A lethal arrest raid, a suicide bombing, fresh land expropriations, a threatening Hamas video: That's the follow-up so far to Israel's historic Gaza pullout.
Rather than seize the moment to jump-start negotiations, Israelis and Palestinians appear to be falling into a familiar pattern of violence and rhetoric. Still, the withdrawal from Jewish settlements in Gaza is of such significance that even the latest spasms are unlikely to torpedo all momentum for peace.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won praise for fulfilling his pledge -- in a dramatic, breakneck sweep that ended last week -- to evacuate 8,500 settlers from the Gaza Strip and another 500 from the northern West Bank. Now the Israeli leader wants to send a very clear message that terrorism won't be tolerated and that major West Bank settlement blocs will remain Israeli.
"Israel cannot return to the '67 or '48 borders, because of the settlements," Sharon said in an interview on Monday, referring to Israel's frontiers before it captured Gaza, the West Bank and other lands. "The settlement blocs will remain in sovereign Israel. They are of vital strategic importance."
He added, however, that some other settlements would have to go in a final peace deal.
Sharon's critics say now is the time to capitalize on the goodwill created by the Gaza evacuation, not to flex muscles. Many fear the two sides already have begun to squander a unique historical opportunity. And the recent friction has brought home the pitfalls of trying to get Israelis and Palestinians together after five years of trust-destroying violence.
Both sides say they're still prepared to talk, however. Officials said a meeting is possible between Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas when the two are in New York this month to address the UN.
And Sharon's withdrawal, ending 38 years of Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip, is likely to have long-lasting ripple effects on peacemaking that could weather some setbacks. With the settlers gone, the army is expected to complete its own pullout in the coming days.
"We understand that Mr. Sharon has to show the Israeli people that he is conceding on one side and strengthening his position on the other," Palestinian chief of staff Rafiq Husseini told reporters. "That worries us, but I think that in the end, justice will have to prevail."
Officials on both sides expressed hope that the pullout would create momentum for a return to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. Then, an Israeli arrest raid in the West Bank town of Tulkarem deteriorated into a shootout that killed five Palestinians, and a suicide bombing on Sunday critically wounded two security guards at a bus station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
That bombing came a day after Hamas militants in Gaza released a videotape purportedly showing their top bombmaker, Mohammed Deif, celebrating the Gaza pullout as a victory for armed resistance and threatening more attacks until Israel is destroyed. Deif has been in hiding from Israeli security forces since 1992.
And Israel, just two days after the last Gaza settler was evacuated, announced plans to confiscate Palestinian land around the West Bank's largest Jewish settlement to build a separation barrier that would, in effect, annex it to Jerusalem. Israel also said it would build a police station between the settlement, Maaleh Adumim, and Jerusalem -- another step that alarmed Palestinians.
"In exchange for the evacuation of people who shouldn't have been there in the first place, [Israel] is going to steal more and more Palestinian land," said Diana Buttu, legal adviser to the Palestinian Authority.
Buttu said Israel can't claim that it has ended its occupation of Gaza because it still controls the coastal strip's borders and air and sea space.
But she said an agreement, approved by the Israeli Cabinet last weekend, to have Egypt deploy 750 troops along the Gaza-Egyptian border so that Israel could pull out of the area was "a step in the right direction."
Another promising development occurred on Monday when Palestinian militant groups in Gaza told an Egyptian envoy that they remained committed to a six-month-old truce with Israel.
At the same time, however, an Islamic Jihad leader said his group reserves the right to respond to what he called Israel's "brutal massacres."
Military officials said Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Dan Halutz did not give final approval for the arrest raid in Tulkarem that killed five Palestinians and set off a new round of violence. The officials said Halutz criticized the raid as ill-timed and lacking "sensitivity."
Still, some saw the raid and other measures as an attempt to shore up government support among Israeli hardliners after the Gaza pullout alienated large sections of Sharon's right-wing Likud party.
David Landau, editor of Israel's Haaretz daily, said he thinks Sharon has hurt himself "so badly with the Right that I honestly can't see much that he can do by way of winning them back over."
A nation has several pillars of national defense, among them are military strength, energy and food security, and national unity. Military strength is very much on the forefront of the debate, while several recent editorials have dealt with energy security. National unity and a sense of shared purpose — especially while a powerful, hostile state is becoming increasingly menacing — are problematic, and would continue to be until the nation’s schizophrenia is properly managed. The controversy over the past few days over former navy lieutenant commander Lu Li-shih’s (呂禮詩) usage of the term “our China” during an interview about his attendance
Following the BRICS summit held in Kazan, Russia, last month, media outlets circulated familiar narratives about Russia and China’s plans to dethrone the US dollar and build a BRICS-led global order. Each summit brings renewed buzz about a BRICS cross-border payment system designed to replace the SWIFT payment system, allowing members to trade without using US dollars. Articles often highlight the appeal of this concept to BRICS members — bypassing sanctions, reducing US dollar dependence and escaping US influence. They say that, if widely adopted, the US dollar could lose its global currency status. However, none of these articles provide
Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), the son of former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee Politburo member and former Chongqing Municipal Communist Party secretary Bo Xilai (薄熙來), used his British passport to make a low-key entry into Taiwan on a flight originating in Canada. He is set to marry the granddaughter of former political heavyweight Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政), the founder of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital in Yilan County’s Luodong Township (羅東). Bo Xilai is a former high-ranking CCP official who was once a challenger to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the chairmanship of the CCP. That makes Bo Guagua a bona fide “third-generation red”
US president-elect Donald Trump earlier this year accused Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) of “stealing” the US chip business. He did so to have a favorable bargaining chip in negotiations with Taiwan. During his first term from 2017 to 2021, Trump demanded that European allies increase their military budgets — especially Germany, where US troops are stationed — and that Japan and South Korea share more of the costs for stationing US troops in their countries. He demanded that rich countries not simply enjoy the “protection” the US has provided since the end of World War II, while being stingy with
RSS