Israel should end the "catastrophe and calamity" in the Gaza Strip and should freeze settlement building: Ahmet Davutoglu, Foreign Minister, Turkey
My Name
By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writer
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The Saudi foreign minister on
Saturday criticized Israel's settlement construction and
said the country acts like a "spoiled child" because the
international community is not tough enough in pressuring it
to make concessions.
Prince Saud al-Faisal said Washington and other players in
Mideast peace efforts should take a "firm and serious" stand
to put an end to Israeli construction on land Palestinians
want for a future state.
Israel's announcement Monday that it is building nearly 700
new apartments for Jews in east Jerusalem is "a source of
worry, which we strongly condemn," he said.
The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as their capital and
say each expansion of Jewish housing there is making
partition as part of a future peace deal more difficult. The
U.S., the Palestinians and the European Union condemned the
new Israeli building plan.
Israeli-Palestinian talks broke off a year ago, and the
Palestinians refuse to restart talks until all Israeli
construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem is halted.
The Palestinians rejected a partial Israeli settlement
freeze as not enough.
The Saudi foreign minister said the international community
needed to get tougher with Israel.
"The reason why a solution cannot be reached is the
preferential treatment that Israel gets," he said. "When
other countries violate international law, they get
punished, except for Israel. If war crimes are committed,
other countries get punished, except Israel.
"Israel has become in the international community like a
spoiled child," he said. "It does what it wants without
being questioned or punished."
Saud spoke after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart,
Ahmet Davutoglu, whose country has long been Israel's
closest ally in the Muslim world, though relations were
strained over last winter's war in Gaza.
Davutoglu said Israel should end the "catastrophe and
calamity" in the Gaza Strip and should freeze settlement
building.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday
presented President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt with ideas for
restarting the peace talks. Egyptian officials did not
divulge specifics. Egypt, the first of two Arab countries to
make peace with Israel, frequently mediates between the
Jewish state and the broader Arab world.
U.S. envoy George Mitchell, who has for months been trying
to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating
table, is expected in the region in the first half of this
month.
The Saudi foreign minister said solutions to the most
difficult issues - including final borders, Jerusalem and
Palestinian refugees - should be presented for negotiation.
If the parties fail to reach a settlement, then the
International Court of Justice should get involved, he said.
Saud said Israel will be the first country to be threatened
from the instability that will result if there is no Mideast
peace.
Saud and the Turkish foreign minister also spoke about
Iran's nuclear program and expressed support for diplomatic
efforts aimed at resolving international suspicions that
Tehran intends to develop a nuclear weapons capability.
Iran says its nuclear work is only for electricity
production.
Saud said his country is negotiating with the Iranian
government over the return of a daughter of al-Qaida leader
Osama bin Laden to Saudi Arabia.
Eman bin Laden turned up at the Saudi Embassy in Iran more
than a month ago after eluding guards in Iran who have held
her, her sister and four brothers under house arrest for
eight years.
It has long been believed that Iran has held a number of bin
Laden's children since they fled Afghanistan after the U.S.-
led invasion of that country in 2001.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100102/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_saudi_israel
Hamas slams world silence on Israeli military escalation
Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:58:50 GMT
Hamas has condemned "the international community's silence�
towards the Israeli-imposed blockade on the Gaza Strip.
"This aggression reflects the barbarian Israeli policy
against the Palestinians amid tightening a suffocating siege
imposed on the Gaza Strip for more than three years," said
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum on Saturday, Xinhua reported.
The comments came after aerial and artillery bombardments of
the northern, southern and eastern parts of the strip by
Israeli fighter planes and tanks.
The Israeli warplanes also refused to leave the airspace
following the strikes, which inflicted injuries on four
Palestinians.
The Friday offensive "is clear evidence that the Israeli
military aggression on the Gaza Strip continues unabated,"
Barhoum added.
Also on Saturday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
said his government had grown in strength since the 2008-
2009 three-week-long Israeli assaults on the strip, which
claimed more than 1,400 Palestinian lives.
Inaugurating two buildings destroyed during the offensives,
he said "the Israeli war and Israeli pressure on the
government and on the Hamas movement have not weakened us,"
pledging that his government would rebuild whatever was
destroyed during the war, Xinhua added.
HN/SC/MMN
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115195§ionid=351020202
--
A government, of Israel, by Israel, and, for: Israel.
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light:
for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. The light shineth in darkness;
and the darkness comprehended it not. The light of the body is the eye:
if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give thee light. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Seon Ferguson
oppresses women and forces them to wear the veil, won't let them leave their
homes without a man, forbids dancing, drinking, stones gay people, executes
people for witch craft and a host of other barbaric things.
"My Name" <n...@e-mail.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:Xns9CF4821BA...@walks.like.a.duck...
Patrick Keenan
"Seon Ferguson" <seo...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:17CdnaMFE9gaW6LW...@westnet.com.au...
> He may be a islamofacist but he's 100% right. Sorry but Saudi Arabia
> oppresses women and forces them to wear the veil, won't let them leave
> their homes without a man, forbids dancing, drinking, stones gay people,
> executes people for witch craft and a host of other barbaric things.
Then there's the question SA's real attitude towards the Palestinians.
One might note that Palestinians in Saudi Arabia - even those born there -
can never become citizens, and are always at risk. For example, the US
immigration service allowed a Palestinian's refugee claim based on his
argument that he faced persecution in the country of his birth - Saudi
Arabia - simply because he was a Palestinian.
http://www.muhajabah.com/islamicblog/archives/veiled4allah/006377.php
"The IJ [immigration judge] recognized, based on Ahmed's testimony, that
Palestinians in Saudi Arabia are relegated to officially sanctioned
second-class status incorporated into the legal and social structure of
Saudi Arabia. Ahmed sought to portray this treatment as persecution
providing grounds for asylum. He testified that although his parents have
lived in Saudi Arabia for 50 years and Ahmed was born in the country,
neither he nor his parents have been able to obtain Saudi citizenship
because Saudi Arabia reserves citizenship for people of Saudi descent. To
remain in the country, Palestinians must renew their residence permits every
two years for a fee of 2,000 Riyals (about $530). Palestinians must also be
"sponsored" by a Saudi Arabian citizen to own real property, work, or own a
business. To illustrate the harsh effects of this requirement, Ahmed related
that his father had successfully operated and expanded a grocery store for
15 years, only to see his Saudi sponsor - the de jure owner of the store -
take the business away once it became profitable. Each time a Palestinian
wishes to change jobs, he must change sponsors for a fee of 6,000 Riyals
(about $1,600).
Ahmed testified about his experience while growing up in Saudi Arabia. He
was barred from certain activities during high school and initially was not
allowed to attend a university because he was an alien. Although he was able
to gain admission to King Saud University in Riyadh because of his talent
for soccer and the connections of a family friend, he was forced to study
political and administrative science at the university because aliens could
not choose their own topic of study. After graduating from the university
and searching for a job for more than a year, Ahmed was hired in 1993 to
sell cars. He testified that he was paid one-third as much as his Saudi
counterparts and had to work significantly longer hours."
And while Saudi Arabia significantly relaxed its citizenship requirements in
2004 - a year or so after the article above - the changes apply to everyone
*except* Palestinians, who can never, ever become citizens:
http://www.arabnews.com/?article=53213
"...Saudi citizenship would be open for all nationals working in the
Kingdom. "The law does not aim at a particular nationality. On the other
hand, it covers all expatriates in the country," he told Al-Madinah.
But Al-Watan Arabic daily reported that the naturalization law would not be
applicable to Palestinians living in the Kingdom as the Arab League has
instructed that Palestinians living in Arab countries should not be given
citizenship to avoid dissolution of their identity and protect their right
to return to their homeland."
So there does seem to be a significant disconnect between these
pronouncements by Arab governments on the plight of the theoretical
Palestinian people and the way those same governments treat actual
Palestinian people.
The attitude seems to be that Palestinians are fine in theory, but not in
practice, aren't really welcome in Arab nations, and assimilation will never
be allowed. They are useful as pawns against Israel, and not much else.
I'd suspect that Palestinians can receive better treatment in Israel and the
US than in Arab countries.
One can only hope that some day the Palestinians obtain a government that is
genuinely interested in their welfare and stands up for them - especially
against their "brothers".
Not that the OP would be aware of any of this; it wouldn't have been
mentioned in his propaganda shipment.
-pk