Mitchell ends visit without agreement on settlement freeze
US envoy reassures Palestinians on achieving statehood
US special Mideast envoy George Mitchell ended his latest visit to Israel on Wednesday with Washington and Jerusalem still at odds over the Obama administration’s demand for a halt to all settlement activity, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted his government would continue with ‘natural growth’ in Jewish settlements in the disputed territories.

Iranian elections heat up as Ahmadinejad lashes back at challengers
Mousavi supporters taking campaign to the streets
Following Lebanon’s hotly contested election this past weekend, the presidential election campaign in Iran looks headed for a dramatic finish on Friday as well, with incumbent Ahmadinejad under serious challenge from conservative rival Mirhossein Mousavi due to the nation’s crumbling economy and frayed relations with the West.

Kadima backs Netanyahu on ‘natural growth’ of settlements
The opposition Kadima party is standing by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his refusal to accept US demands for a total freeze on all settlement activity. Kadima leader Tzipi Livni has had plenty of criticism of Netanyahu over his failure to expressly endorse a “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but most in the center/left faction apparently agree that Netanyahu should not cave in to pressure from the Obama administration to halt all settlement growth. "Kadima will never accept the demand for an end to natural growth," MK Otniel Schneller said on Tuesday. "The denial of natural growth is not legitimate, not moral, and is anti-Jewish. Nobody can tell my daughters not to have children just because they happen to live in settlements." He added that the issue could tear Kadima apart as a centrist faction. Although Shneller represents the right flank of Kadima, even leftist MK Shlomo Molla, who said that he is "completely in favor of Obama's plans," emphasized that "Kadima supports the major settlement blocs of Gush Etzion, Ariel and Ma'aleh Adumim." He added that Israel should give the Palestinian Authority land in the Negev in exchange for the land in the West Bank where these settlements are located.

Ya’alon critical of Obama policies in Washington appearance
Israeli cabinet minister Moshe Ya'alon of the ruling Likud party delivered a blunt critique of Obama administration policies in an address at a Washington think tank on Tuesday, insisting that “we too believe that friends should be candid with each other." A former IDF chief of staff and currently the strategic affairs minister, Ya'alon told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy that, “If in two years' time we will have a political settlement [with the Palestinians], I believe we will witness Hamastan in the West Bank, and we are not going to implement it." Instead of rushing ahead with a Palestinian state, he argued that the US should focus on building up Palestinian economic, educational and social institutions as a way of fostering a new Palestinian society that would be prepared to live in peace with Israel. On Iran, he urged the US to make clear that it was ready to use “all the options” to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, including the option of a "credible threat." Speaking of US President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo last Thursday, Ya’alon lamented that expressing regret for past Western mistreatment of Arabs “just strengthens their conviction of victim-hood and their resolve to restore their honor." Ya’alon also insisted that Israel “is committed to its strategic relationship with the United States." Ya’alon’s comments come just days before a major policy address by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and is seen as either a reflection of Netanyahu’s positions or a warning from the right flank of Likud to stand firm in talks with the US. [To view the Ya’alon paper “Strategic Challenges in Changing Middle East” – CLICK HERE]

Lieberman says Israel needs image makeover abroad
In his first appearance as Israel’s foreign minister before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday, Avigdor Lieberman focused on the need to address the nation’s perception problems abroad and outlined a plan to remake Israel’s image and mend fences with old allies. "World public opinion about us doesn't reflect the reality and we cannot continue to have foreign policy success without dramatically improving the approach concerning how we are perceived in the eyes of the world,” he said, while calling for a larger ‘hasbara’ [positive information] budget. Ido Aharoni, head of the Foreign Ministry's Branding Israel Project, concurred that Israel’s Arab enemies have “creat(ed) an identity for us which has a very tenuous link to reality." Lieberman also explained that Israel has other problems overseas beyond a bad public image, including legal proceedings launched overseas against Israeli political and security officials, which Israel does not do enough to combat. He went on to say that if more wasn’t done to address the issue then some Israeli officials could become virtual prisoners, unable to travel outside Israel for fear of being arrested and prosecuted. He also praised US President Barack Obama’s attempts to reach a regional peace deal and cautioned that the eyes of Israel’s friends and enemies would all be watching as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to deliver a major foreign policy speech at Bar-Ilan University on Sunday.

Netanyahu, Barak view IDF exercise in Negev
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, both former elite paratroopers, visited IDF troops during a large land forces drill held at the Shizafon military base in the Negev on Tuesday and had some words of encouragement as well as caution. "The smell of explosives and marching on the ground reminds me that only yesterday, the defense minister and I were young fighters and officers," Netanyahu said. Barak added that the future wars Israel would fight would be "more intense" than in the past, but that "when they do arrive, you will be ready for them and you will know how to win." The training drill involved soldiers from the Infantry, Engineering, Artillery and Armored corps along with the Air Force teaming up to ‘invade’ a training complex built to resemble a Syrian village. IDF doctrine dictates close cooperation between the various military branches, and Netanyahu praised the IDF for having "learned many lessons" since the Second Lebanon War of 2006. “Battles are ultimately decided by the spirit and determination” of ordinary soldiers, he added. Meanwhile, the British newsmagazine Economist reported on Monday that Israel is forced to spend the most per capita of any country in the world on defense, at $2,300 per person.

Hariri says new Lebanese government will not recognize Israel
Lebanese lawmaker Saad Hariri, head of the victorious pro-Western “March 14” alliance in national elections this week, insisted on Tuesday that his country has no plans to rush into peace talks with Israel. "We will follow after the Arab initiative," Hariri told CNN. "The Arab initiative includes many countries for the peace process, and Lebanon will come as we see fit. The United States has a big role to play, and if it plays it in the right way, if it plays its role like it should play it, then we will have peace in the region... They should pressure both sides to move forward – whether the Palestinians and the Israelis, whether the Syrians and the Israelis – and I'm sure we'll get there." Lebanon has traditionally maintained that it would be the “last” Arab country to make peace with Israel, largely because the country’s fragile sectarian political system would likely not survive a battle over recognizing the Jewish state. Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said yesterday  that the new Lebanese government needed to be given the benefit of the doubt for now and allow it to show the world where it wanted to go. However, he insisted Lebanon must also “abide by agreements – first of all, resolution 1701," referring to the UN resolution that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hizbullah. The Shi’ite terror militia still has a vast arsenal, including an estimated 45,000 rockets aimed at northern Israel, and has repeatedly stated that the Lebanese government should not try to disarm it.

Clarity for the deniers
Michael Gerson, The Washington Post
In Obama's gushing rhetoric in his Cairo speech last week, he drew one vivid line. Holocaust denial, he said, is "baseless," "ignorant" and "hateful." Holocaust denial has long been a staple of Middle Eastern anti-Semitism, whose purpose is to delegitimize the state of Israel as created by the West out of Holocaust guilt. This conception of Israel's history is itself a distortion. Zionism existed well before the European genocide. The ties between Jews and the land of Israel reach back for millennia. But the pervasiveness of Holocaust denial also points to a flaw in Obama's rhetorical and diplomatic approach. Perhaps one side of these debates is motivated not only by grievances but also by hatreds. Perhaps some don't merely wish to deny the Holocaust but to finish it…  Read More

The settlers are also human!
Nadav Shragai, Ha’aretz
The media, which for years has nurtured prejudice against the settlers, will always measure them by political standards, not as human beings. The possibility that the settlers and the Palestinians have something in common, and that the cultural gaps between them may be significantly smaller than those between most Israelis and Palestinians, will be considered baseless in advance. The settlers are not only settlers. They are flesh and blood too…  Read More

US envoy reassures Palestinians on achieving statehood

US special Mideast envoy George Mitchell ended his latest visit to Israel on Wednesday with Washington and Jerusalem still at odds over the Obama administration’s demand for a halt to all settlement activity, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted his government would continue with ‘natural growth’ in Jewish settlements in the disputed territories.

In a four-hour meeting on Tuesday evening, Netanyahu informed Mitchell that he would not agree to a full halt to settlement growth, and would outline his positions on this and other key issues in a major policy speech on Sunday. Mitchell, meantime, sought to allay Israeli fears over the growing rift, reiterating that the US commitment to Israel’s security was "unshakable."

Despite the lingering deadlock over settlement policy, officials in Jerusalem reported some progress toward a "convergence" in the American and Israeli positions.

In another area of dispute, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak urged Netanyahu in comments yesterday to endorse the two-state solution” to the Palestinian conflict, a formula the premier is expected to accept in his upcoming address. "It would not be right for Israel to get in the way of American efforts to form a Palestinian state according to the vision of two states for two peoples," Barak said.

Mitchell moved on to Ramallah on Wednesday for talks with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. Afterwards, he assured that the US seeks a "prompt resumption and early conclusion" of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, though he gave no timetable for talks even as reports this week indicated Washington wants to establish a Palestinian state within two years.

"The only viable resolution to this conflict is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states," Mitchell said. "As President Obama said last week, America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity and a state of their own."

Abbas gave Mitchell an itemized list of Israeli settlement expansion and Palestinian homes that Israel has recently demolished in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim for a future capital, said senior PA official Saeb Erekat. The US knows that when Israel "says it doesn't accept the two-state solution and doesn't want to freeze settlement expansion, that means it says 'no' to resuming negotiations," Erekat added.

Mitchell is now leaving Jerusalem for stops in Lebanon and Syria that were unexpectedly added to his latest regional swing. In Beirut, he will show American support for the pro- Western alliance that retained its majority in parliamentary elections this week, while efforts to broaden the circle of peacemaking will be discussed in Damascus.

Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is following up Mitchell’s visit with his own five-day regional tour, beginning in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening and also taking in the PA, Lebanon and Egypt.

Mousavi supporters taking campaign to the streets

Following Lebanon’s hotly contested election this past weekend, the presidential election campaign in Iran looks headed for a dramatic finish on Friday as well, with incumbent Ahmadinejad under serious challenge from conservative rival Mirhossein Mousavi due to the nation’s crumbling economy and frayed relations with the West.

The presidential race in Iran has started generating lots of street turmoil, as backers of the four main candidates among the country’s 30 million eligible voters are facing off in public on a daily basis.

On Tuesday, the day after supporters of Mousavi staged a massive rally which stretched along the 19 km Vali Asr Avenue in central Tehran, he received the endorsement of former president Muhammad Khatami, a move that sent shock waves across the political spectrum. Many of Mousavi’s young supporters were back out in the streets yesterday in loud demonstrations, chanting, "If they don't cheat, Mousavi will win.

The Mousavi backers are fiercely opposed to Ahmadinejad and have clashed with his supporters in the streets. Ahmadinejad has even been the target of several assassination threats and an unidentified gunmen opened fire on his campaign center in the southeastern city of Zahedan yesterday. Election related violence has also been reported in the holy Shi’ite city of Qom and several smaller towns.

Today, Ahmadinejad lashed out at his opponents, accusing them of adopting “Hitler” smear tactics that should land them in jail for insulting him.

"No one has the right to insult the president, and they did it. And this is a crime,” he told a rally in Tehran, citing a law against that bans criticism of public officials. "Such insults and accusations against the government are a return to Hitler's methods, to repeat lies and accusations ... until everyone believes those lies," Ahmadinejad insisted.

Mousavi and the two other candidates say Ahmadinejad has lied about the state of the economy which is suffering from high inflation and a fall in oil revenues from last year's record levels.

Despite the growing voices of opposition, Ahmadinejad appears to have gained some popularity back as a result of US President Barak Obama’s speech to the Muslim world from Cairo last week, in which he conceded Iran’s right to pursue peaceful nuclear energy. Many of Ahmadinejad’s supporters say he should be credited with the softening US approach to Iran and for restoring the nation’s dignity, while criticizing his opponents for siding with Israel and the United States against the Islamic Republic. Ahmadinejad is also supported by the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who control millions of voters through their nationwide volunteer corps.

Reformists hope to counter this support with a large turnout of voters who are frustrated, angry and afraid about the sagging health of the Iranian economy and embittered relations with much of the West. Election officials expect close to 80% voter turnout.