“Victory” has never smelled so sweet — or at least that’s what they would have you believe at the shop selling Gaza’s newest fragrance named M75 after a long-range Hamas rocket.
It’s a bold move by the “Stay Stylish” shop in Gaza City’s upscale Rimal neighbourhood, but one that store owner Abu Ahmed expects to pay dividends.
“We came up with the name M75 for a new perfume in the shop as a symbol of the rocket of the resistance, and the victory of Gaza,” he told AFP.
The M75 rocket was among several long-range missiles Gaza militant groups fired into Israel during an eight-day conflict last month, which ended with a ceasefire between Hamas and the Jewish state.
The conflict killed at least 174 Palestinians, including more than 100 civilians, and six Israelis, four civilians and two soldiers, but many in Gaza felt Hamas emerged from the violence victorious.
The goal of the perfume is “to promote and market our products, and its only natural to use something like a victory to market our goods,” added Abu Ahmed, who declined to give his full name.
“We want to send a fast message to people about this perfume to market it as quickly and easily as possible,” he said.
“People are proud that we were able to hit Tel Aviv and Jerusalem with this M75 rocket and this name is much talked about and liked by people here.”
The fragrance, available both for men and women, has been successful so far, despite the fairly hefty price tag of 50 Israeli shekels ($13, euros), which the manufacturers justify on the basis of the perfume’s “luxurious” components.
The success, according to Abu Ahmed, has already inspired his fellow Gaza entrepreneurs, whom he expects to slap the M75 label on a whole range of new products.
The M75 rocket, among hundreds that Hamas and other groups fired into Israel during the eight-day conflict, appears to have captured the public’s imagination in Gaza, where it played a commanding role during Hamas’s 25th anniversary celebrations this weekend.
An enormous mock-up of the rocket had pride of place on a stage where the festivities took place, and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal — in Gaza for the first time ever — emerged from a door in the fake missile to give an address. – France24
France has announced it will vote in favor of recognition of Palestine as a non-member observer state at the UN General Assembly later this week.
The French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told parliament that France “will respond ‘yes’” when the issue is put on a vote at the UN General Assembly.
France, a permanent UN Security Council member, is the first European country to speak in favor of elevating Palestinian status from an observer to a nonmember observer state.
The United States, which opposes the Palestinian bid for statehood, publicly disagreed with France’s move. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Paris’s decision would not change the US assessment of the Palestinian action as a “mistake.”
“With regard to France and any other countries, we obviously disagree with our oldest ally on this issue,” she told reporters. “They know that we disagree with them. But it’s their sovereign decision.”
The Austrian foreign ministry also said Tuesday it would back the Palestinian bid and claimed that more than half of the European Union’s 27 member states would vote for the proposal, AFP reported.
Meanwhile, the UK says it is ready to support the PA in their current bid to become a non-member observer state if the Palestinians comply with three conditions, The Telegraph reports.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague allegedly requested Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, pledge not to join the International Criminal Court after its UN status is upgraded, not to apply for full membership at the UN and to resume peace negotiations with Israel without any preconditions.
At the moment the PA refuses to negotiate with Israel until it halts the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem territories.
On Thursday, the Palestinians will officially ask the assembly to upgrade their status. Earlier the Palestinian Authority said it expected the assembly to vote two-thirds in favor of granting the PA non-member status, seeing the move as an important step toward a two-state solution with Israel.
Israel strongly opposes the bid. Previously Tel Aviv said it objects to any wording the PA would bring for a vote at the assembly.
But as Israeli authorities were unable to block the bid they have changed their stance and now are trying to soften the wording, Haaretz reported on Tuesday citing a senior Israeli official.
The article states Tel Aviv and Washington are working together to change the document.
Last year, Washington used its veto power to block a Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN Security Council. A similar move is unlikely in this case as there are no vetoes in the General Assembly. – RT
Hillary Clinton and Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed to support Israeli security on Tuesday while calling for a quick de-escalation of Gaza fighting that raged on unabated amid signs of an emerging truce deal.
The top US diplomat flew in for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as efforts continued across the region to refine an elusive accord to end a week of violence that has cost 136 Palestinian and five Israeli lives.
The Israeli army confirmed its first fatality from rocket attacks on Tuesday, and a defence ministry official was also killed, while another missile landed harmlessly just south of Jerusalem on a day of continued strikes from Gaza.
The unrelenting violence also claimed the lives of 26 more Palestinians and witnessed an Israeli strike on a Gaza City building that houses foreign media organisations including AFP — the third such strike in three days.
Clinton told Netanyahu — a right-winger who has had strained relations with US President Barack Obama’s administration in the past year — that Washington’s commitment to Israeli security was “rock solid and unwavering.”
But she also stressed that this “is why we believe it is essential to de-escalate the situation” in the Palestinian territory.
Clinton further indicated that any truce announcement may not emerge until after she completes visits to the West Bank capital of Ramallah and Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.
“In these days ahead, the United States will work with our partners here in Israel and across the region for an outcome that bolsters security for the peace of Israel, improves conditions for the people of Gaza and moves toward a comprehensive peace for all people of the region,” said Clinton.
Optimistic negotiators had initially said a deal could be announced in Cairo later Tuesday following days of negotiations brokered by Egypt’s new Islamist leadership.
“There will be a joint press conference between Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the Egyptian mediators tonight to announce the truce,” an Islamic Jihad source told AFP in Gaza City. A Hamas source separately backed up the report.
But Hamas later said in a statement that there was no truce accord, stressing that it could only be announced by Egypt and calling on Palestinian armed groups to “continue to riposte against Israel’s crimes.”
And an Egyptian official told AFP in Cairo that “the truce announcement is not expected tonight because we are still waiting for a response” from the Jewish state.
A meeting was held between Egypt’s intelligence chief Rafat Shehata and top-level delegations from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but it wound up with no agreement being reached on a ceasefire, a source close to the discussions told AFP in Cairo.
“Hamas and Islamic Jihad told the Egyptians they weren’t in a hurry, and it was Israel that had asked Egypt for a truce,” the source said.
“Hamas says it has not yet received a reply from Israel and asks all the media not to rush. It is the Egyptian presidency that will announce a truce if an accord is reached. Any declaration before that, or different from that, is irresponsible.”
An Israeli diplomatic source told AFP that negotiations were ongoing.
“We are working very hard using our diplomatic channels. We are working continuously. But I cannot give you an estimated time of arrival (of a truce),” the source said.
The bloodshed meanwhile showed no signs of abating as the military pressed on with its bombardment of northern Gaza positions from which most of the militants’ rockets have been launched.
Netanyahu told Clinton he was ready to agree to a “long-term solution” as long as the rocket attacks from Gaza stopped.
“If there’s a possibility of achieving a long-term solution for this problem by diplomatic means, we prefer it. But if not, I’m sure you understand that Israel will have to take every action necessary to defend its people,” he said.
A senior Hamas official told AFP in Cairo that a key sticking point was whether Israel would begin easing its six-year-old blockade of Gaza coinciding with the truce or at a later date.
“A compromise solution is for there to be agreement on lifting the siege, and that it would be implemented later at a specified time,” he said.
Netanyahu and his key ministers decided in a closed-door meeting late Monday to place “a temporary hold on a ground incursion to give diplomacy a chance to succeed,” a senior Israeli official told AFP.
The move came as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met Netanyahu and again urged all parties to end fire “immediately”.
A delegation of more than 10 Arab foreign ministers and other senior representatives also visited Gaza in a symbolic show of solidarity with the Palestinians — the latest in a string of regional leaders’ visits to the impoverished coastal enclave.
“The real problem is not a truce,” Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi told reporters in Gaza City.
“The real problem that the Arab and Islamic countries and all friendly countries in the world must focus on is ending the occupation,” the organisation’s secretary general said.
Hamas is understood to be seeking guarantees that Israel will stop its targeted killings and end its blockade.
Israel for its part is believed to be looking for a 24- to 48-hour truce as a buffer to work out a more permanent arrangement.
The Security Council held talks late Tuesday to discuss a demand by Arab nations that it hold a public meeting on the crisis.
Western diplomats had expressed fears that comments made at an open meeting could harm efforts to reach a ceasefire, but they agreed to hold the meeting on Wednesday at 2000 GMT. – AFP
JERUSALEM – Mitt Romney told Jewish donors Monday that their culture is part of what has allowed them to be more economically successful than the nearby Palestinians, outraging Palestinian leaders who called his comments racist and out of touch.
“As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality,” the Republican presidential candidate told about 40 wealthy donors who breakfasted around a U-shaped table at the luxurious King David Hotel.
The reaction of Palestinian leaders to Romney’s comments was swift and pointed.
“What is this man doing here?” said Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian official. “Yesterday, he destroyed negotiations by saying Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and today he is saying Israeli culture is more advanced than Palestinian culture. Isn’t this racism?”
The economic disparity between the Israelis and the Palestinians is actually much greater than Romney stated. Israel had a per capita gross domestic product of about $31,000 in 2011, while the West Bank and Gaza had a per capita GDP of just over $1,500, according to the World Bank.
Romney, seated next to billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson at the head of the table, told donors at his fundraiser that he had read books and relied on his own business experience to understand why the difference is so great.
“And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things,” Romney said, citing an innovative business climate, the Jewish history of thriving in difficult circumstances and the “hand of providence.”
Romney, in comparing the Israeli and Palestinian economies, made no mention of the fact that Israel has controlled the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem since capturing them in the 1967 war. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but continues to control access, and has enforced a crippling border blockade since the Islamic militant Hamas seized the territory in 2007.
In the West Bank, Israel retains overall control, and Palestinians only have limited self-rule. Israel controls all border crossings in and out of the West Bank, and continues to restrict Palestinian trade and movement.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have said repeatedly that the Palestinian economy can only grow if Israel lifts those restrictions.
“It’s Israeli occupiers and Palestinians under occupation, and that’s why Palestinians cannot realize their potential,” Erekat said.
The breakfast with top donors – including Adelson, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and hedge fund manager Paul Singer – concluded Romney’s visit to Israel, the second leg of a three-nation overseas tour designed to bolster the his foreign policy credentials.
Standing on Israeli soil for the first time as the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee, Romney on Sunday declared Jerusalem to be the capital of the Jewish state and said the United States has promised never to “look away from our passion and commitment to Israel.”
The status of Jerusalem is a critical issue in peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
During his visit to Israel, Romney did not meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas or visit the West Bank. He held a brief meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Romney’s campaign says his trip abroad, which began in England last week, is aimed at improving the former Massachusetts governor’s foreign policy experience through a series of meetings with foreign leaders. The candidate has largely avoided direct criticism of U.S. President Barack Obama while on foreign soil.
The Jerusalem fundraiser, however, was a political event that raised more than $1 million for Romney’s campaign. It marks at least the second finance event during his tour. The first, in London, attracted about 250 people to a $2,500 per person fundraiser.
Both presidential candidates have aggressively courted American donors living abroad, a practice that is legal and has been used for decades.
Romney’s declaration that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital was keeping with claims made by Israeli governments for decades, even though the United States, like other nations, maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv.
His remarks on the subject during his speech drew a standing ovation from his audience, which included Adelson, the American businessman who has promised to donate more than $100 million to help defeat Obama.
Adelson was among a several donors who flew to Israel for a day of sightseeing with Romney in addition to private meetings with top Israeli officials.
A group of donors also met with a top aide to President Benjamin Netanyahu, one donor said on the condition of anonymity to discuss private meetings.
Romney met with Netanyahu and other leaders before his speech Sunday. He also visited the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, where he was mobbed by worshippers.
In his remarks, Romney steered clear of overt criticism of Obama, even though he said the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran “has only become worse” in the past five years.
Romney flew to the Middle East from Britain, where he caused a stir by questioning whether officials there were fully prepared for the Olympic Games. A stop in Poland will complete his trip.
Four years ago, Obama visited Israel as a presidential candidate, part of a five-nation trip meant to establish his own foreign policy credentials.
A goal of Romney’s overseas trip is to demonstrate his confidence on the world stage, but his stop in Israel also was designed to appeal to evangelical voters at home and to cut into Obama’s support among Jewish voters and donors. A Gallup survey of Jewish voters released Friday showed Obama with a 68-25 edge over Romney.
Romney and other Republicans have said Obama is insufficiently supportive of Israel.
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