Israel to give Palestinians $100 million in withheld funds

Israel to give Palestinians $100 million in withheld funds

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will give Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's administration around $100 million in tax revenues that had been withheld in retaliation for his statehood bid in the United Nations, Israeli officials said on Wednesday.

They described the handover as a one-time deal, signaling rightist Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not formally scrapped sanctions that have hurt the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank and worried world powers.

But the decision follows surprise setbacks for Netanyahu in a national election this month that, while giving him enough of a lead to head the next Israeli government, also set the stage for more moderate statecraft by boosting centrist challengers whom he must now consider as coalition partners.

Under interim peace deals, Israel collects some $100 million a month in duties on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, money Abbas badly needs to pay public sector salaries. It began withholding the funds after Abbas, sidestepping stalled diplomacy, secured a Palestinian status upgrade at the United Nations in November.

Israel said the December levies would be used instead to start paying off $200 million the Palestinians owe the Israel Electric Corporation, and predicted at the time that the lien on PA funds would be in force until March at least.

The PA's economic troubles were raised this week in a meeting between Netanyahu and Tony Blair, peace envoy for the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia, an Israeli official said.

Following those talks, the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity, "we have agreed to transfer one month's payment, because of the difficult financial situation there.

"This is a one-time decision and there is no decision yet on what will happen next."

Another Israeli official said the handover would take place imminently, "perhaps even today".

Israel has previously frozen payments to the PA during times of heightened security and diplomatic tensions, provoking strong international criticism, such as when the U.N. cultural body UNESCO granted the Palestinians full membership in 2011.

Abbas's U.N. victory was a diplomatic setback for the United States and Israel, which were joined by only seven other countries in voting against upgrading the Palestinians' observer status to "non-member state", like the Vatican, from "entity".

Hours after the U.N. vote, Israel said it would authorize 3,000 new settler homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and expedite planning work for thousands more in a geographically sensitive area close to Jerusalem. Critics say this plan would kill off Palestinian hopes of a viable state.

Netanyahu's current religious-nationalist government looks likely to be replaced with a coalition more accommodating of the Palestinians. The runners-up in the January 22 ballot, the centrist Yesh Atid and left-leaning Labour parties, both demand Israel try to revive peacemaking stalled for more than two years.

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Israeli warplanes strike targets outside the Syrian capital

Syria says Israeli airstrike destroyed military facility

Syrian media say the attack outside Damascus killed two people. Western reports, however, say the strike hit a convoy carrying arms for Hezbollah in Lebanon.

JERUSALEM — Israeli warplanes struck targets outside the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Wednesday, according to Syrian and Western reports, amid rising international fear that President Bashar Assad could lose control of his nation's stockpiles of chemical and advanced weapons.

A Western official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that the airstrike hit a truck convoy believed to be carrying antiaircraft weapons for Hezbollah militants in neighboring Lebanon. The shipment was thought to have included Russian SA-17 missiles, the official said. If such weapons were obtained by the Islamic militant group, it could weaken Israel's regional military power and hinder its ability to launch airstrikes in Lebanon.

Syrian state media, while also reporting an Israeli airstrike, denied that the target was a weapons shipment for Hezbollah, instead claiming that a military research facility and adjacent building had been destroyed. It said two people were killed and five were injured in the dawn attack.

Syria did not say what kind of research took place at the facility in Jamraya, northwest of the capital.

Israeli officials declined to comment on the reports. But such a strike would mark Israel's most aggressive military action in Syria during the nearly two-year uprising against Assad's rule.

Israeli officials have been sounding alarms in recent days that Syria's weapons might fall into the hands of militant groups that could use them against Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised those concerns during a Cabinet meeting this week and officials have repeatedly said that any transfer of Syria's dangerous weapons outside the country might trigger a military response.

A Syrian military statement carried by the official Syrian Arab News Agency charged that the attack proved that Israel was behind efforts to oust Assad. "It has become clear to everyone that Israel is the motivator, beneficiary and sometimes executor of the terrorist acts which target Syria and its resistant people," it said.

Israel has tried to steer clear of the Syrian conflict, fearing any actions it might take, such as supporting opposition forces or launching a military strike, could backfire or become a propaganda coup for Damascus. Syrian officials have long charged that U.S. and "Zionist" forces are behind the rebellion against Assad. Each side in the Syrian conflict has portrayed itself as an implacable enemy of Israel.

There are also fears that an Israeli strike could draw others into the Syrian conflict. Iran, Syria's close ally, said this week that any foreign attack against Syria would be regarded as an attack on Iran.

In addition to chemical weapons, Israeli officials have been particularly worried about Syria's stockpile of SA-17 antiaircraft missiles.

"The initial speculation was about chemical weapons, but Israel is deeply concerned about Hezbollah acquiring this kind of advanced antiaircraft missile," said Jonathan Spyer, a senior research fellow at the Center for Global Research in International Affairs in Herzliya, Israel. "It would transform Hezbollah's game and potentially end Israel's air superiority over Lebanon. This is entirely about Hezbollah, not about Syria."

Officials in Lebanon denied knowledge of any Israeli attack, though they complained that Israeli jets had violated their airspace beginning Tuesday afternoon and through Wednesday morning. Though Israel routinely flies over Lebanon for reconnaissance missions on Hezbollah arms stocks and movements of weapons, the activity overnight was reportedly heavier than usual.

Israel often refuses to confirm or deny its activities in the region, partly out of a belief its silence might reduce the pressure on its enemies to respond.

Israeli is widely believed to have struck a Syrian nuclear facility in 2007. But it has never acknowledged the attack and Assad's regime, which was eager to avoid a direct confrontation with Israel, also dropped the sensitive matter.

In recent weeks, Israelis warned that Assad is losing control over his chemical weapons and military action might be taken.

"If we have solid evidence, shared by our own partners all over the world, that chemical warheads are being transferred from Syria to Lebanon to Hezbollah, no one will condemn Israel for trying to prevent it," said retired Brig. Gen. Amnon Sofrin, a defense contractor and former senior intelligence officer.

Amid the renewed warnings, Israelis living in the northern part of the country near the borders with Syria and Lebanon have been swarming into post offices and other distribution centers to pick up government-issued gas masks.

Israel relocated two of its five Iron Dome missile-interception systems to the northern part of the country, though military officials said the move was not related to fears of impending attacks.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-israel-syria-20130131,0,5112956.story

Israeli Airstrike Inside Syria Concerns Russia

Israeli Airstrike Inside Syria Concerns Russia

An Israeli soldier stands guard next to an Iron Dome rocket interceptor battery deployed near the northern Israeli city of Haifa, January 28, 2013.







Russia is expressing concern about an alleged airstrike by Israeli warplanes inside Syria.

The Russian Foreign Ministry says such action, if confirmed, amounts to "unprovoked attacks" against a sovereign nation, in violation of the United Nations charter.

Differing accounts of the Wednesday airstrike have emerged, with Syrian authorities saying Israeli jets fired on a military research facility near Damascus, killing two people.

Israeli and Western news media reported an Israeli airstrike at a different location, close to the Syrian-Lebanese border.  They say the target was a convoy delivering missile parts to Hezbollah, the strongly anti-Israel Shi'ite militia based in Lebanon.

Hezbollah condemned the attack in a statement Thursday and expresses its "full solidarity" with Syria.

The conflicting reports could not be resolved or independently confirmed by early Thursday and it remains unclear whether one or two separate strikes occurred.  Israel routinely declines to acknowledge preemptive military actions and refused all comment Wednesday.

In recent weeks, Israeli officials have warned that they will not tolerate any transfer of Syrian weapons to militants such as Hezbollah.

The former head of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, Amnon Sofin, says Israel's greatest concern is that Syrian chemical weapons could come under control of Hezbollah militants dug in along the Lebanese border.

Sofin told reporters Wednesday that Hezbollah already has rockets and launchers and there are fears that such missiles could be fitted to carry chemical warheads.

A statement from Syria's military command describes the early-morning Israeli attack as "a direct strike on a scientific research center." It says the strike followed months of "botched attempts" to seize control of the facility by "terrorist groups" - the government's label for rebels trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad. The Israeli pilots are said to have flown into Syria at low altitude, to evade detection.

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