Israeli troops attack ship carrying aid to Gaza killing 16

Israeli commandos have stormed a flotilla of ships carrying activists and aid supplies to the blockaded Palestinian enclave of Gaza, killing as many as 16 of those on board.

DAILY TELEGRAPH 31st May 2010

By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent and Matthew Kalman in Jerusalem

Fighting broke out between the activists and the masked Israeli troops, who rappelled on to deck from helicopters before dawn.

A spokeswoman for the flotilla, Greta Berlin, said she had been told ten people had been killed and dozens wounded, accusing Israeli troops of indiscriminately shooting at "unarmed civilians". But an Israeli radio station said that between 14 and 16 were dead in a continuing operation.

"How could the Israeli military attack civilians like this?" Ms Berlin said. "Do they think that because they can attack Palestinians indiscriminately they can attack anyone?

"We have two other boats. This is not going to stop us."

But an Israeli military spokeswoman said that there had been a planned and organised attempt to "lynch" the boarding party. She said the activists were armed with knives and guns.

The Israeli government's handling of the confrontation was under intense international pressure even as it continued. The Israeli ambassador to Turkey, the base of one of the human rights organisation which organised the flotilla, was summoned by the foreign ministry in Anakara, as the Israeli consulate in Istanbul came under attack.

One Israeli minister issued immediate words of regret. "The images are certainly not pleasant. I can only voice regret at all the fatalities," Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, the trade and industry minister, told army radio.

But he added that the commandoes had been attacked with batons and activists had sought to take their weapons off them.

Israeli military sources said four of its men had been injured, one stabbed, and that they had been shot at.

"The flotilla's participants were not innocent and used violence against the soldiers. They were waiting for the forces' arrival," they were quoted by a news website as saying.

The flotilla had set sail on Sunday from northern, or Turkish, Cyprus. Six boats were led by the Mavi Marmara, which carried 600 activists from around the world, including Mairead Corrigan Maguire, the Northern Ireland peace protester who won a Nobel Prize in 1976.

It came under almost immediate monitoring from Israeli drones and the navy, with two vessels flanking it in international waters. The flotilla, which had been warned that it would not be allowed to reach Gaza, attempted to slow and change course, hoping to prevent a confrontation until daylight, when the Israeli military action could be better filmed.

But in the early hours of this morning local time commandoes boarded from helicopters.

The activists were not carrying guns, but television footage shown by al-Jazeera and Turkish television channels show hand-to-hand fighting, with activists wearing life-jackets striking commandoes with sticks.

The Israeli army said its troops were assaulted with axes and knives.

The television footage did not show firing but shots could be heard in the background. One man was shown lying unconscious on the deck, while another man was helped away.

A woman wearing hijab, the Muslim headscarf, was seen carrying a stretcher covered in blood.

The al-Jazeera broadcast stopped with a voice shouting in Hebrew: "Everyone shut up".

Israel imposed its blockade on Gaza after the strip was taken over by the militant group Hamas in 2007. It has allowed some food and medical supplies through, but has prevented large-scale rebuilding following the bombardment and invasion of 2008-9.

The flotilla is the latest in a series of attempts by activists to break through the blockade. The boats were carrying food and building supplies.

Activists said at least two of the other boats, one Greek and one Turkish, had been boarded from Israeli naval vessels. Activists said two of the other boats in the flotilla were American-flagged.

The confrontation took place in international waters 80 miles off the Gaza coast.

It was attacked by the head of the Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh.

"We call on the Secretary-General of the U.N., Ban Ki-moon, to shoulder his responsibilities to protect the safety of the solidarity groups who were on board these ships and to secure their way to Gaza," he said.

Turkish television meanwhile showed hundreds of protesters trying to storm the Israeli consulate in Istanbul. The incident will be particularly damaging for Israel's relations with what had been seen as its closest ally in the Muslim world.

"By targeting civilians, Israel has once again shown its disregard for human life and peaceful initiatives," a Turkish foreign ministry statement said. "We strongly condemn these inhumane practices of Israel.

"This deplorable incident, which took place in open seas and constitutes a fragrant breach of international law, may lead to irreparable consequences in our bilateral relations."

Tensions Escalate over Israel Raid on Gaza Aid Flotilla

Monday, May. 31, 2010

By MATTHEW KALMAN

Israel faces a wave of international condemnation and growing pressure to end its blockade on Gaza after 15 activists — all of them apparently Turkish — were killed and more than 30 injured after Israeli commandos boarded a ship attempting to carry banned supplies to the Hamas-controlled enclave.

Israel says it cannot allow free access to Gaza that would create a route to smuggle weapons and fighters into the area. Organizers of the flotilla say the list of banned goods includes cement, paper, wheelchairs and some foods.

The passenger ferry Mavi Marmari, carrying an estimated 500 passengers, was the largest of six ships in a flotilla sailing towards Gaza in international waters about 40 miles off the Israeli coast when elite Shayetet-13 naval commandos abseiled from helicopters onto the deck shortly before dawn on May 31.

Greta Berlin, an American founder of the Free Gaza Movement and one of the organizers of the flotilla who was on another ship, said the commandos hit the deck firing indiscriminately at unarmed civilians.

"We never thought Israel would be stupid enough to kill 10 people and wound at least 30," Berlin told Israel Radio.

"We are all civilians. Every one of us is a civilian who is trying to break Israel's blockade of one and a half million Palestinians," she said.

Television images broadcast from the ship showed passengers being treated on bloody stretchers. The dead and wounded were ferried to Israeli hospitals by helicopter. At least five Israeli commandos were hospitalized with gunshot and stab wounds.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the commandos had orders to use minimum force to commandeer the vessels and met only token resistance on the other five ships, which were commandeered without incident. But Barak said protestors on the Mava Marmari used "extreme violence" in their attempt to repel the boarders, attacking them with two pistols, knives, iron bars and other makeshift weapons. He said one of the passengers had seized a commando's gun and opened fire on the Israelis.

"We express our regret over the injuries, but the flotilla's organizers and its participants are fully responsible," Barak told a news conference in Tel Aviv.

A journalist who was accompanying the commandos, Ron Ben-Yishai of the Israeli Ynet news website, listened over radio as the raid unfolded and said the Israelis fell into a "brutal ambush."

"The passengers that awaited them on the deck pulled out bats, clubs, and slingshots with glass marbles, assaulting each soldier as he disembarked. The fighters were nabbed one by one and were beaten up badly, yet they attempted to fight back," Ben-Yishai reported.

"The commandos were equipped with handguns but were told they should only use them in the face of life-threatening situations. When they came down from the chopper, they kept on shouting to each other 'don't shoot, don't shoot,' even though they sustained numerous blows," he wrote.

The commandeered ships were brought into Ashdod port several hours later, where passengers were interrogated by interior ministry officials and police who said most would be deported but they would arrest any terrorist suspects.

Danny Ayalon, Israel's deputy foreign minister, claimed the IHH, the Turkish group operating the Mava Marmari, had "well-documented ties to Al-Qaeda and international jihad."

"We told them they would not be allowed to break the blockade," Ayalon said. "They were trying to create a free corridor of terrorist supplies to Gaza and to Hamas."

Israel's explanations for the pre-dawn assault failed to head off a growing diplomatic incident. Turkey accused Israel of "targeting innocent civilians", quickly withdrew its ambassador to Israel and called for an emergency United Nations security council meeting. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cut short his trip to Latin America to return to Ankara. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, cancelled his upcoming White House visit in order to deal with the situation.

The EU and UN both called for an end to Israel's blockade on Gaza.

Baroness Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, demanded a "full inquiry" into the incident and called for "an immediate, sustained and unconditional opening of the crossing for the flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons to and from Gaza."

"Israel appears to have lost its mind," says Soli Ozel, professor of international relations at Istanbul's Bilgi University. "This incident happened in international waters, there is nothing that can explain it." Ertugrul Ozkok, chief columnist for the Turkish daily Hurriyet, posted an emotional online editorial, saying he couldn't wait for the paper to come out the next day: "There is no aspect to this action by the Israeli government that is acceptable or excusable," he wrote. "I never expected this lunacy, this cruelty. As someone who lives in this region, it makes me afraid."

There was fury also among Israel's 1.6-million-strong Arab minority, whose leaders met in emergency session and declared a three-day general strike — a prelude in the past to rioting that has turned violent. Hamas claimed a moral victory against Israeli "piracy" while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the assault as a "massacre," declaring three days of official mourning and calling for an urgent meeting of the Arab League, expected to be held Wednesday. Palestinian demonstrators took to the streets of Ramallah and Bethlehem to denounce the Israeli actions.

Israeli police were placed on high alert, fearing that a wave of demonstrations could plunge the country back into intifada-style violence. In Nazareth, Israel's largest Arab city, youths took to the streets in spontaneous protest as the news broke in the early morning. Arab students also staged protests at Haifa University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. There was a heavy police presence in Wadi Ara, the artery connecting many Arab towns and villages in the Galilee, and security forces restricted access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, a frequent flashpoint for clashes.

—With reporting by Pelin Turgut

Pro-Palestinian activists set sail for Gaza

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists carrying aid have set sail for the blockaded Gaza Strip.

DAILY TELEGRAPH 30 May 2010

By Matthew Kalman in Jerusalem

Israeli Naval commandos were standing by to intercept the convoy of six ships sailing from Cyprus to Gaza in a symbolic attempt to break the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Hamas-controlled coastal strip.

The convoy is the sixth maritime mission launched by the Free Gaza Movement to protest the blockade imposed after Hamas seized control of Gaza from Fatah in a bloody coup in July 2007. It is carrying 600 passengers, including 28 Britons, 10 MEPs and some 10,000 tons of supplies, including construction materials and foodstuffs banned by Israel.

Last January, former MP George Galloway led a convoy of trucks through Egypt to deliver aid to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing but was refused entry by the Egyptian authorities, then expelled from the country.

Hanin Zuabi, an Arab member of Israel's Knesset parliament, who is on board, said: "The flotilla's purpose is not just to break the Gaza blockade, but also to break the blockade on the Israeli mind and soul." Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas government that controls Gaza, said the convoy had already won an important victory against the Israel's "pirate threats" by drawing world attention to the plight of the Palestinians.

Greta Berlin, one of the convoy's organisers, said Israel risked losing face if they confronted what was designed to be a humanitarian mission.

"The only scenario which makes any sense is for them to stop being the bully of the Middle East and let us go through," she said.

Israel said a Turkish charity backing the flotilla had clear links to Hamas.

Israel denies there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and says hundreds of tons of basic food and medical supplies are trucked in every day.

But a UN report published last week said the blockade was "suffocating" food production in Gaza.

"The entire fishing and farming sectors in the Gaza Strip are at risk of collapse. The Gaza population at-large is already becoming increasingly dependent on humanitarian aid," said Philippe Lazzarini, acting UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the region.

The Israeli military says it will intercept the convoy and then transfer permitted supplies overland through the normal routes. The protesters on the ships say they will offer passive resistance to naval boarding parties and are hoping to broadcast live coverage of the expected interception over the internet and Iran's Press TV.

Critics are warning that Israel's Gaza policy, designed to bring down the Hamas government and secure the release of abducted soldier Gilad Shalit, has failed to bring about those results and is in danger of accelerating the country's growing international isolation.

Protecting Its $18-Million Man

CHRNONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

TWEED BLOG May 28, 2010

The General Motors Company probably thought it was being clever, using the iconic image of Albert Einstein’s head — Photoshopped onto a half-naked, buff, tattooed torso — to advertise the carmaker’s new SUV alongside the slogan “Ideas are sexy too … That’s why we gave it more ideas per square inch.”

But the four-page ads that ran last fall in People magazine’s “Sexiest Man” issue got a failing grade from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, which owns the rights to Einstein’s likeness and his personal archive, including the manuscript of the Special Theory of Relativity.

Now the Detroit automaker is being sued for $75,000 by the university for breach of copyright, the Detroit Free Press reports.

“The tattooed, shirtless image of Dr. Einstein with his underpants on display is not consummate with and causes injury to” the Hebrew University’s “carefully guarded rights in the image and likeness of the famous scientist, political activist and humanitarian,” says the lawsuit filed on May 19 by lawyers acting for the university.

Einstein was one of the founders of the university, the oldest in Israel, and a member of its first board of governors. When he died in 1955, he bequeathed Hebrew the rights to his image and his papers.

“As a result of the fame and celebrity of Dr. Einstein, there is a substantial licensing program,” says the university.

More than half a century after his death, he is still earning a tidy sum for Hebrew. According to Forbes, Einstein was the fourth-highest-earning dead celebrity in the world in 2008, with an annual income of $18-million.

A GM Spokeswoman told the Detroit Free Press the company had negotiated the image rights with a “reputable”agency.

But a Hebrew University spokeswoman, Orit Sulitzeanu, told Tweed that GM had not done its homework.

“General Motors indeed purchased the image of Einstein, but every company who wants to use the image for business purposes must get our approval,” she said. “We have a committee in the university who sits and judges whenever there are these kind of requests and decides if it’s appropriate or not. General Motors didn’t ask for approval, and if they had it would not have been deemed appropriate because it does not represent Albert Einstein in a dignified way.”

Ms. Sulitzeanu declined to specify which aspect of the ad was undignified: the bulging muscles and six-pack; the model’s freshly-laundered undershorts; or the “e=mc² tattoo on his left biceps. —Matthew Kalman, Jerusalem

Barack Obama invites Netanyahu for White House visit

Barack Obama has issued an invitation to Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the White House next week in a bid to put relations between the two countries back on a good footing.

DAILY TELEGRAPH
26 May 2010

Matthew Kalman in Jerusalem

Relations between the two close allies have been strained since Mr Netanyahu's election Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The invitation, delivered by White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel who is in Israel to celebrate his son's barmitzvah, is being interpreted as a fence-building exercise after a spat over peace talks that saw the relationship between two countries plunge to its lowest ebb in memory.

The agenda will include the Iranian nuclear challenge and the indirect peace talks with the Palestinians that finally got under way this month with US envoy George Mitchell shuttling between Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Relations between the two close allies have been strained since Mr Netanyahu's election. Mr Obama is frustrated over Israeli settlement policy in the West Bank and the slow pace of peace talks with the Palestinians. For their part, the Israelis are concerned that Mr Obama's policy of "engagement" with Iran has blunted efforts to stop Tehran from acquiring a nuclear bomb that could destroy the Jewish state.

Their last meeting at the White House in March was widely interpreted as a snub to Mr Netanyahu, without any of the usual public statements or warm words that normally mark the visit of an Israeli prime minister and in stark contrast to the friendly reception Mr Obama has given several Arab leaders.

Recently, Mr Obama appears to have been trying to placate the Israelis. Last week, he told the Jewish Democratic caucus in Congress that he had made some mistakes when he stepped onto the Middle East "minefield" and "lost some fingers." He also approved $205 million to support Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system against short-range rockets from Gaza and Lebanon.

Israeli commentators suggested that next week's visit would be an attempt to show greater friendship to Mr Netanyahu and clear the air before the arrival of the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, shortly afterwards.

500 Israeli Academics and Students Call for Chomsky to Be Allowed In

CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

GLOBAL NEWS TICKER May 25, 2010

Five hundred Israeli academics, students, and intellectuals have signed a letter to the Israeli interior ministry protesting the decision to bar Noam Chomsky, a professor emeritus at MIT, from entering the West Bank on May 16. Mr. Chomsky was due to lecture at Birzeit University and meet Palestinian leaders but was stopped by ministry officials as he crossed from Jordan to the West Bank and turned back after questioning. "Under democracy, we do not silence voices that express an opinion which is different than the dominant one," said the letter, according to a report in Haaretz, a daily newspaper. Earlier a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister told The New York Times that Mr. Chomsky should have been admitted, that turning him away was "a mishap" by an official who had "overstepped his authority," and that he would be allowed to enter if he tried again.

Osama bin Laden is 'alive, well, and hunting falcons in Iran', documentary claims

By Matthew Kalman
DAILY MAIL 5th May 2010

Osama bin Laden is alive and well and living in luxury in Iran.

At least, that’s the astonishing claim made in a new documentary shown at last week’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

According to 'Feathered Cocaine', a film about the illicit multi-million-dollar trade in hunting falcons for Middle East oil sheikhs, bin Laden has been living in a guarded compound north of Tehran with his wife, several children and grandchildren since 2003 - protected by the Iranian regime.

In the film, a disguised falcon smuggler from the former Soviet Union identified only as 'T-2' says he first met bin Laden in 2004 at a falcon-hunting camp in northeastern Iran.

'I met him five times after 2004,' says the smuggler.

'The last time we met was in October 2007. Every time, it was in Iran.'

Falcon hunting is an exclusive hobby practised by some of the richest men in the Middle East, who travel to luxurious desert retreats to pursue the sport. A bird’s value can reach one million dollars.

The claim contradicts the common theory that Bin Laden is living in an isolated network of fortified caves somewhere in the mountainous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

His son Omar bin Laden, who married a British woman and broke with his father before the 9/11 attacks, revealed last year that seven of his siblings were living in Tehran and trying to leave.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed the claim - and, apparently sarcastically, counter-claimed that bin Laden is hiding in Washington, D.C.

He told ABC News: 'Your question is laughable. Our position is quite clear.

'Some journalists have said bin Laden is in Iran. These words don't have legal value. Our position towards Afghanistan and against terrorism is quite clear... I don't know such a thing. You are giving news which is very strange.

'I heard that Osama bin Laden is in Washington, D.C.,' he added.

'Yes, I did. He's there. Because he was a previous partner of Mr. Bush. They were colleagues in fact in the old days. You know that. They were in the oil business together. They worked together.'

He's not in Iran, he's in Washington: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, shown here at UN headquarters in New York yesterday, has sarcastically dismissed the claims

Bin Laden practices Wahhabism, a fundamentalist sect of Sunni Islam that is famously militant.

For that reason many experts have dismissed ideas that he could be in Iran - the largest country in the Middle East to practice Shia Islam.

But Alan Parrot, an American falconry expert who used to train falcons for Middle East millionaires, said the evidence unearthed during research for the film was so convincing he hatched a plan to kidnap bin Laden.

He claimed he was warned off by US government officials.

Parrot said bin Laden’s royal hunting friends brought him 'hundreds of millions of dollars' in cash during these expeditions, as well as military equipment.

The film shows a U.A.E. military C-130 transport plane delivering equipment to the camps.

Bin Laden’s penchant for falcon hunting gave the CIA an opportunity to assassinate him in 1999, according to the final report of the 9/11 commission.

He was spotted in a hunting camp in Afghanistan serving one of the Gulf royal families and CIA Director George Tenet asked President Bill Clinton for permission to launch a cruise missile strike on the camp on February 8, 1999.

The mission was aborted on orders from the White House.

'T-2' gave the filmmakers the frequencies of tiny radio trackers attached to bin Laden’s hunting falcons.

John Loftus, an American lawyer with connections to U.S. security agencies, said the CIA could use the frequencies to lead them to bin Laden’s falcons - and so to bin Laden himself.

Loftus said he offered the information to the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies but got no response.

Loftus and the filmmakers even approached 'Rewards for Justice', the State Department office offering a $50 million reward for information leading to bin Laden’s capture, but never received a reply.

Investigative reporter Ken Timmerman, who also appears in the film, interviewed a U.S. intelligence official who said that electronic intelligence intercepts appeared to back up the story, 'indicating the presence of a very important person in the region at the dates "T-2" mentioned.'

'Iranian authorities were moving the VIP from Tehran to Zahedan, a centre of the falcon-hunting grounds, which were closed off to all foreign visitors for security reasons,' said Timmerman.

'There was no doubt in my mind that they were expecting a big shot, and it makes sense to think it was bin Laden,' he claimed the U.S. official said.

Is Netanyahu Quietly Freezing Jerusalem Settlements?

By MATTHEW KALMAN / JERUSALEM Wednesday, Apr. 28, 2010

A Palestinian woman holds a banner reading "No to occupation" in front Israeli border policemen during a protest near a disputed house in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in east Jerusalem. Maya Hitij / AP

Israel insists that it has no intention of heeding the Obama Administration's demand that it halt construction in East Jerusalem. "Jerusalem will grow," Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat tells TIME. "With the American administration, without the American administration." Barkat insisted that he has not been asked to freeze any plans for building new Israeli housing in East Jerusalem, and also that he would refuse to do so. That's the same message Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to reiterate. But there are plenty of indications that a de facto freeze may already be in effect on the ground.

Take Plan number 12705 for the new Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, which would demolish 40 low-rise Palestinian homes built in traditional local stone to make way for modern apartment blocks up to 18 stories high, containing 200 residential units for Israelis. There have been weekly demonstrations at the site since the landowners, Nahalat Shimon International, began evicting the Palestinians who had been living in the area when it was captured by Israeli forces in the war of 1967. Despite U.S. demands that Israel halt construction on territory occupied in 1967 in order to restart peace talks, Shimon HaTzadik Plan 12705 was approved by the Jerusalem District Planning Committee of the Israeli Ministry of the Interior on March 2, and forwarded to the Jerusalem Municipality Planning Committee. (See pictures of Jerusalem, a divided city.)

But while nobody's admitting that Plan 12705 is under some sort of political freeze, it appears to have been stalled by bureaucratic inertia. The Jerusalem Municipality Planning Committee has met several times since March 2, but Plan 12705 hasn't been on its agenda. Likewise with other plans for residential development in East Jerusalem. Over at the Interior Ministry, the District Planning Committee has not convened since the visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden, during which Israel-U.S. ties were plunged into a crisis by the announcement of a plan to build 1,600 new housing units on occupied land. Meir Margalit, an opposition member of the Jerusalem City Council, tells TIME that an unofficial freeze is already in effect, despite the official denials.

"Since Vice-President Biden was here, they refuse even to bring to the committee projects for Jewish buildings in East Jerusalem," says Margalit. (See pictures of Palestinian 'Day of Rage.')

"The committee told them wait for better timing. De-facto, not one project of settlers in East Jerusalem has been approved or come for approval to the committee," he says. "Just to give the possibility to start negotiations, the government and municipality must stop building. It's very important to do it because peace is more important than houses."

Margalit says a major religious housing project slated for the north of the city neighboring Ramallah, was recently canceled after U.S. intervention.

"What's going on? Actually, we don't know exactly," says Yakir Segev, another councilor and close ally of the mayor who oversees East Jerusalem. "We don't know specifically about an obvious order or directive that was given by the prime minister's office. There's all kind of hints and an atmosphere that it is not wanted. There is kind of an overall message that we're getting that it's not really desirable to the government."

Aryeh King, head of an Israeli group buying land in East Jerusalem for private housing, confirms that his projects are being stalled.

"They are not saying there is a freeze, but in practice that's what's happening," says King. "There are plans that are simply not being presented, they never get onto the agenda. They don't admit that they're not considering them. They say it's in process and it stays in process. Things that usually take days are taking weeks, and things that usually take weeks are taking months."

Developers say the logjam in the planning process is creating havoc in the local housing market, where the scarcity of small apartments has caused a 30% rise in home prices in two years.

"This is the United States' contribution to raising the price of real estate in Jerusalem," says Nadav Lisovsky, vice president for marketing at B. Yair Building Corporation, one of Israel's largest developers. He says there is an effective freeze on almost all new projects across the pre-1967 border.

Whether or not the undeclared freeze is enough to get the Palestinian side into U.S.-brokered indirect talks remains to be seen, but the next crisis may already be looming. On Monday, the government said it was considering approval of Derech Ha'avot, an illegal settler outpost near Bethlehem, which would make it the first official new Israeli settlement since 1996 — and a clear challenge to both the Obama Administration and the Palestinians.

Techie Mystery: Why Did Israel Ban the iPad?

By MATTHEW KALMAN / JERUSALEM Tuesday, Apr. 20, 2010

Not since Adam and Eve has the appearance of an Apple in the Holy Land caused such uproar. Israel is a wonderland of high-tech innovation but it is certainly no Garden of Eden for iPad users, who can expect to have their new Apple tablets confiscated on arrival by Israeli airport customs. El Al stewardess Alona Gur tells TIME she was one of the first people to lose her new iPad and she is furious about it. "I was in New York and I checked with the Israeli customs to see if it was OK to bring one and they said sure, just go through the red channel [that is, declaring it at customs] and pay the taxes," says Gur. "Two days later I arrived at Ben-Gurion and did exactly as they said, but that morning the Ministry of Communications ordered them to confiscate all iPads." "It's crazy," she says, "I feel as though I live in a fourth-world country. And the customs are charging me 45 shekels ($12) a day for storage until I can take it back to America."

The ban by the Israeli Ministry of Communications has left users fuming and techies baffled. Dozens of confiscated Apple tablets are now being stored at Ben-Gurion Airport until their owners collect them on their way out of the country. The ministry says the iPad's Wi-Fi system is configured for the United States and does not conform to the European standards used in Israel, so it operates at higher power levels and is liable to cause interference on the wireless frequency. "A consumer who imports a British car designed to drive on the left knows that in Israel we drive on the right and the car is not suitable for use in Israel," says ministry spokesman Yechiel Shavi. (See pictures of the unveiling of Apple's iPad.)

But others don't quite buy the reasoning. Aviv Eilon, a Tel Aviv attorney specializing in technology law, dismisses the automobile comparison as "demagogic." He says the iPad conforms to the European standards approved in Israel and uses the same Wi-Fi devices as other Apple computers already in use in the country. "This was really annoying. It was a nonsense explanation. I went to the FCC website and saw that the iPad already correlates with the European standards," he says. "Poor old Israel," says Harel Shattenstein, an analyst who blogs on rcrwireless.com and talkingmobile.com. "Even if the Wi-Fi standard is different it won't cause any danger because most of the wireless networks in Israel are private." (Read TIME's review of the iPad.)

Israeli experts say they cannot find any technical reason for the ministry's decision. "I can't understand why they are banning the iPad. I really don't know. It doesn't make sense and it disturbs me as a technology freak," says Dor Zakai, Operating Systems and Hardware Team Leader at John Bryce Training in Israel. "Now it's the iPad. What's next?"

One commentator, Aharon Etengoff, has openly speculated on his blog that the Ministry of Communications is acting to protect the monopoly of iDigital, Apple's sole official Israeli importer, which is owned by Chemi Peres, son of the Israeli president. There was no official comment from iDigital, but company executives there say they are also baffled by the ministry decision. The Ministry of Communications tells TIME it is in discussions with iDigital to determine "how and when the iPad can be allowed for harmless use in Israel at the earliest. The Ministry expects Apple's answers in a few days and believes that this issue will be resolved in satisfactory way very soon." (See the best travel gadgets of 2009.)

Alona Gur says she was told privately by a ministry official that the iPad was banned because it interferes with Israeli military frequencies. There was a similar problem when Bluetooth first came to Israel, forcing the military to release those frequencies for civilian use. But the spokesman for the Ministry of Communications says he had no information about that. "I don't know about the military frequencies," says Shavi.

Meanwhile, leaders of Israel's business community are concerned about the damage to the country's image as a leader in high-tech that has fueled Israel's economic revival. Robert Ilatov, a lawmaker who chairs a parliamentary sub-committee for the advancement of high-tech industries, wants the ban rescinded. "This has not earned us a lot of respect in the high-tech world. I have asked the minister to reconsider his decision because it doesn't seem to make any sense. I don't think they checked it sufficiently," Ilatov tells TIME. (See pictures of vintage computers.)

There has been a firestorm of protest in Israel's high-tech blogosphere, where one anonymous contributor offered the following advice: "The solution is simple. Go through the green channel, don't declare your iPad at customs, and you're sorted. The iPad works perfectly in Israel. I speak from experience. Mine arrived this morning."

Netanyahu denies reports a close aide slammed Obama as a 'disaster' in wake of meeting

DAILY MAIL 28th March 2010

By Matthew Kalman

Benjamin Netanyahu was forced yesterday to deny reports that a close aide had described President Barack Obama as Israel's 'greatest disaster'.

The frantic damage-limitation exercise comes after more than two weeks of tension over Israeli construction plans in Jerusalem.

Washington has demanded that Israel freeze all settlement building in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians see as the capital of their future state.

'Comment was never made': Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied an aide called U.S. President Barack Obama 'Israel's biggest failure'

Netanyahu says he will continue to expand the new Israeli areas of East Jerusalem, already home to more than 180,000 people.

President Obama is backing the Palestinian demand that indirect talks designed to kick-start the moribund peace process cannot begin unless Israel agrees to a complete freeze.

The issue has sparked a major crisis in US-Israeli relations that wrecked the first visit to the region by US vice president Joe Biden earlier this month.

Last week, Netanyahu met Obama in the Oval Office, but in circumstances that Israeli commentators said recalled a visit by an unwanted 'dictator' rather than a close friend and ally.

There was no press conference, no photographed handshake and Netanyahu was forced to use an anonymous side entrance. Half-way through the meeting, the president left Netanyahu to go and dine with his family and did not invite the prime minister to join him.

Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s largest newspaper, said a trusted confidant of Netanyahu called Obama Israel’s 'greatest disaster' alongside a scathing description of his 'humiliating' treatment at the White House.

'President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton adapted a clear Palestinian point of view,' said the anonymous aide. 'This is a sick and insane matter; it is a catastrophic situation. We are facing a hostile administration like never before.'

'The prime minister emphatically rejects the anonymous quotes about President Obama that a newspaper attributed to one of his confidants, and he condemns them,' Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office on Sunday.

Snub: Obama is said to have excused himself from the meeting with Netanyahu to dine with his family, but did not invite the Israeli PM to join him

Speaking to the weekly cabinet session in Jerusalem yesterday, he described relations between Israel and the US as 'those of allies and friends'.

'I would like to make it clear: I find these remarks to be unacceptable. They are from nobody acting on my behalf,' he said.

David Axelrod, a key adviser to President Obama, also said on Sunday that the frosty White House reception was not a calculated insult.

'This was a working meeting among friends. And so there was no snub intended,' Axelrod told CNN. He said the two leaders were focused on practicalities, not protocol.

'This was not about formalities. This was not about a ceremonial meeting. This was a working meeting. We have a deep, abiding interest in Israel's security. And we believe the peace process is essential to that,' he said.

But many Israelis, who in polls give Obama an approval rating of less than 10 per cent, are not convinced.

'This government has made large concessions to launch negotiations, including the possible recognition of a Palestinian state and freezing construction. All these have been disregarded, and instead the bar kept being raised,' said National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau.

Leonardo DiCaprio is the best.. Bar none, says Refaeli

SUNDAY MIRROR 28th March, 2010
EXCLUSIVE by Nick Owens and Matthew Kalman

Supermodel Bar Rafaeli says their relationship is stronger after six-month split

Supermodel Bar Refaeli dated a string of men during her split with boyfriend Leonardo ­DiCaprio... but says none of them matched up to the Hollywood actor.

Talking for the first time about their six months apart, the Israeli beauty revealed how she tried getting involved with other men but said she couldn’t “stomach” any of them.

“It was fun,” she said. “I tried ­going out with this one and I tried going out with that one. I met men of the world.”

But she said she was very selfish. “I told people, ‘Just so you know, I don’t have much to give right now’.

“But at the same time I felt a little bad because I thought, ‘When will this end?’ I hoped that one day I would be able to give myself again to someone.”

Lingerie model Bar, 24, reconciled with Leo, 35, in December and she says the split is what they both needed as it has made their ­relationship even stronger.

She said the time apart after two years together gave her the ­opportunity to understand a lot of things about herself.

“I worked on myself – I grew up,” she said. “I got my girlfriends back. From a very young age I have always had a boyfriend and I didn’t know what it was like to be inside my own skin.

“Today I know that a relationship can work only if you know you can be alone and you are not afraid. Now I’m not afraid of being alone.”

In her interview with Israeli women’s ­magazine L’isha, Bar – the face and body of clothing line Rampage – denied rumours the pair are set to get engaged.

“I am not thinking about getting married,” she said. “I’m still young. And when I do get engaged I might even hide the ring. I want it to remain private.”

Bar Refaeli Always There for Leonardo DiCaprio (Just Not on the Red Carpet)

PEOPLE
Thursday March 25, 2010

By Matthew Kalman

Bar Refaeli and Leonardo DiCaprio

Maybe a little time off is all they needed.

Bar Refaeli says that though she went through a "tough time" after splitting up with boyfriend Leonardo DiCaprio for six months, their relationship ultimately emerged stronger.

"It was a half year for which I am very grateful," the Israeli supermodel, 24, tells her country's top-selling L'Isha magazine. "I needed it. I came to understand a lot of things about myself. "

"I worked on myself [and] I grew up," Refaeli says. "I didn't know what 'alone' was like. Today I know that a relationship can work only if you know you can be alone and you are not afraid. Today I’m not afraid of being alone."

She may not be alone – but Refaeli and DiCaprio aren't engaged either.

"I'm not thinking about getting married," she says, laughing off rumors that she was wearing an engagement ring in Berlin over Valentine's Day. "I'm still young, not yet 25."

Refaeli prefers to keep a lower profile – though she is out with DiCaprio much of the time.

"I am there for him and I am at all the events," she says. "I just don't walk in hand-in-hand with him. I don't see any reason. I don't need to strike poses with him in front of the cameras."

That's why they kept their heads down at a recent Orlando Magic-Los Angeles Lakers game. Says Refaeli: "No one needs to know how we kiss."

In Israel, Students Get a Seat at the Planning Table for Higher Education

CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
March 23, 2010

By Matthew Kalman
Jerusalem

Israeli government ministers, education officials, and students announced on Tuesday the creation of a new joint planning and negotiating mechanism designed to end years of turmoil in the country's higher-education system.

"We are talking about a revolutionary reform in higher education," said Boaz Toporovsky, chairman of the National Union of Israeli Students.

Under the new arrangement, government, university, and student representatives will sit on permanent committees to jointly plan developments in higher education and reach agreement on tuition rates.

The government will provide 72 percent of the higher-education budget, with tuition contributing the remaining 28 percent. The government has pledged not to raise tuition in the next three years without students' consent.

As a confidence-building gesture, the government will refund some $27-million in tuition to students who have attended college in the past two years.

"It is very important to bring about a significant increase in the resources available to the system that has seen cuts in the past," Gideon Saar, the education minister, said at a news conference in Jerusalem. "There is now an urgent need to increase the teaching staff, to increase the ratio of teaching staff to students, and to expand the budget."

The Israeli higher-education system has been hit over the past decade by cuts equal to some $300-million, or about 20 percent of the budget. That has sparked fears about the future of the country's publicly financed university and college system, which enrolls some 220,000 students.

Students went on strike for 41 days in the spring of 2007 to protest planned tuition increases; tenured professors staged a 90-day strike of their own the following semester in pursuit of a pay rise; and junior professors called a work stoppage in May 2008 demanding better wages and pension rights.

The disruptions took place against the background of a 2007 government inquiry known as the Shochat Report. It recommended sweeping reforms in the financing of higher education, in part to reverse a significant brain drain. At least 25 percent of all Israeli academics are employed by American, not Israeli, universities.

Students had protested their exclusion from most of the deliberations of the Shochat Committee. On Tuesday, Manuel Trajtenberg, chairman of the planning and budgeting committee of the Israeli Council for Higher Education, conceded that had been a mistake.

He said the new mechanism would oblige the government to provide substantially more money for the higher-education system.

Mr. Trajtenberg said the goal is to create 500 new teaching jobs over the next five years, as well as replace 1,000 professors due to retire. In the process, the student-to-professor ratio would drop from 25-to-1 to 19-to-1.

Middle East Quartet call on Israel to freeze settlements on second day of rocket attacks from Gaza

By MATTHEW KALMAN in Jerusalem
DAILY MAIL 19th March 2010

Two Palestinians have been wounded as rockets continue to slam into southern Israel, the day after a farm worker was hit and killed by a strike from Gaza.

Overnight, Israeli jets hit six targets inside Gaza used for the smuggling and production of weapons.

As violence escalated on the ground, in Moscow, the Middle East Quartet of nations condemned the Palestinian rocket attacks and called on Israel to freeze all construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to help re-start stalled peace talks.

A rocket fired across the border from Gaza landed in open fields around 12pm on Friday, the fifth rocket fired in a 48-hour period.

A sixth rocket apparently exploded inside the Hamas-controlled area as it was being launched.

In the early hours of Friday morning, Israeli jets struck at six sites in the Gaza Strip that the Israeli army said were used by Palestinians to smuggle, manufacture and deploy weapons against Israel.

Two Palestinians were slightly injured.

The targets included three smuggling tunnels underneath the Gaza-Egypt border, a weapons manufacturing workshop near Gaza City and two ‘terror tunnels’ underneath the northern Gaza border leading into Israel.

‘The two terror tunnels were dug one kilometer from the security fence, for the purpose of infiltrating Israel and executing terror attacks against Israeli civilians or IDF soldiers,’ an Israeli army spokesman said.

More than 330 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza in the past year, including the one on Thursday that hit and killed a farm labourer from Thailand working in greenhouses in northern Netiv Ha’asara.

Matan Vilnai, Israel’s deputy defence minister, said: ‘Israel is not interested in a military confrontation, but will not allow attacks on its citizens.

‘Hamas must prevent any and all attacks on Israel to avoid a deterioration of the situation.’

In Moscow, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon led a meeting of the Middle East Quartet – the UN, EU, U.S. and Russia – ahead of his first visit to the region on Saturday.

The Quartet denounced both Palestinian rocket fire and Israeli settlement expansion, including plans for new Israeli homes in East Jerusalem that prompted Palestinians to withdraw from indirect peace talks scheduled to begin this week.

‘The proximity talks are an important step toward the resumption, without pre-conditions, of direct, bilateral negotiations,’ the Quartet said in a statement, saying it expected a peace deal within 24 months.

As violence once again took hold around Gaza, that seemed an optimistic forecast.

The group also declared its strong support for its representative in Jerusalem, former Tony Blair, who is trying to gather international support for a two-year state-building blueprint drafted by the moderate Palestinian Authority government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat urged the Quartet to monitor Israeli settlement activity.

‘The Israelis have the choice now, either to continue with settlement activities or to engage with the peace process,’ Erekat said.

‘I don't think we can have a meaningful peace process without Israel stopping all settlement activities.’

Israel Approves $300-Million Fund to Reverse Brain Drain

CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
DAILY NEWS TICKER
March 14, 2010

The Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved a new $300-million plan to reverse Israel's brain drain and attract top-class researchers back to their homeland, Ynetnews reported. A recent survey found that the ratio of Israeli academics working in the United States to those in Israel was nearly 25 percent. The new fund, one-third of which will come from the government, will establish 30 centers of academic excellence at existing universities with attractive salary, budget, and working conditions to woo academics.

Ties between U.S. and Israel 'at their worst in 35 years' over housing row

By David Gardner and Matthew Kalman

DAILY MAIL 15th March 2010

Relations between the U.S. and Israel have sunk to their lowest point in 35 years, derailing hopes for peace in the Middle East.

Israel's ambassador to the U.S. admitted that the crisis was real and dismissed attempts to play down the diplomatic row.

Michael Oren said: 'Israel's ties with the United States are in their worst crisis since 1975 - a crisis of historic proportions.'

Israeli PM: Benjamin Netanyahu has defied U.S. demands to shelve the settlement expansion plan and said it 'in no way' hurts Palestinians

His remarks reflect the Obama administration's fury at Israel's announcement last week that it was building 1,600 new homes for Jews in occupied East Jerusalem.

The plan was unveiled in the middle of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's peace-making trip to Israel. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Israel's behaviour 'insulting'.

Despite apologising for the timing of the announcement, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defied U.S. demands to shelve the settlement expansion plan and said yesterday that it 'in no way' hurts Palestinians.

'For the past 40 years, no Israeli government ever limited construction in the neighbourhoods of Jerusalem,' he said in a speech in parliament.

And he said the construction of homes for Jews in the city's eastern sector 'in no way' hurts Palestinians.

'Very unfortunate': Hillary Clinton reacted angrily to news of Israel's plans for new settlement in East Jerusalem

EU foreign policy chief Baroness Ashton said the settlements were illegal and blamed Israel for jeopardising peace talks between Tel Aviv and Palestinian leaders.

In mentioning 1975, Mr Oren was referring to the crisis ignited between Israel and the U.S. by then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's demand for a partial Israeli withdrawal from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

News of the new homes plan wrecked Mr Biden’s first visit to the region and threatens to torpedo talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Obama administration, which is trying to build an international coalition to block Iran’s nuclear weapons drive, sees the renewal of the peace process as vital to securing Arab support for sanctions against Iran.

Now the Palestinians say they will boycott the talks unless Israel cancels all new building in East Jerusalem. Both sides regard the disputed city as their capital.

Observers said they could not recall the last time Israel had suffered such withering criticism from the U.S., its closest ally.

Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni said Netanyahu was 'a prime minister who does not know what he wants. Israel is paying for its government's failure to make decisions and will continue to pay for it.'

The vice president publicly condemned the Israeli move and the Israeli ambassador was summoned to the State Department for a dressing-down.

Mrs Clinton's spokesman said the incident had 'undermined trust and confidence in the peace process.'

'The Israeli bilateral relationship with the United States has just become much more difficult,' said Haim Malka at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

'It is hard to remember a time when a senior U.S. official used the word "condemn" to describe the actions of any ally, let alone a close ally such as Israel.'

Wrecked: The news scuppered Joe Biden's (left) first visit to the region and threatens to damage talks between Israel and the Palestinians - Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu apologised for the 'regrettable incident'

Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, a liberal Jewish group with strong ties to the Democratic Party, said the American administration was guilty of 'a gross overreaction.'

'The administration should have confidence and trust in Israel whose tireless pursuit for peace is repeatedly rebuffed by the Palestinians and whose interests remain in line with the United States,' said Foxman.

The Palestinians, clearly delighted by Israel’s discomfiture, are trying to push home their advantage by demanding a complete building freeze in East Jerusalem as their price for entering the proximity talks. Israeli officials say that was never on the table.

Danny Danon, deputy speaker of the Knesset from Netanyahu’s Likud Party, accused Clinton of 'meddling in internal Israeli decisions regarding the development of our capital Jerusalem.'

Netanyahu is now caught between the right-wingers in his government and the need to appease the U.S. The last time he alienated the right wing in his previous coalition a decade ago, his government fell.

Meanwhile, Israel battened down the hatches to try and prevent new protests after a tense weekend in and around Jerusalem.

The moves come ahead of celebrations planned for Tuesday, when Israel will re-dedicate the Hurva, the largest synagogue in Jerusalem’s Old City which was destroyed by the Jordanians in 1948.

The army extended its closure on the West Bank, cutting off access to Israel for all but a few Palestinians, and male worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem were limited to those aged over 50.

Israel seals off West Bank as tensions rise

Israel sealed off the West Bank on Friday as tensions mounted in Jerusalem over controversial plans to build new homes for Jewish settlers.

By Matthew Kalman in Jerusalem
DAILY TELEGRAPH 12 Mar 2010

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has ordered the army to seal off the West Bank for 48 hours Photo: AP

Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the army to cut off the area until midnight on Saturday, citing a heightened risk of attacks.

Israel has sealed off the West Bank ahead of major holidays in the past, but only rarely on other occasions.

Security sources said the closure was decided after Israel discovered plans to repeat last Friday's riots in Jerusalem in which more than 60 Palestinian youths and 15 Israeli police were injured.

The closure was announced the day after US vice-president Joe Biden concluded a visit to the region aimed at promoting renewed peace talks.

Hopes of negotiations collapsed when Israel announced 1,600 new settler homes would be built in predominantly-Arab east Jerusalem.

Israel also limited access to Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Only worshippers with Israeli identity cards and aged over 50 were permitted.

Prayers passed off peacefully at the mosque itself, but youths denied entry threw stones at Israeli police in Sultan Suleiman Street, Wadi Joz and Ras-Al-Amud on the Mount of Olives. Hundreds of Palestinians hurled rocks at Israeli soldiers near Ramallah.

Inside the Old City and throughout East Jerusalem, 3,000 Israeli police and paramilitary border police patrolled the narrow lanes, took up positions on rooftops and checked ID cards at temporary checkpoints.

Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen said he would try "to preserve the channel of dialogue with the various bodies so that quiet can be maintained on the site so that everyone can exercise their right to worship as they see fit."

Until Saturday night, only teachers, humanitarian and religious workers or Palestinians needing medical care will be allowed through checkpoints from the West Bank to Israel.

"The IDF will continue to operate in order to protect the citizens of Israel while maintaining the quality of life of the Palestinian population in the area," said an Israeli army spokesman.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of trying "to ignite a religious war in the region."

More trouble is expected next week with a planned march by right-wing Israelis through the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem.

US-Israeli relations hit new low over settlement plan

The Obama administration's relations with Israel have hit a new low as hopes for fresh peace talks collapsed in the wake of the row over plans for 1,600 settler homes.

Matthew Kalman in Jerusalem and Alex Spillius in Washington
DAILY TELEGRAPH 11 Mar 2010

US Vice President Joe Biden with Palestinian President Mahmoud AbbasPhoto: EPA

US Vice-President Joe Biden ended a three-day visit to the region by saying President Barack Obama had asked him to issue an "immediate and unequivocal" condemnation of the moves.

Mr Biden had hoped his trip would be crowned by the resumption of talks between Israel and Palestinians after a year of stalemate. But he was left humiliated after the surprise announcement on Tuesday of plans for settlement construction in disputed east Jerusalem.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, said it would now be "impossible" for the US-mediated indirect talks to go ahead unless the plans were withdrawn.

"Our position is simple," said spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh. "The Palestinians and the Arabs accepted the indirect talks.

"It was the Israeli decision to start a new settlement project in East Jerusalem that hindered these talks. The Israelis should revoke these decisions, otherwise it will be difficult and impossible to go back to the negotiations."

The Palestinians were supported by the 22-nation Arab League which had first raised hopes of negotiations by giving Mr Abbas its backing to restart talks.

Mr Biden attempted to strike a conciliatory tone in his final speech yesterday but warned that Israel's announcement had "undermined the trust required for productive negotiations".

"I, at the request of President Obama, condemned it immediately and unequivocally," he said. "Sometimes only a friend can deliver the hardest truth."

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, telephoned the vice-president yesterday morning to "express his regret for the unfortunate timing" of the decision.

He is said to have reiterated his claim that he had not been aware of the announcement, and said he had summoned Interior Minister Eli Yishai to reprimand him.

The final approval process for the settlement would probably take more than a year, with construction starting several years from now, he said.

Palestinians see East Jerusalem as capital of their future state, while Mr Netanyahu considers it part of "the eternal, undivided capital of Israel and the Jewish people".

President Obama had hoped that by restarting the Israeli-Palestinian process he would persuade Arab states to back tough sanctions to force Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions.

But since his overture to the Muslim world in a speech in Cairo last year he has had little success. Mr Biden's visit this week was designed to be a closely-choreographed presentation of Washington's ability to bring Israel into line.

Experts on the region said they could not remember the last time an American leader had used the word “condemn” in relation to Israel.

Aaron David Miller, who worked on peace negotiations for the Clinton administration, said: “If you wanted to create in a laboratory a set of events that was more harmful to American interests you could not have done a better job than this.

“It’s personally embarrassing for the vice-president and it undermines the integrity of the talks, which didn’t have much chance of working anyway.”

Another Washington Middle Eastern expert said the White House had been made to look “weak and hopeless” in its dealing’s with the Israelis and the Palestinians.

In a speech to students at Tel Aviv University on Thursday, Mr Biden pleaded with Israel to do everything necessary to enter negotiations with Mr Abbas and his colleagues.

"Israeli leaders finally have willing partners who share the goal of peace between two states and have the competence to establish a nation. Their commitment to peace is an opportunity that must be seized," said Mr Biden.

"The most important thing is for these talks to go forward, and go forward promptly and go forward in good faith," he said.

The Americans initiated the indirect talks because the Palestinians had refused to enter direct negotiations without a full settlement freeze in East Jerusalem.

Israeli officials said was it was "unacceptable" of the Palestinians to make new demands before entering indirect talks as well.

"They are moving the goalposts," said one Israeli diplomat.

Middle East peace talks in doubt over Israeli homes plan

Plans to restart Middle East peace talks have been thrown into doubt after Israel received worldwide condemnation over plans to build 1,600 homes in the occupied West Bank.

By Matthew Kalman in Jerusalem
DAILY TELEGRAPH 10 Mar 2010

President Shimon Peres (R) with the visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden at the President's residence in Jerusalem Photo: EPA

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of "the ruining of trust" and said there were questions over whether fresh negotiations could now take place.

Israel's announcement left visiting US Vice President Joe Biden deeply embarrassed after a day in which he had heaped praise and affection on the country's leaders.

He expressed his fury by arriving 90 minutes late for a private dinner with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, on Tuesday night and reiterated his condemnation yesterday.

Speaking in Ramallah after meeting Mr Abbas, he accused Israel of "undermining the trust that we need right now" and complicating efforts to restart peace talks with the Palestinians after a year in deep freeze.

Mr Netanyahu claimed he knew nothing about the announcement of the planned construction in a Jerusalem suburb in the occupied West Bank.

But it threatened to torpedo plans for indirect peace talks that should have crowned the first visit to the region by Mr Biden.

In Strasbourg, EU high representative for foreign affairs Baroness Ashton told the European parliament she wanted to "join Vice-President Biden in condemning the decision." UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said settlement activity "undermines any movement towards a viable peace process."

Mr Abbas said Israeli policies "especially inside Jerusalem, threaten these negotiations" and demanded Israel cancel the construction plans.

Addressing the Israeli people directly, Mr Abbas said he was committed to a "permanent, lasting, comprehensive and just peace" and urged the Israeli government "not to waste the opportunity".

"I would like to tell them that time is right for peace based on two states, an Israeli state that will live in peace and security alongside a Palestinian state, based on the borders of June 1967 with Jerusalem as its capital," he said.

Mr Biden strongly endorsed the leadership of Mr Abbas and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad, even though their terms legally expired some time ago and they have little influence in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

He said the Obama administration was "fully committed to the Palestinian people and to achieving a Palestinian state that is independent, viable and contiguous," and "strongly supports the Palestinian Authority's efforts to build as well as strengthen its institutions and develop the economy of a state".

Lieut-Gen Keith Dayton, a US army officer, is training thousands of Palestinian paramilitary police and security forces loyal to Mr Abbas in a Jordanian training camp.

Mr Biden called on both sides to take "historically bold steps" to reach "a historic peace" but indicated it would not be easy.

"As we move forward, the United States will hold both sides accountable for any statements or actions that inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of talks, as this decision did," Mr Biden warned in a clear rebuke to the Israelis. It was also an oblique warning to the Palestinians who plan to name a square in Ramallah on Thursday in memory of a Fatah terrorist who led an attack on an Israeli commuter bus in 1978 in which 37 Israelis were killed.

Joe Biden pledges 'unvarnished' support for Israeli security

US Vice President Joe Biden pledged America's "total, unvarnished commitment to Israel's security" as he visited Jerusalem to meet prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

By Matthew Kalman in Jerusalem
DAILY TELEGRAPH, 9 Mar 2010

President Shimon Peres (R) with the visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden at the President's residence in Jerusalem Photo: EPA

There had been speculation Mr Biden would deliver a warning against Israel launching a unilateral military strike against Iran but instead he present a united front against Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

"There is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel's security," said Mr Biden. "For that reason, and many others, addressing Iran's nuclear programme has been one of our administration's priorities.

"We're determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and we're working with many countries around the world to convince Tehran to meet its international obligations and cease and desist."

In contrast to recent State Department criticism of Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza, the vice president went out of his way to praise Mr Netanyahu's partial freeze on West Bank settlement construction. He hailed his willingness to make "historically bold commitments" to reach peace with the Palestinians.

Mr Biden also welcomed the decision by Israeli and Palestinian leaders to resume indirect peace talks after more than a year of paralysis, leading to direct talks and "a two-state solution with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security". Mr Biden is due to meet Palestinian leaders in Ramallah on Wednesday.

"The best long-term guarantee for Israel's security is a comprehensive Middle East peace with the Palestinians, with the Syrians, with Lebanon and leading eventually to full and normalised relationships with the entire Arab world," he said.

Mr Netanyahu reaffirmed his commitment to peace with the Palestinians and called for "tough sanctions" against Iran.

"The stronger those sanctions are, the more likely it will be that the Iranian regime will have to choose between advancing its nuclear program and advancing the future of its own permanence," he said.

Mr Biden's short speech at Mr Netanyahu's official residence was long on expressions and body language aimed at pacifying Israelis feeling cold-shouldered by President Obama's failure to visit their country since he was elected. The two leaders referred to their long personal friendship and addressed each other as "my friend Joe" and "Bibi".

"It's been too long between visits here," said Mr Biden. "It is true that you and I have been friends a long, long time It's just quite frankly good to be back in your company and see you." The two men did not take questions in the carefully-choreographed appearance. The only glitch came when Mr Netanyahu came to present Mr Biden with a certificate to mark the planting of a grove of trees in Jerusalem in memory of the vice president's mother, only to discover the glass in the frame had shattered. The two leaders will be hoping that their alliance is less fragile.