Knights of the Holy Sepulchre Northwestern Lieutenancy

Uri Avnery - Palestine Chronicle
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A Dutch journalist asked me last Wednesday to try and divine the thoughts of Binyamin Netanyahu on his way to Washington.

It seems that she was satisfied with the results, because she asked me to divine the thoughts of Mahmoud Abbas, too.

She must have liked that as well, because then she asked me to do the same for Barack Obama.

Here, then, is what I told her:

World Council of Churches
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From the blessed city of Jerusalem I bring you greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.

When I visit the Palestine and Israel region I carefully listen to the WCC member churches here and to our Palestinian Christian sisters and brothers.

During this visit, the Palestinian Christian cry of faith, hope and love expressed through the Kairos Document has been particularly significant. This document now stands as their proclamation for a just peace in Palestine and Israel, and a call to Christians around the world to join them in solidarity. Now is the time for a just peace. The Christians here pray for that; all peoples here need it desperately. The time of occupation and violence must end.

Afif Salieh - Politico
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The Obama administration has been persistent about the Middle East peace process. But is it serious about peace? If it is, and I believe that President Barack Obama is personally serious in spite of widespread skepticism among Arabs and Palestinians, then this administration needs to understand why its predecessors have failed.

There were serious flaws in previous peace processes, and I saw how they played out firsthand from my posts in London, Washington and Moscow.

First, the two parties were left to reach an agreement on their own. Given the asymmetry between the power Israel could bring to bear and the fact that Palestinians have lived under occupation since 1967 and in exile since 1948, this meant that the international community effectively allowed the Israelis to dictate the parameters of peace and the pace of progress, if any.

Ha'aretz Editorial
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More than 10 years after Bill Clinton summoned the leaders of Israel and the Palestinians to the Camp David summit, and nearly three years after George W. Bush announced at the Annapolis conference the start of direct negotiations, U.S. President Barack Obama will reinaugurate the Israeli-Palestinian track today.

In light of all the ceremonies that have not led to any change in the reality of life in the occupied territories, and lofty declarations of peace that have not been translated into the language of action, it's clear why the expectations of the Washington summit are low.

LA Times
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After nearly three decades of failed peace negotiations, Israelis and Palestinians are understandably dubious about the prospects for success of the latest round of talks, this one between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, starting in Washington on Thursday. President Obama had to drag the leaders to the bargaining table after a 20-month hiatus in face-to-face contact between the two sides. And although Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II are jetting in for the launch, Hebrew and Arabic media already have dismissed the event as a "photo opportunity," a "mirage" and a meeting to give the "impression" of peacemaking.

By NEIL BERRY | ARAB NEWS
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For the mass of Zionist opinion, a true friend of the Jewish state regards it as a beacon of Western civilization that, while having no choice but to be on a permanent war footing in order to repel Islamic enemies bent on its destruction, boasts the "most moral army in the world."

Such a "friend" turns a blind eye to observable reality, to the fact that Israel's noble pretensions are empty and that it increasingly operates not as an ethical nation but as a brutal occupying power, displaying flagrant contempt for international law and world opinion as it perpetuates the systematic oppression of the Palestinian people at whose expense it was created.

By Donald Macintyre - The Independent
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Baroness Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, yesterday issued an unusually sharp rebuke to Israel over a military court's conviction of a Palestinian activist prominent in unarmed protests against the West Bank separation barrier.

Lady Ashton said she was "deeply concerned" that Abdallah Abu Rahma was facing a possible jail sentence "to prevent him and other Palestinians from exercising their legitimate right to protest against the separation barriers in a non-violent manner".

Ben White - Reuters
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The refrain from Israeli politicians and the country’s allies and apologists is familiar: There can be no peace deal until the Palestinians "recognize" Israel as "a Jewish state." While this can sound reasonable to the casual listener in the West, this demand actually points to critical flaws in the "peace process" and the way in which the international community approaches the Palestine/Israel question.

This is because such a demand, and understanding why it is so unacceptableto Palestinians, means going back to 1948 -- when hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed, their inhabitants forbidden from returning by the new Jewish state -- and throwing the spotlight on two groups of Palestinians that the so-called peace process has ignored or marginalized: the refugees of '48 (and their descendants) and the Palestinian minority that's left inside Israel. The unpleasant reality is that Israel as "a Jewish state" means the permanent exile and dispossession of the former, and the colonial control of the latter.

By Leah-Hunt Hendrix for MIFTAH
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Within the space of several hours, I received two emails with the same subject heading, requesting signatures for an online petition against the destruction of Bedouin houses by the Israeli army. One was from an aunt in Boston and the other from my father in New York. My fatherís email included a question, ìIs this really happening? This sounds so terrible, but you never know if you can trust the media.î While I am often sceptical of the media as well, I responded that, unfortunately, this time, the story was true.

By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times
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Get the girls ready, Ziad Jilani's wife recalls him saying as he rushed out the door, and when I'm back from prayers we'll have a day at the beach. With temperatures soaring and school in recess, the Jilani family was looking forward to a little fun and relaxation.

After Friday prayers at Al Aqsa mosque in the Old City, Jilani jumped into his white Mitsubishi pickup and began driving through a crowded East Jerusalem neighborhood. His family believes he was planning to buy fruit for his eldest daughter and make a quick stop to visit his grandmother.

By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
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Has anyone ever wondered why Israel continues to sign agreements or humor those whose advice it has not intention of taking? It's about time somebody questions the intentions, since the apparent trend is for Israel to ride the wave of international currents only to reject them before they reach their intended goal.

Jeff Halper - Counterpunch
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On the day before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began, at 2:30 in the morning, workers sent by the Israeli authorities, protected by dozens of police, destroyed the tombstones in the last portion of the Mamilla cemetery, an historic Muslim burial ground with graves going back to the 7th Century, hitherto left untouched. The government of Israel has always been fully cognizant of the sanctity and historic significance of the site. Already in 1948, when control of the cemetery reverted to Israel, the Israeli Religious Affairs Ministry recognized Mamilla “to be one of the most prominent Muslim cemeteries, where seventy thousand Muslim warriors of [Saladin’s] armies are interred along with many Muslim scholars. Israel will always know to protect and respect this site.”

George Bisharat and Nimer Sultany - Miami Herald
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Should Israel be encouraged to enact legislation guaranteeing equal rights for all of its citizens as part of any peace agreement with the Palestinians?

Israel's systematic discrimination against Arabs was highlighted recently when Donna Shalala, University of Miami president and former Health and Human Services secretary, was detained for three hours, grilled and subjected to an extended luggage search upon her departure from Israel.

Shalala, of Lebanese Arab descent and a long-time supporter of Israel, had visited the country with other university leaders at the invitation of the American Jewish Congress, but had stayed beyond the planned itinerary for several days. It seems evident that, despite her stature, she was a victim of profiling.

Ma'an News Agency
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Direct talks between Palestinian and Israeli leaders are the most obvious way to achieve peace in the Middle East conflict. But history has shown time and again that a high-profile peace process alone is no recipe for success.

The Arab League is set to meet later this month to advise the Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership whether or not to engage in direct talks with Israel. Palestinian officials say that there is no use in holding direct talks that are nothing more than a photo opportunity intended to create the impression of a peace process while avoiding any substantive commitments.

BY NASEER ARURI - Projo
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President Obama’s capitulation last month to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was disheartening. But it was not surprising. Most American presidents, Dwight Eisenhower aside, wilt under the pressure of the Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in particular.

Obama briefly looked to be different. Yet with elections approaching, he abandoned earlier positions. Rather than treat Israel and its occupation of the Palestinian territories as a primary foreign-policy concern, the administration is playing domestic politics with it.

Amira Hass - Ha'aretz
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Children in the West Bank throw stones at army vehicles and Israeli cars, mainly those belonging to settlers. That is the undeniable truth. Throwing stones is the classic way of telling the occupier, who is armed from head to toe, that he has forced himself on the occupied. Sometimes it's part of a sweeping resistance movement, sometimes it's a ceremonial remnant of such a movement, not devoid of braggadocio and adolescent boredom, while also a reminder to adults not to adapt.

Xinhua
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RAMALLAH, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Israel intends to deport over 20,000 Palestinians out of Jerusalem whom it said don't have legal residency to stay in the city, a leading Palestinian human rights defender said on Sunday.

"Israeli Interior Ministry has already begun deporting Palestinians under the pretext that they stay in Jerusalem illegally," Ziad Hammouri, head of the Jerusalem center for social and economic rights (JCSER), told Xinhua.

The new procedure targets West Bank citizens who live in Jerusalem and possess property and ownerships even before Israel occupied the city in 1967, he said.

Alice Speri, The Electronic Intifada
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As Israel's illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied West Bank continues to be a strain on US-Israel relations, an unflattering light is being shone on US private donations towards the development of the settlements that are increasingly encroaching on Palestinian land.

Most of the construction work in the settlements is in the hands of American, Canadian and European developers. Much of the money needed for settlement development comes from private American donations. It is estimated that tens of millions of dollars reach the settlements in the form of charity, contributions that by virtue of their philanthropic nature enjoy tax-exempt status under the US' Internal Revenue Code.

RAMALLAH, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Around 517,774 Jewish settlers live in settlements in the West Bank, according to a report published Tuesday by Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics ( PCBS).