25 February 2014 – The Middle East peace process (click here) is nearing a
defining moment, the top United Nations political chief today told the
Security Council today urging Governments to back the peace agenda and
to raise awareness of the benefits of peace among their constituents.
Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman told the 15-member Council that direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which resumed in August of last year following efforts by United States Secretary of State John Kerry, have opened “a credible political horizon for achieving the two-state solution.”
He urged that they continue to be supported by regional stakeholders, underlining the importance of the Arab Peace Initiative....
The Israel Homeland interprets the purpose of the Middle East Peace Process differently than AIPAC and speaks to the lack of an agreement for decades.
Somehow a hostile process as viewed by Israel as if it is suppose to be dismissed because the Palestinians are not sincere.
In its annual survey (click here) of American Jewry published last October, the American Jewish Committee found that 75 percent of American Jews agree with the statement, “The goal of the Arabs is not a peaceful two-state agreement with Israel, but rather the destruction of Israel.”
And yet, American Jews supported the establishment of a Palestinian state 50% to 47%.
Next week over 10,000 predominantly Jewish American supporters of Israel will gather in Washington at AIPAC’s annual policy conference. Given their high commitment to Israel, probably most of those gathered belong to the 47% of American Jews who opposed Palestinian statehood.
Yet at the conference they will embrace the two-state formula. And on March 4 they will go up to Capitol Hill and tell their representatives that they support it....
Those involved in achieving a Middle East Peace Agreement between Israel and Palestine are well invested in a two state approach. The peace process does not hold the goal "...the destruction of Israel." Why bother with a peace process to destroy Israel? If global interests wanted to destroy Israel it would not take peace processes to do it. That is nonsense. NONSENSE. I thought Israel could rise above dealing in double talk when it comes to the peace of their people.
Alex Kane on October 31, 2013
Israel is reaping the benefits of a sweet deal (click here) it struck at the start of the peace process: release a token amount of Palestinian prisoners, and continue gobbling up the West Bank....
It seemed like a good beginning, however, the 104 prisoners resulting in this deal were supposed to be release in 1999 with the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum along with the 350 agreed to.
Israel has managed to reverse most if not all of the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum.
Israeli withdrawal from a further 11% of the West Bank
The release of 350 Palestinian prisoners
Opening of safe passages between the West Bank and Gaza
A seaport to be built in Gaza - Israel feared Gaza would be importing weapons that would cause deaths in Israel.
February 25, 2014, 7:30 pm
Hamas MP said Tuesday (click here) that a natural gas field may have been discovered off the Gaza shore, prompting hopes for alternative fuel supplies for the blockaded Palestinian territory.
What happened? Escalation of violence on the ground and every aspect of the agreement fell apart. Most of the Israeli Diaspora wants peace and recognizes the need for two states. Just because Israel has managed to renege on the outcome of previous agreements doesn't mean the rest of the world lost it's focus.
How much of Gaza's hope for an energy source is true is anyone's guess. But, the fact is the longer the oppression of the people of Gaza continues, the longer the hostilities will continue.
On the same evening that 26 Palestinian prisoners were released over the objections of Israeli Jewish citizens, the Israeli Interior Ministry announced that plans to construct 1,500 homes in the Ramat Shlomo settlement in East Jerusalem were moving forward. While this project has long been in the pipeline–announcement of settlements there caused a diplomatic crisis with the U.S. in 2010–the new announcement means that “within several months, it will be possible to start issuing building permits and marketing land to contractors,” Haaretz’s Barak Ravid reports.
Just because Israel states there will be new settlements doesn't mean they last, ie: Gaza. Why do it in the first place?
Israeli settlements have been a method to take land from Palestinians even after every color of the rainbow lines have been drawn. Israel never lived up to the limits in their agreement no matter how diligent their leaders have sought to end the hatred and violence. The Late Prime Minister Sharon was the only leader successful in ending the aggression of settlements while establishing a Palestinian territory in Gaza.
Israel makes it very easy for Palestinian negotiators to state, "Israel is not a legitimate partner in negotiations," and it is true. Israel believes they are so important to the region for The West there is nothing they can be denied, so negotiations are viewed as political capital for The West. It is somewhat a reliable point of view to state Israel plays with The West as if it's puppet. The political investment in Israel by politics in The West, primarily the USA, allows such infractions of any agreement. It is just a fact.
Israel's history in regard to the Palestinians has not been peaceful, even by Sharon.
January 21, 2014
...In 2000, (click here) he entered the contested religious complex known by some as the Temple Mount, which triggered the second intifada. To crown this career, in 2002 Mr. Sharon reoccupied Palestinian-controlled areas in the West Bank and destroyed then-Palestinian President Yasir Arafat’s compound in Ramallah. Mr. Sharon publicly expressed his regret that he hadn’t killed Mr. Arafat himself.
Some say that Mr. Sharon changed after becoming prime minister in 2001, and that his transformation became obvious in 2005, when he withdrew the Israeli Army from Gaza and dismantled settlements there. But this is naïve. Neither Mr. Sharon’s ideology nor his convictions changed; only his tactics did.
...Mr. Sharon wanted an ethnically pure Jewish state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea....
I don't buy that. Israel in 2005 was well integrated with mixed marriage and those with Arabian ethnic roots in it's cities. Sharon wasn't that stupid. The politics may have been, but, he wasn't.
The politics in Israel is toxic to an outcome of any peace process. It demands more and more settlements regardless of it's final disposition. The reason the politics is toxic is because of the chronic recidivism of any Israel-Palestine Agreement. The reason the second term of any President is most successful in achieving a meaningless peace treaty is because the USA President (regardless of party) can shed the dependency on the Israeli diaspora in the USA. There is no third term in the USA.
The only steadfast member of any peace process with Israel and Palestine is the United Nations and they are always skeptical of any outcome. They simply try to prevent further human rights infractions where they can while Israel still ignores the lines in the sand that is suppose to be Palestinian territory.
The real question is "When will The West stop ignoring the infractions by Israel to any peace process that is engaged?" When is an Israel - Palestine Peace Accord actually mean something to the global community as well as the Palestinians and Hebrews within their boundaries in the Middle East?
By Haaretz
Feb. 26, 2014
Convoy was carrying missiles (click here) from Syria into Lebanon; destroyed weapons were more dangerous than almost all missiles Hezbollah already has, Time says...
Then add to that mess, the instability throughout the region. When Israel acts to end KNOWN networks of violence, such as Hezbollah, from being destructive to other peaceful attempts to stabilize the region does anyone think Hamas will behave itself?
Hamas will attack Israel with rockets to avenge the attack on Hezbollah and then Israel has legitimacy to it's lack of enthusiasm for peace with Palestine. It is ridiculous, but, yet the region's peace has to involve an Israel-Palestine two state solution.
The process has to continue without any justification by any nation to back out and ultimately dissolve the agreement.
And I don't want to hear how The Arab Spring is the problem because this paradigm of power plays has gone on for decades. Hamas is not new, Hezbollah is not new and the imposition of violence in Lebanon by Syria is not new. The ONLY thing consistent in the Middle East is the ethnic hatred.
Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman told the 15-member Council that direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which resumed in August of last year following efforts by United States Secretary of State John Kerry, have opened “a credible political horizon for achieving the two-state solution.”
He urged that they continue to be supported by regional stakeholders, underlining the importance of the Arab Peace Initiative....
The Israel Homeland interprets the purpose of the Middle East Peace Process differently than AIPAC and speaks to the lack of an agreement for decades.
Somehow a hostile process as viewed by Israel as if it is suppose to be dismissed because the Palestinians are not sincere.
In its annual survey (click here) of American Jewry published last October, the American Jewish Committee found that 75 percent of American Jews agree with the statement, “The goal of the Arabs is not a peaceful two-state agreement with Israel, but rather the destruction of Israel.”
And yet, American Jews supported the establishment of a Palestinian state 50% to 47%.
Next week over 10,000 predominantly Jewish American supporters of Israel will gather in Washington at AIPAC’s annual policy conference. Given their high commitment to Israel, probably most of those gathered belong to the 47% of American Jews who opposed Palestinian statehood.
Yet at the conference they will embrace the two-state formula. And on March 4 they will go up to Capitol Hill and tell their representatives that they support it....
Those involved in achieving a Middle East Peace Agreement between Israel and Palestine are well invested in a two state approach. The peace process does not hold the goal "...the destruction of Israel." Why bother with a peace process to destroy Israel? If global interests wanted to destroy Israel it would not take peace processes to do it. That is nonsense. NONSENSE. I thought Israel could rise above dealing in double talk when it comes to the peace of their people.
Alex Kane on October 31, 2013
Israel is reaping the benefits of a sweet deal (click here) it struck at the start of the peace process: release a token amount of Palestinian prisoners, and continue gobbling up the West Bank....
It seemed like a good beginning, however, the 104 prisoners resulting in this deal were supposed to be release in 1999 with the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum along with the 350 agreed to.
Israel has managed to reverse most if not all of the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum.
Israeli withdrawal from a further 11% of the West Bank
The release of 350 Palestinian prisoners
Opening of safe passages between the West Bank and Gaza
A seaport to be built in Gaza - Israel feared Gaza would be importing weapons that would cause deaths in Israel.
February 25, 2014, 7:30 pm
Hamas MP said Tuesday (click here) that a natural gas field may have been discovered off the Gaza shore, prompting hopes for alternative fuel supplies for the blockaded Palestinian territory.
What happened? Escalation of violence on the ground and every aspect of the agreement fell apart. Most of the Israeli Diaspora wants peace and recognizes the need for two states. Just because Israel has managed to renege on the outcome of previous agreements doesn't mean the rest of the world lost it's focus.
How much of Gaza's hope for an energy source is true is anyone's guess. But, the fact is the longer the oppression of the people of Gaza continues, the longer the hostilities will continue.
On the same evening that 26 Palestinian prisoners were released over the objections of Israeli Jewish citizens, the Israeli Interior Ministry announced that plans to construct 1,500 homes in the Ramat Shlomo settlement in East Jerusalem were moving forward. While this project has long been in the pipeline–announcement of settlements there caused a diplomatic crisis with the U.S. in 2010–the new announcement means that “within several months, it will be possible to start issuing building permits and marketing land to contractors,” Haaretz’s Barak Ravid reports.
Just because Israel states there will be new settlements doesn't mean they last, ie: Gaza. Why do it in the first place?
Israeli settlements have been a method to take land from Palestinians even after every color of the rainbow lines have been drawn. Israel never lived up to the limits in their agreement no matter how diligent their leaders have sought to end the hatred and violence. The Late Prime Minister Sharon was the only leader successful in ending the aggression of settlements while establishing a Palestinian territory in Gaza.
Israel makes it very easy for Palestinian negotiators to state, "Israel is not a legitimate partner in negotiations," and it is true. Israel believes they are so important to the region for The West there is nothing they can be denied, so negotiations are viewed as political capital for The West. It is somewhat a reliable point of view to state Israel plays with The West as if it's puppet. The political investment in Israel by politics in The West, primarily the USA, allows such infractions of any agreement. It is just a fact.
Israel's history in regard to the Palestinians has not been peaceful, even by Sharon.
January 21, 2014
...In 2000, (click here) he entered the contested religious complex known by some as the Temple Mount, which triggered the second intifada. To crown this career, in 2002 Mr. Sharon reoccupied Palestinian-controlled areas in the West Bank and destroyed then-Palestinian President Yasir Arafat’s compound in Ramallah. Mr. Sharon publicly expressed his regret that he hadn’t killed Mr. Arafat himself.
Some say that Mr. Sharon changed after becoming prime minister in 2001, and that his transformation became obvious in 2005, when he withdrew the Israeli Army from Gaza and dismantled settlements there. But this is naïve. Neither Mr. Sharon’s ideology nor his convictions changed; only his tactics did.
...Mr. Sharon wanted an ethnically pure Jewish state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea....
I don't buy that. Israel in 2005 was well integrated with mixed marriage and those with Arabian ethnic roots in it's cities. Sharon wasn't that stupid. The politics may have been, but, he wasn't.
The politics in Israel is toxic to an outcome of any peace process. It demands more and more settlements regardless of it's final disposition. The reason the politics is toxic is because of the chronic recidivism of any Israel-Palestine Agreement. The reason the second term of any President is most successful in achieving a meaningless peace treaty is because the USA President (regardless of party) can shed the dependency on the Israeli diaspora in the USA. There is no third term in the USA.
The only steadfast member of any peace process with Israel and Palestine is the United Nations and they are always skeptical of any outcome. They simply try to prevent further human rights infractions where they can while Israel still ignores the lines in the sand that is suppose to be Palestinian territory.
The real question is "When will The West stop ignoring the infractions by Israel to any peace process that is engaged?" When is an Israel - Palestine Peace Accord actually mean something to the global community as well as the Palestinians and Hebrews within their boundaries in the Middle East?
By Haaretz
Feb. 26, 2014
Convoy was carrying missiles (click here) from Syria into Lebanon; destroyed weapons were more dangerous than almost all missiles Hezbollah already has, Time says...
Then add to that mess, the instability throughout the region. When Israel acts to end KNOWN networks of violence, such as Hezbollah, from being destructive to other peaceful attempts to stabilize the region does anyone think Hamas will behave itself?
Hamas will attack Israel with rockets to avenge the attack on Hezbollah and then Israel has legitimacy to it's lack of enthusiasm for peace with Palestine. It is ridiculous, but, yet the region's peace has to involve an Israel-Palestine two state solution.
The process has to continue without any justification by any nation to back out and ultimately dissolve the agreement.
And I don't want to hear how The Arab Spring is the problem because this paradigm of power plays has gone on for decades. Hamas is not new, Hezbollah is not new and the imposition of violence in Lebanon by Syria is not new. The ONLY thing consistent in the Middle East is the ethnic hatred.
