ISRAEL

Jerusalem Post, Sept 6 - Analysis: Build now, freeze later: Netanyahu's preemptive 'entrance strategy' - …..Yes, Israel will agree to a temporary moratorium - the first such moratorium since then-prime minister Menachem Begin was holding talks at Camp David in the late 1970s.

But before the moratorium, Israel will announce the approval of hundreds of new apartments that - together with the 2,500 units already being build in West Bank settlements - will provide for what Netanyahu calls normal life (and which the world has taken to calling "natural growth").

…….Secretary of State Hillary Clinton then spelled out what the president had in mind on May 28, declaring, "With respect to settlements, the president was very clear when Prime Minister Netanyahu was here. He wants to see a stop to settlements - not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions.

"We think it is in the best interests of the effort that we are engaged in that settlement expansion cease. That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly, not only to the Israelis but to the Palestinians and others. And we intend to press that point."

First of all, the initial US demand was completely impractical. It was impractical not only from a political point of view, since Netanyahu, in his government constellation, could not agree to such a demand, but also practically impossible - there is no way that real needs would not be provided for the nearly 300,000 Israelis living beyond the Green Line. ….

Secondly, it became clear with time that there had indeed been agreements with the Bush administration on where and how Israel could continue to build in the settlements, and that the Obama administration was simply tossing those out the window.

…Thirdly, it became clear as time went on that the US was a prisoner to its own demand. Netanyahu said he would not agree to a complete freeze, and that talk about stopping construction in east Jerusalem was completely out of the question……..

The fourth element that has led to a change in the US position was Saudi intransigence. Even as Washington was trying to get Israel to agree to a freeze, the Obama administration also tried to get the Arab world - especially Saudi Arabia - to ante up some significant confidence-building measures.

Both Obama and Clinton were told in no uncertain terms by the Saudis that they would give nothing until there was an agreement. It then became impossible for the administration to come to Israel and say that in exchange for a settlement freeze, it would be getting some serious steps from the Saudis.
The US was looking for the Saudis to help extricate the stalled "diplomatic bus" from the mud. But the Saudis, as usual, refused.

Ironically, it is this inflexibility that has led - to a large extent - to the Obama administration becoming more flexible on Netanyahu's position that he can't stop all settlement construction.

Haaretz Sept.6 - Netanyahu: Settlement construction to slow, once 500 new  homes are built - By IsraelValley News Desk , Sept. 5 - Fuel - A joint Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian plans to convert thousands of tons of compost in agricultural biological fuel.  This project will not only create economic opportunities for many Palestinian farmers but will also be extremely beneficial to the environment.  The concept was initiated by the Peres Center for Peace at the annual conference of the Forum of Cooperation Economiqe Jordanian-Israeli held in Germany in 2008.
 
Women - The seminar "Business Women" (Women Making Business) has been organized by MASHAV and the Israeli Agency for International Cooperation, in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce Israel-Palestinian.  The objective of the seminar is to provide training to Palestinian women in the field of entrepreneurship.
 
Vice Foreign Minister Ayalon welcomed the participants emphasizing in particular the fact that women have the capacity and skills to influence and change society.

TOP  ARMS  SUPPLIERS   

Haaretz, September 8 - Russian FM: No S-300 missiles on hijacked ship - Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Tuesday rejected speculation that a hijacked Russian-crewed freighter was carrying advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles possibly destined for Iran.

The freighter Arctic Sea was allegedly hijacked in the Baltic Sea in late July after leaving a Finnish port. Russian naval vessels intercepted the ship weeks later off Cape Verde, thousands of kilometers from the Algerian port where it was purportedly supposed to deliver a load of timber.

A Russian shipping expert and a European Union anti-piracy official have speculated that the vessel was carrying a clandestine cargo, possibly S-300 surface-to-air missiles for Iran or Syria.

But Lavrov said that the presence of S-300s on board the Arctic Sea cargo ship was "a complete lie," the state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

The Sunday Times, meanwhile, quoted sources in Russia and Israel as saying the ship was carrying the advanced missiles to Iran and had been tracked by Israel.

The paper also quoted the sources as saying that Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, tracked the vessel and later tipped off Moscow that its cargo had been sold by former Russian military officers linked to the Russian underworld.

Iran has long been interested in buying medium range Russian S-300 air defence systems from Russia but Israel has sought to convince Moscow not to deliver the missiles, which could help repel possible Israel and U.S. air strikes against the Islamic Republic's nuclear sites.

BULGARIA  AND  iSRAEL     

European Jewish leader: EU-Israel economic ties must not be utilized as bargaining chip - Sofia (EJP) - A European Jewish Congress (EJC) delegation called on Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov to use his influence to combat calls in the EU to suspend the process of upgrading relations with Israel.

“There are unfortunately some discordant voices within the EU who use Israel’s economic development as a political bargaining chip in issues that have little to do with economics and trade,” said Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress, during a meeting Wednesday in Sofia.

In the wake of Israel’s operation in Gaza in January, the EU has suspended the planned upgrade of EU-Israel relations. It said the move will not go ahead until Israel halts settlement expansion and accepts a two-state solution.
 
The EJC said the meeting with the Bulgarian President and high-level members of the Bulgarian government is part of an ongoing effort to promote issues of importance to the European Jewish community with European leaders and to coordinate an organized effort regarding the Iranian nuclear threat.

The EJC is a democratically elected representative body of Jewish communities across Europe.

Kantor called for a consensus on Iran’s nuclear program: “It is time to act now against the Iranian regime. The European Union must adopt a strict and consistent policy to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.”

“Now that parts of Europe are within Iranian missile range, it behooves European leaders to act quickly and drastically to prevent Iran from terrorizing Europe with these weapons.”

Kantor said the recent declaration of Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt at the EU Foreign Ministers’ meeting, that "If they (Iran) decide to go for confrontation, then confrontation will happen." “is encouraging, but there needs to be action behind the words.”

The EJC delegation also called on the Bulgarian government to be vigilant against anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance and racism, especially in politics.

“In Bulgaria, extremist parties should be monitored and legal action should be adopted if they incite xenophobia, anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of intolerance,” Kantor said.

He added: “There is a growing phenomenon of far-right extremist parties across Europe some whom have managed to gain a foot-hold in the European Parliament, and have used these intolerances, most notably anti-Semitism, as a platform to political power.”
 
Kantor also noted that 70 years after the Second World War began, which destroyed whole European Jewish communities; there is a Jewish renaissance in some of these communities.

“It is especially symbolic for me to be in Bulgaria at this time, a country that, against all odds and against history itself, managed to save almost 50,000 Jewish Bulgarians from deportation and certain death,” Kantor said at a dinner to honour President Parvanov.

“For this the Jewish people are extremely grateful to those Bulgarians, including parliamentarians, the intelligentsia, orthodox priests and ordinary citizens who took a stand against tyranny and refused to sacrifice their fellow Bulgarians. Of course we must not forget the fate of the Jews in Thrace and Macedonia, as well as elsewhere, who perished under the Nazis. They must not and will never be forgotten.”   
     
EGYPT
                          
New York Times, Sept.7 - Private Motive for Egypt's Public Embrace of a Jewish Past - Michael Slackman - In the Alley of the Jews in Cairo, the government is busy renovating an abandoned, dilapidated synagogue. In fact, the government is publicly embracing its Jewish past. Egypt has restored two synagogues and plans to restore eight more.

But because of public anger toward Israel and deep, widespread anti-Semitism, the government initially insisted that its activities remain secret. Why the sudden public display of affection for Egypt's Jewish past? Global politics. Egypt's minister of culture, Farouk Hosny, wants to be the next director general of UNESCO, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In 2008 he said he would burn any Israeli book found in the nation's premier library in Alexandria, a statement for which he has since apologized.

Serge Klarsfeld, the Jewish Nazi hunter backs Egyptian Faruq Hosni for UNESCO job - Paris (AFP)---France's most famous Nazi-hunter Tuesday gave his support to Egypt's candidate to lead the United Nations cultural organization, despite the allegations of anti-Semitism clouding his campaign.  
Serge Klarsfeld told AFP that Faruq Hosni, Egyptian culture minister and the frontrunner to take over as head of UNESCO, had apologized for remarks seen by many as anti-Semitic and had taken a strong stance against the Holocaust.  

The intervention of 73-year-old Klarsfeld, who dedicated his life to hunting down escaped Nazi war criminals, was something of a surprise in France, where several Jewish intellectuals have condemned Hosni's candidacy.  

"I support him because of his public position on the Shoah and his openly expressed repentance," Klarsfeld told AFP in a telephone interview given after he issued a statement following a meeting at the Egyptian embassy in Paris.  

"Naming Mr Faruq Hosni head of UNESCO would be entirely positive," his statement said. "It is also to be welcomed because Egypt is home to one of the oldest and most remarkable civilizations and today plays an important role."  

During his long ministerial career, Hosni has often been accused of promoting anti-Semitism, in particular in 2008 when he told the Egyptian parliament that he would "personally burn" any Hebrew books in the country's libraries.  

Noted figures, including Auschwitz survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, have opposed his candidacy, but he nevertheless remains the frontrunner among nine candidates to become the next UNESCO director general.  

Representatives from the 58 nations that make up UNESCO's executive council are meeting in Paris this week ahead of a first round of voting on September 17 to elect a successor to Japan's Koichiro Matsuura.