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Friday, April 17, 2015
Excerpts: 16 EU ministered want Jewish settlement goods labelled. Arab reaction to Obama-Netanyahu clash: Palestinian payback time. Deliberate Palestinian car crash killing Israeli April 17, 2015

Excerpts: 16 EU ministered want Jewish settlement goods labelled. Arab
reaction to Obama-Netanyahu clash: Palestinian payback time. Deliberate
Palestinian car crash killing Israeli April 17, 2015

+++SOURCE:Al Arabiya News 17 April ’15:“EU ministers want labeling on Jewish
settlement goods”, by Reuters
SUBJECT: 16 EU ministers want Jewish settlement goods labelled
QUOTE:”Israels Foreign Ministry…did not comment on internal EU
correspondence”

FULL TEXT: Sixteen European Union foreign ministers have urged EU foreign
policy chief Federica Mogherini to press ahead with EU-wide rules requiring
goods made in Jewish settlements to be labelled as such, diplomats said on
Thursday.

Some EU countries already issue guidance to shops so consumers can see if
goods are made in settlements -- occupied land that the Palestinians want
for a future state -- rather than within Israel’s recognized borders.

Israel rejects the EU stance that the settlements are illegal and opposes
special labels.

The EU has been discussing the labels for several years but put the issue on
hold in 2013 so as not to disturb U.S. efforts to restart
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The letter, from 16 of the EU's 28 capitals, including Britain and France,
comes as some EU governments have been losing patience with Israel over
continued settlement-building, the breakdown of peace efforts and Benjamin
Netanyahu’s comments before last month's election ruling out a Palestinian
state as long as he remains prime minister.

The letter, published by Israeli newspaper Haaretz on its website, said:
“The continued expansion of Israeli illegal settlements in the occupied
Palestinian territory, and other territories occupied by Israel since 1967,
threatens the prospect of a just and final peace agreement.

“Moreover, the correct and coherent implementation of EU consumer protection
and EU labelling legislation is necessary to ensure that consumers are not
being misled by false information.”

Mogherini, speaking to reporters in the Netherlands, confirmed she had
received the letter and that she had already discussed the issue with some
of the ministers that signed it.

The ministers said the labelling would be “an important step in the full
implementation of EU longstanding policy, in relation to the preservation of
the two-state solution.”

Signatories of the letter included Britain, France, Spain, Italy, the
Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden, but Germany was notably absent, reflecting
divisions within the EU on policy towards Israel.

A spokesman for Israeli’s Foreign Ministry said the ministry did not comment
on internal EU correspondence.

Last Update: Friday, 17 April 2015 KSA 08:02 - GMT




+++Saudi Gazette 17 April ’15:”Palestinian payback time”,by S Nubashir Noor

FULL TEXT:What happens when you slight the most powerful man in the world?
As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu recently discovered, you get
frostbitten. Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, will no doubt
hope that policy fire and brimstone follows suit. It’s no secret that under
President Obama, US-Israel relations have deteriorated from “best friends in
the Middle East” to “please stop talking.” The contrasting personalities of
both leaders are partly to blame. Obama glides, not so much as walks, and
speaks in measured tones. Netanyahu, meanwhile, is prone to impassioned
hyperbole, and thundering the Hebrew equivalent of “Fee-fi-fo-fum”.

This cold front escalated when Netanyahu gave a controversial speech to the
US Congress. His March 3, 2015 address, at the invitation of the Republican
party, was boycotted by almost 60 Democrats. Despite White House warnings,
Netanyahu spoke his mind on the US-Iran nuclear talks, calling any agreement
“a very bad deal. We’re better off without it.” Along with his usual tirade
against the ayatollahs, the bottom-line was that Obama could not be trusted
with the security of Israel. Even as Republicans whooped in agreement,
others shook their heads at Congress being used to bully the American
president.

President Obama himself was unimpressed. Speaking to reporters the same day,
Obama said Netanyahu’s speech was “nothing new,” and offered no alternatives
to just “double down on sanctions.” A no-deal, he said, would let Iran
pursue its nuclear program “without constraint.” Netanyahu’s dissing,
however, was more calculated than simple Obama or Iran-bashing. He was
running a reelection campaign, and the center-left coalition was catching up
in the polls. His doomsday speech was meant to scare up right wing votes at
home, and have the Republicans override Obama’s veto on a new Iran sanctions
bill.

On the happy trails of one-upmanship, Netanyahu kept saying the wrong
things. In a March 16 interview with the NRG website, he stressed that no
Palestinian state would be created on his watch. Then on election day,
Netanyahu’s Facebook page warned: “Arab voters are coming out in droves to
the polls.” Though he later apologized for both comments, the White House’s
immediate reaction was critical. Its spokesperson, Josh Earnest, labeled the
comments a “transparent effort to marginalize Arab Israeli votes.” The US
had been waiting for a chance to cut Netanyahu down to size, and his
rhetoric duly obliged.

On March 21, 2015, the suggestions of a US policy shift toward Israel
surfaced. In an interview with the Huffington Post, President Obama said he
took the reelected Netanyahu “at his word,” that a Palestinian state “wouldn’t
happen during his prime ministership.” That said, America would “evaluate
what other options are available” to avoid chaos in the region, if Israel no
longer cared. Robert Danin, senior fellow at the Council for Foreign
Relations, said that it is “a distinct possibility” that the US could
abstain from future UN resolutions opposing Israel.

Since the early 1970s, America has vetoed UN Security Council resolutions
unfavorable to Israel, such as those against its operations in Gaza and
Lebanon. However, with mutual trust icing up, US opposition is no longer
guaranteed, at least until 2016. It is as Eytan Gilboa, of the Begin-Sadat
Center for Strategic Studies, says: “I think Netanyahu has given up on Obama
and vice versa.” This suits the French just fine, and they are drafting a
new resolution for Palestine. France’s Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius,
happily noted: “I hope that the partners who were reluctant will not be
reluctant anymore.”

The French plan seeks a binding timeframe in which to refine the two-state
solution, based on Israel’s pre-1967 borders, and Jerusalem as the shared
capital. Robert Serry, the UN Mideast envoy, also recently urged the
Security Council to update its dead-bill-walking on regional peace:
Resolution 242. For years, the wording loopholes have prevented significant
progress toward a Palestinian state. The Arab League insists that Israel has
to give back all territory captured in the 1967 war. Israel counters that
the resolution requires all its neighbors to recognize its right to exist as
a Jewish state.

The Palestinian Authority owes Netanyahu a debt of gratitude, for his
tactless politics are reenergizing the cause. Netanyahu’s reelection sound
bites have reinforced the worst assumptions about him, and resurfaced the
“apartheid state” comment made by US Secretary of State John Kerry last
year. Mahmoud Abbas wants to make the Israeli occupation costly, and the
European Union looks eager to help. To that end, on April 1,2015, the
non-state of Palestine became a full member of the International Criminal
Court based in The Hague, Netherlands. This gives it jurisdiction over
alleged war crimes committed in occupied Palestine since June 2014, much to
Israel’s chagrin.

Netanyahu mistook President Obama’s easy gait for a lack of steel, and
Israel may suffer the consequences. He could have gotten away with it in
Obama’s first term, but now it is legacy-building time for the US president.
The renormalized relations with Cuba and successful nuclear talks with Iran
are both paramount to this legacy. This is also why he has religiously stuck
by his promise to bring all US troops back home, despite the Syria and Yemen
conflicts. If Obama has indeed made this personal, the Palestinians can
sneak in a few statehood milestones before Netanyahu shrugs off the frost.

S. Mubashir Noor



+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 17 April ’15:”Palestinian rams car into bus stop,
killing Israeli, by Reuters

SUBJECT:Deliberate Palestinian car crash killing Israeli

FULL TEXT:OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli forces said on Thursday[16 April] a
Palestinian whose car struck people at a Jerusalem bus stop, killing an
Israeli, appeared to have driven into them deliberately.

Israeli forces had said earlier it was unclear whether the incident late on
Wednesday was an attack or a traffic accident.

"The interrogation and initial findings strengthen suspicion this was a
terrorist incident," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

The car's driver, a 37-year-old Palestinian from Israeli-occupied East
Jerusalem, was treated in hospital for light injuries and then taken for
questioning.

Two Israelis were struck by the vehicle and one of them, a 26-year-old man,
died later in hospital, Rosenfeld said. The other, a woman, was badly
injured.

The attack took place on the opposite side of an intersection in East
Jerusalem where last year a car slammed into commuters waiting at a tram
stop, killing three people, including a baby. Its Palestinian driver was
shot dead by security forces.

Along the same main route through the city last month, a Palestinian
motorist rammed his vehicle into a group of people standing near a tram
stop, injuring at least five. He was shot and wounded by Israeli forces.
=============================
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA

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