Posted on February 4th, 2011 by Marian Houk
In a move stunning in its timing and significance, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu announced on Friday afternoon – with the Quartet’s Tony Blair standing by his side – that he now thinks it’s time, finally, to develop Palestinian-allocated offshore natural gas deposits buried under the eastern Mediterranean in maritime space, defined by mutual agreement [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Cyprus, Egypt, Gaza, Israel, Law of the Sea Convention, Lebanon, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet
Posted on December 17th, 2010 by Marian Houk
George Mitchell is still going through the motions. On his way back to the USA after a more-or-less useless visit to the region, he met yesterday in Brussels with Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s “Foreign Minister” (the exact title is High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy). Ashton is also Vice-President of the European [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Human Rights, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet, USA
Posted on December 14th, 2010 by Marian Houk
U.S. Special Middle East Envoy George Mitchell was going through the motions in the West Bank on Tuesday — venturing just a little further afield that most senior U.S. officials who generally don’t go further than Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Jericho (Mitchell visited a dairy plant in Hebron) — before heading to the Muqata’a Presidential compound [...]
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Filed under: Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on December 13th, 2010 by Marian Houk
It was announced by the U.S. State Department today that “Prime Minister Netanyahu and Special Envoy Mitchell explored, in a long and positive discussion, the best way to approach the substantive core issues and advance toward our goal of peace”. Earlier, Netanyahu gave the Israeli leadership’s take on this meeting in a speech to the [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on December 11th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Amazing… American right-wing (+ pro-Israel) organizations think Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Saban Forum on Friday night was anti-Israel. If the pre-speech briefings, leaks and spin were not enough to contradict this extreme view, a read through the full text, posted here should do it. Basically, she said, the U.S. will continue its efforts: “Now, [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on December 10th, 2010 by Marian Houk
The U.S. is rolling out a new approach to the Israeli-Palestinian impasse: it has decided to abandon its attempts to get Israel to extend a “moratorium” on settlement building on occupied Palestinian territory, and instead will try to get the parties to focus on “core issues“. Israeli settlements have, of course, always been one of [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on December 9th, 2010 by Marian Houk
In the face of the now-widely-proclaimed death of U.S.-led peace efforts, the latest Palestinian debate (beyond one state vs. two) is: (1) whether to move, in the United Nations (Security Council and General Assembly) to secure full membership + recognition for the State of Palestine (this is the position of the two-staters, including the current [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, International Humanitarian Law, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on October 13th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Did he or didn’t he? UPDATE: Abed Rabbo is reportedly unavailable for comment on Thursday… Yasser Abed Rabbo, the Executive Secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO] — the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, remember? — or, as Ma’an News Agency has identified him, “PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo” — reportedly told the [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Negotiators and negotiations, Palestine & Palestinians, USA
Posted on October 12th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Why do Palestinian negotiators speak of 1993 exchange of recognition between the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), but forget about the PLO’s declarations in 1988? (1) Yasser Arafat read out, at meeting of the PLO’s Palestine National Council (PNC) in Algiers in November 1988 [almost one year into the first Palestinian [...]
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Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians
Posted on October 11th, 2010 by Marian Houk
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu told the Knesset today — the opening of its winter session — that “he would initiate a cabinet proposal to renew a settlement moratorium if the Palestinian Authority would declare its recognition of Israel as a national home for the Jewish people”, according to one of the top stories tonight [...]
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Filed under: Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians
