(The failure of Western Diplmacy?)
09/25/2007 | 05:54 PM
SEOUL, South Korea -
North Korea accused the United States on Tuesday of actively providing nuclear weapons assistance to Israel while seeking to deprive other countries of the right to peaceful nuclear programs.North Korea's top nuclear negotiator, meanwhile, denied accusations that his country had cooperated with Syria on a secret nuclear project.
The United States is ''shutting its eyes'' to the nuclear programs of its allies while ''taking issue with the rights to nuclear activities of other countries for peaceful purposes,'' North Korea's communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
''As an illustration, the US has long actively promoted and cooperated with the Israeli nuclear armament plan,'' the newspaper said. ''They decided to provide assistance to Israel's nuclear development program. Then the U.S. dispatched nuclear experts to Israel and transferred highly enriched uranium, the key ingredient for nuclear weapons, to them.''
Israel is widely believed to be a nuclear power, but its government has never formally confirmed or denied that it has nuclear weapons. The Israeli ''nuclear ambiguity'' doctrine is largely meant to scare potential enemies from considering an annihilating attack while denying them the rationale for developing their own nuclear deterrent.
North Korea's criticism came amid news reports that Israeli warplanes attacked an installation in northern Syria earlier this month which was allegedly either a joint Syrian-North Korean nuclear project or a shipment of arms for Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
North Korea has flatly denied any nuclear link with Syria, calling the accusation a fabrication by ''dishonest forces'' who want to obstruct recent progress in North Korean-U.S. relations.
''That matter is fabricated by lunatics, so you can ask those lunatics to explain it,'' North Korea's top nuclear envoy, Kim Kye Gwan, told reporters Tuesday after arriving in Beijing for talks on his country's nuclear weapons program.
International negotiations aimed at convincing North Korea to give up its nuclear programs have reported progress in recent months, with the North shutting down its only functioning nuclear reactor in July and pledging to declare and disable all its nuclear facilities by year's end.
A new round of six-party talks - involving the US, the Koreas, China, Russia and Japan - is scheduled this week, with the participants expected to firm up a deadline for North Korea to disable its nuclear facilities. - AP <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/61900/NKorea-US-helping-Israel-develop-nuclear-weapons>
At least 20,000 people have rallied in Tel Aviv to condemn a plea bargain given to outgoing Israeli President Moshe Katsav in his sexual abuse case.Women's groups and victims of sex attacks led the protest on Rabin Square against the attorney general's decision to drop rape charges against Mr Katsav. Menachem Mazuz said evidence against him was not "sufficiently solid".
He is expected to get a suspended prison sentence and to pay damages to his accusers.The disgraced leader formally resigns on Sunday and is due to be charged with indecent acts and harassment.
Rape convictions in Israel carry a maximum sentence of 16 years in prison. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6258132.stm>
Representatives of Israel's 250,000 Holocaust survivors are due to demonstrate outside the house of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem.A new government offer of a monthly stipend of $20 (£10) a month has been strongly criticised as too little by survivor groups.
The Israeli government is said to be revising its plans. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6931812.stm>Many elderly survivors say they struggle to pay for medical treatment and, in some cases, food.
By Tim Franks
BBC Middle East correspondent
The man appointed to be the British government's new representative on the Middle East has called on Israel to make much more effort to improve life for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.Michael Williams is currently the United Nations special adviser for the Middle East.
He said Britain should also take an active role in Iran and Syria - both countries with which the American administration has had little contact. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6964230.stm>He takes up his new role next month.
By Tim Franks
BBC News, Jerusalem
Jerusalem's busy Mea Shearim neighbourhood is witness to a looming demographic dilemma for Israel.It is an almost exclusively ultra-orthodox Jewish enclave, its narrow streets and crowded apartments teeming with thousands of black-hatted, white-shirted "Haredi" men and their families.
The Haredim live in a world apart from modern, westernised West Jerusalem, devoting their lives to the study of Jewish law and thought, practising what they see as the purest form of Judaism. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6970195.stm>
Jeremy Bowen
Blair's arrival at the American ColonyTony Blair is settling into his new job. The Middle East envoy of the Quartet of the UN, US, European Union and Russia has set himself up in Jerusalem's most beautiful hotel, the American Colony, in a Palestinian district in the Israeli-occupied eastern side of the city. That, in itself, will be taken as a statement of intent. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6979352.stm>
The Colony's hotel's Palestinian staff gave Mr Blair a warm welcome
By Martin Asser
BBC News, Bilin
The Bilin Popular Committee meets on Wednesday night to plan the next step in a campaign that turned this Palestinian farming community into a symbol of unarmed resistance against the Israeli occupation.Thousands of Palestinian, Israeli and foreign activists have joined villagers on weekly protest marches to the controversial barrier built by Israel in the West Bank, which cuts Bilin from most of its agricultural land.
The Israeli government says the barrier is a security measure to stop suicide bombers, but critics say the structure is a calculated effort to annex occupied land.Bilin dancing men (Photo: Martin Asser)
Abu Nizar (centre) and others danced in the street after prayers
On Tuesday the village scored a notable victory in the second part of its campaign - fighting the barrier's route through the Israeli courts. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6979923.stm>
By Martin Patience
BBC News, Damascus
The alleged violation of Syrian airspace by Israeli warplanes was announced by the official state news on Thursday afternoon.It is not clear why it took the Syrian authorities almost 12 hours to make the reported incident public. The Israeli military, for its part, has made no public comment on the matter.
But in a summer where the two countries seem to have oscillated from possible war to possible peace talks, this incident will have left some officials in Damascus jittery. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6982331.stm>
By Jonathan Marcus
BBC diplomatic correspondent
During the early hours of last Thursday morning, a number of Israeli jets appear to have entered Syrian air-space from the Mediterranean Sea, possibly penetrating deep into the country.Later unidentified drop tanks, which may have contained fuel for the planes, were found on Turkish soil near the Syrian border, indicating perhaps the Israeli jets' exit route.
The Syrian authorities are livid. They say that the aircraft were driven off but that they fired their weaponry into a deserted area.
The implication is that the planes effectively dumped their munitions so better to manoeuvre during their escape
The Syrian government has briefed Western diplomats and complained to the United Nations.
But there have been no images of the empty countryside where the weapons are alleged to have landed.
Long-standing contacts are uncharacteristically silent, noting only that Israel's military censorship on this subject is as tight as they can ever remember. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6991718.stm>Israeli sources are saying nothing.
By Jonathan Marcus
Diplomatic correspondent, BBC News
A little over a week ago, a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip hit a military base at Zikkim in southern Israel.Some 70 soldiers were injured. But even before this attack there was a growing debate in Israel calling for some kind of military operation to stem the missile and mortar fire from the Gaza Strip. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7003294.stm>
An Israeli air strike has killed two Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll in the territory to 11 since Wednesday.The Israeli military said it had targeted a rocket-launching cell in Beit Hanoun about to fire into Israel. Israel has been hit by 11 rockets in 24 hours, but no casualties are reported. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7015787.stm>
Syria accused Israel at the time but Israeli officials refused to comment, and the Israeli military censor imposed a strict blackout on information.An Israeli Air Force F-16D jet fighter-bomberIsrael has confirmed that it carried out a strike on a Syrian military installation last month.
It is still not known why Israel carried out the strike or what was hit
On Monday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told the BBC that a Syrian military construction site was hit in the Israeli air strike on 6 September.The censor's office has now allowed some details to be released.
Syria and Israel are formally at war. Israel has occupied the Golan Heights since 1967. Peace talks between them collapsed in 2000.<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7024287.stm>President Assad said the raid demonstrated Israel's "visceral antipathy towards peace" - and that Syria would retaliate.
A 60-year-old Palestinian will begin a case against the UK government in the High Court later when he will say that sales of arms to Israel are illegal.Saleh Hassan, who lives on the West Bank, says his land was confiscated by Israel to make way for its barrier. He claims Israel uses military equipment bought in Britain to repress Palestinians which, he says, violates their human rights. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7036945.stm>
By Jonathan Marcus
Diplomatic correspondent, BBC News
Things that do not happen are sometimes as vital as actual events to understand what is really going on.In one of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes' most famous cases, the crime was solved by a vital clue - the dog that did not bark in the night.
And in the real-life drama of the Israeli Air Force's raid on a target in Syria last month, there are two particular "dogs" that have not barked. For all of its protests the Syrian government has done as little as possible to play up the incident. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7037750.stm>
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has urged Muslim countries to boycott a planned US-sponsored Middle East peace conference next month.He said the aim of the meeting was to bolster Israel's position at the expense of the Palestinians.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, hopes it will kick-start substantive talks with Israel on the creation of a Palestinian state.
Because Hamas will not recognise Israel, renounce violence, or accept previous Palestinian agreements with Israel, it has not been invited. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7043174.stm>But the Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, opposes the conference.
By Jeremy Bowen
Middle East editor, BBC News
Another Middle East peace summit is coming up in the United States, but there are risks in holding summits on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and one of the main parties to the conflict, Hamas, is being excluded.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7037248.stm>
Israel's attorney-general has launched a third criminal inquiry into Ehud Olmert's conduct before he became PM.The PM is already facing investigations into a bank privatisation deal and his purchase of a property in Jerusalem.
In the latest case, he is suspected of granting political favours when he was industry and trade minister. Mr Olmert has denied any wrongdoing. The cases have raised questions about his future as he prepares for next month's Middle East peace conference. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7044335.stm>
By Aleem Maqbool
BBC News, Ramallah
Fifteen Palestinians and 15 guards were hurt, Israeli officials said.Tents for Palestinians prisoners destroyed by fire in Israeli jailHundreds of Palestinian prisoners have clashed with Israeli guards at a prison in the Negev desert, southern Israel.
Part of the camp was destroyed by fire during the riots
The Israeli authorities say the riot started during a routine search but the Palestinian Authority said it was "unacceptable practices at the jail". More than 2,000 Palestinians are held in Ketziot Prison. At one point, some of the camp was on fire as prisoners battled with their guards. Palestinian officials say they believe the number of wounded is far higher and that 10 of the injured prisoners needed hospital treatment. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7056961.stm>
US research group, the Institute for Science and International Security, obtained and analysed the images. The industrial-style building may have been a nuclear reactor under construction, says the ISIS.Compare before and after satellite images of the siteNewly-released satellite images of the presumed site of an Israeli air raid on Syria last month suggest that a large building has been completely removed.
A BBC correspondent says the images are not conclusive. Nor is it certain that they show the site hit by Israeli jets.
Originally Israel did not even admit that the 6 September raid had been carried out, and its military censor ordered a complete blackout on information.The Israeli strike has been shrouded in mystery and speculation.
But Syria said Israeli warplanes violated its airspace in what it called a "hostile act", and Israel eventually acknowledged the mission some four weeks later. Intelligence sources hinted at a possible link with North Korea's nuclear programme. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7063135.stm>
The EU also voiced concern after Israel began reducing petrol and diesel supplies in response to militant rocket attacks on its territory.The sun goes down on Gaza's main electricity company in Khan Younis, 29 OctoberIsraeli energy sanctions against the Hamas-run Gaza Strip punish an entire population and are unacceptable, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said.
Israel insists supplies to Gaza's power station will continue
Israel's attorney-general is seeking a halt to electricity cuts pending an assessment of their likely impact.Hamas seized control of the Strip in June from its Palestinian rivals Fatah.
Gaza relies on Israel for almost all its fuel and petrol, and more than half of its electricity.
It insists there will be enough power for hospitals and that supplies will continue to Gaza's sole power station. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7068239.stm>Israel says fuel cuts of up to 15% are a non-violent way of increasing pressure on Hamas.
By Raffi Berg
BBC News, Jerusalem
Prostitute in Tel Aviv (photo and copyright: Meged Gozani)Marina rarely leaves her two-room home in northern Israel these days.
Thousands of foreign women have been trafficked for sex in Israel
She is in hiding - wanted by the Israeli authorities for being an illegal immigrant, and by the criminal gangs who brought her here to sell her into prostitution.
During the height of the phenomenon, from the beginning of the 1990s to the early years of 2000, an estimated 3,000 women a year were brought to Israel on the false promise of jobs and a better way of life.Marina - not her real name - was lured to Israel by human traffickers.
"When I was in the Ukraine, I had a difficult life," said Marina, who came to Israel in 1999 at the age of 33 after answering a newspaper advertisement offering the opportunity to study abroad.
"I was taken to an apartment in Ashkelon, and other women there told me I was now in prostitution. I became hysterical, but a guy starting hitting me and then others there raped me.
"I was then taken to a place where they sold me - just sold me!" she said, recalling how she was locked in a windowless basement for a month, drank water from a toilet and was deprived of food.
MAIN ORIGINS OF WOMEN TRAFFICKED TO ISRAEL
Russia
Moldova
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Belarus
US State Department Trafficking in Persons report 2007 [22MB]
Last year, the United Nations named Israel as one of the main destinations in the world for trafficked women; it has also consistently appeared as an offender in the annual US State Department's Trafficking in Persons (Tip) report. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7070929.stm>That part of her ordeal only ended when she managed to escape, but the physical and mental scars remain.
Fatah supporters throwing stones at Hamas security forceHamas says it has rounded up dozens of Fatah activists in Gaza, a day after a huge rally commemorating Yasser Arafat ended in gunfire killing seven people.
Fatah supporters faced off with Hamas police who used deadly fire
Witnesses say security forces opened fire on unarmed crowds after the rally turned into a protest against the Hamas movement's takeover of Gaza in June.
Fatah party officials allege 400 of their supporters were arrested and dozens more summoned for questioning.Hamas says its police came under attack from Fatah gunmen and returned fire.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, compared the rival party's actions at the rally with "crimes of the Israeli occupier". <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7092365.stm>
Mahmoud AbbasPalestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has called for Gaza's Hamas rulers to be "brought down", his strongest call yet for their removal.
Abbas's call comes after Fatah supporters were killed at a rally
Witnesses in Beit Lahyia said the Israeli fire followed rocket launches by Palestinian militants across the border into Israel.Separately, Israeli forces have killed two Palestinian militants and wounded three other people in northern Gaza.
By Henri Astier
BBC News
Seven years on, a Paris court is set to look at the footage on Wednesday, as part of a libel case that could in turn become a cause celebre.Memorial to Muhammad al-Durrah in Bamnako, MaliAt the start of the second intifada, pictures of Muhammad al-Durrah and his father seeking shelter from gunfire were seen everywhere as a powerful symbol of Palestinian suffering and the brutality of the Israeli occupation.
Memorial in Mali to Muhammad al-Durrah based on the disputed images
The report is a fake that has fuelled hatred of Israel, the Jews and the West around the worldFor both sides, the stakes could hardly be higher.
Philippe Karsenty
Defendant Philippe Karsenty, who runs a French media watchdog website, says he wants to expose a forgery that he says could be every bit as damaging as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion - the notorious forged document that alleges a Jewish plot to rule the world.
The plaintiff, state-owned TV channel France 2, says it is both fighting a smear campaign by conspiracy theorists and standing up for honest reporting."The report is a fake that has fuelled hatred of Israel, the Jews and the West around the world," he told the BBC News website.
"The arguments of the people we have sued run counter to the values and practice of journalism," the author of the original report, France 2's Jerusalem correspondent Charles Enderlin, told the BBC News website. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7092262.stm>