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Post by Admin on Jan 4, 2014 21:19:58 GMT
Israel and the Palestinians are making progress towards a "framework agreement" to guide their talks on a formal peace deal but still have some way to go, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday. On his 10th visit to the region in a year, Kerry is trying to establish what U.S. officials call a "framework" of general guidelines for an accord, with details to be filled in later. "I am confident that the talks we have had in the last two days have already fleshed out and even resolved certain kinds of issues and presented new opportunities for others," he said after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "We are not there yet, but we are making progress," Kerry told reporters in Ramallah, seat of Abbas' government.  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas talk at a meeting at the presidential compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah January 4, 2014. On arrival in Jerusalem on Thursday, Kerry said the framework he was trying to build would aim to address all of the conflict's core issues, including borders, security, the future of Palestinian refugees and the fate of Jerusalem. Both sides have expressed doubts about his efforts.  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat (L) wave to journalists before a meeting at the presidential compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah January 4, 2014. On Saturday Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, a Netanyahu confidant, questioned Abbas's intentions. "We have great doubt about Abu Mazen's (Abbas) willingness to reach an agreement," he told a town hall meeting. "We see the strong incitement and anti-Semitism of the Palestinian Authority led by (Abbas) as a main obstacle on the road to an agreement."  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrives for a meeting at the presidential compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah January 4, 2014. |
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2014 6:02:32 GMT
In the summer of 1933, the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the German Zionist Federation, and the German Economics Ministry drafted a plan meant to allow German Jews emigrating to Palestine to retain some of the value of their property in Germany by purchasing German goods for the Yishuv, which would redeem them in Palestine local currency. This scheme, known as the Transfer Agreement or Ha’avarah, met the needs of all interested parties: German Jews, the German economy, and the Mandatory Government and the Yishuv in Palestine.  Nora Levin writes in 'The Holocaust' about von Hentig's actions during the 1937 and 1938, when the rate of Jewish emigration from Germany to Palestine was being restricted by a combination of British obstructions (in response to Arab uprisings in Mandatory Palestine that opposed giving asylum to European Jews) and a change in German policy concerning the German Jewish contribution to the potential establishment of a Jewish State:[1] Although von Hentig was overly optimistic about the removal of all obstacles (e.g. the British were opposed to unlimited Jewish immigration into Palestine), the actions initiated by von Hentig enabled Auerbach to negotiate with Eichmann for (at first) a thousand Jewish boys and girls to be trained in preparation for emigration to Palestine. Although Eichmann had wanted the training and emigration to be handled by the Gestapo, Auerbach found confederates (e.g. Signor Metossiani, an engineer named Karthaus, a young Palestinian Jew named Zvi Yehieli, and others) who used the opportunity to obtain 20,000 transit visas that could (theoretically) enable Jews to emigrate to Yugoslavia. Although the actual numbers saved were fewer than 20,000, the various efforts enabled many Jews (in bunches of hundreds) find passage on several different vessels that departed Yugoslav and Greek ports. Although there were a variety of putative destinations (e.g. Mexico), and many adventures and mishaps, many of these Jewish refugees eventually arrived safely in Palestine. These arrangements were continued until the British took strong actions to stop such rescue operations[3] 1. "The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry 1933--1945", by Nora Levin (NY: Thomas Y. Crowell Co.; 1968), pp. 124--132) 2. "Holocaust, Levin, 1968", p. 132 3. "Holocaust, Levin, 1968", pp. 132--143 4. "Holocaust, Levin, 1968", p. 82 |
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Post by Admin on Jan 11, 2014 14:22:31 GMT
Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, one of his nation's most controversial and iconic leaders for a half-century — on and off the battlefield — died Saturday at the age of 85, of complications from a stroke eight years ago. Sharon was a military leader who led Israeli troops against Arab armies in every war from independence in 1948 until his stroke 58 years later. He was defense minister in 1982, when Israel attacked Lebanon in an attempt to oust the Palestinian Liberation Organization and reduce Syria's stranglehold over Lebanon. Sharon was forced to resign after Lebanese Christian militias sent into the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps to weed out the PLO murdered hundreds of Palestinian civilians. A longtime passionate advocate of Israeli settlement of land he helped conquer from Jordan and Egypt, which Palestinians seek for a state,he forced Jewish settlers to leave Gaza in 2005, ending 38 years of military governance.  "Sharon combined brilliance and colossal failure" during his long and controversial career, said Edward Walker, U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1998 to 2000 and former president of the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank. To Palestinians Sharon was not a hero, but a brutal operator who sought for years to destroy Palestinian Liberation Organization founder Yasser Arafat and eventually succeeded, said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO's executive committee. Arafat died in 2004. The cause of death is disputed. His wife claims he was poisoned with radioactive polonium by Israel. |
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Post by Admin on Jan 12, 2014 14:42:25 GMT
Israelis have been paying their respects to former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as his body lies in state at parliament ahead of his funeral tomorrow. The 85-year-old died yesterday after spending eight years in a coma after a major stroke in 2006.  Israel's President Shimon Peres (C) prepares to lay a wreath on Ariel Sharon's coffin  Israeli army officers salute in front of the flag draped coffin of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon  Ariel Sharon's body is laid outside the Knesset in Jerusalem.  The former prime minister's coffin will lie in state until tomorrow. |
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Post by Admin on Jan 13, 2014 15:24:10 GMT
Israel buried former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at his family farm on Monday, celebrating the military achievements of a man seen as a war hero at home but as a war criminal by many in the Arab world. A state memorial service was held at the Knesset in Jerusalem, attended by Vice President Joe Biden and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, among others. Sharon died Saturday at the age of 85, eight years after a devastating stroke left him in a coma from which he never recovered. "Arik was a man of the land," President Shimon Peres, a longtime friend and sometimes rival of Sharon, said in his eulogy. "He defended this land like a lion and he taught its children to swing a scythe. He was a military legend in his lifetime and then turned his gaze to the day Israel would dwell in safety, when our children would return to our borders and peace would grace the Promised Land."  January 13, 2014: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden gives a speech next to the coffin of late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, in Jerusalem The speakers at Monday's ceremony largely glossed over the controversy that surrounded Sharon, and instead focused on his leadership and personality. "I didn't always agree with Arik and he didn't always agree with me," said Israel's current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who resigned from Sharon's government to protest the Gaza withdrawal. Nonetheless, he called Sharon "one of the big warriors" for the nation of Israel. "He was pragmatic. His pragmatism was rooted in deep emotion, deep emotion for the state, for the Jewish people," Netanyahu said. Critics say the pullout has only brought more violence. Two years after the withdrawal, Hamas militants seized control of Gaza. In a reminder of the precarious security situation, Palestinian militants on Monday fired two rockets from the Gaza Strip. Sharon's ranch in southern Israel is within range of such projectiles but Monday's missiles did not hit Israel. No injuries or damage were reported. |
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