23 Prominent International NGOs Slam Governments for Failure to Help Gaza

Maan News, April 17, 2009 - Twenty-three high-profile international NGOs accused much of the world of “standing by” as “Gazans sift through the rubble,” noting that thousands “are still homeless and without basic services such as piped drinking water three months after the 18 January ceasefire.”

Released three months after the end of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, the statement, signed by CARE, Oxfam, Defense for Children International and more than a dozen other organizations, the statement offered scathing criticism to the international community.

More than “lip service to the needs of the people of Gaza” is required, the statement said. IT had particularly harsh words for the European Union, set to review its trade and economic relations with Israel in the coming weeks.

“If the EU does not put the brakes on the process to strengthen ties with Israel, it will be sending a dangerous signal to the world that maintaining a destructive policy of closure is acceptable,” said Martha Myers, country director of CARE West Bank and Gaza.

“Gaza’s industry, including the agricultural sector, has almost completely collapsed and reconstruction has proved a near impossible task. Operation Cast Lead destroyed Gaza’s economy which was already severely weakened after months of blockade. It makes no sense to continue depriving ordinary people the opportunity to earn a living and support their families. The crossings must be opened now to allow the normal flow of commerce. If they are not, the people of Gaza simply will not recover,” added Myers.

Reconstruction in Gaza is severely constrained. Materials such as cement and reinforced steel rods are still being denied entry by Israel, the statement said.

Highlighting the ramifications of the decision the joint statement said, “This means that the 20,000 families – or at least 140,000 people – whose homes were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable as a result of the conflict are unable to rebuild their lives. Many are living in tents and in makeshift shelters constructed with salvaged bricks and plastic sheeting, with no end in sight.”

Country Director for Oxfam Great Britain in Jerusalem John Prideaux-Brune said bluntly that “There has been zero progress in allowing construction materials in to help people rebuild their lives. This is unacceptable, full stop.”

He called on world leaders to “take practical steps to fully open the crossings and exert as much pressure on Israel and all parties to ensure that families can finally see a light at the end of what has been a very long and dark tunnel. A drip-feed of food aid and medicines is simply not enough.”

The NGO coalition responsible for the statement includes:

• CARE West Bank and Gaza 
  
• Oxfam International 
  
• War Child Holland 
  
• Medical Aid for Palestinians-UK 
  
• Action Against Hunger 
  
• Norwegian Refugee Council 
  
• Caritas Jerusalem 
  
• Lutheran World Federation 
  
• Diakonia 
  
• Austcare 
  
• Gruppo Volontariato Civile 
  
• The Swedish Organisation for Individual Relief 
  
• Defense for Children International/ Palestine Section 
  
• Norwegian Church Aid 
  
• ACSUR-Las Segovias 
  
• Medico International 
  
• Campaign for the Children of Palestine: CCP-JAPAN 
  
• Paz con Dignidad 
  
• Mennonite Central Committee 
  
• CISS - Cooperazione Internazionale Sud Sud 
  
• Japan International Volunteer Center 
  
• ACTED 
  
• MPDL: Movimiento por la Paz, el Desarme y la Libertad

British Lawmakers Meet Hamas in Syria

Haaretz, April 15, 2009 - A British parliamentary delegation on a visit to Syria has met Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal as part of European efforts to communicate with the Palestinian Islamist group, Hamas said on Wednesday.

The meeting with Meshal, who lives in Syria, took place in Damascus on Tuesday.

The British Embassy confirmed the meeting but denied a Syrian media report that Ambassador Simon Collis attended....

Calls have mounted in Britain and major European powers to engage with Hamas after Israel's offensive against the Islamist group in Gaza, which ended in January.

"Gaza is Still an Open Air Prison" - Gerry Adams

The Guardian, April 9, 2009 - Gaza is still an open-air prison, Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams said during a visit to the Middle East.

The West Belfast MP called for an end to the Israeli blockade on building materials and urged the state to enter into negotiations with Hamas, which rules Gaza.

Adams held talks in the region with Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, and is due to travel to the West Bank to meet the Palestinian Authority.

"This is a total denial of the rights of the people of Palestine. This is an open-air prison," the Sinn Féin president said. "People can't travel out of here, they can't travel in."....

A number of European politicians and commentators have urged dialogue with Hamas. But Britain and the United States say that cannot happen until the group recognises Israel, renounces violence and accepts interim peace agreements.

Adams said the border crossing from Israel into Gaza "was distinctly like being back in prison ... You had to go through airlocked areas and so on".

"It is the human problem because when you speak to ordinary decent working people on the Israeli side hit by the rocket attacks ... the ordinary people of Israel didn't cause the problem."

The Northern Irish republican leader described a scene of devastation, ruined hospitals, schools and homes, and said he urged peace on the Hamas leadership.

"There should be a complete cessation of hostilities by all sides and I stressed our opinion that dialogue is central to what's required and that is the only way forward," he added.

"The refusal to recognise the outcome of the ballot box in the Palestinian territories is also bizarre, that they challenge people to go into elections and then when they go into elections they don't recognise it."

Big Powers Moving in on Gaza

Inter Press Service (Reporting from Cairo), April 3, 2009 - Nine NATO member states agreed last month to utilise naval, intelligence and diplomatic resources to combat the alleged flow of arms into the Gaza Strip. Some Egyptian commentators see the move as a surreptitious means of cementing foreign control over the region.

"These new protocols aren't really about halting arms smuggling," Tarek Fahmi, political science professor at Cairo University and head of the Israel desk at the Cairo-based National Centre for Middle East Studies, told IPS. "Rather, they aim to establish foreign control over the region's strategic border crossings and maritime ports."

On Mar. 13, a major conference was held in London aimed at "coordinating efforts" to stop alleged arms smuggling - by land or sea - into the Gaza Strip, governed by Palestinian resistance faction Hamas. Participants at the conference included high-level representatives from nine member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), including the U.S., Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy and Norway.

At the close of the event, participants signed an agreement "to develop an effective framework for international cooperation, supplementary to measures taken by regional states, to prevent and interdict the illicit flow of arms, ammunition and weapons components to Gaza."

According to a final statement, participant governments hope to accomplish these objectives with the use of a series of measures, including "maritime interception, information sharing and diplomatic pressure." The international community "has a responsibility to support prevention and interdiction efforts," the statement reads, noting that such efforts may involve "diplomatic, military, intelligence and law enforcement components."

The London conference follows an earlier meeting devoted to the same issue held in Denmark in early February. A third, follow-up meeting is expected to be held in Canada in April to "work out details" of the pact, according to diplomats close to the talks.

Although Egypt reportedly received an invitation to attend the London gathering, it disdained to send a delegate. Palestinian representation, too - from either Hamas or the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority - was conspicuously absent. Israeli officials, meanwhile, reportedly attended the meeting as "observers".

Shortly afterwards, Mark Regev, spokesman for outgoing Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, lauded the agreement. "The principle is clear - the international community will act to prevent the transfer of weapons," he was quoted as saying.

But Egyptian analysts say the agreement represents a furtive attempt to "internationalise" the longstanding siege of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip....

According to diplomats close to the talks, only "non-coercive" methods will be brought to bear against arms smuggling. Under the terms of the agreement, for example, maritime vessels suspected of carrying contraband can only be boarded for inspection with express permission from the vessel's captain.

Mazloum, however, was not reassured by the ostensibly "non-coercive" nature of the agreement. "These voluntary, supposedly non-coercive inspections will no doubt, over time, become compulsory," he said.

"The West, along with Israel, is attempting to establish regional domination on multiple fronts," said Fahmi. "The plan to redraw the map of the Middle East - from Sudan and Somalia to Palestine and Iraq - is progressing apace, and the hopelessly divided Arabs appear unable to do anything about it."

Cynthia McKinney Reports from London on Gaza Conference There

London, March 31, 2009 - What an impressive Conference put on by the Government of Malaysia and the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War (KLFCW). Absolutely incredible. And the audience was packed with information....

The Malaysian Foreign Minister, Dr. Rais Yatim, spoke passionately this morning about the need for accountability in the face of war crimes. And so too, did the founder of the KLFCW, Tun Dr. Mahathir. Dr. Mahathir spoke of the long history of Zionism, starting with the Balfour Declaration, and explained that we were in London because there had been a request from a British citizen in Malaysia attending our Forum for Palestine there, to take this information to the source of the problem--England. Dr. Mahathir recommended that we remember the Balfour Declaration and all the events leading up to the creation of the state of Israel for a better understanding of the challenges we face on our road to peace....

See also Arab News: Malaysia Calls for 'Genocide in Gaza' Tribunal at London Conference, March 2, 2009 - The main speakers [at the London conference] comprised an interesting motley. Apart from [Former Malaysian Prime Minister] Mahathir and [current Malaysian Foreign Minister] Yatim, there were Lauren Booth, the sister-in-law of Tony Blair and a prominent human rights activist; Cynthia McKinney, former US congresswoman and 2008 US presidential candidate for the Green Party; Tony Benn, former Labour minister and veteran anti-war campaigner; Sir Gerald Kaufman, veteran Labour MP and former aide to Harold Wilson; and Rabbi Aharon Cohen, leader of the Neturei Karta, an international body of Orthodox Jews united against Zionism.

They all had one thing in common -— they are united by their abhorrence of the savagery and injustice of the wanton Israeli attack on Gaza and the hapless Palestinian population there last December and January, and their effort to criminalize war.

Mahathir revealed that Malaysia would go ahead in starting the process to convene an Israeli War Crimes Tribunal in Brussels under due international legal process....

Opinion: Euros Do Not Buy the Palestinians Political Rights - Pepijn van Houwelingen

Electronic Intifada, March 24, 2009 - The carnage of Israel's recent invasion of Gaza spurred great numbers of dismayed Europeans to participate in demonstrations against the war. In major cities such as Madrid, Brussels, Rome, Berlin and London, tens of thousands took part in demonstrations to make clear to their governments that what was happening was unacceptable. Yet, their objections to Israel's massive use of deadly force were not reflected in the declarations and actions of their countries, as represented by Europe's most significant political body, the European Union, which did not alter its policy of status quo relations with Israel.

Despite these and other remarks, however, the EU undertook no action that could have been perceived as even vaguely critical of Israel and much effort was put into not "singling out" the country. This apparent ambiguity is typical of the EU's approach. In early December last year, the European Parliament suspended voting on whether or not to upgrade relations with Israel. Yet, only a few days later this decision was bypassed by the EU's Council of Ministers, where all 27 European foreign ministers voted in favor of the upgrade, allowing Israeli ministers to meet with their European counterparts on a regular basis so as to enable dialogue on various strategic issues. Even though plans to make Israel a "privileged partner" have been put on hold, it has been emphasized that this is not a sanction and constitutes merely a "pause" (see Ian Traynor Europe stalls on closer Israel links in Gaza protest Guardian, 14 January 2009). It is therefore likely that talks will be resumed at a later time, which in effect means that Israel is still on its way to become part of the single European market as a sort of semi-member of the EU.

Access to European markets and the ability to influence European decision-making are extremely important to Israel. While the EU lacks the moral authority of the UN and the political visibility of the US, it is, indeed, an important player in the region. Currently the EU constitutes Israel's biggest market for exports as well as its second-largest source of imports (after the US). Furthermore, the EU is a member of the so-called Middle East "Quartet" -- with the hardly credible Tony Blair as its envoy -- which supports a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Practically speaking, the EU's dedication to this solution has primarily been expressed through the medium of euros. In 2008, 486 million euros ($666 million) were donated to the Palestinians, most of it (258 million euros) directly to the Palestinian Authority (see European Commission External Relations, EC Assistance to the Palestinians 19 January 2009). Other beneficiaries include the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) and various Israeli and Palestinian civil society organizations.....

Being the largest donor of aid to the Palestinians and Israel's main trading partner, the EU has the potential to play a much more significant role in supporting and protecting Palestinian rights. This would give substance and credibility to its discourse on defending human rights and acting as a "force for good." Yet, by taking a seemingly neutral approach and abiding by the positions of the Quartet, which typically represent the lowest common denominator imaginable, EU member-states reveal a disinterest in protecting Palestinians from anything other than starvation.....

Pepijn van Houwelingen is a Dutch PhD candidate at the department of Politics and International Relations of Royal Holloway, University of London. He is affiliated with the department's Centre for European Politics (http://cep.rhul.ac.uk). His PhD research is concerned with the impacts of European Foreign Policy towards the Middle East.

On Eve of Monday's Donors Conference, Series of High-Level Visitors Come to Gaza to Assess Damages, War Crimes

Arab League Jurists Complete Fact-finding Mission (Haaretz, March 1, 2009)

Tony Blair on First Visit to Gaza Since Being Appointed ME Envoy (Euronews, March 1, 2009)

Blair Calls for Lifting Gaza Blockade (Syrian Arab News Agency, March 1, 2009)

Blair Calls for New Gaza Strategy (al-Jazeera English, March 1, 2009)

Douglas Alexander, UK International Development Minister, Visits Gaza and Pledges 30 million pounds in aid (ReliefWeb, March 1, 2009)

Javier Solana, EU Foreign Minister, Pays Unprecedented Visit to Gaza (Middle East Online, February 27, 2009)

Norway's Foreign Minister Visits Gaza (Middle East Online, February 27, 2009)

More on the Brtish MPs' Visit to Gaza

PressTV, February 18, 2009 - A British parliamentary delegation is followed and interviewed by PressTV during its recent fact-finding mission to Beit Lahiya the Gaza Strip, the focus of a previous post. The report also mentions the Viva Palestina convoy and other delegations.

European Delegations to Gaza

European Union at UN, February 18, 2009 - EU parliament passes resolution calling for damage assessment in Gaza

Maan News, February 23, 2009 - EU Parliament leader and delegation on fact finding mission to Gaza

Kuwait News, February 24, 2009 - Another European Delegation to Visit Gaza - Luisa Morgantini, Vice President of the European Parliament (EP), will be leading a delegation of EU parliamentarians on a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories from Wednesday till Sunday.

The delegation includes 15 EP Members belonging to different political groups, accompanied by officials, assistants and journalists, Morgantini said in a statement here today.

On Thursday, the delegation will go to Gaza Strip accompanied by UNRWA, the United NationS Agency for Palestinian refugees, to visit hospitals, schools and industrial areas in order to collect firsthand information concerning the destructions perpetrated by the Israeli Army and about the real life-conditions of Palestinians in the Strip.

The MEPs will also have meetings with members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and with Human Rights organizations in Gaza.

The Italian MEP said she considers "absolutely vital to bring our solidarity to the civilian population which was under military aggression by air, land and sea, and to witness the situation in Gaza in order to report it back to the European Parliament".

The EP delegation is also expected to visit Tel-Aviv, Jaffa, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, where they will have meetings with the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and PLC members, with representatives of political and human rights organizations and Israeli and Palestinian NGOs in the West Bank, as well as with Members of the Israeli Knesset.

A delegation of parliamentarians led by EP President Hans-Gert Pottering, visited Gaza on Monday while another EP delegation led by Cypriot MEP Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, who is the chair of the EP Delegation for Relations with the PLC, visited Gaza two weeks ago.

These visits, opine analysts, highlight the importance the EP is giving to the Palestine issue.

Haaretz, February 24, 2009 - Peres: EU Sympathy for Hamas Dimishes Chance for Peace

Europe Opens Covert Talks with 'Blacklisted' Hamas

The Independent, February 20, 2009 - European nations have opened a direct dialogue with Hamas as the US intensifies the search for Middle East peace under Barack Obama.

In the first meeting of its kind, two French senators travelled to Damascus two weeks ago to meet the leader of the Palestinian Islamist faction, Khaled Meshal, The Independent has learned. Two British MPs met three weeks ago in Beirut with the Hamas representative in Lebanon, Usamah Hamdan. “Far more people are talking to Hamas than anyone might think,” said a senior European diplomat. “It is the beginning of something new – although we are not negotiating.”

Mr Hamdan said yesterday that since the end of last year, MPs from Sweden, the Netherlands and three other western European nations, which he declined to identify, had consulted with Hamas representatives.

the EU decision in 2003 to add the political wing of the movement to its list of terrorist organisations. “Now they know they have to talk to Hamas.”....

European Parliament Adopts Resolution Calling for Gaza Rehabilitation

EuropeanVoice.com, February 19, 2009 - EU's foreign-policy chief wants “more strategic and long-term” approach to Gaza.

Hans-Gert Pöttering, the president of the European Parliament, will lead a delegation from the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly on a fact-finding trip to Gaza this weekend (22 February). MEPs will also visit Cairo, Ramallah, Jerusalem and Amman.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution yesterday (18 February) calling for the “financial, economic and social rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip”.

The resolution – which was passed with 488 in favour, five against and 19 abstentions – aims to turn attention to the long-term needs of Gaza, which has been devastated by internal rifts between Palestinian factions, Israeli incursions last month and Israel's stranglehold on its borders.

Briefing

The vote took place after Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, had briefed MEPs on the EU's role in the Middle East.

Solana said that the EU needed to take “a more strategic and long-term view” on Gaza.

“Gaza needs to become politically and economically viable,” he said.

The Parliament's resolution “stresses again that the EU's financial support... should not be undermined by continuous destruction” and asks the European Commission for an assessment of the long-term prospects for successful reconstruction efforts.

See also: European parliament to Israel: "Enough is enough."

"EU Paying for Gaza Blockade"

Inter Press Service (reporting from Brussels), February 20, 2009 - European Union aid has been given to an Israeli oil company which has reduced the supply of fuel to Gaza as part of an economic blockade internationally recognised as illegal, Brussels officials have admitted.

Almost 97 million euros (124 million dollars) in funds managed by the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, were handed over directly to the firm Dor Alon between February 2008 and January this year. Under orders from the Israeli authorities, Dor Alon has been rationing the amount of industrial diesel brought into Gaza in order to deprive its 1.5 million inhabitants of electricity. Power cuts have been a regular occurrence in Gaza because of Israeli actions undertaken since the militant party Hamas won an unexpected victory in Palestinian legislative elections during 2006.

Charles Shamas from the Mattin Group, an organisation based in the West Bank that monitors Europe's relationship with Israel, said that the EU has been helping to accommodate the economic blockade of Gaza. This is despite how the Union's most senior diplomats, including its foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, have condemned the blockade as 'collective punishment' of a civilian population. Collective punishment constitutes a war crime, according to the 1949 Geneva convention.

"The European Union has to give aid lawfully," said Shamas. "That means a good faith effort not to conform to the wrongful acts of others. In this case, the EU is giving effect to wrongful measures by Israel. You can't really credibly call on Israel to correct its behaviour if you are adjusting what you do to fit in to that behaviour."....

European MP Calls for EU to Cease Financial Cooperation with Israel in the Wake of Gaza

Wirral Globe, February 12, 2009 - Euro MP Chris Davies is calling for Israel to pay for damage caused in the Gaza strip by Israeli military action instead of relying on EU aid.

During his visit to Gaza, MrDavies has stated that the EU should cease financial co-operation with Israel until the state faces up to its legal, financial and humanitarian responsibilities. Speaking from Ramallah in the West Bank, Mr Davies said, "Europe should not be paying for the destruction wrought by the Israeli military, Israel should.

"There should be real economic consequences for Israel when infrastructure is destroyed in Gaza and at present EU aid is making sure that there are not.

"No incentives seem to exist for Israel to listen to the EU in return for economic aid and co-operation and Israel is not currently working with the EU on a clear path to peace.

"The EU is also at fault for not making clear to the Palestinians what the requirements are for forming a government that the EU can negotiate with. "The EU is helping no-one with its lack of clarity."

France Takes Back Gaza Water Plant in Row with Israel

Agence France Presse, January 30, 2009 - France is taking back a water treatment plant that would have helped civilians in Gaza after Israel prevented it from entering the Palestinian territory, the foreign ministry said Friday.

"Unfortunately, for reasons that we find hard to explain, the water treatment plant was not let in," said foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier.

Part of a humanitarian aid package, the treatment system would have provided some 2,000 cubic meters of drinkable water a day to civilians in Gaza who were cut off during Israel's 22-day military offensive.

A team of 51 civilian security officials were on hand to help set up and operate the plant.

Israeli authorities had been blocking delivery of the treatment plant at a border crossing with Gaza since Sunday, the foreign ministry said.

"It is with great regret that we have decided to repatriate it," said Chevallier. "It seems to us it would have been useful for civilians."

Aid groups have said three-quarters of Gaza households were left without water in their homes after Israel launched its offensive.

The foreign ministry summoned the Israeli ambassador Wednesday to complain about access to humanitarian aid for the Palestinians in Gaza and over a European diplomatic convoy that was blocked for six hours at a crossing....

Time to Rethink Hamas; Isolation - Robert Malley

Agence France Presse, January 25, 2009 - A week after a fragile ceasefire began in Gaza, former US diplomat turned head of the International Crisis Group's Middle East programme Robert Malley looks at the 22-day conflict's impact on the region.

Malley, who was distanced from Barack Obama's US presidential campaign for his contacts with Hamas, says that the largely Western boycott of the Islamists is a failure and discusses Obama's future role in the region.

His comments have been translated from the French.

AFP: Was there a winner and a loser in the latest war on Gaza?

Malley: Israel can say that it has delivered a harsh blow to Gaza while sustaining minor losses itself and has reestablished its power of deterrence. For Hamas, it was about showing that they could stay in place without giving way, and from this point of view it has achieved its main objective.

And Hamas seems reinforced in Arab and Palestinian public opinion, and then there's the criticism of Israel's war conduct from around the world.

AFP: Should contact be made with Hamas while it has not recognised Israel or renounced violence, as demanded by the Middle East peace Quartet of the European Union, Russia, United Nations and United States?

Malley: First of all, one point: Hamas exists and has survived. It's unrealistic to think that you can defeat it with an economic blockade, that you can defeat it with more 'moderate' forces (from the Palestinian Authority of president Mahmud Abbas) or that you can defeat it militarily. These paths have failed in a crushing way....

Robert Malley directs the Middle East and North Africa Program at the International Crisis Group. He has special expertise in the Israel-Palestine conflict. As Special Assistant to President Clinton, he was a member of the U.S. peace team and helped organize the 2000 Camp David Summit.

Second Largest Trade Union in UK Calls for Boycott Against Israel

Lambeth Militants blog, January 20, 2009 - The Lambeth Branch of UNISON, the second largest trade union in the UK, has voted to condemn the recent slaughter of Palestinians and the ongoing occupation by Israel at a meeting of its Branch Committee this morning.

At its monthly meeting of representatives, the Branch called for, "an immediate end to the slaughter of defenceless people and the [ongoing] siege of Gaza." The Branch concluded that, "Israel is an...apartheid state," and has advocated academic, economic and cultural boycotts of Israel in an effort to delegitimise the Occupation of Palestine, and build international and domestic pressure against the state....

Debate on Gaza - The British House of Lords

Parliament web site, January 21, 2009 -7:37 pm

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Baroness Northover: ....We have seen the dreadful pictures of what has happened in Gaza. The population had nowhere to run. They could not escape its borders. Even UN buildings where some took refuge received hits. Nowhere was safe. I have just been sent the pictures from the UN school: the white phosphorus raining down, the damaged classrooms, the two little brothers dead. Were these not civilians? Was it not obvious that there would be large numbers of civilian casualties in such a crowded area? Did the Government of Israel think that what they were doing was unwatched, unrecorded, even proportionate to their own experience of violence? Have we let the Israeli Government feel that they are not accountable?

These pictures, and many far worse, have been going around the region and the world. The speed and spread of information is new. We will all have received e-mails ranging from the moderate to the extreme. My son, setting up a discussion on the conflict on Facebook, found that within hours 80 friends of friends had joined from as far afield as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan—within a day. We know that this conflict has long had its radicalising effect. The effect of this can now grow exponentially through the internet. We all know how this conflict is already used and, of course, abused in countries right across the region. We know that it is cited in our own communities. Therefore, if we did not know it before, we should know it now: unless the international community actively takes forward a just solution to this conflict, the world will become an even more dangerous place.

I welcome the brave statements by Jewish leaders, including my noble friend Lady Neuberger, in an open letter to the Government of Israel, saying that they write,

“as profound and passionate supporters of Israel”,

but that the actions of the Government of Israel threaten to destabilise the region and to undermine international support. We have surely reached a point of enormous danger to Israel; that, in its greater military strength, it has meted out such evident injustice to its would-be neighbours that there will be such a reaction that its own future will be undermined. Its window of opportunity to find a settlement is surely small and depends on the position of the United States, not only in terms of its support but also on how long the US is the only superpower.

I can remember when Fatah was not to be supported or negotiated with. But the warnings came that this played into the hands of those who are more radical. Indeed, Hamas was elected in Gaza, and 40 of its MPs were immediately imprisoned by the Israelis. Right now, we hear how no negotiations should occur with Hamas, although we also know that this is going on through the Egyptians. Note the viewpoint of Sir Jeremy Greenstock on the “Today” programme on 12 January in relation to Hamas:

“This is a regime about which a lot of inaccurate statements are made, particularly by the Israeli and Washington Governments. It is not beholden to Iran ... They are not trying to set up a Taliban-style Government in Gaza ... They are not intent on the destruction of Israel; that is a rhetorical statement of resistance”....

Baronness William of Crosby: At present, the biggest donor of aid to Israel is the United States of America; the biggest export market for Israel is the EU; and the money given to help the Palestinian Authority to survive comes from the EU. Quite simply, this means that the weapons and tools to create a better situation are in the hands of the United States and the European Union—two members of the quartet. Therefore, my question to the Minister is very simple: has the time not come when we should make our aid conditional on at least the recognition of the rule of law and basic human rights legislation? Should we not now say that further acts that are in breach of the rule of law cannot be accepted by those who donate to one side or the other, whether it be aid or humanitarian assistance?

Debate is scheduled to continue on January 27.

The View from Dubai: The West Stands with the Aggressor, Yet Again - Aijaz Zaka Syed

Middle East Times, Wednesday, January 21, 2009 - This week marks the 90th anniversary of the Versailles Treaty. It was in January, 1919, exactly 90 years ago, that the World War I victors – the United States, Britain, France and Italy – began drawing up the map of the current Middle East at the Paris conference. And creating much of the mess that you see today in the region, especially in the Holy Land.

Perhaps it's only apt that the Western leaders descended on the Middle East this week on the 90th anniversary of the Versailles Treaty.

Within hours of Israel's Ehud Olmert declaring 'mission accomplished' in Gaza and even as Palestinians were burying their dead and picking up pieces, literally, of what remained of their lives, world leaders landed first in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt to deliberate on Israel's security and then flew to Jerusalem. To do what? Perhaps to pat Olmert and his team on the back for what they have accomplished in Gaza....