Middle East
Top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader calls for direct talks with U.S.
The top foreign adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has called for new direct talks with the United States amid the multilateral negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. The remarks Friday by Ali Akbar Velayati signaled a high-level endorsement of the policies of President Hassan Rohani, whom hard-liners have criticized over last month's nuclear deal and other contacts with the U.S.
Obama and Netanyahu downplay differences on Iran nuclear deal
The leaders of Israel and the US, who clashed repeatedly over western strategy for containing Iran's nuclear programme during last month's negotiations, appeared in more conciliatory mood at a conference organised by the Israeli-American donor Haim Saban - suggesting the affair may have done less damage to relations between the two allies than hawks in Washington have claimed.
Israeli former security chief failure to end conflict is bigger threat than Iran
The failure to reach a deal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict poses a bigger existential threat to Israel than the Iranian nuclear programme, according a former head of the country's security agency, Shin Bet. Yuval Diskin, who left office two years ago, criticised the continuing occupation and the growth of settlements in the West Bank, saying a solution based on two states would soon no longer be an option.
Israeli PM orders rethink on settlement construction plans
Israel’s West Bank control ‘costing Palestinian economy billions’
Israel's control of a huge swath of the West Bank is costing the Palestinian economy $3.4bn ( 2.1bn) a year, or 35% of its GDP, according to a report from the World Bank. Restrictions on Palestinian access and movement within Area C, the 61% of the West Bank that is under full Israeli military control, is stunting the Palestinian economy, says the report. Area C and the Future of the Palestinian Economy, published on Tuesday, is the first comprehensive study of the potential impact of land restrictions in the region, according to the World Bank.
Israel’s Cassandra moment
Abbas says Palestinians refuse to enter into ‘vortex’ of interim deals with Israel
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday in New York, saying that the Palestinians refuse to enter into "a vortex" of new interim agreements with Israel. Speaking for the first time in the name of the State of Palestine, Abbas said raising the UN status of Palestine to observer state was not aimed at deligitimizing Israel, but "to consecrate the legitimacy of a State that must exist, which is Palestine."
General Obama Stopped Strike on Iran
General Giora Eiland : Obama Stopped Strike on Iran
Palestinian leadership matches Israeli PM’s peace deal referendum pledge
The Palestinian leadership will put to a referendum any deal reached in US-brokered talks with the Israelis on settling the historic conflict matching a pledge made by the Israeli prime minister. Amid continuing uncertainty about whether Palestinian negotiators have fully committed to beginning preliminary talks in Washington next week, the president, Mahmoud Abbas, said: "Any agreement reached with the Israelis will be brought to a referendum."
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks’ resumption put in doubt by both sides
Moves towards a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were mired in rumours, rebuttals, criticism and confusion on Sunday in an indication of the political and diplomatic swamp facing key negotiators and their mediator, the US secretary of state, John Kerry. In a high-profile dismissal of the embryonic process, Israel's former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, wrote on Facebook that there was "no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, at least not in the coming years, and what's possible and important to do is conflict-management".
EU blacklists Hezbollah’s armed wing
Talks between Israel and Palestinian negotiators to start next week
The agreement, announced on Friday evening after four months of intensive diplomacy, fell short of a hoped for face-to-face meeting between leaders of the two sides. Nevertheless, it is the first step in negotiations which could potentially lead to an eventual settlement of the 65-year conflict. Kerry said he and the parties "reached an agreement that establishes a basis for direct final status negotiations". But he added that it was "still in the process of being formalised".
Israel Increases Pressure on U.S. to Act on Iran
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ramped up pressure on the White House on Sunday to put the buildup of Iran's nuclear program ahead of other crises in the Middle East, complaining of a lack of urgency on the issue and saying that the Obama administration must demonstrate "by action" to Iran s newly elected president that "the military option which is on the table is truly on the table."
Rohani hints he will balance hard-line, reformist demands
Iran’s Latterday Goering
It was gut-wrenching to watch the world fawn over Iran s new president. It was even more sickening to see ignorance parading as astuteness and profound insight. We can only be mystified by how all those who never previously heard of Hassan Rohani instantly knew he was a famous moderate, that his election was a blow to Iran s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Khamenei was exceedingly upset by the people s choice, even that he greeted it with a sour expression.
Rohani in 1986: West too soft on Khomeini
On August 30, 1986, a secret meeting took place in Paris between Amiram Nir, the counterterrorism advisor to the Israeli prime minister, and Dr. Hassan Rohani, then deputy head of Iranian parliament and the secretary of the country's national security committee. Eight years later, Yedioth Ahronoth military pundit Ron Ben Yishai published the transcript of the conversation, which has suddenly grown in relevance in view of Rohani's election to Iranian presidency.
Israel hits back after Gaza rockets
Israeli warplanes have attacked targets in the Gaza Strip after missiles were fired into southern Israel late on Sunday night. At least six rockets were fired from northern Gaza, but no damage or injury was reported. Hours later, Israeli aircraft hit three areas, a BBC reporter said. The reason for the flare-up is unclear but sources blame tension in Gaza after an Islamic Jihad leader was killed by Hamas police on Saturday
Rowhani’s surprise election in Tehran could resuscitate Obama’s speech in Cairo
Netanyahu warns West: Don’t be deluded into easing nuclear pressure on Iran
Palestine decries Israel’s new outposts plan
An Israeli settlement push in the occupied West Bank, involving the building of 1,000 new homes in two new settlements, is "killing the two state solution", Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah has said. Hamdallah was speaking to the Reuters news agency on Thursday in response to news of the proposed housing projects.
Why US Jews must embrace Kerry’s appeal to put pressure on Netanyahu
Two-state solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict slipping away, says Hague
Erekat throws his weight behind Kerry’s bid to revive talks
The top Palestinian negotiator with Israel on Monday threw his weight behind US Secretary of State John Kerry's bid to revive stalled peace talks, while describing the situation in the West Bank as apartheid worse than that suffered in South Africa. Kerry is due to visit Jerusalem and Ramallah on Thursday and Friday. US-brokered peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel broke down in 2010 in a dispute over continuing Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank.
Hagel to Israel Military option will be considered after Iranian elections
Iran strike only viable when sword is to throat
Israeli army breaks up Palestinian march
Israeli soldiers have fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse about 500 Palestinian villagers marching towards an illegal settlement outpost in the occupied West Bank. Friday's procession, the largest of its kind for years, followed charges by Palestinians that the Israeli settlers, whose caravans abut village land, had attacked them twice this week.
Israel Will Strike Iran ‘s Subterranean Nuclear Sites
Israel’s Deputy FM warns: Inaction on Syrian chemical arms sends message to Iran
Ex-Hezbollah leader Iran told us to join Syrian war
Iran pressed Hezbollah fighters to join the civil war in Syria to bolster President Bashar Assad s armed struggle, according to Sobhi al-Tofaili, a disaffected former leader of the militant group. The allegation, made on Lebanon s Future Television, echoes similar comments by George Sabra, interim leader of the Syrian National Coalition, at a press conference in Turkey on April 22.
Netanyahu and the Laws of Killing ‘Goyim’
Israel is becoming a racist society, in which the prime minister of a country that was founded after the murder of Jews salutes a rabbi who supported a work on the laws of killing non-Jews. Netanyahu has thus essentially expressed support for "The Laws of Killing Non-Jews" overwhelms the rabbinic rulings being imposed on the military and on all of society and that are being revealed daily, whether it be permission to rape non-Jewish captives or the "necessary" inequities against "goyim" by the state.
Hezbollah chief Nasrallah secretly visits Iran
At Ahmadinejad’s last army parade, Iran dismisses Israel as ‘a barking dog’
Olmert: Israel has quietly prevented a nuclear Iran
Israel has been quietly active over a long period in preventing Tehran from achieving its nuclear aims, former prime minister Ehud Olmert revealed recently to The Jerusalem Post in an interview ahead of next weekend s second annual Jerusalem Post Conference in New York City. We did many things quietly over a long period of time that certainly helped prevent the Iranians from achieving this capacity long ago, but the effort must be led with the United States and the international community, said Olmert, who will be the keynote speaker at the conference on April 28, as he was at the inaugural conference last year.
Israel rules out charges over Gaza Dalou family deaths
Cut the chatter on Iran – negotiations are failing
The latest round of negotiations with Iran - with meetings in Almaty, Istanbul, and Almaty again over the past couple of months - has ended in failure, with the two sides as far apart as ever. Diplomatic sources continued to express cautious optimism regarding a possible breakthrough even when it became clear that the final meeting in Almaty was not going well. These sources insisted that talks on the last day - Saturday - would be the true test of where Iran is going. But as we have seen so many times before, the "true test" never comes; every failed negotiation has been the prelude to renewed statements about the ultimate test of Iran's intentions that will come - with the next round.
Israel May Fast-Track Plans to Attack Iran
Analysts fear a dramatic advance in North Korea s nuclear missile technology, revealed inadvertently during a Congressional hearing Thursday, will quickly find its way to Iran - forcing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fast-track a long-contemplated attack against Tehran s nuclear-enrichment facilities
An analysis of Obama’s Nowruz speeches
As he has every year since he was elected, US president Barack Obama congratulated the people of Iran on the occasion of the Persian New Year this past March 21, an address he always ends with a blessing in Farsi. In light of Iran s intentions to acquire nuclear capability, Obama says that diplomacy is the best option.
Kerry meets Abbas in US talks push
US Secretary of State John Kerry has met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as part of a fresh US bid to restart negotiations between Israel and Palestine. Kerry is on a 10-day tour, which will also take him to Asia, and met Abbas in Ramallah on Sunday after holding talks earlier in the day with Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, in Istanbul.
Pro-Palestinian Hackers Attack Israeli Sites
A loose international coalition of pro-Palestinian computer hackers threatened to carry out what it called "a massive cyberassault" against Israel on Sunday, but the campaign created mostly minor disruptions, and the Israeli government said that as of midday its Web sites were still accessible to the public.
What to expect when you’re expecting Iran to compromise
West Bank Funerals Become Displays of Defiance
The funeral of a Palestinian prisoner who died of cancer in Israeli custody set off displays of angry defiance on Thursday in the West Bank city of Hebron. Masked gunmen loyal to the Palestinian president fired into the air to underscore calls for vengeance, and clashes broke out between Israeli soldiers and youths burning tires and hurling stones.
Palestinian disappointment at Obama presidency
"Obama has been worse than Bush," one Palestinian official in the West Bank told me not so long ago. It raised an eyebrow. George W Bush's name is generally mud across much of the Arab World. "Maybe not worse for the Middle East as a whole," the official clarified. "But for Palestinians, Obama has been worse to deal with."
U.S. has pinpoint attack ready on Iran, says Israeli official
A senior Israeli security official who has been clued in on parts of the American plans for possible military action against Iran said: "The Americans are planning for this scenario very seriously." With U.S. President Barack Obama's visit here beginning Wednesday, the senior Israeli official said: "Obama s administration, as opposed to that of his predecessor, George Bush, has prepared a pinpoint military option in the event that the United States decides to attack in the end".
As Obama Prepares to Visit, Many Israelis Are Wary
"Deep inside, I think, he doesn t like us," said Moshe Haim, an Iranian immigrant who drives a taxi in Tel Aviv. "People don't get the love from Obama," said Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman, who leads the left-leaning Reform congregation Kol Haneshama and worked on a video encouraging American-Israelis to support the president s re-election last fall. "Bush and Clinton and Carter, these guys all had such a deep religious passion about this place, and Obama doesn't convey that," he added.
‘Tortured’ Palestinian inmate’s funeral held
Thousands of Palestinian mourners have gathered in the town on Sair in the occupied West Bank for the funeral of Arafat Jaradat, who died in an Israeli jail under disputed circumstances. Palestinian officials say preliminary autopsy results show Jaradat's death on Saturday was caused from torture by his Israeli interrogators. Israeli officials say there is no conclusive cause of death and that more tests are needed.
Hamas executes 6 suspected Israel collaborators
With recent escalation in West Bank, Israelis and Palestinians edge closer to boiling point
Palestinian prisoner dies in Israeli custody
Israeli PM names Livni as justice minister
Tzipi Livni, Israel's former foreign minister, has been named as justice minister after joining an emerging coalition headed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of the ruling Likud Party. Livni, who heads the centrist HaTnuah Party, will also be Israel's negotiator in any peace talks with the Palestinians, the prime minister's bloc said on Tuesday
Bloomberg’s friendly advice to pro-Israel, anti-BDS protesters shut up!
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has lambasted city politicians who threatened to cut off funding to Brooklyn College for sponsoring an event featuring the anti-Israeli Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, saying "If you want to go to a university where the government decides what kind of subjects are fit for discussion, I suggest you apply to a school in North Korea."
Lieberman: Comprehensive peace with Palestinians impossible, conflict must be managed
Former Foreign Minister MK Avigdor Lieberman said in an interview with Channel 2 on Saturday that Israel will agree to peace negotiations "any given time and at any place without preconditions." Lieberman added, however, that a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians is impossible. "The conflict must be managed," he said, adding that a long-term intermediate agreement should be negotiated. "The ball is in Abu Mazen's court," he said, referring to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel destroys W Bank protest camp
Israel's army forced Palestinian activists to evacuate a West Bank encampment they had set up in protest against illegal Israeli settlement construction and declared the site a "closed military zone". Soldiers on Saturday destroyed tents that were being erected in two different areas near the southern West Bank town of Yatta and forced activists to leave, the Palestinian witness said.
Who spread reports of an ‘explosion’ at Iran’s Fordow nuclear plant and why?
UK: Israel losing support over settlements
Britain has said that continued Israeli settlement expansion into the occupied Palestinian territories has driven hopes for a two-state solution to near death. British foreign secretary William Hague, speaking as Israelis took to the polls on Tuesday, warned the Israeli government that their actions were costing international support.
Bibi’s blunders, Lapid’s luster, Bennett’s believers, and Obama’s revenge
Netanyahu's marriage with Avigdor Lieberman s Yisrael Beiteinu - from the prime minister's point of view - turned out to be a match made in hell. It delegitimized Likud, sending its religious-minded voters to Naftali Bennett, its moderate centrists to Yair Lapid and its North African voters to Shas. Lieberman's indictment only seemed to taint the pact further, adding to the perception that it was the opposite of synergy - that it was far less than the sum of its parts.
Binyamin Netanyahu rejects calls for Palestinian state within 1967 lines
Can Israel live with a nuclear Iran?
IQ2 U.S., which imported Oxford University-style debates from Intelligence Squared in London, is an organization dedicated to dealing thoroughly with weighty issues. "Nowadays many arguments on radio and TV are oriented towards 'sound bites,'" says Dana Wolf, IQ2 U.S.'s executive producer. "We wish to hold comprehensive debates, and we believe there is an audience for serious discussions. I believe we proved today that people are interested in such debates. The hall is usually full, and according to our data, millions of people are watching or listening to the debate."
Israeli Vote Greeted by a ‘Yawning’ Electorate
From the deck of a new cafe at the edge of this sprawling Jewish settlement, customers gaze out at a large patch of desert that is the latest point of contention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. People here, and in the Israeli leadership, hope that the land will soon become an unbroken chain of roads and homes linking their community to Jerusalem. But Palestinians - along with much of the world - see it as a critical part of their future state.
Clearing protesters from West Bank site, Netanyahu pledges to build settlement
Obama defeats the Israel Lobby
Although a president's choice for Secretary of Defence is not in really a national security issue, it does get to the question of an American president and his security prerogatives. After all, the Department of Defence personifies US national security. Once President Obama made clear that he would nominate Hagel, the game was over.
The real player in the power struggle among Israel’s top military brass: Iran
The dispute over an Israeli campaign against Iran provided the backdrop to the clash between the Barak camp - Defense Minister Ehud Barak and members of his bureau - and then-IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi and his associates. It also influenced the standing of the generals whose candidacy for chief of staff after Ashkenazi's retirement was considered in 2010.
Comptroller report highlights the deep distrust and moral decay of Israel’s top brass
In August 2010, in the pages of this newspaper, I coined the phrase putsch in the Kirya, following suspicions that career and reserves officers in the Israel Defense Forces had taken part in forging and disseminating a document, which has since then become known as the "Harpaz document." I wrote that if the suspicions were confirmed of a conspiracy among officers to thwart the appointment of Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant as chief of staff - and perhaps even to oust Defense Minister Ehud Barak it would constitute a rebellion by a military faction against the civilian echelon that oversees it.