‘Palestinians have backtracked on all understandings’

Herb Keinon, JPOST, Nov. 18, 2007

The Palestinians have backtracked on all understandings that were reached on a joint Israeli-Palestinian statement to be presented at the Annapolis peace conference, senior diplomatic officials were quoted as saying Sunday.

According to the sources, the Palestinians have “returned to square one, to [a point that] preceded the beginning of the negotiations.”

The possibility that each side would present a separate statement was being weighed, officials said, claiming that the conference was only meant to be a venue for launching negotiations in the presence of representatives from dozens of countries.

[Now is only Isreal had the balls to do likewise.]

November 18, 2007 | 3 Comments »

3 Comments / 3 Comments

  1. What have the Palestinians done to deserve Israel’s unilateral good will gestures? Absolutely nothing, just like they have done nothing to deserve the annual billion dollar welfare stipend for them to squander.

    Hamas and Fatah along with the majority of Palestinians who share their goals to destroy Israel and support Palestinian suicide bombings and terror acts against innocent Israeli civilians have however done a great deal to deserve the utter contempt and rejection by the West and by Israel.

    The only word of the Palestinians that the West and Israel can count on are their words in the media, in their mosques, in their educational systems and to their people in Arabic of course that derive from their implaccable Jew hatred and unyielding desire to murder and maim so many Israelis that Israel will cease to exist and the lands of Israel will revert to Islamic dominion and control.

    So amdist all this history that tells the sordid tale of a sordid depraved people, the Americans are pushing Israel to concede more and more and Olmert is rushing to embrace them. Sheer insanity.

    The JP reports today that as a good will gesture to Mahmoud Abbas that:

    “Despite the objection of coalition members Shas and Israel Beiteinu, the cabinet approved on Monday a list of 441 Palestinian prisoners to be released ahead of the Annapolis conference…… Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the cabinet that he would remove all unauthorized outposts in the West Bank, pledging to meet a key commitment under the “road map” peace plan…..Olmert also said Israel would not build any new settlements in the West Bank”…”Let’s be straight, we committed ourselves in the road map not to build new settlements and we will not build any,”.

    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1195127538174&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

    Netanyahu it is reported in the JP today responded with:

    “The government is causing severe damage, and making concessions without receiving anything in return, Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday following the cabinet’s decision to release another 441 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture of goodwill ahead of the Annpolis peace conference….”Israel is conceding and conceding without receiving a thing in return,”

    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1195127542427&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

    I would say Netanyahu has it right about Olmert’s policies, positions, committments, promises and actions being harmful to Israel. I would say that those members of the Olmert cabinet have it right as well. So too, Hatikvah that is camped out in a tent in front of Olmert’s office to protest his policies.

    Speeches are great, but a waste of time if they fail to move people to action.

    So far there have been no mass protests against Olmert’s coddling the Palestinians in the hope that Palestinians can be bought at some price, not reached yet to turn away from Jew hatred and war to tolerance of Israelis and Israel and above all a peaceful relationship with Israel.

    Olmert is a very unpopular and weak leader if the various news reports and op-eds have it right. What allows for a very weak unpopular leader to continue leading Israel down a path of no return however is that his opposition is even weaker and the Israeli people disengaged, apathetic or both.

    None of this paints a very bright future for Israel and Israelis.

  3. I’m going to make it easy for Olmert; here’s his statement for the global press corps tomorrow:

    Ladies and gentlemen

    I have called this press conference to announce that regrettably, Israel will not be attending the Annapolis conference tentatively scheduled for the end of November. In an effort to permanently resolve all outstanding disputes between Israel and the Arab nations and establish a durable peace in the region, Israel has on a number of occasions and in a variety of public forums, stated its willingness to support a national homeland for the Palestinian Arabs on land the status of which is currently disputed under international law. In negotiations preceding the upcoming summit, Palestinian representatives have unfortunately been unwilling to reciprocate on this historic compromise, refusing even to recognize the state of Israel as the Jewish national homeland. Clearly, Israel cannot be expected, in any forum, to make entirely one-sided concessions, particularly those of an existential nature. Israel remains willing at any point, and in any venue, to meet in good faith with Arab states of the Middle East to negotiate and agree an end to 60 years of war and cold peace between us.

    Of course, that would require a mensch for a PM.

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