Thursday, September 2, 2010

ISRAEL INVADES GAZA ON 1ST DAY OF RECONCILIATION TALKS

Israel carries out an incursion into the Gaza Strip on the first day of the renewed reconciliation talks between Tel Aviv and the Palestinian Authority (PA)."Few hours ago, Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun…, where Israeli laborers were seen fixing the security fence in the so-called buffer zone," said Press TV's correspondent in the enclave, Ashraf Shannon, reporting on the Thursday incident.
"The buffer zone is an area of 300 meters along the Gaza Strip, declared by Israel, to prevent people from reaching there, especially farmers. But basically they are forcing a 1,000-meter no-go zone in that area. All the people were killed there, including civilians, women and children as well as farmers," he added.
The intrusion came as Israeli and PA officials are in Washington to resume the direct negotiations that broke off at the turn of 2009, when Israel launched a full-scale war on Gaza, killing more than 1,400 Palestinians.
Many Palestinian groups have already abandoned hope in the US-brokered revival of talks, citing the White House's partiality towards Tel Aviv and saying that the acting PA chief, Mahmoud Abbas, does not represent all the Palestinians.

The US authorities refuse to accept the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, as a negotiating partner.

The movement, which was chosen to rule the strip during democratic elections in 2006, headed off the Gaza War and has been defending the strip's residents against the Israeli military's regular forays.

Nearly1.5 million Gazans have also suffered more than three years under an all-out siege, which was imposed on them by Tel Aviv a year after Hamas acceded to power.

"Last night, when they spoke in Washington, they failed to mention anything about the Gaza Strip. And today Hamas and the Islamic Jihad denounced the negotiations in Washington. Hamas said that any agreement signed by…Abbas is not binding to the Palestinian people, while the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine said that these negotiations are just a prelude to a possible new war against a country or countries in the Middle East," our correspondent said.

PA was reportedly railroaded into joining the talks after being threatened by Washington to lose American ties.

The organization had earlier insisted that it would resume the process only after the similarly American-mediated indirect talks bore fruit. Known as "proximity" talks, the negotiations failed due to Israel's regular defiance of the Palestinian condition of halting the construction of illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian lands.

In keeping with the defiance, Jewish settlers announced plans to launch new constructions, Reuters reported.

Tel Aviv has as well so far ignored the other Palestinian demands to fully withdraw from the borders of 1967, when it occupied the Palestinian territory of the West Bank. The PA has also called for the resumption of negotiations from the point they were left off following the Israeli attacks.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has, however, said that there would be no room for any conditions for the talks -- a point also favored by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Iranians, who have likewise condemned the talks, as well as Muslims across the world, are expected to express solidarity with the Palestinians during mass rallies on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan, declared as the Quds Day by the late founder of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, Imam Khomeini.

"In Palestine in general and in Gaza in particular, the people have all their gratitude towards the Iranian people and especially late Ayatollah Khomeini for…Quds Day and every year Gazans march to commemorate this occasion and also commemorate it with different conferences and meetings and sometimes special prayers in some mosques in the Gaza Strip,".

WEST SEEKS TO DIVIDE AND CONQUER MUSLIMS

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman says the enemies of Islam seek to create discord among Muslim countries to continue oppressing them.

If Muslim countries unite to confront the aggressions against the interests of the Muslim world, they can become a great power and prevail over Israel and its supporters, Ramin Mehmanparast said on Wednesday.

"We believe that there is an ulterior motive in the conciliation scheme between the Zionist regime [of Israel] and some of the Palestinian groups," Mehmanparast told ISNA regarding the upcoming Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.

He added that Israel is trying to change "the heavy international atmosphere" and put on a "peace-seeking face" after attacking a Gaza-bound aid convoy in May.

"Some Arab countries are trying to establish peace in the region and we welcome any effort that can ultimately resolve the issue," Mehmanparast said.

Considering Israel's actions, however, we believe such efforts will be fruitless because Tel Aviv does not respect any principles and does not stay true to its commitments, he added.

Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) will resume peace talks on September 3, after they broke off in December 2008 following Tel Aviv's deadly attack on the Gaza Strip, which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians.

The talks will resume amid concerns that further concessions on the part of acting PA chief Mahmoud Abbas could lead to an intensified violation of Palestinian rights by Israel.