If I forget thee Jerusalem.......

United States “Concerned” by Arrests


United States State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Thursday evening that the US is “concerned” by Israel’s arrest of 33 senior members of Hamas overnight Thursday. His announcement was similar to that of United Nations representative Michael Williams.

While Hamas is a terrorist organization, Casey said, the arrest of Palestinian Authority Members of Parliament is always “a process arousing concern.” Several of the 33 detainees are MPs in the PA, and one is Nasser Al-Din Shaer, the PA Minister of Education.





UN Criticizes Arrest of Hamas Officials


Regional United Nations representative Michael Williams said Thursday that he is “concerned” by the arrest of 33 senior members of the Hamas terrorist organization overnight Thursday. While acknowledging that the detainees’ status as members of the Palestinian Authority parliament does not make them immune from prosecution, Williams complained that in many cases, Israel had “no charges against the detainees” other than their affiliation with Hamas.

IDF officials explained that membership in Hamas, which is a terrorist group dedicated to Israel’s destruction, is illegal in and of itself. The officials added that indictments against the Hamas members will be presented in the near future.


Daily Press Briefing State Department Tom Casey 5/17/07


QUESTION: During his press conference, the President said he asked the Secretary to be actively engaged in the Middle East.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: What does she plan to do exactly?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, she has been actively engaged in the Middle East and you've been on a lot of the trips with her and I think you can attest to the fact that there's been a lot of active engagement on issues related to the Middle East and trying to resolve the differences between the Israelis and the Palestinians as well as working on a wider peace in the region.
She -- you could go down the list in terms of her engagement both here in the Department consulting with advisors, working on ways within the U.S. Government to move the process forward and working with the Israelis, Palestinians, Arab neighbors on how to move the Israeli-Palestinian track as well as the Israeli-Arab track forward. She's traveled a great deal to the region. She is on the phone quite a bit. She was just on the phone this morning with Prime Minister Olmert as well as President Abbas on the issue of the recent violence in the Gaza Strip. So there are a lot of different ways that she's going to remain engaged on the issue.

Travel, working with her counterparts whether they're in the region or counterparts that have -- represent governments that have an interest in the issues, stay tuned in terms of more travel. I know that that's one thing that everybody is always looking out for and people who apply that as a metric of the level of interest and the level of activity, and certainly I don't necessary buy that. But if you are going to use that as a metric, I think you can look at her travel schedule over the past several months you see a Secretary of State that's been deeply involved in this issue. And it's an issue that she has said -- in public and in private -- that she's going to devote quite a bit of her energy and focus over the remaining 18 months to the issue.

QUESTION: But she just cancelled a trip to Jerusalem because of the uncertainties around the fate of Prime Minister Olmert.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. I mean -- and we've already said that we're going to be back there in the near future. So I wouldn't judge her level of interest, involvement and energy based on one trip that was postponed.
Yeah.

QUESTION: Do you have any plans in the near future to have another trilateral as you had previously in Jerusalem? Do you think that would help to, you know --

MR. MCCORMACK: We'll see what's effective. I think that she said that from time to time, that it's a -- it would be a useful format, useful geometry that she might employ. She'll make an assessment over the coming weeks and months when that's appropriate. I haven't heard her talk about that recently, but that might be something that she does.
Yeah, Elise.

QUESTION: How concerned are you that the recent violence in Gaza is going to -- both among Palestinians themselves and between the Israelis and Palestinians, going to set you back in terms of your efforts to move this forward?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, the -- certainly, violence perpetrated by Hamas, as we have seen recently, doesn't further the cause of peace. What is does is -- resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians and it also underscores the importance of reaching those political accommodations on the Israeli-Palestinian track among those individuals who are committed to peace like Prime Minister Olmert, like President Abbas, and the people around him and that work directly for him.
We would hope that Hamas would make another choice; in making a choice for peace, in making a choice for a Palestinian state, because the only way that they're going to see that is via the negotiating table. They're not going to see it by launching Qassam rockets into Israel. They're not going to see it by attacking the legitimate security forces of the Palestinian Authority. They're not going to see it by sending young people armed with suicide vests to blow up other Israeli youngsters. So --

QUESTION: But you --

MR. MCCORMACK: The Palestinians themselves are going to have to resolve that central contradiction where you have a group like Hamas that is committed to the use of terror, but also says it wants to be involved in a democratic process. The Palestinians are going to have to resolve that, but to bring it back, what all the -- what the violence underscores is the fact that it is all the more important that all those committed to peace in the region work actively and do everything that they can to move forward the process of peace.

QUESTION: Would you say that President Abbas is doing all that he can to stop this violence in terms of Hamas attacks from Gaza into Israel? Because it seems as if, anyway, that this is leading to another escalation of violence between Israelis and Palestinians that will set you even -- back even further.

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, President Abbas is committed to ending violence. He has never -- he has always been somebody that has shunned the use of terror. He has counseled against it. He is somebody who has actively worked for peace. He is somebody who has actively advocated for negotiations as opposed to the use of violence to realize a Palestinian state. We are urging all parties to exercise restraint. We understand the Israeli Government has a right to defend itself and they have explained that their actions, just over the past day or so, have been in reaction to stopping -- trying to stop further rocket launches into Israeli territory, rocket launches that have injured Israeli citizens.

But we've also urged them to consider the consequences of their actions in defending themselves on Palestinian infrastructure as well as on what effect it might have on the prospects for moving forward the political process. But we know that Prime Minister Olmert is somebody who is committed to working actively on that political track.
QUESTION: But I mean, we all know about President Abbas' commitment --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: -- to peace and his stated preference for negotiations, things like that.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: But in terms of this recent bout of violence, in terms of cracking down on Hamas militants --

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: -- putting pressure on the Hamas part of the unity government to put their own -- use their own leverage against the Hamas militants, utilizing the security services -- I mean, is he doing all he can to stop this from spiraling out of --

MR. MCCORMACK: We believe that President Abbas is somebody who is committed to (a) the political negotiating track, (b) doing everything that he can to break up terror networks, to stop those attacks emanating from the Gaza Strip against Israel, and somebody who is committed also to building up a professional security force in not only the West Bank, but in the Gaza Strip. Now that's a work in progress and it's also a security force that was attacked by these Hamas-affiliated and Hamas forces.
So we believe that he is somebody who is doing the right things. Now we always encourage him to do everything he possibly can to do more, but we believe he is somebody who is committed to doing all those right things.

VIDEO: AL FATAH - ABBAS' PARTY (ARAFAT's PLO)



PEACEFUL!

Members of the peaceful Al-Fatah show off their precious child

ABBAS DENIES LINKS WITH FATAH AL-ISLAM


The Palestinian authorities have no links with the shadowy Islamist group locked in a deadly showdown with the Lebanese army, president Mahmud Abbas said on Thursday."We have nothing at all to do with those they call Fatah Al-Islam," Abbas told a press conference in Gaza City with visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.


"We do not approve of the actions by this group," he said. Abbas, who heads the secular Fatah party in the Palestinian territories, said the authorities would send humanitarian aid to the refugees of the besieged camp of Nahr al-Bared in Lebanon's north, where the extremists and the army fought deadly battles this week.Fatah al-Islam itself has denied any links to "parties and states outside Lebanon.


"The group's leader, Shaker Abssi, is a Palestinian, born in the West Bank town of Jericho in 1955. He is said to be linked to the former leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Jordanian-born extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a US air strike in 2006. Three days of clashes in Lebanon, the country's deadliest since the 1975-1990 civil war, erupted on Sunday and killed at least 69 people.





Daily Press Briefing State Department Tom Casey 5/23/07

QUESTION: Can you confirm that the Secretary will participate in a Quartet meeting in Berlin at the end of the month?


MR. CASEY: I was wondering whether someone was going to get to that. Yes, I can and I apologize I didn't have that information for you this morning. But as I think most of you've seen, the German Foreign Ministry has put out a statement indicating that on the margins of the G-8 ministerial next week, there will be a Quartet meeting in Berlin. Secretary Rice does plan on attending that meeting and this will be an opportunity for the various members of the Quartet to review the situation in the Palestinian territories as well as get an update on some of the discussions that have been held between Israelis and Palestinians and look at what more they might be able to do to help deal with some of the issues that are of concern there.


QUESTION: And do you think they could speak about the aid to the Palestinians and how it's distributed?


MR. CASEY: Well, I don't expect that you'll see any change to the basic Quartet principles concerning the Palestinian Authority government. I'm sure that usually when they've gotten together in -- last year or so, they've talked about the temporary international mechanism and talked about other means of finding ways to provide support for the Palestinian people and take care of the needs of the Palestinian people. I'm sure there'll be discussions about that, but I don't have a specific agenda to offer you on that.


QUESTION: Can I follow up on that?


MR. CASEY: Yeah, Kirit.


QUESTION: The German Foreign Minister I think also announced that they've invited the Afghani and Pakistani Foreign Ministers to attend the meeting to have discussions on the sidelines. Do you know if the U.S. will participate in that?


MR. CASEY: I hadn't seen that and, no, I don't. I'm sure that there will be -- you mean to the G-8?


QUESTION: To the -- I believe it was the G-8.


QUESTION: Foreign ministers.


MR. CASEY: Yeah. I'm not sure quite who they have invited and I don't really have an update for you in terms of the Secretary's schedule. Usually when she goes to these kinds of meetings, there are a number of bilateral discussions that she'll have, but I don't think anything's been set at this point.




OLMERT FOLLOWING THE BAKER PLAN:

Report: Israel's Olmert seeks talks with Syria


JERUSALEM, May 24 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been considering reviving long-stalled peace talks with Syria, an Israeli newspaper said on Thursday. Olmert's staff declined official comment. One Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the prime minister believed Syria was not ready to make peace. Maariv daily said Olmert had "completed preparatory examinations regarding the opening of negotiations between Israel and Syria and is leaning toward moving on the Syrian track". He is now "convinced that negotiations with Syria and a possible peace treaty between the countries would substantially improve the strategic situation in the region," the paper's chief diplomatic correspondent, Ben Caspit, wrote.


Several foreign intermediaries have relayed questions from Olmert to the Syrians as part of a "discreet and in-depth examination of the issue", the newspaper added. Discreet mediation efforts have taken place in the last three years, though with little movement on the part of either government so far, figures involved in such talks have said. Peace talks between Israel and Syria, brokered by the United States, broke off in 2000 in a dispute over how far Israel would withdraw from the Golan Heights, captured in 1967, and whether Syria would fully normalise ties with Israel in return. The Israeli official told Reuters on Thursday that progress toward new negotiations with Syria had been limited at best, saying Olmert "still sees the present Syrian government as not yet ready for the hard choices needed to make peace".


Olmert has demanded Damascus cease supporting Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and Palestinian militant groups as a condition of resuming peace talks, dismissing Syrian overtures as a bid to improve ties with the West. But a bloody power struggle between Fatah and Hamas and Iran's development of nuclear technology have persuaded Olmert that negotiations with Syria may be Israel's best option for diplomatic improvements in its security, Caspit wrote. He said Israel also hopes talks with Syria, which has good relations with Iran, would help it hamper Tehran's nuclear efforts, which the West suspects are aimed at producing weapons. Tehran insists it is interested in nuclear energy alone.


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