Netanyahu is exposing his nationalist face to the public ( Haaretz Editorial )

[Jefferson23]

After the prime minister's string of statements over the past week, it seems he has decided to take off the statesmanlike mask he has donned for the past few years.

Haaretz Editorial | Nov. 12, 2014 |

Benjamin Netanyahu is against the State of Israel.



That’s the only way to describe the string of statements the prime minister has made over the past week. It seems he has decided to take off the statesmanlike mask he has donned for the past few years, and now he’s exposing his nationalist face to the public.

Netanyahu’s modus operandi is always the same: He does everything in his power to torpedo any possible agreement with the Palestinians, and then exploits the frustration created by his rejectionism to inflame the atmosphere. He sets absurd preconditions for beginning negotiations (like recognizing Israel as the Jews’ nation state), and then, after the Palestinian frustration has become tangible in the streets, “invites everyone who demonstrates against Israel and in favor of the Palestinian state to move there; we won’t put any obstacles in your path.”

Netanyahu systematically reverses cause and effect. His goal is to portray the aggressor as the victim and the victim as the aggressor. He refuses to discuss substantive issues like borders, dividing Jerusalem and the right of return, then, after anger erupts on the Palestinian side and spills over into Israel’s Arab citizens as well, he instructs his interior minister to look into revoking the citizenship of Arab Israelis who demonstrated against the state or attacked policemen.

Instead of being the prime minister of all the state’s citizens, 20 percent of whom are Arabs, Netanyahu has a completely different goal: realizing the dream of the entire Land of Israel. That’s why he invests enormously in what he considers the most important resource of all: time. He knows that the more time he buys – from the Palestinians, the Americans and the world – the more crushing the blow will be to the chances for an agreement.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.625981

[Jefferson23]

1. Holy land sinks deeper into political turmoil

Over the past two weeks, Israeli authorities have detained scores of Palestinians, the majority of whom are children from Jerusalem, rights group said [AP]


Anti-Palestinian arson attack hits village despite Israeli officials claims of working to restore calm to holy land.

Dalia Hatuqa Last updated: 12 Nov 2014

Ramallah, West Bank - Two houses of worship on the two sides of the Green Line, the boundary that existed before the 1967 war, were subject to suspected arson attacks overnight, as the Holy Land continued to sink deeper into political turmoil.

Just before dawn on November 12, a mosque in al-Mughayir village, north of Ramallah, was set alight. The head of the village council said Israeli settlers were behind it, citing frequent attacks that included an incident in 2012 where another mosque was torched.

"We woke up at 3:30am to find a fire had engulfed the entire ground floor of the mosque," Faraj al-Nasan told Al Jazeera. "It is clear it was the settlers, and now the Israeli army is calling me to carry out an investigation."

Nasan said "price-tag" graffiti was left behind on the walls of the mosque. This graffiti is the trademark of settlers carrying out attacks in the West Bank.

This came on the heels of another suspected attack on Tuesday night, when a firebomb was lobbed at an ancient synagogue that is not in use in Shefa 'Amr, a predominantly Arab city north of Israel. Minor damages were reported.

Both attacks come a day after the Palestinian president warned Israel that its crackdown on Muslim worshippers and allowing right-wing Jewish groups into the Noble Sanctuary (al-Haram al-Sharif) would ignite a "religious war".

"Israel's leaders are making a huge mistake if they think they can now establish facts on the ground and divide prayer times at the Al-Aqsa Mosque as they did at al-Ibrahimi Mosque [in Hebron]," Mahmoud Abbas said during a memorial for the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

"By doing these things they are leading the region and the world into a devastating religious war," Abbas added.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/11/holy-land-sinks-deeper-into-political-turmoil-20141112102610673541.html

[Jefferson23]

2. Hamas: Israel fails to implement cease-fire deal

November 11, 2014

Palestinians in Gaza have yet to recover from the wounds of the recent Israeli war, especially those whose houses were demolished. Tens of thousands of people are still in evacuation centers, unable to restore their houses. There has been no improvement at the border checkpoints, which remain fully intact, and no reconstruction operations have kicked off. The Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip do not feel that the terms of the cease-fire agreement have been implemented.

Frustrated under the deteriorating conditions in Gaza, senior Hamas leaders have made several statements threatening to escalate matters.

The most remarkable threat was made by senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar in a press interview on Oct. 27, when he alluded to possibly renewing the fighting if Israel fails to respond to Palestinian demands. Zahar said Israel is to be held accountable for any defect in the current security situation.

The deputy chairman of Hamas’ political bureau, Mousa Abu Marzouk, explained in a Sept. 21 interview that the movement does not want another war with Israel. He added that fighting would be inevitable unless Gaza's border crossings with Egypt and Israel are opened, knowing that there is no desire to return to war.

Hamas has stepped up its rhetoric against what it deems a slowdown in the reconstruction of Gaza, especially with the onset of winter and in light of the damage inflicted on areas ravaged by the Israeli army, namely in Khuza'a, in southern Gaza.

On Nov. 5, Al-Monitor attended a mass march organized in front of the UN Relief and Works Agenc for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) headquarters in Gaza. During the march, supporters chanted slogans against the international reconstruction plan, which they deemed a policy of humiliation against Palestinians.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/11/gaza-hamas-war-threats-israel-crossings-reconstruction.html#ixzz3IroQ65t5