Haaretz today - Tuesday, January 27, 2009

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Last update - 21:09 27/01/2009

'New EU president is a true friend of Israel, a Zionist prince'

By Adar Primor

Ever since January 1, the European Union has been ruled by a prince. This was stated recently by the French daily Le Monde, which also described that prince, scion of a noble Austro-Hungarian family, as a man of rare and courtly manners: He dresses elegantly, often wearing a bow tie, and smokes a wooden pipe; he nurtures a regal mustache and kisses women's hands with archaic gallantry.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg has been at the helm of the European Union's agenda for nearly a month now in his capacity as current President of the EU Council of Ministers. He is 71 years old, a Catholic by religion, a conservative by habit, a liberal by leanings, identified with the left and a representative of the Green Party in the Senate of the Czech Republic. In Israel, they are pleased to add to this unique mix that he is "a true friend."

Going by his most recent statements and the descriptions in Jerusalem of his activities, one might have formed the impression that here we have a "Zionist prince:" He was active in initiating a Euro-Israeli conference to advance Israel's integration into the EU, he has declared that Operation Cast Lead was a "defensive measure" and he has rejected calls in Europe for investigation of "war crimes committed by the Israel Defense Forces."

In an exclusive interview with Haaretz, Schwarzenberg spoke at length about the shared history and the close ties that developed over the years between Jews and Czechs.

He recalled the warm attitude of the first Czech president Tomas Masaryk, and that of his friend and former patron Vaclav Havel; the arms shipments to Israel during the War of Independence; the key role that Jews played in Czech lands beginning in the Middle Ages and the fact that his country was, "the only one in the Soviet bloc that did not follow an anti-Semitic policy."

When Hitler celebrated the Anschluss in Vienna in 1938, one of his relatives - Adolf Schwarzenberg - went out and hung a black flag on the facade of his home in Prague.

When the Nazis forbade socializing with Jews, he opened the garden of his home and hung up a sign saying "Welcome, Jews." Another of his uncles, Jindrich Schwarzenberg, was sent to Buchenwald for his opposition to the Nazis.

Karel Schwarzenberg himself savors a happier anecdote that has been with him for many years.

"This was at the end of January 1948," he said. "I was a boy of 10 at the time. A high-ranking Israeli delegation came to Prague and I was sent by my parents to show them one of the houses that the family owned. The delegation signed a contract with my parents to rent the building, which became Israel's first embassy in Czechoslovakia.

On Israel's first Independence Day the Star of David flag was raised on its facade - that was the first Israeli flag ever flown in our country."

When he was asked during Operation Cast Lead why he supported Israel, he replied with astonishment, "The question should be why am I one of the few who are evincing understanding for Israel's motives. The answer is that I enjoy the luxury of speaking the truth."

Despite all this, Schwarzenberg learned quite quickly that his role as current president requires that he present an additional, more complex "truth," one that will also represent his 26 partners in the EU.

The statement by the Czech government spokesman to the effect that Israel was conducting a "defensive war" was amended within 24 hours and called for both sides to stop the shooting.

"As the foreign minister of the Czech Republic I could express myself more easily, I could express the opinions of my government and my own personal opinions," Schwarzenberg now acknowledges. "Since January 1 and my taking up of the rotating presidency I must fulfill the role and express the opinion of the mainstream of Europe."

This is also the key to understanding the unusual visit here by the Czech prime minister and five leaders of Europe's larger countries - Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain - immediately after the cease-fire. While in Israel the visit was depicted as a "rare demonstration of support," Schwarzenberg says that this was only the stated aim.

Another aim was to create pressure on Israel to lift the siege on Gaza and open the crossing points. In this context and when it is a matter of friends, says Schwarzenberg, the "luxury of speaking the truth" becomes "an obligation."

"I must present my position frankly, to the effect that with regard to the Palestinian population the policy of the State of Israel is mistaken," he said. "The siege and the transformation of the entire population into a hostage of Hamas is a boomerang policy that is manifested in the besieged population identifying more and more with Hamas."

No extremists - or else

The current president of the EU Council hastens to stress, "the tremendous importance of trans-Atlantic relations," and when asked about the recent statement by United States President Barack Obama about conducting an "aggressive policy" in the Middle East, he has no problem signing on to it. Moreover, he also jibes naturally to the words of his counterpart, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, in response to the statement by Obama.

"I hope that the population of Israel will be wise enough not to vote for extremists and bring them into the Knesset," he says with regard to the expected election of Likud MK Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister in the approaching elections and the impressive gains made by Yisrael Beiteinu MK Avigdor Lieberman. "A policy that will permit the expansion of the settlements - especially after what has now happened in Gaza - will be disastrous for Israel's standing in Europe and presumably in the United States as well. Wars do, of course, have psychological repercussions, but it is my fervent hope that the moderate parties will, after all, be the ones that win in the election."

If this does not happen he warns, "The defense of Israel's interests - something that is dear to my heart - will become a pretty hopeless case to promote."

When he is asked to speak concretely and say whether there is a danger to the upgrading of relations with Europe, of which some of his colleagues demanded the suspension during the fighting in Gaza, he replies in the affirmative.

Will the improvement of our trade and economic agreements and the expansion of the joint diplomatic framework indeed be suspended?

"In every conflict in the world it is sometimes important to strike and obtain victories but ultimately historical experience shows us that dialogue is essential, even with the cruelest of enemies," he says.

He does not have magic solutions.

"It all depends of course on the abandonment of terror, but the close relationship that has developed between Hamas and the Gazan population teaches that one day it will be necessary to accept [Hamas]."

In the meantime, he recommends to Israel that it maintain "indirect relations" with the organization, "which are sometimes very effective. This has been proven historically. Israel too is experienced in this. There are, after all, contacts at a certain level, somewhere, even between Iran and Israel."

Does Israel have indirect relations with Iran?

"I am certain that this is so, even though no one - in Israel or in Iran - is going to declare this officially."

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Last update - 19:42 27/01/2009

Clinton: Israel has right to respond to Gaza rocket attacks

By News Agencies

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that Israel had a right to defend itself and that Palestinian rocket attacks on the Jewish

territory could not go unanswered.

"We support Israel's right to self-defense. The [Palestinian] rocket barrages which are getting closer and closer to populated areas [in Israel] cannot go unanswered," Clinton said in her first news conference at the State Department.

"It is regrettable that the Hamas leadership apparently believes that it is in their interest to provoke the right of self-defense instead of building a better future for the people of Gaza," she added.

Clinton also said that U.S. President Barack Obama's first days in office have made it clear that a more open Iranian approach to the international community could benefit Iran. She said this was reflected in statements Obama made in an interview Monday with an Arab TV network.

"There is a clear opportunity for the Iranians, as the president expressed in his interview, to demonstrate some willingness to engage meaningfully with the international community," she said. "Whether or not that hand becomes less clenched is really up to them."

She said the administration is undertaking a wide-ranging and comprehensive survey of U.S. policy options toward Iran.

"There is just a lot that we are considering that I'm not prepared to discuss," she added.

More broadly, Clinton said her initial round of telephone calls with world leaders has yielded positive signs.

"There's a great exhalation of breath going on around the world as people

express their appreciation for the new direction that's being set and the team that's [been] put together by the president," she said.

"In areas of the world that have felt either overlooked or not receiving

appropriate attention to the problems they are experiencing, there's a

welcoming of the engagement that we are promising," she said.

"It's not any kind of repudiation or indictment of the past eight years so much as an excitement and an acceptance of how we are going to be doing business."

She dismissed suggestions that Obama's foreign policy team would find it

difficult to work together. She said all are determined to find the best way to execute the president's foreign policy objectives.

"We have a lot of damage to repair," she said, referring to U.S. foreign

relations as they stood when President George W. Bush left office January 20.

Clinton said she spoke by telephone today with top Iraqi officials to make clear that there will be continuity in U.S. policy.

She said her call was intended to reinforce our commitment to a democratic and sovereign Iraq and the importance of their provincial elections. Iraqis are scheduled to vote on Saturday in a set of elections that U.S. and Iraqi officials hope will further solidify progress toward national political reconciliation.

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Last update - 19:26 27/01/2009

Red Cross: 115 Gazans missing since Operation Cast Lead

By Reuters

About 115 Palestinians have been registered by their families as missing in the conflict in Gaza, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday.

The neutral humanitarian agency said in a statement that it was trying to trace the missing and restore contact between them and their loved ones.

"They may have been detained, wounded or just not been in touch," ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas told Reuters.

The ICRC has no information on Palestinians detained by Israeli forces during the offensive but the spokeswoman said it expected to have access to all detainees.

A three-week Israeli air and ground offensive killed 1,300 people in the Gaza Strip before a fragile ceasefire was put in place 10 days ago.

An Israeli soldier was killed by a bomb on the border with the coastal enclave on Tuesday, and troops then killed a Palestinian in violence that left people in Gaza fearing further Israeli attacks.

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Last update - 16:47 27/01/2009

Belgium slams minister statement likening Gaza op to nursery massacre

By Cnaan Liphshiz, Haarez Correspondent

The Belgian foreign ministry distanced itself Monday from statements by a Flemish minister who likened Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip to a recent deadly attack on a nursery near Brussels, allegedly perpetrated by a deranged assailant.

The affair drew unusually harsh words from Israel's embassy in Brussels, which called the comparison "reckless, absurd and offensive."

The Dendermonde nursery attack, which shocked the nation, occurred on Friday. Police believe 20-year-old Kim De Gelder perpetrated the stabbing attack in which two infants and a woman were killed and eleven children were wounded. Police later named De Gelder, who is under arrest, as the suspect of a fourth, earlier murder of a 73-year-old woman.

"[The attack] shocks all of us," Minister for Culture, Youth and Sport in the Flemish Government Bert Anciaux wrote in Dutch in his official website on the day of the attack. "I must also think of the hundreds of dead children in the Gaza Strip, who were also knowingly killed by an aggressor who got away. Here, too, death and violence have struck."

In her reaction to a query on the matter, Belgium's ambassador to Israel, Bénédicte Frankinet, said: "The Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs has voiced strong concern about the civilian casualties, including many children, resulting from Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, as well as for the victims of the rocket attacks by Hamas.

She added: "Any comparison with other tragic events does not reflect in anyway the position expressed by the Minister [of Foreign Affairs] or by the Belgian Government."

A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Brussels issued an unusually harsh statement in condemnation of the comparison, accusing Anciaux of "demonizing Israel," and of "importing" the Middle East conflict into the streets of Belgian towns.

"In light of the violence we have seen directed at Jews during the recent conflagration, and the acrimonious statements in demonstrations against Israel, politicians need to show restraint when speaking about the Middle East conflict," embassy media liaison Laurent Reichman told Haaretz.

"This redundant statement can only be seen as a reckless deed," the embassy said. "Comparing the Middle East reality with the actions of a lone, deranged individual is absurd and offensive both to the families of the Dendermonde victims and to the Jewish state."

According the Antwerp-based Jewish periodical Joods Actueel, the minister's statement was received with anger by some Flemish ministers. The paper also said that Minister-President of Flanders Kris Peeters is interested in formulating, in collaboration with Anciaux, a further reaction to the controversial statement.

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Last update - 16:03 27/01/2009

Full transcript of Obama's interview with al-Arabiya TV

By Al-Arabiya Television

The following is a full transcript of United States President Barack Obama's interview with al-Arabiya Television:

Q: Mr. President, thank you for this opportunity, we really appreciate it.

OBAMA: Thank you so much.

Q: Sir, you just met with your personal envoy to the Middle East, Senator Mitchell. Obviously, his first task is to consolidate the cease-fire. But beyond that you've been saying that you want to pursue actively and aggressively peacemaking between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Tell us a little bit about how do you see your personal role, because, you know, if the President of the United States is not involved, nothing happens - as the history of peace making shows. Will you be proposing ideas, pitching proposals, parameters, as one of your predecessors did? Or just urging the parties to come up with their own resolutions, as your immediate predecessor did?

OBAMA: Well, I think the most important thing is for the United States to get engaged right away. And George Mitchell is somebody of enormous stature. He is one of the few people who have international experience brokering peace deals.

And so what I told him is start by listening, because all too often the

United States starts by dictating -- in the past on some of these issues -- and we don't always know all the factors that are involved. So let's listen. He's going to be speaking to all the major parties involved. And he will then report back to me. From there we will formulate a specific response.

Ultimately, we cannot tell either the Israelis or the Palestinians what's best for them. They're going to have to make some decisions. But I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is one that is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people. And that instead, it's time to return to the negotiating table.

And it's going to be difficult, it's going to take time. I don't want to prejudge many of these issues, and I want to make sure that expectations are not raised so that we think that this is going to be resolved in a few months. But if we start the steady progress on these issues, I'm absolutely confident that the United States -- working in tandem with the European Union, with Russia, with all the Arab states in the region -- I'm absolutely certain that we can make significant progress.

Q: You've been saying essentially that we should not look at these issues -- like the Palestinian-Israeli track and separation from the border region -- you've been talking about a kind of holistic approach to the region. Are we expecting a different paradigm in the sense that in the past one of the critiques -- at least from the Arab side, the Muslim side -- is that everything the Americans always tested with the Israelis, if it works. Now there is an Arab peace plan, there is a regional aspect to it. And you've indicated that. Would there be any shift, a paradigm shift?

OBAMA: Well, here's what I think is important. Look at the proposal that was put forth by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia --

Q: Right.

OBAMA: I might not agree with every aspect of the proposal, but it took great courage --

Q: Absolutely.

OBAMA: -- to put forward something that is as significant as that.

I think that there are ideas across the region of how we might pursue peace.

I do think that it is impossible for us to think only in terms of the

Palestinian-Israeli conflict and not think in terms of what's happening with Syria or Iran or Lebanon or Afghanistan and Pakistan.

These things are interrelated. And what I've said, and I think Hillary Clinton has expressed this in her confirmation, is that if we are looking at the region as a whole and communicating a message to the Arab world and the Muslim world, that we are ready to initiate a new partnership based on mutual respect and mutual interest, then I think that we can make significant progress.

" Now Israel is a strong ally of the United States. They will not stop being a strong ally of the United States "

Now, Israel is a strong ally of the United States. They will not stop being a strong ally of the United States. And I will continue to believe that Israel's security is paramount. But I also believe that there are Israelis who recognize that it is important to achieve peace. They will be willing to make sacrifices if the time is appropriate and if there is serious partnership on the other side.

And so what we want to do is to listen, set aside some of the preconceptions that have existed and have built up over the last several years. And I think if we do that, then there's a possibility at least of achieving some breakthroughs.

Q: I want to ask you about the broader Muslim world, but let me - one final thing about the Palestinian-Israeli theater. There are many

Palestinians and Israelis who are very frustrated now with the current conditions and they are losing hope, they are disillusioned, and they believe that time is running out on the two-state solution because - mainly because of the settlement activities in Palestinian-occupied territories.

Will it still be possible to see a Palestinian state -- and you know the contours of it -- within the first Obama administration?

OBAMA: I think it is possible for us to see a Palestinian state -- I'm not going to put a time frame on it -- that is contiguous, that allows freedom of movement for its people, that allows for trade with other countries, that allows the creation of businesses and commerce so that people have a better life.

And, look, I think anybody who has studied the region recognizes that the situation for the ordinary Palestinian in many cases has not improved. And the bottom line in all these talks and all these conversations is, is a child in the Palestinian Territories going to be better off? Do they have a future for themselves? And is the child in Israel going to feel confident about his or her safety and security? And if we can keep our focus on making their lives better and look forward, and not simply think about all the conflicts and tragedies of the past, then I think that we have an opportunity to make real progress.

Obama praised Saudi King Abdullah for his Middle East peace plan

But it is not going to be easy, and that's why we've got George Mitchell going there. This is somebody with extraordinary patience as well as extraordinary skill, and that's what's going to be necessary.

Q: Absolutely. Let me take a broader look at the whole region. You are planning to address the Muslim world in your first 100 days from a Muslim capital. And everybody is speculating about the capital. (Laughter) If you have anything further, that would be great. How concerned are you -- because, let me tell you, honestly, when I see certain things about America -- in some parts, I don't want to exaggerate -- there is a demonization of America.

OBAMA: Absolutely.

Q: It's become like a new religion, and like a new religion it has new converts -- like a new religion has its own high priests.

OBAMA: Right.

Q: It's only a religious text.

OBAMA: Right.

Q: And in the last -- since 9/11 and because of Iraq, that alienation is wider between the Americans and -- and in generations past, the United States was held high. It was the only Western power with no colonial legacy.

OBAMA: Right.

Q: How concerned are you and -- because people sense that you have a different political discourse. And I think, judging by (inaudible) and

Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden and all these, you know -- a chorus --

OBAMA: Yes, I noticed this. They seem nervous.

Q: They seem very nervous, exactly. Now, tell me why they should be more nervous?

OBAMA: Well, I think that when you look at the rhetoric that they've been using against me before I even took office --

Q: I know, I know.

OBAMA: -- what that tells me is that their ideas are bankrupt. There's no actions that they've taken that say a child in the Muslim world is getting a better education because of them, or has better health care because of them.

In my inauguration speech, I spoke about: You will be judged on what you've built, not what you've destroyed. And what they've been doing is destroying things. And over time, I think the Muslim world has recognized that that path is leading no place, except more death and destruction.

Now, my job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the Muslim world that the language we use has to be a language of respect. I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries.

Q: The largest one.

OBAMA: The largest one, Indonesia. And so what I want to

communicate is the fact that in all my travels throughout the Muslim world, what I've come to understand is that regardless of your faith -- and America is a country of Muslims, Jews, Christians, non-believers -- regardless of your faith, people all have certain common hopes and common dreams.

And my job is to communicate to the American people that the Muslim world is filled with extraordinary people who simply want to live their lives and see their children live better lives. My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy. We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect. But if you look at the track record, as you say, America was not born as a colonial power, and that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that. Andthat I think is going to be an important task.

But ultimately, people are going to judge me not by my words but by my actions and my administration's actions. And I think that what you will see over the next several years is that I'm not going to agree with everything that some Muslim leader may say, or what's on a television station in the Arab world -- but I think that what you'll see is somebody who is listening, who is respectful, and who is trying to promote the interests not just of the United States, but also ordinary people who right now are suffering from poverty and a lack of opportunity. I want to make sure that I'm speaking to them, as well.

Q: Tell me, time is running out, any decision on from where you will be visiting the Muslim world?

OBAMA: Well, I'm not going to break the news right here.

Q: Afghanistan?

OBAMA: But maybe next time. But it is something that is going to be important. I want people to recognize, though, that we are going to be making a series of initiatives. Sending George Mitchell to the Middle East is fulfilling my campaign promise that we're not going to wait until the end of my administration to deal with Palestinian and Israeli peace, we're going to start now. It may take a long time to do, but we're going to do it now.

We're going to follow through on our commitment for me to address the Muslim world from a Muslim capital. We are going to follow through on many of my commitments to do a more effective job of reaching out, listening, as well as speaking to the Muslim world.

And you're going to see me following through with dealing with a drawdown of troops in Iraq, so that Iraqis can start taking more responsibility. And finally, I think you've already seen a commitment, in terms of closing Guantanamo, and making clear that even as we are decisive in going after terrorist organizations that would kill innocent civilians, that we're going to do so on our terms, and we're going to do so respecting the rule of law that I think makes America great.

Q: President Bush framed the war on terror conceptually in a way that was very broad, "war on terror," and used sometimes certain terminology that the many people -- Islamic fascism. You've always framed it in a different way, specifically against one group called al Qaeda and their collaborators. And is this one way of --

OBAMA: I think that you're making a very important point. And that is that the language we use matters. And what we need to understand is, is that there are extremist organizations -- whether Muslim or any other faith in the past -- that will use faith as a justification for violence. We cannot paint with a broad brush a faith as a consequence of the violence that is done in that faith's name.

And so you will I think see our administration be very clear in

distinguishing between organizations like al Qaeda -- that espouse violence, espouse terror and act on it -- and people who may disagree with my administration and certain actions, or may have a particular viewpoint in terms of how their countries should develop. We can have legitimate disagreements but still be respectful. I cannot respect terrorist organizations that would kill innocent civilians and we will hunt them down.

But to the broader Muslim world what we are going to be offering is a hand of friendship.

Q: Can I end with a question on Iran and Iraq then quickly?

OBAMA: It's up to the team --

MR. GIBBS: You have 30 seconds. (Laughter)

Q: Will the United States ever live with a nuclear Iran? And if not, how far are you going in the direction of preventing it?

OBAMA: You know, I said during the campaign that it is very important for us to make sure that we are using all the tools of U.S. power, including diplomacy, in our relationship with Iran.

Now, the Iranian people are a great people, and Persian civilization is a great civilization. Iran has acted in ways that's not conducive to peace and prosperity in the region: their threats against Israel; their pursuit of a nuclear weapon which could potentially set off an arms race in the region that would make everybody less safe; their support of terrorist organizations in the past -- none of these things have been helpful.

But I do think that it is important for us to be willing to talk to Iran, to express very clearly where our differences are, but where there are potential avenues for progress. And we will over the next several months be laying out our general framework and approach. And as I said during my inauguration speech, if countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us.

Q: Shall we leave Iraq next interview, or just --

MR. GIBBS: Yes, let's -- we're past, and I got to get him back to dinner with his wife.

Q: Sir, I really appreciate it.

OBAMA: Thank you so much.

Q: Thanks a lot.

OBAMA: I appreciate it.

Q: Thank you.

OBAMA: Thank you

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Last update - 14:43 27/01/2009

Iran protests to Egypt for turning back Gaza 'aid ship'

By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent, and Reuters

Iran lodged a protest with Egypt on Tuesday over its failure to allow an Iranian ship to unload aid for Gaza in an Egyptian port, Iranian media reported.

Israel, which Iran does not recognize, ordered the Iranian ship away from the Gaza area in mid-January. After being turned back by the Israel Navy, the ship tried to unload the supplies in the nearby Egyptian port of el-Arish, but was prevented from doing so by the Egyptian Navy.

Iran said at the time that the vessel would head for Egypt, the only other country to have a border with the Gaza Strip.

Iran sought permission to have the ship unload in an Egyptian port, but this was not forthcoming, the reports said.

They said the head of the Egyptian interests section in Tehran had been summoned to hear Iran's protests.

"Tehran strongly protested about Egypt's failure to issue a permit for the Iranian ship, although Iran repeatedly followed- up (on the issue)," ISNA news agency quoted a senior Iranian official as telling Egypt's top diplomat in Tehran.

An Egyptian diplomat confirmed his head of mission, Amre al- Zayat, had been summoned over the issue.

"We are going to follow up this request with Egypt," the diplomat told Reuters.

Iran and Egypt do not have full diplomatic ties but maintain interest sections in each other's countries.

Iranian officials have criticized Egypt for not doing enough to help the Palestinians and for closing its border, which Egypt shut after the Islamist group Hamas took control of the area.

Israel accuses Iran of arming Hamas. Tehran says it provides moral, financial and humanitarian support to the group.

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Last update - 22:18 27/01/2009

Spanish bank Santander offers $1.71 billion to reimburse Madoff clients

By The Associated Press

Spain's Banco Santander is offering 1.3 billion euros ($1.71 billion) to reimburse clients who lost money in financier Bernard Madoff's alleged pyramid scheme in the U.S.

The bank said it was offering the compensation to individual customers, not institutional investors.

The bank said in a statement Tuesday night it acted with due diligence when one of its funds, Optimal Strategic US Equity, commissioned Madoff to handle investments by some Santander clients.

The bank also said it was offering to give clients back their initial investment, in the form of preferred securities, but not interest accrued through Madoff funds.

Madoff was charged last month with fraud after authorities said he had confessed to a long-standing $50 billion Ponzi scheme - a scam in which older investors are paid with money taken from newer ones. He has not yet formally responded to the charges against him in court, and he remains under house arrest in his Manhattan penthouse apartment.

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Last update - 15:22 22/01/2009

U.S. Jews struggle to come to terms with Madoff scandal - beyond the cash loss

By Reuters

For American Jews, the Bernard Madoff scandal has not just caused deep financial pain. It also has been deeply personal.

The accused swindler managed money for numerous Jewish charities and wealthy Jews who are reeling from their monetary losses as well as a sense of betrayal that a fellow Jew could have harmed so many people.

"We're still shellshocked," said Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, religious leader of Temple Beth El in Stamford, Connecticut, which describes itself as an Egalitarian Conservative Jewish congregation. "I am sure every synagogue is dealing with it in some way."

Since Madoff's arrest last month, Hammerman's synagogue and other Jewish groups have struggled with how to assess the scandal and what it means for Jews.

Hammerman said his synagogue had not itself lost money in the scandal, but has publicly called for Madoff to be excommunicated. He wrote in a letter to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations that he thinks Madoff represents "something rotten that must be exorcised from our culture and from our midst."

To some in the Jewish community, the high-profile case has stoked fears of a revival of centuries-old stereotypes about Jewish businesspeople - particularly at a time when many Americans are reeling from the economic downturn, and Israel is the focus of much unpopular opinion because of the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

After Madoff's arrest last month, the Anti-Defamation League said it had seen a raft of anti-Semitic comments on both mainstream and extremist websites, including offensive comments calling Jewish financiers greedy and untrustworthy and others suggesting that only a Jew could perpetrate such a massive swindle.

The scandal should not be viewed as a Jewish one at all -- and Madoff's Jewishness is irrelevant, says real estate investor Mort Zuckerman, who runs a charitable trust that lost about $30 million to Madoff.

Enron's "Kenneth Lay was never identified as a prominent Protestant energy trader," and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who faces federal charges of improperly trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama, is not referred to as a "prominent Serbian-American" politician, Zuckerman said.

Still, Zuckerman said, no one since Julius Rosenberg, executed in 1953 along with his wife, Ethel, for giving atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, "has so damaged the image and self respect of American Jews."

Zuckerman spoke at a forum on the Madoff scandal last week at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York, a lively debate featuring experts on Jewish philosophy and money managers including pioneering hedge fund investor Michael Steinhardt and William Ackman, founder of the Pershing Square Capital Management hedge fund.

Steinhardt said he thought fears of renewed anti-Semitism were overblown. When the 1980s insider trading scandals involving junk bond trader Michael Milken and other Jews came to light, he worried about an anti-Jewish backlash that did not happen, he said.

The scandal "came and it went and there was nothing," he said, saying he thinks the same thing will happen with the Madoff case.

Once the chairman of the Nasdaq, Madoff attracted flocks of investors in Long Island, New York and Palm Beach, Florida - two affluent spots he frequented - with his reputation as a "can't lose" guru of conservative investing.

He also became a sought-after fund manager for foundations and nonprofits, including Jewish organizations such as Haddasah, Yeshiva University and a foundation established by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel. Many more investors worldwide found themselves linked to Madoff through their exposure to hedge funds that gave him money to manage.

Hammerman, of Temple Beth El, said that Madoff's alleged crimes are so deep there is no other appropriate response from American Jews than to kick him out of the faith.

He said the fallout has been been felt even among those with no connection to Madoff. Among them, he said, is a group of teen-agers from his community who were awarded free trips to Israel two years ago by the Lappin Foundation, a Massachusetts non-profit charity forced to shut its doors last month after losing all of its money to Madoff.

Now, the rabbi said, the teen-agers' travels will forever be tied to the scandal because they unwittingly benefited from Madoff's alleged theft of funds from others.

"It's not enough for organizations and Jewish leaders to continue with business as usual and say how horrible it is what he did," he said. "We must demonstrate to the world and most of all to our own children just how horrible this crime was, and how far it strays from the essence of Torah and Judaism."

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Last update - 09:36 14/12/2008

Madoff Wall Street fraud threatens Jewish philanthropy

By Gabrielle Birkner and Anthony Weiss, The Forward

The arrest of Wall Street trader Bernard L. Madoff, who federal agents say defrauded investors of an estimated $50 billion, has had immediate consequences in the Jewish philanthropic world.

Madoff was arrested Thursday for allegedly defrauding his clients of $50 billion in a massive pyramid scheme over the course of several years. He was released on a $10 million bond.

A lawyer for Madoff told the Wall Street Journal: "Bernard Madoff is a longstanding leader in the financial-services industry with an unblemished record. He is a person of integrity. He intends to fight to get through this unfortunate event."

One charity already closed and insiders are worried that the ramifications of Madoff's financial demise may extend to the many organizations he supported and the wealthy Jews he advised.

On Friday, Madoff resigned from Yeshiva University, where he served as the chairman of the Sy Syms School of Business and treasurer of the board of trustees. Madoff and his wife, Ruth, had also endowed a "Presidential Fellowship" at the university.

In a statement, Yeshiva University spokeswoman Hedy Shulman said that news of Madoff's arrest had "shocked" university officials, adding: "Our lawyers and accountants are investigating all aspects of his relationship to Yeshiva University. We reserve our comments until we complete our investigation."

The same day, the Boston-based Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, which had the bulk of its money invested with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, closed its doors and terminated its seven staff members. A 16-year-old charity, the organization's stated goal had been "reversing the trend of assimilation and intermarriage."

It had funded teen trips to Israel, enrichment programs for Jewish educators, and interfaith outreach initiatives. According to a press release issued Friday by the foundation, all of its assets had been frozen by the federal courts. "The money needed to fund the programs of the Lappin Foundation is gone," the statement read.

"It's with a heavy heart that I make this announcement," the organization's trustee, Robert I. Lappin, said. "The Foundation's programs have touched thousands of lives over many years in our efforts to help keep our children Jewish."

Madoff also made charitable donations to other Jewish organizations, including the 92nd Street Y, where he and his wife were listed as "Benefactors" having given a gift of between $2,500 and $4,999 to the 2006-2007 annual campaign. He had also chaired a gala fundraiser on behalf of Gift of Life, a Jewish bone marrow registry and cord blood bank.

In addition, the Madoffs were such significant contributors to UJA-Federation of New York that the charity placed a death notice in the New York Times, extending sympathies to the Madoff family following the death of a family member. The notice mentioned Bernard Madoff, and referred to the family as "cherished friends and leaders whose deep commitment to the New York Jewish community profoundly impacts millions of lives."

The investor was close to a number of prominent Jewish donors, both on Wall Street and elsewhere. The Wall Street Journal reported that members of the Boca Rio Golf Club in Boca Raton and the Palm Beach Country Club in Palm Beach were heavily invested with Madoff's firm. Both clubs are heavily Jewish.

Courtesy of www.forward.com

State Prosecutor closes Bank Leumi probe against Olmert

Stanley Fischer reportedly on shortlist to lead New York Fed

Even Uncle Sam can make a mistake

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Last update - 16:45 27/01/2009

Top Defense Ministry official: Egypt sees Hamas as 'national enemy'

By Haaretz Service and Reuters

Senior Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad said on Tuesday that Egypt views Hamas as a national enemy and a threat to its regime, and is now more willing than ever to fight against the ongoing smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip.

"Egypt demonstrated extreme tolerance toward the Israel Defense Forces' activities [in Gaza]," said Gilad, who is Israel's top negotiating official on matters with Egypt. "Even today, Egypt is being very strict on Hamas and is not prepared to give the group anything - [including] the opening of the Rafah border crossing.

Gilad said that Egypt's determination against smuggling was unprecedented, saying even the international community has never demonstrated such willingness to curb the illegal flow of arms.

Gilad said it remained to be seen whether these intentions would pan out, but he was optimistic that Israel and Egypt were on the same page regarding the smuggling threats..

"All of the understandings that Israel has forged with Egypt following the operation have a created a good basis," he said. "We will act directly with Egypt and make use of international forces."

"An attack like the one today will bring a response from Israel much larger than just closing border crossings and Hamas knows that. It is not in its interest to attack Israel.

Egypt warns EU against sending ships to patrol Gaza coast

Egypt warned European countries earlier Tuesday to think carefully before sending ships to patrol Gaza's coastal waters to prevent arms smuggling, saying such a move could have significant consequences on ties with Arab states.

The warning by Egypt Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit came after Britain, France and Germany offered to send warships to the Middle East to monitor and prevent arms smuggling to Gaza and to help consolidate a shaky ceasefire.

"In my discussions with European foreign ministers yesterday, I warned them and said: 'You must understand Arab and Muslim feelings,'" Aboul Gheit told a news conference, adding that if such a job was needed, the responsibility should be borne by Israel, not Europe.

"I urge you to look and consider this ... because it might have consequences in Palestinian and Arab relations with you," Aboul Gheit said, speaking after talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

The three European Union countries have sent a joint letter to the Israeli and Egyptian governments outlining their offer of naval support, according to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. They are also willing to help monitor border crossings in Gaza.

European officials stress their scope for action is limited while Cairo refuses to have a foreign presence on its soil to monitor the Egyptian end of a network of tunnels bringing in supplies - including arms, according to Israel - to Gaza.

Egypt, much criticised in the Arab world for cooperating in the Israeli blockade of Gaza over the past six months, has long been loath to allow any access by foreign troops to its own territory, fearing infringement on its sovereignty.

Aboul Gheit said earlier this month that Egypt would also not allow U.S. vessels to enter Egyptian waters to carry out anti-smuggling operations, and that any such operations should take place on the high seas.

That was after Washington and Israel signed a pact aimed at stopping smuggling that included technical assistance and the use of U.S. "assets" to prevent arms from reaching Hamas by air, land or sea, as well as deployment of vessels from NATO countries to prevent maritime smuggling.

France said on Friday it was sending a frigate carrying helicopters to patrol international waters off the Gaza coast as part of efforts to consolidate the ceasefire.

A statement from French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said the surveillance, aimed at preventing arms trafficking by sea to Hamas-ruled Gaza, would be carried out in full cooperation with Egypt and Israel.

Iran says ship full of humanitarian supplies turned away by Israel Navy off coast of Gaza

Egypt tells Hamas it must commit to one year cease-fire in Gaza

U.S.: Olmert never asked us to abstain from UN vote on Gaza truce

Barak: Gaza op to continue amid diplomatic efforts for truce

Three rockets fired from Lebanon hit north Israel; IDF returns fire

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Last update - 20:14 13/01/2009

Barak: Gaza op to continue amid diplomatic efforts for truce

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday said that the Israel Defense Forces would continue its campaign against Hamas in Gaza alongside diplomatic efforts to achieve a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group.

"The operation is ongoing, alongside our monitoring of diplomatic efforts. We heard yesterday, and we respect, the request by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and we are also monitoring the treatment of the Egyptian initiative," the defense minister said.

Barak was referring to Ban's intention to step up efforts to get Israel and Hamas to adhere to a UN cease-fire resolution in the Gaza Strip.

But he stressed: "The warfare, as stated, is continuing."

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, meanwhile, said on Tuesday the IDF offensive was serving the interest of the Palestinian people, as well as that of Israel.

Livni said the operation's success would help all moderate forces in the region, including Palestinians who believe in a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She made the comments at a meeting with a delegation from the American Jewish Committee.

The foreign minister said that Israel engaged in dialogue with moderates, but used force against extremists.

Livni, a prime ministerial hopeful, added that the Palestinian Islamist group was showing signs of distress in Gaza, although its leadership in Damascus was not displaying this. She said that there was a large gap between what Hamas officials were saying in private and public.

IDF Chief: We'll continue Gaza op to further batter Hamas

In her comments, Livni was echoing similar remarks made on Tuesday by Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, who said his troops have inflicted damage on Hamas in Gaza, but would continue fighting to achieve more.

"We are working to deepen the blow to its military arm, reduce [Hamas] fire, strengthen [Israeli] deterrence and improve the security situation for residents of southern Israel living under the threat of attacks," he told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Ashkenazi said IDF soldiers are doing exceptional work and that Hamas infrastructure and government institutions had also been dealt a serious blow.

But he added that, "We still have work to do."

The rocket fire sparked the offensive Israel launched on Dec. 27, but has continued despite it, although with a somewhat lower intensity.

The chief of staff's comments came after an IDF officer was critically wounded Tuesday in Gaza, and as the army killed about 30 gunmen in the coastal territory on the 18th day of Israel's campaign against Hamas.

On Thursday, Ashkenazi visted the Gaza Strip on Thursday, where he received an assesment of the IDF's campaign against Hamas in the Strip.

Four Israeli troops wounded in Gaza, as IDF kills 30 gunmen

Amos Harel in the Gaza Strip / 'Let's finish what we started'

Three IDF soldiers wounded by Palestinian fire near Kiryat Arba

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Last update - 13:32 27/01/2009

Israel to face 'catastrophe' without Palestinian state, says Jimmy Carter

By The Associated Press

Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that Israel will face a "catastrophe" unless it revives the Mideast peace process and establishes an independent Palestinian state.

In an interview with The Associated Press, he said Arabs will outnumber Jews in the Holy Land in the foreseeable future.

"If we look toward a one-state solution, which seems to be the trend - I hope not inexorable - it would be a catastrophe for Israel, because there would be only three options in that case," Carter said.

One would be to expel large numbers of Palestinians, which he said would amount to "ethnic cleansing."

The second would be to deprive the Palestinians of equal voting rights, which he said would amount to "apartheid."

The third would be to give the Palestinians equal voting rights, and therefore the majority, he said.

"And you would no longer have a Jewish state," Carter said. "The basic decisions would be made by the Palestinians, who would almost very likely vote in a bloc, whereas you would have some sharp divisions among the Israelis, because the Israelis always have different points of view."

Carter spoke to The Associated Press as his new book, "We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land," was released.

His wording on Israel's options was not new. His 2006 book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," provoked a hail of criticism, particularly from Jewish-Americans who felt it unfairly compared Israeli treatment of Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza to the legalized racial oppression that once existed in South Africa.

Carter still believes a two-state solution is the best option, with all of Israel's Arab neighbors recognizing its right to exist in peace, and Israel withdrawing from most of the land it captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War to create an independent Palestine.

Carter brokered the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt 30 years ago, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Carter: Fighting in Gaza could renew peace talks

Carter meets with Hamas leader in Damascus for second time this year

Hezbollah leaders refuse to meet with Carter in Lebanon

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Last update - 10:27 27/01/2009

Israel stymies French push to lift European boycott of Hamas

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

Using intense diplomatic pressure over the past two days, Israeli officials blocked a French attempt to weaken Jerusalem's stance with Hamas at the pre-written closing statement of the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels last night.

France wanted the statement to say that the European Union would be prepared to hold talks with a future Palestinian unity government that agreed to honor the principles of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. In addition, the French delegation to Brussels proposed striking from the statement an article calling for reopening the crossing points between Israel and the Gaza Strip in accordance with the 2005 agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Instead France offered an ambiguous formulation that would make it possible to open the crossings without conditioning such a measure on the presence of representatives of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In the past two days Israeli officials conducted a frenetic diplomatic battle to torpedo the unwanted changes, applying significant pressure on senior EU representatives. The Czech Republic, the current holder of the EU presidency, together with Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, worked together to push the French initiative off the agenda.

Jerusalem views the French move as an attempt to get the Quartet for Middle East peace - the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the EU - to soften its conditions for international recognition of Hamas. A senior Israeli official said Monday that since the end of the Gaza operation, Jerusalem fears a break in European support for the boycott of the Hamas government in Gaza.

Israeli diplomats in Europe have been reporting a new willingness in various European capitals to reevaluate international policy toward Gaza as well as the Quartet's conditions for recognizing Hamas since the end of Operation Cast Lead. The latter includes abandoning terror, recognizing Israel and recognizing previous agreements between Israel and the PA.

Israeli officials are particular perturbed about recent comments by French diplomats, in off-the-record meetings, which claim Hamas cannot be ignored.

"We cannot return to the status quo that existed in Gaza before the Israel Defense Forces operation, and we must come up with creative solutions," one diplomat said.

According to a senior source in Jerusalem, there has been a recent French effort to change the Quartet's terms for recognizing Hamas. French diplomats have told their European colleagues, as well as Israel, that a Palestinian unity government including Hamas cannot be ruled out, pointing to Hezbollah's participation in Lebanon's government as an example.

"If the paralysis in the peace process and in the rehabilitation of Gaza continues, the efforts to soften the Quartet conditions will persevere," an Israeli official said. "It's uncertain that the boycott of Hamas will continue for much longer, especially if a Palestinian unity government is formed."

France may talk to Hamas even if group doesn't recognize Israel

Report: EU to lift sanctions on Hamas if Palestinian unity gov't formed

EU leaders commit to deterring Hamas rearmament in Gaza

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Last update - 03:02 27/01/2009

Miri Eisin / Is only the Israeli narrative 'the truth' and all the others wrong?

By Miri Eisin

Israel has a national obsession with everything concerning hasbara (a Hebrew word for "explanation" and referring to information, spin, propaganda or a strategic public relations policy). Every time a warlike event takes place, the Israeli broadcasting networks turn to hasbara experts with the recurring question - what must we do to improve Israel's international image? They really mean "how can we prove to everyone that we're right, they're wrong and everybody hates us and they're anti-Semites?"

In the 22 days of fighting in the Gaza Strip, as in the 33 days of fighting in Lebanon in the summer of 2006, the war was presented in very different ways - informed by three parallel narratives.

The Israeli narrative focuses on us, our war, our suffering, the families and reserve soldiers, the home front and decision making. The other side is shown only on the margins as part of the spin. The three Israeli broadcasting networks turn into news channels, zooming in on every local aspect and become part of the national effort during the fighting.

The Western media's narrative concentrates on showing both sides - Israel's dilemma and its right to self defense, but also the Palestinian tragedy, with an emphasis on the proportionalism of Israel's actions.

In both wars of the last few years the gap between the two narratives - Israeli and Western - was very pronounced.

Most Israelis would be profoundly shocked by the way the foreign networks present the wars. In Israel it was clear that it was a war of self defense and many people can't understand how the world doesn't see that. But is the narrative presented by the foreign networks false? Isn't there more than one way to present a war?

The narrative shown in the Western media, especially in Europe, is based on a different world of cultural references than Israel's. It says the era of wars is over, that military force is not the way to solve disputes and that there is a direct link between occupation and violence. The challenge facing Israeli hasbara is not simple - certainly as long as the Palestinians' tragedy is shown to the world. The Western media scrupulously present the Israeli side, but does not accept its narrative.

The third narrative is the Arab media's, especially since Arab broadcasting networks like Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya have started operating. They focus on the Palestinians' tragedy (or the Lebanese tragedy of 2006), see the Israel Defense Forces as an occupation army and stress its conduct during the fighting.

The Arab media, unlike the Western, show extensive horror footage of dead bodies and wounded people. Israel is described as an occupying force, belligerent, expanding, lacking moral values, in contrast to the Palestinian, who has nothing.

However even here the Israeli voice is heard. The Arab networks are ready to interview Israeli spokespeople and confront them on the air. It's not that they accept the Israeli point of view, but their very readiness to hear it is a new approach.

Israelis are exposed mainly to the domestic networks and are shocked to hear how we appear to others. But is only the Israeli narrative "the truth" and all the others wrong? The challenge facing Israeli hasbara is to understand the cultural world and conceptual approach of other target audiences and talk to them in their language.

Israel's national fortitude would not be impaired if we learned to look at reality in a more complex way. If we know, without renouncing our truth, how to open up to the existence of another narrative.

The writer was formerly the prime minister's foreign media adviser.

Diplomats: Gaza op causing long-term harm to Israel's image

Israel's Gaza op draws large U.S. audience to Al-Jazeera TV

Conference concludes: Gaza war legitimized equating Jews with Nazis

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Last update - 08:54 27/01/2009

Vatican: Comments by bishop who denied Holocaust unacceptable

By The Associated Press

The Vatican said Monday that comments by a recently rehabilitated bishop that no Jews were gassed during the Holocaust were unacceptable and violate Church teaching.

In a front-page article, the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reaffirmed that Pope Benedict XVI deplored all forms of anti-Semitism and that all Roman Catholics must do the same.

The article was issued amid an outcry from Jewish groups that Benedict last week lifted the excommunication of a traditionalist bishop, Richard Williamson, who has denied that 6 million Jews were murdered during World War II.

The Vatican has stressed that removing the excommunication by no means implied the Vatican shared Williamson's views.

Williamson and three other bishops were excommunicated 20 years ago after they were consecrated by the late ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent - a move the Vatican said at the time was an act of schism.

Benedict has made clear from the start of his pontificate that he wanted to reconcile with Lefebvre's traditionalist Society of St. Pius X and bring it back into the Vatican's fold.

Lefebvre had rebelled against the Vatican and founded the society in 1969. He was bitterly opposed to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that brought liberal reforms to the church.

One of the key documents issued by Vatican II was Nostra Aetate, which said the Church deplored all forms of anti-Semitism. The document revolutionized the Church's relations with Jews.

In the article, L'Osservatore said Benedict and his predecessors had all made clear the Church's teaching on Nostra Aetate in documents, actions and speeches and that its contents are not debatable for Catholics.

"Williamson's statements, broadcast last week in a Swedish state TV interview, contradict this teaching and are thus very serious and regrettable," L'Osservatore said. "While broadcast before the Jan. 21 document lifting the excommunication, they remain unacceptable," it said.

In the interview, Williamson said historical evidence is hugely against 6

million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler. He cited what he called the most serious revisionists who he said had concluded that between 200,000-300,000 perished in Nazi concentration camps, but not one of them by gassing in a gas chamber.

Jewish groups, including the American Jewish Committee, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Israel's Jewish Agency, denounced the Vatican

for having embraced a Holocaust denier.

Williamson, for his part, praised Benedict's decision as a great step forward for the church. In a blog written from his base in La Reja, Argentina, Williamson thanked the pope for issuing the decree despite what he said was a media uproar orchestrated and timed to prevent it.

On Monday, the head of the Italian bishops' conference, Cardinal Angelo

Bagnasco, defended Benedict's decision to rehabilitate Williamson. But he

decried Williamson's views as unfounded and unjustified.

The German Bishops' Conference also denounced Williamson's views.

"We object in the strongest terms to this explicit denial of the Holocaust," Bishop Heinrich Mussinghoff, the head of a commission at the German Bishops Conference responsible for relations with Jews, said in a statement.

State prosecutors in Regensburg, Germany, have opened a preliminary

investigation into whether Williamson broke German laws against Holocaust

denial as he spoke to Swedish state TV last year while in Germany.

Pope lifts excommunication of bishop who denied Holocaust

Jewish leaders urge Pope not to rehabilitate Holocaust-denying bishop

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Last update - 22:07 26/01/2009

'In Venezuela, anti-Semitism is endorsed by the government'

By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent

The president of the Jewish community in Venezuela on Monday accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of promoting anti-Semitism and giving the phenomenon legitimacy.

Speaking at the World Jewish Congress conference in Jerusalem on Monday, Abraham Levy Ben Shimol said "you probably hear of many anti-Semitic incidents, but where we live, the anti-Semitism is sanctioned; it comes from the president, through the government, and into the media. Since the government is very involved in the day-to-day lives of its constituents, its influence is much more effective."

Ben Shimol added that in recent days, swastikas have been spray painted on the walls of the Caracas synagogue and a Palestinian flag was waved during a parliament session. "We Jews are going through a difficult time. We hope it will be over soon and that the future will shine upon us," Ben Shimol added.

Earlier this month, Chavez announced that Venezuela had severed diplomatic ties with Israel in protest of its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, calling Israel's military actions a "holocaust."

Venezuela: We cut ties with Israel over 'persecution of Palestinians'

Chavez providing aid to Hamas and Hezbollah, says new book

Bolivia cuts ties with Israel, seeks genocide charges against Israeli officials

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Last update - 22:14 26/01/2009

Assad: Syria will talk with any prime minister elected in Israel

By The Associated Press and Haaretz Service

Syrian President Bashar Assad said Monday that Syria was "willing to hold talks with any prime minister who is elected in Israel."

Despite the optimistic declaration, Assad told Lebanon's Al-Manar TV later in the interview that "if whoever is elected in Israel won't be willing to pull out of the Golan Heights, there will be no negotiations." The Syrian leader lashed out at Israel, saying that "in the indirect talks between Israel and Syria it became clear that Israel is not interested in peace. Israel, in general, does not want to achieve peace. We held talks with Israel over recent weeks, but Israel did not convey its commitment to peace talks, and it became clear that they only understand the language of force."

The Syrian president added that Israel's three-week assault on the Gaza Strip, which began last month, proved Israel's disrespect for the United Nations, the Security Council and the Arab League. He also criticized Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, saying that "if Olmert were to come to me today and say that he was ready for peace, what could we tell him? We would tell him that he is a criminal and that we don't talk to criminals."

Assad also told Al-Manar Monday that he wants to pursue dialogue with the United States, but maintained that there should be no preconditions.

He said that the new American administration has already sent officials to Damascus to begin dialogue. He did not name them but said they had visited Syria before.

Assad added that despite the positive signals from Washington "we have learned to be cautious."

Syrian-U.S. relations deteriorated sharply during the administration of former President George W. Bush, which accused Syria of allowing foreign fighters to cross its border into Iraq. Syria denied doing so, while saying it was impossible to control its long desert border with Iraq.

Washington also pulled its ambassador out of Syria after the 2005 assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Damascus was widely accused of being involved in the killing but has denied the accusation.

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Last update - 21:34 26/01/2009

EU aid chief: Hamas 'enormously responsible' for Gaza war

By Reuters

Standing in the war-torn Gaza Strip on Monday, the European Union's foreign aid chief condemned Hamas for acting like "a terrorist movement," and accused the Islamist group of having "enormous responsibility" for the devastation caused during Gaza in three weeks of fighting between Hamas and Israel.

Louis Michel was among the most senior foreign officials to visit the coastal enclave since Hamas seized control in 2007.

"Hamas has an enormous responsibility for what happened here in Gaza," said Michel, the humanitarian aid commissioner, as he stood in a United Nations aid compound damaged by an Israeli shelling.

He echoed Israeli criticisms that Hamas used civilians as "human shields" by fighting in populated areas and, describing Hamas rocket fire on Israel as a "provocation", he said in English: "Hamas is acting in the way of a terrorist movement."

Michel also criticized Israel for the offensive - which it launched in a bid to end daily rocket fire from Gaza on its southern communities - and appealed to Israel to allow in more aid.

Hamas said it was "shocked" at his comments.

Michel, a former Belgian foreign minister, said that, in line with EU policy, he did not meet Hamas officials, most of whom have remained out of sight since fighting ended a week ago.

The European Union is the biggest donor to the Palestinians and Michel announced a further 58 million euros in humanitarian aid for 2009, of which 32 million euros would go to Gaza.

Speaking of the Israeli bombardment, he criticized the destruction of factories and other economic infrastructure: "What I saw was abominable. It was unjustified," Michel said.

He called on Israel to open its crossing points with the Gaza Strip "massively", to let in not only food and medicines but materials required for reconstruction.

Israel denies entry to supplies such as cement and steel piping, saying that these can be used by Hamas for military ends. Israel has also defended its military tactics in Gaza, saying they were appropriate for warfare in congested areas. A Hamas official, Mushir al-Masri, criticized Michel's remarks.

"It was shocking to see a European official giving cover to massacres and terrorism committed by the Zionist enemy against the Palestinian people," he said.

"Palestinian resistance is as legitimate as the resistance of European countries that fought against foreign occupiers."

Michel, who said both sides should be held accountable for breaches of international law, said: "When you kill innocents, it is not resistance. It is terrorism."

EU presses Egypt to take action against Gaza arms smuggling

EU to pressure Israel to open Gaza borders to allow in aid

EU presidency: Israel ground op in Gaza 'defensive not offensive'

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Last update - 12:54 26/01/2009

Sky News joins BBC in refusing to air Gaza fundraiser

By The Associated Press

The British-based Sky News channel joined the BBC on Monday in refusing to broadcast an emergency fundraising appeal designed to raise money for people living in the Gaza Strip.

Executives at the international satellite broadcaster said they made the decision after a weekend of deliberations to protect the impartiality of the station's news report.

"The conflict in Gaza forms part of one of the most challenging and contentious stories for any news organization to cover," said Sky News director John Ryley. "Our commitment as journalists is to cover all sides of that story with uncompromising objectivity."

The ad was submitted for broadcast by the Disaster Emergency Committee, a group of charities that includes the Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children.

Protesters say the humanitarian appeal must be shown to help Palestinians in desperate need of assistance after heavy fighting in Gaza. Broadcasters say they worry they will be seen as taking sides in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza, if they show the ad.

The issue over whether to show the charity appeal ad has ignited passions throughout Britain.

BBC officials received more than 10,000 complaints and were the focus of numerous protests over the weekend after announcing the charity appeal would not be shown. The BBC's decision has been criticized by lawmakers and religious leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.

Avi Shlaim, professor of international relations at the University of Oxford, said Sky and BBC management are behaving in a cowardly way.

"They say their impartiality would be compromised because it's so sensitive, but it isn't, it's humanitarian aid," he said. "Listeners can distinguish between sending blankets to refugees and taking sides in the conflict."

Adrian Wells, Sky's director of foreign news, said the station understood the good intentions of the charities seeking to publicize the situation in Gaza.

"Let me say to those people who might be angry, people who might be passionate about this, there is no question about Sky's commitment to reporting the region," he said. "We've had our reporters there since the gates of Gaza opened. There is absolutely no question of Sky viewers not being aware of the humanitarian crisis."

Other British broadcasters - including Channel 4, ITV, and Five - have said they will show the advertisement.

Israel launched its three-week offensive on Gaza late last month in a bid to halt Hamas rocket fire on towns in southern Israel. The assault killed more than 1200 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were also killed during the fighting.

British officials criticize BBC for refusing to air Gaza fundraiser

Egypt to Hamas: Take Gaza truce before Netanyahu is PM

EU presses Egypt to take action against Gaza arms smuggling

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Last update - 11:24 26/01/2009

Iran MPs plan Gaza visit to praise Hamas resistance against 'Zionist offensive'

By Haaretz Service

Five Iranian parliament members intend to visit the Gaza Strip to congratulate the Palestinians on their resistance against the "Zionist offensive."

The Iranian lawmakers will tour parts of Gaza to evaluate the damage sustained during Israel's three-week-long Operation cast Lead.

Iranian parliament member Mahmoud Ahmadi said the group also plans to meet with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, whom Ahmadi called "the legitimate Prime Minister of Palestine."

Another lawmaker said Tehran's foreign ministry is trying to expedite the visa process, so they can enter Gaza via Egypt.

Syrian President Basher Assad also recently met with Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshal to congratulate Hamas for the "victory achieved by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza," the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported on Saturday.

'Hamas must accept Gaza truce offer before Netanyahu elected PM'

Barak: Gaza op caused huge backlog in Egypt of arms meant for Hamas

Report: Iran's uranium supply could run out within months

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Last update - 07:43 26/01/2009

Program launched to bring all Jewish teachers worldwide to Israel

By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent

A joint project of the State of Israel and the Jewish Agency will seek, over the next 10 years, to bring all Jewish teachers and educators from around the world for two week visits to Israel.

The government approved, on Sunday, a pilot version of the program - Netivei Masa - which will be tried out during 2009 with the participation of approximately 135 Jewish teachers from abroad

The program is the initiative of cabinet secretary Oved Yehezkel, whom Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appointed on Sunday to coordinate the activities of various organizations responsible for ties between Israel and the Jewish diaspora.

One of the central decisions behind this new initiative is to shift the emphasis in the relations between Israel and world Jewry from fund raising and other types of support for the country, to Israel assuming a greater responsibility in matters of Jewish and Zionist education.

"This is the fulfillment of a dream. We were surprised to find that only 20 percent of Jewish educators around the world have ever visited Israel. Even though the birthright and Masa programs are in place, bringing thousands of young Jews to Israel, there is no parallel program for teachers whose influence is much, much more extensive," Yehezkel said on Sunday.

The cost of the program during the first year is estimated to be NIS 4 million, half of which will be funded by the government and the rest by the Jewish Agency.

In addition, it was decided that the program will also be funded in the future from allocations provided to Masa, a program also funded jointly by the state and the Jewish Agency. Masa brings Jewish students to Israel but much of the budget for the program remains unused.

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Last update - 00:03 26/01/2009

Chavez providing aid to Hamas and Hezbollah, says new book

By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent

A new book published in the United States alleges that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is an active and open supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, providing the Lebanese Shi'ite militia with training for its fighters.

In "The Threat Closer to Home: Hugo Chavez and the War Against America," authors Douglas Schoen and Michael Rowan write that through his support of terror organizations and by providing safe refuge for terrorists, Chavez constitutes a real, concrete threat to the United States.

Venezeula earlier this month cut ties with Israel to protest its military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The move came shortly days after Chavez called the attacks on the Hamas-ruled coastal territory a "holocaust."

Last August the Los Angeles Times reported that Western governments fear that Hezbollah is establishing a growing number of operational cells in the South American country.

Iran is long believed to have undertaken covert activity in South America in concert with Hezbollah. The LA Times reported that the U.S. State Department believes Iranian operatives were behind two terrorist attacks in Buenos Aires - the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center building. Both attacks killed dozens of civilians and wounded scores more.

Venezuela: We cut ties with Israel over 'persecution of Palestinians'

Report: West fears Hezbollah setting up cells in Venezuela

Group demands Venezuela envoy recall over Jewish conspiracy remark

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Last update - 21:17 25/01/2009

Livni: Israel should strike Hamas again to halt arms smuggling

By Haaretz Service

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Sunday that Israel had achieved most of the goals of its offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, but added that she would support striking the Islamist group again to halt its ongoing smuggling of weapons.

"We embarked on the operation in order to bring quiet [to the south] - now there is quiet, and [also] to stop the firing of rockets - now the firing has stopped," she said in an interview with Channel 1.

"As far as I am concerned, we could hit Hamas with another military blow. The smuggling of weapons into Gaza is the same as firing [rockets] onto Israel, and the world sees that as well," Livni added.

Livni told Channel 1 that she had fully supported Israel's decision to embark on the 3-week offensive on Gaza in order to cease the firing of rockets onto Israel.

"The operation in Gaza was very important to me," Livni said. "I supported it and I convinced [others] to go through with it. I also thought that after the air operation it was necessary to continue with the ground operation."

"Even of I hold political negotiations with moderate elements, that does not mean I am prepared to surrender to extremist elements," she said. "I refused to hold negotiations with Hamas to end the offensive with some sort of paper and I managed to convince others of my stance."

The foreign minister also told interviewers that Israel and the United States shared "common interests and values" and would work together toward creating a viable two-state solution with the Palestinians.

"Israel and the U.S. have common interests and values. Obama's administration is not a threat to Israel," she said.

The Kadima chairwoman said that she would make a priority if elected to dismantle West Bank settlements in order to reach an agreement with the Palestinian Authority.

Livni also reiterated Israel's stance that the reopening of Gaza borders must be directly tied to a deal for the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by Palestinian militants in a 2006 cross-border raid.

"As I see it, the matter of opening [Gaza] crossings is directly tied to the released of Gilad Shalit, and we will convince the new American government of this as well," she said.

"[U.S. President Barack] Obama also does not want to give legitimacy to terror," Livni said. "The crossing swill be opened only under the legitimate Palestinian Authority and not under Hamas."

A senior Hamas official was quoted by a pan-Arab newspaper last week as saying Islamist group is rejecting any linkage between the release of Shalit and the opening of Gaza border crossings, according to a report in the London-based pan-Arab daily newspaper Al-Hayat.

Hamas official told the newspaper, Al-Hayat, that Israel "offered to lift the siege in exchange for the release of Shalit but we refused. There is no connection between the issues."

Earlier Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told cabinet ministers during their weekly meeting that he had seen a new atmosphere in the Negev during his vist there this week, following the culmination of Israel's offensive on Gaza.

"I toured Sderot and I discovered a new place and a different atmosphere," he said. "I am full of hope that the atmosphere and the blessed quiet that characterized Sderot last Thursday, and which were apparent on the faces of young and old alike, will characterize the residents of the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip and the cities that were in rocket and missile range over the past month."

"Israel embarked on Operation Cast Lead not as a first option but as a last resort, after we tried all other ways and options to bring quiet to the communities in the south," he added.

Olmert also lamented the civilian casualties that amounted from the war, blaming Hamas for intentionally using innocent people as human shields against attacks.

"This has been the policy of Hamas and the other terrorist organizations over the years - to fight to the last drop of Gaza civilians' blood and strike at them," he said.

Livni: Netanyahu will cause rift with U.S.; Likud: Kadima desperate

ANALYSIS / Netanyahu's anti-Obama flak jacket

Livni: National aspirations of Israel's Arabs can be met by Palestinian homeland

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Last update - 14:52 25/01/2009

Top Anglican priest raps BBC: Gaza appeal is not 'Hamas asking for arms'

By DPA

The Anglican Church's number two in Britain added his voice Sunday to calls for the BBC to reverse its decision not to broadcast a funds plea for the people of the Gaza Strip.

"This is not an appeal by Hamas asking for arms but by the Disasters Emergency Committee asking for relief. By declining their request, the BBC has already taken sides and forsaken impartiality," the Archbishop of York John Sentamu said.

The BBC says its impartiality and objectivity would be endangered by appearing to take sides with the victims of the recent Israeli military offensive. Rival channels ITV, Channel 4 and Five have all changed their minds and are to broadcast the plea.

The funds plea - issued by the Disasters Emergency Committees comprising high-profile charity organizations including Oxfam and the British red Cross - aims to alleviate what Development Aid Minister Douglas Alexander called the "immense suffering" in the Gaza Strip.

Alexander called on the broadcasters to reverse their decision, while anti-war demonstrators called on supporters to demonstrate outside the BBC London headquarters.

British officials criticize BBC for refusing to air Gaza fundraiser

Report: BBC charity gave cash to London bombers' bookstore

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Last update - 23:06 25/01/2009

Pope decision to rehabilitate Holocaust-denying bishop sparks Jewish-Catholic row

By Haaretz Service

Pope Benedict is still due to visit to Israel in May, an Israeli official said on Sunday, despite angering Jews worldwide by re-admitting a bishop who has denied the full extent of the Nazi genocide of six million Jews.

The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and Memorial in Jerusalem decried as

"scandalous" Benedict's decision to lift excommunications on British-born bishop, Richard Williamson, who has said there were no gas chambers and only 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps in World War Two.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor, said, however, the pontiff's planned visit in May to Israel was not in doubt. "This has nothing to do with relations between states," he said.

The Israeli museum's fury marked another step in the row between the Catholic Church and world Jewish groups, who were outraged by announcements of the rehabilitation.

"The reinstatement is an internal Church matter...[however] denial of the Holocaust not only insults the survivors, memory of the victims, and the Righteous Among the Nations who risked their lives to rescue Jews, it is a brutal attack on truth," Yad Vashem said in a statement.

A senior official in the Jewish Agency on Sunday also slammed the decisions, calling it a "scandal."

"It is something we cannot understand," said Amos Hermon, head of the Task Force Against Anti-Semitism at the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency.

Bishop Williamson was one of four traditionalist bishops to have his excommunication lifted Saturday, just days after he was shown in a Swedish state TV interview saying that historical evidence is hugely against six million Jews having been deliberately gassed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

The four bishops were excommunicated 20 years ago after they were consecrated by the late ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent - a move the Vatican said at the time was an act of schism.

"Even if the revocation of the excommunication is unrelated to Williamson's comments regarding the Holocaust, what kind of message is this sending regarding the Church's attitude toward the Holocaust?" Yad Vashem wrote. "Although we understand that Williamson's statements do not represent the Church's stance, we continue to hope that the Church will vigorously condemn these unacceptable and odious comments."

Jewish groups denounced the Vatican for having embraced a Holocaust denier and warned that the pope's decision would have serious implications for Catholic-Jewish relations as well as the pontiff's planned visit to the Holy Land later this year.

"I do not see how business can proceed as usual," said Rabbi David Rosen,

Jerusalem-based head of interrelgious affairs at the American Jewish Committee and a key Vatican-Jewish negotiator late last week.

He called for the pope or a senior adviser to issue a clear condemnation of all Holocaust denials and deniers.

Shimon Samuels of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Paris said he understood the German-born pope's desire for Christian unity, but said Benedict could have excluded Williamson. He warned that his rehabilitation will have a political cost for the Vatican.

"I'm certain as a man who has known the Nazi regime in his own flesh, he

understands you have to be very careful and very selective," Samuels said.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Williamson's views were absolutely indefensible. But he denied that rehabilitating Williamson implied that the Vatican shared them.

"They are his personal ideas ... that we certainly don't share but they have nothing to do with the issue of the excommunication and the removal of the excommunication," Lombardi told AP Television News.

Pope lifts excommunication of bishop who denied Holocaust

Jewish leaders urge Pope not to rehabilitate Holocaust-denying bishop

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Last update - 11:37 25/01/2009

Israel's Gaza op draws large U.S. audience to Al-Jazeera TV

By The Associated Press

American viewership of Al-Jazeera English rose dramatically during the Israel-Hamas war, partly because the channel had what CNN and other international networks didn't have: reporters inside Gaza.

But the viewers weren't watching it on television, where the Arab network's English-language station has almost no U.S. presence.

Instead, the station streamed video of Israel's offensive against Hamas on the Internet and took advantage of emerging online media such as the microblogging Web site Twitter to provide real-time updates.

During the 22-day conflict that ended last weekend, the station and its Arabic language sister, as they often do, aired far more graphic pictures than U.S. networks of dead and injured Palestinian children and women.

The images, viewed widely across the Mideast, generated enormous sympathy for Gazans in the Muslim world.

"Gaza ... was a breakthrough opportunity to make an impact with people who are less aware of Al-Jazeera than we'd like," said Tony Burman, managing director of the English-language channel in Qatar.

"There is an alternative perspective our channel provides, and Gaza was a good example," Burman said.

Al-Jazeera had another draw: Its reporters were inside Gaza while international networks such as CNN were barred by Israel from sending reporters in throughout the entire war. Israeli TV focused mostly on Israeli casualty reports and Hamas rocket barrages.

"Having reporters in Gaza - which others did not have - that's what made Al-Jazeera stand out and that's important on the Internet," said Jeff Jarvis, who teaches journalism at the City University of New York and writes about media on his Buzzmachine.com blog.

Overall, the station's Web video stream saw a 600 percent jump in worldwide viewership during the Gaza offensive - and about 60 percent of those hits came from the United States, according to the station's internal numbers.

Outside figures also point to big gains in U.S. online interest, suggesting the war gave the Arab station its first significant chance to break into the American market.

Traffic to Al-Jazeera's main Web page, which includes both the English and Arabic sites, spiked once Israeli airstrikes began on Dec. 27, according to Amazon.com Inc.'s Alexa Web tracking site.

Those figures show the share of Internet users visiting the site shot up about 22 percent over the last three months, with most of the gains coming since the start of the Gaza conflict.

The jump in viewership reflects wider trends in global media, where the Web increasingly is the place where viewers go to watch video and social networking sites and citizen journalism are merging with traditional news coverage.

Al-Jazeera English and Arabic are both bankrolled by energy-rich Qatar, a U.S. Arab ally that also supports the militant Hamas rulers of Gaza and which recently suspended its low-level ties with Israel to protest the Gaza offensive.

Feisty and sometimes graphic coverage of global carnage is an Al-Jazeera specialty, as is bracing commentary that has shaken up the Arab world and rattled the West.

Since Al-Jazeera English went on the air in November 2006, it has struggled to gain a spot on traditional American airwaves. The station says only three small cable operators offer the network in Ohio, Vermont and Washington, D.C.

None of the biggest U.S. cable systems carries Al-Jazeera English, claiming viewer interest is not sufficient.

The former Bush administration had accused Al-Jazeera's Arabic station of anti-American bias. Some members of the administration criticized the network after the Sept. 11 attacks because of its access to and willingness to air tapes of Osama bin Laden.

A frustrated President Bush even talked of bombing the Arabic-language channel's headquarters in 2004, according to a leaked British government memo.

The publicly owned cable system in Burlington, Vt. that carries Al-Jazeera English, has faced pressure and even calls for a ballot initiative to remove the channel by a group that claims the station is anti-American.

But the Internet has made it possible for the network to reach American viewers despite the limitations of its cable television broadcasts.

The English channel has a different staff and separate budget from the Arabic network. Its executives say they have no political agenda in coverage of the Mideast.

Politics aside, there is little question that the Gaza war gave the station a viewership boost - similar to what CNN got on cable in the 1991 Gulf War.

From its start, Al-Jazeera English has offered grainy, low-resolution access to the same broadcasts shown on cable television through its Web site. Higher-quality transmissions were also available for a price.

A few months before the Gaza offensive began, the network began the same broadcasts on a new Web-based platform known as Livestation, which allows users to watch high-quality broadcasts online live and for free.

The service, which is being developed by a London-based technology company partially backed by Microsoft Corp., has also signed up a number of other news networks, including Bloomberg Television and BBC World.

Livestation said Al-Jazeera English footage viewed on its site jumped to 17 million minutes worldwide over a two week period during the Gaza conflict, up from 3 million minutes in a similar time period before the conflict began.

The service did not break down those numbers by specific country. But it said that over one full week of the Gaza conflict, the number of U.S. viewers to Al-Jazeera English on Livestation surged by six times the usual level.

The boost in viewership was also reflected on YouTube where viewers can watch individual television reports. Over the past month during the Gaza crisis, Al-Jazeera was the most viewed English-language traditional news channel on YouTube's "News and Politics" category.

The network, like its global rivals, is pushing aggressively into other online media. It set up a page dedicated to Gaza coverage on the "microblogging" site Twitter and is experimenting with interactive maps. It also actively seeks photos and other eyewitness accounts from viewers.

Ayman Mohyeldin, the network's 29-year-old correspondent who reported on Israel's military offensive live for 22 days, became a well-known figure to many viewers.

Dressed in a bulletproof vest and helmet, the U.S.-educated journalist of Egyptian descent described in great detail life and death during Israeli air raids. He now has at least one fan club on Facebook.

Egyptian officials: Israel achieved all of its military goals in Gaza

Hamas agrees to allow Fatah forces to patrol Rafah crossing

ANALYSIS / The IDF model that failed in Lebanon succeeded in Gaza

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Last update - 13:35 24/01/2009

British officials criticize BBC for refusing to air Gaza fundraiser

By The Associated Press

British government ministers on Saturday criticized the BBC for refusing to show a charity fundraising appeal for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The national broadcaster said it had rejected the ad because showing it might harm the BBC's reputation for impartiality and because it could not be sure humanitarian aid would reach the needy in the devastated territory.

Britain's main private broadcasters also turned down the ad.

International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said the BBC had made the wrong decision. He called on the BBC to reconsider, "to recognize the immense human suffering and to address the concern which I think otherwise may develop that somehow the suffering of people in Gaza is not taken as seriously as the suffering of people in other conflicts."

Health minister Ben Bradshaw called the BBC's decision inexplicable and accused the publicly funded broadcaster of being cowed by the Israeli government.

"I am afraid the BBC has to stand up to the Israeli authorities occasionally," Bradshaw said.

The BBC has given free air time to previous appeals by the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella for groups including the Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children. The appeals have raised millions of pounds (dollars) for victims of war and natural disaster in Congo, Myanmar and elsewhere.

BBC director-general Mark Thompson said the Gaza crisis was an ongoing and highly controversial news story. He said the BBC had decided that to broadcast a free-standing appeal, no matter how carefully couched, ran the risk of calling into question the public's confidence in the BBC's impartiality in its coverage of the story as a whole.

Demonstrators planned to gather outside a BBC building in central London Saturday to protest Israel's assault on the Palestinian territory.

Obama picks George Mitchell as Mideast envoy 'to make Gaza truce last'

Hamas: Obama does not represent change

Hamas calls for Fatah reconciliation, vows to continue fighting Israel

Sources: Hamas arms smuggling never stopped during IDF op in Gaza

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Last update - 10:33 24/01/2009

Saudi envoy to U.S.: Obama must not repeat Bush's 'sickening legacy' in Mideast

By Reuters

President Barack Obama's administration will have to "drastically revise" American policies relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if Washington seeks to maintain its leadership role in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the U.S. said on Friday.

In an article on the Financial Times Web site, Prince Turki al-Faisal said former President George W. Bush had left a "sickening legacy" in the Middle East.

"If the U.S. wants to continue playing a leadership role in the Middle East and keep its strategic alliances intact - especially its 'special relationship' with Saudi Arabia - it will have to drastically revise its policies vis-a-vis Israel and Palestine," Turki said.

Obama on Friday asked Saudi King Abdullah for support in halting weapons smuggling into Gaza and underscored the importance of U.S.-Saudi ties in a phone call to the Arab ruler, the White House said.

Obama spoke to several other foreign leaders on Friday, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the White House said in a statement.

The call to Abdullah coincided with the publication of the article by Turki, a former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to the United States, warning Obama the United States was putting Saudi ties at risk with its stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Obama, who took office on Tuesday, named former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell as his envoy for the Middle East conflict on Thursday and vowed to aggressively pursue peace.

Hamas has said Obama's policies were no different from Bush's, and Israeli officials have said the new U.S. administration was likely to continue shunning Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. government.

In his phone call with Abdullah, Obama underscored the "importance of a strong U.S.-Saudi relationship" and expressed his appreciation for the Saudi ruler's support for interfaith dialogue and peace initiatives.

"He asked for Saudi support for efforts to stop weapons smuggling into Gaza and expressed interest in continuing counter-terrorism cooperation," the White House said.

Obama also discussed the situation in Gaza with the British prime minister, the White House said. Obama and Brown also talked about the need to make the Afghan conflict a top priority, it said.

Hamas: Obama does not represent change

Obama: We will aggressively seek lasting Middle East peace

Yoel Marcus / And the centrifuges spin on

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Last update - 17:29 23/01/2009

UNRWA chief: Israeli offensive in Gaza boosted extremists

By Reuters

Israel's invasion of Gaza has strengthened the hand of extremists and only a credible independent investigation into alleged wrongdoing can quiet growing Palestinian anger, a United Nations aid official said on Friday.

John Ging, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, called for new U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell to talk to ordinary people in Gaza as part of a "new track" in diplomacy.

U.S. President Barack Obama named Mitchell, a former U.S. Senator who helped settle the conflict in Northern Ireland, on Thursday to try to jump-start Arab-Israeli peace talks.

"My first request to the U.S. administration is talk to the ordinary people in Gaza. Come to Gaza and talk to the ordinary people - the mothers, fathers, leaders of civil society, the people who are not involved in politics," Ging, speaking from Gaza, told reporters in Geneva.

"They are still quite shell-shocked but there is more and more anger growing."

It is urgent to establish accountability for death and the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure through a credible mechanism which would "channel this emotion to confidence in the rule of law", Ging said.

"The extremists here - there are more now at the end of this conflict than there were at the start, that's the product of such conflict - are very confident in their rhetoric that there should be no expectation that justice will be delivered through the rule of law. Now we must prove that wrong," he said.

The investigation had to examine "legitimate allegations" on both sides, as Israeli civilians had also suffered, he said.

"But it is a challenge we must succeed in achieving. Because if we don't, then we have truly conceded to the agenda of the extremists here in Gaza," he added.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said he expected Israel to provide urgently a full explanation of attacks on UN facilities in Gaza, including schools used as shelters, and said those responsible must be held accountable.

Israeli attacks killed 1,300 people and made thousands homeless in the 22-day assault which Israel said was to stop Hamas firing rockets at southern Israel. Hamas and Israel declared ceasefires on Sunday and Israel has withdrawn.

Ging, who is Irish, welcomed Mitchell's appointment.

"An individual of his experience and ability coming now to this conflict gives me cause for more than hope, it actually gives me cause for optimism that we will move on to a new track where we will see real progress," he said.

"What we hope will happen is that the U.S. administration will listen to the people. There has to be a rebalancing of the focus," he said.

UNRWA: Army admitted bombed school did not harbor militants

UN: Israel cooperating in efforts to improve Gaza humanitarian situation

UN official: Israel must probe shelling attacks that damaged UN buildings in Gaza

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Last update - 11:49 23/01/2009

Dutch MP behind film on radical Islam: Decision to prosecute me is political

By Cnaan Liphshitz, Haaretz Correspondent

Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, the director of a controversial film on radical Islam, says the decision by the Amsterdam Court of Appeals on Wednesday to prosecute him for allegedly inciting hatred against Muslims was strictly political.

"It puts hundreds of thousands of Dutchmen on trial for opposing Islam's violent messages," the MP told Haaretz on Thursday.

Wilders, a controversial rightist politician and head of the Netherlands' Party for Freedom, will be prosecuted for the alleged offense - which he denies - with connection to a short film he made last year linking the Koran to violence against Jews, Christians and Muslims.

The 14-minute film, which turned the already-famous Wilders into an internationally known figure, mostly features archive footage of hate speeches by Muslim clerics, one of whom was calling for the "beheading of all Jews."

The film, which aims to present "the violent nature of Islam," as Wilders defines it, also urges Muslims to "tear out" violent passages from the Koran and equates fanatical Islam to Nazism.

In the interview on Thursday, Wilders maintained that his film, entitled Fitna, is within the boundaries of Dutch law and freedom of expression. "I consulted numerous legal authorities before releasing the film," he stressed.

He added: "Things are not looking good for me. In its 33-page ruling ordering my prosecution, the appeals court already determined I was guilty. Now the case will be reviewed by a lower court and there's every chance the judge will align his ruling with the appeals courts."

Later in the conversation he said: "I hope this thing doesn't end behind bars." As Wilders has not yet been charged, the maximum penalty for the alleged transgressions remains unclear.

If wilders appeals a future conviction, his appeal will be heard before the same court which ordered his prosecution.

Before the Court of Appeals ordered to prosecute Wilders, Amsterdam's chief public prosecutor, Leo de Wit, said last month that no case will be brought against Wilders in the Netherlands.

But Wilders, whose party holds nine seats in parliament, is also being prosecuted in absentia in Jordan for "blasphemy and contempt of Muslims" because of the film.

During a visit last month to Jerusalem for an international anti-Jihad conference, Wilders spoke about the charges pending against him back home. "Luckily, the Dutch legal system is different to Jordan's," he told Haaretz then. On Thursday, he ironically noted that "the Jordanians can now be satisfied with themselves."

The trial, which sets the stage for a high-profile affair likely to expose changing attitudes towards Islam in Europe, is also expected to center around public comparisons which Wilders drew in Dutch media between the Koran and Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

'There is no moderate Islam,' says far-right Dutch legislator Geert Wilders

Director of controversial film on Islam to speak in Jerusalem

Dutch Jews louder than Muslims in condemning 'Fitna' film

Dutch Jewish group: Anti-Islam film is 'counterproductive'

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Last update - 07:49 24/01/2009

UN human rights official: Gaza evokes memories of Warsaw Ghetto

By Haaretz Service and Reuters

There is evidence that Israel committed war crimes during its 22-day campaign in the Gaza Strip and there should be an independent inquiry, UN investigator Richard Falk said Thursday.

The mental anguish of the civilians who suffered the assault is so great that the entire population of Gaza could be seen as casualties, said Falk, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Falk, speaking by phone from his home in California, said compelling evidence that Israel's actions in Gaza violated international humanitarian law required an independent investigation into whether they amounted to war crimes.

"I believe that there is the prima facie case for reaching that conclusion," he told a Geneva news conference.

Falk said Israel had made no effort to allow civilians to escape the fighting.

"To lock people into a war zone is something that evokes the worst kind of international memories of the Warsaw Ghetto, and sieges that occur unintentionally during a period of wartime," Falk, who is Jewish, said, referring to the starvation and murder of Warsaw's Jews by Nazi Germany in World War II.

"There could have been temporary provision at least made for children, disabled, sick civilians to leave, even if where they left to was southern Israel," the U.S. professor said.

Falk said the entire Gaza population, which had been trapped in a war zone with no possibility to leave as refugees, may have been mentally scarred for life. If so, the definition of casualty could be extended to the entire civilian population.

Falk, who was denied entry to Israeltwo weeks before the assault started on Dec. 27, dismissed Israel's argument that the assault was for self-defense in the light of rocket attacks aimed at Israel from the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip.

"In my view the UN charter, and international law, does not give Israel the legal foundation for claiming self-defense," he said.

Israel had not restricted fighting to areas where the rockets came from and had refused to negotiate with Hamas, preventing a diplomatic solution, Falk said.

A Foreign Ministry official rejected Falk's accusations.

"There's no need to lose one's temper. Falk is a well-known Israel hater," he told Army Radio.

About 1,300 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were killed and 5,000 wounded in the assault. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians, hit by cross-border rocket fire, were killed.

Staunch Israel critic at UN reports receiving death threats

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With war over, Fatah members say Hamas sees them as the real danger

By Dana Weiler-Polak

Tags: Israel, Hamas, Israel News

Israel's operation in Gaza may have ended, but the internal Palestinian fighting is still going strong. According to a Fatah source, Hamas operatives have thus far killed 10 Fatah members and wounded hundreds, fearing that Fatah might try to undermine Hamas' rule in the territory.

"When the war began, we started to see a tendency within Hamas to attack our members," said A., a Gaza resident who belongs to Fatah. "They feared that we would exploit the war and were constantly talking about the 'internal danger.' They could be heard saying they were fighting on two fronts, against Israel and Fatah. They were constantly fanning the flames, saying that thousands of Fatah members were planning to come from Egypt to help fight them - which is totally false."

Once, after a Fatah member was killed by Israeli fire, "we were marching in procession toward the cemetery when Hamas men fell on the convoy and killed three of our people," A. said. In another case, a group of Fatah members were celebrating the release of one of their comrades from jail when "Hamas men arrived and said we were really celebrating and handing out candies in schadenfreude over Hamas members who had been killed, and once again, they threatened us."

A. said that Hamas also put large numbers of Fatah members under house arrest.

"They went from house to house and told hundreds of people not to go out, and that if they were seen outside, they would shoot them," A. explained said.

Moreover, "dozens of people were shot in the legs," and two of them died while awaiting treatment for their injuries. "At least 100 people were shot in the legs for no reason," he claimed.

"They killed Isham Najar, a man of 70, in front of his family, just because he is affiliated with Fatah," A. said. "That is also what happened to Ahmed Sagura. He was under house arrest, and when he was found outside, he was shot because his brother is one of the leaders of Fatah in Gaza .... They say that we are the danger, not the Jews, because they [the Jews] come and go, but we are here. We are the real problem."

A. said he goes outside as little as possible. "If I go out, I look around carefully to see whether anyone is waiting for me. I try to do everything quickly. We've been living like this for some time and have already learned how to maneuver for ourselves; the fear is mainly for our families and children. Why should they have to pay?"

After Israel declared a cease-fire, A. added, Fatah began trying to assess its damages, but every such effort was met by Hamas threats. "Anyone suspected of doing something for his surroundings receives a house call and is warned not to go out. They don't allow us to organize or even to see our people, to see if they need something."

Hamas is also keeping humanitarian aid for its own people, A. charged.

But A. is not without complaints about his own organization's leadership. "There's a problem because Fatah's senior leadership is trying to sweep this appalling situation under the rug so as not to sabotage the chance of dialogue between us and Hamas. They don't want to escalate the situation and are trying not to let the story get out. So meanwhile, they [Hamas] do as they please without hindrance."

Last update - 00:11 23/01/2009

Hamas: Obama does not represent change

By The Associated Press

Tags: Gaza Strip, Hamas

Hamas says President Barack Obama's position toward the Palestinians does not represent change and will lead to the same mistakes as his predecessor.

Thursday's comments by Beirut-based Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan follow Obama's first public comments on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis since his

inauguration.

Hamdan tells Al-Jazeera television he expects Obama to experience failure in the region over the next four years if he sticks with his current position.

Obama said Thursday that going forward Hamas must end rocket fire at Israel, and Israel must complete the withdrawal of its forces from Gaza. Although those steps were taken this week, low-level violence has marred the fragile cease-fire that ended Israel's three week offensive in Gaza.

Meshal urges West to lift boycott on Gaza Strip

Damascus-based Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal urged the West on Wednesday to lift its boycott of the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip.

"I tell European nations...three years of trying to eliminate Hamas is enough. It is time for you to deal with Hamas, which has gained legitimacy through struggle," Meshal said in a televised speech from the Syrian capital.

The Hamas leader also urged Obama and European leaders to glean the "required lessons" from their countries' support for the "Israeli aggression."

Hamas calls for reconciliation with Fatah

Hamas called Thursday for reconciliation with supporters of rival Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas but insisted on pursuing resistance against Israel.

The condition appeared to preclude any agreement with Abbas, who seeks a peace deal with Israel and whose moderate Fatah faction was not among the groups that backed the statement by eight Damascus-based radical Palestinian factions including Hamas.

Earlier on Thursday, a senior Hamas official dismissed any reconciliation talks with rival Fatah group.

Last update - 18:31 22/01/2009

Jewish groups condemn reprinting of Nazi-era newspapers in Germany

By The Associated Press

Tags: Nazi, Israel News

A headline proclaiming Huge Fire in the Reichstag greeted Germans at newsstands Thursday - and although the story is more than 70 years old, customers are snapping it up.

Dieter Grosse, who runs a newsstand at Berlin's busy Friedrichstrasse station, said he has sold about 600 copies of Zeitungszeugen - a new publication that reprints Nazi-era newspapers - since it first edition went on sale Jan. 8.

But the project has drawn criticism from Jewish organizations and officials in the German state of Bavaria, who fear the reproductions could be misused by neo-Nazis.

Stephan Kramer, general secretary of Germany's Central Council of Jews, argues the project is dangerous because the historical context printed along with the original newspaper pages is not strong enough to prevent abuse by extremists.

"These copies are nothing more than examples for the neo-Nazis ... and I do not think they should be allowed to be sold in German newsstands," Kramer said.

Zeitungszeugen, a word play on the German words for newspaper and witness, focuses on newspapers from the years the Nazis were in power - from 1933 to 1945.

Thursday's second edition features a reproduction of the March 1, 1933 front page of the Nazis' Voelkischer Beobachter newspaper, which includes a column by chief Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels blaming Communists for setting the national parliament, the Reichstag, alight. Adolf Hitler seized on the event to consolidate his power.

Zeitungszeugen includes a spectrum of publications from far left to far right, and prints commentary and analysis by historians to explain their significance.

Kesslin Nowak, who is studying to become a history teacher, said she thought the publication could be a useful teaching tool.

"I think that it is helpful to be able to show students with this paper what the originals really looked like," Nowak said after purchasing the second edition.

The London-based publisher Albertas Limited says the paper is meant to provide a historical overview of the events leading up to and throughout World War II.

It says the project was targeted to coincide with this year's 60th anniversary of the founding of Western Germany and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which paved the way for German reunification.

But officials in Bavaria have vowed to take legal action to block further editions from appearing on newsstands, saying it violates copyright and post-World War II German laws stating it is illegal to display or reproduce symbols used by the Nazis, unless for scientific or educational purposes.

Bavaria inherited rights to most of Nazi publications, including Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, after the war.

Editor-in-chief Sandra Paweronschitz insists the paper is fully legal and argues it provides insight into the social setting of the time.

"What I find so interesting about this project is ... that newspapers offer such a wide view in the attitudes about and atmosphere of daily life," Paweronschitz said. "It is very amusing sometimes, very informative and enlightening to read."