Israel is constantly being depicted as reluctant to enter negotiations with the Palestinians. The so called “peace partner” Mahmoud Abbas is touted as being the “best” partner possible. If we look at the way the Palestinian Authority are “preparing” their people for peace, then one has to wonder whether this partner is just an illusion or wishful thinking.
In the article we have chosen below, from Palestinian Media Watch http://www.pmw.org.il/main.aspx?fi=433 we see that the PA depicts a world without Israel.
Further, with the uncertainty surrounding our region, who is to say that Hamas will not take over Judea and Samaria in the foreseeable future.
Only last week Hamas in Gaza stated ‘Palestine means Palestine in its entirety, and Israel cannot exist in our midst’ . For the full report see http://tinyurl.com/3cy9u3b
PA depicts a world without Israel
The Palestinian Authority makes no attempt to educate its people towards peace and coexistence with Israel. On the contrary, from every possible platform it repeatedly rejects Israel's right to exist, presents the conflict as a religious battle for Islam, depicts the establishment of Israel as an act of imperialism, and perpetuates a picture of the Middle East, both verbally and visually, in which Israel does not exist at all. Israel's destruction is said to be both inevitable and a Palestinian obligation.
The following description of Israel's founding in a Palestinian schoolbook represents the dominant dogma about Israel:
"Palestine’s war ended with a catastrophe that is unprecedented in history, when the Zionist gangs stole Palestine … and established the State of Israel."
[Arabic Language, Analysis, Literature and Criticism, grade 12, p. 104]
The official PA map of "Palestine,” depicting Palestinian rule over all of Israel, was used in an official PA TV public service ad that ran daily for 3 months, Oct. – Dec. 2007. Similar maps presenting all of Israel as "Palestine" appear in Palestinian schoolbooks and are shown regularly on PATV.
Denying Israel's right to exist
The Palestinian Authority adamantly rejects Israel’s right to exist and rewrites history to deny the 3,000-year-old connection of Jews to the Land Israel. [See "Rewriting History" section.] The essential message of the PA to its people is that Jews have no historical connection to the land, and that the State of Israel was created by the colonial powers for two reasons: to rid their countries of Jews, and to establish a colonial bridgehead in order to control the region. One particularly horrific expression of this ideology appeared in the official PA daily as far back as 1998:
“The difference between Hitler and [British Foreign Minister] Balfour was simple: the former [Hitler] did not have colonies to send the Jews to, so he destroyed them, whereas Balfour ...[turned] Palestine into his colony and sent the Jews. Balfour is Hitler with colonies, while Hitler is Balfour without colonies. They both wanted to get rid of the Jews...Zionism was crucial to the defense of the West, [by] ridding Europe of the burden of the Jews.”
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 6, 1998]
The Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon, Abbas Zaki, shows how this distortion continues to be expressed:
"We must understand why Israel was established … [The Europeans] wanted to get rid of the Jews. … At that same time, energy [oil] was discovered in the Arab region … Then, they solved the [Jewish] problem by exporting [the Jews] to Israel [and at same time] they imposed their hegemony on the region’s natural resources. The [purpose of the] State of Israel is not for the Jews but it is an ongoing [colonial] project, an outpost for Imperialism.”
[PA TV, May 14, 2008]
PA TV for children: Israel is "the Interior" and the "the '48 interior"
Source: Palestinian TV (Fatah), July 1, 2011
On PA TV children’s program The Best Home, TV host Walaa talks about the summer vacation, which has begun for PA schools:
“Our friends, children, some of the schools in the Interior, the ’48 interior (i.e., Israel), have not yet finished their examinations, and today we received a letter that some have completed their studies.”
Israeli Supreme Court is the "so-called Israeli Supreme Court," says PA TV
Source: Palestinian TV (Fatah), June 22, 2011
As part of report on commencement of work to change the route of the security fence in the Bil’in area, in compliance with the ruling of the Israeli Supreme Court:
PA TV reporter: “Since early this morning, the occupation authorities have begun removing sections of the fence, in accordance with the decision of the so-called Israeli Supreme Court from 2007.”
Israeli Arabs adopt PA language of non-recognition of Israel
Source: Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 21, 2011
Headline: “Families of ’48 (i.e., Arab-Israeli) prisoners: Non-inclusion of our sons in the [prisoner] exchange deal is like sentencing them to execution”
“The families of the ’48 prisoners (i.e., Israeli Arabs imprisoned for terror related crimes) said yesterday that the exclusion of their sons in any prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas would be like sentencing them to execution, especially with regard to 20 of them who have sat in the occupation’s prisons for between 20 and 29 years. The families of the prisoners added, in a letter which they sent to the Hamas leadership, a copy of which reached the office of MP Ibrahim Sarsour of the Islamic Party and was passed on to the media: ‘If recent media reports concerning the finalizing of an exchange deal that does not include the prisoners of ’48, are true, then this represents a precedent in the history of our Palestinian people and a deviation from its religious and national principles.’
They wrote in their letter: ‘This decision by the Hamas leadership will lead to the deaths of these prisoners in the gloom of the prisons, and to the deaths of their families from sorrow and terrible lack of hope.’ They demanded of Hamas ‘to engage in profound soul-searching and to retract immediately this unfair decision, which buries our sons and our progeny under the monument of oblivion, only because they adhered to their identity and their people, struggled and fought for… Jerusalem and for Palestine, the land, and the people.’
Friday, August 5, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Circus Students Climb Walls Between Cultures
The Israel Circus School runs multicultural programs to bring Jewish and Arab schoolchildren together.
If you're swinging from a trapeze or performing a risky acrobatic stunt, you've got to have total faith in the teammate entrusted to synch with you. And so, reasoned Hanita-Caroline Hendelman, circus training could provide a perfect - and perfectly offbeat - setting for building bonds between all cultures in Israel.
"Seven years ago, I initiated the project of having classes from Jewish and Arab schools meet through circus to foster dialogue," says Hendelman, director of the Israel Circus School and the Association for the Development of Circus Arts in the Galilee town of Kfar Yehoshua. Three years ago, she began working with multicultural youth at risk, too. "We try whenever possible to mix groups of different cultures," she says.
"My main interest is how we employ the arts in social healing. I don't mean art or drama therapy, but art in its fullest form. I think art has the biggest potential for healing that I know of, and the Israel Circus School is a fully artistic and professional school for adults, youth and children. They learn to be creative, responsible, artistic members of the community, but as part of their training we involve all our students in our various multicultural projects."
An Isra
el Circus School aerial performance
Under the banner "Circus Arts for Social Change," she is now creating a local and international network of circus artists and supporters interested in building a new socio-political agenda "to find innovative and creative means of resolving conflict situations and setting up new social priorities towards creating a society that cares, honors and respects all its members."
Hendelman launched this initiative with an international multicultural youth circus convention, July 19-21 in the mixed Arab-Jewish city of Acco (Acre). The event is called "Climbing Walls," at the suggestion of her co-founder and artistic director, David Berry.
"The bottom line of it all is conflict resolution. No matter where we are, there is always the potential for conflict within ourselves and with our neighbors, and these conflicts are the walls which then spread to cultures and nations," says Hendelman. "We need to start climbing these walls. This project is only a pebble, a first step to what I envisage as building a new socio-political agenda in all aspects of life."
Bias and fear give way to friendships
While learning skills including acrobatics, juggling, unicycle-riding, clowning, dance, drumming and improvisation, Israel Circus School students are also learning to rely upon each other and communicate in word and action.
Hendelman has said that this setting is an excellent medium for breaching emotional barriers. "It forces you into a situation of working with one another. You need to touch, and you need to support one another."
Initially arriving with feelings of bias and fear, Arab and Israeli kids - accompanied by their teachers - very quickly relax as they work together to master challenging physical feats. By the end of the day, Hendelman sees many of the students exchanging email addresses and telephone numbers.
Endowed by British benefactors, the Israel Circus School depends on grants. It works closely with other Israeli circus schools and organizations, such as the Galilee Circus sponsored by the Galilee Foundation for Value Education; Circus Maghar in the Druze town of Maghar; and Efshar Acheret (Another Possibility).
Groups of advanced students have performed at Israeli festivals such as the Acre alternative theater festival and the Jacob's Ladder Folk Festival, as well as in Germany and Turkish and Greek Cyprus with a grant from the European Union to create a circus program for Jewish, Muslim and Christian children. In February, the Israel Circus School was invited to entertain the crowd at the Israeli professional basketball finals in the Nokia Stadium in Tel Aviv.
From street theater to conflict resolution
The origins of the school go back to 1992, when Berry, an Australian immigrant, created a street theater group for youth in Kiryat Tivon. After several successful performances in major Israeli festivals, the group started evolving toward circus arts and invited a master acrobat from the Moscow State Circus to come aboard as one of five teachers to open a circus school in 2000.
Two years later, Berry and Hendelman created the Association for the Development of Circus Arts in Israel, a non-profit, charitable organization, with the goal of turning the Israel Circus School into a professionally run training center. They moved to a renovated village hall in Kefar Yehoshua in 2002 and won the ongoing patronage of Arthur Vercoe Pedlar, former World Clown Association president.
For the past six years, the association has participated, along with Circus Maghar and a circus school in Nablus, in summer circus workshops held at Berlin's Circus Shake. "It's sad that we need to travel all the way to Berlin to work with our colleagues in Nablus," Hendelman comments.
Two years ago, the three of them became inaugural members of a new European-Middle East federation of youth circuses, which will have its second annual convention and show, Comedy Shake, later this summer. Participants are also coming from Finland, England, Spain, Germany, Italy, Morocco and Egypt.
If you're swinging from a trapeze or performing a risky acrobatic stunt, you've got to have total faith in the teammate entrusted to synch with you. And so, reasoned Hanita-Caroline Hendelman, circus training could provide a perfect - and perfectly offbeat - setting for building bonds between all cultures in Israel.
"Seven years ago, I initiated the project of having classes from Jewish and Arab schools meet through circus to foster dialogue," says Hendelman, director of the Israel Circus School and the Association for the Development of Circus Arts in the Galilee town of Kfar Yehoshua. Three years ago, she began working with multicultural youth at risk, too. "We try whenever possible to mix groups of different cultures," she says.
"My main interest is how we employ the arts in social healing. I don't mean art or drama therapy, but art in its fullest form. I think art has the biggest potential for healing that I know of, and the Israel Circus School is a fully artistic and professional school for adults, youth and children. They learn to be creative, responsible, artistic members of the community, but as part of their training we involve all our students in our various multicultural projects."
An Isra
el Circus School aerial performance Under the banner "Circus Arts for Social Change," she is now creating a local and international network of circus artists and supporters interested in building a new socio-political agenda "to find innovative and creative means of resolving conflict situations and setting up new social priorities towards creating a society that cares, honors and respects all its members."
Hendelman launched this initiative with an international multicultural youth circus convention, July 19-21 in the mixed Arab-Jewish city of Acco (Acre). The event is called "Climbing Walls," at the suggestion of her co-founder and artistic director, David Berry.
"The bottom line of it all is conflict resolution. No matter where we are, there is always the potential for conflict within ourselves and with our neighbors, and these conflicts are the walls which then spread to cultures and nations," says Hendelman. "We need to start climbing these walls. This project is only a pebble, a first step to what I envisage as building a new socio-political agenda in all aspects of life."
Bias and fear give way to friendships
While learning skills including acrobatics, juggling, unicycle-riding, clowning, dance, drumming and improvisation, Israel Circus School students are also learning to rely upon each other and communicate in word and action.
Hendelman has said that this setting is an excellent medium for breaching emotional barriers. "It forces you into a situation of working with one another. You need to touch, and you need to support one another."
Initially arriving with feelings of bias and fear, Arab and Israeli kids - accompanied by their teachers - very quickly relax as they work together to master challenging physical feats. By the end of the day, Hendelman sees many of the students exchanging email addresses and telephone numbers.
Endowed by British benefactors, the Israel Circus School depends on grants. It works closely with other Israeli circus schools and organizations, such as the Galilee Circus sponsored by the Galilee Foundation for Value Education; Circus Maghar in the Druze town of Maghar; and Efshar Acheret (Another Possibility).
Groups of advanced students have performed at Israeli festivals such as the Acre alternative theater festival and the Jacob's Ladder Folk Festival, as well as in Germany and Turkish and Greek Cyprus with a grant from the European Union to create a circus program for Jewish, Muslim and Christian children. In February, the Israel Circus School was invited to entertain the crowd at the Israeli professional basketball finals in the Nokia Stadium in Tel Aviv.
From street theater to conflict resolution
The origins of the school go back to 1992, when Berry, an Australian immigrant, created a street theater group for youth in Kiryat Tivon. After several successful performances in major Israeli festivals, the group started evolving toward circus arts and invited a master acrobat from the Moscow State Circus to come aboard as one of five teachers to open a circus school in 2000.
Two years later, Berry and Hendelman created the Association for the Development of Circus Arts in Israel, a non-profit, charitable organization, with the goal of turning the Israel Circus School into a professionally run training center. They moved to a renovated village hall in Kefar Yehoshua in 2002 and won the ongoing patronage of Arthur Vercoe Pedlar, former World Clown Association president.
For the past six years, the association has participated, along with Circus Maghar and a circus school in Nablus, in summer circus workshops held at Berlin's Circus Shake. "It's sad that we need to travel all the way to Berlin to work with our colleagues in Nablus," Hendelman comments.
Two years ago, the three of them became inaugural members of a new European-Middle East federation of youth circuses, which will have its second annual convention and show, Comedy Shake, later this summer. Participants are also coming from Finland, England, Spain, Germany, Italy, Morocco and Egypt.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Wikimania Goes Ahead in Haifa
In spite of the calls by anti Israel forces to have the 2011 Wikimania conference cancelled in Haifa, the organisers have not succumbed to the pressure and this week sees the start of a very full program.
Over 480 participants have registered of which 360 are very 56 different countries. Wikipedia has today over 18 million entries on the web in 270 different languages and typically has 400 million hits a month.
On Tuesdsay and Wednesday there will be preliminary sessions prior to the main event starting on Thursdsay with over 125 presentations.
The event will conclude on Saturday night with a big beach party and I can imagine the boadwalk being crowded as it it is also the time of the community folk dancing which draws big crowds and takes place eveey week both on Saturday night and Tuesday evenings.
Finally on Sunday there are a number of tours available which will give the visitors a chance to see a country of the type not normally portrayed in the mass media.
Over 480 participants have registered of which 360 are very 56 different countries. Wikipedia has today over 18 million entries on the web in 270 different languages and typically has 400 million hits a month.
On Tuesdsay and Wednesday there will be preliminary sessions prior to the main event starting on Thursdsay with over 125 presentations.
The event will conclude on Saturday night with a big beach party and I can imagine the boadwalk being crowded as it it is also the time of the community folk dancing which draws big crowds and takes place eveey week both on Saturday night and Tuesday evenings.
Finally on Sunday there are a number of tours available which will give the visitors a chance to see a country of the type not normally portrayed in the mass media.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
60,000 Palestinian tourists to visit Israel in 2011
More than 60,000 Palestinians are expected to visit Israel as tourists by
the end of 2011, at least twice as many as last year, a defense official
said.
Israel is planning to double the number of permits issued to Palestinians
this year, due to the improved security in the West Bank, the source said.
However, if the situation deteriorates in September following the
Palestinians' UN bid for statehood, it will be harder to issue permits, he
said.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/more-than-60-000-palestinians-expected-to-visit-israel-as-tourists-in-2011-1.373952
The permits are not usually issued to individuals or families, but mainly
to schools and summer camps wishing to take children to visit beaches
and mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel.
In 2010 28,000 Palestinians were given permits to visit Israel. The
permits are granted specifically for touring, as opposed to other permits
given for employment, medical treatment or prisoner visitation.
"We want Palestinians, especially young ones, to see another kind of
Israeli, not only soldiers and settlers. Anything that can help them blow
off steam and relax. Perhaps instead of demonstrating in September
they'll go to the beach," the source said.
Most of the Palestinians visit Arab and mixed towns such as Haifa,
Jaffa and Acre, among other things, because of their beaches. "For
many of these youngsters, this is the first visit to the beach," says an
Israeli guide of West Bank groups.
Another popular destination is the Ramat Gan Safari, which has prepared
Arab-language tours to accommodate the numerous Palestinian visitors.
"They see things differently from Israeli children. They've never seen wild
animals like those in the safari," says Adam Yakobi, one of the safari
guides who works with Palestinian groups.
"In addition to ecologic explanations, we try to convey a message of
coexistence, between animals and human beings, and among people as
well. Politics does not come into it. It's a completely different atmosphere
and they're engrossed in looking at the animals," he said.
the end of 2011, at least twice as many as last year, a defense official
said.
Israel is planning to double the number of permits issued to Palestinians
this year, due to the improved security in the West Bank, the source said.
However, if the situation deteriorates in September following the
Palestinians' UN bid for statehood, it will be harder to issue permits, he
said.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/more-than-60-000-palestinians-expected-to-visit-israel-as-tourists-in-2011-1.373952
The permits are not usually issued to individuals or families, but mainly
to schools and summer camps wishing to take children to visit beaches
and mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel.
In 2010 28,000 Palestinians were given permits to visit Israel. The
permits are granted specifically for touring, as opposed to other permits
given for employment, medical treatment or prisoner visitation.
"We want Palestinians, especially young ones, to see another kind of
Israeli, not only soldiers and settlers. Anything that can help them blow
off steam and relax. Perhaps instead of demonstrating in September
they'll go to the beach," the source said.
Most of the Palestinians visit Arab and mixed towns such as Haifa,
Jaffa and Acre, among other things, because of their beaches. "For
many of these youngsters, this is the first visit to the beach," says an
Israeli guide of West Bank groups.
Another popular destination is the Ramat Gan Safari, which has prepared
Arab-language tours to accommodate the numerous Palestinian visitors.
"They see things differently from Israeli children. They've never seen wild
animals like those in the safari," says Adam Yakobi, one of the safari
guides who works with Palestinian groups.
"In addition to ecologic explanations, we try to convey a message of
coexistence, between animals and human beings, and among people as
well. Politics does not come into it. It's a completely different atmosphere
and they're engrossed in looking at the animals," he said.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Wikimania Comes to Haifa
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales will mingle among hundreds of people from 52 countries in Haifa from August 4-7, at the annual Wikimania conference, held for the first time in Israel.
Started in 2005 and growing each year, the conference attracts people interested in free and open content/software, global development/education and new trends in the field of knowledge sharing in the Internet age. But mostly, it is a gathering place for those involved in Wikimedia Foundation projects -- primarily the world’s most popular source of information, the Internet-based encyclopedia, Wikipedia available in 279 languages.
A coup for Haifa
The multicultural Mediterranean seaside city – Israel’s third largest, after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv -- won out as the conference venue over Barcelona, Montreal, New York, Tokyo and Toronto. That’s a major feather in the cap of Deror Lin, an Israeli lawyer who is one of about 20 members of the three-year-old Wikimedia Israel group. Lin spearheaded the drive to bring Wikimania to Haifa, along with several other Wikimedia Israel volunteers eager to host Wikipedians from countries including India, China, Macao, Nepal, Uzbekistan, Bolivia, Venezuela and Chile.
“I was born in Haifa, and I think it’s a great city to show what the Middle East should be like, with all religions living and working together,” says Lin.
“This is the first time there will be a beach party at a Wikimania conference, and we have organized free tours for participants to Jerusalem, the Galilee and around Acco [Acre] and Haifa as well.”
The event at the Haifa Auditorium will include 125 sessions as well as workshops dealing with free content, open source, Internet-age copyrights, web communities and networks, education and knowledge acquisition.
Wales will deliver his annual "State of the Wiki" address. Deans from the University of Haifa and Bar-Ilan University are planned speakers along with Prof. Yochai Benkler, professor of law at Harvard University, and Joseph Reagle, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard and author of Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia.
For more information on this fantastic event see
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/InnovativeIsrael/Wikimania-hits-Haifa-14-JUL-2011.htm
Started in 2005 and growing each year, the conference attracts people interested in free and open content/software, global development/education and new trends in the field of knowledge sharing in the Internet age. But mostly, it is a gathering place for those involved in Wikimedia Foundation projects -- primarily the world’s most popular source of information, the Internet-based encyclopedia, Wikipedia available in 279 languages.
A coup for Haifa
The multicultural Mediterranean seaside city – Israel’s third largest, after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv -- won out as the conference venue over Barcelona, Montreal, New York, Tokyo and Toronto. That’s a major feather in the cap of Deror Lin, an Israeli lawyer who is one of about 20 members of the three-year-old Wikimedia Israel group. Lin spearheaded the drive to bring Wikimania to Haifa, along with several other Wikimedia Israel volunteers eager to host Wikipedians from countries including India, China, Macao, Nepal, Uzbekistan, Bolivia, Venezuela and Chile.
“I was born in Haifa, and I think it’s a great city to show what the Middle East should be like, with all religions living and working together,” says Lin.
“This is the first time there will be a beach party at a Wikimania conference, and we have organized free tours for participants to Jerusalem, the Galilee and around Acco [Acre] and Haifa as well.”
The event at the Haifa Auditorium will include 125 sessions as well as workshops dealing with free content, open source, Internet-age copyrights, web communities and networks, education and knowledge acquisition.
Wales will deliver his annual "State of the Wiki" address. Deans from the University of Haifa and Bar-Ilan University are planned speakers along with Prof. Yochai Benkler, professor of law at Harvard University, and Joseph Reagle, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard and author of Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia.
For more information on this fantastic event see
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/InnovativeIsrael/Wikimania-hits-Haifa-14-JUL-2011.htm
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Israel Immediately Sends Help to the New State of Sudan
As South Sudan’s Independence Day on July 9th was declared, the international community watched the birth of its newest nation. The situation in the country is harsh. Illiteracy reaches nearly 90%, there is little or no infrastructure in the country, and most of the people have no access to basic clean water and security. In recent months over 117,000 people were displaced and almost 1,400 killed following the conflict between the South and the North and across Sudan 4.27 million people are still internally displaced.
IsraAID: The Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid with the support and partnership of The Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto, AJC and local agencies on the ground will be sending a humanitarian aid cargo to assist the people of South Sudan on behalf of the Israeli and Jewish people as a goodwill gesture between both communities.
The IsraAID teams have already begun assessing the longer term needs on the ground for a long term aid mission that would benift children, women and elders in the most affected communities in the country.
“As a small and relatively new born country Israel has gained experience in various factors of water, agriculture, post trauma, education, migration and others that would be valuable to the people of South Sudan who are now building their country. It is our mission and Jewish commitment to reach out to our new friends in any way we can” stated the founding director of IsraAID.
IsraAID: The Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid with the support and partnership of The Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto, AJC and local agencies on the ground will be sending a humanitarian aid cargo to assist the people of South Sudan on behalf of the Israeli and Jewish people as a goodwill gesture between both communities.
The IsraAID teams have already begun assessing the longer term needs on the ground for a long term aid mission that would benift children, women and elders in the most affected communities in the country.
“As a small and relatively new born country Israel has gained experience in various factors of water, agriculture, post trauma, education, migration and others that would be valuable to the people of South Sudan who are now building their country. It is our mission and Jewish commitment to reach out to our new friends in any way we can” stated the founding director of IsraAID.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
The dangers in premature recognition of a “Palestinian state”
In addition to the on-going flotilla stories, the attempt by the Palestinians to avoid negotiations with Israel will take another turn in September at the UN.
Whilst any supporter of Israel will give a thousnad reasons why the Palestinians are wrong in this attempt, it is interesting to note that many Arab sources are also saying the same thing.
One example of this is an article by a Kuwaiti journalist published recently and I attach the translation below by Abdallah al-Hadlaq, 22nd June 2011
(Translated from Arabic newspaper “Al Watan” in Kuwait)
http://alwatan.kuwait.tt/ArticleDetails.aspx?Id=120302&YearQuarter=20112 Original Arabic article
International agreements dealing with peace in the Middle East must be respected
The Palestinian side is flaunting UNSC Resolutions 242, 338 and 1850 and the Road Map to Peace, all of which call for agreed solutions for disputes to be reached by direct talks, rejecting unilateral acts that undermine internationally accepted parameters for reaching peace, and defining basic principles for bilateral peace-making.
The Palestinians strive to obtain premature recognition for a “Palestinian State” this September despite the danger of derailing the peace talks, which is implicit in a unilateral declaration.
International agreements dealing with peace in the Middle East must be respected.
Israel indeed upholds them, as well as the principle of direct negotiations as being the only way to solve the dispute, while the Palestinians have long since abandoned direct peace talks, and now act unilaterally, trying to impose a fait accompli on Israel, using international pressure.
The Palestinians want to realize their dream of obtaining international legitimacy (which should be based on finding the agreed solution so necessary for peace) through the forcible imposition of an international diktat on Israel . A unilateral declaration will not conclude the conflict but only make matters worse, making it more intense instead of ending it. The Palestinians seem to have lost their keen interest in negotiation aimed at a reaching a deal, and now only want to act unilaterally in ways that will never solve key problems in the current impasse - which can only be tackled through direct talks between the parties concerned. Continued Palestinian obstinacy just complicates the conflict.
As the Palestinians press on unilaterally for premature recognition of their ”State”, they ignore Israel’s right to exist peacefully as the state of the Jewish people, recognized and living within its borders. The division of the Palestinians themselves between the Palestinian Authority that controls only parts of the West Bank, and the terrorist Hamas movement (loyal to the Persians of Iran) that holds the Gaza Strip negates legal criteria for the establishment of a state in form and character. Added to which, the Palestinian Authority has no authority over the Gaza Strip (which as noted is dominated by Hamas), the recent conciliation agreement between the warring factions notwithstanding.
Premature recognition of a Palestinian State means recognition of a terrorist entity - because Hamas openly intends to destroy Israel and wipe it off the map. Hamas rejects the terms of the international community for its own recognition that would make Hamas into a legal and accepted player in the region. These terms are: recognizing the right of Israel to exist, acceptance of existing international agreements, and an end to violence.
We must not forget that the international community still defines Hamas as a terrorist organization which is banned in Europe and the USA. How then can a terrorist body become the model for a Palestinian state?
Israel has for a long time made strategic concessions for peace, proving her desire for peaceful negotiations. She gave up Sinai in exchange for a peace treaty with Egypt, and withdrew from Gaza and South Lebanon. But the response she earned in the latter cases of Gaza and South Lebanon was a hail of rockets and barrages of artillery. Her towns and villages in the north and south of the country were attacked and many civilians were killed.
That should serve to warn of the dangers she faces from the terrorists of Hizballah and Hamas, and underlines the need for peace through solutions that will answer the needs and interests of all parties to the conflict.
Clearly, a premature recognition of a Palestinian state will negate the negotiating process and shatter the lofty idea of a modus vivendi attained through dialogue.
All those who hope for real peace in the region must reject these reckless unilateral Palestinian moves that block the negotiation process. The Palestinians must be made to understand that the only way to a permanent peace treaty will be through direct talks.
Whilst any supporter of Israel will give a thousnad reasons why the Palestinians are wrong in this attempt, it is interesting to note that many Arab sources are also saying the same thing.
One example of this is an article by a Kuwaiti journalist published recently and I attach the translation below by Abdallah al-Hadlaq, 22nd June 2011
(Translated from Arabic newspaper “Al Watan” in Kuwait)
http://alwatan.kuwait.tt/ArticleDetails.aspx?Id=120302&YearQuarter=20112 Original Arabic article
International agreements dealing with peace in the Middle East must be respected
The Palestinian side is flaunting UNSC Resolutions 242, 338 and 1850 and the Road Map to Peace, all of which call for agreed solutions for disputes to be reached by direct talks, rejecting unilateral acts that undermine internationally accepted parameters for reaching peace, and defining basic principles for bilateral peace-making.
The Palestinians strive to obtain premature recognition for a “Palestinian State” this September despite the danger of derailing the peace talks, which is implicit in a unilateral declaration.
International agreements dealing with peace in the Middle East must be respected.
Israel indeed upholds them, as well as the principle of direct negotiations as being the only way to solve the dispute, while the Palestinians have long since abandoned direct peace talks, and now act unilaterally, trying to impose a fait accompli on Israel, using international pressure.
The Palestinians want to realize their dream of obtaining international legitimacy (which should be based on finding the agreed solution so necessary for peace) through the forcible imposition of an international diktat on Israel . A unilateral declaration will not conclude the conflict but only make matters worse, making it more intense instead of ending it. The Palestinians seem to have lost their keen interest in negotiation aimed at a reaching a deal, and now only want to act unilaterally in ways that will never solve key problems in the current impasse - which can only be tackled through direct talks between the parties concerned. Continued Palestinian obstinacy just complicates the conflict.
As the Palestinians press on unilaterally for premature recognition of their ”State”, they ignore Israel’s right to exist peacefully as the state of the Jewish people, recognized and living within its borders. The division of the Palestinians themselves between the Palestinian Authority that controls only parts of the West Bank, and the terrorist Hamas movement (loyal to the Persians of Iran) that holds the Gaza Strip negates legal criteria for the establishment of a state in form and character. Added to which, the Palestinian Authority has no authority over the Gaza Strip (which as noted is dominated by Hamas), the recent conciliation agreement between the warring factions notwithstanding.
Premature recognition of a Palestinian State means recognition of a terrorist entity - because Hamas openly intends to destroy Israel and wipe it off the map. Hamas rejects the terms of the international community for its own recognition that would make Hamas into a legal and accepted player in the region. These terms are: recognizing the right of Israel to exist, acceptance of existing international agreements, and an end to violence.
We must not forget that the international community still defines Hamas as a terrorist organization which is banned in Europe and the USA. How then can a terrorist body become the model for a Palestinian state?
Israel has for a long time made strategic concessions for peace, proving her desire for peaceful negotiations. She gave up Sinai in exchange for a peace treaty with Egypt, and withdrew from Gaza and South Lebanon. But the response she earned in the latter cases of Gaza and South Lebanon was a hail of rockets and barrages of artillery. Her towns and villages in the north and south of the country were attacked and many civilians were killed.
That should serve to warn of the dangers she faces from the terrorists of Hizballah and Hamas, and underlines the need for peace through solutions that will answer the needs and interests of all parties to the conflict.
Clearly, a premature recognition of a Palestinian state will negate the negotiating process and shatter the lofty idea of a modus vivendi attained through dialogue.
All those who hope for real peace in the region must reject these reckless unilateral Palestinian moves that block the negotiation process. The Palestinians must be made to understand that the only way to a permanent peace treaty will be through direct talks.
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