* The “Financial Times”: Settlements are illegal and the conflict could shift to a Palestinian struggle against apartheid.  (Al Quds)
* The grand Mufti warns of increasing calls for breaking into the holy al-Aqsa Mosque. (Al Quds)
* One rocket lands in Askalan area. (Al Quds)
* “Fatah”: a-Zahhar`s stances are deviation from the Palestinian constants and no one believes anymore Hamas`s claims about its intentions towards reconciliation. (Al Quds)
* The Jordanian king commissions Fayez a-Tarawneh to form a new government. (Al-Quds)
* The Israeli chief of staff hints at a military “coalition” for an offensive against Iran. (Al-Quds)
* Mass rally in 1948 area on the “Nakba” anniversary. Barakeh: we have defeated the uprooting yet the battle of survival is continuing. Zou`bi: the Nakbah is not history and will remain present until accomplishing the dream of return. (Al Quds)
* 16 killed in explosion in Hamah and the two sides trade accusations. The Syrian opposition calls an urgent meeting by the UNSC. (Al-Quds)
* Including Ahmad Shafeeq, declaration of a final list including 13 candidates to the Egyptian presidential election. (Al Ayyam)
* Two citizens kiss al-Marzouqi`s hand and an oppositionist demand shim to apology to the people. (Al-Ayyam)
* 12 Iraqis killed including eight in a suicide bombing north of Baghdad. (Al-Ayyam)
* Russia condemns Israel`s decision to legalize settlements in oPt. (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
* Meshaal to visit Cairo next week for talks on the reconciliation. (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
* The president receives the annual report of the financial and administrative control bureau. (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)
* During signing ceremony of an understanding memo between PCBS: Fayyad praises the Norwegian and Swiss support to the PCBS. (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida)

Al-Quds: 1) Hebron- the Israeli authorities and settlers raise for the time flags atop al-Haram al-Ibrahimi on the anniversary of the establishment of Israel; 2) Ramallah- an activist being detained during a solidarity protest with the prisoners
Al-Ayyam:  1) Youths throwing stones at occupation forces during clashes at “Ofer” prison yesterday; 2) A Palestinian woman from the 1948 areas installing a Palestinian flag on the lands of displaced “Kweikat” during the opening activities of the “Nakba” anniversary; 3) al-Khasawneh; 4) a-Tarawneh; 5) a protest in front of the Arab League headquarter in Cairo to call on serious measures to protect Syrian civilians from the repression of the regime.
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida:  1) The president while receiving the annual report of the financial and administrative control bureau; 2) Thousands of participants in a sit-in and march marking the Nakba in Abu Snan; 3) Israeli flags atop a wall of al-Haram al-Ibrahimi.

Israeli official larceny
“Gulf News” Editorial
Israel's timing was predicable. With the world’s gaze focused on the horrors in Syria and the Obama administration increasingly diverted by November’s presidential election, it chose this week to declare “legal” three fortified West Bank settlements which had been originally been erected by fanatical Zionists in contravention of their country’s own laws.
The settlements on land seized from Palestinians are called by their occupiers, Bruchin, Rechenim and Sansana. By conniving in their “legalization”, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is effectively approving the first new land grabs in more than 20 years. Until now, successive Israeli governments have argued that settlement expansion was nothing more than “in-filling”. Thus Jerusalem has become almost surrounded by a threatening ring of construction, which were passed off as mere extensions.
From the point of view of the people of the Occupied Territories, this is yet one more cause for despair. These settlements, constructed and supported openly by the Israeli authorities, in complete contravention of international law, are what they call “facts on the ground”. With every new “fact”, Israel reinforces the argument that it will one day present, that it is “unreasonable” or even “inhuman” that people who have made their lives in these settlements for so many years, should be expected to abandon them.
The fact that every single illegal settlement is state-sponsored theft and that the way in which swaggering, gun-totting settlers protect their crimes is little more than state-sponsored terrorism, will not of course concern Israeli leaders at all. At heart they are still wedded to the core Zionist ideal of Eretz — Greater — Israel, whose borders would extend much further than the land which they presently occupy. The presence of Palestinians in the territory they covet is an inconvenience which they undoubtedly expect to tackle in time.
This slow encroachment on Palestinian lands, with the consequent expulsion and exclusion of the rightful owners, is a form of slow-motion ethnic cleansing.
So what is the international community doing about this latest piece of official Israeli larceny? UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that he is “deeply troubled”. It is clear that the Obama administration, when it found out about the Netanyahu plan for the three settlements, went to some lengths to persuade the Israelis to abandon it — but not far enough to actually prevent it.
The fact that Netanyahu felt that he could ignore pressure from Washington says a lot about the state of US politics. Every four years, incumbent presidents discover that they cannot even pretend to get tough with their recalcitrant and ungrateful Israeli ally. The Zionist vote and perhaps even more importantly, the highly effective Zionist lobby on the Hill, knows that it can fly top cover over whatever the government back in Israel chooses to do.
The bitter truth is that until US politics is prepared to confront and face down the disproportionate power of their country’s Zionist pressure group, their policy in the Middle East will always be held hostage to the whims of the government in Tel Aviv.
Perhaps more insidiously, whatever the instincts of European states and their disgust at the gross injustices being visited upon the Palestinians, they have yet to find the courage to act alone in seeking to sanction Israel. The European Zionist lobby is not ineffective. German horror at the depravities of the Nazis has forged an oddly uncritical bond with Israel. Yet there is a clear perception in many EU capitals that Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands must be stopped and reversed. However, without Washington’s support, EU sanctions would not only be meaningless but they could set the Europeans at loggerheads with the Americans.
So what this means is simply that the international hand-wringing will go on. The protests at Israeli behavior will continue. The demands that Netanyahu respect international law will be renewed. And nothing, absolutely nothing else will happen. The Zionists will be left in peace to continue to transform the “facts on the ground” and the fundamental rights and dignity of the Palestinian people will carry on being tramped underfoot. Washington complains regularly at the extremism of groupings like Hamas.
Surely their view should rather be one of amazement that a proud people who have having their country stolen from them, bit by bit, are so moderate?

Working behind the scenes
Israel is to establish an unprecedented spy centre to eavesdrop on, and meddle with, post-revolutionary Egypt, writes Saleh Al-Naami (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1094/re102.htm)

Although more than one month has passed since the recommendations of the Arab Affairs Committee in Egypt's People's Assembly were issued, 12 March, regarding Egypt's foreign policy in the coming phase, the impact of these recommendations continues to echo in statements by Israeli commentators and experts. They view the statement read by the committee's chairman, Mohamed Idris, as a clear indicator of the changes that have occurred in Egypt -- most significantly, that the committee statement avoided using the name "Israel" and instead used the term "Zionist entity", and that the parliamentary committee asserted that Israel is "the primary enemy that threatens Egypt's national security". It also called on the Egyptian government to support and assist the Palestinian people in their armed struggle against Israeli occupation forces.
Yehuda Halevi, an expert at the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs, said that if the new regime in Egypt adopts the committee's recommendation that Israel is "the primary enemy that threatens Egypt's national security" this would mean that Egypt would be required to rebuild its military power to confront this threat. This includes in the nuclear domain, which would make Egypt's actions an existential threat for Israel. Halevi suggested that Tel Aviv should consider the transformations taking place in Egypt and prepare and take necessary precautions to confront any action by Egypt in the future that threatens Israel.
The government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did not wait for such recommendations to be issued by Egypt's parliament and has already taken steps to confront what it views as the threat of Egypt becoming an enemy state. It decided to build what it described as the "largest intelligence compound" in the Negev Desert, at a location close to Sinai, whose main mission will be to spy on and conduct intelligence gathering on Egypt in the coming phase. The compound will be the largest espionage and surveillance station in the world. Its mission will include intercepting telephone calls, electronic messages and data sent via satellite and marine communication cables in the Mediterranean Sea. It will also gather electronic data and monitor communications by the government, organisations, firms and individuals, and will include buildings on an area of more than 600,000 square metres.
The decision to build the new intelligence compound was based on a recommendation by the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) that highlighted the need for Israel to know what is taking place in Egypt, especially after the revolution. This would forewarn Israel before Egypt takes any action (military or diplomatic) against Israel, so it can take the necessary measures to counter it and not be victim to surprise. The INSS stressed that Israel should pay more attention to intelligence matters and called on decision- makers in Tel Aviv to accumulate both traditional and non- traditional military power to ensure Israel's victory in any future confrontation with Egypt.
The INSS called on the Israeli army's leadership to revive methods and practices used by the army in the past that gave Israel an edge over its enemies, especially Egypt. These include covert work behind "enemy" lines since this is one of the main lessons it learnt from the Arab Spring revolutions. The military leadership has adopted this recommendation, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced the formation of a military leadership in the army called "Depth Leadership" that is responsible for organising and plotting operations by the Israeli army in the heart of Arab states after the Arab revolutions.
Recommendations to decision-makers also included markedly increasing the size of the armed forces, especially infantry and naval forces, as well as rebuilding military power and investing in anti-missile systems whether in the fields of research or development.
At the same time, former deputy chief of staff of the Israeli army Ozi Dayan urged Tel Aviv not to hesitate in ordering the army and Israeli special units to carry out operations inside Sinai under the pretext of foiling operations against Israel being launched from there.
But Israel is not only taking military precautions to confront various possible scenarios in Cairo. There are clear indications that Tel Aviv is working behind the scenes to influence Egypt's political reality in coordination with the US. They are trying to force the next Egyptian government to adhere to the policies of Mubarak's regime on the Arab-Israeli conflict. One of the most pertinent recommendations sent to Netanyahu's government is that it should ask the US administration to pressure Arab Gulf states to use their financial aid to Egypt to remanufacture the Mubarak regime, or at least to link Arab aid with commitment by the new regime in Cairo not to deviate from Mubarak's policies and strategies, especially in the last decade of his rule.
Since the Israelis are aware that the world economic crisis prevents the US from allocating any funds to influence events in Cairo, the Israelis are suggesting that President Obama should urge the leaders of Gulf states to use some of the massive profits from the surge in oil revenues to influence the future of events in Cairo.
Israeli television revealed that Netanyahu's office and the Israeli Foreign Ministry are working in secret with Washington about how to influence the future of events in Cairo. It also reported that over the past months there has been an exchange of many "creative" ideas between Tel Aviv and Washington about how best to discreetly influence the Egyptian regime in the future.
Steps taken by Israel along with its advice to the US administration are mostly based on the recommendations of hundreds of studies by Israeli research centres that were encouraged by decision-makers in Tel Aviv. For example, a study conducted by US and Israeli researchers published by the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University in Israel suggested that the West -- especially the US -- should link all types of aid to Egypt in the future to how much the military leadership maintains its status and powers. The military is viewed as upholding the approaches and policies of the Mubarak regime.
General Ron Tira (retired), who held senior positions in Israeli intelligence, believes that the greatest strategic threat to Israel as a result of the Egyptian revolution is that future governments would renege on the commitments of the Camp David Agreement that ended hostilities between Egypt and Israel. Tira added that the agreement removed Egypt from Israel's circle of enemies, which enabled the Israeli government to improve the position of Israel in the conflict with other Arab parties as Tel Aviv was able to focus its military attention on other fronts.
He further noted that Camp David helped formulate a strategic partnership between Israel and Mubarak's regime that enabled Israel to carry out several military operations against other Arab parties under ideal circumstances. According to Tira, the strategic partnership with Mubarak's regime peaked during the war Israel launched against Hizbullah in July 2006, and the war on Gaza at the end of 2008. The Mubarak regime provided a favourable regional climate for Israel to continue its strikes, with minimal Arab and international objections. Hence, Israel needs the post-revolution Egyptian regime to follow Mubarak's policies.
An indicator of how closely Israel is following developments in Cairo is its great disappointment with the failed presidential candidacy of Omar Suleiman, vice president to ousted autocrat Mubarak. The disappointment was so strong that political and media figures focussed their anger on former Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer for praising Suleiman after the latter submitted his candidacy papers.
Many Israeli officials and commentators believe that praise by Ben-Eliezer -- who once described Mubarak as "a strategic treasure for Israel" -- was counterproductive. They suggest that the statements incited Egyptian public opinion against Suleiman, which upset decision-making circles in Tel Aviv. Netanyahu then issued strict orders to his ministers and advisers not to comment on the domestic situation in Egypt out of concern that such statements would fuel debate in Egypt against figures of the Mubarak regime who are planning to contest the upcoming presidential elections.
Israeli Radio reported that Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said: "Every Israeli official must realise that any positive remark made by us about any candidate will be counterproductive. We naturally hope and pray that a candidate who believes in Mubarak's policies will win the Egyptian presidential elections, but we cannot express this in a way that would be counterproductive."
Israel is holding its breath. Its leaders hope against hope that the new regime will not deviate from Mubarak's strategic outlook.

What has been left of “Fatah” and “Hamas”?
By Rajab Abu Serriiyeh* (Al-Ayyam)

In spite of everything, the circles of “Fatah” movement are living overwhelming joy and contentedness for any wining their youth bloc achieves elections for students` body in the West Bank. This movement, that has led the Palestinian people`s struggle for fifty years, appears likes an opposition party or as if it is uncertain of the Palestinian public`s support even in the West Bank, and that is a clear sign of weak self confidence.

This could be attributed to that during the students` election that were held before the establishment of the PNA and while under the occupation, ensuring a majority for Fatah was not that clear, mainly because the movement was facing double competitions, one from the left-leaning forces that enjoy greater weight among students` elites in comparison to its power in the street, and another from the Islamic forces, particularly “Hamas” movement. Yet, without alliances in most of the time, Fatah achieved majority in the students` councils solely.

However, after the foundation of the PA, “Fatah” has become a ruling party that should defend the policies of the authority that grants it support. Anyhow, all those who have followed up the Palestinian political procession along the past decades knows that “Fatah” has never faced a political challenge even within the circles of Palestinian students in East European countries that provided scholarships to left-leaning Palestinian factions, like it has faced inside the homeland before and after the establishment of the PA.

Of course, the major challenge “Fatah” faced was during the Palestinian parliamentary election in 2006, with a resounding and blatant defeat.  Were the presidential election held one year before the legislative election, the Palestinian political map would have been totally different now, and “Fatah” would have had lost its precious diamond that is represented in the presidency.

Many people foresaw a “revolution” inside Fatah movement after this defeat, but after years since that date one can certainly say it will never happen. Although Fatah movement disclosed all its internal files during its 2008 general convention, and unified its ranks around Abu Mazen, the general direction of the movement has been towards internal shrinking and a retreating popular influence all over the West Bank and the Gaza strip, and certainly in exile. The best proof to this has been mirrored in the failure of the calls by the movement and its president on launching popular resistance in the West Bank, despite of the surrounding climate of Arab Spring. Also, Fatah could take the lead in the protests against the internal division, even after five years of the coup by Hamas.

The situation of Hamas is not that different. It has been in a state of constant setback and every Gazan is wondering if the current Hamas is the same one we knew five years ago. Before becoming the ruling party, Hamas used to lead demonstrations and marches almost every day with broad popular mobilization. Hamas now is incapable of mobilizing half of that number of people, even on national anniversaries.

The strange thing is that both movements are now preoccupied with internal arrangements at the expense of their essential duties towards their Palestinian people in terms of internal reconciliation and confrontation with the Israeli occupation.

The blocked prospect in the face of reconciliation and regaining national unity, in addition to the blocked political prospect, are just the calm that precedes a storm or the ticking bomb that would explode and harm every involved party, not just the Israeli. Therefore, Hamas and Fatah should be aware of that public polls are inaccurate considering that Hosni Mubarak`s regime achieved a “sweeping win” in the Egyptian parliamentary election few months before its fall. The one should not be pleased by scoring points at the expense of the other and they should rather pay careful attention to the public`s sense of estrangement abandoning of national action, primarily because the two movements have become ruling parties.

*[email protected]

    
Uri Avnery*: Confession of an Optimist      
I AM an Optimist. Period.
No ifs. No buts. No perhapses.
Maybe it’s genetic. My father was an optimist. Even when, at the age of 45,  he had to flee his native Germany to a primitive little country in the Middle East, his spirits remained high. Though he had to adapt to a new country, a hot climate, hard physical labor and grinding poverty, he was happy. At least he had saved his wife and four children, the youngest of whom was I.
Today, on Israel’s 64th birthday (according to the Hebrew calendar), I am still an optimist.
SOME TIME ago I bumped into the writer Amos Oz at a wedding and we talked about this curiosity, my optimism. He said that he was a pessimist. Being a pessimist, he said, was a win-win situation. If things turn to the better, you are happy. If things get worse, you are still happy, because you have been right all along.
The trouble with pessimism, I told him, was that it leads nowhere. Pessimism relieves you of any urge to do something. If things are going to get worse anyhow, why bother? Pessimism is a comfortable attitude. It even allows you to be contemptuous of the optimists, who still struggle for a better world. Optimism is for simpletons.
But this is exactly what it’s all about. Only optimists can struggle. If you don’t believe in a better world, a better country, a better society, you can’t fight for them. You can only sit in your armchair in front of the TV, tut-tutting at the stupidity of the human race, and particularly your own people, and feel superior.
Whenever I confess to being an optimist, I am showered with disdain. Don’t I see what’s happening around me? Was this the state you imagined on May 14, 1948, when you listened to Ben-Gurion's speech on the radio and prepared yourself for the night’s battle?
No, I did not imagine a state like this one. My comrades and I envisaged a very different state. And still I am an optimist.
WHEN TALKING about this, I am always reminded of a certain point in my life.
It was October 1942, and the world was shaking.
In Russia, the Nazi troops had reached Stalingrad and the titanic battle had been joined. There was no doubt that the Germans would take the city and move on.
Further south, the invincible Wehrmacht had broken into the Caucasus. From there, a straight line led through Turkey and Syria to Palestine.  
Erwin Rommel’s renowned Afrika Korps had broken the British line and reached the Egyptian village of el Alamein, just 106 km (66 miles) from Alexandria. From there to Palestine was a matter of days.
Already a year earlier, the Nazis had occupied Crete in the first airborne invasion in History.
For anyone looking at the map, the situation was clear. From North, West and South the Nazi military colossus was moving inexorably towards Palestine, with the aim of destroying the Jewish semi-state there. Adolf Hitler’s mad anti-Semitism led to no other conclusion.
Our British masters obviously thought so, too. They had already sent their wives and children to Iraq. They themselves, it was rumored, were sitting on their suitcases, ready to escape at the first hint of a German breakthrough in Egypt.
The Hagana, our main secret military organization, was making frantic preparations. Like the heroes of Masada some 1900 years ago, who committed collective suicide rather than fall into Roman hands, our fighters would gather on the Carmel hills, there to fight and sell their lives dearly. I had just turned 19, and was living in Tel Aviv, a town nobody even considered defending. We knew it was the end.
After the war ended with the total collapse of Nazi Germany, many books about the course of the war appeared. It transpired that the desperate crisis of October 1942 existed only in our imaginations.
The Crete airborne invasion, far from being a brilliant victory, was in reality a disaster. German losses were so high that Hitler forbade any repetition. Not knowing this, the British launched their own airborne operation in Holland towards the end of the war, which was also an unmitigated disaster.
The German troops that had reached the Caucasus were totally exhausted and could march no further south. Of far-away Palestine they could not even dream.
And, most importantly for us, Rommel had reached el Alamein on his last drops of petrol.  Hitler, who viewed the entire North African campaign as a wasteful diversion from the main effort – Russia – refused to squander his scarce petrol there. He did not give a damn about Palestine. (Even if he did, there was no way to get the petrol across the Mediterranean. The British had broken the Italian naval code and knew of every ship leaving an Italian port.)
The moral of the story: even in the middle of a completely desperate situation, one does not know enough of the facts to lose hope.
BUT THERE is no need to go back 70 years. Enough to look at recent events.
Did anyone of us in Israel believe a year ago that the apathetic, “don’t give a damn” youth of our country would suddenly rise in an unprecedented social protest? If somebody had said this a week before it happened, he would have been laughed out of court.
The same would have happened to anyone at the beginning of last year who prophesied that the Egyptians (the Egyptians of all people!) would arise and throw their dictator out. An Arab Spring? Ha-ha-ha!
When I happen to give a talk in Germany, I always ask: “If any one of you believed the day before it happened that the Berlin Wall would fall during his lifetime – please raise your hand.[]” I never saw a hand rising.
And the greatest event of all, the implosion of the Soviet Union - who saw it coming? Not the US, with its giant multi-billion intelligence apparatus. Nor our Mossad, with its many collaborators among Soviet Jews.
Neither did any of them foresee the Iranian revolution that drove out the Shah.
The same is true for the many human-made catastrophes during my lifetime, from the Holocaust to Hiroshima.
WHAT DOES that prove? Nothing, except that nothing can be foreseen with any certainty. Human events are shaped by human beings, human beings shape human events. That may be a good reason for pessimism, but also for optimism.
We can prevent disasters. We can bring about a better future. And for that we need optimists who believe that it can be done. Lots of them.
On Israel’s 64th Independence Day, the situation looks grim. Peace is a dirty word. Most Israelis are saying: “Peace would be wonderful. I would pay any price for peace. But unfortunately, peace is impossible. The Arabs will never accept us. Therefore the war will go on forever.”
That is a very convenient pessimism, absolving us from all guilt, allowing us not to do anything.
The “Two-State solution”, the only real solution there is, is receding into the background. The apartheid regime which is already established in the occupied Palestinian territories is spreading into Israel proper. In a few years we shall have full-fledged apartheid in all the historical country, with a Jewish minority lording it over an Arab Palestinian majority.
In the unlikely event that Israel is compelled to grant the Palestinians civil rights, the Jewish State in all of the historical country would rapidly become an Arab State in all of the historical country.
The United States, Israel’s only remaining ally, is declining slowly and surely. The emerging power, China, has no memories of the Holocaust.
Social inequality is rampant in Israel, more than in any developed country. That is as far as one can get from the ideals of early Israel.
The democratic foundations of the “Only Democracy in the Middle East” are shaking. The Supreme Court is under enduring siege by a gang of semi-fascists nestling in our government, the Knesset is becoming a sorry caricature of a parliament, the free TV and printed media are slowly but surely becoming undergoing Gleichschaltung (sorry, no Hebrew or English word available).
Can this situation become worse? In my long life I have learned that no situation is so bad that it cannot get worse. And no leader is so detestable that his successor cannot be even more so.
That said, there may be powerful forces at work, unseen and unheard, that will change things for the better. It’s like a dam on a river. Behind it, the water rises, slowly, silently, unnoticed. One day the dam bursts, quite suddenly, and the water submerges the landscape.
This will not happen without us playing our part. What we do – or do not do – is a part of the changing pattern. Hoping and believing is not enough. Doing and acting is of the essence.
So here we are, the incorrigible optimists.

* An Israeli columnist,a former member of the Israeli Knesset, and the head of the Israeli leftist peace bloc, “Gush Shalom”. - [email protected]