Morocco boycotts gov't, but not Livni

Labor and Likud MKs slammed opposition leader Tzipi Livni on Sunday for attending an international economic conference in Morocco, despite a decision by Morocco to cancel its invitation to the representative of the Israeli government, Deputy Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Orit Noked.

The Moroccan government canceled Noked's visa at the last minute last week to protest the Jerusalem planning committee's approval for 900 apartments in the Gilo neighborhood. Noked said she was upset about the cancellation, because she intended to use the trip to boost Israel's financial ties with the many Muslim countries that sent representatives to the event.

"It's really unfortunate that they canceled on me," Noked said. "I hope it will be made up in a different day, because I want to do whatever I can to encourage economic cooperation with the Arab world."

Despite the boycott of the Israeli government, Livni decided to attend the event, just two days after supporting the government on the Gilo issue in a speech on Wednesday at the Knesset. Her associates said she defended the proposed construction in Gilo at the conference.

"It is lucky that Israel still has leaders that the world is ready to accept even when they represent the views of the government," a Livni associate said. "Livni will continue defending Israel's interests everywhere the short arm of the government is prevented from reaching. "This visit proves that Israel is more than just its government."

Livni was treated like a head of state in Morocco. She was given 20 bodyguards, including the country's only female one, and they closed streets for her motorcade.

Labor sources said Livni should have boycotted the conference in response to Morocco's boycott of the government. They said it was hypocritical of Livni to defy the boycott that came due to the building in Gilo that she said she supported. The head of the Likud's response team, MK Ophir Akunis, said Livni had surpassed even his low expectations of her and had strayed far from the clean politics she preaches.

"This is yet another example of the double standard of Kadima and its zigzag policies," Akunis said. "Ms. Livni should have told the [Moroccans] who invited her that the opposition and the sovereign, elected government are one and the same. That would have been the ethical thing to do. And yet the government will continue to defend her from the charges of the Goldstone Report, despite her being in the opposition."

Netanyahu: I want final accord with PA

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is interested in aiming for a final-status agreement, and not an interim one as some of his ministers are proposing, if and when negotiations with the Palestinian Authority resume.

In various internal discussions this week, Netanyahu said that were there "courageous leadership" on the Palestinian side, a resumption of negotiations could lead to a final peace agreement, and that this was preferable in his mind to an interim agreement based on a Palestinian state within temporary borders.

In recent days there have been various reports of ministers, and even President Shimon Peres, pressing for an interim accord that would include a Palestinian state with provisional borders. The logic behind this idea is that it would remove from the negotiating mix those core issues that have prevented an agreement in the past - such as the Palestinian refugee issue and Jerusalem - while giving the Palestinians at least something to show for negotiations until those issues could be dealt with at a later date.

Netanyahu, however, has said in private meetings that he thinks a final agreement could be reached, but that it would take courageous leadership taking courageous steps. He said this week that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has said he would step down because of the stymied diplomatic process, should not be "counted out."

Netanyahu recalled that in 1971 no one thought that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat would eventually make peace with Israel, and that it was too early to "write off" Abbas. "Sometimes conventional wisdom is wrong," he was quoted as saying.

Sources in the Prime Minister's Office, meanwhile, gave no indication on Thursday that Netanyahu was on the verge of a public statement declaring a 10-month moratorium on housing starts in the settlements in an effort to lure the PA back to the negotiation table. Former MK Yossi Beilin said that such a declaration was in the works, which would be followed by an American announcement that while the moratorium was not everything they hoped for, it was enough to restart the negotiations.

The sources in the Prime Minister's Office said that Netanyahu has made clear in private discussions that he was prepared for a moratorium as long as it did not include Jerusalem and did not preclude construction of public buildings needed for normal life in the settlements. He has not yet, however, specified publicly the length of the proposed moratorium.

Proof given by IDF established the smuggling of Weapons by Iran

The IDF on Wednesday released documents and photos it said proved Iran was behind a huge shipment of weapons Israel Navy commandos intercepted last week. Israel has said the cargo ship troops seized off the coast of Cyprus was carrying 500 tons of Iranian-made weapons for Hizbullah. The ship had dozens of containers with Iranian markings on it.

On Wednesday, the IDF released what it said was the ship's manifest that showed it was handled by "Islamic Republic of Iran's Shipping Lines." It also produced labelling from the containers indicating the ship originated in Isfahan, Iran, and a customs form stamped by the Iranian armed forces.

Both Iran and Hizbullah have denied the Israeli claims. Officials at Iran's Foreign Ministry were not immediately available for comment Wednesday. An international expert who examined the documents and pictures of the weapons said the arms came from Iran, but it was not possible to determine whether the Iranian government was directly involved. Another was not prepared to pinpoint the source of the weapons.

On Tuesday, the United States accused Iran of violating a UN arms embargo by secretly sending the weapons aboard the Francop - a merchant ship flying the flag of Antigua and destined for the Syrian port of Latakia.

Israel says the confiscated arms cache - the largest it has ever seized - did not include any new types of weapons for Hizbullah. However, the arms would have given Hizbullah a month's worth of firepower in time of war. Israel has urged the world to focus on the threat from the Hizbullah's chief backer - Iran.

Among the arms the IDF says it found aboard the vessel were 9,000 mortar bombs, 3,000 Katyusha rockets, 3,000 anti-tank shells, 20,000 grenades and more than half-a-million rounds of small arms ammunition.

Israel also says that a close examination of the munitions themselves conclusively point to Iran as the source of the shipment.

The containers were stuffed with sacks of polyethylene pellets used to conceal the munitions, the army said. According to the markings, the polyethylene was produced by Iran's National Petrochemical Co. It included a telephone number that begins with 98 - which is Iran's international dialing code.

Also discovered were thousands of rounds of mortar bombs and artillery rockets manufactured by the Iranian defense industry, such as 107 mm "Haseb" artillery rockets that are identical to those used by Iranian-armed Iraqi insurgents.

The Israel Navy also said it found a large number of AZ111-A2 fuses, which, according to Jane's Ammunition Handbook, is Iranian ordnance developed specifically to meet its military requirements.

The Associated Press showed the documents and pictures of the weapons supplied by Israel to two independent arms experts for their assessment.

The pictures included markings in English on a 107mm rocket with "IRISL" letters stenciled on the sides of containers - which the Israelis said stands for "Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines." There were also pictures of boxes labeled "Ministry of Sepah," which Israel said signified the Iranian military, and cases of AZ111-A2 fuses the Israelis said were made in Iran.

"Sepah" is a term that sometimes refers to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. A reference to an Iranian "Ministry of Sepah" is found in a February 2008 document composed by the International Agency for Atomic Energy.

Defense expert James Lewis at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said the arms Israel captured "were indeed Iranian," but it couldn't be determined whether the Iranian government had ordered the shipment.He said Iran's Revolutionary Guard could have acted on its own or that even a rogue element in Iran could have orchestrated the shipment. "The number of people who decided to do this are more than one," Lewis said.

The capture of one shipment won't change much, Iranian shipments have "been going on for years and no one has been able to stop it," Lewis said. "Iran will deny it and no one is going to get involved."

Alex Vatanka, IHS Jane's security editor, who also examined the Israeli photographs, said the significance of the Francop capture - if proven Iran was behind it - was its timing, since it comes as Iran faces stepped up pressure over its controversial nuclear program.

"What does that tell us about their threat perception, about their own security priorities?" he said. "It seems to be an indicator of a certain hardline interest in Iran being almost careless about the consequences of their actions."

Livni slams Mofaz over his diplomatic proposals

Kadima leader Tzipi Livni attacked her No. 2 in the party, Shaul Mofaz, over the weekend, accusing him of adopting policies that she had campaigned against around the world.

Mofaz, a former defense minister, announced a new diplomatic plan last week that calls for establishing a Palestinian state with temporary borders in 60 percent of the West Bank while annexing settlement blocs, and then negotiating final borders.

He also said he would be willing to negotiate a diplomatic deal with Hamas if it was elected by the Palestinians and accepted the Quartet's conditions of renouncing violence, disarming terrorists, and recognizing Israel's right to exist and all past agreements with the Jewish state.

But Livni got the impression from the Hebrew press that Mofaz's only condition was that Hamas get elected.

"Mofaz talks about the possibility of speaking to Hamas if they are elected," she told Yediot Aharonot columnist Sima Kadmon. "I would only [talk to them] if they accept the conditions of the Quartet. That is a huge difference. The Quartet's conditions were set after Hamas was elected in Gaza. We persuaded the entire world not to speak to them. Will we now withdraw that request?"

When Livni referred to Hamas getting elected in Gaza, she was referring to the Palestinian parliamentary election in January 2006 in Gaza and the West Bank and not to the June 2007 Hamas takeover of Gaza by force.

Further criticizing Mofaz's plan, Livni said it was wrong to give the Palestinians a state and only then try to solve the core issues of the conflict.

A Dialog Institute poll published in Haaretz on Friday found that 57% of Israelis agreed with Mofaz that Israel should negotiate with Hamas if it accepted the Quartet's conditions. The poll found that 72% of Kadima voters and 53% of Likud supporters agreed with Mofaz.

Asked who is most fitting to be prime minister, 43% said Binyamin Netanyahu, 27% said Livni, 10% cited Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and just 5% said Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Fifteen percent said they did not know.

Netanyahu and Barak each had 50% approval for their job performance, while Lieberman garnered 38% and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, 28%.

On the question of who is at fault for the absence of talks between Israel and the Palestinians, 50% said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, 15% said Netanyahu and 27% said both equally. Eight percent did not know.

If an election were held now, the Likud would win 33 seats (up from 27 in last February's vote), Kadima 29 (up from 28) and Labor only 6 (down from 13).

The team Barak appointed to reach out to the Labor rebel MKs will hold its first meeting this week. Top party activists loyal to Barak wrote critical letters to the rebels over the weekend.

"We didn't elect you to break up the party," the activists wrote. "The mandate you received belongs to the party and not to you."

States fighting terror need support

While the first day of a UN General Assembly debate on a resolution endorsing the Goldstone Commission Report and calling for it to be referred to the Security Council ended without a vote on Wednesday, Israel urged the world to remember that Israel was not the only state fighting against terror organizations.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman discussed Goldstone report with his European counterparts on Wednesday night, stressing that the battle against terror was not only an Israeli problem. "We must work together to build a fortified wall, democratic states trying to protect themselves [from terror groups] must receive support," Lieberman told European diplomats, according to Army Radio.

At the UNGA session in New York, Israel's Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev slammed the General Assembly, declaring that "the report before you was conceived in hate and executed in sin. From its inception in a one-sided mandate, the Gaza fact-finding mission was a politicized body with predetermined conclusions."

With debate on the non-binding resolution set to continue Thursday and Friday, the vote could be delayed to as late as next week, as the European Union continues to try to soften the text."Most European countries have expressed dissatisfaction with quite a few clauses in the Arabs' text that is being debated now," including its language endorsing the report and referring the matter to the Security Council, an Israeli official explained.

While many Arab and Muslim countries backed the report's accusations of Israeli war crimes over its conduct during its war with Hamas in Gaza this winter, the European Union presented a more measured assessment in its own speech from the floor. Swedish Ambassador to the UN Anders Liden, speaking on behalf of 27 countries as the president of the EU, did not mention the issue of the General Assembly endorsing the report or the Security Council playing a role.

Turkey, which has frequently positioned itself at odds with Israel in recent weeks, also endorsed the EU position. Liden did, though, urge an independent investigation by both sides, a step Israel has resisted, pointing to ongoing IDF reviews of several incidents during the war.

"The EU urges the parties to lead appropriate, credible and independent investigations into possible violations of international human rights law, international humanitarian law in accordance with international standards," he said. "In this regard the EU believes that appropriate follow-up will be necessary."

Still, Israel welcomed the comments by the EU. "The EU is a moderate force, a moral compass for so many. The EU does not, like so many others at the General Assembly, have an anti-Israel [line]," Israel's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Daniel Carmon told.

"We are always pleased to hear the EU" in such circumstances, he said. Shalev, however, was scathing in her floor speech when it came to those who wanted to endorse the Goldstone Report. "Rather than confronting terrorism, the General Assembly chose again to detach itself from reality," she charged. "Today's debate is anything but genuine and candid. Rather than discuss how to better stop terrorist groups who deliberately target civilians, this body launches yet another campaign against the victims of terrorism, the people of Israel."

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian Authority UN observer, urged the General Assembly to support a resolution and insisted Israel's "aggressions and crimes" cannot be equated "with actions committed in response by the Palestinian side." Stressing that "peace cannot be achieved without justice," Mansour said that the Palestinians "are determined to follow up this report and its recommendations in all relevant international forums, including the Security Council and the International Criminal Court, until the realization of justice."

Mansour predicted the resolution will "absolutely" be approved.
US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice boycotted the debate, Army Radio reported. Her deputy was in the hall only during Shalev's and Liden's addresses. Meanwhile, former Israeli ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman left Israel for New York Wednesday evening at the behest of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Gillerman will assist with Israel's public relations campaign concerning the Goldstone Commission's report.

Gillerman told Israel Radio that he agreed to the prime minister's request after being convinced that every effort must be done to ensure that Israel does not suffer adverse consequences should the report be passed on to the UN Security Council or to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

Palestinian state may have to be abandoned

Chief Palestinian negotiator expresses concern over continued expansion of Jewish settlements, says goal of independent state will not be fulfilled if US does not interfere. Palestinians may have to abandon the goal of an independent state if Israel continues to expand Jewish settlements and the United States does not stop it, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

It may be time for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to "tell his people the truth, that with the continuation of settlement activities, the two-state solution is no longer an option," Erekat told a news conference.

Israel has rejected the idea of a de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank, incorporating the Palestinians as citizens, as "demographic timebomb" that would make Jews the minority.

Citing a 2003 peace "road map", Abbas has made a cessation of Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank a precondition for resuming statehood talks with Israel.

The road map also required that Palestinians dismantle armed groups like Islamist Hamas, which opposes peace talks. That did not happen, and Hamas now controls the Gaza Strip – half the Palestinian polity – a running challenge to Abbas's mandate.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who met Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Saturday, unsuccessfully urged Abbas to negotiate with Israel and resolve the settlement issue within the framework of the talks.
Erekat said Clinton, who praised as unprecedented Netanyahu's offer to temporarily limit construction in West Bank settlements to 3,000 additional housing units, was only opening the door to more settlements in the next two years.

The alternative left for Palestinians is to "refocus their attention on the one-state solution where Muslims, Christians and Jews can live as equals", Erekat said. "It is very serious. This is the moment of truth for us."

Dictation vs. negotiations
Erekat said Netanyahu's concept of a separate Palestinian state alongside Israel with limited powers of sovereignty and his uncompromising position on the future of Jerusalem were tantamount to dictating the terms of peace negotiations.

Netanyahu, Erekat said, told Abbas "that Jerusalem will be the eternal and united capital of Israel, that refugees won't be discussed, that our state will be demilitarized, that we have to recognize the Jewish state, that it's not going to be the 1967 borders, that the skies will be under his control."

"This is dictation and not negotiations," he said.

Netanyahu and Abbas last met in New York in September in a handshake meeting arranged by US President Barack Obama.

Palestinians seek to establish their future state on all of the West Bank and Gaza, lands captured from Jordan and Egypt in a 1967 war, with East Jerusalem as its capital. "Anything short of that is a non-option for us," Erekat said.

"If the Israelis believe they want to partition the West Bank with us, this is a no-go. This is a non-starter," Erekat said, in reference to Israeli control of West Bank settlements, adjacent land, and the territory's eastern Jordan Valley border.

Clinton reaffirmed in Cairo on that Washington does not accept the legitimacy of the Israeli settlements. But she added, in another nudge to Palestinians to talk with Israel: "Getting into final status negotiations will allow us to bring an end to settlement activity."

Erekat said Palestinians "made a mistake" in the past by agreeing to negotiate with Israel without insisting on a settlement halt, and they were not about to repeat that error.

In a statement, Netanyahu said Israel's aim remained the quick resumption of peace talks. But he also deplored the split between Hamas and Abbas's secular Fatah faction, which has widened over the president's disputed call for a Jan. 24 ballot.

"The possibility that Palestinian election might be held soon is causing a polarization of Palestinian Authority positions regarding Israel and is hindering the opening of negotiations," Netanyahu's office quoted him as saying.

UNSC to discuss Goldstone Report

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Friday that the Security Council would begin to discuss the Goldstone Commission's report at the earliest opportunity. Ban's announcement came after the UN General Assembly approved on Thursday an Arab-backed resolution endorsing the Goldstone Report, paving the way for the matter to be sent to the Security Council.

Following a two-day debate, 114 countries voted for the resolution and 18 voted against, including Israel, the US, Germany, Holland, Canada, Australia and several eastern European nations. Another 44 abstained, including most EU countries, who sought unsuccessfully to soften the resolution's language prior to the vote.

The non-binding resolution on the Goldstone report, which alleges war crimes by Israel and Hamas during the IDF's offensive in Gaza last winter, aims to open doors toward prosecution in the international courts.

The UN secretary-general will be required in three months' time to present to the General Assembly the Security Council's decision concerning the report.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN observer, called the resolution "an important night in the history of the General Assembly and the history of fighting against impunity and seeking accountability."

The nonbinding resolution on the Goldstone document, which alleges war crimes by Israel and Hamas during the IDF's offensive in Gaza last winter, aims to open doors toward prosecution in the international courts. But as the debate dragged into its second day on Thursday, European nations threatened to abstain from a vote just as others feverishly tried to negotiate softer terms. Of particular concern was language fully endorsing the report and requiring Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take up the issue within three months or send the matter to the Security Council.

Absent from the debate was US Ambassador Susan Rice, whose deputies were present but were not among some 50 scheduled speakers.
"Our position on the Goldstone Report is well-known," a US official said. "The US is prepared to speak when and if there is an occasion to advance the debate."

The official said representatives of the US mission attended Wednesday and Thursday's debate. "It's not unusual for ambassadors to attend portions of a debate that lasts several hours or in this case, two days." But officials privately said the blustery debate was a distraction from another goal: urging Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace talks. US officials were expected to release a statement following the vote, explaining their position.

On Thursday, European countries were still trying to soften the text of the draft resolution. Most European nations expressed discontent with parts of the resolution, including language endorsing the report and referring the matter to the Security Council. "There's been progress, but there's also been backpedaling," a European diplomat said. European countries, concerned with "grave accusations," want accountability and have demanded that accusations be addressed by both sides.

The European Union took a similarly moderate approach in the debate.
"The EU takes note of the recommendations of the mission and emphasizes the obligations of all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law and international human rights law," said Swedish Ambassador to the UN Anders Liden, speaking on behalf of the 27 EU countries on Wednesday. "In this regard the EU believes that appropriate follow-up will be necessary."

The EU comments were welcomed by Israeli officials, who delivered a blistering assault on the Goldstone mandate and report in their speech on Wednesday. Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, boycotted the vote, sending Israeli Deputy Representative Danny Carmon in her place.
"Rather than confronting terrorism, the General Assembly chose again to detach itself from reality," said Shalev. "Today's debate is anything but genuine and candid.

"Rather than discuss how to better stop terrorist groups who deliberately target civilians, this body launches yet another campaign against the victims of terrorism, the people of Israel," she said.

Carmon said the resolution "endorses and legitimizes a deeply flawed, one-sided and prejudiced report." He added the General Assembly ignores facts on the ground related to Israel's security, and cited the recent interception of an arms shipment from Iran to Hizbullah operatives.

Indeed, prior to Thursday's vote, Israel filed a letter of complaint Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, urging him to press the Security Council to take action against Iran. The discovery of 36 containers weapons on the cargo vessel Francop violates several UN resolutions, namely 1747, 1701 and 1373, Shalev charged in the letter. "The aforementioned shipment from Iran to Syria, or to any other country or entity, in particular to any terrorist entity, constitutes a severe violation of this and other resolutions," she wrote. Listing other violations, she implicated Iran's national shipping company, saying it has "repeatedly" been "found to be involved in transporting weapons and other banned items in violation of UN Security Council resolutions."

Following the Goldstone vote, which US Ambassador Susan Rice did not attend, the US mission circulated an "explanation of vote" by Deputy Permanent Representative Alejandro Wolff, who voted instead. "As the United States made clear in Geneva, we believe that the Goldstone Report is deeply flawed," he said, citing an unbalanced focus on Israel, sweeping legal conclusions and overreaching recommendations, and a failure to deal adequately assign responsibility to Hamas for basing its operations in civilian-populated areas.

He stressed that the matter should be handled in Geneva alone, saying discussion in the Security Council would be "unconstructive." Stating that the US "strongly supports accountability" for human rights and humanitarian law violations, he said the best way to end human suffering is to bring comprehensive peace to the region, including a two-state solution. "As we urge the parties to restart permanent status negotiations leading to the creation of a Palestinian state, we should all be seeking to advance the cause of peace - and doing nothing to hinder it," he said.

The UN resolution was passed just two days after the US House of Representatives passed a resolution calling the Goldstone report "irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy."

Jewish groups - from B'nai Brith to the American Jewish Committee to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations - criticized the vote. "In the event that this matter is referred to the UN Security Council," said AJC Executive Director David Harris, "we urge member states to dismiss the recommendations of the Goldstone Commission, which was grossly prejudiced against Israel from its inception."

In related news, the Anti-Defamation League said the Goldstone report has become "a cause célèbre in the Arab press," which have published anti-Israel cartoons in response to the report. Among the examples cited by the ADL is a cartoon published in Alraya in Qatar on October 17 that portrays a Jew putting the Goldstone report into a shredder?