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03/13/2006:

"Israel’s new iron man plans ‘axis of hope’ in Middle East"

THE man likely to become Israel’s next defence minister does not shy away from talking about his past.
“I killed many Arabs, probably more than Hamas fighters killed Jews, and more than anybody else, but all in order to secure Israeli lives,” said Admiral Ami Ayalon, the Labour party’s candidate for the most difficult portfolio in Israeli politics.

There are two weeks before the general election, and victory for either Labour or the Kadima party is expected to ensure that the former commando and head of Shin Bet, the internal security service, will take over from Shaul Mofaz, the incumbent, in a coalition.

Ayalon is considered a dove despite his 32 years of military service and his near five-year stint at the helm of the intelligence agency. He is a straight talker, and wants a comprehensive peace settlement with the Palestinians even under a Hamas leadership.

“I’d be willing to negotiate with Hamas if the organisation accepts the idea of a two-state solution,” he said in an interview last week.

Ayalon, 61, is regarded as a fresh thinker: he believes Israel should establish an “axis of pragmatism” with the regional countries that have full diplomatic relations with Israel — Morocco, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey.

“This is the whole idea — to create this pragmatic axis which will be supported by the European Union and the international community,” he said. It is part of his strategy to woo the Palestinians from the more extremist policies of Hamas. “Seventy per cent of those who voted for Hamas were not Hamas believers but voted against the corruption in the Palestinian authority,” he said. “If we establish this axis it will break Hamas and we will see the pragmatist forces among the Palestinians.”

Ayalon is also open-minded on the controversy over the division of Jerusalem, which he envisages as an “open city” and capital of two states. Jerusalem should be shared between Arabs and Jews. “Arab neighbourhoods will come under Palestinian sovereignty, Jewish ones under Israeli sovereignty,” he said. He has even suggested that if a common solution could be agreed with Hamas on the future of the West Bank, the hated security wall currently under construction could be taken down.
timesonline.co.uk


Peretz: We'll pass law to pay settlers to leave voluntarily
Labor Chairman Amir Peretz declared Saturday that a government controlled by his party would not waive the negotiating stage of West Bank withdrawal, and would begin its term by passing a law that would pay West Bank settlers who volunteer to leave the territories, in order to reduce the number of settlers prior to any evacuation plan.

Peretz was responding to an interview in Friday's Haaretz with Acting Prime Minister and Kadima head Yossi Olmert, who promised to draw permanent borders for the state.

"In contrast to Olmert, we do not intend to waive the negotiations stage," Peretz said. "Kadima and Olmert say that Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas] is irrelevant and sanctify unilateralism. We prefer to hold negotiations and to use unilateralism as a last resort. A unilateral step on the West Bank will not achieve international support either, since there won't be a return to the 1967 borders and the world will view it as an attempt to set boundaries unilaterally."

Peretz emphasized that a government led by him would bring about the rapid evacuation of the illegal West Bank outposts and the completion of the separation fence. In parallel, it would pass an "evacuation-compensation" law to pay settlers who leave the West Bank voluntarily. The idea is to thin out the settler population even before a disengagement plan is approved.


Police: Hamas is seeking control of East Jerusalem villages
Hamas is attempting to turn the Arab villages in East Jerusalem into "Hamas villages," according to Jerusalem police.

Police officials said Hamas is seeking to increase its control of these villages in order to hold coordinated demonstrations there, among other things. This is only one of a series of measures being taken by the organization in order to heighten its presence in the capital in light of its election victory.

The Jerusalem police are already planning to counter Hamas intentions to establish an "alternative Orient House" in the Arab eastern city. Orient House, which had served as a Palestinian Authority government center, was closed by the Israeli government a few years ago for breaking the law.

"Hamas is a terror organization," Jerusalem Police Chief Ilan Franco said last week. "It is still classified as a terror organization, and that is how the Jerusalem Police relates to it. Hamas' activities in general, and in Jerusalem in particular, are prohibited."

Franco said the police would not permit the reestablishment of Orient House or the creation of Hamas villages in East Jerusalem.