Stressing on refusing to settle the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and confirming the right of return, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman told his US counterpart President Barack Obama that Lebanon has the right to defend its territories and regain it from the occupation.

After a meeting with Obama at the White House, President Sleiman said said he had complained about “Israeli threats” against his country and urged Obama to press Israel to withdraw its forces from areas such as occupied Shebaa Farms. “We also discussed the Israeli threats against Lebanon which are taking place and place obstacles to the economic growth of the country,” Sleiman said.

“We asked President Obama and the US to exert further pressure on Israel to implement Resolution 1701.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week denounced the resolution, saying it had proven to be a failure.

Sleiman praised Obama’s landmark speech to the Muslim world in Cairo in June and the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the US leader last week.

He also called on the United States to push for the resumption of the stalled Middle East peace process, which has so far defied Obama’s attempts to forge sweeping progress.

For his part, the US President told reporters that Lebanon was a “critical country, in a critical region,” and praised Sleiman for managing the swift-moving political currents threatening stability in his country. “We want to do everything we can to encourage a strong, independent and democratic Lebanon,” Obama said, noting that Washington was especially keen to strengthen Lebanese armed forces.

Despite vowing support for Lebanese democracy, Obama said there were some issues on which he and Sleiman would not agree, and noted they discussed the implementation of the UN resolution 1701 and Hezbollah’s arms. “President Sleiman and I are not going to agree on every issue with respect to… Israel, Lebanon, the Palestinians and Syria. What we do agree on is we can resolve these issues through dialogue and negotiations, rather than through violence.”

Lebanon has complained of Israeli surveillance overflights, but Israel claims such violations are needed to monitor what they called “the rearming of Hezbollah” and the movements of its resistance fighters.

Obama pressed Lebanon to crack down on arms smuggling into the country, saying the weapons posed a potential threat to Israeli security. “President Suleiman emphasized his concerns with respect to Israel. I emphasized our concerns about the extensive arms that are smuggled into Lebanon that potentially serve as a threat to Israel,” Obama told reporters. “It is in the interest of all parties concerned that enforcement is exerted with respect to such smuggling.”

Sleiman, who earlier met House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi, also held in depth talks with Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden “stressed that our efforts to achieve our goals in the Middle East will not come at Lebanon’s expense,” his office said in a statement.

At least 70 villagers have been killed in a Saudi air raid on a Yemeni village near the border with Saudi Arabia, Houthi fighters said.

A spokesman for Yemen’s army, Askar Zuail, confirmed the air raids in the region but claimed they were carried out by Yemeni planes.

An Internet fighters’ statement said the attack was carried out Sunday morning against the village of Bani Maan in Razeh region of northern Sadaa province.

“Saudi aircraft committed a massacre … against the innocent residents of Bani Maan,” the statement said.

According to a preliminary count, it added, the raid killed at least 70 people and wounded more than 100.

It said that Saudi planes had carried out “more than 50 raids” during the course of Sunday.

Zuail confirmed deadly air raids on Sunday, but gave little other detail.

There was no immediate reaction by the Saudi authorities to the crime.

Yemeni government forces launched an all-out offensive against Shiite Muslims on August 11 in an attempt to end a five-year combat, cornering them near the border with Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh’s forces have been fighting the fighters since November 3.

Between December 17 and 26 this year, Syria’s Shia community will mark Ashura, the anniversary of the passing of the Prophet’s grandson Hussein Ibn Ali (pbuh) who martyred during the Battle of Kerbala in 680 AD.

Between December 17 and 26 this year, Syria’s Shia community will mark Ashura, the anniversary of the passing of the Prophet’s grandson Hussein Ibn Ali (pbuh) who martyred during the Battle of Kerbala in 680 AD.

Ashura – which literally means “the tenth” – is celebrated during the first 10 days of Muharram, the first month of the Muslim calendar.

Sayyed Abdul Rasoul al-Musawi al-Kazemi, a history teacher and Islamic scholar at the Zaynabia Hawza in Saida Zeinab, explains that it is a period of immense grief and sadness for all Shias.

“Believers around the world express their sorrow through similar rituals,” Kazemi said. “They raise black flags and wear black clothes during the whole month.”

Kazemi, who is originally from Iraq and moved to Damascus 30 years ago, explained that the rituals and traditions associated with Ashura express not just sorrow at the death of Hussein, but also symbolise humility and express solidarity with the oppressed.

During special processions, known as Husseini processions, believers file through the streets to the tune of beating drums and the rhythmic chanting of ‘Ya Hussein’. Believers break down in tears as they remember the passing of Hussein and his family (pbut). Kazemi said that it is in fact a religious duty to cry during Ashura.

“Like slapping oneself, crying is an expression of the highest degree of human grief,” he said.

“These rituals must be carried out with the heart and the mind,” Kazemi explained. “They must balance reason and emotion, faith and sense.”

Other rituals during the month of Muharram include the performance of passion plays in which the life and death of Hussein (pbuh) are enacted. Believers also carry out ta’ziya, in which they pay their condolences to other believers marking the death of Hussein (pbuh).

“During the ta’ziya, which is held for the first 10 days of Muharram, believers gather to listen to poets eulogise Hussein (pbuh) , his family and their lives,” Kazemi said.

Believers also gather at Shia religious schools, known as a hawza, to listen to preachers narrate the story of Ashura, often via song or poetry, and draw lessons from Hussein’s life (pbuh).

Special foods are served during Ashura, with many believers also donating sweets and other foods to local mosques. One popular Ashura dish is al keyema, an Iraqi recipe made with crushed chickpeas, sliced meat, onions and tomatoes and served with rice. Believers usually serve water to their guests during this period to symbolise the thirst Hussein and his family (pbut) felt during the battle.

On the tenth day of Muharram, the commemorations reach their climax.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his 30-member Government won the Parliament’s vote of confidence with the majority of 121 votes out of 128 despite the reservation of the March 14’s Christians.

The sixth and final session of debate on a vote of confidence resumed Thursday evening. After consulting PM Hariri in the morning session, Speaker Nabih Berri said: “The night will extend till its end,” signaling the session would remain open till MPs finish their debates and vote on confidence in government.

Because Lebanon’s new government backs the resistance’s right to keep its arms, it won the support of 121 “with reservation” of some. While in Lebanese constitution there is nothing called vote of confidence “with reservation”, the March 14’s Christians insisted on registering such stance because the policy statement’s sixth clause gives the Lebanese people, army and its resistance the right to defend the country.

The Israeli regime’s prime minister is to include some West Bank settlements on occupied Palestinian lands as priority zones and grant funds for their protection.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that some 28 million dollars in credits have been earmarked for the plan which would benefit 110,000 settlers.

The plan is to be submitted to the cabinet on Sunday

The prime minister’s spokesman Mark Regev denies reports that the plan “has nothing to do with the decision to suspend for 10 month housing construction in Judaea and Samaria.

The announcement came after the regime’s parliamentarians voted in favor of a controversial amendment requiring a referendum on any withdrawal from occupied territories.

Under the new amendment, any such agreement will need the support of 61-MP majority in the 120-member parliament (Knesset) before it is put to a public referendum.

The settlements are the core ssue in peace talks with Israelis. Palestinians have tied any peace deal with the occupying regime to a freeze settlement construction.

Yemeni army has killed 17 Shia fighters and destroyed several vehicles that were carrying aid to the fighters, the official Saba news agency reports.

According to the agency, Yemeni troops killed 17 Zaidi local fighters and arrested four others in fighting late on Wednesday in the mountainous province of Saada, north of the country, as the army has stepped up its all-out offensive against the Zaidi Shias – also known as Houthis,Press TV reported.

Jet fighters hit posts of the Shia fighters as the troops were exchanging fire with Houthis, a local official told Saba.

The army has also destroyed several vehicles that were carrying aid to the fighters, he added.

The Yemeni military launched an offensive against the Shia Zaidis in Saada and Amran provinces three weeks ago, accusing the Zaidis of trying to restore a Zaidi imamate system, overthrown in a 1962 coup.

Zaidi Shias say they are defending themselves against religious oppression and they have vowed to retaliate against the attacks until their rights are achieved.

They also accuse Saudi Arabia and al-Qaeda of helping the Yemeni government in its crackdown on Houthis.

Yemen’s recent military offensive against Zaidi Shia fighters – dubbed ‘Operation Scorched Earth’ – has left scores of civilians dead and thousands of others displaced.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has warned about the dire humanitarian situation in Saada province since fighting has prevented emergency aid from reaching the crisis-hit area.

Yemeni Shia rebels reported on Tuesday that two women were killed and a child was wounded in Saudi air strikes on Yemeni villages near the two countries’ border.

One of the raids “hit a house, martyring two women and wounding a child” in Shida, the rebels said in a statement posted on their website, adding that a government building was targeted in the village.

The Zaidi Shia rebels, known as Huthis, said Saudi aircraft also continued to bomb the Yemeni villages of Malaheez and Hassameh, as well as in Razeh and Wahidan.

With a long-running conflict between the Huthis and Sanaa spilling over, Saudi Arabia began attacks on Yemeni rebel positions on November 3. Riyadh said the strikes have been restricted to Saudi territory.

Riyadh also said it launched reprisals against the rebels after they attacked the Jabal al-Dukhan border area last week, killing one Saudi border guard and wounding 11 others.

The Yemeni government launched an all-out offensive called Operation Scorched Earth against the rebels on August 11.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the security situation along occupied Palestine’s border with Lebanon during a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, saying that Hezbollah was taking the place of the Lebanese army as the country’s major military power.

“If in the past we viewed Lebanon as a secondary military power,” Netanyahu said, “today Hezbollah is the real Lebanese army, and it has replaced the actual Lebanese army as a major force that is arming itself and training like any other army.”

“The Lebanese government and Hezbollah are becoming intertwined,” he added. “They are the ones who would be held responsible for any attack on Israel.”

In regard to Israel’s indirect peace talks with Syria, which were suspended last winter after Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu told the committee that Israel was ready to resume negotiations immediately and without preconditions. However, he added that he had told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that he preferred that France mediate the talks rather than Turkey, which previously served as mediator.

Beirut
“There is no obstacle to cooperation with any official in the new Lebanese unity government with the exception of Hezbollah,” Nicole Shampaine, Director of the US Department of State’s Near East Affairs Bureau Office for Egypt and the Levant 12/3/09.”

Lebanon’s first Sunday morning in December was cold, cloudy and rainy as this country’s’ new Prime Minister, Saad Eddine Hariri, donned a gray track suit, with Nike running shoes and joined hundreds of pro-Hezbollah runners, two dreamy Jordanian princesses and 33,000 others from 73 countries as well as all 18 Lebanese confessions for the annual ‘friendship first, competition second’, 42 km Beirut Marathon.  Despite the weather, the atmosphere was warm as Christmas decorations were being hung with care across Lebanon in Christian, Shia, Sunni and Druze neighborhoods.

Saad, telling race watchers on the sidewalks, “I know I won’t win but I want to participate anyway. We have to bring Lebanese together, and sport is a very important event that can bring them together” actually passed on the 42 km course in favor of  the 10 km event—but then, how many politicians anywhere, used to the good life, can even run two km these days?

To many Lebanese, their new Prime Minister’s openness and sports ethic, symbolizes a new and promising atmosphere at Lebanon’s  Grand Serail, also known as Government Palace, the Headquarters of the Prime Minister located a few blocks from Parliament. A positive and welcomed change from the tensions of the 2006-2007 ‘tent city’ days in Riad Solh Square when the opposition and the Bush administration- backed Fuad Siniora government faced each other for more than a year,separated by the Lebanese army, the former glaring up at their adversaries from scores of tents and the latter peeking down from behind pulled back office curtains.

Joy to the World!

At least in press releases and during TV interviews, Lebanon’s political factions appear more willing and able to work together than has been the case for decades.  The Deputies and Cabinet members in Lebanon’s new unity government are about to get to work, with the people of Lebanon and her friends wishing them well.  The intensely political and anti-Resistance Maronite Patriach Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, who declined an invitation to participate in the marathon, did use his pulpit this morning at early Mass to “Thank God almighty the atmosphere in Lebanon is tilted toward understanding between the feuding parties. We hope this spirit of understanding will continue and political leaders would pay attention to the poor.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Ali Fayyad, a charismatic Hezbollah Member of Parliament expressed his party’s “excitement and intension to work with all parties to improve the lives of all Lebanese.”

Even more encouraging to many Lebanese, but upsetting to  some in Washington and Tel Aviv, is that on 12/04/09  Saad Hariri’s US-Saudi backed Mustaqbal  ( Future) bloc (March 14), held a meeting at Hariri’s  downtown Beirut Center House and emphatically committed the party to “making the citizens priorities the priorities of the national unity cabinet. “ The bloc committed itself to “the political, economic and social aspects of the ministerial Policy Statement.”

This puts the March 14 coalition program in close conformity with much of Hezbollah’s new Political Manifesto. “There now appears to be the votes in Parliament to make some real changes around here” my motorcycle mechanic told me after replacing my windshield, following another fairly minor accident–my 4th in 2009 but down one from 2008.

Europe is expressing its support for Lebanon’s Unity Government as is Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the whole region.  Plus the United Nations Sec-Gen Ban Key Moon and virtually the complete international community with two exceptions, the governments of Israel and the United States.

For its part, Israel predictably served up its usual fare of dire threats since the  new Cabinet’s Policy Statement recognizing the necessity of Hezbollah’s arms as a deterrent against Israeli attacks on Lebanon.  Through its lobby outlets Israel has been threatening that “the adoption of the resistance scheme by the Lebanese government and the major influence of Hezbollah in the Lebanese political scene means that Lebanon has declared that it is responsible for any attack by Hezbollah, and that acting against Lebanon will be easier for the army to win a battle against a state than to win it against a terrorist organization.”

On 12/2/09  Israel’s former deputy leader of the Israeli internal front during the July 2006 war, Ayal Ben Raufen  warned during an Israel Army Radio interview that “the Lebanese government gave legitimacy for the dangerous increase of Hezbollah’s political power and in case of war, Israel  now has a clear address: Lebanon. “

Perhaps Mr. Ben Raufen had not been advised by the much ballyhooed International Law Unit attached to Israeli army brigades whose  job it is to make sure all Israeli military attacks continue to be perfectly legal as in  Jenin, Lebanon and Gaza,  that the drumbeat of threats that he and other Israeli officials have been making against Lebanon are outlawed by Article 2 (4) of the UN Charter which provides: “All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations”.

Washington’s reaction to date has come mainly from two sources.  The first and most predictable was an AIPAC drafted letter sent out by 31 of Israel’s agents on the House side of the US Congress. The members forwarded the particularly obtuse and nearly incomprehensible letter to Secretary of State Clinton urging the Obama administration to work toward disarming Hezbollah by threatening the budgets of UNIFIL and Lebanon.

It reads in part:  “In light of the clear violations of UN Security Council resolutions, we ask what actions the Administration is taking to ensure the UN addresses these violations.” Presumably the reference is to UNSCR 1701 which according to the arithmetic contained in the seven UN Reports on UNSCR 1701 compliance, Israel has violated more than 1,600 times including near daily violations of Lebanese sovereignty, with cross border troop incursions and Lebanese airspace and territorial waters penetrations. If the members had in mind UNSCR 425, unanimously passed in 1978, demanding that “Israel immediately withdraw from all Lebanese territory”, it is true that this resolution has still not been complied with as Israeli troops still occupy Lebanese territory and it is doubtful the AIPAC language  (“we ask what actions the Administration is taking to ensure the UN addresses these violations”) is meant to apply to the Israeli forces occupying the  Lebanese territory of Ghajar, Kfar Khouba, and Shebaa Farms.

The letter, introduced by career Israeli legmen, Mark Kirk and Steve Israel also informs the White House that “We must seek to support stronger multilateral efforts to disarm Hezbollah and clear southern Lebanon of Iranian weapons,” despite the fact that international lawyers at the US Library of Congress Research Service recognize that the new Lebanese government’s acceptance of Resistance arms moots certain provisions of UNSRC 1701, and 1559. Some lawyers and scholars at the CRS have argued recently that the Resistance arms arrangements of Lebanon’s unity government constitute  a legitimate exercise of Lebanon’s right to self-defense and deterrent requirements especially given six decades of Israeli attacks. Moreover, as they have pointed out, Lebanon has every right to receive assistance from Iran and any other country. No doubt this subject will be raised when Lebanon’s President, Michel Suleiman, visits President Obama on December 14.

Another reaction from Washington  immediately followed Hassan Nasrallah’s  pledge of Hezbollah cooperation with the new Unity Government as part of the parity new political manifesto. Nicole Shampaine, appointed last year by the Bush Administration as the Director of the Department of State’s Near East Affairs Bureau Office for Egypt and the Levant weighed in.  She was not happy as she announced that the U.S. will cooperate with the Lebanese government but not with Hezbollah Cabinet ministers. “There is no obstacle to cooperation with any official in the Lebanese government with the exception of Hezbollah,” she said in an interview with the Beirut daily As-Safir.

Ms. Shampaine emphasized two problems.  “One is that the Hezbollah declaration puts a higher priority on the issue of an Islamic state in Lebanon.” Secondly, Hezbollah’s  new political manifesto is “more an attempt to show force in the face of the United States and Israel.”  Shampaine’s analysis left some in Lebanon scratching their heads.  Had she even read the document?  Or was she confusing it with the 1985 ‘Open letter’ which did mention the ideal of an Islamic Republic? Neither the manifesto nor Nasrallah made any mention of an Islamic Republic of Lebanon. What was she talking about?

Nasrallah read and commented on the 32 page document. it focused on the Unity government and Hezbollah’s social programs to develop a balanced economy across the regions based on the productive sectors; improving production; providing appropriate services to citizens including education, healthcare, housing, poverty reduction. Nothing about an Islamic Republic. The idea of an Islamic Republic is presumably one of the last subjects Hezbollah wants to talk about these unity days.

Checking the list and checking it twice!

The one positive comment about US policy Shampaine offered was Washington’s support for Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s unity government, the main pillar of which is Hezbollah and its political allies in Parliament and the Cabinet. Washington trusts him and will follow his lead.  So what happens when Saad hosts US officials with Hezbollah or pro Hezbollah cabinet ministers or meetings at which Hezbollah Parliamentary delegates are needed?

“Our hands are tied– Nicole (Sampaine) put us in one hell of a bind!” reported one Beirut Embassy political staffer on 12/4/09.  “We have the names of 128 Members of Parliament and 30 cabinet ministers and we will have to advise the Ambassador and visiting officials who they can and can’t meet with or even talk to?  Who supports Hezbollah and who does not—who is outed or closet Hezbollah and who it not?  My job reminds me of the dilemma of Justice Potter Stewart in the 1964 Jocabellis case when the Supreme Court tried to define what is and is not  hard core Pornography and the frustrated Judge just shrugged and explained “it’s hard to define but  I know it when I see it”. So I am to go through these names, bios and photos and know a Hezbollah supporter when I see one”

In the spirit of giving this holiday season some Beirut based Americans offer the following counsel to assist our Embassy’s  “we’ll know em when we see em” project. It is meant to aid and assist the current US policy of sniffing out contraband members of Lebanon’s new Cabinet.

First the easy cases:

· If the US States government should discover its Beirut Embassy or any visiting American officials have a reason to discuss any aspect of Foreign Affairs with Lebanon, forget about it!  Lebanon’s new unity government Foreign Minister is none other than the esteemed former Professor from Lebanese University, Ali Shami.  He’s a pro Hezbollah Shia and Amal Movement member. No way can American officials talk/meet with Dr. Shami. Maybe the Swiss will do it for us.

· Concerning any issues having to do with the unity government Cabinet post of State which deals with issues of Administrative Reform which the White House has expressed interest in, don’t even think about discussing them.  The new Cabinet Minister is the much respected Mohammad Fneish. He has a terrible record of being elected to Parliament on the Hezbollah ticket in 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2005.  He also served as Minister of Labor and Minister of Energy in previous governments.  He is one of those hard core types.

·  Matters concerning Agriculture and US AID projects which need to be discussed with the Lebanese Minister of Agriculture?  Absolument Verboten!  That Ministerial seat is his held by Hezbollah’s Hussein Hajj Hassan who was elected to Parliament in 1996, 2000 and 2005 on the Hezbollah slate. Even though Hassan is considered an expert on agriculture, having headed the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture between 2000 and 2005, he cannot under the new US guidelines announced by Ms. Shampaine, be met or communicated with.

·  US-Lebanese joint efforts with AN1Hi flue, aids, all other Health issues.  Not in  your dreams because the new Minister of Health is none other than Dr. Mohammad Jawad Khalifeh, Director of the Lebanese Association for Organ Donors and former Head of General Surgeries at the American University of Beirut Medical Center.  His problem? Dr. Khalifeh, a Shia Muslim, is a member of the Amal Movement which is aligned with Hezbollah in the National Lebanese Resistance

·  Issues involving the Ministry of Youth and Sports that needs to be discussed?  Nope. The new unity government minister is surgeon Dr. Ali Abdullah.  First he practices in the Rayyak Hospital in the Hezbollah area of the Bekaa and he is Shia. He held the Youth and Sports portfolio since 2003 and while he is pretty independent the Embassy must not take a chance on him. He obviously has too many of the wrong patients, neighbors and friends maybe even relatives.

Slightly more difficult cases requiring intense vetting by the Department of Homeland Security and other security agencies are the new unity government ministers Ghazi Aridi (Public Works), Akram Chelayab (Displaced Persons) and Wael Abu Fasour (State).  The problem with these three is that they are Druze and all Members of Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party, and everyone in the State Department knows how that ingrate jumped ship and is now way too cozy with the Hezbollah led Resistance.  Surely the Embassy has read what Jumblatt has been saying about Israel being Lebanon’s only enemy, whereas the Embassy knows Israel is American’s only ‘friend’ these days.  These three are suspect for sure and under the Shampaine Doctrine are best dissed.

There is one Minister, Elias  el Murr, who holds the Defense Ministry post who should pass muster under this season’s “anyone but Hezbollah”  standard. Murr, the son of Michel, a long time Member of Parliament, is a Greek Orthodox independent and formerly headed the Interior Ministry. He is not part of the ‘suspect’ Christian bloc headed by Michel Aoun who is allied with Hezbollah. The only problem with this ‘clearance’ to hold discussions with the Defense Minister is that there is not a lot to talk about.  Everyone is pretty aware that without a ‘green light’ from Israel very little assistance having to do with military equipment, boots and shoelaces included, according to the US Military Attaché, serious aid  to defend Lebanon from Israel will not  be seriously discussed.  So in the case of the Defense Minister it’s not the Who but the What that is the problem for US-Lebanese relations.

Of the remaining Cabinet Members nearly all have been showing signs of being open to dialogue, willing to hold discussions with Hezbollah on the basis of mutual respect and willingness to solve Lebanon’s severe social, political and economic problems.  Most have  also expressed support for granting civil rights to the Palestinian Refugees, still wanting and waiting to return to their their country.

As the twelve days of Christmas rapidly approach, it’s not clear exactly who the Obama Administration is going to be able to talk and engage with here in Lebanon.   According to one Embassy staffer, “That’s what the American taxpayers pay their Beirut Embassy and State Department to figure out”.

Al-Manar.com.lb is not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author’s alone.

Shortly after European Union Ministers announced their support for the division of occupied Jerusalem between Israel and a future Palestinian state on Tuesday, the US State Department issued a statement saying that the fate of Jerusalem should only be determined by Israel and the Palestinians in talks.

“Our position on Jerusalem is clear. United States policy remains unaffected and unchanged: As has been stated by every previous administration which addressed this issue, the status of Jerusalem, and all other permanent status issues, must be resolved by the parties through negotiations,” the statement read.

The status of occupied Jerusalem is a sensitive issue for Israel, which considers the city to be its indivisible capital. Palestinians want the eastern part of Jerusalem to serve as the capital of a Palestinian state.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, however, welcomed the EU foreign ministers’ statement as an “extremely important attitude.”

“The EU ministerial council’s decision on the Middle East and Jerusalem in particular implies a landmark and extremely important attitude,” Judeh told the state-run television.

Last week, Sweden presented a draft document supporting the division of occupied Jerusalem and the recognition of East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Earlier Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Ministry officials responded with harsh criticism to the European declaration, saying that Sweden, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, had failed.

“The peace process in the Middle East is not like IKEA furniture,” one official said, making a reference to the do-it-yourself Swedish furniture chain. “It takes more than a screw and a hammer, it takes a true understanding of the constraints and sensitivities of both sides, and in that Sweden failed miserably.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that Tuesday’s EU statement was substantially softer than Sweden’s initial draft, once again demonstrating Sweden’s failure as the rotating president of the union. “Sweden has done nothing over recent months to advance the Middle East peace process,” the Foreign Ministry officials said. “The EU’s only saving grace is that some of its members are responsible and moderate nations that didn’t support the Swedish draft, which looked like something taken out of the Fatah platform at the Bethlehem conference.”

The senior officials added that a group of nations had “saved the European Union from itself, since any other decision would have dealt severe harm to the relations between Tel Aviv and Brussels, and would have prevented the EU from becoming an important partner in the peace process.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli Foreign Ministry issued an official response to the EU statement, saying that the “European Union ignores the primary obstacle to achieving a resolution between Israel and the Palestinians: the Palestinian refusal to return to the negotiating table.”

“Given the Israeli government’s efforts to renew the negotiations, Israel regrets that the EU has chosen to adopt a text that, although containing nothing new, does not contribute to the renewal of negotiations,” the statement continued.

“In light of the extreme draft originally presented by the Swedish presidency at the start of discussions, Israel does welcome the fact that at the end of the process the voices of the responsible and reasonable EU states prevailed, balancing and improving the text. We also welcome the recognition given to the measures and efforts taken by Israel to enable the resumption of negotiations,” it went on to say.

“We expect the EU to act to promote direct negotiations between the parties, while considering Israel’s security needs and understanding that Israel’s Jewish character must be preserved in any future agreement,” concluded the statement.

Meanwhile, occupied Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat also issued a statement, saying that he “completely rejects the decision of the EU to support the division of Jerusalem,” calling it a real danger for the future of Jerusalem and predicting that such a division would never work. Barkat noted that the recent celebration of the 20th anniversary of the reunification of Berlin reminds us that “no divided city in the history of the world has functioned properly.”

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Israel demolished 14 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem Al-Quds last month as part of Tel Aviv’s Judaization campaign targeting the holy city.

According to the Land Research Center, the Jerusalem Al-Quds Municipality demolished 14 Palestinian homes in the city in November.

The municipality also issued 170 orders to demolish Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem Al-Quds. The orders target 60 homes in the Jabal al-Mokabbir district, 34 homes and 10 structures in al-Esawiyya, 25 homes in Beit Hanina, 22 homes in Samir Amis, 3 homes in al-Thoury, 3 homes in the Old City, and one home in al-Tour, the International Middle East Media Center reported.

In addition, Israeli settlers forced three families out of their homes in Sheikh Jarrah in November.

The apartheid wall currently under construction in the environs of the sacred city is meant to annex more Palestinian land and isolate Palestinians from their hometown, the IMEMC report added.

Israel frequently demolishes houses in East Jerusalem Al-Quds on the pretext that they were built without construction permits. However, Palestinians living in the city say that such permits are nearly impossible to obtain.