The Likud Party charter flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan River and stipulates that: “The Palestinians can run their lives freely in the framework of self-rule, but not as an independent and sovereign state.”

This israeli government is committed to that charter as well as to the Jewish holy war for land in Palestine as witnessed by the illegal settler squats terrorist acts everyday.

It has no interest in trading land it covets for a peace that might thwart further territorial expansion. It considers itself unbound by the applicable UN resolutions, agreements from past peace talks, the “Roadmap,” or the premise of the “two-state solution.”

Netty has said no to a settlement freeze, no to sharing Jerusalem, no to the 1967 borders, no to the rights of Palestinian refugees. What are these if not Israeli preconditions on negotiations that erode any foundation of hope for the two-state solution? He was a mess the first time around and is proving to be a flaming mess the second time around.

If you actually want peace, you don’t build illegal settlement colonies in the Palestinian capital or on Palestinian land.

It is a matter of record that Abbas has negotiated with 18 israeli governments all the while israel continued it's apartheid rampage, land and resource theft, killings, and oppression all the while blaming the Palestinians.

What do you suggest; that Abbas sit down for another 18 years of ‘negotiations’ while israel continues it's apartheid rampage? That israel, again, uses ‘negotiations’ as a cover for settlement activities He has wised up to the problems of his previous approach. More power to him.

While he declines negotiations the world is now seeing that it's not the Palestinians that were the problem but the israelis all along.

The Palestinains have demanded the 1967 borders for recognition of israel as a jewish state and good for them. For all of nettys whining about Abbas’ 'preconditions' we all knew netty had his and would present them as excuses for derailing the peace process.

But, a couple good things will come out of this. The Palestinians will eventually have to thank the israelis for building them all those nice houses free of charge and of course the jews can stay and live in Palestine if they want to but they will be subject to Palestinians laws - up to and including home dispossession.

Better yet, ship all those illegal settler terrorist squats to the Negev who complain, burn land, tear down olive trees, burn mosques, run over, kill, and beat Palestinians and let them be 'pioneers' there. They deserve to wander in their own desert for the next 40 years.

You, and your other hapless pro israelis, act like none of us here can read, disseminate information, google, or see the reality that the israelis are no partner for peace.

Someone who invades, kills, bombs, oppressess, occupies, and then tries like hell to spin it inspite of all the facts out here, is not interested in peace and that's israel.

And one more thing, for how long did you think that israel would be allowed to arrest and piss on Palestinian children, steal and destroy Palestinian land, enforce a barbaric siege against Gaza, murder peaceful protesters, look the other way while settlers murder Palestinians with impunity and just get away with it?

The Palestinians are not the problem, israel, their failed policies, oppression of legitimite heirs to Palestine, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, their moldavian thug of an FM, the ragtag IDF, and the systematic effort to wipe out a culture and people who were there before them is the problem.

Palestine does not belong to the Jews and their right to the land is neither antecedent nor superior to that of the Arabs. Jews may have lived in Palestine 2000 years ago but the Arabs have established over one-and-half thousand years of continuous Arab-Muslim presence, and were only dispossessed of it by superior force and colonial machination which continues to this day.

The Palestinians (as represented by the PLO) formally recognized both the reality of the state of Israel and "its right to live in peace and security" as per the September 9, 1993 letter from Chairman Arafat to Prime Minister Rabin and the subsequent double amendment of the PLO's Charter in 1996 and 1999.

What they cannot be expected to do is to renege on their past, deny their identity, and give up on what they believe is their history. They cannot be expected to become Zionists.

Israel, and you, will need to accept a Palestinian state and start respecting the right of the people who occupied the land before you or you will not have peace. The burden is on you.U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 (which Israel had helped draft) which provided for "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent [1967] conflict" in exchange for peace and security. Those resolutions represented official U.S. and international policy then, and they still do.

Obama had two full years to lay out a coherent, energized vision of Middle East peace, pursue it, and realize it. It is sad indeed that the first African-Am¬erican president of the United States defends in israel exactly the kind of institutio¬nalized bigotry, apartheid oppression¬, and racism in israel the civil rights movement defeated in this country, a victory that made his election possible.

If there is one thing the Palestinians have learned in four decades of fruitless peace talks, it is that the only they will ever be allowed to have a state of their own is if they simply seize it for themselves.

Obama claims the U.S. will veto any such vote. Let’s call his bluff. Let’s find out if this president is ready to stand utterly alone on the world stage as the sole head of state refusing to recognize the existence of a Palestinian state just so he can appease an ally, israel, and it's isolating and delegitimzing lobby AIPAC, that over the last year has repeatedly gone of out its way to embarrass his administration and stifle his attempts at achieving a two-state solution.

Israel is the problem. And until you get it Friedco, israel will go on destroying itself, if not demographically, then morally. Is that clear enough for an obtuse person like you to understand? Good.

divestment rally? I want to share a room with you and Tarquinis again. Hit me back, so we can hit each other up :) We can divest from israel and invest in some condoms for us this time !

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaah! Your on.

Nice! Mmmm we can get our suckie suckie on! :)

Protest for Palestine and then give reach arounds to eachother :) what a weekend

Sorry, I'd rather debate the issues. Sounds like more fun....

whatever. We were able to do both last time at the divestment conference. no reason we can't debate the issues and have some touching time again this time.

Isreal today By Nelson Mandela

A Letter by Nelson Mandela to Thomas Friedman: March 30, 2001 ”Today the world, black and white, recognize that apartheid has no future. In South Africa it has been ended by our own decisive mass action in order to build peace and security. That mass campaign of defiance and other actions could only culminate in the establishment of democracy. Perhaps it is strange for you to observe the situation in Palestine or more specifically, the structure of political and cultural relationships between Palestinians and Israelis, as an apartheid system. This is because you incorrectly think that the problem of Palestine began in 1967. You seem to be surprised to hear that there are still problems of 1948 to be solved, the most important component of which is the right to return of Palestinian refugees. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not just an issue of military occupation and Israel is not a country that was established "normally" and happened to occupy another country in 1967. Palestinians are not struggling for a "state" but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom in South Africa. In the last few years, and especially during the reign of the Labour Party, Israel showed that it was not even willing to return what it occupied in 1967; that settlements remain, Jerusalem would be under exclusive Israeli sovereignty, and Palestinians would not have an independent state, but would be under Israeli economic domination with Israeli control of borders, land, air, water and sea. APARTHEID IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY (my emphasis). Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians, contrary to the rules of international law. It has, in particular, waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children. The responses made by South Africa to human rights abuses emanating from the removal policies and apartheid policies respectively, shed light on what Israeli society must necessarily go through before one can speak of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and an end to its apartheid policies

Isreal today By Nelson Mandela

A Letter by Nelson Mandela to Thomas Friedman: March 30, 2001 ”Today the world, black and white, recognize that apartheid has no future. In South Africa it has been ended by our own decisive mass action in order to build peace and security. That mass campaign of defiance and other actions could only culminate in the establishment of democracy. Perhaps it is strange for you to observe the situation in Palestine or more specifically, the structure of political and cultural relationships between Palestinians and Israelis, as an apartheid system. This is because you incorrectly think that the problem of Palestine began in 1967. You seem to be surprised to hear that there are still problems of 1948 to be solved, the most important component of which is the right to return of Palestinian refugees. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not just an issue of military occupation and Israel is not a country that was established "normally" and happened to occupy another country in 1967. Palestinians are not struggling for a "state" but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom in South Africa. In the last few years, and especially during the reign of the Labour Party, Israel showed that it was not even willing to return what it occupied in 1967; that settlements remain, Jerusalem would be under exclusive Israeli sovereignty, and Palestinians would not have an independent state, but would be under Israeli economic domination with Israeli control of borders, land, air, water and sea. APARTHEID IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY (my emphasis). Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians, contrary to the rules of international law. It has, in particular, waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children. The responses made by South Africa to human rights abuses emanating from the removal policies and apartheid policies respectively, shed light on what Israeli society must necessarily go through before one can speak of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and an end to its apartheid policies

You mean how Bibi told the Palestinians that before negotiations Palestinians had to recognize Israel as a Jewish state even though 20% of the population is Arab. Give up the right of return up front instead at the negotiating table, a demilitarized state, a Israeli military presence in the new state, and Jerusalem off the table before negotiations start. After those preconditions what is there to negotiate.

Israelis and Egyptians didn't like each other when they made peace. Leaders lead the public not the other way around. Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin didn't wait for public opinion to decide to try to go for peace. Begin seized an opportunity to make peace with a country it had been at war with it multiple time. Peace with Israel cost Anwar Sadat his life. Did that mean that he shouldn't have made a deal? Of coarse not. Was it wrong for Rabin to try to push for peace even though it upset Zionist fanatics and eventually led to his assassination? Of coarse not. These men are admired by history for their leadership. I don't know if Mahmud Abbas is that kind of leader but he hasn't been tested. All I know that is Bibi isn't.

and lose....they should be happy they are offered anything other than a bullet.