The PA totally distorts reality. The reason the peace process is not going anywhere is not because of the settlement activity on less than 2% of the land but because the PA doesn’t want to negotiate. If the UNSC supports their request, it will be violating its own Res 242 which is the basis of the peace process. They cannot alter it without destroying the peace process once and for all. Ted Belman
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH AND TOVAH LAZAROFF, JPOST
[..] PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo said after the meeting that in the wake of the increased “settlement campaign,” the Palestinian leadership had decided to file a complaint with the Security Council against Israel.
Abed Rabbo said the goal of the Israeli settlement activities was to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and to impose a “canton” solution on the Palestinians.
He also complained that Israel’s measures were aimed at isolating east Jerusalem from the West Bank.
The Palestinian leadership called on the Arab League to convene to discuss the issue of the settlements, he said. He added that settlements were illegal and destroyed any chance of a two-state solution.
The Palestinians appealed to the Quartet members – the US, UN, Russia and EU – to intervene with Israel to stop settlement expansion and find ways of resuming the peace process.
The PA leadership also called on Palestinians to step up “popular resistance” against settlements and the “crimes” of settlers against mosques, churches and private property.
In response, Israel called on the PA to return to the negotiating table.
“Thirty years of anti-Israel resolutions at the UN have given the Palestinians nothing but countless pieces of paper,” an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post.
“The only way to move forward, to change the reality on the ground and achieve peace, is through direct negotiations,” the official said.
“By consistently refusing to enter direct negotiations, the Palestinian leadership is betraying its own people.”
Last February, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have censured Israel for settlement construction.
In December, after a Security Council meeting, ambassadors from member states including Britain, Germany, France and Portugal harshly criticized Jewish building in West Bank settlements and east Jerusalem.
The PA’s decision to again appeal to the UN comes after Wednesday’s approval by a planning committee of the first stage of the bureaucratic process to permit three Jewish construction projects in east Jerusalem.
One project is for 130 housing units on the border between the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo and the Israeli Arab one of Beit Safafa, with apartment buildings up to 12 stories.
The others are for tourism buildings in the City of David archeological park in Silwan.
On Friday, Britain’s Minister for the Middle East and North Africa Alistair Burt said, “I condemn the decision by the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee to build additional structures in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, and housing in the settlement of Gilo. This is another provocative and deeply counter-productive step, the latest in a series by the Israeli authorities.”
Burt’s condemnation followed a statement by the French Foreign Ministry on Thursday urging Israel to forgo the construction plans, “in order to establish between the parties a climate of trust that is conducive to the resumption of direct negotiations.”
The PA is getting a taste of the medicine that Islam has been putting out against other people for 1400 years. What happened to the historical list the Jews were making of the incidents when Jews have been killed and run out of Muslim lands and their property confiscated?
I have no sympathy for Arab Muslims. They have done so much damage to the people of the world. They have acted like it’s almost a right for them to do so. Whew! It’s a lot of work to stop them but we are. I think women should take over in Muslim affairs because the men have made such a mess of it.
True to form, and as per my posting, the Prime Minister’s Office announces Israel and Palestinians to resume talks in Amman next week!! What do these people talk about?? As I see it, there is no common ground, there is nothing they agree on. Why do they keep this charade? To keep the Left in business, that’s it. No matter who dies in the process, and many have and may still do, G-d forbid. Someone, or something, has to shake some sense into the israeli public and its leaders.
Ted, happy new year and keep up the great work.
The peace process is going nowhere because the matter is not negotiable.
There is no way the Jewish state can negotiate away the Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria.
There is no way the Arabs will surrender Jerusalem, for to do so would be to admit their god, Allah, is weak and feckless, and not a god at all.
Neither side has acted honestly. The Arabs say they want peace while all their advocacy sites show a Palestine with no Israel at all.
And Israel claims to act within Oslo which forbids any unilateral action, and yet expands settlements which, according to Israel, will be taken into account when future borders are drawn. Sounds like unilateral action to me.
Israel wants the land but does not want to enfranchise the Arabs on it, which is the sine qua non of annexation.
I do not blame Israel for de facto violating 0slo – I know some will say they keep it de jure – as much I blame Israel for agreeing to Oslo.
Both sides are obstructing negotiations for different reasons.
As one Israeli commentator noted: The minimum the Palestinians would accept is more than Israel is willing to give.
The ugly truth is that it is NOT negotiable in any capacity.
No peace can be attained until this fact is accepted.
Only with that in mind, can the West start to handle the matter in a workable solution.
Another ugly truth is that the Arabs states will obstruct any plan that offers real peace, and so the West will have to act unilaterally.
The Jewish people have been cursed from the beginning for accepting corrupt leaders. Recall the episode with prophet Samuel who said G-d is King but the masses demanded a human king just to be like all the other corrupt nations. Jewish leadership is essentially secular and will always choose agreements with corrupt nations rather than follow the Torah. In 1948 and again in 1967 the Jewish leaders pleaded with fleeing Arabs to please stay – and stay they did. Naturally they demand their “rights” such as equal rights inside Israel and another state inside Israel to become Jew-free.
The only just and fair solution is for all the Palestinian Arabs to relocate elsewhere. It is the stupid and corrupt Israeli ruling class that is opposed and we cannot then blame the Palestinians for being frustrated in their situation and for attacking the Israelis.
I wish I could disagree with you.
Ted,
you should know, the peace process cannot be killed, no matter what.
Israelis (the government, that is) will do anything to CPR this baby back to health, and will spare no efforts in doing so, even against the will of the majority. It will be aided by the Israeli and international media, the Israeli Supreme Court, every single NGO supported by the enemies of Israel and assimilated diaspora Jews who know very little about Israel and love Obama’s “unshakable bond to Israel”.
British and french men are so emasculated.
It doesn’t want them and that’s why there won’t be peace and Israel has no reason to reward it with any “goodwill gestures.”
Bottom line is they don’t want peace. Peace would not allow them to harass and kill Jews and destroy Israel.
The PA is a worthless organization run by Hamas, the proxy of Iran and the Arab world.
Why the U.S.government continues to support and aid this phony organization is beyond me, except it falls in the line of anti-Antisemitism.
BTW the UN is another worthless organization, a cesspool of bad governments and leaders.
Let’s elect a president and a congress smart enough to recognize this, discontinue aid to the Arab world who engage in and support terrorism and smart enough to get us the hell out of the UN.
F-you britain and france.
What’s ironic in the French and British condemnation is Europeans are opposed to building new housing for Arabs!
One can understand their visceral distaste for Jews living in Jerusalem but apparently they have made the mistake of also opposing Arabs living there as well.
It seems people in Paris and London did not study the entire plan carefully or else they would have realized how ridiculous their objections were.
Knee-jerk anti-Israel criticism does not so much harm Jews as it hurts Arabs – the very people Europeans claim they want to help.
The settlements are a sideshow.
Everything could easily be resolved if the PA sought direct talks with Israel.
It doesn’t want them and that’s why there won’t be peace and Israel has no reason to reward it with any “goodwill gestures.”