DOHA, Qatar – Qatar and Mauritania suspended contacts with Israel to protest the Gaza bloodshed at an Arab summit Friday that deepened the divisions between pro-U.S. Arab nations and their rivals in the Middle East.

U.S. allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia led a boycott of the gathering in the Qatari capital, which the Gulf nation had called to take a united stance over the Gaza violence but which ended up being dominated by backers of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a top Hamas supporter, made a surprise appearance, along with Hamas' Syria-based political chief Khaled Mashaal. They and Syria's president made fiery denunciations of Israel and called for Arab and Muslim nations to cut any bilateral ties they have with the Jewish state.

Syrian President Bashar Assad repeated an earlier announcement that his country had frozen its indirect peace negotiations with Israel, mediated by Turkey. He also declared that a 2002 Saudi-led Arab peace offer to Israel was "dead" because of the assault against Hamas in Gaza.

Qatar's prime minister, Sheik Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani, announced the suspension in ties with Israel. The oil-rich state does not have diplomatic relations with Israel but has maintained lower-level ties, allowing an Israeli trade mission to operate and hosting Israeli leaders at conferences.

Hamad, who is also Qatar's foreign minister, said the Israeli trade mission in the country will have about a week to leave. "We will tell the Israeli (trade mission) office that their presence here is unwanted until the circumstances improve and there is a better chance for peace," he told reporters.

Mauritania, an Arab League member attending the summit, also announced it was suspending diplomatic relations with Israel over Gaza. Mauritania had full relations with Israel. Earlier this month, the Western African nation recalled its ambassador from Israel amid street protests over Gaza.

The Qatar summit issued a final statement urging all Arab states to stop all forms of "normalization" with Israel and to reconsider their diplomatic and economic ties with it. Egypt and Jordan, which did not attend the summit, are the only Arab countries with peace treaties and full relations with Israel.

The Qatar gathering drew a stark line between Arab nations who support Hamas and those who back its rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel and Egypt expressed optimism Friday that a cease-fire could come soon, but the Arab divisions are likely to endure well after the Gaza fighting ends, and they could have an impact on a truce's stability. Any final cease-fire deal for Gaza will likely need cooperation between the two factions to guard key border crossings into the tiny coastal strip — but cooperation could be strained over time if their regional backers are at odds.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Abbas were preparing to hold a rival summit this weekend in Kuwait.

In the past week, Cairo and Riyadh reportedly used their political and financial weight to persuade other Arab countries to boycott the Qatar gathering or to send only low-level figures — hoping to limit the platform for Hamas' backers. Egypt in particular feared that the summit could boost Hamas and undermine Cairo's cease-fire mediation.

In the end, the only Arab heads of state to attend in Doha were from Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Qatar and Algeria — and from the more minor Arab League members, the Comoros Islands and Mauritania. Also attending were Ahmadinejad and the leaders of Hamas and the smaller Palestinian radical group Islamic Jihad and representatives from 9 other Arab and African nations.

Syria's Assad criticized Arab nations for not attending and chided them for failing to support Hamas and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in their armed "resistance" against Israel.

"Israel is a country, built on massacres ... the enemy (who) speaks in language of blood only," Assad said. "This is a call to resistance ... resistance is the only way to peace."

"How can those seeking peace, not support resistance," Assad added, referring to Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Mashaal took a tough line, insisting Hamas would not stop fighting in Gaza until its borders are opened. Israel has imposed a crippling embargo on Gaza since Hamas took over there in 2007, saying it was necessary to prevent weapons from reaching the militant group. But the blockade has also caused widespread shortages and suffering among Gaza's 1.4 million people.

In Iran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sent a message to Hamas' chief Ismail Hanieh in Gaza, saying Hamas' resistance will lead to the defeat of Israel and infamy of "hypocrites" and "traitors" in the Islamic and Arab world, state TV reported.

In another sign of division between the two camps, Qatar's emir announced ahead of Friday's gathering that his country would give $250 million in aid for rebuilding Gaza — and he said it should go "directly to Gaza," implying that it would not go through Abbas' government, based in the West Bank.

The rival summit in Kuwait is expected to announce up to $500 million in aid for Abbas' Palestinian Authority to help rebuilding.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090116/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_diplomacy

I guess they are all terrorists!!

Hammas brought the whole problem down on Palestine. I hope Israel wipes them out this time.

I have my issues with Israel so do not think I am taking only one side in this but Hammas attacked first and repeatedly. Many of the Arab nations are blowing smoke out their asses because many of the same nations look down at Palestine anyway. They are just using Palestine to promote their anti-Semitic policies. Nobody seems to appreciate the restraint Israel has shown up till now. Hammas is using Palestinian civilians as shields. Sorry but if Civilians are being used like that they are going to die unless they get off their asses and hand Hammas over to Israel.

The UN are a pack of whining hypocrites! Instead of acting preemptively they sit by and let Palestine eat it and piss on Israel time and time again. Palestine had their chance and they blew it AGAIN! They chose Hammas to lead them and now they need to pay for their mistakes! Diplomacy only carries so far and when negotiations break down then you got to bust heads!

Wow a Muslim third world country suspenders relations...I bet no one saw that coming.

Let me save you some posting for future news...

Iran says "Israel not our friend".

Muslims in America upset of Israel war.

CNN says "Israel war hurts tourism in Israel".

San francisco times says "Peta upset Palestinian families can not buy nutritious dog food due to supply disruption from Israel war"

United Nations says "War not the answer"

Gallop poll says 80% of Americas don't know where Israel is.

How about verifying that. UN has made attempt after attempt to prevent what is happening in Security Council. The efforts were vetoed each and every time!!

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2000.htm

Are you seriously asking people to take off their blinders?

vetoed by umerika big suprise eh?

no surprise here. time and time again the US has had to veto one-sided obviously biased drivel aimed at making some kind of self serving political statement rather than advancing peace or benefitting mankind.

from UN Watch

http://www.unwatch.org/site/c.bdKKISNqEmG/b.1359197/k.6748/UN_Israel__AntiSemitism.htm

"Demonization of Israel: "Zionism is Racism"

An alien observing the United Nations' debates, reading its resolutions, and walking its halls could well conclude that a principal purpose of the world body is to censure a tiny country called Israel.

Beginning in the late 1960's, the full weight of the UN was gradually but deliberately turned against the country it had conceived by General Assembly resolution a mere two decades earlier. The campaign to demonize and delegitimize Israel in every UN and international forum was initiated by the Arab states together with the Soviet Union, and supported by what has become known as an "automatic majority" of Third World member states."

one sided what a laugh US/isreal on one side the rest of the free world and not so free world on the other

"Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them. There is almost no kind of outrage, torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, the bombing of civilians, which does not change its moral color when it is committed by 'our' side. The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." ~~~ George Orwell

also from UN Watch...

"Human Rights Reform

The UN's Commission on Human Rights -- which counted among its members some of the world's most repressive regimes and all too often ignored serious situations of massive human rights violations -- was recently replaced by a new body, the UN Human Rights Council. UN Watch supports a credible, effective Human Rights Council that will live up to the promises of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and meet the legitimate hopes and expectations of the word's rights-bearing citizens."

Ugh. The UN. Unbelievable Narrowmindedness.

So far the Human Rights Council's performance is just as appalling as the former discredited Commission on Human Rights.

"In its first eleven months of existence, the Council only censured one country in the entire world for human rights violations: Israel. As of June 2007, it had adopted nine condemnatory resolutions and held three special sessions against the Jewish state. The only other country on which the Council passed resolutions during this period was Sudan, related to the situation in Darfur, but none of these resolutions found the Sudanese government responsible for human rights violations. "

Should be renamed the UN anti-Israel Council.

http://www.unwatch.org/site/c.bdKKISNqEmG/b.1342853/k.C17/Human_Rights_Reform.htm

Stinks like a load of rancid diapers. UN has no credibility
particularly regarding Israel in recent years.

one sided what a laugh US/isreal on one side the rest of the free world and not so free world on the other

US is always sided with Israel..no matter what Israel is doing they side with them. Instead of solving the problem,US has given $7 billion in 2006 to Israel for ammunition which now kills innocent people. but you know what? It wont be like this forever

actually, the US and Israel have had many a front page disagreement.

also, your numbers are wrong. $7 billion is more than all US foreign aid in 2006. Israel got about $2.5B and Egypt about $1.8B in 2006 but it certainly wasn't all spent on ammo.



Israel does not target innocent civilians.
But Hamas DOES.

Look, Time and time again the UN wants the us to pay the greater share for all of their operations. The UN is responsible for leveraging Pakistan from India and look at what that brought us, Likewise Iran exists thanks to the UN stealing land from Kuristan and the Kurds. What did that get us?

ALL of this time the Arab nations have been looking for a way to wipe out the Jew and Israel. IF the UN was all of that they would have taken Mugabi out of Zimbabway. We would not have had to be the sole efforts in Serbia stopping the Ethnic Cleansing. IF the UN was all that they would have done something about Iran already becoming a nuclear threat. If the UN was all of that they would be up the asses of the Arab nations to back off of Israel or make them face getting their asses handed to them by the world. Instead it always falls to the US to clean up the mess the UN makes. It always comes down to US dollars funding a bulk of UN operations.

The UN is ALWAYS berating us over every and anything we do.
Do you even know anything about history? Do you know what organization acted like the UN before it existed?
It was called the League of Nations.
They were the ones who ushered in WWII appeasing the Germans and then the Russians leading us right into the Cold War.
Now the UN is trying to appease the Islamic fundamentalists!
The UN says the US does not do enough for world peace even though we are the largest contributor to world disaster relief, food relief, peace negotiations, fighting the drug war, and actually doing the UN's dirty work.

By the way, What about Tibet's right to exist without Chinese rule? OH POOR PALESTINE! THE MEAN ISRAELIS ARE PICKING ON THEM BECAUSE THE POOR MISUNDERSTOOD PALESTINIANS CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT HAMMAS ATTACKING THEM.
Tibet did absolutely nothing to China other than be their neighbor and China blows smoke up everybody's asses making themselves look so innocent after they did a lot to damage our economy. PLEASE....


The fact is that Palestine attacked Israel continuously. Now Israel is handing them their asses. If Palestine harbors Hammas then they are the enemy of Israel and the Civilians are no longer innocent victims! Stop trying to make Israel out to be the enemy. it is Islamic prejudice that is the cause and effect here!

What we need to do as a nation if we want world peace is first of all we need to clean house in our own Government and Obama is only going to keep the staus quo. it is congress that needs to be dressed down and the business power players put in line or taken out of the picture permanently in our government.
Next we need to stop fighting like a pack of pussies and hit Iran with EVERYTHING we got and take their religious leaders and let out friends the Kurds take care of them. Since the Kurds are Islamic when they behead the Mulahs that Run Iran Islam will have nothing to say.
We need to ramp up our own manufacturing capacities and give China the same economic grief they gave us. We need to have Russia enter the picture more as allies instead of foes and have them flex some of their military muscle against the enemies of peace with us and end our on going belligerence toward them.
We need to throw the UN out of New York and form a different version of the UN where all member nations stomp the living crap out of any belligerent nation and those that dare threaten nuclear war should get invaded and nuked on like mad to show the rest of the world to play nice or be taken out of the game.

Part of the reason I didn't join the military was I was not about to fight a war with my hands tied behind my back.
If I am to go to war then I want to really make war. Many who post against war have no idea what war is really like! I knew an Afghani family that emigrated to America during the Russian invasion. The father was a member of the freedom fighters there. His fifteen year old son was a sniper at thirteen and the kid lived to prove himself a man to his father. The boy had over 200 confirmed kills even though his father was out in the fields taking on Russian troops more directly. The man hated war but was a true warrior. He had the BALLS like his son to fight for what they believed in. They hate the UN for their lack of response when Russia invaded and then the Taliban.

For those who protest war,
If you are not willing to fight and die for what you believe in SHUT THE HELL UP! You rights come at the sacrifice of those before us and you are wasting their efforts with the ignorant and unenlightened crap you spew!
This nation has done more in the name of freedom than ALL of the member nations of the UN. That is a FACT!
If the enemy is landing on my shores I do not need a uniform to go after them. I will take what little I got and head right for the enemy while cowards like the protester set would be running the other way trying to hide in whatever hole they can crawl in. I do not respect mouthy cowards!
I do not respect belligerent views or ignorant beliefs! There is a lot more to the politics of the area than you or many choose to understand. Like I said before I have issues with Israel as well but in this case Palestine brought all of this down on themselves. At least Israel has been trying to clean up their act! What about Palestine?

its an argument of semantics I suppose when you fire a missle that has no targeting ability you target civilians but when you drop white phosphorus in a densly packed city with american made F16's your targeting the elected government of Gaza.

How much and what kind of aid does the U.S. provide to Israel?

Israel, with a population of roughly 6.3 million, receives more U.S. aid each year than any other country, and has held that distinction since 1976. Between 1949 and 1996, Israel received $62.5 billion in foreign aid. This is roughly the same amount given to all the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean combined during the same time period. Since 1996, the total has grown from $62.5 billion to nearly $100 billion in U.S. foreign aid.
Most of the U.S. aid is for Israel's military and its weaponry. Israel's annual aid package has averaged $3 billion in grants over the last twenty years, about two-thirds of it for military aid.
http://imeu.net/news/article001446.shtml

No it isn't. I could care less what the belligerent's military capacities are. Palestine shot first! Palestine shot second, third and fourth until Israel shot back.
Be glad I am not the commander in charge. Instead of trying like mad to pinpoint a target I would have sent my troops on a push to the sea and would have my men kill everything not wearing our uniform past the boarder line! Civilians be dammed in a war! That is the point, They kill our people, we kill more of theirs. We crush on them until they sure for peace and we still keep crushing them until they are beaten into submission.
There is no semantics here. Do not do harm if you do not want to be harmed.
My answer for Palestine if they want peace so bad is to round up Hammas themselves and hand them over and beg Israel for peace. if Palestine cannot clean up their on act I hope Israel invades them fully and takes them completely off of the map ending the problem once and for all.

The thing about all of this is that the Arabs and Israel are brothers. Islam came from Judeaism just like Christianity. Although fundamentally different they are all three based on the same religious history and basic belief sets. This whole thing is a Fuc*ked up Cain and Able story retelling. Religion sickens me to no end and sometimes I wish I could lead a holy war against religion as the guy riding the red horse with the other three horsemen. Then again without religion we would still come up with bogus reasons to fight each other. Money and resources and human greed always end up being the driving force behind conflict.

Stop acting like Palestine really matters to the Arab nations. Palestine is just being used like a tool to further religions propaganda. Of all of the "supposed" money raised for Palestine by all of these Islamic nations, how much of it will actually reach Palestine?


Why is it that for thousands of years Christian, Jew, and Islam can exist in peace in Jerusalem and share holy ground but everywhere else they can't?

Do some research and find that the blockade of gaza came first. those people were being starved out. Stop with the propaganda allready and get real.

Do some research and find that the blockade of gaza came first. those people were being starved out. Stop with the propaganda allready and get real.



EXACTLY!!!!