Pro-Israel News

Date:
Wednesday, January 7, 2015

By REUTERS 

 

01/07/2015 13:18 | The Jerusalem Post| 

 

Black-hooded gunmen shot dead at least 12 people at the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a publication firebombed in the past after publishing cartoons lampooning Muslim leaders and the Prophet Mohammad, police said.

The attackers were reported to have said, "We have avenged the Prophet," as they entered the building shooting.

President Francois Hollande headed to the scene of the attack and the government said it was raising France's security level to the highest notch.

"This is a terrorist attack, there is no doubt about it," Hollande told reporters.

Another 10 people were injured in the incident and police union official Rocco Contento described the scene inside the offices as "carnage."

"About a half an hour ago two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs (rifles)," witness Benoit Bringer told the TV station. "A few minutes later we heard lots of shots," he said, adding that the men were then seen fleeing the building.

France is already on high alert after calls last year from Islamist militants to attack its citizens and interests in reprisal for French military strikes on Islamist strongholds in the Middle East and Africa.

British Prime Minister David Cameron described the attack as sickening.

Late last year, a man shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest") injured 13 by ramming a vehicle into a crowd in the eastern city of Dijon. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said at the time France had "never before faced such a high threat linked to terrorism."

A firebomb attack gutted the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, a publication that has always courted controversy with satirical attacks on political and religious leaders, in November 2011 after it put an image of the Prophet Mohammad on its cover.

The last tweet on Charlie Hebdo's account mocked Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, which has taken control of large swathes of Iraq and Syria.
Date:
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
NGO seeks to prosecute three PA heads, pushes for their arrests,
following Abbas’s move to join International Criminal Court
 
BY AVI LEWIS January 5, 2015, 5:09 pm| The Times of Isreal| 
 
Israeli legal group Shurat HaDin, the Israel Law Center, filed lawsuits on Monday at the
International Criminal Court (ICC) against three Palestinian Authority leaders for alleged war
crimes, terrorism and human rights offenses, following PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s
move last week to join the court and seek to prosecute Israel.
Indictments were brought against PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, Abbas’s deputy; minister
Jibril Rajoub; and PA intelligence chief Majed Faraj, all of whom belong to Abbas’s Fatah party.
The NGO is also pursuing existing litigation filed against Abbas last November, as well as a case
against Gaza­based terror group Hamas and its leader Khaled Mashaal, filed at the ICC on
September 2014.
 
According to Shurat HaDin, during the 2014 Israel­Gaza conflict “Fatah openly boasted in
Facebook pages and other media channels that it launched projectiles that caused the injury and
death of Israeli civilians — a war crime under international law.”
The NGO pressed The Hague to issue international arrest warrants for the three pending litigation.
Shurat HaDin’s chairwoman and founder, attorney Nitsana Darshan­Leitner, said that the
organization will make it as difficult as possible for Palestinian leaders at the ICC, and that they
must be held accountable for crimes committed under their supervision.
 
“Abbas and his friends in terror organizations believe that the courts can be used as a weapon
against Israel, while at the same time, the Palestinian leadership carries out crimes with utter
impunity against their own people and against Israeli civilians,” Darshan­Leitner said.
The case brought against Faraj and Hamdallah details widespread torture and killings of
Palestinian residents who reside in areas under PA control, according to a statement released by
the group.
 
“Faraj and Hamdallah, as commanders in the Palestinian security services, are directly
responsible for widespread human rights violations committed [in the West Bank] against regular
Palestinians by units under their authority,” the statement read.
According to the indictment, Rajoub, too, was fully aware of the violations it listed and should be
held “accountable for the actions committed under his auspices by his subordinates in the
organization,” the statement read.
The ICC can prosecute individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes
committed since July 1, 2002, when the court’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, came into
force.
 
“The PA and Hamas have to understand that the International Criminal Court is a double­edged
sword,” Darshan­Leitner said. “Years of murder, acts of terrorism and incitement will now be
brought before prosecutors for investigation.”
On Saturday Israel froze NIS 500 million ($127 million) in Palestinian tax revenues collected on
Ramallah’s behalf, in response to the ICC membership request.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Palestinians leaders were the ones who should be
prosecuted in the ICC over their unification with rival faction Hamas.
 
“It is the Palestinian Authority leaders – who have allied with the war criminals of Hamas – who
must be called to account,” he said. “IDF soldiers will continue to protect the State of Israel with
determination and strength, and just as they are protecting us we will protect them, with the same
determination and strength.”
 
On Thursday, Abbas asked the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel for war crimes
allegedly committed during the 50­day war with Hamas and other Gaza terror groups last summer.
Israel lost 66 soldiers and seven civilians in the month­long conflict, while the Palestinian death toll
surpassed 2,100, according to Hamas officials in Gaza. Israel said half of the Gaza dead were
gunmen and blamed Hamas for civilian deaths because it operated from residential areas, placing
Gazans in harm’s way.
 
 
Date:
Tuesday, December 30, 2014

A video being widely circulated in Palestinian social media networks teaches jihadists how to stab a Jewish person in a manner that ensures their speedy death.

The video is reportedly being circulated by a group calling themselves the “resisters of occupation in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem,” according to a Jewish Press report.

The video shows two men, a “teacher” and a “victim”, dressed in a Keffiyeh headscarf–garb which was popularized by the first Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. The teacher then demonstrates how to casually walk up to someone and stab them in an efficient and deadly manner.

The demonstration emphasizes that in order to inflict maximum damage, the knife should be twisted after stabbing the Jewish person.

The video comes as 2014 has seen an exponential increase in Arab stabbing attacks against Israeli Jews.

In November, two Palestinian terrorists stabbed to death four Rabbis who were praying peacefully in their Jerusalem synagogue. The Palestinians, who were armed with axes, left an additional eight wounded in the jihadi onslaught. Hamas, the terror group which controls the Gaza Strip, supported the jihadist’s actions. A Hamas spokesman threatened at the time, “There will be more revolution in Jerusalem, and more uprising.”

Palestinian media entities have created other platforms to call for aggression against Jews.

In October, a video game was released called “The Liberation of Palestine,” which encouraged gamers to “liberate Palestine” through any means necessary. The game preferred users to choose armed resistance over diplomacy. A developer of the game said regarding the controversial tactic: “The language of weapons is the most effective with the Israelis.”
Date:
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Jerusalem and DC have signed but not ratified pact, with US citing
possible constraints on arms sales to IDF
 
 
BY AFP December 23, 2014, 1:33 pm | The Times of Israel| 
 
UNITED NATIONS — A treaty laying down international rules for the $85 billion dollar
global arms trade goes into force on Wednesday with campaigners vowing to make
sure it is strictly implemented.
The United States — by far the world’s largest arms producer and exporter — has signed the
treaty, but has yet to ratify it.
Israel joined the pact last week, but has not yet ratified it.
Lawmakers in the US balked at cottoning to the treaty, arguing that it could impair Washington’s
ability to sell arms to Israel, among other reasons.
 
Fifty senators, including all 45 Senate Republicans, listed a number of reasons for their opposition
to the treaty in a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry in October.
“The State Department has acknowledged that the treaty includes language that could hinder the
United States from fulfilling its strategic, legal and moral commitments to provide arms to key allies
such as the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the State of Israel,” they wrote.
Other key exporters such as France, Britain and Germany have ratified the charter and pledged to
adhere to its strict criteria aimed at cutting off weapons supplies to human rights violators
worldwide.
A total of 130 countries have signed the treaty and 60 have ratified it.
“For too long, arms and ammunition have been traded with few questions asked about whose lives
they will destroy,” said Anna Macdonald, director of the Control Arms coalition of nongovernmental
organizations.
 
“The new Arms Trade Treaty which enters into force this week will bring that to an end.”
“It is now finally against international law to put weapons into the hands of human rights abusers
and dictators,” she said.
Campaigners, however, say much work lies ahead to implement the treaty, with a first meeting of
the states parties to the treaty to be held around September next year.
Decisions will have to be made about the financing mechanisms for the pact and setting up a
secretariat to oversee its implementation.
Amnesty International noted that five of the top 10 arms exporters — France, Germany, Italy,
Spain and Britain – have ratified the ATT. China and Russia have yet to sign on.
The first major arms accord since the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the ATT
covers international transfers of everything from tanks to combat aircraft to missiles, as well as
small arms.
 
The treaty compels countries to set up national controls on arms exports. States must assess
whether a weapon could be used to circumvent an international embargo, be used for genocide
and war crimes or be used by terrorists and organized crime.
“If robustly implemented, this treaty has the potential to save many lives and offer much needed
protection to vulnerable civilians around the world,” said Macdonald.
 
Date:
Monday, December 22, 2014
President says that despite Netanyahu’s criticism, Jerusalem aware that
Tehran has frozen progress for duration of talks
 
BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF December 22, 2014, 6:07 pm
 
Despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s criticism of Washington’s handling of
negotiations with Iran, Israeli intelligence acknowledges that Tehran has made no
advancements during the past year and a half of talks, US President Barack Obama
said Sunday.
 
Netanyahu has frequently voiced his criticism of what he sees as overly accommodating
agreements being negotiated between world powers and Iran, both before last year’s interim
accords were announced and afterwards. The Israeli prime minister has repeatedly taken to the
world stage to warn about the threat posed by a potentially nuclear armed Iran.
Speaking in an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley, the president defended his diplomacyfocused
foreign policy, saying that “where we can solve problems diplomatically, we should do
so.” Obama said the American­led effort to reach a negotiated solution to defusing Iran’s nuclear
program was an example of a successful diplomatic campaign.
 
“You look at an example like Iran, over the last year and a half, since we began negotiations with
them, that’s probably the first year and a half in which Iran has not advanced its nuclear program
in the last decade,” Obama told the news outlet.
 
The American leader said Iran’s halted progress was “not just verified by the United Nations and
the… IAEA and ourselves,” but that “even critics of our policy like the Netanyahu government in
Israel, their intelligence folks have acknowledged that, in fact, Iran has not made progress.”
Obama’s remarks were supported by a confidential IAEA report leaked last week which said Iran
is honoring the interim nuclear agreement reached last year with the P5+1 world powers.
The document, obtained by Reuters on Friday, showed that Tehran was not enriching uranium
above a five­percent concentration, and that it has not made “any further advances” at two
enrichment facilities and a heavy water reactor which was under construction.
 
Iran and world powers failed to reach a deal by the November deadline and agreed to extend
nuclear talks until July 1, 2015. A final agreement aims to ensure Tehran won’t be able to develop
nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian activities, and would lift international sanctions that
have crippled Iran’s economy.
Iran denies that it is seeking a nuclear weapon and insists its nuclear activities are for solely
peaceful purposes. But UN inspectors, European, American and Israeli leaders have said Iran
has concealed large parts of its nuclear program, and believe it is intended to develop a nuclear
bomb.
 
Date:
Friday, December 19, 2014

 

By TOVAH LAZAROFF, KHALED ABU TOAMEH, HERB KEINON, MAYA SHWAYDER 

12/18/2014 21:06 | The Jerusalem Post| 

Day after Jordan submits draft to United Nations Security Council, US says won't show support for it.

The United States would not support a new Palestinian-proposed UN Security Council draft resolution, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Thursday.

"It is not something we would support," Psaki told reporters. 

Jordan formally submitted to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday a draft resolution calling for peace between Israel and the Palestinians within one year and an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank by the end of 2017.

The Palestinian-drafted resolution was formally submitted to the 15-member council, which means it could be put to a vote as soon as 24 hours later, but it does not guarantee it will happen. Some drafts formally submitted have never been voted.

Diplomats say negotiations on the text could take days or weeks. Jordan's UN envoy Dina Kawar said she hoped the council could reach a unanimous decision on the resolution.
Date:
Thursday, December 18, 2014

By HERB KEINON \ 

12/17/2014 16:10 | The Jerusalem Post| 

 

Israel reacted furiously Wednesday to the European Court of Justice’s decision to take Hamas off the EU’s list of terrorist organization, rejecting EU explanations that this was just a “technical” step that will be overturned before it is implemented.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, before a meeting with Joni Ernst, the newly elected Republican senator from Iowa,  said this was one example of “staggering”  European “hypocrisy.”

Hamas, he said, “has committed countless war crimes and countless terror acts. It seems that too many in Europe, on whose soil six million Jews were slaughtered, have learned nothing. But we in Israel, we've learned. We'll continue to defend our people and our state against the forces of terror and tyranny and hypocrisy."

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, who recently criticized Netanyahu for not taking a diplomatic initiative to rebuff anti-Israel moves internationally,  said that to take Hamas off the list for “technical reasons” at a time when terror was on the rise throughout the world, and not only in the Middle East, was a “wrong decision” that sends exactly the wrong message.    

Shortly after the angry reactions coming from Jerusalem, the EU's External Action Service (EEAS), essentially the EU’s foreign service,  said the  EU court's decision earlier in the day was a legal, not a political decision, that will likely be appealed.

The court  annulled  the bloc's decision on 2003 to keep Hamas on a list of terrorist organizations, but temporarily maintained the measures for a period of three months or until an appeal was registered.  The courts said that the evidence provided to place the organization on the list did not meet EU standards, and was based on media and Internet reports.

According to the statement, by the EEAS, which is headed by EU Foreign Policy chief Frederica Mogherini,  “This legal ruling is clearly based on procedural grounds and it does not imply any assessment by the Court of the substantive reasons for the designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization.”

According to the statement, this is “a legal ruling of a court, not a political decision taken by the EU governments. The EU continues to uphold the Quartet principles,” the statement read.

The Quartet principles ban engagement with Hamas until it forswears terrorism, recognizes Israel, and accepts previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

The statement said that the EU institutions were carefully studying the ruling and “will decide on the options open to them. They will, in due course, take appropriate remedial action, including any eventual appeal to the ruling. In case of an appeal the restrictive measures remain in place.”

The statement was released soon after Jerusalem responded angrily to the decision, and after Netanyahu said Israel was “not satisfied” with the explanations of the EU that Hamas's removal is only a technical matter.

Two central EU countries have already been working on a dossier providing the court with the evidence that will satisfy it.

“The burden of proof is on the EU and we expect them to immediately return Hamas to the list where everyone realizes they should be,” Netanyahu said. “Hamas is a murderous terrorist organization whose charter says that its aim is to destroy Israel. We will continue to fight it with determination and strength so that it will never realize its aims. "

The British Foreign Office issued a statement saying that the UK will work to ensure that Hamas remains on the EU’s terrorist list.

According to the statement, the court’s judgement “is procedural and does not mean the EU and UK have changed their position on Hamas. The effects of the EU Hamas listing, including asset freezes, remain in place. We are studying the detail of the judgment carefully, and will work with partners to ensure that the Hamas listing at the EU is maintained. Hamas’ military wing has been proscribed in the UK since 2001 under separate UK legislation. It is not affected by today’s EU General Court judgment.”

Regardless, the reaction from Israeli MKs and ministers was furious.

Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said that if anyone thinks that sacrificing Israel can save Europe, they are mistaken.

"The corrupt law of the EU court gives license for the shedding of Jewish blood everywhere and demonstrates the loss of a moral path," he said.

"Israel is strong and can defend itself from its enemies, but Europe itself will be the one to suffer from the strengthening of terrorist organizations," he added.

Bennett said that terror which receives a justification in Tel Aviv will quickly spread to London, Paris and Brussels.

Hatnua head Tzipi Livni called the court’s move a “grave mistake,” and said Hamas was an “extreme Islamic religious terrorist organization that must be fought with all force.”

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) said that the European Union "must have lost its mind." Edelstein said that the decision displays "inflexibility, moral distortion and grants a prize to the extremist Islamic terror that is currently plaguing the entire world, including Europe itself."

The Knesset speaker said that he hopes the "injustice" will be remedied quickly.

Labor MK Nachman Shai accused the court of hypocrisy, saying that "the body responsible for justice should know that Hamas does not deserve the benefit of the doubt, even for one minute.

"Terror is terror is terror. In the unending struggle against it, as has been brought to light recently in Australia and Pakistan,any concession is a sign of weakness. Europe must put Hamas back on the terror blacklist immediately," he said.

Likud MK Danny Danon said that "the Europeans must believe that there blood is more sacred than the blood of the Jews which they see as unimportant - that is the only way to explain the EU court's decision to remove Hamas from the terror blacklist," he said.

"In Europe they must have forgotten that Hamas kidnapped three boys and fired thousands of rockets last summer at Israeli citizens," he added.
Date:
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Assets of group to remain frozen after ruling issued on technicality, but
Netanyahu says Jerusalem ‘not satisfied'; Hamas praises move
 
BY AFP AND TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF December 17, 2014, 11:31 am Updated: December 17, 2014, 1:05 pm | The Times of Israel| 
 
The Palestinian Islamic group Hamas must be removed from the EU’s terrorism blacklist,
but its assets will stay frozen, a European court ruled on Wednesday.
The move, described by the European Union as a technicality, quickly drew Israeli condemnation
and praise from the Gaza­based organization.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the EU to return the group to the terror list, saying
Israel was “not satisfied with EU’s explanations that taking Hamas off the terror list is a ‘technical
matter.'”
 
“The burden of proof falls on the EU, and we expect it to permanently return Hamas to the list, so
everyone will understand that it is an inseparable part of it — Hamas is a murderous terror
organization that emphasizes in its charter that its goal is to destroy Israel,” he said in a statement.
The original listing in 2001 was based not on sound legal judgments but on conclusions derived
from the media and the Internet, the General Court of the European Union said Wednesday.
But it stressed that Wednesday’s decision to remove Hamas was based on technical grounds and
does “not imply any substantive assessment of the question of the classification of Hamas as a
terrorist group.”
 
The freeze on Hamas’s funds will also temporarily remain in place for three months pending any
appeal by the EU, the Luxembourg­based court said.
The General Court hears cases brought by individuals and member states against EU institutions.
“This legal ruling is clearly based on procedural grounds and it does not imply any assessment by
the Court of the substantive reasons for the designation of Hamas as a terrorist organisation,”
a spokesperson for the EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said. “It is a legal ruling of a
court, not a political decision taken by the EU governments.”
 
The EU will continue to uphold the principles of the Middle East Quartet, which implies that it will
not engage with Hamas until the group renounces violence and recognizes Israel’s right to exist.
EU institutions are carefully studying the ruling will, “in due course, take appropriate remedial
action, including any eventual appeal to the ruling,” Mogherini’s spokesperson said. “In case of an
appeal the restrictive measures remain in place.”
 
In a meeting Wednesday morning with the Foreign Ministry, EU Ambassador to Israel Lars
Faaborg­Andersen said that EU intends to do everything it can to get Hamas back on the list.
The EU had asked Israeli officials not to cause a public row over the affair, according to Channel
10, and Jerusalem had kept quiet until Netanyahu’s statement Wednesday.
French­Jewish lawmaker Meyer Habib decried the decision and said the European Union failed to
combat the “modern cancer that is jihad.”
 
“We need to open our eyes! Yesterday the Taliban killed 120 children. IS, Hamas, Boko Haram,
Hezbollah, Taliban — each one is a separate branch on the same tree: a tree of hatred and terror.”
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called the ruling a victory for the Palestinian nation and for its
rights. Barhoum’s counterpart Sami Abu Zuhri said it was a correction of a political mistake by the
EU.
Hamas’s military wing was added to the European Union’s first­ever terrorism blacklist drawn up
in December 2001 in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States.
The EU blacklisted the political wing of Hamas in 2003.
“The General Court finds that the contested measures are based not on acts examined and
confirmed in decisions of competent authorities but on factual imputations derived from the press
and the Internet,” the court said.
Instead, such an action had to be based on facts previously established by competent authorities,
it said.
 
The lawyer for Hamas, Liliane Glock, told AFP she was “satisfied with the decision.”
The move stemmed from a petition recently submitted to the European Court of Human Rights on
a related matter concerning Tamil terrorists.
During those proceedings, it was argued that the EU had designated Hamas a terror group on the
basis of information provided by the United States, while EU regulations require that the EU’s own
material be used as the basis for such a designation, Israel’s Channel 10 news reported Tuesday.
 
Based on this, the EU would temporarily remove Hamas from its list of designated terror groups,
but swiftly return it to that list once the correct paperwork has been processed.
Channel 10 said that the EU has kept Israel informed about the process, and that there have been
contacts with top Israeli officials, including Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman.
Israel had raised concerns that Hamas could exploit any time lag to operate in Europe, the TV
report said. The EU has promised Israel, however, that it will seek to block that possibility,
including by issuing interim regulations.
Israel fought a 50­day war with Hamas­led fighters in the Gaza Strip over the summer
Date:
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Attempts to ‘impose conditions’ will backfire, PM warns; French FM
says US will veto Palestinian withdrawal proposal
 
BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF, AFP AND AP December 15, 2014, 11:17 pm| The Times of Israel| 
 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday rejected bids to impose a United Nations
deadline on the Israeli­Palestinian conflict amid a flurry of talks led by US Secretary of
State John Kerry.
 
Addressing a renewed drive to push the Israeli­Palestinian peace process to the top of the global
agenda, Kerry and Netanyahu met for nearly three hours in the US ambassador’s sumptuous
residence in Rome.
 
“The attempts by Palestinians and some European countries to impose conditions on Israel will
only deteriorate regional security and endanger Israel, so we strongly oppose it,” Netanyahu said
after rejecting the proposed withdrawal to Kerry.
 
The Americans are seeking to avert an end­of­year showdown at the United Nations Security
Council, which could place them in a diplomatic quandary.
The Palestinians have said they will submit an Arab­backed draft text — setting a two­year
deadline for an end to Israel’s decades­long control of the West Bank — to the UN as early as
Wednesday. Meanwhile, France has been leading European efforts to cobble together a more
nuanced resolution that could prove more palatable to the US administration.
 
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, said Monday the Palestinians were planning to
put a resolution in a form that could be voted upon on Wednesday, though the council was unlikely
to vote immediately.
What that resolution says will depend on the outcome of the high­level negotiations in Europe,
Mansour said. He told a group of reporters Monday that the Americans are key.
They have two options: to negotiate on the Palestinian and French texts, or produce their own
draft resolution, he said.
 
Mansour said the French draft is “very, very close to the Arab ideas” and includes a timeframe for
negotiations, but the Palestinians “want to define clearly the end to occupation.”
He stressed that the Palestinians will not return to direct negotiations with Israel and strongly
support the French proposal for an international conference to promote a peace deal that would
include the five veto­wielding Security Council nations, key Arab countries and others.
“We tried direct negotiations for 20 years and they failed,” Mansour said. “That is history.”
The French text would set a two­year timetable, but for concluding a peace treaty without
mentioning Israeli withdrawal.
 
Paris is also hoping to seize more of the initiative by not leaving the negotiations solely in the
hands of the US.
“What we are hoping for is a resolution which everyone can get behind,” French Foreign Minister
Laurent Fabius told AFP.
 
“Even if the Palestinians have a text in their hand, the Americans have already said that they will
veto it,” he said. “So on the one hand this resolution cannot be accepted, but on the other that will
clearly get a strong reaction from the Palestinian side.”
“The absence of a peace process is fueling tensions on the ground, so it is imperative to make
rapid progress on a UN resolution,” said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal.
“It is vital to relaunch the peace talks as soon as possible and on a credible basis to offer some
kind of concrete political horizon to the parties,” he told AFP.
US officials have said Kerry is aiming to learn more about the European initiative during his hastily
arranged pre­Christmas trip.
 
Traditionally, the US has used its power of veto at the UN Security Council to shoot down what it
sees as moves against its close regional ally, Israel.
But there is a growing impatience in Europe over the peace impasse amid fears the Middle East
risks spiraling into even greater chaos.
 
Several European parliaments have called on their governments to move ahead with the
recognition of a Palestinian state.
 
US officials told reporters accompanying Kerry that Washington has not yet decided whether to
veto or back the French­led UN initiative.
The US administration opposes moves to bind negotiators’ hands through a UN resolution —
particularly any attempt to set a deadline for Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.
Kerry also met with the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and thanked Pope
Francis for “his engagement to try to reduce tensions in the region.”
 
The secretary of state was due to fly to Paris for a dinner meeting with his French, German and
British counterparts and the new EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini at Orly Aairport.
He will then travel to London to meet with the chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and the
secretary general of the Arab League, Nabil Elaraby, on Tuesday.
 
Fabius, the French foreign minister, is also to meet with Elaraby on Tuesday.
Diplomatic sources say Paris is hoping to persuade the Palestinians to back their compromise
resolution, rather than risk a US veto of the more muscular Arab version.
 
But the Palestinians appear divided, as frustration grows over the snail’s pace of diplomatic
efforts, with the decision resting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
 
Date:
Monday, December 15, 2014
Israel will ‘stand firm’ against a possible Security Council schedule for
West Bank pullout, Netanyahu says before leaving for Rome
 
BY AFP AND TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF December 15, 2014, 11:50 am
 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Monday that Israel will not be forced into
accepting a scheduled withdrawal from the West Bank, even if the Palestinians are
successful in obtaining a United Nations Security Council resolution that lays down a
deadline for a pullout.
Netanyahu’s comments came as he prepared to board a plane to Rome for a meeting later in the
day with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on the
Palestinian Security Council bid, which is expected to be submitted Wednesday.
Israel Radio’s Gal Berger tweeted that Kerry’s team canceled the photo­op with Netanyahu
planned for the beginning of the meeting.
 
The resolution calls for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank within two years. Netanyahu
decried the Palestinian move to cajole Israel into actions against its interest.
“In a reality in which Islamic terror is spreading its branches to every corner of the globe, we will
rebuff every effort that will bring this terror into our own home, into the State of Israel, and these
things I say in the clearest possible way,” Netanyahu said. “Even if they are dictated we will stand
firm against them.”
Saying the Palestinian attempts were “incompatible with genuine peace,” he added that Israel
would not “not accept attempts to dictate to us unilateral moves on a limited timetable.”
The Palestinians announced late Sunday night that they were set to present a text to the UN
Security Council on Wednesday demanding an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines and
the recognition of a Palestinian state.
 
“The Palestinian leadership took a decision to go to the Security Council next Wednesday to vote
on their project to end the occupation,” senior Palestine Liberation Organization member Wassel
Abu Yussef told AFP Sunday after a Palestinian leadership meeting in Ramallah.
 
Kerry arrived in Rome Sunday where he met for more than three hours with Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov seeking to head off the looming UN showdown.
The United States has already said it opposed the timetable as complicating the stalled peace
negotiations.
“That’s not the way I think that we would look at handling a very complicated security negotiation
by mandating a deadline of two years,” a State Department official said, asking not to be identified.
Kerry will fly to London on Tuesday to meet chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Arab
League chief Nabil al­Arabi.
France stepped in last month to try to cobble together along with Britain and Germany a resolution
that would win consensus at the 15­member council. The text would call for a return to
negotiations aimed at achieving a two­state solution by which Israel and a Palestinian state would
co­exist.
 
The Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the statehood bid ahead of Monday’s meeting in
Rome.
After Netanyahu called snap elections for March, some Europeans have pointed to a narrow
window of opportunity to push a Palestinian resolution at the Security Council.
In the past, the United States has consistently used its UN veto power to block moves it sees as
anti­Israel, but US officials said they drew a distinction between a unilateral step and an effort to
draw up a multilateral resolution at the UN Security Council, which would have the backing of
many nations.
US officials said Kerry was seeking to learn more about the European position, adding there did
not appear to be a European consensus on any resolution.
A number of European countries have passed motions this year calling for the recognition
of Palestinian statehood based on the 1967 lines.
 
The recent pro­recognition wave, which was spearheaded by Sweden and the UK in October, has
been welcomed by the PA, but tested relations between Israel and the EU. Jerusalem has
maintained that recognition should only come once bilateral negotiations produce a two­state
solution.
Similar initiatives have also been voted on in France, Spain and Ireland. The European Parliament
is expected to vote in favor of recognizing a Palestinian state on December 18.
The motions, however, are largely symbolic in nature and intended to put pressure on both sides
to renew peace negotiations, which stalled in April after a nine­month, US­brokered effort.
Netanyahu on Sunday rejected all talk of withdrawing from East Jerusalem and the West Bank
within two years.
Pulling out now would bring “Islamic extremists to the suburbs of Tel Aviv and to the heart of
Jerusalem,” he said.
 
The Palestinian leadership also decided Sunday to continue the security coordination with Israel
for the time being, the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency reported, backtracking on earlier threats to
dissolve security ties in the wake of the death of a senior PA official last week.
Following the death of senior Fatah official Ziad Abu Ein last Wednesday after clashing with Israel
Defense Forces soldiers, former Preventive Security Force head Jibril Rajoub said the PA had no
choice but to respond, given that Israel had “crossed a red line.”

Pages