Middle East Watch

475 Article

• PA move to thwart Goldstone Gaza report shocks Palestinian public

  4 October 2009, by Amira Haas

  The decision by the United Nations Human Rights Council to delay the vote on the findings of its report into the Gaza conflict - in line with a request by the Palestinian Authority - has shocked the Palestinian public.
  Palestinian sources told Haaretz that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made the decision to delay the vote immediately after meeting with the U.S. Consul General last Thursday, without the knowledge of the PLO leadership or the government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, (…)

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• Iran’s nukes in exchange for peace

  October 2009, by Akiva Eldar

  One of the best-known sayings bandied about in this region is that "Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East." This has been the official position of successive Israeli governments. What is less known is that after a comprehensive, regional peace agreement is reached, Israel will support a regional decommissioning of nuclear weapons. Recently, President Shimon Peres personally confirmed to me that this was the policy he had presented to the world (…)

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• Mahmoud Abbas’ chronic submissiveness

  5 October 2009, by Amira Haas

  In a single phone call to his man in Geneva, Mahmoud Abbas has demonstrated his disregard for popular action, and his lack of faith in its accumulative power and the place of mass movements in processes of change.
  For nine months, thousands of people - Palestinians, their supporters abroad and Israeli anti-occupation activists - toiled to ensure that the legacy of Israel’s military offensive against Gaza would not be consigned to the garbage bin of occupying nations obsessed with their (…)

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• Vote on Goldstone report delayed 6 months

  2 octobre 2009,

  Weeks of intensive activities by Israel and the United States has resulted in a six months deferment of a vote by the UN Human Rights Council on the adoption of a report prepared by a panel headed by Justice Richard Goldstone, which followed an investigation into alleged war crimes by the Jewish state and Hamas during the Gaza War.
  Goldstone is former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
  The Palestinian Authority dominated by (…)

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• L’ONU cède aux pressions et reporte le vote sur la saisine de la CPI

  3 octobre 2009,

  Pour la énième fois, la légitimité internationale échoue à faire régner la justice dans le monde, notamment lorsqu’il s’agit d’appliquer la loi sur "Israël". Le Conseil des droits de l’homme aux Nations-Unies a donc cédé, vendredi, aux pressions américano-israéliennes, et décidé de reporter à sa session de mars 2010 le vote d’une résolution sur le rapport d’enquête du juge sud-africain Richard Goldstone. Celui-ci recommande la saisine de la Cour pénale internationale (CPI) pour des "crimes (…)

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• The Goldstone Report and Israeli Impunity

  25 September 2009, by Ramzy Baroud

  "We may be witnessing the beginning of the end of the era of impunity," Nadia Hijab, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Palestine Studies, said in response to the findings of a 574-page report by a four-member United Nations Fact finding mission. The mission, led by internationally-renowned former South African supreme court justice and chief prosecutor in the international tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, investigated alleged war crimes committed by Israeli troops in (…)

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• The Big Diversion

  1 October 2009, by Ramzy Baroud

  World events have taken an interesting turn recently, with the Goldstone report, which wreaked havoc in the beginning of the week being nearly completely overshadowed by Iran’s revelation of another nuclear facility, according to diplomats in Vienna on September 25.
  The Iran nuclear threat - although theater is a more suitable term - was highlighted repeatedly, first by US President Barack Obama during a UN speech on September 23, then again by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the (…)

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• In the Water, on the Land, and in the Air The German-Israeli Armaments Cooperation

  October 2006, by Otfried Nassauer

  The Israeli air force bombarded targets in Lebanon. The Israeli army pushed into Lebanese villages and cities that they regarded as Hizbollah strongholds. The Israeli navy blockaded the country at sea. During all these operations, military technology "Made in Germany" was put to use. Reason enough for a sharper look at a particular kind of atonement.
  Guenther Hillinger [name altered] had a problem. The veteran engineer of the AEG factory in Wedel had simply found it on the notice board. An (…)

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• Israel Buys 2 Nuclear-Capable Submarines

  25 August 2009, by Ramit Plushnick-Masti

  With the purchase of two more German-made Dolphin submarines capable of carrying nuclear warheads, military experts say Israel is sending a clear message to Iran that it can strike back if attacked by nuclear weapons.
  The purchases come at a time when Iran is refusing to bow to growing Western demands to halt its nuclear program, and after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
  The new submarines, built at a cost of $1.3 billion with (…)

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• Israeli sub sails Suez, signaling reach to Iran

  3 July 2009,

  An Israeli submarine sailed the Suez Canal to the Red Sea as part of a naval drill last month, defense sources said on Friday, describing the unusual maneuver as a show of strategic reach in the face of Iran.
  Israel long kept its three Dolphin-class submarines, which are widely assumed to carry nuclear missiles, away from Suez so as not to expose them to the gaze of Egyptian harbormasters.
  It was unclear when last month the vessel left the Mediterranean. One source said the voyage was (…)

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