The West Bank and Gaza Strip: A Geography of Occupation and Disengagement, by Elisha Efrat. Oxon, U.K.: Routledge, 2006. xi + 206 pages. Glossary to p. 208. Bibliography to p. 212. Index to p. 216. $34.95 paper.
This section aims to give readers a glimpse of how the Arab world views current events that affect Palestinians and the Arab-Israeli conflict by presenting a selection of cartoons from al-Hayat, the most widely distributed mainstream daily in the Arab world. JPS is grateful to al-Hayat for permission to reprint its material.
The Quarterly Update is a summary of bilateral, multilateral, regional, and international events affecting the Palestinians and the future of the peace process.
As minister of state in the Northern Ireland Office in 1994, Michael Ancram was the first British minister to meet with Sinn Fin and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 25 years, overseeing talks between Sinn Fein and the British government that began the peace process that ultimately resulted in the decommissioning of the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 2005 and the formal implementation of power-sharing in 2007. This essay, entitled "The Middle East Peace Process: The Case for Jaw-Jaw not War-War," first appeared in Accord (Issue 19), Conciliation Resources, March 2008 and was circulated by Conflicts Forum. The full text is available online at www.conflictsforum.org.
Abbas Zaki made the following statement at a ceremony in Beirut marking the 43d anniversary of Fatah. The text, which was published by Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyya in spring 2008, was translated from Arabic by JPS.
Mahmud al-Zahar, based in Gaza, is a cofounder of Hamas and served as Palestinian Authority foreign minister in PM Ismail Haniyeh's government, elected in January 2006, until that government was ousted in June 2007. This essay appeared as an op-ed in the Washington Post during a regional tour by former president Jimmy Carter, who met informally with Hamas leaders in Damascus, Cairo, and Ramallah (see Carter's trip report in Doc. D4, below). The same day the Washington Post ran Zahar's piece, its lead editorial criticized Zahar for his "hatred of Israel" and Carter for "embrac[ing] Hamas terrorists," denouncing Hamas as "a group that advocates terrorism, mass murder or the extinction of another state [Israel]." Both pieces can be found online at www.washingtonpost.com.
In response to criticisms that its military attacks on Gaza following Hamas Qassam rocket strikes in Sederot were causing unnecessary civilian casualties, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) released a background paper in March, excerpted below, to clarify and justify the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) understanding of the principle of proportionality. This principle, along with the principle of intentionality, forms the jurisprudence of International Humanitarian Law. Citing a number of international legal scholars and Article 52(2) of the Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions (1977), to which Israel is a signatory, the background paper attempts to redefine proportionality in order to legitimate attacks on targets that are not strictly military, placing the blame for any civilian deaths on Hamas for using civilians as "human shields." Although the IDF and the MFA have advanced this argument in response to international criticism about IDF strikes causing civilian deaths in Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories, this background paper represents an attempt to subordinate the need to cause as little harm to civilians as possible to Israel's stated need to preempt future attacks. The report is available online at www.mfa.gov.il.
From 13-22 April, former U.S. Pres. Jimmy Carter held high-profile meetings with political and civil society leaders in Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The trip occasioned heated debates in the U.S. and Israeli media, largely because Carter planned to meet with Hamas leaders, particularly Khalid Mishal, who agreed in the course of their Damascus talks to put Hamas's position on final status talks with Israel in writing, which Carter formally unveiled at the end of his trip (see excerpts). Initially, Carter intended to make the trip part of a larger delegation led by Nelson Mandela to raise awareness of the urgent need for Israeli-Arab peace and the interlocking nature of the region's conflicts. After Israel denied the group's request to meet with senior officials during the tour to protest the planned meeting with Mishal, the delegation canceled its trip, and Carter opted to go on his own on behalf of the Carter Center. Israel agreed to receive him but denied permission for him to travel to Gaza to meet with Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh. Carter instead met with Hamas officials in Ramallah, Cairo, and Damascus. Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, Vice PM and FM Tzipi Livni, and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Palestinian pres. Mahmud Abbas, turned down requests to meet. Carter was received 4/13 on behalf of Israel by Pres. Shimon Peres, who reprimanded him for having "caused many problems in recent years with your comments and meetings," and 4/14 on behalf of the PA by PM Salam Fayyad. During the trip, he alsomet with the PA's negotiation advisers, various Israeli MKs, Israeli and Palestinian student groups, U.S. security envoy Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, Syrian pres. Bashar al-Asad, Jordan's King Abdallah, and Saudi Arabia's King Abdallah. The State Dept. urged (4/10) Carter against meeting with Mishal, arguing that it went against U.S. policy of isolating Hamas. Carter responded that peace could not be achieved without including Hamas and stressed that he was traveling in a personal capacity. The following excerpts from Carter's "Trip Report" cover his meetings with Hamas leaders and President Asad, and his overall impressions regarding the status of the peace process. The full text is available online at www.cartercenter.org.
Political Geography:
Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Cairo, and Damascus
George W. Bush visited Israel from 13 to 16 May in celebration of the country's 60th anniversary. His speech to the Knesset, which was noted in both the U.S. and Israeli press for its hawkishness, was boycotted by Palestinian MKs. The speech is available online at www.whitehouse.gov.
Christians United for Israel, the Zionist lobby group that has grown by leaps and bounds since its founding two years ago, held its second annual conference in Washington, D.C., July 2007. Attended by political figures and rank-and-file members alike, the AIPAC-style conference showcased the group's formidable financial, organizational, and political strength, signaling that the group seems poised to set the agenda for future Christian Zionist work in the United States.