Middle East Update / March 11, 2010 - Biden on Israel's Rebuke

New York Times / Unease Hangs Over Mideast as Biden Ends Israel Trip by Ethan Bronner - March 11, 2010 TEL AVIV — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. came to Israel early this week to promote new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and tighten the bonds between Israel and the United States. He leaves on Thursday amid increased uncertainty over the nature and timing of those talks and with a sense of unease hanging over the American-Israeli relationship. Guardian / Joe Biden attempts to salvage Middle East peace talks by Rory McCarthy - March 11, 2010 Jerusalem - The US vice-president, Joe Biden, today attempted to salvage the Middle East peace talks after the Palestinians announced they were pulling out of a new round of indirect negotiations before they had begun.  The Palestinian move was in protest against Israel's decision to build hundreds of new homes in a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.  The withdrawal from negotiations, announced in Cairo by Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, represents a major setback to months of diplomacy by the US administration prior to Biden's visit to the region.  The US vice-president said an agreement would be "profoundly" in Israel's interests and appealed to the Israeli government to make a serious attempt to reach peace with the Palestinians. Al-Jazeera / Biden explains Israel rebuke (VIDEO) - March 11, 2010 Doha - Israel announced on Tuesday that it would build 1,600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, a religious Jewish settlement in an area of the occupied West Bank annexed to Jerusalem by Israel.  The announcement drew condemnation from Joe Biden, the US vice-president who is on a visit to the region partly to throw his weight behind US-brokered "proximity" talks between the Israelis and Palestinians that were announced just on Sunday.  In an interview with Al Jazeera from the occupied West Bank, Biden explains why he condemned Israel's construction announcement. Al-Arabiya / Israel under pressure as prospects of talks fade - March 11, 2010 Cairo - Israel found itself under increasing international pressure on Thursday over its decision to build new Jewish settlements just as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Jerusalem to promote the talks.  The Israeli decision prompted Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to cancel fresh U.S.-led indirect peace talks with the Jewish state. Abbas had only agreed to the talks on condition that Israel imposed a Jewish settlement freeze. Haaretz / Deputy FM tells U.S.: Israel won't make any more concessions By Natasha Mozgavaya - March 11, 2010 Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon on Thursday defended Israel's decision to approve construction of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem, saying sovereignty over the capital has never been negotiable and that Israel would not make any more concessions for peace.   "There is no doubt that the Palestinians will try to use this to either stop the upcoming indirect peace talks, or to extort more concessions from us, and I have explained to U.S. government officials that there will be no more concessions," said the deputy minister. Jerusalem Post / '50% against equal rights for Arabs' Poll also shows 56% of Jewish Israeli schoolchildren say no to Arab Israeli MKs. By JPOST.COM STAFF - March 11, 2010 A new Ma’agar Mohot poll has produced somewhat disturbing findings regarding the attitudes of Jewish Israeli schoolchildren about Arab Israelis.  According to the poll, taken among 536 15-18-year-olds, 50 percent of Jewish Israeli schoolchildren believe that Arab Israelis should not be granted rights equal to their Jewish counterparts.  Furthermore, 56 percent of Jewish Israeli schoolchildren surveyed said Arab Israelis should be prevented from running for Knesset, while 50% of the Jewish youngsters who defined themselves as religious said they believe the “Death to Arabs” slogan was legitimate. Guardian / Palestinians snub peace talks because of Israeli homes expansion by Rory McCarthy - March 11, 2010 Jerusalem - The Palestinians pulled out of a new round of indirect peace talks last night, even before they had begun, as a protest at Israel's decision to announce approval for hundreds of new homes in a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.  The decision to pull out, announced in Cairo by Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League, represents a major setback to months of diplomacy by the US administration and comes after the US vice-president, Joe Biden, delivered an unusually strong rebuke to Israel. Jerusalem Post / Editorial: Dysfunctional government By JPOST EDITORIAL - March 10, 2010 . . . . because of sheer ineptitude, the timing of the announcement immediately threatened the “proximity talks” in which Netanyahu has stressed Israel has a profound interest. It united the Palestinians, the Arab world and much of the international community in a chorus of anti-Israel condemnation.   And most unhappily of all, it embarrassed our most important ally at a time when this ally, as represented by Biden, was making a heartfelt effort to improve relations and assure Israel of its abiding support. Haaretz / Israel planning 50,000 housing units in East Jerusalem By Nir Hasson - March 11, 2010 Jerusalem - Some 50,000 new housing units in Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the Green Line are in various stages of planning and approval, planning officials told Haaretz. They said Jerusalem's construction plans for the next few years, even decades, are expected to focus on East Jerusalem. Most of the housing units will be built in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods beyond the Green Line, while a smaller number of them will be built in Arab neighborhoods. The plans for some 20,000 of the apartments are already in advanced stages of approval and implementation, while plans for the remainder have yet to be submitted to the planning committees. Haaretz / The U.S. will no longer turn a blind eye to Israeli settlements By Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel - March 11, 2010 Jerusalem - Even Mahmoud Abbas would have been hard put to dream up a greater victory for Palestinian diplomacy than the one handed to him Tuesday on a silver platter by the Israeli Interior Ministry. The condemnations have been pouring in since the plan to build 1,600 homes in Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood was announced. Not only from U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, but from the United Nations, the European Union and world leaders, all of them slamming the decision.  While government officials were busy yesterday blaming each other for the bad timing, it seems they were missing the bigger picture: Washington and the international community will no longer accept, even by looking the other way, Israeli construction in East Jerusalem. AP / Arab League committee calls for withdrawing Arab support for Israeli-Palestinian talks by Maamoun Youssef - March 10,2010 Cairo - The Arab League recommended on Wednesday to withdraw its support for indirect talks between Palestinians and Israelis due to recent announcements of new settlement building in east Jerusalem.  The league's peace initiative committee's decision is only a recommendation and a final decision will have to be made by the foreign ministers of the Arab nations. Khaleej Times /  Israel’s Labour may quit coalition over settlements - March 11, 2010 JERUSALEM - Israel’s Labour Party may quit the ruling coalition over the decision to build more settler homes in the occupied territories, the country’s agriculture minister warned on Thursday. The Atlantic / The New Israel Watch (VIDEO) by Andrew Sullivan, March 11, 2010 Washington - Having forcibly evicted Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem, the new inhabitants sing songs in praise of the mass murderer Baruch Goldstein. And you really think the decision to make the site of that massacre a national heritage site for Israel had nothing to do with this association? Guardian / Israel's unfair 'law of return' - While British Jews are offered property in the West Bank, Palestinian refugees are still denied the right to return by Abe Hayeem - March 11, 2010 London - The Israeli government continues to expand these settlements and encourage immigration in order to consolidate its hold on the occupied territories. The new Jewish-only settlement towns being built by the Jewish National Fund within Israel, in the Negev and Galilee, also continue Palestinian dispossession, by displacing Bedouin in "unrecognised villages". While Palestinians are being continuously dispossessed, imprisoned in enclaves, and prevented from building to house their families on their own land, Jewish people from any part of the world can be housed anywhere they choose within Israel and West Bank. Precious water resources are used lavishly in the settlements, while drastically limiting Palestinians' access. Use of the super-highways linking settlements to Israeli cities is denied to Palestinians, and sewage from the settlements is discharged into Palestinian villages and agricultural areas. The settlement freeze is a joke, and is ignored by Israel. It is more a settlement frenzy. AP / Israel allows UN bomb squad into Gaza to defuse munitions left over from last year's war - March 10, 2010 Jerusalem - Israel has allowed a U.N. bomb disposal unit into the Gaza Strip to defuse unexploded munitions left over from last year's fighting.  The Israeli military says the sappers entered Gaza on Wednesday and will work for several weeks. The army gave no information on how many explosives litter the territory. Haaretz / MKs to Biden: Show kindness and mercy for Jonathan Pollard By Natasha Mozgovaya - March 10, 2010 Jerusalem - A group of Knesset faction chairmen on Wednesday sent a letter to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden requesting clemency for Jonathan Pollard, who is serving a life sentence in the U.S. after being convicted of spying for Israel. New York Times / U.S. Defense Chief Visits Saudi Arabia to Bolster Effort Against Iran by Elisabeth Bumiller - March 10, 2010 RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told the royal family of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday that the United States wanted to help build up the kingdom’s military defenses against the growing threat of Iran, but also needed its help in pressing for new United Nations sanctions on Tehran. Salon / Official dogma: Iraq War a success BY GLENN GREENWALD - March 10, 2010 Washington - Glenn Greenwald takes Thomas Friedman to task for his neoconservative history of urging the USA to attack Iraq.  This is one of Greenwald's most humorous columns freighted with Swiftian irony  - and unmissable.