worker strikes have begun - possibly because she fears losing her job. Bituah Leumi keeps finding excuses to reduce my benefits.

Another reason is that the local papers seem to be have been running fewer notable articles since the beginning of the Iraq war. Haaretz is increasingly useless: the feature article on Abu Mazen was a sympathetic suck-up that whitewashed his Holocaust denial; their recent pieces on the post-Corrie ISM incidents and IDF Gaza operations just repeat the ISM or Palestinian "eyewitnesses" and don't attempt to get to the bottom of anything.

A third reason is that, unlike Charles Johnson, I'm not interested in reiterating points that I've made before. By this I mean that by now I think most sane people should be skeptical of any claims made by "human shield" organizations, and I'm not inclined to debunk them each time they come up.

Finallly, despite the economic mess, life in this country is actually more sane than it was when I started this blog 13 months ago. Where would we be if Barak or Peres had been in power?

Yediot Ahronot had a couple of interesting articles this weekend: an interview with Condoleeza Rice, and some background on the Bush's upcoming June 24 Mideast speech. I'll try to get to these later.

This article says that members of the "human shield" group ISM are refusing to talk about the two British Musliims who apparently spent some time with them in Gaza before bombing a pub in Tel Aviv.

The "Mike's Place" website has a memorial to the victims of the bombing.

Suicide bombing in Tel Aviv -at Mike's Place a live music pub that has a Jerusalem branch in the Russian Compound area (report). Currently they're saying 3 dead.

Israel will probably do the "restraint" thing this time. But how will Abu Mazen respond?

Someone got here by searching for "Israeli girls in Jerusalem for dates".

Today's Yediot Ahronot reports that the Shin-Bet Internal security service believes that Iran is behind the Kfar Sava train station bombing earlier this week. According to the article, the gov't of Iran has ties with the Nablus branch of the Tanzim militia group and initiated the attack as a move to preempt any "moderate" moves by Abu Mazen.

Two good articles from Barry Rubin: this one argues that the Shiites now pose the first "real" crisis for the US in Iraq: following "the worst Middle Eastern tradition", the Iran-tilting Shiite leadership sees no reason to make compromises and is not hewing to previous understandings with the US. This one surveys the career of arrested Palestinian terrorist leader Mahmoud Abbas.

A somewhat sympathetic Israeli tagged along with a group from the International Solidarity Movement to act as a "human shield". He was eventually instructed to leave for his own safety when rumors began to float around Nablus that an Israeli was present. His description of the experience includes some interesting details about the ISM mentality (basically they sound like shrill Bay Area types who have adopted the Palestinian "martyrdom" jargon) and how they train their volunteers to lie to Israeli border guards, stay on message with the media, and avoid getting hurt. The account confirms reports that the ISM sheltered a Hamas fugitive, but says that the IDF now agrees that he was not armed.

Jpost publisher Bret Stephens apparently reads blogs - this piece on responses to the Iraq victory in the liberal media quotes mostly from articles that have already been discussed around the blogosphere.

Happy Passover!

Apparently there are lots of Persian language weblogs (like this one - by Rasa who likes Celine Dion and opines that "Jewish = people who are against God"). It's a shame that the language barrier seems to prevent the rest of the internet from a first-hand view of what's happening in Iran. And it prevents curious Iranian bloggers from getting a wider view of the world than they probably get from their official media.

Instapundit discusses pro-war pop songs.

About 6 wks ago I was on an airplane in the US where they screened a rock video by some Pearl Jam-like group performing for the troops on a US Navy ship. It struck me that Islamists around the world would be much less likely to mess with the US if they perceived a unified, strong, and youthful American will (in addition to American military and economic strength). Though obviously diversity of will goes together with the diversity of opinion and pursuit of individual interest that characterizes a democracy.

Welcome to visitors coming in from Iran. Please leave a message to let me know if you find my blog interesting.

Also, what do people in Iran think about the war against Iraq?

Here are some messages that I received from Iran one year ago.

The Christian Science Monitor has run a begrudging correction about the caption on its Rachel Corrie photo - which incorrectly indicated that the photo was taken moments before she was run over. But the CSM didn't bother correcting the caption on the web version of the article. (another good summary on Corrie here).

Tommy Lapid of the very secular Shinui party refused to meet with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer because the latter wouldn't agree to meet at the Lapid's ministry in eastern Jerusalem (report).

From a glance at the phone book it appears that the building at issue is the Justice Ministry facility on Salah el Din street - which is a bit north of the the walled city's Damascus gate. I don't make it much to that part of town, but it's two intersections away from "Road one" that leads from downtown towards Jerusalem's northern neighborhoods and the University.

This map (from an anonymous site which offers the standard Jerusalem street atlas with Israeli buildings removed and some streets renamed to Arabic conventions) shows the adjacent Mutran stadium, but omits the Justice building.

Now that the Iraq war is pretty much over, two things will probably happen:

- the gov't will finally tell us that we can dismantle our sealed rooms.
- the Quartet "roadmap" will rise to the top of the global agenda as Britain tries to show "evenhandedness"; and we'll get to see what the new Palestinian leader Abu Mazen is really about

Welcome to visitors from Spanish CNN and Stuttgarter Zeitung.

A year ago yesteday my blog was #5 on Blogdex. Daily life in Israel have changed a lot since then (thanks to the IDF), though the general situation is depressingly similar.

Barry Rubin notes the obvious parallels between the criticisms aimed at the American forces in Iraq and those levelled at the IDF. He thinks that this means the difficulty in getting Israeli viewpoints across are endemic to the situation and shouldn't be blamed Raanan Gissin et al.

Some perversely amusing things at the site of the University of Birmingham Palestinian Society...

They list Robert Fisk as one of "four pillars of wisdom" and chose a photo of him in his post-Afghan-mob-beating bandages. They have photos of a meeting they held with British Hasidim from the theologically anti-Israel Neturei Karta movement (more on Neturei Karta here). They apparently refused to play a soccer match with a student team identifying itself with Israel (and defend the decision with a link to this bizarre article from the Jordanian Star about how the brutal "revenge of Israel" extends even to Palestinian athletes - eg. cyclist Mohamed Abu Jamous who was killed after infiltrating a military base where he killed 4 soldiers).

They make the unlikely claim that the Union of Jewish Students has provided them with "profound moral support", and they say that the University Executive "hacked their site" - meaning that they were forced to remove some material.

This article describes the antics at the meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights now taking place in Geneva . And of course the Palestinian spokesman used the occasion to call for the elimination of Israel (report).

Starbucks is closing its Israeli operations (article). It didn't seem to catch on even in yuppified Herzliya Pituah. There's plenty of overpriced coffee in this country, so maybe the problem is that our jumpy pace of life doesn't lend itself to the lolling-around atmosphere that Starbucks has in the US (which I happen to like a lot in airports).

Of the 40 wounded in today's Islamikaze attack in Netanya, 2 are in critical condition - including the soldier who prevented the Islamic Jihad bomber from entering the cafe (report).

Zeev Schiff offers an evaluation of the situation on the ground near Baghdad. There's lots of that floating around, but Schiff sounds knowledgable and circumspect.

A jilbab is not a burka.

Welcome to people who have come here looking for the Command Post blog. You can find it here.

Somehow I've become the top result for the Google search on that phrase.

John Zorn was supposed to be appearing at the Israel Festival this summer, but the word now is that there will only be local performers (report).

This Fatah suicide bomber was planning on blowing up a boarding school for children from abusive homes.

The Onion was lame this week.

Haaretz news flashes says that the Israeli defence establishment believes that Iraq has mobile scud launchers concealed under bridges where they can't be seen from above.

Ynet is saying that the Shiite Basra rebellion has been put down by Iraqi forces.

Via the Command Post, an article on Iraq's use of their own people as human shields. Funny how there's rarely a similar complaint about the Palestinians - given that they've have been doing the exact same thing for 2 years.

It would be interesting to hear a military perspective on how Israeli and American forces respectively deal with this tactic.

Barry Rubin describes his experience discussing the Iraq campaign as part of a television panel on an Arab network - and what he calls the "wall of lies" (here).

I really hope Salam is for real, but this could be the CIA:

today my father and brother went out to see what happening in the city, they say that it does look that the hits were very precise but when the missiles and bombs explode they wreck havoc in the neighborhood where they fall. Houses near al-salam palace(where the minister Sahaf took journalist) have had all their windows broke, doors blown in and in one case a roof has caved in. I guess that is what is called “collateral damage” and that makes it OK?

Or is it only Israelis who would think that describing minimal collateral damage constitutes propaganda?

From following the events of the Iraq war (and the house-to-house fighting in Nasiriya) at the Command Post blog, it appears that the coalition forces are putting their own troops at risk in order to minimize Iraqi civilian casualties. And it's clear that Iraq is not concerned about following the Geneva conventions with any POWs it obtains.

If this is a new paradigm for warfare, it was probably first seen with the Israeli assault on the "militants" in Jenin last year.

Some Israeli commentators think that the Ansar al-Islam organization - an Islamic group operating in northern Iraq and consisting of non-Iraqis - will cause problems for the US forces. (article).