The United Nations named yesterday the new chairman of the Commission on Population and Development as well as the head of an investigation into allegations stemming from Israel’s recent Gaza Strip operation. Danny Cameron, Israel’s deputy ambassador to the UN, will chair the Commission on Population and Development even though many Arab nations opposed the decision. Notably, South African Jewish jurist Richard Goldstone will lead the inquiry into the alleged human rights violations. The investigation will examine alleged abuses committed by both Israel as well as Palestinians, including Hamas. Goldstone already chaired similar investigations in Rwanda and Yugoslavia.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority intend to resume peace talks by the end of the month, according to published reports. New Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu may travel to Cairo in preparation for the negotiations, although Egyptian officials denied the report.
Members of the Fatah and Hamas delegations to reconciliation talks in Cairo returned yesterday to the Gaza Strip and West Bank without achieving an agreement between the parties. However, the discussions thus far supposedly resolved 15 of 18 points of contention between the parties. Meanwhile, negotiations between Hamas and Israel for the return of abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit remain stalled, with one Hamas official describing the process as in “a coma.”
In his latest opinion piece, Lebanese intellectual Rami Khoury discusses the Israeli democracy, giving it both praise and condemnation. While acknowledging it as the only democracy in the region, Khoury censures the system for hypocrisy, arguing that it effectively only represents Jewish residents and that the world has a duty to speak out against the discrimination. However, Khoury fails to mention that many Arab citizens enjoy full citizenship, including representation in the Knesset, although the system still remains far from flawless.
The global economic crisis appears to be increasingly affecting Israelis, with the wealthiest residents of the state losing approximately 40-percent of their fortunes. Only nine of the wealthiest 500 Israelis actually recently turned a profit, crediting the high-tech sector as a quality investment.
