Another Israeli/Palestinian thread

John Creasy wrote:

Unlike Germany, where everyone is globally conscious and truly empathetic to the suffering of everybody.

We - here in Germany as well as elsewhere in Europe (and the world) - get international news, that's all.

Not sure what it is you are implying Walter, but it is getting plenty of coverage in the US.

Walter Hinteler wrote:

John Creasy wrote:

Unlike Germany, where everyone is globally conscious and truly empathetic to the suffering of everybody.

We - here in Germany as well as elsewhere in Europe (and the world) - get international news, that's all.

Fair enough Walter. Why wouldn't we get the same international news though??

In the moment, I have 35 various reports (in English and French) about the exit poll (although only varying a littel bit and mostly sourcing in three different agency reports), and just one from FOX as the only US media .... 3 hours old and saying:

Top Parties in Palestine

which refers to an even older AP-report

US Welcomes Palestinian Vote, Warns It Will Not Deal With Hamas

By David Gollust
Washington
25 January 2006


The United States Wednesday welcomed the Palestinian elections but reaffirmed it would not deal with the radical Islamic group Hamas, which could be propelled into the Palestinian government as a result of the vote. The international Quartet on the Middle East will discuss the election results next Monday in London.

Bush administration officials are making no specific threats about what will happen if Hamas becomes part of the Palestinian cabinet.

But at the same time, they are reiterating that the United States will have no dealings with Hamas, which the State Department has listed for years as a terrorist organization.

Both White House and State Department welcomed the fact that the Palestinian legislative elections drew a large turnout and were conducted in relative peace.

State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said he could not say what the U.S. approach would be to the next Palestinian government until its composition and policies had been announced.

At the same time though, he said the United States and its partners in the Middle East quartet - Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations - are already firmly on the record opposing the inclusion in the Palestinian government of any party that does not accept Israel's right to exist and renounce violence and terrorism.

He said the United States does not foresee its approach to Hamas changing, and he said it will be up to the Palestinians to deal with the fundamental contradiction posed by a group that he said wants to have one foot in politics and the other in terrorism.

You can't have armed militias running around in a democracy outside the rule of law, which is the situation that you have now," noted McCormack. "That of course needs to change. That is of course what is called for in the 'road map,' that is what the Quartet has very clearly stated. So again as for what the future Palestinian authority looks like, we'll see. But in terms of our views of the matter, we'll be guided by the principles that have been outlined in the Quartet statement as well as the road map and the statements from the secretary [of state].

The spokesman said the United States is prepared to work with a Palestinian government committed to achieving a two state solution to the Middle East conflict by peaceful means across the bargaining table, not at the point of a gun.

McCormack noted that Hamas campaigned for office on a platform of good governance and not on its record of violence.

However he said it does not necessarily follow that Hamas would undergo a peaceful transformation if it actually got into the business of governing, though he said the entire Palestinian political scene is in a period of transition.

The spokesman confirmed that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the other Quartet members, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and European Union chief diplomat Javier Solana, will discuss the election and its aftermath in a meeting in London Monday.

Diplomats will be convening in the British capital for a donors conference on Afghanistan opening Tuesday.

Israel unveils plan to encircle Palestinian state

· Olmert says he will keep control of Jordan valley
· Pullouts likely as acting PM follows Sharon's vision

Chris McGreal, Jerusalem
Wednesday February 8, 2006


The acting Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said yesterday that he plans to annex the Jordan Valley and major Jewish settlement blocks to Israel in drawing new borders, according to a television station that recorded an interview with him yesterday.
In Mr Olmert's first policy statement since he succeeded Ariel Sharon last month, Channel 2 television said that he made clear he intends to carry through his predecessor's vision of creating an emasculated Palestinian state on Israel's terms.

If the Jewish state were to annex all of the Jordan Valley, which is dotted with small settlements, it would leave a future Palestinian state on the West Bank entirely surrounded by Israel and without a direct link to neighbouring countries.

The interview was to be broadcast late last night. Channel 2's political affairs reporter, Nissim Mishal, told Army radio that Mr Olmert, who is favourite to win next month's general election, also plans further unilateral withdrawals similar to the settler pullout from Gaza last summer.

"He talked about Israel having to maintain a Jewish majority in the state of Israel, meaning that we have to create a new border, what is called final borders. He knows that we can't negotiate with Hamas. So the only conclusion that can be derived from this is that, in order to reach final borders, Israel will have to carry out additional [unilateral] withdrawals," said Mishal.

Mr Olmert said he intends to annex the three main settlement blocks of Ariel, Gush Etzion and Maale Adumim as well as the Jordan Valley, the TV station said. The pressure group Peace Now estimates 185,000 of the 244,000 Israelis in the West Bank outside Jerusalem are resident in the settlements Mr Olmert wants to keep within Israel's border.

That would mean removing about 60,000 settlers, many more than were forced out of Gaza. On Monday the defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, said the government was considering unilaterally imposing the borders of a Palestinian state.

"If we won't be able to reach agreed-upon borders, we will operate in a different way, which it is not appropriate to detail now ... we don't need to wait for someone else to impose our fate," he said. "In the coming years, and I'm talking about a few years, the final borders of the state of Israel will be set down, and the future of most of the settlements in [the West Bank] and the Jordan Valley will be decided in these two years."

Yesterday Mr Mofaz said Israel would keep targeting Palestinian armed groups, hours before an air strike killed two men in Gaza said by the army to be al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members responsible for firing rockets into Israel.

Israel has killed nine Palestinians this week, mostly Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa members, in response to rocket attacks, one of which injured a baby. The army also killed an Islamic Jihad activist in Nablus yesterday. Buildings in Israel were damaged yesterday by rockets from Gaza. The army struck a bridge and shelled roads to try to stop rockets being moved to launch sites.