"a stab in the back of resistance"

The Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, issued a
press release on Monday slamming the Palestinian Preventive Security
Force, loyal to Fateh movement, for handing to Israel a soldier who
entered Jenin earlier in the day and was captured by members of the
Brigades.
Pièce jointe au format texte brut [ Consulter et sauvegarder dans l'ordinateur ]
P.A Security Forces - Archive
One of the leaders of the Brigades stated that members of the brigades
in Jenin, in the northern part of the West Bank, managed to capture an
Israeli officer who infiltrated into the city.
“But our fighters were surprised to see members of the Preventive
Security Force surrounding them and taking the soldier away”, the
leader stated, “the soldier was wearing his military uniform, he was
moved to the security headquarters in the city before four Israeli
jeeps entered the city and the preventive security forces handed the
soldier to them”.
The Brigades considered handing the soldier back to Israel as a
rejected act which resembles “a stab in the back of the resistance”,
since the soldier was wearing his military uniform and wasn’t just a
civilian who lost his way.
The Brigades also said that the Palestinian leadership must protect the

residents from the occupation weaponry instead of protecting the
occupation soldiers from the resistance.
Moreover, the Brigades stated that only two days ago Israel
assassinated one of it prominent leaders in Jenin.
“Protecting Israeli soldiers and Special Forces is a stab against
resistance fighters who are targeted by those soldiers”, the Brigades
said, “We will retaliate soon enough”.
Israeli sources reported that the officer was on his way to an Israeli
settlement in the northern part of the West Bank and accidentally drove

into Jenin.
The sources added that the officer was not harmed, and that he was
driving without his firearm, but the Palestinian police said that they
confiscated his weapon.
Moreover, Hamas leadership in the Gaza Stip slammed the Palestinian
Security Forces fo handing the soldier back to Israel and described
this act a a disgrace to the security forces as the ISraeli army is
ongoing with its crimes against the Palestinians.

can you believe it?

Palestinians gathering around an IDF officer's car on Mon. which was torched after he entered in the West Bank town of Jenin. (AP)


Last update - 21:21 27/08/2007
Livni: Rescue of IDF major proves PA's strength
By Avi Issacharoff, and Amos Harel Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and The Associated Press


Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Monday praised the Palestinian Authority for rescuing an Israel Defense Forces officer who inadvertently entered the West Bank city of Jenin. "This operation proves that the Palestinian government and its forces are growing stronger in the field relative to the terrorist organizations," Livni said, during a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad. Livni stressed that the rescue of the IDF officer is an example of how security deterioration can be prevented, and how Israel and the Palestinians can avoid harm to both sides.



Livni and Fayad also discussed regional developments, including the Middle East summit scheduled to take place in the fall. The pair agreed on renewing the activity of currently defunct joint Israeli-PA committees on economic and environmental issues. The PA security forces engaged in a gun battle with Islamic Jihad militants Monday, in order to protect the IDF major who accidentally drove into the West Bank city of Jenin. The major was evacuated from the area unharmed, and handed over to the IDF. In October 2000, shortly after the start of the Second Intifada, two IDF reservists were killed by a Palestinian mob who lynched them after they entered Ramallah by mistake. The incident began Monday when a PA policeman noticed the officer, who was in uniform, driving in central Jenin. The policeman stopped him and called additional security forces to the scene. In the meantime, a crowd gathered in the area, and tried to assault the IDF officer. PA police evacuated him from the area, and took him to the PA security forces' headquarters in Jenin. Islamic Jihad militants then opened fire on the headquarters, sparking a gun battle with PA security forces. Local residents torched the major's car, which was left behind when he was evacuated to the security headquarters. An initial IDF inquiry into the incident found that the officer's near fatal error was due to his having violated a series of army safety procedures. The inquiry noted that the officer drove alone on the road from the West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron to that of Mevo Dotan. Army regulations, however, demand that personnel traveling there do so in a convoy and in bullet-proof vehicles. Apparently the IDF soldiers at the Shavei Shomron checkpoint did not stop the officer, as he told them he had permission for his journey. At the following junction, where the IDF does not have a permanent checkpoint, the officer should have turned left and driven westward - while in fact he continued straight ahead. It is not known whether the officer was armed at the time. Palestinian sources claim the mob that surrounded him took his handgun, though the officer himself argues that he had no weapon on him, despite regulations requiring him to have one. The IDF's Central Command was to launch a more comprehensive probe on Monday night. IDF sources said the officer will most likely be given a disciplinary hearing in an army court for the incident. Also Monday, IDF troops shot and killed a Palestinian near the security fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel, the army and Gaza medical staff said. The middle-aged Palestinian was found, unarmed, in a no-man's land along the fence south of the Karni border crossing with Israel, Palestinian doctors said. Palestinian sources identified him as Farid Abu Zaher, a 43-year-old farmer. The IDF said, however, that troops suspected the man had tried to lay an explosive and saw him climbing the fence. When the man saw the troops, he jumped off the fence and began to flee. The soldiers fired at him and saw he was hit. The soldiers did not know if he was armed, the military said. Palestinian militants frequently lay explosives against patrolling troops in the area, the army said. Incidents of unarmed Palestinians approaching the fence have increased since Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip in June. On Sunday, six Palestinians apparently looking for work tried to cross the fence into Israel, but were caught and detained by the IDF. Israel has virtually sealed off Gaza since the Hamas takeover, allowing through only essential supplies, and allowing in only a few Gazans, including people requiring specialized medical treatment and several dozen Palestinians with work and study permits abroad. Israel withdrew in 2005 from the Gaza Strip, where 1.4 million Palestinians live. Earlier Monday, Israel Air Force aircraft fired a missile at a rocket launcher in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun. Palestinian witnesses said that the missile destroyed the targeted launcher. They added that no one had been injured in the strike. The IDF confirmed they had carried out an airstrike. The Islamic Jihad militant group said it fired a rocket toward Israel from the area. No injuries or damage were reported in Israel. Earlier Monday, an armed Palestinian man opened fire at IDF troops in the Ein Beit Ilma refugee camp in Nablus. The troops returned fire and hit the armed man. The militant's condition was not immediately clear. On Sunday, Gaza militants fired three Qassam rockets toward Israel. All three landed in open areas in the western Negev, causing no injuries or damage. Shots were also fired toward an IDF post near kibbutz Nahal Oz on Sunday. Also Sunday, IDF sappers detonated an explosive device uncovered near kibbutz Kerem Shalom.

no comment

Infant dies at Erez Crossing
Date: 26 / 08 / 2007 Time: 14:36

Gaza – Ma'an – A one-year-old Palestinian infant died while waiting with his family at the Israeli-controlled Erez Crossing, between Israel and Gaza, on Sunday.The family were waiting to be transported to Israel for medical treatment.Director of ambulances and emergencies in the Palestinian ministry of health, Dr Muawiya Hassanein, said that Ibrahim Ali Abu Nahil died due to the long wait at the crossing.Dr Hassanein said that the child was suffering from heart disease and died in his father's arms while waiting in the hot summer sun to go to hospital.

another child assassinated

Family of assassinated child reveals barbaric conduct of Israeli soldiers
Date: 26 / 08 / 2007 Time: 12:14


Mahmoud Al Qarnawi (MaanImages)Tulkarem – Ma'an – The Israeli occupying forces shot intensively at a child on Friday, while he was sitting in a fig tree in Seida village, near the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem. 11-year-old Mahmoud Al Qarnawi was left bleeding on the ground by the Israeli troops. When his mother asked the soldiers if her son was alive, they said "maybe".The child had Israeli citizenship, but was visiting his relatives in the Palestinian West Bank village.Ma'an's correspondent in Tulkarem met with Mahmoud's family. They said that Israeli Special Forces had shot and killed the child.Mahmoud's sister, 16-year-old Ruqaiya, said she had watched as Mahmoud was murdered."Terrifying"Ruqaiya said, "I heard the sounds of intensive shooting behind the house, I opened our gate to see what was happening and one of the soldiers shot at me. But I wasn't hurt. I sat in a room and minutes later my mother came."I went outside with my mother to witness the most terrifying thing I have seen in my life."Ruqaiya continued, "Mahmoud was on the ground under the fig tree. He was moving but without sound or speech. There was a lot of blood around him."My mother asked one of the soldiers "is my son alive?" and he answered her in an ironic way in Arabic "maybe he is still." They stayed until he died and then left," she said.Ruqaiya added that the soldiers refused to allow her to drag her brother's body away. "They threatened me, they said they will kill me, but I insisted on removing him from under the tree."His head was open because of the bullet wounds. The scene was terrible."The soldiers then asked me to remove my other brother, Siddiq, aged 22, who was also injured and bleeding. The soldiers then dragged him for seven metres before treating him."A local lady said that the soldiers interrogated one of the other boys from the Al Qarnawi family, Safwat. "They questioned him and beat him. After that they got a football and began playing in the garden."The Israeli forces alleged that Siddiq is 'wanted' for resisting the occupation.

Al-Walaja demonstration against the Wall and destroyed trees (1)

(c) Anne Paq/ Activestills.org
Al Walaja, arbres detruits a cause de la constrution du Mur, 15/08/2007
Al Walaja, destroyed trees because of the constrution of the Wall, 15/08/2007.


18/08/2007

Retour aux manitestations.
Cette semaine j'ai appris que les beaux arbres de Walaja, un village a cote de Bethlehem, sont en train d'etre coupes pour la construction du Mur, et quand on sait combien les arbres sont rares en Palestine, cela fait vraiment mal. Je m'y etais promenee il y a a peine un mois.
Des arbres vieux de deux cent ans qui permettaient aux Palestiniens de souffler un peu.
Je suis allee photographier il y a deux jours les arbres morts, et aujourd'hui je me suis jointe a la manifestation non-violente. Un international a ete arrete, et les soldats ont violemment repousse les manifestants, y compris les cameramans et photographes. Tout cela devant la colonie de Har Gilo qui s'etend de plus en plus, sous la protection des soldats.

Back to demonstrations and the harsh reality of the occupation and colonisation.
This week I heard about the cutting of trees in the village of Wallaja, located not far from Bethlehem. I went there and it was a very painful scene to see. First trees, especially high trees, are not so numerous in Palestine and second, I have been walking around there less than one month ago. I remember how pleasent it was. Palestinians used to go there to breathe a bit and have some nice time outdoors. I found Palestinians collecting the dead wood and blaming the mayor of Cremisan that apparently made a deal with the Israelis about the location of the Wall.
Today i went to the non-violent demonstration in al-Wallaja. One international was arrested (once the demonstration was over and there was no one to prevent it) and the soldiers violently pushed back the demonstrators, as well as the cameramans and photographers. All this in front of the the colony of Har GILO, which expands more and more under the protection of the Israeli soldiers.

AL-Walaja demonstration and destroyed trees (2)

(c) Anne Paq/Activestills.org
Al Walaja, arbres detruits a cause de la constrution du Mur, 15/08/2007
Al Walaja, destroyed trees because of the constrution of the Wall, 15/08/2007.

WEBSITE

(c) Anne Paq/activestills.org Kids from the photo group of Images for life

Desolee de cette absence, j'etais en break, une pause tres necessaire et salutaire. je reviens en forme mais sans appareil photo et ordinateur. alors la frequence de mes posts risque de se ralentir.

en attendant allez faire un tour sur le site de mon projet Images for Life dans le camp de refugies de Aida.

http://www.imagesforlifeonline.com/

nous allons le completer par plus de photos et de portraits tres bientot...

sorry for this long period without posting, I badly needed a break. I come back in a better shape however my camera and laptop broke down. so i guess my posts will be uneven.

anyway i will try to continue. in the meantime, check the new website of the project I coordinate in Aida refugee camp.

http://www.imagesforlifeonline.com.

It will be updated soon with more pictures and portraits from our participants.

Haaretz editorial

A racist Jewish state

By Haaretz Editorial

Every day the Knesset has the option of passing laws that will advance Israel as a democratic Jewish state or turn it into a racist Jewish state. There is a very thin line between the two. This week, the line was crossed. If the Knesset legal counselor did not consider the bill entitled "the Jewish National Fund Law" as sufficiently racist to keep it off the agenda, it is hard to imagine what legislation she will consider racist. In 1995 the Supreme Court rescued the state from callously discriminating against its Arab citizens through the Ka'adan case, which prohibited the Israel Lands Administration from discriminating against non-Jews by leasing land through the Jewish Agency. Since then the attorney general has stated that such discrimination is unacceptable - also when it is carried out through the Jewish National Fund. The MKs were unable to accept this egalitarian ruling, and on Wednesday a large majority of 65 voted in favor of a preliminary reading permitting such discrimination. The bill is also backed by the head of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, MK Menahem Ben-Sasson. Any explanation by the supporters of the bill seeking to beautify it should be rejected immediately by anyone who cares about the country's image. This bill reflects an abasement of the Zionist enterprise to lows never imagined in the Declaration of Independence. Even though the Jewish National Fund purchased the lands for the Jewish people in the Diaspora, the State of Israel has already been established and these lands must now serve all its citizens.

Advertisement For those living for tomorrow and not the past, the aim is to create in Israel a healthy, progressive state where the needs of the two peoples should concern the leaders and legislators. The Jewish National Fund's land policy counters the interests of the state and cannot discriminate by law against the minority living in Israel. The clause in the bill stating that "the leasing of JNF lands for the purpose of settling Jews will not be seen as unacceptable discrimination," even though it involves 13 percent of state-controlled lands and allows for further expressions of discrimination. For example, the establishment of a university only for Jews on JNF land, or a hospital, or a movie theater. It is not surprising that MK Uri Ariel, who favors the redemption of lands by Jews also beyond the Green Line, is the person who initiated the Jewish National Fund bill. But the support of Benjamin Netanyahu, Ami Ayalon, Michael Eitan, Reuven Rivlin and Shalom Simhon is a very bad omen for the future of legislation in Israel. The Ka'adan case in the Supreme Court failed to bring about change. The power to discriminate was passed on to communities' acceptance committees that reject candidates by reverting to the clause of "being ill-suited to the community." If it was not for the Supreme Court's ruling in the Ka'adan case, it would have been possible also to reject non-Jewish candidates from Russia. The Ka'adan ruling was exceptional in setting red lines, allowing a broad range for change, establishing norms and preventing the debasement of the rule book. It turns out that the Supreme Court is not omnipotent. In an instant, a racist Knesset can overturn its rulings.

Images for Life

La video du projet que je coordonne au camp de refugies de Aida- vous recherchons des equipements et des volontaires/ the video of the project I coordinate in Aida refugee camp. We are looking for some volunteers and equipments.

Artas story- building on the field

(c) Anne Paq/Activestills.com, 29 June 2007, Artas
Demonstration in Artas. On the field where the apricot trees were uprooted three weeks ago (see previous posts); the building goes very fast. According to the villagers, the Israelis are building a sewage facily for the settlers.

Manif à Artas. Sur le champ, où des abricotiers ont été arrachés il y a trois semaines, les travaux avancent à grand pas. Selon les villageois, les Israeliens sont en train de construire un système d'evacuation d'egout pour les colons.

in the meantime...

see article below; i had also witnessed this in Bethlehem checkpoint. around 3 weeks ago, as i was crossing the checkpoint, there was a woman trying to pass with her three children. she was biping under the metal detector, so the soldiers asked her to go to a little room for strip seach.
the three children were left outside the room, they were very scared. I tried to stay with them but a female soldier shouted at me to go. I tried to protest in vain, and at the end i had to go. as i was continuing my way, I heard the soldiers women screaming louder and louder. i understood that the woman refused to strip. then as i was asking some explanation to some soldiers, some male soldiers passed in front of me. they started to shout as well. I asked to a Palestinian in the queue to translate. He said that the soldier was saying: "i will come in and take your clothes off myself!".

Israeli army forces women to strip at Bethlehem checkpoint

Thursday June 28, 2007 16:36 by Nissren Abu Ghazalah - IMEMC News ghassanb at imemc dot org

"It seems that there are plans to topple the honor of Palestinian girls in the clutches of the Israeli intelligence through blackmail at checkpoints and military crossings, and I don’t doubt that inside the inspection rooms there are cameras video taping girls undressing."

These were the words of Manal, a young Palestinian lady from Bethlehem, in the southern part of the West Bank. She is describing what happened to her last weekend at the Israeli military crossing known as 300 located at the entrance of Bethlehem. This checkpoint cuts Bethlehem from its sister city, Jerusalem.

Manal witnessed a new episode of racist Israeli methods, and this will not be the last time. She said, "I arrived with one of my friends to the Bethlehem checkpoint, and after crossing several inspection points, we waited a little while, and while we were waiting, a group of female university students came out from one of the side rooms in tears. When we asked them why they were crying, they replied that they had been forced to strip naked during inspection. "

Manal continued: "I can not describe what happened to the students! They were forced to strip naked collectively in one of the rooms after women soldiers intimidated them." She added, "The female soldier asked me and my friend to enter the room for inspection, but we refused. She said that we can enter separately to be strip searched, and when we refused again she screamed at us and called us al kind of swear words. Then we got detained inside one of the room at the checkpoint, and after a number of phone calls to human rights organizations my friend and I were allowed to leave the checkpoint."

Manal added that "On this particular day men were not inspected, but only women. This confirms that the Israeli authorities had serious intentions to humiliating us". The young Palestinian lady also noted that, "if there were security reasons for this inspection, why not search all the people? Anyhow, don't the Israeli authorities refuse to grant permission for Palestinians who have security records to cross at this checkpoint? Apart from this we had already entered a number of checkpoints unscathed before this strip search; all these factors raise suspicions".

Manal also stressed that stopping people at the Bethlehem checkpoint and only letting them go through after passing inspection procedures is normal, but forcing women to strip search is a new phenomenon in Bethlehem. This causes real fears among women that this procedure will become normal in the future.

Jamal Zahalka, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament received complaints about this matter. He responded by filing an investigation letter to the Israeli Security Minister Ehud Barak. Zahalka commented on the Israeli soldiers' demeaning act by saying, "There is no end to the moral degradation of the occupation, he who forces women to strip has sunk to the lowest morals level. He is a lowlife. We must stop this shameful action immediately."

Translated by Ghassan Bannoura – IMEMC News Room

jerusalem | human rights | news report

in the meantime...

Israeli troops invade Qalqas, south of Hebron; arrest 60 Palestinians, among them, 18 children

Date: 28 / 06 / 2007 Time: 17:32

Hebron - Ma'an – At dawn on Thursday, Israeli military forces stormed the village of Qalqas, south of Hebron, arresting 60 people, taking them to an unknown area. Local sources reported to Ma'an that a large military force arrested 18 children, including three tawjihi students. A teacher and two university students were also seized. Most of the abducted citizens were cousins and relatives of one another. In Idhna, to the west of Hebron, Israeli troops arrested a further three Palestinian citizens and seized large quantities of copper, belonging to the detainees. Security sources reported to our correspondent that the troops raided houses and arrested yet more citizens, and confiscated large quantities of copper.

On the verge of catastrophe in Gaza

Oxfam condemns the caging of Gaza, demands immediate reopen

Monday June 25, 2007 10:12 by George Rishmawi - IMEMC News george at imemc dot org

Oxfam International, condemned aid blockade of Gaza that is leaving more than 1.3 million Palestinians on the brink of a humanitarian crisis. Oxfam, a humanitarian aid agency, called on all actors in the conflict to ensure that urgently needed food, medicine and water supplies are allowed into the Gaza Strip immediately.

Oxfam’s call which comes as Israeli and Palestinian leaders meet today in Egypt, demands that reopening of the Gaza borders be a top priority on the agenda to allow essential supplies to enter.

Failing to do so, the entire region’s economy and basic services such as health and water systems will collapse.

“The international community is closing its eyes to its humanitarian obligations and allowing the suffering to intensify. Aid is being drip-fed across the border. The entrapment of Gaza is completely unacceptable. We urge the key players to resolve what has been a completely avoidable crisis,” Jeremy Hobbs Director of Oxfam International said.

Only 20 trucks a day are permitted t enter Gaza Strip, however, to meet peoples essential needs, Oxfam says, at least 100 trucks per day are needed, as there are just days until food supplies will run out, fuel is scarce and essential medicines are also critically low.

In addition to the supply issue, Oxfam pointed out a serious problem with the sewage in the Strip.

Oxfam pointed out that The Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) who is an Oxfam-Partner operating the Beit Lahia Sewage Works fear that the works could burst swamping up to 10,000 in sewage and contaminate the water supplies of 300,000, creating a public health crisis.

The CMWU has been waiting for over three months for $500,000 worth of equipment. There are only 10 days of chlorine supplies left and people may soon have to start to drink contaminated water.

Hobbs added, “Withholding aid as a political weapon is bringing untold suffering to an entire population. This shames the international community. Water equipment has been waiting at Gaza’s border for more than three months. These sanctions must cease immediately.”

Oxfam expressed concerns, that the dire situation in Gaza Strip will be ignored in Sharm Al-Sheikh summit. Therefore, it calls on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to lift the blockade immediately and also calls on the Palestinian Authorities to ensure that publics service workers and humanitarian agencies can distribute urgently needed materials.

international | peace process | news report

Um Salamoneh weekly Protest

(c) Anne Paq/activestills.org; Um Salamoneh; 22 June 2007.

Sous un soleil brulant, la manifestation hebdomadaire contre la construction du Mur s'est encore déroulée, à Um Salamoneh. Comme chaque semaine, les soldats israeliens etaient aussi au rendez-vous, avec leur armes tandis que les Palestiniens et internationaux brandissaient des pousses d'arbres qu'ils voulaient replanter sur leur terres desormais innacessibles. Ils ne sont pas allés bien loin; et se sont heurtés à la haie de soldats.
Des arbres ont été plantés là, symboliquement; comme pour dire nous replanterons encore et encore. Comme d'habitude au bout d'un moment les soldats ont commencé à charger violemment, et ont arrêté deux Israeliens....rendez vous pris pour la semaine suivante.


ENGLISH
Under a very burning sun, the weekly demonstration against the construction of the Wall took place in Um Salamoneh. As every week, the Israeli soldiers were waiting. Their number were equal as the number of demonstrators. The soldiers have their arms while Palestinians and internationals were carrying trees, to be replanted on the lands they cannot access anymore. We did not go very far as the soldiers stopped us rapidly. Trees have been planted there. it was all symbolic as for sure they will be uprooted as soon as we will turn our back. whatever. it was all about to say that again and again we were replant...
as usual, after a while the soldiers violently pushed away the protestors, and arrested two Israelis....see you again next week.

Um Salamoneh weekly Protest

(c) Anne Paq/activestills.org, Um Salamoneh 22 June 2007

Um Salamoneh weekly Protest

(c) Anne Paq/www.activestills.org Um salamona; 22 June 2007.

Whose Coup, Exactly?

In this Opinion/Editorial from the Electronic Intifada, Virginia Tilley deals with the questions at hand...

Whose Coup, Exactly?
Virginia Tilley

Having sacked Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and dissolved his democratically-elected government, Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas has now installed Salam Fayyad as the new Prime Minister, to the clear delight of the West. Mutual accusations are hurled by Abbas and Haniyeh that the other side launched a coup against the legitimate authority. Nevertheless, now a fresh line of grave Palestinian faces has lined up before the cameras as Fayyad's new "emergency government" is sworn in. That the new PA has virtually no power in the West Bank, and none at all in Gaza, is the first glaring problem with this pageantry. (Bitter jokes about a 'two-state solution' consisting of the West Bank and Gaza Strip have circulated.)

An international community worried by the 'coup' accusation might endorse the Fayyad government as the seemingly correct position. But the 'coup' claim stumbles over a basic problem -- that Abbas's appointing a new prime minister was itself entirely illegal. The new 'emergency government' is illegal, too. According to the Basic Law of Palestine (as amended in 2003), which serves as the constitution of the PA, Abbas can do neither of these things. Nor can the new 'emergency government' claim any democratic mandate. This means that Abbas and the Fayyad government are ruling by decree, outside the framework of the Basic Law. So on what basis is that government supposed to govern -- and on what basis are foreign governments supposed to deal with it?

According to the Basic Law, Abbas has violated a whole stream of Articles as well as the spirit of its checks and balances, which were designed during the Arafat era partly to limit the power of the presidency. With full US and Israel support (if not their insistence), Abbas has baldly trashed numerous provisions of the Basic Law, including:

The President can sack his Prime Minister (Article 45) but he cannot legally appoint a new Prime Minister that does not represent the majority party (i.e., Hamas).

In the event that a President sacks the PM, the Government is considered to have resigned (Article 83), but the serving Cabinet (here, the Hamas-led Cabinet) is supposed to govern until a new Cabinet is confirmed by the Legislative Council (Article 78).

Only the Legislative Council can confirm the new PM and Cabinet and the new officials cannot take their oaths (Article 67) or assume their duties (Article 79) until this is done. We might now look for the Fayyad government to go to the Legislative Council for post hoc approval, but if the Legislative Council cannot vote for lack of a quorum -- because too many of its members are in jail or refuse to participate -- then the Cabinet cannot be legally confirmed. The Basic Law provides no remedy for conditions where the Legislative Council cannot vote to confirm the Cabinet or the actions of the President.

The President can rule by degree during emergencies (Article 43) but the Legislative Council must approve all these decrees at its first meeting.

The President cannot suspend the Legislative Council during a state of emergency (Article 113).

The President has no power to call early elections, either.

The Basic Law has no provision whatsoever for an "emergency government."

What does this mean for the PA? It is no longer the same animal. The Fayyad government is the step-child of an extra-legal process with no democratic mandate. The whole manoeuvre is not precisely a palace coup, but it is something like it.

What does this mean for the world? Foreign governments now confront one of the most unwelcome events in international diplomacy -- the sudden transformation of a government into a different kind of government. As in any revolution or coup, diplomatic recognition of Salam Fayyad's "emergency Government" as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people must now be reassessed. For example, by what authority does the "emergency government" act in the name of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza? What capacities and responsibilities does the "emergency government" now have? On what legal and political bases are diplomatic relations to be sustained?

We must admit that these are legal but also political questions. The PA is the invention of the 1993 and 1995 Oslo Accords (it was supposed to serve for a period "not exceeding five years") But the Basic Law was developed later, to confirm and ensure its democratic character. This set of laws represented a Palestinian state-building measure, providing a start-up framework for Palestinian democracy in anticipation (or at least affirmation) of eventual Palestinian statehood. Hence the Basic Law refers in its introduction to the 1995 Oslo 2 accord but also invokes the Palestinian people as its ultimate political authority (Article 2: "... the people are the source of power ..."). Governments may therefore attempt to justify sustaining relations with the new Fayyad government out of solidarity with the Palestinian national effort -- albeit one in crisis.

Still, in attempting this, foreign governments now face dubious and perplexing options:

They could suspend diplomatic relations with the Fayyad government, on grounds that it is illegal, and deal with the elected Haniyeh government. But this might cripple their communication with Ramallah at a critical time and put them at odds with the US and Israel.

They could sustain diplomatic relations with the Fayyad government, accepting its claim that the Hamas government launched a coup, but they would then be endorsing a government that is violating its own laws and has itself effectively pulled a coup.

They could accept the new Fayyad government on condition that it now obey other provisions of the Basic Law, such as gaining Legislative Council approval and/or calling new elections. But the Basic Law doesn't allow the Cabinet to call new elections and this new Cabinet doesn't have any legal standing to govern anyway. (It's also hard to see how new national elections could be held when the Haniyeh government refuses to recognize the new Cabinet and conditions in both territories are so contrary to free and fair elections.)

They could pull a classic diplomatic side-step by calling the situation a temporary constitutional crisis and maintaining relations with both sides, but this tactic will quickly bog down because present events look more like the complete collapse of the Basic Law and its framework.

Facing this mess, they could do a back-step: suspend formal diplomatic relations but maintain communication with both sides, pending further developments, but what about those formal agreements (exchange, trade, security, diplomatic representation) they may have signed with the PA? Which side is truly representative and to whom are they accountable?

There are other legalistic maneuvers they could try, such as treating the PA under terms established by the Oslo Accords or the Gaza-Jericho agreement of 1994. But none of those documents provide for a prime minister or any of the procedures being acted out in Ramallah.

In short, the diplomatic landscape is now in utter disarray. The Fayyad Government has no democratic mandate, is not operating by the very rules that establish its democratic legitimacy, and so is only a facsimile of the 'government' with which many of the world's states established diplomatic relations. It does not help that the United States, an obedient Europe, and legless Arab states have trotted up to anoint it as the sole legitimate authority. Nor does it help to pretend that Hamas -- a broad movement with popular legitimacy -- will simply disappear through decrees from Abbas and some nice political theatre.

It is not clear how long this flimsy diplomatic pretense can hold up to scrutiny by a skeptical world. Nor is it clear what political costs foreign governments will have to absorb if they try to play along with it -- especially when the now-traumatized Palestinian people, in the territories and in Diaspora, begin protesting their government's being hijacked by anti-democratic figureheads for Israeli and US agendas. Being targeted as supporting this pantomime government was not the goal of those governments who recognized the PA to support the Palestinian people. As UN official Alvaro De Soto put it in his eloquent 'End of Mission Report' this May, 'It may be better to be the one who raises questions about the Emperor's new clothes than to be ridiculed as the naked Emperor oneself.'

Towards a Geography of Peace: Whither Gaza?

Towards a Geography of Peace: Whither Gaza?
Ilan Pappé, The Electronic Intifada, 18 June 2007

Pièce jointe au format texte brut [ Consulter et sauvegarder dans l'ordinateur ]

In Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, a man sits next to a wall that
reads in Arabic, "No to internal fighting. Yes to fighting the
occupation." 16 June 2007. (Hatem Omar/MaanImages)

 The Gaza Strip is a little bit more than two percent of Palestine.
This small detail is never mentioned whenever the Strip is in the news
nor has it been mentioned in the present Western media coverage of the
dramatic events unfolding in Gaza in the last few weeks. Indeed it is
such a small part of the country that it never existed as a separate
region in the past. Gaza's history before the Zionization of Palestine
was not unique and it was always connected administratively and
politically to the rest of Palestine. It was until 1948 for all intents
and purposes an integral and natural part of the country. As one of
Palestine’s principal land and sea gates to the world, it tended to
develop a more flexible and cosmopolitan way of life; not dissimilar to
other gateways societies in the Eastern Mediterranean in the modern
era. This location near the sea and on the Via Maris to Egypt and
Lebanon brought with it prosperity and stability until this life was
disrupted and nearly destroyed by the Israeli ethnic cleansing of
Palestine in 1948.

 In between 1948 and 1967, Gaza became a huge refugee camp restricted
severely by the respective Israeli and Egyptian policies: both states
disallowed any movement out of the Strip. Living conditions were
already harsh then as the victims of the 1948 Israeli politics of
dispossession doubled the number of the inhabitants who lived there for
centuries. On the eve of the Israeli occupation in 1967, the
catastrophic nature of this enforced demographic transformation was
evident all over the Strip. This once pastoral coastal part of southern
Palesine became within two decades one of the world's densest areas of
habitation; without any adequate economic infrastructure to support it.

 The first twenty years of Israeli occupation at least allowed some
movement outside an area that was closed off as a war zone in the years
1948 to 1967. Tens of thousand of Palestinians were permitted to join
the Israeli labor market as unskilled and underpaid workers. The price
Israel demanded for this slavery market was a total surrender of any
national struggle or agenda. When this was not complied with -- the
'gift' of laborers' movement was denied and abolished. All these years
leading to the Oslo accord in 1993 were marked by an Israeli attempt to
construct the Strip as an enclave, which the Peace Camp hoped would be
either autonomous or part of Egypt and the Nationalist camp wished to
include in the Greater Eretz Israel they dreamed of establishing
instead of Palestine.

 The Oslo agreement enabled the Israelis to reaffirm the Strip's
status
as a separate geo-political entity -- not just outside of Palestine as
a whole, but also cut apart from the West Bank. Ostensibly, both the
Gaza Strip and the West Bank were under the Palestinian Authority but
any human movement between them depended on Israel's good will; a rare
Israeli trait and which almost disappeared when Benjamin Netanyahu came
to power in 1996. Moreover, Israel held, as it still does today, the
water and electricity infrastructure. Since 1993 it used, or rather
abused, this possession in order to ensure on the one hand the
well-being of the Jewish settler community there and on the other in
order to blackmail the Palestinian population into submission and
surrender. The people of the Gaza Strip thus vacillated in the last
sixty years between being internees, hostages or prisoners in an
impossible human space.

 It is within this historical context that we should view the violence
raging today in Gaza and reject the reference to the events there as a
campaign in the 'war against terror,' an instance of Islamic
revivalism, a further proof for al-Qadia’s expansionism, a seditious
Iranian penetration into this part of the world or another arena in the
dreaded Clash of Civilizations (I picked here only few out of many
frequent adjectives used in the Western media for describing the
present crisis in Gaza). The origins of the mini civil war in Gaza lie
elsewhere. The recent history of the Strip, 60 years of dispossession,
occupation and imprisonment produced inevitably internal violence such
as we are witnessing today as it produced other unpleasant features of
life lived under such impossible conditions. In fact, it would be fair
to say that the violence, and in particular the internal violence, is
far less than one would have expected given the economic and social
conditions created by the genocidal Israeli policies in the last six
years.

 Power struggles among politicians, who enjoy the support of military
outfits, is indeed a nasty business that victimizes the society as a
whole. Part of what goes on in Gaza is such a struggle between
politicians who were democratically elected and those who still find it
hard to accept the verdict of the public. But this is hardly the main
struggle. What unfolds in Gaza is a battleground between America's and
Israel's local proxies -- most of whom are unintentionally such proxies
but none the less they dance to Israel's tune -- and those who oppose
it. The opposition that now took over Gaza did it alas in a way that
one would find very hard to condone or cheer. It is not the Hamas'
Palestinian vision that is worrying, but rather the means it has chosen
to achieve it that we hope would not be rooted or repeated. To its
credit one should openly say that the means used by Hamas are part of
an arsenal that enabled it in the past to be the only active force that
at least tried to stop the total destruction of Palestine; the way it
is used now is less credible and hopefully temporary.

 But one cannot condemn the means if one does not offer an
alternative.
Standing idle while the American-Israeli vision of strangling the Strip
to death, cleansing half of the West bank from its indigenous
population and threatening the rest of the Palestinians -- inside
Israel and in the other parts of the West Bank -- with transfer, is not
an option. It is tantamount to "decent" people’s silence during the
Holocaust.

 We should not tire from mentioning the alternative in the 21st
century: BDS -- Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions -- as an emergency
measure -- far more effective and far less violent -- in opposing the
present destruction of Palestine. And at the same time talk openly,
convincingly and efficiently, of creating the geography of peace. A
geography in which abnormal phenomena such as the imprisonment of small
portion of the land would disappear. There will be no more, in the
vision we should push forward, a human prison camp called the Gaza
strip where some armed inmates are easily pitted against each other by
a callous warden. Instead that area would return to be an organic part
of an Eastern Mediterranean country that has always offered the best as
a meeting point between East and West.

 Never before, in the light of the Gaza tragedy, has the twofold
strategy of BDS and a one state solution, shined so clearly as the only
alternative forward. If any of us are members in Palestine solidarity
groups, Arab-Jewish dialogue circles or part of civil society's effort
to bring peace and reconciliation to Palestine -- this is a time to put
aside all the false strategies of coexistence, road maps and two states
solutions. They have been and still are sweet music to the ears of the
Israeli demolition team that threatens to destroy what is left of
Palestine. Beware especially of Diet Zionists or Cloest Zionists, who
recently joined the campaign, in Britain and elsewhere against the BDS
effort. Like those enlightened pundits who used liberal organs in the
United Kingdom, such as The Guardian, to explain to us at length how
dangerous is the proposed academic boycott on Israel. They have never
expended so much time, energy or words on the occupation itself as they
did in the service of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. UNISON,
Britain’s large public service trade union, must not be deterred by
this backlash and it should follow these brave academics who endorsed
the debate on the boycott, as should Europe as a whole: not only for
the sake of Palestine and Israel, but also if it wishes to bring a
closure to the Holocaust chapter in its history.

 And a final small portion of food for thought. There are quite a few
Jewish mothers and wives in the Gaza Strip -- some sources within Gaza
say up to 2000 -- married to local Palestinians and parents to their
children. There are many more Jewish women who married Palestinians in
the Palestine countryside. An act of desegregation that both political
elites find difficult to admit, digest or acknowledge. If despite the
colonization, occupation, genocidal policies and dispossession such
harmonies of love and affection were possible, imagine what could
happen if these criminal policies and ideologies would disappear. When
the Wall of Apartheid is removed and the electric fences of Zionism
dismantled -- Gaza will become once more a symbol of Fernand Braudel's
coastal society, able to fuse different cultural horizons and offer a
space for new life instead of the war zone it has become in the last
sixty years.

Ilan Pappe is senior lecturer in the University of Haifa Department of
political Science and Chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian
Studies in Haifa. His books include, among others, The Making of the
Arab-Israeli Conflict (London and New York 1992), The Israel/Palestine
Question (London and New York 1999), A History of Modern Palestine
(Cambridge 2003), The Modern Middle East (London and New York 2005) and
his latest, Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006)

Crocodile Tears – By Uri Avnery

Crocodile Tears – By Uri Avnery

Date: 16 / 06 / 2007 Time: 18:12


WHAT HAPPENS when one and a half million human beings are imprisoned in a tiny, arid territory, cut off from their compatriots and from any contact with the outside world, starved by an economic blockade and unable to feed their families?

Some months ago, I described this situation as a sociological experiment set up by Israel, the United States and the European Union. The population of the Gaza Strip as guinea pigs.

This week, the experiment showed results. They proved that human beings react exactly like other animals: when too many of them are crowded into a small area in miserable conditions, they become aggressive, and even murderous. The organizers of the experiment in Jerusalem, Washington, Berlin, Oslo, Ottawa and other capitals could rub their hands in satisfaction.
The subjects of the experiment reacted as foreseen. Many of them even died in the interests of science.

But the experiment is not yet over. The scientists want to know what happens if the blockade is tightened still further.

WHAT HAS caused the present explosion in the Gaza Strip?

The timing of Hamas' decision to take over the Strip by force was not accidental. Hamas had many good reasons to avoid it. The organization is unable to feed the population. It has no interest in provoking the Egyptian regime, which is busy fighting the Muslim Brotherhood, the mother-organization of Hamas. Also, the organization has no interest in providing Israel with a pretext for tightening the blockade.

But the Hamas leaders decided that they had no alternative but to destroy the armed organizations that are tied to Fatah and take their orders from President Mahmoud Abbas. The US has ordered Israel to supply these organizations with large quantities of weapons, in order to enable them to fight Hamas. The Israeli army chiefs did not like the idea, fearing that the arms might end up in the hands of Hamas (as is actually happening now). But our government obeyed American orders, as usual.

The American aim is clear. President Bush has chosen a local leader for every Muslim country, who will rule it under American protection and follow American orders. In Iraq, in Lebanon, in Afghanistan, and also in Palestine.

Hamas believes that the man marked for this job in Gaza is Mohammed Dahlan. For years it has looked as if he was being groomed for this position.

The American and Israeli media have been singing his praises, describing him as a strong, determined leader, "moderate" (i.e. obedient to American orders) and "pragmatic" (i.e. obedient to Israeli orders). And the more the Americans and Israelis lauded Dahlan, the more they undermined his standing among the Palestinians. Especially as Dahlan was away in Cairo, as if waiting for his men to receive the promised arms.

In the eyes of Hamas, the attack on the Fatah strongholds in the Gaza Strip is a preventive war. The organizations of Abbas and Dahlan melted like snow in the Palestinian sun. Hamas has easily taken over the whole Gaza Strip.

How could the American and Israeli generals miscalculate so badly? They are able to think only in strictly military terms: so-and-so many soldiers, so-and-so many machine guns. But in interior struggles in particular, quantitative calculations are secondary. The morale of the fighters and public sentiment are far more important. The members of the Fatah organizations do not know what they are fighting for. The Gaza population supports Hamas, because they believe that it is fighting the Israeli occupier. Their opponents look like collaborators of the occupation. The American statements about their intention of arming them with Israeli weapons have finally condemned them.


That is not a matter of Islamic fundamentalism. In this respect all nations are the same: they hate collaborators of a foreign occupier, whether they are Norwegian (Quisling), French (Petain) or Palestinian.


IN WASHINGTON and Jerusalem, politicians are bemoaning the "weakness of Mahmoud Abbas".

They see now that the only person who could prevent anarchy in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank was Yasser Arafat. He had a natural authority. The masses adored him. Even his adversaries, like Hamas, respected him. He created several security apparatuses that competed with each other, in order to prevent any single apparatus from carrying out a coup-d'etat. Arafat was able to negotiate, sign a peace agreement and get his people to accept it.

But Arafat was pilloried by Israel as a monster, imprisoned in the Mukata'ah and, in the end, murdered. The Palestinian public elected Mahmoud Abbas as his successor, hoping that he would get from the Americans and the Israelis what they had refused to give to Arafat.

If the leaders in Washington and Jerusalem had indeed been interested in peace, they would have hastened to sign a peace agreement with Abbas, who had declared that he was ready to accept the same far-reaching compromise as Arafat. The Americans and the Israelis heaped on him all conceivable praise and rebuffed him on every concrete issue.

They did not allow Abbas even the slightest and most miserable achievement. Ariel Sharon plucked his feathers and then sneered at him as "a featherless chicken". After the Palestinian public had patiently waited in vain for Bush to move, it voted for Hamas, in the desperate hope of achieving by violence what Abbas has been unable to achieve by diplomacy.

The Israeli leaders, both military and political, were overjoyed. They were interested in undermining Abbas, because he enjoyed Bush's confidence and because his stated position made it harder to justify their refusal to enter substantive negotiations. They did everything to demolish Fatah. To ensure this, they arrested Marwan Barghouti, the only person capable of keeping Fatah together.

The victory of Hamas suited their aims completely. With Hamas one does not have to talk, to offer withdrawal from the occupied territories and the dismantling of settlements. Hamas is that contemporary monster, a "terrorist" organization, and with terrorists there is nothing to discuss.

SO WHY were people in Jerusalem not satisfied this week? And why did they decide "not to interfere"?

True, the media and the politicians, who have helped for years to incite the Palestinian organizations against each other, showed their satisfaction and boasted "we told you so". Look how the Arabs kill each other. Ehud Barak was right, when he said years ago that our country is "a villa in the jungle".

But behind the scenes, voices of embarrassment, even anxiety, could be heard.

The turning of the Gaza Strip into Hamastan has created a situation for which our leaders were not ready. What to do now? To cut off Gaza altogether and let the people there starve to death? To establish contacts with Hamas? To occupy Gaza again, now that it has become one big tank trap? To ask the UN to station international troops there - and if so, how many countries would be crazy enough to risk their soldiers in this hell?

Our government has worked for years to destroy Fatah, in order to avoid the need to negotiate an agreement that would inevitably lead to the withdrawal from the occupied territories and the settlements there. Now, when it seems that this aim has been achieved, they have no idea what to do about the Hamas victory.

They comfort themselves with the thought that it cannot happen in the West Bank. There, Fatah reigns. There Hamas has no foothold. There our army has already arrested most of Hamas' political leaders. There Abbas is still in power.

Thus speak the generals, with the generals' logic. But in the West Bank, too, Hamas did win a majority in the last elections. There, too, it is only a matter of time before the population loses its patience. They see the expansion of the settlements, the Wall, the incursions of our army, the targeted assassinations, the nightly arrests. They will explode.

Successive Israeli governments have destroyed Fatah systematically, cut off the feet of Abbas and prepared the way for Hamas. They can't pretend to be surprised.

WHAT TO DO? To go on boycotting Abbas or to provide him with arms, to enable him to fight for us against Hamas? To go on depriving him of any political achievement or to throw him some crumbs at long last? And anyway, isn't it too late?

(And on the Syrian front: to go on paying lip service to peace while sabotaging all the efforts of Bashar Assad to start negotiations? To negotiate secretly, despite American objections? Or continue doing nothing at all?)

At present, there is no policy, and no government which could determine a policy.

So who will save us? Ehud Barak?

Barak's victory in this week's Labor Party leadership run-off has turned him almost automatically into the next Minister of Defense. His strong personality and his experience as Chief of Staff and Prime Minister assure him of a dominant position in the restructured government. Olmert will deal with the area in which he is an unmatched master - party machinations. But Barak will have a decisive influence on policy.

In the government of the two Ehuds, Ehud Barak will decide on matters of war and peace.

Until now, practically all his actions have had negative results. He came very close to an agreement with Assad the father and escaped at the last moment. He withdrew the Israeli army from South Lebanon, but without speaking with Hizbullah, which took over. He compelled Arafat to come to Camp David, insulted him there and declared that we have no partner for peace. This dealt a death blow to the chances of peace, a blow which still paralyzes the Israeli public. He has boasted that his real intention was to "unmask" Arafat. He was more of a failed Napoleon than an Israeli de Gaulle.

Will the Ethiopian change his skin, the leopard his spots? Hard to believe.

IN THE dramas of William Shakespeare, there is frequently a comic interlude at tense moments. And not only there.

Shimon Peres, the person who in 55 years of political activity had never won an election, did the impossible this week: he got elected President of Israel.

Many years ago, I entitled an article about him "Mr. Sisyphus", because again and again he had almost reached the threshold of success, and success had evaded him. Now he might feel like thumbing his nose at the gods after reaching the summit, but - alas - without the boulder. The office of the president is devoid of content and jurisdiction. A hollow politician in a hollow position.

Now everybody expects a flurry of activity at the president's palace. There will certainly be peace conferences, meetings of personalities, high-sounding declarations and illustrious plans. In short - much ado about nothing.

The practical result is that Olmert's position has been strengthened. He has succeeded in installing Peres in the President's office and Barak in the Ministry of Defense. In the short term, Olmert's position is assured.

And in the meantime, the experiment in Gaza continues, Hamas is taking over and the trio - Ehud 1, Ehud 2 and Shimon Peres are shedding crocodile tears.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Uri Avnery is the head of the Israeli peace movement, Gush Shalom, and a former member of the Israeli Knesset.

somebody from UN speaks out

UN envoy: anti-Hamas rhetoric undermines democracy Ian Black, Middle East editor Wednesday June 13, 2007 Guardian Unlimited File photo of the newly retired United Nations Middle East envoy, Alvaro de Soto. Photograph: Katia Christodoulou/EPA Alvaro de Soto, the just-retired UN coordinator for the Middle East, has warned that international hostility to the Palestinian Hamas movement, now fighting in the bitterly escalating civil conflict in Gaza, could have grave consequences by persuading millions of Muslims that democratic methods do not work. The Peruvian diplomat's sensational valedictory dispatch, written last month and published exclusively in the Guardian today, traced increasingly violent responses to the victory of the Islamist group in the Palestinian elections in January 2006. These included a continuing boycott of the freely-elected government - which he admits has had "devastating" consequences, which have contributed to the current violence between Hamas and Fatah. "The steps taken by the international community with the presumed purpose of bringing about a Palestinian entity that will live in peace with its neighbour, Israel, have had precisely the opposite effect," he wrote in his confidential internal memo. The US and Israel had both erred in seeing Hamas as a passing phenomenon, the envoy argued. "Hamas is deep-rooted, has struck many chords, including its contempt for the Oslo process, and is not likely to disappear," he wrote. "Erroneous treatment of Hamas could have repercussions far beyond the Palestinian territories because of its links to the Muslim Brotherhood, whose millions of supporters might conclude that peaceful and democratic means are not the way to go." In a key passage that may already have been overtaken by the rapidly deteriorating situation, Mr De Soto wrote: "Hamas is in effervescence and can potentially evolve in a pragmatic direction that would allow for a two-state solution - but only if handled right. "If the Palestinian Authority passes into irrelevance or collapses (as now seems likely) calls for a one-state solution to the conflict "will come out of the shadows and enter the mainstream." Mr De Soto is critical of the UN as well as of the US and Israel. He also attacked the Palestinians' record on violence directed at Israeli civilians as "patchy at best, reprehensible at worst" and described the Hamas charter as "abominable" while highlighting the movement's "alleged links to an Iranian regime which makes bloodcurdling statements about Israel." "Palestinian terror strengthens the hardliners and weakens the peace camp in Israel," he wrote, but added: "If Israel was less heavy-handed about the way it conducts its military business, and... was seen to be moving earnestly to end the occupation, it would aid rather than handicap its legitimate fight against terrorism." The effect of the quartet's intense focus on Hamas, (which still refuses to formally recognise Israel or renounce violence), was to take all pressure off Israel, Mr de Soto argued. That allowed the construction of yet more Israeli settlements and the separation barrier, which have in turn damaged the slim hopes that a viable Palestinian state can ever be created. It would need a "Sherlockian magnifying glass," to find allusions to Israel's failure to comply with its "road map" obligations. "No amount of magnification" would find references to its responsibilities as an occupier to ensure the welfare of Palestinian civilians." On the UN and Israel he wrote: "We are not a friend of Israel if we allow it to fall into the self delusion that the Palestinians are the only ones to blame, or that it can continue blithely to ignore its obligations under existing agreements without paying an international diplomatic price in the short-term and a bitter price regarding its security and identity in the long-term."