Posted on March 11th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Fallout continues on Thursday, days after serial Israeli government announcements of settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Israel’s Kadima Party, led by former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is considering calling a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Kadima won the February 2009 elections by a narrow popular vote, but Livni was [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on March 10th, 2010 by Marian Houk
American Vice-President Joe Biden was received with red carpet treatment at the Palestinian Presidential Headquarters in the Muqata’a in Ramallah today — by polite and mildly-friendly Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and an irritated and angry, even sullen, Palestinian negotiating team.
As Biden was leaving the Muqata’a more than three hours later, Yasser Abed Rabbo (Secretary of [...]
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Filed under: Gaza, Journalism and Journalists, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on March 9th, 2010 by Marian Houk
In a sharp statement, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, currently on a visit to Israel in which there has been a lot of schmoozing going on (but tomorrow he visits Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah), said tonight that “I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on March 9th, 2010 by Marian Houk
According to a report compiled by three senior Haaretz correspondents (Barak Ravid, Akiva Eldar, Avi Issacharoff) published today, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, who met with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah yesterday after two days of talks in Israel, “told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on March 8th, 2010 by Marian Houk
The U.S. State Department has just released the following statement in the name of U.S. Special Envoy George Mitchell: “I’m pleased that the Israeli and Palestinian leadership have accepted indirect talks. We’ve begun to discuss the structure and scope of these talks and I will return to the region next week to continue our [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on March 7th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Is that the whole point?
Are these proposed U.S.-led “indirect” talks between Israelis and Palestinians intended only to keep a holding pattern until the Palestinian local and municipal elections scheduled for 17 July?
Voter registration for these Palestinian elections began on Saturday 6 March, and will continue until 16 March.
UPDATE: The P.L.O. Executive Committee has [...]
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Filed under: International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on March 6th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Palestinian officials are saying that they were under too much pressure from the Europeans and the Arabs to resist any longer accepting an American proposal to undertake “indirect” or “proximity” talks with Israel after more than a year of no negotiations. “It’s only for four months”, Palestinian officials say, apologetically, with a shrug of [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Gaza, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, UN General Assembly, UN Secretary-General, UN Security Council, USA
Posted on February 11th, 2010 by Marian Houk
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Washington today that: “I spoke today with Quartet Representative Blair to discuss developments in the Middle East. This Administration has, from the beginning, worked to bring about comprehensive peace in the Middle East, including a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On that issue our [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet
Posted on January 28th, 2010 by Marian Houk
In his first State of the Union speech to Congress last night in Washington, U.S. President Obama did not even mention the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate, despite the priority he gave the matter upon taking office.
Obama said in his early days in office that a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was in the United States’ national interest.
Obama’s [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on January 23rd, 2010 by Marian Houk
With thanks to Joseph Dana for his post on his blog here, it is possible to see the Youtube video by Yisrael Putermam of yesterday’s demonstration of Israelis supporting not only evicted Palestinians but also democracy, freedom of expression, and other human rights in Sheikh Jarrah:
In the information posted on the Youtube site alongside [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians
