Shimon Peres, the President of Israel, will speak THIS EVENING at New York University on “The Globalization of Peace.” You can watch the speech live at 6:00 P.M. tonight at this site.
Following the event, you will be able to watch archived footage of the speech here. The archived footage will only be available later this evening.
Please note that you need Real Player to watch the videos
The display of silent children this morning in front of the United Nations building, before Ahmadinejad’s speech. The picture shows 140 figures of blindfolded children holding a black balloon symbolizing the number of minors executed in Iran.
The waves of protest against the address to the United Nations by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran are broadening. The loud cry of hundreds of Jewish protesters, who stood Monday in front of the United Nations building, was replaced yesterday by the profound silence of those who cannot cry out—the youths in Iran who have been condemned to death.
According to data provided by Amnesty International, 140 juveniles have been executed in Iran since 1990—26 of them since Ahmadinejad came to power—with a further 71 on death row. According to the protest organizers, “Stop Child Executions,” these executions violate international law, which establishes prison as the maximum sentence for minors. “I look out at the streets of New York and see Christians, Buddhists, and Baha’is who all openly display their faith; I see women with heads uncovered and people protesting government policies. In Iran, they would already have been imprisoned, tortured, and executed.” The organization’s founder, Iranian expatriate and former Miss Canada Nazanin Afshin-Jam, said, “Change in Iran will not come through war and bombs; that’s exactly what Ahmadinejad wants. Change will only come from a revolt by the Iranian people, backed by the West, which needs to cry out today on behalf of these children and against Iran’s violation of human rights.”
During the past several years, those executed in Iran include not only minors, but also women and men accused of homosexual acts, opposition to the Revolution, corruption of the Earth, and standing in the way of God.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside UN headquarters in New York today to protest the arrival of Iran’s President Ahmadinejad. Speakers criticized Iran’s reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons and the regime’s failure to respect its citizens’ basic human rights. Among the speakers was Dalia Itzik, speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, whose comments are featured in the above video.
It was made known today that Israel and Syria have begun peace negotiations under Turkish auspices. Below are comments from Prime Minister Olmert on these developments:
“Good evening.
“I came here this evening to present you with my ideas and those of the Government, in the field which is perhaps closest to my heart – education. However, before that I would like to dedicate a few words to the political developments of the past several weeks which, like the topic of education, shape the ability to ensure our future and security here in the State of Israel.
“Today, as you know, an announcement was published simultaneously in Jerusalem, Damascus and Ankara regarding the initiation of peace negotiations between Israel and Syria, under the sponsorship of Turkey. The announcement this morning constitutes the end of a phase in a process which has lasted over a year, during which we sought to establish a track which would allow for the existence of peace talks with Syria. To my pleasure, the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan met the challenge of mediating between the parties, and after long months of talks and contacts, the announcement was made this morning about preliminary talks.
“The renewal of negotiations with Syria, after eight years of stagnation, is certainly an exciting topic, but beyond this it is a national obligation which must be exhausted. Three prime ministers before me also reached this same conclusion: the late Yitzhak Rabin, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, who, each in their own turn, invested efforts in this channel and were even prepared to make painful and far-reaching concessions to achieve peace with Syria. The years which have passed since the negotiations were frozen did not improve the security situation on our northern border, which still serves as our primary source of concern for regional deterioration. In such a situation, it is always better to talk than to shoot, and I am pleased that both sides decided to do so.
“I have no illusions: negotiations will not be easy, it will not be simple and it is possible that it will take a long time and may eventually involve difficult concessions. At the same time, after weighing all the relevant data and hearing the opinions of all Israel’s security and intelligence bodies, I reached the conclusion that the chances in this case outweighed the risks, and with this hope, today we embark on this path.”
Iran’s decision to emabrk on a nuclear program may have far-reaching regional and international consequences. The International Insitute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank, reported that other countries in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, have expressed interest in their own nuclear programs over the past several months. As the AP coverage notes, the threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb, coupled with regional politics, may drive a growing trend toward nuclear programs throughout the Middle East.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was in Qatar this week for the Doha Forum on Democracy Development and Free Trade. This marked the first time Livni traveled to a Gulf nation and held talks with high-level officials there. She held bilateral meetings with leaders of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman, among other Arab countries. In addressing the forum on Monday, Livni sought Arab support for moderate movements in the Middle East and reiterated Israel’s commitment to peaceful relations with her neighbors.
Click here for the full text of the Foreign Minister’s speech.
The Hamas Dilemma: part of the problem or part of the solution?
By Israel E. Altman*
Introduction
The Gaza impasse is causing Europe to rethink its stance toward Hamas. Hamas remains on the EU terror list and the EU considers the PA, not the Hamas government in Gaza, as its sole interlocutor. But recent events are triggering a new European debate where proponents of engagement with Hamas are gaining ground.
What should the EU approach to Hamas be? Hamas plays a central role in Palestinian society and politics, and its influence on the prospects of a Palestinian-Israeli peace accord is crucial. Hamas also won a democratic election in January 2006. Shouldn’t the EU engage Hamas formally as a partner in the international efforts to settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict? Will such engagement not convince Hamas to moderate its positions and conduct? And isn’t it the case that isolation, by contrast, will further radicalize it?
So far, Hamas has not made any concession on the three conditions for engagement laid out by the Quartet – recognition of Israel, acceptance of the agreements which the PLO and the Palestinian Authority signed with Israel, and renunciation of terror- but do not these conditions demand that Hamas part with all its cards before negotiations even started? In short, shouldn’t Hamas become a part of the solution?
The New York JCRC planted a field of some 4,200 balloons across the street from UN headquarters on Thursday, in a display meant to call international attention to the intolerable situation in the Israeli city of Sderot and its surrounding communities.
The red balloons were meant to represent the thousands of rockets, fired from the Gaza Strip, that have struck Sderot since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in September 2005. Sderot and the surrounding area have been under near-constant bombardment, suffering thousands of strikes by Qassam rockets, thousands of mortar shells, and recently an Iranian-made Katyusha (”Grad”) rocket.
The plight of Sderot’s citizens has gone largely unnoticed by the international media — and hence the international community — even as the city absorbs more and more projectiles fired from Gaza. It is hoped that international pressure can help stop the attacks that have damaged homes, hospitals and schools and force children to have class in bomb shelters.
Israel welcomes US President George Bush on his first presidential
visit, one that will have a bearing on several fundamental issues for
Israel and the entire region. First and foremost, the president will
engage in substantive discussions with Israel’s leaders on the looming
nuclear threat posed by Iran. Secondly, he will seek to advance the new momentum for peace between Israel and the Palestinians that was renewed recently at the Annapolis
Conference.
The findings of the US National Intelligence Estimate that Iran had
paused in its nuclear enrichment program several years ago have not
reduced the Iranian threat today. Iran still poses a strategic threat,
not only to Israel, but to all of Europe, with long-range ballistic
missiles that have placed the entire continent within range. That is why
Iran has twice been sanctioned unanimously by the UN Security Council.
As the NIE report says clearly that Iran is continuing its enrichment
program, the international community must not lower the intensity of its
efforts to block that threat. Israel’s leaders look forward to
discussing with President Bush how best to deal with the Iranian nuclear
menace.
Israel cannot afford to risk the safety of its population on an estimate
that the Iranian nuclear threat has ceased - especially when the
Iranians make a point of announcing almost weekly the development of a
longer-range Shihab ballistic missile, capable of delivering a nuclear
warhead. President Bush’s visit is an opportunity for closer, effective
coordination between the leader of the free world and the only democracy
in the Middle East in facing the dangers posed by a nuclear Iran’s
extremist Islamic ideology.
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Sep 25 2008
