PM to get warm welcome from Obama
By HERB KEINON AND TOVAH LAZAROFF
05/26/2010 08:01
Next week's meeting promises to be long on form and short on content.
Next week's meeting in Washington between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama will be "hugs and kisses," long on form and short on content, Israeli officials said on Wednesday, shortly after White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel extended an invitation to Netanyahu.
Next Tuesday's get-together is widely perceived in Jerusalem as an effort to change the public tenor of the Obama administration's relationship with Israel.
Emanuel, in the country to celebrate the bar mitzvas of his son and nephew, delivered the invitation during a meeting with the prime minister in his office in Jerusalem.
Obama "has asked me to extend an invitation to you to come visit him at the White House for a work meeting to discuss both our shared security interests as well as our close cooperation in seeking peace between Israel and its neighbors," Emanuel told Netanyahu.
He made sure to mention his warm feelings for the country and its people during a visit, which he described as "heartfelt."
"On a personal matter, on behalf of the Emanuel family, I want to say that this trip has been wonderful... most importantly for me to show my children, given so much, as you know, of my childhood was here, to show them the country expose them to the history in a very intimate way," he said.
He added that Israelis had been "exceptionally warm and genuine in their affection to both all the family in general, but particularly to Zach on his bar mitzva in wishing him a mazal tov."
The two men even joked about Zach's dislike for his homework.
The White House visit will come less than two months after Netanyahu's last visit to the Oval Office, when he reportedly was given a series of demands by the US to stop Jewish construction in east Jerusalem and open proximity talks with the Palestinian Authority.
During that meeting, no photographers were allowed, and there were no statements issued afterward, leading Washington Post columnist Jackson Diehl to quip that Obama treated Netanyahu as an unsavory, third-world dictator. That visit marked the nadir in US-Israel relations during the Obama administration.
A few weeks later, after the administration began hearing criticism from leading Jewish voices in Congress and in the Democratic Party, the Obama administration launched what has been termed a "charm offensive" that included a meeting of Obama with Jewish congressmen; two meetings of top Jewish White House staffers - Emanuel, Dennis Ross and Dan Shapiro - with 15 rabbis; and a number of speeches to US Jewish organizations and pro-Israel institutions by top administration officials, such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Adviser James Jones.
The recent invitation to the White House is viewed as the peak in this new campaign so far, with the expectation being that this time the White House's reception of Netanyahu will be considerably warmer.
One Israeli official said it was almost certain that unlike the last meeting between the two leaders, and even the preceding one in November, this time there will be a joint appearance before the press. According to this official, the meeting next week will focus more on atmospherics than on substance, with the message being the very warm manner in which the prime minister is received.
The official said that nothing dramatic has taken place since US envoy George Mitchell started the proximity talks three weeks ago, and that the meeting had more to do with US domestic politics than with anything that has happened on the Israeli-Palestinian track.
The two leaders are widely expected to discuss the diplomatic process, as well as Iran, with Netanyahu likely to thank Obama for pursuing sanctions at the UN and rejecting the Turkish-Brazilian bid to get Iran to transfer abroad 1,200 kilos of low-enriched uranium.
Obama is expected to meet with PA President Mahmoud Abbas later in the month.
Netanyahu is scheduled to leave on Thursday for Paris for a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, where Israel will be formally accepted into the organization. He is to be accompanied by Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz.
Netanyahu is scheduled to meet in Paris separately with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who will also be at the OECD meeting, as well as with other European leaders.
From Paris, Netanyahu will travel to Toronto, and will spend Shabbat there. He will be joined there by Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein, chairman of the Israel-Canada Parliamentary Friendship League.
On Sunday, the prime minister will take part in the annual Walk With Israel parade in Toronto, and then go to Ottawa for meetings the next day with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
This will be the first visit by a prime minister to Canada in 16 years, with Israeli officials saying it is meant to thank Harper for his staunch support.
Netanyahu was originally scheduled to fly back to Israel on Monday evening, but instead will now fly to Washington for his meeting with Obama.
Talkback
the white house back door is open again! it`s election time the democrats need the jewish vote and money again,my feeling is bibi should send a message! no more building on indian land in washington
Election time and Obama 42% approval rating has changed the arrogant behavior of Obama. Do not fall for the same lies.
Israel, represented by Bibi, should respectfully decline the invitation due to pressing needs at home (e.g. preparing to counter Iranian genocidal belligerence) and instead offer Obama to visit him in Jerusalem so Obama can see first hand Israel's predicaments. However, if Bibi must go to DC, he would need assurances that he is not going to be humiliated.
....his sorry _ss to Israel, if he wants to talk. Either that or STAY HOME Bibi. You're just wasting gas, getting on a plane to Washington.
Don't be a fool Bibi. This guy's a has-been.
wishing you to be right but methinks you are being too optimistic. November is still a long way off and in this part of the world one never can tell what the morrow brings. The World nnd the US is teeming with the Arab, he is everywhere with his money and his glit so don't be too sure of anything. Obama is good for the Arab and today, JUST TODAY, he is still the king......
CBN NEWS:
JERUSALEM, Israel - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Barack Obama next week in Washington, a fresh attempt by the U.S. administration to make amends over recent diplomatic slights.
Next week's meeting with Obama promises to be more cordial than the last visit two months ago, when the prime minister was ushered into the White House through a back door. He did not dine with the president, nor meet with the press, nor did they pose for the usual photo op together.
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, in Israel for his son's bar mitzvah, extended the invitation during a visit with the prime minister on Wednesday.
Some analysts viewed the meeting as a deliberate attempt to humiliate Netanyahu for rejecting Obama's demands, which included extending the 10-month construction moratorium in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and issuing a building freeze in Jerusalem.
Repercussions from that meeting reverberated not only among American Jewish leaders but also with congressmen and other officials.
Over the past few weeks, the Obama administration has been trying to mend fences and counter criticism for what has been perceived by many as a decidedly anti-Israel agenda.
Last week, the president met with three dozen Jewish members of Congress.
"The president gets it," Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., told the New York Daily News. "The president was reminded and conceded there were missteps taken…in hitting the Israelis and then treating the Palestinians with kid gloves."
Alan Solow, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, called Obama's recent efforts "a positive development."
"There are two questions, though, that will only be answered over time: Will the outreach be sustained, and will the policy be consistent with the positions being expressed in the outreach," Solow said.
Meanwhile, Obama approved additional funding for Israel's Iron Dome defense system, meant to provide a measure of protection against Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
According to some analysts, Obama is interested in holding a positive meeting with Netanyahu before he meets again with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a few more weeks.
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Navy prepares for arrival of flotilla
By YAAKOV KATZ
05/26/2010 23:01
Drills include commandeering of ships, which could induce violence.
The IDF announced Wednesday evening that it was planning to stop the international convoy of nine ships currently on its way to Gaza carrying hundreds of activists and thousands of tons of supplies.
The IDF said it planned to intercept the ships as they approached the Gaza Strip and urge them to turn back.
"If they decide to continue sailing and do not listen to the instructions, then they will be stopped, brought to Israel and dealt with by the Interior Ministry, which will return them to the countries they came from," an IDF statement said.
According to the statement, the IDF will unload the supplies and transfer the shipment to the Gaza Strip, after inspecting it for weaponry.
The Navy has held a number of drills in recent weeks to prepare for the arrival of the small fleet, which is expected to try breaking the Israel-imposed sea blockade on Gaza and dock at its newly expanded port.
The scenarios drilled included the commandeering of the ships, which could, military sources said Wednesday, include violent clashes - depending on the response by the passengers on the vessels.
"We will do everything to ensure that the operation runs smoothly, but are prepared for every possible scenario," one defense official explained.
Meanwhile Wednesday, the IDF continued its media blitz against the flotilla, organized by the Free Gaza organization, and released data showing that all of the supplies the ships are carrying were already being transferred by Israel to Gaza via land crossings on a regular basis.
"This flotilla is a provocation that is not needed considering the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which is stable and good," said Col. Moshe Levi, commander of the IDF's Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration. Levi said that 100 trucks, loaded with supplies, enter Gaza on a daily basis, and that in the past two months over 1,200 tons of medical supplies were transferred to the Strip.
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Video
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137719
Tibi Denies Saying 'We'll Pressure Gilad Shalit' Despite Video
by Gil Ronen
MK Ahmed Tibi denied Wednesday that he had threatened "we will put pressure on Gilad Shalit" if prisoners' conditions are worsened through Knesset legislation.
His denial notwithstanding, video shows that in an interview Sunday with Channel 1 Television's Uri Levy, MK Tibi said: "Just as you are putting pressure on the prisoners in the jails we will put pressure on Gilad Shalit." Tibi did not say whom he was referring to by "we" but the only possible explanation seems to be that he was speaking for Hamas, the terror organization holding captured Israeli soldier First Sergeant Gilad Shalit for close to four years.
The fact that his utterance was broadcast on television and is freely available for viewing and listening did not prevent Tibi from denying he ever said it, in a speech Wednesday from the Knesset podium.
In his speech, Tibi presented his opposition to the "Shalit Law" that would revoke many of the privileges currently enjoyed by terrorist prisoners in Israeli jails. He denied he ever threatened to pressure Shalit. Similar accusations, he said, had been hurled at him in attempts to prevent him from running for Knesset, but they are "completely baseless" and do not deserve his response.
Tibi, a former adviser to PLO leader Yasser Arafat, recently flew to Libya and met the country's strongman Muammar Qaddafi. A gynecologist by profession, Tibi is considered a brillant man who knows exactly what buttons to press in the Israeli psyche to achieve the effect he desires, expertly pushing the limits of what the Israeli public and Knesset can tolerate. He has a long history of behavior and speech that many Jews see as outright treason, but all attempts to prevent him and other Arab leaders of his ilk from running for the Knesset have been stymied by the High Court.
Tibi may be losing some of his magic touch of late, however. Last month he was forcibly removed from the Knesset podium, despite his desperate attempts to cling to it.
MKs Danny Danon and Yariv Levin (Likud) both presented versions of a law that would prevent terrorist prisoners in Israel's jails from enjoying the privileges they currently have, which include family visits, access to cable television and the right to complete university degrees by correspondence. The bills both passed in preliminary readings Wednesday.
The government said it may wind up formulating its own version of the bill to replace the current versions. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
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Arab Influx to Northern Jerusalem Blocked by Building Freeze
by Gil Ronen
The freeze imposed by the Israeli government on construction for Jews in Judea and Samaria has had an unforeseen effect: it has raised Jewish demand for housing in northern Jerusalem, thus raising prices there and blocking the Arab influx to these neighborhoods. So said Aryeh King, who heads the Israel Lands Fund and is a prominent activist for strengthening the Jewish hold on Jerusalem.
King referred specifically to the neighborhoods of Pisgat Ze'ev, Neveh Yaakov and French Hill.
"The peak period of Arab influx into these neighborhoods was one and a half or two years ago, when [then-Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert wanted to divide the city and build a wall inside it," King told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew newsmagazine Wednesday.
At that time, he explained, many of the Arabs who live beyond the wall made an effort to buy apartments on the 'Israeli' side of the wall so as not to be left out of Israel in case of a partition agreement. "Today, there is a problem because there is a problem throughout Jerusalem: we have a mayor who won't let people build. As a result there are many more Jews who want to buy or rent for every Jewish-owned apartment. As a result less and less of these apartments are being sold to Arabs because there is more Jewish demand... the demand is the same but the supply is much smaller."
In French Hill, he said, the Arab presence has even begun to dwindle - with Jews filling the Arabs' places. The neighborhood is becoming more religious, he said, and many of the people moving in are immigrants from anglophone countries.
Another prominent activist for maintaining the Jewish nature of northwestern Jerusalem, Nerya Ofan, was arrested Tuesday and slapped with a military distancing order that forbids him from entering Pisgat Ze'ev and Neveh Yaakov, also in northwestern Jerusalem. Ofan had already been distanced from Judea and Samaria by an administrative order.
The order which prevents his entry to Judea and Samaria was extended and a new order - probably the first of its kind ever issued to a Jew - also forbids him from entering parts of Jerusalem. That order was signed by Home Front Commander, Major General Yair Golan.
According to King, Ofan's activities centered on attempts to convince Jews not to sell their apartments to Arabs, and to employ fellow Jews in their businesses.
Ever since the early days of the organized modern Zionist endeavor, Jews and Arabs have been waging a battle for control of territory in the Land of Israel. Sometimes, the entry of Arabs into a Jewish area is a clearly intentional, nationalistic move, and sometimes it appears to be of a more spontaneous or economically driven nature. Almost always, however, the entry of Arabs into Jewish neighborhoods results in Jews' leaving the neighborhood and in an atmosphere of growing violence and harassment against Jews.
Jews who attempt to buy homes in Arab neighborhoods and villages face a nearly impossible task because Arabs tend to intimidate and threaten fellow Arabs who sell land to Jews. Jews, on the other hand, are not afraid to sell apartments to Arabs. As a result, even neighborhoods and towns originally built specifically for Jews - like Karmiel and Upper Nazareth in the Galilee - now have a growing Arab population. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
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New Jewish Town Launched in Sharon Region
by Hillel Fendel
A temporary unofficial settlement outpost near the lower Galilee will become a full-fledged Jewish town, a Haifa-area Interior Ministry planning committee announced today.
Originally known as Mitzpeh I'ron, its official name is Mitzpeh Ilan, named for fallen astronaut-pilot Ilan Ramon.
Located just north of the Samaria region, in the eastern Sharon, the community was first founded in 2005, and is populated by 44 families - all living in caravans or simple pre-fab housing. Due to the new decision, however, permanent construction will be allowed, and the town is slated to grow to 350 families.
"All of the founding families arrived on their own, without really knowing each other in advance," one long-time resident told Israel National News. Asked if their common goal was "to build a new town in Israel, but not in Judea and Samaria," she answered in the affirmative, but then qualified: "It wasn't really ‘not Judea and Samaria,' but rather to populate this specific area of Wadi Ara (Nachal I'ron) with Jews."
Wadi Ara is located along the Hadera-Afula highway, and large Israeli-Arabs towns such as Umm el-Fahm threaten to overtake small local Jewish communities such as Mei-Ami. On the other hand, a new hareidi-religious city for tens of thousands of Jews is planned for the area, to be built in what is now the small town of Harish.
The new town and its hundreds of new housing units will be built, the decision states, "in accordance with the unique topographical and scenic conditions, as well as the environmental limitations, such as the Narbeta Stream, forest lands, the planned city of Harish, and the village Um el-Qutuf on the west."
Mitzpeh Ilan was originally initiated by an organization called Ohr National Missions. It was founded several years ago by a group of young idealists from central Israel, with the goal of promoting Jewish settlement and development in the peripheral areas of the Land of Israel, particularly in the Negev and the Galilee. Among its successes was the rescue of a failing agricultural kibbutz of the secular Kibbutz Movement named Retamim and its re-population with 30 religious-Zionist families. It has also been instrumental in forming the new communities of Sansana, Merchav Am, Be'er Milka, Giv'ot Bar, and Haruv. It has facilitated 22 core-groups.
The spiritual leader of Mitzpeh Ilan is Rabbi Sinai Levy, a Haifa native who studied in Yeshivat Har Etzion. (IsraelNationalNews.com)
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Report: Gaza not all that impoverished
In a short expose, National Post correspondent Tom Gross on Tuesday revealed that the Gaza Strip really isn't as impoverished as the rest of the biased international media would like you to believe.
Gross noted that the media is again full of stories about how destitute Gaza is, and why Israel is a bully for even thinking of preventing a flotilla of nine "humanitarian aid" (read: propaganda) ships set to sail from Turkey next week from reaching the Hamas-controlled territory.
But Gross dug a little deeper and found that with just a little effort, it was possible to find signs of normal life in Gaza, and even relative luxury.
For instance, he pointed out that one Gaza town recently constructed an Olympic-size swimming pool for its residents. Gross contrasted that to the fact that construction, land and water costs prevent all but the most well-off Israeli communities from having an Olympic-size swimming pool.
He also highlighted a popular Gaza City restaurant called the Roots Club, where even the ubiquitous travel guide Lonely Planet says visitors can enjoy gourmet meals. Gross called the owner of the Roots Club, who boasted that business is booming, with a regular flow of local Gazans and UN "aid" workers frequenting his establishment.
While there is without doubt poverty in Gaza, and probably more so than other areas considering the ineptness of its terrorist rulers, Gross explains that with clever and biased reporting, any city can be made to look impoverished.
"We could produce the same effect by selectively filming seedy parts of Paris and Rome and New York and Los Angeles too," wrote Gross.
Gross spent much of the article blasting the international media for its deceptive coverage, but another revelation of the piece is that there is apparently enough money and resources in Gaza for the area to take care of its own. Why then are Western taxpayers being called upon to foot the bill for enormous quantities of humanitarian aid? With most nations still recovering from the global economic downturn, it would be better to demand Hamas and its buddies stop pocketing all the money and start acting like a benefactor, if that is what the group claims to be.
Read more: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/05/25/fancy-restaurants-and-olympic-size-pools-what-the-media-won%E2%80%99t-report-about-gaza/#ixzz0p1Du5QmK
Fancy restaurants and Olympic-size pools: What the media won't report about Gaza
By Special to the National Post May 25, 2010 - 9:44 am
By Tom Gross
In recent days, the international media, particularly in Europe and the Mideast, has been full of stories about "activist boats sailing to Gaza carrying desperately-needed humanitarian aid and building materials."
The BBC World Service even led its world news broadcasts with this story at one point over the weekend. (The BBC yesterday boasted that its global news audience has now risen to 220 million persons a week, making it by far the biggest news broadcaster in the world.)
Indeed the BBC and other prominent Western media regularly lead their viewers and readers astray with accounts of a non-existent "mass humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza.
What they won't tell you about are the fancy new restaurants and swimming pools of Gaza, or about the wind surfing competitions on Gaza beaches, or the Strip's crowded shops and markets. Many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza live a middle class (and in some cases an upper class) lifestyle that western journalists refuse to report on because it doesn't fit with the simplistic story they were sent to write.
Here, courtesy of the Palestinian Ma'an news agency, is a report on Gaza's new Olympic-sized swimming pool . (Most Israeli towns don't have Olympic-size swimming pools. One wonders how an area that claims to be starved of water and building materials and depends on humanitarian aid builds an Olympic size swimming pool and creates a luxury lifestyle for some while others are forced to live in abject poverty as political pawn refugees?)
If you pop into the Roots Club in Gaza, according to the Lonely Planet guidebook, you can "dine on steak au poivre and chicken cordon bleu".
The restaurant's website in Arabic gives a window into middle class dining and the lifestyle of Hamas officials in Gaza. And here it is in English, for all the journalists, UN types and NGO staff who regularly frequent this and other nice Gaza restaurants (but don't tell their readers about them).
And here is a promotional video of the club restaurant . In case anyone doubts the authenticity of this video, I just called the club in Gaza City and had a nice chat with the manager who proudly confirmed business is booming and many Palestinians and international guests are dining there.
In a piece for The Wall Street Journal last year, I documented the "after effects" of a previous "emergency Gaza boat flotilla," when the arrivals were seen afterwards purchasing souvenirs in well-stocked shops. (You can also scroll down here for more pictures of Gaza's "impoverished" shops.)
But the mainstream liberal international media won't report on any of this. Playing the manipulative game of the BBC is easy: if we had their vast taxpayer funded resources, we too could produce reports about parts of London, Manchester and Glasgow and make it look as though there is a humanitarian catastrophe throughout the UK. We could produce the same effect by selectively filming seedy parts of Paris and Rome and New York and Los Angeles too.
Of course there is poverty in Gaza. There is poverty in parts of Israel too. (When was the last time a foreign journalist based in Israel left the pampered lounge bars and restaurants of the King David and American Colony hotels in Jerusalem and went to check out the slum-like areas of southern Tel Aviv? Or the hard-hit Negev towns of Netivot or Rahat?)
But the way that many prominent Western news media are deliberately misleading global audiences and systematically creating the false impression that people are somehow starving in Gaza, and that it is all Israel's fault, can only serve to increase hatred for the Jewish state - which one suspects was the goal of many of the editors and reporters involved in the first place.
Read more: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/05/25/fancy-restaurants-and-olympic-size-pools-what-the-media-won%E2%80%99t-report-about-gaza/#ixzz0p5JMYyMJ
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Palestinians detonate donkey along Gaza border
Palestinian terrorists detonated a donkey cart packed with about 400 pounds of explosives along the Gaza security fence on Tuesday in hopes of killing Israeli soldiers patrolling in the area.
The only casualty in the blast was the donkey pulling the cart.
A Damascus-based terror group claimed credit for the failed attack.
In other Gaza news, Palestinian terrorists fired two mortar shells into southern Israel on Tuesday, prompting an Israeli aerial assault on terrorist smuggling tunnels. Palestinian sources said 15 were hurt in the Israeli reprisals.
