Egypt s foreign minister says East Jerusalem must be included in a freeze of Israeli settlement acti

Egypt s foreign minister says East Jerusalem must be included in a freeze of Israeli settlement activity before Middle East peace talks can restart. Ahmed Aboul-Gheit told reporters in Stockholm on Friday that Jerusalem is Arab and it will continue norwegian cruise line review to be so. He said the Arab world expects the area to be included in a moratorium on Israeli settlements. The Obama administration has hinted it may be backing down on its insistence that Israel halt all settlement activity as a condition for restarting peace talks with the Palestinians. U.S. officials have denied Israeli norwegian cruise line review media reports that Washington has agreed to leave East Jerusalem out of the agreement and settle for a nine- to 12-month freeze in the West Bank. A State Department spokesman said on Friday that the Obama administration will be flexible on pre-conditions for all parties involved in Middle East peace negotiations.
Several days ago Dr. Neve Gordon of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev published an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times. In that article he explained why, after years of activity in the peace camp here, he has decided to pin his hopes on applying external pressure on Israel including norwegian cruise line review sanctions, divestment and an economic, norwegian cruise line review cultural and academic boycott. He believes, and so do I, that only when the Israeli society s well-heeled norwegian cruise line review strata pay a real price for the continuous occupation will they finally take genuine steps to put an end to it. Gordon looks at the Israeli society and sees an apartheid state. While the Palestinians living conditions deteriorate, many Israelis are benefiting from the occupation. In between the two sides, Israeli society is sinking into complete denial drawn into extreme hatred and violence.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak intends to evacuate all unauthorized West Bank outposts norwegian cruise line review within weeks. The defense minister has declared a number of times that the evacuation of illegal outposts is our obligation as a democratic state, Barak s office said in a statement released Tuesday. This is a process which will be implemented in weeks, not years. Earlier Tuesday, Labor MK Daniel Ben Simon said during a tour of the Samarian region that Barak had promised that the outposts would be dismantled within two months time.  The Labor Party will raise the issue in cabinet if the evacuations are not carried out by the start of the winter norwegian cruise line review session, Ben-Simon said…