ISRAEL: Gaza closure -- an animated discussion

A new campaign drawing attention to the closure of the crowded Gaza Strip starts today, with a short animated film. The 90-second "Closed Zone" was created by Yoni Goodman, animation director for "Waltz with Bashir," Ari Folman's Golden Globe winning film.

Goodman started working on the short before the military operation in Gaza that continued during the project, further stressing the impact of closure on a population under fire. He hopes that viewers are able to "detach themselves from their automatic associations of good and evil" and relate to the human character and situation.

EGYPT: Donors promise almost $5 billion for Palestinians

In a new attempt to strengthen its position as a key player in the region, Egypt today hosted an international donors conference for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the 22-day Israeli incursion that battered the seaside Palestinian enclave.

More than 70 countries and international organizations convened in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh and pledged $4.48 billion to rebuild Gaza. The Palestinian Authority had only requested about $3 billion. Money, however, is not the problem. Instead, the volatility of the situation in Hamas-controlled Gaza, internal divisions among Palestinians and the ascendancy of a right-wing government in Israel may jeopardize reconstruction efforts.

In their final statement, participants called for a permanent ceasefire between Hamas and Israel and reconciliation among rival Palestinians factions as "requisites for any successful reconstruction effort." Participants also stressed the need for Israel to lift its blockade for an "immediate, unconditional and sustained reopening" of Israel’s crossings with Gaza.

EGYPT: Palestinian reconciliation talks kick off in Cairo

Reconciliation talks between Hamas, Fatah and smaller Palestinian factions began Thursday in Cairo amid hopes for an agreement on a national unity government after nearly two years of bloodshed and political impasse that have slowed progress in the wider Arab-Israeli conflict.

In negotiations leading to the talks, Fatah and Hamas agreed to stop media smear campaigns against each other and to release prisoners held by both sides. "A certain number of detainees will be freed right at the beginning of the dialogue," according to a joint statement by Azzam Ahmed, leader of the Fatah bloc in the Palestinian parliament, and Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas official.

DUBAI: Israeli tennis players unwittingly court controversy

Politics and sports make a volatile mix when a game involves Israeli athletes competing in the Middle East in an environment of hostility toward the Jewish state.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates recently denied a star Israeli female tennis player entry to the city-state of Dubai to participate in an international tournament.

The incident was met with a wave of condemnations by journalists, sports associations and politicians in the U.S.

For now, it looks like the oil-rich Arab country might backtrack on its earlier decision to bar Israeli players.

U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) told a news conference in New York that the UAE would grant male doubles player Andy Ram a visa to take part in the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships next week.

Organizers of the tournament argued that the presence of an Israeli player would anger local crowds and create an unacceptable security situation.

Anti-Israeli sentiment has been exacerbated throughout the Arab world after the Israeli offensive in Gaza, which ended last month.

For weeks, Arab TV viewers were exposed to daily footage of Israeli jets causing havoc in Palestinian towns and of children agonizing in hospital beds. 

ISRAEL: Who won Israel's elections?

The curious result of elections on Tuesday,
in which Tzipi Livni seems to have won the most votes while her party lost the ability to form a government, has left Israelis confused.

Until the dust settles and the next prime minister is named, here's some stuff to contemplate:

Despite general apathy, turnout was 65.2% -- slightly up from the last elections, although still low compared to past zeal. The tight race between Kadima and Likud did encourage citizens to brave stormy weather and go vote. Why? As sociologist Oz Almog put it, voters show up "when the playoff is interesting." Maybe the elections are over, but the game is just beginning as both the centrist Livni and the right-wing Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu claim victory.

 

EGYPT: Blogger grabbed by Egyptian security forces

A blogger and peace activist is being held by Egyptian security forces at an undisclosed location after he was arrested Friday following a march to raise awareness about conditions in the Gaza Strip.

Philip Rizk, a 26-year-old Egyptian-German filmmaker and student at the American University in Cairo, was last seen leaving the Abu Zabal police station in a white mini-bus.

Rizk and other activists had earlier marched at a rally outside Cairo to condemn the Israeli blockade of Gaza and urge Egypt to open its Rafah border crossing to allow aid to enter the Palestinian enclave.

"He is in the custody of State Security, which means illegal detention and a high probability of torture and ill treatment," Aida Seif El Dawla, who runs a group that counsels torture victims, told the Associated Press. "The fact that they are not saying where he is is very worrying."

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Arabs tell Iran to stop interfering

Pro-American Arab states are squawking that they've apparently had enough of being stigmatized by their Persian neighbor for failing their brothers in Palestine during the Israeli conflict against Hamas in Gaza.

On Tuesday, a group of top Arab officials held a meeting in the United Arab Emirates meant to put an end to Iran’s meddling into what they described as Arab affairs.

After the closed-door meeting of nine foreign ministers, UAE Foreign Minister Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed al Nayahan told reporters:

"We are working to get beyond a difficult phase and create an Arab consensus on stopping unwelcome and unconstructive interference in our affairs by non-Arab parties."

The minister was clearly referring to Iran, which is celebrating  the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution these days. Iran is a non-Arab Shiite nation; most of the Middle East is Sunni and Arab.

IRAN: Tehran offers to help rebuild Gaza

Western governments may be deliberating about how and whether to give reconstruction help to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip without strengthening Hamas.

But has Iran has had no such compunctions.

On Sunday, the speaker of Iran’s parliament said that his country would rebuild the Palestinian legislature building destroyed by Israel during the recent war in the Gaza Strip. Ali Larijani, speaker of the Iranian majlis, or parliament, announced that the Islamic Republic’s legislature would take responsibility for the reconstruction effort, according to Iranian state media.

Larijani also said that Iran’s parliament would soon organize a conference on Gaza reconstruction.

MIDDLE EAST: Obama speaks to Arabs of urgency in peace talks

The new president of the United States, Barack Obama, extended a "hand of friendship" to the Muslim world, giving his first television interview since his Jan. 20 inauguration to the popular Al Arabiya satellite news channel.

In the interview with the Dubai-based channel, widely seen as a gesture of reconciliation with the Arab world after the tensions of the Bush era, Obama made only vague statements on the urgency of peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis.

Obama avoiding zeroing in on the hard details that have made peace difficult in the last decades, including Jewish expansion and construction of settlements on Palestinian territory and demands by those of Palestinian origin to have a right of return to the land of their forefathers.

During his first week as president, Obama appeared concerned about the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. He appointed an experienced peace envoy, George J. Mitchell, who was expected to arrive today in the region.

In the interview, the U.S. president tried to stress the importance of resuming peace talks. But he also did not specify what the U.S. plans to do to make peace a reality.

“It's going to be difficult, it's going to take time.... What we want to do is to listen, set aside some of the preconceptions.... And I think if we do that, then there's a possibility at least of achieving some breakthroughs. I think it is possible for us to see a Palestinian state -- I'm not going to put a time frame on it -- that is contiguous, that allows freedom of movement for its people, that allows for trade with other countries, that allows the creation of businesses and commerce so that people have a better life.”

GAZA STRIP: Scenes from an aftermath

I'm clearing through my notebooks after a dizzying first week in Gaza. Here are a couple of random scenes that didn't make it into the paper.

'Where is the Arab street?'

Jammed up against the stick shift in a packed communal taxi making the 15-minute drive between the southern towns of Rafah and Khan Yunis. Playing on the radio is what seems like a generic and rather bouncy Arabic dance diva song, until you catch the words.

"Where where where/Where are the millions," she sings. "Where is the Arab street? Where is the Arab rage?"

Who's to blame?

**Standing in front of the massive crater that used to be their family home, Ibrahim Madi, 65, and his son-in-law Ahmed Shaer break into a spontaneous political debate.

Madi is a lifelong supporter of the Fatah faction and opposes Hamas' control of Gaza. But even if he blames Hamas for bringing destruction onto Gaza, he blames Israel more.

"It's true that Hamas is responsible for this, but then [Israel] should go and strike Hamas, not a residential neighborhood," he say. "They're trying to erase the word Palestine from the map."

Shaer, 28,  chimes in and the debate ensues:

“Who’s to blame here? It’s one word: Hamas.”

“No, Israel is to blame”

“They fire rockets, what do they think will happen?”

“Why shouldn’t they fire rockets? Be quiet.”

A final message

On Jan. 18, the day the unilateral Israeli cease-fire began, Ibrahim Muammar, who works with a non-governmental organization in Rafah, says he picked up his phone and heard a recorded message declaring that Israel, "didn't use the full extent of its power. You need to know that we are capable of much more."

The message warned Palestinians in Gaza not to try an launch anymore missiles against southern Israel or attack Israeli troops. Otherwise, the Jewish state would "respond with its full power."

Amazingly, the message ends with an Arabic proverb that loosely translates as: "The rational man knows what's good for him."

— Ashraf Khalil in Gaza City