Ehud Barak - Tag Search

U.S. vice president Joe Biden is wrapping up his Middle East trip with a visit to Petra, in Jordan. A little sightseeing might be a welcome relief after a tumultuous week in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

The phrase "turning point" is grossly overused, but this week really feels like a watershed in the region -- and not at all in a good way. Few observers had high hopes for the Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks, but now even that modest dialogue appears off the table. The announcement that Israel is planning another 50,000 homes in East Jerusalem will poison any future talks: How can the Palestinian side negotiate when tens of thousands of illegal homes are considered non-negotiable?

Joe Biden's harsh condemnation of the new construction at Ramot Shlomo -- but the timing of the announcement still made the United States look weak and unwilling to confront Israel.

Evan mentioned on Wednesday that there's slowly-mounting opposition in Washington to President Obama's decision to name Robert Stephen Ford as the new U.S. ambassador to Syria.

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reports this morning (عربي) that the Israeli government is also lobbying against Ford's nomination (or against Obama naming any ambassador to Syria; this isn't about Ford personally). Defense minister Ehud Barak made that request during a visit to Washington this week; so did an unnamed envoy from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli government will not conduct an independent investigation of the Goldstone Report's findings, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.

It's a single-source report, and it still hasn't been confirmed by the Israeli government. But an unnamed senior official in prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Bibi is satisfied with the IDF's internal probe, the preliminary results of which were submitted to the United Nations earlier this month.

Depending on your perspective, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad this week reaffirmed either that he's the best hope to build a future Palestinian state, or that he'll never win enough popular support to be an effective leader. (Or maybe both?)

Fayyad traveled to Herzliya, a coastal town north of Tel Aviv, to take part in the annual Herzliya Conference. He delivered a 30-minute address to an audience of mostly Israeli leaders; he sat next to Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak; and he was lauded by Israeli president Shimon Peres as "the Israeli Ben-Gurion."

Benjamin Netanyahu wants everyone in his cabinet to shut up about Syria.

Ehud Barak started this week's escalating Israeli-Syrian spat when he made the wholly sensible argument that the two countries could be headed for another war if they don't resume peace talks.

Foreign Policy is holding a foreign affairs Oscar contest, and the editors are looking for ideas, so here's my nomination: The minds behind the Middle East peace process clearly deserve the award for best original screenplay.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is considering George Mitchell's offer for "proximity talks" with Israel, and plans to issue a final response on Thursday, according to an interview with The Guardian.

We've posted a copy of the IDF's preliminary response (pdf) to the Goldstone Report -- though I would suggest that you don't even bother reading it, honestly.

Much of the 52-page document outlines how the IDF investigates allegations of war crimes and other criminal activity. It's useful background -- but also not particularly relevant to the allegations in the Goldstone Report. The presence of a well-conceived judicial system does not guarantee justice. (Just ask O.J. Simpson.)

The second half of the report summarizes the progress of dozens of ongoing investigations, some initiated by the IDF, others by the Goldstone Report.

Conventional wisdom in Israel, nicely summarized in a Jerusalem Post op-ed today entitled "Crying wolf on Iran," holds that Iran is the greatest threat -- an existential threat, even -- to Israeli security. So Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak perhaps raised a few eyebrows yesterday when he declared the stalled peace process a greater concern than Iran's nuclear program.

The headlines from Israel and the Arab world over the last few weeks seem to suggest that another Israel-Hizballah war is just around the corner. Qatar's Al-Watan newspaper reported on Jan. 6 that Syrian officials were worried about Israeli maneuvers along the Blue Line; the Syrian government pledged to attack Israel if it invaded Lebanon. On Friday, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported (عربي) that Syria had mobilized army reservists.

The Israeli military did in fact conduct exercises along the border, and deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon warned on Sunday that Hizballah is stockpiling missiles north of the Litani River.

President Obama's Middle East envoy hasn't even left the region yet, and Israeli and Arab news sources have already declared his visit a failure.

Mitchell met for nearly three hours today with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. But Abbas refused to resume peace talks without a complete settlement freeze -- including East Jerusalem -- which Israel is unwilling to offer. Mitchell met yesterday with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defense minister Ehud Barak.

We were never terribly optimistic that the Goldstone Report would lead to meaningful punishments for the perpetrators of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead. Four months after its release, it has largely disappeared from the headlines; it doesn't appear destined for any immediate action at the United Nations.

Still, it continues to nudge both Israel and Hamas towards a measure of accountability.

Israeli-Turkish relations have been deteriorating for months. The Turkish military has threatened to sue an Israeli defense contractor for failing to deliver drone aircraft on schedule; Israel was angry at being excluded from a joint military drill run by Turkey; Israeli officials have complained about Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's support for the Goldstone Report and his public condemnations of the Gaza blockade.

But the latest instigator, it seems, is television.

If you just woke up from a year-long sleep and wanted to know the current state of the Arab-Israeli "peace process," these three quotes -- from three Israeli ministers -- pretty much sum up the situation.

Israel's foreign minister, Yuval Steinitz, said today that Israel doesn't need loan guarantees from the United States -- the same loan guarantees at the heart of George Mitchell's purported (and now, denied) threat to cut off foreign aid to Israel if the peace process remains stalled.

The Jerusalem planning committee has approved three new apartment buildings in Shuafat, an Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem. The buildings, which could house up to 50 families, are being funded by Irving Moskovich, an American Jew who has funded numerous projects in East Jerusalem.

Yesterday's announcement came just hours after the committee approved four other residential buildings, housing 24 families, on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem.

Israeli and Arab media have been abuzz for a week with reports of an imminent deal for Gilad Shalit's release. We've been hearing about possible deals for months, only to see them fall through, so I won't hazard a guess about whether the real thing. But here's where the talks stand.

The German mediator, Ernst Uhrlau, met with Israeli government officials last night to receive their latest offer. Israel is reportedly prepared to release 443 of the 450 prisoners requested by Hamas. But the seven names who didn't make the cut could be deal-breakers: They include Marwan Barghouti, the popular politician; and several senior leaders of the Qassam Brigades, including Ibrahim Hamid and Abdullah Barghouti.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas sat down for a lengthy interview with Ha'aretz yesterday and said he's willing to negotiate a final-status peace agreement with Israel -- if the Israeli government implements a complete settlement freeze, including the entire West Bank and East Jerusalem.

But he says he's now willing to accept a secret settlement freeze, one that Israel would implement but never declare publicly.

Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni reversed plans to attend yesterday's annual conference of the Jewish National Fund's United Kingdom branch because a warrant had been issued for her arrest in connection with the 2008 Israeli offensive into Gaza, known as Operation Cast Lead, Al-Quds Al-Arabi has reported.

Sources close to Livni, the leader of Kadima, the largest parliamentary party, told the Jerusalem Post that she decided not to attend because she wouldn't get a meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was traveling. Livni's office first told Haaretz that she had canceled the London event two weeks ago due to a "scheduling conflict."

The partial settlement freeze announced last month by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu includes an exception for "public buildings," officially defined as those for "education and other vital public needs."

Apparently this is a "vital public need," according to the Israeli government:

Israel's Civil Administration announced today that it approved 492 new units in West Bank settlements. Most are in Gush Etzion (149 units), Maale Adumim (89 units), Modin Illit (84 units) and Givat Ze'ev (76 units).

And, oh yes, an "extreme sports park" in Ariel, a West Bank settlement about 15km southwest of Nablus.

I'll let the lede of this Ha'aretz story speak for itself.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday ordered the IDF to issue a temporary freeze order, but at the same time allowed the construction of 28 new public buildings in settlements.

Barak approved the permits because the freeze order does not apply to "public buildings" like schools and synagogues, according to the Ma'an news agency.

In fairness: Barak also said today is taking aerial photographs of settlements to monitor for illegal new construction. The central government has started issuing orders to regional councils requiring them to stop issuing construction permits to settlers.

Ha'aretz also reports that the Israeli government will ask the Supreme Court to delay a demolition order for nine "illegal outposts" in the West Bank, including Horsha and Netiv Ha'avot. The IDF is currently required to evacuate the outposts by next week.