Pledge to end Violence

dilloduck

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May 8, 2004
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Sharon, Abbas Pledge to End Violence, New Peace Talks (Update1)
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas today pledged to end more than four years of bloodshed and revive efforts to resolve the Middle East conflict.

``We have agreed, myself and Prime Minister Sharon, to stop all acts of violence against Israelis and Palestinians wherever they are,'' Abbas said after meeting with Sharon in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. ``The calm that we see in our land is the beginning of a new era, it is the start of security and peace.''

More than 4,500 people have died on both sides since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, or intifada, broke out in September 2000.

The meeting between the two leaders was the first since June 2003, when they joined U.S. President George W. Bush in Aqaba, Jordan, and declared support for the international peace plan known as the ``road map.'' The plan would end violence and establish an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The U.S.-backed peace effort collapsed within months amid Palestinian suicide bombings and Israel's targeted killings and military raids in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Opportunity

``I have no intention of missing this opportunity,'' Sharon said. ``We must not let the new spirit, which grants our peoples hope, pass us by and leave us empty-handed.''

The election of Abbas as president last month, succeeding Yasser Arafat, together with Sharon's plan to withdraw troops and settlers from the West Bank, has given new life to the peace process, Israelis and Palestinians say.

Bush proposed a $350 million aid package for the Palestinians last week in his State of the Union address and yesterday invited Sharon and Abbas for separate meetings at the White House this spring.

Israel dates the resurrection of the peace process directly to the Nov. 11 death of Arafat, whom Sharon and Bush called an ``obstacle to peace.''

Israel's benchmark TA-25 Index has risen 17 percent since Arafat's death, reaching a record on Feb. 6 of 656.40. Tourism and foreign investment are also returning after a four-year ebb.

Challenge

Both Israelis and Palestinians challenged each other to make sure that their leaders' speeches, committing themselves to peaceful dialogue instead of a military confrontation, don't end as empty words. Previous Arab-Israeli summits have been full of optimistic talk before Palestinian suicide bombings and Israeli air raids caused the peace process to disintegrate.

``It's a time of opportunity,'' U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during a joint press conference in Rome today with Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini. ``There's a long road ahead, but both parties seem committed.''

The summit at the beachfront Jolie Ville Moevenpick Golf Resort Hotel was hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who urged the Israelis and Palestinians to pursue the benefits of peace. King Abdullah II of Jordan, leader of the second Arab country after Egypt to sign a peace treaty with Israel, also participated in the summit talks.

``We have gathered today to end difficult years in which lives were taken, blood was shed and people have lost hope,'' Mubarak said. ``We have gathered to make the wheel of peace move forward again.''

not getting much attention---interesting
 
dilloduck said:
Sharon, Abbas Pledge to End Violence, New Peace Talks (Update1)
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas today pledged to end more than four years of bloodshed and revive efforts to resolve the Middle East conflict.

``We have agreed, myself and Prime Minister Sharon, to stop all acts of violence against Israelis and Palestinians wherever they are,'' Abbas said after meeting with Sharon in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. ``The calm that we see in our land is the beginning of a new era, it is the start of security and peace.''

More than 4,500 people have died on both sides since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, or intifada, broke out in September 2000.

The meeting between the two leaders was the first since June 2003, when they joined U.S. President George W. Bush in Aqaba, Jordan, and declared support for the international peace plan known as the ``road map.'' The plan would end violence and establish an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The U.S.-backed peace effort collapsed within months amid Palestinian suicide bombings and Israel's targeted killings and military raids in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Opportunity

``I have no intention of missing this opportunity,'' Sharon said. ``We must not let the new spirit, which grants our peoples hope, pass us by and leave us empty-handed.''

The election of Abbas as president last month, succeeding Yasser Arafat, together with Sharon's plan to withdraw troops and settlers from the West Bank, has given new life to the peace process, Israelis and Palestinians say.

Bush proposed a $350 million aid package for the Palestinians last week in his State of the Union address and yesterday invited Sharon and Abbas for separate meetings at the White House this spring.

Israel dates the resurrection of the peace process directly to the Nov. 11 death of Arafat, whom Sharon and Bush called an ``obstacle to peace.''

Israel's benchmark TA-25 Index has risen 17 percent since Arafat's death, reaching a record on Feb. 6 of 656.40. Tourism and foreign investment are also returning after a four-year ebb.

Challenge

Both Israelis and Palestinians challenged each other to make sure that their leaders' speeches, committing themselves to peaceful dialogue instead of a military confrontation, don't end as empty words. Previous Arab-Israeli summits have been full of optimistic talk before Palestinian suicide bombings and Israeli air raids caused the peace process to disintegrate.

``It's a time of opportunity,'' U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during a joint press conference in Rome today with Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini. ``There's a long road ahead, but both parties seem committed.''

The summit at the beachfront Jolie Ville Moevenpick Golf Resort Hotel was hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who urged the Israelis and Palestinians to pursue the benefits of peace. King Abdullah II of Jordan, leader of the second Arab country after Egypt to sign a peace treaty with Israel, also participated in the summit talks.

``We have gathered today to end difficult years in which lives were taken, blood was shed and people have lost hope,'' Mubarak said. ``We have gathered to make the wheel of peace move forward again.''

not getting much attention---interesting
I can see why there would be a lot of skepticism. Neither side seems to be able to control the situation or at least have not demonstrated that they can in the past.
 
havent they said this before? i swear ive heard it someplace. hell might not even be those guys.
 
This is the first such pledge from Abbas since he took over. I am hopeful, yet I wouldn't be surprised if this process was also derailed.
 
gop_jeff said:
This is the first such pledge from Abbas since he took over. I am hopeful, yet I wouldn't be surprised if this process was also derailed.

Something like this USED to be news---now we just look at it with skepticism---Abbas STILL must prove he can control Hammas and Hezbollah--fat chance.
 
dilloduck said:
Something like this USED to be news---now we just look at it with skepticism---Abbas STILL must prove he can control Hammas and Hezbollah--fat chance.

Yeah, put me in the 'I'll believe it when I see it column.'

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...08/wl_mideast_afp/mideastsummitceasefirehamas

Palestinian Islamist militant movement Hamas said that it was not bound by the ceasefire announced by Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas at a Middle East peace summit in Egypt.

Abbas's declaration "expresses only the position of the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites). It does not express the position of the Palestinian movements," said Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri.

In Beirut, Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdaneh said the ceasefire pledge "does not commit the Palestinian resistance."

Hamas, which has been behind many of the deadliest anti-Israeli attacks during the four-year Palestinian uprising, and other armed groups have nevertheless agreed to a temporary "cooling down" period.

At the summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) agreed to ceasefires aimed at ending the deadly violence and paving the way for a revival of the Middle East peace process.

But Masri said the Palestinians should have been consulted before any such announcement.

"(Hamas) is maintaining its position. There will not be a real truce with Israel without real reciprocity," he said.

"We will act on the truce depending on the commitment by the Zionist enemy to meet our conditions, starting with all Palestinian prisoners."

Sharon announced at the summit that hundreds of Palestinian detainees would be released from Israeli jails, after a tentative agreement between negotiators for the release of some 900 prisoners.
 
Abbas will have quite a hard time as the issues of Jerusalem & right of return will eventually come up. I have no idea what type of promisses he has made on the issue, but I'm cetrain that they will be unacceptable to Israel (for good reasons). Besides .. he's a holocaust denier. Can't even accept that Jews where killed for being Jewish in Europe when the old mullah of Jerusalem openly expressed approval for the "final solution". This guy may look like teflon, but where the rubber hits the road he is only a drop better than Arafat. I keep my fingers crossed that I am wrong, but I highly doubt it.
 

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