The end of 2011 sees US Republican candidates use pro-Israel rhetoric to win support, Israel withholds essential tax revenues as punitive measure for Palestinian UNESCO bid, Palestinian Christians continue in their struggle for their historic religious rights, Fatah and Hamas take another small step towards recognition and more...
Israeli settlements continue to expand unabated, threatening to cut Bethlehem off "from its historic twin, Jerusalem".
Though the Archbishop of Canterbury declined mention the plight of his co-religionists in the Occupied West Bank parish of Beit Jala who are "preparing for a legal battle to protect their land and homes from further expropriation by Israel", Vincent Nichols, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster not only offered a special prayer for the people of Bethlehem, but urged his congregation to pull the wool from over their eyes. "See more clearly all those things which disfigure our world," he said, "We too live in a land of deep shadow", that shadow "falls particularly heavily on the town of Bethlehem tonight."
On December 18, the second phase of the historic prisoner exchange deal between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, took place.
At the beginning of the month, Israel withheld £64.5 million in monthly Palestinian tax revenues collected by Israel who it obliged to pass them on under the terms of the Oslo accords. They represent 2/3 of PA's self-generated income and they were obliged to take out commercial loans last month reaching the ceiling on amount they allowed to legally take. The move has a significant impact on the dynamics of the economy and slows it down.
In December, Iceland became the first Western European state to officially recognize Palestine as an independent state. A unanimous motion was passed in favor of a resolution the recognizes Palestine as 'an independent and sovereign state' based on borders pre-dating the 1967 war ; and recognizes the PLO as legal authority for the state. This motion was passed shortly after Palestine was admitted to UNESCO with Iceland being one of the 11 states that voted in its favor.
Despite mounting pressure from Israel and the US, this month Palestinian factional leaders, Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Meshaal, met in Cairo and agreed an Egyptian mediated deal to end the rift that has plagued Palestinian politics since 2007.
The Israeli human rights organization Adala has launched a petition on behalf of 13 Gazan plaintiffs, lawyers and human rights groups against the Israeli government. The petition challenges the policy of denying Palestinian litigants or witnesses permission to leave Gaza or enter Israel in order to complete legal processes necessary to pursue claims for damages from the military.
Israel is set to take the unilateral decision to close the Maghrabi Footbridge, a wooden structure which climbs the Western Wall to the Dome of the Rock and the Temple Mount connecting sensitive religious sites. It was a temporary replacement for the Maghrabi Ramp – a stone walkway destroyed by a storm in 2004. In May last year a permit was approved for the original ramp to be repaired.
Are cracks beginning to appear in the cosy relationship between the US and Israel? Early in December, the Israeli government ran an advertising campaign trying to persuade Israeli expatriates to go back to Israel. The response from American Jewish groups was immediate; according to the New York Times, "critics said the ads implied that moving to America led to assimilation and an erosion of Jewish consciousness. The Jewish Federations of North America called them insulting. Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, called the videos 'heavy-handed, and even demeaning'." That is some criticism, coming from the ADL. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "aborted the campaign" when it was realised that "For many American Jews, the Israeli government-sponsored ads... smacked of arrogance, ignorance and cultural disrespect of America".
Looking at the electoral successes of North African Islamist parties, Thomas L Friedman suggests that this "should hardly come as a surprise". After all, he wrote in the New York Times, "the military regimes in the Arab world decimated all independent secular political parties over the last 50 years [so] there is little chance of any Arab country going from Mubarak to Jefferson without going through some Khomeini". Like many others, Friedman is sceptical about the Muslim Brotherhood's chances of ruling effectively without "some wrenching ideological adjustments... to reality". That "reality", of course, is to play the game of nations according to the rules set by the West. We only have to look at Tony Blair's despicable pronouncements on the Israel-Palestine conflict, where he only calls on the victims of the occupation to abandon violence if they want to achieve their political objectives, but doesn't make a similar request to the occupiers, to see how "balanced" such rules are. In other words, "genuine democracy" is that which has to be imposed by the West, not home-grown or tailored to suit local requirements. Friedman's argument revolves around the "highly competitive global economy" and if the Brotherhood and Salafists "don't get moving" then "Egypt's 85 million people" will be left "even further behind". That global economy is in a mess, not least because of Western models of financial mismanagement; perhaps it's time for "some wrenching ideological adjustments" in that respect too.
In "Newt, Mitt, Bibi and Vladimir", Thomas Friedman spelt out some home truths as he looked at the "Republican competition to grovel for Jewish votes – by outloving Israel" which, he said, brought the electoral process in the US "to a new low".
Are Friedman and Cohen representative of their colleagues? Apparently not, if Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post is anything to go by. Rubin's column is called, "Right turn", which just about sums it up. No wishy-washy liberalism here; she even refers to Benjamin Netanyahu as "Bibi". Rubin quotes a letter from Bibi's office to the New York Times in which, inter alia, a complaint is lodged that "one columnist [Thomas L Friedman – see above "must read" article] even stooped to suggesting that the strong expressions of support for Prime Minister Netanyahu during his speech this year to Congress was 'bought and paid for by the Israel lobby' rather than a reflection of the broad support for Israel among the American people". Rubin adds, "I'm one who usually thinks the best antidote to vile, hateful speech is more speech. But shunning has its place as well. Think of it as the only Israeli boycott worth honouring."
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