Conflicto palestino-israelí (Continuación)

MundoOriente Próximo,

In the spring of 1948, my father, George Kuttab, and his brother Qostandi fled Musrara, a Jerusalem neighborhood just outside the walled city, after their sister Hoda's husband was killed in front of her and their children. When Dad used to tell us about the Naqba, the catastrophe that befell Palestinians in 1948, he never talked politics or hatred. He would laugh as he told us how his brother secured their home near Damascus Gate. To assure his mother and brother that the house (in what is now Israeli west Jerusalem) would be safe, my uncle joked that he had double-locked the door, turning the heavy metal key twice.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

En estos días se celebra sin demasiada pompa el 30. º aniversario de la creación del movimiento Paz Ahora en Israel. En general, la sensación que se tiene es de satisfacción, pues los mensajes de este movimiento han logrado calar en la mayor parte de la sociedad israelí. Sin embargo, junto a la alegría por haber demostrado que sus propuestas no eran desacertadas, entre los militantes de Paz Ahora se percibe que su acción, como movimiento extraparlamentario, no ha sido lo bastante enérgica ni centrada y que por eso no ha logrado frenar la creación de asentamientos de colonos, uno de los escollos más importantes para alcanzar la paz con los palestinos.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Hamas claims that former president Jimmy Carter's recent meeting with its leader, Khaled Meshal, marks its recognition as a "national liberation movement" -- even though Hamas rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, which Hamas rules as an elected "government," continue to rain down on Israel's civilian population. While Hamas is clearly trying to bolster its legitimacy, the conflict along Israel's southern border has a broader legal dimension -- the question of whether, as a matter of international law, Israel "occupies" Gaza. The answer is pivotal: It governs the legal rights of Israel and Gaza's population and may well set a legal precedent for wars between sovereign states and non-state entities, including terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo, ,

The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where a million and a half human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world. An entire population is being brutally punished.

This gross mistreatment of the Palestinians in Gaza was escalated dramatically by Israel, with United States backing, after political candidates representing Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Authority parliament in 2006. The election was unanimously judged to be honest and fair by all international observers.

Israel and the US refused to accept the right of Palestinians to form a unity government with Hamas and Fatah and now, after internal strife, Hamas alone controls Gaza.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

It is a strange feeling: after working as a productive professional in Gaza for five years, I have become a black market junkie. I make several phone calls a day hunting for fuel for my car, diesel for the electricity generator waiting on standby to power the house, even cigarettes and vitamins. The only way to get hold of these things, to buy life-saving medicines, to purchase the essentials for a life of basic dignity, is through the black market, if at all. Today all Gaza suffers severe water shortages, with the fuel needed to pump and transport water (as well as sewage) dangerously scarce.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsiaMundoOriente Próximo, ,

A counterproductive Washington policy in recent years has been to boycott and punish political factions or governments that refuse to accept United States mandates. This policy makes difficult the possibility that such leaders might moderate their policies.

Two notable examples are in Nepal and the Middle East. About 12 years ago, Maoist guerrillas took up arms in an effort to overthrow the monarchy and change the nation’s political and social life. Although the United States declared the revolutionaries to be terrorists, the Carter Center agreed to help mediate among the three major factions: the royal family, the old-line political parties and the Maoists.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Four months ago, I was accused of using intermediaries, behaving like a recluse and attempting to protect my anonymity. So grave were the accusations levelled against me that a police inquiry into my political donations was launched, an inquiry that has now cleared me of wrongdoing.

Operating behind the scenes is something that plays well to my talents. I am not a great frontman for causes (and I don't crave the limelight), but I like to see progress delivered. Over the past few years I have spent a lot of time meeting elected representatives all over the Middle East to spread a greater understanding between the parties and looking for ways of reaching the lasting peace that will benefit every community in the Middle East.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

A Daniel Barenboim, argentino, judío y palestino ejemplar

He firmado, con las reservas que expreso más adelante, la carta encabezada por el poeta Mahmud Darwish sobre la próxima conmemoración del 60 aniversario de la creación del Estado de Israel. Los hechos expuestos en ella -resumidos en una cita de Edward Saíd escrita diez años antes-, los conoce el lector: desposesión de sus hogares a centenares de miles de palestinos, reducidos desde entonces a una precaria condición de refugiados en Cisjordania, Gaza y los vecinos países árabes; incumplimiento por Israel de todas las resoluciones de Naciones Unidas sobre ellos; inexorable política de colonización de los territorios ocupados en la Guerra de los Seis de los Días.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

President Jimmy Carter's sensible plan to visit the Hamas leadership this week brings honesty and pragmatism to the Middle East while underscoring the fact that American policy has reached its dead end. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acts as if a few alterations here and there would make the hideous straitjacket of apartheid fit better. While Rice persuades Israeli occupation forces to cut a few dozen meaningless roadblocks from among the more than 500 West Bank control points, these forces simultaneously choke off fuel supplies to Gaza; blockade its 1.5 million people; approve illegal housing projects on West Bank land; and attack Gaza City with F-16s, killing men, women and children.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Seven years ago George W. Bush's incoming foreign policy team blamed the Clinton administration for an eleventh-hour rush for a Middle East peace agreement that ended with the explosion of the second Palestinian intifada. Now, with less than 10 months remaining in office, Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are engaged in a similar last-minute push -- yet they don't seem to recognize the growing risk that their initiative, too, will end with another Israeli-Palestinian war.

Rice visited Jerusalem again last week to press for visible Israeli fulfillment of commitments made at last year's Annapolis conference, and she appeared to win some incremental steps, such as the dismantlement of a few dozen of the several hundred military roadblocks in the West Bank.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

La última escalada de violencia en la franja de Gaza no ha dado lugar a reacciones políticas ni intelectuales a la altura de lo que está sucediendo. El centenar largo de víctimas mortales que han provocado las acciones de palestinos e israelíes, en una proporción de al menos 10 a una desfavorable a los primeros, se ha integrado sin dificultad en la macabra rutina de Oriente Próximo, una zona de la que ya nadie parece esperar otra cosa que una ración cotidiana de cadáveres y hogares destruidos. En esta ocasión, sin embargo, el balance fúnebre arroja cifras que deberían haber golpeado las conciencias: no sólo la práctica totalidad de las víctimas son civiles, sino que, además, un alto porcentaje de ellas eran niños de corta edad.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Las conversaciones de paz entre israelíes y palestinos que comenzaron hace tres meses en Annapolis no sufren por falta de ideas sobre cómo abordar las cuestiones fundamentales del conflicto. Tras años de intentos frustrados de llegar a un acuerdo, y con docenas de planes de paz, tanto oficiales como extraoficiales, a disposición de los negociadores, queda poco margen para la creatividad.

El problema fundamental reside en otros factores: en la pobreza de los dirigentes y la fragmentación de la política palestina. El único hombre que habría podido lograr un acuerdo de paz basado en una solución de dos Estados que los palestinos pudieran considerar legítimo, Yasir Arafat, se llevó la legitimidad consigo a la tumba.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Here's a truism of Middle East diplomacy. Everyone knows the outline of the eventual settlement: there will be two states, one Israeli, one Palestinian, alongside each other, their borders roughly in line with the parameters set out by Bill Clinton in late 2000. Everyone knows that. Yet somehow the two sides cannot seem to reach this apparently obvious destination. Even back in 2000, when the Israeli cabinet was packed with doves and the peace process was led by a US president engaged in every last detail, the deal remained elusive. Since then, it has fallen ever further out of reach.

The conventional explanation blames the leaders, weak on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides and fatally disengaged in Washington.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

The Annapolis peace conference last November was a good moment for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She seemed to be getting serious, finally, about using American diplomacy to push for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement whose basic parameters are understood by everyone -- but which requires U.S. follow-through to make it happen.

Since then, that crucial ingredient -- American follow-through -- has been sadly lacking. As a result, the Annapolis process has languished to the point that over the past two weeks, some Israelis and Palestinians warned it was near collapse. Rice's critics have argued that this failure to follow up on big initiatives has been her biggest weakness in her years in Washington.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

The rocket attacks on Israel launched by Hamas militants in Gaza, coupled with Israel's retaliation, have disrupted peace talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. This is a great victory for the radicals in Hamas, who never wanted such talks. While visiting the region this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is trying to remind everyone that the real goal is to weaken Hamas.

One way to do that is to strengthen its moderate Palestinian opponents. Fortunately, there is a smart and honest leader of these forces: Salam Fayyad, an apolitical economist (with a doctorate from the University of Texas) who is prime minister of the Palestinian Authority.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

The attempt by western politicians and media to present this week's carnage in the Gaza Strip as a legitimate act of Israeli self-defence - or at best the latest phase of a wearisome conflict between two somehow equivalent sides - has reached Alice-in-Wonderland proportions. Since Israel's deputy defence minister, Matan Vilnai, issued his chilling warning last week that Palestinians faced a "holocaust" if they continued to fire home-made rockets into Israel, the balance sheet of suffering has become ever clearer. More than 120 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces in the past week, of whom one in five were children and more than half were civilians, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

The outburst of violence in and around Gaza puts Israel's government in an unbearable dilemma: should it invade Gaza, to halt the Palestinian rocket fire and oust the Hamas government, or try to negotiate a stable ceasefire with Hamas. Both options carry high political and strategic risks, and the outcome will set the course of Israeli-Palestinian relations for the foreseeable future.

In the eyes of most Israelis, the seeds of the fighting were sown by the Israeli pullout of Gaza in August 2005. It was morally and strategically right. But Israel failed to disengage itself from Gaza. Palestinian terrorist groups kept firing rockets into Israel, and Israel remained responsible for Gaza's wellbeing.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

A recent poll published in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz suggested that 64% of Israelis favoured a negotiated truce with Hamas. But in the past few days, a military onslaught that has so far claimed more than a hundred Palestinian lives, mostly women and children, has made it clear that the Israeli leadership is not interested in any peaceful exit from the current predicament.

The Ha'aretz poll may point to a lack of confidence in the government's ability to settle its problem with Gaza through the use of force, and vindicate those within the military and intelligence community who have been advising the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert to talk to Hamas.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaMundoOriente Próximo, , , ,

Kosovo acaba de proclamar su declaración unilateral de independencia. Estados Unidos y la mayoría de los países de la Unión Europea (con la señalada excepción de España) se apresuran - haciendo imprudentemente caso omiso del derecho internacional- a ampliar el reconocimiento diplomático a este "nuevo país".

Las consecuencias de tal precedente se han debatido profusamente en relación con otras infortunadas áreas de otros países soberanos reconocidos internacionalmente donde existen intensos movimientos separatistas que ponen en práctica un precario pero efectivo autogobierno, como Abjasia, Osetia del Sur, Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabaj, la república Srpska, la república turca del norte de Chipre y el Kurdistán iraquí.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Now that Fidel Castro has taken the carriage clock, international affairs has all too few fixed points of continuity. Her Majesty the Queen is still in place. The King of Thailand has been on the throne since 1946. Otherwise one has to turn to the Middle East for reassurance that some things never change. Fly-by-nights like Castro may come and go, but the Israel-Palestine conflict will, it seems, always be with us.

After the one-day peace meeting in Annapolis last November, some believed that was about to change. Surely George Bush, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas wouldn't stand in front of a quarter of the world's foreign ministers and promise to reach a peace accord by the end of 2008 only for nothing to happen.…  Seguir leyendo »