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Saturday, July 27, 2013

FORBES: Peace Through Profits? Inside The Secret Tech Ventures That Are Reshaping The Israeli-Arab-Palestinian World

Palestinian engineers Achmed Badir (top right) and Jafar Hajear (bottom right) of Ramallah-based Exalt Technologies meet with their Israeli teammates at Cisco near Tel Aviv, Oz Ben-Rephael (top left) and Michal Cohen (bottom left).  Exalt provides R&D outsourcing to Cisco. Says Ben-Rephael: “I think it is amazing that we can overcome the distance. We just needed that common target.” Adds Badir: “There was a lot of curiosity by both sides.”(All pictures: Heidi Levine/Sipa Press for Forbes)
It’s not easy. Over the course of reporting this story FORBES interviewed scores of high-tech leaders on both sides of the border. Nearly all expressed fears and worries over how their comments would be perceived. (Many insisted on full anonymity; FORBES was granted access to the Dead Sea training session only on the condition that we keep its exact location a secret.) On the Palestinian side a large contingent myopically equates any collaboration with treachery, even if it strengthens the local economy (and especially if it’s perceived to strengthen Israel’s). While most in the Jewish state would view these partnerships positively, a sizable minority fear that Palestinians armed with the skills and technology that have driven Israel’s prosperity would use them against Israel in a future war.

Yet for all the mutual suspicion, collaborate they do. Buoyed by training, investment or partnerships from Israelis or Israeli subsidiaries of American companies, more than 300 Palestinian technology firms now employ 4,500 people, FORBES estimates, up from just 23 firms in the six-year period leading up to 2000. More are on the way: There’s at least $100 million in venture cash from Israeli or Western sources either looking for deals or recently put to work in Palestinian or Israeli Arab startups (with the latter community, representing one-fifth of the country’s citizenry, increasingly agitating to get in on the action). Meanwhile, Chambers and his peers at U.S. technology giants have pushed their Israeli subsidiaries to outsource research and development projects to Palestinian startups or to hire local Arabs.

This is the real backdrop for the renewed peace talks lurching forward under the aegis of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Feckless politicians will invariably look to blame the other side for inaction. The private sector’s detente is delivering results right now, with the intention of creating enough interconnected prosperity to make a lasting peace in everyone’s economic self-interest....READ MORE

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Here’s the one thing that everyone in the Middle East tech industry agrees upon: This private-sector effort is not about charity. The Palestinians, flooded for years with foreign aid money that often gets misused and almost never sticks, accept partnerships with Israeli firms and Israeli offices of U.S. firms because it offers them perhaps the best chance to develop their economy–and do it in a way consistent with their proud culture.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Al Jazeera English's The Stream hosts a spirited conversation on the new Israeli-Palestinian negotiations with Hussein Ibish, Gil Hoffman, Noura Erakat and Dimi Reider.

Jul 26 2013 - 3:26pm
Peace process re-launched or re-hashed?
July 26, 2013

Al Jazeera English's The Stream hosts a spirited conversation on the new Israeli-Palestinian negotiations with Hussein Ibish, Gil Hoffman, Noura Erakat and Dimi Reider.

"And when we speak of our faith, it can’t be just about our personal relationship with God, it has to also be about our personal relationship one to the other, each to everybody else." John Kerry, Secretary of State, Remarks at the Ramadan Iftar Dinner 2013

State Department Hosts Annual Iftar Dinner with Sec. Kerry... ATFP's Dr. Asali is pictured sitting to the right of Kerry at the dinner table.

The State Department hosted a group of distinguished guests, including ATFP Pres. Dr. Ziad Asali, to commemorate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at their annual Iftar dinner on Wednesday, July 24, 2013.

During his address, Kerry discussed the importance of religious tolerance, freedom, and cooperation. Kerry cited the need to transcend religious differences and find common ground for the sake of peace, prosperity and a better global future.

Kerry also emphasized the pressing need to achieve a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine and said that the necessity for this has “never been greater than it is today.”

Remarks at the Ramadan Iftar Dinner


John Kerry
Secretary of State
Ben Franklin Room
Washington, DC
July 24, 2013

Thank you very much. Assalamu alaikum. It’s wonderful to be here with everybody. And Farah, thank you for an extraordinarily gracious introduction. And most importantly, thank you for an absolutely extraordinary job, I think you will all agree, as our Special Representative to the Muslim Community. We are really pleased with what you’re doing. Thank you.

 She said in her introduction that when I was a senator, she never dreamed that she could call me boss, but I want you to know, since I was an elected official, there were lots of things she could call me – (laughter) – and probably did. But I’m honored to, quote, “be her boss” today. I don’t think of myself that way. We’re a great team here at the State Department, an extraordinary group of people, all of whom – I see our Under Secretary Pat Kennedy here, and Under Secretary Wendy Sherman, and I haven’t looked around the whole room, but many other members of our team are here, and we all join together in welcoming you here to this break of the fast.

It is a privilege to do this. I know that Washington being sort of a little bit further north – try this in Boston or even further north, you wait till later. But I know the sun sets late, so we figured it would be a heck of a lot better to have an Iftar here at the State Department than to have a Suhoor. (Laughter.) And one thing I know as a former elected official, never keep people from their meal, and believe me, after a day of fasting, even more so. So eat. Everybody has to eat while I say a few words here if I can.

We are joined this evening by a really remarkable group of people. And I want to welcome my former colleagues from the United States Congress who are here, members of the Diplomatic Corps who are here, some of whom I saw just last night as we received many of them here. But I also especially want to recognize our Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, and Rashad Hussain, President Obama’s Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. We’re delighted to have them here. (Applause.)

Most importantly – and I say this without any artifice – every single one of you were invited here because you are all doers. You are all active. You’re all engaged. You’re all involved in trying to make the world a better place, and you’re all involved in reaching out to other people and practicing, if not your faith, certainly practicing the best tenets of how human beings can live together.

And we are celebrating the holiest month of the Muslim calendar year, Ramadan. It is a time for peaceful reflection and for prayer. It is a time for acts of compassion and charity. So to all of you tonight, and to the millions of American Muslims across our land, and to the many more around the world, Ramadan Kareem.

I want to – (applause) – thank you. You can clap for Ramadan Kareem. (Applause.)

I want you to know that the tradition of sharing respect for this particularly holy month actually reaches back to the earliest days of our Republic. This is the Benjamin Franklin Room, and it’s a fitting venue for this occasion because Ben Franklin was really our first formal diplomat. And he was also among the earliest proponents of religious freedom in our country. He wrote in his autobiography, “Even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service.”

To find a pulpit at one’s service, to profess one’s faith openly and freely, that is really a core American value. And I’m proud to say, as all of us are who are American here, that it is enshrined in our Constitution, and hard fought for. And it has been at the center of our story, our national story, since the 1600s, when a fellow by the name of John Winthrop, who happened to have been my great grandfather eight times removed, led a ship full of religious dissidents across the Atlantic to America in order to seek the freedom of worship.

Throughout its history, America didn’t always get it right. In my home state of Massachusetts, John Winthrop and Puritans overreached, and people ran away from Salem and from other places to found New Haven, Connecticut, and found Providence, Rhode Island, named Providence after wandering a year through the woods in the winter in order to escape from persecution. So we didn’t always get it right.

But throughout our history, we have struggled with the divisiveness of religious differences. I can proudly say today that no place has ever welcomed so many different communities, so many people, to worship so freely. The diversity and the patriotism of America’s religious communities today are sources of strength for all of us. And our freedom to worship is a powerful reminder of the traditions that we share. E pluribus unum: from many, one. And from many faiths, we do stand together in one shared country. Now ultimately, our sense of kinship is grounded in our shared sense of humanity, a moral truth that emerges based on the dignity of all human beings.

So tonight, I just pose a question to you: Can our great faith traditions – the Abrahamic faiths that Farah referred to – can they forge a common effort for human dignity? My faith and the faith that I have seen in the lives of so many Americans tells me that the answer to that is resoundingly yes. Our faiths and our fates – our fates are inextricably linked. It’s not enough just to talk about greater understanding. Our partnerships, the way we work every day in life, the way we reach out country to country, people to people, they have to foster a mutual respect and underscore the freedoms that we seek.

I think it’s safe to say – I hope it is safe to say that may there are four partnerships that will be critical if we’re going to live up to our obligations to one another: partnerships for peace, for prosperity, for our people, and for the future of our planet. Let me begin just quickly with the fourth.

For many of us, respect for God’s creation in almost every scripture really demands and translates into a duty to protect and sustain God’s first creation. Our response to climate change ought to be rooted in a fundamental sense of shared stewardship of the earth that emerges from that tradition. We must also obviously strive to forge a partnership for peace, and there is no religion, no philosophy of life – whether Hinduism, Confucianism, Native American tenets – nothing that doesn’t talk about peace and the responsibilities of each human being to another.

I’ve just returned, as many of you know, from the Middle East, and I can tell you the need for lasting peace and security between Israelis and Palestinians, between Sunni and Shia, between so many different minorities and so many different people has never been greater than it is today. Our partnership for peace obviously extends far and wide, from the Syrian people to people on every continent on this planet, all of whom seek to achieve the freedom and the dignity that they so richly deserve.

We also can find a common ground in the partnership for prosperity. Tahrir Square, a fruit vendor in Tunisia – these weren’t religiously motivated revolutions, not at all. They were demands for respect and opportunity by individual human beings frustrated by the inability of governments to address their needs. And when youth see no hope for escaping from poverty or improving their lives, then problems can become truly insurmountable.

And to meet the demands of these populations for dignity and for opportunity requires new and creative partnerships. We need to reach beyond governmental and beyond government itself in order to include business, civil society, and of course, people of all walks of life working together in order to invest in the future through collaborations like the Partnerships for a New Beginning.

This brings me to the fourth partnership quickly, and then I will close. That is the partnership between our peoples. Earlier this evening, I met very briefly in the Monroe Room there with a group of outstanding representatives of the State Department who are part of programs we sponsor working with Muslim communities around the world. I’m very proud of the work that they are doing, and as Secretary of State, I not only find it inspiring, I think it is something we need to export and grow. All of these initiatives, in the end, add up to the way you find a different way of doing things, a different way of bringing people together to work for these common goals.

I’m pleased to tell you tonight that we’re in the process of expanding our capacity to do just that here in the State Department. We’ve created the first faith-based office, which will reach out in a major way across continents and oceans in order to try to increase our engagement with faith communities, and you’ll be hearing a great deal more about this effort in the days ahead.

Before I close, let me share – just share a couple things with you. I was impressed when I first visited Saudi Arabia, and I met King Abdullah, and I listened to him talk about his sense of urgency about bringing faiths together and his own initiative to try to reach out across the divide and bring Muslim and all other religions together. That has grown. There are Jordanians – Prince Ghazi and others – who are working similarly in efforts to try to reach across the divide and prove that radical, political Islam does not represent the true heart and faith.

I’ll share a story with you. It’s a story of bringing people together and of what makes a difference. It involves a rabbi, a Greek Orthodox bishop, and an imam. Now I know that sounds like the beginning of a really bad joke – (laughter) – but I want to tell you right up front, it’s not, it’s a true story. And I think Congressman Keating from my home state is here, and you can ask him, because he lived this story as I did. It embodies the kind of partnership and the way in which all of us need to think and ways in which we can be inspired.

Back in the early 1990s in Massachusetts, the Muslim community in Quincy, Massachusetts, home, I might add, of former President John Adams and John Quincy Adams, this – the Muslim community was looking for more land on which they could build an Islamic center – not a mosque, an Islamic center. And they found a large parcel in a nearby town. But when the residents heard about the plans, not unlike what happened in New York and elsewhere, they tried to keep the mosque from being built.

Dr. Ashraf, the President of the Islamic Center of New England, was about to give up hope, literally about to quit. He called everybody and talked to people. Then, out of the blue, unsolicited, he received a phone call from a man in another town, who just said simply, “Dr. Ashraf, I heard you need some land on which you want to build a mosque and a school, a center. And we would love for you to come and build your center here. We welcome you.”

My friends, when they finally broke ground, there stood three men holding shovels, breaking ground together: a rabbi, a Greek Orthodox bishop, and the imam. Today, that center stands tall and proud, and tonight, Dr. Ashraf’s niece stands right here. This is Farah Pandith’s uncle. (Applause.)

This is what our shared humanity asks of us, even demands of us. And when we speak of our faith, it can’t be just about our personal relationship with God, it has to also be about our personal relationship one to the other, each to everybody else.

I think you will agree with me. I have never met a child in my life – two years old, two and a half years old, three years old – who hates anybody. They may hate their broccoli or something else they’re forced to eat, but they don’t hate other people or kids. They learn that. It is taught. It is passed down.

And what we need to do is care for our fellow men and women, whatever the differences. If we are doing God’s work, we can do that. So let us act in faith – act in faith – even as we preach it. Let us treat each other with respect. Let us lift up humanity and live our faiths fully and freely and draw inspiration from this day of fasting and every day of fasting in Ramadan. Ramadan Mubarak. Thank you. 

Dr Ziad Asali with Aaron David Miller, Dennis Ross, US envoy to the Middle East, and Shibley Telhami on PBS's Charlie Rose on John Kerry's Middle East Peace Initiative

John Kerry's Middle East Peace Initiative with Aaron David Miller, Dennis Ross, US envoy to the Middle East, Ziad Asali and Shibley Telhami. Bruno Wu and Thomas Middelhoff on discuss their private media company focused on China called BT Capital.

Hamas in the Crosshairs

"It would be fascinating to learn what is going on in the heads of Hamas leaders who appear to be bending over backwards to insure that they are high on the list of targets of Egypt's new "war on terrorism." On the contrary, their current attitude seems to be "bring it on... It's unfathomable, and because they are directly responsible for the well-being of the people of Gaza, unforgivably irresponsible." Hussein Ibish of ATFP


Hamas in the Crosshairs
Today's BBC headline says it all: "Egypt crisis: Morsi accused of plotting with Hamas." In other words, just when you thought things couldn't get any worse for Hamas, they suddenly did.

Former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has been arrested on a variety of charges, mainly to do with alleged crimes in collusion with Hamas. The accusations include several attacks on various prisons, including a 2011 jailbreak in which Morsi escaped. Morsi is specifically charged with collaborating with Hamas "to carry out anti-state acts, attacking police stations and army officers and storming prisons, setting fire to one prison and enabling inmates to flee, including himself, as well as premeditated killing of officers, soldiers and prisoners." Heady stuff to say the least.

Yesterday in Open Zion, I explained how of the Egyptian military, government and a significant percent of the population sees Hamas as an integral part of a wide-ranging security crisis. This includes the ongoing and intensifying insurgency by "Jihadist" militants in Sinai, which continues to deteriorate. Hamas is widely believed to have an ongoing cooperative relationship with these extremists, to the detriment of Egyptian national security, and some 35 of its fighters are said to have been killed when the Egyptian counteroffensive began two weeks ago.

That the Sinai insurgency exploded with unparalleled fury immediately after the ouster of Morsi fueled heavy suspicions on the part of many in Egypt that the former president was giving the extremists "a free hand" in Sinai and that Hamas was deeply involved in fueling this crisis. The Egyptian authorities are facing a two-front battle involving Muslim Brotherhood supporters and opponents in competing protests and street clashes, as well as the Sinai insurgency.

Alarm has intensified given a bomb attack on Wednesday against the police headquarters in the city of Mansoura, which killed one soldier and injured 28 others. The bottom line concern is that coordinated, armed anti-government violence seems to be spreading from the Sinai periphery into more central parts of Egypt, and that such violence is at least parallel to, or at worst dovetailing with, unrest stoked by angry Muslim Brotherhood supporters.

Reports that Brotherhood officials have assured local elders that attacks in Sinai would stop if Morsi were reinstated as president reinforce the idea that there is an ideological and, indeed, operational connection between the Brotherhood and the Sinai extremists...READ MORE

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

New York Times: Israeli Land Measure Called Discriminatory

World Briefing | Middle East

Israel has frozen co-operation with the European Union on work in the Palestinian territories in retaliation for an EU directive banning funding or grants for bodies with links to Israeli settlements.

Construction work at the Ariel settlement in the West Bank. Photograph: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

Israel freezes co-operation with EU in Palestinian territories

Move follows European Union directive banning funding for bodies linked with Israeli settlements

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/26/israel-freezes-co-operation-eu-palestinian
Israel has frozen co-operation with the European Union on work in the Palestinian territories in retaliation for an EU directive banning funding or grants for bodies with links to Israeli settlements.

The move, authorised by the defence minister, Moshe Ya'alon, affects all projects requiring permits from the Civil Administration, which governs Area C, the 60% of the West Bank under full Israeli control; access of EU diplomats and representatives to Area C and Gaza; and joint meetings.

No permits have been issued to EU humanitarian aid workers to enter Gaza for several days, according to a western diplomatic source.

"We are freezing the relationship on everything," said an Israeli official. "We did this as soon as we heard [about the directive]. We can't act like nothing happened."

The EU provides aid and equipment to Palestinian communities in Area C, many of whom are threatened with displacement and the demolition of their homes, animal shelters and other structures. The EU also helps train Palestinian security forces... READ MORE
[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Thursday, July 25, 2013

My letter to the Washington Post RE Kerry’s Captain Ahab quest By David Ignatius



RE Kerry’s Captain Ahab quest By
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-john-kerrys-middle-east-work-bears-fruit/2013/07/24/cd67f60a-f3e7-11e2-aa2e-4088616498b4_story.html

Dear Editor,

The only sure bet on Middle East peace is that if the Israel-Palestine conflict continues countless more men, women, and children will be tormented and impoverished by that conflict- and religious tyranny, terrorism, corruption, and cruelty will thrive. 

Kudos to Kerry for persisting with America's quest to help facilitate a just and lasting peace for both Israel and Palestine. 

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
*******
Live by the Golden Rule
Words to Honor: The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 1.
    All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.


“Generations of Commitment" American Task Force on Palestine Honoring the Achievements of Palestinian-Americans ... & This Could Actually Work: Why John Kerry's Middle East peace push isn’t a fool's errand.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

My letter to CSM RE What will drive Israelis, Palestinians to talks & Middle East peace talks: Finding believers amid the skeptics

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, July 19, 2013 in the West Bank city of Ramallah. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stepped up his drive to get Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table, meeting with the Palestinian president Friday as he sought to close a deep divide between the two sides over a formula for resuming peace talks after nearly five years. Mandel Ngan/Pool/AP
RE: What will drive Israelis, Palestinians to talks- With Secretary John Kerry confident of talks starting soon, the new imperatives in the US and Middle East can help drive a peace deal between Israel and Palestinian leaders. http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2013/0723/What-will-drive-Israelis-Palestinians-to-talks 

(& Middle East peace talks: Finding believers amid the skeptics http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2013/0723/Middle-East-peace-talks-Finding-believers-amid-the-skeptics )

Dear Editor,

"Middle East peace talks: Finding believers amid the skeptics" was a relief to read: It certainly is a much more helpful approach than nay saying pessimism which might sound clever and well informed but tends to persuade more and more people worldwide not to bother to believe in diplomacy and peace much less do what they can to help make peace and progress a reality.

Hussein Ibish of the American Task Force on Palestine is absolutely right that "We’ve gone from nothing to something... you’ve got to start with something.”  Your subsequent editorial "What will drive Israelis, Palestinians to talks" was also absolutely correct to conclude that "these talks need even more public and private support than past talks. What’s happening outside the negotiating room might be far more consequential than the deal making inside."

Starting with something on a personal level can be as simple as ignoring the temptation of cynicism and nay-saying.  Be part of the momentum that makes a just and lasting peace a priority... Ending the Israel-Palestine conflict with a negotiated settlement firmly based on full respect for international law and universal basic human rights gives both Israel and Palestine a chance to help make this world a better place for all people, regardless of supposed race or religion.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
Congress overstepped with its 'Jerusalem, Israel' designation: US consular officials have maintained a long-running policy of neutrality on issues touching on the disputed status of Jerusalem. Israel claims a united Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians want historically Arab East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state. ATFP and APN foster open dialogue and constructive conversation on Israeli-Palestinian relations

Israeli Settlers torch 400 Palestinian olive trees near Bethlehem

Israeli and Palestinian bands unite in 'metal brotherhood' Joint 18-gig tour by Orphaned Land and Khalas will take message of coexistence through rock'n'roll across Europe


Hussein Ibish: Muslim Brotherhood’s fiasco in Egypt will change future of Islamism

Finding peace for Israelis and Palestinians among people – not policies

Helen Thomas, Barrier-Busting White House Reporter, Is Dead at 92

“Generations of Commitment" American Task Force on Palestine Honoring the Achievements of Palestinian-Americans ... & This Could Actually Work: Why John Kerry's Middle East peace push isn’t a fool's errand.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Your Member of Congress to Oppose Visa Waivers to Israel: US laws mandate that all US citizens be afforded equal protection while traveling abroad, and therefore, Israel's engagement in racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination against US citizens is unacceptable and should not be codified in law

EU takes tougher stance on Israeli settlements... directive prohibits EU states from signing deals with Israel unless settlement exclusion clause is included

This Week in Palestine: My Mother, My Grandmother, and the Food They Made by Rana Abdulla

I AM MALALA ...infinite hope... #Malaladay

The New Arab Awakening

From Palestinians' point of view, the law [Israel's Absentee Property Law] has always been controversial. The rights of refugees are a core issue in their conflict with Israel.

Leaders must seize opportunity for peace and security... "The Arab League's peace initiative has regained relevance. The initial position between the parties is bleak, but the status quo is not an alternative. The Israelis and the Palestinians must now seize what is perhaps the last opportunity to create peace and security."


Palestinian Wedding Singer Enchants the World

"In 1949, the international community accepted Israel's UN membership upon two conditions: That they respect resolutions 181 (two states) and 194 (refugee rights). Neither has been honored. In fact, 65 years later, Israel has not even acknowledged what it did in 1948." Saeb Erekat

Jordan's King Abdullah II explains that extremism has "grown fat" off of the longstanding conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

American Task Force on Palestine Alarmed by "Price Tag" Violence, Welcomes Israeli and Jewish-American Condemnation

From the archives... 1971 & 1967

“Were you really shot in a fight over water?” He winces out his answer: “It wasn’t about politics. It wasn’t about the Muslim Brotherhood. It was about water.”

This Week in Palestine: Palestinian Institutions A Story of Perseverance ... Salam Fayyad "This was not about roads, buildings, or infrastructure, despite their importance. This plan was about statehood, citizen participation, and enfranchisement. It was based on the vision of establishing a functional framework where government is accountable and citizens participate in the widest and most effective way possible in decision-making and governance."

Palestine now recognised by greater power than US or Israel – Google

"I come from there and I have memories... "


*******
".... it being clearly understood that nothing
          shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious
          rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine....
The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/)   Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:
Refugees and the Right of Return
Palestinian refugees must be given the option to exercise their right of return (as well as receive compensation for their losses arising from their dispossession and displacement) though refugees may prefer other options such as: (i) resettlement in third countries, (ii) resettlement in a newly independent Palestine (even though they originate from that part of Palestine which became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal status in the host country where they currently reside.  What is important is that individual refugees decide for themselves which option they prefer – a decision must not be imposed upon them.

UN Resolution 194 from 1948  : The refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world." Eleanor Roosevelt

Congress overstepped with its 'Jerusalem, Israel' designation: US consular officials have maintained a long-running policy of neutrality on issues touching on the disputed status of Jerusalem. Israel claims a united Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians want historically Arab East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state.

The Dome of the Rock is seen on the compound known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City September 14. (Darren Whiteside/Reuters)

Appeals court

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2013/0723/Appeals-court-Congress-overstepped-with-its-Jerusalem-Israel-designation

The ruling, in the case of parents who wanted their son's US passport to read 'Jerusalem, Israel' as his place of birth, said Congress intruded on the exclusive power of the executive branch in passing a 2002 law.

By Warren Richey, Staff writer / July 23, 2013 

Congress intruded on the exclusive power of the executive branch when it passed a 2002 law requiring US consular officials to list “Israel” as the place of birth of American children born in Jerusalem, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

The decision marks a setback for American-citizen parents whose children were born in Jerusalem and who want their child’s newly-issued US passport to reflect that they were born in Israel.

Despite passage of the law, US consular officials have maintained a long-running policy of neutrality on issues touching on the disputed status of Jerusalem. Israel claims a united Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians want historically Arab East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state.

Under the long-held policy, newly issued passports for newborns were to reflect simply that the child was born in “Jerusalem,” with no reference to whether that city is part of Israel, part of Palestine, or some other status....READ MORE

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Israeli Settlers torch 400 Palestinian olive trees near Bethlehem



Settlers torch 400 olive trees near Bethlehem
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=616042 
23/07/2013

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Settlers set fire to over 400 olive trees in a village southwest of Bethlehem on Sunday, locals said.

More than 12 acres of trees were set alight by settlers from nearby Bat Ayin settlement, witnesses said. The land belongs to Haj Abdul-Rahman Hamdan.

Since 1967, Israeli forces have confiscated over 2,500 acres of land from al-Jaba village, leaving only 750 acres to Palestinian residents.

Monday, July 22, 2013

My letter to IHT/NYTimes RE The Two-State Imperative by Roger Cohen

Handala - a small boy with his hands behind his back- the symbol of refugees and the right of return.
RE The Two-State Imperative by Roger Cohen
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/opinion/global/roger-cohen-the-two-state-imperative.html?ref=global

Dear Editor,

My heart sinks on reading respected New York Times columnists who toy with the topic of Israel-Palestine by foolishly insisting that Israel needs a two state solution in order to remain Jewish.

There is a much better argument, a more civilized imperative and a much more righteous as well as sensible way to build a just and lasting peace: Both Israel and Palestine need a two state solution to actually end to the Israel-Palestine conflict... A fully secular end to the conflict based on full respect for international law and universal basic human rights.

Religion should be a personal private choice as well as a cherished inheritance, not a state sponsored project. Tax payers here and there should not be forced to fund & empower religious scholars and schemes.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
Israeli and Palestinian bands unite in 'metal brotherhood' Joint 18-gig tour by Orphaned Land and Khalas will take message of coexistence through rock'n'roll across Europe

Hussein Ibish: Muslim Brotherhood’s fiasco in Egypt will change future of Islamism

Finding peace for Israelis and Palestinians among people – not policies

Helen Thomas, Barrier-Busting White House Reporter, Is Dead at 92

“Generations of Commitment" American Task Force on Palestine Honoring the Achievements of Palestinian-Americans ... & This Could Actually Work: Why John Kerry's Middle East peace push isn’t a fool's errand.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Your Member of Congress to Oppose Visa Waivers to Israel: US laws mandate that all US citizens be afforded equal protection while traveling abroad, and therefore, Israel's engagement in racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination against US citizens is unacceptable and should not be codified in law

EU takes tougher stance on Israeli settlements... directive prohibits EU states from signing deals with Israel unless settlement exclusion clause is included

This Week in Palestine: My Mother, My Grandmother, and the Food They Made by Rana Abdulla

I AM MALALA ...infinite hope... #Malaladay

The New Arab Awakening

From Palestinians' point of view, the law [Israel's Absentee Property Law] has always been controversial. The rights of refugees are a core issue in their conflict with Israel.

Leaders must seize opportunity for peace and security... "The Arab League's peace initiative has regained relevance. The initial position between the parties is bleak, but the status quo is not an alternative. The Israelis and the Palestinians must now seize what is perhaps the last opportunity to create peace and security."


Palestinian Wedding Singer Enchants the World

"In 1949, the international community accepted Israel's UN membership upon two conditions: That they respect resolutions 181 (two states) and 194 (refugee rights). Neither has been honored. In fact, 65 years later, Israel has not even acknowledged what it did in 1948." Saeb Erekat

Jordan's King Abdullah II explains that extremism has "grown fat" off of the longstanding conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

American Task Force on Palestine Alarmed by "Price Tag" Violence, Welcomes Israeli and Jewish-American Condemnation

From the archives... 1971 & 1967

“Were you really shot in a fight over water?” He winces out his answer: “It wasn’t about politics. It wasn’t about the Muslim Brotherhood. It was about water.”

This Week in Palestine: Palestinian Institutions A Story of Perseverance ... Salam Fayyad "This was not about roads, buildings, or infrastructure, despite their importance. This plan was about statehood, citizen participation, and enfranchisement. It was based on the vision of establishing a functional framework where government is accountable and citizens participate in the widest and most effective way possible in decision-making and governance."

Palestine now recognised by greater power than US or Israel – Google

"I come from there and I have memories... "


*******
".... it being clearly understood that nothing
          shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious
          rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine....
The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/)   Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:
Refugees and the Right of Return
Palestinian refugees must be given the option to exercise their right of return (as well as receive compensation for their losses arising from their dispossession and displacement) though refugees may prefer other options such as: (i) resettlement in third countries, (ii) resettlement in a newly independent Palestine (even though they originate from that part of Palestine which became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal status in the host country where they currently reside.  What is important is that individual refugees decide for themselves which option they prefer – a decision must not be imposed upon them.

UN Resolution 194 from 1948  : The refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world." Eleanor Roosevelt

ATFP and APN foster open dialogue and constructive conversation on Israeli-Palestinian relations


ATFP and APN foster dialogue on Israeli-Palestinian relations featuring interns and college students
July 21, 2013

On July 18th a unique gathering of college students and recent graduates discussed how to constructively talk about Israeli-Palestinian relations on campus. American, Israeli, Palestinian and international students sat in a circle at the Washington Center

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Israeli and Palestinian bands unite in 'metal brotherhood' Joint 18-gig tour by Orphaned Land and Khalas will take message of coexistence through rock'n'roll across Europe

Israeli heavy-metal band Orphaned Land, who are to tour with Palestinian fellow rockers Khalas. Photograph: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images
[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/21/israeli-palestinian-bands-unite-tour
They are united by facial hair, frayed jeans and a love of heavy metal – plus a belief that music is above politics, religion and conflict. Now the Israeli band Orphaned Land is joining forces with the Palestinian group Khalas to take a message of coexistence through rock'n'roll across Europe.

An 18-gig tour will see the bands perform in six countries, including Britain, this autumn. The musicians will share both a stage and a tour bus for three weeks, proving in practice that their "metal brotherhood" overrides differences of religion and national identity.

At a concert to launch their European tour in Tel Aviv last week, Orphaned Land's lead singer, Kobi Farhi, and Khalas's lead guitarist, Abed Hathut, explained their mission.

"We can't change the world, but we can give an example of how coexistence is possible," said Farhi. "Sharing a stage and sharing a bus is stronger than a thousand words. We'll show how two people from different backgrounds who live in a conflict zone can perform together."

"We are metal brothers before everything," said Hathut. But, he added, "there is no bigger message for peace than through this tour".

Coexistence ventures may be new in the world of heavy metal, but precedent was set in the high-brow realm of classical music more than two decades ago, when Jewish conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim and Palestinian intellectual Edward Said co-founded an orchestra of young Israeli, Palestinian and Arab musicians.

The members of Khalas, which is the supporting act on the tour, and Orphaned Land have "become soulmates" since meeting at a radio station and realising they have more in common than divided them...READ MORE

Hussein Ibish: Muslim Brotherhood’s fiasco in Egypt will change future of Islamism

Egyptian hieroglyphs
Brotherhood’s fiasco in Egypt will change future of Islamism
By Hussein Ibish
With the removal of the Egyptian president, Mohammed Morsi, the future of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Islamism in general, is undoubtedly at a turning point. The question is typically being cast as a binary: is this “the beginning of the end” or “the end of the beginning” for the Islamist movement? Even if, in the final analysis, this proves a misleading question, it nonetheless articulates a precise and instructive framework for what is at stake.

Many observers have no doubt that this is the beginning of the end of the Islamist movement, at least as it has been traditionally structured and as a dominant ideology in the Arab states. According to these observers, if the oldest Muslim Brotherhood party cannot maintain popular legitimacy in Egypt after only one year in office, then the ideology itself simply isn’t a practicable model for governance anywhere.
Sunni Islamists will invariably fail in power because Islam is a religion and not an actual political ideology. Islamism doesn’t have the intellectual heft, breadth or depth to suggest any answers to most policy questions. It essentially boils down to a set of religiously conservative social attitudes. It only takes a short while in office to reveal that.
Moreover, the very qualities that made the Brotherhood so effective as an opposition group – secrecy, discipline, streamlined hierarchy and a paranoid suspicion of all outsiders – proved crippling in office... READ MORE
[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Finding peace for Israelis and Palestinians among people – not policies

"The grassroots approach is challenging and circuitous, and peace is slow to come. Dialogue groups are fighting fire with water, but every Palestinian home that gets demolished, every missile that comes over from Gaza, is like a shot of gasoline. As an American, I believe in the power of the popular will, and that every person who can come to see the other side for all their humanity helps build a coalition for peace" Kelly Payne

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Finding peace for Israelis and Palestinians among people – not policies

John Kerry or the Arab League may prod a peace deal into place, but nothing can last unless ordinary people living under the policy see that every Israeli is not a settler and every Palestinian does not begrudge Israel a right to exist. I've seen the groundwork of that dialogue at work.

By Kelly PayneOp-ed contributor / July 19, 2013 

Secretary of State John Kerry meets with members of the Arab League Peace Initiative in Amman, Jordan, July 17. Mr. Kerry is on his sixth visit to the region, seeking to persuade the Israelis and Palestinians to resume direct negotiations, frozen for almost three years. Op-ed contributor Kelly Payne writes: 'Politics make issues impersonal. To create or loosen personal convictions...people have to share their real-life narratives.'
Mandel Ngan/AP
T el Aviv, Israel

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a perennial feature of the Middle Eastern political scene. Students of international relations like me find it intriguing, but also tiring – and static. Issues that can change, developments that are fluid, trends that are dynamic – that’s where I see students’ interests pulled instead. I myself almost began to forget how much this conflict mattered until a very personal association forced me to confront its intractable reality. I began to date a student at Yale from the Palestinian territories. Even to me, that sounds like a really silly way to find your political conscience...READ MORE