RT view of the middle east situation

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA



Rightardia by Rightard Whitey of Rightardia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at rightardia@gmail.com.

Words matter: A new language for peace - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

This article is important because it addresses the international' status of Palestine and legal issues that whirl around it. Israel has distorted its tenuous legal position over its borders and Jerusalem in the US.

"The Palestinian territories conquered by Israel in 1967 are still frequently referred to as "disputed". They are not. They are "occupied" - and illegally so, since the status of "perpetual belligerent occupation" which Israel has been seeking to impose since 1967 does not exist in international law. While sovereignty over expanded East Jerusalem, which Israel has formally annexed, is explicitly contested, no other state has recognised Israel’s sovereignty claim and Palestinian sovereignty over the Gaza Strip and the rest of the West Bank is, in both literal and legal senses, uncontested.

Israel has never even purported to annex these territories, knowing that doing so would raise awkward questions about the rights (or lack of them) of the indigenous population living there. Jordan renounced all claims to the West Bank in favour of the Palestinians in July 1988. While Egypt administered the Gaza Strip for 19 years, it never asserted sovereignty over it . . .

Commentators on all sides speak of Israel's "ceding" territory occupied in 1967 to the Palestinians. The word suggests a transfer of land by its legitimate owner. Unless there are reciprocal exchanges of territory in a final peace agreement, the issue of Israel's "ceding" territory to Palestine does not arise. Israel can withdraw from occupied Palestinian territory, but to "cede" property one must first possess legal title to it."

John V Whitbeck is an international lawyer who has advised the Palestinian negotiating team in negotiations with Israel.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

source: Words matter: A new language for peace - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA 





Rightardia by Rightard Whitey of Rightardia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at rightardia@gmail.com.

Israel to blame for break down in peace talks

Israel to blame for talks ‘fiasco’ - Abbas

18:38 22/01/2012 The responsibility for a failure to restart stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks will lie solely with Tel Aviv and its refusal to halt settlement construction, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said on Sunday in Moscow.>>

Other news of the day

Israel has been satisfied with the satus quo in which it criminally expanded its building program into occupied Arab areas.

The only prospect for peace would be the defeat of the hardliner Likud Party in the next Israeli election.

Likewise, Rightardia hope that Palestine is recognized by the UN. The US position that a peace agreement is needed with Israel prior to statehood is ludicrous.

There has been no progress with a peace agreement since Israel was founded 60 years ago.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA   Netcraft rank: 6627 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com
Rightardia by Rightard Whitey of Rightardia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at rightardia@gmail.com.

Al Jazeera English Opinion: The real 'invented' people

"It is hard to believe that anyone who defends Israel's legitimacy as a state would buy into former Speaker Newt Gingrich's argument that Palestine is an "invented nation".

The singular triumph of the Zionist movement is that it invented a state and a people - Israel and the Israelis - from scratch. The first Hebrew-speaking child in 1900 years, Ittamar Ben-Avi, was not born until 1882. His father, the brilliant linguist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, created a modern language for him to speak by improvising from the language of the Bible."

MJ Rosenberg is a Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at Media Matters Action Network. The above article first appeared in Foreign Policy Matters, a part of the Media Matters Action Network.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Source: Al Jazeera

source: The real 'invented' people - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA

Rightardia by Rightard Whitey of Rightardia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at rightardia@gmail.com.

Were the Philistines an invented people?

 The Philistines that settled the plain, ca. 1180/1130 B.C

Newt Gingrich is taking the AIPAC and Israeli position on Palestine. Newt calls the Palestinians an "invented people." He also says he would make John Bolton, the former neo-conservative ambassador to the UN, the Secretary of State.

Newt is clearly playing to the the Christian-Zionist community of fundamentalists and evangelicals who are waiting for the rapture and the return of Jesus. Israel has an important role in this prophesy.

Are the Palestinians an "invented people." Palestine is an old name derived from the Philistines or sea people who attacked Egypt three millennia ago. Many historians think the Philistines were ancient Greeks.

When the Philistines met the ancient Israelites, they were in the iron age while the Israelis wee still in the late bronze age.

The term Peleset (transliterated from hieroglyphs as P-r-s-t) is found in numerous Egyptian documents referring to a neighboring people or land starting from c.1150 BCE during the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt. 

This is Wikipedia's take on Palestine: 

The first mention is thought to be in texts of the temple at Medinet Habu which record a people called the Peleset among the Sea Peoples who invaded Egypt in Ramesses III's reign. The Assyrians called the same region Palashtu or Pilistu, beginning with Adad-nirari III in the Nimrud Slab in c.800 BCE through to emperor Sargon II in his Annals approximately a century later. . .

The first clear use of the term Palestine to refer to the region synonymous with that defined in modern times was in 5th century BC Ancient Greece. Herodotus wrote of a 'district of Syria, called Palaistinê" in The Histories, the first historical work clearly defining the region, which included the Judean mountains and the Jordan Rift Valley.

Approximately a century later, Aristotle used a similar definition in Meteorology, writing "Again if, as is fabled, there is a lake in Palestine, such that if you bind a man or beast and throw it in it floats and does not sink, this would bear out what we have said. They say that this lake is so bitter and salt that no fish live in it and that if you soak clothes in it and shake them it cleans them," understood by scholars to be a reference to the Dead Sea.

Later writers such as Polemon and Pausanias also used the term to refer to the same region. This usage was followed by Roman writers such as Ovid, Tibullus,Pomponius Mela, Pliny the Elder, Dio Chrysostom, Statius, Plutarch as well as Roman Judean writers Philo of Alexandria and Josephus.


Other writers, such as Strabo, a prominent Roman-era geographer (although he wrote in Greek), referred to the region as Coele-Syria around 10-20 CE.The term was first used to denote an official province in c.135 CE, when the Roman authorities, following the suppression of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, combined Iudaea Province with Galilee and other surrounding cities such as Ashkelon to form "Syria Palaestina" (Syria Palaestina), which some scholars state was in order to complete the dissociation with Judaea. (T)he term is used to denote the southern coastal region to the west of the ancient Kingdom of Judah

Note: Jewish people refer to this as The Diaspora. 

The Hebrew name Peleshet (פלשת Pəlésheth)- usually translated as Philistia in English, is used in the Bible more than 250 times. In the Torah / Pentateuch the term is used 10 times and its boundaries are undefined. . .The later Historical books (Deuteronomy) include most of the biblical references, almost 200 of which are in the Book of Judges and the Books of Samuel, . . 

Newt is obviously trying to gain credentials with the Christian-Zionist community of evangelicals and fundamentalists. A prominent evangelical pastor has spoken out against Newt in a viral video due to his past adultery and the poor example he would set for Christian children.

Perhaps Newt thinks his political stance on Israel will endure him to the evangelicals and they will overlook his personal shortcomings.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA  


Rightardia by Rightard Whitey of Rightardia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at rightardia@gmail.com.

DEBKA: Palestine has Libyan SA-24 missiles

Sa-24 Grinch SAM

DEBKAfile's military sources indicate the Palestinian Hamas are being equipped with a powerful air defense missile. 


On Sept. 25, Egyptian security forces found a  large half-empty cache of advanced Libyan SA-24 Grinch anti-air infrared missiles near Ismailia. 


The shoulder or vehicle fired missile is similar to the US Stinger and would impede Israeli aircraft from conducting operations below 20,000 feet. The Palestinians don't have the grip stocks for the missile so they would have to be fired from vehicles. 


This Russian missile is similar to the US Stinger. 

table source: Wikipedia

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA  




Rightardia by Rightard Whitey of Rightardia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at rightardia@gmail.com.

UNESCO admits Palestine as its newest member.

New York— UNESCO voted Monday to admit Palestine into the organization as its newest member, and the United States retaliated by cutting off funding for the agency.

The State Department on Monday announced that the United States has stopped funding the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization because of the vote. The US will not make a planned $60 million payment to the agency due this month.

Rightardia suspects Palestine will seek observer status in the UN General assembly to bypass a US veto on the Security Council. This would give Palestine a quasi-state status like the Vatican.

Israel and the US insist in peace accords that have not materialized since Israel was founded 60 years ago.

Rightardia has stated that any US peace initiative while Bibi Natenyahu is Israeli's PM is a fools' errand. Israel is fond of the US foreign and military aid that a peace agreement could limit.

Ultimately the Israel-Palestine conflict will be decided at the end of gun barrel.

source; http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/unesco-votes-to-admit-palestine-over-us-objections/2011/10/31/gIQAMleYZM_story.html

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA  




Rightardia by Rightard Whitey of Rightardia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at rightardia@gmail.com.

Russia Today: Palestinian independence expected on September 20

"The Israeli army has launched a program to train civilians for a possible mass Arab uprising or even a third intifada on the West Bank once Palestine announces independence, anticipated in September.

Tear gas and stun grenades are being distributed among local citizens, along with instructions on how to use the munitions if the Palestinian population attempts to bring violence to the streets of districts where Arabs and Jews live together, reports the Haaretz newspaper. Israeli Defense Forces conducted the first “war games” for civilians on Monday with more planned for the future.

The newspaper acquired a document showing that Israeli authorities assume that Palestine declaring independence will likely cause a general uprising “which will mainly include mass disorder.”

The document also stresses that “extreme cases like shooting from within the demonstrations or even terrorist incidents” are quite possible.

Palestine is expected to announce independence at the General Assembly of the United Nations that opens on September 20. That means that starting from September 19 all Israeli public offices will be on high alert.

Israel’s National Emergency Management Authority at the Defense Ministry informed settlers that in case of mass disorder there might be fuel and gas shortages so local authorities have been advised to stock fuel in advance.

The owners of grocery stores should increase their supplies of goods while infrastructure elements like water supply systems, electricity installations and communication lines must be patrolled with a vengeance.

The National Emergency Management Authority warns the situation of high alert could last for several weeks or more.

The Israeli army is also preparing for unrest, obtaining new high-end laser target designation systems for snipers, to make them even more efficient in the wake of possible unrest. However Israeli military command issued instructions to shoot at the kneecaps of rioters to avoid unnecessary casualties, as The Jerusalem Post reports.

A “red line” has been drawn around each West Bank settlement and soldiers will get the order to shoot any Palestinian protesters crossing it.

On Monday, Israel voiced fears that Hamas might get its hands on arms raided from military depots in Libya. Allegedly, the organization that rules the Gaza sector is already getting thousands of guns and is even supplying the Palestinian authority with anti-tank rocket launchers and anti-aircraft missiles.

Israel believes tons of munitions are being carried to Gaza through a system of underground tunnels on the Gaza-Egyptian border.

What anthropologist and political activist Jeff Halper expects to happen in September is not unrest, but a demonstration of Palestinian independence. Halper, who is also a co-founder of the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions, told RT that if the UN indeed acknowledges Palestinian statehood, this will render the Israeli Defense Ministry’s efforts redundant.

“If in September the UN recognizes the state of Palestine within the 1967 borders, it will mean that the settlements, the checkpoints, the Israeli wall – everything that Israel has – will become illegal in the sovereign territory of Palestine,”

The other Holocaust: Palestinian "Naqba"

Uploaded by Euronews on May 14, 2011

A Palestinian teenager has died following clashes with Israeli police in Jerusalem on Friday to mark the commemoration of Naqba.

Americans have been drinking the Kumbaya Kool-aid about the creation of Israel for along time with feel good plays like "Fiddler on the Roof."

The Palestians who lived in Israel lost their homes and livelihoods and Israel has not intentions in reimbursing the Palestinians for their property. Many of these people live in the Gaza today and still have the original deeds to their homes.

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA   Netcraft rank: 5598 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com

Rightardia by Rightard Whitey of Rightardia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at rightardia@gmail.com.

Haaretz: Egypt to pemanently open Gaza border crossing

The Egyptian Foreign minister  tells Al-Jazeera that preparations are already underway to permanently open Rafah border crossing. This which would allow goods and people in and out of Gaza with no Israeli supervision.
The Isralei prime minister has also stated that he il not hold talks with Palestine that include Hamas, who won the elections in Palestine. Israel claims Hamas is a terrorist organization. 
From Rightardia's perspective, Israel has a bigger Middle Eastern terrorist apparatus than Hamas. We have continually advocated that the Obama government should not waste time trying to bring Bibi Netanyahu to the negotiating table because he has no interest in peace. 
The US government should try to undermine his Likud government so more moderate leaders can take the helm in Israel. 

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA  

Netcraft rank: 5841 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com
Rightardia by Rightard Whitey of Rightardia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at rightardia@gmail.com.

China Daily: Israel's three ring circus

Round and round she goes, where she stops, nobody knows...

 Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA 

Netcraft rank: 7853 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com

Haaetz: Palestinians demand immediate statehood to counter Israeli 'unilateralism'

Israel's plan to build new homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank should be met by international recognition of a Palestinian state, the chief Palestinian negotiator said on Tuesday.

Raising the stakes in the deadlock over stalled peace talks, Saeb Erekat said it was clear from the latest announcement of building plans that Israel wants. Ereket stated: 

Israeli unilateralism is a call for immediate international recognition of the Palestinian state.

The world paid little attention when the late Yasser Arafat declared a Palestinian state in 1988. But political winds have shifted and Israel today is seriously concerned that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas might win recognition.

Abbas has floated the idea of "going to the United Nations" to declare statehood as one option if peace talks collapse, but only after first seeking support from Washington.

Israel on Monday announced plans to build 1,300 new housing units on occupied land near Jerusalem.  Haaretz reported that a further 800 units were planned in the big settlement of Ariel in the northern West Bank.

The building plans were made public as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the United States to discuss ways to revive Middle East peace talks that have stalled over the issue of settlement building.

The United States said it was "deeply disappointed" by Monday's news of the housing project which is "counterproductive to our efforts to resume direct negotiations between the parties", State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was expected to raise the issue in a meeting with Netanyahu in New York on Thursday.

Direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in September almost as soon as they had begun. Netanyahu rebuffed Palestinian demands to extend a partial freeze on West Bank settlement building.

Noting that the controversial housing announcement was made while Netanyahu was in the United States, Crowley said:

It could very well be that somebody in Israel has made this known in order to embarrass the prime minister and to undermine the process.

Washington was outraged in March when settlement housing plans were announced with what looked like defiant timing as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Jerusalem.

Israeli Interior Ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said Monday's announcement was simply another procedural stage. She said:

It can take months or years from this point until building can actually begin.

The Palestinians dismissed this explanation

"Israel's settlement enterprise ... is nothing but a premeditated process to kill the possibility of an independent Palestinian state," Erekat said.

source: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinians-demand-immediate-statehood-to-counter-israeli-unilateralism-1.323796

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu 

Netcraft rank: 8549 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com

Haaretz: Bush offered to absorb 100,000 Palestinian refugees if peace deal reached

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that the Bush administration had assured him that the United States would be willing to absorb some 100,000 Palestinian refugees immediately as American citizens. However, Israel had to reach a permanent settlement with the Palestinian Authority.

The former premier told a Geneva Initiative conference in Tel Aviv that during negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2008 he had offered a solution to the refugee problem that would have been in line with the Arab League peace plan and promised that any measures would be the result of a coordinated agreement.

The Bush administration had offered this American contribution to the refugee problem as part of what would be a framework of international compensation, he said.

Would Bush have let the Palestinians bring their AK-47s?

"I think that if the refugees - many of whom are already second or third generation [Palestinians] living outside of the territories – were given a choice between returning to Israel or the United States, we could guess what they would choose," he said.

Olmert emphasized that during his address to the Annapolis summit in 2007, he had become the first Israeli prime minister to publicly empathize with the suffering the Palestinians had endured over the years as a result of Israel's operations.

The former prime minister said that every ruling Israeli government must accept the fact that peace negotiations would be based on the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders and would include a land exchange. Still, he stressed that both sides must realize that neither Palestinians or Israel would ever have full sovereignty over Jerusalem.

Olmert also said that the U.S. administration under Bush had accepted the "eight-point document" drafted by Israel's defense establishment, which included Israel's central security interests. Olmert said:

Bush promised to pass this along to the Obama administration," Olmert said. "The Palestinians recognized this document and they were not opposed to a single one of its points.

Olmert defended to the audience an excerpt in his upcoming book, dealing with his relationship with Barak. Aides to the defense minister had lambasted Olmert over certain claims made in the book, which they called an effort to "rewrite history".

Olmert disclosed to the conference tensions he had held with Barak regarding Israel's security, indicating that the defense minister had favored avoiding certain important security operations.

Aides to the defense minister had earlier denied one particular claim made in the excerpt, which was published in Yedioth Aharonoth over the weekend. In the chapter, Olmert refers to Barak as "irresponsible" and "irresolute" and says the latter begged him to join Kadima prior to the 2006 elections.

"Ehud Olmert is rewriting history," Barak's aides said. "Barak never asked Olmert or anyone else to join the Kadima list. Any contacts made with that regard were always at the initiative of Olmert and his associates, and were never discussed in any practical terms."

source: http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/olmert-bush-offered-to-absorb-100-000-palestinian-refugees-if-peace-deal-reached-1.314644

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu 

Netcraft rank: 8665
http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com

Haaretz: Give us a border

The direct talks that were launched at the Washington summit should have one aim - to fix the border between Israel and the Palestinian state that will be set up in the West Bank.

Israel needs a border that will delineate its borders, normalize its international status, end the dissent over the settlements and solidify the national consensus.

This is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's mission in life. If he succeeds, he will have justified his return to power and go down in history as a formative leader.

Netanyahu is now concentrating on the Palestinian track. Over a year ago, he devoted almost all his first meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama to the Iranian threat.

The Palestinians were mentioned merely in passing. In their two most recent meetings, the agenda was turned upside down, according to American sources.

Most of the time was devoted to the diplomatic process with the Palestinians and Iran was pushed to the side.

Ending the conflict is a lofty goal, but Netanyahu and Abbas will not be able to achieve it. Not because they are bad leaders or because they want the conflict to continue, but because its conclusion does not depend on them.

No signature can do away with the conflicting narratives of the two peoples, each considering itself the victim and seeing its rival as an unwanted invader.

It is impossible to compromise on a national ethos with the stroke of a pen, and there is no chance today of formulating a joint Israeli-Palestinian narrative.

If the negotiations focus on who is right and who is wrong, and who was here first, we can forget about them in advance.

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu 

Netcraft rank: 8788 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com

Daily Beast Morning Scoop: Obama Team Skeptical About Middle East Peace Deal

President Obama's Mideast peace talks have brought him some sorely needed positive press-but can they deliver a meaningful deal between Israel and Palestine?

Obama's own team is skeptical, reports The Daily Beast's Richard Wolffe. Even the president told his national security team to scale back their hopes and expectations for the talks; he warned his advisers to not want success more than the parties. Previous presidents were far more confident that they would reach deals before the end of their terms, with Bill Clinton personally negotiating at Camp David with then-leaders Ehud Barak and Yassir Arafat.

Bush left the negotiating to Condoleezza Rice. They both failed, and some say hurt prospects for peace in the process. Obama is taking the middle path
between his two predecessors. So far, relations between Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas have been surprisingly warm, but diplomatic
achievements have been pretty basic.

Rightardia has been skeptical of the peace process between Israel and the PLA because Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu has little respect for the Palestinian people. We think the middle east peace talks are a waste of time with little chance of success. Obama is wasting diplomatic resources on Israeli PM Benjamin  Netanyahu.

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu

Netcraft rank: 9157 

http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com

Al Jazeera: 'Bullied' but not surrendering

By Lamis Andoni

The resumption of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) will allow Barack Obama to have his day presiding over the launch of another series of futile negotiations.  It will provide an opportunity for Binyamin Netanyahu to assert his unwavering commitment to Israel’s colonial policies, will earn the Israeli prime minister further bragging rights.

But while the talks may serve immediate American and Israeli interests they will do nothing for the cause of peace.

In fact, the mere announcement that talks will resume has emboldened the Israeli prime minister to declare that settlement-building will continue and to demand Palestinian recognition of the Jewish character of the Israeli state as a precondition for any future agreement.

So, at the same time that it has pressured the PA into dropping its preconditions for participating, the US has allowed Netanyahu to impose his on the whole process with impunity.

The Palestinians have already made clear that they will withdraw from talks should Israel not extend its freeze on settlement construction when it expires on September 26. But regardless of how long they last, the talks will have already started a process that will only perpetuate the Israeli occupation.

This is simply the old new story of the 'peace process' - which, since it started in 1993, has consolidated Israeli control over the Palestinians while brutally crushing their resistance.

Arab complicity

Responsibility for the decision to participate - despite overwhelming Palestinian opposition - must rest with the PA. But, it is important to recognise the growing American and Arab complicity in pushing the PA to surrender.

Arab countries have collectively and individually exerted tremendous political and financial pressure on the PA to enter into direct talks. Qatar, the country that presided over the special Arab League committee that gave the green light for the talks, has played a pivotal role in negotiating their 'terms'.

For their part, Jordan and Egypt, driven largely by their own self-interests, have long argued for an immediate resumption of direct talks under the guise that they would give the US an opportunity to support the Palestinian cause.

In reality, Arab support for the PA has always been conditional on the Palestinian leadership's willingness to appease the West and the divisions between Fatah and Hamas have made the threat of Arab states withholding political support all the more real for the PA.

But, the main pressure has been financial. Arab states have paid only $115mn of the $550mn pledged to PA institutions, leaving it with very real fears of financial collapse. Western donors have also failed to deliver on aid promises, much of which is linked to 'progress' in the 'peace process'.

And when Obama sent a letter to the Palestinian leadership last month threatening to withdraw US recognition of the PA, the authority found itself facing the prospect of political and financial isolation - much like that experienced by the late Yasser Arafat when Arab and Western countries left him and the Palestinians at the mercy of an Israeli invasion and siege.

No mandate, no surrender

Despite this, many within the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Fatah movement advised the PA not to succumb to American threats and Mahmoud Abbas would have gained much popular support had he resisted. But the PA leader and some of his aides feared that the international backlash from not participating would cost them and the Palestinians dearly.

However, few Palestinians outside the narrow decision-making circle agree with them and the only reason why the decision has not yet been met with an outpouring of anger is because Palestinians are convinced the talks will not result in an offer that could lead to a Palestinian compromise.

As one PLO official who asked not to be named told me: "We are not afraid of the outcome of the talks. There is nothing Abu Mazan (Abbas) would or could accept. But going to the talks has undermined our battle to isolate Israel."

More than 700 prominent Palestinians in the West Bank, including leaders of all the PLO factions, signed a statement opposing the resumption of talks and called for a protest rally to be held on September 1 - the day negotiations are due to resume in Washington.

But a press conference held by opponents of the talks was interrupted by security forces, in a crackdown that has been widely criticised and interpreted as revealing the depth of the divisions generated by the decision to participate.

Lamis Andoni is an analyst and commentator on Middle Eastern and Palestinian affairs.

Rightrdia agrees. Obama is wasting precious diplomatic resources on the Israle-Palestine conflict and nothing will be resolved as long as Binyamin Netanyahu is the Israeli PM. Any US peace initiatives between Israel and Palestine are a charade at this time. 

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

See the rest of the article at http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/08/201082954745720754.html

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu

Netcraft rank: 9528


http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com

Haaretz: Mideast peace needs prophets, not yes-men

by Margaret Atwood

Picture a minor prophet. Perhaps he’d be working today as an astrologer. He’s looking towards Israel and Palestine, consulting his charts and stars, getting a handle on the future. But the future is never single -- there are too many variables – so what he sees is a number of futures.

In the first one, there’s no Israel: it’s been destroyed in war and all the Israelis have been killed. (Unlikely, but not impossible.)

In the second, there’s no Palestine: it’s been merged with Israel, and the Palestinians either slaughtered or driven beyond its borders. Israel has become completely isolated: international opinion has been outraged, boycott measures have been successful, financial aid from the U.S. -- both public and private – has evaporated, and the United States government, weakened by the huge debt caused by its Iraqi and Afghani wars and lured by the promise of mineral wealth and oil, has cooled towards Israel and swung towards entente with the Muslim world. Israel has become like North Korea or Burma – an embattled military state – and civilian rights have suffered accordingly. The moderate Israelis have emigrated, and live as exiles, in a state of bitterness over wasted opportunities and blighted dreams.

In the third future there’s one state, but a civil war has resulted, since the enlarged population couldn’t agree on a common flag, a common history, a common set of laws, or a common set of commemoration days -- “victory” for some being “catastrophe” for others.

In the fourth, the one-state solution has had better results: it’s a true one-person, one-vote secular democracy, with equal rights for all. (Again, unlikely in the immediate future, but not impossible in the long run.)

In the fifth future, neither Israel nor Palestine exist: several atomic bombs have cleared the land of human beings, though wildlife is flourishing, as at Chernobyl.

In the sixth, climate change has turned the area into a waterless desert.

But there’s another future: the seventh future. In this future there are two states, “Israel” and “Palestine.” Both are flourishing, and both are members of a regional council that deals with matters affecting the whole area. Trade flows harmoniously between the two viable states, joint development enterprises have been established, know-how is being shared, and, as in Northern Ireland, peace is paying dividends.

That, surely, is a desirable outcome, thinks the stargazer; but how was it achieved? Since he has the gift of virtual time travel, he leaps into the seventh future and looks back at the steps taken to get there.

The impetus came from within Israel. The Israeli leaders saw that the wind had shifted: it was now blowing against the earlier policy of crushing force and the appropriation of occupied lands. What had caused this change? Was it the international reaction to the destructive Cast Lead invasion of Gaza? The misjudged killing of flotilla activists? The gathering boycott activities in the United States and Europe? The lobbying of organizations such as J-Street? The 2010 World Zionist Congress vote to support a settlement freeze and endorse a two-state solution?

For whatever reasons, Israel had lost control of its own story. It was no longer Jack confronting a big bad Giant: the narrative of the small country struggling bravely against overwhelming odds had moved over to the Palestinians.

. . . The seventh future is within reach -- the stars favour it -- but the stargazer knows that many prefer the status quo: there can be advantage as well as profit in conflict. However, change often comes abruptly, like the fall of the Berlin Wall, the storming of the Bastille, or the end of Apartheid. The amount of blood shed during such transitions – from none to a great deal -- depends on the wisdom of the leadership. 

How to promote such wisdom? It’s a prophet’s traditional duty to lay out the alternatives – the good futures, and also the bad ones. Prophets – unlike yes-men -- tell the powerful not what they want to hear, but what they need to hear. “How can I put this?” thinks the stargazer. “Something beginning with the handwriting on the wall…?” 

See the rest of the story at: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/margaret-atwood-mideast-peace-needs-prophets-not-yes-men-1.307995

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu

Netcraft rank: 11952 

http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com

Al Jazeera: Obama has a 'Come to Jesus meeting with Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu

Obama walked out of one of the meetings with Netanyahu

Binyamin Netanyahu is gathering his ministers to discuss a package of gestures to offer the Palestinians [EPA]

Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, has called a crisis "inner cabinet" meeting after returning from difficult talks in the US over the issue of settlement activity in occupied East Jerusalem.

The extraordinary meeting, held on Friday, follows Netanyahu's return from a troubled-three day visit to Washington where he failed to resolve a diplomatic crisis over Israel's settlement building plans.

Israel is struggling to get relations with the US back on track after Israel earlier this month announced plans to build 1,600 settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

The move prompted the Palestinians to pull out of indirect peace talks with Israel and caused a rift with Washington as the announcement came during a visit to Israel by Joe Biden, the US vice-president.

Zvi Hauser, Netanyahu's cabinet secretary, said the group of seven senior ministers would consider a package of goodwill gestures drawn up during Netanyahu's US visit.

"All aspects of the issue will be examined and they will formulate Israel's position according to Israel's interests and in the time needed to do so," he said.

'Goodwill gestures'

Sherine Tadros, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem, said the cabinet would likely focus on three issues.

"Firstly, the idea of putting core issues like the status of Jerusalem on the negotiating table between Israel and the Palestinians even before they get to negotiations at the so-called indirect proximity talks stage.

"Secondly is the issue of releasing 2,000 or so Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in a move to bolster the confidence behind Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

"Thirdly, an idea to put some of the Israeli-controlled areas of the West Bank under the authority of the Palestinian Authority," she said.

"But what is clear is that Israel hasn't changed its stance on construction in East Jerusalem and that has put it on a collision course with the Obama administration."

Hauser said it was unlikely there would be quick agreement from the discussions and denied media reports of a US deadline to supply answers by Saturday night.

While in Washington, Netanyahu met Barack Obama, the Israeli prime minister, but with no statement after the meeting, speculation has been rife about the atmosphere during the talks.

The Fox News website on Friday reported that Obama had walked out of one of the meetings with Netanyahu after failing to gain a written promise of concessions on settlement activity.


The report went on to say that the US president invited Netanyahu to stay at the White House, consult with advisers and "let me know if there is anything new", according to a US congressman who spoke to the prime minister.

Difficult meeting

No public statements were made by the two leaders following the meeting, no photo opportunities were presented and no access was granted for reporters.

But Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, rejected claims that Obama was avoiding publicity, saying: "This is the way we felt most comfortable handling this one."

Following Netanyahu's return, Nir Hefez, the prime minister's spokesman, told Israel's army radio that Israel had achieved understandings with the US, which included a point that "construction policy in Jerusalem doesn't change".

But Mark Regev, a spokesman for the prime minister's office, quickly clarified that Hefez was "articulating the Israeli position ... not articulating a joint position".

Before peace talks can move forward, the Palestinians want a complete Israeli settlement freeze in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.

"There is absolutely nothing new, as of this moment, regarding the situation facing the peace process," Nabil Abu Rdainah, an aide to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said.

Abbas is likely to discuss the situation with the Arab League, which meets in Libya on Saturday.

Update:  According to the UK Telegraph, Mr Obama  presented Mr Netanyahu with a list of 13 demands designed both to the end the feud with his administration and to build Palestinian confidence ahead of the resumption of peace talks. Key among those demands was to halt all new settlement construction in east Jerusalem.

When the Israeli prime minister stalled, Mr Obama walked out of the meeting declaring: "I'm going to the residential wing to have dinner with Michelle and the girls." He didn't invite Netanyahu to the family gathering.

As he left, Mr Netanyahu was told to consider the error of his ways. "I'm still around," Mr Obama is quoted by Israel's Yediot Ahronot newspaper as having said. "Let me know if there is anything new."

For more than an hour, Mr Netanyahu and his aides closeted themselves in the Roosevelt Room on the first floor of the White House to map out a response to the president's demands.

Although the two men then met again, at 8.20 pm, for a brief second meeting, it appeared that they failed to break the impasse.

White House officials were quoted as saying that disagreements remained. Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, added: "Apparently they did not reach an understanding with the United States."

It was the second time this month that Mr Netanyahu has been at the receiving end of a US dinner-time snub.

A fortnight ago, Joe Biden the US vice president, arrived 90 minutes late for a dinner Mr Netanyahu hosted in Jerusalem after Israel announced plans to build 1,600 new homes in Eastern Jerusalem.

Rightardia comment: Israel has been a bigger impediment to peace in the middle east than Palestine.  Jimmy Carter pointed this out many years ago. The only way the US will get Netanyahu's attention is to cut economic and military aid to Israel. 

Netanyahu is a hardliner and we were glad that the Obama administration played the visit down while the PM was in Washington. The J Street demonstrations were also essential to show the Israeli PM that he no longer has unwavering support form the American Jewish community (see http://jstreet.org/). 

Of interest, the Netanyahu visit was not even mentioned on the White House blog. 

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu

Netcraft rank: 7157 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com

source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/7521391/Obama-snubbed-Netanyahu-for-dinner-with-Michelle-and-the-girls-Israelis-claim.html 

 

Al Jazeera: Israel is continuing to build illegal settlements on Palestinian land

Israel is continuing to build illegal settlements on Palestinian land.  There was supposed to be a 10-month suspension of new construction announced by the government.

Peace Now, an Israeli non-governmental organisation, says work is taking place at more than 30 settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Nour Odeh reports from Beit Sahour.

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu

Netcraft rank: 5948 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com

Haaretz: Netanyahu willing to see East Jerusalem as Palestinian capital

Last update - 02:54 12/01/2010
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, and Agencies

Jerusalem

Egypt's foreign minister said in Cairo last week that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is ready to discuss making "Arab Jerusalem" the capital of a Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority could abandon its demand for a freeze on construction in East Jerusalem in exchange for an easing of the siege on Gaza and a halt to Israeli assassinations in the West Bank.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit met the foreign ministers of Egypt, France, Jordan, Spain and Tunisia in Cairo last week to revive the nascent Mediterranean Union. He briefed them about Netanyahu's talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak a few days earlier, Israeli and European officials said.

Aboul Gheit reportedly said Israel's willingness to give the Palestinians "100 percent of the West Bank" and the readiness to discuss Arab Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine indicate "openness, goodwill and a change compared to the past."

According to the Arab foreign ministers, the Palestinians have agreed to waive their conditions for reopening the negotiations with Israel in exchange for other terms that Netanyahu could accept more easily.

The Palestinians previously had demanded a complete freeze on construction in East Jerusalem and resuming talks from the point they left off.

Now their conditions are Israel stopping its assassinations and military operations in Palestinian cities; easing the blockade on the Gaza Strip and bringing in construction material to enable Gaza's rehabilitation; rezoning West Bank areas where Palestinians have full authority where they have only civil authority.

This requires the Israel Defense Forces withdraw to where it was before the Al-Aqsa intifada in September 2000; that certain Palestinian prisoners are released to the PA; and eight specific roadblocks are removed in the West Bank.

If Israel agrees to these terms, the Palestinians will return to the negotiations even if the building in East Jerusalem continues and the talks do not pick up where they left off.

source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1142048.html

Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu

Netcraft rank: 4217 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com

Powered by ScribeFire.