On May 12, 3:42=A0pm, "dshar...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
" <dshara...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
> Wa****ngton Watch: Palestinian statehood - as elusive as ever
> By DOUGLAS BLOOMFIELD
> May 11, 2008 20:37 | Updated May 12, 2008 9:39
>
> Talkbacks for this article: 52
>
> What does it say about the Palestinian commitment to peace when the
> first American president to make the creation of a Palestinian state a
> goal of his administration is told he is unwelcome when he comes next
> week to celebrate Israel's 60th birthday?
>
> When President Bush goes to Israel he will be persona non grata -
> translation: Yankee go home -in the Palestinian Authority because they
> will be mourning the establishment of the Jewish state, which they
> refer to as the ****ba or catastrophe. That's not Hamas or Islamic
> Jihad, who make no secret of their desire to eradicate the state of
> Israel, but it is the man most identified with the concept of two
> states, one Jewish and one Palestinian, living side-by-side in peace -
> Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority.
>
> Even though he won't be welcome in Ramallah, Bush welcomed Abbas at
> the White House last week when the Palestinian leader came to urge him
> to put more pressure on Israel to meet Palestinian demands if he
> expects to achieve his goal of a peace agreement before he leaves
> office.
>
> The American president isn't the only one being snubbed; the PA has
> told French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel
> and other world leaders attending the Israeli celebration they are
> equally unwelcome.
>
> If Bush wants to see Abbas, he will have to go to Egypt. In a further
> effort to accommodate Palestinian sensitivities, Bush re****tedly will
> not be visiting the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism and
> location of the ancient Temple that the Palestinians insist never
> existed.
>
> Meanwhile, the PA is trying to organize a march of more than 100,000
> Palestinian refugees in Lebanon toward the Israeli border and
> thousands more from the West Bank and Gaza toward Israeli checkpoints
> and border crossings. Those living abroad are being urged to fly to
> Ben Gurion Air****t or take ****ps to Israeli ****ts. All this in the
> name of "reclaiming" homes lost in the ****ba.
>
> They are being billed as "peaceful demonstrations" but it won't take
> much for the emotionally charged confrontations to turn violent,
> creating a real catastrophe.
>
> BUT THE real ****ba is not the creation of the Jewish state but the
> rejection by Arab leaders of the 1947 partition plan and the
> op****tunity to create a state for the Palestinians. They weren't
> really interested in a two-state solution then and many apparently
> still are not - Abbas's yanking the welcome mat raises questions about
> his own professed commitment.
>
> The tragedy, of course, was compounded by a succession of Israeli
> leaders too timid and too focused on their own political careers to
> confront a radical settlers movement consumed with its dreams of a
> greater Israel and opposed to peace with the Palestinians on any terms
> likely to be accepted.
>
> Abbas is snubbing two im****tant allies, the president of the United
> States and the Israeli public. He needs both if he wants to achieve
> peace.
>
> An unnamed senior Palestinian official told The Jerusalem Post that
> Abbas left the White House "angry and depressed" last week when Bush
> turned down his demands to tighten the screws on the Israelis. The
> Bush administration is not a credible honest broker and Palestinians
> will have to wait for the next president, he said.
>
> He fails to understand that the close relation****p between Wa****ngton
> and Jerusalem makes the United States an indispensable intermediary
> between Israel and the Arabs; it is the only country with the
> credibility and clout for that role.
>
> However, he's right on the second point. After six years of neglect,
> the Bush administration has started to talk as if peace was a real
> priority - but action has lagged far behind rhetoric. The Republican
> and Democratic candidates for president have indicated they would get
> more personally involved in Mideast peace making.
>
> Israeli public opinion can be a valuable asset; it is often ahead of
> the political leader****p. Ehud Olmert was elected prime minister two
> years ago on a platform calling for withdrawal from 90 percent of the
> West Bank, and that was just for openers. There was hope for peace;
> the Gaza withdrawal was expected to create a showcase for Palestinian
> self-rule but instead Gaza sunk into chaos and Hamas seized power in a
> coup.
>
> THE DAILY barrage of missiles from Gaza, the failures of the Second
> Lebanon war, scandals that have seen the Israeli president resign and
> the prime minister under multiple corruption investigations cast
> shadows over this Independence Day celebration. The Olmert government
> could fall and if elections were held today it is likely the next
> prime minister would be Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes Palestinian
> statehood and Bush's Annapolis initiative.
>
> Abbas strengthens Netanyahu and the rejectionists when he tells
> Israelis that the anniversary of their independence is a day of
> mourning, and Palestinians will never recognize Israel as the homeland
> of the Jewish people.
>
> Jews were driven out of Arab lands in roughly the same number as Arabs
> who fled Israel at the time of the creation of the Jewish state. The
> difference was the Jews were absorbed into the new state, given jobs
> and citizen****p, while the Palestinians were largely confined to
> squalid camps in order for their unwilling Arab hosts to exploit them
> as political pawns to use against Israel.
>
> Sixty years later Palestinian statehood is as elusive as ever and the
> Palestinians are still blaming their suffering on everyone but
> themselves. Now that's a catastrophe.
>
>
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=3D1209627059753&pagename=3DJPo.=
...
>
> Deborah
How many palesimians does it take to change a light bulb? None! They
would rather sit in darkness and blame it on the Jews!
|
