Ever-Increasing Israeli Aggression

Notwithstanding the pressure exerted by the United States on Israel to be serious about resumption of peace dialogue and to refrain from doing anything that may ignite the situation in the Middle East, the truth is that the Zionist US child has gone completely out of control, and all such US suggestions fall on deaf ears. This makes it abundantly clear that the United States, which promised to teach a lesson to Iraq and Afghanistan, cannot muster courage enough to adopt the same kind of stringent attitude to discipline Israel.
Impact of US Financial Crisis
During this current period in US history, when it is facing the worst ever financial crisis, President Barack Obama finds it extremely difficult to take any harsh stand against Israel because Israel's significance and importance has multiplied manifold for the United States as the US economy is largely in the hands of Zionists.
Because of this reason, despite apparent US pressure for a peace dialogue, Israel has not only announced to construct 277 dwelling units in the West Bank area to continue with its expansionist designs, it has carried out bombings on Gaza to make the situation there explosive. The Israeli Government has defended its action in Gaza by maintaining that the bombing was a reaction to the rocket attack on Israel from Gaza. Yet, is it justified to target innocent children? Can carrying out bombing on a mosque be termed a reaction? In fact, the purpose behind such action is nothing less than injuring and killing Palestinian Muslims who are observing fast and saying prayers during this month of Ramadan.
The attack by Israeli Army on Gaza was no reaction of any kind. Instead, it was clear aggression. There are reports that a civilian was killed and several others were injured in this attack. The bombing testifies that Israel wants go gain mileage during this month of Ramadan when the resistance by Palestinian Mujahidin [crusaders] has come down, and there are not many protests against Israel. The aim of the bombings is only to terrorize Palestinians.
Not only has Israel taken to terrorism through its army in Gaza, the Zionist government, by making an announcement to construct new Jewish houses in West Bank, has sought to escalate tension. It has announced to construct 277 dwelling units in West Bank. This implies that its plan and design to expand its occupation of Palestinian areas continues unabated, disregarding pressure from the international community.
Growing Pressure on Isreal
It is pertinent to mention that Israel is under immense pressure to initiate serious measures to solve the Palestine issue, and to avoid making provocative announcement of construction of new Jewish settlements in occupied areas. As a matter of fact, such Israeli announcements are simply meant to derail the peace dialogue. The Palestinian Authority is considered to be pro-United States.
The Authority has also made it clear that no peace dialogues are possible and are meaningless until Israel stops work of construction of new Jewish settlements in occupied areas. Even the United States, maybe on the face of it only, continues to criticize such Israeli announcements. The United States has termed the Israeli announcement extremely disturbing. The United States maintained it might have an adverse impact on attempts to resume the peace dialogue between Israel and Palestine. The United States has asserted that it has approached Israel on the issue to explain the US stand on the issue.
Construction of New Houses in West Bank
To what extent the United States manages to satisfy Israel, and whether Israel stops construction of new houses in West Bank is a matter of conjecture. What appears to be certain is that Israel has never been interested in holding peace talks, nor does it have any inclination to it now. Even if it adopts a somewhat flexible attitude, only apparently, the main purpose behind it would be to lessen international pressure.
In short, because of Israeli aggression, the threat of escalation of tension and the situation becoming explosive is looming large over the Middle East. It is a matter of grief and sorrow that neighboring Islamic countries, as is their wont, are not prepared to adopt any hard stand against Israeli aggression.

Obama's Efforts To Resolve Israeli-Palestinian Conflicts

Barack Obama has been on the job as the US president for more than two years now. All along, he has been working hard to promote peace between Israel and Palestinian. However, until today, Obama's effort in this area has not achieved any obvious positive result. In fact, the Israeli-Palestinian peace talk has gone into a dead end. But Obama seems to be a US President that will not easily give up a goal such as settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. On 19 May, President Obama boldly came out with his "1967 Israeli-Palestinian Border" proposal hoping that this proposal could break the deadlock of peace negotiation between Israel and Palestinian.
West Asia War
On Israeli-Palestine peace negotiation, President Barack Obama advocated that Israel's territorial border should return to the border line before the June 1967 West Asia War as a base for Israel's peace negotiation with the Palestinian state. However, the immediate reaction of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "very angry". According to media report on 20 May, when Netanyahu met Obama at the White House, Netanyahu has furiously given Obama "a good lecture." He said that Israel absolutely cannot accept Obama's peace proposal. This is because if Israel's territory were to return to the pre-1967 borders, Israel will be unable to defend itself.
To pacify Netanyahu's "anger", President Obama did make special arrangement by giving a talk to the pro-Israel lobbying group known as "the American Israel Public Affairs Committee" to clarify his so-called 1967 peace proposal program. Obama said that according to his peace proposal, both Israel and Palestinian can exchange land and by the time the Palestinian can really achieve its goal to become an UN statehood country, the Israeli-Palestinian borders will no longer be the pre-1967 borders.
Peace Proposal
During the June 1967 War, Israel occupied the Sinai Peninsula (later on Israel returned it to Egypt), the Jordan West Bank, Gaza and the Golan plateau. Currently, Israel is firmly in control of the West Bank, and has long incorporated Syria's Golan plateau into its territory. Now, President Barack Obama wants Israel to return all these occupied lands to their original owners, Israel will of course strongly resist such a peace proposal coming from the United States.
As for Palestinian, the Palestinian authority has also expressed their dissatisfaction over President Obama's Middle East policy because in his speech, Obama only mentioned the exchange of land between Israel and Palestinian but Obama did not mention the issue pertaining to the return of over a million Palestinian refugees to the Palestinian state. Nevertheless, in principle, the Palestinian did welcome President Obama's 1967 peace program and said that as long as Israel is willing to accept this proposal, the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks can resume.
Multitude Disputes
From our perspective, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's rhetoric and claim that Israel will not be able to defend itself if its borders were to return to the pre-1967 War clearly cannot hold any ground. This is because Israel in the strongest country in West Asia. Israel processes advanced missiles, first-class Air Force and more importantly, Israel has nuclear weapons (although Israel has never admitted nor denied about it). We cannot think of any Arab country that dares to offend or violate Israel's territory with light heart.
For sure, there are multitude disputes between Israel and Palestinian. But the world has already entered the 21st century. Many impossible things in the past have also become possible. There is a need for the leaders in Israel to look ahead and make some bold decisions. Otherwise, the future prospects of peace between Israeli and Palestine will only become increasingly bleak.

US Unnecessary Concerns Over Iranian Nuclear Program

In his telephone conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Ragheb Tayyip Erdogan, US President Barack Obama has said that Iran's recent steps would not help in improving mutual trust. Efforts will be continued for imposing new sanctions against Iran.

During his talk with Erdogan, Obama acknowledged Turkey and Brazil's efforts for reaching an agreement under which Iran agreed to send half of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey for conversion into nuclear fuel. However, the US president maintained that the international community does have concerns over Iran's overall nuclear program.

Proposed UN Sanctions

Meanwhile, Iran while rejecting the proposed UN sanctions against it stated that they would not make any effect on it, but would further strain its relations with the United States. Iran's agreement with Turkey and Brazil regarding conversion of uranium into nuclear fuel has also been presented to the UN Security Council.

President Obama's statements suggest that the United States is not willing to show any flexibility in spite of Teheran's soft attitude on its nuclear material, and Washington continues the practice of making demands to Teheran. Thus, it is apprehended that Iran too can withdraw from its flexible attitude after issuance of such statements by the US president, which will again make the issue more critical.

The US Administration should now realize that the way it wants to change the world always created problems in the past, and it is again now becoming a cause of creating new problems. Particularly, its attitude towards Iran is beyond one's ken.

The United States describes Iran's program as a threat to the region as well as the entire world, However, it is not noticing the aggressive activities and expansionist designs of Israel in the same region. Until today, Iran has not occupied any other country's areas. However, the entire world knows about Israel that it occupied Palestinian areas, is making a continuous expansion, while the Palestinian areas are becoming limited.

Israel's Violent Activities
Israel's violent activities continue. On 20 May also, Israeli Army assaulted Palestinian women and children in Janine city of the occupied West Bank. Such activities continue for the last 60 years. But, perhaps the United States, its allies and the supporter countries do not see it as they always keep the direction of the cannons of their statements toward Iran.

Since Iran's agreement with Turkey and Brazil regarding nuclear fuel has been presented to the UN Security Council, it is needed that this institute, which is a guarantor of world peace, should be let free to take an independent decision. The United States and its allied countries should avoid influencing it, as it can mar any improving situation.

Israel's Challenge to US Calls To Halt Settlement Activity

The US envoy to the Arab region, Senator George Mitchell, begins a new tour during which he meets with Arab and Israeli officials under the theme of "advancing the peace process and looking for ways to overcome the obstacles that stand in its way."

US-Israeli Tension
This tour is different from the previous ones as it comes amid US-Israeli tension because of Benjamin Netanyahu's defiance of the US Administration's calls to freeze the settlement activity and dismantle the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu refused to present any commitment to freezing the settlement Activity during his recent visit to the White House. His aides bragged about this stand and considered it a sign of strength and firmness. This stand prompted his foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, to "reprimand" Senator Mitchell and lecture him on how what he termed Israeli concessions through a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip led to an increase in the rocket attacks on Israeli towns and settlements in the south.
Nothing has changed since Mitchell's last tour about one and a half months ago. The Israeli settlements are expanding on the pretext of natural growth and Lieberman continues to hold his post as Foreign Minister, while Netanyahu gave the Israelis a free hand to settle unconditionally in occupied East Jerusalem. Furthermore, his government issued decisions to confiscate Palestinian lands in occupied Jerusalem and build 50 housing units in the Shaykh Jarrah Neighborhood of Jerusalem.
We do not know how Senator Mitchell and his administration will deal with this Israeli challenge. Until now, this administration has been contented with expressing its "resentment" of and "opposition" to the settlement activity without taking any practical punitive steps.

Paying Price for Verbal Opposition
What we fear most is that this administration might ask the Arabs to immediately pay a price for its verbal opposition to the settlement activity by taking normalization steps with Israel, such as opening their airspace to Israeli flights, activating the trade exchange, and opening trade offices in occupied Jerusalem.
The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the Arabs' presentation of a peace initiative alone is not enough. She added that normalization steps must be taken to explain this initiative and reassure the Israeli public opinion and Government by showing how serious the Arabs are toward peace.
The first and most prominent response to Ms Clinton's call came from the heir apparent of Bahrain, Shaykh Salman Bin-Hamad Al Khalifah. He wrote an article in the US Newspaper the Washington Post in which he called on the Arabs to move toward the Israelis through the Israeli media to facilitate the peace efforts between the Arabs and Israelis. He said: "We, the Arabs, have not done enough to directly communicate with the Israeli people."
The US State Department immediately welcomed the Bahraini heir apparent's article and asked Senator Mitchell to go to Manama to congratulate him on his stand and to convey the US Administration's thanks to him and to his government.

US Stand Towards Arab-Israeli Conflict
There is no argument over the fact that the current US Administration's stand towards the Arab-Israeli conflict is totally different from that of the former administration that was led by George Bush and the group of the neo conservatives.
However, as Arabs and particularly as Palestinians, we must not pay the price for this difference in advance by reversing the Arab peace initiative in order for us to begin full normalization before a complete withdrawal.