Israel

I mentioned this in my Netanyahu visit post, but it's worth highlighting in more detail: B'Tselem has a new report out which concludes Israeli settlements occupy 42 percent of the total land area in the West Bank.

The actual construction in the settlements occupies just 55,479 dunam of land, roughly 1 percent of the total area of the West Bank. But B'Tselem argues, based on official state documents and maps, that the jurisdiction of the settlements -- including the various "regional councils" in the West Bank -- actually extends over 2.4 million dunam.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington today for a series of meetings at the White House. He'll hold one-on-one talks with US president Barack Obama before a "working lunch" with Obama, vice president Joseph Biden, and several other officials.

Obama's top priority during these talks will almost certainly be pushing for an extension to Israel's temporary West Bank settlement freeze, which is due to expire in September. The end of the freeze would forestall any possibility of direct talks between the Israelis ri the Palestinians.

"There has been a distinct improvement in the White House relationship with Israel since the last meeting" between Obama and Netanyahu on March 23, said Jonathan Spyer, a political scientist at Israel's Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. "Obama will be looking for a payback," perhaps in the form of an extension to the settlement freeze, Spyer said.

But from Netanyahu's perspective, the domestic politics of extending the freeze are... difficult, to say the least. His administration has nothing to show for the current freeze: Israeli-Palestinian "proximity talks" have yielded little concrete progress, save for a rumored land swap proposal offered by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

(Updated below) Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to quietly mend fences with Turkey: He dispatched Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, his industry minister, on a secret "mediation" trip to Ankara, according to Israel's Channel 2 news.

Mark Perry strikes again over on Foreign Policy's Middle East Channel:

In a "Red Team" report issued on May 7 and entitled "Managing Hizballah and Hamas," senior CENTCOM intelligence officers question the current U.S. policy of isolating and marginalizing the two movements.

Perry reported in March that Gen. David Petraeus asked to include the West Bank and Gaza in CENTCOM's area of responsibility (some notes from a follow-up conversation I had with Perry are here). Today's report fits in the same vein: Military leaders, if not civilian policymakers, are starting to see the deep structural flaws in US policy in the Middle East.

The Palestinian boycott of settlement products is starting to have an impact -- but not just on settlers.

Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, went to a Ramallah supermarket yesterday to launch the PA's new inspection campaign. 66,000 shops across the West Bank will be checked for settlement goods. Those in compliance with the boycott will get a certificate; those in violation will receive a fine, potentially worth several thousands of dollars.

The flotilla disaster has already chewed up a month or so of the four months earmarked for Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks.

And the Likud party delivered a reminder today that the window for talks is unlikely to be extended: The party's central committee voted in favor of resuming settlement construction when the 10-month West Bank settlement freeze expires in September.

Iran's semi-official Fars news agency claimed yesterday that Israeli helicopters and/or cargo planes unloaded military equipment "meant for attacking a Muslim state" at an airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

According to the report, the IDF built a military base approximately 9 km (5.5 miles) from Tabuk, and while Israeli planes landed there on June 18 and 19, all civilian flights were cancelled at the local airport.

It's an impossible-to-verify report, much like the Times of London's recent claim that Saudi Arabia granted Israel overflight rights to bomb Iran. But we can add a bit of context.

This post will be about yesterday's decision to revive the "King's Garden" plan in East Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood, which would demolish 22 Palestinian homes to make way for a tourist center. First, though, a bit of media criticism.

The Israeli security cabinet met earlier today and announced (some of) the details of its plan to ease the Gaza blockade.

Today's announcement from the cabinet was more detailed than last week's, which merely declared Israel's intent to loosen the blockade. But it still doesn't say exactly which goods will be barred from Gaza; whether businesses in Gaza will be allowed to resume exports; or whether the looser blockade will include looser rules on the movement of people.

It's a small step, but nonetheless it's objectively a good thing. After the jump: A statement from the White House, issued a few minutes after the Israeli decision.

Israel's decision to slightly ease the Gaza blockade drew a very caveated reaction from around the world. Britain's foreign office said "further work is needed"; Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief, urged Israel to allow "many, many more goods... in to Gaza."

It seems crass to talk about "winners" and "losers" after Israel's deadly attack on the flotilla of ships bound for Gaza last month. Nine people were killed, after all; dozens of others were wounded.

Still: It's worth stepping back and thinking about how the flotilla incident has reshaped the politics of the region. My initial take -- bearing in mind that it's too early to predict long-term consequences -- is that the Israeli attack has mostly accelerated existing political trends, rather than creating new ones.

It has accelerated Israel's isolation from several of its neighbors and allies; it has sharpened divisions within Turkish domestic politics; it has deepened perceptions that the Obama administration as too close to Israel. And it seems to have had a remarkably minor impact on Palestinian domestic politics.

By now you've probably heard about Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) endorsing the Gaza blockade at a meeting of the Orthodox Union. Schumer praised the collective punishment of 1.5 million people in Gaza, telling the crowd (to strong applause) that "strangl[ing] them economically" would reduce support for Hamas.

The Times of London reports this morning that Saudi Arabia will allow Israel to fly over its territory in order to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, and that Saudi defense officials have already conducted tests to make sure they don't accidentally shoot down Israeli jets.

Is the report accurate? I have no idea. But I will point out, as a cautionary note, that the Times runs a similar story every few months, all of them thinly-sourced. Here's a virtually identical piece from July 2009, for example (which the Saudi government quickly denied).

Even with Saudi overflight rights, bombing Iran would be a logistical nightmare for Israel.

After an uncharacteristically restrained response to Israel's attack on the Gaza flotilla, Iran seems intent on stealing some of Turkey's thunder.

I've been doing largely non-stop flotilla coverage at Al-Jazeera for the last three days (including live blogs on Monday and Tuesday), so you'll forgive me for not writing too much about the subject tonight; I need a break. (Issandr El Amrani has a good roundup of flotilla commentary, if you're looking for broad analysis.)

But I do want to quickly comment on the American reaction -- or, rather, the lack thereof -- to the flotilla attack. During the White House press briefing yesterday, press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked (repeatedly) about Obama's refusal to condemn Israel's actions -- something dozens of other world leaders had already done.

Updated: It's been a day since the deadly raid on the so-called "Freedom Flotilla," and the fallout for Israel continues.

Although initial reports said that as many as 19 activists on board the Mavi Mamara had been killed during a nighttime Israeli Navy commando raid early on Monday morning, that toll has since been revised by both the Israeli government and the organizing groups to either nine or 10. Israeli has not released the identities of the flotilla passengers, despite facing a court challenge to do so.

We haven't remarked yet on the flotilla of cargo ships making their way from the Turkish coast towards the Gaza Strip. The boats left international waters around Cyprus this afternoon; they expect to reach Gazan waters -- and a group of Israeli Navy ships waiting offshore -- tomorrow morning.

It would be dismissive and unfair to call the flotilla a PR stunt; the ships are carrying 10,000 tons of aid, all of it sorely needed in the blockaded Gaza Strip. It's an impressive humanitarian gesture (though if the aid does get through, it's hardly certain Hamas will distribute it according to need).

The Obama administration agreed to a compromise yesterday to salvage a month-long round of talks aimed at updating the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty -- and then promptly announced that it may not accept one of the conditions of the deal.

All 189 NPT signatories accepted the 28-page review document in a vote last night. It directs the United Nations secretary-general to convene a conference in 2012, aimed at creating a "WMD-free zone" in the Middle East. The final document also urges Israel to join the treaty (along with India and Pakistan, the other two countries to never sign the NPT).

Update: Here's a link to last week's interview.

Original post: Charlie Rose interviewed Bashar al-Assad last night -- his second conversation with the Syrian president, if I'm not mistaken.

PBS hasn't posted a video of the interview yet -- we'll update when they do -- but BusinessWeek posted a few excerpts. Most are predictable -- Assad denied that his government shipped Scuds to Hizballah, for example -- but two lines jumped out at me.

The Israeli foreign ministry e-mailed a press release to reporters earlier this week insisting that there is no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Need proof? The ministry's e-mail included four photos of well-stocked markets in Gaza City; it also linked to news reports about the opening of Gaza's first Olympic-size swimming pool and a "luxurious restaurant" in Gaza City.