The United States got Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas together this last week in an effort to get Mideast peace talks going again. Newspaper and TV reports hailed it as some kind of breakthrough, but was it? Has any kind of progress been made to establishing a real peace? In a word, no.
The only road to peace in the Mideast would be the establishment of a Palestinian state -- a separate state that would be ruled by Palestinians and not the Israeli government. As of yet, the Israeli government has not shown it is willing to accept such an arrangement. In fact, that would require Israel to give up possession of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The problem with that is that Israel is continuing to build new settlements in the West Bank -- settlements they will not be willing to give up to achieve a lasting peace. While the building goes on a temporary moratorium was placed on approving new projects, but at the end of this month that moratorium expires and Netanyahu has said he will not renew it. That means new settlements will again be approved for the West Bank in less than a month.
This one issue makes it clear that Israel does not want peace. It is in the process of stealing Palestinian land (with every new settlement built) and it has no plans to ever return that land to the Palestinians. The longer it can delay real peace talks, the more land it can steal. They are gambling that the United States will not cut monetary and military aid, even though the U.S. government opposes the new settlements.
Israel is happy to meet with Abbas and make a show of having talks, but they have no intention of participating in any real talks -- talks that could result in giving up land in the West Bank or control over Gaza and the West Bank. They want the world to believe that they must maintain the status quo to ensure their own existence, but that is not true.
The only real enemy Israel has in the Middle East is Iran -- an outlaw nation that not even the other muslim nations in the area support. The truth is that the existence of Israel is a false issue these days. Once the Palestinians have been taken care of with a state of their own (Gaza and the West Bank), the Arab nations in the area would have no trouble making peace with Israel. Even Hamas has said it is willing to negotiate a two-state solution (but they are unwilling to back down as long as the Israelis continue to steal Palestinian land).
Does Israel want peace? No. They have things just like they want them right now. It is time for the United States to get serious about putting pressure on Israel to get them to change their mind. That pressure should include the cutting off of all monetary and military aid. Not doing so would be tantamount to approving the Israeli mistreatment and enslavement of the Palestinian people and stealing of their land.
Do the Palestinians want peace? Doesn't seem that they do. Otherwise, they would be spending the huge amounts of external aid they're currently receiving on building governing infrastructure and not on terrorist activities.
ReplyDeleteTsk, tsk. You think it's the Israeli's that are holding up the "peace process?" You need to only look at what the Palestinians are publishing, preaching and broadcasting to see they're real aim is the destruction of Israel.
That's the Israeli propaganda line. But if Israel is just defending itself, then why do they keep stealing Palestinian land?
ReplyDeleteTed, Dic you mean arab lands? If you choose to call Israel Palestine then the Jews are the true Palestinians as they have occupied this land for more than 3ooo years. Go back to history class.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you should join me in that history class haleo777. The Jews are not the oldest residents of Palestine. There were already people living there when the Jews arrived, and their history (in the Old Testament) is one of almost continual war with the other residents of Palestine (many of whom pre-dated the Jewish arrival).
ReplyDeleteI use the term "Palestinian" in its modern sense - that is, those (non-Jews) who were living in Palestine before the modern Jewish state of Israel was established, and who were pushed out by the establishment of that state.
That's why I refer to Palestinian land and not Arab land. Palestine (the West Bank and Gaza) do not belong to all Arabs, but to those whose home is in Palestine.