Over 120 countries have endorsed Palestine's right to be recognised by the UN as a legitimate nation, with key countries such as the USA abstaining. Much of Europe is yet to join the group too. here is a PETITION you can sign to push this forward.
Showing posts with label peace talks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label peace talks. Show all posts
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Palestine - ancient but the newest nation yet?
Over 120 countries have endorsed Palestine's right to be recognised by the UN as a legitimate nation, with key countries such as the USA abstaining. Much of Europe is yet to join the group too. here is a PETITION you can sign to push this forward.
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
The daily reality of the Zionist putsch in the West Bank
This girl looks like a pleasant enough sort, talking about her idyllic life in the sun, her perfect home; until you realise that she is a cold-blooded colonist.
She stole that home, from people she truly believes to be less than human and to be no more than talking trash, defiling the purity of the land that her god gave her 'people'. Watch her as she insults the defenceless Palestinians, the citizens of Al-Kalil (Hebron), part of the country that the UN in its lofty wisdom decided would be "Palestine" rather than "Israel", and which is being slowly taken from The People by the impatient invaders, whose army continues to be well-supplied by Britain and America. While the so-called Peace Talks continue, Hilary Clinton spouts hot air and Obama, in a combination of question-begging and sheer hypocrisy, advises the Palestinians to resist peacefully not violently.
Sunday, 5 December 2010
$150m aid for Palestinian Authority
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced $150m in new aid for the Palestinian Authority
The ‘Peace Process’ is at a standstill, but Washington is trying to keep the two sides - Israel and the PA - engaged - and it is working especially hard to stop the Palestinians from walking away from the process: even Mahmoud Abbas has cried ‘enough’ in the face of continued Israeli dishonesty in maintaining new colonial building and forced demolitions during the so-called freeze. He even threatened, on Friday 3rd December, to end autonomy in the Palestinian territories if Israel insists on going ahead with settlement construction on lands that should be a Palestinian state.
Interviewed by Palestine TV, Abbas said he would not "afford to remain the president of a nonexistent Palestinian Authority" if the Israeli occupation of the West Bank continued, and along with that settlement construction .
When asked if the comment meant that he could actually disband the Palestinian Authority, he answered, “I am telling the Israelis that they can continue as occupiers, but as for me, I will not accept the status quo.”
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced new aid of $150m (£93m) for the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday 1st December - part sweetener, part support for Palestinian institution-building, a track running parallel to the “negotiations”. She announced this at the State Department with a fine balloon-full of hot air:
"We have to move forward together, simultaneously and mutually reinforcing on two tracks, the hard work of negotiations and the hard work of building institutions and capacities."
Mrs Clinton was joined via video link to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah.
"Progress on this second track gives confidence to negotiators, removes excuses for delays and underscores that the Palestinian Authority has become a credible partner for peace," she added, and we can see once again that the PA’s ‘credibility’ only extends as far as its resemblance to the Vichy government of Occupied France will allow.
Not to be outdone in the hot-air stakes, Ziad Asali, from the American Task Force for Palestine in Washington, responded, "The announcement is a sign of confidence and commitment, commitment to the two-state solution and confidence in the integrity of the Palestinian Authority and its finance ministry,"
The new US money will help the P. A. close a budget gap before the end of the year.
The US and the EU are two of the largest single donors to the Palestinians. During the 2010 financial year, the US gave a total of $739.9m (£458.9m).
Some of it goes directly to budget assistance, including the payment of bills - freeing up money for the Palestinian Authority to pay salaries.
Some of the aid from the US and EU goes to training for Palestinian Authority military personnel.
The EU gives an average of $700m per year, but has been notoriously unenthusiastic about giving aid to Gaza since Hamas was elected. A coalition of major humanitarian, human rights and development organizations called on the European Union back in January 2009 to immediately suspend any further enhancement of its relations with Israel, known as an ‘upgrade’, until it agreed to a comprehensive ceasefire and provided unimpeded access to the Strip.
The call followed Israel’s rejection of European attempts to secure an immediate ceasefire during a visit of the EU’s most senior representatives to the region.
“Israel has shunned diplomatic efforts by the EU and the delegation has returned empty-handed. The EU’s credibility is now at stake. It is inconceivable that we should extend further benefits of European partnership to a government that violates international humanitarian law and refuses negotiation in favour of continued violence. It is time for robust EU action to bring about an immediate ceasefire and end the violence on all sides,” said Daleep Mukarji, Director of Christian Aid UK and Ireland.
No quid pro quo
This latest influx of cash comes after the US has been similarly, and repeatedly, insulted by Israel, which knows it is in a position of strength as the US foothold in the Mid-east, and continues to accept all handouts of military and financial aid while dragging its feet over following Uncle Sam’s wishes.
The most recent session of the Peace Negotiations, given a big launch by President Barack Obama in early September, hardly took off and ran aground after just two meetings.
This latest influx of cash comes after the US has been similarly, and repeatedly, insulted by Israel, which knows it is in a position of strength as the US foothold in the Mid-east, and continues to accept all handouts of military and financial aid while dragging its feet over following Uncle Sam’s wishes.
The most recent session of the Peace Negotiations, given a big launch by President Barack Obama in early September, hardly took off and ran aground after just two meetings.
Saturday, 4 December 2010
Obama believes in fairies
As the rational world everywhere accepts that the so-called ‘Peace Process’ is nothing but a smoke-screen for Zionist expansion with or without the ‘freeze’, an ex-CIA official states that US President Obama’s only peace process is to ‘hope for a miracle’ - as MondoWeiss’ writer Adam Horowitz put it on DECEMBER 3:
Robert Grenier, CIA's chief of station in Islamabad, Pakistan, from 1999 to 2002 and director of the CIA's counter-terrorism center, writes in disbelief at the current Obama administration strategy with the peace process (which he considers long dead). He comments on the Al Jazeera English website about the rumoured bundle of incentives the White House is offering Israel for a 90-day extension of the partial settlement freeze:
"After witnessing US policy toward Israel and the Palestinians for over 30 years, I had thought I was beyond shock. This development, however, is breathtaking. In effect, along with a whole string of additional commitments, including some potentially far-reaching security guarantees which it is apparently afraid to reveal publicly, the Obama administration is willing to permanently cast aside a policy of some 40 years' duration, under which the US has at least nominally labelled Israeli settlements on occupied territory as "obstacles to peace,". All this in return for a highly conditional settlement pause which will permit Netanyahu to pocket what the US has given him, simply wait three months without making any good-faith effort at compromise, and know in the end that Israel will never again have to suffer the US' annoying complaints about illegal settlements.
Leave aside the fact that as of this writing, the Israeli cabinet may yet reject this agreement - which seems even more breathtaking, until one stops to consider that virtually everything the Americans have offered the Israelis they could easily obtain in due course without the moratorium. No, what is telling here is that the American attempt to win this agreement, lopsided as it is, is an act of sheer desperation.
What gives rise to the desperation, whether it is fear of political embarrassment at a high-profile diplomatic failure or genuine concern for US security interests in the region, I cannot say. It seems crystal clear, however, that the administration sees the next three months as a last chance. Their stated hope is that if they can get the parties to the table for this brief additional period, during which they focus solely on reaching agreement on borders, success in this endeavour will obviate concerns about settlements and give both sides sufficient stake in an outcome that they will not abandon the effort.
No one familiar with the substance of the process believes agreement on borders can be reached in 90 days on the merits; consider additionally that negotiators will be attempting to reach such a pact without reference to Jerusalem, and seeking compromise on territory without recourse to off-setting concessions on other issues, and success becomes virtually impossible to contemplate."
Robert Grenier, CIA's chief of station in Islamabad, Pakistan, from 1999 to 2002 and director of the CIA's counter-terrorism center, writes in disbelief at the current Obama administration strategy with the peace process (which he considers long dead). He comments on the Al Jazeera English website about the rumoured bundle of incentives the White House is offering Israel for a 90-day extension of the partial settlement freeze:
"After witnessing US policy toward Israel and the Palestinians for over 30 years, I had thought I was beyond shock. This development, however, is breathtaking. In effect, along with a whole string of additional commitments, including some potentially far-reaching security guarantees which it is apparently afraid to reveal publicly, the Obama administration is willing to permanently cast aside a policy of some 40 years' duration, under which the US has at least nominally labelled Israeli settlements on occupied territory as "obstacles to peace,". All this in return for a highly conditional settlement pause which will permit Netanyahu to pocket what the US has given him, simply wait three months without making any good-faith effort at compromise, and know in the end that Israel will never again have to suffer the US' annoying complaints about illegal settlements.
Leave aside the fact that as of this writing, the Israeli cabinet may yet reject this agreement - which seems even more breathtaking, until one stops to consider that virtually everything the Americans have offered the Israelis they could easily obtain in due course without the moratorium. No, what is telling here is that the American attempt to win this agreement, lopsided as it is, is an act of sheer desperation.
What gives rise to the desperation, whether it is fear of political embarrassment at a high-profile diplomatic failure or genuine concern for US security interests in the region, I cannot say. It seems crystal clear, however, that the administration sees the next three months as a last chance. Their stated hope is that if they can get the parties to the table for this brief additional period, during which they focus solely on reaching agreement on borders, success in this endeavour will obviate concerns about settlements and give both sides sufficient stake in an outcome that they will not abandon the effort.
No one familiar with the substance of the process believes agreement on borders can be reached in 90 days on the merits; consider additionally that negotiators will be attempting to reach such a pact without reference to Jerusalem, and seeking compromise on territory without recourse to off-setting concessions on other issues, and success becomes virtually impossible to contemplate."
Meanwhile, the Zionists argue among themselves over just how much of Palestine they will allow the Palestinians to keep, although it is only a matter of nothing versus next-to-nothing:
Jordan Valley
After almost half a century of Israeli occupation, its Palestinian population has shrunk from over 200,000 to fewer than 60,000. ... A fortnight ago 15 young Israelis in T-shirts came down from Maskiyot, a hilltop settlement, took possession of a Bedouin tent, put up a fence to keep out the family and its goats, and sang Hebrew chants.
An Israeli army jeep idled by, briefly surveyed the rumpus, and drove on. The local Palestinian governor, whose headquarters is in the Arab town of Tubas, paid a call, before also hurrying away.
“From experience, we’ve learnt that, if we protest, the settlers will resort to violence and demand that the state confiscate the land to protect them,” explains a Palestinian activist who advises the Bedouin.
On a nearby wall, someone had daubed in Hebrew: “Bless God for not making me a gentile".
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