Hamas Is Ready for War with Israel

Gaza City, GAZA — The first thing you notice about Gaza: the donkeys. Attached to carts invariably driven by middle-aged men, they weave in and out of traffic, hauling fruits and vegetables through the city center.

Gaza still bears the scars of the 2014 war between Hamas and Israel. The 51-day conflict resulted in the deaths of 2,300 Gazans, with 10,000 others wounded; 66 Israeli soldiers and six Israeli civilians also lost their lives. Gaza’s infrastructure was decimated: A recent U.N. report stated that only 17 percent of the 18,000 homes destroyed during the conflict have been repaired, and an estimated 75,000 Gazans remain displaced.

"It is in Israel’s interest that the two-state solution will remain feasible and will be promoted"

Dr. Nimrod Goren is the Founder and Chairman of Mitvim - The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies and a Teaching Fellow in Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He holds a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and Political Psychology from the Hebrew University, and his dissertation topic was "The role of external incentives in promoting peace: the cases of Israel and Turkey". After completing his doctorate, Nimrod was selected to take part in Public Policy training at Syracuse University as the Israeli participant in the 2009-10 US State Department's Fulbright Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program. Nimrod is the former Executive Director of the Young Israeli Forum for Cooperation (YIFC), and in this capacity he was awarded the 2009 Victor J. Goldberg IIE Prize for Peace in the Middle East. In addition, Nimrod has worked at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, the Nehemia Levtzion Center for Islamic Studies, and the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace. He is a Board Member at MALI – The Center for Enterprising Citizens, and his areas of expertise include the Middle East peace process, Israel’s foreign policy, and modern Turkey.

The Humanitarian’s Dilemma

Stepping out of a car in the West Bank town of Kafr Qaddum, I was greeted by the stench of urine, feces, and burned tires — a foul reminder of the near-constant confrontation between Israeli settlers and soldiers on one side, and Palestinians on the other.

The Abu Ehab family — whose two-story house is on a slope just below the road we drove in on — is caught between these battles. The family members keep their chickens on the second floor and live on the first, but the walls do little to protect them from the exchange of tear gas, burning tires, and hurled rocks. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops frequently move around the Abu Ehab family’s property during nighttime search operations; at times, they enter the house.

Israeli soldiers cast doubt on legality of Gaza military tactics

Testimonies provided by more than 60 Israeli soldiers who fought in last summer’s war in Gaza have raised serious questions over whether Israel’s tactics breached its obligations under international law to distinguish and protect civilians.


Israeli soldier testimony: ‘Most of our shooting was random... we didn’t think about civilian casualties’ – video

The claims – collected by the human rights group Breaking the Silence – are contained in dozens of interviews with Israeli combatants, as well as with soldiers who served in command centres and attack rooms, a quarter of them officers up to the rank of major.

When Netanyahu closed the door on peace talks

The following story probably won’t dispel the widespread notion among the Israeli public and 

leadership that since the Second Intifada there has been no partner on the Palestinian side. 

This is a notion that is based on statements from politicians from the right, among others, who 

claim that every time the moment of truth comes, PA President Mahmoud Abbas rejects peace 

agreements.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres seen during a ceremony laying a founding stone 

for the National Memorial Hall for IDF victims of war on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on April 30, 2014. 

(Photo credit: David Vaaknini/POOL/Flash 90)

But in at least one instance, that preconception proved unfounded, even false. Less than four 

years ago, it wasn’t Abbas who ran away from the table, but rather Prime Minister Benjamin 

Netanyahu, who declined to advance talks between Abbas and then-president Shimon Peres.

How Long Can Mahmoud Abbas Hold On?

It was an unusual setting for a remarkable acknowledgment. At an Orthodox Christmas celebration in Bethlehem on Jan. 6, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that the most recent Palestinian initiative at the U.N. Security Council came out of despair: “We have given up on all other options to reach a solution,” he told politicians, clergy, and media gathered at the Church of the Nativity.

Just a week earlier, the Palestinians had approached the 15-member council, via Jordan, to set a timetable for Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied territories and the establishment of an independent state.

Did Israel's 'Hannibal Directive' Lead to a War Crime in Gaza?

The July-August war in Gaza drew international condemnation for a number of reasons, but one episode proved more deadly than any other: an Israeli air and artillery bombardment on Aug. 1 that killed 150 people in a matter of hours.

Six weeks on from the war, with the toll of destruction still being counted, there is deepening unease about what took place that day, especially over whether too much force was used. Some legal experts say a war crime may have been committed.

Mahmoud Abbas is 79. His hold on the Palestinian people is tenuous. The institution he 

governs from the dilapidated Muqata compound in Ramallah is a poorly managed dictatorship. 

He is in the ninth year of a four-year presidential term, overseeing a regime that arrests young 

Palestinians who criticize it on Facebook.





Yet all that is secondary to the most glaring indignity of his rule: he is kept in power not by his 

own political acumen or even police power, but by Israel’s efficient suppression of his 

opponents, primarily Hamas, in the West Bank.

The Military Reality of Israel's Operation in Gaza Sets In

Hamas and affiliate militant factions out of the Gaza Strip are so far rejecting an Egyptian-proposed cease-fire, having launched far more than 100 rockets since the cease-fire proposal. In exposing Israel's inability to stem the rocket flow, Hamas is trying to claim a symbolic victory over Israel. Hamas' spin aside, the military reality paints a very different picture.

Palestinian militants have launched more than 1,200 rockets, but their limited range and accuracy combined with Israeli defensive capabilities have led to only one civilian death, less than 100 further casualties and disruptions to daily life over the past week. Conversely, Israel Defense Forces have struck more than 1,500 targets in Gaza, inflicting much heavier destruction on the militants. On the surface, the exchange of fire might seem balanced, but conflicts are measured by more than aggregate numbers of casualties and explosions.

Israel said willing to give up 90% of West Bank

Τhe closed-door negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority over the future 

contours of a Palestinian state, and how much land and settlements Israel will retain, have 

reportedly come down to a matter of a few percentage points, with both sides agreeing in 

principle that the majority of Jewish West Bank settlements would be transferred to Israeli 

sovereignty in a final status deal.

A man waves a Palestinian flag waves near the West Bank settlement of Ofra, 

near Ramallah (photo credit: Issam Rimawi/Flash90)

Citing anonymous Israeli, Palestinian and American sources close to the negotiations, Walla 

News reported on Thursday that Israel is seeking to annex about 10 percent of the West 

Bank’s land area in a final deal. Meanwhile, the Palestinians are seeking to have Israel annex 

only around 3% of the West Bank, the report said.

Russia preparing to develop Gaza gas field

In a significant political and economic development, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met Jan. 23 with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The meeting came as a prerequisite to officially sign an investment agreement aiming to develop the Gaza offshore gas field in the Mediterranean Sea. It is only logical to assume that this step will raise the ire of Israel. The latter does not appreciate the role Russia plays in the region, especially since Israel has never come to an agreement with Russia.

Peace possible despite difficulties, Peres tells senators

President Shimon Peres met Saturday with visiting Republican senators John McCain, 

Lindsey Graham and John Barrasso in Jerusalem and expressed optimism about a peace 

agreement with the Palestinians.

Republican US Senator John McCain meets with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the president's residence in 

Jerusalem on January 4, 2014. (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The American lawmakers were visiting Israel on a tour of the region. Their stay coincided with 

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s return to the Mideast to broker peace efforts between 

Israel and the Palestinians.

A year after Pillar of Defense, it’s all gone dark in Gaza

Operation Pillar of Defense began one year ago, and over the past 48 hours, different groups in Gaza have held large military marches to celebrate the anniversary of “their victory over the Zionist enemy.”

Palestinians walk on the side of a street flooded with waste water in Gaza City, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013. A Palestinian official said sewage from a treatment plant overflowed onto streets in the Gaza Strip because of a shortage of electricity needed to process the waste. (Photo credit: AP /Adel Hana)

But, putting the celebrations aside for a moment, the Gaza Strip is nothing like before. The operation that began with the assassination of Hamas military leader Ahmad al-Jabari ultimately achieved Israel’s goal – stopping rocket and missile attacks from Gaza – without having to send in Israeli soldiers.

Netanyahu combative as Kerry pushes on peace talks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a sharply combative statement here Friday as he entered his third round of talks in three days with Secretary of State John F. Kerry, saying that “pressure has to be put where it belongs: that is on the Palestinians, who refuse to budge.”

“No amount of pressure will make me or the government of Israel compromise on the basic security interests and the national interest of the state of Israel,” Netanyahu told reporters at Ben Gurion Airport, where Kerry stopped on his way to Geneva to participate in nuclear negotiations with Iran.

How the EU can help Kerry with Israeli and Palestinian peace talks

As soon as US Secretary of State John Kerry announced the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the EU promised to do everything it could to support the new American initiative. The Middle East peace process has been a top EU priority for years. But Europeans are conscious that they lack the diplomatic clout to be a major player. 

Palestinians and Israelis think that EU member-states are too frequently divided among themselves. Many Israelis also argue that even though the EU and Israel have close ties, the Union does not give sufficient importance to their security concerns. Nevertheless, Europeans played a modest role in helping the US convince Israelis and Palestinians to sign up to new talks. And the EU can make further contributions to the peace process. In July, as Secretary Kerry negotiated assiduously with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to give peace talks another chance, the EU high representative for foreign affairs Catherine Ashton announced that the EU would no longer give grants and scholarships to companies and educational institutions based in Israeli settlements. In addition, a leaked letter from Ashton detailed EU plans to require products from settlements to be labelled as such when sold in the EU. The Union, which has long argued that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, had been working on both initiatives for a while. But the timing of the announcement and the leaked letter helped in a small way to convince both President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu to agree to peace talks.

Negotiations will be direct and discreet, Netanyahu tells cabinet

The newly announced talks between Israel and the Palestinians will be conducted “with integrity and honesty,” and discreetly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday morning.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a weekly cabinet meeting, June 2013 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/Pool/Flash90)

“It won’t be easy,” Netanyahu warned, “but we’re going into the negotiations with integrity and honesty.”

Israel must agree on borders of Palestinian state, say senior PA leaders

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — After Palestinian leaders demanded further guarantees before restarting talks with Israel, US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed his ideas with the chief Palestinian negotiator in Amman on Friday.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at a meeting of the Palestinian leadership at his compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah, July 18, 2013. (photo credit: Issam Rimawi/Flash90)

No details were immediately available about Kerry’s meeting with Erekat, which lasted about an hour.

Palestinians close to resuming peace talks

Israel and the Palestinians appear to be drawing closer to the negotiations table, during the US secretary of state’s sixth visit to the region since taking office earlier this year. According to a Lebanese report, the Palestinians were leaning toward announcing Thursday that they’re ready to resume talks with Israel.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, says goodbye to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas after their second meeting in Amman, Jordan, on Saturday, June 29 (photo credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

Gaps between the Israeli and Palestinian positions have narrowed substantially after US Secretary of State John Kerry met with PA President Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday in Jordan, a senior Palestinian Authority official told the newspaper Al-Mustaqbal. The official said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to a partial settlement freeze and is willing to negotiate on the basis of the 1967 lines. The freeze would not apply to Jerusalem and the major settlement blocs, the report said.

Israel official says no Palestinian state with pre-1967 boundaries as Kerry prepares visit

A senior Israeli official says the government will not agree to the borders that the Palestinians are demanding for an independent state.

Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon said Israel would not let such a state be established within the regional boundaries that existed prior to the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians want east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza — territories captured by Israel in that war. Danon’s remarks were broadcast on Israel Radio Sunday.