Peace Now: Olmert government built, planned 9,000 homes on war-won land
Israeli watchdog groups call on Obama to pressure Netanyahu to halt settlement expansion. 'International community must save Israel from itself, because we are losing the two-state solution,' peace activist says
Associated Press
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I attended the gathering. Some very well-meaning blind people and some real Jew-haters in the crowd. Difficult to separate the two.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Poor Abu Mazen
Israel: Recognition of 'Jewish state' is crucial
Apr. 27, 2009
Haviv Rettig Gur and Khaled Abu Toameh , THE JERUSALEM POST
Haviv Rettig Gur and Khaled Abu Toameh , THE JERUSALEM POST
Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is the only way to end the conflict, the Foreign Ministry said Monday, in response to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' rejection of the Israeli demand for such recognition.
"The argument over recognizing Israel as a Jewish state is not technical or tactical," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy told The Jerusalem Post Monday.
"The Palestinians cannot negotiate for a two-state solution where one is Palestinian and the other is Palestinian-to-be,"
Earlier Monday, Abbas delivered a tough speech on peace-making, rejecting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's demand that the PA recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
Last week senior Palestinian officials also rejected Netanyahu's demand.
"The Israeli government has come up with many new issues and it does not want a two-state solution," Abbas told the Palestinian "Youth Parliament in Ramallah. "We don't accept the term 'Jewish state' and insist on achieving all our rights."
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Enlightened Societies
The Death Penalty
According to reports by Amnesty International, at least 346 people received the death punishment in Iran in 2008. This makes Iran the country with the second highest number of court-ruled death cases in the world. China occupies the first position with 1718 capital punishment cases. But if one considers the populations of these two countries, then Iran leads the world in deaths per capita, and China follows suit.
According to reports by Amnesty International, at least 346 people received the death punishment in Iran in 2008. This makes Iran the country with the second highest number of court-ruled death cases in the world. China occupies the first position with 1718 capital punishment cases. But if one considers the populations of these two countries, then Iran leads the world in deaths per capita, and China follows suit.
What 1967 Borders/Green Line?
PA’s fallacious premises
Palestinian Authority demands based on egregiously false assumptions
Arlene Kushner
We here in Israel have been asleep at the wheel. In a rush of concessionary zeal after Oslo, we chose to refrain from making our own case. At first this decision, made at a governmental level, was intended to demonstrate our eagerness for peace. But after a time it was almost as if we had forgotten how to speak for ourselves with vigor and forthrightness.
Mahmoud Abbas, PA president, and others speaking on behalf of the Palestinian position, regularly refer to the “June 4, 1967 border.” What Abbas et al have in mind is the line, commonly called the Green Line, behind which Israel operated before the Six Day War that began on June 5, 1967. Implied is that this line constitutes Israel’s “real” border, and that Israeli presence beyond this is automatically “illegitimate.” Thus, goes the PA argument, there can be no justice, no fairness that will lead to peace, unless Israel returns to her border.
Palestinian Authority demands based on egregiously false assumptions
Arlene Kushner
We here in Israel have been asleep at the wheel. In a rush of concessionary zeal after Oslo, we chose to refrain from making our own case. At first this decision, made at a governmental level, was intended to demonstrate our eagerness for peace. But after a time it was almost as if we had forgotten how to speak for ourselves with vigor and forthrightness.
Mahmoud Abbas, PA president, and others speaking on behalf of the Palestinian position, regularly refer to the “June 4, 1967 border.” What Abbas et al have in mind is the line, commonly called the Green Line, behind which Israel operated before the Six Day War that began on June 5, 1967. Implied is that this line constitutes Israel’s “real” border, and that Israeli presence beyond this is automatically “illegitimate.” Thus, goes the PA argument, there can be no justice, no fairness that will lead to peace, unless Israel returns to her border.
Yet the simple, irrefutable, historical fact is that this line was not a border at all, but merely an armistice line. It was drawn when hostilities ceased at the end of the 1948-49 War of Independence — a war initiated, it should be noted, by the Arab League, which attacked the nascent state of Israel as soon as independ¬ence was declared.
Not only was it an armistice line, it was intended to be temporary. In the signed armistice agreement with Jordan (which was on the other side of that line) there was a clause stating that this line would not prejudice future negotiations on a permanent border. Thus the case cannot legitimately be made that the Green Line has any legal status in determining Israel’s “true” border. It does not. That border has yet to be determined. In negotiations. <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3703694,00.html">read more</a>
Two States but only One People: No Jewish state
Finally after 60 years and 363 days a moderate Arab leader speaks up!!
Abbas won't recognize Israel as a Jewish state
Palestinian President delivers harsh speech in Ramallah in which he says Israel can define itself as a Jewish state, ' but I don't accept it and I say so publicly.' Abbas also says talks cannot be resumed without Israeli settlement freeze
News agencies
Abbas won't recognize Israel as a Jewish state
Palestinian President delivers harsh speech in Ramallah in which he says Israel can define itself as a Jewish state, ' but I don't accept it and I say so publicly.' Abbas also says talks cannot be resumed without Israeli settlement freeze
News agencies
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Monday that he will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state, as demanded by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"A Jewish state, what is that supposed to mean?" Abbas asked in a speech in the West Bank's political capital of Ramallah. "You can call yourselves as you like, but I don't accept it and I say so publicly."
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