Israel reportedly rejected a proposal that would have involved Qatar carrying out rehabilitation work in Gaza in exchange for renewing diplomatic relations with Israel due to Egyptian unhappiness with Israel not looking like the bad guy.
According to Egyptian sources, Israel provided Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak with an outline of Qatar’s proposal, which would allow it to bring construction materials and other goods into the Strip.
The Qataris would have undertaken reconstruction of infrastructure and earned an Israeli declaration recognizing Qatar’s important status in the Middle East. In exchange, the Israeli diplomatic mission the Qataris closed during Operation Cast Lead would reopen.
Israel’s rejection of the plan, it seems, resulted largely from Egyptian opposition.
An Egyptian source said his country was acting in coordination with Israel and the Quartet (the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia ). The source added: “Egypt has barred free passage of goods across its border into Gaza, despite criticism from other Arab countries and from the Egyptian public, and it would be inappropriate for Israel, in an effort to serve its own interests “to harm these agreements and put Egypt in an impossible position of being the only party blocking the passage of goods into Gaza.”
Relations between Qatar and Egypt are tense, in part because of the sharp criticism voiced on Al Jazeera of Egypt and its Gaza policy. The TV station is owned by the emirate’s ruling family. Qatar has been pursing its own independent foreign policy. It is seen in Egypt as an Iranian ally acting contrary to Arab interests. It is also, however, an American ally.
In case you thought Arab countries like Egypt really care about their palestinian brethren..
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)?
7:05PM: Israeli model Bar Refaeli may star in the next Transformers movie.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, said Wednesday that if Israel attacked Iran it would be destroyed within a week.
Speaking at a political conference of ultra-conservatives in Iran’s north, Mashaei said, “If the Zionist regime attacks Iran, the Zionists will have no longer than a week to live.”
The semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying that the Islamic Republic would destroy Israel “in less than 10 days”.
No longer than a week or less than ten days? He sounds a little indecisive to me.
10:34AM: Israel has released Hamashole “Carrot top” Mahmoud Abu Tir(d).
Palestinian workers destroy watermelons grown in Jewish settlements , near the West Bank city of Jenin, Tuesday, May 18, 2010. A Palestinian law, signed in April 2010 prohibits the sale of Israeli settlement products in the West Bank. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)
Either people in Gaza are not really starving, or the palestininians would rather score cheap political points against Israel than help their people.
8:04AM: Meet the IDF soldier from Canada who’ll be hitching a ride with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Courtesy of Israel's Government Press Office
Everyone who knows Jonathan Fader heard about his conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu.
It was covered in the Jerusalem Post and the former Richmond, B.C., resident’s face was all over Israeli television.
His friends posted messages on his Facebook wall and soon there was a picture of the camouflaged and smiling Fader standing in front of the Israeli prime minister.
His mom? She read about it on Facebook, too.
“It’s definitely going to be a moment in life that I’ll always remember,” Fader said in a telephone interview with CTV.ca from the kibbutz he lives on southeast of Haifa, recalling the meeting that resulted in an unexpected ticket home to Canada.
It all transpired Tuesday when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited an Israeli Defense Forces training exercise.
The military picked the two closest soldiers to have a chat with the prime minister. That turned out to be Fader and another officer.
“It was very overwhelming,” said Fader, who was among a throng of reporters and security guards as he spoke with Netanyahu.
In a short chat in Hebrew — a language Fader is still learning — the prime minister asked him where he was from.
When Netanyahu heard he was from Canada, he mentioned that he was “going there next week.”
Then he asked if Fader wanted a lift home.
“I thought he was joking,” said Fader.
But he wasn’t.
A ride on ‘the Air Force One of Israel’
Back home in B.C., his friend Jon Samuel said he was surprised to see pictures of Fader standing face-to-face with Netanyahu.
“It’s great that he got to meet the prime minister,” Samuel told CTV.ca in a brief telephone interview on Friday.
When the prime minister leaves for Ottawa later this month, Fader will be on what he describes as “the Air Force One of Israel.”
Fader has been told that they will be making a stopover in Paris for one day, which is just another bonus for the soon-to-be 23-year-old who has never before visited the famous city.
He doesn’t have an itinerary yet, but he’s been given the general details.
In the army, you tend to be told things “at the last minute,” Fader said.
It’s the first furlough — or leave — he’ll have taken since joining the Israeli army in December.
So far, he’s completed his four months of basic training and has passed the exam to be a sharpshooter in the Givati Brigade — a part of the Israeli ground forces that specializes in sea-to-land operations.
He’s still training and Fader expects he’ll eventually be put on the front lines, likely on guard duty somewhere along the Gaza Border.
“That’ll be my life,” said Fader, who once considered serving in the Canadian Forces before signing up with the IDF.
It’s a two-year commitment that could lead to more opportunities in the military if he finds it to his liking.
In Israel, soccer is hot, hockey is not
While he’s met a few Canadians serving alongside him in the IDF, Fader has been away from his family for about a year and is admittedly “very, very homesick.”
His sister lives in Edmonton and his parents are still back in B.C., along with some friends he’s looking forward to meeting up with.
“I’m really happy to be going home for a vacation,” said Fader.
He misses watching mixed-martial arts and hockey, which is hard to follow when you are involved in army training and don’t have access to the Internet.
But he’s still managing to keep up with his hometown hockey team.
“I was a little upset that the Canucks lost to the Blackhawks for the second year in a row,” he said.
Samuel said Fader was sent a care package a few months ago, that included some Canucks memorabilia to put up on his wall.
Back when his buddy was in B.C., they used to “watch the games religiously,” Samuel said.
As for Fader’s upcoming flight with Netanyahu, the B.C.-bred hockey fan said he isn’t nervous about making conversation with an ex-commando who has twice been elected as Israel’s leader.
“I’m not the kind of guy that plans these kinds of things,” said Fader. “I’m just going to wing it.”
Meanwhile, I was once on Israeli television shaking hands with then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as he made his way through Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda. I didn’t even get a lousy T-shirt.
7:25AM: CNN report on Israeli sketch comedy show Eretz Nehederet.
A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
