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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 7-Jan-2014
7-Jan-14 World View -- Mideast 'peace talks' near collapse as Kerry leaves without deal

Web Log - January, 2014

7-Jan-14 World View -- Mideast 'peace talks' near collapse as Kerry leaves without deal

Tens of thousands of migrants to Israel protest in Tel Aviv

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

Tens of thousands of migrants to Israel protest in Tel Aviv
Mideast 'peace talks' near collapse as Kerry leaves without deal
Hamas welcomes the Palestinian Authority back to Gaza

Tens of thousands of migrants to Israel protest in Tel Aviv

Tens of thousands of migrants protest in Tel Aviv on Sunday and Monday (AP)

Tens of thousands of migrants protest in Tel Aviv on Sunday and Monday (AP)

Tens of thousands of African migrants to Israel, mostly from Sudan, South Sudan and Eritrea, have been massing and protesting in front of embassies in Tel Aviv. They are protesting that migrants are treated poorly, that few if any migrants have been granted refugee status, and that a new law will allow an illegal immigrants to be held in detention in a facility in Holot for up to a year with no charges filed. Israel has a program where it will pay an illegal immigrant $3,500 plus a one-way plane ticket, if the immigrant will go back home. Israel is threatening to deport other immigrants.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UN refugee agency - UNHCR) is joining with international NGOs to pressure Israel to grant an unlimited number of asylum requests to refugees. According to a UNHCR statement:

"Placing asylum seekers in duress that may force asylum seekers to opt to return without having examined their asylum claim could amount to a violation. The current policy and practices create fear and chaos amongst asylum seekers, not taking into account their specific situation. 'Warehousing' refugees in Holot is not a solution in line with the 1951 Refugee Convention."

Israelis who oppose granting asylum say that the migrants are not refugees at all, but have come to Israel to get a job and send money back to their families at home. Some Israeli commentators say that UNHCR and the international NGOs are exploiting the migrants and sometimes endangering their lives in order to gain a broader political objective of diluting the population with tens or hundreds of thousands of migrants in order to change Israel from being a Jewish state. CS Monitor and Jerusalem Post

Mideast 'peace talks' near collapse as Kerry leaves without deal

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry left the Mideast on Monday, having failed in four days of intense negotiations with Israelis and Palestinians to get agreement on a "framework" to guide future peace talks. Kerry parroted the usual claim that "progress has been made," but in the opposite appears to be true. There were bitter recriminations from both Israeli and Palestinian leaders. The Israelis said that the Palestinians were "continuing their campaign of inciting hatred," while the Palestinians adamantly refuse to recognize Israel as a "Jewish state", and remain steadfast in their opposition to stationing any Israeli troops in the occupied Jordan Valley, which forms a third of the West Bank.

There is an April deadline for the current round of "peace talks," and Kerry will be making one more trip before then in a last-ditch attempt to salvage the negotiations, before having to deal with yet one more major Obama administration foreign policy debacle, among many others. Ma'an News Agency

Hamas welcomes the Palestinian Authority back to Gaza

Ever since they went to war in 2007, the Palestinians have been split into two groups. Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the West, is the governing authority in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority and Fatah are the governing authority in the West Bank. The so-called Mideast "peace talks" have been between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but one of the many reasons why they've failed is that Hamas opposes them.

On Monday, Hamas' prime minister Ismail Haniyeh said that all Fatah members, except those accused of killing Hamas members in 2007, would now be welcome to return to Gaza, after being exiled in 2007. However, a Fatah spokesman called the announcement a "superficial" gesture, and demanded that Hamas agree to elections for a government for both Gaza and the West Bank. Al-Jazeera

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 7-Jan-14 World View -- Mideast 'peace talks' near collapse as Kerry leaves without deal thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (7-Jan-2014) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 7-Jan-2014 7-Jan-14 World View -- Mideast 'peace talks' near collapse as Kerry leaves without deal

Tens of thousands of migrants to Israel protest in Tel Aviv

Mideast 'peace talks' near collapse as Kerry leaves without deal

Hamas welcomes the Palestinian Authority back to Gaza

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 7-Jan-2014
7-Jan-14 World View -- Mideast 'peace talks' near collapse as Kerry leaves without deal