JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Showdown in Hebron?

By Uriel Heilman · October 29, 2008

The new Palestinian security forces deployed in the West Bank cities of Nablus (Shechem) and Jenin may have helped bring law and order to those cities – and given the Israelis greater confidence that Palestinian security is up to the task – but it’s going to be a lot harder in Hebron, where the new security forced must contend with opposition from Hamas and challenges by extremist Jews, reports Time magazine.

When Palestinian security forces moved into the lawless West Bank towns of Jenin and Nablus, all they had to worry about were the armed criminal gangs who had been shaking down shopkeepers and stealing cars — it didn’t take long to wrest control from the thugs. But Hebron, where 600 Palestinian forces rolled up over the weekend in shiny new white pick-up trucks, is far more dangerous, because it is a stronghold of Hamas and also the base of an extremist Jewish settler community. The Islamists see the new paramilitary unit as a U.S.- and Israeli-built proxy force to be used against them; while the settlers see the Palestinian security men as “terrorists in uniform,” and are threatening an armed showdown.

If this Ha’aretz report is any indication, however, the P.A. forces are doing their job pressuring Hamas:

The tunnel near Hebron uncovered about two weeks ago by the Palestinian Authority was used by Hamas as a firing range and for other weapons training, according to PA security officials.

The discovery of the tunnel is indicative of the kind of pressure the PA security forces are putting on the military wing of Hamas.

0 Comments | Share This | Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Palestinians, West Bank

Karsenty pushing al-Dura probe

By Uriel Heilman · October 23, 2008

The decision by a Paris court last spring to overturn a libel ruling against Philippe Karsenty, a French media watchdog who claimed the iconic shooting of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Dura was manipulated by video editing, lent new credence to claims that the September 2000 shooting was staged.

The ruling has fueled Karsenty’s increasingly public campaign for a probe of the shooting, which during the violent early days of the second intifada became a symbol for Palestinians of Israeli brutality.

Karsenty talks about the shooting in an interview in the latest issue of the Middle East Quarterly.

Here’s JTA’s latest story on the subject.

0 Comments | Share This | France, International, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Palestinians

All the conflicts fit to print

By Uriel Heilman · September 8, 2008

The New York Times has had several noteworthy pieces on Islamists and Israeli-Arab affairs over the last few days:

• Michael Kimmelman penned a piece on tension in the Gaza Strip between Palestinians’ secular orientation and life under Hamas Islamist rule: ”Watching ‘Friends’ in Gaza: A Culture Clash.”
• The Ethicist, Randy Cohen, answers two readers’ question about the ethical implications of Jews falsely identifying themselves as Christians on visa applications to Arab countries that are hostile to Jews and/or Jewish practice.
• Benjamin Weiser reports on the Palestinian Authority’s effort to fight a $192.7 million judgment against it for a terrorist attack at a bat mitzvah in the northern Israeli city of Hadera in 2002 that left six people dead.
• Isabel Kershner reports that the window for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be closing.
  
• And, finally, from a bit farther afield, the Times’ Sunday Magazine has a distressing but important feature by Dexter Filkins on the complexities of fighting the Taliban on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The upshot: It doesn’t look good for U.S. efforts against the Taliban.

0 Comments | Share This | Afghanistan, Gaza, Islam, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Palestinians

Reflections of an American-Israeli-Palestinian Jew

By Uriel Heilman · September 4, 2008

The Israeli activist who went to Gaza by boat from Cyprus, flouting Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory, wrote an account of his arrest by Israeli authorities upon his return to the Jewish state.

The activist, Jeff Halper, says he was given honorary Palestinian citizenship in Gaza, making him probably the only American-Israeli-Palestinian Jew in the world (Halper is a native of Minnesota).

Here are some of Halper’s reflections:

To be honest, we Israeli Jews are the problem. The Palestinian years ago accepted our existence in the country as a people and are willing to accept ANY solution – two states, one state, no state, whatever. It is us who want exclusivity over the “Land of Israel” who cannot conceive of a single country, who cannot accept the national presence of Palestinians (we talk about “Arabs” in our country), and who have eliminated by our settlements even the possibility of the two-state solution in which we take 80% of the land. So it’s sad, truly sad, that our “enemies” want peace and co-existence (and tell me that in HEBREW) and we don’t…

When I was in Gaza everyone in Israel – including the media who interviewed me – warned me to be careful, to watch out for my life. Aren’t you scared? they asked. Well, the only time I felt genuine and palpable fear during the entire journey was when I got back to Israel. I went from Gaza through the Erez checkpoint because I wanted to make the point that the siege is not only by sea. On the Israeli side I was immediately arrested, charged with violating a military order prohibiting Israelis from being in Gaza and jailed at the Shikma prison in Ashkelon. In my cell that night, someone recognized from the news. All night I was physically threatened by right-wing Israelis – and I was sure I wouldn’t make it till the morning. Ironically, there were three Palestinians in my cell who kind of protected me, so the danger was from Israelis, not Palestinians, in Gaza as well as in Israel.

Your thoughts? Feel welcome to comment below.

26 Comments | Share This | Gaza, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Palestinians