Diamonds and Human Rights by Rona E. Peligal

Browsing for diamond jewelry off Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv, you can't tell by looking where the diamonds in the store windows come from. But experts can. And those same experts have affirmed that diamonds from the Marange fields of eastern Zimbabwe are mined under highly abusive conditions - the latest "blood diamonds" of the twenty-first century.

To its credit, the Israeli government has tried to put pressure on Zimbabwe to improve these conditions. In the coming year, as chair of the global group that monitors the diamond industry, Israel will have the opportunity to do even more.

Although Netanyahu had promised not to build new settlements, his government gave its approval yesterday for a new colony (the first in 26 years) to be built near the bank of the Jordan river.

Sounds like a slap in the face of the U.S. president, in answer to his call for a Palestinian state.

According to Yariv Oppenheimer, secretary general of the Jewish Peace Now NGO , this action from the Netanyahu Government is intended to make impossible the "two states" solution promoted by Barack Obama.

This is a new serious obstacle on the road toward a peace agreement, but it is not the only one.

The fifth round of talks between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo yesterday ended without results. For more than a year, Egypt has pressed the two sides to reach an agreement to allow the formation of a unity government.

The U.S. president, Barack Obama, invites the leaders of Israel, Palestinian territories and Egypt for a new round of negotiations on the peace process between Arabs and Israelis.

Although no specific date has been fixed for these negotiations, the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, announced yesterday that the reunion will be held "in coming weeks."

Washington invited the new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Egypt President, Hosni Mubarak. Egypt was the first Arab country to officially recognized the Jewish state in the Camp David agreements of 1978.

George Mitchell, the White House "Special Envoy to the Middle East", is well known for his persuasion skills and deep knowledge of the region. But for his first trip since the formation of Israel new government, the task assigned by President Barack Obama will require enormous tenacity.

This friday, when meeting Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian West Bank leader, he announced his intention to encourage the establishment of a Palestinian state - "the only and best solution," said Mitchell - using the 2002 Saudi peace initiative which calls for recognition of Israel by the 22 Arab countries in exchange for its withdrawal from the occupied territories.

However, negotiations between parties have not yet begun, and the condition, brought by the new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that the Palestinians recognize "Israel as a Jewish State", is an obstacle that Mitchell will need to overcome.

A confidential EU report accuses the Israeli government of using settlement expansion, house demolitions, discriminatory housing policies and the West Bank barrier as a way of "actively pursuing the illegal annexation" of East Jerusalem.

The document says Israel has accelerated its plans for East Jerusalem, and is undermining the Palestinian Authority's credibility and weakening support for peace talks. "Israel's actions in and around Jerusalem constitute one of the most acute challenges to Israeli-Palestinian peace-making," says the document, EU Heads of Mission Report on East Jerusalem.

The report, obtained by the Guardian, is dated 15 December 2008. It acknowledges Israel's legitimate security concerns in Jerusalem, but adds: "Many of its current illegal actions in and around the city have limited security justifications."