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TIESWeb
Special File
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
a growing EU/US public opinions dividing factor

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The
increasingly explosive conflict in the Middle
East, especially between Israel and the Arab
states, is becoming a major factor of divergence
between European and American public opinions.
Each side is seeing the conflict through ‘partisan’
eyes, as media coverage and political comments/analysis/actions
seem to be more and more one-sided. Therefore
TIESWEB has decided to do two things:
. to open a first file (this one) about the
conflict itself, in order to offer the dual
vision of this single reality through EU and
US press articles and websites
. to promote a new attempt involving European
and American people, as well as Israelis and
Arabs, aiming at building up a ‘common
dream’ of a peaceful and prosperous
Middle-East by 2020
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Jewish
Bulletin News
What do Israeli, Palestinian texts
say about conflict?
Today there are more than 1.8 million Israeli
and 1 million Palestinian in school in Israel
and the territories. What do they learn about
their own people, and about "the other"?
What do their history textbooks teach them about
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? History books
teach much more than the objective chronicle of
past events, says Ruth Firer, director of peace
education at the Truman Institute at Hebrew University
of Jerusalem. They present children with a narrative
-- the story a people tells about its own history
and the history of others.
Read
the whole article |
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La
Vanguardia
"Consequences of Mass Arab Immigration
to Europe"
Two recently released official reports (European
and Arab), which evaluated current demographic
characteristics and future trends suggest that
Europe faces a potential Arab immigrant onslaught,
perhaps as great as America endured during the
European immigration of the 19th and early 20th
centuries. An American report projects future
stagnation of Middle Eastern economies, all factors
causing Arab restlessness. Europe's aging population
will continue to be labor-thirsty for the next
two decades; the population of the Arab Middle
East is exploding and looking to move. If Arab
supply meets European demand over the next twenty
years, what are the implications? European immigrants
to the United States altered American culture,
urban demographics, spawned nativism, and changed
the nature of domestic politics.
Read
the whole article |
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Miftah
Israel's Settlements: A Key Obstacle to Peace
November 04, 2003, by Dror Etkes
The Israeli Peace Now movement established the
Settlements Watch project which monitors
the development of the settlements in the West
Bank and Gaza because we have always thought
settlements threaten our existence as a Jewish,
democratic state, weaken the security of Israel,
drain our economic resources and serve to maintain
Israeli rule over another people, thereby preventing
Israel from reaching peace with the Palestinians.
Read
the whole article |
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MidEastWeb
Understanding Middle East Events and History
I: Talking Points versus Understanding
Most people do not pay attention to politics and
history until they intrude rudely on their every
day lives. When a dramatic event occurs, a few
will rush off to find sources of information that
will explain, in “capsule summaries,”
what has happened. Media and Web sites provide
many glib and conflicting opinions, designed to
boost circulation and present a viewpoint, not
to inform.
Read
the whole article
|
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MidEastWeb
Understanding Middle East Events and History
II: What's in a Word? The Israel-Palestinian Conflict
and the World of Words
The area of Israel and Palestine is not rich in
resources. We have our famous conflict. It is
our conflict, and we are happy to export it. It
is our second greatest export.
What is our greatest export? It is not oil, as
there is no petroleum here to export. But we have
words, and have had words since words first created
civilization in the middle east. The middle east
is famous for exporting words. The Old Testament,
the New Testament, the propaganda of two sides
in the conflict, and fittingly enough, software,
are our greatest exports in all history. For the
Bible and the propaganda are programs for humans,
and people and history are "programmed"
by them, as well as by that other great program
for the human computer, the Qur'an.
Read
the whole article
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BBC
News
Q and A: Israel's criticism from within
The Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon has openly
criticised his country's treatment of Palestinians
- causing a public rift within Israel's cabinet.
The BBC's Jerusalem correspondent, Barbara Plett,
explains.
Were General Yaalon's comments a deliberate attempt
to force a change in policy?
According to Israeli media, the chief of staff
recommended to Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz that
restrictions in the occupied territories be eased
for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, as usually
happens.
Read
the whole article |
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The
Palestine Monitor
Israel's Aparthied Wall Aims at Ethnic Cleansing
The Israeli construction of the West Bank apartheid
wall is clearly a politically motivated maneuver
intent on reshaping the West Bank, rendering impossible
a viable Palestinian state, and with it any lasting
peace through a two state solution.
In reshaping the West Bank and slicing off huge
portions of Palestinian land east of the 1967
border, Israel has also annexed thousands of Palestinians
Palestinians it is now trying to expel through
forceful expulsion but also through destroying
any remaining quality of life within this isolated
area of land.
Read
the whole article |
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EUobserver
Poll controversy as Israel and US labelled
biggest threats to World peace
Over half of Europeans think that Israel now presents
the biggest threat to world peace according to
a controversial poll requested by the European
Commission. According to the same survey, Europeans
believe the United States contributes the most
to world instability along with Afghanistan, Iran,
Iraq and North Korea.
Read
the whole article |
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CNN
Sharon to Putin: Israel willing to make 'concessions'
In Moscow for meetings with Russian President
Vladimir Putin and other officials, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday that Israel
is willing to make "concessions in exchange
for peace."
"Israel is the only country in the world
that is ready to make concessions, even though
it hasn't lost a single war," Sharon said,
according to Russia's Interfax news agency.
However, Sharon added, Israel will not make concessions
on the issue of security.
Read
the whole article |
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International
Herald Tribune
An unofficial peace plan worthy of support
The unofficial Middle East peace plan unveiled
in Geneva on Oct. 12 by former Israeli and Palestinian
officials is the first hopeful initiative since
the collapse of the Taba peace negotiations in
2001.
It could be even more. This Geneva initiative
is a detailed draft settlement, not just another
plan of how to get from here to there. It bears
no comparison to the road map, a sham from the
start. The Israeli government of Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon never intended to accept the road
map, and the Bush administration never intended
to enforce it.
Read
the whole article
|
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International
Herald Tribune
Pursuing Mideast peace
Ami Ayalon took over as chief of the Shin Bet
security service in Israel in 1996, as a string
of Palestinian suicide bombings massacred scores
of Israelis. In the first nine months of 2000,
the year he left office, there was one Israeli
death from Palestinian terror. Much as he would
like to take credit for the shift, Ayalon says,
it had little to do with Israeli security techniques
and a great deal to do with Palestinians' hopes
for a state. When there was optimism about their
political future, he said, support for violence
plummeted, and Palestinian security services fought
radicals. When hope declined, terror rose and
no one lifted a finger to stop it. The most urgent
task for Israel today, he says rightly, is to
find a way to renew that hope.
Read
the whole article |
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The
Boston Globe
Israel to ease blockade
Israeli security officials said yesterday the
army would relax its West Bank blockade to bolster
Ahmed Qurei, the Palestinian prime minister, in
a power struggle with Yasser Arafat that is delaying
US-backed peace moves.
Security sources said Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz
had also decided in principle to remove 10 to
20 Jewish settlement outposts on occupied West
Bank land. He is to hold talks in Washington with
US officials who want the outposts uprooted.
Read
the whole article |
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International
Herald Tribune
To American Jews: Israel needs your criticism
Next week, 4,000 leaders of the organized Jewish
community in North America will convene in Jerusalem
for their annual General Assembly to discuss with
their Israeli hosts the "shaping of our common
future." As I intend to participate, I would
be happy if one of the Jewish American participants
grabbed me by the sleeve and demanded to know
what Israel was doing in Gaza. Why Gaza? Because,
in a nutshell, it embodies the major problems
Israel is now facing.
Read
the whole article |
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