MikePaterson
So much for that peace proposal
Posted on: 05/21/2011 05:24
NEWS:
WASHINGTON — Prime Ministe rBenjamin Netanyahu of Israel to U.S. President Obama on Friday that he shared his vision for a peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and then promptly listed a series of nonnegotiable conditions that have kept the two sides at an impasse for years.
Sitting at Mr. Obama’s side in the Oval Office, leaning toward him and at times looking him directly in the eye, the Israeli leader bluntly rejected compromises of the sort Mr. Obama had outlined the day before in hopes of reviving a moribund peace process. Mr. Obama, who had sought to emphasize Israel’s concerns in his remarks moments earlier, stared back.
In his public remarks, delivered after a meeting that lasted more than two hours, Mr. Netanyahu warned against “a peace based on illusions,” seemingly leaving the prospect for new talks as remote as they have been since the last significant American push for peace collapsed last fall. Officials said that the meeting was productive, but that there were no plans for formal negotiations or any mechanisms in place to push the two sides forward.
Most significant among his public objections, Mr. Netanyahu said that Israel would not accept a return to the boundaries that existed before the war in 1967 gave it control of the West Bank and Gaza, calling them indefensible.
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Jim Kenney
Posted on: 05/21/2011 14:13
No real surprise here! The people represented by Mr. Netanyahu do not want peace with the Palestinians short of eradication of the Palestinians.
InannaWhimsey
Posted on: 05/21/2011 15:15
Do you really believe that, honestly?
It certainly is a tough situation -- what do you do when you are a minority completely surrounded by nations and peoples who, as part of their religion, want to kill you and who are taught from childhood to hurt and kill you. And after you form this nation, these other nations send in thousands of people to live near you, to make your life...more interesting.
I've heard that it is part of the Jewish mind-set to grok suffering...I guess Israel has that in spades :3
MikePaterson
Posted on: 05/21/2011 15:17
I find it a little curious that a succession of U.S. presidents have made it their business to propose a solution to the "Arab-Israeli" issue and the "Palestinian situation" whilst not proposing solutions to other conflicts, like the ongoing misery in the Congo... perhaps they do but it doesn't get the same publicity.
Jim Kenney
Posted on: 05/21/2011 23:14
Innawhimsey, the thousands of people near Israel's borders are the people and their children, and grandchildren who used to live within the borders Israel now controls. There are many different groups of Israelis. Some want to live in peace with the Palestinians, and often do so very successfully. They are able to make complaints against their government that, if we make the same complaints, are labeled as anti-Semitic. There is one group that wants to re-establish the Solomonic Kingdom of Israel, and many of these people have no regard for the Palestinians at all. This is the group behind most of the settlements in the West Bank that provoke most of the strife. Their attitude is offensive to many Jewish Israelis. And this is the group behind much of Nettanyahu's policy-making. Statistically, something like 100 or more Palestinians are killed by Israel for every Israeli killed by Palestinians.
graeme
Posted on: 05/23/2011 18:02
Poor little helpless Israel is neither poor nor helpless. It has an arsenal of over 200 nuclear armed missiles. No country near it has any such weaponry. It also has one of the best equipped armies in the world. It has, or has on order, nuclear submarines capable of firing nuclear missiles. Poor little Israel hasn't been poor or little for a long time. I also has operated assassination squads. In the days of white rule in South Africa, they were loaned to the whites rulers. They have also been used in Latin America.
Israel has made its intentions quite clear. It intends to become a bigger nation - at the expense of its neighbours. It has no intention of allowing Palestine to survive.
There are many Israelis who want peace. I know some of them. But they keep their heads down. They know that other Israelis (and zionist pressure groups like Canadian Jewish Congress label them as anti-semitic Jews.
Those lobbies are so powerful that Netanyahu could publicly humiliate an American president - the person who supplies Israel's weaponry and guarantees its security.
The lobbyists have already put heat on Democrats in congress to publicly dissociate themselves from Obama. And they are doing it.
In the long run, I think Israel is digging its own grave. But there will be a lot of other graves with it.
InannaWhimsey
Posted on: 05/24/2011 21:58
Ok, let's talk aboot the part that is really important, I think: Belief Systems:
get a historical map of Israel. Got it? Ok, in your opinion, what bits of Israel would you be comfortable with Israel having? With 'Palestine' having? Try not to get abstract with this in a "oh, the MORAL RIGHT IS"...I am asking you :3
InannaWhimsey
Posted on: 05/24/2011 22:05
graeme, all of this over mere tribalisms, silly little ink stains on paper maps, mere domesticated primate poo markings. The ironic thing is that both the Israeli's and the "Palestinians" are displaced peoples...wanderers...
and yes, I remember reading aboot the Jewish terrorists during the Civil War and how the British had difficulty handling that...
your words go to show that there is no ideal place from which to view humanity's works, that we all have blood on our hands, and that all of our nation's decisions aren't 'causeless causes' but made due to previous actions and continue to have affects long long after.
So I ask your opinion: what bits of Israel should Israel be allowed to keep? "Palestine"?