Sergeant Shalit is Home

One concerned neighbour in Mitzpe Hila commented that Gilad Shalit, newly-released from five years in captivity in Gaza after Bibi Netanyahu agreed to swap 1027 Palestinian prisoners for him, now resembles a concentration camp victim. But though startlingly scrawny and pale, the IDF tank crewman is out at last and the nation is caught up with tears and fears and euphoria. Shalit's father told the press: "He came out of some dark pit or dark cellar and encountered such commotion out here." Presumably his Arabic language skills had improved, too. An interview with Egyptian anchorwoman Shahira Amin appeared to be opportunistic propaganda that left the confused former prisoner gasping for breath. In response to a prod about the remaining 5500 Palestinian prisoners who were not included in the trade, Shalit said he would be happy to see them released, as long as they no longer attack Israel.

The first Israeli soldier taken captive and returned alive in 26 years has made headlines worldwide. Lawrence Wright blogged on the New Yorker webpage:

In the five years since the abduction, there has been another exchange going on, not of the living but of the dead. Four hundred Gazans were killed by Israeli forces in the first few months after he was taken. Six Israeli soldiers and four civilians also died during that period. The exchange of one living Israeli for a thousand and twenty-seven living Palestinians is certainly a comment on the disparity of the value of life in each society. As long as Shalit was being held, the exchange of the dead would also continue at the same disproportionate rate. It certainly made sense for Hamas to make the deal. Whether it makes sense for Israel will not be known for decades. If the trade opens up an avenue for real peace negotiations, one that would include Hamas, then it will be a deal worth making for both sides.

But if Netanyahu reneges on his promise to free all the named Palestinians [477 were released today], there may be hell to pay.  Using IDF soldiers as currency has little to recommend it as a strategy, and this seems to be a politician's gambit. 

(Getty images published this shot of Shalit's interview in Egypt.) 

Behold- Facts on the Ground

The BBC covers the latest diplomatic kerfuffle between Barack (no, the American one!) and Bibi here. Hat tip to the Beeb for the current West Bank map, which unfortunately does not show how one could make a passageway or linked border to Gaza. Any suggestions? And is it fair for all the security buffer zones to extend into non-Israeli land? Friendly neighbours should split the difference and have a DMZ of shared land.I'd like to see a West Bank map with precise borders. Here's an excerpt from the Beeb's piece:

Bibi Netanyahu: "While Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines because these lines are indefensible.

"They do not take into account certain demographic changes on the ground that have taken place over the last 44 years."

Netanyahu insisted he valued Mr Obama's efforts, saying: "Israel wants peace, I want peace."

Giza recaps the problems of access for Gazans in their latest release, called "Gaza Reels". Hat tip to Nitin Sawhney for the link.
http://youtu.be/XMu3MNasH7I

Tensions between US Words and Actions in Obama's MidEast Policy Speech

President Barack Obama's Middle East policy speech today has been dissected before it's been digested. Such is the 24 hour news cycle. Today's guest post from FireDogLake highlights the focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict, especially interesting because Bibi is there in the wings.

Obama stated clearly that the United States will reject the planned proposal for Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly. [Here's the relevant outtake from the speech]:

For the Palestinians, efforts to delegitimize Israel will end in failure. Symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September won’t create an independent state. Palestinian leaders will not achieve peace or prosperity if Hamas insists on a path of terror and rejection. And Palestinians will never realize their independence by denying the right of Israel to exist. 
 
As for Israel, our friendship is rooted deeply in a shared history and shared values. Our commitment to Israel’s security is unshakeable. And we will stand against attempts to single it out for criticism in international forums. But precisely because of our friendship, it is important that we tell the truth: the status quo is unsustainable, and Israel too must act boldly to advance a lasting peace. 
 
The fact is, a growing number of Palestinians live west of the Jordan River. Technology will make it harder for Israel to defend itself. A region undergoing profound change will lead to populism in which millions of people – not just a few leaders – must believe peace is possible. The international community is tired of an endless process that never produces an outcome. The dream of a Jewish and democratic state cannot be fulfilled with permanent occupation.

So while the core issues of the conflict must be negotiated, the basis of those negotiations is clear: a viable Palestine, and a secure Israel. The United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine. The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states. The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their potential, in a sovereign and contiguous state.

This is an explicit endorsement of the 1967 borders, and it does tell Israel that they basically won’t have a Jewish state if they stick to intransigence. But the rejection of the UN General Assembly vote seems to me a missed opportunity to increase that pressure. A unified Palestinian state has little negotiating power other than international acceptance. They’ve been brutalized under occupation (and Obama used that word, too) for 44 years, and basic dignity demands that they seek a solution in an international venue if one cannot come from negotiation. The intention is not solely to embarrass the opposition, but to uplift themselves.

Slicing East Jerusalem's 'swiss cheese'

1. Gilo: 850 homes approved for publication and planning objections in Nov 2009

2. Pisgat Zeev: 600 homes approved for publication and planning objections in Jan 2010

3. Sheikh Jarrah: Municipality approves the building of 20 new apartments on the site of an old hotel

4. Ramat Shlomo: 1,600 homes approved for publication and planning objections in Mar 2010

5. Silwan: Demolition orders on 88 Palestinian homes built without difficult-to-get permits - Israel planning controversial renewal project

6. West Bank barrier: Making Palestinian movement between West Bank and Jerusalem harder - Israel says it is for security

Now the US is expected to abstain from the upcoming vote in the United Nations to denounce Israeli expansion settlement across the old Green Line border in East Jerusalem. The Beeb provides the map above to show exactly where the controversial building sites are to be located. And correspondent Tim Franks' report explores deep new ruptures between Israel and Britain, its erstwhile colonizer, amid the "howls and harrumphs" of Israeli public opinion. The Brits currently are being labelled "dogs" in a curiously Maoist phrase of contempt! Fallout from Bibi's trip to Washington continues; Haaretz is less than pleased. Click here to read their analysis

Rabin's Widow Called Netanyahu a "Nightmare"

Leah Rabin, the late widow of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, harshly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu won the election held the spring after Rabin's death in 1995 and became prime minister again earlier this year. "Netanyahu is a corrupt individual," she wrote three years after her husband's assassination, "a contentious liar who is ruining everything that is good about our society. He is breaking it to bits, and in the future, we will have to rebuild it all over." A few months later she returned to the same theme: "We all want this nightmare to end, that this monstrosity called Netanyahu will get lost, because he exhausted our patience a long time ago." In her letters, Leah Rabin, who died in 2000, also emphasized that her husband opposed the settlements and supported giving up the West Bank.

Read original story in Haaretz

White nights, flagwaving days. Sun and sand

Ain't life a beach these days? In Israel, the spring sunshine is beaming down and the entire armed forces of Israel seem to be up in the sky, practicing for the next pre-emptive strike and ready to take on the new Sejil missiles of Iran. Think loud and proud. And relentless.
No problem, though. A sleepless White Night for urban debauchery is underway in Tel Aviv after the shabbat. White nights are far preferable to white blights: and here in the Big Falafel, there's no sign of Willy Pete- aka white phosphorus- washing up on the rather polluted Mediterranean sands of the shoreline of Zion. (Eretz Israel.) However, cautious Gazans are hesitating to eat locally grown fresh produce in case they ingest any strange chemicals that were dropped as smokescreens back in January. American-manufactured tank shells with depleted uranium (for its armor-piercing properties) also were unleashed, and little of the mildly radioactive rubble has been cleared from Gazas fields and playgrounds. It's an environmental time bomb, and it doesn't glow in the dark.
In seaside Gaza, the rumour mill is buzzing about imminent Israeli attack, as it so often does. But there are some rather broad hints: indeed, Bibi Netanyahu, the new premier, campaigned on strong arm tactics and had even suggested while an international donors' meeting took place earlier this year that expenditures on rebuilding Gaza might be "premature"... the inference being that further lessons might be delivered by Israel to the rocket-launchers in the blighted enclave bordering the Negev. Presumably, the sabras are rattling sabers and will have the decency to wait til after Obama comes back from Egypt.
Jerusalem Day was celebrated yesterday by groups of patriotic Jews roaming around in the sunshine, singing and waving flags, in vista points overlooking "undivided Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Maoz Esther,that outpost which was dismantled before the cameras and international media was quickly re-erected, and the beat goes on. Israelity bites.

Ultra-Orthodox cropping: Cabinet photo undergoes double-digital sex change!

Now you see em; now you don't!
Altered reality has stopped coming as a surprise on the streets of Israel. It's a given in this city of high sects' appeal. Can you find the distaff ministers in the group shot of Bibi Netanyahu's new administration? Aha

Two ultra-Orthodox Jewish newspapers have touched up an official photo of the new Israeli cabinet, removing two female ministers from the "bloated committee", in order to adhere to their comunities' devout behavioural standards.

Limor Livnat and Sofa Landver were snapped with the rest of the 30-member cabinet for their inaugural photo.

But Yated Neeman newspaper digitally changed the picture by replacing them with two men. The Shaa Tova newspaper blacked out the females.

Publishing pictures of women is viewed by many ultra-orthodox Jews as a violation of female modesty.

Other Israeli papers jokingly reprinted the altered images next to the original photos, with one headlining it "Find the lady".

The ultra-Orthodox community keeps apart from mainstream society through its arcane religious practices and prescribed clothing. Black hats, coats and sidelocks are required for the men and long skirts, snoods and sleeves for the women.

Restrictions include using only "Kosher" telephones, only carrying items outside the home on the Sabbath if walking under Rabbinically approved wires called eruv, and, of course, not accessing websites with content deemed inappropriate. Is Israelity Bites on the verboten list?

How a tete a tete in Tel Aviv took the pro out of protocol. Syriously, folks

Will Bibi cuss Damascus?

Egg appeared on some high-profile faces when this gem from the wires made its way around the blogosphere ---without a second glance at today's date, which happens to be the first of April. But the squawks of outrage that came in the wake of this tale show how the surprise visits of Bashar and Bibi could backfire and cause diplomatic chaos! It's not too late for the Syrian prez to come back and wish the 100 year old Big Falafel a happy birthday tomorrow (I am referring to the port city of Tel Aviv, and not the new Israeli PM.) Israelity Bites.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Fresh on the heels of a regional summit in Doha where President Bashar al-Assad had reaffirmed his support for resistance against Israel while expressing reservations about the Arab Peace Initiative, the Syrian president dropped a bombshell by embarking on an epoch-making visit to Tel Aviv, Wednesday morning.

“Nobody saw this coming,” said Mark Burnes, a State Department analyst who monitors Syrian affairs. “We knew that they were close to a deal, but the Israelis didn’t tell us how close.”

Security arrangements appeared to have been made in advance to permit the passage of the presidential aircraft into Israeli airspace, and a small retinue of high-level ministers and military officials awaited al-Assad at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International airport.

The highly secret preparations for the visit, however had produced an improbable breach of diplomatic protocol: the absence of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu among the ministerial welcoming delegation. Official sources say that earlier that same morning, the Israeli PM had himself embarked upon an epoch-making visit to Syria, touching down in Damascus=2 0International Airport only 6 minutes after President al-Assad arrived in Tel Aviv.

A high-level source in the Syrian Foreign Ministry said that they were baffled by an alert from the Syrian Air Defense Force, notifying them that an Israeli civilian aircraft had entered Syrian airspace and was requesting permission to land in Damascus.

“We had scrambled four MiG-29 interceptors, but when the pilots of the Israeli jet explained who was on board their aircraft, our Air Force High Command relayed the message to us with a request for clarification,” the Foreign Ministry source said.

Asked if the Syrians had been expecting a reciprocal visit from Netanyahu at a later stage, the source responded, “All that I can say is that the scheduling error was committed by the Israelis. We were supposed to visit first.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the mix-up, but a source in the Prime Minister’s office confirmed that the ball appeared to have been dropped by the Israelis.

“Our staff has been stretched to the breaking point for the past three weeks, trying to form the ruling coalition and putting together the cabinet. Netanyahu has been meeting MK’s until all hours of the night; he’s exhausted and over-worked. It’s understandable that a scheduling error might occur under these circumstances,” the advisor said.

Responding to a question about the potential outcome of this lo gistical mishap, a source in the British Foreign Office said: “Well, it certainly changes the story a bit, doesn’t it? This was supposed to be the “Sadat goes to Jerusalem” moment, but they fouled it up. They’re like ships passing in the night… or, airplanes passing in the day, or whatever.”

As of this writing, Prime Minister Netanyahu was still in the air returning from Damascus to Tel Aviv, where he will be received by President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

For the latest updates on this story, click here