La Boucle d'Occam

France

- Intifada au Jeu de Paume, Catherine Dupeyron (Causeur)
http://www.causeur.fr/ahlam-shibli-jeu-paume-israel,23653
   "Les images parlent. Cela signifie qu’elles peuvent mentir. Mais face à une photo, a fortiori lorsqu’elle se veut documentaire, on éprouve une dangereuse impression d’authenticité : on croit être confronté au réel quand il s’agit de sa représentation – vieille affaire de la carte et du territoire. On croit être informé quand on est manipulé, volontairement ou pas. C’est bien ce qui menace les visiteurs de « Phantom Home », l’exposition de la photographe palestinienne Ahlam Shibli, qui a ouvert ses portes le 28 mai au musée du Jeu de Paume. Et mis en ébullition la rue juive, qui dénonce une « apologie du terrorisme ».
    Le sujet, il faut le dire, est déjà hautement inflammable puisqu’il s’agit du conflit israélo-palestinien. Sur ce terrain miné, l’exposition  manipule des images d’apparence quasi journalistique sans jamais fournir la mise en perspective qui permettrait au visiteur de les lire. [...]" (suite payante)

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"Processus de paix"

- ‘Boycott Israeli sports,’ calls PA official, Elhanan Miller (Times of Israel)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/boycott-israeli-sports-calls-pa-official/
   "Departing starkly from messages of peace and coexistence expressed by Israeli President Shimon Peres as he welcomed the Barcelona FC soccer team on Sunday, Fatah official and Palestinian Soccer Association head Jibril Rajoub took advantage of “the most important event in the history of Palestinian sports” to call for a sports boycott of Israel.
    Speaking to journalists at the entrance to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem Saturday, Rajoub said that sports were the best means to combat racism. He then proceeded to call for a sports ban on Israel, which “incites against anything Arab.” Rajoub dubbed the visit of Barcelona FC “the first breach in the history by the Palestinian sports movement of the siege laid on it by Israel.” [...]"
- $100 prizes for defining Israeli cities as "Palestinian" - on PA TV (Vidéo 1mn15)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJrdCi5UqdE
- Denying Israel's existence is worth $100 (PMW) - "PA TV Ramadan entertainment replaces Israel with "Palestine"."
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=9482

- Israël-Palestine : reprise des négociations de paix à la mi-août (AFP) - "Interrogée sur la possibilité de respecter le délai de neuf mois que les deux parties se sont donné à la demande des Etats-Unis pour parvenir à un accord, Mme Livni s'est montrée prudente. "Si au bout de huit mois, nous voyons que nous sommes proches d'un accord et qu'il faut encore un peu de temps, nous continuerons (au-delà des neuf mois), mais si les discussions ne sont pas sérieuses un seul mois devrait suffire pour s'en apercevoir", a ajouté la ministre."
http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/proche-orient/israel-palestine-reprise-des-negociations-de-paix-a-la-mi-aout_1271068.html
- Israël va libérer 26 prisonniers palestiniens le 13 août (AFP)
http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2013/08/04/israel-va-liberer-26-prisonniers-palestiniens-le-13-aout_922706
   "Les 26 premiers prisonniers palestiniens, parmi 104 détenus qui doivent être libérés par Israël dans le cadre de la reprise des négociations de paix, recouvreront la liberté le 13 août, a annoncé le négociateur palestinien Saëb Erakat.
   «La libération des prisonniers détenus de longue date va se faire en quatre temps, compte tenu du fait qu’Israël a refusé de tous les relâcher en même temps», a expliqué le négociateur palestinien dans un communiqué publié samedi. Israël a en effet indiqué que les 104 prisonniers seraient libérés progressivement en fonction de l’avancée des pourparlers de paix, qui ont repris mardi après trois ans de blocage et doivent aboutir à un accord de paix d’ici neuf mois selon l’objectif fixé par le secrétaire d’Etat américain John Kerry.
    Saëb Erakat a expliqué qu’Israël s’était engagé à rendre leur liberté pour le 13 août à «26 prisonniers âgés». Le gouvernement israélien avait approuvé il y a une semaine la libération de ces 104 détenus palestiniens et arabes israéliens, répondant ainsi à une exigence des responsables palestiniens. [...] Les noms de 104 prisonniers concernés n’ont pas encore été officiellement publiés, mais plusieurs sources rapportent que la liste devrait inclure des prisonniers incarcérés pour les meurtres de citoyens israéliens."

- Israeli-Palestinian riddle won't answer Middle East's wider woes (Reuters)
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Israeli-Palestinian-riddle-wont-answer-Middle-Easts-wider-woes-322077
   "The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which once transfixed the Arab world, has lost much of its resonance in a Middle East riven by religious strife, political upheaval and economic woes. News that the two sides had resumed peace talks last week after a three-year halt was largely overshadowed by turmoil in Egypt and the Syrian civil war, which has set Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims against one another. US officials still hope that resolving the decades-old confrontation will help to unlock the region's wider problems, but analysts say it no longer lies at the strategic heart of a troubled Middle East.
   "That was probably the case before the Arab uprisings, but a number of other struggles have now joined it, such as the Sunni-Shi'ite struggle and an intra-Sunni conflict," said Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center think tank. "The issue is a sideshow now, but it might take center-stage again if there was genuine progress," he said, underscoring deep skepticism in many quarters about the chances of a deal. [...]"

- The dangers of a weak peace, Riccardo Dugulin (holds a Master degree from the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Po) and is specialized in International Security) - "The first and immediate risk comes from what may be defined as Hamas’ fight for existence".
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4412965,00.html
   "[...] Even if the chances remain quite slim, a weak peace agreement between Israel and the PA should not be regarded as a success but rather as a further complication to the overall resolution of a decade long conflict.
    The reasons for this can be found in the core nature of the negotiating structure. The fact that the terrorist movement of Hamas rejects any possibility of long lasting peace creates a strong obstacle against regional stability, an obstacle which is only strengthened by Hezbollah ’s uncompromising hate for the Jewish State along with the inability of regional Arab and non-Arab powers to foster a serious peace-oriented discourse.
    For this, any outcome leading to a deal sealed between the PA and Israel through Washington's support in the coming months needs to be considered as a danger-filled event as in the short term it may fuel more violence further threatening local populations.
    The first and immediate risk comes from what may be defined as Hamas’ fight for existence. During the last few months, the Gaza-based terrorist group has suffered a number of setbacks due to the changing Egyptian situation. Its political legitimacy based on its self-defined notion of resistance against Israel has been weakened by the movement’s inability to lessen the Gaza economic and humanitarian hardships.
    The group knows that any agreement reached by the PA with Israel may come as a further blow to its ability to maneuver in the region while a peace deal, as weak as it may be, will be increasingly marginalizing Hamas inside a sealed of Gaza strip.
    For this, as it has been the case during previous negotiations, a rise in Hamas’ attempts to target Israeli civilian populations needs to be taken into serious consideration. Hamas understands that any Israeli military act of self-defense will be perceived as an aggression by the Palestinians and may derail peace talks or annul any achieved deal.
    The second point that needs to be taken into account as a result of this situation refers to the possibility of increased violence among Palestinians and against Israeli forces and civilians in Judea and Samaria. The general cohesion that has been censed during the UN vote resulting in the nominal creation of a Palestinian State by the General Assembly should not be misread.
    The Palestinian population residing in those regions has little respect for the PA and considers Mahmoud Abbas a Western puppet. Many commentators focus on the risk of a third intifada should the current negotiations fail to deliver. On the flip side, the following question should be raised: what if the Palestinians will not accept a deal brokered by the PA? A situation of chaos and violence in Judea and Samaria loosely organized to limit the viability of any deal is likely to come at high costs for Israel.
    As Israel is appearing to be the actor making all the painful decisions, the Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria may as well consider that they could have gotten more out of the Jewish State, a further reason which is likely to incite violence.
    The third risk deriving from a weak peace is embodied in the fact that even in the states having signed a formal peace deal with the Jewish State the local populations rarely accept such a status. From the anti-Semitic slogans branded by the Muslim Brothers to the numerous anti-Israeli events and protests that take place in Jordan, the overall feeling of the Arab Street is that peace with Israel is not the most favorable outcome to solve the Palestinian issue.
    One can only imagine the outrage a peace deal involving only Israel and the PA could cause among Hezbollah operatives, Syrian jihadists and how much the Iranian government would try to undermine any efforts made in Washington by further agitating a fragile region.
    These three points should not be interpreted as a way to dismiss the current peace efforts. Prime Minister Netanyahu is showing political realism and courage in the steps he is undertaking. Nevertheless, the US administration and the involved parties need to openly state that any agreement with the PA cannot be considered final as long as core spoilers are not neutralized. For this, international action must be taken against Hamas and Hezbollah while efforts must be made to include Arab powers in the negotiations in order to provide any outcome with increased legitimacy in the eyes of Israel’s neighbors."

- Palestinians Dismiss Prisoner Release as a "Bribe", Khaled Abu Toameh (Gatestone Institute) - "unlike the US and other Western governments, the Palestinian Authority does not see the release of prisoners as a conciliatory move on the part of the Israeli government" ; "while most Palestinians are expected to rejoice over the release of the prisoners, it is naïve to think that they will take to the streets to celebrate the resumption of peace talks with Israel".
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3917/palestinians-prisoner-release
   "The argument that the release of Palestinian prisoners boosts the standing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and "moderate" Palestinians and facilitates the resumption of peace talks with Israel is not necessarily true.
    Many Palestinians do not see Israel's decision to release more than 100 Palestinians who were imprisoned before the signing of the Oslo Accords two decades ago as a gesture on the part of Israel. Rather, they regard the Israeli move as something that Israel was supposed to have done anyway, many years ago.
    As Saeb Erekat, the chief PLO negotiator, explained: "This Israeli cabinet decision is an overdue step towards the implementation of the Sharm Sheikh agreement of 1999, whereby Israel committed to release all the pre-Oslo prisoners. We welcome this decision 14 years later." So unlike the US and other Western governments, the Palestinian Authority does not see the release of prisoners as a conciliatory move on the part of the Israeli government.
    Moreover, Palestinian Authority representatives do not believe there is a link between the release of prisoners and progress toward achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Many of the prisoners who are scheduled to be released do not even belong to Abbas's Fatah faction. It is unrealistic to think, for example, that members of Islamic Jihad or the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who killed Israelis are going to come out of prison and declare their support for the Oslo Accords and the two-state solution. There is also no guarantee that Fatah prisoners who were incarcerated before the signing of the Oslo Accords will endorse the peace process.
    Of course Abbas and Fatah will do their utmost to take advantage of the prisoner release to try and score points on the Palestinian street. Abbas's aides and loyalists are busy these days preparing a big rally in Ramallah to celebrate the release of the prisoners. They are keen on presenting the prisoner release as a "huge achievement" by Abbas. But even if a large number of Palestinians turn out to greet the prisoners, this still does not mean that they support Abbas's decision to resume peace talks with Israel.
    Some Palestinians, including Abbas loyalists, see the release of a few dozen prisoners as a "bribe" offered by US Secretary of State John Kerry to the Palestinian Authority president to entice him to return to the talks. These Palestinians point out that in return for this "bribe," Abbas was forced to drop his two other preconditions for resuming the peace talks: a full cessation of settlement construction and Israeli acceptance of the pre-1967 lines as the basis for a two-state solution.
    There are also Palestinians who see the release of about 100 prisoners as a "minor" achievement for Abbas, especially in comparison to Hamas's success in securing the release of more than 1000 inmates in return for kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Schalit. "Israel is not doing anyone a favor by releasing 100 prisoners," said a Fatah official in Ramallah. "While we welcome this decision, we do not see how it could help the peace process, particularly in light of the fact that there are more than 5,000 Palestinians who are still in prison."
    So while most Palestinians are expected to rejoice over the release of the prisoners, it is naïve to think that they will take to the streets to celebrate the resumption of peace talks with Israel. The prisoner release could benefit Abbas in the short-term. But in the long-term, many Palestinians will continue to see it as part of an Israeli-American scheme to extract concessions from Abbas and the Palestinian Authority leadership. After the celebrations over the release of the prisoners end, Palestinians will continue to criticize Abbas for "succumbing" to US pressure and going to the peace talks against the recommendation of the PLO leadership. And of course they will continue to attack Israel for not fulfilling all their demands, including a settlement freeze and the release of the rest of the prisoners."

- The Media Perpetuates Myth About Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks (CAMERA)
http://blog.camera.org/archives/2013/08/the_media_perpetuates_myth_abo.html
   "Why does the media routinely perpetuate the myth that responsibility for the success or failure of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks lies with Israel and not the Palestinians? A recent Reuters article describes the Israeli Prime Minister "returning" to negotiations once he realized he could not afford to "take the rap for cold shouldering U.S. efforts to revive the talks." "Pressured by Washington, worried about its international standing and perturbed by Middle East turmoil, Israel had many reasons to return to peace talks with the Palestinians this week after a three year hiatus."
    But it wasn't the Israeli prime minister who needed convincing. He has repeatedly expressed his willingness to resume negotiations without any preconditions. And it was the Israeli prime minister who made all the concessions in advance of the last round of peace talks, risking domestic opposition by agreeing to a 10-month moratorium on building in the West Bank. By contrast, it is the Palestinian president who continuously refuses to negotiate without preconditions, demanding concessions from Israel that are meant to be the result of talks. It is the Palestinian president who dismissed Israel's moratorium last time as inadequate. And it was the Palestinian president who after finally yielding to American pressure to join peace talks, immediately walked away from negotiations when the moratorium expired.
    Yet all mention of Palestinian responsibility for the failure of peace talks is concealed from readers: "The last round of U.S.-brokered negotiations collapsed barely after they began in 2010 in a row over continued Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem on land the Palestinians want for their future state"."

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Gaza & Hamas

- Gaza is exporting spices to the US (Elder of Ziyon) - "The article doesn't mention that Israel helps Gaza farmers get up to speed on the latest farming techniques and they also help them export their goods".
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/08/gaza-is-exporting-spices-to-us.html

- Egyptian siege continues - only two groups visited Gaza in July (Elder of Ziyon) - "I still have not seen anyone referring to Egypt's near-total isolation of Gaza as being a "siege" or a "blockade"."
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/08/egyptian-siege-continues-only-two.html

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Israël

- Arab MK Envisions End of Israel... Nothing Happens (CAMERA)
http://blog.camera.org/archives/2013/08/arab_mk_envisions_end_of_israe_1.html
   "On August 1, an Arab member of Israel’s parliament, or Knesset, Jamal Zahalka, stood at the podium and declared, “We [Arabs] were here before you and we’ll be here after you.” In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that he wanted to speak, went to the podium and answered, “The first part is not correct and the second part will not happen.” [Voir la vidéo ici, ne pas oublier d'activer les sous-titres.]
    It is clear that this could not happen if Israel were an “apartheid” state because there would be no Arab members of Knesset. And, if Israel were not a free state, certainly no member of the Knesset could openly declare a desire for the end of the state without fear of prison or even censure.
    Imagine even the most radical member of Congress, from anywhere across the political spectrum, standing on the floor of the House or Senate and envisioning the end of the United States. It would cause an uproar. But in Israel, it only elicits a brief remark from the Prime Minister."

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Egypte

- '30 Palestinians died in Sinai anti-terror offensive', Michal Shmulovich (Times of Israel) - "as part of its anti-terror campaign in Sinai over the last month, the Egyptian army has arrested 90 suspected terrorists, 7 of whom were West Bank Palestinians, and that 60 armed militants were killed, including 30 Palestinians". Et pourtant cette opération ne reçoit aucune couverture médiatique occidentale, ou presque. Qu'en serait-il s'il s'était agi d'une opération israélienne ?
http://www.timesofisrael.com/30-palestinians-died-in-sinai-anti-terror-offensive/

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Liban & Hezbollah

- Nasrallah: No one can relinquish one clod of Palestinian land, Roi Kais (Ynet) - "Hezbollah's leader makes rare public appearance for al-Quds Day, slams Israel in speech: 'Palestine stretches from sea to river. Israel is a tumor which must be uprooted'."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4413030,00.html
- Nasrallah, in vicious public address, calls for the destruction of Israel (Times of Israel) - "In first public appearance in almost a year, Hezbollah leader says no Arab leader has the right to relinquish any part of Palestine, ‘from the river to the sea’."
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hezbollah-leader-rallies-shiites-with-highly-sectarian-speech/

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Iran

- Pour le nouveau président iranien, Israël est "une blessure qui doit être éliminée" (AFP)
http://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/proche-orient/pour-le-nouveau-president-iranien-israel-est-une-blessure-qui-doit-etre-eliminee_382722.html
   "Le monde a salué, en juin, l'élection d'un homme considéré comme modéré, Hassan Rohani, à la tête de l'Iran. Mais, à la veille de son investiture, le nouveau chef de l'Etat a tenu, vendredi 2 août, des propos violents à l'égard d'Israël, bête noire de son prédécesseur, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, et de nombreux hauts responsables iraniens. S'exprimant à l'occasion de la Journée de Jérusalem, un rassemblement pro-palestinien à Téhéran, selon le quotidien israélien Haaretz, Hassan Rohani a déclaré : "Le régime sioniste est une blessure infligée depuis des années au corps du monde musulman, et cette blessure doit être éliminée." [...]"
- Israël, une "blessure" pour les musulmans, estime Rohani (Reuters) - "selon une nouvelle version de ses propos, adoucie par rapport à une première diffusion".
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/isra%C3%ABl-une-blessure-pour-les-musulmans-estime-hassan-145848697.html
   "Deux jours avant son investiture, le nouveau président iranien Hassan Rohani a déclaré vendredi que l'occupation israélienne des territoires palestiniens était une "blessure" pour le monde musulman, selon une nouvelle version de ses propos, adoucie par rapport à une première diffusion. "Après tout, dans notre région, il y a une blessure depuis des années dans le corps du monde musulman à l'ombre de l'occupation de la terre sainte de Palestine et d'Al Qods la bien-aimée", a déclaré Rohani dans l'extrait diffusé par la chaîne de télévision publique Press TV.
     Auparavant, une dépêche de l'agence estudiantine iranienne Isna avait publié des propos plus offensifs. "Le régime sioniste est une blessure qui est restée sur le corps du monde musulman pendant des années et qui doit être enlevée", avait déclaré le président élu selon Isna. Par la suite, Isna a retiré sa dépêche et publié une version corrigée des propos prêtés au nouveau président.
    Sa première version, dans la lignée de la tonalité très anti-israélienne du président sortant Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a été très vite désavouée par la presse d'Etat iranienne, qui a déclaré que des agences de presse non précisées avaient déformé les propos du président Rohani. La chaîne de télévision publique Press TV a alors diffusé l'extrait adouci, provenant d'un échange entre Hassan Rohani et des journalistes lors d'un rassemblent pour la journée annuelle iranienne "Al Qods" (Jérusalem) de soutien aux Palestiniens. [...]"
- Hassan Rohani officiellement investi à la présidence iranienne (Reuters)
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/hassan-rohani-officiellement-investi-%C3%A0-la-pr%C3%A9sidence-iranienne-132916003.html

- Les propos de Rohani sur Israël indignent Netanyahou (AFP)
http://www.lepoint.fr/monde/les-propos-de-rohani-sur-israel-indignent-netanyahou-02-08-2013-1710809_24.php
   "Le Premier ministre israélien Benyamin Netanyahou a réagi vendredi aux déclarations du nouveau président iranien en estimant que Hassan Rohani montrait "son vrai visage plus tôt que prévu", selon un communiqué de ses services. "Le vrai visage de Rohani a été dévoilé plus tôt que prévu. Même si les Iraniens s'empressaient maintenant de nier ses propos, c'est ce qu'il pense et c'est le plan d'action du régime iranien", a déclaré Benyamin Netanyahou après les déclarations du président iranien comparant Israël à une "blessure" qu'il faut faire disparaître.
   "Ces déclarations du président iranien devraient sortir une partie du monde de l'illusion dans laquelle il est plongé depuis l'élection en Iran", poursuit Benyamin Netanyahou. "Le président a changé en Iran, mais pas le but du régime de fabriquer l'arme nucléaire afin de menacer Israël, le Proche-Orient et la paix et la sécurité du monde entier. Il ne faut pas laisser un pays qui menace Israël de destruction se doter d'une arme de destruction massive", ajoute-t-il. [...]"
- PMO: Rouhani’s Israel remarks show ‘extremist agenda', Herb Keinon (JP) - “the Iranian regime has the ability to control the local press. We don’t accept the denial at face value.”
http://www.jpost.com/Iranian-Threat/News/PMO-Rouhanis-Israel-remarks-show-extremist-agenda-321975
   "Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office on Saturday night stood by its fierce condemnation of comments attributed to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that the “Zionist regime is a wound that needs to be removed,” saying Iran’s later denial of the statement was possibly manipulation of the state-run press. [...]
    Shortly after the ISNA report – which echoed the fiercely anti-Israel language of outgoing president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and contradicted the image Rohuani is trying to portray as a “moderate” – the Iranian state media repudiated the story, claiming that unidentified news agencies had distorted Rouhani’s remarks. Iran’s Press TV then broadcast an excerpt from an exchange between Rouhani and journalists at an al-Quds Day event. [...]
    But the exchange that was broadcast on Press TV did nothing to alter the position in the Prime Minister’s Office. One official said that the PMO had no doubt that “the remarks that were [originally] attributed to him [Rouhani] correctly reflect his extremist agenda.”
    Asked how the PMO could stand by condemnation of a statement that was at odds with what appeared in the Press TV segment, the official hinted at manipulation, saying that the “the Iranian regime has the ability to control the local press. We don’t accept the denial at face value,” the official said. “Why would the original Iranian report distort his words?” This suggested that the Iranian regime – concerned that Rouhani’s comments would harm the image he has been trying to portray as a “moderate” – possibly staged an exchange with journalists in which Rouhani watered down his original statement. [...]"

- Ahmadinejad : Israël sera "déraciné" (AFP)
http://www.lepoint.fr/monde/ahmadinejad-israel-sera-deracine-02-08-2013-1710792_24.php
   "Le président sortant iranien Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a affirmé vendredi qu'Israël, ennemi numéro un de la République islamique d'Iran, serait "déraciné", lors de manifestations de masse organisées à travers le pays pour la Journée annuelle de Jérusalem. "Je vous informe, et Dieu m'est témoin, qu'une tempête dévastatrice va déraciner la base du sionisme", a dit Mahmoud Ahmadinejad avant la prise de fonctions samedi du nouveau président Hassan Rohani, élu en juin.
    Israël "n'a pas de place dans cette région", a-t-il ajouté devant une foule rassemblée à Téhéran à l'occasion de la Journée annuelle de Jérusalem. Téhéran ne reconnaît pas l'existence d'Israël et les responsables iraniens qualifient l'État hébreu de "régime sioniste illégitime". L'Iran se pose aussi en défenseur des droits des Palestiniens, aux côtés du Hezbollah chiite libanais et de la Syrie, un autre point de friction avec l'Occident. La négation de l'Holocauste et le déni du droit d'Israël à l'existence sont régulièrement affirmés par les principaux dirigeants iraniens, dont le guide suprême iranien Ali Khamenei. [...]"
- Iran : nouveau poste pour Ahmadinejad (AFP) - "L'ex-président iranien Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, qui vient de passer la main à Hassan Rohani, a été nommé aujourd'hui membre du Conseil de discernement. Il s'agit de la plus haute instance d'arbitrage politique en Iran".
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2013/08/05/97001-20130805FILWWW00275-iran-un-nouveau-poste-pour-ahmadinejad.php

"Processus de paix"

- In Palestinian Authority TV Film, Palestinian Factions Unite to Beat Jewish Settlers, Cut Their Sidelocks (Palestinian Authority TV, 29 juillet, Vidéo 6mn10) - les Juifs sont dépeints comme des fourbes cruels mais lâches qui ne rêvent que d'empoisonner la vie des Arabes, lesquels en se réunissant parviennent enfin à reprendre le dessus et à lapider les premiers, ainsi qu'à leur couper leurs papillotes. Tout ceci à la télévision officielle de l'Autorité palestinienne.
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/3932.htm

- Israël/Palestine : encore loin d'un accord (Reuters) - "Tzipi Livni a rejeté la demande palestinienne de se concentrer d'abord sur le tracé des frontières".
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2013/07/31/97001-20130731FILWWW00417-israelpalestine-encore-loin-d-un-accord.php
   "Israël et les Palestiniens sont encore loin d'un éventuel accord de paix, ont rapporté aujourd'hui des responsables des deux camps, au lendemain de la reprise de pourparlers qui étaient interrompus depuis près de trois ans. [...] Tzipi Livni, négociatrice en chef du camp israélien, a estimé aujourd'hui que les deux parties avaient encore besoin d'instaurer une confiance mutuelle, et elle a rejeté la demande palestinienne de se concentrer d'abord sur le tracé des frontières d'un éventuel Etat indépendant. "L'objectif, c'est de mettre fin au conflit", a-t-elle dit à Radio israël. "Il ne peut pas cesser simplement avec le tracé d'une frontière." Dans le camp palestinien, Yasser Abed Rabbo, un proche du président Mahmoud Abbas, a prévu que les négociateurs, qui se donnent neuf mois pour réussir à trouver un accord, rencontreraient des "difficultés colossales". [...]"

- Palestinian NGO Network: Resuming peace talks now is "dangerous" (JP)
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Palestinian-NGO-Network-Resuming-peace-talks-now-is-dangerous-321659
   "The Palestinian NGO Network, a group of 133 Palestinian NGOs in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip said in a press statement on Wednesday that resuming Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after a three year hiatus would be "dangerous" at this time, Middle East Monitor reported. According to the website, the statement suggested that peace negotiations would lead to danger because of a failure on Israel's part to officially commit to preconditions proposed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. These preconditions include the June 1967 borders, a freeze on settlement construction and releasing Palestinian prisoners.
    The network noted that although peace talks seem to be in motion, it is clear that Israel is not discontinuing the building and expansion of settlement units, seizing land and Judaising Jerusalem, reported the monitor. "Negotiations act as a cover for Israel's expansionist and racist policies in a blatant exploitation of the so-called political process, in order to dispel the goals of the national Palestinian struggle," the statement allegedly said.
    The organization also said that at a time when Israeli boycott campaigns are intensifying throughout the world, "the negotiations will lead an end to this by convincing the world- wrongly that there is a political process in progress." [...]"

- Seven Reasons Kerry's Mideast Talks Are Delusional, Jeffrey Goldberg (Bloomberg) - "I hope that there's a secret Plan B -- some sort of interim arrangement that could forestall further tragedy even in the absence of a permanent accord. Because if there isn't, and Kerry's negotiations fail, then the situation next year may be even unhappier than it is now".
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-31/seven-reasons-kerry-s-mideast-talks-are-delusional.html
   "Well OK, then: In about nine months, the Arab-Israeli conflict will be over, and we can all move on to something else. Here's what John Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state, said yesterday at a news conference in Washington, in the presence of the lead Palestinian and Israeli peace negotiators: "The parties have agreed here today that all of the final status issues, all of the core issues, and all other issues are all on the table for negotiation. And they are on the table with one simple goal: a view to ending the conflict, ending the claims. Our objective will be to achieve a final status agreement over the course of the next nine months." Just to be clear, this is what will need to happen by next April, in time for the White House signing ceremony:
    1. Jerusalem, the holiest city in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam, will have to be divided in a way that doesn't cause a global religious war. A Palestinian capital will have to be established in the eastern half of the city, and the world's Muslims must agree to the continued control over much of the Old City, including and especially the Western Wall, by Israel. For their part, the Israelis must agree to cede permanent control of the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, to Muslim religious authorities. That or the parties must agree to international control over the so-called Holy Basin, which contains the most important sites of monotheism.
    2. The Jews who live in Hebron, Judaism's second-holiest city, must be made to leave, because the city will be part of Palestine. Or the Palestinian Authority must be convinced to grant them citizenship. The stated position of the Palestinian Authority is that Palestine will be empty of Israelis.
    3. The descendants of the Palestinians who either fled or were expelled from what is now Israel during the 1948 Arab attack on the fledgling Jewish state must be told that they aren't moving to Israel. The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, must also survive the inevitable attempts on his life if he agrees to give up the Palestinian claim of "return." Also, the Palestinians will have to agree never to lodge claims against Israel again.
    4. A plan must be formulated to remove anywhere from 50,000 to 80,000 Israelis from the settlements on the far side of the West Bank security barrier. Among these settlers are thousands of fanatics who sympathized with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the former Israeli prime minister, for negotiating with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Also, Israel will have to stop building new settlements and thickening others. The current Israeli government is possibly the most pro-settler one in the country's history, and a good percentage of the Israeli officer corps, the soldiers who would have to remove Jews from settlements, lives in settlements.
    5. Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must be persuaded to trust each other. As Avi Issacharoff writes in the Times of Israel, "Abbas believes Netanyahu is unwilling to make peace, while Netanyahu believes Abbas is unable to. Both are sending out pessimistic vibes, giving those around them the feeling that nothing much will come of all this. This can be seen in their decision to send representatives to Washington instead of holding a high-level summit."
    6. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, where almost half the future citizens of Palestine live, must either dissolve itself or be dissolved by force or change its ideology in such a way as to conform to the Palestinian Authority's vision of compromise. If Hamas refuses to change, then Israel and the Palestinian Authority must have an effective plan to counter the mass acts of terrorism that often come during periods of heightened hopes for peace.
    7. Hezbollah and Iran must be convinced not to start a war designed to interrupt the peace process. Also, Iran must be stopped from going nuclear, which would further destabilize an already destabilized Middle East. Also, Egypt must not collapse, the Syrian civil war must not spill over into the Israeli-Palestinian arena, Lebanon must remain a unitary state and Jordan must stay under control of the Hashemite monarchy.
    I'm sure I'm missing some things. I'll mention those later, whatever they are. I actually admire Kerry's chutzpah a great deal. It's important, for the sake of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, that a compromise is constructed in a way that prevents further bloodshed. I just hope that there's a secret Plan B -- some sort of interim arrangement that could forestall further tragedy even in the absence of a permanent accord. Because if there isn't, and Kerry's negotiations fail, then the situation next year may be even unhappier than it is now."

- Now We Know The Truth: What's Behind U.S. "Peace Process" Policy, Barry Rubin (director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA), and professor at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel) - "To summarize, the United States proposes surrender to a development breaking its more than 20-year-long policy that no comprehensive solution would be achieved without real mutual agreement".
http://rubinreports.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/now-we-know-truth-whats-behind-us-peace.html
   "At last we have an explanation for what has been going on with Israel-Palestinian talks. It is credible yet ridiculous. And it is very important. Here is today’s New York Times: “In recent weeks, Mr. Kerry and his aides have outlined several basic arguments for why his efforts might bear fruit. Perhaps the most important one, which Mr. Kerry advanced almost the moment he was picked for the State Department post, is that the United States does not have the luxury of staying on the sidelines." “With the Palestinians poised to take their claim for statehood to the International Criminal Court and United Nations bodies, American officials say the two sides were facing a downward spiral in which the Israelis would respond by cutting off financing to the Palestinian territories and European nations might curtail their investment in Israel, further isolating the Israelis.”
     Now, what is this saying?
    --The Palestinian Authority (PA) intends to violate all the pledges used over the last 20 years of negotiations and in obtaining the West Bank and, previously, Gaza Strip. (Not a good precedent for the likelihood of their keeping future commitments.)
    --For doing so it is not being punished but rewarded.
    --The PA will seek statehood not through negotiations with Israel but unilaterally. No Israel agreement will be necessary.
    --Note a key assumption here: The United States either will not oppose, or effectively oppose, this effort. Let’s pause here. You mean the United States cannot lead or pressure such countries as Britain, France, Germany, or Italy in saying “”no.” The New York Times doesn’t point out what a failure of Obama Administration influence that would be. Let’s also note the incompetence and failure of that government to stop leading allies at the UN General Assembly to vote for non-member statehood (a non-binding vote) last year despite a one-year warning the PA would try this.
    --To summarize, the United States proposes surrender to a development breaking its more than 20-year-long policy that no comprehensive solution would be achieved without real mutual agreement. [...]"

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Israël

- Apartheid! Israel closes Temple Mount to non-Muslims for two weeks (Elder of Ziyon) - "This year, the site was open in the morning for the first two weeks, although Jewish visitors were harassed and verbally abused, which led the police to evacuate them on several occasions".
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/08/apartheid-israel-closes-temple-mount-to.html

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Gaza & Hamas

- PA minister urges Palestinians to revolt against Hamas, Khaled Abu Toameh (JP)
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/PA-minister-urges-Palestinians-to-revolt-against-Hamas-321663
   "A Palestinian Authority cabinet minister in Ramallah on Wednesday issued a fatwa (Islamic religious decree) obliging Palestinians to revolt against Hamas and end its control over the Gaza Strip. The fatwa, issued by PA Minister for Wakf Affairs Mahmoud Habbash, is yet another sign of mounting tensions between Fatah and Hamas in the wake of the crisis in Egypt. Fatah, the ruling faction of the PA, supports the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi, while Hamas has condemned it as a military coup against a legitimate and democratically elected leader.
    Writing on his Facebook account, Habbash said in his fatwa that it was the duty of Muslims to end Hamas’s control over the Gaza Strip. Habbash said that there were two ways of achieving this goal: either by achieving reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, or by revolting against the Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip.
    It was the duty of Muslims “to liberate Palestine and Jerusalem. This duty can’t be fulfilled without achieving unity. Hence, it is a duty to unite,” the PA minister explained in his fatwa. “But unity can’t be achieved without ending the split [between Hamas and Fatah]. Hence it is a duty to end the split. But ending the split can’t be achieved without ending Hamas’s control over the Gaza Strip. Hence, it is a duty to end the Hamas control over the Gaza Strip. Ending the Hamas control over the Gaza Strip can be done only in two ways: reconciliation or a revolution against Hamas. Therefore, one of these options is a duty,” he wrote."

- Fuel crisis in Gaza Strip intensifying (The Media Line) - "Following Egypt's block of tunnels providing goods, gas now scarce in Gaza Strip. Palestinian say they are angry with Egypt's policies".
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4412254,00.html

- Jordan refuses potato shipment from Gaza (Elder of Ziyon)
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/07/jordan-refuses-potato-shipment-from-gaza.html
   "On Sunday, two truckloads of potatoes were shipped out of Gaza through Israel en route to Jordan as another massive hole was exploited in the supposed "siege" of Gaza. Today, Jordan refused the shipment. The reason? Gaza isn't on Jordan's list of approved countries for potato imports.
    The Gaza potato farmers did everything necessary to ensure that Israel would be comfortable with the export going through its territory. They must have had a paying customer in Jordan. It is plausible, if far-fetched, that no one thought to ask whether Jordan would allow potatoes from Gaza to be imported. Jordan's farmers have been upset over imports of produce from other countries, particularly Israel, so it is possible that they placed some pressure on whatever official made this decision.
    The Gaza exporter noted that the Palestinian Authority did nothing to try to convince Jordan to allow the import. The siege of Gaza is apparently true - it is blockaded by Jordan and the Palestinian Authority."

---

Jordanie

- Leader of Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood Hammam Saeed: Peace Negotiations Are Heresy (Al-Aqsa TV, 24 mai & 7 juin, Vidéo 4mn16) - "We must not forget the enemy, which planted the Jews in our land" ; "Anyone who says that Palestine belongs to the Jews has no place in the religion of Allah, and no room in this creed. This is an issue of heresy and belief" ; "There is only one case in which negotiations are possible. It is like when Saladin brought 20 Crusader kings, and put them to death, cleansing Palestine and leaving no trace of them in the pure land of Palestine. This is what we say to the Jews: We will not accept you on the land of Palestine" ; "I say to you, oh Jews: The time of your reckoning has come" ; "Allah Akbar. Palestine is the land of our forefathers. Palestine is the land of our forefathers".
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/3930.htm

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Monde arabe

- Antisemitic Arab TV Series "Khaybar": Deception Is the Creed of the Jews, Conspiracy Their Religion (Dubai TV, juillet 2013, Vidéo 2mn20) - "Have you forgotten that many a prophet has been killed by the Israelites?" ; "We, the Jews, are not satisfied with anything but deception and scheming in the dark"...
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/3934.htm

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Iran

- Iran declares that Israel will never realize its "Nile to Euphrates" dream (Elder of Ziyon) - "This Friday will be the annual "Quds Day", and this article in Iran's Farsnews is fairly typical of the articles appearing in Iranian media for the last couple of days".
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/08/iran-declares-that-israel-will-never.html

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Europe

- Les Juifs de Malmö quittent la ville (Philosémitisme) - "le phénomène n'est pas limité à Malmö - il y est plus visible quand dans l'autres villes comme Stockholm dont le centre est compact et où il y a moins de ségrégation".
http://philosemitismeblog.blogspot.fr/2013/08/les-juifs-de-malmo-senfuient-de-la-ville.html
- Reported anti-Semitic attacks triple in Malmö (JTA)
http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Reported-anti-Semitic-attacks-triple-in-Malm%C3%B6-321768

France

- Le djihad s'apprend tout seul sur Internet, Shahzad Abdul & Laurent Borredon (Le Monde) - "Ce devoir de djihad mondial, d'abord justifié par le conflit israélo-palestinien, se déplace sur les terres occidentales" ; "[dans] certains cas, comme celui des juifs, le djihadiste peut "tuer les femmes et enfants"."
http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2013/07/30/le-djihad-s-apprend-tout-seul-sur-internet_3455222_3224.html
   "[...] Les sites visités par Abdelkader Merah ne sont pas cachés : ils apparaissent même en tête des moteurs de recherche en utilisant des mots-clés évidents – "djihad", "charia", etc. Ils sont traduits en français, et donc susceptibles de toucher un public bien plus large que la revue d'Al-Qaida sur le Web, "Inspire", rédigée en anglais. Surtout, ils glissent par petites touches de la propagande prônant un islam rigoriste vers la défense du djihad le plus dur. La plupart des textes sont construits autour d'un même raisonnement binaire. Quel que soit le thème abordé, les arguments sont identiques, étayés par des textes religieux détournés de leur sens premier et instrumentalisés. Objectif : offrir des fondements idéologiques à une pensée rigoriste, avant d'apostropher le lecteur pour qu'il choisisse son camp. [...]
    "La première obligation qui incombe aux musulmans n'est-elle pas le combat ?", interroge l'auteur du texte sobrement intitulé "La paix ou l'épée", qui poursuit : "Ils doivent sortir au djihad jeunes ou âgés, chacun selon ses propres capacités (...). Des gens veulent pratiquer des actes spirituels et temporels complètement difficiles malgré leur manque d'avantages, alors que le djihad est religieusement plus salutaire. C'est en réalité le meilleur acte pour un musulman." Ce devoir de djihad mondial, d'abord justifié par le conflit israélo-palestinien, se déplace sur les terres occidentales. [...]
    Dans une dernière étape, les textes mâchent le travail du néodjihadiste : ils sélectionnent pour lui des cibles potentielles. "On ne peut pas inculquer aux gens qu'il est interdit de combattre les civils", indique l'auteur des "Innocents", qui liste les "infidèles" en général et précise certains cas, comme celui des juifs, dont le djihadiste peut "tuer les femmes et enfants si eux commencent à tuer". Mais un musulman ne peut être tué, sauf à avoir "aidé militairement" l'ennemi. [...]"

- Négociations - Petit florilège de commentaires sur Le Monde.fr :
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/reactions/2013/07/28/reprise-des-negociations-de-paix-israelo-palestinienne-lundi-a-washington_3454703_3218.html
- Sylvaner (29/07/2013 - 16h40)
   "Tant que le colonisé n'aura pas totalement baissé son pantalon et accepter gentiment de quitter les lieux en baissant la tête, Israël ne négociera pas et continuera de coloniser, d'humilier, de détruire..."
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/reactions/2013/07/28/israel-pret-a-liberer-104-palestiniens-dans-le-cadre-des-negociations_3454642_3218.html
- Christian Eypper (28/07/2013 - 20h26)
   "[...] Les palestiniens sont soumis à un régime d'oppression et de violence sans équivalent dans le monde. Les terres sont pillées, les maisons rasées, les populations déplacées, tout déplacement contrôlé, et la plupart du temps pratiquement impossible. Coincé entre une armée qui possède tous les pouvoirs et les colons fanatiques, le sort des palestiniens n'a rien à [envier]"
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/reactions/2013/07/29/les-discussions-entre-palestiniens-et-israeliens-vont-commencer-sur-des-bases-modestes_3454928_3218.html
- Michel (29/07/2013 - 22h15)
   "comme d'habitude des discussions pour rien,uniquement pour amuser la galerie, car les israéliens n'en font qu'à leur tête et se foutent de tout le monde."
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/reactions/2013/07/29/un-parti-palestinien-rejette-les-negociations-avec-israel_3455112_3218.html
- Rudolf BKOUCHE (30/07/2013 - 00h46)
   "On va une fois de plus assister à une mascarade. Et puis après on pourra pleurer sur les occasions perdues. Mais reste un fait, l'occupation et l'annexion rampante de la Palestine par Israël."

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"Processus de paix" - Reprise des négociations

- Les discussions entre Palestiniens et Israéliens vont commencer sur des bases modestes (Le Monde.fr)
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2013/07/29/les-discussions-entre-palestiniens-et-israeliens-vont-commencer-sur-des-bases-modestes_3454928_3218.html
   "[...] Selon le quotidien israélien Haaretz, le premier contact aura lieu lors du dîner d'Iftar, qui marque la fin du jeûne du ramadan. Il "sera informel et aura pour but premier d'établir une atmosphère amicale". Ce qui ne sera pas une mince affaire pour les deux parties qui ont cessé toute négociation officielle voilà presque trois ans. Selon le secrétariat d'Etat américain, il ne s'agit là que du "commencement de ces discussions" qui permettront de dresser un "plan de travail" afin que "les deux parties parviennent à des négociations dans les prochains mois". En clair, selon un officiel américain cité par le New York Times, ils devront s'entendre sur le "lieu, le calendrier et le format" des négocations. [...]"
- Israël et Palestine sont d'accord pour négocier pendant neuf mois (AFP)
http://www.20minutes.fr/article/1193825/ynews1193825?xtor=RSS-176
   "Les Etats-Unis ont indiqué que les Israëliens et les Palestiniens sont tombés d'accord ce lundi soir pour mener des négociations de paix durant au moins 9 mois, à quelques heures de la reprise de leurs pourparlers directs à Washington. «Il s'agit du début de négociations directes sur un calendrier d'au moins neuf mois», a déclaré la porte-parole du département d'Etat Jennifer Psaki, précisant qu'il ne s'agissait pas d'une «date-butoir».
    Après plus de six décennies de conflit et de multiples échecs de relance du processus de paix, le président américain Barack Obama a salué un moment «prometteur» mais a averti les deux camps qu'ils devront faire des «choix difficiles». «Le plus dur reste à venir dans ces négociations et j'espère que tant les Israéliens que les Palestiniens aborderont ces discussions de bonne foi, avec détermination et une attention soutenue», a déclaré Barack Obama dans un communiqué. [...]"
- Israël-Palestine : Kerry vise un accord d'ici à neuf mois (Le Monde.fr)
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2013/07/30/israel-palestine-kerry-vise-un-accord-d-ici-a-neuf-mois_3455570_3218.html
   "Rendez-vous pris pour dans deux semaines, entre les négociateurs israéliens et palestiniens, et cette fois au Proche-Orient. Les deux camps "se rencontreront (...) en Israël ou dans les territoires palestiniens (...) pour des négociations formelles", avec pour "objectif" de trouver "un accord final au cours des neuf prochains mois", a déclaré John Kerry devant la presse, mardi 30 juillet. Le chef de la diplomatie américaine, l'artisan de cette reprise de contacts directs entre Israéliens et Palestiniens après trois ans de gel, s'exprimait aux côtés de la ministre israélienne de la justice, Tzipi Livni, et du négociateur en chef palestinien, Saëb Erakat. [...]"
- Israéliens et Palestiniens se reverront d'ici deux semaines (Reuters)
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/isra%C3%A9liens-et-palestiniens-se-reverront-dici-deux-semaines-162026126.html
   "Les négociateurs israéliens et palestiniens, qui ont repris lundi à Washington leurs discussions gelées depuis trois ans, ont eu des entretiens "constructifs et positifs" et se reverront d'ici deux semaines en Israël ou dans les territoires palestiniens, a déclaré mardi le secrétaire d'Etat américain John Kerry. Il a précisé qu'Israël allait annoncer dans les prochains jours des mesures pour améliorer la situation en Cisjordanie et dans la bande de Gaza. [...]"
- Washington dinner date launches resumption of negotiations (Euronews, Vidéo 49 secondes)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12gdud_washington-dinner-date-launches-resumption-of-middle

- Mahmoud Abbas ne veut pas d'Israélien dans l'Etat palestinien, Ali Sawafta (Reuters) - "Mahmoud Abbas n'a pas signalé un assouplissement de sa position".
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/mahmoud-abbas-ne-veut-pas-disra%C3%A9lien-dans-letat-054538060.html
   "Le président de l'Autorité palestinienne Mahmoud Abbas a présenté lundi sa vision d'un statut final des relations israélo-palestiniennes avant la reprise de pourparlers entre les deux parties à Washington, gelés depuis 2010. S'adressant à un groupe de journalistes, égyptiens pour la plupart, Mahmoud Abbas a déclaré qu'aucun colon ou militaire israélien ne pourra demeurer dans un futur Etat palestinien [...]
    Israël dit vouloir maintenir une présence militaire en Cisjordanie occupée, à la frontière avec la Jordanie, pour prévenir l'importation d'armes qui pourraient être employées contre l'Etat juif. Mais Mahmoud Abbas a déclaré s'en tenir aux accords de principe qu'il dit avoir conclus avec l'ancien Premier ministre Ehud Olmert, le prédécesseur de Benjamin Netanyahu, selon lesquels des forces de l'Otan pourraient se déployer "comme garantie de sécurité pour nous et pour eux".
    Sur l'avenir des [localités] juives en Cisjordanie et le statut de Jérusalem, Mahmoud Abbas n'a pas signalé un assouplissement de sa position. "Nous avons déjà fait toutes les concessions nécessaires", a-t-il dit. "Jérusalem-Est est la capitale de l'Etat de Palestine (...). S'il doit y avoir un certain type d'échange modeste (de territoire) équivalant en taille et en valeur, nous sommes prêts à en discuter - ni plus ni moins." [...]"

- Reprise des pourparlers israélo-palestiniens à Washington, Dan Williams (Reuters) - "Signe que le dialogue direct risque d'être difficile, les deux parties ont affiché publiquement leurs divergences sur l'ordre du jour. Un responsable israélien a déclaré que toutes les questions devaient être discutées simultanément, tandis qu'un délégué palestinien estimait qu'on devait d'abord parler des frontières et de la sécurité".
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/reprise-des-pourparlers-isra%C3%A9lo-palestiniens-%C3%A0-washington-063442837.html
- Palestinian, Israeli officials clash over format of Washington peace talks (Reuters)
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Palestinian-Israeli-officials-clash-over-format-of-Washington-peace-talks-321376
   "Israeli and Palestinian officials put forward clashing formats for peace talks due to resume in Washington on Monday for the first time in nearly three years after intense US mediation. [...] This time "all of the issues that are at the core of a permanent accord will be negotiated simultaneously", Silvan Shalom, a member of Prime Minister Binyamin Netayahu's cabinet and rightist Likud party, told Army Radio. [...]
    Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top official in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization, said the US letter of invitation to the Washington talks had not specified which disputes were to be discussed. But Abed Rabbo told Voice of Palestine radio the talks "will begin, in principle, on the issues of borders and security". [...] "Had the matter of borders and territory been given over, what incentive would they (Palestinians) have had to make concessions on the matter of refugees or Jerusalem?" Shalom asked. [...]"

- Un parti palestinien rejette les négociations avec Israël (AFP & Reuters)
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2013/07/29/un-parti-palestinien-rejette-les-negociations-avec-israel_3455112_3218.html
   "Premier point d'achoppement qui pourrait mettre en péril le processus de paix au Proche-Orient. Quelques heures avant la rencontre des émissaires israélien et palestinien à Washington, une importante faction au sein de l'Organisation pour la libération de la Palestine (OLP) a rejeté lundi 29 juillet la reprise des négociation de paix.
    Le Front populaire pour la libération de la Palestine (FPLP), un parti de gauche, a affirmé que la décision de reprendre les négociations avec Israël n'avait pas reçu le soutien de l'OLP dans son ensemble. "Il s'agit d'un geste individuel", a déclaré l'une des dirigeantes du parti, Khaleda Jarar, en référence au président palestinien, Mahmoud Abbas.
   "Ces discussions se tiennent sous les auspices des Etats-Unis, exactement comme il y a vingt ans lors des accords d'Oslo" – qui avaient ouvert la voie à la création de l'Autorité palestinienne –, a-t-elle ajouté. "Nous sommes allés vers les Nations unies précisément pour que notre cas ne soit pas entre les mains des Etats-Unis", a-t-elle dit, en référence à la décision de l'ONU d'accorder en novembre 2012 le statut d'Etat observateur à l'Etat de Palestine, malgré l'opposition américaine. [...]"

- Oren: Israel will demand recognition as Jewish state, Michael Wilner (JP)
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Oren-Israel-will-demand-recognition-as-Jewish-state-321459
   "Israel’s ambassador to the US Michael Oren told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday that Israel is “predicated on having a Jewish majority,” and that any final-status agreement with the Palestinians will require their recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. “It means the Jewish state is permanent and legitimate,” said Oren of such recognition, adding, “We’re not asking the Palestinians to do it upfront.”
    Zakaria asked Oren what that would mean for Arab Israelis, who are more than 20 percent of the population, and why a religion should be the basis for a state’s identity. Oren responded that the Jews are not just a religious group. “The Jews are a people, and we have a right to self-determination,” Oren said. “We are a nation-state.” [...]"

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"Processus de paix" - Analyses

- Reprise des discussions entre Israël et l’Autorité palestinienne : entretien avec Frédéric Encel (professeur de relations internationales à l’ESG Management School et maître de conférences à Sciences-Po Paris) - "Davantage que la personnalité et la volonté de John Kerry, cette reprise des négociations est largement induite par le contexte géopolitique régional".
http://www.atlantico.fr/decryptage/reprise-discussions-entre-israel-et-autorite-palestinienne-pourquoi-cette-fois-pourrait-etre-different-ardavan-amir-aslani-et-fr-801066.html
   "- Atlantico : La création de l'Etat de Palestine, le tracé des frontières, le statut de Jérusalem, les droits des réfugiés : autant de questions épineuses devant être réglées dans le cadre du processus de paix, mais sur lesquelles les deux parties sont totalement opposées. Ces nouvelles négociations peuvent-elles œuvrer en faveur d'une véritable reprise du processus de paix ? En quoi pourraient-elles se démarquer des précédentes ?
    - Frédéric Encel : Je suis relativement optimiste, du moins sur le court terme, au regard de la convergence d’intérêts qui existe entre Israël et l’Autorité palestinienne. Celle-ci est favorisée par l’affaiblissement du Hamas, et donc par un rapport de force favorable des deux parties face à ce dernier. En l’espace de près de deux ans et demi, le Hamas a perdu le soutien de la Syrie et de l’Iran, mais également et surtout, l’appui extrêmement précieux des Frères musulmans égyptiens qui étaient au pouvoir en Egypte jusqu’à ces dernières semaines. La reprise en mains du Sinaï, qui jouxte la bande de Gaza, par l’armée égyptienne particulièrement hostile au Hamas, représente une véritable valeur ajoutée pour l’Autorité palestinienne qui considère le Hamas comme un ennemi mortel.
    Davantage que la personnalité et la volonté de John Kerry, cette reprise des négociations est largement induite par le contexte géopolitique régional. Cette volonté s’est traduite, du côté israélien, par la libération d’une centaine de prisonniers palestiniens de longue date, un geste rare qui mérite d’être souligné. Du côté palestinien, Mahmoud Abbas à renoncer à son exigence de longue date du gel des constructions dans les implantations comme préalable à tout retour à la table des négociations. [...]
    - L'un des principaux arguments invoqués par le secrétaire d’État américain, John Kerry, en faveur de la reprise du processus de paix israélo-palestinien, consiste à dire que cette dernière permettrait de contenir la déstabilisation de toute la région. Dans quelle mesure ?
    - Frédéric Encel : Je ne crois absolument pas à cette corrélation. Je persiste à dire que la déstabilisation du Moyen-Orient et du monde arabe n’est pas le fait du conflit israélo-palestinien. A ce titre, le printemps arabe en est la parfaite illustration puisque ce mouvement de contestations s’est déclenché sans aucun lien avec la question palestinienne. Néanmoins, on ne peut pas omettre d’évoquer, il est vrai, l’instrumentalisation de la part de certains dirigeants arabes dits "extrémistes", à l’instar de Bachar al-Assad ou bien de l’ancien pouvoir yéménite. Cette sémantique anti-israélienne n’a donc pas véritablement de fond. J’insiste sur le fait que les éventuelles avancées de ces négociations israélo-palestiniennes n’auraient aucune conséquence sur la situation syrienne ou égyptienne. [...]
    - Avec déjà six voyages au Proche-Orient à son actif, John Kerry se montre particulièrement entreprenant sur la résolution du conflit israélo-palestinien. Cette dernière semble être revenue en grâce dans les priorités de l'administration Obama. Pour quelle(s) raison(s) ?
    - Frédéric Encel : Paradoxalement, je ne pense pas que les Etats-Unis aient véritablement impulsé cette reprise des négociations. Depuis maintenant un an et demi, on remarque l’effacement d’Obama sur le dossier. J’insiste donc sur le fait que c’est le contexte géopolitique local qui a favorisé la volonté des Israéliens et des Palestiniens de reprendre les négociations. Les Américains, une nouvelle fois, s’engouffrent dans une brèche favorisée par les seuls Israéliens et Palestiniens. Ceci avait déjà été le cas dans le cadre des Accords d’Oslo, lorsque Bill Clinton avait littéralement découvert l’existence de ces négociations israélo-palestiniennes qui lui ont été apportées sur un plateau en guise de parrainage."

- Hope for peace, but buy a lottery ticket, Avi Issacharoff (Times of Israel) - "it is important to remember that the anticipated failure of the talks may lead to renewed tensions and possibly another round of violence".
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hope-for-peace-but-buy-a-lottery-ticket/
   "[...] it appears that both teams were dragged by Kerry to Washington against their will. The lack of genuine desire, mainly on the Palestinian side, but also on the Israeli side, exists for two central reasons. Firstly, there is a complete lack of trust between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Despite having met in the past, more than once, it appears that the two hold each other in little regard and do not believe in each other’s ability or desire to deliver the goods.
    Simply put, Abbas believes Netanyahu is unwilling to make peace, while Netanyahu believes Abbas is unable to. Both are sending out pessimistic vibes, giving those around them the feeling that nothing much will come of all this. This can be seen in their decision to send representatives to Washington instead of holding a high-level summit.
    First to issue a combative statement (at almost exactly the same time the talks began in Washington) was Abbas, who was quick to make clear, following his meeting with interim Egyptian President Adly Mansour, that the Palestinians see all Israeli settlements built after 1967 as illegal. According to Abbas, “In a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli — civilian or soldier — on our lands.” This despite the fact that in the past he has already agreed to the notion of land swaps in exchange for settlement blocs. Conversely, Netanyahu has stressed in recent days that he would not allow for any scenario that would see settlements demolished.
    What a great way to build a positive atmosphere as talks get started.
    The second cause for lack of motivation is closely linked to the first. The odds of a peace agreement coming out of the current round of talks seem smaller than winning the lottery. Clearly Abbas will not accept anything less than what former prime minister Ehud Olmert offered him in September 2008, i.e., 93.7% of the West Bank, relinquishing control of the Jordan Valley, an international authority to administer Jerusalem’s holy sites (and of course giving up on Jerusalem’s eastern neighborhoods) and a symbolic return of refugees to Israel. Netanyahu has made clear that he will not sign off on such an agreement, which, it should be noted, was rejected by the Palestinians anyway. Back then the PA asked for 98% of the West Bank, sovereignty over the Temple Mount and the return of tens of thousands of Palestinians to their ancestral homes. Netanyahu, or any other Israeli prime minister for that matter, will be unable to pass anything even similar to that in the Knesset.
    So why in spite of everything are the sides sitting down for talks? Mainly because the Americans are pushing and neither side wants to be blamed for torpedoing peace. Renewing talks will also reduce international pressure on Israel over the settlements (at least that’s what Jerusalem would like to believe).
    For his part Abbas will get the prisoner release that will boost his popularity, despite criticism that he entered negotiations without demanding a settlement freeze. The negotiations will also likely have a calming effect on the West Bank. Fatah activists will likely display less enthusiasm to clash with IDF troops while talks are taking place. On the other hand, it is important to remember that the anticipated failure of the talks may lead to renewed tensions and possibly another round of violence."

- Comment: ‘Palestine’ without Jews, Herb Keinon (JP) - "Abbas’s words in Cairo do not exactly enhance a mood of reconciliation. And it is exactly that mood of reconciliation that needs to be pumped up right now, not deflated".
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Comment-Palestine-without-Jews-321572
   "Thankfully the relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian talks has, so far, been fairly void of the overdramatic rhetoric about being on the brink of Abraham’s children sitting in peace and harmony under their respective vines and fig trees. The closest we came to words about feeling the flutter from the wings of the peace dove was newly minted US special envoy Martin Indyk on Monday, quoting President Barack Obama during his March visit to Israel: “Peace is necessary, peace is just, peace is possible.”
    But even that minimalist description was jarred a few hours after the Washington launch of the talks on Monday, and just before Israeli and Palestinian teams sat down for an iftar dinner, when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas provided his vision of Israeli- Palestinian peace during a visit to Cairo. “In a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli – civilian or soldier – on our lands,” Reuters quoted Abbas as saying in a briefing to mostly Egyptian journalists. In other words, the state Abbas wants Israel to give him must be judenrein. The irony of a man whose spokesmen accuse Israel of apartheid saying that his “vision” of his state is one in which no Israeli foot can trod is simply astounding.
    At a time when Israeli confidence that it will be possible to actually live alongside a Palestinian state needs desperately to be built up, words like these are at the least counterproductive, and at the most destructive. “The test of whether the Palestinians will live in peace alongside us is whether they will allow some of us to live among them,” a senior Israeli official said some three years ago. His comments came at a time when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was indicating that in any future agreement, not all Jews should have to leave the parts of Judea and Samaria that will come under Palestinian control, and that those who want to live in places that have deep religious and historical significance to the Jewish people should be allowed to do so.
    Abbas’s words in Cairo do not exactly enhance a mood of reconciliation. And it is exactly that mood of reconciliation that needs to be pumped up right now, not deflated. One can debate later whether it will be either wise or safe for a Jewish minority to live in a future Palestinian state, but to completely rule it out off the bat does not bespeak a lot of goodwill. And, if the Israeli public is to back a deal, it will need some sense of goodwill from the other side.
    In May 1994, just after the signing of the Oslo Accords and just before Israel handed Gaza over to Palestinian administrative control, Yasser Arafat gave a speech in English at a mosque in Johannesburg. During that speech Arafat called for a jihad over Jerusalem (though he said later he meant a “jihad for peace”) and hinted that the Oslo Accords were a tactical move that could later be discarded.
    The Oslo advocates, though horrified by his words, explained that the Palestinian leader did not really mean it, that these words were meant for domestic Islamic consumption only, and that Israel should not overreact and throw out the baby with the bathwater. Time proved that Arafat meant what he said, and that his head – even in those early, giddy Oslo days – was not exactly in the peace mode. Efforts to whitewash his words were misguided.
    Unlike Arafat, Abbas did not call for a jihad in his briefing to journalists in Cairo, nor did he talk about agreements with Israel as only tactical measures that could be jettisoned when real victory seemed possible. But still, there is something jarring about his declaration that his vision for a state is not one based on tolerance and mutual respect but rather on the principle that no Israeli will be allowed to tread in “Palestine.” (Equally jarring is that comments such as these, and he has made them before, are greeted with relative equanimity abroad.)
    These words are even more galling considering that in the course of the negotiations Abbas will surely demand that Israel accept tens of thousands of descendants of Palestinian refugees, if not under the rubric of a “right of return” (which Israel will certainly reject), then certainly as a “humanitarian gesture.” There is a substantial Arab minority in Israel. If there is to be peace, why is it a given that there can be no Jewish minority in “Palestine"?"

- Can Netanyahu go all the way in peace talks? And does it matter?, Raphael Ahren (Times of Israel) - "While everyone with two feet on the ground knows that a full-fledged peace agreement and an end of the conflict currently isn’t attainable — as the gaps on questions of borders, Jerusalem and refugees are too wide — Netanyahu might think about an interim solution".
http://www.timesofisrael.com/can-netanyahu-go-all-the-way-in-peace-talks-and-does-it-matter/
   "There is ample reason to believe that the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, getting underway Monday in Washington, will end in failure, well before the nine months slated for them are up. But analysts say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on going into talks and seeking to reach a deal, bluff or not, may well leave Israel in a commanding position if the negotiations do indeed fail.
    Conventional wisdom says that the “direct final status negotiations,” as they are referred to by the US State Department, are doomed to fall apart because the maximum Netanyahu can offer is far less than Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas can accept.
    However, Netanyahu has taken significant, and what he has painted as personally painful, steps to resume the peace process with the Palestinians. On Sunday, he pushed the release of 104 Palestinian terrorists through a dramatic cabinet meeting. “This is an incomparably difficult decision; it is painful for the bereaved families and it is painful for the entire nation and it is also very painful for me,” he wrote in a letter to the Israeli public published before the meeting Saturday. He also insisted on advancing a new Basic Law that stipulates that any peace agreement would have to be confirmed by a public referendum, a move clearly intended to protect his right flank in case the negotiations actually do succeed. [...]
    According to Uzi Arad, a professor of government at Herzliya’s Interdisciplinary Center and Netanyahu’s former national security adviser, there is no reason to doubt that Netanyahu was sincere in his famous Bar-Ilan speech. “If the Palestinian were to address the Israelis’ concerns, then of course Netanyahu could conceive the idea of a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” he said.
    Yoaz Hendel, who headed the Public Diplomacy Directorate at the Prime Minister’s Office from 2011 until 2012, also believes that Netanyahu is genuinely interested in preventing “the creation of a binational state,” as the prime minister declared repeatedly in recent weeks. “Four years ago, Netanyahu was standing at the podium at Bar-Ilan University and became the first leader of the right wing who recognized the Palestinians’ right to have their own state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean,” said Hendel, who now heads the Institute of Zionist Strategy. “He crossed the Rubicon and afterward even agreed to a settlement freeze. He’s done it before — it’s wouldn’t be the first time he has done things that he used to be completely against.”
    While everyone with two feet on the ground knows that a full-fledged peace agreement and an end of the conflict currently isn’t attainable — as the gaps on questions of borders, Jerusalem and refugees are too wide — Netanyahu might think about an interim solution, Hendel said. The areas in the West Bank autonomously ruled by the PA — Areas A and B — are “already a kind of a state” and Netanyahu theoretically could agree to a Palestinian state in provisional borders there, he added, and international consensus sees Israel annexing the major settlement blocs under any agreement. The real problem is what to do with the rest of Area C, where some 100,000 Jewish settlers live. “I cannot see any scenario in which Netanyahu evacuates those people, just to gamble on a peace agreement that no one can guarantee will survive,” Hendel said.
    What would Netanyahu ask in return for the recognition of a Palestinian state in Areas A, B and perhaps small parts of C? Hendel says he’s not sure what his former boss aims for, but he suggests annexing the settlement blocs. “Just think about the fact that he will be able to build in Efrat, Maaleh Adumim and Ariel. It would be a huge achievement,” Hendel said.
    The idea of partial agreements is also popular with other Mideast analysts. “In the Middle East, I feel that whenever it’s all or nothing, it’s always nothing,” said David Makovsky, the director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s project on the peace process. “If they try to do it all, they may fail. But if they try to settle for less and don’t overreach, they may achieve things.”
    According to a prominent leader of Israel’s right wing, who asked to remain anonymous, Netanyahu is approaching the peace talks with two possibilities in mind. Firstly, if the unthinkable happens and the two sides reach an agreement, he will enter the history books as the man who brought peace to the Middle East, even if it means a withdrawal from much territory and a division of Jerusalem, he added. “But his working assumption is that this will not happen and that the Palestinians, as always, will cause the negotiations to collapse,” the source said. “In this case, he expects to play up the blame game. In such a scenario, Netanyahu hopes for a period of quiet from the American administration.”
    It’s a win-win strategy for Netanyahu: “If the negotiations miraculously succeed, it’s a win for him. If the negotiations fail, it’s also a win for him because he believes the Americans will blame the Palestinians,” the source said. Netanyahu thinks ahead, this source said. By pushing through the release of the Palestinian prisoners, he created the image of a strong leader willing to antagonize his people and his government for the sake of peace. “We made painful concessions even before the talks started. It’s the Palestinians who aren’t ready for peace,” he may argue nine months from now, turning a diplomatic stillbirth into a child who did no wrong."

- ‘If talks fail, go for interim agreement,’ ex-negotiator urges, Raphael Ahren (Times of Israel) - "A permanent accord is ‘almost impossible,’ Yossi Beilin says, but Netanyahu and Abbas might acquiesce in a provisional solution".
http://www.timesofisrael.com/if-talks-fail-go-for-interim-agreement-ex-negotiator-urges/

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"Processus de paix" - Libération de prisonniers

- Israël-Palestine : la reprise du dialogue se précise, Laurent Zecchini (Le Monde, 29 juillet) - "à Hébron, Jénine et Ramallah, villes de Cisjordanie, les manifestations de liesse pour le retour des prisonniers vont s'échelonner sur plusieurs mois".
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2013/07/29/israel-palestine-la-reprise-du-dialogue-se-precise_3454822_3218.html
   "Le dîner qui devait avoir lieu, lundi 29 juillet, à Washington, à la résidence du secrétaire d'Etat américain, John Kerry, a vocation à créer une "atmosphère amicale" entre Israéliens et Palestiniens. C'est peut-être beaucoup demander en cette reprise des négociations directes entre les deux parties, mais les contentieux liminaires ont été allégés avec la décision, prise la veille par le gouvernement israélien, de libérer 104 prisonniers palestiniens incarcérés avant les accords d'Oslo (1993). L'Autorité palestinienne faisait de l'élargissement de ceux qu'en Israël on appelle des "terroristes ayant du sang sur les mains" une condition sine qua non pour reprendre un processus de paix en jachère depuis septembre 2010. [...] Ces 104 détenus seront libérés en quatre étapes, au vu des progrès enregistrés au cours des négociations. Il n'est pas sûr que ce fractionnement soit de l'intérêt d'Israël : à Hébron, Jénine et Ramallah, villes de Cisjordanie, les manifestations de liesse pour le retour des prisonniers vont s'échelonner sur plusieurs mois."

- Shin Bet Head Warned Ministers: Don't Release Terrorists, Gil Ronen (Arutz 7) - "The chance that the prisoners will go back to terrorism is relatively large.”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/170356#.UfaYn222-2A
   "Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen warned government ministers at the weekly Cabinet session Sunday against releasing terrorists as a “gesture” to the Palestinian Authority (PA) - but the ministers voted to do so anyway. Cohen explained that the release of terrorist prisoners would diminish security “both in the immediate threat to the public, and because of the erosion in deterrence.” "The chance that the prisoners will go back to terrorism is relatively large,” he said. Experience shows that as the years pass from the terrorists' release, they tend to go back to the activity that landed them in jail, he added.
    Cohen said, however, that the act of entering into negotiations does have a calming effect “on the ground.” Cohen has handed over to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recommendations as to which terrorists can be released, which ones should remain in jail, and which should be released to Gaza or abroad, and not allowed back into Judea and Samaria. [...]"

- Terrorist to be Released: There Will be More Intifadas, Elad Benari (Arutz 7)
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/170361#.UfaYsG22-2A
   "One of the terrorists who will be released as part of Israel’s latest “gesture” to the Palestinian Authority told Channel 2 News two months ago that Arabs will continue to carry out violent uprisings (intifadas) against Israel. "As long as there is no political horizon there will be a third, fourth, fifth and sixth intifada," declared the terrorist, Nasser Abu Srour, who was interviewed by Channel 2 News [...]
    Abu Srour, who murdered Shin Bet agent Chaim Nachmani in 1993, told the channel, “"I was a soldier in the army of Palestine. What do soldiers do? Fight.” He called on Palestinian Authority Arabs to continue to fight Israel until the land is "liberated”, adding that as long as there is no political horizon the Arab uprisings will continue. “Nothing will help. This issue is political and not economic as you might think,” said Abu Srour. “As long as there is no political solution in sight, that is two states for two peoples, we will continue to die for this land.” [...]"

- List of prisoners reveals murderers, kidnappers, Ben Hartman (JP) - "A glance at the lists published by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club (PPC) and leaked to Israeli websites by Israeli officials shows men responsible for terror attacks ranging from complicated, planned-out operations to hastily crafted acts of brutal violence directed at Israelis".
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/List-of-prisoners-reveals-murderers-kidnappers-321471

- Too high a price (Jerusalem Post editorial) - "Based on the track record for past talks, there is a good chance that terrorists will be released for naught. Freeing these hardcore convicts should come, if ever, at the end of the peace process when the Palestinians have agreed to live in peace alongside a Jewish state".
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/Too-high-a-price-321315
   "Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu undoubtedly had a hard time at the Sunday cabinet meeting convincing his ministers that it is in Israel’s interest to release 104 terrorists from prison in the interests of advancing peace talks with the Palestinians. These are people who were arrested and found guilty by Israeli courts of some of the most brutal, deadly attacks ever perpetrated against Israeli men, women and children in the years leading up to the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.
    But he succeeded: Thirteen cabinet ministers voted in favor, seven against and two abstained. “This moment is not easy for me. It is not easy for the ministers. It is not easy especially for the families, the bereaved families, whose heart I understand,” Netanyahu said. “But there are moments in which tough decisions must be made for the good of the country and this is one of those moments.” Netanyahu – who in his political career has written clearly and spoken out publicly against releasing terrorists – is well aware of how problematic the move is. Difficulties are multiplied when Israel receives nothing tangible in return, as appears to be the case in the present deal.
    Admittedly, there may be several factors mitigating in favor of the prisoner release. Previous deals, such as the 2011 Gilad Schalit prisoner swap or the 2008 exchange for the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, were made with terrorist organizations that called for the destruction of Israel and did not hide the fact that they were actively working toward that end. In contrast, the present concession is being made to the Palestinian Authority, which at least ostensibly has renounced terrorism and has accepted in principle a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
    And while the Obama administration has never explicitly linked progress on the Israeli-Palestinian front to support for Israel’s right to defend itself against the existential threat posed by Iran’s relentless nuclear march, Netanyahu does not want to alienate the White House at a time when the Iranian regime is poised to reach nuclear “breakout” capability. What’s more, Netanyahu wants to avoid a situation in which Israel is blamed for torpedoing hopes for the renewal of peace negotiations with the Palestinians. This is particular pertinent after US Secretary of State John Kerry invested so much time and energy in reviving the long-stalled talks. The very fact that Kerry has shuttled back and forth six times generates its own indirect pressure on Israel.
    Netanyahu has also received the assurances of the Shin Bet and the IDF that Israel’s security establishment can thwart any future dangers created by the release of experienced terrorists.
    Nevertheless, the agreement to release 104 terrorists at such an early stage seems premature. Actual negotiations have not even begun and even the “contours and modalities” of the future talks have yet to be hammered out. Based on the track record for past talks, there is a good chance that terrorists will be released for naught. Freeing these hardcore convicts should come, if ever, at the end of the peace process when the Palestinians have agreed to live in peace alongside a Jewish state.
    The fact that even “moderate” Palestinian leaders seem obsessed with securing the freedom of prisoners convicted of murdering Jewish civilians and that these terrorists are regularly glorified as heroes reflects a great deal about their attitudes. None of this bodes well for talks whose success depends on Palestinians being reconciled to Israel’s existence.
    Israel should not have to foot the bill for the failure of the Palestinian leadership to prepare its people for peace with the Jewish state. And no Israeli who has already experienced the unfathomable pain of knowing that another person intentionally killed a loved one should be forced to endure the additional torture of seeing that murderer go free in exchange for the dubious prospect of a renewed peace process.
    What’s more, by caving in to the Palestinian demand to pardon terrorists convicted of murdering innocent civilians, Israel blurs the clear differentiation that must be made between legitimate political activity used by Palestinians in pursuit of self-determination and the illegitimate use of terrorism to further their political goals.
    Resuming negotiations toward a two-state solution is no more an Israeli interest than it is a Palestinian interest. Israel should not have been forced to pay such a hefty price, nor should it have agreed to do so."

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Israël

- Eric Burdon défie les menaces des mort des BDS et donnera un concert en Israël (Philosémitisme) - "Eric Burdon du célèbre groupe britannique The Animals actif dans les années 1960 et l'un des vétérans du rock & roll avait annulé le concert qu'il devait donner à Binyamina. C'est avec joie que nous apprenons qu'il maintient son concert après tout".
http://philosemitismeblog.blogspot.fr/2013/07/eric-burdon-defie-les-menaces-des-mort.html

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Gaza & Hamas

- Une roquette de Gaza explose en Israël (AFP) - "Deux autres roquettes avaient été tirées de Gaza vers Israël le 24 juillet".
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2013/07/30/97001-20130730FILWWW00281-une-roquette-de-gaza-explose-a-israel.php
   "Une roquette tirée de la bande de Gaza a explosé aujourd'hui dans le sud d'Israël sans faire de blessé, a indiqué un porte-parole de la police. "Une roquette a été tirée de la bande de Gaza et a explosé dans un champ en territoire israélien sans faire ni victime ni dégât", a affirmé le porte-parole Micky Rosenfeld. Ce tir s'est produit au lendemain de la reprise des négociations gelées depuis près de trois ans entre Israël et les Palestiniens à Washington sous l'égide des Etats-Unis. Deux autres roquettes avaient été tirées de Gaza vers Israël le 24 juillet."
- Qassam hits western Negev after talks resume, Neri Brenner (Ynet) - "Rocket explodes in Shaar Hanegev Regional Council; no injuries or damage. 'Every time there is talk of negotiations we get a present from Gaza,' says local resident".
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4411553,00.html

- L’Etat Juif augmente son aide humanitaire à Gaza : 280 camions par jour, Elinor Cohen-Aouat (JSS)
http://jssnews.com/2013/07/29/letat-juif-augmente-son-aide-humanitaire-a-gaza-280-camions-par-jour/
   "[...] Un responsable de la sécurité a déclaré que dans les semaines suivantes à l’éviction de Morsi, Israël a augmenté le nombre de camions transportant des fournitures à Gaza de 30 par jour, passant de 250 poids lourds à 280. « Il n’y a pas de crise humanitaire à Gaza, mais nous nous préparons à étendre le transfert de l’aide, » a t-il dit. « Le carburant est toujours en cours de transfert à Gaza depuis le Sinaï, mais seulement partiellement, de sorte que nous nous apprêtons à accroître l’offre de carburant. »
    Avant la récente révolte en Egypte, le Hamas refusait d’accepter le carburant en provenance d’Israël parce que les taxes collectées auprès des contrebandiers étaient une source majeure de revenus pour les dirigeants islamistes. Cependant, les éléments privés palestiniens, y compris les stations d’essence, ont déjà passé des commandes avec des entreprises israéliennes."

- L'asphyxie de Gaza et l'isolement croissant du Hamas, Laurent Zecchini (Le Monde) - "tout en souhaitant "punir" le Hamas, Téhéran pourrait assouplir sa position : l'Iran ne dispose pas de meilleur relais armé contre Israël dans la région".
http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2013/07/30/l-asphyxie-de-gaza-et-l-isolement-croissant-du-hamas_3455058_3232.html
   "Deux événements récents illustrent l'isolement du Hamas, la formation palestinienne au pouvoir à Gaza. Le premier est la décision des autorités du Caire de poursuivre en justice l'ancien président Mohamed Morsi pour ses liens avec le Mouvement de la résistance islamique. Parallèlement, à Gaza, le gouvernement d'Ismaïl Haniyeh a ordonné la fermeture de la chaîne de télévision Al-Arabiya, coupable d'avoir diffusé de "fausses nouvelles" sur l'aide du Hamas aux Frères musulmans égyptiens, la confrérie dont il est issu.
    La première information confirme que le Hamas est redevenu la bête noire des militaires égyptiens, qui l'accusent d'entretenir la rébellion islamiste dans le Sinaï. La seconde montre que le Hamas ne sait plus quoi faire pour rentrer dans les bonnes grâces de son puissant voisin, lequel a les moyens d'asphyxier économiquement le 1,7 million de Gazaouis, ce qu'il a commencé à faire.
    La punition collective infligée par l'armée égyptienne à l'enclave palestinienne, entamée peu avant le coup d'Etat, se poursuit de deux manières : la destruction de près de 70 % des tunnels de contrebande passant sous la frontière, lesquels, en fournissant 60 % des besoins de la population, constituaient le poumon économique de la bande de Gaza ; l'étranglement du point de passage de Rafah ensuite [...]
    L'onde de choc de ce printemps arabe à rebours a porté un rude coup aux formations islamistes de la région. [...] Le Hamas, lui, fait figure de grand perdant. Ses responsables ont beau rappeler que le mouvement a été maintes fois réprimé (en Jordanie, au Liban, en Syrie), et qu'il n'est que momentanément utilisé par les militaires égyptiens dans leur campagne pour décrédibiliser l'ère Morsi, ils sont inquiets.
    En février 2012, le chef du bureau politique, Khaled Meschaal, qui résidait à Damas, a coupé les ponts avec le gouvernement du président syrien, Bachar Al-Assad, lequel l'exhortait à combattre l'opposition syrienne. En dépit de l'aide que lui a apportée le régime alaouite pendant des années, le Hamas a estimé qu'il serait contre-productif de se solidariser avec une dictature sanglante. Ce faisant, il a perdu, dans une large mesure, le soutien du puissant parrain de Damas, l'Iran, et du Hezbollah libanais.
    Ce renversement d'alliances n'était pas trop grave tant l'Egypte des Frères musulmans représentait une alternative. Et Gaza pouvait aussi s'appuyer sur les centaines de millions de dollars promis par le Qatar et sur l'empressement de la Turquie, toujours soucieuse d'apparaître comme une puissance régionale, qui plus est championne de la cause palestinienne.
    Sauf que Tamim Ben Hamad Al-Thani, le nouvel émir qatari, semble nettement moins enclin à lâcher les cordons de sa bourse en faveur d'un mouvement toujours considéré comme terroriste par les Occidentaux. Et la brusque détérioration des relations entre la nouvelle Egypte et Ankara renvoie sine die le projet d'une visite du premier ministre turc à Gaza.
    D'autant que Recep Tayyip Erdogan pourrait avoir des raisons de s'inquiéter de l'exemple égyptien : en utilisant une expression longtemps accolée à l'armée turque, les responsables du Hamas soulignent que c'est le Deep State ("l'Etat profond") qui est revenu brutalement aux commandes au Caire. Le Hamas est-il désormais démuni financièrement et militairement ? La destruction des tunnels représente un considérable manque à gagner pour le gouvernement de M. Haniyeh, et l'Iran, qui a financé jusqu'à 60 % de son budget, a singulièrement réduit ses transferts financiers et militaires.
    Mais, tout en souhaitant "punir" le Hamas, Téhéran pourrait assouplir sa position : l'Iran ne dispose pas de meilleur relais armé contre Israël dans la région. L'isolement du Hamas risque de faire deux victimes collatérales : la première est la réconciliation palestinienne. La stratégie de Mahmoud Abbas, engagé dans une relance des négociations avec Israël, a provoqué l'anathème du gouvernement de Gaza.
    Le président de l'Autorité palestinienne ne sera incité à former un gouvernement d'union qu'en cas de nouvel échec du processus de paix. Reste ce qui devrait être l'essentiel, le sort de la population de Gaza. Tout montre que le Hamas, acculé politiquement et financièrement, renforce sa férule à l'encontre des partis politiques et de la société civile. Les Gazaouis risquent de subir dans les mois à venir la double peine de la paupérisation et d'une accentuation de la répression politique." 

 

France

- Taddeï : Le principe de reality, Guillaume Erner (Causeur) - "la « règle de Taddeï » pourrait presque passer pour une variation autour du « principe de Godard ». Pour le cinéaste, l’objectivité à la télévision, c’était 10 minutes pour les juifs, 10 minutes pour Hitler".
http://www.causeur.fr/taddei-csoj-patrick-cohen-alain-soral,23553
   "On connaissait le « théorème de Desproges » : « On peut rire de tout mais pas avec n’importe qui. » On a découvert la « règle de Taddeï » : « On peut débattre de tout et avec n’importe qui. » Un axiome dénoncé par Patrick Cohen – le matinalier de France Inter – lors du passage de Frédéric Taddeï dans « C à vous » sur France 5. Pour Cohen, pas question d’inviter ces quelques électrons radicaux qui ont leur rond de serviette à « Ce soir (ou jamais !) » et nulle part ailleurs. Ils s’appellent Marc-Édouard Nabe, Alain Soral ou bien encore Jean Robin, pourfendeur de ce qu’il appelle la « judéomanie ». Au-delà de leurs idiosyncrasies respectives, ces infréquentables partagent quelques obsessions : une vision racialisante du monde, un conspirationnisme tranquille et un même refus, disons, de la « judéomanie ».
    Pour Causeur, la controverse Taddeï-Cohen est un nouvel épisode du combat entre la liberté et ses ennemis1. De quel droit refuser, par principe, d’inviter des auteurs aux opinions hétérodoxes ? Aucun d’entre eux ne s’est lancé, au cours d’un « CSOJ », dans une apologie du IIIe Reich. Alors comme cela, on n’aurait plus le droit de critiquer Israël ? Car les temps ont changé : désormais, c’est l’extrême droite qui défend la liberté d’expression.
    Du coup, la « règle de Taddeï » pourrait presque passer pour une variation autour du « principe de Godard ». Pour le cinéaste, l’objectivité à la télévision, c’était 10 minutes pour les juifs, 10 minutes pour Hitler. Eh bien on pourrait dire, en forçant le trait, que pour l’animateur, un débat, c’est 50 % de juifs, 50 % de nazis, comme si le choc d’antagonismes irréconciliables permettait par miracle de dessiner une voie moyenne empreinte de sagesse. Mais précisément, un vrai débat impose un tout autre dispositif. [...]" (suite payante)

- Reprise des négociations - Commentaires du jour sur Le Monde.fr :
http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/reactions/2013/07/28/reprise-des-negociations-de-paix-israelo-palestinienne-lundi-a-washington_3454703_3218.html
- TOLSTOI (28/07/2013 - 22h54)
   "Quel dialogue ? La reprise de la colonisation pendant que l'on discute à Washington ... Comme d'habitude ... Israël colonise et les Palstetiniens sont victimes d'un nettoyage ethnique ..."
- AD (29/07/2013 - 08h18)
   "Les Palestiniens reprennent les négociations avec un pistolet Américain sur la tempe. Pendant ce temps, Nétahanyou poursuit le dépeçage de ce qu'il reste de la Palestine. Pour l'Amérique il faut garder le statut quo. La comédie reprends, l'important est de faire semblant aux yeux du monde, la paix, la vraie, n'est pas pour demain, mais de ça tout le monde se fout..."
- Sylvaner (29/07/2013 - 08h53)
   "Encore des négociations ridicules et humiliantes pour les palestiniens qui n'aboutirons à rien, à part gagner un peu de temps pour continuer la colonisation en toute bonne conscience... Le dialogue ne sert à rien avec les israéliens, le droit international, ils s'assoient dessus... et après on s'étonne que le Hamas gagne des points... ce qui permet de justifier toujours plus de colonisation, d'arrestations d'humiliations, de destructions. Tous cela est d'un cynisme... écœurant..."

---

"Processus de paix"

- Reprise des pourparlers israélo-palestiniens lundi à Washington (Reuters)
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/reprise-des-pourparlers-isra%C3%A9lo-palestiniens-lundi-%C3%A0-washington-201838342.html
   "La reprise des négociations de paix entre Palestiniens et Israéliens suspendues depuis près de trois ans devraient reprendre à partir de lundi soir à Washington, annoncent un haut responsable palestinien et le département d'Etat américain. [...]  Des négociateurs israéliens s'apprêtaient dimanche soir à s'envoler pour la capitale fédérale américaine, a dit à Reuters un responsable gouvernemental. La chaîne israélienne Channel 2 a précisé qu'une réunion informelle devait avoir lieu lundi et que des négociations officielles sont prévues pour débuter mardi. De son côté, le département d'Etat américain a confirmé que les négociateurs israéliens et palestiniens étaient invités à une reprise du dialogue lundi et mardi à Washington. [...]"

- Le cabinet israélien va envisager de libérer des détenus arabes israéliens (Reuters) - la décision est devenue officielle dimanche.
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/le-cabinet-isra%C3%A9lien-va-envisager-lib%C3%A9rer-des-d%C3%A9tenus-184247999.html
   "Le gouvernement israélien devrait donner dimanche son accord de principe à la libération de plus de 100 prisonniers arabes détenus en Israël, afin d'améliorer les perspectives des discussions prévues avec les Palestiniens la semaine prochaine à Washington. [...]  Le Premier ministre israélien Benjamin Netanyahu a demandé samedi aux Israéliens de le soutenir dans ce qu'il appelle une "décision très difficile". "Les chefs de gouvernement doivent de temps à autre prendre des décisions qui vont à l'encontre de l'opinion publique, lorsque c'est important pour le pays", a expliqué Netanyahu.
    Il laisse par ailleurs entendre que libérer ces prisonniers sera une façon de tester les véritables intentions des Palestiniens, car, dit-il, Israël "verra dans les mois à venir si nous avons affaire à des Palestiniens qui veulent, comme nous, une fin véritable au conflit qui nous oppose". Le gouvernement devrait d'autre part mandater Benjamin Netanyahu pour diriger une équipe de quatre ministres chargés de décider quels Arabes, sur un total de plusieurs milliers détenus par les Israéliens, seront remis en liberté.
    Le ministre israélien de l'Energie, Silvan Shalom, a déclaré que la reprise des pourparlers pourrait intervenir à partir du 30 juillet. Il a estimé vendredi que libérer des prisonniers qui ont "du sang sur les mains" était "une mesure difficile, mais il faut replacer cela dans un cadre plus large, qui est la reprise des négociations"."
- Report: Israel increases number of prisoners to be freed before talks start (JP) - "Decision comes after Palestinians threaten to scuttle talks".
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Report-Israel-increases-number-of-prisoners-to-be-freed-before-talks-start-321195
   "Israel has decided to raise the number of prisoners that it will release from 82 to 104 as a condition for the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table Israel Radio reported on Saturday. Israel increased the number of people to be freed after the Palestinians threatened that they would not return to the opening meeting of talks that is scheduled to take place next week in Washington according to the report that cited a source with knowledge of the negotiations. Some of the prisoners to be released were Israeli prisoners that in the past Israel had refused to free, according to the source. The decision to release Israeli prisoners as goodwill gestures to the Palestinians contravenes Israeli policy not to allow the Palestinian Authority to intervene in Israeli-Arab affairs, the report stressed. [...]"

- Controversial prisoner release takes heat from right, Asher Zeiger (Times of Israel) - "Hawkish politicians say move won’t bring peace, but Livni and Peri say the alternative was worse, and that convicts will only go free as talks make progress".
http://www.timesofisrael.com/controversial-prisoner-release-takes-heat-from-right/
- On prisoners and peace talks, Haviv Rettig Gur (Times of Israel) - "It’s fashionable to say the government is beholden to the far right, but on the prisoner release vote, Netanyahu proved he could get his way with the entire right against him".
http://www.timesofisrael.com/on-prisoners-and-peace-talks/
- PA welcomes Israeli decision to free Palestinian prisoners, vows to work for release of all inmates, Khaled Abu Toameh (JP) - "Palestinians say prisoner release "big achievment, long overdue"."
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/PA-welcomes-Israeli-decision-to-free-Palestinian-prisoners-vows-to-work-for-release-of-all-inmates-321310

- On the Release List: Terrorists who Murdered Children, Maayana Miskin (Arutz 7) - "On the list are Mahmoud Salam Saliman Abu Harabish and Adam Ibrahim Juma'a-Juma'a, who in 1988 murdered 26-year-old schoolteacher Rachel Weiss, her three young children, and a young soldier".
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/170324#.UfVA5G22-2A
- Bereaved families skewer Netanyahu for prisoner release plan (Times of Israel) - "Decision to free terrorists within framework of peace talks is ‘surrender,’ says statement that accuses PM of evasion and cowardice".
http://www.timesofisrael.com/bereaved-families-skewer-netanyahu-for-prisoner-release-plan/
- Terror victims' families, Palestinian prisoner release a ‘black day’, Ariel Ben Solomon (JP)
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Palestinian-prisoner-release-a-black-day-for-victims-families-321351

- Female terrorists Dalal Mughrabi, Wafa Idris, and others are role models for students, on PA TV (Vidéo 51 secondes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lomBS4CXTFs

- Palestinian prisoner release - Here we go again, Herb Keinon (JP) - "Those who urged Israel to swallow the bitter pill of a prisoner release need to be no less persuasive in getting the Palestinians to tone down the hero worship expected to greet the release of the prisoners".
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Comment-Palestinian-prisoner-release-Here-we-go-again-321302
   "We know the drill all too well. At the end of the day, with all the pain and agony that it entails, Israel will release Palestinian terrorists who murdered scores of innocent people.  And these murderers will be hailed as heroes in Hebron and Ramallah and Jenin. Parades will be held in their honor, flowers thrown at the bus carrying them home, poems written about their "glorious" exploits. It's bad enough to free the terrorists, and that bad will be made even worse by the reception they will receive in the Palestinian Authority.
    Some will argue, "What do you care about how they are received? Your terrorists are their freedom fighters." But we do care about how they are received. It matters. It sets tone and atmosphere. It says something about our peace making partners. It chips away at our confidence. Israel's release of the Palestinian prisoners will be trumpeted around the world as an Israeli "confidence building" measure. And that is part of the problem. The Palestinians, backed by the world, consistently demand that Israel build up their confidence. But how about Israeli confidence?
    What is being done to rebuild an Israeli confidence trampled by the Second Intifada and stomped upon by the thousands of rockets that fell on Israel after it withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. What are the Palestinians doing to convince Israelis that something fundamental has changed, and that they do want to live in peace and security next to Israel, not on top of it? Have they toned down the rhetoric? Have the rocks stopped being hurled at Israeli cars over the Green Line? Has a Palestinian version of  Peace Now, perhaps funded by the EU, swept up the masses to push Palestinian society to an acceptance of Israel, and to press the PA government to drop its maximalist demands and return to talks? Have pro-peace rallies broken out throughout the West Bank?
    Many in the world will laugh at the idea of having to build Israel's confidence, saying it is not for the weaker side -- the Palestinians –to  build up the confidence of the stronger (Israel). But those making that argument are blind to Israel's reality.
    The Second Intifada was a watershed moment for Israeli society. This was when a lack of physical security was brought home to every Israeli man, woman and child. It was when riding a bus in Jerusalem was more dangerous then patrolling along the Lebanese border. This was a trauma that has not been erased. Indeed it was compounded in 2005 when, after Israel's withdrew from Gaza, a million people in the south were forced to begin living in the insecurity of knowing that at any moment a primitive rocket could come crashing through the living room window. That type of reality – the mind-numbing terrorism of the Second Intifada and the insecurity born by living under the specter of rocket fire from Gaza – can just suck the confidence right out of you.
    Senior US officials involved in the current diplomatic process are well aware, and empathetic, of Israel's security concern. Indeed, they often say that not only do they understand it, but they are trying to increase the average Israel's sense of security by funding Iron Dome and training Palestinian security officers. But this Israeli confidence cannot just be built up by anything the Americans do. It can help, but it is not enough. This confidence can only be built up by the Palestinians.
    Only the Palestinians can give Israelis the feeling that something has changed, that this time something is different. Demanding the release of 100 murderers does not do the trick. What will make matters worse is to have these murderers then hailed again by the Palestinians as heroes. If the Palestinians are indeed serious about the upcoming round of talks, they need to make that apparent to the Israeli public. One way to do this is to not celebrate the release of terrorists who threw petrol bombs into busses and incinerated innocent men, women and children. [...]
    Those in Washington and elsewhere who urged Israel to swallow the bitter pill of a prisoner release to re-start the diplomatic process need to be no less persuasive now in getting the Palestinians to tone down the hero worship expected to greet the release of the prisoners. Call it encouraging Palestinian confidence building measures."

- PM would give up 86% of West Bank, says deputy FM (Times of Israel)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-would-give-up-86-of-west-bank-says-deputy-fm/
   "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be prepared to relinquish 86 percent of the West Bank in a peace accord with the Palestinians, Israel’s deputy foreign minister said Friday. A report in Maariv quoted Ze’ev Elkin, a hawkish member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, saying that were the Palestinians to agree to the former prime minister Ariel Sharon’s vision of Israel retaining 14% of the West Bank to encompass major settlement blocs, and relinquishing the rest, “Netanyahu would go for it.” [...]
    Netanyahu would agree “to a Palestinian state on 86% of the territory,” said Elkin, according to Maariv. The prime minister would not consent to the division of Jerusalem, Elkin added, “but Tzipi Livni would.” Livni, leader of the Hatnua party, will be heading Israel’s team to the negotiations.
    However, Elkin, who opposes Palestinian statehood, went on to note that the Palestinians had rejected Ariel Sharon’s idea, and had always indicated that they insisted on attaining 100% of the West Bank, with very limited land swaps on a one-for-one basis, to enable Israel to maintain only what he called “settlement strings” rather than settlement blocs.
    The Orthodox Elkin, who lives at the Kfar Eldad settlement in the Etzion Bloc south of Jerusalem, said that, thus far, “the Lord… has solved our problems via the Arabs. [Yasser] Arafat didn’t accept [former prime minister Ehud] Barak’s offers,” and Abbas didn’t accept former prime minister Ehud Olmert’s proposals, he said. “But if the Palestinians, heaven forbid, were to show flexibility and come toward us, we’d get a lousy deal… On the 86% of the territory they’d get, they would build a terror state… But the fact is that the Palestinians haven’t budged a millimeter” in their demands for 100% of the West Bank. [...]"

- The real preconditions for peace, Riccardo Dugulin (holds a Master degree from the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Po) and is specialized in International Security) - "A single and legitimate Palestinian political body needs to be identified, Arab states and societies need to accept the concept of peace, and the international community should move to stop the current demonization of Israel".
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4410006,00.html
   "As Secretary of State Kerry is maintaining his push for renewed negotiations between the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, attention is as always drawn to the presence or not of preconditions set by the Palestinians. These demands are in fact meant to precede the start of any substantial talk that may or may not lead to enhanced peace negotiations.
    If there is absolutely no doubt that the questions relating to borders, Palestinian populations living in Arab countries, the status of Jerusalem and the development of housing and infrastructure projects in Judea and Samaria need to be fully addressed and answered clearly to make of any deal a lasting one, it is also absolutely true that these points are in no way the preconditions to peace, they are in fact the results of peace.
    The term precondition literally signifies an element or an ensemble of elements which must be verified before the subsequent steps of a project can be achieved. The above mentioned points are not preconditions for peace, an agreement over them will in fact represent the main lines of what a peace deal would be between Israel and the Palestinians.
    If these concerns are not to be considered as the natural preconditions for peace, it does not mean that there are none. In fact, in a region that has virtually known war for the last six decades, building peace, enhancing trust and maintaining the agreed upon terms necessitate an enormous preparatory effort which is instrumental for the success of any round of negotiations.
    The real preconditions for peace between the Jewish State and the Palestinians can be defined as follows: A single and legitimate Palestinian political body needs to be identified, Arab states and societies need to accept the concept of peace, and the international community should move to stop the current demonization of Israel.
    The first precondition that needs to be set, both by Israel and the Palestinians, covers the issue of the legitimacy of any negotiated deal. In fact, prior to any round of talks the Hamas leadership states that the Gaza-based movement will not recognize or accept any agreement which may result from the contacts between the government of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas. The weak PA president has little support inside his own territory and is certainly not able to stop any violent action undertaken by a well-armed and battle tested terrorist organization. As the international community pushes for a two-state solution, the lack of a single Palestinian interlocutor makes such a drive utterly unrealistic. The willingness by Hamas to wage war against Israel will continue to result, in the short and medium term, in Israel defensive operations.
    This situation will not lead to a true peace between the two entities. For this, the first precondition consists in reconciliation between the PA and Hamas. It would be fundamental to have a common statement accepting the necessity for peace talks and a Palestinian united negotiating team able to govern and control Judea, Samaria as well as Gaza in order to be able to concretely provide Israel with security along its borders.
    The second precondition that needs to be addressed is the real intention of the regional powers to live in a peace with Israel. Recent polls indicate the willingness by the Israeli population to recognize the need for peace. The same is needed from the Arab side. It is in fact true that the Arab societies’ view on the conflict highly influence the outcome of any negotiations. The roaring anti-Semitism alongside the continued vilifying of the Jewish State added to the inability by the majority of Arabs scholars and policy makers to undertake an objective and direct talk over the ongoing situation are all factors limiting the possibility of peace.
    War hasn’t ceased in Europe because peace was imposed by political leaders or outside powers, but because the whole region understood the benefits of peace. A necessary precondition is then found in the need by Arab societies and their leaders to accept the presence and the nature of Israel in order to denounce any spoiler group which would use force at the expense of Israeli and Palestinian well-being.
    The third precondition may appear as more general but should be regarded as essential. The PA and the overall Palestinian society relies heavily on the international society as governmental bodies, NGOs and exchange study programs are the backbone of the economic development and the social dynamism of the Palestinian society. For this it is necessary for any peace process to succeed in being supported by non-Arab and international associations and organizations. The network of pro-Palestinian campus based and intellectual foundations is doing more harm than good to peace as it lives on a rhetoric built upon a continuous war against Israel.
    The self-entertained victimization myth of the Palestinians needs to give place to a concrete dialogue of shared interests. This can be done and incentivized by out-of-the region organizations as they craft and create a narrative which is then transmitted globally.
    These preconditions are, as the term itself is meant to indicate, three points that must be in place prior to any negotiations meant to succeed. The acceptance of Israel as the Jewish State living in peace with its Palestinian and Arab neighbors must be made clear by a single Palestinian authority, supported by Arab States and pushed forward by the international community. Following this, a sincere negotiation over the pragmatic realities on the ground can start."

---

Gaza & Hamas

- Détention Morsi : le Hamas condamne (AFP)
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2013/07/26/97001-20130726FILWWW00318-detention-morsi-le-hamas-condamne.php
   "Le Hamas, au pouvoir à Gaza, a dénoncé aujourd'hui le placement en détention préventive du président égyptien destitué Mohammed Morsi par un tribunal du Caire pour collaboration présumée avec le mouvement palestinien sous le régime Moubarak. "Le Hamas condamne cette décision car elle est fondée sur le postulat que le mouvement Hamas est hostile", a déclaré un porte-parole du Hamas, Sami Abou Zouhri. "C'est un développement dangereux qui confirme que le pouvoir actuel en Egypte renonce aux causes nationales (...) allant même jusqu'à leur nuire, à commencer par la cause palestinienne", a-t-il déploré.
    Un tribunal du Caire a ordonné le placement en détention du président islamiste destitué Mohammed Morsi pour complicité présumée dans des attaques imputées au Hamas palestinien et une évasion de prison début 2011, une décision condamnée par les Frères musulmans comme "un retour du régime Moubarak". [...]"

- Report: Hamas, Iran secretly met in Beirut to talk truce (JP) - "Sides discussed restoring ties".
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Report-Hamas-Iran-secretly-met-in-Beirut-to-talk-truce-321260
- Hamas patches up ties with Hezbollah, Iran (Times of Israel) - "Two senior representatives of Gaza terror group meet with Shiite organization in Beirut".
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-patches-up-ties-with-hezbollah-iran/
- Hamas, spurned by Egypt, tries to get cozy with Iran again (Elder of Ziyon)
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/07/hamas-spurned-by-egypt-tries-to-get.html
   "Hamas spokesman Salah Bardawil, speaking to the Xinhua news agency, stated that Hamas is "ready and welcomes all forms of dialogue with Iran to strengthen relations between the two sides." Bardawil said that relations between Hamas and Iran "had not been interrupted at all" but he admitted that "they have become frosty since the crisis in Syria ... but we emphasize that Hamas does not want to drop relations with any Arab or Muslim party that supports the Palestinian cause." On Tuesday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi announced that Iran and Mahas we resolving issues that caused "misunderstandings" between them.
    This comes after the Egyptian public, and army, have come out strongly against the Gaza-based Islamist group that enjoyed close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas needs a new patron that can help it pay its bills, and tacitly backing Assad is apparently a price it is willing to pay - a move that will, if made public explicitly, cause some serious damage to Hamas' reputation in the larger Arab world. On the flip side, Iran has been having a hard time to position itself as the leader of the Muslim world when every major Sunni group bitterly opposes it. Hamas helps Iran as well.
    It will be interesting to see if Khaled Meshal, Hamas "political" head who has been moving from country to country in search of a new permanent Hamas headquarters to replace Syria, will be on board with this."

- Gaza exports potatoes to Jordan via Israel (Elder of Ziyon) - "I have not seen any exports from Gaza into Egypt. Must be because of that Israeli siege"...
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/07/gaza-exports-potatoes-to-jordan-via.html

- Want Peace? Get Rid of Hamas, Jeffrey Goldberg (Bloomberg) - "there are concrete steps the U.S. could take to encourage the collapse of Hamas".
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-24/want-peace-get-rid-of-hamas-.html
   "[...] Both the Palestinian Authority and Israel see Hamas as a bitter enemy; both sides understand that Hamas is an impediment to peace talks. The end of Hamas's rule -- the Gaza Strip constituting about half of what would be a future Palestinian state -- could set the stage for actual, fruitful negotiations. Removing Hamas from power would be difficult, but not as difficult as it might have been a month ago, before the demise of Hamas's main benefactor, the Muslim Brotherhood, when Mohamed Mursi was ousted as president of Egypt.
    As Hussein Ibish of the American Task Force on Palestine explains, Hamas is now more divided, hapless and isolated than it has been since its founding: "The new Egyptian government, and much of the public, take a decidedly dim view of Hamas," Ibish wrote recently. "They see it as conniving in the low-level, but extremely dangerous, insurgency in Sinai that greatly intensified after Morsi's overthrow. Hamas, and the Palestinians living under its misrule, have paid a heavy price for the Egyptian military counteroffensive against Sinai extremists. Egyptian forces reportedly killed 35 Hamas fighters and destroyed 850 smuggling tunnels. Fuel and other shortages, and a financial crisis, have consequently intensified in Gaza."
    Jonathan Schanzer, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, explained in a recent Foreign Policy post that Hamas's financial struggles are acute: "The downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt earlier this month has been widely described as a blow to Hamas and its de facto government in the Gaza Strip. But the real damage has been to the Islamist group's pocketbook. The Egyptian Army's ongoing operations against the subterranean tunnels connecting Egypt to the Gaza Strip, which have long served as key arteries for bulk cash smuggling, are wreaking havoc on Hamas's finances. One senior Israeli security official told me that, in the current environment, an additional reduction of 20 to 30 percent in Hamas' revenues could 'destroy' the movement."
    Schanzer argues that there are concrete steps the U.S. could take to encourage the collapse of Hamas. The White House could lobby Hamas's remaining benefactors in Turkey and Qatar to trim their funding. If such lobbying failed, Congress could "pull strings to speed up delivery of or withhold the advanced weapons systems that both countries are eagerly awaiting, depending upon how the conversation goes. Turkey, for example, is expecting Sidewinder missiles and Chinook helicopters, and it would like to purchase Predator and Reaper drones. Qatar, for its part, is expecting delivery of Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) Systems, and 500 Javelin-Guided Missiles."
    Of course, the collapse of Hamas wouldn't mean instantaneous Palestinian Authority rule. But nothing at all will happen with Hamas in power.
    There are more important matters in the Middle East right now than the resumption of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians: The Syrian civil war, the turmoil in Egypt and Iran's continued march toward the nuclear threshold are three. But if Kerry insists on pushing negotiations, he might as well attempt to create conditions in which those negotiations could work. Breaking Hamas would be one way to try to achieve his goal."

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Judée-Samarie

- All quiet on the West Bank front, for now, Amos Harel (Haaretz) - "A new Israeli movie, 'Bethlehem,’ is a gripping drama set during the darkest days of the second intifada. Anyone watching it will hope those days never return, but the renewed peace talks will play a big role in determining that".
http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.538248
   "The Israeli film Bethlehem, slated to compete at the upcoming Venice Film Festival, recreates a period that most Israelis would rather forget. Its plot is set deep in the days of the second Intifada, when suicide bombers blew themselves up in Jerusalem busses and on Tel Aviv streets on a weekly basis. [...]" (suite payante)

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Egypte

- Egypt's Brotherhood: Zionists destabilize Arab countries, Roi Kais (Ynet) - "Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Badie blames General al-Sisi for committing massacres 'the likes of which were only committed by bitter Zionist enemies,' insists 'Zionist fingers maneuver countries of Arab Spring so as to fulfill vision of Great Israel'."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4410835,00.html
- Egyptian MB leader says Jews behind all anti-Islamist actions worldwide (Elder of Ziyon) - "I gotta admit, I enjoy seeing these people freak out".
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/07/egyptian-mb-leader-says-jews-behind-all.html

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Monde arabe

- Ghannouchi soutient qu’Israël est derrière… les manifestants tunisiens, Hatem Bourial (Webdo)
http://www.webdo.tn/2013/07/27/hallucinant-ghannouchi-soutient-quisrael-est-derriere-les-manifestants-tunisiens/
   "Le leader des Nahdhaouis, Rached Ghannouchi, vient de se distinguer à nouveau en soutenant sur une télévision étrangère que c'était "l'entité sioniste" qui se cachait derrière les manifestants tunisiens, dans une "tentative de déstabiliser les printemps arabes". [...]"

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Monde

- Le conflit armé colombien aurait fait 220 000 morts et 5,7 millions de déplacés, Marie Delcas (Le Monde) - "Rurale, cruelle, ignorée, la guerre civile colombienne dure depuis cinquante-cinq ans. Un bilan, encore provisoire, fait état de 220 000 morts, de 5,7 millions de déplacés, de 25 000 disparus, de 27 000 otages. Le gros des violences a été commis entre 1996 et 2005". Par comparaison, le conflit israélo-palestinien a fait quelque 8.000 morts en vingt ans.
http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2013/07/26/le-conflit-arme-colombien-aurait-fait-220-000-morts-et-5-7-millions-de-deplaces_3454072_3222.html

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Point de vue

- The poverty of boycotting Israel, Qanta Ahmed (Haaretz) - une superbe et remarquable tribune de la part d'une universitaire musulmane ayant fait ses études de médecine en Arabie Saoudite et qui connaît bien l'Etat juif.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.537930
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/07/a-withering-takedown-of-academic-bds-by.html
   "Qanta Ahmed MD is the author of In the Land of Invisible Women (2008), a Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellow in Science and Religion and Associate Professor of Medicine, State University of New York."
   "As a woman, a Muslim and as a physician of Pakistani descent, I can attest personally to the inordinate importance of academic freedom in Britain and the United States. This freedom was extended to me even during the time I was practicing medicine in Saudi Arabia, where - like all women – I was subject to gender apartheid. Because of this experience, I can only see the closing of the academic mind in the form of the ‘academic boycott’ of Israeli citizens and institutions as the act of invertebrate hypocrites. Boycotting Israel, whether academic or cultural is not an act of moral indignation, but an act of moral turpitude.
    Academic freedom builds relationships, tolerance, and opportunity. When I moved to Riyadh 15 years ago, I had no doubts about maintaining my professional relationship with my own Jewish American mentor who had guided me throughout my then early career.
    While I lived and worked in a country where as a Muslim I could worship but my mentor and his coreligionists could not, I was given every opportunity to develop in the American academic space because of his intellectual generosity. While I was subject to legislated male supremacy and relegated to being a legal minor, no Western academic suggested boycotting the medical academe hosting me in the Kingdom.
    Academic freedom was in fact my only freedom at the time and I was determined to share it. I connected my Saudi colleagues - leading Saudi Muslim academics - with my mentor which led to the publication of jointly-authored papers on patient care in the Arab Gulf, benefiting primarily Muslim patients. This work sowed the seeds for subsequent conferences where both my Saudi Muslim and American Jewish colleagues met and developed their own relationships.
    In contrast, boycotting Israeli entities penalizes apolitical individuals, their institutions, their innovations and ultimately, stymies a global market of ideas which benefits humanity. Perhaps it's possible to make a more generous assessment of why the various scholars, writers and entertainers who call for a boycott of 'apartheid Israel' claim to act in the interests of Palestinians: That it's based on simple ignorance. They would certainly be wiser if they had had the same opportunity that I recently enjoyed when I visited Israel to meet Israeli academia, and – critically – examined how such a boycott, whether overt or covert, particularly damages Israeli Arabs, or Palestinian citizens of Israel.
    I spoke to Arab Muslim undergraduates at Haifa's Technion University during my visit in May this year. Arab undergraduates (most of whom are Muslim with a smaller Christian representation) lead a program to remove barriers to success of fellow Arab undergraduates there. Professor Daoud Bshouty, Dean of Undergraduate Studies (and both Israel’s and Technion's first Christian Arab faculty member) and Sara Katzir, former Israeli Airforce officer and head of the Beatrice Weston Unit for the Advancement of Students, explained the origin of the program, joined by Assistant Professor Youseff Jabareen, an Arab Israeli Muslim graduate, and the Muslim undergraduate Maysoun Hindawi, who related their own experiences as minorities.
    When, eight years ago, the Technion examined their own data, they were dismayed to find a high drop-out rate amongst Arab undergraduates, even though they had met the rigorous entry criteria to a university consistently rated amongst the top three science institutes in the world. This was an untenable loss of intellectual talent for the university and in their mind, for Israel.
    Since then, the Beatrice Weston Unit for the Advancement of Students has developed one-on-one peer mentorship by and for Israeli Arab undergraduates, with men mentoring men and women mentoring women in view of the cultural sensitivities. The program was funded by Jewish American philanthropists intent on serving all sectors of Technion’s students, majority and minority alike. [...]
    In less than a decade, the Weston Advancement Unit has improved the Technion’s Israeli Arab undergraduate retention rate by over 50 percent, with more gains likely. But The Technion’s support extends beyond their undergraduates. Many Israeli Arabs attend Arabic medium schools, so the move to the Hebrew-language university is a significant challenge. In response, candidates identified as Technion material are given intense year-long programs preparing them (and their Hebrew) – developed by the university itself. [...]
    “We have a moral obligation to develop everyone who enters the Technion, because we must nurture scientific ability. It is our responsibility," Katzir told me. The advancement program has been so effective at closing disparity gaps that it has now been rolled out across the institute and offered to every Technion undergrad who needs it, minority or not. After winning national awards, this program is being emulated at other Israeli institutions at government request.
    There are also life experience and leadership gaps that need to be overcome for minority students. At the Technion, Maysoun explained, Arab Muslim students are often the first in their families -sometimes in generations - to enter higher education, and, in the case of women, may be breaking stereotypical gender roles in conservative families who may not approve of a female student living on campus. Arab Muslim students must also overcome a leadership gap created by the military service that their Jewish peers have gone through. The program develops the leadership skills of its Israeli Arab Muslim undergraduates who direct many activities themselves, based on merit, not ‘quota’.
    My Technion experience clarified for me how calls for academic boycott would particularly imperil the future of these Arab Israeli students and the progressive opportunities they are offered. The shockingly ignorant acquiescence to the widespread braying for boycott, now a socially acceptable sport eclipsing the spirit of academe, whether led by Stephen Hawking or others, reveals the depth to which anti-Israel bias is now entrenched in our ivory towers.
    The reality is simple: Calling for an Israeli boycott invites no reprisals. It is more than socially acceptable; it is a badge of honor brandished by those claiming to defend ‘minorities’. Yet ironically, while the costs of boycott will be shouldered by every Israeli, the major costs will be born by Israel’s own minority population, including Israeli Muslims of Palestinian heritage. This is a population which is for the first time becoming highly educated, advancing in the workplace, collaborating with their fellow Israeli Jewish citizens and eager to enter the global marketplace of ideas. These Israeli Muslim Arabs are the keystones to lasting peace in the region. No one else is better positioned to bridge conflicts and cultures and yet no one else will be more penalized by boycott.
    Academic freedom means the freedom to collaborate, the freedom to cooperate, the freedom to communicate, the freedom to investigate, and the freedom to know the other. Isolating Israelis imposes upon all of us outside of Israel the worst kind of self-isolation, one which denies our engagement not only with the richly intellectual and extraordinarily productive Israeli academic community but access to those minorities facing the greatest challenges in Israel. The boycott flattens the painstakingly earned, inch-by-inch progress towards coexistence within and outside Israel; and coexistence is surely the primary step towards regional peace. At this discouraging time of increasing academic and cultural siege, every thoughtful academic should join me in lending their name and their reputation to fighting the boycott."

France

- Lettre ouverte au musée du Jeu de Paume et à Madame le ministre de la Culture, Richard Rossin (Ecrivain, ancien Secrétaire Général de Médecins Sans Frontières) - "Il s'agit d'envoyer une image évoquant Jean Moulin, mais qu'y a-t-il de commun entre les hommes de Jean Moulin et les massacreurs de civils ?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/richard-rossin/exposition-jeu-de-paume_b_3644010.html
   "Au Jeu de Paume, après un mise en condition via des soldats israéliens bédouins supposés collabos, des orphelins polonais (pourquoi polonais ?) et des résistants corréziens devenus colonialistes, on arrive au cœur d'une exposition controversée sur la vénération de "martyrs" morts en opération. Par mort en opération, il faut comprendre qu'ils se sont pour la plupart fait exploser dans des lieux publics au milieu de foules faisant des foules de victimes. L'humanité est foulée aux pieds.
    Les légendes des photos évidemment ne précisent pas cela. Les victimes sont absentes, la photographe clame l'identité de ceux qu'elle appelle résistants/martyrs. Il s'agit d'envoyer une image évoquant Jean Moulin, mais qu'y a-t-il de commun entre les hommes de Jean Moulin et les massacreurs de civils ? Voici quelques précisions sur seulement quelques-uns de ceux-là qui sont exposés à la ferveur populaire là-bas :
    - Wafa Idriss, une infirmière- ambulancière du Croissant Rouge se fait sauter avec 10 kg d'explosifs cachés dans son sac à dos le 27 janvier 2002 sur Jaffa road au cœur de Jérusalem-ouest. 2 morts et 90 blessés.
    - Sa'ed Hannani explose volontairement le 25 décembre 2003 sur une station d'autobus à Petah Tikva près de Tel Aviv ; 4 morts, 16 blessés. Joyeux Noël.
    - Raed Tbilah entraine dans la mort dans le bus n°2 à Shmuel Hanavi, un quartier de Jérusalem, tue 21 personnes et en blesse 103 le 19 août 2003.
    - Zeinab Abu Salem avait 18 ans le 22 septembre 2004 ; elle était la très belle animatrice d'une émission d'endoctrinement pour enfants sur la chaine de télévision de sa famille à Sichem. Elle n'a fait que 2 morts (dont un Ethiopien) et 16 blessés à un arrêt de bus dans le quartier de la colline française à Jérusalem... Elle était la huitième femme terroriste-suicide.
    - Ahmed Salim Abu Khalil se fait bombe vivante le 12 juillet 2005, massacre 5 personnes et en blesse 61 devant un complexe commercial de Netanya.
    - Abdallah Badran se fait exploser devant un night-club sur le front de mer à Tel Aviv le 25 février 2005 : 6 morts, 50 blessés.
    - Saïd Khutari, 22 ans, a actionné sa bombe devant la discothèque dolphinarium à Tel Aviv le 1er juin 2001, 21 morts dont 16 adolescent et 120 blessés.
    - Rassan Raied el-Anan le 12 décembre 2001 sur la route de Qalqilya souffle un bus avec une bombe puis mitraille : 10 morts et 30 blessés.
    - Abu Hilal se fait sauter dans un bus le 21. 11. 2002 : 11 morts et 47 blessés.
    - Sa'ed Awada actionne sa bombe emplie de billes d'acier dans un bus à Jérusalem le 18 juin 2002 : 19 morts et 74 blessés.
    - Mahmoud al-Titi fait la même chose le 27 mai 2002 devant un centre commercial de Petah Tikva près de Tel Aviv : 2 morts et 35 blessés.
    - Ahmad Saadat assassine à Jérusalem le ministre du tourisme israélien, Rehavam Zeevi, le 17 octobre 2001.
    - Le 19 mai 2002, Bassat Qassem Odeh entre dans la salle à manger du Park Hôtel de Netanya pendant la célébration de la Pâque juive et met à feu sa bombe farcie d'éclats de métal : 29 morts et 130 blessés. Deux planificateurs de cet attentat seront libérés dans le cadre de l'accord Shalit... et la famille du cerveau a été honorée d'une plaque commémorative par l'Autorité palestinienne au neuvième anniversaire de l'attentat.
    - On trouve aussi : Khalil Marchoud qui avait orchestré plus de 20 attentats, Nasser Awais fondateur des brigades al-Aqsa organisateur d'attentats dont en 2002 ceux de la Bar Mitsvah de Hadera du 17 janvier (6 morts, 26 blessés) la fusillade de Neve Yaakov à Jérusalem en janvier et l'attentat à l'hôtel Relax de Netanya (5 morts et des dizaines de blessés).
    Et tout est à l'avenant pour ces héros partis au Walhalla des vierges musulmanes qui ne vieillissent jamais. Cette courte et très incomplète liste est déjà fastidieuse : plus de 150 morts, plus de 1300 blessés et combien d'handicapés définitifs ? Tous civils, passants anonymes. Vous ne saviez peut-être pas qui étaient ces prétendus martyrs, maintenant vous le savez.
    Aux responsables du musée, directrice et commissaires, je demande: êtes-vous toujours sûres de ne pas faire d'apologie de la haine et du terrorisme ? Aux responsables médiatiques : êtes-vous toujours certains d'assurer votre devoir d'information et votre rôle de défenseurs des valeurs républicaines ? A la ministre de la Culture qui a perdu une éclisse en aiguillant les trains de la culture, sait-elle ce qu'elle couvre ? Au ministre de l'intérieur, sait-il ce qu'il autorise et protège ? Le Quai d'Orsay, jamais en retard en la matière, soutient-il cette exposition itinérante en Europe ?
    Et notre ministre de la Justice garde sous ses sceaux l'article 212-1 du code pénal : "Constitue également un crime contre l'humanité et est puni de la réclusion criminelle à perpétuité l'un des actes ci-après commis en exécution d'un plan concerté à l'encontre d'un groupe de population civile dans le cadre d'une attaque généralisée ou systématique". Accepter cela c'est accepter de telles actions valeureuses sur notre territoire.
    Mesdames, Messieurs, peut-être ne saviez-vous pas, vous ne pouvez plus être sans savoir. Qu'allez-vous faire ?"

- Hezbollah, Hamas, PKK, vous avez dit terrorisme ?, Alain Gresh (Le Monde diplomatique) - pour l'anti-israélien professionnel du Monde Diplomatique, l'inscription du Hezbollah sur la liste européenne des organisations terroristes car (accrochez-vous bien) : 1- c'est l'Etat juif qui est vraiment terroriste et qu'il faudrait boycotter ; 2- on pourrait rapprocher le Hamas et le Hezbollah de Nelson Mandela, dont l'organisation fut aussi pendant un temps considérée comme "terroriste".
http://www.info-palestine.net/spip.php?article13780
   "Nous le savons, le terrorisme est une accusation facile qui permet aux Etats de criminaliser des groupes qui luttent contre une occupation étrangère ou contre un agresseur. Cette accusation est principalement proférée contre des organisations au Proche-Orient, notamment le Hezbollah et le Hamas, mais pas seulement. Ainsi l’Union européenne a-t-elle décidé de placer « l’aile militaire du Hezbollah sur la liste des organisations terroristes » (LeMonde.fr, 22 juillet). [...]
    Mais, au-delà des difficultés à déterminer les responsables de telle ou telle action, on peut s’interroger sur cet usage du terme terrorisme qui permet de boycotter le Hamas tout en maintenant d’excellentes relations avec Israël, dont l’usage du terrorisme d’Etat est patent. [...]
    Il n’y a pas si longtemps, les Etats-Unis, le Royaume-Uni et le gouvernement blanc d’Afrique du Sud qualifiaient le Congrès national africain (ANC) de Nelson Mandela d’organisation terroriste. Et pourtant, Mandela est devenu aujourd’hui l’un des hommes les plus vénérés de la planète [...]
    Encore une fois, l’Union européenne s’est alignée sur Washington et Tel-Aviv, se privant ainsi de tout rôle réel au Proche-Orient."

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Israël

- Menacé de violences physiques, Eric Burdon annule son concert en Israël (Philosémitisme) - "suite à de violentes menaces, Eric Burdon, du célèbre groupe britannique The Animals actif dans les années 1960 et l'un des vétérans du rock & roll, a annulé le concert qu'il devait donner en Israël le 1er août. Il y a quelques jours à Vienne il avait confié qu'il recevait des menaces et qu'il comptait maintenir le concert. Mais son manager vient d'annoncer que les menaces sont quotidiennes et très violentes et qu'il ne veut pas mettre Eric Burdon en danger".
http://philosemitismeblog.blogspot.fr/2013/07/menace-de-violences-physiques-eric.html
- Eric Burdon, ancien chanteur du groupe « Animals », annule son concert en Israël (Europalestine) - "Eric Burdon, 72 ans, qui vient de lancer un novel album en solo intiutlé « Til Your River Runs Dry” n’ira pas jouer en Israël début août".
http://www.europalestine.com/spip.php?article8489

- Jerusalem: 15 injured by stone throwing (Ynet) - "Two separate stone throwing incident in capital result in injury of 15 people, including baby. Four people evacuated to hospital".
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4409807,00.html

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Gaza & Hamas

- Deux roquettes de Gaza touchent Israël (AFP)
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2013/07/24/97001-20130724FILWWW00261-deux-roquettes-de-gaza-touchent-israel.php
   "Deux roquettes tirées de la bande de Gaza ont touché aujourd'hui [mercredi] le sud d'Israël sans faire de blessé, a indiqué la police. "Deux roquettes ont été tirées de la bande de Gaza et se sont apparemment abattues dans la région d'Eshkol, dans le sud d'Israël, sans faire ni blessé ni dégât", a indiqué la porte-parole de la police Louba Samri. "Les forces de sécurité ratissent la zone pour tenter de retrouver des débris des roquettes", a-t-elle précisé. Deux autres roquettes avaient été tirées le 18 juillet de la bande de Gaza, à la fin de la visite dans la région du secrétaire d'Etat américain John Kerry. [...]"

- Le Hamas ferme une chaîne de télé (AFP)
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2013/07/25/97001-20130725FILWWW00495-le-hamas-ferme-une-chaine-de-tele.php
   "Le Hamas, au pouvoir dans la bande de Gaza, a fermé jeudi le bureau de la chaîne satellitaire Al-Arabiya, lui reprochant d'avoir diffusé de fausses informations au sujet du soutien du mouvement islamiste à l'ancien président égyptien Mohammed Morsi. "Le procureur général a décidé de fermer Al-Arabiya (...) à Gaza pour avoir diffusé de fausses informations au sujet de la campagne calomnieuse contre le Hamas et Gaza s'agissant de la situation en Egypte", a indiqué un responsable du Hamas."
- Hamas shuts down Al Arabiya, other media offices in Gaza (Reuters) - "Security forces also closed down Palestinian news agency Maan".
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Hamas-shuts-down-Al-Arabiya-other-media-offices-in-Gaza-321078
- Hamas closes 2 media offices in Gaza for criticism (AP) - "Gaza offices of Al Arabiya, Palestinian news agency Maan shut down by Hamas because they 'spread fabricated rumors' that 'harm the Palestinian national interest, resistance movements'."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4409899,00.html

- UN says Egypt crackdown closes 80 percent of Gaza smuggling tunnels (Reuters) - "Hamas, which taxes much of the traffic through the underground passages, has been hit hard by the losses".
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/UN-says-Egypt-crackdown-closes-80-percent-of-Gaza-smuggling-tunnels-320857
- Egypt imposes toughest Gaza restrictions in years (AP) - "Army says it is sealing smuggling tunnels, blocking most passenger traffic as part of crackdown on Sinai terrorists. 'It's getting worse every day,' Gaza taxi driver says, 'Even when Mubarak was president, we used to get fuel through the tunnels'."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4409469,00.html

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Judée-Samarie

- Communiqué officiel : arrestation d’un Palestinien juste avant une attaque terroriste (Tsahal)
http://tsahal.fr/2013/07/25/communique-officiel-arrestation-dun-palestinien-juste-avant-une-attaque-terroriste/
   "Aujourd'hui, des soldats de Tsahal ont identifié et arrêté un suspect palestinien près Hawara en Judée-Samarie. Le suspect portait un pistolet et des munitions qu’il devait utiliser afin de tirer sur un autobus dans la région. Deux autres cas où des bus ont été la cible de tirs ont été recensés dans la zone au cours des quatres dernières semaines. Le commandant de la brigade de Shomron, le colonel Yoav Yarom, a déclaré à propos de l’incident :
   “Il y a quelques heures, un Palestinien a tenté d’attaquer un bus civil israélien dans les environs de Hawara. Il a été arrêté en possession d’un pistolet. Au cours du dernier mois, deux incidents similaires ont eu lieu, le 12 et 25 juin 2013, au cours desquels des coups de feu ont été tirés en direction de bus civils. Nous croyons que le Palestinien qui a effectué ces attaques vit dans le village de Awarta. Depuis le dernier incident, les forces de sécurité ont effectué des opérations de surveillance afin de contrecarrer les futures attaques terroristes contre des autobus dans la région. Les soldats qui étaient à bord du bus, dans le cadre de ces opérations de surveillance, ont identifié le suspect et ont empêché l'attaque imminente. (...) Cet incident est en cours d’investigation. C'est notre devoir de poursuivre tout individu qui tente de blesser des civils en Judée et Samarie afin d’y préserver la paix et le calme"."

- Israël : un réseau ferré en Cisjordanie ? (AFP)
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2013/07/25/97001-20130725FILWWW00223-israel-un-reseau-ferre-en-cisjordanie.php
   "L'administration militaire israélienne a donné son feu vert à la poursuite d'un projet de construction d'un réseau de 473 km de lignes de chemin de fer en Cisjordanie, a indiqué aujourd'hui un responsable du ministère de la Défense. "Ce projet a ainsi franchi une étape, mais il en reste encore beaucoup d'autres, le chemin risque d'être très long", a précisé responsable israélien en soulignant que l'Autorité palestinienne a refusé de collaborer à cette opération.
    Le quotidien Haaretz précise pour sa part que l'administration militaire et le ministère israélien des Transports prévoient la construction de 30 gares, de dizaines de ponts et de tunnels ainsi que de 11 lignes ferroviaires qui doivent relier les principales villes de Cisjordanie, ainsi que des grandes [localités] israéliennes tel que Maalé Adoumin près de Jérusalem, Ariel dans le nord de la Cisjordanie ou Kyriat Arba dans le sud. [...]"

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"Processus de paix"

- PLO official calls for Israel's destruction; says Israel wants to grab all Muslim lands (Elder of Ziyon) - "Israel is an illegitimate state. Palestine belongs to Palestinians" ; "Israel is a Zionist project that is aimed at grabbing the Muslim land from Morocco to Pakistan".
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/07/plo-official-calls-for-israels.html

- Fatah honors arch-terrorist by proudly listing his 61 murders (PMW)
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=9425
   "Fatah continues to follow Palestinian Authority policy documented by Palestinian Media Watch of honoring terrorists, among them Abdallah Barghouti. A picture [voir sur le site] glorifying 5 of the suicide bombings that Barghouti prepared explosives for and which killed 61 "Zionists" was posted by the administrator of the official Facebook page of the Enlistment and Organization Commission of Fatah. Terrorist Barghouti was honored as the "brave prisoner" and his attacks as "self-sacrificing activity" and "Martyrdom-seeking operations." "Martyrdom-seeking operations" is the Palestinian euphemism for suicide bombings.
    Barghouti is serving 67 life sentences for preparing explosives for terror attacks in which 67 people were murdered - Sbarro restaurant (15 killed, Aug. 9, 2001), Sheffield Club (15 killed, May 7, 2002), Moment Café (11 killed, March 9, 2002), triple attack at Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall (11 killed, Dec. 1, 2001), Hebrew University (9 killed, July 1, 2002), and Bus 4 in Tel Aviv (6 killed, Sept. 19, 2002). [...]"

- Song calls for attacking Israel, "the snake's head" - in PA TV documentary (PMW, Vidéo 42 secondes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ONmRool96w

- Washington tempère son optimisme sur l'issue des pourparlers israélo-palestiniens, Laurent Zecchini (Le Monde)
http://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2013/07/24/washington-tempere-son-optimisme-sur-l-issue-des-pourparlers-israelo-palestiniens_3452768_3210.html
   "Dans sa hâte d'annoncer une reprise des négociations entre Israéliens et Palestiniens avant de rentrer à Washington, John Kerry est sans doute allé un peu vite en besogne. En quittant Amman, le 19 juillet, le secrétaire d'Etat américain avait indiqué que les négociateurs des deux parties se retrouveraient dans la capitale fédérale la semaine suivante afin d'amorcer un processus de discussions que chacun prévoit long – de six à neuf mois –, mais dont les Palestiniens veulent qu'il ait un terme défini au départ. Il ne restait plus que quelques "détails" à régler pour entrer dans le vif du sujet.
    Las, s'agissant de l'avancée du processus de paix au Proche-Orient, les obstacles ne manquent pas. C'est pour cela que la Maison-Blanche a fait état, lundi 22 juillet, d'un "optimisme très prudent" quant à l'issue des négociations et jugé utile de tempérer l'enthousiasme de M. Kerry : "Nous travaillons à trouver une date pour une réunion à Washington dans les semaines à venir, afin de faire avancer le processus", a indiqué la présidence américaine.
    Du côté tant israélien que palestinien, la circonspection, voire le scepticisme, semble de règle : "Si un accord est trouvé sur ces détails, en accord avec les demandes palestiniennes, une reprise des négociations sera annoncée", a insisté Nabil Abou Roudeina, porte-parole du président de l'Autorité palestinienne. Mahmoud Abbas lui-même, dans un entretien au journal jordanien Al-Raï, a souligné que, si les négociations ne s'engagent pas, "toutes les options sont ouvertes", une manière de rappeler que les Palestiniens n'ont pas abandonné celle consistant à poser la candidature de la Palestine aux agences des Nations unies et à porter plainte contre Israël devant la Cour pénale internationale. [...]"
- Reprise du dialogue Israël-Palestine ? (AFP)
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2013/07/25/97001-20130725FILWWW00324-reprise-des-negociations-israel-palestine.php
   "Les négociations israélo-palestiniennes gelées depuis près de trois ans devraient reprendre mardi prochain à Washington, a affirmé aujourd'hui le ministre israélien de la Coopération régionale Sylvan Shalom, lors d'une visite en Cisjordanie. "Nous espérons que les discussions débutent la semaine prochaine, probablement mardi, mais tout n'a pas été réglé à 100%", a affirmé M. Shalom lors d'une conférence de presse à Jéricho, près de Jérusalem, à l'occasion de l'inauguration d'un parc industriel.
   "S'il n'y a pas d'incident de dernière minute comme cela a eu lieu dans le passé, je crois qu'il y a de bonnes chances pour que les discussions reprennent la semaine prochaine à Washington", a ajouté le ministre. Cité par la radio publique, M. Shalom a affirmé qu'il ne croyait pas à un "scénario au terme duquel les Palestiniens refuseraient de reprendre les négociations". "Une telle attidude reviendrait à infliger un camouflet à John Kerry", le secrétaire d'État américain, a-t-il estimé."

- PM reportedly agreed to limit settlement building during talks (Times of Israel) - "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly committed to cap settlement building during peace talks with the Palestinians to 1,000 homes within existing settlement blocs".
http://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-reportedly-agreed-to-limit-settlement-building-during-talks/
- Israel to limit West Bank tenders to 1,000 housing units during peace talks, Barak Ravid (Haaretz) - "Netanyahu tells Kerry he will also limit the approval of construction during the next 6-9 months to the large settlement blocs; release of Palestinian prisoners to be expedited".
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.538067

- Une majorité d'Israéliens voterait «oui» à un accord de paix (AFP)
http://www.20minutes.fr/article/1191737/ynews1191737?xtor=RSS-176
   "Plus de la moitié des Israéliens sont prêts à soutenir un accord de paix avec les Palestiniens dans le cadre d'un référendum, selon un sondage publié ce mercredi. Quelque 55% des Israéliens soutiendraient un accord de paix auquel serait parvenu le Premier ministre israélien Benjamin Netanyahu, contre 25% qui s'y opposeraient, et 20% d'indécis, selon l'étude publiée dans Haaretz. Parmi les 55% qui voteraient pour un accord de paix, 39% soutiendraient tout accord de paix proposé par Benjamin Netanyahu et 16% approuveraient probablement un tel plan, précise l'étude. Le sondage de l'institut Dialog, sous la supervision du professeur Camil Fuchs de l'université de Tel-Aviv, a été effectué auprès de 511 personnes. [...]"
- Poll: Majority of Israeli Jews oppose prisoner release as gesture to Palestinians, Ben Hartman (JP)
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Majority-of-Israeli-Jews-oppose-prisoner-release-as-gesture-to-Palestinians-321039
   "The majority of Israeli Jews are against releasing Palestinian prisoners with blood on their hands as a gesture to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of the resumption of peace talks, according to a Smith Research poll conducted on Wednesday for terror victims organization Almagor. The poll of 500 Israelis representing a sample of the adult population found that 80 percent of secular Jews said they were against releasing these Palestinian prisoners, while over 95% of conservative and orthodox Jews objected to such a gesture. [...] The poll's overall sampling error is plus or minus 4.5%. Almagor, an organization founded in 1986 in the wake of the Jibril Deal, advocates for terror victims' rights."

- Legal group to Kerry: Pre-1967 lines as basis for talks contravenes US commitments, Herb Keinon (JP) - "The group quotes from US president George W. Bush’s letter to Sharon on April 4, 2004, which it said was given as a political quid pro quo, in return for Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza".
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Alan-Baker-to-Kerry-Pre-1967-lines-as-basis-for-talks-contravenes-US-commitments-321128
   "Any US guarantee to the Palestinians that the upcoming negotiations with Israel will be based on the pre-1967 lines would be a violation of written US commitments given to then-prime minister Ariel Sharon, former Foreign Ministry legal adviser Alan Baker wrote in a letter sent this week to Secretary of State John Kerry.
    Baker wrote the letter on behalf of the Legal Forum for Israel, along with another attorney with the group, Yossi Fuchs. The forum, formerly called the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, was set up in the wake of the Gaza withdrawal to promote the rights of the evacuees. The group quotes from US president George W. Bush’s letter to Sharon on April 4, 2004, which it said was given as a political quid pro quo, in return for Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.
    According to that letter, “As part of a final peace settlement, Israel must have secure and recognized borders, which should emerge from negotiations between the parties in accordance with UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338. In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of the final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion.”
    These commitments were later affirmed by a large majority of the US House of Representatives, and – as Baker and Fuchs wrote to Kerry – was “also given legal affirmation as part of an Israeli governmental decision and attached to the disengagement implementation law of October 27, 2004.”
    The letter, however, has since been the source of contention, with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton distancing the Obama administration from its commitments. In June 2009 she said, “In looking at the history of the Bush administration, there were no informal or oral enforceable agreements. That has been verified by the official record of the administration and by the personnel in the positions of responsibility.”
    But Elliott Abrams, who handled Middle East affairs at the National Security Council from 2001 to 2008 and was involved in drafting the letter, disputed Clinton’s interpretation in an opinion piece that appeared in 2009 in The Wall Street Journal. “These statements are incorrect,” Abrams said of Clinton’s remarks. “Not only were there agreements, but the prime minister of Israel relied on them in undertaking a wrenching political reorientation – the dissolution of his government, the removal of every single Israeli citizen, settlement and military position in Gaza, and the removal of four small settlements in the West Bank.”
    Baker and Fuchs wrote that “we would assume, and expect the US administration to uphold this presidential commitment without any reservation or change.” In addition, they wrote, “In the various documents comprising the ‘Oslo Accords’ (1993-99) the PLO and Israel agreed to conduct negotiations on the issue of ‘borders.’ The term “pre-1967 lines” has never been a factor in these agreements, nor has it figured in other accompanying documentation such as the 2003 US sponsored ‘Performance- Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.’”"

- Senior Palestinian source: No peace talks unless veteran prisoners are released, Jack Khoury (Haaretz) - "Partial release of prisoners will be received with anger on the Palestinian street, and would be seen as a concession by the PA, source tells Haaretz".
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.538030
- Freeing jailed murderers will move us away from peace, Aryeh Eldad (Haaretz) - "A member of Fatah’s central committee described the bombing that is so deeply etched in my memory as ‘a wonderful, high-quality operation, using a refrigerator, which caused the enemy sleepless nights’."
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.538064
   "It was a Friday morning, during the first month of my internship at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center. I had been on duty the day before, and I was supposed to be on duty on Shabbat, too. At 9:30 A.M. I left the hospital and went home to sleep a little. But before I had even reached the Ramat Eshkol neighborhood, I heard the explosion. There were no cell phones at the time, so I continued toward home in..." (suite payante)

- Prisoner release proves that the talks are going to be a farce (Elder of Ziyon) - "We have a quasi-state that is doing everything possible to avoid independence, and we have prisoners who are doing everything possible to avoid freedom!"
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/07/prisoner-release-proves-that-talks-are.html
   "If the Palestinian Arabs are living in such a desperate situation.... If their lack of having full statehood is so terribly onerous... If their desire for peace is so strong.... Then why are they constantly adding roadblocks? And why doesn't the world ask this basic question? There is something very wrong about the negotiations before the negotiations, and they prove how little the Palestinian Arabs care about peace.
    First the US had to put its own prestige on the line for its Secretary of State to shuttle back and forth several times just to get the PLO to agree to think about talking to Israel. Key phrases needed to be manipulated and secret promises have to be made. But the practical concessions, as always, go only one way. Israel is being forced to release over a hundred of the worst terrorists remaining in prison - just to have a conversation with their erstwhile peace partner. Now, not only is the PLO making demand after demand to be able to do something that theoretically can bring them closer to having this state they claim they need so badly, but the prisoners themselves are now issuing their own threats!
    YNet reports: "[T]he prisoners asked that the Palestinian Authority secure the release of at least 52 inmates in the first phase – representing half of the list of 103 prisoners. They also demanded that the selection of the prisoners be based on time served, meaning that those who served the most time would be the first to be released. The prisoners threatened not to leave prison unless they are sure that a third party is carefully overseeing the release. "Should there be any manipulation on Israel's part we will take unexpected steps that will stop the entire peace process," they wrote."
    We have a quasi-state that is doing everything possible to avoid independence, and we have prisoners who are doing everything possible to avoid freedom! If Israel is the oppressive ruler and occupier of a helpless people, how come Israel appears to be the desperate party willing to make concrete concessions just to talk, and the suffering Arabs are acting like they hold all the cards?
    Maybe, just maybe, there is a serious quid pro quo going on involving lots of American B-2 bombers, cruise missiles and bunker-busters heading towards Iran. But if that is not the case, Israel is acting like it is the weak party. [...]"

- Reason #7205 peace is impossible (Elder of Ziyon)
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/07/reason-7205-peace-is-impossible.html
   "Buried in a health article about the benefits (and sometimes dangers) of afternoon naps in Jordanian newspaper Albaladeyes, we learn about a 2002 Israeli study that correlates mortality and naps in male senior citizens. But the description of the study is what is interesting: "New research published this month (January 2013) in the journal Sleep Medicine and conducted on a group of seniors in the United States that showed a correlation between naps and atherosclerosis and heart disease. A previous study published in 2002 in the journal Sleep, conducted on Jewish settlers in Palestine, showed similar results."
    Now, Last I checked, Jordan recognizes and has a peace agreement with Israel. The study was done fully inside the Green Line. Yet, the author of the article automatically calls the subjects "Jewish settlers in Palestine." Is there anyone who believes for a second that peace with the PLO would be less fractured than "peace" with Jordan? Clearly, the ordinary citizens of Jordan - and a medical journalist must be smarter than the average Jordanian - simply do not, and will never, accept the idea of a Jewish state. They will reconcile themselves to it if they don't see any alternative, but they will never accept it.
    Yesterday, I saw similar beliefs from a PLO official. Speaking to a friendly Muslim audience, he made it clear that Palestinian Arabs will never regard Israel as legitimate, peace agreement or not."

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Liban, Syrie & Hezbollah

- Syrie : le bilan a dépassé les 100.000 morts, selon Ban Ki-moon (AFP) - "Alors que les rebelles syriens estiment le bilan à beaucoup plus de 100.000 morts, l'ONU s'est toujours montrée plus prudente dans son décompte".
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/syrie-100-000-morts-selon-lonu-143437633.html

- Activists: Syria government rocket attack kills 15 Palestinian refugees (Reuters)
http://www.jpost.com/Arts-and-Culture/Arts/Activists-Syria-government-rocket-attack-kills-15-Palestinian-refugees-320970
- Report: Syria gassed Palestinian Arabs in Yarmouk, killing 22. "Pro-Palestinian" groups silent (Elder of Ziyon) - "As usual, the "pro-Palestinian" crowd is utterly silent about this potential war crime against the people they pretend to love. Use the phrase "white phosphorus" and they are up in arms, but actual poison gas doesn't cause a ripple in their moral compasses. Because their concern isn't for the victims, but in the religion of the attackers".
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.fr/2013/07/report-syria-gassed-palestinian-arabs.html

- Le Hezbollah sur la liste européenne des organisations terroristes - entretien avec François Heisbourg (Fondation pour la recherche stratégique) - "Je ne vois pas la différence entre les responsables du Hezbollah militaire et ceux du Hezbollah politique. J'aurais du mal à dessiner un organigramme où les uns seraient clairement séparés des autres".
http://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2013/07/23/inscrire-le-hezbollah-comme-une-organisation-terroriste-est-une-decision-politique-pas-juridique_3451477_3210.html
   "- Quel est le fondement juridique sur lequel s'appuie l'Union européenne pour inscrire un mouvement sur la liste des organisations terroristes ?
    - François Heisbourg : Le fondement n'est pas juridique, il est politique. C'est un acte de souveraineté collective des Etats de l'Union européenne (UE) qui s'appuient sur des données aussi fiables et sérieuses que possible. S'agissant de terrorisme, il faut qu'il y ait des actes imputés à ces organisations, ou à ces individus, et que les faits qui lui sont reprochés relèvent de la définition du terrorisme, telle qu'elle a été établie par l'UE peu après le sommet de Laeken (Belgique), à l'automne 2001, lorsqu'a été créée cette liste des organisations terroristes. Ce n'est pas une décision de justice, c'est une décision politique. On n'est pas au Tribunal pénal international, ni à la Cour internationale de justice de La Haye.
    Le principe d'établir cette liste s'inscrit dans la foulée des attentats du 11 septembre 2001 aux Etats-Unis qui ont eu des conséquences politico-judiciaires : le soir même du 11-Septembre, le Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies a décrété que l'attaque d'Al-Qaida était une attaque armée au sens de l'article 16 de la charte des Nations unies. Autrement dit, le terrorisme international pourrait désormais relever, dans certains cas, de la politique des relations entre Etats et organisations non étatiques. En 2001, il s'agissait d'abord d'embrasser l'ensemble de la nébuleuse Al-Qaida, dont les ramifications se sont multipliées au fil du temps.
    - Pensez-vous que la décision concernant le Hezbollah procède de son implication dans le conflit syrien ?
    - La question de l'appartenance du Hezbollah à cette lite est un sujet qui n'a cessé d'interférer dans les relations euro-atlantiques depuis une bonne dizaine d'années. J'en veux pour preuve le tollé suscité par les propos du premier ministre Lionel Jospin qui, en janvier 2000, lors d'une visite en Cisjordanie, avait taxé le Hezbollah d'organisation terroriste. Le contexte syrien n'est pas le fait déclencheur, même s'il a accéléré la dynamique. L'événement qui a remis cette question à l'ordre du jour s'est déroulé sur le territoire de l'Union : il s'agit de l'attentat à l'aéroport de Bourgas (Bulgarie), le 18 juillet 2002, qui avait fait sept morts, dont cinq Israéliens, ce qui avait été présenté à l'époque par le gouvernement bulgare comme un acte dont le Hezbollah était responsable. En parallèle, des terroristes ont été arrêtés en Allemagne, dont certains paraissaient relever d'organisations du Hezbollah ou qui lui sont proches. A la suite des pressions bulgares, il y a eu l'acheminement progressif de l'Union européenne vers cette distinction entre le Hezbollah politique et le Hezbollah militaire.
    - Pourquoi est-ce que cette décision n'a pas été prise plus tôt ?
    - Tout simplement parce que le Hezbollah est aussi une organisation politique, elle est la principale formation représentée au Parlement libanais. Et tout ce qui concerne le Hezbollah affecte, de près ou de loin, l'état de paix ou de guerre au Liban. Toute action de l'UE déclarant le Hezbollah comme une organisation terroriste risquait d'avoir un effet, par ricochet, sur la situation au Liban. Avec les événements en Syrie, cela n'a pas cessé d'être le cas, puisque le Hezbollah est parti faire le coup de feu en Syrie aux côtés des miliciens de Bachar Al-Assad et de leurs camarades iraniens. Ceci n'est évidemment pas de nature à rehausser la cote du Hezbollah.
    - Est-ce que la distinction entre la branche politique et militaire du Hezbollah vous semble pertinente sur le terrain ?
    - Je ne vois pas la différence entre les responsables du Hezbollah militaire et ceux du Hezbollah politique. J'aurais du mal à dessiner un organigramme où les uns seraient clairement séparés des autres. Mais, en même temps, par rapport au sujet libanais, qui préoccupe les Français depuis longtemps, la cote n'est pas trop mal taillée. Je considère que c'est plutôt malin. Ce n'est pas forcément très juste, mais politiquement, c'est une façon de marquer la différence entre la légitimité de l'action politique et l'illégitimité de l'action non-politique.
    La préoccupation des Français, comme je l'espère des autres membres de l'UE, est d'éviter la reprise de la guerre civile au Liban. Jusqu'à présent, le Hezbollah faisait plutôt parti des organisations qui avaient un intérêt à ce que la guerre civile ne recommençât pas au Liban. Pour le moment, le Hezbollah a d'autres priorités : éviter la chute de Bachar Al-Assad et ménager son arsenal, dont le renouvellement est singulièrement compliqué par les événements en Syrie. Dans ces conditions, il n'est pas surprenant qu'il y ait des attentats contre le Hezbollah au Liban de la part de divers groupes sunnites.
    - Avant le Hezbollah, le Hamas palestinien avait été mis sur la liste des organisations terroristes de l'UE le 12 septembre 2003. Peut-on, à un moment donné, être retiré de cette liste ?
    - Vous avez le même problème que celui qui se pose dans le domaine des sanctions. Il est déjà compliqué de les prendre, mais, pour les démonter, c'est diablement difficile. Prenons un exemple qui n'a rien à voir avec le terrorisme : la répression chinoise sur la place Tiananmen, en juin 1989, avait conduit l'UE à imposer un embargo sur les armes. Vingt-quatre ans plus tard, bien qu'il n'y ait pas eu de répétition de massacre de ce type, l'embargo est toujours en place. Nonobstant le fait que la France ou l'Italie aient tenté, à diverses reprises, d'obtenir la levée de l'embargo.
    Concernant le Hamas, c'est pareil. Pour obtenir sa levée de l'inscription de la liste des organisations terroristes, il faut l'accord des Etats membres de l'UE. Admettons que vous vouliez vous présenter à l'élection présidentielle française de 2017, voulez-vous vraiment passer pour celui ayant été responsable de la levée de l'embargo contre le Hamas ? Dans ce domaine, il y a une très forte inertie, l'affaire du Hezbollah le démontre. Il a fallu douze ans pour que l'on finisse par mettre le Hezbollah sur cette liste.
    - Quelle est la frontière entre un mouvement terroriste et un groupe armé ?
    - Le jugement, encore une fois, est politique. Quand le Hezbollah a mené des attaques-suicides au Liban en 1983 qui ont tué 58 parachutistes français et 241 soldats américains, c'était le plus grand acte de terrorisme connu dans le monde jusqu'alors. Je ne crois pas que les Français ou les Américains considéraient à l'époque que la lutte du Hezbollah relevait de la lutte armée acceptable. Pourtant, la France s'est opposée, jusqu'à aujourd'hui, à l'inscription du Hezbollah sur la liste. Il ne suffit pas d'être un groupe terroriste pour être inscrit sur cette liste.
    Une fois que vous avez mis une organisation sur cette liste, il est extrêmement difficile de l'enlever, même si les circonstances politiques ont changé et surtout si cette organisation a changé de nature. Cela peut arriver. En Irlande, l'IRA a changé de nature, par exemple."

- Le Hezbollah sur la liste européenne des organisations terroristes - entretien avec Khattar Abou Diab (politologue spécialiste du monde arabe) - "ce parti sans son bras armé n’est plus le même puisqu’il base tout son discours sur le concept de résistance".
http://www.france24.com/fr/20130722-liban-hezbollah-ue-union-europeenne-liste-groupes-terroristes-chiite-nasrallah
   "- Peut-on parler d’une branche armée du Hezbollah ? Est-elle dissociable de la direction du parti chiite ?
    - Khattar Abou Diab : Ce sont les Britanniques qui ont proposé cette formulation, compte tenu du précèdent irlandais avec le groupe indépendantiste de l'Armée républicaine irlandaise (IRA) et le Sinn Fein, qui était sa tribune politique. Ce cas est difficilement applicable au Hezbollah, car ce parti ne fait pas la différence entre sa branche armée et sa branche politique, tout simplement parce qu’il est régi par un commandement unique. Ce commandement est lui-même attaché au principe du "wilayat al-faqih", qui affirme la primauté du religieux sur le politique, ce qui fait que le parti obéit au Guide suprême iranien, Ali Khamenei. Enfin, ce parti sans son bras armé n’est plus le même puisqu’il base tout son discours sur le concept de résistance [contre l'État d'Israël, NDLR]. Par conséquent, la décision de l’UE repose sur une formule allégée, qui laisse des portes ouvertes, notamment pour le dialogue avec le Hezbollah et la communauté chiite du Liban.
    - Après avoir longtemps hésité, l’UE a fini par prendre cette décision. Pourquoi intervient-elle aujourd’hui ?
    - K.A.B. : L’UE a parfaitement étudié cette décision, qu’elle a longtemps essayé d’éviter, en résistant à de fortes pressions américaines et israéliennes, deux pays qui ne font pas la différence entre le Hezbollah et sa branche armée. Toutefois, il semble que l’implication du parti chiite en Syrie aux côtés des troupes de Bachar al-Assad a fini par la pousser à prendre une telle décision. Car pour les Européens, qui sont impuissants face à la crise en Syrie, c’est un moyen de pression parmi d’autres et une façon d’envoyer un message au parrain iranien du Hezbollah, et ce à la veille de la reprise, début août, des discussions sur le dossier nucléaire de la République islamique. Côté finance, puisque l’inscription à la liste des groupes terroristes entraîne un gel des avoirs sur le sol européen, cela peut avoir son importance. Car contrairement à ce que l’on pourrait penser, le Hezbollah n’est pas exclusivement financé par l’Iran. Certaines de ses transactions en provenance d’Amérique du Sud ou d’Afrique transitent en effet par l’Europe.
    - Quelles peuvent être les répercussions d’une telle décision pour le Hezbollah et pour le Liban ?
    - K.A.B. : L’objectif des Européens n’est pas d’isoler le Hezbollah, d’où la mention de sa branche armée uniquement. Le président François Hollande a, en personne, récemment plaidé pour la formation d’un gouvernement libanais représentant toutes les forces politiques du pays. Ce qui inclut le Hezbollah. En outre, soucieux de ménager le Liban, qui ne peut se mettre à dos un parti d’une telle puissance, les ministres européens des Affaires étrangères ont assuré vouloir continuer à dialoguer avec les responsables politiques du Hezbollah. De son côté, le parti de Hassan Nasrallah peut menacer de rompre ses relations diplomatiques avec les pays de l'UE, et de mettre fin à la coopération avec la Finul, les troupes des Nations unies stationnées au Liban-Sud, dans le fief du parti chiite, dont le contingent est notamment composé d’Européens."

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Egypte

- Egypte : appel à la détention de Morsi pour liens avec le Hamas (AFP)
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/egypte-appel-%C3%A0-d%C3%A9tention-morsi-liens-hamas-080644916.html
   "Un tribunal du Caire a ordonné le placement en détention du président destitué Mohamed Morsi pour liens avec le Hamas palestinien lors d'attaques contre la police et une évasion de prison début 2011, a rapporté vendredi l'agence officielle Mena. M. Morsi, détenu au secret par l'armée depuis sa destitution le 3 juillet, a été formellement placé en détention pour une durée maximale de 15 jours dans le cadre de cette procédure concernant son implication présumée dans des attaques contre la police, imputées au Hamas, sous son prédecesseur Hosni Moubarak, et son évasion de la prison de Wadi Natroun à la même époque, a précisé l'agence."

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UE

- Europe could label settlement products by year’s end (Times of Israel) - "Letter by EU foreign policy head Catherine Ashton recommends creation of EU-wide guidelines on labeling products from beyond the Green Line".
http://www.timesofisrael.com/europe-could-label-settlement-products-by-years-end/

- What the EU rules are about – and what they are not, Eugene Kontorovich (professor at Northwestern University School of Law, specializing in international law) - "The application of unique rules to Jewish State is the opposite of lawful".
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/what-the-eu-rules-are-about-and-what-they-are-not/
   "On the last day of Sec. of State Kerry’s big push for talks between the Palestinians and Israelis, the European Union chimed in with its own contribution, which has deeply shaken Israel and may mark a new page in relations between it and Europe. The European Commission published administrative guidelines that severely restrict its dealings with any Israeli company, municipality or NGO based in, or even involved in activities, east of the 1949 Armistice line, including most of Jerusalem.
    These guidelines have led to numerous misconceptions from all sides. Concerned Israelis worry that it represents the beginning of an economic boycott. European officials claim international law and a concern for Palestinian self-determination, demand such action. None of this is right.
    First, the guidelines do not establish an economic boycott. The rules do not restrict trade between Europe and Israel, or even Israeli companies in the West Bank. Rather, they specify how the EU as an organization chooses to spend its largesse – prizes, grants, and so forth. There is a big difference: restricting one’s gifts saves the EU money; implementing trade restriction would directly hurt its economy as well. In economic terms, a boycott is not the logical extension of a no-gift policy, but rather its direct opposite.
    Nor is this about the Palestinians – the rules also bar funding of any organization connected to the Golan Heights. It is not clear which Syria the Europeans think Israel should surrender the entire Golan to, Assad or his Islamist foes, but this broad and unreasonable restriction has nothing to do with “the occupation.” It also has nothing to do with “settlements” in the West Bank; any Israeli institution with a presence in Eastern Jerusalem is blacklisted.
    But most importantly, the EU policy is not about international law, which the guidelines repeatedly claim requires such action. Even if one thinks Israelis residing in the West Bank raises international law concerns, this has nothing to do with the new European rules.
    The Europeans regard Israel as an occupier in the West Bank, despite the illegitimacy of the previous Jordanian presence there. They also see Jewish communities there as violating the Geneva Conventions prohibition on the “occupying power… transferring its civilian population” into the occupied territory, despite the fact that Jews living in the West Bank there were not “transferred” by Israel in any meaning of the word; they just moved themselves.
    Set such quibbles aside. Let’s assume the European position on settlements is correct. Even so, international law does not forbid or restrict the operations of private groups based in or operating in the West Bank. International law prohibits governments from “transferring” settlers to occupied territory; it does not make the settlers themselves illegal, international lepers, or legitimate objects of discrimination. It does not prohibit business from operating in occupied territory, or require the denial of services to “transferees” and their descendants. Such a broad reading of international rules finds absolutely no support in the treatment of any other occupation. Indeed, in an important recent decision concerning a company involved in building the Jerusalem light rail, a high-level French court held that international law does not restrict companies from doing business across the Green Line, or even working on Israeli government-funded projects.
    Indeed, the Europeans’ own conduct proves that this is not about implementing international law. Many countries in the region occupy foreign territory and even establish settlements there. The most obvious example is Turkey’s occupation of Cyprus; others include Morocco’s subjugation of Western Sahara, the EU’s fellow “Middle East Quartet” member Russia’s recent conquest of parts of Georgia, and Armenia’s in Azerbaijan. In none of these cases has the EU promulgated such guidelines – even when it concerns the ongoing Turkish settlement enterprise in the territory of Europe itself. So whatever “law” the EU thinks mandates the Israel rules, it is clearly a law for one nation only.
    Moreover, the guidelines contain a massive exception that undermines the notion that this is about international law rather than EU foreign policy. Article 15 exempts groups that “promot[e] the Middle East peace process in line with EU policy.” Either the Geneva Conventions and related rules prevent Israelis from having anything to do with the West Bank or they do not – but they certainly do not contain a “things the EU likes” exception. The exemption reveals the true purpose of the rules: to promote European foreign policy, not to vindicate international law. Indeed, the essence of the rule of law is about applying general rules to similar cases, regardless of one’s sympathies. The application of unique rules to Jewish State is the opposite of lawful."

- "Occupied Territories": What About Cyprus, Kashmir, Tibet?, Douglas Murray (Gatestone Institute) - "what makes the EU's latest double-standard even more delicious is that the occupied island of Cyprus is actually a member of the EU".
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3866/occupied-territories-cyprus-kashmir-tibet
   "Last week the European Union issued a ban on funding of, or cooperation with, any Israeli institutions that are shown to operate in what it calls the "occupied territories" – meaning the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria. Never mind that -- as Palestinian groups have already admitted -- the ban will affect Palestinians as much as Israelis. In its perpetual rush to find new double-standards to enforce, the EU has rushed straight in, regardless.
    As one senior Palestinian Authority official said on the announcement of the news, many Palestinians in Ramallah and elsewhere will be just as affected by the EU's decision as their Israeli neighbors. The senior PA official was quoted saying: "For our part, we approached a number of [European] Union officials, in the [Palestinian] Authority and also in Israel, to try and prevent the decision or at least to keep it unofficial," said the official, who declined to give his name. "It's not just Israeli companies that are going to be hit economically, it's also going to be disastrous economically and socially for the Palestinian community." Well what are a few Palestinians to the EU's persistent drive to isolate the Jewish state? Tolerable collateral damage, surely?
    But what about Cyprus? After all, there are many countries in the world with border disputes. There is at least one major one on China's borders [Tibet]. And there is the rather famous one which borders Pakistan [Kashmir]. Border disputes are hardly unusual. Similar stories abound all over the world, such as the unresolved dispute involving Morocco over the status of the Western Sahara. Yet all these countries are ones with which the EU has full, if not fawning, diplomatic and trade relations.
    Of course, what makes the EU's latest double-standard even more delicious is that the occupied island of Cyprus is actually a member of the EU. As such, shouldn't it surely command the most detailed and persistent attention from the international body? Yet this is not so. The northern part of Cyprus has been illegally annexed for the last four decades by Turkey. It is not as though Turkey shares a border with the island. Nor does it have -- as Israel has with the West Bank -- any legitimate historical, p

olitical or other territorial claims on the northern part of the island. There is no security reason for Turkey to sustain its occupation, as there is an obvious need for Israel to have defensible borders that do not permit terrorists from the West Bank to fire rockets into Israel, as do its friends in post-disengagement Gaza or southern Lebanon.
    But unlike Israel and the West Bank, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus is not even a disputed matter. It was certainly not some understandable territorial gain made after aggressive war waged by Greece. It was outright theft -- an annexation: state terrorism. The entire international community recognizes it as such. Yet in 2013 not only is Turkey not an enemy of the EU, and not only is it a country which enjoys complete diplomatic and trade relations with the EU, it is a country which many leading members and officials of the EU actually want to promote into a full member-state of the EU.
    Into the fifth decade of Turkish occupation of Cyprus, there is still no serious dictating by the EU to Turkey over what it must do about northern Cyprus. Turkey does not find itself under even the most remote international pressure finally to disengage from its illegal occupation of the northern part of Cyprus. And that is because for some inexplicable reason the EU does not consider it imperative that Turkey should disengage from the illegal occupation of an EU member state. It does not consider that the future of any region depends on this action. Yet it does persist, even now, with its view that it can dictate to Israel about its borders. And that it can have a constructive role in doing so. Of all the fallacies of the EU, that is surely the topmost. [...]"

---

Monde

- Pakistan : les drones américains ont tué au moins 147 civils, Roland Gauron (Le Figaro) - le titre est confus... plus précisément, il y a eu au moins 174 civils tués entre 2006 et 2009, et au moins 400 tués en neuf ans : "L'ONU estime qu'en neuf ans, au moins 400 civils ont été les victimes collatérales des frappes américaines". C'est l'équivalent probable du bilan de l'opération Plomb fondu, bilan qui de son côté avait suscité l'ire internationale et des manifestations dans les capitales européennes.
http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2013/07/23/01003-20130723ARTFIG00358-pakistan-au-moins-147-civils-tues-par-les-drones-americains.php
   "Depuis neuf ans, la guerre des drones fait rage dans les régions tribales, au nord-ouest du Pakistan. Le nombre de civils tués dans cette zone difficile d'accès reste pour le moment un mystère. Officiellement, l'administration américaine admet un nombre extrêmement limité de victimes collatérales. Un document confidentiel du gouvernement pakistanais, dévoilé lundi par le site d'informations britannique Bureau of Investigative Journalism vient contredire les affirmations de Washington.
    Islamabad détaille le nombre de victimes dans les frappes américaines entre le 1er janvier 2006 et le 24 octobre 2009. Durant ces trois ans, les drones américains aurait tué 746 personnes. Un mort sur cinq serait un civil. Le nombre de victimes collatérales s'élèverait ainsi à 147 personnes. Ce chiffre comprend 94 enfants. Le décompte des Pakistanais ne porte que sur trois des neuf années de frappes américaines. Il couvre principalement le mandat de George W. Bush, seuls les neuf premiers mois d'Obama à la Maison-Blanche sont inclus. Durant cette période, la CIA a ordonné 75 frappes, auxquelles s'ajoutent cinq attaques réalisées par l'Otan. L'ONU estime qu'en neuf ans, au moins 400 civils ont été les victimes collatérales des frappes américaines. [...]
    Washington n'offre aucune évaluation officielle sur la question. La guerre des drones est un secret bien gardé et le débat fait actuellement rage aux États-Unis. Le gouvernement américain refuse d'évoquer publiquement les détails du programme. [...]"

- Le Cachemire indien vit dans l'illusion de la paix, Frédéric Bobin (Le Monde) - "Le Cachemire, ce conflit oublié dont la communauté internationale ne se soucie plus guère". Un conflit vieux de 60 ans et toujours irrésolu, 50.000 morts dans les années 90 (soit plus de six fois le bilan du conflit israélo-palestinien en vingt ans), une population musulmane qui réclame majoritairement son indépendance, un risque constant de tension nucléaire avec le Pakistan... et pourtant l'opinion internationale demeure obsédée par le Proche-Orient comme source de tous les maux de la planète. Cherchez l'erreur.
http://www.lemonde.fr/asie-pacifique/article/2013/07/24/le-cachemire-indien-vit-dans-l-illusion-de-la-paix_3452756_3216.html
   "[...] Ainsi s'écoulent les jours tourmentés au Jammu-et-Cachemire, seul Etat à majorité musulmane de l'Union indienne et, à ce titre, agité de lancinantes crispations identitaires. Après une sanglante insurrection séparatiste dans les années 1990, qui a fait environ 50 000 morts, la situation a paru se normaliser à partir de 2003 alors que l'Inde et le Pakistan, qui se disputent cette région himalayenne, avaient amorcé un dialogue de haut niveau.
    Mais le processus de paix n'a jamais vraiment abouti. En témoignent une situation sécuritaire toujours volatile et une massive présence des troupes indiennes aux effectifs oscillant entre 300 000 et 500 000 hommes – pour une population d'environ 12,5 millions d'habitants. Le Cachemire, ce conflit oublié dont la communauté internationale ne se soucie plus guère. [...]
   "On est passé d'un activisme de type milicien à un terrorisme clandestin", décode Shiv Sahai, le directeur général adjoint de la police de l'Etat. Cette tentation radicale se nourrit d'un désenchantement général des Cachemiris musulmans – les deux tiers de la population locale – à l'égard du statu quo politique. Si la majorité de la population ne semble plus guère tentée par les sirènes de la violence dont elle connaît le prix douloureux, elle n'en est pas moins frustrée par l'immobilisme de New Delhi. Aucun processus de dialogue n'est en vue, que ce soit entre l'Inde et le Pakistan ou entre le gouvernement central et les responsables politiques cachemiris.
   "Rien n'a changé au Cachemire, souligne l'analyste Wahid Siddiq. La seule nouveauté, c'est que l'appareil sécuritaire contrôle globalement mieux la situation. Il parvient à limiter les activités des milieux séparatistes de Srinagar avec des assignations à résidence et des couvre-feux. Cela crée l'illusion que tout va bien." "L'Inde pense que le temps joue en sa faveur et que les revendications cachemiries s'épuiseront d'elles-mêmes, enchérit Sheikh Shaukat Hussein, professeur de droit à l'Université centrale du Cachemire. C'est ce refus de concéder quoi que ce soit qui finit par alimenter la colère des gens." [...]
    Iram, jeune fille au châle bleu, s'exprime avec ferveur. Elle évoque la pendaison en février à New Delhi d'Afzal Guru, un séparatiste cachemiri condamné à mort pour son implication dans l'attaque contre le Parlement indien fin 2001. "Pourquoi d'autres condamnés pour terrorisme en Inde, au Pendjab ou au Tamil Nadu, n'ont-ils pas été exécutés ? Afzal Guru a été pendu car il est cachemiri. Les Cachemiris sont victimes de discrimination car ils sont musulmans. Pourquoi l'Inde traite-t-elle comme des animaux les jeunes Cachemiris emprisonnés pour avoir seulement jeté des pierres ?" Iram et ses amis veulent l'indépendance du Cachemire : "Nous voulons être libres car nous ne le sommes pas actuellement." Mais ils précisent d'un même souffle : "L'indépendance, et non le rattachement au Pakistan !" [...]"