A LONG AND BUMPY ROAD

Foreigners are trying yet again to bring peace to Israel and Palestine


AS AN array of diplomats intensify their efforts to consolidate the ceasefire that took hold in the Gaza Strip after January 18th, the battered territory’s 1.5m people were still gasping for desperately-needed help. Gazans are terrified that violence might return, as tit-for-tat attacks resumed at a relatively low but still dangerous level. Most Gazans now rely on food handouts to survive. Meanwhile, representatives of Israel, various Palestinian factions and the European Union, as well as America’s new peace envoy, George Mitchell, converged on Egypt’s capital, Cairo, to hash out the terms of a more lasting peace.

The talks covered not only the securing of a formal ceasefire and getting immediate humanitarian aid into the stricken territory, but a range of other tricky issues. These included longer-term arrangements for Gaza’s border crossings, the fate of a kidnapped Israeli soldier held by Hamas and of thousands of Palestinians held by Israel, and a power-sharing deal between Hamas and its rivals. If Hamas were bound into a broader Palestinian government, outsiders could help the Palestinians while still not dealing directly with the Islamist group, which has preserved de facto control of Gaza despite the ferocity of Israel’s three-week assault.

Neither Israel nor Hamas wants the fighting to resume. Both have signalled that they would accept a year-long ceasefire; Hamas has privately hinted at 18 months. Egypt suggested February 5th as a starting date. Hamas has also said it could accept international observers inside Gaza’s borders to monitor the ceasefire. The Islamist party, which seized control of the territory from the Palestinian Authority (PA) run by the rival Fatah group in 2007, insists that the borders must be fully opened to trade. But Israel, which has blockaded Gaza since Hamas took over, is determined to maintain strict inspections in any circumstance. Israel is still, for instance, blocking shipments of cement and reinforced steel for building, on the ground that they may serve military purposes.

Despite the pressure for calm, Israeli aircraft came back to bomb the smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border on the night of January 27th, putting hundreds of Gazans to flight yet again. That wave of attacks, said Israel, was in reprisal for a bomb that hit an Israeli patrol on the Gaza-Israel border, killing a soldier. Hamas, which denied responsibility for that blast, then responded by launching a rocket, which landed harmlessly in Israel.

The border bomb was probably laid by a small group, World Jihad. But Israel said it held Hamas responsible. The country’s three main leaders, Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak, respectively prime minister, foreign minister and defence minister, all insisted publicly that drastic retaliation was needed to bolster the deterrence they claim to have re-established as a result of the Gaza campaign.

The new envoy’s priorities
In any event, Israel’s ministers were plainly anxious to complete that round of reprisals just before Mr Mitchell landed in Israel. He was expected first to focus on bolstering the ceasefire, channelling reconstruction aid through the Fatah-run PA rather than Hamas, and on measures to stop arms reaching Gaza via tunnels under the border with Egypt or by sea from Iran.

To this end, the Americans and Danes were planning a conference in Copenhagen in early February. France, Germany and other European governments could join a naval force, perhaps under NATO’s aegis, to patrol the sea off Gaza. Egypt, nervous that foreign troops on its side of the Gaza border might undermine its sovereignty in the Sinai desert, will probably also attend the meeting in Denmark. Israelis say they are gratified by how seriously foreign governments, especially America’s new one, are taking the challenge of stopping Hamas from rearming with rockets.

In a marked change of tone, Israeli officials have also praised Egypt for its stern attitude to Hamas and for its efforts to stop the smuggling, despite the bile poured on the Egyptians by Hamas’s many admirers. So Israel may drop its objection to Egypt’s long-standing demand to increase the size of its border force, which is limited by a mutual treaty. While Egypt has found it hard to block the tunnels, it has kept its official border with Gaza sealed to all but a trickle of humanitarian traffic, saying that the crossing’s Palestinian side should be controlled by a proper government body, such as the PA, but not by Hamas.

Israel still wants to link a full reopening of the crossings to the release of its kidnapped soldier, Gilad Shalit. Hamas so far rejects such a link, insisting on a separate prisoner swap. But Israel’s rulers, challenged by rivals on the right, would find it hard to give ground on this sensitive issue in the run-up to a general election on February 10th. France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, summoned Corporal Shalit’s father to Paris to reassure him that his son, a dual French-Israeli citizen, was still alive.

If the fighting has bolstered Israel’s right, the Palestinian factions aligned with Hamas also think it has boosted them. So they are sure to drive a hard bargain with Fatah as efforts to create a national unity government get going. Egyptian mediators want formal Fatah-Hamas reconciliation talks to start on February 22nd, but do not expect elections that would let the Palestinian people decide who they want to run their affairs to be held before next year. Yet without a unified Palestinian front it will be hard, if not impossible, for Israel to negotiate a peace that might endure.

U.N. CHIEF LAUNCHES $600M GAZA AID APPEAL

DAVOS, Switzerland (CNN) -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday launched a humanitarian appeal to provide emergency aid to the people of Gaza in the aftermath of Israel's military offensive in the region.


U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the cease-fire in Gaza was very fragile.

Ban, attending the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, said that $613 million was needed to re-establish basic services providing water, sanitation, healthcare and food to Gaza's 1.4 million people.

At least 1,300 Palestinians died and more than 5,000 were injured during the 22-day campaign, according to U.N. figures. Around 21,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged. Thirteen Israelis were killed, 10 of them soldiers, during the conflict, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel says the military offensive was aimed at rooting out Hamas militants responsible for launching rocket attacks into the south of the country from Gazan territory.

Ban, who described the destruction in Gaza as "heartbreaking" during a tour of the territory last week, said the $613 million fund would be sufficient to meet the needs of the U.N. and other aid organizations in Gaza for the next nine months.

John Holmes, the head of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), also called on Israel to lift an 18-month blockade which had "deepened the vulnerability of Gaza's population," according to the U.N.

"We're asking for the crossing points to be opened fully -- otherwise, we won't be able to achieve what we want to achieve," Holmes told reporters.

A cease-fire between Israeli forces and Hamas militants has been in place since January 21.

But Israel launched a missile attack Wednesday, targeting tunnels along Gaza's southern border which it says are used by militants to smuggle weapons into the territory. That came after Palestinian militants detonated explosives in an attack on an Israeli military patrol on Tuesday, killing one soldier.

Ban said the cease-fire was "very fragile" and urged fresh diplomatic efforts to make it "more durable."

The near-four weeks of attacks destroyed public sector and private buildings in Gaza, affecting even the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's facilities and halting economic and social services, the Web site of the Palestinian Authority's Central Bureau of Statistics said.

Gaza's gross domestic product was slashed by 85 percent during the 22 days of war, and it could take a year for the economy to recover, the agency said in a preliminary report.

About 80 percent of crops in Gaza were destroyed, according to the agency.

Delegates at Davos are due to discuss the prospects of peace in Gaza and the Middle East at several sessions later Thursday.

Israeli President Shimon Peres, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Tony Blair, Special Envoy to the Middle East for the U.N.-led Quartet, will join delegates.

Meanwhile Thursday one of the U.N. humanitarian agency's former employees launched a stinging attack on the agency for not doing enough to distance itself from Hamas militants, who are sometimes on the agency's payroll.

The accusation was leveled in a scathing report by James Lindsay, a former legal adviser for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). He worked for the agency from 2000 until 2007.

He calls on the U.S. government -- one of UNRWA's largest donors -- to demand changes to the agency, which provides food and relief supplies to some 80 percent of Gaza's 1.5 million people.

Lindsay authored the 80-page report, released in January, for The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank that is widely viewed as a pro-Israeli lobbyist group. The institute, however, says that it seeks to provide "a balanced and realistic understanding of American interests in the Middle East."

Israel accused UNRWA of harboring Hamas militants in its shelters during the recent Gaza conflict, something the United Nations has vehemently denied. Gaza is controlled by Hamas, a Palestinian militant group that is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel because of its refusal to renounce violence and recognize the Jewish state.

In his report, Lindsay said UNRWA "has taken very few steps to detect and eliminate terrorists from the ranks of its staff or its beneficiaries and no steps at all to prevent members of terrorist organizations such as Hamas from joining its staff."

He also accuses the agency of political bias and fiscal mismanagement.

UNRWA's chief spokesman, Chris Gunness, was quick to defend to the agency, saying that Lindsay's report "wholly misrepresents UNRWA and the services it provides to Palestine refugees."

He said the article demonstrated a "regrettable absence of balance and integrity" and "misled" readers by providing them "no access to pertinent (and) authentic information."

UNRWA plans to prepare a detailed response to the report.

TURKISH PM STORMS OFF IN GAZA ROW

Turkey's prime minister has stormed off the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos after a heated debate on Gaza with Israel's president.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan clashed with Shimon Peres, whose voice had risen as he made an impassioned defence of Israel's actions, jabbing his finger.
Mr Erdogan said Mr Peres had spoken so loudly to conceal his "guilt".
He accused the moderator of not allowing him to speak and said he did not think he would return to Davos.
The Turkish PM stressed later that he had left the debate not because of his disagreements with Mr Peres but because he had been given much less time to speak than the Israeli leader.
Turkey is one of the few Muslim countries to have dealings with Israel, but relations have been under strain since the Islamist-rooted AK Party was elected to power in 2002.
Late on Thursday, a WEF official said that Mr Peres and Mr Erdogan had spoken by mobile telephone, and both men now considered the matter closed.
Dinner time
In the debate, Mr Erdogan was cut off as he attempted to reply to Mr Peres.

Many of the casualties in Gaza have been children, doctors say
Earlier the Turkish Prime Minister had made an address himself, describing Gaza as an "open-air prison".
When the audience applauded Mr Peres, he said: "I find it very sad that people applaud what you said. You killed people. And I think that it is very wrong."
The moderator, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, had given him a minute to reply, then asked him to finish, saying that people needed to go to dinner.
"I do not think I will be coming back to Davos after this because you do not let me speak," Mr Erdogan shouted before marching off the stage in front of Mr Peres, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and an elite audience of ministers and international officials.
Mr Peres had told the audience Israel was forced on to the offensive against Hamas by thousands of rockets and mortars fired into Israel.
"The tragedy of Gaza is not Israel, it is Hamas," the Israeli leader said.
"Why did they fire rockets? There was no siege against Gaza. Why did they fight us, what did they want? There was never a day of starvation in Gaza."
He argued that Mr Erdogan would have reacted in the same way if rockets had hit Istanbul.
More than 1,300 Palestinians and 14 Israelis were killed during the three-week conflict which began on 27 December.
At news conference later on Thursday, Mr Erdogan complained that he had been allowed to speak just 12 minutes to 25 for Mr Peres.
"I did not target at all in any way the Israeli people, President Peres or the Jewish people," he said.
"I am a prime minister, a leader who has specifically expressly stated that anti-Semitism is a crime against humanity."

'YOU ARE KILLING PEOPLE' ERDOGAN TELLS PERES

'You are killing people,' Erdogan tells Peres
By Haaretz Staff and Agencies

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stalked off the stage yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland after sparring with President Shimon Peres over the fighting in Gaza. The incident occurred hours after a Spanish investigative judge decided to open a criminal investigation into seven Israeli officers and government officials who were involved in the assassination of Hamas master terrorist Salah Shehadeh in July 2002. In addition to Shehadeh, the operation killed 14 civilians. Therefore, Judge Fernando Andreu declared, it might constitute a crime against humanity. In Davos, Peres and Erdogan engaged in a lengthy debate about the Gaza operation, during which both men raised their voices and shouted - highly unusual behavior at this elite gathering. "You are killing people," Erdogan told Peres at one point. But as the session was ending, Erdogan asked the moderator, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, to let him speak once more.
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"I remember two former prime ministers in your country who said they felt very happy when they were able to enter Palestine on tanks," Erdogan then told Peres, speaking in Turkish. "I find it very sad that people applaud what you said. There have been many people killed. And I think that it is very wrong and it is not humanitarian." Ignatius interjected, "We can't start the debate again. We just don't have time." "Please let me finish," Erdogan urged, but Ignatius responded, "we really do need to get people to dinner." The Turkish premier then said, "Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I don't think I will come back to Davos after this" - and left the podium. The packed audience at the Erdogan-Peres session appeared stunned. "I have known Shimon Peres for many years and I also know Erdogan," said former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. "I have never seen Shimon Peres so passionate as he was today. I think he felt Israel was being attacked by so many in the international community. He felt isolated." "I was very sad that Erdogan left," he added. "This was an expression of how difficult this situation is." In Spain, Judge Andreu's writ named seven Israelis as suspects: then defense minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who is currently national infrastructure minister; then Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon; then air force commander Dan Halutz; then GOC Southern Command Giora Eiland; Dorog Almog, who headed the national security staff at the time; Mike Herzog, then Ben-Eliezer's military secretary; and Avi Dichter, then head of the Shin Bet security service, who is today public security minister. However, the writ did not request their arrest. Andreu also wrote to both Israel and the Palestinian Authority requesting permission to send Spanish police investigators to the Gaza Strip to pursue the probe. Although Spain has no connection to the case, it is one of several European countries that claim universal jurisdiction. As a result, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights chose Spain as a suitable venue for filing a criminal complaint, and yesterday, Andreu acceded to its request that he launch an investigation. In his decision, Andreu wrote that dropping a bomb "on one of the most crowded neighborhoods in Gaza" was potentially a crime against humanity. The use of a one-ton bomb was "exaggerated and disproportionate," he added, and the IDF "was aware of ramifications of the bombing." Several of the current and former officers named in the writ expressed bitterness at the state's handling of the incident, and particularly blamed the Justice Ministry. "Had the State of Israel dealt with Spain's request eight months ago with the requisite seriousness, the requisite speed and at a high enough level, we might never have come to this decision," said one person involved in the affair. He was referring to a letter Andreu sent in August 2008, in which he asked Israel for additional information about the assassination. A few months ago, the Justice Ministry did warn all the officers involved to avoid traveling to Spain. Now, however, they may also need to avoid any country with which Spain has an extradition treaty. In response to the decision, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos promised his Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni, that he would make every effort to convince the judge to reverse his decision. However, he noted, the Spanish judiciary is completely independent, so there is no guarantee that Andreu will accede to this request. Livni also directed the Israeli embassy in Madrid to ask the judge to cancel the investigation. The embassy will submit its request today. Defense Minister Ehud Barak termed Andreu's decision "delusional," adding: "Anyone who calls the liquidation of a terrorist a 'crime against humanity' is living in an upside-down world." Ben-Eliezer termed it "ridiculous and outrageous," adding: "I don't regret the [assassination] decision. Salah Shehadeh was an arch-murderer. Had we not assassinated him, he would have continued carrying out terror attacks." The assassination was postponed three times because civilians were known to be in Shehadeh's vicinity, he noted, and when it was finally approved, it was because there was no information indicating that civilians were present at the time. Meanwhile, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened yesterday to kidnap more Israelis, claiming that Israel has not yet returned the bodies of 350 Lebanese and Palestinians living in Lebanon, and therefore, "the file is still open." He also once again blamed Israel for last year's assassination of his organization's operations officer, Imad Mughniyeh, and vowed revenge. In 2006, Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers sparked the Second Lebanon War. Also yesterday, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh urged U.S. President Barack Obama to change America's traditionally pro-Israel approach to the Middle East.