In Israel, free men and women are every day demonstrating the power of courage and faith. Back in 1948 when Israel was founded, pundits claimed the new country could never survive. Today, no one questions that. Israel is a land of stability and democracy in a region of tyranny and unrest...Ronald Reagan
That is until now! Sunday, PA officials said the Palestinian Authority will not return to the negotiating table with Israel unless Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu endorses the two-state solution and freezes construction in the West Bank settlements.
The officials said Abbas had relayed this position to the US during his recent visit to Washington, where he held talks with Obama.
One of the officials expressed hope that the looming crisis between the Obama administration and Netanyahu over the future of the peace process would lead to the collapse of the Israeli government.
"Netanyahu's government is bad for the peace process," the official told The Jerusalem Post. Peace for the sake of accomplishing a political promise is no peace at all! But it appears to me that Obama sides with the Arabs more than any previous president.
Now that the campaign for the Oval Office has been won by Obama, he has begun to use his middle name, Hussein. During the campaign it was conspicuously absent, and anyone who referred to his middle name was accused of trying to identify him as a Muslim.
But in his trip to Saudi Arabia and Egypt Obama repeatedly mentioned his childhood learning from the Koran which he quoted frequently.
He used his relatives Muslim experience to ingratiate himself with King Abdulla and the Egyptian attenders at his speech in the auditorium of Cairo University. Which was broadcast over AlJazeera to the Arab World.
And now by direct orders from BHO, George Mitchell is on his way to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan to talk about stopping the Israeli settlements.
On his way he stopped off at the Donors to the Palestinians Group meeting.
He spoke at the PA donors' conference in Oslo, Norway. A group dedicated at providing support for the Palestinian Authority.
Mitchell said it was important to build up Palestinian institutions so that an independent and viable Palestinian state could soon be in place.
Mr Mitchell also said that President Obama has made clear to him and his administration, that a two-state solution is the only viable one.
The president reinforced this position by repeating his call for a two-state solution and a halt to Jewish settlement activity during a visit to Germany and Egypt last week.
But on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would make a major speech on peace and security issues later this month. He has also said he is ready to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and pursue a three-track peace process focusing on economic, security and political issues. This indicates he does not intend to be pushed into a hasty agreement!
Mr Abbas replied that renewed negotiations would be pointless unless Mr Netanyahu first endorsed the notion of Palestinian statehood,and halted the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
How about Mr. Abbas and the rest of the Palestinian leaders renouncing their threat to annihilate Israel, and stop their terrorist incursions into Israel as they did today when they attempted to perpetrate a bomb attack that involved horses strapped with explosives.Israeli soldiers reportedly came under attack by the militants before returning fire, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Source: CNN.Com
And just who is the present day major force in the Palestinian group? It is Hamas, a terrorist organization. Branded as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU(BO), before Obama was elected.
It is seen, however, by its supporters as a legitimate fighting force, defending Palestinians from a brutal military occupation by Israel
It is the largest Palestinian militant Islamist organisation, formed in 1987 at the beginning of the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israel's occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.
The group's short-term aim has been to drive Israeli forces from the occupied territories. To achieve this it has launched attacks on Israeli troops and settlers in the Palestinian territories and against civilians in Israel.
It also has a long-term aim of establishing an Islamic state on all of historic Palestine - most of which has been contained within Israel's borders since its creation in 1948.This of course, would destroy Israel!
Hamas became increasingly involved in Palestinian factional politics, both in the occupied territories and with a political branch in exile.
Hamas remained outside the main Palestinian political structure of the PLO, but it took part in, and won Palestinian Authority (PA) legislative elections in the occupied territories in 2006.
Hamas came to prominence after the first intifada as the main Palestinian opponent of the Oslo accords. The US-sponsored peace process that oversaw the gradual and partial removal of Israel's occupation in return for Palestinian guarantees to protect Israeli security.
Despite numerous Israeli operations against it and clampdowns by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian National Authority, Hamas found it had an effective power of veto over the process by launching suicide attacks.This fact has not been publicly discussed by either president Obama, nor Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Both of whom now are ignoring letters of intent from presidents Bush an Clinton, acknowledging the right of Israel to build as necessary, for growth, within the so called occupied territories of Gaza.
The prime minister, briefing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on his recent trip to Washington, said, "it is likely that we are not going to reach an agreement with the Americans" regarding settlement construction, but did his best to portray his meeting with US Obama in a positive light.
A source in Jerusalem said it must be clear that the "proposed settlement policy of the Netanyahu government is more or less identical to that of previous governments, and that if someone is changing the ground rules, it is not Israel." It appears to me that it is Obama.
The source, alluding to understandings on settlement construction that existed at the time of Bush administration, said if on the one hand Washington was calling on Israel to abide by all previous understandings, then "shouldn't the person asking be abiding by previous commitments and understandings as well?"
When reporters asked whether the letter former president George W. Bush wrote to then-prime minister Ariel Sharon in 2004 speaking of expectations that Israel would retain these blocs still applied.
The answer was typical of spokes person for Obama, vague and semantic!
"The United States lives up to its obligations," he said. "Right now, we are focused on, as I said, trying to get both sides to adhere to the road map so that we can move forward toward that two-state solution. And it's not going to be easy, as you know. We've spoken to that many times. And we're going to continue to try to do that."
Asked again if the Bush letter was binding, Wood said, "This administration has, as I said, laid out its proposals, its strategy for moving forward. And that's about the best I can help you with on that." Source: Reuters and Jerusalem Post
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