Following are statistics gathered from various sources that give a current and wide-ranging picture of the economic growth in the West Bank, of a process of amelioration which Israel has undertaken to support efforts to build and rehabilitate the Palestinian economy, of frameworks for dialogue and cooperation between us and the Palestinians, and of projects that have garnered the support of international community with the goal of rehabilitating the West Bank economy.

Yesterday’s edition of Yedioth Aharonoth carried a powerful opinion piece by Anat Meidan about the work done at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.  Even as the Qassam missiles fall, hospital staff have been working hard to ensure the recovery of all their patients–Israelis and Palestinians alike.  The full translation is presented below.

Ambassadors of Humanity
By Anat Meidan

Over the course of five months, the doctors and nurses of Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon treated Wania Suleiman, a resident of Jabaliya Refugee Camp in Gaza.  After suffering a serious stroke, she lost consciousness during the 24th week of pregnancy.  Attempts at Azati Hospital to stabilize her condition proved unsuccessful and she was transferred to Barzilai.  At the end of September, after about ten weeks during which doctors fought for the lives of Wania and her fetus, she gave birth to her third son.

Political and religious leaders from around the world gathered yesterday at the United Nations for a conference promoting interfaith dialogue.  President Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni represented Israel at this august gathering and spoke earnestly about Israel’s desire to live in peace with her neighbors and the steps taken to achieve that goal.  Copies of speeches by Peres and Livni are available as PDFs and more information about the conference is available through the Washington Post.

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

Among the inspiring rallies yesterday in front of the United Nations was this one by the organization Stop Child Executions calling for Iran to respect the human rights of its citizens. Here is a video of Nazanin Afshin-Jam, the head of the organization, speaking at the protest, with people from many different religions and political views in attendance.

In this unprecedented internet address, Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, addresses the Iranian people directly. The video, in English with Arabic and Farsi subtitles, expresses goodwill and friendship towards the Iranian people while emphasizign the serious problems with the government in Tehran.
For more information, see Jerusalem Online.

After a protracted period of negotiations between Egypt and representatives of Israel and Hamas, it was announced that a period of calm would be instituted between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip beginning at 6:00 A.M. on Thursday, 19 June.  Following are some of the major points comprising this agreement:

• The institution of “calm” applies only to the Gaza Strip and not to West Bank areas.  Thus, while Israel’s security forces will refrain from operations in the Gaza Strip, they will continue to undertake necessary operations in the West Bank.
• Palestinian terrorist organizations must:
  • Halt all fire and terrorist activity
  • End their buildup of arms
  • Cease smuggling from Egypt
• While the above points are effective immediately with the beginning of the “calm,” opening the crossings to Gaza will be implemented gradually after successive periods of calm.
  • After 3 days, Israel will open the Karni and Sufa crossings for basic commodities
  • One week later, Israel will allow for a larger number of commodities to enter the Gaza Strip, excepting those used for weapons manufacturing
  • After an additional week, talks will be held about opening the Rafah crossing to Egypt
• The freedom of Gilad Shalit, kidnapped two years ago, is an integral part of the “state of calm.”  According to Foreign Minister Livni, releasing Shalit is a necessary step if Hamas wants to achieve further gains.
• Furthermore, Israel will continue to monitor the situation closely to ensure that all parties adhere to their obligations.  Hamas will bear responsibility for any terrorist act by any organization and should be prepared to accept the consequences of such actions.

While the State of Israel has every desire to see this “lull” develop into a period of sustained calm, she places primary significance on the safety and security of her citizens.  Should the “calm” collapse, Israel will take alternate measures to address the new situation. 

For more informaiton, see the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

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.”

Check out this YouTube video showing some of Livni’s speech in Boston to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. She addresses many of the most important issues, like Israel’s commitment to peace and to combating terrorism.

From today’s Washington Times, a frightening article about the state of education in the Arab Middle East.  Far from promoting peace, many classes and textbooks promote hatred of the United States and Israel and encourage kids to take violent action on behlaf of terrorist entities.  Take, for example, this clip from Hamas’s al-Aqsa TV that shows a young boy killing President Bush and turning the White House into a mosque (thanks to MEMRI for the translation).

Today’s students will be the leaders of tomorrow; the fact that they’re learning to view Israel and the United States with a measure of loathing and hatred makes us wonder what the region will look like in the future.  We can only hope that the state of education changes soon.