195 Israel admits it harvested Palestinian organs in 1990s

(1) Israel admits it harvested Palestinian organs in 1990s
(2) Israel admits harvesting Palestinian organs; Swedish newspaper vindicated
(3) PHILIP WEISS: So much for an "anti-Semitic canard": Israel admits organ harvesting
(4) Vanunu arrested for meeting foreigner
(5) Israeli Supreme Court orders IDF to allow Palestinians to use Modiin road
(6) Settlers torch Palestinian property, uproot trees
(7) Petras: Bended Knees
(8) Save Jewish Galilee: Buy A Piece of Israel for Only $100!
(9) Jimmy Carter: Gaza must be rebuilt now

(1) Israel admits it harvested Palestinian organs in 1990s

From: ReporterNotebook <RePorterNoteBook@Gmail.com> Date: 21.12.2009 12:23 AM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091220/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_organ_harvesting/print

Israel harvested organs in '90s without permission

By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer2 hrs 33 mins ago       

JERUSALEM – Israel has admitted that in the 1990s, its forensic pathologists harvested organs from dead bodies, including Palestinians, without permission of their families.

The issue emerged with publication of an interview with the then-head of Israel's Abu Kabir forensic institute, Dr. Jehuda Hiss. The interview was conducted in 2000 by an American academic, who released it because of a huge controversy last summer over an allegation by a Swedish newspaper that Israel was killing Palestinians in order to harvest their organs. Israel hotly denied the charge.

Parts of the interview were broadcast on Israel's Channel 2 TV over the weekend. In it, Hiss said, "We started to harvest corneas ... Whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the family."

The Channel 2 report said that in the 1990s, forensic specialists at Abu Kabir harvested skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers, often without permission from relatives.

In a response to the TV report, the Israeli military confirmed that the practice took place. "This activity ended a decade ago and does not happen any longer," the military said in a statement quoted by Channel 2.

In the interview, Hiss described how his doctors would mask the removal of corneas from bodies. "We'd glue the eyelid shut," he said. "We wouldn't take corneas from families we knew would open the eyelids."

Many of the details in the interview first came to light in 2004, when Hiss was dismissed as head of the forensic institute because of irregularities over use of organs there. Israel's attorney general dropped criminal charges against him, and Hiss still works as chief pathologist at the institute. He had no comment on the TV report.

Complaints against the institute, where autopsies of dead bodies are performed, at the time of Hiss' dismissal came from relatives of Israeli soldiers and civilians as well as Palestinians. The bodies belonged to people who died from various causes, including diseases, accidents and Israeli-Palestinian violence, but there has been no evidence to back up the claim in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians for their organs. Angry Israeli officials called the report "anti-Semitic."

The academic, Nancy Sheppard-Hughes, a professor of anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley, said she decided to make the interview public in the wake of the Aftonbladet controversy, which raised diplomatic tensions between Israel and Sweden and prompted Sweden's foreign minister to call off a visit to the Jewish state.

Sheppard-Hughes said that while Palestinians were "by a long shot" not the only ones affected by the practice in the 1990s, she felt the interview must be made public now because "the symbolism, you know, of taking skin of the population considered to be the enemy, (is) something, just in terms of its symbolic weight, that has to be reconsidered."

While insisting that all organ harvesting was done with permission, Israel's Health Ministry told Channel 2, "The guidelines at that time were not clear." It added, "For the last 10 years, Abu Kabir has been working according to ethics and Jewish law."

(2) Israel admits harvesting Palestinian organs; Swedish newspaper vindicated

From: ReporterNotebook <RePorterNoteBook@Gmail.com> Date: 21.12.2009 09:55 AM

Israel admits harvesting Palestinian organs

    * Ian Black, Middle East editor
    * guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 December 2009 21.46 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/20/israel-admits-harvesting-palestinian-organs

Israel has admitted that pathologists harvested organs from dead Palestinians, and others without the consent of their families – a practice that it said ended in the 1990s, it emerged at the weekend.

The admission, by the former head of the country's forensic institute, followed a furious row prompted by a Swedish newspaper reporting that Israel was killing Palestinians in order to use their organs – a charge that Israel denied and called "antisemitic".

The revelation, in a television documentary, is likely to generate anger in the Arab and Muslim world and reinforce sinister stereotypes of Israel and its attitude to Palestinians. Iran's state-run Press TV tonight reported the story, illustrated with photographs of dead or badly injured Palestinians.

Ahmed Tibi, an Israeli Arab MP, said the report incriminated the Israeli army.

The story emerged in an interview with Dr Yehuda Hiss, former head of the Abu Kabir forensic institute near Tel Aviv. The interview was conducted in 2000 by an American academic who released it because of the row between Israel and Sweden over a report in the Stockholm newspaper Aftonbladet.

Channel 2 TV reported that in the 1990s, specialists at Abu Kabir harvested skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers, often without permission from relatives.

The Israeli military confirmed to the programme that the practice took place, but added: "This activity ended a decade ago and does not happen any longer."

Hiss said: "We started to harvest corneas ... whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the family."

However, there was no evidence that Israel had killed Palestinians to take their organs, as the Swedish paper reported. Aftonbladet quoted Palestinians as saying young men from the West Bank and Gaza Strip had been seized by the Israeli forces and their bodies returned to their families with missing organs. The interview with Hiss was released by Nancy Sheppard-Hughes, professor of anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley who had conducted a study of Abu Kabir.

She was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that while Palestinians were "by a long shot" not the only ones affected, she felt the interview must be made public, because "the symbolism, you know, of taking skin of the population considered to be the enemy, [is] something, just in terms of its symbolic weight, that has to be reconsidered."

Israel demanded that Sweden condemn the Aftonbladet article, calling it an antisemitic "blood libel". Stockholm refused, saying that to so would violate freedom of speech in the country. The foreign minister then cancelled a visit to Israel, just as Sweden was taking over the EU's rotating presidency.

Hiss was removed from his post in 2004, when some details about organ harvesting were first reported, but he still works at the forensic institute.

Israel's health ministry said all harvesting was now done with permission. "The guidelines at that time were not clear," it said in a statement to Channel 2. "For the last 10 years, Abu Kabir has been working according to ethics and Jewish law."

(3) PHILIP WEISS: So much for an "anti-Semitic canard": Israel admits organ harvesting

From: ReporterNotebook <RePorterNoteBook@Gmail.com> Date: 21.12.2009 03:44 AM

by PHILIP WEISS on DECEMBER 20, 2009

http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/so-much-for-a-canard-israel-admits-organ-harvesting.html

So much for a canard (Israel admits organ harvesting)

by Philip Weiss on December 20, 2009 · 36 comments

Remember when this story came out earlier this year and Israel denied it? The Washington Report did a big piece about it, by Alison Weir, yet the Israel lobbyists said it was an anti-Semitic canard. Myself I say it’s further evidence of this great challenge in Jewish history, learning respect for the other.

From the Associated Press, Jerusalem: "Israel harvested organs in ’90s without permission":

    Israel has admitted that in the 1990s, its forensic pathologists harvested organs from dead bodies, including Palestinians, without permission of their families.

    The issue emerged with publication of an interview with the then-head of Israel’s Abu Kabir forensic institute, Dr. Jehuda Hiss. The interview was conducted in 2000 by an American academic, who released it because of a huge controversy last summer over an allegation by a Swedish newspaper that Israel was killing Palestinians in order to harvest their organs. Israel hotly denied the charge.

    Parts of the interview were broadcast on Israel’s Channel 2 TV over the weekend. In it, Hiss said, "We started to harvest corneas … Whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the family."

    The Channel 2 report said that in the 1990s, forensic specialists at Abu Kabir harvested skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers, often without permission from relatives.

(4) Vanunu arrested for meeting foreigner
From: Kristoffer Larsson <kristoffer.larsson@sobernet.nu> Date: 30.12.2009 02:16 PM

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/12/29/1009933/vanunu-arrested-for-meeting-foreigner

December 29, 2009

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli police arrested nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu for meeting with foreigners in violation of his parole.

Vanunu was arrested Monday by Jerusalem police in a hotel in the capital city following an alleged meeting with a Norwegian national, who he says is his girlfriend. He was transferred to house arrest on Tuesday afternoon, according to reports.

Vanunu served 18 years in an Israeli prison for discussing details of his work as a technician at the Dimona nuclear plant with the British newspaper the Sunday Times of London. He reportedly revealed Israeli nuclear secrets and gave the newspaper photographs of the plant's operation.

He was released from prison in 2004 and in 2007 was sentenced to another six months in jail for violating his parole restriction on meeting with foreigners.

Under the terms of his parole, Vanunu is also prohibited from leaving the country or approaching foreign embassies. He has petitioned Israel's Supreme Court to lift the restrictions, which can be extended every six months. He was set to petition the court again in two months, according to Haaretz.

(5) Israeli Supreme Court orders IDF to allow Palestinians to use Modiin road

From: Kristoffer Larsson <kristoffer.larsson@sobernet.nu> Date: 30.12.2009 07:44 PM

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/12/29/1009936/supreme-court-palestinians-may-use-route-443

Supreme Court: Palestinians may use Modiin road

December 29, 2009

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Palestinians can use a high-traffic road in the West Bank connecting Jerusalem with Modiin, Israel's Supreme Court ruled.

In Tuesday's ruling, the court agreed with a petition filed by Palestinians living in six towns and villages along the route of Highway 443, which connects Jerusalem with Modiin and several Jewish towns in the West Bank is a popular alternative route for travel between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

“The judges ruled today that the army was operating outside the boundaries of its authority by prohibiting Palestinians from traveling on 443. We are hopeful that the High Court's decision will put an end to West Bank separation roads and to the shameful decision to ban Palestinians from using a West Bank road that was paved on their lands and for their own use,” said attorney Limor Yehuda from Association for Civil Rights in Israe, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Palestinian plaintiffs. 

The land for the nearly 14-mile stretch of highway was expropriated from Palestinian villages, according to reports. The court gave the army five months to implement the ruling.

The road built in the 1980s was closed to Palestinian traffic in October 2000 after the launching of the second Palestinian intifada.

Last week, the army found a homemade bomb set along the road.

(6) Settlers torch Palestinian property, uproot trees

From: WVNS <ummyakoub@yahoo.com> Date: 28.12.2009 09:21 AM

06/12/2009

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=244578

15:53 Nablus – Ma'an – Angry at their government over a slowdown in the expansion of West Bank settlements, Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian vehicles and buildings and uprooted more than 50 trees on Sunday.Settlers set ablaze two warehouses, two cars, and a tractor belonging to Palestinian farmers in the northern West Bank village of Einabus near Nablus on Sunday morning.

Palestinian sources said firefighters from the Civil Defense service and Nablus municipal council were alerted at 2:30am and headed to the home of Nadir Mufdi to extinguish a fire in his barn, as well as a tractor and private car. Separately, eyewitnesses told Ma'an that Israeli settlers set fire to a car owned by Fayiz Allan in the same area. No injuries were reported in either apparent arson. Israeli Defense Ministry sources told Ma'an that while they could not confirm the attack was in retaliation for plans to temporarily freeze some settlement construction in the West Bank, a large contingent of military forces was in the area and operating under the assumption that the incident was "a revenge act." Residents of the Yizhar settlement were likely involved, the sources added. A spokesman for Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories would confirm only that the Civil Administration had received a complaint that settlers set fire to two vehicles and a building. Authorities are investigating the incident, the official added.Bethlehem: Settlers uproot trees

Separately dozens of Israeli settlers uprooted more than fifty newly-planted trees on Sunday from fields in the West Bank village of Um Salamona, south of Bethlehem, Palestinian officials said.The trees were planted last week during a campaign led by the Palestinian Authority governor of Bethlehem Abdul-Fattah Hamayil. The aim of the planting was to express solidarity with the people of Um Salamona whose lands are being confiscated by Israeli authorities to build the separation wall between it and the settlement of Efrat. "This assault by settlers reflects their barbarism which they practice even against trees and stones that belong to the Palestinians," Hamayil commented.

He explained that such attacks were completion of an overarching Israeli government plan to confiscate Palestinian lands to build more settlements. Hamayil said the uprooting of the trees in Um Salamona exposed Israel's settlement freeze as an act of deception.

"Israeli claims about temporarily freezing settlement activities are nothing more than deception," the governor said. For his part, the head of Um Salamona's village council, Mahmoud Rashid, explained that the governor of Bethlehem, along with Palestinian national security services chiefs, and representatives of Palestinian factions started a land reclamation campaign in the village last week. However, he added, Israeli authorities and settlers impeded the campaign through various means.

Israeli settlers from Yizhar attacked Palestinians in the village of Asira on Friday, according to Gassan Doughlas, who holds the Palestinian Authority's settlements portfolio for the northern West Bank. Neighboring families came out to defend the families under attack, Doughlas said, and clashes erupted between both sides. He added, however, that there were no reports of injuries. These incidents come amid reports that Israeli military officials are concerned settlers may escalate their attacks on Palestinian civilians in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's a 10-month, partial moratorium on settlement construction. Settlement leaders have attacked and harassed Israeli soldiers and inspectors delivering orders on the temporary lull.

Even before the partial moratorium on construction and the violent demonstrations that followed it, Israeli settlers had a "price tag" policy wherein any act preventing settlement expansion would be met with harsh resistance. In response to the dismantling of an illegal settlement outpost during the summer, settlers blocked roads, harassed Palestinian villagers and vandalized graveyards.

(7) Petras: Bended Knees

From: ReporterNotebook <RePorterNoteBook@Gmail.com>  Date: 23.12.2009 09:58 PM

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/12/bended-knees-zionist-power-in-american-politics/

http://www.voltairenet.org/article163362.html

Bended Knees: Zionist Power in American Politics
by James Petras*

22 December 2009

... One of the extreme manifestations of Zionist-Jewish hegemony is found in the fear and trepidation with which critics of Israeli policy approach the issue. Most seek to “Judaize” anycriticism, instead of seeking and citing truth, facts or analyses on their own merits. They support their statements by citing Israeli sources and Jewish writers, even if earlier non-Jewish, non-Israeli writers and analysts have raised the same issues and may have provided a more systematic and consequential critique [51]. This “tactic” of seeking to play off critical Jews against the ZPC and Israel is debatable if not counter-productive, regressive and serves to re-enforce the pervasive fear of the ZPC. The proponents of this approach, assuming they are not ignorant of non-Jewish critics, argue that by citing the Jewish background of the critics of Israel, they disarm the ZPC charge of “anti-Semitism”. They further argue that by putting an ethnic ‘spin’ or ‘ethnicizing’ the critique they are responding to “Jewish sensibilities” and are more likely to get a hearing from Jews and their sympathizers [52].

These arguments are plausible but deeply flawed. Committed Zionists, meaning the entire ZPC, dismiss Jewish and non-Jewish critics with equal ferocity: the former as “self-hating Jews”, the latter as “anti-Semites”. Sacrificing truth and principled criticism to shield “Jewish sensibilities” means refraining from challenging their residual tribal sympathies to a ‘Zion-centric’ view of the world. If the central problem is Zionist hegemony of US culture and especially foreign policy in the Middle East (and wherever else Israel dictates), it ill behooves us to pander to amorphous special sensitivities of the few Jewish dissidents who demand ethnically-based critiques.

Demystifying a Racial Doctrine

The big challenge for opponents of Judeo-Zionist hegemony is demystifying its ideological bases. Zionists and their media camp followers always highlight “Jewishness” and the disproportionate number of notable, successful scientists and public figures with whom the Zionists self-identify (even if the said individual have no identification with anything remotely “Jewish” beyond some distant ancestry). In contrast, to highlight the “Jewishness” (and Israel-centricity) of notorious swindlers, spies, warmongers, gangsters, drug or arms traffickers is be labeled anti-Semitic. Selective ethnic identity is crucial to maintaining and perpetuating the racist myth of Jewish superiority and the corollary of power and prestige, based on special meritorious qualities. One of the key components of Zionist-Jewish ideology and Israeli power is precisely the racist myth of the Jewish moral and intellectual superiority – not the guns, money and backing of Washington and the ZPC’s central location within the US elite social structure.

There are two options for those interested in demystifying Zionist-Jewish hegemony: One could eliminate all ethnic labels or one could insist that labels be applied to all individuals including the most nefarious, grotesque and embarrassing.

Despite cracks in the Zionist monolith and the emergence of public critics within and without the Jewish community [53], especially among young former Jews, who prefer to assimilate with their fellow-citizens (the passive majority), still up to a third of US Jews remain hard-core backers of the ZPC with Israel as their most enduring political loyalty. While not discounting the psychological gratifications, which accompany beliefs in a mythical biblical past, there are real material benefits to joining the Israel First Power Configuration. While it is true Zionists contribute money and time to promoting the Israeli agenda, there are also powerful material incentives, especially the benefits accruing from exclusive identification and membership in a cohesive configuration, which empowers its members, finances electoral campaigns and is well-connected among political leaders, as well as financial, real estate and insurance moguls. The spinoffs and payoffs for upwardly mobile Zionist activists can be lucrative and career-enhancing. Ambitious politicians, who measure up and toe the line, are likely to tap into substantial funding and favorable media coverage. Networks, which work for Israel, enhance Jewish-Zionist prestige while providing emotional gratification and vicarious pleasure in sharing the thrill of Israel’s bloody military victories and its forceful expansion of the “fatherland”.

Not a few careers have advanced through the “contacts” made at the national and regional Zionist meetings. This is especially the case for many, otherwise mediocre, political candidates facing competitive elections. Active membership in a powerful Zionist organization may protect the careers of lackluster, or even incompetent, performers in some academic or professional settings where the threat of a lawsuit charging anti-Semitism can ensure contract renewal.

Zionist racist ideology, with its implicit and explicit emphasis on Jews as “special people” ordained by God, as well as the media’s bias toward presenting a selectively positive ethno-religious identity, provides symbolic gratification to lower middle class Jews, who sell Israel bonds, write letters to politicians, heckle critics of the Jewish state and march under the flag of Israel. They are likely to play a role at the grassroots level in bullying family members, neighbors and colleagues to join the cause or refrain from voicing criticism of Israel. Recently, more than a few Seders have led to family bust-ups over issues like the massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the Goldstone Report and the Ben-ami Kadish spy episode.

The success of the ZPC in projecting power and shaping US policy depends, in large part, on the financial clout of its millionaire financiers, its penetration of the state apparatus and the interlock of the corporate-political directorate. However, equally important is the grassroots work of hundreds of thousands of middle and lower middle class activists. The effective exercise of power by the Zionist elites is based on the vertical ties between the leaders and followers, especially in mobilizing for Israel’s high priority campaigns promoting dubious causes – like Israeli repudiation of moderate US policies toward Jewish colonial settler expansion or calls for more restraint from killing civilians in Palestine and elsewhere. It is highly unlikely that any changes can be induced among the Zionist elite; but there are reasons to believe that some sections of the rank and file can be influenced by anti-Zionist Jews and non-Jews. This is especially true at a time when Israeli political leaders have embraced such openly ultra-rightist postures. ...

[1]  The major sources which inform this article include: The Daily Alert a bulletin published daily by the 51 Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; press releases and reports published by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the New York Times, Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Boston Globe; the US Congressional Research Services. The mailings of articles from a plethora of publications by Sid Shoniad were of enormous help, though, of course, the analysis and interpretations found in this article are solely my responsibility, Web sites such as Information Clearing House, Al Jazeera and the BBC were also consulted on a daily basis.

[10] In their otherwise fine book The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux 2007), the authors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt confine their analyses to Washington and political pressure on the legislative branch by neo-conservative Zionist Jews, (see Ch 4 “What is the ‘Israel’ Lobby”, pp 111 – 150). Needless to say the entire spectrum of Zionists from the Left to Right attempted to trash the book, fabricating non-facts, ad hominem slanders and minimizing the scope and depth of the findings.

(8) Save Jewish Galilee: Buy A Piece of Israel for Only $100!

From: Kristoffer Larsson <kristoffer.larsson@sobernet.nu> Date: 21.12.2009 02:03 PM From: The Jerusalem Post [mailto:jpostoffers@jpost.com] Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2009 5:59 PM
To: Kristoffer Larsson Subject: Save the Galilee, buy a piece of Israel

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Jewish Galilee In Danger

Do these news headlines coming from Israel upset you?

·         Jerusalem Post, Sep 24, 2009, Ron Friedman / 15 Beduin arrested in protest against tree planting (read)

·         Ynet, Sep 23, 2009, Ahiya Raved / Carmiel suffering from Arab neighbors' celebratory gunfire

·         Arutz Sheva, Dec 08, 2008, Malkah Fleisher / Govt-Owned Amidar Company Sells Haifa Synagogue to Local Arab

·         Arutz Sheva, July 09, 2009, Maayana Miskin / Third Arab Rape Gang in Galilee

·         Ynet, Aug 21, 2009, Sharon Roffe-Ofir / State lands being commandeered by Arabs

·         Arutz Sheva April 17, 2007, Malkah Fleisher / JNF Not Denying It Forfeited Land to Arabs

See Photos of Galilee Danger

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(9) Jimmy Carter: Gaza must be rebuilt now

From: Erooth Mohamed <ekunhan@gmail.com> Date: 20.12.2009 02:48 AM From: Enrique Ferro <ferro.enrique@gmail.com>

CARTER: Gaza must be rebuilt now

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/dec/19/gaza-rebuilt-peace-process-suffering

Jimmy Carter

The Guardian, Saturday 19 December 2009

It is generally recognised that the Middle East peace process is in the doldrums, almost moribund. Israeli settlement expansion within Palestine continues, and PLO leaders refuse to join in renewed peace talks without a settlement freeze, knowing that no Arab or Islamic nation will accept any comprehensive agreement while Israel retains control of East Jerusalem.

US objections have impeded Egyptian efforts to resolve differences between Hamas and Fatah that could lead to 2010 elections. With this stalemate, PLO leaders have decided that President Mahmoud Abbas will continue in power until elections can be held – a decision condemned by many Palestinians.

Even though Syria and Israel under the Olmert government had almost reached an agreement with Turkey's help, the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, rejects Turkey as a mediator on the Golan Heights. No apparent alternative is in the offing.

The UN general assembly approved a report issued by its human rights council that called on Israel and the Palestinians to investigate charges of war crimes during the recent Gaza war, but positive responses seem unlikely.

In summary: UN resolutions, Geneva conventions, previous agreements between Israelis and Palestinians, the Arab peace initiative, and official policies of the US and other nations are all being ignored. In the meantime, the demolition of Arab houses, expansion of Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Palestinian recalcitrance threaten any real prospect for peace.

Of more immediate concern, those under siege in Gaza face another winter of intense personal suffering. I visited Gaza after the devastating January war and observed homeless people huddling in makeshift tents, under plastic sheets, or in caves dug into the debris of their former homes. Despite offers by Palestinian leaders and international agencies to guarantee no use of imported materials for even defensive military purposes, cement, lumber, and panes of glass are not being permitted to pass entry points into Gaza. The US and other nations have accepted this abhorrent situation without forceful corrective action.

I have discussed ways to assist the citizens of Gaza with a number of Arab and European leaders and their common response is that the Israeli blockade makes any assistance impossible. Donors point out that they have provided enormous aid funds to build schools, hospitals and factories, only to see them destroyed in a few hours by precision bombs and missiles. Without international guarantees, why risk similar losses in the future?

It is time to face the fact that, for the past 30 years, no one nation has been able or willing to break the impasse and induce the disputing parties to comply with international law. We cannot wait any longer. Israel has long argued that it cannot negotiate with terrorists, yet has had an entire year without terrorism and still could not negotiate. President Obama has promised active involvement of the US government, but no formal peace talks have begun and no comprehensive framework for peace has been proposed. Individually and collectively, the world powers must act.

One recent glimmer of life has been the 8 December decision of EU foreign ministers to restate the long-standing basic requirements for peace commonly accepted within the international community, including that Israel's pre-1967 boundaries will prevail unless modified by a negotiated agreement with the Palestinians. A week later the new EU foreign policy chief, Baroness Catherine Ashton, reiterated this statement in even stronger terms and called for the international Quartet to be "reinvigorated". This is a promising prospect.

President Obama was right to insist on a two-state solution and a complete settlement freeze as the basis for negotiations. Since Israel has rejected the freeze and the Palestinians won't negotiate without it, a logical step is for all Quartet members (the US, EU, Russia and UN) to support the Obama proposal by declaring any further expansion of settlements illegal and refusing to veto UN security council decisions to condemn such settlements. This might restrain Israel and also bring Palestinians to the negotiating table.

At the same time, the Quartet should join with Turkey and invite Syria and Israel to negotiate a solution to the Golan Heights dispute.

Without ascribing blame to any of the disputing parties, the Quartet also should begin rebuilding Gaza by organising relief efforts under the supervision of an active special envoy, overseeing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and mediating an opening of the crossings. The cries of homeless and freezing people demand immediate relief.

This is a time for bold action, and the season for forgiveness, reconciliation and peace.