Israel Violence Complicates Gates' Call For Peace

TEL AVIV, Israel -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that the latest spike in Mideast violence must not derail the peace process and he urged bold diplomatic action by Israelis and Palestinians.

While Gates condemned the bombing of a bus-stop in Jerusalem and said Israel has the right to defend itself, he sought to use his visit to the region to try and convince both sides that negotiating peace is a way to get ahead of the wave of populist uprisings sweeping the region.

"I know there may be a temptation during this time of great uncertainty in the region to be more cautious about pursuing the peace process," Gates said, as he stood next to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. "But in my meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, I carry a different message -- that there is a need and an opportunity for bold action to move toward a two-state solution."

And he said the U.S. stands ready to support the process in any way it can.

Gates' visit to Israel comes as unrest continues to ripple across the region as people strike out against authoritarian regimes. The United States currently is leading a military operation in Libya, and there have been violent uprisings in Syria and Yemen.

A senior defense official said Gates is making the argument that the best way to stay ahead of the populist movement and tamp down some of the opponents' criticisms is to negotiate peace and remove that issue from the discourse.

During a news conference with Gates, Barak responded that Israel must respond when its citizens are targets of indiscriminate attacks. And he said that while his country is determined to bring tranquility back to the region, it can't be done "in this tough neighborhood" without the use of force from time to time.

Gates agreed that no sovereign state can tolerate having rockets fired at its people. But, he added that "we don't want to do anything that allows extremists or others to divert the narrative of reform that's going on in virtually all the countries of the region."

The latest spike in attacks began Wednesday with a bus-stop bombing in Jerusalem, followed by Israeli strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza. The events have heightened tensions and added to Israel's anxiety over the wave of rebellion in the region.

The senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the unrest in Egypt and other nearby nations has rattled the pillars of Israeli security, which include peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan.

There are worries about the new government forming in Egypt and whether the eventual leaders would be as committed to peace with Israel as deposed President Hosni Mubarak was, the official said. He said there are also concerns that the unrest in the Arab world could undermine Jordan's stability.

On Thursday both Barak and Gates told reporters they believe Egypt remains committed to its peace agreement with Israel.

Gates flew to Tel Aviv from Cairo, where he urged Egyptian authorities to give new political organizations time to organize as the country begins to take tentative steps toward democracy. He also met with military leader Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, and praised the Egyptian military for protecting protesters during the rallies that led to Mubarak's ouster.

Gates also met Thursday with President Shimon Peres, and expressed the same commitment to Israel and sympathy for the attack. On Friday, Gates is scheduled to see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Comments

[CMarie10]

01:58 PM on 03/28/2011

http://mondoweiss.net/2011/03/following-itamar-killings-village-of-awarta-faced-mass-arrests-violence-and-massive-destruction-during-five-days-of-curfew.html
"The police investigation into the Itamar murders remains under a gag order. No individual Palestinian has been accused or even named as a suspect by the police. However, the residents of the neighboring Palestinian village Awarta, who have suffered for years from settler pogroms, are being collectively blamed and punished...Israeli soldiers and settlers have rampaged through the village in recent days, seeking murder suspects and the satisfaction that comes with retributive violence. The soldiers reportedly destroyed property, stole money, defecated on the floors of homes, and blindfolded and beat residents, leaving one 28-year-old man so badly injured he had to be smuggled to a hospital in Nablus."
Question for hasbaristas: What is this thing Israeli soldiers and settlers have about defecating on other people's property? Is this part of Israeli culture or written into Israel's civil code? One of my most vivid childhood memories of Israel's 1982 occupation of Beirut is returning to school when classes finally resumed and finding that Israeli soldiers had defecated on the desks and walls of our classroom. Years later, I came across the same thing in reviewing documentation of the IDF's occupation of southern Lebanon as well as attacks on Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories and East Jerusalem...Please enlighten me on this peculiar Zionist pathology.

[Dr Oswald Spengler]

06:04 PM on 03/27/2011

Real Liberals love Israel.

[Atomizer]

02:24 AM on 03/29/2011

Really? I didn't realize that supporting apartheid colonial states is part of the liberal agenda. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

[Trollstein]

10:38 AM on 03/27/2011

There is no "peace process". Imagine for example if two men both claimed legal rights as husbands of the same spouse. How is such a disputed negotiated? In the USA, the legal aspects of such a dispute could be adjudicated but the spouse still gets to choose which husband to live with (if either). That would not apply to the Israel/Palestine dispute because most of the disputed territory is land with no independent human rights of choice--as to who controls it. So the parallel scenario would be closer akin to a situation where the wife is in a coma.
What we are left with are the legal aspects only, which have never been adjudicated. This is one of those dilemmas which may well have no imposable solution. Reality is best served coherently.

[Shingo]

05:33 AM on 03/28/2011

>> There is no "peace process".

There is, but it's not about achieving peace. It's about buying time for Israel to steal land while it maintains a charade of wanting to reach a political settlements.

[Trollstein]

02:39 PM on 03/28/2011

Rediculous but not unexpected. You have been dooped by one of the oldest scams in the book but you seem to enjoy your misunderstanding.
As if anything Israel does or does not do (short of running away) will either promote or inhibit a settlement. Israel sits on 1.5% of the land in the Mid East and in no other part of the remaining 98.5% is the ruling power under constant, relentless attack. In the past couple of months, this has slowly begun to change, 90+ years behind the Jewish Nation's legal charter rights.

Pathetic reversal of reality.

[DC]

06:57 AM on 03/26/2011

All that violence placed onto Palestinians (the murder of a family in a highly secured region) and the Jerusalem bomb, sure did have a way to stop any ideas of "peace."

Funny how that works.

And no one knows who carried out those acts of violence. And even without any evidence, it gave Israel good enough reason to bomb away!

"As rockets strike southern Israel, kids take day off to go to the mall "

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/as-rockets-strike-southern-israel-kids-take-day-off-to-go-to-the-mall-1.351668

Meanwhile.....

"New TV reports on the Israeli airstrikes over the Gaza Strip which targeted the neighborhoods of al-Shuja'eiya and al-Zaitoun and killed nine people, including several children. ..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XYfBCamkks

[gibranII]

01:40 PM on 03/26/2011

we cant minimize these attacks... but in the same breath were is the outrage and reporting of the daily conditions.. why doesnt Israel let the world see Gaza? What happened to the person who stormed into a Palestinian's ho,e and shot the elderly man.. what is the status in the investigation of the horrible murders of teh settler family an dthe possible connection to their labor form Asia... we really need consistency and transparancy..

[cliffhammond]

09:28 PM on 03/25/2011

American officials have been delivering this empty media schpeil for years now. Don't listen to what they say; watch what they do.

[hellothereandhere]

02:03 PM on 03/25/2011

It's precisely because the Occupation question is still not solved, that there is violence. So "Violence should not Complicate Gates' Call For Peace" but, on the contrary, should give yet another reason for Gates' Call For Peace.

[BestGuest]

05:08 AM on 03/26/2011

Favd

[Macready]

12:43 PM on 03/25/2011

fanned ethiopia1 . . . sad but true . . . that is why we need campaign reform urgently and desperately . . we need to get the aipac and other lobbyists out of our foreign policy, etc

[naschkatze]

01:25 PM on 03/25/2011

x2

[Friendly]

09:03 AM on 03/25/2011

"I know there may be a temptation during this time of great uncertainty in the region to be more cautious about pursuing the peace process," (Robert Gates)

Yep, don't hurt their feelings! These two folks are so sensitive!

[naschkatze]

01:26 PM on 03/25/2011

LOL

[AZreb]

08:56 AM on 03/25/2011

More "peace talks"? More promising Israel the stars and the moon, as was promised by our government during the last "peace talks"?

More photo-ops? More so-called diplomacy? How many years have we been on this merry-go-round?

[Macready]

10:14 AM on 03/25/2011

I don't know AZreb . .but I am so tired of israel . . . . and I really resent that fact that our country sends billions to this rogue state . . . it has to end . . israel has proved repeatedly that it isn't interested in peace . . . they just keep stealing from the Palestinians and play victim . . . .

[cliffhammond]

09:32 PM on 03/25/2011

The only thing that keeps them from all out genocide of the Palestinian people is the world press watching them (certainly not the American media). So they are forced to settle for a steady process of ethnic cleansing.

[hellothereandhere]

01:34 PM on 03/25/2011

Yes, the "Peace Process" seems to have been
-either a cover-up name to buy out time to actually do something else
-or a complete failed process since 1991, that it is almost a farce by now.

Maybe it's time to name it differently to gain some credibility.

[Shingo]

06:13 AM on 03/26/2011

>> Maybe it's time to name it differentl­y to gain some credibilit­y.

Not by much. Just change the spelling from peace to piece.

[BestGuest]

07:46 AM on 03/25/2011

Too bad P@lestinian deaths are not worth the price of the plane tickets for the administration(s)....

[Atomizer]

01:21 PM on 03/25/2011

Flagged for being a bigoted negative generalized characterization of the entire Palestinian people. I'm wondering if you think your statement would fit within the Huffington Post's comments policy if we transposed the word Jews for Palestinians, i.e. "The Jews themselves put the price on Jewish life as extremely cheap". Would you be willing to allow a bigoted generalization such as that to be posted here StCuthbert?

[naschkatze]

01:27 PM on 03/25/2011

That comment is not only untrue, it is cruel.

[ethiopia1a]

10:01 AM on 03/25/2011

What do you expect, you are a gentile. America, get a taste what the Palestinians, under the Zionist occupation, are subjected to on daily basis. Israeli democracy

[Angry Cloud]

01:30 PM on 03/25/2011

So things would be better under an Islamist occupation?

[chinchilla]

01:58 AM on 03/25/2011

"And he said the U.S. stands ready to support the process in any way it can."

Yup, by offering tax breaks to American citizens who financially help to support illegal settlements, by giving Israel billions in aid every year freeing up Israel's money to expand the settlements, by supplying the weapons Israel uses to murder Palestinians, and by giving Israel the freedom to continue their crimes with the American VETO on the UN SC.

[Macready]

05:49 AM on 03/25/2011

fanned chinchilla . . . . he should have said . . he was going to pull the plug on this rogue state

[AZreb]

08:57 AM on 03/25/2011

also fanned -

[Atomizer]

10:51 PM on 03/24/2011

Israel is a colony by any definition­. A group of homogenous people (Jewish Zionists) moved there as part of a planned program to settle another people's land. If you don't think that's colonialis­m then what is it?

[NonConforming]

04:12 AM on 03/25/2011

and where did the arabs come from? are they the "original" cananites who were replaced by the jews in 12th cent BC? the arabs simply moved in when their muslim armies took control in the 8th century AD. the Jews were removed by the Romans in 70AD - by Titus and Vesputian.

[BestGuest]

07:48 AM on 03/25/2011

Lame... at best

[chinchilla]

09:58 AM on 03/25/2011

Actually, according to science (genetics) ye. Both the Arabs and many of the new Jewish immigrants are.

In other words the Arabs have the same "historical homeland" claim as the Jews, and actually have the "we live here, you move here" argument as well.

[califlefty]

12:19 PM on 03/25/2011

Your comment is the "poster child" for misinformation and ignorance about Israel. Israel is not a colonial state - rather there has been a Jewish presence throughout 2,000 since the Roman expulsion. Second it's not "another people's land" as there was little if any Arab settlement in Palestine until the 1800's, at the same time the Jewish settlement began to grow. And finally the Jewish population of Israel came from the most diverse immigration then any other country - Jews from all over the world - most expelled from Arab states, is that what you meant by "planned"? How is it possible you are so wrong on so much?

[Atomizer]

01:29 PM on 03/25/2011

Ahem, the Jewish presence in Palestine was less than 3% of the population until colonization began in the 1870s, and was still less than 10% at the time of World War 1.

Furthermore, and there is much census information to show this, there was widespread Arab settlement throughout the past thousand years in Palestine. What are your
sources to say otherwise?

For some hard and SOURCED informatioon regarding this issue you might want to read the following before troubling us with any more of your ethnically centred fantasies:

DEMOGRAPHICS OF HISTORIC PALESTINE PRIOR TO 1848
http://www.cjpme.ca/documents/En%20Demographics%20Factsheet%20v.1.pdf

Finally, the fact that Jews moved to Palestine from various contries does not stop it from being a colony. It is an ethnic/religioius colony rather than a political one - the very worst kind in my opinion and reminscent of nothing so much as the racist world view of people like Slobadom Milosovich and some even worse people from the 1930s and 40s.

Sophistry and outright deception is not going to win many people over to seeing things from your point of view califlefty.

[Atomizer]

01:29 PM on 03/25/2011

The link above did not seem to post properly, hopefully this one does:

http://www.cjpme.ca/documents/En%20Demographics%20Factsheet%20v.1.pdf

[misaacm]

09:42 PM on 03/24/2011

I guess that the Palestinians couldn't handle the fact that they weren't the center of attention. Like spoiled children, they had to throw a tantrum (and some mortars, rockets and a bomb packed with ball bearings in Jerusalem). If the Israelis were to evacuate 100% of the west bank tomorrow, this would still continue. So why bother.

It is impossible to make peace with the Palestinians who refuse to accept the legitimacy of Israel.

[Atomizer]

10:46 PM on 03/24/2011

Actually the PLO accepted Israel's right to exist in the mid 1980s. Did you miss that? But go ahead and demonize them endlessly if it makes you feel better. How is that working out for Israel?

[Just-a-Guy]

02:23 PM on 03/25/2011

They seem to be winning. And they're on our side.

Hamas...not so much

[Pema]

11:49 PM on 03/24/2011

the longer and more casually you dismiss the palestinians calling them children etc, it allows you a position of feeling superiority and in charge not ever acknowledging their rights as human beings.
its shockingly clear how self created that image is.

[baba2nde]

08:21 PM on 03/24/2011

In other news, a slew of GOP presidential hopefuls - Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Haley Barbour, Rudy Giuliani, Sarah Palin - have already paid obligatory homage, to Iowa, no, Israel, to test the waters for their white house bid

While on their visits they each announced that, if elected, they would establish a no-fly zone in that country to protect innocent Israeli civilians from murderous Palestinian Air Force. It was unclear whether they were under the influence of stuff not normally available to the general public.

[amake616]

09:23 PM on 03/24/2011

"It was unclear whether they were under the influence of stuff not normally available to the general public."

I'm assuming this stuff involves Jolly Ranchers and cough syrup in generous doses.

[NonConforming]

04:14 AM on 03/25/2011

seems all those wanna be prez are heeding the command of Genesis 12 -
"And I will bless those who bless your descendants and curse those who curse you".

[gibranII]

02:51 AM on 03/26/2011

do you honestly think qouting Genesis to justify this conflict.. do you not understand that it is in reference to ISrael the people not the state..

[Israel4Ever]

07:41 PM on 03/24/2011

Here are the peaceful, reasonable Hamas you ask Israel to deal with...from their own charter

Preample: "Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors."

Article 28: "The Arab states surrounding Israel are required to open their borders to the Jihad fighters, the sons of the Arab and Islamic peoples, to enable them to play their role and to join their efforts to those of their brothers among the Muslim Brothers in Palestine."

Article 28: "Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims."

Article 32: "Leaving the circle of conflict with Israel is a major act of treason and it will bring curse on its perpetrators"

Have fun defedning that.

[muck-raker]

09:30 PM on 03/24/2011

Do Palestinians Teach Their Children to Hate?
An investigation of the
Palestinian Education System
Americans are often led to believe that Palestinian textbooks teach hatred and violence, but rarely are presented with concrete evidence. Nathan J. Brown, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, undertook a comprehensive investigation of the Palestinian curriculum and textbooks to discover the truth about this oft-repeated criticism. Below are excerpts from Brown’s report entitled “Democracy, History, and the Contest over the Palestinian Curriculum,” which was prepared for the Adam Institute, November 20011.

‘Do Palestinians Teach Their Children to Hate?’ Booklet

Nathan J. Brown
Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, The George Washington University

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/hate.html

[Israel4Ever]

11:40 PM on 03/24/2011

Fascinating though I notice that no actual quotes about Israel or the Pal situation are excerpted. I never made a statement about Pal children and the doubtless large portion of the Pal population that would be delighted by a solution providing them much needed breathing room to puruse their children's health and education in a war free zone.

Still...this has nothing to do with Hamas or its charter. Thanks for the read though. Interesting.

[YCC]

04:41 PM on 03/25/2011

Then how do you explain this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_suicide_bombers_in_the_Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian_conflict

[Shingo]

12:00 AM on 03/25/2011

>> Have fun defedning that.

Have fun defending ethnic cleasing, occupatio, mass murder, home evictions and demolitions.

How many Jews wore I Love Nazis t-shirts in the 30's?

[tonyjim]

01:41 AM on 03/25/2011

Do you mean men of Jewish decent in the German army during Hitler's regime. Yeah, there were a few of those men, quit a few.