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Monday, August 22, 2016
Excerpts: Report on poll of Palestinians and Israelis papers over

Excerpts: Report on poll of Palestinians and Israelis papers over results.
UK to tackle Islamist extremism in prisons.Iran says Moscow 'showing off' re
air raids from Iran. August 22, 2016

+++SOURCE:Al Arabiya News 22 Aug.’16:”Poll:Majority of Israelis,Palestinians
still seek peace”,by Associated Press
SUBJECT:A slim majority on both sides still favor peace
IMRA: The poll found that Palestinians strongly oppose all key elements of
peace plans [see http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=71294 ] but this
hasn't been covered seriously in the news reports.

FULL TEXT:A new poll of Israelis and Palestinians released on Monday[22 Aug]
found that a slim majority on both sides still favor a peace settlement
establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel, despite years of conflict
and deadlock in negotiations. The results of the joint poll may provide some
small signs of encouragement when peace prospects appear bleak.

The last round of negotiations broke down two years ago, and a resumption of
talks, much less progress between the sides, at this point seems unlikely.

Tamar Hermann, an Israeli political scientist who conducted the survey with
Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki, said that under the current
circumstances, the results were “not amazingly encouraging,” but also “not
discouraging.” “It showed there is still some basis for optimism with the
right leadership,” she said.

“Right now I don’t see on the horizon a leader on either side willing or
capable of using this as a springboard for intensifying the negotiations.
But it’s not impossible.” The poll found that 51 percent of Palestinians and
59 percent of Israelis still support a two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On the Israeli side, 53 percent of Jews support the establishment of an
independent Palestinian state. Among Israel’s Arab minority, the number is
much higher, at 87 percent. Conversely, just 34 percent of Palestinians and
20 percent of Israelis support the idea of a single shared state where they
are both citizens with equal rights.

After two decades of failed peace efforts, and nearly a year of low-level
violence, distrust is strong. The poll found that 89 percent of Palestinians
feel Israeli Jews are untrustworthy, while 68 percent of Israeli Jews held
similar opinions toward the Palestinians.

It also found that 65 percent of Israelis fear Palestinians. In contrast,
just 45 percent of Palestinians fear Israelis. Hermann said she was
surprised by the higher fear level on the Israeli side, and cited a number
of factors. She said many Israelis have no contact with Palestinians, making
it easier to “dehumanize the other side.”

She also said a recent wave of violence had jolted Israeli society, which
had been more insulated from the conflict than Palestinians living under
Israeli occupation.

In addition, she said Israeli leaders - by painting the Palestinians as
“utterly hostile” - and Israeli media reports had contributed to the
atmosphere. “The only images the average Israeli, and I suppose the average
Palestinian, gets are the negative ones,” she said.

The survey interviewed 1,270 Palestinians and 1,184 Israelis in June, and
had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. It was conducted by the Israel
Democracy Institute, where Hermann is a senior fellow, and Shikaki’s
Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.

A new poll of Israelis and Palestinians released on Monday found that a slim
majority on both sides still favor a peace settlement establishing a
Palestinian state alongside Israel, despite years of conflict and deadlock
in negotiations.

The results of the joint poll may provide some small signs of encouragement
when peace prospects appear bleak. The last round of negotiations broke down
two years ago, and a resumption of talks, much less progress between the
sides, at this point seems unlikely.

Tamar Hermann, an Israeli political scientist who conducted the survey with
Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki, said that under the current
circumstances, the results were “not amazingly encouraging,” but also “not
discouraging.”

“It showed there is still some basis for optimism with the right
leadership,” she said. “Right now I don’t see on the horizon a leader on
either side willing or capable of using this as a springboard for
intensifying the negotiations. But it’s not impossible.”

The poll found that 51 percent of Palestinians and 59 percent of Israelis
still support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On
the Israeli side, 53 percent of Jews support the establishment of an
independent Palestinian state.

Among Israel’s Arab minority, the number is much higher, at 87 percent.
Conversely, just 34 percent of Palestinians and 20 percent of Israelis
support the idea of a single shared state where they are both citizens with
equal rights.

The poll found that 89 percent of Palestinians feel Israeli Jews are
untrustworthy, while 68 percent of Israeli Jews held similar opinions toward
the Palestinians. It also found that 65 percent of Israelis fear
Palestinians. In contrast, just 45 percent of Palestinians fear Israelis.

Hermann said she was surprised by the higher fear level on the Israeli side,
and cited a number of factors. She said many Israelis have no contact with
Palestinians, making it easier to “dehumanize the other side.”

She also said a recent wave of violence had jolted Israeli society, which
had been more insulated from the conflict than Palestinians living under
Israeli occupation. In addition, she said Israeli leaders - by painting the
Palestinians as “utterly hostile” - and Israeli media reports had
contributed to the atmosphere.

“The only images the average Israeli, and I suppose the average Palestinian,
gets are the negative ones,” she said. The survey interviewed 1,270
Palestinians and 1,184 Israelis in June, and had a margin of error of 3
percentage points. It was conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute, where
Hermann is a senior fellow, and Shikaki’s Palestinian Center for Policy and
Survey Research.

+++SOURCE:Al Arabiya News 22 Aug’16:”UK plans to tackle Islamist extremism
in prisons”,by Agence France Presse
SUBJECT:UK to tackle Islamist extremism in prisons

QUOTE:”The justice ministry said extremism in prisons was a growing threat
which needed to be treated as an “urgent priority”.

FULL TEXT:The UK government on Monday[22 Aug] unveiled plans to tackle
Islamist extremism in prisons, including banning offensive literature and
removing inmates from worship if they promote beliefs deemed against
“fundamental British values.”

The justice ministry said extremism in prisons was a growing threat which
needed to be treated as an “urgent priority”.

“For the highest risk terrorists and radicalizers, the government will use
all the measures at its disposal, including separation from the mainstream
prison population, to contain their risk and prevent the spread of poisonous
ideologies.

“Extremists cannot be allowed to prey on the vulnerable,” the ministry said
in a response accompanying the review on extremism in prisons. New measures
to be brought in include greater vetting of prison chaplains and tighter
controls on worship.

“We will ensure that governors use their existing powers to remove prisoners
from corporate worship where they are behaving subversively or promoting
beliefs that run counter to fundamental British values.

“We do not, however, believe it is the right course of action at present to
alter the provision of worship more generally or, for example, to pursue
in-cell alternatives,” the ministry of justice said.

A total of eight measures will be introduced, including a review of staff
training and the removal of literature considered extremist and offensive.

The government said it had additionally created a new department – the
Security, Order and Counter Terrorism Directorate – which will be in charge
of developing the plan to counter Islamist extremism in prisons.

The new plans follow a review commissioned by the former justice minister,
Michael Gove, which saw a team visit more than 60 prisons in the UK, France,
the Netherlands and Spain.

Gove’s successor, Elizabeth Truss, threw her support behind the overhaul.
“Islamist extremism is a danger to society and a threat to public safety --
it must be defeated wherever it is found.

“I am committed to confronting and countering the spread of this poisonous
ideology behind bars,” she said in a statement.

In their review, researchers said some prison imams faced intimidation,
while inmates were confronted with “aggressive encouragement” to convert to
Islam.

They also identified “charismatic IE (Islamist extremist) prisoners acting
as self-styled 'emirs' and exerting a controlling and radicalizing influence
on the wider Muslim prison population”.

The review found both Muslim and non-Muslim inmates were vulnerable to
radicalization and called for leadership to ensure Muslim prisoners could
safely practice their faith: “Throughout the review the team emphasized the
importance of faith to prisoners, and its potential to transform lives for
the better.

“Its premise was that Islamism -- a politicized, expansionist version of
Islam -- is more ideology than faith, and is driven by intolerance and
anti-Western sentiment.”

+++SOURCE:Naharnet(Lebanon 22 Aug.’16:”Iran Says Russia Raids from its
Airbase ‘Over for Now’after Accusing Moscow of’Showing Off’,by Agence France
Presse
SUBJECT:Iran accusing Moscow of ‘showing off’ re air raids from Iran base

FULL TEXT:Iran said Monday that Russian raids on jihadists in Syria from one
of its airbases had ended for now, after accusing Moscow of "showing off"
when it revealed the bombing runs.

"It was a specific, authorized mission and it's over for now. They conducted
it and they are gone now," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told
reporters in Tehran.

He left open the possibility of future Russian combat flights from the
Islamic republic, saying it would depend on "the situation in the region,
and according to our permission."

A Russian military spokesman, Igor Konachenkov, quoted by his defense
ministry, said the planes had "carried out all their tasks with success" and
were back on home territory.

Any further use of Hamedan base by Russian aircraft would take place "in
line with mutual accords on the fight against terrorism and taking into
account the situation in Syria", he said in a statement.

The Russian ambassador to Tehran, Levan Dzhagaryan, said nothing prevented a
renewed use of Hamedan.

"If the leaders of our two countries consider it necessary and reach the
relevant agreements, what sort of problems can there be?" he told Russia's
Interfax news agency.

"For the time being, there are no (Russians) remaining in Hamedan" airbase,
he added.

Ghasemi's comments came a few hours after Iranian Defense Minister Hossein
Dehghan made a rare public criticism of Russia for revealing that its
warplanes were using Hamedan to attack insurgents in Syria.

"Naturally, the Russians are keen to show that they are a superpower and an
influential country and that they are active in security issues in the
region and the world," Dehghan told Iran's Channel 2 television.

"There has been a kind of showing-off and inconsiderate attitude behind the
announcement of this news," he said.

- Iran guarded on Syria role -

Iran and Russia are key backers of Syrian President Bashar Assad, but Tehran
has remained relatively guarded about its precise involvement in the
conflict.

The Islamic republic is highly sensitive to any suggestion that it would
allow foreign militaries to be based in its territory, which is outlawed
under its constitution, and has emphasized that Russian planes were only
refueling in Iran.

"(Russia) needed to refuel in an area closer to the operation... But we have
definitely not given them a military base," said Dehghan.

The flights from Iranian territory started on August 16, a day after a visit
to Tehran by a Russian deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov.

The use of Hamedan significantly shortened flight-times for Russian
warplanes, allowing them to carry increased firepower.

Russia said it struck targets linked to the jihadist Islamic State group and
al-Nusra Front, now known as Fateh al-Sham Front, in Aleppo, Deir Ezzor and
Idlib.

Moscow had previously used short-range craft stationed at its Hmeimim
airbase outside the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, as well as ships in the
Caspian Sea and a submarine in the Mediterranean, to bombard rebels in
Syria.

Russia last week dismissed U.S. criticism of the use of Iranian base as a
possible violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied that Moscow could be in breach of a
ban on supply or transfer of warplanes to Iran without prior approval of the
U.N. Security Council.

"There are no grounds to suspect Russia of breaching the resolution," he
said.

Tehran, for its part, oversees thousands of troops fighting for Assad on the
ground, while Russia provides airpower.

Both oppose calls for Assad to step down as a way of resolving the conflict
that has killed more than 290,000 people since it erupted in March 2011.
=============
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA

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