EU to Back Mideast Peace With 'Unprecedented' Support

[bemildred]

BRUSSELS — The European Union stands ready to provide Israel and the Palestinians with massive political, economic and security support as part of any peace agreement between them, a top official said Tuesday.

European Council President Donald Tusk said the EU will "back up a peace deal with an unprecedented package of cooperation and support to both Israel and the future state of Palestine."

Tusk said after talks in Brussels with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin that "a lasting peace in the region remains a top priority" for the EU.

EU foreign ministers expressed determination on Monday to throw the bloc's weight behind Middle East peace moves and a possible international conference before the end of the year.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/06/21/world/europe/ap-eu-europe-israel-palestinians.html

[Little Tich]

1. Israel blasts Europe’s ‘colonialist’ peace initiative

Source: Times of Israel

EU has ‘no credibility whatsoever’ to deal with the conflict as long as it cannot solve its own problems, official fumes

rope’s approach to Israel appears to be a resurrection of its past colonialism, a senior Israeli official said Tuesday. It was part of an unusually blistering attack on the EU and its Middle East policies, in which the official accused European leaders of cynically employing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to deflect criticism and to distract the public from their inability to solve the continent’s real pressing problems.

“When I look at the sequence of the EU implementing labeling [for settlement products] and now the endorsement of an international conference, I feel that those are the ghosts of a colonial European past coming back to life,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon told The Times of Israel.

The EU’s 28 foreign ministers on Tuesday endorsed France’s plan to hold an international peace conference in Paris to advance the stalled peace process. Israel has repeatedly rejected the French initiative, arguing that it hardens Palestinian negotiating positions and thus distances peace.

Nahshon said the union was unqualified to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as long as it struggled to properly address its own woes.

Read more: http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-blasts-europes-colonial-peace-initiative/

[Little Tich]

2. I personally believe that this is the last realistic attempt to create a two-state solution.

If the French Peace Initiative fails, all talk of a two-state solution will become meaningless.

[Israeli]

3. It became "meaningless" as soon as this government.....

Last edited Tue Jun 28, 2016, 03:01 AM - Edit history (1)

......took power Little Tich.

Bibi's ploy is to stall , stall , stall ......meanwhile .....

Stand Up for Sussia and Against Israel's Demolition of Palestinian Villages

Settler groups and their lawmakers have been pushing for more demolitions as part of their plan to annex Area C. It's not only Sussia and other villages that are at risk, but the possibility of a Palestinian state itself.

Haaretz Editorial Jun 21, 2016

On Sunday afternoon, in the middle of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Israel’s Civil Administration demolished structures built without permits in the Palestinian village of Sussia, south of Hebron. This time, it was two structures housing 21 people, 14 of them children. In addition, an outdoor kitchen and animal pen for 80 sheep and goats were destroyed.

( Edited to 4 paragraphs by request )

But from every other perspective, there’s no real surprise here. This year, Israel has been expediting the demolition of Palestinian structures that were built without permits in Area C (the part of the West Bank under Israeli control), with 548 buildings demolished as of mid-June – compared to 453 for the whole of 2015.

For years, the Regavim nongovernmental organization, the Knesset subcommittee on Judea and Samaria, and some of the settlements (the Adumim bloc and the Israeli Susya) have been exerting legal and media pressure to get the Civil Administration to implement demolition orders against the Palestinians. The pressure is working, and the objective is clear. It is expressed openly by members of Habayit Hayehudi, who dominate the subcommittee and cofounded Regavim (among them MK Bezalel Smotrich): To remove Palestinians from Area C and annex it to Israel.

The village of Sussia is not the only one at risk of demolition, displacement and loss of its lands. There are dozens of other towns and villages whose lands are in Area C. Without them, there cannot be a Palestinian state established. Standing up for Sussia and against its destruction is, therefore, a call for sanity.

Source : http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.726143

[Little Tich]

5. I see the two-state solution as being gradually eroded into nothing, and the question is, when is it

irreversibly gone?

I agree with your assessment that Netanyahu killed the two-state solution, but the failure of the French Peace Initiative will be the final "double tap" that will confirm its demise. The settlements will be allowed to continue to expand and Netanyahu will be the hero who managed to save Israel from the threat of peace once again...

[Israeli]

6. When/if they actually announce annexation officially ...

......then it will " irreversibly gone ".

Meanwhile the settlers will fight tooth and nail for every hilltop and every isolated settlement , legal or illegal in the eyes of our High Court of Justice .

Best example ever is Amona ..........which is once again in the news :

Right Wing Lawmakers Dig in for Battle to Stop Demolition of Illegal Settlement

Amona, which was built on private Palestinian property, must be razed by the end of 2016, Israel's top court ruled.

Jonathan Lis Jun 23, 2016

Members of the National Union faction in Habayit Hayehudi held an urgent meeting last night in Amona, a settlement slated for demolition by the end of the year because it is built on private Palestinian property.

The High Court of Justice ordered the settlement to be cleared two years ago and set the deadline at year-end 2016. Two days ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is working on postponing the move.

National Union members toured the community and heard the pleas of residents who said they were willing to do anything not to be forced to leave. Last month Haaretz reported on a plan to build a new settlement close to Shiloh to accommodate Amona’s evacuees.

“The days of uprooting Jewish communities in the Land of Israel are over,” said Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, chairman of National Union. “We will work with all our might to prevent the evacuation of a community, one that is on its land for 20 years with more than 40 families and 200 children, because of political persecution by the radical left. We all remember the harsh sights here 10 years ago and no one wants to go back there. Amona will not fall again.”

Amona was the site of violent clashes between settlers and security forces in 2006 when the IDF demolished nine unauthorized homes.

Asked how National Unioni would react if Amona is evacuated, Ariel said, “We hope and believe that the government will find a way to regularize Amona through legislation or some other means that will make the question irrelevant.”

Faction MK Betzalel Smotrich echoed Ariel, saying, “We came here to make it perfectly clear that Amona will not be evacuated or moved. The position of the community, the regional council and Habayit Hayehudi is that Amona stays where it is. We are working on solutions that take into account the High Court of Justice ruling and any other conversation is not acceptable and even harmful. Amona stays where it is, period.”

The chairman of the anti-evacuation campaign, Avihai Boaran, told the National Union officials, “We are very pleased to host the members of the National Union, headed by Minister Uri Ariel and MK Betzalel Smotrich. We are pleased to discover that such veteran and devoted settlement leaders are conveying with us the message that the era of evacuations is over. The evacuation of a Jewish community in the Land of Israel is no longer an option. There will be no more ‘transfer’ of Jews in the Land of Israel.”

National Union Secretary-General Ofir Sofer said, “The community of Amona is the beginning of a great disaster for all the settlements. ... We’ve heard of legal methods and there no reason why, when it comes to evacuating a Jewish settlement, the hand is quick on the trigger, but when it comes to Arabs seizing control of Jewish lands, suddenly there’s a jam and the safety is on.”

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.726585

[Little Tich]

4. Rivlin: French plan seeks peace talks ‘for negotiations’ sake’

Source: Times of Israel

International efforts to broker deal doomed to fail due to ‘all or nothing’ approach to two-state solution, president says

President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday told members of the European Parliament that international efforts to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement — including the current French initiative — were “negotiations for negotiations’ sake,” and therefore doomed to fail.

His criticism of Paris’s efforts to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table joined a growing chorus of scorn from senior Israeli officials. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has derided the French proposal, and a senior Israeli official this week said the EU’s efforts smacked of colonialism.

“The French initiative suffers from fundamental faults. The attempt to return to negotiations for negotiations’ sake, not only does not bring us near the long-awaited solution, but rather drags us further away from it,” the head of state said in an address in Brussels.

Like other international initiatives to reach a peace agreement, Rivlin said the French plan’s inflexible “all or nothing” approach to the implementation of a two-state solution ignores the total lack of trust between Israelis and Palestinians.

Read more: http://www.timesofisrael.com/rivlin-french-peace-plan-seeks-negotiations-for-negotiations-sake/