"While the first part of Kerry’s extended Middle East tour has concentrated on Syria, he will arrive Wednesday in Amman, Jordan, for three days of efforts to try to move his Palestinian-Israeli peace initiative forward. The plan for direct talks between the two sides has been stymied by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s reluctance to start direct talks with Israel without a political sweetener such as the Israeli release of Palestinian detainees."
Oh, what a nice picture of him embracing the foreign minister of the region's most odious regime.
Yeah, it's all Abbas's fault and he needed a sweetner. Just forget those continuing and increasing settlements. Lord I'm sick of Amerika's jewsmedia!
"Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu dedicated a school Monday named after his late father in a West Bank settlement, days before the Secretary of State John Kerry is to arrive on a new peace mission. Netanyahu’s West Bank visit, played down by Israeli officials, nonetheless drew attention to Israeli settlement policy there, an issue that lies at the heart of the nearly five-year impasse in Mideast peace efforts.
That's an in-your-face move by Israel, and it happens all the time.
Full story for BostonGlobe.com subscribers.
Apparently not.
Kerry is scheduled to arrive late this week for what would be his fifth visit to the region since taking office early this year. Kerry has been shuttling between the Israelis and the Palestinians in search of a formula to restart talks.
After I was told he wasn't going to be doing the Kissinger thing.
I love being deceived by a jewspaper, don't you?
So John Kerry basically ADOPTED ISRAEL'S POSITION, huh?
So far, there have been no signs of a breakthrough.
Gee, I can't imagine why!
Netanyahu's West Bank visit came hours after a flare-up in violence between Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Yeah, isn't that strange how whenever there is a whisper of peace something happens?
Israeli aircraft pounded targets in Gaza early Monday after Palestinian militants fired rockets at Israel from the territory, the military said, unsettling a tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. No injuries were reported on either side.
Yeah, ever notice the Gaza rocket squads get busy whenever it best suits Israel?
Rocket fire from Gaza has declined since Israel carried out an eight-day military campaign last November in response to frequent attacks. An Egyptian-brokered cease-fire has largely held, but sporadic fire still persists.
No militant group claimed responsibility for the rocket launch, but speaking on Army Radio, Israel's chief military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai blamed the Islamic Jihad group. Islamic Jihad has occasionally fired rockets from Gaza in the past, challenging the Hamas truce with Israel.
Translation: as suspected, this was ONCE AGAIN an ISRAELI FLASE FLAG!
Israel said it holds Hamas, which rules the coastal territory, ultimately accountable for the renewed fire.
Then whenever a Jew commits a crime I will hold Israel responsible.
"My policy is to harm whoever tries to harm us," Netanyahu said. "That is how we will work and will continue to act against threats that are close and threats that are far."
In Gaza, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said he would not be intimidated by Israel's strikes. "Any Israeli aggression does not scare the Palestinian people," he said.
Also Monday, Israeli police said that vandals slashed the tires of 21 cars in an Arab neighborhood of east Jerusalem. The vandals also scribbled slogans on nearby walls.
That's where the printed Globe ended it.
It was the latest in a wave of similar acts linked to Jewish extremists targeting mosques, churches, monasteries, dovish Israeli groups and even Israeli military bases to protest what they perceive as the Israeli government's pro-Palestinian policies in the West Bank. Vandals call the attacks the "price tag" for the policies they oppose.
Yeah, somehow JEWISH TERRORISM is not much of a concern in my Jewish War Paper.
They ain't even terrorists; they are the much more benign sounding vandals!
Last week vandals struck an Arab village outside of Jerusalem that has been a model of coexistence in Israel.
Rosenfeld said police were investigating. He said no arrests have been made in the recent string of similar crimes.
As usual -- but they always find those Palestinian terrorists!!
--more--"
Gee, why all the hoops, Globe?
Anyway, Kerry extended his trip to Israel a day even though he is running out of time.
"Time is the enemy in Mideast peace push, Kerry says" by Michael R. Gordon and Jodi Rudoren | New York Times, June 27, 2013
KUWAIT CITY — Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday that progress toward a Middle East peace deal needs to be made before September, as he headed for a fifth trip to the region with Israeli and Palestinian leaders amid increasing talk of a possible breakthrough that could return the two sides to the negotiating table after years of stalemate.
So now we have an artificial timeline to give Israel cover.
So WHAT BIG BANG of a FALSE FLAG is coming in SEPTEMBER, John?
Kerry stressed that he was not setting a firm deadline for resuming talks, but stressed the importance of making headway before the UN General Assembly resumes its debate over the Middle East in September.
Oh. He's worried about more Palestinian appeals before the U.N.
“Long before September we need to be showing some kind of progress in some way because I don’t think we have the luxury of that kind of time,” he said in a joint news conference with his Kuwaiti counterpart.
“Time is the enemy of a peace process,” Kerry said. “The passage of time allows a vacuum to be filled by people who don’t want things to happen.”
Like Al-CIA-Duh in Syria?
After three months of intensive effort by Kerry, anticipation has been building in Jerusalem and the West Bank that this time, he would bring with him a concrete proposal that might move the ball. Israeli news reports over the past two days have suggested new flexibility by President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as both sides grow more worried about being blamed if Kerry’s push fails to show progress. But while experts on the peace process see growing momentum around Washington’s initiative, they cautioned that getting the parties back to the table was only a first step.
I'm sorry, folks, but I NO LONGER TAKE SERIOUSLY PEACE TALK from a WAR PAPER!
--more--"
Yeah, that's them!
"Secretary of State John F. Kerry arrived in Israel on Friday for a series of meetings with Israel’s leaders as the pace of discussions about reviving the Israel-Palestinian peace talks heated up, in what has become an exercise in shuttle diplomacy."
I was told he wasn't going to.... never f***ing mind!
Kerry’s enormous effort stirs new hope for Mideast talks
I've lost all hope, especially when it is being promoted by a pos mouthpiece.
"John Kerry cites progress in Mideast peace talks; Vows to return to region as series of meetings end" by Michael R. Gordon | New York Times, July 01, 2013
TEL AVIV — Secretary of State John Kerry wound up his most intensive push yet for a revival of Middle East peace talks Sunday without achieving a breakthrough, but he said that his four days of marathon meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders had yielded “real progress” and that a resumption of substantive negotiations could be “within reach.”
I'm tired of war lies, John.
Kerry said he would return to the region soon before flying to Asia....
Dumping more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, 'eh?
Kerry’s comments came after a weekend of shuttle diplomacy....
I was told he wasn't.... SIGH!
Sorry about adding the carbon into the atmosphere, but I do that a lot reading the Globe.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had earlier told his Cabinet, “Israel is prepared to enter negotiations without delay, without preconditions.”
Except they plane to keep settlements, etc, etc.
Related:
Six Zionist Companies Own 96% of the World's Media
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
Yeah, I really am sick of hearing it.
*********************
The sticking points for bringing the parties back to the table are familiar: Abbas is insisting on a freeze of the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the release of some 120 Palestinians who have been in Israeli prisons for more than 20 years and the use of the pre-1967 borders as the basis of negotiations.
Israeli newspapers reported Sunday that Netanyahu had expressed a willingness to release prisoners but only in stages, and to freeze settlement construction, but only outside of three large blocs he says must remain part of Israel.
But no preconditions.
There are also indications that both sides might accept an American statement on the 1967 borders.
After we run it by Israel first.
--more--"
"Palestinians say peace talks near" Associated Press, July 05, 2013
RAMALLAH, West Bank —Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier this week that he had narrowed the gaps between the sides. Kerry’s plan calls for a halt in settlement construction outside of major blocs that Israel expects to keep....
But no preconditions, and no halt to settlements.
After four days of meetings with both parties in Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank, Kerry declared in Tel Aviv this week that with a little more work, he believed final status negotiations could be ‘‘within reach.’’
Just getting them sitting at the same table will be called a win.
Kerry said if he hadn’t had to attend an Asian conference in Brunei, he would have stayed in the Mideast to try to complete an agreement to restart the talks aimed at finding a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict....
There is much skepticism that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is on its way to resolution, but Kerry remains energized in the effort, and he was on the phone with the staff he left behind in region during his flight to Brunei and home to Washington.
In a rare upbeat assessment of US mediation efforts, the Palestinian president said Tuesday that he is optimistic that Kerry will succeed in restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks....
If that is the goal....
--more--"
"EU acts against Israeli settlements; Bloc bars nations from awarding grants, prizes" by William Booth and Anne Gearan | Washington Post, July 17, 2013
JERUSALEM — The EU measures came as Secretary of State John F. Kerry arrived in Jordan on his sixth trip to the region to try to restart peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. He was leaning on a reluctant Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, on Tuesday to come to the table.
Kerry is trying to begin a new round of direct negotiations aimed at settling the decades-old conflict he sees as central to the Middle East’s many disputes, although his efforts are overshadowed by more immediate crises in the region. Many of the leaders he will see are more focused on the war in Syria, which is rapidly becoming a regional conflict, with radical Islamist fighters pouring in from other countries, and on the political upheaval in Egypt, which leaves a key Mideast power weakened.
Kerry was having dinner with Abbas at the Palestinian leader’s longtime home in Jordan, and on Wednesday is to brief key Arab diplomats about his efforts. In deference to their support for his peace initiative, Kerry promised to provide them with regular updates.
Kerry is trying to close a deal he saw as within reach on his last visit, in June, when a whirlwind of shuttle diplomacy failed to yield an agreement by the two sides to resume talks about the borders of a future state and other difficult issues. Talks have been moribund for five years, except for an attempt in 2010 that lasted only a few days. The State Department spokeswoman lowered expectations for a quick announcement that peace talks are back on....
Kerry does not plan to visit Israel on this trip, Jennifer Psaki said, although the State Department did not rule out a meeting in nearby Jordan or an impromptu visit to Israel if there is an agreement....
They really have this guy on a string.
All of Kerry’s efforts so far are aimed at the first step — getting the mistrustful sides back to the table. Kerry has refused to publicly outline his plans beyond that, but other diplomats have said he is likely to present US terms for a final deal and to apply constant pressure to keep discussions on track....
--more--"
"Stage set for Middle East peace talks, Kerry says; A fragile breakthrough after arduous diplomacy" by Bryan Bender | Globe Staff, July 20, 2013
WASHINGTON — Months of personal diplomacy and cajoling by Secretary of State John F. Kerry finally showed signs of success Friday when he announced that Israel and the Palestinian Authority have tentatively agreed to resume direct peace talks for the first time in three years.
Speaking to reporters in Jordan after meeting Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, Kerry announced that discussions on how to proceed with talks would begin as early as next week in Washington....
Been here before.
Nonetheless, the announcement, which came on Kerry’s sixth trip to the region since March, marked a victory both for him and for President Obama....
Says who?
Kerry has faced some criticism that his focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was misplaced, at a time when neighboring Egypt is engulfed in strife and Syrians are waging a civil war. But, in his view, it remains at least as important as the region’s other problems....
The tentative agreement came after a late-night call from President Obama to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, in which he encouraged the Israeli leader “to continue to work with Secretary Kerry to resume negotiations with the Palestinians as soon as possible,” according to a statement from the White House....
The news was received with a mix of hope, but also caution, given the many obstacles that remain to achieving a lasting peace between two peoples that have resorted to violence numerous times since the Jewish state was established in 1948 and Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza in 1967.
As if the proportion of violence has been equal in any way.
“Kerry gets credit, especially because of all the disbelief,” said Jeremy Pressman, a political scientist at the University of Connecticut who specializes in the Middle East. “A lot of people thought Kerry couldn’t even get a process started.”
“But don’t dust off your champagne bottles,” Pressman added. “We are still far from any resolution. There a lot of unknowns. It is not clear what substantive issues they have agreed upon. Maybe none.”
Indeed, any jubilation at the announcement of new talks was quickly dampened by some in the region who have considered US-sponsored peace talks in the past to be unfairly weighted in favor of Israel.
“These negotiations will only lead to more Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land, less freedom for Palestinians, and the continued isolation of the Gaza Strip,” warned Diana Buttu, a former aide to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. “If President Obama and Secretary Kerry are truly serious about ending Israel’s rule over the Palestinians they would begin by sanctioning Israel’s illegal behavior rather than demanding that Palestinians negotiate their way out of it.”
She's right, but as usual she gets one paragraph in my Jewish War Daily.
In Washington, however, Kerry was lauded for his efforts by a broad spectrum of observers.
“He has succeeded in placing the two-state solution back on the agenda,” the Israel Policy Forum, a nonpartisan organization in New York, said in a statement....
Doesn't look nonpartisan.
The group pointed out, for example, that as Kerry was inching the sides closer together, Israel quietly limited new settlement construction.
And that is somehow supposed to be a good thing when there should be no settlement activity at all?
Even the gloomiest observers said Kerry’s involvement has made a huge difference.
“It is clearly a significant achievement for Kerry. He invested a lot of personal energy in this,” said Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism analyst at the Department of the Treasury who is vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “But let’s be clear about what this is. It is an agreement to come together to seek an agreement. There are very large gaps that could take quite some time to bridge.”
Still, Schanzer said....
Who cares what some neo-con Jew had to say? Haven't we had enough of their expert advice?
Earlier Friday there were predictions that Kerry’s months of shuttle diplomacy would also collapse. Then a hastily organized stop by Kerry in the West Bank city of Ramallah salvaged the momentum.
State Department officials have insisted that the recent military coup in Egypt, Syria’s grinding civil war, and the continuing threat of a nuclear-armed Iran make settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict even more important.
Leaders in Israel’s military establishment, for one, are seeking stability in a region turned upside down, with no lack of potential enemies. At the same time, if there is anything that Israel and the Palestinian leaders in the West Bank share, it is a common antipathy for the militant anti-Israel Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.
Oh, man! Look at my jewspaper turning Palestinian against Palestinian! If that's true of Abbas's Fatah, then they truly are a Zionist agent!
Schanzer said that the turmoil in the region has weakened Hamas, which has received substantial support from Syria and Iran, as well as Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which was deposed earlier this month by the Western-oriented Egyptian military.
Another reason Morsi was overthrown!
“What just happened in Egypt eviscerated Hamas,” he said. “Its political protectors are no longer there and the [Egyptian] Army is shutting down the tunnels” that supply arms to the Gaza Strip.
“One of the inducements Mr. Kerry has [in the new peace talks] is the further weakening of Hamas,” Schanzer said. ”Whether Kerry is capitalizing on this is unclear.”
--more--"
Related: Palestinians undecided on restarting talks with Israel
I'm getting tired of the Jewish narrative, sorry.
"Mideast talks hinge on deal to free prisoners" by Jodi Rudoren | New York Times, July 21, 2013
JERUSALEM — After a week of intense diplomatic meetings with Palestinian leaders, Secretary of State John Kerry is counting on an Israeli government decision to release long-serving Palestinian prisoners as the crucial remaining step for his promised resumption of Middle East peace talks, officials said Saturday.
Now I feel sorry for him.
A senior Israeli minister, Yuval Steinitz, told Israel Radio, “There will be some release of prisoners,” including some he described as “heavyweight,” a term that frequently refer to prisoners implicated in deadly attacks.
Related: I Know You Are Hungering For This Post About Palestinian Prisoners
A Palestinian official, Ahmed Majdalani, said Kerry had assured the Palestinians that Israel would free some 350 prisoners gradually in the coming months, the Associated Press reported. The prisoners would include some 100 men that Israel convicted of crimes committed before interim peace accords were signed in 1993.
Officials have said privately that the formula Kerry negotiated for resuming talks involves the United States making a declaration about the 1967 prewar borders of Israeli and about recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority are allowed to distance themselves from it while still negotiating....
Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the prisoner release — and the larger agreement to resume talks — depends on a vote in the coming days by an Israeli leadership that has been bitterly divided over the issue.
In announcing Friday that Israelis and Palestinians had established “a basis” for resuming direct peace negotiations, Kerry included a caveat....
What does Israel want now?
--more--"
"Officials skeptical on Mideast peace" Associated Press, July 22, 2013
JERUSALEM — Israeli and Palestinian officials expressed skepticism Sunday about prospects for a peace deal, as the sides inched toward what may be the first round of significant negotiations in five years....
In his first on-camera comment Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel appeared to lower expectations by pledging to insist on Israel’s security needs above all, saying his guiding principles will be to maintain a Jewish majority in Israel and avoid a future Palestinian state in the West Bank becoming an Iranian-backed ‘‘terror state.’’
I'm so sick of him and his supremacist shitbags and their apartheid state.
Israeli hard-liners have floated referendum plans before, usually as an attempt to add an additional obstacle to efforts to cede war-won territories as part of a peace pact.
The Palestinians, too, were not optimistic.
‘‘We are skeptical about these talks because the Israelis are not going to stop building in the settlements and because they didn’t accept the ’67 borders,’’ said Tawfiq Tirawi, a member of Fatah Party of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas has not spoken on resumption of talks.
--more--"
Related: "Benjamin Netanyahu spoke three days after US Secretary of State John Kerry said progress has been made."
"Israel votes to free 104 Palestinian prisoners; Move clears way for peace talks; Washington will host negotiations" by Isabel Kershner | New York Times, July 29, 2013
JERUSALEM — Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will begin preliminary peace talks in Washington on Monday, a day after the Israeli Cabinet cleared the last obstacle to the talks by voting to approve the release of 104 Palestinian prisoners.
The prisoner release, which will be carried out in stages depending on the progress of negotiations, is an unpopular move with many Israelis, but one that the Palestinian leadership has insisted upon.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu worked over the weekend to convince Israelis that a resumption of the peace process was a vital Israeli interest....
After the vote, the US State Department announced that the initial talks would begin Monday, but it remains unclear whether they will lead to a formal resumption of negotiations....
The return to direct contacts is a notable achievement for Secretary of State John Kerry, who has conducted shuttle diplomacy in the region for months. Kerry called Netanyahu and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, after the Cabinet vote and formally invited them to send teams to Washington....
In previous rounds of Mideast peace talks, the outlines of a deal emerged: a Palestinian state in most of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, lands captured by Israel in 1967, with border adjustments to enable Israel to annex land with a majority of nearly 600,000 settlers.
That map on the right was back in 2005. That means there is even less
green now. I don't see how you create a two-state solution, even with
land swaps.
Related: Memory Hole: Future Vision of Israel
Looks like the only solution to me.
Those negotiations broke down before the sides could tackle the tougher questions of a partition of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, now several million people.
Abbas said over the weekend that Kerry assured him the US invitation to the negotiators will say border talks are based on the 1967 line. Netanyahu did not say Sunday whether he has dropped his longstanding opposition to that demand.
The Palestinian prisoners, most of whom have served at least 20 years for deadly attacks on Israelis, are to be released in batches if progress is made in the talks.
“This moment is not easy for me,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office. “It is not easy for the ministers. It is not easy especially for the families, the bereaved families, whose heart I understand. But there are moments in which tough decisions must be made for the good of the country, and this is one of those moments.”
As the Cabinet meeting got underway, scores of Israeli protesters gathered outside the prime minister’s office, including people whose relatives were killed in terrorist acts. The protesters carried signs bearing the names and portraits of victims.
“It rips our heart out that they are aiding and abetting the terrorists,” said Yehudit Tayar, one of the protesters.
Netanyahu will lead a team of five ministers who will oversee the release of Palestinian prisoners during the peace talks. But he deferred any public decision on whether those to be released would include Arab citizens of Israel, a longstanding point of dispute, saying that any such release would be brought to a Cabinet vote.
On Saturday evening, Netanyahu took the unusual step of issuing what he called “an open letter to the citizens of Israel” to explain the contentious move.
Netanyahu began his letter, which was posted on the prime minister’s website and disseminated through the Israeli news media, with an acknowledgment of the unpopularity of the gesture, which many Israelis view as a painful concession with nothing guaranteed in return.
The letter noted that the decision “is painful for the bereaved families, it is painful for the entire nation, and it is also very painful for me — it collides with the incomparably important value of justice.”
Did you notice how this whole piece mainly focused on Jewish suffering and not the freedom of Palestinians?
Over the years, thousands of Palestinian prisoners have been exchanged for Israeli soldiers who had been taken captive, or for the bodies of abducted soldiers.
During his previous term in office, Netanyahu reached an agreement with Hamas, the Islamist militant group that governs Gaza, and exchanged more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who had been held captive in Gaza for five years.
Yeah, one Jewish life is always worth thousands of others. In times past I would have searched out some links, but who gives a f*** about Shalit anymore?
--more--"
That won't be the first time an article regarding Palestinian prisoners turns into a Jewish wail.
"Mideast talks begin amid doubts, litany of obstacles; Kerry says goal is ‘reasonable compromises’" by Michael R. Gordon and Isabel Hershner | New York Times, July 30, 2013
WASHINGTON — If it took Secretary of State John Kerry countless phone calls and six trips to the region just to get Israeli and Palestinian officials to the negotiating table....
Kerry announced that Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel, will run the talks for the United States. Indyk, who will take a leave from the Brookings Institution, has deep contacts in the region....
Why not?
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Making You Think
Then Indyk makes the perfect mediator, doesn't he?
In making the revival of the Middle East talks his top priority, Kerry is not only challenging the status quo in the region but also taking on conventional wisdom in much of the US foreign policy establishment.
I thought Syria was his top priority, but I suppose it is whatever it is on the day the mouthpiece media catches him.
The prevailing narrative among the pundits, including more than a few experienced Middle East hands, is that while the Israelis and Palestinians may have sent their negotiators to Washington to placate Kerry, neither side appears remotely prepared to make the hard calls needed to cement a lasting peace.
Some experts argue that it may even be risky to try.
“The existence of talks can have a calming effect while they continue, and if they continue for several months can get us through the UN General Assembly without bitter Israeli-Palestinian confrontations,” said Elliott Abrams, who was a senior official on President George W. Bush’s National Security Council.
“But I see no realistic possibility that a final status agreement can be reached now,” Abrams said. “I just hope there are two State Department teams: one to work on the talks, and the other to start planning for what to do when they fail.’’
How nice that the NYT turns to an Iran-Contra, war criminal neo-con for expert advice, 'eh?
In recent weeks, Kerry and his aides have outlined several basic arguments for why his efforts might bear fruit. Perhaps the most important one, which Kerry has advanced from almost the moment he was picked for the State Department post, is that the United States does not have the luxury of staying on the sidelines.
After we have been there so long supplying Israel?
With the Palestinians poised to take their claim for statehood to the International Criminal Court and other UN bodies, American officials say, the two sides were facing a downward spiral in which the Israelis would respond by cutting off financing to the Palestinian territories and European nations might curtail their investment in Israel.
I'm spiraling down by continuing to read this God-awful shit.
Another argument Kerry has used is that diplomatic progress would foster as much as $4 billion in private sector investment in the Palestinian economy.
Umm, what is stopping you?
He has also reasoned that he can make headway by taking a fresh look at Israel’s security requirements and the arrangements to safeguard them.
Hard to be an even-handed mediator when your head is buried up Israel's ass.
John R. Allen, the retired general who used to lead the Afghanistan campaign, has been working to define what those requirements would be in any West Bank territory that is handed back to the Palestinians.
Kerry extracted a commitment that the two sides would give the talks at least nine months, which provides some time to explore ideas without fears of a walkout.
And once the U.N. GA is over, you are free to leave.
One argument that Kerry and his team has been careful not to make publicly, but that Arab, Israeli, and American officials have begun to speculate about, is that something less than a comprehensive settlement might be achievable....
Talks haven't even started yet and they are already talking them down!
--more--"
Related: Israeli, Palestinian negotiators experienced in peace quest
I wouldn't want to sit in a room with them.
"Kerry aims for Mideast deal within nine months; Negotiators will reconvene in 2 weeks for talks" by Michael R. Gordon | New York Times, July 31, 2013
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators would convene again in the Middle East within two weeks and that their goal would be to work out a comprehensive peace agreement within nine months that would lead to an independent Palestinian state....
Or something less!
I hope you can UNDERSTAND why I NO LONGER want to READ THIS SLOP!!!!!!!!
Oh, right, SAME PAPER, SAME AUTHOR! Now it MAKES SENSE!!!
Kerry and other Obama administration officials are seeking to counter the widely held perception in the Middle East that President Obama has been detached from the peacemaking effort and that this recent initiative is largely because of the efforts of his secretary of state....
Oh, once again it is ALL ABOUT IMAGERY!
Related: Obama's Trip to Israel
Yeah, he adopted Israel's position just as Kerry did.
Many experts say that Obama will need to become much more involved if the talks are to succeed.
Kerry was also at pains to battle skeptics who have all but written off the prospects for a breakthrough....
Like Elliott Abrams?
US officials said they expected Israel to take steps soon to improve the atmosphere for negotiations by relaxing controls and regulations that have hampered private-sector investment in the West Bank.
Really? Are they that f***ing stoo-pid and naive!
A centerpiece of Kerry’s initiative is a plan to attract as much as $4 billion in job-creating investment in the West Bank, although most of it would depend on the successful resolution of the conflict.
Then the Palestinians are never going to see that money.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel also cleared the way for the resumption of talks on the politically contentious decision, approved by his Cabinet, for the phased release of 104 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom have served 20 years or more for attacks on Israelis.
Kerry did not press for an Israeli commitment to freeze settlement construction as a condition for resuming talks.
Why would he?
US officials made clear they were hoping for, but not counting on, Israeli restraint.
That's the first realistic position they have taken.
A senior State Department official told reporters that, “It is fair to say that you are likely to see Israeli settlement activity continue.”
No kidding?
--more--"
"New West Bank settlements OK’d for subsidy despite talks; Palestinians say move hurts the peace process" by Aron Heller | Associated Press, August 05, 2013
JERUSALEM — The Israeli Cabinet expanded its list of West Bank settlements eligible for government subsidies on Sunday....
In other words, it is GOVERNMENT POLICY!
These alleged talks are a SHAM, folks!
The Cabinet approved a range of housing subsidies and loans for more than 600 Israeli communities deemed ‘‘national priority areas,’’ expanding an earlier list. The list includes poor towns in outlying areas of Israel, but also dozens of settlements in occupied areas.
Which they will want to keep.
Israeli antisettlement group Peace Now said the list OK’d Sunday increased the total number of settlements eligible for subsidies from 85 to 91, virtually all in areas Israel would likely have to evacuate to make way for a Palestinian state.
Then it's not happening.
Peace negotiations began in Washington last week, and will continue in Jerusalem next week. The US wants a deal on the terms of a Palestinian state within nine months.
As part of the peace talks, Israel is to free 26 long-held Palestinian prisoners Aug. 13, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Sunday. It would be the first of four groups of a total of 104 veteran prisoners to be freed during the next few months.
Israel announced previously that it had approved the prisoner release in principle, depending on the progress of talks. An Israeli government official declined to comment Sunday.
So it still may not happen, huh?
The prisoner release is part of a US-brokered deal that cleared the way for the resumption of talks.
The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967, and renewed talks are to draw Israel’s borders with that state.
Since 1967, Israel has built dozens of settlements on war-won land — deemed illegal by most of the international community — that are home to about 560,000 Israelis.
By most? How about all?
Israel’s government hopes to encourage more people to move to the communities on the ‘‘national priorities’’ list. The last version of the list was approved in 2012.
They aren't serious about talks.
Lior Amihai of Peace Now said three of the settlements added to the list Sunday had begun as rogue settlements that were established without formal government consent and then legalized retroactively.
Hanan Ashrawi, of the Palestinian negotiating team, said Sunday’s vote affirms Palestinian suspicions that Israel seeks the diplomatic shield of negotiations, without being willing to reach an actual partition deal.
‘‘This is exactly what Israel wants, have a process for its own sake, and at the same time have a free hand to destroy the objective of the process,’’ she said. ‘‘This will have a destructive impact [on the talks], and . . . it’s up to the sponsors, the United States and the international community, to make Israel desist immediately.’’
Going to be hard to do since Israel controls their governments.
--more--"
"Israel risks losing EU research funding over settlements" by Karin Laub and Ian Deitch | Associated Press, August 10, 2013
JERUSALEM — Europe’s tough new stance against Jewish settlements could cost Israel hundreds of millions of dollars in European Union research grants, putting a hefty price tag on its refusal to stop building on land Palestinians want for a state.
Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin suggested Friday Israel would forgo the money....
On Thursday, less than a week before Israel-EU talks on Horizon 2020, a seven-year, Europe-wide research grant program that starts in 2014 with a budget of about $107 billion, are to begin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked for more EU clarifications after consulting with Cabinet colleagues about the potential funding cut. It is not clear how much room there is for compromise.
The EU has insisted that new agreements be ‘‘unequivocal and explicit’’ in their territorial limitations. At the same time, Europe might want to avoid a showdown....
Sigh.
Is there no one in this world -- other than Iran -- that will stand up to Israel?
Elkin said Israel is eager to join Horizon 2020, but....
The Palestinians welcomed Europe’s stance. ‘‘For the first time, Israel finds itself face to face with a minimum level of accountability,’’ said Hanan Ashrawi, a senior PLO official.
The threat of losing EU funding has shifted the domestic settlements debate in Israel, a nation proud of its thriving high-tech and research sector.
Then why are they receiving $6 billion in aid and tons of weapons from the U.S.?
Traditionally, opponents have argued the dozens of settlements Israel has built since 1967 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are an obstacle to peace and divert money from Israel’s poor. Some critics warned Friday that a pro-settlement policy could hurt Israel’s innovative edge.
The confrontation with the EU ‘‘reveals the price of the continued normalization of construction in the settlements,’’ Israeli columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily. ‘‘It is not just ‘settlements instead of [disadvantaged] neighborhoods.’ It is settlements instead of research, instead of high-tech, instead of industry.’’
It's only a few hundred million. I'm sure Israel can prevail upon the U.S. Congress for more aid.
The loss of the funding worries scientists, and Isaiah Arkin, vice president for research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, argues Europe benefits from Israeli participation as much as the other way around....
The arrogance of tribe members never ceases to astonish me.
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"Israeli housing plan heightens tension ahead of talks; Palestinians protest new construction in settlements" by Isabel Kershner | New York Times, August 12, 2013
Related:
"Isabel Kershner.... is an Israeli citizen.... possible family ties to the Israeli military"
Oh, one of the tough guys of the AmeriKan MSM.
JERUSALEM — Israel published bids Sunday for the construction of about 1,000 housing units in contested areas of East Jerusalem and several large West Bank settlements, intensifying the already charged atmosphere three days before the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and hours before Israel was to announce the names of Palestinian prisoners to be released this week.
While the planning and building of settlements have continued in the months preceding the talks, causing constant friction, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new governing coalition had so far refrained from issuing construction bids since it was formed in March. The publishing of bids is the final bureaucratic stage before construction can begin.
Uri Ariel, the housing minister, announced the contentious move while Netanyahu was recovering in a hospital after overnight surgery for a hernia.
They couldn't botch that surgery?
“The government of Israel is working to bring down the cost of living in all parts of the country,” Ariel, a member of the pro-settlement Jewish Home Party, said in a statement.
“No country in the world accepts dictates from other countries about where it is allowed to build and where not,” he continued, responding to the international condemnation of Israel’s continuing efforts to build up the settlements.
They generally don't steal and build on other people's land.
“This is the right thing now, both from a Zionist perspective and an economic perspective,” he added.
Since Americans rarely see that word it is tremendously out of context. If only Americans knew what Zionism really meant. Must be why the AmeriKan jewsmedia and ejewkhazion systems are so silent on the matter.
The prime minister’s office offered no immediate comment.
The settlement move appeared intended to appease the right-wing members of the Israeli government ahead of the expected release this week of 26 Palestinian prisoners who have served 20 years or more in prison for deadly attacks against Israelis.
The decision to release 104 prisoners over the coming months is deeply unpopular in Israel. Netanyahu has explained it as a gesture that was necessary to persuade the Palestinian leadership to agree to resume long-stalled negotiations and that was preferable to acceding to other Palestinian demands, including a settlement freeze.
But it appears that the talks Wednesday will be taking place amid a storm of mutual recrimination.
Mohammad Shtayyeh, a senior Palestinian negotiator, issued a statement Sunday saying, “It is clear that the Israeli government is deliberately attempting to sabotage US and international efforts to resume negotiations.” Israel, he said, “continues to use peace negotiations as a smoke screen for more settlement construction.”
Nothing new there!
Last week, Saeb Erekat, another senior Palestinian negotiator, sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, who had brokered the deal for resuming talks, protesting Israel’s preliminary approval for 800 new homes in the West Bank, many of them in small, isolated settlements likely to be removed as part of any final peace agreement.
Or not likely to be removed.
Erekat accused Israel of “bad faith” and wrote that it was difficult to see how direct negotiations “will bring about progress towards a peace agreement” without a halt in settlement expansion.
You expected good faith after all these years?
Much of the world views the settlements in territory that Israel seized from Jordan during the 1967 war, and where the Palestinians envision their future state, as a violation of international law.
Much of the world? Try all of it!
The United States, which opposes settlement building and views it as illegitimate, has called on each side to exercise restraint and create a positive atmosphere for the talks. Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said last week that the settlement issue had been raised with Israel.
But still puts up with it!
In what appeared to be a move to counter the Palestinian protests, Netanyahu sent a letter to Kerry over the weekend in which he strongly criticized what he described as continuing incitement against Israel by the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, according to officials in the prime minister’s office.
Ummm, Bibi, we are TIRED of the ENDLESS ISRAELI WHINING, 'kay?!!!!!!!!!?
As an example of incitement, Netanyahu cited a statement that Abbas made in late July, just before the first meeting between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Washington, suggesting that a Palestinian state, once established, would not allow the presence of a single Israeli. Netanyahu also cited remarks by an anchorman on the official Palestinian Authority television station who, during a visit to the region by the Barcelona soccer team last week, described Palestine as stretching from Rosh Hanikra to Eilat, including the entire territory that is now Israel.
Nothing about Greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates, huh?!
“Incitement and peace cannot coexist,” Netanyahu wrote in a part of the letter made available by his staff.
From the mouth of the world's champ of incitement.
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Related: Sunday Globe Special: Israeli Dream House
You see where its located, right?
"Israeli pain, Palestinian joy over inmate release; Release of all 104 is contingenton talks progressing" by Mohammed Daraghmeh and Karin Laub | Associated Press, August 13, 2013
BRUKIN, West Bank — Mustafa al-Haj expected to die in an Israeli prison for killing an American-born settler hiking in the West Bank in 1989. Now lights decorate his home to celebrate the planned release of the 45-year-old and more than 100 other Palestinian convicts in a deal that revived Mideast peace talks.
Although the Palestinians are joyful, the decision to free the inmates has stirred anger in Israel, where victims’ families say it is an insult to their loved ones.
Israel published the names of 26 men, including Haj, to be freed before the first round of talks Wednesday. In all, 104 prisoners have been slated for release in four batches over a period of nine months that the United States has set aside for negotiations. But their freedom is contingent on progress in the talks.
The Israelis have granted early release to Palestinian prisoners in the past, including in swaps. The upcoming round, however, has sparked particularly high-pitched debate because it was linked to resuming talks and many of those to be freed were involved in deadly attacks....
Palestinians argue that those slated for release were acting during a time of conflict, before the two sides struck their first interim peace agreement in 1994, and that Israel should have freed them in previous rounds of negotiations.
‘‘We used violence and the Israelis used violence,’’ said Kadoura Fares, who heads an advocacy group for prisoners and, like many of those to be released, is a member of President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement.
Fares noted that the number of Palestinians, including civilians, who were killed by Israeli troops in wars and uprisings over the past two decades far outstrips the number of Israelis killed in Palestinian attacks.
It's about 10-to-1 historically.
In the first and second Palestinian uprisings, more than 1,200 Israelis and just under 5,000 Palestinians were killed....
I'm surprised they mentioned casualties at all.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Marie Harf praised Israel’s decision to release prisoners as a ‘‘positive step.’’
Quite a trick when you have your tongue up Israel's asshole.
She said the Obama administration also raised serious concerns about the latest settlement plans with the Israeli government....
Did they cut off the aid checks?
Then they are not serious.
Kerry said Monday that he did not think the settlements issue would derail the talks.
‘‘As the world, I hope, knows, the US views the settlements as illegitimate and we have communicated that policy very clearly to Israel,’’ he said.
And yet they still build.
‘‘I think that what this underscores, actually, is the importance of getting to the table and getting to the table quickly and resolving the questions with respect to settlements, which are best resolved by solving the problems of security and borders.’’
So when is Israel going to recognize Palestine?
Abbas is returning to talks amid widespread skepticism among Palestinians, but the prisoner release could make up for that.
Israel will rearrest them all after six months, watch.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have spent time in Israeli prisons since 1967, on charges ranging from throwing stones and membership in outlawed organizations to killing Israelis. Palestinians tend to view prisoners as heroes, regardless of their acts, arguing they made personal sacrifices in the struggle for independence.
In Israel, many consider those involved in the killings as terrorists, and some of the attacks are engraved in the nation’s collective memory.
This includes the death of Isaac Rotenberg, who survived the Nazi death camp of Sobibor, fought alongside partisans, and made it to Israel after World War II. In 1994, at age 69, the contractor was killed with an ax from behind while at a construction site, his son Pini said, adding he finds it difficult to fathom that one of his father’s killers is going free.
‘‘It’s painful to pay such a heavy price just as a concession for talks,’’ he said.
In the summer of 1989, Haj was with two friends when they encountered 48-year-old Frederick Rosenfeld, during a West Bank hike, chatted with him and even posed for pictures before stabbing him to death.
Yeah, ONCE AGAIN the article focused on JEWISH SUFFERING!
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"Expectations low on eve of latest Mideast talks; Palestinians, Israelis at table but odds are long" by Karin Laub and Josef Federman | Associated Press, August 14, 2013
JERUSALEM — At least 40,000 more Israelis have settled in areas the Palestinians want for a state, making it even harder to partition the land. The chaos of the Arab Spring has bolstered Israeli demands for ironclad security guarantees, such as troop deployments along Palestine’s future border, widening a dispute that seemed near resolution five years ago.
The talks come after months of prodding by Secretary of State John Kerry, who made six visits to the region since taking office in his bid to bring together Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Despite US cheerleading, expectations have been low on both sides.
Rah-rah, sis-boom-bah!
Ahead of Wednesday’s talks at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel, the atmosphere soured further after Israel said in a series of announcements in the past week that it is advancing plans for more than 3,000 new homes for Jews in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Isn't that Kerry's second home now?
‘‘It’s not just deliberate sabotage of the talks, but really the destruction of the outcome,’’ said senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi. ‘‘Israel has transformed the negotiations into a cover and a license to steal land.’’
That's what it was meant to be from the start.
In the latest announcement, made Tuesday, Israel Interior Ministry said its approval of nearly 900 new apartments in a contested part of Jerusalem has been officially published.
The new apartments, in an area known as Gilo, had been approved by a ministry panel last December, but the full ministry later endorsed the plan with some revisions, and official approval was published as required under Israeli law.
Israel has argued that it’s mainly building in areas it wants to keep in any border deal....
But no preconditions, and don;t worry about the ones approved which will need to be removed.
Kerry, meeting with Brazilian leaders, said Tuesday that he thinks it would be better if Israel did not make settlement announcements while peace talks are underway, but that he does not think they threaten the round of talks Wednesday.
What do you do when your chief diplomat is delusional?
In Israel, attention focused on anguish over the release Tuesday of 26 long-held Palestinian prisoners, part of the US-brokered deal that persuaded the Palestinians to resume negotiations.
In all, 104 veteran prisoners are to be freed in four stages, depending on progress in the border talks, for which the United States has allotted nine months.
Buses carrying the inmates departed the Ayalon prison in central Israel late Tuesday, a nighttime release that was aimed at preventing the spectacle of prisoners flashing victory signs as has happened in the past. Relatives of the victims, many with their hands painted red to symbolize what they say is the blood on the hands of the inmates, held protests throughout the day, and some protesters tried briefly to block the buses from leaving.
The decision to release the men stirred anguish in Israel, where many Israelis view them as terrorists. Most of the prisoners were convicted of killings, including Israeli civilians, soldiers and suspected Palestinian collaborators, while others were involved in attempted murder or kidnapping.
Do even need type it?
Celebrations erupted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where thousands of Palestinian well-wishers awaited the buses’ arrival. Palestinians generally view the prisoners as heroes regardless of their acts, arguing that they made personal sacrifices in the struggle for independence.
Palestinians hurled rocks at the Israeli military vehicles escorting the bus convoy as it reached the crossing to the West Bank after 1 a.m.
The negotiators meeting Wednesday have spent countless hours with each other in previous talks and are familiar with the issues down to the tiniest detail. That’s not a recipe for success, though.
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What is a good way to spoil the party?
"Ahead of peace talks, rocket fire and air strikes" by Isabel Kershner | New York Times, August 15, 2013
JERUSALEM — Shortly before Israelis and Palestinians sat down Wednesday for the first direct negotiations here in five years, Israeli war planes struck two sites in Gaza in response to rockets fired from the Palestinian enclave.
Just in time, huh?
The rocket fire and counterattack demonstrated the obstacles the talks face in achieving Washington’s stated goal of reaching a resolution within nine months. With animosity and distrust high, the talks were shrouded in secrecy, lest any detail leak out and further inflame the participants.
That must be why I haven't seen a word since.
An Israeli official involved in the process said that the idea was for “serious, intensive, and intimate negotiations” aimed at achieving the most progress possible with the least amount of public engagement.
The site of the talks and the exact hour they were to start were not disclosed ahead of time. The Israeli official said there would likely be no public statements. It was even unclear whether the session would wrap up Wednesday night or continue Thursday.
Ask me if I give a shit.
What was clear was that as peace talks were taking place, the Israeli military said it hit concealed rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip after a rocket fired from the Palestinian coastal territory, which is controlled by the Islamic militant group Hamas, landed in an open area across the border.
“This is an absurd situation that would not be tolerated anywhere else in the world,” Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said in a statement.
Israel is conducting peace negotiations with Hamas’s arch rivals, the leaders of the Palestinian Authority, who exercise limited self-rule in the West Bank. The goal of the talks is to reach a final settlement for a Palestinian state.
But many Israelis and Palestinians are skeptical about the outcome.
Among other things, Israelis say that the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has no control over what happens in Gaza.
Hamas has made an effort to enforce a cease-fire along the Israel-Gaza border that was brokered by Egypt after a fierce round of fighting in November. But some smaller, groups in Gaza sometimes operate against Israel, with or without permission from Hamas.
Israel blames Hamas anyway.
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Ever notice rockets start flying anytime there is a mention of peace?
And jho benefits?
