Photo: Wikimedia Commons

In the history of the State of Israel, never have there been preconditions for face-to-face peace talks. While it was not obligated to do so, the Israeli government last November ordered a 10-month freeze in new building projects in the West Bank.

This sign of good faith, the outward stretch of our hands in friendship with the Palestinians, has been rejected for seven months. Now the Palestinians are calling for the freeze to be extended.

The goal of the freeze was to encourage Palestinians to come to peace talks, but rather than embracing this moment, many are foolishly waiting for it to end so another freeze can be used as a “precondition for peace talks.” continue reading…

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Eight tentacles. Eight predictions. The now infamous “Paul the Octopus” has emerged from the FIFA World Cup with 100% accuracy, predicting all of Germany’s games as well as the final. Like consecutive flips of a coin, with what starts off as a 50-50 chance gets smaller and smaller with each next prediction. The odds of going eight for eight? 0.39 percent. For his next look into the proverbial crystal ball, Paul the Octopus would be smart to predict a two-state solution: lasting peace between Israelis and their Palestinian neighbors.
There is a lot the Jewish people can learn from this psychic, nonkosher specimen. No one would have put money on this psychic octopus, even if the payoff is about 256:1. Then again, two thousand years ago, who would have bet on the Jewish people? Whether it is oil lasting 8 days or an unbelievable statistical anomaly of an octopus having a perfect world cup bracket, the world is full of surprises. Our prediction is that peace is coming and we hope that we have the same clairvoyance  as Paul the Octopus. continue reading…

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Expectations surrounding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fourth White House meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, are running high. The previous conversations between the prime minister and President Barack Obama, though privately friendly and constructive, generated press speculations of tensions in the United States — Israel relationship. The chief source of friction, it was reported, centered on the peace process and the best way to restart talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. continue reading…

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The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” Albert Einstein once said.

Since 1993, successive governments, supported by the international community, have tried to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict using the flawed paradigm of land for peace. Each time, the same formula was attempted, but failed every time because of Arab recalcitrance. continue reading…

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Airport security makes all travelers put their bags through the X-ray machines, remove their laptops from their cases and walk through the metal detectors. It doesn’t matter if you’re a diplomat, a nun or a peace activist.

So imagine being an airport-security worker faced with a man who refuses to be searched. He explains that he means no harm and is simply bringing gifts to his loved ones. Would you just let him through? What if he then assaults you or your staff, runs to his terminal and tries to board the plane. Would you let him? After all, he’s only bringing gifts.

From the time Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 until June 2007, the situation there improved. European inspectors and the Fatah governors of the Palestinian Authority worked together to inspect goods coming into Gaza. But that cooperation didn’t fit with Hamas’ objective of working to destroy Israel and build an Islamic theocracy in its place. Hamas violently took over Gaza, expelled the Europeans and kicked out or killed Fatah members. The thugs also explicitly announced that they planned to bring more weapons into Gaza to continue their attacks on Israel. continue reading…

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The most recent ship carrying supplies to Gaza docked at the port of Ashdod on Saturday, bringing the total number of aid-carrying vessels to seven in the last week. Israel is delivering the goods aboard the ships using the same channels which 100 trucks full of aid enter Gaza daily.

Due to the fact that the thousands of tons of aid, including cement, must first be offloaded onto trucks from the boats, not all of the aid has been delivered yet. This process, which includes screening goods for weapons, takes time.  The maximum capacity for a truck is roughly 25 tons, so while only 45 trucks have been prepped and loaded, it is still a great amount of aid.

Unfortunately, Hamas is currently refusing entry to trucks which are waiting at the Kerem Shalom border crossing. As Hamas has a history of hijacking aid, it is vital that Israel is assured that construction materials are going to be used for peaceful, civilian purposes. To that end, we are working with the humanitarian organizations in Gaza that can insure that all cement, construction materials, and other aid will go to humanitarian projects.

The rumors that Israel is not letting in cement are categorically false. Our goal is to make sure the aid is distributed to the people. While distribution would normally be the role of the government, the “government” of Gaza is a terrorist organization whose declared mission is the destruction of the State of Israel. While we will not let Hamas build bunkers and military sites, we will also not allow the people of Gaza to go without adequate supplies. With our partners in the international community, we will make sure that the goods are distributed to the people of Gaza.

We are working as hard as we can to offload all supplies and send them to Gaza. Please stay tuned for future updates.

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(Communicated by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman)

Over the past few days, the State of Israel repeatedly called to the activists aboard the “Rachel Corrie” vessel, offering that they land at the port of Ashdod, where their cargo will be off-loaded, checked, and transferred to the crossing point into Gaza – accompanied by representatives of the activists and the Government of Ireland.
This offer was formulated in contacts between the Governments of Israel and Ireland. continue reading…

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Yeshiva University Commencement Address

May 26, 2010

By Dr. Michael B. Oren

Ambassador of Israel

As many of you know, I came to the position of ambassador after many years of writing history. As an historian, I always said, my main job was making decisions.

How is that possible, you might ask—historians are decision-makers? What are they, prime ministers? No, an historian is not the prime minister, though some of them seem to think they’d do a better job. Historians are decision-makers because they are confronted with masses of information and from those masses must select the most relevant and compelling passages. continue reading…

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Appearing in today’s Miami Herald, Ofer Bavly, Consul General of Israel to Florida and Puerto Rico explains why the peace process is so important, stating “time does not favor us as radicalism continues to spread around the world.” With the proximity talks, mediated by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, having just recently started, Mr. Bavly notes that the “constant obstacle to peace is the weakness of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (P.A.) and the violent takeover of the Palestinian Gaza Strip by the Iran-backed Hamas terror organization.”

While Palestinian leadership refuses to meet with Israeli officials directly, “only realism and a courageous Palestinian leadership will lead to direct talks, to the creation of mutual trust and ultimately to true and lasting peace in the Middle East.”

To read more, check out the full Op-Ed in the Miami Herald by clicking here.

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Peace is a vision that we all share, a vision of two states—Jewish and Palestinian living side-by-side free of the fear of violence and further territorial claims. But realizing that vision will require painful sacrifices. But while our arms are extended in peace  Israel is faced with another battle, namely  the escalating campaign to deny it legitimacy—to strip Israel of its right to defend itself, even its right to exist.

We are all familiar with the Goldstone report, the spurious charge-sheet compiled by a UN council that has condemned Israel more frequently than all other countries—Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Libya—combined; the report that found Israel guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity even before it began its deliberations; the tribunal whose so-called judges included one who claimed that Hamas had only fired “one or two rockets” into Israel and that the Jews dominated British foreign policy. continue reading…

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