Thursday, October 06, 2011
Elder of Ziyon
Thursday, October 06, 2011Elder of ZiyonUnknown assailants have scrawled graffiti, including swastikas, on the walks of Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. Soldiers and worshippers arriving at the holy site on Wednesday night, exactly one year after the completion of its renovation, rushed to erase the graffiti.CNN adds
Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika placed responsibility on the "Palestinian police terrorists."
When the first soldiers and worshippers arrived at the site, they immediately painted the graffiti in white and the prayer began.
Council head Mesika responded to the vandalism at the site, saying that "only barbarians could do such a horrible thing. People capable of desecrating such a holy site in a pathological manner do not deserve to be called humans."
The Israeli Civil Administration filed a complaint with the Palestinian Authority.Israel HaYom:
The vandalism at Joseph's Tomb included anti-Jewish writing as well as swastikas.
Israel's chief rabbis expressed their outrage at the attack. In a joint statement, Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger said it was "unacceptable that holy places become the targets of attacks of revenge between religions."
The chief rabbis called on the leadership of all the faiths in the Holy Land and across the world to loudly denounce the attack on Joseph's Tomb, as well as introduce into their flocks great respect for holy places.
Thursday, October 06, 2011Elder of ZiyonIsraeli officials will temporarily lift a ban on agricultural exports from the Gaza Strip to allow the entry of palm fronds used to mark a Jewish holiday, a newspaper report said Wednesday.
Maariv, a Hebrew-language Israeli daily, said the defense ministry agreed to alllow 100,000 lulavs to enter Israel from Gaza on a "one-time basis" ahead of Sukkot, which starts next week.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak authorized importing the lulavs from Gaza to avert a "crisis" caused by Egypt's refusal this year to approve the sale of the fronds, Maariv reported.
"What a revealing double standard," said UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness.Gunness did not mention that Israel restricts exports from Gaza not only for security reasons but also to retain some leverage over Hamas. Security is not only stopping the smuggling of weapons.
"When Israel's theocratic echelons need agricultural produce for a Jewish religious celebration, imports from Gaza are authorized, yet since June 2007 this has apparently been an insurmountable security threat.
"Now the truth is laid bare," Gunness told Ma'an.
Israeli traders will buy between 70,000 and 100,000 lulavs – palm tree fronds that are one of the Four Species of Sukkot – from Jordan. Another initiative – to buy 50,000 lulavs from Gaza traders who smuggled them into Gaza from Sinai – was vetoed by the Hamas terror group that rules over Gaza.I wonder if Gunness will issue a statement on how Hamas is subjecting Gazans to collective punishment.
Thursday, October 06, 2011Elder of ZiyonReporters Without Borders is worried by the Hamas interior ministry’s adoption of new rules for foreign journalists that will restrict their access to the Gaza Strip.The official PA Wafa news agency adds:
Under the new rules, adopted on 25 September, every foreign journalist wanting to visit the Gaza Strip will have to apply in advance to the interior ministry in Gaza, and processing the application could take several days.
Journalists submitting applications will have to include a photocopy of their passport and ID photos, and will have to name a “guarantor” in the Gaza Strip.
A number of foreign employees and local journalists in Gaza complained of restrictions imposed by Hamas on the entry of foreigners into the sector, forcing them to pay 'access control' fees in order to make more money for its treasury.That last part I hadn't heard of before. Since most foreign journalists cannot get around Gaza without locals, Hamas leans on the locals and threatens or punishes them if their guest writes anything that Hamas doesn't like.
The sources added that a number of journalists and staff of institutions that support humanitarian projects in the sector remain in Jerusalem, and refuse to come to Gaza because of the restrictions.
One expatriate staff member told Wafa, "We have no problem with the registration of in and out of Gaza; the problem in the payment of funds to Hamas. To give money to Hamas means funding a designated terrorist organization and the legal [complications] may result in suspension of relief projects in Gaza. "
Sources told Wafa that Hamas imposes restrictions on foreigners in order to monitor local journalists who work in the sector in addition to acquiring funds from the so-called 'access control' levy.
Hamas charges about $10 to any foreigners who want to stay in Gaza, and the procedures required to register before entering takes at least five days.
A local journalist who refused to be named said, 'if a foreign journalist wrote material critical of Hamas, the local journalist, who acts as his assistant and translator, is the one who bears the responsibility and this constitutes a threat to it. "
The journalist added that there are numerous restrictions faced by journalists in Gaza and they can not shoot or write anything about what is really happening in Gaza behind the scenes.
Thursday, October 06, 2011Elder of Ziyon
In fact, Ahmadinejad is not the power broker in Iran; it is Khamenei. Khamenei, in fact, has been consistent in speaking of his hatred of Israel, but without a military context, as he demonstrated once again this week. Moreover, the fact that Ahmadinejad was merely quoting Khomeini suggests that even less weight should have been given to his words, especially since there is a dispute over the precise meaning in English.
The Islamic Republic’s proposal to help resolve the Palestinian issue and heal this old wound is a clear and logical initiative based on political concepts accepted by world public opinion, which has already been presented in detail. We do not suggest launching a classic war by the armies of Muslim countries, or throwing immigrant Jews into the sea, or mediation by the UN and other international organizations. We propose holding a referendum with [the participation of] the Palestinian nation. The Palestinian nation, like any other nation, has the right to determine their own destiny and elect the governing system of the country.
What is posing a threat to the Zionist regime is not the missiles of Iran or resistance groups… the real threat, which can never be countered, is the strong will of men, women, and the youth in Muslim countries, who no longer want the United States, Europe, and their subservient elements to rule over them and humiliate them. However, if a threat is posed by the enemy, those missiles will fulfill their functions.Once Kessler goes so far to try to provide context for Iran's threats against Israel, it is very strange that he concludes that those threats have never been military.
Wednesday, October 05, 2011Elder of ZiyonAP omits that since the Israeli occupation began in 1967, almost 900,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli forces.
Wednesday, October 05, 2011Elder of ZiyonPrecious Bible manuscripts originating in the Jewish community of Damascus, Syria, went on display for several hours Wednesday, offering a rare glimpse at a collection that includes books spirited to Israel in clandestine operations before the ancient community disappeared at the end of the 20th century.
The books are held at Israel's national library. Because of security and conservation concerns, most of the collection has been on display just once before, also for just a few hours, more than a decade ago.
The collection includes 11 volumes. Three, including the oldest and most important book in the collection, were brought out of the library's vaults and displayed during a symposium Wednesday evening.
Ranging from 700 to 1,000 years old and written in the Middle East and Europe, the parchment manuscripts include meticulous Hebrew penmanship and illustrations in ink and gold leaf. Some boast intricate micrography - decorations made up of thousands of tiny Hebrew letters.
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| Genesis 12 |
Zionist occupation security forces, with the help of Israeli Mossad, have succeeded in stealing 11 Old Testament books, some dating back 1,000 years.But some of the details show that they were jealously guarded by the Jewish community; none of them were written in Syria:
The oldest of the Damascus Crowns was written in the late 10th century A.D. in what is now Israel. Because it shows the influence of two rival schools of textual scholars, it has provided modern researchers with important information on how the Biblical text evolved. It was purchased by a famed British collector of manuscripts, David Solomon Sassoon, in 1914 and taken to Britain. The library purchased it in 1975.From what I can see in the photo that shows the text, it looks beautifully written, a bit more artistic than the Aleppo Codex.
Another of the books displayed Wednesday, a 700-year-old Bible that scholars believe was written in Italy, had a riskier journey to Jerusalem.
Beginning in the late 1970s, a Canadian Jewish woman, Judy Feld Carr, undertook an effort to smuggle Jews out of Syria, raising money from North American synagogues, bribing Syrian officials, dispatching envoys and running an independent immigration operation for more than 20 years from her living room in Toronto. All told, Feld Carr's endeavor facilitated the emigration of more than 3,000 Syrian Jews.
Feld Carr learned of the manuscript, she said, from Jews who had already fled, and dispatched a contact to Damascus in 1993. She would identify the man only as a Western Christian who died last year.
Feld Carr orchestrated a meeting in Damascus between her envoy and the community's rabbi, she recounted. The rabbi slipped him the book, and the man then smuggled it out of the country hidden under his raincoat in a black shopping bag. The book reached Feld Carr in Canada and came to Israel the next year.
While the book was in her possession, Feld Carr saw there were two records of purchase appended to the manuscript. One showed it had changed hands in Spain before Jews were expelled from the country in 1492, and the second recounted another sale in the Ottoman Empire, where many Jews found refuge.
"It went from Italy to Castille, to Constantinople, to Damascus, and then to Toronto - this book was the story of the Jewish people," she said.
The eight books that were not put on display at the library Wednesday arrived in Israel in the 1990s in murkier circumstances, smuggled out of Syria via the West in an operation conducted by Israel's intelligence services. Few details of that smuggling operation have been disclosed. Aviad Stollman, the library curator in charge of the collection, said the eight books were not displayed to avoid putting a spotlight on a story that remains largely classified.
In Damascus, the manuscripts were guarded in some of the 24 synagogues that existed before the community's emigration. They were taken out only on special occasions or with permission from community leaders, said Shlomo Baso, a Damascus-born rabbi.
Wednesday, October 05, 2011Elder of Ziyon
unrwaThousands of Gaza teachers quit classes Wednesday to protest at a U.N. refugee agency's suspension of a Palestinian staffer, raising tension between UNRWA and Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers.Islam Online writes:
The Local Staff Union, a pro-Hamas body, called for a general strike Wednesday, the second such action in a week, to protest at UNRWA's suspension of the head of the union, Suhail Al-Hindi. Hamas sources said the U.N. agency had accused Hindi of meeting with Hamas political officials.
Buses took some 7,000 teachers employed at UNRWA-run schools to U.N. headquarters in Gaza city where they held a sit-in, calling for an end to "UNRWA political punishment of employees."
"Death rather than humiliation" read a banner held by striking teachers. "Deception, lying and hypocrisy have become the core values of UNRWA," read another.
The strike affected all of UNRWA's 243 schools in Gaza.
Hindi told the teachers he would stand against "oppression and injustice" but added that Palestinians saw UNRWA as a symbol of the cause of refugees and that its role should be preserved "until the Israeli occupation is removed."
Hamas lawmakers often criticize UNRWA's education policies and some accuse it of trying to teach material that encourages normalization with Israel or educate pupils about the Holocaust.
UNRWA denies this is part of its curriculum.
Palestinian political analysts described the conflicts taking place between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and Hamas as a “hidden war” between the two. This conflict has been taking place for over five years with regards to who has authority to manage Gaza’s affairs.The rhetoric increased at today's rally, as the terminated union head said that UNRWA is pushing its own agenda and is engaging in "intellectual terrorism" fro creating a curriculum not to Hamas' liking. He also said that UNRWA didn't protest the Palmer report.
The conflicts between Hamas and UNRWA never seem to subside; whenever the tension between the two over an issue ends, another begins.
...UNRWA media advisor Adnan abu Hasneh denied Hamas’ accusations. He said during his speech with Islam Online that UNRWA is offended by the repeated accusations made by Hamas, adding: “the decision to terminate the union chairman was due to his participation in a political activity, which is against UN laws that ban its workers from engaging in political activities…This applies to everyone with no exceptions.”
Wednesday, October 05, 2011Elder of ZiyonIf we consider the subject dispassionately, the idea of a "Jewish State" is logically and morally problematic because of its legal, religious, historical and social implications. The implications of this term therefore need to be spelled out, and we are sure that once they are, most people - and most Israeli citizens, we trust - will not accept these implications.This is true. Judaism is more than a religion and Jews are more than just adherents of a religion - they are a people, they are a nation, and they have been recognized as such way before the establishment of modern Israel.
...First, let us say that confusion immediately arises here because the term "Jewish" can be applied both to the ancient race of Israelites and their descendants, as well as to those who believe in and practice the religion of Judaism. These generally overlap, but not always. For example, some ethnic Jews are atheists and there are converts to Judaism (leaving aside the question of whether these are accepted as such by Ultra-Orthodox Jews) who are not ethnic Jews.
Second, let us suggest also that having a modern nation-state being defined by one ethnicity or one religion is problematic in itself - if not inherently self-contradictory - because the modern nation-state as such is a temporal and civic institution, and because no state in the world is - or can be in practice - ethnically or religiously homogenous.This is a red herring, as no one is saying that Israel must be ethnically or religiously homogenous. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find even the most extreme right-wing Zionist advocating that Israel kick out its non-Jewish citizens or residents (or forcibly convert them), which is what Nusseibeh is implying.
Third, recognition of Israel as a "Jewish state" implies that Israel is, or should be, either a theocracy (if we take the word "Jewish" to apply to the religion of Judaism) or an apartheid state (if we take the word "Jewish" to apply to the ethnicity of Jews), or both, and in all of these cases, Israel is then no longer a democracy - something which has rightly been the pride of most Israelis since the country's founding in 1948..More nonsense. Keep in mind that Israeli leaders have considered Israel to be a Jewish state since its inception, and by any yardstick Israel cannot be considered a theocracy nor an apartheid state. Israel's policies are created by its own leadership, not by the rest of the world - so why would recognition of this reality by the outside world affect Israel's internal policies? It's being recognized as a Jewish state by outsiders would not change Israel's internal character one bit.
Fourth, at least one in five Israelis - 20 per cent of the population, according to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics - is ethnically Arab (and are mostly either Muslim, Christian, Druze or Bahai), and recognising Israel as a "Jewish State" as such makes one-fifth of the population of Israel automatically strangers in their own native land and opens the door to legally reducing them, most undemocratically, to second-class citizens (or perhaps even stripping them of their citizenship and other rights) - something that no-one, much less a Palestinian leader, has a right to do.Again, almost complete nonsense. I would be the first to admit that there is a certain amount of tension between the concepts of a "Jewish state" and a pure democracy; a Jewish state would give small amounts of preference to Jews in terms of citizenship and perhaps a couple of other areas. Other countries have other criteria for citizenship that discriminate between desired immigrants and undesired immigrants. European countries do not allow most Muslim Arab immigrants to become citizens very easily. This just shows that no one is purely democratic and similar tensions exist everywhere - it does not repudiate the idea of a democratic state that identifies with some people more than others.
Fifth, recognising a "Jewish State" as such in Israel would mean legally that while Palestinians no longer have citizens' rights there, any member of world Jewry outside of Israel (up to 10 million people perhaps), should be entitled to full citizens' rights there, no matter wherever they may be in the world today and regardless of their current nationality. Indeed, Israel publicly admits that it does not hold the land for the benefit of its citizens but holds it, in trust, on behalf of the Jews of the world for all time. This is something that happens in practice, but that obviously Palestinians in the occupied territories - including Jerusalem - do not see as fair, especially as they are constantly forcibly evicted off their ancestral homeland by Israel to make way for foreign Jewish settlers, and because Palestinians in their diaspora are denied the same right to come and live.Here Nusseibeh shows that he is knowingly being deceptive.
Sixth, it means, before final status negotiations have even started, that Palestinians would have then given up the rights of about 7 million Palestinians in the diaspora to repatriation or compensation; 7 million Palestinians descended from the Palestinians who in 1900 lived in historical Palestine (ie what is now Israel, the West Bank including Jerusalem, and Gaza) and at that time made up 800,000 of its 840,000 inhabitants; and who were driven off their land through war, violent eviction or fear.Those rights are nonexistent, and if Arab leaders had been honest with them and treated them like other refugee populations they would have normal, productive lives today. In the same decade of their losing their homes, tens of millions of other people lost theirs - and yet today they are no longer refugees! The "refugee" problem is an artificial issue kept alive for one reason only - to destroy Israel demographically.
Seventh, recognising a "Jewish state" in Israel - a state which purports to annex the whole of Jerusalem, East and West, and calls Jerusalem its "eternal, undivided capital" (as if the city, or even the world itself, were eternal; as if it were really undivided, and as if it actually were legally recognised by the international community as Israel's capital) - means completely ignoring the fact that Jerusalem is as holy to 2.2 billion Christians and 1.6 billion Muslims, as it is to 15-20 million Jews worldwide.More nonsense. Israel has not erased any Muslim or Christian history from Jerusalem. Israeli archaeologists regularly uncover and publicize ancient Muslim sites, just as they do for Byzantine and Jewish sites. The only people who tried to excise a religion from Jerusalem were the Arabs in 1948, as the Jordanians bragged about destroying some 70 synagogues in the course of a single month.
[I]t remains true that, in the Old Testament, God commands the Jewish state in the land of Israel to come into being through warfare and violent dispossession of the original inhabitants. Moreover, this command has its roots in the very Covenant of God with Abraham (or rather "Abram" at that time) in the Bible and it thus forms one of the core tenets of Judaism as such, at least as we understand it. No one then can blame Palestinians and descendents of the ancient Canaanites, Jebusites and others who inhabited the land before the Ancient Israelites (as seen in the Bible itself) for a little trepidation as regards what recognising Israel as a "Jewish State" means for them, particularly to certain Orthodox and Ultra Orthodox Jews. No one then can blame Palestinians for asking if recognising Israel as a "Jewish State" means recognising the legitimacy of offensive warfare or violence against them by Israel to take what remains of Palestine from them....This is beyond ridiculous. Even the most religious extremist Zionist Jew isn't calling for the genocide of all non-Jewish inhabitants of Biblical Israel, and in fact nothing of the sort has happened. Nothing would change in that regard by Arabs recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.
In short, recognition of Israel as a "Jewish State" in Israel is not the same as, say, recognition of Greece today as a "Christian State". It entails, in the Old Testament itself, a Covenant between God and a Chosen People regarding a Promised Land that should be taken by force at the expense of the other inhabitants of the land and of non-Jews. This idea is not present as such in other religions that we know of.
Wednesday, October 05, 2011Elder of Ziyon
Wednesday, October 05, 2011Elder of Ziyon
Wednesday, October 05, 2011Elder of ZiyonIsraeli scientist Daniel Shechtman has won the 2011 Nobel Prize in chemistry, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Wednesday.Mazel tov to Dr. Shechtman!
The Academy honored Shechtman for the discovery of "quasicrystals" – patterns in atoms which were thought impossible, adding that Shechtman's discovery in 1982 had fundamentally changed the way chemists look at solid matter.
"Contrary to the previous belief that atoms were packed inside crystals in symmetrical patterns, Shechtman showed that the atoms in a crystal could be packed in a pattern that could not be repeated," the RSAS said.
"His discovery was extremely controversial. In the course of defending his findings, he was asked to leave his research group. However, his battle eventually forced scientists to reconsider their conception of the very nature of matter," it said
Shechtman, 70, is a distinguished professor at the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa [Technion].
In 2009, Israeli scientist Ada Yonath was awarded the Nobel Chemistry Prize for showing how ribosomes function, work that has important implications for antibiotics.
Before Yonath eight Israelis have won the prestigious prize: Shmuel Yosef Agnon (Literature); Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres (Peace); Avram Hershko, Aaron Ciechanover (Chemistry); Robert Aumann and Daniel Kahneman (Economics).
Wednesday, October 05, 2011Elder of ZiyonPalestinians rallied Tuesday against US diplomats who were visiting the occupied West Bank, shouting slogans outside a restaurant, onlookers said.
Police kept the protesters away from the Ramallah restaurant where diplomats were hosting an event for graduates and other beneficiaries of US programs, a Ma'an correspondent said.
About 20 activists watched by the police had chanted defiant slogans in English, shouting "No to American funding" and "Yes we can -- boycott America", Reuters reported.
Demonstrators also chanted "USAID go home", and "Shame on you". One man hurled his shoe.
Palestinian Authority police denied intervening in the demonstration, which they said was peaceful. In a statement, the police also denied that protesters had thrown shoes at the diplomats.
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| Palestinians yell at a U.S. diplomatic vehicle during protest against U.S. in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011. Angry Palestinians accosted a top American official Tuesday during a celebratory West Bank visit in honor of Palestinians who graduated from American-funded education programs. About 30 protesters blocked the convoy of Daniel Rubinstein, the U.S. consul-general in Jerusalem, chanting "shame on you" and hurling shoes at his vehicle. Throwing shoes is deeply insulting in Arab culture. (AP) |
Wednesday, October 05, 2011Elder of ZiyonStrasbourg, 04.10.2011 – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) today voted to grant “Partner for democracy” status to the Palestinian National Council – only the second time such status has been accorded.Here are the promises that the Palestinian National Council made in order to be granted this status:
Presenting the report at today’s debate, Tiny Kox (Netherlands, UEL) said the status “created new opportunities for the Palestinian people” and could be seen as part of the Arab Spring. The Speaker of the Palestinian National Council Salim Al-Za’noon hailed the decision as “historic” and said it could contribute to establishing peace in the region.
A six-member delegation of Palestinian elected representatives will be able to speak in the Assembly and most of its committees, and propose subjects for debate, but cannot vote.
In return, the Palestinian National Council – in a letter from its Speaker – has pledged to pursue the values upheld by the Council of Europe, hold free and fair elections and work towards abolishing the death penalty, among other commitments.
The Assembly will monitor other key issues such as concluding negotiations for a government of national unity, and making the Palestinian National Council a democratically-elected body. Other points include refraining from violence, rejecting terrorism, recognising the right of Israel to exist and freeing the soldier Gilad Shalit. The Assembly will review progress on these points within two years.
In June this year, the Parliament of Morocco became the first to be granted the new status, which is intended for parliaments from regions neighbouring the Council of Europe who wish to benefit from the Assembly’s experience of democracy-building and to debate common challenges.
The President of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is due to address the Assembly on Thursday.
4. The Assembly takes note that, in his letter, the Speaker of the Palestinian National Council, in line with the requirements set out in Rule 60.2 of the Rules of Procedure, reaffirmed that “the Palestinian National Council is committed to the same values as those of the Council of Europe, namely pluralist and gender parity-based democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms”, and committed itself to:Remarkably, the Israeli observer at the Council of Europe - Doron Avital of Kadima - supported this initiative in the debate:
4.1. “continuing [its] efforts to raise the awareness of the public authorities and the main players in politics and civil society of the need to make progress in the discussion of issues relating to the abolition of the death penalty and to encourage the authorities concerned to maintain the de facto moratorium that has been established on executions of the death penalty since 2005”;
4.2. “making full use, in [its] institutional and legislative work, of the experience of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, as well as the expertise of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), bearing in mind that the Palestinian National Authority has an observer status with the Venice Commission”;
4.3. “continuing [its] efforts to create favourable conditions for holding free, fair and transparent elections in compliance with relevant international standards”;
4.4. “encouraging equal participation of women and men in public life and politics”;
4.5. “encouraging the competent authorities of the Palestinian National Authority to accede to relevant Council of Europe conventions and partial agreements that are open for signature and ratification by non-member states, in particular those dealing with human rights, the rule of law and democracy issues”;
4.6. “inform[ing] the Assembly regularly on the state of progress made in the implementation of the principles of the Council of Europe”.
On behalf of the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, I want to convey our hopes that this step, when and if – only if – its commitments are consistently taken seriously, will in the end prove beneficial first to the welfare, well-being and future of the Palestinian society and, secondly, to the prospect of peace and reconciliation between our two societies.Palestinian Arabs are trumpeting this as a step on the way to statehood.
I also express my appreciation and respect for the work done in the Political Affairs Committee and, specifically, by Mr Kox. I commend his emphasis on presenting in the document the story of Gilad Shalit, and I remind the Council that Gilad Shalit has been in captivity and in Palestinian hands for the past five years, without being afforded any basic human rights. He has not even been allowed a visit by a representative of the International Red Cross. I emphasise that that issue is part of the commitment which the Palestinians take upon themselves in the context of this application, and I commend Mr Kox for including it in his document.
It is, frankly, no secret that in the Israeli Parliament there are voices who either recommend extreme cautiousness with respect to this step or bluntly object to it, yet I make it clear, as the head of the Israeli parliamentary delegation from the Knesset, that I have here today a full mandate to convey to you on behalf of our parliament, and on behalf of Israeli society at large, our hopes and belief that this step, as it represents a general drive in Palestinian society towards democracy and democratic ideals, will indeed prove helpful to the peace process and to the negotiations between our two societies, which I urge Palestinians to join.
A commitment to democracy and to democratic ideals, as all of us in this room know, is an ongoing and demanding process. We Israelis know that very well, as the most recent events on our streets have proven. I am glad that Palestinian society has expressed the will to take this big commitment upon itself, and I wish it success in this important endeavour.
I have no doubt that strengthening the democratic foundations of Palestinian society will prove a constructive and helpful step with respect to the peace process and, I hope, towards a historic resolution of the conflict between our two nations.
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