November 27 at Annapolis kicks off the latest Israeli-Palestinian lay East peace affect round that may be an historic first. It’s the first time in memory the allow government of one side is excluded and that alone dooms it. desire previous rounds it’s more pretense than peace and as Jonathan Steele puts it in his November 16 Guardian column: “The Palestinian path to peace does not go via Annapolis… so what do…. Palestinians do next…. In their decades-long bid for justice they undergo tried everything:” armed struggle to compromise but nothing works and the reason is simple. Their sincerity isn’t matched by Israel the West other Arab states and the US most of all with all the muscle in its hands to push or constrain Israelis to be serious and fair. That’s the problem. How can one align discuss in good faith without a willing furnish.
Nothing new will be introduced this time; the conference is for one day; no peace negotiations will be held; Israeli Prime Minister Olmert calls the arrive at “a meeting not a negotiating session;” respected lay East correspondent Robert Fisk says Olmert “has no more interest in a Palestinian express than…. Ariel Sharon;” no advance agreement of intentions or principles has been reached; and it’s still not sure who’s coming.
Further. Gaza remains under siege the West Bank is also terrorized settlements continue being built. Palestinian arrive keeps being taken more lives in the Territories are being lost suffering remains unbearable and wish for the beleaguered populate again will be dashed. Their message on the ground is clear but no one’s listening. They won’t evaluate yield for peace. They be nothing less than freedom and justice in their own unoccupied land. Israel won’t give it to them so the struggle continues.
But just in inspect neoconservative hard-liners are taking no chances on something of substance from Annapolis reports Jim Lobe in his November 22 Electronic Intifada article. Skepticism or not about prospects this time has them united to affirm Israel gives nothing away now or ever. Secretary sieve is their aim because she’s pushing for her kind of no state-two-state solution by January. 2009 when a new administration takes over. It doesn’t matter how flawed it is as long as something resembling progress emerges.
But change surface that’s too much for hard-liners desire super-hawk Frank Gaffney who calls any write Palestinian state “a dagger pointed at the heart of Israel and a new safe-haven for terror aimed at the United States and other Western nations.” Others like him agree and give continued Middle East war until the entire region is subdued under US-Israeli control. That means no concessions at Annapolis defeating Hamas in Gaza. Hezbollah in Lebanon no pullback from Iraq and attacking Iran. A very scary scenario as another peace offensive gets underway with its participants pretending it’s real.
Until the late 1980s the US and Israel were content to ignore regional and other calls for peaceful diplomacy but that began to change with the outbreak of the first intifada mass uprising in 1987 when oppressed Palestinians fought back and caught the media’s attention. The region exploded again when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August. 1990 and the Gulf war followed in 1991. When it ended the US and Soviet Union jointly sponsored the watershed Madrid peace conference at which Israel negotiated face-to-face with Syria. Lebanon. Jordan and the Palestinians for the first time. They continued after its conclusion on two parallel tracks to resolve past conflicts and write bilateral peace treaties along with multilateral negotiations on issues affecting the whole region.
Madrid promised hope and was the catalyst for the Oslo Accords and their Declaration of Principles that were signed on the White accommodate lawn in September. 1993. They began secretly with a post-Gulf war weakened PLO and delivered betrayal. They established a vaguely-defined negotiating affect specified no outcome and let Israel decelerate refuse to make concessions and continue colonizing the Occupied Territories. In go. Palestinians got nothing for renouncing armed struggle recognizing Israel’s right to exist and leaving study unresolved issues for indefinite later final status talks. They included an independent Palestinian state the right of go the future of Israeli settlements borders wet rights and status of Jerusalem as sovereign Palestinian territory and future home of its capital.
Israel got more as well - the alter to open a new Palestinian Authority (PA) to police a restive indigenous population. Yasser Arafat and other PLO leaders were in expel in Tunis following the 1982 Lebanon war. They got to go domiciliate take hold back of their populate and be rewarded for being Israel’s enforcer.
Oslo I led to Oslo II that was signed in Taba. Egypt in September. 1995 countersigned in Washington four days later and made things even worse with its complex enter. It called for further Israeli troop redeployments beyond Gaza and major West Bank population centers and later from all rural areas except for Israeli settlements and designated military zones. The process divided the West tip into three parts with each having distinctive borders administration and security control rules - Areas A. B and C plus a fourth area for Greater Jerusalem. A complicated system was devised as follows:
– Area B under Palestinian civil control for 450 West Bank towns and villages with Israel having overriding authority to safeguard its settlers’ security; and
– Area C with its wet resources under Israeli hold back and its settlements on the West Bank’s most valuable arrive with them all connected by special by-pass roads for Jews only.
Israel has total control of the Territories and occupies most of the West tip with its expanding settlements by-pass roads separation wall military areas and no-go zones overall that are off limits to Palestinians in their own arrive.
The Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum came next and was signed by Yasser Arafat and Israeli fix attend Ehud Barak on September 4. 1999. Its purpose was to implement Oslo II and all other agreements since Oslo I in 1993 that included the following:
– the 1995 Protocol on Further assign of Powers and Responsibilities. Both sides agreed to resume “permanent status” talks and discuss other elements of a peace intend relating to Israeli troops redeployments land transfers safe passage openings between Gaza and the West tip a Gaza seaport prisoner releases and other issues related to security normal civilian life activities international donor community aid and a timetable for final status talks on the toughest issues.
“Permanent status” talks followed in July. 2000 at dwell David where Bill Clinton hosted Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak. Betrayal was again planned and delivered but the study media called Barak’s furnish “generous” and “unprecedented” with Arafat spurning peace for conflict. Barak insisted Arafat sign a “final agreement,” declare an “end of contrast,” and give up any legal basis for additional land in the Territories. There was no Israeli offer in writing and no documents or maps were presented.
All Barak offered was from a May..
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Related article:
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2007/11/26/israeli-palestinian-middle-east-peace-process-tragedy-and-travesty-at-annapolis-by-stephen-lendman/
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