Israel To Expel Thousands Of Its Own Citizens

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (left) walks with European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana following their meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday. Livni is part of an Israeli governmental plan that would create a temporary Palestinian state and oust tens of thousands of Israeli citizens. Photo by Sebastian Scheiner/Associated Press.

Jerusalem – Israel is preparing for a unilateral realignment in Judea and Samaria that includes the expulsion of tens of thousands of Israel citizens in order to establish some semblance of a temporary Palestinian state.

The Israeli government has formed an special team was to formulate the outline for carrying out an immediate handover of land.

The team includes high-ranking officials in the Foreign and Defense Ministries, and high-ranking representatives of the Israeli army and Israeli intelligence are also being updated about the process.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzippi Livni and the director-general of her ministry, Aharon Abramowitz, appointed a high-ranking official who will coordinate the effort – diplomat Yossi Amrani, the former Israeli consul in San Francisco.

In November 2003, this reporter revealed that Amrani, despite his official position as the Israeli consul, organized fund raising events for Israeli opposition leader Yossi Beilin. Beilin had then led the Geneva Initiative on December 1st, 2003, which called for the unilateral establishment of a Palestinian entity within temporary borders, under the unchallenged rule of the PLO.

Now Amrani has been given the task of formulating, within several weeks, an official working paper of the Israeli government which will give a detailed outline of Israel’s immediate surrender of land to the PLO. Among other things, Amrani will deal with the question of how Israel should sell the plan to AIPAC and to the U.S. administration.

During last summer’s war in Lebanon, Prime Minister Olmert was quoted as saying that the war would contribute to his plans for carrying out a withdrawal plan.

The statement, which was denied by the Prime Minister’s Bureau, aroused a great deal of criticism, mainly because thousands of religious soldiers, many of them inhabitants of the settlements, were risking their lives on the front at that very time.

Olmert therefore had to clarify that the option of unilateral withdrawal was frozen, and even said that it had never been adopted as Israel’s official policy.

He said that the only policy in effect was that of negotiations with Abu Mazen and the continued boycott of the Hamas government. Olmert is consistent in this position, and has reiterated it several times since the cease-fire in mid-August.

Ironically, a previous commission was established by Israeli Foreign Minister Livni to evaluate the idea of a unilateral withdrawal from most of the West Bank.

That commission’s report, leaked to the Ha’aretz newspaper on Aug. 15 concluded that “Israel has no security solution to the threat of rockets launched from the West Bank against population centers.”

The report’s authors assumed that following any unilateral Israeli pullout from any part of Judea and Samaria, Hamas will takeover and deploy rockets against Israel’s population centers on Israel’s coastal plain.

The report emphasized that the only solution to the missile threat that the Israel Defense Forces has to offer is its actual presence in the territories and control of the high ground of Judea and Samaria, also known as the “West Bank.”

Another conclusion of the report commissioned by the Israeli Foreign Minister is that Israel will not gain international recognition for an end to the occupation if it continues to hold significant portions of the West Bank.

Foreign Ministry Director General Aharon Abramovitch, headed that commission.

Israeli Member of the Knesset (MK) has asked for a copy of the previous Israeli foreign ministry report which warned against any unilateral surrender of territory to the PLO.

The spokesman of the Israel Foreign Ministry has informed MK Alon’s aide that this was an “internal report” that it would not be released.

Mashaal-Abu Mazen Meeting Ends In Failure

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, met in Damascus on Sunday with Hamas political bureau director Khaled Mashaal, against the backdrop of the crisis over the establishment of a Palestinian national unity government.

The meeting was held after exhausting negotiations were held in an attempt to bridge the gaps between the two parties. Ultimately, in response to massive pressure from the Syrian mediators, the Iranians and Islamic Jihad, a decision was made to hold the meeting despite the differences. Mashaal arrived at Abu Mazen’s hotel suite, which was where the meeting was held. At first, the parties held an expanded work meeting that was attended by delegates from Fatah and Hamas, after which Abu Mazen and Mashaal sequestered themselves for a one-on-one meeting that lasted an hour.

Fatah and Hamas officials said before the meeting that they did not expect it to produce a dramatic breakthrough, but said they hoped the meeting would allow for a resumption of negotiations between the parties. Officials in Damascus said Sunday night that the importance of the meeting was that it broke the ice not only between the leaderships of Fatah and Hamas, but also between the two leaders, whose relations have been rocky and who have not spoken with one another for more than a year and a half.

Upon the conclusion of the meeting, the two men emerged to speak to journalists. While both Abu Mazen and Mashaal came out smiling, they were unable to conceal the fact that the meeting had failed. Mashaal, who said unequivocally that his organization would not recognize Israel either directly or indirectly, rejected de facto the compromise wording that could have allowed for the establishment of a national unity government and could have ended the impasse.

The current assessment is that there is no real chance that a Palestinian national unity government will be formed both because of the unyielding positions held by Hamas and the official statement that the party issued, which read: “there is a consensus within Hamas that Ismail Haniya will be the prime minister.”

In an attempt to camouflage the failure, Abu Mazen and Mashaal issued a joint statement that described the meeting as “positive,” and which noted that “dialogue between Hamas and Fatah will continue in the coming days.”

At the same time, the Palestinian news agency, Ma’an, reported last night that “The Hamas movement has announced that it will resume the national dialogue on Tuesday. The talks will recommence from where they ended after the previous month-long round of talks between the factions, particularly between the two rival factions of Hamas and Fatah”

Citizens Concerned Hamas Is Digging Under Kibbutz

Israeli Army intelligence officials fear that Hamas will be able to carry out a terror attack in one of the communities in the Western Negev by means of a tunnel, or perhaps another kidnapping, like the kidnapping of soldier Gilad Shalit to Gaza.

Residents of Kibbutz Nirim, located in the Western Negev near Gaza, recently reported that they heard knocking under their houses during the day, which could indicate tunnel digging. Kibbutz members are concerned that Palestinians will dig tunnels under the border fence and perpetrate a terror attack inside the kibbutz. The kibbutz secretary, Gadi Yarkoni, said yesterday that: “Members heard knocking several months ago that raised concern of tunnel digging. The IDF checked and nothing was found. Because of the sensitivity of the area, we take every little thing seriously, and we treated theses complaints seriously and brought in everyone we thought necessary.”

Avi Yakar, a member of Nirim, added that “There is noise in the kibbutz and the IDF checked. We heard noise, and there was a lot of speculation. No one can say for certain that tunnels are being dug, but I don’t know anyone who will rule this out. Perhaps it is the noise of distant water pumps, but there is noise and it can be heard from time to time in various parts of the kibbutz.”

About three months ago, the daily Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv reported that a terror organization from the Gaza Strip plans to dig a tunnel under Kibbutz Nir-Oz in the Western Negev, in order to carry out a terror attack against soldiers and civilians. The report spoke about attempts by an Arab terror group to dig a tunnel, and in order to do so, it offered the owner of a plot near the Gaza border a sum of $40,000 in exchange for his agreement to rent the land for a year so as to dig the tunnel.

©The Bulletin 2007