pbel
Gold Member
- Feb 26, 2012
- 5,653
- 449
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It appears that Israel and its right wing coalition will again snub peace with the Arab world's offer for a comprehensive peace. The question is why? The answer is that peace would stop the expropriation of more Arab lands and she will never share E. Jerusalem.
Until the Israeli people change their government to moderate peacemakers, the undeclared wars will continue.
http://news.yahoo.com/critics-assail-israeli-silence-arab-peace-plan-061720368.html
JERUSALEM (AP) — On the surface, the Arab League's improved peace initiative offers Israel everything it ever dreamed of — normal relations with an entire region that has long objected to the very existence of the Jewish state, and even the chance to keep some war-won land.
But two weeks after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry persuaded Arab leaders to reissue their 2002 offer with new incentives, Israel is maintaining a striking silence, and critics are accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of missing a historic chance.
"We are speaking of an opportunity that must be seized to renew the diplomatic process," former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told The Associated Press in a statement. "It's a very important development."
When it was first issued in 2002, the initiative was a breakthrough. It countered the Arab League's famous "Three No's" that followed the 1967 Mideast war, when Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria. At a summit in Khartoum, Sudan, the Arab countries passed a resolution saying no peace, recognition or negotiations with Israel.
The 2002 initiative, endorsed by the Arab League and the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, offered Israel normalized relations in exchange for a full withdrawal from territories captured in 1967. However, it was overshadowed by Israeli-Palestinian fighting and was greeted with skepticism by Israel.
Now the initiative has gained new life thanks to interest from Kerry, who has been trying to restart peace talks between Israeli and the Palestinians, frozen since 2008. Palestinians refuse to talk unless Israel stops construction of settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Netanyahu calls for talks with no preconditions.
In a significant breakthrough, Kerry last month persuaded the Arab League not only to renew its peace initiative, but to sweeten it by saying the final borders between Israel and a future Palestine could be modified from the 1967 lines through agreed land swaps. This small but significant amendment could open the way for Israel to keep some of its Jewish settlements as well as holy sites in east Jerusalem.....Netanyahu has not spelled out his vision beyond grudgingly endorsing the idea of a Palestinian state while rejecting division of Jerusalem. Many of his backers say that managing the conflict, not resolving it, is the best anyone can hope for now. They also question the merits of returning land to Syria, which is embroiled in a bloody civil war, or engaging other Arab countries at a time of regional turmoil.Deputy Israeli Defense Minister Danny Danon, a senior member of Netanyahu's Likud Party, said he did not consider the Arab peace initiative a significant achievement.
"Going back to the 1967 lines and dividing Jerusalem is not the will of a majority of Israelis," Danon said.
In his comments to the AP, Olmert stopped short of criticizing Netanyahu, though in a TV interview earlier this month he called on the Israeli leader to "stop making excuses" and seize the initiative...
...Danny Yatom, a former director of the Mossad spy agency, called Netanyahu's silence a "mistake."
Yatom said actually implementing the Arab peace plan at the current time is impossible given the many changes rocking the Middle East, but embracing it could bring many benefits by helping to "strengthen and cement mutual trust." Firm Arab support could encourage the Palestinians to make concessions and also lead to breakthroughs in Israel's relations with Arab countries, he said.
"It will help. It will pave the way," he said.
Until the Israeli people change their government to moderate peacemakers, the undeclared wars will continue.
http://news.yahoo.com/critics-assail-israeli-silence-arab-peace-plan-061720368.html
JERUSALEM (AP) — On the surface, the Arab League's improved peace initiative offers Israel everything it ever dreamed of — normal relations with an entire region that has long objected to the very existence of the Jewish state, and even the chance to keep some war-won land.
But two weeks after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry persuaded Arab leaders to reissue their 2002 offer with new incentives, Israel is maintaining a striking silence, and critics are accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of missing a historic chance.
"We are speaking of an opportunity that must be seized to renew the diplomatic process," former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told The Associated Press in a statement. "It's a very important development."
When it was first issued in 2002, the initiative was a breakthrough. It countered the Arab League's famous "Three No's" that followed the 1967 Mideast war, when Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria. At a summit in Khartoum, Sudan, the Arab countries passed a resolution saying no peace, recognition or negotiations with Israel.
The 2002 initiative, endorsed by the Arab League and the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, offered Israel normalized relations in exchange for a full withdrawal from territories captured in 1967. However, it was overshadowed by Israeli-Palestinian fighting and was greeted with skepticism by Israel.
Now the initiative has gained new life thanks to interest from Kerry, who has been trying to restart peace talks between Israeli and the Palestinians, frozen since 2008. Palestinians refuse to talk unless Israel stops construction of settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Netanyahu calls for talks with no preconditions.
In a significant breakthrough, Kerry last month persuaded the Arab League not only to renew its peace initiative, but to sweeten it by saying the final borders between Israel and a future Palestine could be modified from the 1967 lines through agreed land swaps. This small but significant amendment could open the way for Israel to keep some of its Jewish settlements as well as holy sites in east Jerusalem.....Netanyahu has not spelled out his vision beyond grudgingly endorsing the idea of a Palestinian state while rejecting division of Jerusalem. Many of his backers say that managing the conflict, not resolving it, is the best anyone can hope for now. They also question the merits of returning land to Syria, which is embroiled in a bloody civil war, or engaging other Arab countries at a time of regional turmoil.Deputy Israeli Defense Minister Danny Danon, a senior member of Netanyahu's Likud Party, said he did not consider the Arab peace initiative a significant achievement.
"Going back to the 1967 lines and dividing Jerusalem is not the will of a majority of Israelis," Danon said.
In his comments to the AP, Olmert stopped short of criticizing Netanyahu, though in a TV interview earlier this month he called on the Israeli leader to "stop making excuses" and seize the initiative...
...Danny Yatom, a former director of the Mossad spy agency, called Netanyahu's silence a "mistake."
Yatom said actually implementing the Arab peace plan at the current time is impossible given the many changes rocking the Middle East, but embracing it could bring many benefits by helping to "strengthen and cement mutual trust." Firm Arab support could encourage the Palestinians to make concessions and also lead to breakthroughs in Israel's relations with Arab countries, he said.
"It will help. It will pave the way," he said.
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OK... well, then... I'll call your Golda and Ariel, and bump you a Yassar Arafat and an Abdel Nassar... 
