This month MEMO briefly looks at the peace talks grinding to a sudden halt over settlements and unreasonable preconditions; an increase in settler violence against Palestinians; Israeli domestic woes over discriminatory laws and much more...

Direct peace talks grind to a halt

At the beginning of the month, the Palestinian Authority confirmed that direct peace talks had reached a dead end following the expiry of the partial moratorium on settlement construction at the end of September. Two rounds of talks were held before the moratorium ended. The PA has repeatedly stated that they would not continue with talks unless an extension on the partial freeze was granted and that Israel must choose between settlements and peace. They held Israel responsible for obstructing negotiations through their lack of commitment to international law and justice.

In an effort to prolong talks and delay announcements of their failure, the US offered Israel a range of incentives including a promise to veto any UN Security Council resolutions concerning it for the next 12 months and to increase military aid however the proposal was rejected by Netanyahu. Efforts by US envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, and EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton both failed to achieve results. It is thought that Mitchell has lost some trust by exaggerating initial progress in negotiations.

Netanyahu argues that an extension could cause the collapse of his right wing coalition government and has tried to assign blame to the Palestinians labelling their settlement demands unreasonable. However, other officials have reported that Netanyahu refused to discuss anything of substance beside Israel's security and settlements was not the only or the main stumbling block, e.g. he insisted that if an agreement is reached it must be implemented over 20 years. It is thought that these negotiations were used to bide time until the US mid-term elections when it is hoped that Obama will no longer be able to put pressure on Israel.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas' decision to suspend peace talks with Israel was backed the Arab League following a meeting in Serte and they gave the US a month to persuade Israel on settlements. The league committee is set to meet again this month.

Failure of these talks would be a humiliation for Obama and a severe blow to US prestige. It also risks political chaos and a possible slide into violence on the ground. Moreover, the consequences could be disastrous on both a regional and global scale.

A Memo analysis looks at the viability of peace negotiations before the achievement of Palestinian national reconciliation.

The "price tag" campaign gains momentum

Revenge attacks forming part of the 'price tag' campaign carried out by Israeli settlers against Palestinians continued this month. The settler attacks aim to express opposition to their own government's policies by terrorising innocent Palestinian civilians and forcing them to pay a price for Israeli 'concessions'.

An arson attack was carried out in the early hours of the morning against a West Bank mosque by settlers from the Gush Etzion settlement and copies of the Quran and prayer mats were burned. Scuffles also broke out between the settlers and villagers which were broken up by Israeli soldiers, however, the soldiers failed to stop the attack itself. The attack was described by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak as a terrorist attack.

In another attack that occurred a week after the end of the partial moratorium on settlement construction, graffiti was sprayed on a mosque in Beit Fajar situated between Bethlehem and Hebron. The graffiti included the words "price tag" and "mosques we burn" as well as the Star of David.

The Palestinian authorities issued warnings of more attacks during the olive harvest season.

The Yeshiva Bill: Israeli students feel a pinch of what Arab students experience constantly

Israeli students have taken to the streets in protest after the controversial Yeshiva bill was passed in the Knesset on Monday 25 October.

The bill means that millions in Israeli state funds will be allocated to specific funds for full-time orthodox Jewish yeshiva students.

A recent survey indicated that 75 per cent of Israeli Jews were in favour of reducing funding for yeshivas 'so that ultra-orthodox men will have to work'.

Israeli students, in response have had daily demonstrations in protest against what is seen as discriminating against mainstream Israeli students, even protesting outside the Bibi's house in the early hours of the morning.

Arabs and Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories continue to feel the brunt of severe discriminatory education laws, with many students unable to travel freely to schools and universities, Israeli municipal authorities not providing places at universities for Palestinians and Israeli universities cancelling courses because 'a majority of students were Arab'.

Yes, Israeli students should expect equality in all aspects of their lives – but these equalities and rights should extend to all people under Israeli authority, including the Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians in the OPTs.

Jewish state/loyalty oath causes deeper friction in Israel

Israeli commentators from both sides have been vociferous in high numbers. Those advocating for the Zionist state to be recognised as the 'Jewish state' have suggested that this will be the deciding factor as to whether there will be peace in the region or not. One such commentator for the Haaretz put forth seven reasons as to why the 'demand to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people is a legitimate one'.  The most interesting and perhaps deluded reason was that apparently 'Israel recognized the Palestinian people and its rights' in 1993 and now it was only right that Israel were granted the same privilege. I'm not exactly sure in what world the commentator is living in, but it is suffice to say he is not living in the reality that we are witnessing and that many oppressed and desperate Palestinians are living through today. Actions speak louder than words, and till this day, Palestinians have not been any closer to witnessing their rights being respected and honoured by successive Israeli governments and military operations. 

The more prominent voices are coming from Israeli academics, commentators and politicians who are against any such legislation passing through. For citizens of Israel, this is an even greater bitter pill to be forced to swallow; pledging allegiance to a 'Jewish state' will automatically classify non-Jewish citizens as second class citizens. The national Loyalty Oath bill, which seeks to have all new citizens (modified after a great backlash from 'veteran' Jewish Israeli citizens) and non-Jewish citizens to pledge an oath of allegiance to Israel as a 'Jewish state' for the Jewish people. Or as one Israeli commentator in the Yedinot Ahronot states describes "the modified pledge of allegiance would only apply to new naturalized citizens – naïve weirdoes who decided to join the ranks of the world's most avant-garde, unwanted and threatened nation." Yet more alarming is the effect this is will have on Palestinian citizens of Israel, who already suffer a great deal of discrimination in their day-to-day lives. Ahmed Tibi, an Arab-Israel member of the Knesset, has called the proposed bill an attempt to demean the Palestinian citizens' sixty year fight for justice and equal rights in Israel.

The Loyalty Oath bill and this new added clause (recognition as a Jewish state) for the peace talks only pushes the Zionist agenda forth and adds fuel to its 'two states for two people' mantra. This new discourse has been rampant in the recent narratives, especially where the right-wing call for an 'alternative homeland' for the Palestinians, in effect attempting to expel all Palestinians out of Israel. Netanyahu's attempt in holding the Palestinian representatives to ransom is outrageous and reflects the true arrogant and fascist nature of the Zionist ideology. An Israeli commentator sums it up well:

"A leftist, an Arab, a haredi, and a religious-Zionist were asked to sign a pledge of allegiance to a "Jewish-democratic state." It's already funny, isn't it? But hold on for a moment. The leftist didn't sign because he did not agree to the part about "state." The Arab did not want the part about "Jewish," and the haredi rejected the part about "democratic." They asked the religious Zionist, why aren't you signing? He responded: I object to the hyphen between "Jewish" and "democratic."

It's sad that we have to use a joke to make some sort of sense of a state's policies - but it seems that with this Israeli government, nothing can or should surprise us anymore.

Ahmedinejad - the new Kingmaker in the region?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad visited Lebanon earlier this month much to the dismay of the West and Israel. He stated his visit was to invite the Lebanese to 'unity and solidarity'

Prior to his visit Israel declared a state of alert on the Israeli-Lebanese border after reports suggesting Ahmedinejad intended to "throw stones across the border at the Israeli soldiers".

One Israeli commentator suggests that visit was "an acknowledgement of Iranian success and Western failure" in the region and that it had achieved a 'kingmaker' status that is envied by Israel and the West. They claim to be highly concerned of his support for Hizbullah and Hamas and suggest that Iran is the cause for Palestinian disunity.

The overall Western media coverage was hugely negative and biased, usually just regurgitating anti-Iran/Hizbullah/Hamas rhetoric with no context. As one British commentator for the Guardian analyses, painting Iran and Hizbullah with the normalised 'anti-Western' brush is a serious form of misrepresenting the facts. The fear-mongering and 'propagandist' Western and Israeli journalists omit details of western-supported repression of Iran before the Islamic regime came to power or the Israeli (US ally) occupation of Southern Lebanon, where the Hizbullah movement formed.

It is about time there was a shift in Middle Eastern politics and that leaders in the region came to the fore to take control from the current Western and Zionist driven policies.

The Elders descend on the Middle East

No, this is not referring to a scene in the Middle Eastern version of Lord of the Rings; the Elders, a group of international 'elder' statesmen convened by Nelson Mandela, toured the Middle Eastern region aiming to promote "a just and secure peace for all".

The Elders delegation visited the Palestinian territories, Jerusalem, Gaza and the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria, Jordan and Egypt.

The delegation headed by the former President of the Irish Republic, Mary Robinson, and former US President Jimmy Carter met with Khalid Mishaal in Damascus, after a brief visit to the Gaza Strip where they met with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and visited several localities in the beleaguered territory. An MK criticised the delegation for meeting with Hamas but the Elders were adamant that only a policy of inclusion would accelerate the peace process and enable a permanent solution to the conflict to arise. 

They called for the immediate lift of the Gaza blockade.

The Elders denounced the current policy of attempting to change the historical and religious character of the Holy City of Jerusalem, with President Carter showing his support to the Sheikh Jarrah protesters and called the demolitions and evictions an 'injustice' and great hindrance to peace in the region.

Finding peace with "weak leaders"

"Abbas is weak and acts weaker. Netanyahu is strong and acts weak." So says Thomas L. Friedman in the New York Times in an article that encourages and infuriates in roughly equal measure (Just Knock It Off, 19 October); but that's his job and what he's paid for - to provoke strong responses. Friedman says it would be nice, for a change, if Israel could actually say "Yes" to a proposal from a US President: "It is a measure of how spoiled Israel has become that after billions and billions of dollars in U.S. aid and 300,000 settlers already ensconced in the West Bank, Israel feels no compunction about spurning an American request for a longer settlement freeze — the only purpose of which is to help the United States help Israel reach a secure peace with the Palestinians." Has Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "got the will and the guts" to make peace with Israel? Friedman doesn't think so, having "spurned" a "real two-state compromise" from Ehud Olmert. Despite his reservations about Abbas, Friedman claims "that the team of Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad have built a government that is the best the Palestinians have ever had, and, more importantly, a Palestinian security apparatus that the Israeli military respects and is acting as a real partner." Many Palestinians, of course, see this sort of compromise as collaboration with the occupation forces. Perhaps Mr. Friedman should visit Gaza and see what kind of job the democratically-elected Palestinian government is doing, despite the lack of international support given to Abbas and Fayyad and in the face of Israel's blockade of the territory.

In the run-up to the US mid-term elections, it is heartening to see someone of Thomas L. Friedman's undoubted calibre and influence asking to be spared "the nonsense that President Obama is anti-Israel". Even though some readers of the NYT have moaned about Friedman and his fellow Op-Ed Contributor Roger Cohen (see below) writing about the Israel-Palestine conflict, this is an issue that is at the core of these elections, with President Obama's future at stake.

Pointers for peace?

Roger Cohen is another of the NYT's Op-Ed Columnists whose work is admirable; we may not always agree with what he says, but he raises issues that others dare not and does so in a cogent fashion. In Going, Going, Gone (21 October) he lists ten "pointers" which he thinks are important for a resumption of the peace negotiations.

He calls the "wipe-out" of the peace talks a "minor fiasco" of the "Obama administration's foreign policy". There has been, he says, an "amateurish air of desperation" which has "now given way to the outright desperation of American-Israeli horse-trading over what concessions, guarantees, blandishments, military hardware et al. the United States might offer Israel in exchange for a 60-day extension" of the settlement freeze. Netanyahu's insistence that the Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state "up-front" is a "non-starter". If the Palestinians opt for a unilateral declaration of a state of Palestine, "they will add another big mistake to a long chapter of strategic errors". Referring to the "facts on the ground" in the West Bank, Cohen finds them "very encouraging".  The Palestinians, he says, "have gotten [sic] serious about their security forces and recognized that no state can exist without the rule of law"; cooperation or collaboration with the Occupation? Cohen believes that "Israel needs to be much more proactive in expanding areas in which Palestinian security forces can operate, freeing movement and facilitating investment." Why? "That's how to buttress the Palestine it wants." Not the Palestine that the Palestinians want or need; the Palestine that Israel wants. As has been said elsewhere, Israel wants to maintain the occupation without being the Occupier.

On the question of Jerusalem, Cohen states his case in the shortest of his "pointers": "There will be no Palestinian state without East Jerusalem as its capital. How 'East Jerusalem' is defined remains to be seen. This may as well be said up front." Precisely; this is the crux of the matter, because it revolves around Israeli claims on "Judea and Samaria" and Palestinian claims to the West Bank. Who will define the borders of these territories, including Jerusalem?

In Crunch Time (28 October), Roger Cohen basically poses the same question: "Every recent Israeli prime minister has done things he never dreamed of doing... What is it that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prepared to do that he never dreamed of doing?" For Cohen, the "core issue" is "where Netanyahu imagines a Palestinian state". Referring again to the mid-term US elections, Cohen says, "Obama has to look over the horizon and ask Netanyahu this question: 'Mr. Prime Minister, I understand your security concerns. The United States will always stand by Israel. But tell me this: If all your security concerns are met, all of them, what is the border you want for Israel?' This has to be answered to move forward." Crunch time, indeed.

The "Jewish State"

Isabel Kershner is the NYT's Jerusalem correspondent and in "Some Question Insistence on Israel as Jewish State (24 October) she points out that the Palestinians' refusal to acknowledge that status is prompting some Israelis to question their Prime Minister's wisdom in pushing for such recognition. Her piece is a long analysis of the issue and is complemented by Ahmed Tibi's article The Other Citizens of Israel (21 October); Mr. Tibi is a deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset. He points out the quite legal discrimination that Israel's Arab citizens face as they struggle to go about their daily lives. "American mediators such as George Mitchell and Dennis Ross," he says, "rather than pushing the supremacist notion of a Jewish state, should be pressing Israel to provide equal rights and fair treatment to the Palestinian minority in its midst." Again, at a time when Israel plays a crucial part in the electioneering going on in the US, Tibi directs a pertinent question to the American people: "At a time when there are over 35 laws that discriminate against Palestinians, and with more working their way through the Knesset, it is long past time for Americans to ask their political leaders what their tax money is funding in Israel." Let's hope that he doesn't hold his breath awaiting an answer.

The whole discussion about the recognition or otherwise of Israel as the (not a) Jewish state, Kershner quotes Mohammad Darawshe, "the Israeli-Arab co-executive director of The Abraham Fund Initiatives, an organization that promotes coexistence and equality among Israel's Jewish and Arab citizens". Darawshe asks, "The Jewish state is what? A Lieberman state?" Of course, he adds, "The Jews deserve a homeland of their own, but not one that negates the rights and status of other citizens." That sums up the whole debate about the existence of the state of Israel, Jewish state or not.

And in other News...

Britain, the US and the World

• Blackmailing of American Democracy: As the US mid-term elections draw tantalisingly closer the battle lines have been drawn. At the centre of them all is the Palestine issue. Read the MEMO's commentary on 'The Jewish problem with Obama' analysis.
  
  
• Al-Mabhouh Dubai murder…the plot thickens:  A man suspected in the murder of a senior Hamas official has been identified as British citizen Christopher Lockwood. MEMO's Dr Chehata investigates these claims and suggests that these revelations 'begs the question as to how many British citizens are in fact operatives for the Israeli army and Israeli secret service agency Mossad' and what effect this has on British national security.
  
  
• Ireland cancels munitions contract with Israel and signs alternative deals with other countries. Irish newspapers interpret this decision as a response to the Hamas official's assassination and the misuse of Irish passports.
  
  
• Israel's Supreme Court heard rejected an appeal by outspoken Irish peace activist and 1976 Nobel laureate, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, 66, after she was refused entry to Israel at Ben-Gurion airport. Attempts were made to deport her for taking part in the effort to break the naval blockade of Gaza in May this year; however she refused to board the flight. After her case was rejected she was placed on a flight back to Britain and has been banned from Israel for 10y years.

Israel, the West Bank and Gaza

• Israel-bound submarines have been banned from under-going tests in Norwegian waters. It is part of a ban on security exports to Israel.
  
  
• Playground diplomacy - Israel and Greece's blossoming friendship: The allies took steps to strengthen their bilateral relationship this month with the Greek Foreign Minister's first state visit to Israel and a joint military exercise. This recent warmth in the relationship was a result of rapidly deteriorating relations between its previous close Mediterranean ally, Turkey.
  
  
• Bulldozers raze Palestinian village for a sixth time: Al-Arakib village in Negev was razed and bulldozed for a sixth time. Activists suggest these rounds of demolition were committed by the Israeli Land Authority to stifle protest.
  
  
• In a closed trial, two members of the Israeli military were charged with inappropriate behaviour and overstepping authority for using a nine year old Palestinians boy as a human shield during the 2008/9 assault on Gaza. They could face up to three years in prison. The child has been severely traumatised by his experiences.
  
  
• A 38 year old father of 6, Izz al-Din Qawezba, was shot by border police while trying to enter Israel in search of work near East Jerusalem. An eye witness stated he was shot at close range as he tried to flee while the perpetrators claim the gun went off accidentally during a struggle as Izz al-Din tried to take the policeman's weapon.