ISRAEL: Avenging the Caterpillar attack with more Caterpillars?

In the aftermath of Wednesday's earthmover rampage in downtown Jerusalem, Israelis grappled with a familiar question: what, if anything, to do to the home of Hussam Duwayaat, the Palestinian construction worker who killed three people and injured dozens more.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak publicly advocated destroying the Duwayaat family home in Sour Baher, an Arab village on the southern outskirts of Jerusalem. Likud Party Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, a leading candidate for the premiership if Olmert's shaky coalition falls, followed suit, calling for "an iron fist, in order to prevent, deter and punish."

During the second intifada, specially armored Caterpillar bulldozers routinely demolished the homes of suicide bombers. But the practice was largely discontinued in 2005 in the face of international condemnation and following an Israeli military panel's conclusion that the demolitions did little to deter future bombers.

Meanwhile Duwayaat's family was ordered to dismantle a traditional mourning tent for the 30-year-old father of two. Israelis were enraged in March when the family of Alaa Abu Dheim erected a similar tent, including Hamas flags, after Abu Dheim killed eight young Jewish seminary students. A government request to demolish the Abu Dheim family home has been tied up in red tape for months.

The Duwayaat family's Israeli lawyer expressed remorse for Wednesday's rampage and offered the family's condolences to the victims. The lawyer, Shimon Kukush, accused Israeli politicians of "sparring for the credit of who will demolish the family's house first."

Some of Duwayaat's cousins groped for alternative explanations, with one speculating that Duwayaat
may have panicked after accidentally hitting  a car with his construction vehicle. Others said Duwayaat had a history of legal problems, drug addiction and a quick temper.

Relatives and neighbors said Duwayaat had no strong political and religious leanings, and pointed out that he once had a serious Jewish girlfriend. Israeli media anonymously interviewed the ex-girlfriend, who said he had many Jewish friends, but also a violent temper that led to a 20-month prison sentence for assaulting her. 

-- Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem

Photo: An Israeli bulldozer at the Hatzerim airbase. A specially modified and armored version was once commonly used by the Israeli army to demolish the homes of suicide bombers. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

IRAN: American public won't allow another war, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman says

Despite constant talk of war, U.S. officials have tried to reach out to the Iranian people in an attempt to get past the animosity between Washington and Tehran.

But Iranian officials have also been on a diplomatic offensive, reaching out to ordinary people in the Middle East as well as, more modestly, to Americans.

Known for his good looks, polite manners and kindly attitude toward the media, Iran's silver-haired foreign ministry spokesman, Mohammed Ali Hosseini has emerged as a frequent public face on his government’s policies.

In a lengthy interview in his office Wednesday, he described Americans as a peace-loving people who "hate violence" and are suffering because of the mistakes of their leaders. He said he believed economic pressures, the military entanglements in Iraq and Afghanistan, and American public opinion would prevent war from breaking out between Iran and the United States. "The U.S. and the Zionist regime, thanks to the increasing economic, political, security and military crises in which they are stuck, are not logically in a position to tolerate the expenses of another massive and far-reaching crisis," Hosseini said.

He continued:

Public opinion in the world will not permit [President] Bush to exacerbate the pains and tragedies already inflicted on the nations of the region and the American people. Nowadays, the polling surveys carried out among U.S. elites, thinkers and, by and large, the American people, show they hate violence, further battles and anarchy. The surveys indicate that the Americans are seeking genuine peace, stability and security.

But he warned:

If there is a war against the Islamic Republic of Iran, it will be out of control and with unpredictable consequences. Thus, anyone with minimum rationality and political logic does not dare to step on this path.

Hosseini, 47, is a physicist by training and a career diplomat. A native of Tehran, he studied in India before joining Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs 20 years ago. He’s a family man, with a wife and three children. He sat down for an exclusive and wide-ranging interview with the Los Angeles Times about Iran’s nuclear program, U.S. relations and turmoil in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, which have became contested terrain in the Cold War between Washington and Tehran.

Some of his answers were blunt. Asked why Iran won't suspend its controversial uranium-enrichment program for a temporary period to calm world fears and bolster Iran's diplomatic standing, he replied that Iran has "so far complied completely with its international and legal commitments and that compliance accredits our diplomatic standing."

But usually he was far more expansive, explaining Iran's positions on a number of topics, including the packages of proposals and counterproposals being bandied about by Iran and world powers to get talks started on Iran's nuclear program.

LAT: Would you consider the European "freeze-for-freeze" proposal in which Iran would stop adding new uranium-enrichment centrifuges in exchange for no new sanctions during a period of negotiations? Why or why not?

MOHAMMAD ALI HOSSEINI: Both the 5+1 incentives package and the Iranian package have valuable elements in common. If we concentrate on the common ground in the two packages, we can initiate a very serious dialogue. If diplomacy can deepen and consolidate the commonalities in the packages and create a mechanism toward confidence-building talks, without a doubt, the talks will help peace and stability in the world. Otherwise the misleading and aimless preconditions are somehow wasting time and cannot lead to settle any problems. Furthermore, there is not such a thing [as freeze-for-freeze] written in the incentives package.

EGYPT: Bush should not expect warm welcome

U.S. President George Bush arrived today in Sharm El-Sheikh for peace talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak, and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

Yet, no warm welcome should be expected, especially when it is believed that he mainly came to the region to celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary. Earlier this week, demonstrators in downtown Cairo protested his visit, accusing him of siding with Israel at the expense of the Palestinians.

Egypt is the final stop in Bush’s Middle East tour after Israel and Saudi Arabia. He first landed in the Jewish state, where he addressed the Knesset to congratulate the Israelis on their country's anniversary.

“Masada will not fall again,” Bush said in his speech Thursday, referring to the Jewish desert fortress that was attacked by troops of the Roman Empire. While the speech was hailed as “historic” by some Israeli papers, it elicited stir in Egypt. The state-owned daily paper Al-Ahram dismissed the speech as inspired by the Torah. 

ISRAEL: Two sides to anniversary; Palestinians mark 'catastrophe'

Israel celebrated the 60th anniversary of its birth this week with fireworks, skywriting jet planes and numerous blue-and-white Star of David flags.

But for Palestinians, both inside Israel  and in the occupied West Bank and blockaded Gaza Strip, it's a whole different anniversary. Due to differing calenders, Palestinians mark Israel's creation on May 15 and call it Al Nakba, the catastrophe.

Today, as part of a week of commemorative rallies and vigils leading up to May 15, several hundred Palestinian, Israeli and international activists held a silent march through mostly Jewish West Jerusalem.

There were no slogans, no banners and no Palestinian flags. With participants holding maps and following a bullhorn-holding leader, the march seemed like some sort of architectural tour.

Marchers wearing black T-shirts that read "Nakba survivor" stopped at several homes in the Talbiyeh neighborhood. Elderly Palestinians would emerge from the crowd to recount memories of the home their families fled in 1948, many still holding the house keys and assuming they would return when the Arab-Jewish hostilities died down.   

—Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem

Photos by Ashraf Khalil

ISRAEL: Recommended one-state readings

In the course of researching today's story on growing Palestinian support for a one-state solution, Bureau Chief Richard Boudreaux and I came across an absolute mountain of articles, books, speeches and message boards devoted to the topic.

As a service to you, our noble readers, we've cleared out the chatter and present here a quick list of sources we found interesting and provocative.

For starters, here's an  recent analysis of one-state sentiment in The Jerusalem Report magazine and a point-counterpoint of columns by Israeli and Palestinian thinkers posted on the Bitterlemons website.

Any one-state discussion has to include the Electronic Intifada. The well-known pro-Palestinian site is one of the online nerve centers for one-state sentiment, and founder Ali Abunimah has even written a book on the topic.

And here's the 9-year old public endorsement of one-state by iconic Palestinian academic and author Edward Said  that may have helped relaunch the modern movement.

One-state advocates freely admit that they're on a 20-year plan, at best. It will take that long, they say, for Israelis to even be willing to consider the idea.

Time will tell if that's true, but at the very least the issue is non-starter for this generation of Israelis. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert  speaks of a single shared state as a nightmare scenario that must be avoided, as does U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Israeli leftist Uri Averny pronounces the idea "a vision of despair," as does the peacenik Meretz Party, and one Zionist blogger calls it a recipe for Israel's destruction.

One of the few prominent Israelis willing to envision a shared Israeli/Palestinian  state is Ilan Pappe. Here's a transcript of a debate on the issue between Pappe and Averny. 

—Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem

ISRAEL: The one-state solution? You vote

A story online today details how Palestinians are losing hope that negotiations will ever produce a fair deal for an independent state beside Israel.

In response, sentiment is growing among Palestinians to stop fighting for territory and begin struggling for equal rights and voting privileges in a land where Arabs will soon be the majority.

We'll put it to the readers:

ISRAEL: From the sewer to the sea

This one is not for readers with delicate stomachs. Consider yourselves warned.

Much has rightly been made of the myriad deprivations suffered by residents of the Gaza Strip because of the 10-month-long economic siege of the territory imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas took control last summer.

Merchants have run short of everything, from auto parts to diapers; an alarming percentage of the population now lives on international aid; and all but emergency surgical procedures are put on the back burner because of shortages of most medical supplies.

Now comes a new sign of Gaza's desperate state — one that should disturb fans of the Mediterranean beaches in Israel and Egypt.

A new United Nations report states that public utilities officials in Gaza have pumped millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Mediterranean over the last three months.The shortage of fuel and constant power cuts make it impossible to treat the sewage, the report states:

Full sewage treatment requires 14 continuous days of uninterrupted power supply which cannot occur due to daily power cuts and insufficient fuel to operate power-supplying and back-up generators."

According to the report, the sewage flows northward toward the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon.

— Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem

Photo: Coming soon to a beach near you. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

ISRAEL: Ehud Olmert in the hot seat

Condoleezza Rice is in town pushing for the removal of more Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank. President Bush arrives later month and will likely push further to  revive the lackluster Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Meanwhile, right-wing members of Prime Minister Ehud  Olmert's fragile coalition constantly threaten to bring down his government if the negotiations actually address anything important like the division of Jerusalem.

So the last thing Olmert needs right now is the ghost of scandals past rattling its chains outside his window.

On Friday, Olmert was subject to police questioning for 90 minutes at his official residence in Jerusalem. The reason: an urgent inquiry ordered by Israel's attorney general reportedly focusing on bribes paid by an American businessman to Olmert before he became prime minister.

A statement issued by Olmert's office said: "He is convinced that as the truth will emerge in the framework of the police investigation, the suspicions against him will dissipate."

Given the urgent nature of the inquiry and still sketchy details about the suspected crime, coverage of the issue has been understandably breathless.

Olmert has been implicated in a host of prior scandals including political appointments and shady real estate details.  But the former mayor of Jerusalem has always manged to land on his feet. So far.

—Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem

Photo: Olmert and Rice. Credit: US Embassy/Tel Aviv

ISRAEL: What killed the Abu Mutiq family?

Shortly after four Palestinian siblings and their mother died Monday in the midst of an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, Israeli officials began disputing claims that a tank shell had struck the Abu Mutiq family home. See 6 killed in Israeli raid on Gaza.

Today Israel released footage meant to bolster its claim that the home was destroyed by a secondary blast--caused when the air force fired on two militants carrying explosives and approaching Israeli troops.

Here's the video, so take a look and let the debate commence.

—Ashraf Khalil in Jerusalem

MIDDLE EAST: Al Qaeda speaks again

Al Qaeda struggles to show that it still has its fingers on the pulse of the world, even as it hides out in the rocky mountains along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

The latest presumptive audio recording by Al Qaeda's No. 2 seems to suggest that the Islamist organization is striving to stay relevant.

In the extensive two-hour message posted on the Internet Tuesday, Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, particularly lashed out at the Iranians for their ambitions in Iraq and the Arab region, as well as their attempts to discredit the Sunni Islamist group.

LEBANON: A theater that delves into Arab thinking

 

Sherif Abdel Nour, the Lebanese-Palestinian playwright and director, says he's determined to use art to highlight Arab concerns as a counterweight to Western influences.

Last week, Abdel Nour celebrated the opening of his new production, “Hanthalaza’s Journey from Slumber to Consciousness,” at Beirut's Babylon Theatre.

The satirical play mocks the apathy and submissiveness that characterize much of the Arab world.

“My objective is to bring the Arab culture closer to the people through theater,” said the 30-year-old director. “There is a tendency to stay away from issues related to the Arab identity and to perform Western plays.”   

To achieve his objective, Abdel Nour created his own theatrical troupe, grouping amateurs from different parts of the Arab world in 2001. So far he's staged 16 plays, all of them tackling Arab social and political concerns.

ISRAEL: Sitting down with Carter

Jimmy Carter knew what he was getting into when he launched his one-man Middle East diplomacy tour.  After emerging as the most prominent American critic of Israeli policy, the former president wasn't expecting to be received here with open arms.

But as the Nobel Peace Prize-winner returned to Jerusalem after meeting with Hamas leaders in Damascus, his aides said they were amazed that not a single Israeli government minister was willing to meet with him during the several days he was here last week.

"We expected a cold reception but not to be treated like this," said one Carter advisor.

Carter hailed the public acceptance by Hamas of a two-state solution on pre-1967 borders, provided the proposed peace deal was approved in a Palestinian referendum. The development, Carter said, proved  Israel and the U.S. were "making a very serious mistake" in refusing to meet with the militant group, which won parliamentary elections in 2006 and now controls the Gaza Strip.

Carter laughed when asked if he thought his actions would spark debate back home about the United States' foreign policy and its approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

IRAN: Warming up to once-despised Jimmy Carter

The Iranian government has officially and regularly decried former President Jimmy Carter since the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979. 

But it looks like some within official Iranian circles are willing to let bygones be bygones, especially now that Carter has defied the Bush administration by meeting with the Palestinian militant group and Iranian ally, Hamas.

Iran's animosity toward Carter stretches back decades. He was, after all, the U.S. commander in chief who toasted deposed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi months before a popular 1978 uprising against his rule, briefly offered the monarch sanctuary in America and dispatched an ill-fated rescue team to free American diplomats and embassy employees being held hostage in Iran.

But politics makes for strange bedfellows.

GAZA: Cleric OKs killing of Egyptians

Palestinian cleric issued a fatwa condoning the killing of Egyptian forces if they prevent Gazans fleeing the Israeli siege from crossing into Egypt. Needless to say, it has elicited quite a stir in Egypt, according to a news report in the Egyptian al-Masry al-Youm daily. 

The Grand Sheik of Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque, Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi, dismissed the fatwa as divisive. It came as the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza has driven Palestinians towards the Egyptian border.

Egypt has begun stepping up security measures for fear that its border would be breached again by Gazans. 

In January, hundreds of thousands of Gazans broke through the Egyptian border after Hamas militants blew open the wall leading to Egypt.

Egypt is in a tough position. The violence at its doorstep is putting its national security in jeopardy.

Deadly violence erupted Wednesday between Hamas militants and Israel, leaving three Israeli soldiers and at least 20 Palestinians dead The latest confrontations are expected to halt Egyptian efforts aimed at mediating a cease-fire between the two parties. 

“There can be no discussion of a truce in the midst of these crimes,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri reportedly said.

—Noha El-Hennawy in Beirut

Photo: Palestinian children take part in a protest against the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip at the Rafah border point between Egypt and Gaza on April 10, 2008. Credit: SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images

ISRAEL: Bad news on the doorstep -- delivering bereavement

Usually, the tone of the reporters' voice is enough. Radio phrases such as "fierce combat," "heavy exchange of fire" or "grave incident" are harbingers of trouble. Long-trained in reading between the lines of journalistic nuances, Israeli ears quickly note the omission of the "no casualties among our forces" and know this can only mean one thing: A soldier has died.

American soldiers in Iraq fight and die thousands of miles from home, but Israel's front lines are on its doorstep. And for all its fragmentation, Israel remains a small country with small-town-like family and social ties. Most get their daytime news from one of two radio stations, and bad news travels fast in a country where nearly everyone knows someone in the army.

So, military fatalities are not formally announced until the immediate family has been informed. Information is withheld temporarily, not for "Good Morning Vietnam" kind of reasons, but to spare families from learning this from the media. "The family has been notified" is the familiar media phrase that spells reassurance for many; but the final public relief, or grief, comes with the publication of the name.

Wednesday was one such day. The 7:00 radio reports raised suspicion, by 10:00 there was little room for doubt. At 11:51 it was cleared for publication that three soldiers had been killed in Gaza. Then came the news flashes with the first name at 13:31, the second at 16:34 and the third at 17:39. An Israeli-born demanding a combat assignment-or-bust, a Bedouin tracker and an ideological new immigrant; "the story of Israel at 60," said Minister Yitzhak Herzog. This morning, Hadassah Uvdati spoke on Army Radio of her son Matan, among yesterday's dead. 24 hours, full circle.

Prominent Israeli novelist David Grossman's new book, "Isha Borahat Mibesora," (Woman flees tidings), is the story of a mother who has a bad premonition about her soldier son and embarks on a journey throughout the country rather than being tormented by the anguish of awaiting the bad news at home. Grossman had a wish that the book he was writing would protect his sons during their army service. It didn't. His son Uri was killed in 2006 on the last day of the second Lebanon war.

—Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem

ISRAEL: The Carter question, part 2

The Jimmy Carter Middle East Goodwill Tour continues to generate pretty much the opposite of goodwill among supporters of Israel.

Carter arrived in Israel today for several days of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. In an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Carter acknowledged that he plans to meet with senior leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas this week in Syria.

That prospect has the blog-o-sphere at a full-boil, with perspectives running from supportive to outraged to surrealist.

EGYPT: No more Gazans, please

Barbed wire, cement and negotiations may not be enough to stop a flood of Palestinians if Hamas decides to again breach its Gaza border with Egypt. The Egyptian government is reportedly sending troop reinforcements to the northern Sinai to prevent a possible replay of January’s chaos when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crossed into Egypt.

Tension around the border intensified recently when Khalil Al-Hayya, a senior Hamas leader, said: “I expect that what will happen next will be greater than what happened before, not only against the Egyptian border but against all the crossings.”

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said it was "astonished" by such comments.