The end of the 'peace process'?
'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Speaking at a press conference in Abu Dhabi after meeting United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is due to arrive here later Saturday evening and to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Abbas said that in its actions, Israel was "pouring oil into the bonfire [of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict], crossing red lines and preparing the ground for further acts of violence."In case any of you missed it, this offer is more generous than the previous one: This offer would freeze Israeli building in Judea and Samaria for 'natural growth.' That freeze would be very unpopular in Israel and I question whether Netanyahu could even get his cabinet to approve it.
Abbas was presented by Clinton and by US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell with understandings reached between the US and Israel earlier. According to the Israeli offer, no more construction will be undertaken in the settlements apart from the completion of 3,000 housing units which are already in advanced stages of completion. Also, Jerusalem would not include east Jerusalem in the deal.
In the press conference, Abbas emphasized the issue of Jerusalem, saying the main issue in his talks with Clinton was the Jewish capital. "Jerusalem is in danger, and Arabs and Muslims must be aware of it," Abbas said. "Peace begins in Jerusalem, and without Jerusalem there will be no peace with the Israeli side," he added.
The Netanyahu administration, like previous governments, refuses to negotiate over Jerusalem and rejects the labeling of Jewish neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city as settlements.
Saeb Erekat, the top PA negotiator who was present in the Abbas-Clinton meeting, was quoted by Israel Radio as saying that "Clinton and Mitchell have clarified that at this point they cannot get more [generous offers] from Israel."
No matter. The 'Palestinians' have once again not missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. I'm sure Obama and Clinton are real happy now that they raised the issue of a total 'settlement freeze' in the first place.
What could go wrong?
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:06 PM
4 Comments:
We should thank Abbas for giving Israel the ability to continue to built, resettle, expand and improve Jerusalem. Some day in the near future, when Israel decides the borders it's willing to declare they will say we have "ceased" construction and we are will to talk..
hopefully by then of course Abbas will have been dead for at least 200 years and the fake nationalistic peoples called palestine will migrate from the barren, bug infested, murderous areas of the lands between the seas that are in fact controlled by the arab henchmen who live in those areas....
"palestine" is a false issue.. it's time to switch the issue to Jordan....
It is clear that the Palestinians do not want peace and never have. Like their failed attempts to overthrow Kuwait, Jordan, and Lebanon, the Pals want a "piece" of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, etc.
Israel's best strategy is to say, 'o.k., we agree with you. No peace.' and then raze every illegal Arab and Jewish structure in Jerusalem and rebuild. East Jerusalem arabs should be given the opportunity to renounce their Israeli citizenship and become "Palestinians", with appropriate documentation changes. Since almost all will refuse, Israel can then demand uncompromised loyalty from them with criminal penalties or loss of citizenship for violations proven in court.
Time to play hardball, since softball has simply led to more Palestinian intransigence.
And rocket and suicide bombers should be replied to with the old classical Middle East strategy of "step on my toes and I'll drop a house on you."
As I noted in the previous thread, for the Palestinians the destruction of Israel remains the objective they're really after. So they're inventing excuses to avoid a solution that from their standpoint is far removed from their ideal outcome.
There will be no peace in the Middle East in our lifetime.
'Economist' is merely showing his ignorance when he invites East Jerusalem Arabs to renounce their citizenship. They have no citizenship!
After Israel conquered East jerusalem in 1967 and annexed 70 square kilometers of the West Bank into the municipality, the non-Jewish residents were not given citizenship but only a special class of permanent residency which confers on them the right to vote in Municipal elections but not in national elections.
They have a different ID card and different rights than Jewish residents of Jerusalem. Within the Land of Israel there are 5 or 6 classes of citizens and residents, each class with certain rights and restrictions. This situation has led much of the world to call us an Apartheid system since there are close similarities to the former South African regime.
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