West Bank

AMERICAN TACTICS against insurgents in Iraq are coming to resemble Israel's in its conflict with the Palestinians, and it's not hard to see why. For one thing, cordoning off villages and blowing up houses and seizing relatives of suspected fighters may simply be the most obvious policy for a big army occupying uncertain or hostile territory. But for another, it turns out that the U.S. Army has actually been coached by Israeli officers, according to several published reports. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the U.S. commander in Iraq, says that attacks by insurgents are likely to escalate through the winter and spring.

KAL's cartoon of March 24 depicting President Barack Obama disinterring a dove representing the two-state solution, only to see the dove shot at by "Israeli extremists" and "Palestinian extremists" is witty, clever, and inaccurate. The cartoon lazily rehashes the simplistic but false narrative that zealots on both sides are responsible for continuation of the conflict and equally to blame for the lack of a peaceful resolution. In reality, the fact that in 2013, a Palestinian state does not exist is attributable to the 1947 Arab rejection of the UN partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states; Yasir Arafat's 2000 rejection of the contiguous Palestinian state offered by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in negotiations at Taba; and President Mahmoud Abbas' 2008 rejection of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's offer of a Palestinian state on 97 percent of the West Bank.

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian policemen dispatched last week to an unruly West Bank district clashed yesterday with Islamic militants there, wounding two of them during a crackdown that could influence peace talks with Israel. It was the first such confrontation since 480 police reinforcements marched into the city of Jenin before thousands of cheering residents Saturday to launch "Operation Smile and Hope." Jenin and outlying towns and villages, protected until then by a police force of 150, have been troubled by criminal gangs.

As President Barack Obama begins his second term, he faces a series of Middle East challenges far more daunting than when he began his presidency in 2009. These problems include: •what to do about the Arab-Israeli conflict, with peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority still frozen; •whether to intervene in the civil war in Syria, which has now claimed more than 60,000 lives, with the opposition to the Assad regime becoming more Islamist; •how to manage relations with an increasingly Islamist regime in Egypt in such a way that the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty is not endangered; •how to handle an Iraq on the verge of multiple civil wars, one between the Arabs and the Kurds and the other between Sunnis and Shiites; •how to deal with al-Qaida activity in both Yemen and North Africa (Mali and Algeria)

JERUSALEM -- Israeli and Palestinian leaders have overcome a major hurdle in negotiations for expanding Palestinian self-rule by setting a general timetable for Israel's troop withdrawal from parts of the occupied West Bank.Yesterday's agreement for a staged Israeli army redeployment over 18 months marks the biggest breakthrough since the two sides began marathon negotiations about three weeks ago to continue implementing the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, but it leaves many important issues unresolved.

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian officials said yesterday that Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, would meet tomorrow with the prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, in the West Bank city of Jericho. An Israeli government spokesman could not immediately confirm the date or location of the proposed meeting but said that one would take place "very soon." A gap was already becoming apparent, though, between Palestinian expectations and Israel's stated intentions regarding what the meeting would cover.

JERUSALEM -- As preliminary results in some municipal elections in the West Bank showed the militant group Hamas making political gains, Israel continued its weeklong offensive against Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Israeli forces killed two wanted men in a raid near Nablus yesterday and seriously wounded another, while also killing a young Palestinian who was throwing stones, witnesses said. In the six days since Israel's operation began in response to rocket fire from Gaza, Israel has arrested 441 alleged members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank and killed at least five in raids, with three militants killed Thursday near Jenin.

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher, in a move that will bolster Palestinian hopes for an independent state in the West Bank, said yesterday that he will travel to Jericho this week to meet with the newly established Palestinian self-governing authority there.By making the unusual visit, only days after a Palestinian police force replaced Israelis in the West Bank town, Mr. Christopher said he hopes to boost the Palestinians' confidence and trumpet the first concrete results of their long-running peace negotiations.

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli authorities have approved plans to build nearly 4,000 homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, putting into practice a government decision to end restrictions on expanding settlements there and in the Gaza Strip.Palestinians say the land allotted for the new buildings was confiscated from neighboring Arab villages.But the settlers assert that it was bought by Jews.Pub Date: 9/20/96

JERUSALEM -- A number of Palestinians who have fled war-torn Iraq will be allowed to come to live in the West Bank, Israeli officials said yesterday, presenting the decision as the latest in a series of gestures meant to bolster the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. At the same time, the officials emphasized that the terms of entry will be designed to avoid setting any precedent regarding other Palestinian refugees of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and their descendants and their long-standing claim of a right of return.

Here's something you won't have to worry about in Baltimore. New Orleans drivers sat in gridlock Friday morning because the city's Mardi Gras floats had to be towed back across the Mississippi River after a local parade on the west bank. The floats, which are shared with the local communities and used for a number of different events, are stored at a giant warehouse called Mardi Gras World, which is adjacent to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center that houses the massive Super Bowl Media Center.

The tragedies in Gaza and Israel pained me. The reckless attack of civilians is morally reprehensible regardless if it's done by Israel or Hamas. Of course, Israel's assault on civilians was so out of line and disproportionate, one has to wonder how human beings can behave this way. Our government should stop funding the occupation and use the $3.5 billion tax dollars given to Israel each year to instead rebuild U.S. infrastructure. G. Jefferson Price III made an excellent point in his commentary ("For Israel, it's different this time," Nov. 20)

While reading G. Jefferson Price's column ("For Israel, it's different this time," Nov. 20), I was reminded of the quip "learned nothing, forgot nothing" describing a reactionary French royal family. Mr. Price displays the same distorted views toward Israel he showed 35 years ago when he was The Sun's Middle East correspondent, intervening events not budging his attitudes. According to Mr. Price, Israel "acts with impunity" against Palestinian Arabs and Lebanon. Unmentioned are thousands of Israeli casualties, two Arab uprisings, withdrawals from Gaza, Lebanon and major portions of the West Bank.

Op-ed contributor G. Jefferson Price III ("For Israel, it's different this time," Nov. 20) alleges that "Israeli leaders have consistently obstructed and resisted arrangements that would have brought a dignified peace to the region. " As in 2000 and 2001, when with the United States, Israel offered Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a West Bank and Gaza Strip state with eastern Jerusalem as its capital in exchange for peace - but he refused and launched the second intifada? As in 2001, when Israel and the United States repeated the deal, but Arafat continued the terror war?

The article, "Jewish population hits new high in West Bank," (July 27) states that 350,000 Jewish settlers now occupy the West Bank, as well as nearly 300,000 in the occupied East Jerusalem. Israel is in violation of international law, the 4th Geneva Convention and the U.N. resolution 242, and it is condemned around the world for its brutal occupation and oppression of the Palestinians. In addition, Israel continues to maintain a strangulation blockade on the civilian population of Gaza, causing the Vatican to accuse Israel of turning Gaza into "a giant prison camp.

The "divestment from companies working In Israel" bandwagon is rolling again in several Protestant denominations, among them my own, the Presbyterian Church (USA). In one way, that's a good thing. It does ask us to pay attention to Israel and the West Bank/Gaza, when the Israeli government wants to focus our attention on Iran, and as a side effect get us to ignore the ongoing travesty of the occupation. Nonetheless, divestment as a tactic for dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a bad idea.

JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian man was killed and another wounded yesterday as a major Israeli military raid in Nablus kept the heart of the West Bank city under curfew for the second consecutive day. The Israeli army said the incursion, the largest in Nablus in months, was aimed at armed militants and what it calls the "terrorist infrastructure" rooted in a city that has long been a hotbed for Palestinian fighters. Troops backed by armored vehicles and bulldozers operated in the Old City section, a cramped labyrinth of shops and apartments.

JERUSALEM -- Israeli settlers, enraged by the murder of a 23-year-old man by Islamic militants, blocked roads in the occupied West Bank today.The main settlers' group, Yesha, said it blockaded 48 sites, preventing Palestinian villagers from going to work, many to jobs in Israel, in a further escalation of the growing confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians.Yesterday, Israeli settlers stoned Palestinian cars, bringing warnings that the protests could turn into a full-fledged rebellion against the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and its agreement on Palestinian autonomy.

The Sun editorial "Mr. Abbas' mission" (Feb. 13) is a triumph of wishful thinking over analysis. Its self-contradictions and omissions include: •Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "would have to exercise the kind of statesmanship that has been sadly lacking among the Palestinians for generations" to lead a unity government of his Fatah movement and the terrorist Hamas to peace with Israel. "It's too early to say" if he could. It's hardly too early to say the 74-year-old Mr. Abbas can't and won't.

The Sun reports ("Bid for statehood may end; Possible deal delays U.N. debate, retains aid to Palestinians," September 21) that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "decided to approach the U.N. this year [for statehood recognition] because of his frustration that after nearly two decades of U.S.-led negotiations, the long-promised separate Palestinian state had not materialized. " That's one way of putting it, but it's Palestinian spin. It's Palestinian rejectionism that has frustrated U.S. diplomacy.