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1054 Centre St., Suite 312, Thornhill, Ontario L4J 8E5
info@peacenowcanada.org
PEACE NOW RENEWS CALL FOR CEASEFIRE-PLUS
TORONTO--[January 9, 2009]--Wednesday’s three-hour lull in the Gaza War to allow humanitarian relief was no substitute for a durable, internationally-enforced ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Equally, such a ceasefire can be no substitute for a meaningful peace process between Israel and the Palestinians to end the occupation and give the Palestinian people self-determination, Canadian Friends of Peace Now said today.
In this unnecessary conflict, neither side has shown much concern for civilians in Gaza. Hamas fighters positioned themselves so as to turn the Palestinian people into potential targets of Israeli air and artillery strikes, and the Israelis have predictably played into Hamas’s hands--with the result that 225 of the 700 Palestinian killed have been civilians, according to the U.N.
The deepening ground offensive is further evidence of a recklessness in Israeli policy. If intended to oust Hamas, it would be overweening in its ambition. That would require reoccupation of Gaza. If intended to silence all the Qassams, it would be unrealistic. Even reoccupation could not guarantee that.
Instead, Israel is using unlimited means to achieve limited aims: wrecking enough havoc on Hamas and Gaza to set the stage for a better short-term ceasefire. Although Israel has pressed on with its offensive, the government has reportedly accepted the "principles" of a truce drafted by Egypt and France. Israel wants UN monitors to staunch the flow of new Hamas arms through tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border.
We support such a UN deployment--as part of a ceasefire that would also include the lifting of Israel’s economic siege of Gaza. Yet it’s illusory to believe that internationalizing the ceasefire will guarantee long-term calm. A new, improved ceasefire, though urgently needed, is unlikely to justify the heavy toll that Israel’s Gaza War has already taken on Palestinian civilians or on its own reservoir of international goodwill..________________________________________________________________
For further information, please call: 905-707-5308
CFPN is a Zionist organization and a member of Canadian Jewish Congress. It is dedicated to enhancing Israel¹s security through peace and to supporting the Israeli Peace Now movement.
Peace Now Report finds settlement construction has been proceeding at an unprecedented pace. Revelation prompts visiting Secretary of State Rice to condemn settlement building.
The first question during the press conference Condoleezza Rice and Tzippi Livni held yesterday was about a Peace Now report documenting a sharp rise in settlement construction since the Annapolis peace conference.
Neither Rice nor Livni made any mention of settlements in their opening comments, but the question about the Peace Now report prompted Rice to reiterate American opposition to settlement construction. "I don't think the settlement activity is helpful to the process, that in fact, what we need now are steps that enhance confidence between the parties," said Rice.
Peace Now's report revealed a near-doubling of construction starts in the settlements during the first half of 2008. Click here to read the Peace Now report.
In an article about yesterday's Peace Now report, the New York Times wrote that Peace Now is "a reliable source of settlement information."
Peace Now's report drew tremendous press coverage in Israel and around the world. Click on the name of the following publications to read selected coverage of the Peace Now report:
THREE-WAY EFFORT NEEDED
TO EASE GAZA TENSIONS,
SAYS PEACE NOW
TORONTO--[Feb. 11, 2008] -- President George W. Bush’s vision of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians by the time he leaves office appears increasingly unlikely, unless the three parties to the conflict can co-ordinate a parallel easing of tensions, Canadian Friends of Peace Now (CFPN) said today.
The escalation by Hamas of its cruel Qassam rocket attacks on Sderot and the militants’ successful suicide bombing via the Sinai underline their determination to play the role of spoiler in any negotiations limited to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli Government.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, meanwhile, has played into Hamas’s hands
by imposing collective punishment on the people of Gaza in the mistaken belief that a siege against the civilian population will bring popular pressure against Hamas to desist from violence. There is no such dynamic.The possibility now looms of a massive Israeli military offensive in Gaza, a move that is unlikely to suppress the militants’ vicious rocket fire but would further harm the civilian population and damage Israel‘s international standing.
Israel’s best hope for ending the rocket fire would be to tolerate, and even actively encourage, a rapprochement between Fatah and Hamas for a new Palestinian national unity government. The terms would have to include a ceasefire on the Gaza border, the freeing of captive Cpl. Gilad Shalit and Hamas’s tacit acquiescence in a Fatah-led peace process with Israel.
Undoubtedly, giving an unreconstructed Hamas any role in the peace process is likely to harden the Palestinian negotiating position and may make a formal peace agreement on final-status issues impossible. But Israel would gain more from an indirect ceasefire with Hamas than from a deal with Fatah that carries no weight beyond the West Bank.
A number of senior Israeli military-intelligence figures have urged indirect negotiations with Hamas. It’s not necessary to believe that the the Islamic leopard is changing its spots in order for Israel to work out a ceasefire that spares the people of Sderot and the people of Gaza. ·
For further information, please call: 905-707-5308
________________________________________________________________
CFPN is a Zionist organization and a member of Canadian Jewish Congress. It is dedicated to enhancing Israel’s security through peace and to supporting the Israeli Peace Now movement and its campaign for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.