Obama tells Israel it can keep its nukes

Ynet reports that while Barack Obama is working with countries from Ukraine to Malaysia to Russia to rid the world of nuclear weapons, he’s giving Israel a wink and a nod.

U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs Ellen Tauscher said that the U.S. will “strive to protect its allies” and “adopt a ‘calculated ambiguity’ policy towards countries which do not pose a threat to the U.S.”

According to the Foundation of American Scientists (which has put together a great history of Israel’s nuclear program) Israel has between 100 and 200 nuclear weapons.

More on Israel’s Water Theft

Even if Israel could bring itself to leave the West Bank settlements that it is still expanding, how could it ever give up the West Bank rivers, springs and aquifers that make its western-style water parks and suburban lawns possible in the  dry Middle East? In short, how can there ever be peace when, according to the World Bank, Israelis use four times as much water per capita than Palestinians?

National Geographic: “Israel’s West Bank settlements get enough water to fill their swimming pools, water their lawns, and irrigate miles of fields and greenhouses. In contrast, West Bank Palestinians, under Israeli military rule, have been largely prevented from digging deep wells of their own, limiting their water access to shallow wells, natural springs, and rainfall that evaporates quickly in the dry desert air. When these sources run dry in the summer, Bromberg said, Auja’s Palestinians have no choice but to purchase water from Israel for about a dollar a cubic yard—in effect buying back the water that’s been taken out from under them by Mekorot’s pumps, which also lower the water table and affect Palestinian springs and wells.”

Algerians: We Have a Mossad Agent

Algeria’s Ennahar Online: “According to sources of Ennahar, the Israeli spy who claimed to be a Spanish citizen, had entry visas to Algerian territory through a European embassy before joining the Algerian capital via Barcelona.
While the Algerian authorities have begun investigations into the conditions for granting visas to an Israeli national, with a false Spanish passport, senior U.S. government have reacted with Algerian authorities in order to find a way out to the situation where this pseudo Spanish national who appears according to his behavior as an agent of the Israeli Mossad.”

I doubt anyone would be surprised if a Mossad agent was operating in Algeria. But after Israel angered so many European countries by forging their passports for a different Mossad operation earlier this year, it is surprising to hear about an allegedly forged Spanish passport in this case. I was initially skeptical about this story, but if the U.S. government has really gotten involved, as Ennahar says, that gives it the air of authenticity.

So if Algeria really has a Mossad man what sort of concessions could it get from Israel for his return? If the Israelis would trade one corporal in Gaza for 900 Palestinian prisoners, what is a Mossad agent worth?

Happy Land Day

Al Jazeera has a good video of Palestinians responding to Israeli land seizures by planting olive trees.

Elsewhere, the spirit of peace was a bit further removed – Israeli troops shot and killed a protesting 15-year-old in Gaza and wounded several others, including a nine-year-old.

I wonder what it feels like to be one of those Israeli soldiers. Do they think about how they are shooting children in defence of their right to confiscate land from those childrens’ families?

Israel Plans Demolition of Jerusalem Armenian Church

Who needs a church when you could have another luxury hotel instead?

“What I care about is not only that my home is in danger and my entirelifestyle is in danger, but also that this plan will change the whole neighborhood. It won’t be the same neighborhood,” Anahid Ohannessian, who lives on the church compound, told Haaretz.

Berlusconi: Israel Should Give Back the Golan Heights

Are any international leaders still willing to defend Israel’s flouting of international laws and its various occupations? After recent diplomatic spats with the U.S. (Jerusalem settlements), U.K. (forged passports), Brazil (diplomatic insults), Turkey (diplomatic insults), the U.A.E. (assassination) and possibly Germany, France and Ireland (forged passports), Israel has now earned harsh words from a politician usually quick to jump to its defense: Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi. He not only seconded Barack Obama’s call for an end to Jerusalem settlements, but went a step further and told Israel to end its occupation of Syria’s Golan Heights.

This translation is a bit awkward, but you’ll get the idea. The article in its original Italian. I’m sure an English-language publication will write about this soon.

Amnesty International: Israel keeps water from West Bank Palestinians

Monday was World Water Day. Amnesty International put out a report titled “Israel must allow Palestinians access to adequate water supplies.” Excerpts:

“Almost six months after our report, the Israeli government still maintains control over water resources in Occupied Palestinian Territories. Palestinians are allowed only a fraction of the almost unlimited supplies provided to illegal Israeli settlements,” said Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East Programme.

…

Residents of the village of Beit Ula also continue to struggle to access sufficient water supplies after the Israeli army destroyed nine rainwater harvesting cisterns in 2008. The cisterns were built in June 2006 as part of an EU-funded agricultural project to improve food security, and each had belonged to a family. While local Palestinian farmers had salvaged what they could after the destruction, a year later most of the farmers who would have benefitted from the project are still unemployed or surviving on odd jobs as manual workers.

…

Israel imposes a complex system of permits which the Palestinians must obtain from the Israeli army and other authorities in order to carry out water-related projects in the OPT – anything from digging a well, treating sewage or simply repairing a damaged pipe. Applications for such permits are often rejected or subject to long delays.