The Morning Beat - February 25

No Cease-fire on the Gaza border

There has been no progress reported on cease-fire talks or efforts to release Gilad Shalit. Instead, two rockets hit southern Israel today (no reports of injury or damage) and Israel's Air Force bombed smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border.

Gaza's border also remains sealed, blocking food, fuel, and rebuilding materials from entering. Humanitarian relief will be the focus of attention next week as Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Special Middle East Envoy George Mitchell head to the region to attend a conference on aid to Gaza.

Israeli commentators are already bracing for U.S. rebukes that obstacles are in the way of aid delivery. 

The Israeli daily Ma'ariv, released an interview today with Hussein Dib, a Gazan that survived an air strike on his home but lost 11 family members there and is now suing Israel.

My whole body ached. I couldn't see a thing, either my brothers or their children. Gray smoke covered everything.  I tried to reach the other family members, who were next to me just a moment before. I walked around between them and touched everything around me, in an attempt to identify something.  When the smoke started to dissipate, I saw several members of my family lying on the ground.  They were covered with blood. I went over to one of them and saw it was my nephew, who was only 13.  I called him, but he didn't respond. I tried to pick him up and didn't succeed, and then I understood that he was injured all over his body. He was still alive, but I later learned that he died.

Palestinian unity talks begin

The Palestinian Authority's ambassador to Cairo, Nabil Amr, said that the reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas appear to be leading towards a decision to form a Palestinian unity government of technocrats, Israel's Army Radio reports.

A prominent Egyptian journalist told the Voice of Palestine that Egypt was interested in seeing such a government formed within one month, and that a majority of the cabinet ministers would not be members of either Fatah or Hamas.

Senior representatives from Hamas and Fatah met last night in Cairo and are to meet again today to discuss the issues that remain in contention.

The talks that were held yesterday and today are preparatory talks in advance of a dialogue among all the Palestinian factions, which is scheduled to begin tomorrow in Cairo.

According to an op-ed in Dar Al Hayat, Palestinian reconciliation is one crucial step in inter-Arab dialogue and cooperation that will be discussed in a conference of Arab states at the end of March.

Israeli coalition negotiations

Benyamin Netanyahu has begun to negotiate potential government formation with representatives of right-wing parties.

Writing in Slate, Christopher Hitchens analyzed the symbolism and meaning of Avigdor Lieberman's rise,

If you are a former bouncer born in former Soviet Moldova, like Avigdor Lieberman, you can come to live in the Holy Land as of right and become the leader of a party that proposes to institute a "loyalty oath" not just to the Arab citizens of the state of Israel but to all Jewish members of religious Orthodox sects that do not declare themselves Zionist. And this grotesque party, named Israel Beiteinu or "Israel Is Our Home," is now the power broker, and its leader is the kingmaker in the Israeli electoral process.

And Fareed Zakaria discussed the threat a government that includes Yisrael Beitenu could pose to Israel's Arab citizens.

Turkey offers to mediate between Iran and the U.S.

In an interview in the UK Guardian, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered Turkish assistance in potential U.S.-Iran engagement.

He said,

Iran does want Turkey to play such a role. And if the United States also wants and asks us to play this role, we are ready to do this. They [the Iranians] said to us that if something like this [an opportunity for rapprochement] would happen, they want Turkey to play a role. These were words that were said openly. But I have told this to President Bush myself.

Turkey had been mediating informal Israel-Syria talks, but those talks stalled when Israel began the Gaza offensive.

But, the Obama administration may have begun a limited engagement with Syria the Christian Science Monitor reported yesterday.

Obama's first serious feelers are out. He gave a nod of approval for trips last week to Syria by the heads of the Senate and House foreign affairs committees, Sen. John Kerry and Rep. Howard Berman. With no US ambassador in Syria since 2005, their talks with President Bashar Assad probably revealed the hurdles that lie ahead for a workable US-Syrian relationship that could alter the region's dangerous dynamics and help Obama contain Iran.