Amnesty International’s Gaza electricity libel
December 4, 2013 | Ahron Shapiro
In a follow up to Sharyn Mittelman’s November 22 report on Gaza’s self-inflicted fuel shortage, we look at NGO Amnesty International’s press release on the situation from Sunday, a remarkable document so far removed from factual accuracy that it can best be described as a work of fiction.
Salafist terror spreads to the West Bank
November 29, 2013 | Ahron Shapiro
The deaths of three Palestinian terror suspects who had opened fire on Israeli troops sent to arrest them near Hebron on Tuesday was unfortunately not an altogether rare occurrence.
The decline in successful terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank in recent years has been widely attributed to the effectiveness of Israel’s intelligence and security forces in capturing terrorists before they have a chance of executing deadly attacks. Occasionally, the suspects choose to attempt to kill the soldiers who come to arrest them, with unfortunate but predictable results.
However, the details of these suspects and several of their associates who had been arrested earlier without incident, was very unusual, as analysts noted this marked the first time Salafist Palestinians in the West Bank, allied ideologically with al-Qaeda, have been caught red-handed planning terror attacks.
Is the EU inadvertently encouraging Israeli settlements?
November 27, 2013 | Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz
As Australia shifts its UN vote on Israeli settlements to one more befitting of its longstanding support for a negotiated two-state solution, the EU appears to be going in the opposite direction. In addition to undermining the EU’s support for peace talks, this may even be inadvertently encouraging Israel to purposefully send Israeli citizens and businesses into the West Bank…
A Good Deal on Iran’s Nukes? The Iranians certainly think so
November 26, 2013 | Or Avi Guy
When the delegates of the P5+1 convened in Geneva to finalise an interim agreement with Iran they were supposed to have one goal in mind – to stop Iran’s nuclear program.
So is the new interim deal a step towards “a future in which we can verify that Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful and that it cannot build a nuclear weapon” as US President Obama put it?
The Iranians certainly don’t seem to think so.
Evaluating the Interim Nuclear Deal with Iran
November 26, 2013
This Update is devoted to analysis of the detail and implications of the interim nuclear deal reached by the P5+1 states (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) and Iran in Geneva on Sunday. (The actual agreement text is here, a White House “fact sheet” on the details is here, and some reporting about the agreement’s provision is here.) Israeli leaders, meanwhile, have been lining up to make it clear that they are not happy with the deal.
Hamas-Fatah dispute causes major Gaza blackouts – why no coverage?
November 22, 2013 | Sharyn Mittelman
A dispute between Hamas and the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) over the price of fuel has resulted in Hamas shutting down the Gaza Strip’s power plant, which has left Gazans with blackouts lasting between 12 to 18 hours a day. It has also caused a sanitation crisis, with raw sewage flooding the streets of a southern Gaza City neighborhood after a pump station flooded.
This dire situation is getting almost no coverage in Australia – though you could bet if Israel was responsible, it would likely be major news.
Even a UN interpreter has had enough with UN’s Israel bias
November 21, 2013 | Or Avi Guy
A video of a UN interpreter caught on a hot mic criticising the UN obsession with Israel is going viral since it was uploaded last week. It occurred during a session of the Fourth Committee of the UN General Assembly, in which nine motions criticising Israel were passed. The blogosphere is abuzz, and commentators are congratulating the interpreter for a rare, and surprisingly candid, statement, even if it was never intended to be made public.
The Risks of Easing Sanctions for an Interim Iran deal
November 21, 2013
With talks between Iran and the P5+1 (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) resuming in Geneva last night, this Update deals with a key aspect of the six-month interim deal that is reportedly being discussed in Geneva – namely, the proposal to ease sanctions as the “carrot” to lure Iran to agree to a partial freeze on its nuclear weapons program.
One woman’s story illustrates some Gaza realities
November 13, 2013 | Or Avi Guy
Sara Rogers’ story sounds like the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster. While living in New Mexico she met Hatem Abu Taha. Hatem proposed three days after they met, and they went on to get married and have three kids together. Then the plot thickened: in 2001, when Sara was pregnant with their fourth child, Hatem decided they should all visit his family, in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Upon arrival, Sara was forced to stay in Gaza, trapped in her husband’s family home for four years, until she finally managed to escape with her children across border to Israel, and then back to the US.
Now living in Boston, she recounts her story, and her experiences shatter some of the most prevalent misperceptions about the Gaza Strip
Almost a nuclear deal in Geneva?
November 12, 2013
As readers are probably aware, in last weeks Geneva talks between the “P5+1” (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) and Iran, the parties at one point appeared close to an interim agreement, with Foreign Ministers flying in to join the talks, but then broke up without reaching one. While France publicly objected to elements of the deal initially, and were blamed by Iran for the talks failure, the reasons the talks ended without agreement was because the Iranians walked away from the terms on offer according to the diplomats involved. Talks are set to resume on Nov. 20, with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials making it amply clear that the Israeli government is not at all happy with the terms being discussed (Netanyahu’s comments on the subject on US television are here.) This Update deals with analysis of the reported proposed terms of the Geneva “deal” and where the negotiators can go from here.
