Personal moral codes for the New Year

Monday, September 29, 2003

Bloodline, acrylic on canvas, 35x50 cm, Painting by Silvia Rosenberg

The New Year holiday included a gunman's attack on Negohot, a south Hebron settlement that has already been targeted by Palestinians in the past. A baby and a man in his 20s were killed, as was the gunman by reservist soldiers posted at the site. There was no immediate Israeli retaliation, though IDF troops arrest eight wanted Palestinians in the West Bank overnight. Indeed, despite security officials saying they have 40 alerts about terrorist plots in the making – and two mortars fired at Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip, causing no casualties or damage – this morning the army lifted the closure that prevented Palestinians from crossing the Green Line into Israel during the long weekend.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government is watching the formation of the new Palestinian government with more skepticism than optimism that even Ahmed Qureia's vaunted political skills will yield anything other than a puppet government for Yasser Arafat, whom Israel refuses to countenance as a partner for anything. Saeb Erekat and Sari Nusseibeh have both turned down Qurei's offer to be chief peace negotiators for the government, saying that it's up to the PLO to conduct peace talks with Israel, meaning Arafat. Meanwhile, one Palestinian left out of Qurei's government, Mohammed Dahlan, is telling the press that the Palestinians made a major mistake when they did not lay down their arms after September 11.

On another front, Palestinian sources said Nusseibeh had successfully convinced Israel to shift the route of the Jerusalem 'envelope fence' – the extension of the controversial separation/security fence – so that it does not divide the East Jerusalem Abu Dis campus of Al Quds University. Nusseibeh has apparently guaranteed the entire campus will be outside the fence, in meetings with Israeli officials partly mediated by the American consul-general in Jerusalem.

On the prisoner exchange front, PLC member Fares Kadura, considered close to Marwan Barghouti, said that some 700 Palestinian detainees will be released in the prisoner swap deal between Israel, Hezbollah. Kadura told Israel Radio this morning that he is being kept informed by Arab sources, not Israeli sources, about the progress in the negotiations between Israel and the Hezbollah. According to Amnon Zichroni, a Tel Aviv attorney who has been a negotiator in past prisoner exchanges, he's heard from 'people who are close to the current negotiations,' that the published reports so far are 'somewhat exaggerated' when it comes to the numbers of prisoners to be released in exchange for businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three dead soldiers.

Kadura indicated in the radio interview he would not be surprised if Barghouti is included in the prisoner exchange deal. Barghouti meanwhile appeared n Tel Aviv District Court t make his final statement in his ongoing trial as the commander who orchestrated several terror attacks leading up to 2002's 'Operation Defensive Shield,' in which the West bank Fateh leader was arrested. Barghouti did not mention any of the charges against him, nor defend himself against the charges. Instead, to the occasional applause of some foreign human rights activists who made it into the courtroom, Barghouti delivered an impassioned historic overview of the conflict and called for dialogue and peace talks instead of violence, but insisted the resistance to the occupation would continue as long as the occupation continues. He praised the 27 pilots –one recanted but another joined the list over the weekend – and said that he expects to be freed soon, anyway.

The father of a soldier killed in a suicide bombing on a bus at the Meron junction in the north meanwhile started off from the Galilee junction on a march to Jerusalem, at the head of a small party of other relatives of terror victims, in a peace protest that he said would stop at scenes of terror and in Arab and Israeli communities on the way to the capital. Their call for an immedate resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians prompted the mother of one of the other victims of the same bombing where Amiram Goldin lost his son, to protest against their protest, calling them traitors for even considering talking with 'the murderous enemy.' The angry grieving mother got three times as much air time on Israel Radio as Goldin, who appeared at a rare Peace Now rally two weekends ago to announce his plans for the march.

As for the pilots, their protest continued making waves, with Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz telling the Knesset that pilots who withdraw their signature from the refusal letter won't be punished, but that the 27 sullied the reputation of the air force and should be punished for it. Labor MK Dalia Itzik said her party was consistently opposed to refusal to serve, but air force commander Dan Halutz could have handled the entire affair much more sensitively. Other Labor MKs, such as MK Eitan Cabel, who still does military service as a reservist, and told Israel Radio that opposition to the act of refusal does not absolve the government and Israeli society of dealing with the issues raised by the pilots' letter.

In other developments, public service employee unions started striking today against the new rounds of firings planned for the civil service. Customs workers at all ports, including the airport, were 'working by the book' checking every piece of luggage at Ben-Gurion Airport, with the lines backing up further with each plane that landed. Fistfights were said to be breaking out at the airport among Israelis returning home to find that they faced hours in line to go through a stringent customs check.

The Supreme Court has meanwhile ruled it will hear the State Attorney's appeal against a lower court decision that Gilad Sharon does not have to hand over documents that that the son of the prime minister says would be self-incriminating, but that the state believes would actually incriminate the prime minister on a variety of charges ranging from illegal election financing to bribery and possibly money laundering. The prime minister meanwhile said today that he would not allow Beth-Hatefutsoth, the Jewish Diaspora Museum at the Tel Aviv University campus, to be closed due to budget cutbacks and a dearth of tourists to pay the entrance fee.

The Situation Archive

or just come back Monday through Friday for the day's situation.

Ariga Recommends

The Other Israel edited by Tom Segev, and published in September 2002, is a selection of essays, articles, and other jouranlist writings by a range of Israeli voices articulating practical, legal, and moral dissent to the Israeli government. The book questions popular assumptions about Israel's true supporters: are they those who support occupation, settlement and reprisal, or those calling for reconciliation and a just settlement? The book challenges the narrow perception that Zionism means taking over 'Judea, Samaria and the Gaza dsitrict.' Contributing writers include: David Grossman * Amira Hass * Avi Shlaim * Ilan Pappe * Gideon Levy * Meron Benvenisti * Neve Gordon * Shulamit Aloni * Baruch Kimmerling * Ami Ayalon * Ze'ev Sternhell * Gila Svirsky * Uri Avnery

[an error occurred while processing this directive] in Frosties, the anthology of quotations

Today's Situation || Yesterday's Situation