Israel, Palestinians agree to new peace path

[Midnight Mike]

First negotiating session next month; goal is for peace deal by end of 2008
Israelis and Palestinians start talking again
Nov. 27: Israeli and Palestinian leaders hope to reach a peace agreement by the end of next year.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed Tuesday to immediately resume long-stalled talks toward a deal by the end of next year that would create an independent Palestinian state, using a U.S.-hosted Mideast peace conference to launch their first negotiations in seven years.

In a joint statement read by President Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged to start discussions on the core issues of the conflict next month and accepted the United States as arbiter of interim steps.

“We express our determination to bring an end to bloodshed, suffering and decades of conflict between our peoples; to usher in a new era of peace, based on freedom, security, justice, dignity, respect and mutual recognition; to propagate a culture of peace and nonviolence; to confront terrorism and incitement, whether committed by Palestinians or Israelis,” Abbas and Olmert said in the statement.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21988694/

[adam613]

I'll believe it when I see it.

[T-Bird76]

I'll believe it when I see it.

Good point because this agreement isn't with worth squat if the other factions aren't involved. The current Palestinian Gov't doesn't even control the Gaza strip. Until countries like Syria and Iran are dealt with splinter factions like Hamass will continue to disrupt the peace process.

[adam613]

Good point because this agreement isn't with worth squat if the other factions aren't involved. The current Palestinian Gov't doesn't even control the Gaza strip. Until countries like Syria and Iran are dealt with splinter factions like Hamass will continue to disrupt the peace process.

Well, the root of the problem is that Hamas isn't really a splinter faction; they have more power than the official Palestinian government in most of the key areas. As such, Abbas's government can't really negotiate in good faith. And Israel learned long ago not to concede anything to a government that can't or won't negotiate in good faith. So nothing is going to happen here.

[mirrodie]

It's a step in the right direction. Let's hope it works.
It's all we can do.

[T-Bird76]

It's a step in the right direction. Let's hope it works.
It's all we can do.

The problem is Mario it’s not a step in the right direction. As Adam stated Abbas's Gov't is really powerless. Unless the factions controlling the Gaza Strip and Hamass are dealt with (peacefully or forcefully) in Lebanon all this is, is smoke and mirrors. People in this country and around the world are choosing to ignore the root of the problem in the Mideast and that's Syria and Iran. As long as these two countries support Hamass and do not enter into the community of nations peace in the Mideast will remain only a dream.

[NIKV69]

You have to remember one thing. Palestine feels their land was stolen from them and the ones that live in the west bank feel like they are prisoners in their own land. It's easy to say let's have peace but they are sick of living the way they are living. Also to them being a martyr is the greatest thing so they have no reservations about running into a crowded market with a bomb and sacrificing themselves. This isn't about Hamas. It's about one party feeling their land was stolen from them and living close by as the other party lives in luxury. They have been going back and forth about this since 1948 and the Arab-Israeli war and nothing has improved and nothing will. From what I See Palestine will only accept one thing and that is not likley to happen.

[adam613]

You have to remember one thing. Palestine feels their land was stolen from them and the ones that live in the west bank feel like they are prisoners in their own land. It's easy to say let's have peace but they are sick of living the way they are living. Also to them being a martyr is the greatest thing so they have no reservations about running into a crowded market with a bomb and sacrificing themselves. This isn't about Hamas. It's about one party feeling their land was stolen from them and living close by as the other party lives in luxury. They have been going back and forth about this since 1948 and the Arab-Israeli war and nothing has improved and nothing will. From what I See Palestine will only accept one thing and that is not likley to happen.

This is also true. And it's why chicken hawk organizations are so effective. The Palestinians have been shafted by the Israelis, the Jordanians, the Syrians, and their own leadership so many times that I doubt anyone is really expecting anything to change anymore.

[Tom_Turner]

Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man,
His enemies say he's on their land.
They got him outnumbered about a million to one,
He got no place to escape to, no place to run.
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,
He's criticized and condemned for being alive.
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin,
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land,
He's wandered the earth an exiled man.
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn,
He's always on trial for just being born.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized,
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad.
The bombs were meant for him.
He was supposed to feel bad.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him,
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac.
He's the neighborhood bully.

He got no allies to really speak of.
What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love.
He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace,
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease.
Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly.
To hurt one they would weep.
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Every empire that's enslaved him is gone,
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon.
He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand,
In bed with nobody, under no one's command.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Now his holiest books have been trampled upon,
No contract he signed was worth what it was written on.
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth,
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health.
He's the neighborhood bully.

What's anybody indebted to him for?
Nothin', they say.
He just likes to cause war.
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed,
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed.
He's the neighborhood bully.

What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers?
Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill,
Running out the clock, time standing still,
Neighborhood bully.

Bob Dylan

[jran225]

You have to remember one thing. Palestine feels their land was stolen from them and the ones that live in the west bank feel like they are prisoners in their own land. It's easy to say let's have peace but they are sick of living the way they are living. Also to them being a martyr is the greatest thing so they have no reservations about running into a crowded market with a bomb and sacrificing themselves. This isn't about Hamas. It's about one party feeling their land was stolen from them and living close by as the other party lives in luxury. They have been going back and forth about this since 1948 and the Arab-Israeli war and nothing has improved and nothing will. From what I See Palestine will only accept one thing and that is not likley to happen.

Nick, I could not agree with you more. Very, very well put!

Greets,
-Omar S.

[NIKV69]

Nick, I could not agree with you more. Very, very well put!

Thanks Omar, but it's actually pretty obvious. I think the UN's actions at first were good. Have both Palestine and Isreal share the land. Never quite worked out that way. It is true that Hamas and others have given Islam a bad name and most are good people but they feel slighted. The USA has become a target because they feel we support Isreal. Iran is in the mix because they also hate Isreal and want to detroy them. It's one big mess that is much more deep rooted than a simple summit will fix. Palestine will not support anything but total withdrawal on Isreal's part. They want to live free, with no checkpoints, no occupied territories etc. Until then we are just spinning wheels and having more people die.

[adam613]

A big part of the problem is that the Palestinians have been shafted as many times by other Arab countries as they have by Israel. When Israel was founded, the Arabs who were living there at the time who didn't want to be part of Israel were denied entry into Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, presumably because those governments thought at the time that they could wipe Israel off the map in short order. That group (who later started to identify as Palestinians under the leadership of Yassir Arafat after he got kicked out of Jordan) has been used as a pawn ever since.

Hamas doesn't feel slighted. They just hate Jews, and when they refer to Israeli withdrawl, they're referring to the land taken in 1948, not the land taken in 1967. Your average Palestinian on the street has been slighted. Far more than slighted. And there isn't anyone who is even trying to do anything about that anymore.