Palestinians: “It’s only four months…”

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 [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

UNSG BAN says he will send the Goldstone report to Security Council ASAP

The AP’s indefatigable Edith Lederer has reported that “Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday he will send a report calling for Israel and the Palestinians to investigate alleged war crimes during last winter’s conflict in Gaza to the UN Security Council ‘as soon as possible’.”
She added that “The 15 council members have already received copies of [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

UNSG Ban Ki-Moon target of Israeli lobbying against Goldstone report

Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at UNHQ in New York on Friday afternoon, and afterward told the Israeli Ynet media group that the Goldstone report on the Gaza war should be “buried”, according to a report on the YNet website.
According to Ynet, Shalom said, “I am more optimistic [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

Goldstone to Washington: what’s wrong with report on Gaza war

Both the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon — a cautious bureaucrat if ever there was one — and the more-willing-to-take-risks UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have backed the Goldstone report on last winter’s Gaza war that at least two (or three) and perhaps four (or all five) of the UN Security Council’s Permanent Members don’t [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

Is there a Quid Pro Quo – or was it a cave-in?

The Palestinian decision to “withdraw” support for a resolution they were pushing in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva remains unexplained — at least, to the Palestinian people — on Friday night.
The draft resolution would have called for support of the report submitted by South Africa’s Justice Richard Goldstone, who was appointed [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

Boycott Cellcom (not Leonard Cohen)

Boycotts are in the air — billed as a peaceful alternative to war and conflict of all sorts. The definitive worth of the tactic is debatable — and in some circles it is being debated. Naomi Klein recently visited Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory [West Bank + Gaza -- yes, the [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

Goldstone mission finishes public hearings – victims air grief but no perpetrators express remorse

Two very rare events — public hearings into the IDF’s Operation Cast Lead “and the circumstances surrounding it” — are over.
The hearings were held by the Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict that was mandated by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which is headed by South Africa’s Justice Richard [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

Barak with UNSG: Trying to derail Goldstone mission?

This photo was published in the Israeli media – but it is not available on the UN photo site:

Whereas this is one of two UN photos, published on the UN website, showing Barak — standing alone: his preference?  Or UN decision? — talking to journalists at a “stakeout” probably after the meeting:

UN Radio’s Diane Bailey [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

U.S.: Board of Inquiry mission was to develop a clear record of the facts. Barak: copy of internal IDF investigation to be given to UNSG, showing that IDF did not fire intentionally at UN

At the U.S. State Dept Briefing on Tuesday (5 May), spokesman Robert Wood said in answer to a journalist’s question: “We would just note the Secretary General’s reminder that this board of inquiry, for one, is not a court of law. It is not a judiciary body. Also, I think in his cover [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati

Israel complains about not-yet-published UN report

In an astonishing — and, sorry, I can’t help, but it’s also highly amusing — illustration of the matrix of the Israeli government, the Israeli media, the role of leaking, and attempts to influence international policy and opinion, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) sent out an email at 11:22 this morning denouncing a [...]

  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati