Mideast News Digest
Gen. Mitzna Tours U.S. Promoting Geneva Initiative
"We're asking the American people and their government to support the Geneva Initiative," said Gen. Amran Mitzna, in an op-ed that preceded his three-city tour of the U.S., which began Nov. 2. Mitzna, the former head of the Labor Party, Naomi Chazan, the Meretz Party former MK, and American Jewish scholar Dr. Stephen P. Cohen, were among the speakers at the Boston conference, sponsored by the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace (Brit Tzedek v'Shalom) which is organizing the American Jewish community to oppose Sharon, and support the Geneva Accord. Mitzna also spoke in Philadelphia on Nov. 3, and in New York City on Nov. 4; in case anyone doubts that the "mainstream" press is useless, please note there has been a complete blackout in the U.S. press of Mitzna's appearances in the U.S. and also a blackout in the international press.
While the speeches for these events are not yet available, the Alliance said that both Mitzna and Stephen Cohen had op-eds in the Boston Globe prior to the conference, which reflect their speeches. Mitzna said that the Geneva accord is "like the little boy who cries out that the Emperor has no clothes," exposing the falsity of Sharon's position that the IDF "can win a peace ...through military incursions into Palestinian population centers and targeted assassinations." He says that Israel is at a "critical juncture," and that the Israeli peace camp is mobilizing internationally for support.
Cohen, who has publically attacked the neo-con philosophy in the past for the Iraq war, and the treatment of Palestinians, says that "now the road map is in tatters," and the new initiative could only become "official" when the American public is willing to "insist" that the President put the peace process "at the center" of his agenda. Cohen just served on the Presidential Task Force on the Middle East that reported the immense amount of hostility for the U.S. because of Bush's policy in Iraq and Israel.
Powell Writes to Beilin and Abed Rabbo
Secretary of State Colin Powell sent a letter to Israel's Yossi Beilin and Palestinian Yasser Abed Rabbo on Nov. 7, supporting their work on the Geneva Initiative for Middle East peace. The State Department confirmed the two had sent Powell a letter a month ago, and this was the Secretary's reply. According to Beilin's spokesman, Uri Zaki, Powell's letter says that the U.S. "remains committed ... to the road map but we also believe that projects such as yours are important in helping to sustain an atmosphere of hope," to find "mutually acceptable resolutions" among Israelis and Palestinians. Sources in Washington told EIRNS that the Powell letter, although authorized by President Bush, provoked a storm of protest among Administration neoconservatives.
Beilin Explains Geneva Initiative
Yossi Beilin, the chief Oslo negotiator and a leader of the ongoing Geneva Initiative effort, penned an article for the Oct. 31 issue of the Forward, in which he gave a detailed account of his and Yasser Abed Rabbo's efforts to revive the Israel-Palestine peace quest. Noting that people had asked how he dared launch a peace initiative opposed by his own government, Beilin wrote, "Given the current state of affairs in my country and my region, how could I not?" He described the "optimistic moments" following President Bush's visit the Sharm El Sheikh, which quickly evaporated, creating a total impasse, in which Bush has abandoned his promises. No one any longer expects Bush to do anything about the peace effort until after the November 2004 USA elections, leaving the region "stuck in this horrific mud of ours." He wrote, "If we, the Israelis and the Palestinians do not try ourselves then no one else is going to do it for us." He recounted that he and Abed Rabbo believed that, with a few more weeks of effort in January 2001, the Taba Accords would have been completed and a comprehensive final solution worked out. However, Sharon came into power, and the region plunged into a new period of violence and intransigence.
Beilin and Abed Rabbo decided that they would revive the Taba talks, as private citizens, to demonstrate that people of good will on both sides could reach a viable peace. The two men began meeting, as opportunities arose. Beilin described: "Sometimes we would meet at checkpoints, where we sat in a car, in order to go over texts. Other times we would meet abroad. Some of the talks were held by video conference." After two-and-a-half years, the men produced a 50-page document, with many maps. Beilin described the agreement as centered on "the exchange of two virtual rights" Israeli control over the Temple Mount and the Palestinian right of return. No Muslim would accept actual Israeli control over the Temple Mount, just as no Israeli would accept unlimited right of return, which would end the Jewish character of the state of Israel. The Geneva Initiative proposes to solve both problems, by giving the Palestinians formal sovereignty over the Temple Mount, with an international administrative and dispute resolution body; and would give Israel sovereign control over its immigration policy, setting token limits on the number of Palestinians who could move to Israel per year. "We have done the maximum that citizens can do when they believe that the solution is just around the next corner," Beilin concluded, "and that the current situation is totally unbearable. Now it's up to our leaders."
100,000 Demonstrate in Tel Aviv to Commemorate Rabin
More than 100,000 demonstrators turned out in Tel Aviv on the Nov. 4 anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, in the largest pro-peace demonstration since Ariel Sharon came to power. Picket signs at the officially "non-partisan" rally included: "Leave the Territories" and "Sharon Go Home!"
Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres, who had been Rabin's foreign minister and was on the podium with him at that fateful Nov. 4, 1995 campaign rally, addressed the memorial rally, saying that Rabin had been right, "and his path just." Speaking from behind a bullet-proof shield, Peres attacked Sharon's security-only policy, and said: "Without a clear decision, the Zionist enterprise will stand in mortal danger. Even the right has started to understand that it's better to have two states which will have to live in peace, than one state where two peoples fight forever over every piece of land, every drop of water." Following the rally, a monument to Rabin was desecrated with swastikas by members of the Kach Movement, provoking opposition leader Yossi Sarid to blast the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith for remaining silent, in the face of such a flagrant incident of antisemitism.
Israeli General Strike Postponed
Israel's national labor court ordered a nationwide general strike, which would have paralyzed transportation, schools, banks and the public sector, postponed, only hours before it was to begin. The court allowed a four-hour protest strike to take place. The court ordered the Histadrut labor federation chairman Amir Peretz to continue negotiations with Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, until Nov. 6, when the court was to reconvene.
The unions are striking against government plans to reform the pension program, which includes raising retirement age from 65 to 67, and to increase layoffs, in a economy where official unemployment is already at 11%. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had asked Peretz to postpone the strike, until after Sharon's meeting with Russian President Putin in Moscow, which Peretz turned down.
UN Warns of Israeli Annexation of Palestinian Land
The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has released a report warning that Israel is trying to effectively annex areas on the Israeli side of the security wall it is building inside the Green Line. Israelis living in the "closed military zone" will receive automatic residence rights, but more than 10,000 Palestinians must apply for permits to continue living in the 15 villages affected.
"The prohibitive effect of the permit system raises serious concerns of effectively causing thousands of Palestinians to leave these areas," the report said, according to a Sunday Telegraph article carried in today's Washington Times.
"We are saying that if these people are not allowed to stay in that area, it is de facto annexation because they cannot go back to their homes. If these people are deprived of their livelihoods, it will be a humanitarian disaster," said David Shearer, head of the UN agency.
Sharon Meets Putin in Moscow
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Nov. 3, to discuss Russian-Iranian nuclear cooperation, as well as Russia plans to push the Road Map for Middle East peace in the form of a United Nations Security Council resolution. Russia is one of the Quartet sponsors of the Road Map, along with the UN, EU, and United States. (See Russia Digest for more.)
Iraqi Resistance Spreading
"Every Iraqi is a rebel against the occupying forces," said a regional expert, regarding the growing anti-American/British resistance movement in Iraq. "It is no longer 'Saddam Hussein loyalists' but all Iraqis, who are actively or passively supporting the armed resistance," he said. He pointed to the fact that there have been attacks against the U.S. troops outside the "Sunni triangle." Furthermore, attacks have taken place in purely Christian neighborhoods, as well as in Shi'ite areas, thus it is not only Sunnis involved. Mosul is also becoming a very active center of the resistance. He cited recent polls showing 78% of those Iraqis asked, want the U.S. to leave.
On the Shi'ites' posture, it is important to note a speech delivered in Kerbala by Ayatollah Mohammed Takih al-Mudarisi, who said that people should not work with the resistance spontaneously, but should wait for orders through a fatwa. This indicates that Shi'ite elements are, indeed, working "spontaneously." The Ayatollah also demanded that the U.S.-U.K. forces leave, according to a specific timetable. he said the occupation came about in the context of extraordinary circumstances (the war, invasion and overthrow of the Saddam regime), but that now, conditions have changed and they should leave the country. They should be aware of the danger that their presence could ignite an explosion in the heart of the Islamic world, he said.
It's Official: No Turkish Troops to Iraq
A Turkish government official announced Nov. 7 that there will be no Turkish troop deployments into Iraq, according to the Turkish National News Agency. "The government has decided not to implement the motion to send troops to Iraq," the source told reporters.
Another American Chopper Downed in Iraq
On Nov. 7, another U.S. helicopterthis time, a Black Hawk, was shot down in Iraq, near Tikrit, just days after a Chinook helicopter was shot down, killing 15 and wounding 21. Initially, it was said four had died and two were wounded, but an Army officer said later that all six on board had perished.
The attack has profound implications. The U.S. military forces in Iraq, according to several military experts, had increased the use of helicopters, to protect ground patrols, that were being continuously ambushed by Iraqi resistance forces. The helicopter shootdowns, by surface-to-air missiles, signify that U.S. military operations as a whole are far more vulnerable. There are vast stockpiles of SAMs inside Iraq. Also, several Abrams tanks, heavily armored, have been destroyed by rocket propelled grenade (RPG) attacks in the past week, indicating a level of sophistication by Iraqi resistance forces, that has American military officials shocked. As one retired military officer told EIRNS this week, that when the Afghan resistance got SAMs and were able to take out the Soviet helicopter gun ships, during the 1979-1989 Afghanistan war, it was the beginning of the end.
In response to these developments, some American officials, part of the neo-con cabal, are arguing for an escalation of American military operations, by "temporarily" expanding the size of the U.S. military force in Iraq to 200,000, from the current level of 150,000. They argue that such an increase will make it possible to break the resistance, and allow a significant U.S. force withdrawal by next Spring, when the Presidential election season takes off. Senior military officials see the idea as insane, and warn that this will only provide added targets to the Iraqi partisans, and likely provoke the Shi'ite majority in the country to more actively join the opposition.
Syria Asks U.S. To Leave Iraq
Syrian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Bushra Kanfani, in remarks published in the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper Nov. 5, rejected a statement from Washington that Syria should stop anti-U.S. fighters from coming into Iraq. Kanfani said, "The problem is America, not Syria. America must be more objective, because when it entered Iraq there was no terrorism, and now there is the problem of terrorism and of Al-Qaeda and the matter has changed from one of weapons of mass destruction and toppling a regime to a new one of terrorism."
The Syrian official said "America must accept the reality that it is no longer in its interest to continue this way in Iraq. They must hand over power to other parties whose behavior is more acceptable to Iraqis and bring Iraq closer to regaining its sovereignty and holding free elections and then the problems will end. We are doing what we can (to stop militants crossing the border), and I think there are many claims which are incorrect and which serve as a political cover for the instability inside Iraq and lack of control."
|