World Jewish News

Situation in Gaza: political statements, January 6

Egyptian President Mubarak to EU: Hamas must not be allowed to win in Gaza
Hamas must not be allowed to win its conflict with the Israel Defense Forces, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told a delegation of European foreign ministers in a closed conversation Monday.
The comment occurred even as Hamas, for the first time since the fighting began, sent representatives to Cairo to discuss a cease-fire. Following a meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials, Hamas officials said they had received an Egyptian proposal and would consider it.
Also Monday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was visiting Jerusalem, that Israel would not honor a cease-fire imposed by the UN Security Council without its consent. Arab states are currently pushing for a Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
Sarkozy, who also met with President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, was here to push France's proposal for a 48-hour "humanitarian" cease-fire, during which negotiations on a permanent cease-fire would begin.
But Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni agreed yesterday that for now, the diplomatic efforts should proceed in parallel with the ongoing ground operation in the Gaza Strip.
Israel is mainly pinning its hopes on the United States and France to thwart the Arab effort in the Security Council. However, it has sent messages to several Security Council members informing them that Israel will not accept an imposed cease-fire, and especially that it will not accept any resolution that places Israel and Hamas on the same level by calling for both to cease their fire impartially.
The European foreign ministers, headed by Karel Schwarzenberg of the Czech Republic, whose country currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency, came to Jerusalem after visiting Cairo, and briefed Livni on their meeting with Mubarak. Inter alia, they reportedly told her that Mubarak had said Hamas "must not be allowed to emerge from the fighting with the upper hand."
Regarding Israel's demand that Egypt halt arms smuggling from its territory into Gaza as part of any cease-fire agreement, the ministers said Mubarak denied that any such smuggling takes place. He insisted that the weapons arrive not via tunnels from Sinai, but in barrels thrown overboard from ships passing near Gaza's coast.
The ministers told Livni it is imperative to achieve a cease-fire as soon as possible, so as to enable peace talks between Israel and the PA to resume. They also asked for Israel's aid in sending humanitarian assistance into Gaza, to which Livni agreed.
On another issue, Israel asked France to press the Red Cross to arrange to visit kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, who is held by Hamas in Gaza. Shalit holds dual French-Israeli citizenship. Sarkozy will apparently raise this issue with Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has influence with Hamas' Damascus-based political wing, when he meets him today in Damascus.
Livni also told the European foreign ministers that Israel "would not be able to ignore the Shalit issue in the framework of any cease-fire."
The Egyptian cease-fire proposal would require Israel to end its military operation and withdraw from Gaza, while Hamas would have to end rocket fire into Israel. The border crossings into Gaza would reopen, but PA officials would be stationed at the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
In addition, Egypt is demanding that Hamas resume reconciliation talks with Fatah.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' political wing, told Reuters that Hamas was open to a truce, but said that any proposal must guarantee an Israeli withdrawal and an end to the blockade of Gaza.
"Any initiative not based on ending the aggression, opening the border crossings and an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip has no chance of succeeding," he said.
Meanwhile, Turkish Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin charged in Antalya on Saturday that "Israel is the world's greatest terrorist provocateur. The war on terror cannot succeed as long as Israel continues its provocations."
He was followed on Sunday by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who, during a visit to Saudi Arabia, blamed Israel for the outbreak of fighting. "Hamas observed the truce for six months, but Israel did not honor the agreement to lift the embargo on Gaza," he said. "People in Gaza live in a sort of prison. Essentially, all of Palestine is a prison."
Also on Sunday, Jordanian Prime Minister Nader Dahabi said Jordan was liable to reconsider its relations with Israel in light of the Gaza operation.
Ban Ki-Moon concerned at Gaza trauma
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, has said he is "deeply concerned" at the "massive trauma" which he says the civilian population of Gaza is going through.
Mr Ban said Israel and Hamas must end their violent actions immediately and warned that he was worried about the effect further escalation of the conflict might have on regional stability.
Gaza solution is possible – Blair
The conflict between Israel and Hamas can be resolved, former UK prime minister Tony Blair has insisted.
Mr. Blair, now a Middle East envoy, said there was a "basis" for an immediate ceasefire if the supply of arms into Gaza from Egypt was halted.
But Mr. Blair warned of a "more protracted campaign" if firm action was not taken and said the people of Gaza were living through "hell".
Mr. Blair, who represents the UN, EU, US and Russia in the Middle East, said he believed discussions between Egypt and Hamas about halting the supply of arms and money to militants in Gaza were critical to securing a ceasefire.
There needed to be "clear, definitive" action to bring this about, Mr. Blair said, adding that he thought all sides were willing to discuss this.
"I think there are circumstances where we can get an immediate ceasefire and that is what people want to see," he told the BBC.
Israel has insisted circumstances are not right for a ceasefire while rocket attacks continue to strike Israel.
Mr. Blair, who has met Israeli leaders and senior Palestinian officials in recent days, called on Hamas to work towards a ceasefire to end the "appalling suffering" in Gaza.
Gaza clashes spark 'major crisis'
The Gaza Strip faces a "a full-blown humanitarian crisis", the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says.
The ICRC's head of operations for Gaza, Pierre Kraehenbuhl, told the BBC that life was becoming intolerable in Gaza.
"After 10 days of uninterrupted military operations in the Gaza Strip, what we're dealing with is clearly and beyond doubt in my mind a full-blown and major humanitarian crisis," the ICRC's Pierre Kraehenbuhl told the BBC.
"For the people inside Gaza, the situation has become intolerable... The reports we've had during the night is that the last night has been the most intense in terms of bombardments and military operations."
Syria Pushed To Stop Hamas Rockets
French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Syria on Tuesday and immediately set to work trying to convince President Bashar al-Assad to push harder for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
Last year Sarkozy became the first Western leader to meet with al-Assad in years, bringing the country out of complete international isolation, and he hoped that special relationship would afford him more clout than his Western counterparts in dealing with Damascus.
Israel has so far ignored mounting international calls for a truce and continued bombarding the Gaza Strip. Officials say the fighting has now claimed the lives of some 575 Palestinians.
CBS News correspondent Richard Roth, reporting Tuesday from the Israeli side of the Gaza border, said Israel's military was pushing deeper into the tiny Palestinian territory. The International Committee of the Red Cross, meanwhile, said with the heightened fighting overnight the situation had become a "full-blown humanitarian crisis," added Roth.
"President Assad should help in convincing Hamas to stop firing the rockets. Syria should help us to convince Hamas to choose the voice of reason and the path of peace and the path of reconciliation," Sarkozy told reporters after his meeting with al-Assad. The French president visited leaders in Israel on Monday.
"I told the Israelis clearly that there is no military solution for Gaza and violence should stop now. I told them humanitarian aid should arrive to Gaza, and I also told them that firing rockets is unacceptable and should stop," he added, referring to the attacks by Hamas militants which have plagued southern Israel for years.
"I think this is the outline for an exit to the crisis," said Sarkozy, who also warned his Syrian counterpart that "time is not on our side."
Standing alongside him, the Syrian leader described what is happening in Gaza as a "war crime" and a "barbaric aggression" that Israel will pay for later.
Syria is by far the regional player in the Middle East with the most influence over Hamas.
Sarkozy likely pushed al-Assad to try and convince Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal to stop the rocket fire against Israel.
Mashaal, in turn, will likely demand the reopening of border crossings into Gaza and an end to the economic blockade on the tiny Palestinian territory which has left many of its 1.5 million residents without sufficient food, water and power.
Attempts by the United Nations Security Council to come up with a statement calling for a cease-fire in the 11-day conflict have thus far failed. (Click here to read a World Watch entry by foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk on the latest effort at the U.N.)
But Sarkozy, whose country relinquished the rotating presidency of the European Union with the beginning of the New Year, is showing no signs of surrendering diplomatic center stage.
He has condemned Israel's use of ground troops while blaming Hamas, the Islamic militant group which has run Gaza for more than a year, for causing Palestinian suffering with the rocket fire that led to the Israeli offensive.

Источник: Haaretz, BBC, CBS News